The Horrors
 

Saw a clip of them on teeveee last night performing something called 'Counting in Fives'. I was quite impressed - reminded me of early Birthday Party a bit. Anyone heard any more by them?

yeah i heard the album in passing. didnt think much to be honest but it was a fleeting listen.

jack the ripper is a cool song, besides that theyre quite garbage, and sheena is a parasite is nice.

the video sure is.

i met the lead singer once. he's very tall

that's because they copy everything they do from the birthday party, in a rather watered down, staged/choreographed way.

they are quite dross.

i had the chance to see them live and gladly passed, i later saw a clip and it was like u2 trying to be the birthday party, performancewise. their fans are also the most poserific bunch of people this side of the locust fanbase. all laequered up like if they were going to a poison reunion.

Saw them at ATP. While I wouldn't buy their records, they have got a surprisingly good live show. I know it won't mean much to many people here (what with many of you having more than a passing awareness of Hardcore/ Power Electronics and 'other') but it's really good to see an indie band who a) look the shit and b) are capable of moving onstage.

I've said this here before, but in terms of 'rock' live shows, I tend to prefer hardcore lately just because there's a bit of life on stage. For far too long the post-rock poison of blandly playing instruments blandly has spread. I'm not saying the Horrors are saviours or anything - it's a bit like ...trail of dead, who were musically not terrfically interesting (to me) but had a great live show.

The Sonics' "The Witch" is an awesome song.

I've noticed that everyone whose said this criticism is far too young to have ever seen the Birthday Party - I'm wondering if anyone on this board has? Florya and SonicL are the most likely candidates - were they any good? And were they criticised for being Goth-Stooges-lite?

I really don't see the connection between The Birthday Party and The Stooges.

I listened to "Sheena Is Parasite" for a little while about a year ago, then stopped.

There's an awesome cover of Funhouse by the Birthday Party. It's not an exact science, it was just a name out of a hat. Figurative, not explicative.

Not as good as their other one, "He's Waitin'". That song scares the shit out of me.

"Satan knows whatcha did!" :eek:

They're alright, they have some potential, but they'll never live up to it. More likely they'll go the overly glossy route.

They'd be a lot better with some help on the songwriting. I was thinking that Nick Zinner would help them out with that when he was working on their record with 'em, but eh, guess not. Maybe he could get Dave Sitek to produce the next record and they'd be a lot better off.

the birthday party was the goth stooges, thats why theyu were an awesome band. big bluesy punk riffs and ryhyms and nick cave the maniacal frontman ala iggy and the stooges, but they had the gothic spooky tinge. not gothic as in poserish and stupid, but gothic in a literary, poetic, suspenseful, murder stories edgar alan poe way. they also could be downright noisy as fuck. thats why i love them so much.

there are videos, there are photos and of course there are records. you don't need to look into things too close to see the similarities in sound and look.

one thing is an accepted notion or generalization (like the goth stooges lite which obviously is just lazy journalism, i hear a mixture of the stooges, the cramps and bauhaus with the b party) and another a personal appreciation, having seen them and listening to them, i can say they are choreographing their stuff from nick and the boys.

there's a difference between being influenced by (see oxbow and daughters' hell songs) and another to be an unimaginative, derivative and unoriginal ripoff (the horrors).


they also covered "loose".

I bought The Horrors' Strange House album when it came out in Australia. I liked the songs Count In Fives, Excellent Choice (Music in one channel, narration in the other, just like the VU song The Gift), and She Is The New Thing.
I can understand comparisons with The Birthday Party, but The Horrors seem to have a bit more melody.

i'm a big fan of this band. good tunes, great look and really brilliant live

I'm with you. never really got the mistrust directed at this band. a whole heap more fun than lots of the 'indie' out there.

they're a whole lot more interesting than alot of the standard guitar music around at the moment, it's just a shame they lack originality and substance.

I saw them in early '83 in some pokey little nightclub in Brighton, I was pretty wasted at the time, can't even remember the clubs name but it wasn't the Zap or the Escape.
I never really thought of them as 'Stooges-lite', more as a cross between Goth and Psychobilly.

Right, right, some people getting fixated on the particulars and not the sentiment (should've worded myself better).

The point I was making is that it's very easy to say, when a band is current, that they sound like a band long since passed. It's easier to do that when you've not seen the band. Someone like the Stooges or the Pistols or even the Velvets have an amazing reputation as a live band because nearly no-one saw them; those that did can exagerrate it, and someone in their mid-20s can do nothing about it.

I know some kiddies who've heard amazing things about bands like Placebo or Mogwai or whoever on their early tours, and having seen a night of the first British tour of each, they were very good, but I honestly can't remember how good the shows were because it was over a decade ago and I wasn't that used to (good) live shows at the time.

Talking about the Horrors while they're still current (and very popular) it seems a little unfair to be dismissive of them because they've copped their style from elsewhere; by the same token, if you read a review of every single live show from the Birthday Party (or whomever) I expect you'd find a wealth of journalists saying "The Birthday Party are just [band x]-lite". It's retrospect, and their records, and the lack of a contemporaneous context that often lead us to 'overplay' their influence. Bauhaus or the Birthday Party were by no means the only Goth bands, but they've become the more important ones; by the same token, it may be that we'll forget the Horrors in 2 years time, or their next record might blow everyone away (and let's not forget - the first Birthday Party (boys next door) record is not that great, and Prayers on Fire is patchy).

I suppose my point is that there are nearly no genuinely original rock bands, there are a few innovative ones (who they are would change from person to person) and whether hindsight judges a band to be amazing or not isn't really possible at this vantage.

Take someone like Earth - were they amazing in their day, when nearly no-one knew them, or does it make more sense now? Are they the same but better now because their live show is worth seeing?

Does this make sense to anyone or are we all excited about the idea of forming an opinion IMMEDIATELY NOW?