The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Piggly Wiggly

The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Piggly Wiggly » 17 Jan 2014, 00:40

John San Juan: So, Goat Boy.

Goat Boy: Call me Dougie.

JSJ: Dougie.

GB: Thanks.

JSJ: Anytime. So...let's start by talking about gigs, okay?

GB: Sure.

JSJ: Some are considerably better than others, and everybody's got at least ONE of those. Do YOU have some special epiphanic concert experience that just really stuck to your ribs or stayed with you?

GB: Arite man. You went to the same show so you know how awesome and life-affirming it was. The gig? Well, maybe you’ve guessed it already, but I’m talking about Todd (Rundgren) performing Wizard at the Hammersmith Odeon in 2010.

JSJ: I hadn't guessed, but...Jesus, that was a motherfucker, wasn't it?

GB: I have no qualms at all in describing this as the greatest gig I’ve ever seen. But more on the gig later, first some background:

We all have records that hit us so hard it feels like a genuine life changing experience. Some of these records will become life-long friends, some will become lovers, others will be like parents, mentors, fucking gurus and just like in real life sometimes these relationships turn sour or simply drift away and fall by the wayside. I probably have a handful of records that are all of these things. The musical altars where I have worshiped for nigh on for 20 (!) years: Piper At The Gates of Dawn, The White Album, Forever Changes, Who Sell Out and, obviously, A Wizard, A True Star.

JSJ: I'm sorry to keep interrupting, but I'm intrigued by your other choices and would really like to come back to them later. Sorry, carry on.

GB: Like a lot of records I picked up in my late teens I first read about Wizard in Mojos top 100 Albums of all time issue in 1995 (I think). For better or worse this list was really important in my formative years. I really pored over that baby until it was a well-thumbed, dog eared mess. Anyway, one of the records that immediately stood out was A Wizard, A True Star. I knew nothing about Todd but the review gave the impression this dude was some kind of questing, maverick spirit; a mad professor high on peyote and creativity, experimenting in his own laboratory with crazy 70s synths, cosmic soul covers, fucking Disney songs and side long representations of acid trips. Superb! How the hell could I not buy this album? And if that didn’t sell it to me then the dali-inspired sleeve alone would have. I had to own Wizard. Despite this initial superficial attraction the love affair wasn’t instantaneous I have to say. It took a little while for it to seep into my subconscious and take up a permanent residence in my striatum (the part of the brain where love and desire reside, apparently. I looked that one up). It’s been there ever since of course ; friend, lover, mother, fucked up drug buddy. I should also add that this record was one of the handful I clung to for dear life during a prolonged period of depression . At times like that, as sad as it sounds, those records feel like all you have. "Sometimes I Don’t Know What To Feel", in particular, became a real source of comfort for me. Ten years later during the concert I would cry during this song.

JSJ: I dig it. I'm a lifelong depressive, and...yeah, you definitely need these kind of jams. My own discovery of the record came with no advance billing whatsoever - I taped it off a friend just out of sheer random curiosity (Todd is a...you know, it's not all great, and it's not all digestible, but...when he's good, you know?), and luckily the opening track hooked me so solidly that I ended up playing the record every day for several months. I think you and I discovered it right around the same time (late 1999, early 2000?). I was sort of exiled abroad, and it did become something of a comfort during a time of increased estrangement from my fellow inmates. Sorry, continue.

GB: So, fast forward a decade and here I am, in London, after flying down from Aberdeen (over a hundred quid, kerching!) to worship at the church of Todd. I was on my own, of course. Even if I did have a friend who worshipped this album it would have seemed slightly strange to share such a personal experience with someone else. Like some kind of spiritual journey the road can only be travelled alone and here I was at mecca. I’d heard amazing things about the gig – on BCB, from you actually! – but I still had a feeling of unease walking into the venue. Was Todd really going to deliver? Would he do the album justice? Would it all some monumental, crushing disappointment so great I would have to retreat into solitude for a month just to recover? The omens didn’t look good when Todd appeared onstage with some blues band and played a number of mind-numbingly boring songs that resulted in heckles from bristling Londoners (“rubbish!” Fack off!”). The pilgrimage was going wrong. Fuck. It was such a relief when it was over. Nobody wants to see their heroes embarrass themselves in public do they? Then it went all black, that whirring noise that sounds like an airplane engine, followed by propeller kicking into life started up and here we were. It’s Todd. In stage. And he’s doing International fucking Feel! I could talk about the gig some more but instead I’ll just post a link to the original thread here

http://www.bcb-board.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=85674&hilit=+wizard+rundgren

My assertion that it truly was “The greatest motherfucking gig in the history of the universe” still seems accurate. I suspect it always will be.

JSJ: Yeah, I'm OLD (44) - lotta fucking gigs over the years, but that one MIGHT be at least tied with the others that all merit your description as “The greatest motherfucking gig in the history of the universe”. As for Todd Rundgren giving you sheer "Is this gonna suck?" pause, I've seen him a number of times down the years, and it tends to be either magical or absolutely rotten (I've seen him rap, you know?) and all points in between (he has a hard time choosing equipment and formats that he won't end up fighting with onstage). We didn't get the blues bullshit (honestly, man - Todd Rundgren's Johnson? - the FUCK!), but we did get a decidedly undistinguished set of "a handful of unremarkable Utopia songs as performed by 3/4 of Utopia with the drummer from the Tubes". As a contrast, I'm guessing it may have been a bit like what you describe - so unremarkable, that it really added to the impact of the overall intensity of the main course. I didnt fly down from Aberdeen (and I WOULD have, Dougie!), and it wasn't a solitary journey - I actually have a handful of weirdo friends who may love that album as much as I do (two of whom I brought), but...yeah, high emotional content, for sure. The knowledge that everyone around me was actualizing a dream of seeing Todd do such a magical job of presenting his masterpiece...that was kind intense, too. I mean, think about the shitty Rundgren gigs most of us have been saddled with in the past...

Anyhow - thanks for that! I guess the followup question here would be...have you ever had the exact opposite experience? Maybe a concert that you really fully expected to get a great deal out of and...were just surprised by how unsatisfying an experience you ended up having?

GB: Midlake, 2010. With hindsight the warning signs were there I guess. Instead of touring the fantastic Van Occupanther, which I absolutely fucking love, they were touring the follow up which was their attempt at an progressive English folk album. I know what you’re thinking! I feel it’s worth mentioning that the sleeve apparently pays homage to Andrei Roublev which tells you where their heads were at. Watching Tarkovskys medieval epic, three hours of unrelenting black and white Russian grimness and mud caked verisimilitude would have been like watching fucking Airplane in comparison.

Anyway, I knew the fuckers could play, the records made that obvious and maybe the new stuff would sound a bit sprightlier live so despite my misgivings over the new album I turned up pretty excited I have to say. Fuck me, I swear to God I’ve never been so bored by a gig. Everything about them annoyed me. Their stupid beards. Their chemistry teacher shirts and pressed trousers. The complete lack of anything even approaching charisma stunk the fucking place out. Within 15 minutes everybody was shuffling about with frustration and you could tell they were thinking exactly what I was thinking, “this band sucks. I hate these people”. I remember the singer sitting down for about two thirds of the gig which was well out of order I thought. Some cunt kept playing a flute for no reason. I lost the will to live. If I hadn’t already booked a bus back I would have left early. They even fucked up the Van Occupanther choons. Bastards.

JSJ: Hold me. That sounds traumatic. I've had a few of those - generally, I've been lucky, but...sometimes the fantasy of seeing what - on paper - seems like the perfect gig just doesn't even remotely pan out. I saw Costello during his first bearded period (1991) at a huge outdoor shed - I was 21 and an older friend had just gotten me into the first five records (which I now sort of grudgingly KIND OF like with enormous reservations - there's something about that guy that just annoys me...the post-punk librarian, I dunno...boy, HE can sure turn a phrase that'll make you snicker once or twice, huh?). Anyhow - you can imagine how impotent, ineffectual and effete his Mighty Like A Rose tour was on every level - and yet I had somehow gone in expecting some late 1970s/early 1980s Attractions level of intensity. Fuck that guy. I would see him 7 years later with Burt Bacharach, and I assure you he was pure ballast. The show was special because of Bacharach's songs.

Let's move on. Can we talk about some of those records you mentioned earlier?

GB: Sure.

JSJ: Piper At The Gates of Dawn.

GB: I think it’s the greatest psych album ever and one of two albums – the other being Marquee Moon – that I would say maybe changed my life. It certainly opened up my ears to a whole world of 60s psych and garage music that continues to animate my life till this day.

JSJ: It IS the motherlode of psychedelic music and, I would agree that nothing else touches it. The sound of the thing, the songs, everything about it is just sealed away in a locked box and those fuckers clearly threw away the key when they were done. Similarly, it was the "gateway" for me into all kinds of things of that era and approximate style. I've been chasing that first high forevermore. I suppose not everyone likes psychedelic music, but...fuck, I suppose if you do, you really do. You can see why pop music went so grey after that.

GB: Can we talk about Zen Arcade?

JSJ: Zen Arcade - fuck, man! I gather I came to it about 5 or 6 years late, but...I have to assume I came to it at the exact right moment (I mean, no one my age feels odd about coming to Dylan, the Left Banke, Love, or the Zombies belatedly, right?), because it really knocked me right between the eyes when I did. I had just turned 20, and it was a crazily frigid yet sunny winter in Chicago - I'll probably always associate the songs with my daily commute of that era (and with the cardio treadmill at the YMCA many years later). I'd read a piece in Rolling Stone (of all places) about the 100 best records of the 1980s (a list which included the, then, days old Freedom and Steel Wheels - assholes!), and the (long forgotten but evocative) description was just pure catnip to me. I probably went to one of the many local record concerns the following day and bought it (the artwork clearly sealed the deal - I mean, is that or is that not one of the most evocative record jackets of all time? To this day, I can't listen to the album without getting lost in the landscape of that illustration...I should also mention that this sounds about x1000 better on vinyl than on CD, and it STILL kind of sounds like shit in its way, however gloriously so). I wasn't any huge fan of punk or hardcore when I bought the record, so I may have picked up on the sheer intensity and beauty of it as more of a psychedelic experience (to call it the punk Tommy, Forever Changes or Piper... is not at all out of order, in my opinion). All I know is that I literally could not stop listening to it for months (it was undoubtedly an influence on my own nascent, adolescent and fumbly work at the time), and that it has really crazily endured for me to this day. I know a lot of people unfairly compare it to Double Nickels... (I get it - two SST punk bands putting out doubles DOES seem like some sort of improbably synchronized menstrual cycle) when the two records could not be more different. There's a deep musicality and emotional content to the Du record that I've NEVER been able to get from the (however obviously deeply kinetic) Minutemen - not only are the songs and riffs just deeply rock solid ("Chartered Trips", "Masochism World" and "Pink Turns To Blue" - to name but three - have insane riffs and motifs every bit the equal of, say, "Ticket To Ride" or "Day Tripper" in my book, and...I swear these songs will be standards someday), but all of the dynamic filligree (the instrumental tracks and things like "Never Talking To You Again" and "Hare Krsna") gives the album an incredible depth. It deserves every bit of mythology that has sprung up around it over the years - depending on which fan you ask, the band were on one substance or another throughout the recording and mixing, the ambiguous stats of the marathon recording of the double (Wiki: "The band recorded 25 tracks, with all but two songs being first takes, in 40 hours. The entire album was then mixed in one 40-hour session; the entire album took 85 hours to record and produce and cost $3,200."), all of this serves to underline the rather remarkable nature of the thing. It has an undeniably adolescent energy and emotional content to it (seriously, who expects a song called "Broken Home, Broken Heart" to deliver much of anything?), but...a wife, two kids and several decades later, I can't say I get any less out of it than I did when I was..."the right age", I guess. I'm listening to it right now. The wife walked in on Side Four and, minus the context of the first three sides, just had a very "What is this shit?" reaction.

GB: You know what my favourite moment on Zen Arcade is? It’s that moment on "Masochism World" when the 60s pop harmonies kick in after the first minute. It’s a fucking heroic record and one of those rare double albums where everything pretty much works. From the experimental stuff ("Tooth Fairy..", "Reoccurring Dreams") to the straight ahead pop shit ("Pink Turns To Blue", "Masochism World", "Newest Industry") to the bug eyed intensity of "I’ll Never Forget You" and "Pride". John Hughes missed a trick not using "Monday Will Never Be The Same" by the way. And can I just say that…*clears throat*…side two is absolutely one of the greatest sides in rock. Unbelievable.

JSJ: Side Two. FUCK! You like the White Album, right?

GB: I used to have a ritual as a teenager in the mid 90s: I would go to bed around 11pm with the electric blanket on, the headphones cranked up and listen to the White Album on a c90 tape. Thanks to the heat and the exhaustion one feels after average 6 wanks a day, sleepiness would soon take over of course and I would usually crash out around the end of side two but I would ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS wake up just as "Revolution 9"’s disorientating collage was coming to an end. The segue into "Good Night" was, predictably, a perfect musical moment. I’d then throw the headphones off, turn off the light and drift into one of those heavy teenage slumbers from which an earthquake couldn’t wake you. The White Album is part of my consciousness in a way that few albums are.

JSJ: To some extent, I miss being a teenager, what can I say.

GB: Okay, I know you like Loveless.

JSJ: Who doesn't?

I mean, if you're talking about things that have not only endured, but really just steadily grown in their appeal rather exponentially over time, I don't think Nick Drake, the Velvet Underground or Big Star are anywhere NEAR as contentiously debated/received as this record/band is. I mean, they play massive rooms now when and if they decide to tour, the record/band just seem to continually attract newer and more devotees, people are obsessive about it/them, a lot of music makers have held it up as a gold standard, their last record more or less blew up the internet, the cult of Loveless has more than endured, you know? Yet, I've really found that it somewhat routinely attracts a certain hostility that I can't really square with the actual content. I just think it's beautiful, yet I have people insist to me that it is...I dunno, Metal Machine Music or something - some pitiable hoax perpetrated on...I dunno, (in actuality) people whom I generally find to be extremely discerning. I don't get the divide here, and probably shouldn't dwell on it. I suppose it's easier to dissect than the actual music. I heard the two preceding EPs (really part of Loveless, as far as I'm concerned) the summer before the record came out and was just instantly smitten - for all that people talk about noise, I just really heard exactly the types of melodies and chord progressions that I'd been trying to find my own way towards. To me, it wasn't the sound, performance or production that made them psychedelic, so much as just the songs themselves. I mean, this record/this music really is the most fulsome exemplar of post-punk psychedelic music (I don't think the more deliberate likes of, say, Radiohead have come anywhere near it) and it doesn't embarrass itself by aping the Electric Prunes or Strawberry Alarm Clock in some facile way. It really does live in its own world. It's hard, I'm really just trying to talk about what it is to ME here, yet its phenomenon and cult are difficult not to trip over repeatedly en route to a more personal discussion. I mean, it's like extremely high quality muzak with heavy guitars - the way it's mixed contributes (more standard relational elemental volumes are completely discarded in favor of a more hypnotic, sensual, blurring and obfuscatory effect), as do the elements themselves (the guitars aren't all that "noisy" on the whole, as it happens...you'd probably find more excessive gain on a Dire Straits, Smithereens or Fabulous Thunderbirds record of the era), and...crucially, there's a very intuitive understanding of repetition - certain parts are strategically repeated past the breaking point, mostly due to some intuitive understanding of what a certain part "means" the 5th time around. The little bits that bridge some of the songs (on both the EPs and the album) are yet more evidence that these songs are meant to be heard in a rather specific sequence in order to maximize a rather specific effect. I've heard people discuss the narcotic effect at great length, I've also heard people discuss the...I dunno..."sexiness" of the music...nothing as explicit or lurid as say Barry White, Teddy Pendergrass or Marvin Gaye...but, something within the music...a friend of mine claims it as responsible for his first marriage...phrases like "this record IS sex" have been uttered...empirical experience is what it is, etc....I'D fuck it, for sure...Anyhow, it's just such a perfect storm of all sorts of factors, sonically (I kick myself for not grabbing the Creation vinyl in 1991, the CDs have generally been - though a sufficiently effective substitute - "close enough" but...this is analog music at its finest), general "effect", and...yeah, the fucking songs are outstanding. I keep coming back to this with people when it comes up - I wouldn't be 22 years deep into this shit if the songs themselves were not incredible...I can't imagine anyone strumming through THOSE chords and singing THOSE melodies and sticking to some silly canard about "noise". I think the likes of "Sometimes", "Soon", "Honey Power", "To Here Knows When", "Blown A Wish", "Only Shallow", "I Only Said", "When You Sleep", etc. are melodically on par with anything from the pens of, say, David Gates or Joni Mitchell, it's pure pop music along the lines of, say, "Outdoor Miner" - that they've been presented in some rather deliberately vague fashion scarcely negates this particular reality. I don't know how successfully I've removed the oppositional baggage from this discussion, and...the fact that this record is almost entirely mono (Shields admits as much in the rather excellent 33+1/3 book on Loveless) is yet another development in the "people who insist no such thing can or should be done post 1965" facing some rather salient evidence that one of the most sonically feted acheivements of the last 30 years is, in fact, very much counter to these beliefs. The point of all this is not what you or I know or think, but...maybe more that this is - as much as anything ever (Beatles/Beach Boys included for me) - the kind of shit that I heard for the first time and just kind of felt like it was absolutely made for me...you could compare it to a dog hearing a whistle for the first time. I can't overstate its personal influence, and...I go on and off EVERYTHING, but this fits rather squarely into that "always keep coming back to it" category that not many things do.

GB: I agree with everything you say of course. I’ve never understood the ‘there’s no melodies’ brigade. I can only deduce these cloth eared bellends have simply not listened to the album. Yes, these cloth bellends have not listened to this album for the whole is overflowing with gorgeous pop melodies. I’m not going to rhapsodise over this album for that approach usually ends up in all those tedious metaphors and verbose wordwank that reviews of this album have drowned in over the years (seriously 99% of rock journos need to fucking die). All I will say is this record is The Total Shit…the Alpha and Omega and rock has never come close since.

A couple of highlights (only a couple? Yes, I'm pacing myself):

"Soon" – you know that moment when Shields kicks in after the introduction? That moment right there is one of my favouritists things in the whole world dude. *warning, tedious metaphor approaching* Loveless is full of moments like that. Just the sheer fucking awesome power of Shields guitar melting your brain. When Shields lets rip it’s like the goddamn Saturn 5 rocket taking off and on top of this incredible noise you have a melody which is as seductive as Scarlett Johansson lying on a bed wearing nothing but a smile and baby oil. I apologise for the lameness of that last analogy. I do not apologise for planting that image in your head though.

"Sometimes" - holy shitcunting tittyfuck! - I mean the chord sequence alone can move me to fucking tears. It’s beautiful. Loveless is pretty much perfect.

JSJ: I admire your restraint. You wanna get a drink sometime? Anyhow - tell me about The Who Sell Out.

GB: I came to the Who a bit later than other major 60s bands. Maybe things have changed but in the mid 90s it seemed to be the accepted wisdom that as great as some of their 60s material undeniably was, it had in fact just been a warm up for Tommy and the glory of Who’s Next and Quadrophenia. Maybe it was just an example of that tiresome anti-pop snobbery that infects classic rock forums. I call this phenomenon the ‘Zphage syndrome’ by the way.

JSJ: Damn!

GB: Anyway, Who’s Next was the first album of theirs I owned. Given my love for the Lifehouse period these days my subdued initial reaction may sound surprising but I think after gorging on a diet of 60s pop, some 70s rock came across as a bit leaden and monochrome in comparison. It certainly seemed to lack the spirit that seemed so fundamental to capricious souls like Syd Barrett or John Lennon. It was like someone had left the 60s rock cake out in the rain and all the colour and icing had melted away. My reaction had the effect of really putting me off the band and it would be a while before I tried again with the 60s edition of the Who so when I finally listened to Sell Out it was a revelation for me. For starters it’s hands down the greatest ever concept for an album: Sell Out's genius is that it’s a celebration of disposable pop culture that manages to resonate on a deeper level as a tribute/eulogy to an era of pirate radio stations and dansette’s. As well as a wry comment on the new consumerism of course. Ooh, it’s layered! Pete Townshend, you clever facking cunt. It’s a perfect 60s artifact. True Pop Art. It’s everything you could ever want an album to be and so much more. It’s silly, touching with funny songs about beans, deodorant, skin cream (why aren’t bands funny like this anymore?); as well as epic songs about love and revenge and genuinely gorgeous songs that sound like they were written in the tender afterglow of a benign acid experience. The luminous "I Can’t Reach You" and "Sunrise" are wonderful, amongst the best things Pete ever wrote, whilst "Our Love Was" sparkles like the ocean on a summers day. My obsession only got worse as I started putting together an extended Sell Out featuring "Jaguar", "Melancholia" etc and including more of the brilliantly humorous adverts (my favourite is the ‘coke after coke’ one). It’s a masterpiece.

JSJ: Fuck yeah, dude. Where do I start? I came aboard through Tommy at age 9, then through Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy at 11, and eventually Who's Next at (I think) 15. Tommy really is the shit, but...man, your description of the comparative flaws of something like Who's Next is accurate, and by the time I was 18 or 19 (late 1980s), I would have tuned that shit out completely as emblematic of the types of problems emergent classic rock radio were creating and underlining. I can't imagine how deep into my favorite contemporary music I was by then, starting to phase out the John Hughes jams, taking equally rewarding and disappointing steps through independent music and just kind of "searching" - beginning to look backwards towards psychedelic music, because it sounded oddly very modern to me (and, yes, I knew how dated it was - I suppose that confluence of dated and modern might be somewhere in the neighborhood of timeless). I remember going to a used record shop that was desperately trying to dump all of their second hand vinyl because, you know, fuckin' CDs, man! I bought an original US Stereo copy of Sell Out, an old Rhino first press of The Best Of Love and a ton of other shit, all for the grand sum of $8.00 U.S. A dark, rainy, late autumn, early winter's day that I will never forget.

I didn't know SHIT about Sell Out before going in, but...well..."Armenia...", "Odorono", "Tattoo", etc. were mindbogglingly great. I mean, all that pathos about a chick with smelly underarms. That's God's work, you know?

Forever Changes?

GB: Forever Changes - Fuck yeah!

JSJ: Might be the one for me, you know? I'm playing it right now. Anyhow, I'd better wrap this up. Can you tell me...Betty Denim describes the moment of Britpop roughly as her one experience being part of a movement - kind of an exciting once in a lifetime thrill. I'm a little envious (my feelings about that movement are immaterial to the sensory envy). Has your life had any musical moment upon which you look back and say, shit...I suppose I really was fucking THERE wasn't I? I was "one of the crowd" for a minute?

GB: Well I was there for Britpop too and it’s the only time I’ve ever felt like I was part of a movement – too young for acid house, far too old for emo (thank fuck) – and even if I do have mixed feelings about the whole thing, as a 15 year old kid there was something special about the mid-nineties and the years 1994 and 1995 in particular. Of course it all seemed to vanish just as quickly as it had arrived and by the time I went off to Uni in 96/97 the whole scene was already winding down (hello Travis, hello Urban Hymns) but there was still an afterglow that lasted until ’97, heightened of course by New Labour getting into power.

Put simply, the really wonderful thing about Britpop was that it was the last period when music was truly central to popular culture in this country and the last time when you had good and occasionally great singles appearing in the top 40 on a regular basis. "Country House" vs. "Roll With It" was a national fucking event, people. We all took sides. Friendships were torn apart by that shit in my school. I remember a confrontation between me and a mate over the fact that Oasis had won more Brit Awards than Blur, or something, for fucks sake. All teenage bluster of course but it mattered, you understand.

The teenybopper girls at school who had been listening to Take That only a few months earlier were now singing "Wonderwall" or "Don’t Look Back In Anger" and going on about how cute Damon Albarn was. When Noel pulled out of an American tour with Oasis it was on the national news at 6! I mean, like the second story or something. It seems fucking ridiculous now but also somehow glorious. For a brief, shining moment it really did feel like Britain was once again the centre of the world like we’d all been told it was by the magazines and books we read when the Beatles and Stones ruled the pop universe. Do you remember the story that Spielberg was going to transform Supergrass into the new Monkees and make a TV show with them after seeing the video for "Alright"? How ridiculous! Hollywood's number one director making a TV show with some kids from Oxford! But it seemed plausible, that’s the thing. Lots of things seemed possible at that moment. Getting rid of the Tories looked inevitable as well. It’s easy to laugh now and certainly there has been a backlash against Britpop – it was all retro darling, *yawn* - but, fuck it, I was a music obsessed teenager who just discovered alcohol (girls, pot and chemicals would, sadly, come a bit later I’m afraid dear readers) and for the first time in my life my world was being spun on its axis not just by bands that no longer existed but by current artists as well. How wonderful and thrilling it all was.

I should add that I don’t like limiting Britpop to just those bands who would qualify under that narrow label. When I think about that period The Fannies' Grand Prix shines just as brightly as Parklife or In It For The Money (I remember being horrified when "Sparky’s Dream" just scraped into the top 40). The Boo Radleys Giant Steps is there as well, hovering over everything like a giant glowing mothership. I remember hearing "The State That I Am In" on Mark and Lards radio show and buying Tigermilk straight away. There was something in the air you know. So yeah, I was there, bitches, and it was fucking great.

JSJ: Do you look back on any old musical loves and say "What IS that shit? Why hasn't this aged well for me?" I think we all would like to boast some 100% consistency in musical views, but...the contents of my own "sweet spot" have shifted periodically and will continue to shift ever so slightly, and I'm wondering if you can recall ticket stubs or LPs/CDs that represent an artist that you can no longer "get with"?

GB: I do look back on some of the indie shit I’ve listened to this past decade and think “seriously dude, what the fuck?” I would give you names but I’d be too embarrassed. OK, OK….Band Of Horses, Phoenix, The Shins…..Jesus, I love My Morning Jacket's early stuff but the last two albums have stunk like a rotting h****'s c**k. I actually find some of the stuff I adored as a teenager and then left behind as I moved into my twenties sounding great these days. Queen and U2 for example. In fact I’ve gone back and re-evaluated U2 and now consider them to be pretty fucking great actually. I’ve listened to the Unforgettable Fire, Achtung Baby and The Joshua Tree as much as any new album this year.

Thanks for taking the time out to chat to me man. It really has been fun!

JSJ: The privilege has been mine entirely. I'm sorry we're stopping, quite honestly. Look me up when you're in Chicago, please.

Bungo the Mungo

Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Bungo the Mungo » 17 Jan 2014, 00:48

I love the pair of you.

I just speed read it 'cos it appeared just as I was getting ready for bed. I'll devour the thing in fullest fullness tomorrow.

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Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Phenomenal Cat » 17 Jan 2014, 01:16

I read the whole thing and though I've had discussions with John about many of these same topics, these guys sounding off each other, back and forth, is BCB gold. So many things to note as well: the harmonies in "Masochism World" (fucking magic, or HEROIC, as Goat Boy says); or how Loveless is more or less mono (I had no idea). Despite having been an ocean away, I devoured Pulp, Oasis, Supergrass, Belle & Sebastian - even The Cardigans - much like a teen during their first exposure to AM radio. My musical journey has been in tandem with John since 1990 or even before, so it was a pleasure to witness this exchange.

Oh, and Goat Boy - I bought Trout Mask Replica and even Lick My Decals Off, Baby. No great epiphany yet, but there's always tomorrow.
kath wrote:i will make it my mission to nail you.


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Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Charlie O. » 17 Jan 2014, 01:28

I love you guys, and I enjoyed the hell out of this.

I also hate you for seeing the AW/ATS show, of course.
Image

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Quaco
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Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Quaco » 17 Jan 2014, 02:18

I take it we don't need a "Goat Boy Interviews Loveless" one now. :)

Seriously, great stuff. I want to join your club!
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KeithPratt
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Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby KeithPratt » 17 Jan 2014, 08:48

That was great - it felt like you were both in the room together chewing the fat and drinking heroically. I was half-expecting you to wake up in the same bed the next morning still going on about Loveless.

:lol:

Bungo the Mungo

Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Bungo the Mungo » 17 Jan 2014, 10:09

How exactly did this take place? I mean, 'I'm sorry to keep interrupting...' - I'm guessing this isn't a transcription of an actual spoken conversation, right?

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Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Goat Boy » 17 Jan 2014, 10:44

telepathy dude!
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism

Betty Denim

Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Betty Denim » 17 Jan 2014, 10:45

Ace, D. Great interview. I didn't realise how fully we shared the Britpop ' thing'. :)

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Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby funky_nomad » 17 Jan 2014, 11:24

What a cracking read.

Nice to know about Dougie's enduring love for U2 as well - the next Scottish J-Up is going to be absolute carnage now... :twisted:
Just a penitent man

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Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby KeithPratt » 17 Jan 2014, 11:39

Can Dougie get on with his other interview now ? :lol: ;)

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Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Goat Boy » 17 Jan 2014, 12:12

funky_nomad wrote:What a cracking read.

Nice to know about Dougie's enduring love for U2 as well - the next Scottish J-Up is going to be absolute carnage now... :twisted:


I am not ashamed.

Bring it on bitch.
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism

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Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Goat Boy » 17 Jan 2014, 12:16

Bleep wrote:Can Dougie get on with his other interview now ? :lol: ;)


:oops:
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism

Piggly Wiggly

Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Piggly Wiggly » 17 Jan 2014, 13:22

Bleep wrote:That was great - it felt like you were both in the room together chewing the fat and drinking heroically. I was half-expecting you to wake up in the same bed the next morning still going on about Loveless.

:lol:


You can take credit for the inspired pairing. I made a new friend, you know?

I wouldn't mind if this sort of thing became an annual tradition - just think, you could pair up people who realy don't get on very well at all.

____: So, what the fuck is wrong with you anyhow?

____: Hey, fuck YOU, cloth ears!

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Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Goat Boy » 17 Jan 2014, 18:04

The Worst Name In BCB's History wrote:
Bleep wrote:That was great - it felt like you were both in the room together chewing the fat and drinking heroically. I was half-expecting you to wake up in the same bed the next morning still going on about Loveless.

:lol:


You can take credit for the inspired pairing. I made a new friend, you know?



:)
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism

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Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Jock » 17 Jan 2014, 19:25

Great read
Always Cheated Never Defeated

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Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Goat Boy » 17 Jan 2014, 19:31

Phenomenal Cat wrote:
Oh, and Goat Boy - I bought Trout Mask Replica and even Lick My Decals Off, Baby. No great epiphany yet, but there's always tomorrow.


Lick My Decals makes Trout Mask replica look like the fucking Knack, or something.
Griff wrote:The notion that Jeremy Corbyn, a lifelong vocal proponent of antisemitism, would stand in front of an antisemitic mural and commend it is utterly preposterous.


Copehead wrote:a right wing cretin like Berger....bleating about racism

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Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby kath » 17 Jan 2014, 19:38

that was a fucquin blast. mwhahaha. ohhh yesss. i luvv the both of you, too. maybe not as much as coan does. hard to tell. can y'all see his hands and everything?

except, of course, for one thing: you will remain a syphilitic, hell-rotted bastard until the end of time for the toddtoddtodd wizard show, goat boy. this, you know. may god forgive yew.

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Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Your Friendly Neighbourhood Postman » 18 Jan 2014, 10:36

Superb effort, guys.

Many thanks for a Q & A session that is a true joy to read.

I said it before: this is one of the very best, if not the best, idea(s) in BCB's history.
On the whole, I'd rather be in Wallenpaupack.

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Re: The BCB Interviews: Goat Boy

Postby Belle Lettre » 18 Jan 2014, 14:19

Amazing! Spontaneous, honest, heartfelt..er, and stuff.
Well done to both.
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Get a fucking grip you narcissistic cretins.


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