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the avalanches. most overrated act in the world?

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are the very mediocre avalanches given this much respect (or fellatio, if you will) elsewhere or is this a trend peculiar to this board?

― jarv, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

don't listen to anything i say about them... i'm their number two fan, (no really, i got second prize in a "describe in 25 words or less why you are the avalanches' no. 1 fan" competition. i'm wearing the t-shirt right now.) so i am biased.

in return, i will not listen to anything you say about them.

but, in answer to your question, no, it's not just this board, they are similarly fellated all over the web and even in real life.

― minna, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've only heard the two singles - 'Since I Left You' seemed like pleasant but hardly earth-shattering indie pop, while 'Frontier Psychiatrist' is one of the most horrible 'novelty' recs ever made. Maybe it all works as an alb/concept, but why release such weak singles?

― Andrew L, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Recently I saw Stereolab live, and beforehand I went to a signing, but I didn't have any CDs or anything with me so I just got them to sign an envelope. Then I went to the gig and discovered the Avalanches in the audience. I got them all to sign the other side of the envelope!

― Keith McDougall, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

respect = fellatio and fellatio = respect hurrah!!

― mark s, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

RESPECT ME!

― gareth, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've only heard the two singles - 'Since I Left You' seemed like pleasant but hardly earth-shattering indie pop, while 'Frontier Psychiatrist' is one of the most horrible 'novelty' recs ever made. Maybe it all works as an alb/concept, but why release such weak singles?

general consensus is that since i left you singles = no good (except electricity but that doesn't count), but working together they are like those robots from the 80s (i can't remember what they're called!) that are just normal robots alone but the whole set connect up to become a superbot with amazing new powers. i'm sure there must have been one kinda lame robot that could represent frontier psychiatrist.

the avalanches originally did not want to release singles, but avoiding them altogether is fairly unrealistic. they ended up choosing the songs that can stand alone. a lot of the other songs on the album are more like components in a dj mix than whole songs, and don't make much sense out of context. my advice: listen to it all the way through.

― minna, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

VOLTRON, DAMMIT!!

― Alex in SF, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't understand all this stuff about 'Since I Left You' not working as a single. It's the best single ever made.

Kind of agree about 'Frontier Psychiatrist' though.

Indie pop?

― N., Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

of course! thanks alex, i have a mind like a screen door hanging on one hinge

― minna, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

anyway, the album is overrated, i think its pretty mediocre, although since i left you isn't bad. they have one really good song though, 'slow walking', such a pity they haven't done more stuff like that

― gareth, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If you'd bought the album you definitely would have heard Frontier Psychiatrist enough by the time it was actually released.

But aside from the whole thing working fantastically, there are brilliant individual songs on the album. I'm speaking from the point of view of someone who didn't listen to it enough for about 6 months. It's now one of my favourite and in recent months, most played albums.

And Live at Dominoes made my Perfect 15 for good reason.

― Ronan, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah, gotta agree there, live at dominoes is ace. could never work out why it wasn't a single, because it even has a discrete beginning and end.

― minna, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah and as much as I love love love Daft Punk, I mean really really love them, Live At Dominoes kept any of their disco classics out of my top 15 that time. It's got to get extra marks for the Flight22 Goes to Honolulu part.

The other song I really love on it is number 10 (I think). It starts off with the sort of angelic opera singing and then has this cool build up.

― Ronan, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ELECTRICITY! my personal favourite avalanches song ever, maybe even song ever full stop. i don't know for sure, but i think there is actually a daft punk sample in there (from the beginning of da funk) - listen to the drums.

― minna, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I dunno, I don't think Electricity really works taken by itself.. but taken after A Different Feeling it's perfect. Live At Dominoes and Two Hearts in 3/4 Time are, of course, fucking brilliant, and that alone makes them worth all the fellatio they get here.

― EdwardO, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought Since I Left You was one of the loveliest pop songs of recent years. I can't say I've fallen for the album quite as much.

― Martin Skidmore, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I remembered today that I have never heard this major ILM fave band.

What do they sound like?

― the pinefox, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"What do they sound like?"

Like a bunch of musicians reading that thread where everyone decided that Saint Etienne were the British Beastie Boys, and thinking, "hey, there's an album in that concept!!!"

― Tim, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

also, read

umm???

read this - it's a bit breathless, but i think that's appropriate :)

― minna, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)



especially the second article.

― minna, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

A copy of the Avalanches album was SMASHED TO BITS in our flat just last night!

― Tom, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I had to live with it for a few months before I realized that it was one of the greatest records ever. I even like "Frontier Psychiatrist".

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've sit through the entirety of Mix Master Mike's "Anti-Theft Device" and DJ Q-Bert's "Wave Twisters". "Frontier Psychiatrist" didn't bother me at all.

Agreed that "Electricity" is the best song on there, though. Well, maybe except for the title track.

― Nate Patrin, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hey, did warner's close up Sire Records? Maybe we should have a thread on the Sire Records' legacy. They did release Avalanches in the states.

― g, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

A copy of the Avalanches album was SMASHED TO BITS in our flat just last night!

tom, don't make us give you a time out.

― jess, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Avalanches and Ramones. I'd say that's a decent legacy.

― Nate Patrin, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You forgot Madonna.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I can't imagine singling out a standout track from the album. My favourite parts of the record are the segues.

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah and even though "Frontier Psychiatrist" is the class clown of the bunch, it's not that bad - especially the bit with the 'parrot talking'

― Paul, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"A Different Feeling" is one of the greatest pieces of music ever. Ever. Ever.

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

...but it wouldn't be half as good without the glorious glorious glorious lead-up of "Close To You"/"Diners Only".

― Tim, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i listened at tower and it ranks up there with air's last album as the most overpraised record ever on ilm. granted the air album is just plain awful and this one is merely yawn-inducing but i think the general trend is that anything that everyone here agrees is great is normally crap.

― keith, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, those Tower listening booths really provide a great environment for making sweeping generalizations, don't they?

― Clarke B., Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Now Clarke, are home stereos or computers any better or worse?

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Even I, notorious hata of novelty songs, think "Frontier Psychiatrist" is pretty keen, Mel Brooks gone sampledelic. Though it is no match to "A Different Feeling." Which itself is not quite as good as "Summer Crane." Which isn't quite as fantastically lovely as all the Spring Egrets I've been seeing in Central Park lately. Who are simply not as transcendent as the way the Avalanches cut Ross Hodges, the Jackson Sisters' "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," and "Like a Rolling Stone" into "Since I Left You" during that Ibiza mix I've been raving about lavely.

― Michael Daddino, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

hmmm... a theory: mebbe most of the Avalanches naysayers are 'real musician' types who can't abide sampled music. come on fess up, outwithit ya cnuts! (whatever a c-nut is?)

anyway I bought the album cos of Tim's Jan 2001 review and it was almost as good as the review which is saying something!

― Paul, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i didn't like them either when i first heard them, and i couldn't get what all the fuss was about. months later, though, my love for it grew exponentially while walking around the city with my headphones on, listening to the album on repeat and grinning like an idiot.

the avalanches: MIND CONTROL?!?!??! perhaps. but it's a fun kind of mind control.

― geeta, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, 99% of the time I've listened to it, it's been on my Discman- either walking around the city or riding on the bus. The first time I really got into it was on some bus ride to the outskirts of suburban Minneapolis, going past General Mills headquarters in the dead of winter. I don't know if there's a connection between Since I Left You and part of this nutritious breakfast, but I shall continue searching.

― Nate Patrin, Saturday, 11 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Didn't like em when i first saw them in Jan of '98, "Rock City" could have been a beasties hit- Something about an aussie band with american accents-hearing them again 2001- still can't stand em - something about overplay, overhype, with or without fake american accents,

― James Walker, Saturday, 11 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

terrible videos. terrible, terrible videos.

I must admit not having listened to Since I Left You v.much, because Gimix (an earlier version, I think, of the record, bootlegged because they couldn't get sample clearance for it - hardly surprising, considering it runs e.g. Bob Dylan -> Old Dirty Bastard - > The Smiths -> The Beatles) is to my ears far better; not that Since I Left You is bad, but Gimix is simply one of the best pieces of pop music I've ever heard..

It's the recontextualisation of the thing, the idea that by putting all this together they're saying that the music of ODB is from the same thing as Dylan's, yes, but so is 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' and 'Stool Pigeon'; corollorary to this that no band gets 'respect', as such; that Beatles sample is sped up, tampered with, because the Beatles deserve no favored treatment over any other act they choose, because there is no split between what is considered disposable pop and what is "timeless"..

I don't think I can explain this very well.

― thom, Saturday, 11 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The Avalanches are sorta like the Scratch Perverts, minus the talent, plus the souls of 500 Christmas number ones.

― Judd Nelson, Saturday, 11 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)


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