Cardiacs: Classic or Dud?

Oh -> extended Flap Off You Beak -> singalong Don't You Ail was pretty much the zenith of all live music ever. And they pulled off Vine! And how!

Attempting the call and response in Fanny was fun too

Also, tt and I came to Tim at the end and thanked him. It was legit heartbreaking/heartwarming/everything. Gave his carer a massive hug as well, which I think scared him a bit

Attempting to sing along to "Don't You Ail" I discovered it's definitely not my register :)

Actually is the lead vocal Tim's voice sped up Camille style on the original?

http://dfan.org/blog/2010/11/06/cardiacs-odd-even/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDOhvIdinbc

Been a little afraid to start with this band, but with so many comparisons to XTC, I figured I had to eventually. Sing to God is a LOT to take in. I liked a couple of the songs the first go round ("Dog-Like Sparky" and "Flap Off You Beak") and others sounded pretty random or not that enjoyable. To be fair, random and unenjoyable is how XTC sounded to me at age 16 or whatever, and they eventually clicked, but this is a bridge further. I listened again and I'm starting to understand more of it, but I don't know how much it will translate into liking it. Still, I admire the hell out of this album - it doesn't sound like much else I've heard. I'll give it another listen, but maybe in smaller chunks next time. Or I may check out another Cardiacs album since STG is apparently the super amped up one, right?

StG might be a bit full-on to a newcomer, yes.

I think Heaven Born and Ever Bright, while not being one of their best, is a lot more approachable and relatively straightforward, also On Land and in the Sea is my favourite out of their "classic" lineup and is definitely worth a try.

You'll probably get everyone recommending different places to start.

I'd suggest trying The Seaside. It's surely impossible to not enjoy songs like A Wooden Fish On Wheels, Gena Lolla Brigida (sic) or To Go Off And Things, along with the rest. Also at that point the songs still often had recognisable punk, ska and new wave elements which might help with a way in. The slightly rough recording quality is also very pleasing, especially in its recently restored "Original Edition". Classic all the way through. Then take it from there. It's where I started and it's a wonderful journey.

you'll want to hear the crappy cassette rip version of the seaside just for 'dinner time' tbf

I started with Sing To God and that should do fine.

Eat it up Worms Hero was the first Cardiacs song I heard and it didn't put me off lol

haha! was it the oceansize cover

I came to STG as a somewhat lapsed fan - I'd drifted away after they started using backing tapes live as a four piece. I'd only just caught the tail end of the classic line-up so this was a big and sudden change. Anyway STG was also something I didn't recognise as Cardiacs at first. Of course it's amazing, but this is why I can't imagine it as a place to begin in terms of grokking the essence.

Imago - the full tracklist has been restored on The Seaside (Original Edition)!

xp No, the real thing!

As far as I recall I read about them somewhere that made them sound interesting, then downloaded the few random mp3s I could find on Kazaa so this was a pretty long time ago now...

oh wait, I actually bought the restored Seaside on vinyl, lol

My Cardiacs origin story is well-versed: ilx user 'everything' sent me, um, everything, from Canada. I started with Sing To God because why not

...ergo, Eat It Up Worms Hero was the second song I ever heard of theirs

Sing To God is not a great entry point, I've never been convinced of it's unassailable status [at least compared to the rest of the albums] either.

I bought Heaven Born after reading a review in one of he weeklies iirc and apart from a couple of songs it didn't grab me, but a couple of years later I saw the Maresnest video, then I was hooked in and not long after that the CD reissue program began.

I will say that Sing To God prevented me from appreciating the early stuff (seaside, toy world etc) for a very long time, but when I came around to them it was like a second awakening

i heard about the cardiacs long before i heard them. for whatever reason their records were impossible to get in america in the '90s, even as imports. if you could find them they'd run $30 for a cd, which was just insane pricing; i never understood how they managed things on the business end. anyway when mp3s got big the band put up an official mp3 sampler, which is how i first heard them - to be honest it was okay but not terribly impressive to my ears. "sing to god" was the gateway for me when i finally heard it.

The pre Seaside stuff *is* badly recorded and often played beyond their ability at the time.

In light of which I must say that The Special Garage Concerts might actually be the ultimate Cardiacs artifact for me, if I had to pick only one. Some days anyway. A remarkable feat wherein they buff up the very earliest songs (including much of The Seaside and some dating back to 1976, when they were babies) and present them in joyous nat's chuff guitar heavy arrangements over twenty years later. More than a live album or retrospective it's like endless victory laps and more fun than just about anything. I'm trying to avoid excessive hype speak here!

It's surely an almost unique achievement, though? And to top it off there's the prospect of the 'rehearsal' film!

Their stuff was largely out of print for fuck knows how long, which is why they were prohibitively expensive - it was years before I heard a full album of theirs.

I Still need to get The Seaside

The Garage Concerts are wonderful I agree

Thanks y'all, I'll probably try Seaside next. I'm skimmed these threads before and Sing to God was the only album with a poll and detailed Wiki page, so I started there! Plus, I kind of like starting in the deep end. STG has enough cool moments that I'm convinced this is a band worth checking out more of. One awesome one that I didn't mention before: the solo on Fiery Gun Hand - what a scorcher

Another nice David Minnick acapella track gone up recently, possibly not for the first time, but it's new to me

https://soundcloud.com/david-minnick/fairy-mary-mag-cardiacs-cover-by-the-180-gs

his comments suggest it's a first-time post; apparently he takes them down after a while. david's covers i have around from the albums: tracks 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 18, 21

Wish I could hear the whole thing

did he finish it yet? perhaps he'll release it when he's done? i'm reminded of lewis taylor's attempt to remake trout mask replica... he only got about halfway through but those tracks are circulating in certain quarters.

It must take an awful lot of work, I mean Fairy Mary Mag alone would be a fucker to arrange, even without the squiggly interstitial at the end.

wow thank you

david minnick is a prince

Loving that Sea Nymphs Peel session

I expect a few of you have seen already but the shed rehearsals DVD is finally finished and on sale now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adx6YVI_Z0g

Hahaha awww! He also does I've Seen All Good People ^______^

we may have the world's coolest music teacher on our hands here

I know, it's lovely, isn't it? There's a couple of other Cardiacs things on his channel, I was equally compelled watching a brace of School of Rock kids chewing through Yes' Awaken too recently, proper seat of the pants stuff.

omg that's perfect! and that song virtually invents Cardiacs too

From FB today :(

"Hello everyone. This is Sharron here on Tim's Facebook page. Please think positive thoughts for our beautiful leader today. Please don't ask why or raise a panic. He needs you to focus. xxx"

oh

have dreaded this kind of announcement for ten years and am kind of unsure how to respond

I could tell from the overall tonality of the FB page that he's been 'poorly' recently and there are people I could ask, but I'm not sure if I should.

Okay, so it's not grave news thank goodness, although shame on whoever for that shittily constructed FB post, it's something to do with an article on a website called INews (which I can't find yet) and a GoFundMe page for Tim's healthcare. https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/timsmith

ANd here's the article - https://inews.co.uk/news/long-reads/tim-smith-cardiacs-singer-brain-injury/

That'd be Mrs Fortnam you're badmouthing! Cheers for the link though :)

Sharron Fortnam, Craig’s partner, recently asked him to put his current state into words, and then watched him spell the following out at a painfully slow speed: “Imagine if you were wearing a skintight bodysuit made of fishnet all around you, with electrical pulses going all the time. This is what my body feels like unless I fall asleep.”

I've seen him use his word-board. This message would have taken half an hour to spell out

Funding is going really well, I just hope it can get over the goal amount before it hits a plateau.

That's a relief, I feared the worst when I saw new posts. I've been thinking about Tim/Cardiacs a lot since yesterday's revive. Will donate when I get home.

Funding page isn't loading for me?

loaded for me Ned in Chrome.

I donated -- when you read stuff like this, it's not usually accompanied by "and if he gets the care he needs, he'll be able to make music again." Such an inspiration, and he's already got more than half of the goal!!!!!!

a little heartbreaking to see that a decade was essentially wasted :/

I donated roughly what I probably should've paid for all those albums I pirated, back before any of this stuff was even remotely available

Wonder what the % will be by the time I'm home later. Hopefully about 170

I think more than a decade 'wasted' alas - I doubt much more than LSD will be completed, and even that would feel miraculous and special above all things. Extremely heartening that they're going to try.