What's better/weirder/scarier than Comus?

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Seriously... I'm trying, and I've been going for Amon Dull, Incredible String Band, and so on, but for me, at least, I can barely get through another album after finding this only a few months ago. Sand comes close, but I have yet to find something that equals the greatness of First Utterance. Help.

― Andi Headphones (Andi Headphones), Monday, 6 November 2006 21:33 (nineteen years ago)

Try early Current 93.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Monday, 6 November 2006 21:35 (nineteen years ago)

there are weirder things. and scarier things. but few people who where much BETTER at what they were trying to achieve. though there are SIMILAR things. just not, um, you know, as epic or whatever. they were sorta singular.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 6 November 2006 21:37 (nineteen years ago)

Spires That in the Sunset Rise comes close.

― Ghost Bear Junior High Attendance Party (Ghost Bear Junior High Attenda), Monday, 6 November 2006 21:41 (nineteen years ago)

just keep listening to the comus album. until you can't anymore. there's no reason why you shouldn't just be obsessed with it. and no need to "top" it or whatever. than listen to some more ISB (who were great) and some more amon duul (who were also great). and listen to some trees. mmmmm, trees. and get that fresh maggots album. that's a nice album. mmmm, maggots. get the wickerman soundtrack while yer at it. just keep listening to good music.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 6 November 2006 21:45 (nineteen years ago)

Simon Finn's "Pass the Distance," esp. "Jerusalem."

― Dr. Alicia D. Titsovich (sexyDancer), Monday, 6 November 2006 21:54 (nineteen years ago)

but keep in mind that the second Comus album is, I think, exceptionally disappointing (save "Figure in Your Dreams")

― mike powell (mike powell), Monday, 6 November 2006 22:06 (nineteen years ago)

nobody beats teh comus. NOBODY!

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 6 November 2006 22:09 (nineteen years ago)

they were one of a kind.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 6 November 2006 22:33 (nineteen years ago)

On a side note, does anyone know ANY biographical info on Roger Wootton? I can't find anything besides "in and out of insane asylums."

Second sidenote (which should go in the art and music category, but this is proof of obsession) here's my (in progress) Ode To Comus:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d35/andimags/IMG_6885.jpg

― Andi Headphones (Andi Headphones), Monday, 6 November 2006 22:56 (nineteen years ago)

sweet!

― Dr. Alicia D. Titsovich (sexyDancer), Monday, 6 November 2006 22:57 (nineteen years ago)

I don't like them that much. They were kitschy. I like that one song the woman sings - "The Herald."

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 6 November 2006 22:57 (nineteen years ago)

you're kitschy.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:01 (nineteen years ago)

i mean shit taking lame sgt. peppers threads aside, just buying this proves you're kitschy as all git-out.

which ain't a criticism necessarily. go on with your super-kitschy bad self, tim.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:02 (nineteen years ago)

That's rock and roll, fule. Not that you would know it!

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:04 (nineteen years ago)

no beatle-worshipper can school anyone else on what "rock and/or roll" is.

(tho man i was totally struck on like saturday or something when i heard "lucy in the sky with diamonds" randomly - what a great great song)

((also fyi - i don't think comus was ever trying to "rock," you corndog))

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:06 (nineteen years ago)

no ~~beatle~~slint/mission of burma/polvo-worshipper can school anyone else on what "rock and/or roll" is.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:08 (nineteen years ago)

((also fyi - i don't think comus was ever trying to "rock," you corndog))

MISS ONE POINT

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:08 (nineteen years ago)

ha yeah mission of burma don't rock, whatever.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:09 (nineteen years ago)

keep on takin' that ferry cross the mersey

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:10 (nineteen years ago)

bye.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:12 (nineteen years ago)

Btw, though, I didn't know you were familiar with the discographies of groups such as King Size Taylor and the Dominoes, Lee Curtis and the All-Stars, the Big Three, Pete Best Four, etc.!

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:19 (nineteen years ago)

wasn't pete best in the beatles?

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:24 (nineteen years ago)

WORST FITE EVER

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:27 (nineteen years ago)

i know, my heart ain't in it. i just love comus.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:33 (nineteen years ago)

there is nothing better, weirder, or scarier than comus!

― the starbucks in the forbidden city (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:34 (nineteen years ago)

What about actual Gothic literature? What about a film-maker like Herschell Gordon Lewis?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:43 (nineteen years ago)

not really the same sort of thing, but i think it goes well with The Trees - Christ Tree

― -- (688), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:44 (nineteen years ago)

That is, indeed, a good album. Not quite as scary/psychotic though...

― Andi Headphones (Andi Headphones), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:47 (nineteen years ago)

oh weird, i just looked at that mersey lp someone linked upthread. i didnt know The Cryin Shames (of joe meek produced 'please stay' fame) were scousers!

― -- (688), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:53 (nineteen years ago)

They might not have been. That's a Decca collection and they put some groups on there (who had been on the label) that weren't from Liverpool.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:55 (nineteen years ago)

no they were, i checked

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Villa/9500/cryinshames.htm

― -- (688), Monday, 6 November 2006 23:56 (nineteen years ago)

Hi, Gareth! I thought about you today whilst listening to The Sunshine Company.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:02 (nineteen years ago)

the other thing i often subconsciously link with Comus is Edward Elgar's Dream of Gerontius (the malcolm sargent 1944 version)

― -- (688), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:06 (nineteen years ago)

probably a Rudkinite overlaid aesthetic of Christianity onto older pagan 'from the land' emanations

― -- (688), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:09 (nineteen years ago)

maybe thats why people go to Pendle?!

― -- (688), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:11 (nineteen years ago)

comus is also the name of a masque play by john milton

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:13 (nineteen years ago)

comus, momus and proteus are not merely greek gods, but mardi gras krewes as well, it seems.

the name is greek, yet the aesthetic is somehow...mercian

― -- (688), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:20 (nineteen years ago)

milton's rolling in his grave.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:23 (nineteen years ago)

i just looked comus up in my dictionary of classical personages and there is no mention! what a gyp!

(momus and proteus are both there)

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:23 (nineteen years ago)

its the victorians again isnt it? any of that revelry stuff and you won't be in a fit state for the mill tomorrow morning

― -- (688), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:26 (nineteen years ago)

it's got bacchus, the bacchae, priapus and silenus!

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:30 (nineteen years ago)

What's better/weirder/scarier than Comus?

Kevin Federline

― jaxon (jaxon), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:30 (nineteen years ago)

The Shadow Ring!

― calvin johnson has ruined rock for an entire generation (orion), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:39 (nineteen years ago)

the comus album never scared me. i never listened to it on acid though. and i don't do acid anymore, so i probably never will. not much music scares me though. that first igor whatshisface album is kinda creepy. that dude should buy that. the one with the cool space alien cover. wahkevitch? i can't spell his name.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:43 (nineteen years ago)

and it's weird. and great. the whatshisface album.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:43 (nineteen years ago)

the last album that kinda freaked me out was the last deathspell omega album. kenose. i was listening on headphones at night once and it got to me. it's more of an oppressive creepiness, but creepy all the same. just dark. and a little like madness.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:45 (nineteen years ago)

i'm bummed to see two people i respect have such a slap-fight over... this?

but i was thinking maybe "translucent carriages" and a few other spookier pearls before swine songs stand their own against comus -- and maybe a few satwah-type things? -- or some stuff by ghost on 'free tibet'?

but mostly i just had to say fuck it i can't really think of anything, etither.

― yetimike (McGonigal), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:48 (nineteen years ago)

this includes Comus...

http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/543

I hadn't heard the Jarboe, that did it for me.

― bendy (bendy), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:50 (nineteen years ago)

listening to a lot of 1930s english pop music (ambrose & his orchestra, lew stone, jack hylton, al bowlly, charlie fry) these days and after a while it can feel...not exactly creepy, but sort of uncomfortable, like i'm not really here. a couple of months ago i played some as i was getting ready to go to a friends birthday, and it put me in a really weird mood, and when i was out i sort of felt like everything wasnt real.

obviously this is something that has been visited before, to convey 'ghostliness' (shining,...dennis potter!), still strange though, and not a particularly nice feeling when it comes down to it, difficult to shake

im glad i didnt listen to this stuff when i was doing acid the whole time

― -- (688), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:54 (nineteen years ago)

xpost to that dusted 'belly skelly' roundup -- man that blind willie johnson blurb is so IGN'ANT. baseless/ specious/ dumbass writing on that subject matter makes me mad. hoppin' mad!!!

anyway, that first song on the CRO-MAGNON album totally holds its weight against comus; the one that starts with bag-pipes then sounds better than the swans ever did, speaking of jarboe... you feel me?

― yetimike (McGonigal), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:57 (nineteen years ago)

that jarboe album is awesome! and yes VERY creepy. i forgot about that one.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:57 (nineteen years ago)

i suppose potter is more about disassociation rather than ghostliness...roy budd hallucinations, oh im on the wrong thread again now. fits here too,,,maybe

― -- (688), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:58 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, i was gonna mention the cro-magnon album. it's definitely as WEIRD. i dunno about better.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 00:58 (nineteen years ago)

the last album i heard that really creeped me out was Franco Battiato's "Clic"

― jaxon (jaxon), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:00 (nineteen years ago)

naw, it's not better,scott. it's just, that one cro-mags song "caledonia" is so amazing. the rest never grabbed me so much.

― yetimike (McGonigal), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:04 (nineteen years ago)

that crazy whispering thing always freaks me out. jarboe does that. diamanda. robert ashley! automatic writing genuinely scares me!

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:14 (nineteen years ago)

at work the other nite i was all alone in the old building far from any other human and on the radio they had this radio netherlands thing on about jonathon saffron seagull and his book incredibly wide and incredibly hot or whatever and he just sounded like a genial grad student. a nice young man. but in the background and sometimes inbetween on its own they were playing that john adams 9/11 elegy thing with all the people whispering dead people's names and a little kid repeating the same words over and over and i got a little spooked.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:21 (nineteen years ago)

jonathan saffron seagull!

― the starbucks in the forbidden city (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:24 (nineteen years ago)

we were driving on the A1 once, and the radio had a performance by Scanner, but the station got out of kilter, and kept phasing in and out, and we were getting some weird police type stuff coming in, which we thought was part of scanner, but it wasnt, because scanner ended, and the other stuff didnt. and the road made a sound like angels, which meant we couldnt really hear anything anyway, but this wasnt the time we couldnt tell if we were going uphill or downhill

― -- (688), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:26 (nineteen years ago)

"jonathan saffron seagull!"

they were reading from that book and it really did remind me of one of those big 70's hippie books! "what if we collected all the tears in a lake and then at the end of the day we weighed them and then implanted them in people's heads so that we always knew how much sorrow was in the heart of..." okay, i'm paraphrasing. but there was a LOT of that kind of thing.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:42 (nineteen years ago)

I just got this yesterday, it's fucking great but seems more hilarious than scary.

― Adam S S (Zephery), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 01:52 (nineteen years ago)

things scaring you on acid shouldnt really count as scary as the jamiroquai song morning glory scared the shit out of me.

― chaki (chaki), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 02:10 (nineteen years ago)

automatic writing + nighttime + by myself + old house in the middle of nowhere = YIKES

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 02:32 (nineteen years ago)

People who don't like the second album are foolish. It's better than the first. But both rule.

As for your question, Simon Finn seconded.

― And Grace Jones as Wand Milius (Roger Fidelity), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 02:40 (nineteen years ago)

It's a coincidence for me that automatic writing was brought up on this thread because I still believe in the Surrealist criticism of *freaky shit* that is FORCED (a la Dali). And that is why I find Comus to be kitschy.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 02:44 (nineteen years ago)

"things scaring you on acid shouldnt really count as scary as the jamiroquai song morning glory scared the shit out of me."

this is true of course.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 03:03 (nineteen years ago)

This thread totally makes me want to look into these guys now.

― Ivan G (Ivan), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 04:51 (nineteen years ago)

this thread has everything - tim ellison being wrong, the inevitable "huh?" mention of satwa, rog pretending the second album's better than the first...

to answer the original question: nothing. spires that in the sunset rise doesn't even come close. slightly similar but lesser: jan dukes de grey. tea and symphony have a track or two that bear some slight resemblance.

― GOD PUNCH TO HAWKWIND (yournullfame), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 05:19 (nineteen years ago)

i was totally fishing, dude. sheesh.

the internet can be so mean!!!

― yetimike (McGonigal), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 05:24 (nineteen years ago)

Recommend me some music that sounds like Comus

― GOD PUNCH TO HAWKWIND (yournullfame), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 05:30 (nineteen years ago)

"this thread has everything"

you were nice enough not to mention: "scott rambling like an idiot"

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 05:30 (nineteen years ago)

i musta missed that thread. all the usual suspects on there too.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 05:32 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.vintagecalculators.com/comus_c6.JPG

― Shoes say, yeah, no hands clap your good bra. (goodbra), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 13:11 (nineteen years ago)

http://991.com/newgallery/White-Noise-An-Electric-Storm-257154.jpg

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 13:23 (nineteen years ago)

thats nothing like comus!

― -- (688), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 13:28 (nineteen years ago)

It's better/weirder/scarier though.

(I haven't heard Comus though)..

The albums like a sinister version of "Smile" if you like,....

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 13:32 (nineteen years ago)

its better than something you've never heard?

now thats high praise

― -- (688), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 14:16 (nineteen years ago)

It certainly is.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 14:33 (nineteen years ago)

What's scarier than something you don't know?

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 14:34 (nineteen years ago)

The albums like a sinister version of "Smile" if you like,....

That's "Smiley Smile" you're talking about!

― Dadaismus (Takin' Funk to Heaven in '77) (Dada), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 14:38 (nineteen years ago)

Have to disagree with Scott as to the worth of the Fresh Maggots album, I thought it was quite bad and I'm generally in favour of stoned folky douchebags.

― NickB (NickB), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 14:51 (nineteen years ago)

xpost well, does Smileysmile have orgies and visitations from dead biker boyfriends?

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 15:06 (nineteen years ago)

... no, it's much weirder than that

― Dadaismus (Takin' Funk to Heaven in '77) (Dada), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 15:08 (nineteen years ago)

Does it have Mike Love intoning "Wan-wan-wonderfull" like a psycho?

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 15:11 (nineteen years ago)

Jandek creeped me out the first (few) time(s) I heard him. So bleak. Different than Comus though.

― mcd (mcd), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 15:16 (nineteen years ago)

I love my thread!!!

GOD PUNCH, i was trying to search for comus yesterday in other mentions, but it was dysfunctional, thanks though.

― Andi Headphones (Andi Headphones), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 19:49 (nineteen years ago)

Jarboe thirded or whatever. Try to find the full-length version of "Walls Are Bleeding", genuinely disturbing.

Perhaps Diamanda Galas' "Masque Of The Red Death" trilogy, in parts. Certainly weird, scary, and good.

― sleeve version 2.0 (sleeve testing), Tuesday, 7 November 2006 23:59 (nineteen years ago)

you should try some holy modal rounders stuff. michael hurley's contributions made for great weird stuff. not so spooky. but try "the moray eels eat the holy modal rounders" none the less.

and, when was in search of answers to this very question, a friend of mine pointed me to exuma. try his album, vol. 1. look for "mama loi, papa loi" and "dambala" in particular.

― robbie mackey (robbie mackey), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 03:53 (nineteen years ago)

well, exuma's certainly weird and a little bit scary. just downloaded that first one myself, really killer.

― GOD PUNCH TO HAWKWIND (yournullfame), Wednesday, 8 November 2006 05:09 (nineteen years ago)

four years pass...

'The Magus' by the Third Ear Band. Some pretty silly lyrics, but the music is as deep and dark as anything that was being recorded in the early 70s.

Good review here

― Zuleika, Sunday, 13 February 2011 14:34 (fifteen years ago)

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