| Author | Message | ||
     Catherine Unregistered guest |
I'm not going to get in to how The Triffids got mentioned on this message board in recent weeks. That's not what I'm posting about. Thankfully, their recent mention brought the band back to my consciousness, having slightly forgotten of their existence. (To my shame). Back when they were on the scene, I heard them regularly on the radio, but being a penniless student, couldn't afford the albums. Now I can. I picked up Born Sandy Devotional last week, and have not stopped listening to it since. What an album! Other than the classic Wide Open Road, Tarrilup Bridge is another great song, but really I think the whole album is amazing stuff. In some way (and I don't want to restart any of it) I think that at least some good has come from some of the shit here recently about the man. An admirer of old has now re-discovered a damn good band. Thank you (I knew those little red dots were going to appear) | ||
| Catherine Unregistered guest |
Oh, they didn't... | ||
| bradders Unregistered guest |
Treeless Plain is the best debut album by any band, ever. So there! | ||
| Catherine Unregistered guest |
Thanks for the hint bradders. D'you know if it's still available? | ||
| Eke Unregistered guest |
I've recently rediscovered them myself. Their entire output is quite varied (within its own oeuvre) but all quite wonderful. Much like the Go-Betweens in fact. amazon.co.uk has all their full-length albums available. | ||
| bradders Unregistered guest |
Catherine, I got mine from Red Eye Records (www.redeye.com.au) and they still have it for AUS$9.98 so even with the P&P it will still be very cheap! You won't be disappointed. | ||
| Catherine Unregistered guest |
Bradders, you're a star. Just ordered: Treeless Plain, In the Pines, Calenture, Raining Pleasure and The Black Swan. I don't do things by halves do I? But hey, that's what credit cards are for!! Several had "Last copy in stock" beside them, so I'll keep my fingers crossed. | ||
| david nichols Unregistered guest |
Technically speaking Treeless Plain wasn't a debut album (alright, I know it was, but still...) the group did seven or eight cassette albums inbetween forming and moving to Sydney to record TP. I mention this because Graham Lee and I propose, sometime this year, to compile a best of the Triffids cassette albums CD... there are some absolute gems in there... in fact, almost all the cassette albums stand up on their own. | ||
| Pete Azzopardi Unregistered guest |
David, that is a great idea! What about the stuff I heard he did with costar, will that ever see the light of day? I once read he wrote a song with Paul Kelly too. The mind boggles. | ||
| Todd Slater Unregistered guest |
Does anyone know what happened to the proposed record of Triffids covers by various Australian artists ?. Stephen Cummings doing 'New Years Greetings' was one and Rob Snarski doing 'Too hot to move too hot to think' was another. Even though The Blackeyed Susans did a great cover of that song on their 'Dedicated to the ones we love' record a couple of years ago. | ||
| bradders Unregistered guest |
Catherine - Glad to be of help. I hope you enjoy each and every one of them. David - After I posted I did wonder if anyone would point out the Triffids' earlier recordings. And you did! I guess all bands have some recording history by the time their "debut" album is released (it's just that the Triffids had a somewhat prolific history!). Over here in England, Treeless Plain is where it all started (for me anyway). P.S. This thread is in danger of becoming extremely genteel and good natured. What on earth is happening to this messageboard? | ||
| pherron Unregistered guest |
Good to hear from David about the early tapes compilation. There are some very good songs on Early Tapes 1-6 and the Dungeon & Son Of Dungeon Tapes deserve to be issued complete. Graham Lee has said, on the Triffids message board, that the rights to all the albums have just returned to the band, so that they are planning to re-issue all the albums with bonus material and notes etc. It is hoped to be sometime in the next year. I really hope some of the very rare early 7" singles will be issued on CD at this time, as well as the lost Costar EP (McComb's last recordings). Also a favourite Triffids song, Field of Glass, which has never been released on CD, apparently because Dave McComb couldn't find the master tape, which later turned up under his bed! Also people might be interested that Bleddyn Butcher (great music photographer) is currently writing a biography of David McComb which he hopes should be in print in 2005. The Triffids cover album never happened. Graham Lee had tried to get it going but I think only 1 or 2 songs ever got taped. I haven't heard that it will ever happen now. | ||
| Eke Unregistered guest |
That's terrific news pherron. I can't wait! Raining Pleasure and Lawson Square Infirmary as well I hope... | ||
| Cassiel Unregistered guest |
Catherine, i envy you receiving all those albums and hearing them for the first time. I'm one of those that thinks 'Born Sandy...' challenges Liberty Belle to be one of the best albums ever made; that Seabirds is the best opening track on any album ever made; and 'No foreign pair of dark sunglasses could ever shield you from the light/ that pierces your eyelids...' is the best opening line of an opening song on any album ever made. Not that I'm prone to overstatement, mind. I still find it bittersweet that the Go-Betweens are at last getting their dues, albeit way overdue, and McComb never got his. For my money he was the best lyricist of his generation, and that includes (ducking for cover) Robert and Grant. Imagine the Triffids live at The barbican? A full orchestra for Save What You Can? I need to lie down... | ||
| Catherine Unregistered guest |
Cassiel, you're making me more anxious for them to arrive. Having been a poor starving student when quite a number of my favourite artists were releasing albums, I mostly had to get by on what was played on the radio to satisfy my music addiction. Usually, it was just the singles that got the airplay, but it was enough. Of course I taped gratuitously - who didn't?? Any Irish people will no doubt fondly remember Dave Fanning's "Fab Fifty" every Christmas/New Year. Some of the best self made compilation tapes I've ever put together/heard... and The Triffids’ Wide Open Road and The Go-Betweens featured more than one year. Now that I have the dosh (or Visa, as it's more commonly known) I'm gradually filling in the gaps. Buying a CD of some album I desperately wanted in, say, 1988, always gives me a thrill. Hearing the old favourites, along with the album tracks I never got to hear. It's the musical equivalent of driving down a road that's vaguely familiar, but you're not sure if you’ve been there before. Then, through a gap in the hedge, you spy some long forgotten, once loved view of the mountains, and think, "I'm home"… | ||
| Cassiel Unregistered guest |
I know what you mean Catherine. I've been buying or rebuying CDs from the 80s. Got Rattlesnakes the other week (still sounds great); the whole of The Replacements back catalogue (peerless. Oh and Paul Westerberg is playing in London on Ocotber 19th, which should be amazing); and, er, The Proclaimers (I'll get my coat). | ||
| Catherine Unregistered guest |
You shouldn't have told me that! I would happily swim the Irish Sea to get to that gig, but I've got no holiday leave left to take. Maybe I might suddenly develop "flu" or "plague" around mid October. Oh my conscience is playing hell with me... Here comes a Regular is one of the most sublime, heart-breaking songs ever. | ||
| steve connell Unregistered guest |
Not that I don't love "Seabirds," and the whole Born Sandy album, but I always felt those opening lines didn't really stand up to any kind of examination! They sound great, though . . . I too have been listening again to the albums, and to me Treeless Plain and Born Sandy are almost equally great. I draw the line at Calenture, though, which to me is an almost unmitigated disaster of soft-focus overproduction. But to be truthful, I've always felt the same way about Tallulah and 16LL, too. What's so galling to me about Calenture, though, is the way the production ruined "Bury Me Deep in Love." I'd heard a demo of the song the year before from someone at Hot, and loved it (despite its heavy plagiarism). For the album recording, though, they chopped it up, put the chorus at the beginning, and buried it deep in bombast. What a shame! | ||
| Duncan H Unregistered guest |
It's nice to see different opinions from mine on here. I love The Triffids too, though by far my favourites are the last two albums (and David McComb's solo album "Love of Will"). I like a great deal of the pre-Calenture songs (and quite a few of the taped songs too, a compilation of them would be wonderful), but I find the early albums very patchy. There are some wonderful songs ("Rosevel", "Plaything", "Wide Open Road") but too many nondescript or overly mawkish songs for my tastes: "Hanging Shed", "Personal Things", "Stolen Property". But I'm sure my idea of an over the top emnotionally song could equally be someone else's idea of great art. I don't find many of the songs on "Born Sandy Devotional" very pleasant to listen to, so it's not an album that gets aired in my house very often. But then I prefer 16LL to all the other GoB's albums too, so maybe I just like the polished production! | ||
| JohnD Unregistered guest |
Hi All, Just want to pitch in with the view that the Triffids album the Black Swan is their masterwork. Truly inspiring selection of songs from sub hip hop of the spinning top song to the mini threepenny opera of little crown prince it is great great record. It was a pity that it sold very little and hench the band where dropped. The Triffid where also a awesome live band when on form I saw them at Londons Dominion theatre many years ago and they where superb, did not get to hear much of the post Triffids stuff from Mr McComb but did pick up Love of Will in a second hand store recently and there are some good moments on it but nothing of the scope of some of the Triffids material. | ||
| Duncan H Unregistered guest |
"Black Swan" is my favourite too. I may be biased, as it was the first Triffids record I bought, but to me every song on it is a success. I wish I'd had the chance to see them live, but by the time I starting looking for them they'd split up. | ||
| Peter Unregistered guest |
"Bottle of Love" is the song that has appeared most on compilations I've made over the years, of the ones that I have "Black Swan" gets my vote too. | ||
| Peter Herron Member Username: Pherron Post Number: 1 Registered: 09-2004 |
Whilst I agree that Calenture is terribly over-produced, it remains my favourite album. I got into the Triffids in 1984 and so the first stuff I heard was the Field of Glass EP which remains my favourite ever Triffids material. Since then I bought all the albums as they came out. I've been gradually tracking down all their material, using eBay over the last couple of years to buy rare early material. But always I come back to Calenture and its beautiful, lush, over-produced tones. I'm not usually one to go for those qualities (though 16 LL is my favourite Go-B's LP also  ). I think it's the drama in his voice and lyrics. Whilst they may not stand up to deep analysis, I think McComb had a wonderful nack for stringing words together in ways that just sound incredible - poetry. A terrible gap in the current available Triffids material is the Raining Pleasure EP, which I think was greater even than Treeless Plain in their early catalogue. | ||
| Padraig Collins Unregistered guest |
steve connell, wash your mouth out with soap you heathen! Calenture is an awesome album. My copy is on vinyl and, though it sounds very well produced, it does not sound over-produced. It's not my favourite Triffids album though. In The Pines gets that gong. (Add that one to your list Catherine - I think I know you by the way. Did you once work at an awful market research place on Grafton St?). | ||
| Todd Slater Unregistered guest |
I always thought that 'In the Pines' was quite groundbreaking having been recorded in a shearing shed with great acoustics. For what it's worth it sounds much better than U2's effort from the same period 'The unforgettable Fire' which was recorded in a castle (Slane ?). Jill Birt was a huge talent who never really went on with it i thought which is a huge shame as she was a fantastic musician. Much the same as the wonderful saxophone player Louise Eliot from the Laughing Clowns. Girls where are you ?? | ||
| peacetoy Unregistered guest |
Totally agree about Jill Birt's contributions, and particularly like her wonderfully dreamy self-penned contribution to The Black Swan, Good Fortune Rose. Louise Elliott, however, is still very much active. She released a great LP of her band The Jazzhearts a few years ago [ http://www.jazzhearts.com/ ]. She also played with Laika on a couple of albums and I think also plays with Penny Rimbaud from Crass. Great sax player, and with a reissue box-set coming up, the time is ripe for a Laughing Clowns reunion! | ||
| Catherine Unregistered guest |
In the Pines is on order, and on it’s way (according to an email from Redeye), along with Calenture, Treeless Plain, Raining Pleasure and The Black Swan. Expect an extremely long posting in about three weeks time, when I’ve worked out who’s opinions I agree or disagree with... Hey, Padraig, the name is familiar, but can’t be certain if I know you or not. I'm crap at remembering names, but remember faces for years... Although, I have worked in some godawful places for my sins, so at least we have that in common if we don't actually know each other. I did have a short stint in a dreadful company (can’t remember where they were based) supposedly market research, but in fact, it was door-to-door sales of some daft discount cards for restaurants or some crap. Had almost managed to put that one out of my mind! That sound familiar? I had another short stint selling Ad space in obscure magazines, for industries, and schools. If it’s not either of those, I could continue ad infinitum... There were many more crap jobs! | ||
| Cassiel Unregistered guest |
Calenture is definitely in my top ten. Save What You Can always does it for me, particularly the bit when he sings: 'The final time we touch/ I watch as you enter church,' or something like that. It is over-produced and bombastic, but then i love a bit of that - The Ship Song has always been my favourite Nick Cave song. And I agree with whoever mentioned Good Fortune Rose, a great tune. Love the way she sings Goodbye Little Boy too, which surely must be ripe for a cover by some female with a bit of attitude? The Black Swan is a great album but doesn't hang together well for me, and I think a couple of sings could've been binned. Loved the sprawling ambition of it though. Can you imagine anyone attempting something lie that now? With the cover art and all? And Raining Pleasure deserves a re-release. Jill Birt's voice, the wall of strum, the yearning. 'Salty skin to taste/ Lips to touch/ Nothing matters very much/ In my arms it's raining pleasure.' I need another lie down... | ||
| Padraig Collins Unregistered guest |
Hi Catherine, that work history doesn't tally with any of mine, so I guess I don't know you after all. I did know another Catherine who was a Go-Betweens fan though! | ||
| Peter Unregistered guest |
Some jazz trio called the necks featuring Chris Abrahams who's played with the Triffids, Lloyd Swanton from The Catholics (not Francy Barrets Catholics?!) and Tony Buck are playing the BoI Arts Centre, Dublin on Nov 23 and Belfast the following night. See todays Irish Times Ticket or www.ireland.com/premium/loginpage where theres a months free trial at the moment. | ||
| Rob Unregistered guest |
Peter, The Necks are a remarkable group, making beautiful, dramatic improvised music from a jazz trio base of piano, bass and drums. They are really worth a visit if you love music. | ||
| Peter Unregistered guest |
Thanks for the tip Rob..they were amazing, 2 sets 100mins of mesmerizing music, reminded me a little of fourtet/talk talk/tortoise but truly unique, the venue was an old georgian room which added to the ambience, they're in the UK in the new year, maybe they'll play Bradford necks time! |