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Underground > Radio & Music >

The Tea Party...

04:10 / 23.03.02

I like...anyone else, or am I just being a complete loyallist idiot simply cause they're Canucks?

12:40 / 23.03.02

it's a brilliant name for a band.

(it would be so cool if they were kind of a Birthday Party tribute band, but really polite and unassuming and Victorian)

16:32 / 23.03.02

Unfortunately they sound more like an acoustic Led Zeppelin cover band fronted by an out-of-work Jim Morrison impersonator.

It's all inetntional and self-conscious, and on a few tracks ("Save Me," in particular), it works brilliantly —if you're willing to switch off your brain and wallow in the retro pomp of it. But it's so monstrously, unashamedly overblown and over-the-top that it will never, ever have any kind of street cred.

The Tea Party strike me as a quintessential guilty-pleasure band: quite fun in occasional small doses, but I can't imagine a steady diet of such stuff.

17:28 / 23.03.02

I actually really like these guys. Getting past the fact that they may sound like someone else (and who doesn't?), they're actually really talented musicians and lyricists.

But then maybe I too am just being a loyal Canuck.

Zoom.

09:36 / 24.03.02

I am unashamedly patriotic, and I hate the Tea Party, so you and Kegboy have to cook up different excuses, Captain.

Considering that you live in Montreal or thereabouts, KB, I have a hard time understanding your thrill for the Tea Party. You live in the cool band mecca of the Great White North, for pity's sake!

01

09:36 / 24.03.02

I hate them. And I'm the biggest goddam Canuck around.

[ 24-03-2002: Message edited by: 01 ]

12:35 / 24.03.02

Well from Jack's description they sound fucking terrible..

12:46 / 24.03.02

Moriarty: Cool Band Mecca??? What bands are you talking about???

01

03:18 / 25.03.02

Ok this thread got me to thinking. Who are the best Canadian bands of all time?

I say DOA, NoMeansNo, and SNFU.

03:18 / 25.03.02

I feel I must represent for The Guess Who. Cuz someone has to.

Matthew Fluxington

10:56 / 25.03.02

best Canadian band, currently in existence: The New Pornographers.

Please don't fight with me on this. Trust me.

11:28 / 25.03.02

Well, there's Bruce Cockburn, Jane Siberry (yay!), saxophonist Paul Desmond (who wrote "Take Five" for Dave Brubeck), k.d. lang, a slew of Cape Breton musicians (Natalie MacMaster, etc.), the Inuit band Kashtin—Joni goddam Mitchell, even...

But then, I am Old and Boring and my musical taste is, frankly, laughable.

11:51 / 25.03.02

I have a friend who lives in Montreal, and she's constantly mocking me for not living there myself.

7 things I like about Montreal.

The Kingpins - My favourite band of all time.
The Datsons - Biff Bang Pow! Mods-a-go-go!
Stomp All-Stars - The creme of the Canadian Ska crop.
Godspeed... - Film scores for the Apocalypse.
Street Troopers - This one's for the Working Class Man! Oi Oi Oi! Against! Racial! Prejudice!
The Stomp Store - OK, so it's not a band. Sue me.
Me, Mom and Morgentaler - Cirque Du Soleil for Rude Boys. Greatly missed.

For general, non-geographic specific fantastic Canadian bands, I'd have to second 01's picks, especially SNFU. I'd also add The Hanson Brothers, Skaface, Anvil, Sarah Polley, Neil Young, The Skansters, The Shuffle Demons, Lowest of the Low, Maestro Fresh Wes, Dayglo Abortions, Big Rude Jake, Killer Dwarfs, Platinum Blonde, Loverboy, Honeymoon Suite, Glass Tiger, Gowan, Bruce Cockburn, Joni Mitchell, Kim Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, Stompin' Tom Connors, the Tragically Hip and Blue Rodeo(these two are my "Tea Party") Propaghandi, Holly Cole, Jane Siberry, KD Lang, cub, Men Without Hats, Shadowy Men from a Shadowy Planet, Walter Ostanek, Leonard Cohen, and Doug Nagy, the Sinister Ukelele Minstrel.

I'm sure I missed a few. I would have seconded Guess Who, but my dad was lead tambourinist, so I'm obviously biased.

11:57 / 25.03.02

Shadowy Men do indeed rock.

Oh, and I forgot Cowboy Junkies!

12:04 / 25.03.02

I almost mentioned Cowboy Junkies myself, but I couldn't bring myself to lengthen the list.

I'll be joining you in the nursing home, Jack.

The Return Of Rothkoid

12:04 / 25.03.02

I have to mention The Rheostatics. Otherwise Wembley will come over and kick my ass.

wembley can change in 28 days

12:06 / 25.03.02

I was just about to say, is someone going to mention the Rheos, or do I have to break some hockey sticks over peoples' heads?!?

12:10 / 25.03.02

I was going to mention the Rheostatics, but then I realized that I didn't like them.

See you at the next meet, Wembley!

12:35 / 25.03.02

I've been meaning to start a thread about this very band for a long time now.

Whilst I would agree that The Tea Party are very strongly Lead Zep flavoured and the band themselves have said that Lead Zep were a big influence on the sound and texture of the band, I would in no way say they are just an imitation.

If you like your rock on the heavy side but spiced and flavoured with Gothic imagary, eastern instruments and beats, but with a contemporary feel, then The Tea Party would probably be the musical beverage of your choice.

For me their peak was around the albums Edges of Twilight and Splendor Solis, but that said I haven't heard the new album The Interzone Mantras, although Tea Party fanatics on the email list I am on think that the album is pretty good.

They are brilliant live, their lead singer has a real on-stage presence and they always adapt the songs to the live format adding in instrumentals, creating medlies, incorporating other material, just like you would expect of any talented, capable band. They have never really taken off in the UK seemingly, but they are huge in Australia and (obviously) Canada.

They rock!

13:43 / 26.03.02

Also good Canuck bands..
Kevin Quain and the Mad Bastards: great post-drinkfest mellow music).
Moxy Fruvous: Not great but their greatness lies in their ablity to be sooo damn anoying.
Crash-Test Dummies: But only for their Superman's Song.
Rafi:Not technically a bad but introduced us to the astounding fact that ducks like rain.
Me Mom and Morgetaler: Sure they've been mentioned before but Spittle on My Chin is a kick-ass song.(and Im looking for their mp3's)
The Mahones: Celticky east coast stuffGreat Big Sea: See above
Spirit of The West
Stabbing Westward
Diana Krall
Lorenna McKennit
The Rankins

For more information consult your local library.

Graham the Happy Scum

20:50 / 26.03.02

If the Tea Party are the most pompous Canadian band, what does that make Godspeed You Black Emperor!?

03:06 / 27.03.02

The second most?
I really dont know. The only MP3s ive been able to download were all instrumentals (that or the vocals only kicked in after I was fed-up with their instrumental bits)

13:20 / 02.04.02

So has anyone listened to the most recent album? Like it? Hate it? Neither?

14:12 / 02.04.02

Not me, the last album of theirs that I have is Tangents. Which has an odd cover of Paint it Black (Or is it Painted Black?)

14:08 / 05.04.02

It's definately Paint it Black. I haven't heard it, but I know they have covered it.

People are making a big deal about it, so I guess I'll get a copy when I can afford to. They have particularly been going on about a song called Angels. Anybody heard it? Or am I back to watching those lovely tumble weeds?

14:23 / 05.04.02

Useless and irritating trivia: the actual title, in what is one of the dopiest uses of punctuation in a song title EVER, is "Paint It, Black".

What the FUCK is that comma doing there?!?

12:24 / 08.04.02

I suspect it's a long lost cousin to the supurious apostrophy (sp?) that has plagued so many Barbeloids.

12:25 / 08.04.02

Damn! That of course was meant to read "Spurious".

Damn my crappy spelling ability. sigh!

04:12 / 09.04.02

All of these posts and still no mention of Snow? Tsk, tsk, tsk....