Oh No Not Again! (off-topic)

Well, we can always rely on the NME to come up with yet another pathetic pigeonhole / tag / trend can't we....following hot on the heels of the "New Acoustic Movement", "NWONW", "New Grave", "New Prog" and of course "Riot Grrl", we now have...wait for it.... EMO !!! This apparently stands for Emotional Hardcore - well I never! - but suitably contracted to just three letters to appeal to the txt mssgng generation (who have the collective attention span of an amoeba anyway). It's so important that even the Guardian mentioned it in today's supplement, even though music mags like RockSound and NME have been desperately trying to cook this one up a while now, seems like they're about to succeed after all......oh wow... Well, what a load of boolocka!! Only because it's just another convenient label to stick on a genre of music that has been going for over a decade anyway - to me bands like Fugazi and Husker Du (two of my all time fave bands) have been doing "emo" for yonks. So this is nothing new - just that all these new faces will be tagged with this term and it will once again be the millstone round their neck by which they will be judged....what a crafty bunch of fuckers the NME et al are....

EMO? I thought that was that skinny American comedian geezer in the late 80's with a pudding basin hair cut and gangly arms....anyone else remember him? I believe he's re-emerged again after a long hibernation.

Emo Philips is who you're talking about, he doesn't deserve a whole movment named after him....

Every trend in pop music is useless after 2-3 years. Hell, earlier today whilst listening to Barney's CB collaberation Out of Control I was remembering the trend of "electronica" and how DJ's were supposed to be the next big thing....when was the last time they were invited to be on TRL? The music press is just hungrey for another wave of crappy bands to whom they can attach a label ala Grunge and Brit-pop, and ver few groups will ever lift off completely the tag which they are assigned by the narrow music press.

Yeah - exactly my line of thought Tabsy - and yep you're right about it being Emo Phillips - I saw him recently on TV and he looked SO different from way back then - he's now married and quite comfortably paunchy in a middle-aged kind of way (not dissimilar to our heroes then - this suggests that , shock, Emo's actually been spending his last ten years out of the public eye EATING !!!), plus he's now no longer got a bowl cut but short grey hair and glasses - but as soon as he opens his mouth, his voice is unmistakable! Funny guy - strange that he chose to almost disappear off the face of the earth for a decade and just when we thought we'd never hear of him again, back he pops and does an impromptu European tour.....

Maybe Husker Du will get some recognition at last !

I don't think so......more likely a bunch of jumped-up little over-hyped johnny-come-latelys garnering all the plaudits - not to mention sales - by blatantly ripping them (or the very fine Fugazi) off big time.......... grrr.

maybe EMU would be a better name. Sounds funnier.

what exactly is emotional hardcore? it sounds pretty shit.

Me too Sarah - it's only yet another one of these oh-so-elitist tags dreamed up by the NME or their contemporaries just to aid more lazy pigeonholing presumably. Fads fads and more fads, they're champions at that kind of thing. We're best off out of it anyway... :)

i think i'll just stick with my lightning seeds cd's - unless someone decides that their music has its own bizarre genre with a weird name.

Did you know that the NME (not them again!) nominated the Lightning Seeds under the tag "Wimp-Rock" once? That's true actually! See? they seem to have a label for absolutely everything! :D

i'm not impressed with them - they'll be hearing from my lawyers. that'll make them regret the day they messed with the sparkly sarah. i suppose i could just beat them up of course...

Originally posted by Major Tarantino maybe EMU would be a better name. Sounds funnier.

Yep - that's how I imagined it should be called too! Haw haw. And anyway, Rod Hull's dead, so he can't sue for breach of copyright either...

Originally posted by Todd (Ben Sweeney) Did you know that the NME (not them again!) nominated the Lightning Seeds under the tag "Wimp-Rock" once?That's true actually! See? they seem to have a label for absolutely everything! :D

Yeah - I can vouch for that - even the writers themselves have labels for one another too: such as - "twat", "tosser", "dicknail", "shagbag", "wanker", "rodgerer", "arsehole", "penis", "c***flap", and a personal favorite of theirs, "knobcheese".

Here here, Hubert - do you know that with such language you're in grave danger of turning into the Shugster there? Dearie me, his terrible influence seems to be corupting everybody here of late...

It would be better if it was ELO...:D

Originally posted by Sparkly Sarah i think i'll just stick with my lightning seeds cd's - unless someone decides that their music has its own bizarre genre with a weird name.

Sugar Coated Iceberg - great song.

Actually, all this talk of Emo /Emu/Elo has got me digging out all my old early 90s hardcore stuff to listen to again and trying to make sense of how these kids today would regard this stuff.......best of the bunch have to be our great UK hardcore hopes LEATHERFACE - anyone else remember them? I do, fondly...and here is "Mush" once again to tell me that I haven't sidelined them for good! What a beautiful noise! Then, "Minx" - the album after that: "Heaven Sent!", "Do The Right Thing" , "Wallflower" - what songs!! Wonder what Frankie Stubbs is up to these days? Another lost band on US label Dischord - NATION OF ULYSSES - "13 Point Plan To Destroy America" - none more powerful!! What are these kids missing?!?! EMO? Sod that! It's back to the old skool for me mate thank yer very much....!

Originally posted by Hubert Mickle Actually, all this talk of Emo /Emu/Elo has got me digging out all my old early 90s hardcore stuff to listen to again and trying to make sense of how these kids today would regard this stuff.......best of the bunch have to be our great UK hardcore hopes LEATHERFACE - anyone else remember them? I do, fondly...and here is "Mush" once again to tell me that I haven't sidelined them for good! What a beautiful noise! Then, "Minx" - the album after that: "Heaven Sent!", "Do The Right Thing" , "Wallflower" - what songs!! Wonder what Frankie Stubbs is up to these days? Another lost band on US label Dischord - NATION OF ULYSSES - "13 Point Plan To Destroy America" - none more powerful!! What are these kids missing?!?! EMO? Sod that! It's back to the old skool for me mate thank yer very much....!

Leatherface, Sun'land's finest (until the shag that was Lauren Laverne came along !!)(even though I prefered Marie)

Ah, Sloppy, I know exactly how to make you sick! I once shared a cab ride with the very fine witty loquacious (and utterly rat-arsed) Lauren once, she'd just split from a couple of her pals coming out of a Glasgow venue (King Tuts I think) whilst Kenickie were doing a few Scots dates back in 1997....delightful company she was.....It was absolutely pissing it down, which was why she hijacked our cab.....I never twigged who she was until she slurred to me "I'm in the band (Kenickie) you know, wanna play my guitar?!". Reason I was in Glasgow that weekend? To check out Arab Strap playing in nearby Hamilton.... now there's yet another damn fine band.

Originally posted by Hubert Mickle Ah, Sloppy, I know exactly how to make you sick! I once shared a cab ride with the very fine witty loquacious (and utterly rat-arsed) Lauren once, she'd just split from a couple of her pals coming out of a Glasgow venue (King Tuts I think) whilst Kenickie were doing a few Scots dates back in 1997....delightful company she was.....It was absolutely pissing it down, which was why she hijacked our cab.....I never twigged who she was until she slurred to me "I'm in the band (Kenickie) you know, wanna play my guitar?!". Reason I was in Glasgow that weekend? To check out Arab Strap playing in nearby Hamilton.... now there's yet another damn fine band.

Met her sober meself, which is why I prefer Marie !

Were Kenickie really any good then? They seemed to have passed me by during their short existence..... I mean, I've seen Lauren subsequently doing pop programmes and being a regular on Never Mind The Buzzcocks for example, but other than that, and the aforementioned taxi incident, I know little about them...

Originally posted by Hubert Mickle Were Kenickie really any good then? They seemed to have passed me by during their short existence..... I mean, I've seen Lauren subsequently doing pop programmes and being a regular on Never Mind The Buzzcocks for example, but other than that, and the aforementioned taxi incident, I know little about them...

I thought they were pretty good, yes, but the public obvioulsy didn't, and the record company pulled the plug on them after poor record sales, so they packed it in. Millionaire Sweeper was a bloody excellent song !

Originally posted by Sparkly Sarah i think i'll just stick with my lightning seeds cd's - unless someone decides that their music has its own bizarre genre with a weird name.

for a minute there i thought you had said lighthouse family & was going to have aright go... lightning seeds have some quality songs though. the drummer used to be in the icicle works didn't he?

His name's Chris Sharrock - true - he also played briefly in The La's (another great lost Scouse band) and now...gasp...is the guy who plays drums for ROBBIE WILLIAMS backing band....gulp..

Originally posted by Sloppy Giuseppe > Originally posted by Hubert Mickle> Were Kenickie really any good then? They seemed to have passed me by during their short existence..... I mean, I've seen Lauren subsequently doing pop programmes and being a regular on Never Mind The Buzzcocks for example, but other than that, and the aforementioned taxi incident, I know little about them...> >

I thought they were pretty good, yes, but the public obvioulsy didn't, and the record company pulled the plug on them after poor record sales, so they packed it in. Millionaire Sweeper was a bloody excellent song !

I got that second Kenickie album for £4 in an HMV sale once, just to check them out, and funnily enough it was really good - some great poppy stuff on there: loved "I Would Fix You" and "Psychic Defence", bearing that in mind, it's sad they split due to public indiffrence. I believe they're sort of doing solo things now - read in the music papers about Johnny having a new band and the two other girls (not Lauren) having started a band called (hope this is right tho I'm not 100% sure) Roseta.

Johnny X has reverted to his real name of Pete Gofton, and is probably being technical somewhere in a studio. Anne Gofton (Lauren Laverne to you and me) is pissed at a party in London. Marie and Emmy-Kate are now in Rosita, and also pissed at a party in London.

Originally posted by Sloppy Giuseppe Johnny X has reverted to his real name of Pete Gofton, and is probably being technical somewhere in a studio. Anne Gofton (Lauren Laverne to you and me) is pissed at a party in London. Marie and Emmy-Kate are now in Rosita, and also pissed at a party in London.

Shit - didn't know Lauren's real name was ANNE - knew about the GOFTON bit though, as Pete's credited on the album as such....my god Slop, you're a walking encyclopedia when it comes to pop trivia aren't you? Thanks for filling us in on this then!! :) So, I take it you don't know the name of Pete's recent solo project thingy then - I saw a news bit about it in the NME not too long ago- buggered if I can remember th name of it though.