the first for carnation tour

Other than this, I can't find a single mention of this band anywhere on the site. FOR SHAME.

I still don't think I can think of anything like it. It has the Slint glower in its DNA, but lame (on my part) dub-via-post-punk references aside, it strikes me as pretty sui generis. Maybe there could be a thread for mid/late 90s music that sounds apocalyptic, but a quiet, post-midnight apocalypse, that only a few people notice. First Godspeed, the God Machine's Scenes from the Second Storey, er, this.

the length of this thread is a disgrace! i just listened to their s/t album - i guess it is their only one - and it was great. slow moody basic stuff which reminds me of bark psychosis a lot. perfect night time music, like i imagined blue nile to be which are too sentimental and over the top for my taste. thanks for the discovery chinaski. other bands quite similar: idaho and early low.

I thought I'd posted about them on a Pajo thread or something. I like "Marshmallows" better than "Fight Songs" & I used to have a boot of a live set (digital only) that was utterly spectacular. a band who I wish had archives to dig through & release though I suspect we've heard it all

It is indeed a very Bark Psychosis-y album, but another deserved name-check is the vastly underrated Piano Magic ('A Tribute To' reminds me of them especially). Echoing Aero's yearning for archives to crawl through; you'd think this band has many yards of tape unreleased. Fantastic album.

They get mentioned on a bunch of threads like a couple months ago I brought up that for the first The For Carnation EP, Brian's backing band was Pajo, John Herndon & Doug McCombs who, when married with Bastro's rhythm section of John McEntire & Bundy K. Brown, became Tortoise.

It hit me pretty hard to come back to his music now that some light has come out of Brian's pre-Spiderland accident and his subsequent physical/mental heath issues... had he been a different person on a different label they may have made that the story/marketing for The For Carnation. If I recall correctly they did no press. Not even sure they made a video.

I am a huge fan and will try to rescreen to the catalog over the next week and post more in this thread. 15 years ago I posted this as my top tracks:

the for carnation - search:

how i beat the devil
get and stay march
on the swing
i wear the gold
winter lair
salo
preparing to receive you
alfredo's welcome

the touch and go album is really good. he (they) played a secret show a month before it was released at bruno's in SF which was incredible.

I think I played "On The Swing" for an entire hour once on repeat.

i would have loved to have seen them. I think they played Glastonbury in 2000?

Good to see some activity on this thread!

I'll admit to only tangentially knowing - Get and Stay Ride aside - the Promised Works album - everything for me has been about the self-titled. It's one of those albums that feels like a self-contained world (well) - completely alien and cut-off from everything else around it. The best part of 20 years of listening and I don't feel any nearer the bottom of it.

If I recall correctly he made a covers record that he canned before releasing. Then there was a little bit of activity (a coupe of live shows) maybe 12 years ago but no new recordings.

Is that the one with the George Michael (or Michael Jackson?) cover?

~~~ m o o n b e a m s ~~~

one band that for carnation does remind me of a bit is bohren & der club of core (german slowcore jazz thing). same sort of tension, same brooding atmosphere

um, bohren & der club of gore

i agree mood wise the for carnation and bohren are not too far apart. in both cases it is late night music. but there is more use of electronics and noises by the for carnation. the songs are much more elaborate. in a talk talk kind of way. and they usually do not play as slow as bohren. the wonderful moonbeams to me sounds like a song which could have been on bark psychosis codename: dustsucker. which btw was released after the for carnation s/t.

there is a lushness about moonbeams which really is a like a warm blanket on a cold winter day. or like looking into the lights in the houses from outside in winter. music which is warming the heart.

Is that the one with the George Michael (or Michael Jackson?) cover?

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Friday, November 1, 2019 bookmarkflaglink

I don't know. I remember there being talk of a cover from, I think, Vanessa Carlton? Or someone like that.

This must be from those sessions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-HGBUW8Rpc

We sleep fully clothed and rise early from bed.
Who did this to us?
Who did this to us?