The Young Gods & Longevity

BSquires

Well-known member
Just wanted to concur with K-Punk's latest entry regarding The Young Gods. I too saw them on their recent tour and was blown away. I've seen them a few times since the early nineties but to me they seemed better than ever. As they were playing I almost wept having the same thought about how come they weren't huge and U2 were? Strange.

It also made me think about longevity in music. The consensus seems to be that the first two Young Gods LPs are the best and after that they kind of lost their way and their cachet. They were mentioned as seminal but no one talked about their recent music... Why is that? Their recent LPs have also been of high quality, if not quite as harsh and some of their new material was also excellent. I was also thinking about Front 242 - their recent work has also been great but no one seems to be interested.

So why do we lose interest? Is it because people get bored with innovative bands somehow – once the shock of the new has passed is that it? What is the relationship between longevity versus innovation? How does a band manage to achieve longevity – is there any point or would it be generally better for most artists to stop after a couple of LPs and not bother?

Sorry if these are stupid questions… I have no idea what the answers are but I thought some of you would!
 

marke

Tumbling Dice
in my state of advanced age, i actually find myself listening to Second Nature more than the bands earlier stuff, its more rounded and fits my mood more easily. their style of dark atmospheric electronic music is rather special.
luckily, i saw them twice (Reading 90, and TV Sky era) and can confirm that their stage presence was always inspiring. wish i had seen them in london when they turned up recently.
m.e
ireallylovemusic
 

eleventhvolume

Active member
I bought their first couple of albums when they came out and caught them live in Glasgow about the same time, however long ago that was... recently gave in to a nostalgic hit, started listening to them again and snagged a couple of later albums inc TV Sky. Neither impressed me half as much as their debut.
 
Good questions.

I recently saw them too and totally concur with yours and k-punk's points with regard to the 'why U2, e.g., and not them?' point. If there is any band with a 'stadium sound' (in the best possible sense), then its Young Gods. Obviously a great part of their charm is the mixing of French/English lyrics with a Swiss accent, but I wonder if they weren't sidelined a bit precisely because they were so 'unique' in this respect (and others). The US/UK market is not great at accepting interlopers from other European countries - we seem to take only one or two from each (I'm talking MAINstream here - France: Air/Mc Solaar; Iceland: Bjork/Sigur Ros; Sweden: Abba/Cardigans; Belgium: dEUS/Front 242, as mentioned). Germany might be a slightly different issue....but feel free to complete disagree with the argument, could be totally cracked...

Re LPs - the first YG album I heard was 'Only Heaven' which I listened to for about a year! I can't think that this can be in any way a falloff from their earlier stuff - Moon Revolutions (which they played at the Garage) is astonishing - click-trick whirr/ techno-guitar samples above the most extreme propulsive rhythm... Child in the Tree also incredible - so floaty and so, so sad.
 

Grievous Angel

Beast of Burden
I am given to understand that New Model Army continue to tour and release albums and are still popular on the continent, though they can't get arrested over here, not even in Bradford.

Notwithstanding my continued liking for tunes like Green and Grey, one has to wonder whether a lack of critical longevity is entirely undeserved in this case.

Young Gods -- loved TV Sky, think I saw them at Reading, didn't fancy much after that.
 

polystyle

Well-known member
Do The Seagull

Aaah The Young Gods,
A great group , old friends as well.
I do agree with the idea of them being the Stadium sound sonic - and they had that for years.
Re: Longevity though , they have survived and keep releasing but one big reason they went from playing headline tours through the US and Europe for the Only Heaven Album is that they were one of the groups courted , signed , then dropped by Interscope when the label merged with another massive label ,
(sorry in the Acme music - ness of it all I ferget which Conglom it was /is) .
'Clang ! We saw them at Roseland with Jim Foetus band opening one year then .... gone ...

The Heaven Album was their last with long time producer Rolie Mosimann who was not as into the more Club electronic elements that Franz , Alain (sampler) and Bernard (drums) was heading into ( ala Second Nature & Music For Artificial Clouds).
They then split with longtime manager after that .
So all that took a toll on the group's profile and they seem to retreat & regroup ,
Franz did scores for dance/performance , they dug in to continue recording & releasing
and now bk to Live performance. More power to 'em !
The Gods did have impact and longevity in their own view,
whether or not the press / promo media sorts / world at large continued to notice or not.
I think they were also percieved , at least here , as part of a wave that included Cop Shoot Cop and Helmet
and some bubble was built that popped or wasn't continually floated by the press - label $ after some point , some business cycle

The Album's before Only Heaven were all quite great ,
the Three Penny Opera version was well done
but Envoye , As If It Were The Last Time , Soul Idiot all just ripped !
As you all on this thread know , they are still out there
Support them as you can and keep spreading it
 
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marke said:
luckily, i saw them twice (Reading 90, and TV Sky era)

I was there in the crowd at Reading '90 too. Highlight of the weekend for sure.

I was big on Young Gods and 242 in the late '80s...dunno why I lost interest...I guess they had served their purpose. I went off the Young Gods around 'TV Sky', mainly because they were starting to sound like a normal rock band, and I wasn't happy with Franz singing in english. the lyrics were actually a bit naff I thought....much better when you couldn't understand what he was singing about, in that beautifully evocative Swiss-French language.

Why weren't they as big as U2? Possibly due to lack of cock-rock macho guitar postering? The first two albums (and maybe the Kurt Weil tribute too) lay waste to everything Bono and his mates did....

and to answer the main thrust of the question....longevity is bad for business...always has been. There are exceptions, of course.... ;)
 
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D84

Well-known member
I listened to Only Heaven again last night after reading your comments here: it's definitely one of the sleepers in my collection. This is a really cool album.

I can see where Nick G's coming from re the english lyrics - French/German lyrics are fine by me.

The early stuff is great. I got into them around TV Sky when they played a ripper of a gig here. The gig on the Only Heaven tour didn't do it for me as much but I'd definitely see them again.

The simplicity of the project, voice, drums and sampler, appeals to me - esp. seeing as how they get such a huge sound out of it.

What's the latest album, Second Nature, like?
 

polystyle

Well-known member
Longue Route

haven't heard it for awhile so I'm going to listen to Second Nature' again tonight.

Was just listening to the Gods second album L'eau Rouge . The Red Water which has Longue Route
which we can remember from their live shows - what a raving burner almost a futuristic ZZ Top vibe ...

' Rouge also complied L'Amourir and Pas Mal from earlier Ep release .
Mal's tractioning mechano Rok EQ'd guitar riff car crash dub FX thrash Pas Mal ... Pas Mal ... Pas Mal ... Pas Mal !!!!! It just ended
 
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