RFI: Bad Seeds On Their Own: especially Mick Harvey & Barry Adamson

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I just have Mick Harvey's Gainsbourg covers record, and I've always been curious about the Barry Adamson soundtracky stuff. Is it worth tracking this stuff down?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:53 (twenty-two years ago)

don't forget Blixa and Conway

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:57 (twenty-two years ago)

but did they do solo stuff? i mean outside of blixa'z einsteunreunfdzsreeinedrtuin neubauten stuff...

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:59 (twenty-two years ago)

conway savage has, don't know about blixa.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I think Blixa's done some spoken word/soundscape stuff, but not a song-oriented solo record.

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:04 (twenty-two years ago)

oedipus schmoedipus from b. adamson is kinda cool in the whole dark / black / nevrotic music
also as above so below
last album : stay out of it

and what about magazine?

― Marcel Grospig Jr. (grouffman), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:06 (twenty-two years ago)

yep, gotta agree with Grospig, the last album = total dud

― Fabrice (Fabfunk), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Barry Adamson's made some great albums, notably The Negro Inside Me and As Above So Below. "Can't Get Loose.." on the latter is one of my favorite tracks of all time.

That Mick Harvey album of Gainsbourg covers kinda bores me to death, actually.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:57 (twenty-two years ago)

every magazine record with the exception of "magic, murder and the weather" is better than any barry adamson or mick harvey record (some of which are good). start with either of the virgin comps--"rays & hail" or "where the power is"--and go from there.

― dan (dan), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 15:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Oedipus Schmoedipus is ok, but it's like an essential album for "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Pelvis", which is one of the greatest songs of all time. You can download the MP3 off my website.

― Ally (mlescaut), Thursday, 21 August 2003 00:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Moss Side Story is the one Barry Adamson to own (the next couple of albums are okay too, each having a few good tracks--the Bond cover on Soul Murder is great as are a few of the tracks on Negro Inside Me--and then he started writing or rather getting other people to write, um, songs). But Moss Side Story is just fantastic, this amazing mash up of cool jazz texture, industrial collage, and seedy London noir. One of my favorite albums ever.

I like the Mick Harvey Gainesbourg covers a bunch (the first one anyway) but they aren't a patch on the originals. His soundtrack work is apparently good (I think he did the instrumental bits in Chopper and some other stuff I've seen) but honestly I can't really recall anything specificly great.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 21 August 2003 01:01 (twenty-two years ago)

isn't Jim Sclavunos the drummist in the Bad Seeds? first Sonic Youth record etc (he's my favorite thing about it)

― Dave M. (rotten03), Thursday, 21 August 2003 01:56 (twenty-two years ago)

and some Cramps records too..

― Fabrice (Fabfunk), Thursday, 21 August 2003 07:13 (twenty-two years ago)

"seedy London noir" - seedy Manchester noir, surely

― bham, Thursday, 21 August 2003 07:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I really love Oedipus Schmoedipus, when it came out I didn't even realise he had Bad Seed connections and I got it for Jarvis'n'Bill'n'Nick, but the whole thing has a fantastically synthetic not-immediately-apparent sneer to it and veers dramatically from being utterly terrifying in a really sunny way to be utterly terrifying in a work-of-deranged-psycho way. And I always resort to Vermillion Kisses when making compilation CDs for new people. And Set The Controls so absolutely is one of the best songs ever.

Is Soul Murder also worth getting? I think it was nominated for the Mercury way back in the days when people liked it.

― Alex in Rotherham (Alex in Doncaster), Thursday, 21 August 2003 09:20 (twenty-two years ago)

isn't Jim Sclavunos the drummist in the Bad Seeds? first Sonic Youth record etc (he's my favorite thing about it)

He's a percussionist, not the drummer. The Bad Seeds' drummer is Thomas Wylder.

Sclavunos is vet from the NY No Wave scene.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 21 August 2003 13:21 (twenty-two years ago)

not the "Stranger Than Paradise" guy ... this is a different pre-shelly sy drummer we're talking about, right?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Thursday, 21 August 2003 13:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Bob Bert?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 21 August 2003 13:29 (twenty-two years ago)

no, now that i've googled I realize I'm thinking of Richard Edson

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Thursday, 21 August 2003 13:31 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

My soundtrack to watching the UK election returns -- Oedipus Schmoedipus, As Above So Below and The King of Notting Hill. I envision the UK tonight as this dark looming landscape with funky beats and throats getting cut.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 6 May 2005 02:21 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Just bought 'The King Of Nothing Hill', sounding pretty awesome so far.

― to scour or to pop? (Haberdager), Sunday, 11 February 2007 15:32 (nineteen years ago)

seven months pass...

Oedipus Schmoedipus is mine too! Some absolute solid-gold material here. Ally may have a point upthread re: STCFTHOTP. "Save me from my own hand" is one of the great universal mottos, especially in this song's glorious context. It's like Spiritualized meeting James Brown in space. Narrated by Jarvis Cocker. Phew.

― Just got offed, Saturday, 6 October 2007 17:09 (eighteen years ago)

three months pass...

Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Pelvis was just what I wanted to hear today. To add to my 'universal motto' point above, the song is just a glorious, unrestrained celebration of the psychosexual duress every human being with a pair of balls goes through when they get them urges. Both an admission of corporeal weakness and a defiant affirmation of sexual freedom, it reduces the entire question of angst to an absurdly hopeful party. In space. With funk levels set to "Vaporise". Rock on, Seductive Barry.

― Just got offed, Saturday, 12 January 2008 20:44 (eighteen years ago)

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