From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V16 #276 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Monday, July 30 2007 Volume 16 : Number 276 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: fegmaniax-digest V16 #275 [hssmrg@bath.ac.uk] Re: Wetness ["Mark P" ] the sound of thud ["Lauren Elizabeth" ] Cthulhu Origami [Steve Talkowski ] Re: Wetness [Rex ] Re: Cthulhu Origami [Christopher Gross ] Re: the sound of thud [2fs ] Re: Cthulhu Origami [Steve Talkowski ] Trying to Cope [BLATZMAN@aol.com] Re: SP's [Barbara Soutar ] Re: the sound of thud [Sebastian Hagedorn ] Re: SP's [2fs ] Re: the sound of thud [2fs ] Re: Wetness ["Mark P" ] Re: Wetness [2fs ] Re: [oldschoolfegs] re: Moose? [Christopher Gross ] Re: Trying to Cope ["Stewart C. Russell" ] Re: [oldschoolfegs] re: Moose? [Rex ] Re: the sound of thud ["Lauren Elizabeth" ] Re: fegmaniax-digest V16 #275 [Steve Schiavo ] Re: the sound of thud [Jeff Dwarf ] Re: Clerkenwell? [grutness@slingshot.co.nz] Re: the sound of thud [2fs ] Re: the sound of thud [Rex ] Re: Trying to Cope [Tom Clark ] Re: the sound of thud ["Lauren Elizabeth" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:24:03 +0100 From: hssmrg@bath.ac.uk Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V16 #275 Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:22:26 -0500 > From: Steve Schiavo > Subject: Clerkenwell? > > What's Clerkenwell, as in Clerkenwell London? > > Another fine recording from Matthijs! > > > - - Steve Does this answer your question, Steve? - - Mike G. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:17:23 -0400 From: "Mark P" Subject: Re: Wetness >Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2007 13:31:08 -0700 >From: Carrie Galbraith >picked up "The Modern Antiquarian" while roaming a London bookstore >several years ago. I had heard of it and it was new at the time. >Found it informative, but tired of every photo of a stone having him, >his wife and a kid in it. Oh well, it *is* his tome ...and family! ;-) Love, LOVE, LOVE his rambles ...some o'those reviews o'er H-heritage ...SUperb! The cat just let's it rip, I love Julian Cope! I'm forever hopeful he'll someday once again unleash another (sorta kinda) POP masterverk the likes o'WSYM, Fried (yrs truly's fave Droolzpiece!)or Saint Julian ... alot since My Nation Underground has been somewot unlistenable to these old 'n' static and rooted in songular structure ears ...glimmers, yeah but, oh well. The for the most part aymore sonic/hippy-esque jammin' ain't me cuppa meat. And. Anybody ever gets a line on a Englaise versh o'his Krautrocksampler publication ...PUHLEEZE gimme a head's up. m ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 13:08:18 -0400 From: "Lauren Elizabeth" Subject: the sound of thud hi fegs, i was innocently listening to the new interpol album, and, yes, this is what he says: "there's no i in threesome." it turns out i didn't need to walk so far as the world wide wide to check it, only over to the cd case because (more thud) _that's the name of the song_. (assuming they were brave enough to put a track listing on the cd.) oh, while searching for the lyrics, i came across this: http://www.avclub.com/content/blog/spot_the_fake_interpol_lyrics xo p.s. otherwise, it's been pretty enjoyable. - -- - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "People with opinions just go around bothering one another." - The Buddha ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 13:33:36 -0400 From: Steve Talkowski Subject: Cthulhu Origami Literally stumbled upon this whilst perusing boingboing: http://spinflipper.com/blog/?p=38 - -Steve, who's iPhone survived its first fall from waist height (damn flaps on shorts) to street level (landing face down, no less) with minor dings on the edges of the case yet no scratches on the glass. *WHEW* ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:06:49 -0700 From: Rex Subject: Re: Wetness On 7/29/07, Mark P wrote: > > > I'm forever hopeful he'll someday once again unleash another (sorta kinda) > POP masterverk the likes o'WSYM, Fried (yrs truly's fave Droolzpiece!)or > Saint Julian ... alot since My Nation Underground has been somewot > unlistenable to these old 'n' static and rooted in songular structure ears > ...glimmers, yeah but, oh well. The for the most part aymore > sonic/hippy-esque jammin' ain't me cuppa meat. I thought I was the only one. And I generally like rambly experimental stuff... it's just that Cope's pop stuff was so very good, and I can get my krautrocky kicks elsewhere. I thought everyone rated that trilogy (?) that started with "Peggy Suicide" as the top of the heap, but I still really favor the Teardrop stuff and its immediate aftermath, goofball synths and all. - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 14:23:30 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Re: Cthulhu Origami On Sun, 29 Jul 2007, Steve Talkowski wrote: > Literally stumbled upon this Shouldn't leave the laptop on the floor.... > whilst perusing boingboing: > > http://spinflipper.com/blog/?p=38 Thanks! Cthulhu news (or "Cthulnews," as the pros call it) is always welcome. > -Steve, who's iPhone survived its first fall from waist height (damn > flaps on shorts) to street level (landing face down, no less) with > minor dings on the edges of the case yet no scratches on the glass. > *WHEW* Check out Ars Technica's "stress test" of the iPhone -- video embedded near the bottom of this page: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/iphone-review.ars/13 - --Chris ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 14:13:56 -0500 From: 2fs Subject: Re: the sound of thud On 7/29/07, Lauren Elizabeth wrote: > > hi fegs, > > i was innocently listening to the new interpol album, and, yes, this > is what he says: > > "there's no i in threesome." > > it turns out i didn't need to walk so far as the world wide wide to > check it, only over to the cd case because (more thud) _that's the > name of the song_. > > (assuming they were brave enough to put a track listing on the cd.) It is, however, only on the inside of the packaging rather than on the outside. Fortunately, my brain works such that lyrics are the last thing I perceive and, other than a few key lines, something I have to actively work at to foreground. Someone should convince Interpol that, befitting their internationalist name, they should henceforth write their lyrics in Esperanto. That way, when they feel compelled to write dreadful phrases like the title phrase you refer to or the notorious "the subway is a porno," most of the world can remain blissful in its ignorance. Vulku esto prokulisto... - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 15:54:50 -0400 From: Steve Talkowski Subject: Re: Cthulhu Origami On Jul 29, 2007, at 2:23 PM, Christopher Gross wrote: > On Sun, 29 Jul 2007, Steve Talkowski wrote: > >> Literally stumbled upon this > > Shouldn't leave the laptop on the floor.... After my little renovation project yesterday, laptop real estate is currently at an extreme minimum, mainly because all the power outlets in the living room are inactive so I'm sitting at the kitchen counter plugged in there: http://web.mac.com/stevetalkowski/iWeb/Home_Renovation/Wall_Removal.html > Check out Ars Technica's "stress test" of the iPhone -- video embedded > near the bottom of this page: > > http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/iphone-review.ars/13 Yeah, i already was cringing after viewing that and PC Labs stress tests, not to mention the blogger that was out in front of one of the Apple Stores in CA with his female cohort doing a live podcast where he destroys and dismantles the entire iPhone within the first hour of making his purchase on launch day. Hey Tom Clark, heard all ya'll Apple employees started receiving your iPhones last week. How are you enjoying it thus far? - -Steve ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 16:17:49 EDT From: BLATZMAN@aol.com Subject: Trying to Cope Hello All- I used to be a huge Cope fan... I followed most everything he did, and even read his first book upon publication. But whatever the crap that he's been pooping over the last decade is of a stench that i simply can't get used to. I try and try, but everytime I peek in on what he's doing, I am bored to tears... Julian has written some of my very favorite songs... maybe even my all time favorite(The Great Dominions), so I'll always listen back in, hoping that he might someday be interested in writing songs again... And perhaps I'm even more disappointed because he used to be one of my favorite writers. As far as his brilliance being in "Not getting him"... well, this makes no sense to me. I have to ask myself what Julian's goal is... If he wants to be misunderstood, then he is succeeding and I give him props for that... But as an artist, if he is trying to communicate something, and if that "something" is not being communicated, then he is failing to do what he is intending to do and I find no brilliance or genius in that. Then again, I'm sort of over Julian, and mostly that just makes me sad... Blatzy ************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:14:25 -0700 From: Barbara Soutar Subject: Re: SP's Rex coined an oxymoron when he said: "Statements of strong indifference can of course still cause trouble, though." Jeffrey two f's response was priceless: "Meh!" And I was going to post the story about Ray Davies court case being dismissed but I see it's already been posted here. Too bad about the shooting of Ray and the court case failing, but at least it helped him to produce a great album from the chaos in his life. "Other People's Lives" is great. Barbara Soutar Victoria, BC ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 23:04:04 +0200 From: Sebastian Hagedorn Subject: Re: the sound of thud - -- 2fs is rumored to have mumbled on 29. Juli 2007 14:13:56 -0500 regarding Re: the sound of thud: >> i was innocently listening to the new interpol album, and, yes, this >> is what he says: >> >> "there's no i in threesome." >> >> it turns out i didn't need to walk so far as the world wide wide to >> check it, only over to the cd case because (more thud) _that's the >> name of the song_. >> >> (assuming they were brave enough to put a track listing on the cd.) > > It is, however, only on the inside of the packaging rather than on the > outside. ... > > Someone should convince Interpol that, befitting their internationalist > name, they should henceforth write their lyrics in Esperanto. > > That way, when they feel compelled to write dreadful phrases like the > title phrase you refer to or the notorious "the subway is a porno," most > of the world can remain blissful in its ignorance. Could someone explain what exactly makes those lines so bad? They may be pretentious, but that's of course all in the eye of the beholder. I haven't really paid all that much attention to their lyrics, so maybe they *are* bad, I just don't see it yet. - -- Sebastian Hagedorn Am alten Stellwerk 22, 50733 Kvln, Germany http://www.uni-koeln.de/~a0620/ "Being just contaminates the void" - Robyn Hitchcock ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 16:41:05 -0500 From: 2fs Subject: Re: SP's On 7/29/07, Barbara Soutar wrote: > > Rex coined an oxymoron when he said: > > "Statements of strong indifference can of course still cause trouble, > though." > > > Jeffrey two f's response was priceless: "Meh!" Thanks. And I was going to post the story about Ray Davies court case being > dismissed but I see it's already been posted here. Too bad about the > shooting of Ray and the court case failing, but at least it helped him > to produce a great album from the chaos in his life. "Other People's > Lives" is great. Yeah, that sucks (the court thing) - right, give someone in another country two damned weeks to rearrange everything come over and testify. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 16:53:21 -0500 From: 2fs Subject: Re: the sound of thud On 7/29/07, Sebastian Hagedorn wrote: > > -- 2fs is rumored to have mumbled on 29. Juli > 2007 14:13:56 -0500 regarding Re: the sound of thud: > > > > That way, when they feel compelled to write dreadful phrases like the > > title phrase you refer to or the notorious "the subway is a porno," most > > of the world can remain blissful in its ignorance. > > Could someone explain what exactly makes those lines so bad? They may be > pretentious, but that's of course all in the eye of the beholder. Certainly it's subjective - but I'll try to explain why I think they're awful lines. Note that it's possible they might be redeemed in context (context which I really haven't paid much attention to), but it's very hard to make a real clunker line work well, no matter what the context. Anyway: "the subway is a porno" - Okay, if you're Sigmund Freud or have a railway fetish, this might be literally true. For the rest of us, uh...huh? In what way, specifically, is the subway like pornography? (Sidenote: it's probably just my personal peeve, but I don't like the usage of "porno" to mean "instance of pornography") Do the surrounding lyrics provide any help? What the hell, here's the whole first verse: I had seven faces Thought I knew which one to wear But I'm sick of spending these lonely nights Training myself not to care The subway is a porno The pavements they are a mess I know you've supported me for a long time Somehow I'm not impressed I suppose not caring has some relevance to the notion of porn, and I suppose pavements have some relation to subways - but the context really doesn't clarify the metaphor much. The overall mood is of disaffection - not arousal, and even if he wanted to use "porn" to signify something like "uninvolved version of something normally or preferably emotionally involving," uh, why "subway"? It's not as if he's going on about sexual behavior in the darkened subway stations or anything - it's just an empty phrase. It's just a mess (more than Pavement). It's a metaphor thrown in for no reason other than, uh, because a dog licks itself. (See what I mean?) - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 17:56:04 -0400 From: "Mark P" Subject: Re: Wetness > I thought I was the only one. And I generally like rambly experimental stuff... it's just that Cope's pop stuff was so very good, and I can get my krautrocky kicks elsewhere. I thought everyone rated that trilogy (?) that started with "Peggy Suicide" as the top of the heap, but I still really favor the Teardrop stuff and its immediate aftermath, goofball synths and all. > > -Rex > > > Nah and yeah, Autogeddon and Jehovakill ...20 Mothers ... I dunno, y'know. Mebbe those who so highly laud that stuff are come-latelys and never delved into the earlier canon ...? Neither here nor there, not a bad thing, per se. Not that it means anything either but I too was in on the ground floor. Like you say, Krautrock, kosmische musik, whatever ...for me ...is Neu!(their exclamation mark ..not mine...!), Amon D, Cluster, and, and, and ... whomever else he's into and/or attempting to ape at the mome. He chooses to bear that cross, fine by me but sooner or later methinks he's gonna get back to four to the floor rockin'. As yrself, I'll reckon, Teardrop stuff still gets a go or so every now and then around this casa. Timeless and classic! Personally, I just absolutely LOVED the early solo Cope. Brain Donor is *okay* too, though ...So ...I dunno ...I'm confused now! m ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 17:16:25 -0500 From: 2fs Subject: Re: Wetness On 7/29/07, Mark P wrote: > > Nah and yeah, Autogeddon and Jehovakill ...20 Mothers ... I dunno, > y'know. Mebbe those who so highly laud that stuff are come-latelys and > never delved into the earlier canon ...? Neither here nor there, not a > bad thing, per se. Not that it means anything either but I too was in > on the ground floor. Like you say, Krautrock, kosmische musik, > whatever ...for me ...is Neu!(their exclamation mark ..not mine...!), > Amon D, Cluster, and, and, and ... whomever else he's into and/or > attempting to ape at the mome. He chooses to bear that cross, fine by > me but sooner or later methinks he's gonna get back to four to the > floor rockin'. I wouldn't say Cope's latterday stuff is primarily krautrock. And some of it (you mention Brain Donor) *is* "four to the floor rockin'". What he hasn't done much of is that sort of melodic, almost art-rock-y stuff that fill his first few solo albums and The Teardrop Explodes stuff. There are moments - such as "Holy Mother of God" on _An Audience with the Cope_ - but for the most part, he seems interested in this sort of unpolished, live-sounding stuff that...well, some of it's pretty good, some of it's just boring if you're not, uh, actually playing it. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 18:28:14 -0400 (EDT) From: Christopher Gross Subject: Re: [oldschoolfegs] re: Moose? On Sun, 29 Jul 2007, Eb wrote: > http://www.mooseworld.com/moose_safety_tips.htm Moose rule. - --Chris ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 18:32:19 -0400 From: "Stewart C. Russell" Subject: Re: Trying to Cope Ah, Julian. I was one of the come-latelys, first saw him in Irvine at the same event that Robyn played. Seen him many times, had copies of all of his books (well, up to 2001-ish). Love his music dearly, but I do have to think quite hard to remember the last time I actually listened to his music ... Stewart ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 16:26:15 -0700 From: Rex Subject: Re: [oldschoolfegs] re: Moose? On 7/29/07, Christopher Gross wrote: > > On Sun, 29 Jul 2007, Eb wrote: > > > http://www.mooseworld.com/moose_safety_tips.htm > > Moose rule. Again the mysterious "oldschoolfegs" list rears its head... shortly after a Cthulhu reference. Coincidence? - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 19:44:13 -0400 From: "Lauren Elizabeth" Subject: Re: the sound of thud 2fs says: > On 7/29/07, Sebastian Hagedorn wrote: > > > > -- 2fs is rumored to have mumbled on 29. Juli > > 2007 14:13:56 -0500 regarding Re: the sound of thud: > > > > > > > That way, when they feel compelled to write dreadful phrases like the > > > title phrase you refer to or the notorious "the subway is a porno," most > > > of the world can remain blissful in its ignorance. > > > > Could someone explain what exactly makes those lines so bad? They may be > > pretentious, but that's of course all in the eye of the beholder. > Certainly it's subjective - but I'll try to explain why I think they're > awful lines. jeff 2fs has given a rather chillingly accurate account of "when lyrics go bad", and i probably don't need to add to it, but that never seems to stop me... one of the things about interpol lyrics is that taken one line at a time, or maybe just taking certain lines, it seems like mr. banks is saying something dreadfully deep, or insightful, or important. for instance, i love these lines in "leif erickson": "she swears i'm a slave to the details" and "she feels that my sentimental side should be held with kid gloves" and "she swears I'm just prey to the female" so one day i looked up the lyrics - i guess expecting to learn something, or better understand what he's getting at, or just kind of see the bigger picture of the entire song, and, oh boy, it was like finding out he wrote all the songs with magnetic poetry (they have that in germany, i assume?) the lines are all random and discombobulated. and then there's just lines that are just totally stupid. it's a ruse. it's like someone's about to tell you a secret and you go up to him and you think he's going to reveal a bit of the mystery of this crazy mess of life and instead he says: "i feel like love is in the kitchen with a culinary eye" and you look up, waiting for him to crack a smile. xo - -- - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "People with opinions just go around bothering one another." - The Buddha ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 19:45:38 -0500 From: Steve Schiavo Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V16 #275 On Jul 29, 2007, at 5:24 AM, hssmrg@bath.ac.uk wrote: > Does this answer your question, Steve? > I see, Clerkenwell is trendy and hip without being embarrassingly so, and has some of the best restaurants in London. And now with no smoking, evidently. - - Steve _______________ Interaction with cosmic intelligence may be influence by Penrose noncomputable Platonic wisdom embedded in Planck scale geometry. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 18:14:31 -0700 (PDT) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: the sound of thud I would never argue that Interpol lyrics are ever good, but I do think they are often amusing, and I would hope knowingly so. Maybe it's the Joy Division connections, but they always strike me as semi-homages to New Order lyrics, in that Sumner's lyrics were frequently kinda knowingly goofy as opposed to the ripped out of his flesh lyrics Ian Curtis wrote; he knew he could never compete with Ian's lyrical aptitude (and probably didn't really want to given everything that happened), so he went into a different direction, and Paul Banks (I'm assuming) is working in that particular minefield. I mean, no one could write "the subway is a porno" or "there's no I in threeway" or (insert other examples here) and not be shitting everyone, right? "Children have always enjoyed my movies. They are just not allowed to watch many of them." -- John Waters . ____________________________________________________________________________________Ready for the edge of your seat? Check out tonight's top picks on Yahoo! TV. http://tv.yahoo.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:50:58 +1200 From: grutness@slingshot.co.nz Subject: Re: Clerkenwell? >What's Clerkenwell, as in Clerkenwell London? It's an area in the borough of Islington, but that's not important right now. James ("First the earth cooled, then the dinosaurs came...") - -- James Dignan, Dunedin, New Zealand -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.-=-.- =-.-=-.-=-.- You talk to me as if from a distance .-=-.-=-.-=-. -=-. And I reply with impressions chosen from another time .-=- .-=-.-=-.-=-.-=- (Brian Eno - "By this River") -.-=-.-=-.-=-.-= ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 20:55:54 -0500 From: 2fs Subject: Re: the sound of thud On 7/29/07, Lauren Elizabeth wrote: > > > > jeff 2fs has given a rather chillingly accurate account of "when > lyrics go bad", and i probably don't need to add to it, but that never > seems to stop me... Thanks. one of the things about interpol lyrics is that taken one line at a > time, or maybe just taking certain lines, it seems like mr. banks is > saying something dreadfully deep, or insightful, or important. > > for instance, i love these lines in "leif erickson": > > "she swears i'm a slave to the details" > and > "she feels that my sentimental side should be held with kid gloves" > and > "she swears I'm just prey to the female" > > so one day i looked up the lyrics - i guess expecting to learn > something, or better understand what he's getting at, or just kind of > see the bigger picture of the entire song, and, oh boy, it was like > finding out he wrote all the songs with magnetic poetry (they have > that in germany, i assume?) the lines are all random and > discombobulated. and then there's just lines that are just totally > stupid. it's a ruse. it's like someone's about to tell you a secret > and you go up to him and you think he's going to reveal a bit of the > mystery of this crazy mess of life and instead he says: I don't have a problem with lyrics that don't make any sense. I mean, we've got prose for that. The problem I have is when the sense lyrics isn't making doesn't hang together, or evoke, in some way. A good counterexample is David Byrne, around the time of _Stop Making Sense_, where he seemed consciously to be using cliches, or twisting them around. But they'd hang together in a sense, to suggest at least a state of mind, or a character or situation. You shouldn't be able to randomly take lines from different songs and have them be no worse than the songs themselves./ It could be that Banks (who, at least according to his Wikipedia entry, majored inEnglish) is having a laugh...but he doesn't seem at all knowing about it (in the way Barney Sumner sometimes does). And if so, that undercuts the tone of the band's music - the lyrics should be somewhat mysterious, but in a canny way that respects the sound's romanticism, even if it plays with it somewhat satirically. I like Interpol - but as I said, fortunately I'm capable of ignoring the lyrics. Sometimes, if he had a little more control over what he's doing, his lyrics approach the kind of coherence they need. That "Threesome" song has some lines that might work...but then they clash with other lines, or end up ridiculous (like the song's main idea, which is sorta like propositioning a woman in a bar by quoting poetry, only to find she's a nun who only speaks Romanian and is close friends with your Aunt Darlene). - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 20:06:49 -0700 From: Rex Subject: Re: the sound of thud On 7/29/07, 2fs wrote: > > It could be that Banks (who, at least according to his Wikipedia entry, > majored inEnglish) is having a laugh...but he doesn't seem at all knowing > about it (in the way Barney Sumner sometimes does). And if so, that > undercuts the tone of the band's music - the lyrics should be somewhat > mysterious, but in a canny way that respects the sound's romanticism, even > if it plays with it somewhat satirically. I do like the notion that they're totally putting one over on everyone and laughing about it. The lyrics might be knowingly bad... we'll never know. They're not literal enough to be totally mocak-able (see again She Wants Revenge, which was like Bauhaus with several lobotomies). Generally as long as they go along with the evocative feel of the music and don't stick a like sore pornographic subway, you're fine. In that they're maybe more like the Church than New Order... as long as the lyrics are sound-poetry, or at least seem to be, they're fine, but when you start to decode some bad Kilbey punnery, you get the woeful likes of "Terra Nova Caine". I don't like to read interviews with lyricists of this type... they're usually disappointing... - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 21:06:54 -0700 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: Trying to Cope On Jul 29, 2007, at 1:17 PM, BLATZMAN@aol.com wrote: > > Julian has written some of my very favorite songs... Ditto. I have pretty much everything from Fried through Interpreter and there are some ultimate gems in that catalog. "Since I Lost My Head", "Fa Fa Fa Fine", "Bill Drummond Said", "Spacehopper", etc... Never really cared for the keyboard-centric Teardrop stuff, but Brain Donor is fun. - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 00:07:53 -0400 From: "Lauren Elizabeth" Subject: Re: the sound of thud jeff 2fs says: > It could be that Banks (who, at least according to his Wikipedia entry, > majored inEnglish) is having a laugh...but he doesn't seem at all knowing > about it (in the way Barney Sumner sometimes does). And if so, that > undercuts the tone of the band's music - the lyrics should be somewhat > mysterious, but in a canny way that respects the sound's romanticism, even > if it plays with it somewhat satirically. that he majored in english makes it even more likely that he is serious. > I like Interpol - but as I said, fortunately I'm capable of ignoring the > lyrics. yes, i like them as well (i was crazy over that first album), but for me it's more "in spite of" as i notice lyrics a lot. > Sometimes, if he had a little more control over what he's doing, his lyrics > approach the kind of coherence they need. That "Threesome" song has some > lines that might work...but then they clash with other lines, or end up > ridiculous i think they have a lot of individual lines that could work - i think you're spot on as far as when you go looking for context, forget it. i don't know if i read this in an interview, or maybe someone just said it, but i do recall hearing that interpol was aware that the lyrics didn't work in print form. this is integrated into my head enough that when i went to look for the lyrics to-day, i didn't think to look in the liner notes. but i don't have a source for this other than my own not-that-reliable thoughts on the matter. xo p.s. although i generally know the lyrics of most of my favourite albums, joy division's an exception and i've had a suspicion that i might be disappointed if i tried to find out what they are. p.p.s. so when one might fall for buffy would be in the space between "surprise" and "innocence"? so it would seem. - -- - -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "People with opinions just go around bothering one another." - The Buddha ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V16 #276 ********************************