The postman came today...

[Mark_from_Perth]

The postman did finally come today I think I might have passed him on my way back from Esperance yesterday. That was a painful drive, 8hrs , half of it in rain....and I didn't have the foresight to get in touch with glee before I left....you see I passed by Jerdacuttup and through Ravensthorpe. I would have loved to have located The Woolshed for a photo. Oh well next time!

The honour of the first spin went to Treeless Plain and I finally hear what everyone else has been raving about. The new mix has done wonders. I love it! Oh well back to catching up on the gossip....

[rlukins]

Has it been mentioned that the June 7 Australian release has now been confirmed?

I just read a Warner press release about the details. Probably old news. Still, very excited, I can't believe I've held out ordering internationally for so long

Happy Days.

[Urpal]

Has it been mentioned that the June 7 Australian release has now been confirmed?
I just read a Warner press release about the details.

Warner press release? Why a Warner press release? What gives, man?

Good news anyway for thems not near a Domino distribution point.

[Gazza]

Think it's just that Warners are the distributor for Liberation.

[rlukins]

Think it's just that Warners are the distributor for Liberation.

Yep, it's out through Liberation Blue.

I finally get to hear what everyone's been fervently raving about

[geoffm]

Mark - you should have asked!!  It would have been no problem at all.

And while I'm at it here is my quick review of each song on TBS.  No doubt arguments to follow:

1. Too Hot Too Move - brilliant - up there with the best ever Triffids songs!! The demo is great too!!
2. American Sailors - great!  Demo ditto!
3. Falling Over You - good
4. Goodbye Little Boy - the album version is a bit too "try hard" for me.  Over produced.  The demo version displays what a great song it could have been.  A drop in quality.
5. Bottle of Love - poor.
6. Go Home Eddie - I think this should have actually been on the original album.  Its not a great Triffids song but its better than some of the others on TBS.
7. The Spinning Top Song - great!!!  I love this.  The Demo is also great.
8. Butterflies into Worms - poor.  The demo is better.
9. Can't Help Falling in Love - really poor.
10. New Years Greetings - brilliant.  See 1.  The demo is also brilliant!
11. Good Fortune Rose - OK - better than 5, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16.
12. Shell of The Man - see 6.
13. One Mechanic Town - good.
14. Jack's Hole - interesting!
15. Blackeyed Susan - poor.  The demo is also poor.
16. You Minus Me - good.  See 12.
17. The Clown Prince - poor.  The demo is also poor.
18. Fairytale Love - brilliant
19. How Could I Help But Love You - a live favourite and a great song.

So in my view TBS has 3 brilliant songs, 2 great songs and 3 good songs.  Which, as discussed elsewhere holds up pretty well to other albums but not so great to the Triffids previous albums. 

I have been meaning to come to the defence of Bottle of Love and Butterflies since I read this post Kieren.I see those songs as fitting perfectly into the country,country pop style of song that David seemed to come back to time after time.These are songs without huge ambitions but which,at least to me ,worked perfectly .  I think it was one of his strongest attributes.They are littered throughout his music from Nothing Good all the way to The Good life.ITP is full of them.These are the songs which I remain surprised are so poorly covered as they are more recognizably of a genre than much of his work and I think they were often things of great beauty.They certainly sound a lot better to these ears than much of whats going around now in that area.
I concede thay didn`t really fit the feel of TBS but it was all over the place anyway.

Am still listening to disc 2 of TBS regularly.Love many of the demo versions.Also that F...##g chorus to In the Dark has been stuck in my head for weeks now.

[AndrewFG]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! how can anyone not love Blackeyed Susan?
and the "European" sound of Clown Prince - now I know where Gogol Bordello got their ideas from (joke, sort of). The backing vocals on both of these are brilliant.
Apart from those then, Fairytale Love seems to be everyone's favourite, inc. mine.
American Sailors is almost perfect and New Year's Greeting is marvellous too.
This is the first Triffids album to come out after I got a CD player, so I have only had to buy it twice instead of three time.

I think I agree that the new BIG version is better (it's BIGGER anyway) , but I will have to listen to it a few more times yet. I'm sure it's not just me, but when you know a record well you start humming the intro to the next song when the previous one finishes. if the album is then resequenced it throws you for a while. I used to find this particularly irritating on "A Tonic for the Troops" which I new every note of (because it came out when I was sixteen and only had ten albums) and the CDs were never right until the last remastered version came out.

On TBS Blackeyed Susan segues into Fairytale Love in my head and I think I'm stuck with that however many times I play the new version.

Whilst I'm on, my booklet is fine, but the second CD of Calenture (last year already!) wouldn't play on CD players and I had to have it changed. it played fine on my PC, but that wasn't where I wanted to play it. I cut a backup copy whilst I sent the original back and that played on CD players perfectly.

[rlukins]

So very, very pleased. I just got my hands on bright, shiny copies of the three new re-issues.

It's a shame us poor little Aussies had to wait a while for the local release, but by golly it was worth it.

I work with old, dusty things in the old, dusty basements and tunnels of a museum, and hearing the opening chords of Red Pony echo through the room and around the old bones and stuffed animals is truly beautiful.

Thanks so much again to all the people involved in making all this happen.

Cheers and at least a few beers

[syd hancock]

Well, I've been living with TBS for a while now and finally feel it's started to sink in enough to share my thoughts.

It's absolutely lovely.  It feels lush, verdant and sumptous.  It sounds like an orgy of competing and contrasting ideas all coming together and (largely) being gloriously successful.

The sound quality is phenomenal and sounds I loved, I adore now.  I was violently against the expansion of the original album the first time I listened to the expanded edition.  I didn't think that any of the freshly added songs matched the quality of the others or that they added to the experience.

I've slowly changed my mind and now, barring one jarring exception, the new tunes do feel right.  Go Home Eddie is a terrific song, despite my previous misgivings about it being too slight.

I think that this particular reissue has taught me some valuble lessons.

Albums really matter. There still isn't a better way to deliver music.  10 plus tracks from an artist all connected and released together in a package pisses on slipping a couple of tracks out digitally.  The music can stretch out and grow in the safe and secure company of others, rather than be lost in an MP3 shuffle.

When re-releases are well thought out, and thoughtfully expanded, they can actually enhance my enjoyment of the music, rather than just end up being a replacement or a bit of retail pleasure.

Sometimes, Elvis covers can really suck.  Sorry, but it just sounds like UB40.     

[jonmck]

The third order of Treeless Plain in a row seems to have got lost in the post.  Ordered from different retailers so it's not at the source end.  Does my Postie have a fetish for that album, and that album alone?  All the others have arrived safely but this one never seems to arrive.

Methinks a conspiracy abounds...

One day I'll get to hear it in it's new shiny format.

[mark t]

It's a shame us poor little Aussies had to wait a while for the local release, but by golly it was worth it.

just in time for the aria announcement

[glee]

Yes, funny that....

[Mark_from_Perth]

Thats fair enough - might as well take advantage of the free publicity!

[mark t]

I'd say that was pretty close to the extent of their thinking.

[mekon]

Replacement  for my "rare misprint" of the TBS booket duly received from  the good folks at Domino Records headquarters !