14/10/2011

Great Answerphone Messages in Music?

So, it's Friday and for no particular reason I had a slight random epiphany earlier .... Lots of instruments in music right? Saxophones, Stylophones, Xylophones etc etc ..... More 'phones than you can shake a stick at to be honest. But! .. I do believe that one member of the grouping has been sadly overlooked, sadly to the detriment to the music scene in general.


Ladies and Gentlemen, may I introduce the 'lost cousin' of the 'Phone family - The Answerphone!


So off the top of my head and with the help of some rummaging around on the net I decided to put together a little playlist of some of my favourite examples of inspiring and dare I say it groundbreaking usage of the answerphone from the annals of music over the last 25 years or so:


  • Violent Femmes - Gordon's Message - Probably my top choice, a classic illustration of the art, done with truth and integrity.
  • The Wonder Stuff - Sleep Alone - "Listen, call immediately! Time is running out! We all need to do something crazy before we die…" - I did say 'inspiring'.
  • Sonic Youth - Providence - A decidedly 'arty' use - Caller unspecified giving advice to Thurston Moore on where to find his 'shit'.
  • Ciccone Youth (a Sonic Youth alias) - Two Cool Rock Chicks Listening to Neu! - Kim Gordon and Suzanne Sasic call up J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) who sounds rather busy rocking out...
  • Renegade Soundwave - Blastik 1 - No 'raving' with Danny when stuck in Brixton prison for four years. Great tune!


Give 'em a spin below...



So, I ask - Know any more? Let's see if we can get enough examples together to put out a full-sized compilation/mix-tape of this under-appreciated genre. Surely the world deserves such justice! Add a comment here on the blog (anonymously if you'd like no-one to giggle at you) or drop us a line on Facebook or Twitter - What could be easier?