The Things Mother Should Have Told Me

If you're someone who tends to socialise with others who chat about music a lot, then perhaps you'll be able to relate to a certain sensation that I have decided to christen 'Having a Thorpisode' (also see footnote below).

This is the uncomfortable feeling you have inside when your friend that you are talking to over a pint mentions a certain band that you know to be hugely important/influential in the 'Grand Scheme of Popular Music' and yet you wouldn't know their material if you were wrapped up in it and deposited in the back of a transit van.

Your reaction under these circumstances is of course to nod knowingly and maintain the pretence of omniscience in the matter, as to admit ignorance would be fatal to Cool Rating ...

Anyhow, my point here is that such Thorpisodes can be a blessing in disguise as at a later date you can go off and research said band/artist and are frequently happy to find a whole new 'Cathedral of Sound' upon which to draw. Also, coming clean and admitting to being a 'XXX-noob' (should that be xx-noob?) seems to be somewhat therapeutic, kind of like a Self-Help Group for music nerds. So here goes ..... My name is Grim and I am a Obscure Music Addict, here's a catalogue of some of my reedemed Thorpisodic knowledge from the last 12 months:

New Order:
Unforgivable tbqh. Everyone knows Blue Monday, everyone knows that New Order were 'not as good as the Joy Division' per se. Hah! ... Totally different barrel of monkeys, and have probably made just as large a dent in music culture as did their incarnation mit Mr. Curtis. Sampler is 'that one from Trainspotting yeah?' ...

New Order - Temptation (7" Remaster)

The Flaming Lips:
My knowledge of the Flaming Lips up until well, in all honesty, a few hours ago, has been a Glastonbury performance I caught last year I think (added 'Lips to the Thorpisodic 'to-do' List, forgot ...) and also a cover of She Don't Use Jelly by Drugstore which has been in my collection for years. Very much a work in progress for me so until I know more, here's the original of Jelly from 1993 ...

The Flaming Lips - She Don't Use Jelly

Oingo Boingo
Sadly my experience of Danny Elfman and friends up until recently has been two sides of a C90 in a banana-box that has been gathering dust for more than a decade for want of something upon which to play those cassette thingys .. Rediscovering Boingo via the internet (particularly YouTube) has been a joy - video below is one of those 'fantastic' performances that happen once in a while.

Neu!
And finally - Neu! - whom I consider now in retrospect to be the missing link in my own personal taste in music. Taking 'number of tracks in my library on Winamp' as a proxy for my taste, Sonic Youth and Stereolab come out with the lion's share and I can now SO see Neu! as the grandfathers of the vast majority of what I like. I can listen to Neu! and every time I am amazed by the fact that this was happening in the very early 70's as it does seem such an anachronism - in a forward way. But enough jabbering - It's time for me to sit back, play Hallogallo and get smiley drunkard ... Gorgeous .... :)

Neu! - Hallogallo

Footnote: Hey, somethingawful was top of the google list - doesn't make me a Goon. The 'other me' is neutral in the matter, we sell the good stuff to anyone :) ... (nb. This will make no sense to most people - go go Thorpisodes!)

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