Oh goodness. I remeber being a callow young sound designer in Uni, and half the directors would come up to me and say “you know, I found this really great song. It’s by this band called Portishead” Used to drive me nuts. You “found it” eh? How did you find it? Was it behind the fridge? Did you trip over it on a nature walk? Did you walk through the back of you cupboard and find a bunch of stoned pretentious tossers listening to it in the land of sodding Narnia? You discovered nothing! And just because you don’t recognise the instrument doesn’t make it high sodding art! You ‘found’ it in every other half arsed student play being directed, and heard it in every sodding dorm room! Gah! I hate them. And I hated having to listen to them again and again and again.

I’m sorry. That should read “did you walk through the back of YOUR cupboard”.

Many apologies.

Hiya Ben. Sodding, eh? It appears that the swearing gene which is so dominant in brother Matthew is recessive in your case? I don’t know, I used to really like Portishead. I still think “Cowboys” from the second album is sodding brilliant. ;^> As for the new one, though…lack…luster.

He’s an American now C&B. A New Englander at that. His missus liked my Fresh Air broadcast better than my podcasts because at least I didn’t have to swear all the time.

There is no hope for the country at all.

I have been to Fenway Park in a Yankees pyjamaform (well, cap anyway) and therefore I can attest to the fact that New Englanders swear like the dickens. Gee willikers, I’ve never been so reviled.

Please don’t take this the wrong way C&B, for you seem like a lovely chap but:

The Yankee’s, their fans and they’re shortstop can all go fuck themselves. Bunch of Armani pinstripe wearing cock chuggers, who’d rather juice themselves up, interfere with 15-year-olds and and fellate each other than play ball.

As for Portishead, the serial anal abuse of livestock conjures up more pleasing sounds. Which I know for a fact because I used to do just that in order to drown out the incessant Portishead playing and self-congratulatory fandom I suffered through in university.

Toad is quite right. That felt marvellous! How I’ve missed a proper outburst of profanity.

(C&B, he’s from Boston these days. Enough said.)

I’m delighted to have provided an occasion for your “release.” There’s nothing like a Red Sox fan for a dribbling burst of slurred verbal flatulence. Just you remember the Tea Party, Redcoatboy. It may seem all blowjobs and cheetohs in Beantown these days, but just remember you’re no more than a few centuries away from tar and feathers on the steps of Faneuil Hall.

And also, Jason Varitek sodomizes the mentally ill.

So in other words, no-one gives a shit about Portishead, amiright?

You are correct, sir.

Quite right. And they never will!

I’m actually a Nationals fan so honestly, I find the Sox a bit irritating too. Smug fucks!

You know who else are smug fucks? Portishead!

I actually find some of their work very interesting. Mourning Rain is a stunningly dark and beauitful little number. I think just like a lot of dark music it’s hard to listen to. But I don’t hate them. In fact I will stick up for them since nobody else will.

It’s about time someone had something nice to say. I was starting to feel a bit mean.

I’m nice! I liked their first two records, and I still think Cowboys is brilliant, but the songs I’ve heard from the new one have done nothing for me. I’m sure that in their individual capacities they are true humanitarians.

Your vicious little brother is the mean one. Last time I’ll turn my back on him, I’ll tell you that.

I’m a rather big Portishead fan too. Yes, every tv programme and his dog (This Life) were using their tracks in the mid-nineties and they were totally over-exposed as a result. They’ve often said in interviews that they disliked that aspect but perhaps they should have been a bit more discerning with what they allowed their publishing company to hawk the songs out to. You could say the same thing about the off-putting ubiquity of Moby’s Play a few years ago (now that was a cynical but lucrative move!), but having listened to some of it again recently I found it rather likeable. And just as I used to adore Jeff Buckley’s version of Hallelujah it’s now a bit tarnished when it keeps cropping up on shitty US teen dramas as lazy short-hand for the tortured teen angst of moneyed little skunks in their comically opulent mansions. But, just because something is overplayed doesn’t mean it’s not good. And good work for persisting with something you know you don’t like. If you haven’t already, and want to give them just one more try, give the Live at Roseland NYC album a go. All the tracks are so much better than the album versions, partly due to having a dirty great orchestra behind them. The intro to cowboys is truly terrifying if you’re stereo is up too loud, and the version of sour times is completely different to the original with an amazing feedback/howl ending. And if I can’t convince you of that, at least give John Martyn’s cover of Glory Box a try - an acoustic blues cover of a trip hop song covering a sample. Weird.

And as for Third, I’ve only had time to listen to it twice and my first impressions are - where are the tunes?

Third?

TURD more like!

Ha.

That settles it.
I’m getting my own blog.

Gold dust like that is wasted in the comments box.

Oh yeah I’d forgotten about the Live at Roseland CD. I used to really like that one. I’ll have to go digging.

And Bart, allow me to congratulate you on your rapier wit. How ’bout, bad things come in threes? Zing!

Ian, that ubiquity doesn’t make things shit but it can make them impossible to listen to. Slip Into Something and At the River being obvious examples of songs that are nigh-on impossible to enjoy now, but on their own merits are pretty hummable tunes.

Moby and the first Goldfrapp album were advertised to death.

I may give the live one a try then, seeing as the recorded stuff has consistently left me cold.

I haven’t got any opinion at all on the Portishead LP, but I do want to say, in respect of some of the earlier comments.

YANKEES SUCK
RED SOX SUCK

Go Blue Jays

Oh and to prove that I do remember things, this last line is for Toad himself…

RIP Expos.

Poor old Dad. I still don’t think he’s over the demise of the Expos.

I actually like Dummy a lot. I think, though, & why not, in a kind of perverse way. No surprises there, then.

When it came out I was seeing this woman who was what is now termed a ’singer/singwriter’. She was a rathe runfortunate sort. She & her band, The Pier, won some TV music competition (way, way, way before X Factor & Idol), which had Jonathan King as one of the judges/impressarios/child rapists, & put in some studio time, did a rough album demo, released a few singles etc., & were genuinely tipped for ‘bigger things’.

Then, during a soundcheck for a TV appearance, she was standing in front of one of the monitors & her guitarist flipped on his amp without checking any volume levels & a huge squall of feedback hit her, bursting an eardrum & tearing her inner ear walls. As a result, she developed the most astonishingly intrusive tinnitus - this, obviously, I couldn’t hear, but her reactions to it were quite clear that she wasn’t enjoying the new head soundtrack. She had to wear earplaugs & defenders in order to simply walk to work. She had to find a car (turns out it was a Honda) whose engine didn’t reverberate at a certain decibel. She wasn’t being difficlut, or prima donna-ish; I’m simply explaining how her life had to change as a result.

Anyway, the point. She didn’t pick up a guitar for years after because she couldn’t do pubs or clubs or, therefore, gigs, because of the jnoise levels. She started fiddling about with an acoustic until she became comfortable with the quieter sound, played asbout with piano, altered her vocal style, started adding beats, got her old drumemr & another old guitarist to help out with production & started creating these very laid back & ethereal sounding songs.

Then Portishead happened.

She was gutted.

I’m not saying it was a direct sound-a-like, because it wasn’t (esp. the instrumentation & turntablism on Dummy, which the portagonist of this story never had), but vocally, bloody hell it was spookily close. She loved & hated Dummy because it represented everything she loved in music after the accident & everything she wanted to be with her music now she’d found her ‘voice’ again. Only she hadn’t. At least, not quickly enough.

So everytime I hear it I think of her: Alison. She was a strange, jittery, wiry woman, with a cascade of bark brown hair, & this deep, breathy singing voice that sounded like a seal with laringitus. She came with enough baggage to fill Terminal 5 & was prone to fucking her band members. But, Emily loved her. The soft saggy old cloth eared twat.

*singer/songwriter, obviously

Ay, it is too easy to slag Portishead these days. The first album was great. The ubiquity of the tracks that soon followed did dull their brilliance. And the second album wasn’t as good as Dummy. But few groups indie or dance can produce a whole album of top notch stuff.

And Toad, don’t bother with the Live album. The whooping from the annoying Amercian frat boys really spoils it.

Finally…errr…twat (for no reason other than swearing seems de rigeur here and I didn’t want to feel left out).

Moby’s Play - now that is something that bothers me a great deal and I’ll tell you why. I bought that album for a fiver on cassette when it was first released, nobody knew about it, nobody cared about it and I played it constantly in my bedroom back in Dundee. It’s a brilliant piece of music which I love(d) - but ever since the constant over playing of it, the constant use in tv commericals, tv shows etc - I’ve just not been able to listen to it. I feel the same way about Damien Rice - balls to those who think he’s crap - it’s only cause he’s commercial and sings about love and you know it. When I first saw him supporting Counting Crows (balls to those who don’t like them as well!!) nobody knew who he was and O hadn’t even been released. And he was brilliant. I saw him at King Tut’s and he was magnificent - but to be fair, I don’t like the second album and he wasn’t much fun at the Usher Hall (only went cause I wanted to see Fionn Regan and he got to play 4 songs!!!) but I guess my point is - maybe my opinion has been tarnished by the over playing of his songs? The same applies to Portishead I think but to be honest I think when it comes to dark, atmospheric music not many people do it better. I haven’t heard third and in many ways I don’t want to as I am only a casual listener anyways - but the first 2 albums definitely get some kudos from me.

Sigh. JC, that’s just sad. The Blue Jays are the sort of franchise that sells sushi and embroidered purses at the ballpark. It’s like following the Kansas City Royals for Chrissakes.

And Ctel? American frat boys? At a Portishead gig? When Dummy came out I was a graduate student at a University in New York with a great many frat boys, and I can assure you that NONE of them were into Portishead. Also, Portishead didn’t get played nearly as much in the States as they did in the UK, and so I don’t recall that exhaustion factor ever being very significant over here.

Frat boys? I thought the audience were remarkably polite. Show me a live album where the audience don’t erupt with applause in the opening bars of their favourite/classic songs. And given Portishead’s, shall we say, work-shy output every single track is a gem. Apart from All Mine (this track has always grated with me for some reason). I will give you the obnoxious whooping, out of time clapping and general arsing up of the last line of Roads from that album though. Dreadful to listen to, but the track is a bit of a con cos it’s not from the Roseland session. it was recorded at the Quart Festival instead so it’s European frat boys to blame!

I’ve listened to the live album again since my last post and remembered how bloody brilliant I think it is, so forgive me if i’ve become a bit more militant in my defence of them! Admittedly it also has some sentimental attachment - driving an old VW Beetle round deserted country roads in Texas late at night for several months in a proper “Dazed and Confused” stylee has helped rather endear it to me. I’ve also had a quick listen to Third again and I’m beginning to think it might be a bit Emperor’s New Clothes. Could be a grower though…..

And while we’re on about bad language - “Knockers”.

Flange.

The thing with Moby’s Play is that Moby licensed all the tracks to buggery himself in order to make the dosh that he hoped they’d make. i.e. bang out a few adverts with him in the background & he gets a nice PRS/license fee, etc. Trouble is, it (being the Ad Men) went bananas for tracks & very quickly they were on everything all the time. Can’t listen to it massively now, mainly because of the constant expose. But, still a good album.

Flapdoodle

Felt Mountain was doing the same sort of rounds at the same time. At least half a dozen of the songs on that album were on every other advert on the telly. Presumably the ones Moby didn’t already have sewn up. Funnily though, I can’t really listen to Play anymore but Felt Mountain is still enjoyable.

but why won’t we listen to the album??? it’s still good right??! Is it us that’s fucked up??!

You didn’t swear, Euan. You have to swear on this site, because we’re rebels, see?

I don’t know. I find the same with Automatic For the People - just can’t listen to it all the way through anymore. Music has a strong emotional impact, overplay interferes with that emotional impact, so I suppose it’s probably as simple as that. It’s not just about the sounds themselves.

Keep hoping i might fall in love with this new portishead LP, but it’s yet to happen…

I’m just drenched in Play - it was over-saturated & the joy of listening at leisure was replaced by enforced listening at times when my frame of mind wasn’t set to ‘Moby’. Same with anything, really. I try not to overplay anything myself these days because I always want to be able to pick up a record & be a little unsure as to the reasons why i liked it in the first lpace, rather than knowing exactly what’s coming up & therefore a certain sprinkling of magic dust is removed from the equation. This, obviously applied to new stuff as it appears, rather than old favourites.

I just dropped in to thank Matt for linking to my Portishead post, and lordy, I spent 30 minutes reading to the end of the comments! My apologies for going colloquial on you erudite sods…

Ian is correct that Portishead has not been overplayed in the States, so we are less likely to be sick of it than you folks in the UK. Although I like both Dummy and Third (the 2nd album not so much), I surely don’t expect everyone to like Portishead’s music, and I understand completely how you can be worn out on something. I never have to hear “Stairway to Heaven” again in this life.

There are bands I can think of where everyone else is hysterical about them, and I am anywhere from unimpressed to downright nauseous. Deerhoof and LCD Soundsystem come to mind. And that Canadian band that sounds just like Springsteen, to which someone I know said, “I don’t hear that.” Then there’s the promo CD I received in the mail that I put in my “This is shit” box, and I see Rolling Stone gave it 3.5 stars.

Back to Portishead. When I was listening to Dummy, I experienced a life-shattering loss. “Wandering Star” perfectly expressed my feelings, and I played it and the rest of the album many times for the relief it provided. This is why I listen to music in the first place–because it expresses my thoughts and feelings in a way that I am not able to.

I would agree that Portishead sound somewhat different live than in studio. I found and posted two songs from the Coachella concert, one of which, Threads, from Third, is just so much stronger than the album version that I only want to hear it live now.

My bad language contribution: chingadera

So, Matt, I have a chance to see the Builders and the Butchers again. Should I? Hmmmm?

Fannybaws

I recently listened to Play for the first time in about 5 or 6 years, as like so many others, I had grown sick of hearing it everywhere. And I loved it…..maybe the trick is not to listen again for a long time.

cuntrats

will give it a shot

Linda, we’re going to the Pickathon Festival in Portland in August and Matt from Bladen County Records has offered to take myself and my young lady out for a few drinks and an intro into the Portland music scene. I am praying that there’s going to be a Builders & Butchers show in the city when we’re there. If they really are as good as you said then I would see them again and again and again.

What’s a flapdoodle?

Not one comment about my use of the most repulsive word ever - what’s wrong with you guys?!?!

We weren’t offended Euan. We’ve heard worse.

Bart, if you need it explained then you’re never really going to understand.

Isn’t it just northwest of the mingeflaps?

I loved Dummy, left unmoved by the second LP and Third is not the masterpiece the press seem to claim it is. Have posted a full review on my blog highway five music.

Portishead Third at my UK Music Blog

Mate, that is very, very nearly spam.

I don’t care about Portishead.

The only thing I’m interested in about them is that, unless I’m mistaken, they’re part of that whole Bristol incestuous family tree of bands who swapped members in a fairly willy-nilly fashion throughout the nineties, that includes The Blue Aeroplanes.

Now, The Blue Areoplanes are a band I like an awful lot.

I also like Boston (The place, not the band.) Been there twice. Very nice indeed.

Oh, and I was also going to say I heard Go by Moby in a bar the other day. I’d forgotten what a great track that was..

Matt– I see that the B&B are in Portland on May 17, but maybe they’ll go back there in August. I hope so! I am going to try to talk my daughter into seeing them at a tiny all-ages club east of L.A. on June 13 and take my grandson to his first concert. Gotta corrupt the boy sometime.

I think I speak for everyone, Linda, when I say that you are the coolest goddamned grandma ever.

My Mum took me to Bryan Adams. You are taking your Grandkids to the Builders & the Butchers. My childhood sucked.

Ouch! Dissin’ Bryan Adams! That Cuts Like a Knife, man. You know you still whistle “Did You Ever Really Really Really Really Really Really Really Love A Woman” in the shower. Really love her. My first concert was Loverboy, sans parents though, fortunately.

I like Portishead quite a lot. Can’t recall much exposure here in the States at all, really…

Also!

“There are bands I can think of where everyone else is hysterical about them, and I am anywhere from unimpressed to downright nauseous. Deerhoof and LCD Soundsystem come to mind. And that Canadian band that sounds just like Springsteen, to which someone I know said, ‘I don’t hear that.’”

I think Linda was talking about the Constantines. I am hysterical over them.

Enjoying the multiple conversations that came out of this post.

spunk-knuckle

Toad, B&B are in San Diego on 11th June.

So am I.

I do believe a mwah ha ha ha! is called for…

It’s kind of lost track of the original thread, eh? But in a good way!

spunk-knuckle?!

I’m not sure where to go with that imagery.

Kind of reminds me of cock blanket, which is in such common use now (well, amongst me and a couple of mates) that I often forget I made it up.. (A bus pulled out on me as I was overtaking, and the bus driver had the dubious of honour of becoming, courtesy of my profane bellowing, the world’s first official “…fucking cock blanket”

I think that spunk-knuckle and cock-blanket are both terms where the two individual words make no sense when combined - but they just sound right. They make beautiful music together. Poetry of the profane, if you will.

A random winky face, and a missing close-bracket. I think a stray semi-colon may have sneaked in somewhere…

I apologize in advance for taking this discussion in a scatalogical direction, but I’ve become fond of the term “fecalith” to describe those I hate. I imagine it as a sort of towering edifice of shite.

Erm, that’s faecalith over here mate. None of your lazy colonial vowelry on this side of the pond.

But I’m not over there; I’m over here. And as a miserable imperialistic hegemon (or is that haegemon) I’m going to insist on dropping the silent “hay.” Take that, you limey fequalith.

By the way, “Pilgrim Road” by the Willard Grant Conspiracy just came out. I’ve heard some snippets, but not the whole thing. What’s the verdict?

Not heard it yet. Going to see them on Thursday though, and Robert is up for a chat again.