greep on ya grinch - a thread for (ex-black midi) geordie greep and his debut album 'the new sound'

as a black midi agnostic, former guitarist/singer geordie greep rather stunned me with his song "holy! holy!," which if you haven't heard is like a steely dan/abba/earth, wind, and fire meets gospel meets primus romp, completely unlike anything in his previous band's catalog. he dropped another new song today, "blues," much more in line with his old band's output. don't like that one as much! cool stuff going on, and like "holy! holy!" it has a crazy crescendo towards the finish, but not enough to distract from the truly gross character greep portrays in the lyrics. ymmv, of course.

either way, this album will be interesting and it is out on friday: https://geordiegreep.bandcamp.com/album/the-new-sound

"holy! holy!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4EU_0vFzuU

"blues"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZqF9Vt612w

Saw he's playing here in WI early next year, that should be fun. I didn't know he was such a shredder, drummer is crazy too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNGlbB4Gbyo

yeah black midi guys all have absurd chops, whatever else you wanna say about their tunes

greep geordside

Some major Steely Dan vibes on "Holy, Holy".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZqF9Vt612w

he really goes for it here, this rules

i don't like either of these songs but he really does sound like fagen on 'holy holy'

album is really quite good, big improvement over black midi

he played up his brazilian influences before the album’s release, which was surprising to me after hearing the singles but there is a lot of samba and brazilian jazz in there. nothing that quite rises to the level of “holy holy” but yes better than any black midi

I read that he recorded part of the album with a Brazilian pick-up band?

I miss the sheer unexpectedness of Black Midi, but this is surprisingly great, provided you can get through the execrable characters he inhabits.

Its easy enough to ignore lyrics I suppose especially if you listen to a lot of metal.

or (especially) prog

the kids call it “greeping” - a dangerous new trend that your children are probably taking part in and perhaps dying from right now, more at 11 pic.twitter.com/OHzcIqVtx2

— distopian dream girl (@grace_roso) October 9, 2024

I don't know if it's quite as easy as a lot metal, his vocals are pretty upfront. I mean, I don't mind the sleaze myself, since it's presented in such a "look at this asshole" manner or character sketches ala Steely Dan, but I can see how others might get squicked out by some of it.

But yeah, I def hear tons of Steely Dan in here, not just in sounding like Fagan - the backing choirs, the guitar solo on "As If Waltz", it's a lot! But I think he pulls it off incredibly well.

dude has a downright dickensian name

lol @ greeping

dude has a downright dickensian name

― budo jeru, Wednesday, October 9, 2024 10:48 AM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

haha totally does

greeping is cool

i'll give it another go, i think i might be too low energy sleepy joe sh@kedown for this record

Every one of this guy's songs is five minutes long but it feels like ten. I definitely love it, will run-not-walk to see his live show, but don't think I want to listen to the recorded material for anything other than reference

I think I like his lyrics more than some people like his lyrics. Greep strikes me more like Alex Cameron/Cathal Coughlan than Frank Zappa/Randy Newman.

there’s something repulsive about this music to me but i’m trying to overcome it cause i love the sick chops steely dan sound and he and his collaborations are clearly extremely skilled. ‘blues’ is one of the worst things i’ve ever heard in my life though, hope i never hear it again. ‘terra’ sounding good

lyrics definitely feel like total noob baby stuff compared to becker-fagen. like compare ‘pearl of the quarter’ to ‘as if waltz’, the latter just feels like it’s bashing you over the head with its edgy ‘see what i did there’ dives from sweet love song high to seedy depths

To meet your parents, see your home
To show you my family
To take you to see my favourite films
To see what you think of Proust
And to read all of your favourite books
And to watch you fuck other men
To let your breast warm my hands from the cold
And not afterwards have sex

^actual barf lol. whereas ‘pearl’ is just slyly seedy but comes off feeling romantic. ‘I met my baby by the shrine of the martyr/She stole my heart with her Cajun smile’ is a nice lyric

I've always thought his name was more Dickens-via-Roy Clarke

his lyrics are exhaustingly over the top but the music rules so i can just manage to forgive that

yeah i am in the same boat

imo the album should have been a normal LP length (first four tracks side a, as if waltz/the magician side b) as it does labour the point somewhat, but when it's good it's very good

grain of salt because i just saw "king crimson" 80s live but this is pretty astonishing. title track could be a return to forever song

i like the flow to this album

oh wow. i really didn't get black midi at all, but this is mad

he's turned down the abrasive skronk and put the chops towards actual songs and it works so much better

Feel ambivalent about the vocals on this album. I think he's pretty distinct and skilled, I see the comparisons to Fagan, but I prefer my disgusting narrators a little more veiled - some lyrics are hard to ignore. The musicality of the vocals is odd but sometimes works really well, especially when the songs reach a chaotic climax. Instrumentally the songs are great, no complaint there. So I find the album a compelling and confusing package

I've only heard Holy Holy, but I'm kind of into the theatrical brazenness of it all. Yeah Fagan is a touchstone, but my first reaction, funnily enough, was that it reminded me of the Encanto soundtrack. I know he grew up with salsa, so maybe it's not that daft a comparison

it's pretty spot-on because there's a big latin influence on the album & his backing band on it is mostly brazilian session guys

this is a perfect album and is probably my favorite of the 2020s so far

"the magician" is like what if bruce springsteen's "jungleland" was a sad virgin

Feel like a dick saying this is fantastic, but I so wish he'd write for a different vocalist

Too much babbling for my taste.

I much prefer the BM records.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qszu-WSGoOs

owns

this rules

like it's better than the album

glad i got my tix to see him this feb

its been bothering me for a while who this guy sounds like and I finally figured it out: the Men at Work guy

its true, he is a man, and he is working

lol i hear it though hay sounds both more australian and more scottish than greep for obvious reasons

"bongo season" is so good here

on the early black midi songs i thought he sounded like larry blackmon from cameo lol, but i don't think he sounds like that anymore

I would be bummed that I have a work trip scheduled for when he's coming here next month, except that the show got moved to a bigger venue that I don't like as much, and it's sold out anyway.

His opener for his show in Tokyo in 2 weeks:

!!! EYE !!!

doing a DJ/AV set. Sold out but I'm fishing.

saw the greepster over the weekend. he was excellent. his band was incredibly groovy and muscular, and he his sense of humor came through: he did a few bars of benson boone’s “beautiful things” lol, and led into “blues” with a bonnamossa level 12-bar jam. the conga player was a lot of fun, leading the group in a willie colon cover.

all in all, great show. would greep again

was watching this video and had to agree with this comment, lol

he speaks like a 8 year old German child learning English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohwxxYN8RWo

Greta thunberg meeting Geordie Greep is not something I would've thought of in a million years but it really happened pic.twitter.com/WeUtTDcav7

— Taniza #MABUMILITIA (@tan1za) July 7, 2025

just bought a ticket to see him! really excited. looking at recent bootlegs and he's playing 2-3 hour sets now???

loved his show last year. hopefully a new tour means more music is on the way

this is just billed as touring in support of the new sound so i'm not really expecting new studio material immediately. he's been playing a few new songs live regularly though

he said in august last year though that he'd recorded half an album in japan and was hoping to finish it in time for a release within a year so it's possible at least

he said in a recent interview that he's hoping to have his next album out early next year but he still has a lot more work to do on it because it's going to be a 3-hour opera or something

his show tonight was absolutely incredible, one of the very best i've ever seen. his 6-piece backing band were mostly japanese session pros who were visibly really loving it the whole time and they were such fantastic players. he just played the album (though he did a reprise of "bongo season", no new material, but it was still nearly 2 hours. best part of the show was "as if waltz" into "bongo season" into "holy holy" which was something like 40 minutes all together

from what i can gather his live band was the following:

kei koganemaru - guitar
kei matsumaru - sax
misaki umei - keys
fabio sa - bass
daniel conceicao - percussion
quinn - drums

idk who the drummer is exactly, seemed to be some australian guy who was playing with greep for the first time this tour, he was good though (they all were!)

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1NBgX6WEoH/

here's his full fuji rock set which is mostly the same band (different drummer) playing most of the set i saw in half the time

it's going to be a 3-hour opera or something

― ufo, Saturday, August 1, 2026 1:32 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

!!!!

Kei Koganemaru was playing guitar in Koenjihyakkei (prog offshoot of Japanese noise-prog legends Ruins) when I saw them a few years ago, he was indeed very good

he had a fantastic solo in the middle of "holy holy"

it's also just crazy how he's switching up his band completely every tour leg, he must have a gigantic list of incredible session players to call up by now. pretty much every live recording i've heard is fantastic no matter the band

his band's always great no matter the lineup but after going through a bunch of older live clips i think the band he had for this asia/australia tour is one of the very best he's had

i'm still over the moon that was such a great show

no London shows boo

i'm sure he'll play london again before long, especially if the new album comes out early next year as he hopes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huLmYU3SlGU

speaking of london, this is one of my favourite performances of his

ha he opened with the long good friday music when i saw him last year too

yeah that was his walk-on music here too