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krj
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Oysterband
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Sep 16 19:41 UTC 1997 |
By the time you read this, Twila Price and I should each have our
hot little hands on the new Oysterband release DEEP DARK OCEAN.
So I thought I'd start an item where we can babble about the
new stuff, and the old stuff...
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| 12 responses total. |
anderyn
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response 1 of 12:
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Sep 16 20:24 UTC 1997 |
Ooooie, burning! Well, it's a very different disc from the last
several, being much quieter in tone, and with nothing traditional
on it at all. It's also more ... pensive? The imagery is less
jagged but still very powerful. I've only listened once, so I'll have
to give it more time to sink in. EArly favorite songs -- "Sail
on By", <Milford Haven>(possibly THE favorite), and "No Reason to Cry".
Oh, it looks like "Little Brother" is a song about someone with autism,
which I;ll have to share with a work friend, since her nephew has
been diagnosed with such. Interesting that they cover such a subject.
It seems more personal than their last several -- it's still got
political prtest, mind you, but not ANGRY LOUD protest...
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krj
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response 2 of 12:
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Nov 10 18:00 UTC 1997 |
I had sort of thought this item might go somewhere, but alas.
I've been put off by the VH1-friendly attitude of the new album,
and I don't even think polygon has bought a copy of it yet.
So in the meantime I'll migrate a discussion here from
item #60, "NP #2"...
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#264 of 286: by Ken Josenhans (krj) on Sun, Nov 2, 1997 (02:57):
Oyster Band, LIBERTY HALL. Though the band now disowns it, this remains
a brilliant electric folk recording, the first of four late-80s albums
which represent the peak of the Oysters' work. I need to do something
with that Oyster Band album I started when their newest, mostly-pop
album came out.
#265 of 286: by Gratuitous Saxon Violins (orinoco) on Sun, Nov 2, 1997
(17:04): Why do they 'disown' it, Ken?
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orinoco
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response 3 of 12:
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Nov 10 19:52 UTC 1997 |
Well? "Why _do_ they disown it, Ken?"
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krj
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response 4 of 12:
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Nov 11 03:27 UTC 1997 |
The Oysters now like to pretend that their history begins in 1986, when
they added a drummer. My belief is that their earlier, folkier work
no longer contributes to their income -- the albums are on their own
label, and they have been gently laid to rest along with the LP format.
Some of the photos on the early albums would certainly damage their
current image as an alternative (*ahem*) celtic folkpunk band.
It has to be somewhat frustrating for them; the Levellers had
big breakthroughs in Britain, and their friends Chumbawamba now
have a big pop hit.
Early Oyster Band LPs are priced at $40-$80 in the collectors' market.
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krj
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response 5 of 12:
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Jul 14 04:54 UTC 1998 |
I'm not really ready to write a proper review, but I did want to mention
the Oysters' new fan club recording, "Alive and Acoustic."
Like the title says, it's a live recording derived from some all-acoustic
shows the band did last fall. So far I'm enjoying it more than
any of the most recent Oysterband albums; the acoustic arrangements
get back to showing off John Jones' exceptional voice.
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anderyn
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response 6 of 12:
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Jul 14 14:01 UTC 1998 |
Listening to "Alive and Acoustic" as I type. Mmmmmmm. I like it a lot.
Yes, John Jones does have a voice that melts along your ear drums, which
gets lost in the more rowdy albums -- though I am thinking about a co-
worker's comment that they sound like REM. REM?! Ah, the first reel set,
definitely not REM territory. I like this quite a bit, although I haven't
had any quibbles with their newer albums -- I seem to like *anything*
the Oysterband does.
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krj
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response 7 of 12:
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Dec 9 10:35 UTC 1998 |
Haven't heard much out of Oysterland lately. I think the e-mail
list might have burped up some news about a new album for early 1999.
I went through a recent period of obsession with their 1992
album DESERTERS, which I didn't particularly care for on its original
release. The band was winding down their folk influences here, and
in many ways it's striking me as a fairly straightforward 1980s
pop album.
I have a customized version of DESERTERS which I patched together
by dropping the songs "Elena's Shoes" and "Fiddle and the Gun",
inserting instead the folkier tracks from the "Granite Years" EP
which was issued in Germany. I don't know why those tracks --
trad "Curragh of Kilder" and "Star of the County Down," and an
excellent original, "Hangman's Cry" -- did not make the album, unless
it was part of the band's continuing struggle to escape the folk
pigeonhole.
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krj
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response 8 of 12:
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Aug 5 20:55 UTC 1999 |
This sad little item may pick up again. I snapped up Tower's only copy
of the new Oysterband release HERE I STAND last night, and I think
Twila has a copy of the British edition heading her way.
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anderyn
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response 9 of 12:
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Aug 5 23:44 UTC 1999 |
So have you listened yet? My copy should be here soon, I jhop.
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krj
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response 10 of 12:
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Aug 6 07:37 UTC 1999 |
I played about half of the new Oysterband album on the drive home
tonight. I really don't want to say much until I've played it three
or four times.
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micklpkl
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response 11 of 12:
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Jun 13 03:39 UTC 2001 |
Thanks to Ken, I've been listening to LIBERTY HALL for several days now. Over
the past three or four listens, I have become especially enchanted by the
sound. Now, I must play the album at least twice a day, or else I am
forever humming "Euston Station." :-) Not really being up-to-par with anything
besides HERE I STAND (which I like a lot; I always make sure to put it in the
car when taking a roadtrip --- excellent driving music!) and FREEDOM AND RAIN
up to this point, this earlier album was a little confusing to my ear. The
instrumentation seemed rather sparse and dated, and the overall mood of the
songs struck me as dark and more low-key. A couple of the songs --- "Bonnie
Susie Cleland" & "Cropper Lads" --- forced me to give the album another
chance, and then another.... Now, I just can't hear it enough, and I think
I'm hooked.
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krj
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response 12 of 12:
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Jun 14 06:44 UTC 2001 |
LIBERTY HALL struck me as incredibly dark, lyrically, when I first heard
it, especially in comparison to the preceeding "normal" album LIE BACK
AND THINK OF ENGLAND, which has a considerable quantity of cheerful or
humorous material in it; that tone is only reached on LIBERTY HALL with
the drinking song at the end of the album. (Between LIE BACK and
LIBERTY HALL came an album of instrumental dance tunes, which I didn't
consider a "normal" album.)
LIBERTY HALL began the arc of four great albums the Oysters produced at
the end of the 1980s; the rest of the sequence were STEP OUTSIDE,
WIDE BLUE YONDER and RIDE. Now, 12 years past the end of that string,
it's clear they'll never match it.
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