Thin White Rope, how it all began ...
I was just thinking about the very first time I had the chance to listen Thin White Rope ...
I guess it was circa 1994 when I got a cassette mix-tape (do you remember?) from my cousin, whose last "filler" track was a TWR song .... I think Hidden Lands off Sack full of Silver album. After listening to it, I immediately asked him what band was it and 2 weeks later I had the whole discography (... more or less) .
I was really impressed by SFOS, both music and lyrics, especially The Triangle Song, and I listened to it for a long period before paying more attention the other albums...and that was the beginning .
Definitely a sweet addiction.
Unfortunately I've never seen Thin White Rope live, but my copy of The Axis Calls video really helps... :)
This is how it all started for me...now what about you ?!?!
Posts
12 comments:
I cant exactly remember the first time I heard music of TWR. It was my friends Almosthole and Sinisa who 'hooked me' to listen to Astronomy, Piss, Crawl, Freeze, Thing, Not Your Fault... to mention songs that, maybe, I like most...
All the way back in 1990. i got myself a cassete with Happy Mondays on one and Sack Full Of Silver on
the other side.Being just kid back then i really wanted to have some funlistening to manchester party animalsbut insted i got throwned into and beyond this new barrier, the world of sounds and emotions never experienced before.Next year i read that TWR are playing on Reading festival in England and God only knows how i menaged to convincemy parents to let me travel there, via interail,"to see the band that i really reallly like"!
So i was there, Mean Fiddler stage,
and i tell you , it was the only
religious experience i had thus far
in my life....ooh how The Fish Song
sounded that day!Afterwards i
sneaked into backstage i got myself
a chat and an autograph with Guy
and went to happily to Amsterdam
to look for some different experiences ...later that year i
formed my first band.
George
Around '89 or '90 a friend who was a former member of another Davis, CA band, True West (with whom TWR's drummer once played if memory serves), turned me on to them.
It was the late 90s for me in Eugene Oregon. There is a chain of stores called, at the time, the CD Game Exchange. CDs at the store were tier-priced. They ranged from full price for new CDs to 50 cents for the really ratty ones. They sold a LOT of CDs for a dollar. I'd go on fishing expeditions and buy 10 or 15 titles I'd never heard-- just picking ones that caught my attention. "Sack Full of Silver" was in one of my first hauls (and it's part of the reason I still go CD fishing). Several years later I found "Ruby Sea", and few years after that, in Guam of all places, a compilation CD (Where the Pyramid meets the Eye) with one of their tracks. Now, more than a decade after first finding "Sack Full of Silver", I still find myself listening to the band. Great Stuff!
in 1987 or 1988 the "moonhead" LP was presented in a german indie-radio programme. I put the 6 or 7 songs that were played on a cassette (do you remember ;-)?) an from this moment on i was a big fan an began to collect everything.
I was lucky to see TWR live on stage two times, in 1990 and in 1991, these belong to the bests concerts that I have ever been to.
My big brother's friend was deeply involved in all that had anything to do with alternative/indie music in the mid/late 80's. He use to make tapes for me to listen to on my walkman, I think Moonhead was the first album he recorded for me, I newer forget how I got sucked into this universe! Man, up to this day NO band has, or probably will, be able to do guitar feedback that same way as Kyser & Kunkel. Needless to say I was immediately hooked! I saw the band 3 times in Denmark (I'm danish) I think the first time they ever played in Copenhagen was in the summer of 88 in Faelledparken in front of maximum 50 people (20 f...... years ago ooohh shit ;.)) unfortunately I was in Holland (talking about experience haha), I think that Jon Von Feldt was still in the band with his voilin bass and chorus pedal, someone recorded it on video I think, nevermind.... I saw them the year later in Faelledparken again (this time on a bigger stage), on Loppen in Christiania in 90 or 91, and on Roskilde in 92. Tell you, that was a weird experience, watching your beloved band, knowing it was the last time you would EVER see it, 30 minutes after Denmark won the European cup in fottball. I cried and cried.....
Anders Bent
Must have been Summer '94, I found the greatest hits lp on Munster in the local record store, when i got back home and heard it, it sounded so exotic in comparison to the music I had heard before that I immediately recorded it to cassette, and listened to it almost non-stop that summer.
incidently I am helping to get the discogs.com entry for TWR as up to date as possible (it isn't even near at the moment) http://www.discogs.com/artist/Thin+White+Rope
If any readers can help that would be awesome - the only (main) rule for submitting to discogs is that you have to own the release to enter its details onto the database, so my progress so far has been slow.
My username on Discogs is: cinquante_neuf if you want to contact me via their message facility.
Hey I just wanted to say thanks for the many comments on this post!
It's cool to read the various ways the "Thin White Rope virus" infected us :-)
I hope more fans will post.
Ciao,
Moonhead
This is a great post, Thanks for helping me reminisce. 1987...Dusty's records in Kearney Nebraska..."It's Not Your Fault" was playing on the store system. I bought the Moonhead LP right then and there. I couldn't wait to play it for my friend who rescued me from top radio by introducing me to the Hoodoo Gurus. It was my turn to do the introducing. From then on we dreamed of seeing them live as we slowly picked up whatever we could find on them. I remember wondering what Guy looked like because his voice was like nothing I had heard before. Fast forward to Duffy's Lincoln Nebraska 1987 or 88 TWR performing live and we were underage. Damnit! Maybe they will let us in since we are big fans. No such luck, but the owner let us talk to Guy. He was playing pinball. "It's just another underage story" He felt bad and we felt honored to have met him. We missed that show, but they came back to Duffy's during the Sack Full of Silver tour. Unbelievable. They were super cool so we drove to Omaha the next night and saw them again. I will never forget it because we saw an amazing show and we were able to talk to Roger and Guy. They signed our poster and here is what Guy wrote "John and Rod, hold Lincoln steady for us while we part it's hind legs" Perfect absolutely perfect.
I bought the Moonhead album from a used record shop in 1987 or so,because the cover art intrigued me. Lucky for me, because it is their best. Sadly, I never saw them play
I am going to order the Mummydogs CD and check that out.
Glad there are some fans out in cyberspace
I remember reading about TWR in some music magazine or another in the late '80s and buying "Exploring the Axis" on cassette! That was the format I liked back then, pre-CD, and I bought "Moonhead" and "Spanish Cave" the same way. I saw them twice. First at CBGB, they played about a 20-minute set. I remember Guy breaking out the slide for "Red Sun." I had a friend in New Haven, CT in those days and asked Guy if they would be playing there. He gave me an odd look and said, "We're kind of burnt on New Haven!" The other show of theirs I saw was at a place called Woody's owned by Ron Wood of the Stones. That was a full set and it was great.
I must have first heard TWR in about 88 or 89 when I was still at school. Having seen rave reviews of them in Melody Maker I managed to borrow and illegally tape a copy of Moonhead from my local record library - whoever was buying for Coventry city library back in the 80s was extremely clued up and had a huge influence on my youth and subsequent life. At first I thought it was interesting, if less immediate than stuff I was listening to at the time like the Pixies, Husker Du, Mudhoney... I persevered, and by the time it got to Moonhead itself I was starting to see what the fuss was all about. And then Wet Heart kicked in and I was head over heels in love, for me it still has to be one of the greatest tracks ever written. I got to see them twice, both times at the Duchess of York in Leeds, in 90 and 91. Both times they were superb if extremely poorly attended, but the second time has to be the best and most memorable gig of my life - I remember being reduced to tears by the Fish Song. How many bands can do that to you? The greatest.
Post a Comment