The Monochrome Set (feel free to derail)

M

martin

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I'm one of the miniscule minority on this planet who dig The Monochrome Set, or their early stuff at least. Wasn't too keen on anything after 1980 ("Jacob's Ladder" sounds hideous and dated) but I think "Alphaville", "Eine Symphonie des Grauens", "405 Lines", "Monochrome Set" and "Strange Boutique" were some of the best UK 'post-punk' (God, I hate that term!) 7"s released - they sound so unique and out there, even now.

I was thinking of them after the other thread kicked off about authenticity and posing. Seemed most 'punks' and new-wavers disliked them cos the singer claimed to be descended from Indian royalty and had this really mannered vocal style (the B-side of '405 Lines' has an excerpt of a gig and some drunk yelling in the audience, before this clipped tone comes over the mic, "Can we have a bit of decorum please?"). Don't know if it was true or a wind-up, but back in '79, admitting something like that (while The Clash were doing their Westway hooligan stance) was considered totally unacceptable by the likes of Sounds, etc

But whatever, those 5 7"s are all fucking brilliant - Alphaville is probably the best, love that spikey angular guitar. (By the way, if anyone's got a copy of their first, privately pressed 7", any chance of a rip please? I can't find it anywhere)

Anyone else like TMS? If not, feel free to talk about why people who go on holiday to Japan, spend a week on an island, and then come back moaning about Tokyo being 'so tacky' and burbling about 'the death of the real Japan' are genuinely irritating gits. Or whatever Barthes thought about it.
 
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STN

STN

sou'wester
bands i listened to as a snotty teenager and (possibly unjustly) dismissed number 6,089. I remember thinking they sounded like REM. Have those early singles been compiled?

I used to have this unbearable flatmate, and she once told me she was glad that her boyfriend (who me and my other flatmate used to call Reginald Front de Bouef, cos he looked like a cruel French knight) hadn't proposed to her on a gondola because 'that's really tacky' I say proposing in Venice full stop was really tacky.
 
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M

martin

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STN said:
bands i listened to as a snotty teenager and (possibly unjustly) dismissed number 6,089. I remember thinking they sounded like REM. Have those early singles been compiled?
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There's a few compilations, but they're terrible - mostly incomplete, you'll get three of the late 70s stuff and then a pile of the 80s crap (believe me, their 'commercial stuff' sucked x 1,000 - makes the Smiths sound like the Germs). Then again, you might hate the early stuff too. Their stuff on CD is really fragmented. I think one's the "Independent Singles Collection" but I can't be bothered to buy it cos of the rubbish material and for the sake of 2 songs I haven't heard.


STN said:
he looked like a cruel French knight
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I'm getting a 6 ft 5 Depardieu haircutted bloke with a massive moustache, a boil on his nose and 45 degree sloping inward eyebrows here, who keeps his jacket on indoors and smells a bit of pork, am I close?
 
STN

STN

sou'wester
I'll youtube them. I imagine a proper comp will be along soon anyway.

I bloody wish he kept his jacket on indoors, he used to stride about in a towel.

When me and Big L (this is my nickname for my ex, I don't mean the rapper Lamot Clayton) went to Venice we found a restaurant serving Tennents Super on tap. Yes, yes, yes.
 
M

martin

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The only decent thing on Youtube is a live version of 'Symphonie', the rest is fucking terrible, so kill your speaker if you're at work.

In a towel? That's repulsive. We used to have a rent-free 'boyfriend' living with our female flatmate Moira, and he used to float around in a dressing gown, and that was bad enough. He'd play his accoustic guitar when we were trying to watch TV until we told him to fuck off. He'd then go down the pub (he only had beer money cos he never paid us a penny towards gas or electric) complaining to his mates that we were nazis who were trying to suppress his freedom of expression. We ended up nicking his mail (don't feel pity, he deserved it) and he had some 'urgent' form to fill in for a shotgun license (he was a country boy) with 10 days to respond before the application was declined. We just chucked it away, we were all on the pheasants' side.

My local offie sells Buckfast now.
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
martin said:
I'm one of the miniscule minority on this planet who dig The Monochrome Set, or their early stuff at least. Wasn't too keen on anything after 1980 ("Jacob's Ladder" sounds hideous and dated) but I think "Alphaville", "Eine Symphonie des Grauens", "405 Lines", "Monochrome Set" and "Strange Boutique" were some of the best UK 'post-punk' (God, I hate that term!) 7"s released - they sound so unique and out there, even now.

I was thinking of them after the other thread kicked off about authenticity and posing. Seemed most 'punks' and new-wavers disliked them cos the singer claimed to be descended from Indian royalty and had this really mannered vocal style (the B-side of '405 Lines' has an excerpt of a gig and some drunk yelling in the audience, before this clipped tone comes over the mic, "Can we have a bit of decorum please?"). Don't know if it was true or a wind-up, but back in '79, admitting something like that (while The Clash were doing their Westway hooligan stance) was considered totally unacceptable by the likes of Sounds, etc

But whatever, those 5 7"s are all fucking brilliant - Alphaville is probably the best, love that spikey angular guitar. (By the way, if anyone's got a copy of their first, privately pressed 7", any chance of a rip please? I can't find it anywhere)

Anyone else like TMS? If not, feel free to talk about why people who go on holiday to Japan, spend a week on an island, and then come back moaning about Tokyo being 'so tacky' and burbling about 'the death of the real Japan' are genuinely irritating gits. Or whatever Barthes thought about it.
Click to expand...

Love them, one of the first (cough) p-p bands I ever got into and one of few I've never gone off. Agree with your list (dunno Alphaville or 405) and your cut off point. But where's Silicon Carne?

I was shopping a month back when I heard a cover of He's Frank done in a Big bopper-ish kinda way. Bugged the fuck out of me for hours til i remembered where i heard the song before.
 
M

martin

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crackerjack said:
Love them, one of the first (cough) p-p bands I ever got into and one of few I've never gone off. Agree with your list (dunno Alphaville or 405) and your cut off point. But where's Silicon Carne?
Click to expand...

That's on the first 7", have you got it? I've never heard that one
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
martin said:
That's on the first 7", have you got it? I've never heard that one
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Yeah. It's got that, Fallout and He's Frank. Dunno about private pressing - says Disque blu and Rough Trade on the label.

SC and HF are fucking great, well worth it if you can find them.

Sorry, but no chance of a rip - I don't have the leads, my amp is 15 years old (can't even put my TV thru it) and neither turntable nor computer are portable, and are in separate rooms :confused:
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
I never really gave them enough time, but remember liking stuff on John Peel.

A guy at school did me a tape which had one side of Monochrome Set and one side of Psychic TV's "Dreams Less Sweet". I was so transfixed by PTV I kind of ignored the Monochrome Set.
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
john eden said:
I never really gave them enough time, but remember liking stuff on John Peel.

A guy at school did me a tape which had one side of Monochrome Set and one side of Psychic TV's "Dreams Less Sweet". I was so transfixed by PTV I kind of ignored the Monochrome Set.
Click to expand...

They're more indie-pop (proto-indie-pop) than post-punk, i guess. But they were never twee, and they never sounded like they just wanted to reinvent Big Star or TThe Byrds - the guitars were all sccratchy and the melodies were ace, but not 60s or bubblegum. It was kinda like (deep breath for possible wildly inappropriate comparison) Swell Maps if they'd wanted to get to No56 in the charts.

edit: actually , sack that last bit - it's nonsense
 
subvert47

subvert47

I don't fight, I run away
STN said:
bands i listened to as a snotty teenager and (possibly unjustly) dismissed number 6,089.
Click to expand...

for me it's the other way round: I was a big fan at the time, but checking them again a couple of years ago, I couldn't figure out why I ever liked them.

:confused:
 
N

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
I've got "Strange Boutique" only, still like it (I haven't seen through it yet), the cover is a thing of beauty (like Eyeless in Gaza's "Caught in Flux"),

monochrome-set-boutique1.jpg

One of those bands that were nice enough (like ie The Comsat Angels:who Simon Armitage for some reason thinks is the best band ever - they were not, Felt, Au Pairs etc etc), a satelitte band.

A nice little write-up here with a couple of samples here, http://www.merryswankster.com/archives/2008/01/works_in_progre_4.html
and the Grauniad had a piece recently,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/jan/09/the-monochrome-set-remembered
 
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