#136
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Thoroughly enjoyed the recent podcast by James.
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#137
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I enjoyed James’ podcast too, but this is really the Do You Love Us? thread.
Just listened to the new Lifeblood track-by-track ep. Won’t spoil the verdict for others... (the tension!). But I will say I nearly expired from laughing upon hearing “Saucing my mackerel” You guys... lol.
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'Those Manics are great mun ent'it!' | Miyazaki-San, Arigato | POPCORN! | PorcoTunes: SC=fdporco YT=PorcoForever | ---“...but the pigs are getting into our garden, and just digging holes, looking for truffles or something…"--- |
#138
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Fun fact for lucas - it was nicky who had the gambling problem! He loved them fruit machines.
So, the winter album... I would argue that this album isn't nearly as divisive amongst fans as, say, know your enemy was. So many of us have been positive about it over the years but it's the wider perception of it that i think has negatively affected the manic's own opinions on it. Loved the aesthetic of everything as well, i was particularly taken with the artwork and i distinctly remember the time on here everyone first found out about the naked lady on the cover which is more apparent on those little glossy postcards they included. 1985 not being the first single still remains one of the most baffling record company decisions in their history. In fact, you can still hear the wails of a 1000 manics fans to this day. The context of that year is key though and was touched upon briefly; it's their rubicon moment, the fork in the road... morrissey and marr gave them a choice. But i also like the subtle political references to thatcher's government destroying communities around the time of the miners strikes, the battle of orgreave being only a year prior. As good as empty souls is it never matched that first punchy live play of it at the isle of wight festival, even subsequent live versions seemed to lack something that first one had. Still adore always/never and always wanted to hear it live, i just love the seductive way james sings it (the outro particularly) and there's loads going on instrumentally. Of all the tracks on this album i would have chosen solitude sometimes is as being the one that'd be the casual listener's jam so colour me extremely shocked neither steve nor lucas particularly rated it. Casual and fan favourites rarely overlap but i would have thought this is the song to have done it, i mean 'drop your bombs on all i see, leave this world alone for me' is just a fucking great couplet at that moment of the track.
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Please, he prayed, now - A gray disk, the colour of Chiba sky. Now - Disk beginning to rotate, faster, becoming a sphere of paler gray. Expanding - And flowed, flowered for him, fluid neon origami trick, the unfolding of his distanceless home, his country, transparent 3D chessboard extending to infinity. Inner eye opening to the stepped scarlet pyramid of the Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority burning beyond the green cubes of Mitsubishi Bank of America, and high and very far away he saw the spiral arms of military systems, forever beyond his reach. And somewhere he was laughing, in a white-painted loft, distant fingers caressing the deck, tears of release streaking his face. |
#139
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And ok a casual, but I used to know someone who went off then over the "Drop your bombs on all I see" part!
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#140
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I have really enjoyed the last few episodes of this podcast, it's definitely become one of my "must listen" shows in the weekly podcast rota.
Pleased with all the love for Lifeblood. I actually wasn't that surprised. I remember at the time one of my best mates who had never before liked the Manics and was into a lot of what I called "generic American rock" (Yellow Card?) but he absolutely loved the album. Perhaps is was because he was going out with a girl called Emily at the time, who knows, but he's never got into anything they did before or since. He was very disappointed that they didn't play anything off Lifeblood when we went to see them in Reading on the SATT tour (embarrassing moment, right at the front singing the lyrics back to JDB, he stares right at me of course forget the rest of the lyrics). I've always had a soft spot for Lifeblood. It was the second album that they'd released since I'd become a fan during the TIMTTMY era. Although looking back now, I really do like KYE a lot, at the time I was only lukewarm. I still remember putting the Lifeblood CD in for the first time and just sitting there smiling as I took In 1985 for the first time, which incidentally was my year of birth. The podcast inspired me to listen to the album a few times this week. Slightly odd during a heatwave as this is most definitely a winter album and takes me back to sitting in the dark waiting for the bus after college in December 2004. My favourite tracks are still 1985 and Solitude. Definitely prefer the one episode per album format. Have a feeling Steve might need counselling after the RWTF episode, with all that nostalgia and all. REM and Arcade Fire are definitely in my top 5 favourite bands, would love to know what rating Automatic For the People or Suburbs gets for comparison (and looking forward to season 2 and 3 of the podcast!) - also would be up for an X-Files episode run through in season 4 ;-) Last edited by sitdown1985; 12-08-2020 at 21:02. |
#141
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I've been there, only referring to 1984 and 1985. Face. Palm.
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#142
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It's been very interesting to see the reactions on twitter from people who had never given Lifeblood an in-depth listen.
We're having Greg Haver back on to have a quick follow up chat and talk about SATT. Any subjects or questions you guys would like me to bring up? And then we have a very cool guest that I can't reveal just yet... |
#143
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Quote:
1 - SATT was an amazing period for b-sides. There was an absolute tonne of them, and each one felt like it could have been an album track. What was the process like of forming SATT from the songs they had to assemble it from? In another world, is there a vastly different version of the album we ended up getting? 2 - The intrumentals, The Vorticists and You Know It's Going To Hurt, are two of my favourite pieces of music, and I love that they seem to be the starting point of the band regularly including them. What's the background with them? Had JDB wanted to do instrumentals before? Did they ever have lyrics? 3 - One of my little Manics pipe dreams is that one day, they'll put out the Manics Anthology Collection, copying the template set by The Beatles with theirs, and featuring all sorts of weird failed ideas, out-takes, rehearasals, and unreleased demos. Stuff like the acoustic demo of Bag Lady, or the early REM-alike version of Nixon he mentioned in the pre-Lifeblood episode. If such a thing were to come to fruition, is there anything interesting he can remember from the SATT period which he'd like to see put on it? |
#144
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Would love to get Greg’s take on the infamous Underdogs ‘Th-‘ edit/issue. I’ll repeat my opinion which has always been I liked the track but it seemed like it should be a relatively easy thing to have fixed, rather than deleted the (studio) track from the album altogether on the re-issue.
Not that Welcome to the Dead Zone isn’t a good song to replace it with, but I do wonder if the (really quite tame IMHO) criticism of the Underdogs edit had anything to do with replacing the track, or if it really was just down to the band deciding they like WTTDZ better now (or, as I suspect, maybe a bit of both?). Maybe open it up to the wider question of changing track-listings in general, and how it feels for someone involved with the original version being changed later - as this podcast considers the context around a band and the albums’ release(s), it’s a curious extra spin on those concerns when the context changes the album to the extent that a whole song is replaced. I would guess you would discuss this anyway, so maybe I’m not suggesting anything you hadn’t already planned. I would also echo Red’s questions about the instrumentals and B-sides from this era, which I also love a lot. Love the podcast, keep up the good (and frequently very silly, in a good way) work !
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'Those Manics are great mun ent'it!' | Miyazaki-San, Arigato | POPCORN! | PorcoTunes: SC=fdporco YT=PorcoForever | ---“...but the pigs are getting into our garden, and just digging holes, looking for truffles or something…"--- |
#145
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Delighted Lifeblood got so much love on the podcast but Solitude Sometimes Is no good? Blasphemy !
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IS IT MANICS O'CLOCK YET?
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#146
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Definitely going to ask about b-sides and instrumentals. And tracklist changes were already on my list
In regards to Underdogs, as well as more specific/general things, Greg only fully produced 2 or 3 tracks I think. So he may not have had much to do with final tracklisting decisions, or what makes a b-side, or specific things about tracks he didn't work on. I actually asked him about the Underdogs edit when we last spoke. I didn't include it in the podcast because he genuinely didn't have an answer as he hadn't worked on that song. If we ever get to chat to Dave Eringa I shall ask again! |
#147
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Well I wasn't expecting merch ! Very tempted by the I like lifeblood tote. Should be I lifeblood tho
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IS IT MANICS O'CLOCK YET?
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#148
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Neither were we! We had quite a few people ask how they could support the podcast beyond listening. We didn't feel like we wanted to go down the route of Patreon, and preferred the idea of people getting something more than just the giving of support. Hence merch!
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#149
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Quote:
I stumbled across an article from around the futurology release where James ranks the albums. You might already know it / mentioned it but if not might be of interest to your rankings ? https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/6...reet-preachers Messy link ..I've forgotten how to do hyperlinks.
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IS IT MANICS O'CLOCK YET?
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#150
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Merch huh? Hurm...
I too think nicky's album is more interesting than james' and it's the one i'll return to more often but both are missing some extremely strong tracks you'll only find on the singles and the japanese version of zeitgeist. Probably best for steve he doesn't listen to the heartbreaking kodachrome ghosts or he might cry forever... I remember reading that little quote from james about kyffin williams and he's really self-deprecating to a fault sometimes because you realise what an erudite fellow he is. His analyses of victor jara and his songs in the various interviews and such has really shown that so big up yourself, jimmy! Pretty sure that say hello to the pope refers to something an old catholic lady that lived near james used to say when he was visiting italy.
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Please, he prayed, now - A gray disk, the colour of Chiba sky. Now - Disk beginning to rotate, faster, becoming a sphere of paler gray. Expanding - And flowed, flowered for him, fluid neon origami trick, the unfolding of his distanceless home, his country, transparent 3D chessboard extending to infinity. Inner eye opening to the stepped scarlet pyramid of the Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority burning beyond the green cubes of Mitsubishi Bank of America, and high and very far away he saw the spiral arms of military systems, forever beyond his reach. And somewhere he was laughing, in a white-painted loft, distant fingers caressing the deck, tears of release streaking his face. |
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