I've listened to these with a mix of pleasant surprise, alarm and outright horror (not necessarily in equal measure) so i felt i had some things to say.
Firstly, it's nice to see that manics fandom isn't so dead that there aren't still people out there inspired to make stuff like this and the recent essays book on the lyrics of the holy bible (triptych) and i am enjoying the discussion for the most part so i say keep it up. With that said, i'm trying not to be critical for the sake of it because it's nice to see things like this being made about them.
As a fan, when you feel like you know the manics so well it's very easy to lose sight of the fact that those who don't know about them
really don't! The lack of general knowledge about them from the other two is quite surprising like the common misconception that they only sing about suicide. Then again, that might be true of most bands you're not personally invested in and to be fair, in a roundabout way they were approaching the true genius of the manics in that they are a band with 'music full of hope and lyrics full of doubt'. Kudos to you for getting them involved but how did you manage that when they've been dismissed as dad rock in the past? I mean, i personally can't imagine having the motivation for talking about muse for many hours at a time. Having said that, i was pleasantly surprised that generation terrorists hasn't so far been completely ripped to shreds and i do agree with a lot of the criticisms but i also agree with the host that it's a charming mess. It's really about a new band getting a boatload of cash and a swanky recording studio and bolting out of the gate with a statement of intent.
Now... what's all this hatred of the new art riot ep? It's bloody great! I'm sure this has come up before on here and it's something i agreed with at the time - if generation terrorists sounded more like the spikey, rough-edged new art riot ep then it would have been far better for it. Your honour, for my defence i would like to include into evidence the live version of
strip it down found on the you love us (heavenly) single and lipstick traces. In relation to that, i would also support chat of notable b-sides considering many of them are superb but i heard mention of comfort comes and that is one that definitely needs to be covered, being as it is the missing link between gold against the soul and the holy bible and a fantastic track to boot.
The one thing i had a major issue with is the question of what exactly richey and nicky did in the band if they couldn't play, to paraphrase - 'how did they become a band?' and 'richey was like the mascot' and compared to bez of all people. Say wha... richey and nicky were the suicide twins! The culture sluts! The propaganda wing of the manic street preachers! Giving great copy and running rings around music journalists unfortunate enough to fall into their orbit, all the while looking amazing. That's why the manics had such perfect balance i think, james and sean the accomplished musicians, richey and nicky the androgynous glamour twins writing the words. I just expected our gracious host to chip in here and give a spirited defence of what those two brought to the manics that made them stand out from 'generic white band'.
Anyway, i'm looking forward to you all diving into the later stuff and what the others reactions are going to be to the less accessible material and what on earth they're going to make of it.