Help me, for I have lost my mind

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Today, for reasons not quite clear to even me, I bought:

Martin Grech - Unholy
Biffy Clyro - The Vertigo Of Bliss

Now, so far, they sound kinda OK. I may even like them one day, but for now they're just a bit meh. I could have done so much better with my fourteen quid...

...and researching them on ILM, I find that nobody has made a reference to them except Dom Passantino, and he seems to regard them as two of the worst acts in the history of everything ever. Is this a good sign?

Yeesh.

― unfished business, Sunday, 25 February 2007 18:08 (nineteen years ago)

MY HEAD

actually I can see good in at least the Biffy Clyro, and a couple of the Grech tracks have a satisfying flow to them.

― unfished business, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:26 (nineteen years ago)

Biffy Clyro are sincerely bad.

― the next grozart, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:30 (nineteen years ago)

I BLAME YOU, HMV STAFF MEMBER, FOR RECOMMENDING IT TO ME

if only i could take the laptop into the store with me and ask ILM before purchasing...

― unfished business, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:33 (nineteen years ago)

or just consult allmusic, or ANYTHING!

― unfished business, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:33 (nineteen years ago)

maybe the Grech is the better release, actually. It's definitely growing on me.

― unfished business, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:04 (nineteen years ago)

Biffy Clyro are the band Hell Is For Heroes could have been.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:15 (nineteen years ago)

Father, I repent.

― unfished business, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:18 (nineteen years ago)

Next week's Louis Jagger purchases: Dawn of the Replicants, Man Or Astroman, Silversun, Sugarcoma

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:23 (nineteen years ago)

Apes, Pigs and Spacemen
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― Dom Passantino, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:24 (nineteen years ago)

This was a one-off, I promise. To atone I've just spent an equivalent amount of money on an L.Subramaniam double-disk set.

― unfished business, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:32 (nineteen years ago)

hahahahaha Biffy Clyro the band "Kerrang says you have to hear". Louis, I'd watch that HMV guy. He might recommend Symposium next.

Don't you have independent shops you can visit?

oh christ Apes, Pigs And Spacemen haha. The main guy in that was in Candyflip (top ten hit with a cover of Strawberry Fields Forever)

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:39 (nineteen years ago)

That's the thing, I don't know of a single decent record-store in Cambridge. Fopp, of course, doesn't count.

WAHT HAV I DUN

― unfished business, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:43 (nineteen years ago)

There was a thread on best record shops in the uk. If you can find that then perhaps it will help.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:50 (nineteen years ago)

I've already looked at that thread and there was diddly squat on Cambridge (except to mention Fopp).

― unfished business, Monday, 26 February 2007 18:53 (nineteen years ago)

jesus, don't you have some sort of alarm in your head that goes off whenever you're thinking of buying a CD by someone/-thing called "Biffy Clyro"?

― bernard snowy, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:03 (nineteen years ago)

I BLAME YOU, HMV STAFF MEMBER, FOR RECOMMENDING IT TO ME

Bring it back then. Tell them you were recommended it and it is shit. This works in many branches of HMV.

― accentmonkey, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:03 (nineteen years ago)

But they'll know I've already digitally copied it to a computer! Don't ask how, but they will. Ach, it's worth a try.

Bernard, I sadly don't have band-name alarms. Unless the band is called 'Desecrati' or something.

― unfished business, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:05 (nineteen years ago)

Biffy Clyro are named after Cliff Richard. FACT.

― Dom Passantino, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:05 (nineteen years ago)

'Tis one moving thread, gentlemen.

― t**t, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

Take it back. If you swap it for something rather than getting a refund you might have a better chance.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

You should be allowed to sue HMV for inflicting Biffy Clyro on your ears.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:35 (nineteen years ago)

What else are they going to recommend to him? The mind boggles.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:36 (nineteen years ago)

What else are they going to recommend to him?

Hehe!
The options are certainly countless, aren't they?
For starters, there should be no shortness of really hopeless German hard rock bands...

― t**t, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:42 (nineteen years ago)

The Mind Boggles.

― Frogman Henry, Monday, 26 February 2007 19:44 (nineteen years ago)

i liked that one song by biffy, with the number in the title and that was a bit emo. the rest is trash

― electricsound, Monday, 26 February 2007 22:58 (nineteen years ago)

When Louis takes his cds back I do wonder what they will try to swap him. Probably something along the lines of "these are going to be the new snow patrol!"

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 02:38 (nineteen years ago)

The dude actually seemed quite knowledgeable, he knew (or said he knew) most of the bands I threw at him. I explained that I wanted something complex, intelligent, and ambitious, and later claimed that I loved Ride and Blur. He countered this by saying that I was contradicting myself, he didn't know what I was after, and that Blur and Ride were two of the simplest bands evah.

"I'm a musician, and trust me, most Blur songs have only two or three chords. They're really very, very simple."

At that point I should have smelt a rat (i.e. this dude knows SHIT about Blur) but sadly no.

He did like MBV, SFA and Talk Talk (allegedly) though!

― unfished business, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 02:45 (nineteen years ago)

I explained that I wanted something complex, intelligent, and ambitious
So why then did he recommend Biffy Clyro? (could've been worse, he might have made you buy Coheed And Cambria or The Mars Volta).

Actually, no, that's still better than Biffy Clyro.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 03:24 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, he certainly DID recommend Coheed And Cambria, but I'd already heard enough of 'em...

― unfished business, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 10:40 (nineteen years ago)

hmv isnt a very good record store.

have you tried http://www.ebay.co.uk

― 688, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 10:41 (nineteen years ago)

http://campaign.indieclick.com/adimage.php?filename=728x90_64.gif&contenttype=gif

― acrobat, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 13:47 (nineteen years ago)

i bought an AR Kane CD on eBay.

― blueski, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 13:49 (nineteen years ago)

Louis, Fopp in Cambridge is okay, but their selection has dwindled to practically nothing over and above more mainstream items. I hardly ever go there anymore. You'd be better off spending your time browsing Amazon, really.

― tissp, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:53 (nineteen years ago)

I have recently spent 27 quid on three cds i'm never going to listen to again. Fortunately, Fopp has a decent returns policy. Goodbye, slightly rubbish neo-fusion disc, you and Biffy Clyro would have made a great couple but it ain't to be.

Are you sure there aren't any decent stores in, say, north or east Cambridge?

― unfished business, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 14:58 (nineteen years ago)

Take those cd's back to HMV and ask for a refund.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:00 (nineteen years ago)

Very well, K3rr, but I'm keeping the Grech, it may have value. You have two minutes to convince me to get rid of it as well!

― unfished business, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:03 (nineteen years ago)

Nope. Sorry.

xpost

― tissp, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:08 (nineteen years ago)

There used to be a couple of independents, but they've all gone now (with the exception of Streetwise on King Street, but that's a Dance/D&B etc specialist), AFAIK

― tissp, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:12 (nineteen years ago)

Cambridge (King Street) used to be pretty good for record shops when I used to live there (admittedly this would have been when Louis was in short trousers). Yeah, wait until your trips to London, or shop on line. Don't they have listening-places in HMV where you can listen to stuff before shelling out your hard-earned cash? (the only time I've been in HMV in the last few years has been to buy Panini football stickers, so I'm not much of an expert on them).

Also if, as you said, you think they're kinda OK and may grow on you, why do you need a bunch of mentalists going "haha, they're shite, what are you thinking?" and telling you otherwise? Is it just so you can tell us how much money you spend on CDs?

― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:21 (nineteen years ago)

If you want listening-post stuff, Borders is your best bet. They have a fancy system where it reads the barcode and plays you the record. Downsides: it doesn't work for everything, it seems.

― tissp, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 15:28 (nineteen years ago)

I have never heard Martin Grech, Louis. So I have no opinion on that.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:03 (nineteen years ago)

xpost to Louis - I'm guessing you're wanting talked out of liking this stuff, yes? Perhaps I've read this wrong and you're waiting for someone to tell you it's OK to listen to this?

In that case, here you go...you think it's kind of OK. It might grow on you. Keep listening and see. Then decide yourself whether to take one or both back based on whether they do grow on you. Or keep them and fuck what anyone else thinks - it's for your listening pleasure not theirs, right? Revolutionary, huh?

― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:10 (nineteen years ago)

If I remember right Martin Grech was some sort of Radiohead-lite soundtrack to some shitty car advert. But that doesn't mean his album doesn't sound perfectly pleasant and chocolatey, right?

― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:11 (nineteen years ago)

Biffy Clyro have got a date with the 9th circle of hell tho.

― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:12 (nineteen years ago)

I'm guessing you're wanting talked out of liking this stuff, yes? Perhaps I've read this wrong and you're waiting for someone to tell you it's OK to listen to this?

In that case, here you go...you think it's kind of OK. It might grow on you. Keep listening and see. Then decide yourself whether to take one or both back based on whether they do grow on you. Or keep them and fuck what anyone else thinks - it's for your listening pleasure not theirs, right? Revolutionary, huh?

The bit about having two minutes to convince me was both a tongue-in-cheek challenge and an enquiry as to whether anyone had heard the Grech and grown to like it. From what I've heard so far it has a MUCH greater chance of growing on me than the Clyro. Besides, both are safely copied to my computer so I can still judge their comparative worth in future. The BC cover art was, moreover, singularly revolting, so it had to go regardless of whether the music was any good!

I also have a track record of listening to things for pleasure and fucking what everyone else thinks; how on earth would I ever have gotten round to loving Mansun or the Mars Volta from you guys? :P

For a combined total of the BC, the Subramaniam ugh-ness and four extra pounds, I have purchased in return:

Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom
Mew - Frengers
MBV - Isn't Anything
Primus - Sailing The Seas Of Cheese

...which constitutes, I'd say, the rediscovery of my mind!

Oh, and NV, the Grech album is dirty, dark, clanking, and totally unlike the song from the Lexus ad.

― unfished business, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:29 (nineteen years ago)

Weird, cos I sincerely like the ad song, I thought the anonymity was kinda soothing.

― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 16:33 (nineteen years ago)

Nothing wrong with a bit of Mansun.

― ailsa, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:20 (nineteen years ago)

That bit is the intro to "The Chad Who Loved Me" and I claim my five pounds.

― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:21 (nineteen years ago)

Can we have a thread where I tell Louis what to listen to and that's it?

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:23 (nineteen years ago)

I thought there was already a board for that.

― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:23 (nineteen years ago)

ILWWE?

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:24 (nineteen years ago)

We could start a thread called FOR PITY'S SAKE DON'T LISTEN TO BIFFY CLYROG

― Noodle Vague, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:26 (nineteen years ago)

"Why does Kanye West say "FOR PITY'S SAKE DON'T LISTEN TO BIFFY CLYROG" in "Impossible"?"

― Dom Passantino, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:33 (nineteen years ago)

I have learnt my lesson and the Clyrog are a thing of the past. Dom will tell me to listen to Belle & Sebastian and I will explain that I heard most of their output when I was 15 and that nowadays only a small fraction of it has stuck. :-(

He will then tell me to listen to Fall Out Boy and there will be impasse.

― unfished business, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 17:40 (nineteen years ago)

You never know ,Dom might tell you to listen to Slayer.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Tuesday, 27 February 2007 18:39 (nineteen years ago)

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