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Underground > Radio & Music >

Welsh Punk Not Dead? (MANICS)

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Regrettable Juvenilia

12:27 / 03.12.02

Band member Nicky Wire revealed to Radio 1 that the track will be released in January as a double A-side.

The other track is likely to be a new version of Motorcycle Emptiness.

Aiieeee. They're not even bothering to pretend to hide the desperate, cash-hungry, ideas-free horse-flogging.

Now I know how Stone Roses fans felt by the time the band were reduced to Ian Brown and a handful of muppets.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

14:15 / 03.12.02

I'm surprised they even bothered to put Richey's face on the cover.

14:36 / 03.12.02

Here's an image, from 'The Crack', though:

"MY GUT TELLS ME RICHIE ACTUALLY DID KILL HIMSELF. I IMAGINE HIM DOING IT WITH A COPY OF DOOM PATROL ROLLED UP IN HIS PVCs, NEXT TO HIS EYELINER - WALKING INTO THE SEA UNTIL IT CLOSES LIKE A GREEN LID OVER HIM. 4 UNREAL.

I HOPE I'M WRONG."

Ohh. I loved Richey James - to extend my above analogy, the John Smith of the band. Such a joke now...

05:25 / 04.12.02

Shame about the greatest hits CD, but the DVD looks great. It's got the lot for a start, all thirty or so of their videos, with more songs represented from the Richey era than what came after. It also includes the remix CD, and who really wanted the new tunes anyway.

There's also something that's potentially worse than the Manics recent recorded output to come: the recent threat of "doing a Radiohead." Yes, the world's most hamfisted songwriters may attempt an edgy, experimental album. This can come to no good.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

07:56 / 04.12.02

Heard James Dean Bradfield on SixMusic this morning, talking about their current gigs and he said something along the lines of "I'm quite glad that we're not up there singing songs with a manifesto or anything, just singing songs."

Next Up; Manics cover D:Reams 'Things Can Only Get Better' and admit "songs with a 'message' are really boring aren't they?"

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

09:48 / 04.12.02

I'm going to see 'em at the weekend anyway. Fuck, if I'm gonna watch a pub rock band, it may as well be one that will at least play a COUPLE of my favourite songs.

And you never know... one day they may suddenly go "hey, let's do all the stuff off Holy Bible... we haven't played that for AGES!"

And yeah, on that day, not only will Satan be ice-skating to work, but Bowie will release his long-awaited "Laughing Gnome" remix album.

I can but dream.

Goodness Gracious Meme

15:42 / 04.12.02

"a new version of Motorcycle Emptiness"

aghghghghghghghhghghghghgg. fuckers.

You want to talk about the cultish obsessive side of the Manics? I'm yer fictionsuit.

Although they stink to high heaven now (and i'm one of those people that gave them alot of slack... think the uk music press did the same in that there are alot of people in the inkie press especially who, like me, just refused to believe that a band that'd been so wonderful, and had come along at such an important time for alot of us, had metamorphosed into IkeaRock. we denied it three times before cockcrow... and then realised our mistake...) they came along at just the right time, and that's why I'll always love 'em.

As your classic bullied geeky kid, seeing a band who made it cool to be clever and proved you could be gorgeous while pissing people off was amazing. And yeah, i can pretned to be all ironic about it now but it was something that belong to me. Not that I didn't still get the grief, but I had some reinforcement that there were other things out there, places where being smart didn't have to mean being a teacher's pet *or* getting punched out after school...

Which is I think , a great part of their appeal. Within a culture than frowns on intellect, drama, sex, passion, the Manics were a real breath of fresh air...They were always political (I find the above quote about manifestos really fucking depressing), and intersreted in/class, gender, race and critiquing where they'd come from and whre they were going... There was the gender play - they took scary punk, angry guitars and shouty lyrics and then pranced about onstage in fetching see-thru' blouses.. YES!

And exp. I agree about the earliest, earliest stuff, bloody fantastic. Can remember hearing 'New Art Riot' when I was about 15 and being blown away by it. They were passionate, emotioanl, articulate, intelligent, beautiful, angry and confused. 'Motown Junk' and the original of version of 'You Love Us'.

and... I had a copy of 'Suicide Alley'. And it were great. (and before you ask, haven't got it any more. duh.)

Goodness Gracious Meme

15:45 / 04.12.02

oh god oh god (from manics.net)

"Manics Look To Springsteen For Inspiration?
MANIC STREET PREACHERS will "definitely" work on another studio album - and JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD has said they are taking BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN's desolate album 'NEBRASKA' as inspiration. "

15:47 / 04.12.02

[forlorn hope] Perhaps they're just doing it to piss everyone off [/forlorn hope]

Goodness Gracious Meme

16:03 / 04.12.02

ah, nice to see another 'never say die'(hopelessly deluded) fan

oh, and I forgot to say that they introduced me to all sorts of books, ideas and artists. At a point where school and academic stuff were boring me shitless, to the point where I wasn't *there* much, they were educating me.

And they introduced me to Jenny Saville. for which I give thanks.

Regrettable Juvenilia

16:17 / 04.12.02

Yeah, the Manics introduced me to everyone from William S. Burroughs to Public Enemy to Valerie Solanas: in a way, they were my 'Grant Morrison' or 'Invisibles' and for that I'll always be grateful. Like b.i.p. and K.K.C., I was in denial for a long time about the fact that they'd gone shit (although I do think that parts of This Is My Truth and most of Everything Must Go are pretty good) - I think it was hearing the sheer bloody awfulness of 'So Why So Sad' that snapped me out of it - that hamfisted wurlitzer solo in the middle or whatever it is, it's just comically bad (ironically, 'Found That Soul' was the last good thing they did).

I find in retrospect their descent into crapulence affects how I view bits of the first couple of albums - since I'm no longer in the cult, I can be more critical - but The Holy Bible is still as good as guitar music gets.

Shadows aren't clean, false mirrors, too many people awake!

16:42 / 04.12.02

I'm actually deluded enough to think that there are a couple of decent tracks on 'Know Your Enemy' - am even bizarrely fond of 'You can't feed your family on left-wing ideology' or whatever the hell it's called - endearingly cack-handed:

'See the love in Richard Gere's eyes,
JS Pemberton saved our lives,
But freedom of speech won't feed my children [that's it!]
Just brings heart disease and bootleg clothing...'

Wrong but Wromantic. The rest, however, is rubbish.

18:02 / 04.12.02

That Springsteen namecheck might not be such a dire hint of things to come as it sounds, y'all: Nebraska is the one that's just Bruce alone in his living room with an acoustic guitar and a four-track—very plain-spoken and unadorned, not at all quote-unquote "anthemic" or pompous or self-conscious or whatever you might fear whenever the Springsteen brand is invoked.

21:11 / 04.12.02

I got a soft spot for Spingsteen. I don't care what you think.

There were a few good songs on Know Your Enemy. Intravenous Agnostic has an awful title and terrible lyrics, but it fucking rocked, and had some of JDB's best guitar playing. Baby Elian had some dodgy lyrics but was a decent enough tune.

And So Why So Sad (described by Q as four fat Welsh boys trying to scale Spectors Wall of Sound, LOL) had some of the best Wire lyrics in recent years - a couple of lines that could have been rewritten, but generally excellent. Pity about the song.

I tend to file the Manics in the same category as Buffy. I refuse to write them off, because I know what they're capable of. They're just going through a rough patch. I know I'm deluding myself, but they meant a hell of a lot to me, particularly when that album came out in 1994. Still the best British punk album I've ever heard.

Goodness Gracious Meme

13:31 / 05.12.02

okay, reserving judgement and hoping that they mean they're going to go sparse and dump all that icky shiny production they've been slathering all over everything (hopeless optimist? moi?)

Now I know how Stone Roses fans felt by the time the band were reduced to Ian Brown and a handful of muppets

Yeah. well. I already know how that feels. Didn't really need a reminder. *crosses fingers*

Though I can't work out whether it's the last straw or a ray of hope that they're waving Steve Albini around as a possible producer...

What do people reckon?

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:39 / 05.12.02

Ray of hope, surely. If anyone can steer them back toward making the kind of sound they made on THB it's Albini... And in theory that should be possible: the people behind that album's musical side are still in the band, albeit much richer and older and, well, fatter - in theory there ought to be no excuse for the tunes being crap even if the lyrics will always be crap from now on... That's why the last few things they've done have been so depressing.

17:10 / 05.12.02

Am listening to 'Know Your Enemy' now. Gawd. Really bad. 'Wattsville Blues' - NO. What twart told Nicky Wire that he could sing? 'Miss Europa Disco Dancer' - MAKE IT STOP. Some of the backing tracks are quite interesting, but you can't really get away from Nicky's shocking lyrics... 'liberal asinine pricks'? Fuck off...

18:16 / 05.12.02

I'd be kinda surprised if Albini touches them with a ten-foot pole.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

19:10 / 05.12.02

"Wattsville Blues" sucks. "Miss Europa..."... hmm. Seems like a conscious effort (which fails) to be New Order, just cos many people (myself included) put "The Holy Bible" on a par with Joy Division's "Unknown Pleasures" (and that whole "braindead motherfuckers" bit... if you can't make your point in the song, then don't do an Oliver Stone and beat it to death in the credits. Please). "Freedom of Speech..." I kind of liked. Even a couple of the ballads. Despite all the odds, "Ocean Spray" gets me every time. Overall I thought it was a better album than "This Is My Truth..."... I just think its worse moments are just, well, WORSE.

19:21 / 05.12.02

I thought 'Everything Must Go' was more their New Order record... I remember reading something about 'Interiors' being meant to sound New Ordery, which of course it doesn't, but it's still bloody good. I reckon 'Miss Europa...' is actually meant to sound like a seventies disco record. It's fucking shite though... sigh. 'Dead Martyrs' is all right. I suppose it's just that so much of it sounds so lumpen when you compare it with 'The Holy Bible' - meat and potatoes and pub gravy.

And the only song I really liked on 'This is my truth' was 'Ready for Drowning'. I thought all the rest of it paled beside, I dunno, 'Mr Carbohydrate', even.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

19:50 / 05.12.02

The single cover from "A Design For Life" was a definite New Order thing- the blank metallic-look sleeve was just SO "Ceremony".

Dunno. I still think "Know Your Enemy" is a better album than "If This... etc". (Although "My Little Empire" has been known to reduce even the hardest stoat to tears on occasion.)

Although they both suck when compared to "The Holy Bible". But then again, most albums do...

19:57 / 05.12.02

Oh, I agree about 'Know Your Enemy' being better than 'This is my Truth' - sorry...

The Return Of Rothkoid

21:11 / 05.12.02

Y'know, I've always felt Bradfield to be the Pie Boy - guess when my frame of reference was? - but the cheapo CD store down the road has The Holy Bible and Everything Must Go for $10 (4 quid) each... worth a purchase? Be honest.

Regrettable Juvenilia

06:59 / 06.12.02

For that price, they're both worth getting. EMG is spoilt slightly for me these days because it does contain roadsigns (bilingual ones? arf) pointing in a bad direction, but there's actually little in the way of flab there, if you'll pardon another 'fatphobic' analogy...

Hard to describe it in the absence of a recent listen without using terrible terminology like "a good, solid rock record". Told you the signs were there. But it is good. Sort of like The Bends, if The Holy Bible is their OK Computer...

07:51 / 06.12.02

You owe it to yourself to get the Holy Bible, Roth. It's lean, angular gothic punk all the way, some mindblowing lyrics, awesome guitar and drum work, filled with bile, hatred and contempt. I once asked Hypocritamus to read the lyric sheet while listening to Yes, after while he politely aksed me never to make him do it again.

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:26 / 06.12.02

Power produces desire: the weak have none.

09:48 / 06.12.02

I still like EMG - except for 'Australia', which for some reason sets my teeth on edge, and always has done - I think it's the tune, I don't like the tune...

Yeah, get them.

Prejudice burns brighter when it's all we have to burn.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

13:27 / 06.12.02

Yes, Flyboy's nailed 'Everything Must Go' in that of itself it's a damn fine record, but listening to it now you hear all the things you don't like about the next two albums. I don't know if they have what it takes to make a good album any more, James enjoys going out and getting drunk in London, Sean has to be pulled screaming from the local Comet store and Nicky doesn't appear to have any opinions any more except on things he's seen on the Channel 4 news (I'm sure that since 'This is My Truth...' all his topical songs have been about things he's seen on TV. Perhaps he feels he doesn't have to read books any more).

Don't care no more. Kill your heroes.

The Return Of Rothkoid

20:54 / 06.12.02

Got them. The Holy Bible got a cursory listen before yesterday's work christmas party - where did everyone go? why is my head so fucking sore? I hate myself! - but from what I'v eheard, I like. It's surprisingly less... straightahead rock, maybe? ... than I'd been expecting, and the vocals don't shit me nearly as much as I'd thought they would, based on their latter-day output.

So, It's All Good, so far. More as I get more into it.

The Return Of Rothkoid

01:39 / 07.12.02

And I agree with exp: don't be knocking Springsteen - well, don't be knocking Nebraska. That's some harrowing shit, there.

02:53 / 07.12.02

I'd be kinda surprised if Albini touches them with a ten-foot pole.

I wouldn't. He's offered to produce my friends' band, if they can get enough money to go to and stay in Chicago - although they are more of the oeuvre typically associated with the man.

He also produced Bush. Basically, as far as I'm aware, Albini will produce anyone that asks him, time and money permitting.

Also, why're people dissing the Boss? He's a #1 socialist-type, and can sound, quite often, like Will Oldham. This is good.

14:08 / 07.12.02

Yeah, Albini seems to have this thing of producing absolutely everyone who asks.. excert from a recent Mclusky interview went something along the lines of: "How did you get Albini to produce your album?" "We phoned him up and he said 'yeah'" "Did he know anything about you? Had he heard you before?" "no."

As for the Manics - God, loved 'em when I was 15 and all, but how many times do we have to say "I no longer give a fuck what you do" before they go away?

20:09 / 16.12.02

Live on Radio 1 now... they sound very professional... 'Motorcycle Emptiness' good though - just had a little headbang at my desk...

20:39 / 16.12.02

It was all going so well too (I even forgave them for still using the 'We live in urban hell/We destroy rock and roll' line at the end of Motown Junk - at their age, when they clearly live in nice semis with lots of consumer goods). But I don't think I can overcome this semi-acoustic strumalong version of 'Faster'. Oh God.

20:56 / 16.12.02

And, to a general lack of surprise all round, 'Forever Delayed' is revealed to be a lump of standard Manics emoto-bombast, and I have forgotten everything else about it already (is this fair? Has everyone else given up completely?)

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