Random Manics thoughts...

[Dancing Kirby]

They're rewriting history and being polite about the band's current lowly position in the market...

http://youtu.be/D7hIkYgmW6U

[gracie]

The way to see it is that sometimes having a very lovely bunch of mostly hardcore fans is better than having tonnes of shit fans.

The boys are still selling tickets and records, so...

[pineapple]

Originally Posted by Bathtub

I’m not sure I see it myself, I think “cult” is a frequently misapplied term. ...
The Holy Bible might be an album with cult appeal and I guess you could say they have something approaching cult following (in terms of the dedication, fanzines, art and stuff that the fanbase produce), but I don’t think they’re a cult band.

They're certainly a contradictory band though, (well mainly Nicky Wire) no argument there!

Yeah I suppose I'd agree - I guess I meant they managed to have both a cult following and (at least in the past) a mainstream following.

I suppose a band that aimed to sell 16 million on their first album cannot be accused of shying away from popularity!

[Dac X Lee]

Originally Posted by bachelorette

Morphology classes sound amazingly cool! Do you study at X-Men Academy or something? What are you morphing?

Yeah, I'm Mr. Hanks aka Beast's assistant.

Well, it's linguistics. Morphology is the study of word formation.
I thought it would be obvious since I said it was about affixation (prefix, suffix, infix etc.) and that words appeared as examples.

Guess I should have written "English morphology classes".

[Automatik]

I don't know the etiquette concerning starting new threads, so I'll put these thoughts here and see how it goes. I haven't seen a discussion on this theme so far.

For a very long time, I've been fascinated by the role of individual tracks that provide a musical or thematic 'missing link' between one Manics album or era and the next, staking out the way forward.

The most frequently named example is of course Comfort Comes (on which see below), which is widely recognised to act as the 'bridge' between GATS and THB. Most often the 'missing link' track is a b-side, but not always.

If you go through each era, there are numerous candidates:

GT > GATS
Hard to say due to the distinctively tinny Guns N Roses GT-style production on the GT-era b-sides, but very possibly Dead Yankee Drawl or Democracy Coma? Even Starlover, as early as it was, has traces of GATS in it - at least in my opinion.

GATS > THB
Us Against You
Donkeys
Patrick Bateman
(see below)

THB > EMG
I actually think the songs on EMG that were co-written by Richey provide the link between THB and EMG, rather than anything on THB itself (or its b-sides).

EMG > TIMTTMY
Too difficult to say. No Surface All Feeling? Musically Small Black Flowers provides a link to TIMTTMY but Richey's role in the song rules it out.

TIMTTMY > KYE
Prologue To History, Montana/Autumn/78

KYE > Lifeblood
Door To The River, which in itself segues to There By The Grace Of God and its b-sides, and 4 Ever Delayed.

Lifeblood > SATT
Leviathan

SATT > JFPL
The Vorticists
I also think the cover of Red Sleeping Beauty has a JFPL intensity to it.

JFPL > PFAYM
The Primitive Painters cover, although JFPL is obviously very much the odd one out as it is so self-consciously self-contained.

PFAYM > RTF/Futurology
Ostpolitik and Engage With Your Shadow (!) hint at the Krautrock of Futurology, but obviously that tendency is there as far back as Nicky's solo stuff.

Now for the controversy: I actually feel that traces of THB can be identified in Us Against You, Donkeys and Patrick Bateman, and that these, rather than Comfort Comes, are the real bridge between GATS and THB, falling in between both musically and thematically. Comfort Comes actually is far more of a THB track than a GATS one.

What does everyone else think? Feel free to rip my suppositions to shreds!

[hummingbird]

Originally Posted by gracie

The way to see it is that sometimes having a very lovely bunch of mostly hardcore fans is better than having tonnes of shit fans.

The boys are still selling tickets and records, so...

yea i see the cult label as a reference to a bunch of very loyal fans.. possessive fanbase even. DON'T MESS WITH MANICS FANZ

[gracie]

Originally Posted by hummingbird

yea i see the cult label as a reference to a bunch of very loyal fans.. possessive fanbase even. DON'T MESS WITH MANICS FANZ

We're all brutal!!!

[hummingbird]

Originally Posted by gracie

We're all brutal!!!

some of us were in the 90s The papers won't have forgotten.. cult of richey an all that...

[Bathtub]

Originally Posted by Automatik

GT > GATS
Hard to say due to the distinctively tinny Guns N Roses GT-style production on the GT-era b-sides, but very possibly Dead Yankee Drawl or Democracy Coma? Even Starlover, as early as it was, has traces of GATS in it - at least in my opinion.

I've always thought Democracy Coma was a bit GATS as well.

[Suicide Aldi]

I would say This is yesturday, no one knows what its like to be me, black garden and first republic provide the link from EMG and THB quite nicely.

[Borderliner]

GT = GATS for me. I love them equally. I usually listen to full GT + GATS non-stop

[gracie]

Originally Posted by hummingbird

some of us were in the 90s The papers won't have forgotten.. cult of richey an all that...

Did people really send letters to music papers written in blood? Or is that just a CoR myth?

[hummingbird]

Originally Posted by gracie

Did people really send letters to music papers written in blood? Or is that just a CoR myth?

hope not

[Son of Stopped]

I think ultimately FD Manics fans are only a small fraction of the general Manics public.
I didn't see many teenage girls in Manchester, but then it probably was very dark.
As far as I remember, the nutty letters used to be written in either red or green ink. I remember editorials quipping about this during the Richey Manic phase. That glorious wave before the editorials realised it was actually Manic Richey.
They don't bother with CD singles now. That's how I used to reason when the band failed to keep on charting.
But I think a lot of people "Suddenly got better and left the Manics behind as the old me!".
Well I was wrong about (Although I enjoyed the magazine reviews) "No Manifesto" making the band trend.
Let's hope the American and THB20JPN shows bring more new people to the band.

As gracie at least shows, they are still coming!

[gracie]

Originally Posted by Son of Stopped

I think ultimately FD Manics fans are only a small fraction of the general Manics public.
I didn't see many teenage girls in Manchester, but then it probably was very dark.
As far as I remember, the nutty letters used to be written in either red or green ink. I remember editorials quipping about this during the Richey Manic phase. That glorious wave before the editorials realised it was actually Manic Richey.
They don't bother with CD singles now. That's how I used to reason when the band failed to keep on charting.
But I think a lot of people "Suddenly got better and left the Manics behind as the old me!".
Well I was wrong about (Although I enjoyed the magazine reviews) "No Manifesto" making the band trend.
Let's hope the American and THB20JPN shows bring more new people to the band.

As gracie at least shows, they are still coming!

They should really start bringing out CD singles again.

I do know there are about nine or ten girls on tumblr who're pretty hardcore 'manixfans'. I didn't get involved because I'm really insecure and petty because they're all gorgeous.

There's deffo fans still coming!! I feel like I'm the youngest here to be honest, but yeah.
I've noticed my little cousin (twelve years old from a conservative, christian fundamentalist household) is pretty intelligent, outcast and lost in literature and 'the abyss' as she calls it, (Yes. She's a Richey girl. Here we go!!!) and she's enjoying GT and gets all the references now in THB.

She constantly rants and raves about politics and consumerism, so the Manics manifesto (lol) is getting through. I think the issue now with attracting new, younger fans is that the boys are, inevitably getting older. Young bands attract young fans. But the cool new fans who see past that are epic....we just have to wait . Big cousins have a mental amount of influence!! LOL.

No doubt you'll all see Maddie here in the future...it's just a matter of time until she becomes one of us