Laughing City

Starflyer 59...
has been consistently good over the years.
38%
 38%  [ 8 ]
have been good, but not consistently.
23%
 23%  [ 5 ]
is not to my liking.
9%
 9%  [ 2 ]
who?
28%
 28%  [ 6 ]
Total Votes : 21

Author Message
bigideas
Vintage Newbie


New album comes out October 28th.
Last year they put out the Ghost of the Future 7" box set previewing the record via demos and b-sides. Everything I heard sounded pretty good.
Two tracks are out there so far for streaming and the studio versions sound pretty good:

"Brightest of the Head"

http://toothandnail.com/releases/666/Dial_M/track_list/
(interesting url)

"Minor Keys" (with a shout out to Johnny Marr)

http://www.buzzgrinder.com/2008/mp3s-company-starflyer-59

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Last edited by bigideas on Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:46 am; edited 1 time in total
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guitarfreak217
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I've been waiting! Unfortunately, I'm broke until like... March or something.
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wilsmith
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that is why I say, good, but not consistently. Silver and Gold don't hold up as well over time, but hey, if people are digging Black Rebel Motorcycle Club they would have loved SF59. I would even say people who dug the earlier DCFC would dig it too, especially as they've gotten livelier over the years.
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SamuraiPunk
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I loved them when i was a kid but they don't seem as cool anymore.
i'll always have the silver and the gold album in my collection.

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bigideas
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What is everyone's favorite album?

I got into them post shoegaze/MBV era around Fashion Focus time via the Fell In Love at 22 EP. The Fashion Focus is probably my favorite album overall of their's.

My Island wasn't too bad, but a little too same-y.
I thought Talking Voice vs. Singing Voice was pretty good.
Early songs like Goodbyes Are Sad and Help Me When You're Gone are just great.
Then they flirted with Pet Sounds/mono a little with Be Here a Stranger.
It's cool to have an artist release an album and/or EP pretty much yearly.

Dial M seems like it will be solid throughout.

If you didn't know, now Jason Martin records bands and offers mastering/mixing services.

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wilsmith
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bigideas wrote:
What is everyone's favorite album?

I got into them post shoegaze/MBV era around Fashion Focus time via the Fell In Love at 22 EP. The Fashion Focus is probably my favorite album overall of their's.

My Island wasn't too bad, but a little too same-y.
I thought Talking Voice vs. Singing Voice was pretty good.
Early songs like Goodbyes Are Sad and Help Me When You're Gone are just great.
Then they flirted with Pet Sounds/mono a little with Be Here a Stranger.
It's cool to have an artist release an album and/or EP pretty much yearly.

Dial M seems like it will be solid throughout.

If you didn't know, now Jason Martin records bands and offers mastering/mixing services.


Check out the Dark Romantic's Some Midnight Kissin' he did that. It's .5 of Denison Marrs and their wives, excellent stuff.

Far as Starflyer stuff, gotta admit I really was feeling Americana and Leave Here a Stranger a whole lot. Fashion Focus, Old, and Everybody Makes Mistakes follows that, and then from there the rest. That's just me though, and the My Bloody Valentine influence is oddly enough influenced by the Cure, another band with a big schizophrenic catalog...

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bigideas
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looks like the whole record is streaming here:

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/thedrop.php

I had forgotten that Pitchfork actually reviewed and gave decent ratings to both Old and Talking Voice.

I listened to Talking Voice this morning - I really like that record - no fat, just 9 good songs and real strings.

not sure what you mean by "and the My Bloody Valentine influence is oddly enough influenced by the Cure."

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wilsmith
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bigideas wrote:
looks like the whole record is streaming here:

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/thedrop.php

I had forgotten that Pitchfork actually reviewed and gave decent ratings to both Old and Talking Voice.

I listened to Talking Voice this morning - I really like that record - no fat, just 9 good songs and real strings.

not sure what you mean by "and the My Bloody Valentine influence is oddly enough influenced by the Cure."


Good call on the streaming link, I'm on it.

Meanwhile, I just notice that the Cure never gets credit for being one of the bigger 80's bands that used dissonance and atmosphere in their pop and art music to achieve success. I don't see how anyone can listen to Disintegration and feel that it was the Benchmark for that sound. That's just me though. There are lots of influential bands, so I was looking for an excuse to throw the Cure a bone.

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bigideas
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I was referring to the wall of sound guitar sound.
I also don't think I'm the first to relate early SF59 to MBV.
I don't even own a MBV record*, but I 'know' that sound.
Phil Spector electrified?



*I've wanted to hear Loveless for years since it's so legendary, but also for years I've heard of a special edition coming out so I'm waiting for that (which seems on the horizon since they're playing live again).

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wilsmith
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bigideas wrote:
I was referring to the wall of sound guitar sound.
I also don't think I'm the first to relate early SF59 to MBV.
I don't even own a MBV record*, but I 'know' that sound.
Phil Spector electrified?



*I've wanted to hear Loveless for years since it's so legendary, but also for years I've heard of a special edition coming out so I'm waiting for that (which seems on the horizon since they're playing live again).


I totally here you on that, for me Wall of Sound and Ambiance are the same thing, so we are two of 5 people describing an Elephant if you know that anecdote...

I think everybody hears that, which is fine. I invoked the Cure because SF59 wasn't limited to that sound and has gone all over the place style wise, like the Cure heh heh... Or Smashing Pumpkins for that matter.

As for Phil Spector, he did it with background vox and a tone of over the top strings that gave everything that Schmaltzy melodramatic feel, like Christmas music (I really don't like Christmas music at all). That's my take on it. Sorry Spector fans, but I must defend MBV and SF59 from the gun toting, John Lennon threatening, ex-wife career killing (the ronettes ) super-producer. They deserve better.

And that's the bottom like, cause Wil Smith said so Wink

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bigideas
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wilsmith wrote:
I totally here you on that, for me Wall of Sound and Ambiance are the same thing, so we are two of 5 people describing an Elephant if you know that anecdote...


i'm not sure i agree.

i take wall of sound to mean stacks and layers of sound, i.e.; one guitar being put through 10 amps with 20 microphones recording (ok a little extreme but you get the point). things sound mashed together - Brian Wilson is another example trying to immulate Spector by having all the instruments tracking together in one room at the same time.

ambient - i automatically think Eno - and that could be someone just putting one mic in a room and recording it and putting reverb on it. it doesn't necessarily have to have a lot going on. or a song stretching on without regard naturally.

actually, i see how they can intertwine though.

maybe Wall of Sound is really more a recording technique and ambient more a type of music?

although field recordings would be classified as ambient probably.

i've confused myself now.

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wilsmith
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bigideas wrote:
wilsmith wrote:
I totally here you on that, for me Wall of Sound and Ambiance are the same thing, so we are two of 5 people describing an Elephant if you know that anecdote...


i'm not sure i agree.

i take wall of sound to mean stacks and layers of sound, i.e.; one guitar being put through 10 amps with 20 microphones recording (ok a little extreme but you get the point). things sound mashed together - Brian Wilson is another example trying to immulate Spector by having all the instruments tracking together in one room at the same time.

ambient - i automatically think Eno - and that could be someone just putting one mic in a room and recording it and putting reverb on it. it doesn't necessarily have to have a lot going on. or a song stretching on without regard naturally.

actually, i see how they can intertwine though.

maybe Wall of Sound is really more a recording technique and ambient more a type of music?

although field recordings would be classified as ambient probably.

i've confused myself now.


Bill Clinton once said once said on Letterman, "The first step to getting yourself out of a hole is to quit diggin'"

We're in pretty deep. When I say Ambiance, I'm going for music that is more impressionistic, and creates a feeling from the sheer nature of the sound. It can be atmospheric is a serene way or an interstellar way, of varying levels of intensity, like the light in that movie Sunshine, how it as so strong at the highest levels it vaporizes, but at low levels warms or illuminates.

Multitracking massive layers of differing instruments was Spector's approach, no such thing as excess. Eno was the master of spacious drones. MBV were practitioners of layers of the same thing slightly augmented, like musical Cement. That said, the Cure definitely evoke the Eno methodology, but sludged it up something fierce, and or that reason I always see them as pioneers in the musical cement mixing. Seriously, Disintegration, give it a listen.

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bigideas
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wilsmith wrote:
Seriously, Disintegration, give it a listen.


Well, I don't own it.
I only have a greatest hits comp of The Cure.
My favorite era seems to be those songs from Japanese Whispers.

But you're saying I'd hear the genesis of Gold and Silver?

I'm not too familar with those two albums really. I bought the special editions when they came out, but they didn't hold my attention very long.

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wilsmith
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bigideas wrote:
wilsmith wrote:
Seriously, Disintegration, give it a listen.


Well, I don't own it.
I only have a greatest hits comp of The Cure.
My favorite era seems to be those songs from Japanese Whispers.

But you're saying I'd hear the genesis of Gold and Silver?

I'm not too familar with those two albums really. I bought the special editions when they came out, but they didn't hold my attention very long.


I'm not so bold as to call it the Genesis of those two records, but a Benchmark by which they can be measured. Those two can bury you, andif you are not in the right mood, bore you, but if you're in the right headspace they work very well.

Disintergration is the high water mark of densely layered New Wave - Post-Punk, Alternative, Grunge type stuff. It's heavy and intense, and at times almos Ambient as well. It covers all those bases.

Beyond that, Greatest Hits for the Cure is such a misrepresentation of their work because they definitely put some thought into their better albums as complete peices, sometimes at the expense of the listener (their last, S/T was sooooo long).

Wish and Blood Flowers are it's kissing cousin's. Since I go for their darker moody work, I have those records in particular and none of the rest. If I want poppy stuff from that era I listen to the Smiths instead.

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bigideas
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wilsmith wrote:

Beyond that, Greatest Hits for the Cure is such a misrepresentation of their work because they definitely put some thought into their better albums as complete peices, sometimes at the expense of the listener (their last, S/T was sooooo long).

Wish and Blood Flowers are it's kissing cousin's. Since I go for their darker moody work, I have those records in particular and none of the rest. If I want poppy stuff from that era I listen to the Smiths instead.


Yeah, I know Greatest Hits are rarely ever good summations of any band's work, and I of course favor the album over any compilation any day. The problem was that I wanted to check out the band and the option was either: buy a random album and hope it's to my liking, or buy a compilation and get some sampling of their career.

I believe they've started releasing expanded editions of all The Cure's albums, but they've only done the first few that I'm aware of.

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