The Album Review Club - Week #194 (page 1303) - Ants From Up There - Black Country, New Road

shackattack said:
I loved the whole postcard records thing and still do. The Go Betweens though on their only briefly are another big favourite. Josef K, Aztec Camera ( Roddy a massive hero of mine) and the non Postcard stuff such as The Scars, The Associates, Goodbye Mister Mackenzie etc
Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee even must have been great places. My choice was always going to be from that era. I remember hearing Oblivious for the first time !!
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Said before on here but I used to help manage Goodbye Mr Mackenzie and a few others.
I still see the Josef K guys
Check out Scorpio Leisure
 
BEN FOLDS SONGS FOR SILVERMAN



Ironically as well as loving my melancholic lyrics I also have penchant for amusing and quirky ones , hence my love for WZ and FOW amongst others.
I also like piano led songs , which brings me to BF I’ve liked most of his output with TBF5 and a lot of his solo stuff ,with the exception of the William Shatner collaboration.Ben is known mostly as a exceptional pianist but he’s actually a
multi instrumentalist, the previous album to this was totally solo.His style is described as classical meets pop.
On this album his mostly uses a bassist and drummer.a few songs are augmented by Bucky Baxster’s pedal ( i knew I could squeeze a bit of country in!)and Weird Al Yankovich which will impress Rob.
His songs are mostly about relationships, love songs break up songs( he’s been married 5 times) and commentary about the US .

A few bits of trivia his mate Glen Phillips of TTWS wrote the song ‘Drive By’
about one of Bens childhood incidents not his own.
He was the Artistic Adviser to the National Symphony Orchestra for 6 years resigning this year when Trump was re-elected.
He plays piano on Whiskeytown’s unreleased album ‘Forever Valentine’

Onto the songs ‘Bastard’ isn’t about his father but about getting old.
‘Jesusland ‘ is an imaginary tale if Jesus visited the Red southern States and was used in the Bill Maher documentary’ Religious ’
‘Just to thank you’ about getting married too quickly.
‘Late’ as I mentioned in the ‘Elliot Smith ‘ nomination was written about him.
‘Time ‘ one of my favourite tracks has a Pink Floyd feel to it
The album closes on a high with ‘Prison Food’

For me theres a consistency in the tracks, the weakest probably being the
Lullaby ‘Gracie’ but I’d probably think differently if I had a daughter.

This was an album I constantly played when I first started seeing my current wife so it does have a personal connection and is an album I get listen to on a regular basis.
His voice may not be everyone’s cup of tea but it fits the songs and there’s very little guitar on this album.
 
Mancitydoogle said:
Correct , I thought you’d get this Spires as you’ve mentioned the BF WS collaboration before.
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Yeah I'm annoyed I didn't twig earlier.

This is full of existential angst wrapped up in sweet melodies, think I might need to go and find my emotional support racoon if I'm going to have to comment on songs like Bastard and Time.

(As for dissing Has Been, you're dead to me now).
 
threespires said:
Beat me to it.

(Thought we were getting the Beethoven's 5th of novelty albums, had the popcorn cat ready. This'll do.)
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This album at least lets me tell a personal anecdote.

"A couple of years ago for my friends birthday party I did sound for a guy (who's name I can't remember but he was on tour from the states - it'll come to me in a minute - who knows Ben Folds or Ben Folds brother or possibly may have just heard of Ben Folds. My friends wife is obsessed with Ben Folds. Or maybe someone else and I've got them confused (for clarity I'm possibly misremembering who my friends wife was obsessed with and not confused about which person I knew was obsessed with Ben Folds). it was my first time mixing on an SQ6 and the artist guy commented that he enjoyed my application of reverb although he asked me to turn it down at one point. He was a nice kind guy though so we had a pleasant time together in what ended up being quite an intimate gig. Around 20 people were there in Heald Green I think. A guy I know from Facebook but not ever really spoken to complemented me on mix but I'm a self deprecating guy so shrugged it off and commented that due to my age I did think I had some hearing loss and didn't really trust my ears. Anyway the guy from America had a song about being an old slapper and dedicated it to my friends mother in law which everyone enjoyed even though I think she may have been a sex worker in her younger days so was probably wildly inappropriate although I wouldn't have expected him to know that".

Old age is a hell of a drug
 
mrbelfry said:
This album at least lets me tell a personal anecdote.

"A couple of years ago for my friends birthday party I did sound for a guy (who's name I can't remember but he was on tour from the states - it'll come to me in a minute - who knows Ben Folds or Ben Folds brother or possibly may have just heard of Ben Folds. My friends wife is obsessed with Ben Folds. Or maybe someone else and I've got them confused (for clarity I'm possibly misremembering who my friends wife was obsessed with and not confused about which person I knew was obsessed with Ben Folds). it was my first time mixing on an SQ6 and the artist guy commented that he enjoyed my application of reverb although he asked me to turn it down at one point. He was a nice kind guy though so we had a pleasant time together in what ended up being quite an intimate gig. Around 20 people were there in Heald Green I think. A guy I know from Facebook but not ever really spoken to complemented me on mix but I'm a self deprecating guy so shrugged it off and commented that due to my age I did think I had some hearing loss and didn't really trust my ears. Anyway the guy from America had a song about being an old slapper and dedicated it to my friends mother in law which everyone enjoyed even though I think she may have been a sex worker in her younger days so was probably wildly inappropriate although I wouldn't have expected him to know that".

Old age is a hell of a drug
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Great Story, maybe someone told him about your friends mother in laws early career.
 
aka blue jambo said:
Said before on here but I used to help manage Goodbye Mr Mackenzie and a few others.
I still see the Josef K guys
Check out Scorpio Leisure
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I was just a bit too young for OJ/Scars/Josef K/Associates etc but I saw Paul Haig & Billy McKenzie do an interesting concert in Glasgow in 1986, and Paul live quite a bit with Alan Rankine, but he wasn't the most natural performer. Saw Paul from Scars doing a gig with a young arty girl singer in Edinburgh about 5 years ago, not so good. Saw Aztec Roddy about 1987/88 at the peak of his pop phase, not bad but really for me. And I saw Win in The Venue 1988? when I'm sure half the audience were Hibs Casuals and Davey was indulging them.
 
mrbelfry said:
This album at least lets me tell a personal anecdote.

"A couple of years ago for my friends birthday party I did sound for a guy (who's name I can't remember but he was on tour from the states - it'll come to me in a minute - who knows Ben Folds or Ben Folds brother or possibly may have just heard of Ben Folds. My friends wife is obsessed with Ben Folds. Or maybe someone else and I've got them confused (for clarity I'm possibly misremembering who my friends wife was obsessed with and not confused about which person I knew was obsessed with Ben Folds). it was my first time mixing on an SQ6 and the artist guy commented that he enjoyed my application of reverb although he asked me to turn it down at one point. He was a nice kind guy though so we had a pleasant time together in what ended up being quite an intimate gig. Around 20 people were there in Heald Green I think. A guy I know from Facebook but not ever really spoken to complemented me on mix but I'm a self deprecating guy so shrugged it off and commented that due to my age I did think I had some hearing loss and didn't really trust my ears. Anyway the guy from America had a song about being an old slapper and dedicated it to my friends mother in law which everyone enjoyed even though I think she may have been a sex worker in her younger days so was probably wildly inappropriate although I wouldn't have expected him to know that".

Old age is a hell of a drug
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Did the board belong to the venue or have you got your own for church stuff etc albeit that'd be a bit posh for church.

I was gonna ask how someones alleged past life as a sex worker becomes common knowledge but I spose if you stay in the same place you grew up it's quite possible.
 
mrbelfry said:
Tom Freund was his name. But the person my friend was obsessed with may have been Dave Matthews. Good times, good friends, good memories.
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Bloody hell, don't mention Dave Matthews he's nearly as persona non gratis in the bay area as Voldemort Yorke is.
 
threespires said:
Did the board belong to the venue or have you got your own for church stuff etc albeit that'd be a bit posh for church.

I was gonna ask how someones alleged past life as a sex worker becomes common knowledge but I spose if you stay in the same place you grew up it's quite possible.
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It belonged to the venue. The SQ6 isn't that posh. I mean it's no x32 but it's a well priced option and the production expectations on a lot of churches these days require serious pieces of kit.

The family were pretty open about their past when questioned about it and yes on the estate they grew up on everyone knew everyone's business
 
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