Henry Cow vs. Manic Street Preachers vs. Stereolab

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Lyrics are interchangeable between them, so it's a question of which musical approach you prefer

― dave q, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Is Bjork worse than Hitler? Or does Crass/ReR = Clash/ELP (whatever your take on them)?

― dave q, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Good to have you back, Q.

― Daver, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've never even heard of Henry Cow. Are they worth investigating?

― Justyn Dillingham, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Much more so than MSP or Stereolab. It's doofy art rock stuff but good.

― adam, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Henry Cow, but only WITH Slapp Happy (or at least Dagmar)

― Paul, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

1. Stereolab
2. Henry Cow
3. MSP

Real battle of Stereolab and strange proggers would be VS Ruins, subtitled the "Where Do They Come Up With All of These Damn Tunes?" battle.

― dleone, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It all comes down to the amount of text that they've decided to sing along to.

Henry Cow releases are mostly instrumental so they win hands down. Their 1st and 2nd studio LPs have one tiny section at the end with vocals, the last has none at all, the third is 99% Slapp Happy songs anyway (so no left wing ranting there) which leaves us with 'In Praise Of Learning' which, indeed, does go on and on with the politics.

Stereolab have lots of vocals but there's also lots of plain instrumentation too - 15 minute krautrock motorik strumming or 15 minute jazzy noodling. But, almost exclusively, they yammer on about solialist stuff, even if half of it is in French (which I don't understand). Interestingly, 'Sound-Dust' doesn't have any politics at all that I can hear.

MSP - well, I've only heard a few songs and every one has made my skin crawl with some dickhead telling me what's right and what's wrong. And that's all I could hear - I couldn't hum one of their tunes if you paid me.

― philT, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Nirvana for Mice" is a great song title.

― mark s, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Stereolab have never really made a recording which has no political content. The degree to which they clue the listener into this meaning, however, varies throughout their work... Sound-Dust is about as overtly political as Dots and Loops, ie, still very thoroughly so, but shrouded--not nearly so overt and prominent as Emperor Tomato Ketchup. Their LP release in which the political content is least direct is Cobra and Phases, probably owing at least in part to there also being a noted lack of material to sustain one's attention.

― matthew m., Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

love In Praise Of Learning !
>br> "Interiors (Song For Willem De Kooning)" roXor like classic glam!

"Refractions In The Plastic Pulse" yummy, too

so - all three, in doses

― Paul, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

>br>oops!>br>

why's that make me wanna wank? damn you Tweet! ohhh

― Paul, Saturday, 6 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I never got into H.Cow, shd I try again some day? I heard that solo gtr record that Fred Frith did on Virgin in about 1975(?) & thought it was killer awesome, also I luv Slapp Happy but the ones they did with Faust are so way better than the ones w/ the Cow.

― unknown or illegal user, Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

("the ones they did with Faust" btw i said that once in a Space Dust innerview in OPPROBRIUM & it got misquotated as "the ones they did with KRAUSE" which is just dumm 'cause ALL their stuff was with [Dagmar] Krause of course & anyway how does FOWST sound like KROWSER, it fucking doesn't)

― unknown or illegal user, Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

all of them could learn a lesson or two from 2 live crew

― bob snoom, Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

word

― unknown or illegal user, Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah, let's turn this into an Acnalbasac Noom thread already!

Acnalbasac Noom vs Casablanca Moon?
no contest...

― Paul, Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

hehe i got moon first — very possibly the first LP i evah bought — then noom many years later (1984?) under the tiresome moralistic suasion of the RecRec crew and HATED IT!! So I sold it (1987?): which i kinda wish i hadn't now. as possibly i would eventually have changed my mind again...

― mark s, Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Sort Of" is the best one tho.

― unknown or illegal user, Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Sort Of" is great but there's a couple of their worst songs on it. I too bought the Virgin release first and have loved it to death ever since - especially the countrified violin hoe-down. So "Acnalbasac" was a slight dissapointment for me initially but it's grown on me since then. "Desperate Straights" is still my favourite, though - darker and funnier and the Henry Cow backing band are excellent (even if I never play the last 'instrumental' track).

― philT, Sunday, 7 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

three weeks pass...

Henry Cow are the greatest band in the whole world (fact). I love Leg End and Unrest and I think that even trying to compare them to a shitty band like the Manic Street Preachers is sheer lunacy. I don't think MSP will seriously last for another thirty years, but I am 16 years old and sound proof that Henry Cow will last.

― jonathan thrak, Thursday, 2 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

two weeks pass...

Henry Cow Rock Maddness!!! I'm not too sure about MSP arnt they some alterna rock outfit. Stereolab is cool too but I like Henry Cow better.If any of you like any "new, progressive or avant garde" bands you should check out Create(!) , Soul Junk http://www.soundsareactive.com and a band called Havalina http://www.havalinaland.com

― orlando Greenhill, Tuesday, 21 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"I am 16 years old and sound proof"

sorry, i this read wrong and it made me chuckle

― mark s, Tuesday, 21 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"I am 16 years old and sound proof that Henry Cow will last."

I like this and also Anna saying since she is 13 and likes prog, it will be around forever. youth love=immortality, That's why Weird Al is still around. He was my favorite at 13. :)

― 1 1 2 3 5, Tuesday, 21 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Henry Cow, but only WITH Slapp Happy (or at least Dagmar) i'll second that.

― di, Wednesday, 22 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

seven years pass...

henry cow

― kamerad, Sunday, 15 November 2009 18:53 (sixteen years ago)

one year passes...

i miss dave q!

― geeta, Friday, 27 May 2011 08:18 (fourteen years ago)

was gonna say i love dave q

― Deeez Nuuults (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 May 2011 08:19 (fourteen years ago)

henry cow > stereolab > street preachaz

― LL Coolna (absolutely clean glasses), Friday, 27 May 2011 08:24 (fourteen years ago)

love em all but wd probably vote the pre-dead-Richey Preachers

― Deeez Nuuults (Noodle Vague), Friday, 27 May 2011 08:25 (fourteen years ago)

i've saved all the emails dave q sent me through the years. really hilarious stuff. someone should take all of dave's emails and ILM threads and publish them as a deluxe anthology, hunter s. thompson "proud highway"-style.

― geeta, Friday, 27 May 2011 08:27 (fourteen years ago)

henry is no kind of name for a cow

― contenderizer, Friday, 27 May 2011 08:38 (fourteen years ago)

Cowry Hen

― Mark G, Friday, 27 May 2011 08:45 (fourteen years ago)

Stereolab > HC > MSP.

I'm not much of a Henry Cow fan, really. They needed Dagmar to make them great.

― emil.y, Friday, 27 May 2011 12:51 (fourteen years ago)

A few weeks ago, some of us got together at MIT at night and watched the Henry Cow DVD that came with that enormous box set a few years ago. Impressive stuff...I "get" them a lot better after watching the live footage.

― geeta, Friday, 27 May 2011 13:54 (fourteen years ago)

Haha Geeta are you just reviving old-skool Dave Q TS threads? Awesome.

― Matt DC, Friday, 27 May 2011 14:41 (fourteen years ago)

yo matt!!! ha ha yeah I'm just about to revive the "TS: John Tesh vs. Yanni" thread, that one was pure genius

― geeta, Friday, 27 May 2011 16:13 (fourteen years ago)

orlando greenhill posted here!

― sarahel, Friday, 27 May 2011 16:15 (fourteen years ago)

oh man, i just found some old letters dave q sent me in 2003. solid gold. "Yo how's Oxford? If you see Tom Ewing tell him to download that Journey
track. Thanx for the link on 'Original Soundtrack'! Last night I was smoking...with these lawyers and they were telling me how great the Stiff Little
Fingers and the Vibrators were and I was making them to listen to Van Halen"

― geeta, Friday, 27 May 2011 18:13 (fourteen years ago)

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