Pulp: C.L.A.S.S.I.C.O.R.D.U.D?

Classic, if just for Common People alone. All the rest of it is just dressing. They've done enough top stuff to forgive the crap they did pre-His 'n' Hers, as well. Hell, they'd get classic even if all they ever did was Jarvis's behavior at the Brits re: Michael Jackson.

And they certainly help their case in that Jarvis was also involved in the most fantastic song ever, Set The Controls For The Heart of the Pelvis.

I remember a great interview with Arab Strap which was all bah we hate Pulp they pretend to be filthy and sordid but they prettify everything, it is WE who are filthy and sordid. So some people don't like them.

Classic. I'll probably get bored later on - well I'm bored now but you know what I mean - and try and explain why a bit more.

but still: classic. one of the few bands in these here modern times who never cease to put out something i enjoy. hopefully that streak will continue with the new album -- the live songs i've heard from it, or that are supposed to be from it, anyway, are great but they say that it's never good when it takes a band forever to complete an album and there are stories of the whole thing being scrapped and re-recorded...but they say a lot of things, don't they? besides, scott walker and marianne faithfull attached to the project? how can it go wrong! it's a 60s freak-out party!

Bill

Pulp as a band I think are pretty mediocre to be honest. I wouldn’t care if he dumped them and went to work with someone new. I liked his work with All Seeing Eye musically more than anything Pulp have recorded. So Pulp dud, Jarvis potential classic but too early to call.

The things that some people have been criticizing them for, like the ott factor, are part of what makes their music so good. They're not afraid to go over the top; something they have in common with great pop music. Indie bands tend to try for the "tastefully restrained" approach far too often.

And I don't think there's anything twee about Pulp -- there's a bitterness and desperation that's a subtext to too many of the songs to qualify for that. People tend to play up the lyrics when talking about Pulp, but I think the music is pretty excellent as well. Their sound was always a little too much in love with chart pop and disco to ever fall victim to the grey and plodding behemoth known as Britpop.

AND even if His N Hers, A Different Class and This Is Hardcore were not three of my favorite albums, I am such a pathetic and sad Scott Walker fan that I would immediately rate any band that let him produce their record. ;-)

His'n'Hers and Different Class alone are enough: classic. How they redeemed the mid-90s for me; the Pinefox's counter-argument is tempting but a classic misunderstanding of a band through discredit- by-association.

I'm sure the curse of Momus would have put Pulp somewhere between World of Twist and Denim. And Michael Jackson, his sails full of the wind of unchallenged messianic megalomania, would have made five brilliant new pop albums all produced by Cornelius.

Within two days stevie t mentions the heartstopping 'days in the trees' by Noman and now yous mention the wonderful WORLD OF tWIST, ILILM.

"In conclusion/A meaning wasn't had/Reflecting on the situation/Of a problem/Again."

Not appearing on the "Pyramid Song" B-side anytime soon.

but i almost never play them anymore. somehow, its seems too reminiscent of 1995. it seems almost wrong to play them now, out of that context (speaking subjectively here). this is a shame really, because they are such a classic. i hardly play stereolab any more either.

sometimes bands seems very tied to a particular era, and its difficult to extricate them from that.

everything post-different class is slightly disappointing

they were good too. regardless of barney sumner's 'we are weird' comments on jukebox jury

*OK not complete. The "She's A Rainbow" cover is best ignored and I've never, alas, heard "The Sausage".

Snub TV, circa 1990. World of Twist playing 'The Storm' and then being interviewed.

"We definitely see ourselves as a pop band, not rock" says the monkey boy leader. Much nodding of heads from the other band members.

I sit there and think "Yeah yeah, like you're so radical for saying that. God this indieboy pro-pop thing is starting to annoy me"

The funny thing is, looking back I'm not even sure why I thought this. Whose line did I think World of Twist were parroting? It wasn't like I was familiar with early 80s NME rhetoric. How did I get so opinionated so young? Maybe I just thought they'd nicked ideas I'd started to have about pop music and were cross that they'd made a hash of it.

Pulp: CLASSIC by the way, but I completely sympathise with pinefox's attempt to locate his problem with consensus outside the trappings of moronic snobbery. Don't understand why everyone is going on about 'Common People'. If ever there was a song that has been completely newtered through overexposure, that is it. I tend to skip it when I listen to 'Different Class' now.

What I find weird about 'This Is Hardcore' is that it contains perhaps their two finest achievements in the title track and 'The Fear', one pretty good track in 'Help the Aged', and then the rest is just treading water. Seriously, when I first put on the album and heard the opening track, I thought it was going to be the best record ever made. Then that godawful line about sharing the same initials as Jesus came on (is there anything more annoying than when he repeats it at the end of the song in case you didn't catch how clever it was the first time round?) and disillusion set in once more. *sigh*

great to know I'm not the only one to still be into world of twist too - can I be a smartarse and say I've got the "blackpool tower suite" 12"?

That said, it's quite a while since I've played any of their albums.

intro.

(not that anyone I've ever met talks or, indeed, sings like that.)

My god. I'm selling the rest of my CDs and just keeping the Pulp, any bidders?

Is this a Pulp lyric? It's amazing whatever it is.

Ha, amazing!

Cool!

Anyone looking for a ticket for this Friday’s show in Brooklyn? Would rather sell to a fan here for face value ($95, section 6) than go the StubHub route.

Chicago show was really fun and worth the travel. They were kind to come back out for "Spike Island," the crowd was already flooding away after the first encore (then came flooding back)

We got Spike island as well tonight (I think that’s what he said it was) so new song count still stands at 5. Lipgloss last night was subbed in for - very exciting to me - OU (Gone Gone)

WHAT A BAND. WHAT A FRONTMAN.

Yes!!

one of the best shows I've been to by far

I completely missed that they were touring the US so thanks for the bump. I just copped relatively reasonable resale tickets for this Saturday in Brooklyn and I am now stupidly hyped.

― Judi Dench's Human Hand (methanietanner), Monday, September 9, 2024 10:43 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Going to see them tonight in Brooklyn and I am also in the "stupidly hyped" bracket. Hoping for O.U. and/or Lipgloss in the set, but will be happy with whatever they do.

Anyone else going to SF shows?

Why yes, but you've reminded me that for very obvious reasons you've probably missed the FB thread I've got going.

Meetup beforehand at Anina, a few blocks away -- outdoor seating, which is the whole idea:

https://www.aninasf.com/

Only snacks, so eat beforehand, but non-alcoholic options too. I'll be there between 5:30 to 6.

I might have to go to this, tho tickets are over $100 for the Saturday Night Hollywood Forever Cemetery show.

The one and only time I saw Pulp was in 1994 with Blur in Hollywood. Blur were amazing and I'm sure I have told this story before. I thought well Blur were so good that I need to prepare for an okay Pulp show, they were even better.

Wait, I did see Pulp again, when I lived in San Francisco, at the Bimbo club.

Yeah, great live band. One of the best.

Seem to be some decently-priced tickets for Saturday's BK show on Stubhub, even one for the GA section in the very front. If it wasn't such a hike to Kings, I'd jump on this.

Yeah Bee I was at that Blur/Pulp show too. Getting “Common People” six months before release and it blowing the crowd’s mind is what I most remember.

I'll be at the SF show, but arriving just in the nick of time before show start

Text when you arrive and I’ll let you where we are!

Ruuuuuuuuuuled. As ever.

I was like the protagonist of “Sorted out”…. lost my friends and dance alone … lol … glad I went though!

Svenonius opened??

friend of mine took some great photos in chicago for this site

https://www.reviler.org/2024/09/10/photos-pulp-at-the-aragon-ballroom-chicago/

yeah the show in brooklyn on saturday was incredible. i felt like the only one in the pit who was excited to hear "bad cover version," but it was exciting to me dammit. jarvis has been doing those hypnotic hand dances for decades now. he looks exactly the same!

matt sweeney was in the crowd. he was taller than i thought he'd be.

and yes, svenonius opened to a completely puzzled audience. a guy near me asked if he had won a contest or something

Lol apparently his brother is a douchebag …

Now that it’s not 3 AM and I’m sober, my main experience in the VIP section (Toronto) was that I had an amazing view and that my friend spent a bit of time shit talking the opening act then turned around and realized he was standing right behind him. So rest assured, He’s been told at least once. Oops!

I got to meet Andrew and thank him for squeezing me and my friend in, and I did a good deed when a short woman was trying to look over my friend‘s shoulder: I told her to stand in front of me. Unfortunately, she stood in front of my other friend who is just as short as her, blocking her view, so I put my hands on her shoulders and pull her back toward me and said oh please don’t block my friends view, she got me into VIP! The woman asked if she had family in the band, said the bassist is her cousin, and then she told me oh I’m married to the drummer. So very blasé 🤣 she was nice though, and happily danced to common people in front of my very tall self, blocking no one’s view

I took some video and posted it to TikTok, if you search pull toronto, you should see my red haired icon. I’m weird about usernames though so I don’t wanna post it here but if you have me on Instagram, it’s the same one. I’m going to see if my friend who seemed to record the entire concert on his phone will send more

Pulp Toronto :( first AutoCorrect was Paul… I did try to fix that

Lol there was a review of the SF show that describes the audience as “aging Millennials” and I was like … wait what? … the majority of the people I saw there looked like they were in their 50s … comparable to the Miki Berenyi/ Budgie/LOL crowd… guessing the writer was probably a Millennial idk

oldest millenials would have been in high school at Pulp's peak. but yeah, my guess would be lots of 50 year olds.

my prediction actually, very psyched to see them tomorrow!

Happy birthday, Jarvis.

help the aged

crowd at the second LA show last night sang happy birthday to JC

phenomenal show, love this band so so much

Had some thoughts on Monday, wrote 'em up

https://www.patreon.com/posts/some-weekly-124-112388230

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/pulp-played-their-final-show-of-2024-at-hollywood-forever-cemetery-jarvis-cocker-says-this-is-only-the-beginning-video-setlist/

Yeah Ned, thanks for confirming what I'd heard- the only two times since the 90s they played around here was that Pomona show (barely LA) and Coachella (not LA). I'm even more glad (and pretty surprised) I saw their second proper LA show since the 90s.

You did indeed!

I didn't get to see them after all. I went back and forth with myself but I had a packed week. I moved and have a lot of old furniture and was a week project alone. My plus one bailed on me. I'm in Orange County and not LA, so driving had a big impact. To top everything off, family drama at the last moment. I was invited to a ticket by a fellow ilXor, thanks BTW, but as stated I couldn't make it.

Cemetery show RULED. stet please enable video hosting overnight so I can post clips.

Lineup is four old Pulps (Jarvis, Candida, Nick, Mark) and four sessioneers including Jason Buckle, so at least the latter can be expected to be in the new recording lineup. As that report notes, Jarvis was extremely heavily hinting at plans for more touring in 2025; guessing that they’ll be recording over winter.

nu-Svevonius band wasn’t *good* but were kind of ideal as support: non-terrible enough to politely pay attention to, quiet enough to chat during for ppl picnicking on the lawn, and two-person band with drum machine (or phone?) allowing for near-immediate changeover.

Hah nice. Maybe they were picked for that reason? I've never thought of the "logistics" of who to pick for an opener until I saw Devo explain why they never booked one. Nick Lowe is probably the only opening act I've ever seen to acknowledge what being an opener means, i.e. "warm up the crowd as they come in and find their seats."

(acknowledge during the actual opening set that is)

The logistics were my life for at least 10 years so it’s weird to think that there are people who are music fanatics who have never thought of this

It’s kinda refreshing !

I've always been green about it. If I was asked about an opener, I'd just think "why don't they get so-and-so, their music would go great together?" Probably like that with everything about the music business - "why did they break up, they were so good and they got along?" "Why don't they release another record?" Well, logistics and economics...

escape-ism ruled imo (and his brother is cool, sarahell!)

Nick Lowe is probably the only opening act I've ever seen to acknowledge what being an opener means, i.e. "warm up the crowd as they come in and find their seats."

There's the unintentionally humorous full-set vid of Spiritualized from when they opened for Neil Young & Crazy Horse in a summer shed in the late '90s. A good bit of the video is shot from behind the band, so you see all these perplexed boomers in their tie-dyes & straw hats gradually filling the seats and/or cutting out for the beer line during the set.

Lowe also has a funny story about Rockpile blowing headliners Bad Company off the stage so badly that their sets kept getting cut down by five minutes until they were finally doing a tight 15 minutes a night before happily going back to the hotel to party with groupies.

escape-ism ruled imo (and his brother is cool, sarahell!)

chaki!

https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/461268771_1074749351322766_4544617056419250943_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg&_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=rClUzqa6hC0Q7kNvgFyFdqa&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&_nc_gid=A3hMNA5uu8ZMNaoiGaqjTBR&oh=00_AYCHhRi3CRxMzwB47vfV3jrLqUb7FyM4cZSMt_v31vnGVA&oe=66FFB691

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-F7GT82izA

Extremely 1996 image in the still there, what with him from Pulp holding Trainspotting.