Laptop Dogs

November 13, 2011 10:17 PM

The Fall have a new record out, Ersatz GB. It's their 29th studio album. An excellent interview with Mark E Smith from The Independent.

The album also includes a cover ("Greenway") of Greek heavy metal group Anorimoi's Gameboy. With new, exciting lyrics about watching a doppelganger on Danish TV and the misheard-in-every-review "I had to wank off the cat to feed the fucking dog."

Sascha Frere-Jones piece in the New Yorker, apparently without any fact checking.
Independent Review.
Financial Times Review.
Guardian Review.

Teaser video on Youtube with clips of "Nate Will Not Return", "Cosmos 7", "Laptop Dog" and "Monocard".

Bonus video of a bicycle powered Spectre vs. Rector

posted by kittensofthenight (25 comments total)

Speaking of The Fall, a 2006 Guardian article by Dave Simpson, about his attempt to find out what happened to all forty plus people who played in the band (and were fired from it by Mark E Smith).

It's a Tuesday morning in December, and I'm ringing people called Brown in Rotherham. "Hello," I begin again. "I'm trying to trace Jonnie Brown who used to play in the Fall. He came from Rotherham and I wondered if you might be a relative." "The Who?" asks the latest Mr Brown. "No. The Fall - the band from Salford. He played bass for three weeks in 1978." "Is this some kind of joke?"

posted by Homeboy Trouble at 10:28 PM on November 13, 2011 [3 favorites]

On the train from Euston to Manchester, I find my thoughts turning to some of the things Mark E Smith doesn't care for.

This is the Platonic Ideal of an opening sentence for a review of a Fall album.
posted by twirlip at 10:34 PM on November 13, 2011 [4 favorites]

Yeah, it's an awesome interview.
posted by kittensofthenight at 10:45 PM on November 13, 2011

In the time it has taken you to read this comment, Mark E. Smith has fired his band and hired a new one.
posted by Palindromedary at 10:54 PM on November 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

apparently without any fact checking.

Applying the mefi commentary gold standard to his reviewing, then?
posted by rodgerd at 10:58 PM on November 13, 2011

Is this something I would need to fall to appreciate?
posted by Samizdata at 11:00 PM on November 13, 2011

I love that he played himself in 24 Hour Party People.
posted by bardic at 11:14 PM on November 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

rodgerd- Originally the piece just said that MES wrote Just Waiting, citing it as an example of his more lyrical writing, and Just Waiting is actually a Hank Williams song that The Fall covered. I just re-read he Frere-Jones piece and realized that they edited out the mistake, guess they caught it after all, as it should be. Nothing to be ashamed of. Wish I had caught that when I made the post. I read the piece a few days ago.
posted by kittensofthenight at 11:15 PM on November 13, 2011

(it was a pretty funny mistake though.)
posted by kittensofthenight at 11:20 PM on November 13, 2011

Bonus video of a bicycle powered Spectre vs. Rector

This approach could make the indoor trainer bearable this winter.
posted by maudlin at 11:37 PM on November 13, 2011

You know, Robert," says Smith, "I really don't think you're very good at this interviewing thing. I think maybe you should have gone into some other trade."

Challenging interviewee. I need to go dig out my old Fall tapes.
posted by arcticseal at 11:38 PM on November 13, 2011

This approach could make the indoor trainer bearable this winter

That's almost a perfect MES line:

This approach-ah
could make the INDoor! TRAIN-ah!!
Bear-able
This WIN-tah.
posted by UbuRoivas at 12:52 AM on November 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

"The Fall have a new record out" is one of those rare phrases that manages to describe an utterly normal and commonplace event and yet also to engender a sense of massive delight.
posted by Decani at 2:58 AM on November 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

I went to see them in Edinburgh a couple of weeks back. Always different, always the same. Mark E Smith walked off again (he walked after 20 minutes when they played here last year). Then the band walked off. Then Smith's wife Elena came on and asked us all "What do you expect from Mark? He has wounds on his feet" and then something about five flights of stairs which sounded awfully like something she said last year.

Then the band came back on.

Then local tattoo-parlour owner Paul Slifer took matters into his own hands and got up and improvised along to the band splendidly, singing "Where is Mark?" for a wee bit before being ushered off by security. ( yt - Live footage!)

Finally, Mark decided to reappear, helped on James Brown-style by some aide and sang ("sang" doesn't really do it justice, maybe "gurgled and phlegmed"?) "Mr Pharmacist" before uttering an uncharacteristic "Thank you and goodnight."

I quite enjoyed the whole thing, but my ticket was a gift so I didn't feel robbed - other folk seemed less happy.

Always different always the same.
posted by jiroczech at 3:20 AM on November 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

The Fall have a new record out, Ersatz GB.

The name of the record makes me fear I blacked out a couple of weekends ago and became a member of The Fall only to be fired again just as the sun was rising. I'd mail Mark E Smith, but apparently he only remembered my nickname.
posted by ersatz at 5:36 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I love that Wikipedia needs a separate page just for the list of band members.
posted by octothorpe at 6:09 AM on November 14, 2011

Everybody gets fifteen minutes of fame, but only every eighth person gets to be kicked out of the Fall.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 6:56 AM on November 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

For anyone (rightly) intimidated at the thought of "getting into" The Fall, The AV Club's Gateways to Geekery has you covered.
posted by SpiffyRob at 8:12 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Then local tattoo-parlour owner Paul Slifer took matters into his own hands and got up and improvised along to the band splendidly, singing "Where is Mark?"

I remember seeing them in NY about 8-9 years ago and MES was apparently so impressed by someone singing along that he gave him the mic and drank a couple pints at the bar laughing, while this guy did about three songs.

Hilarious.
posted by lumpenprole at 8:29 AM on November 14, 2011

Sascha Frere-Jones piece in the New Yorker, apparently without any fact checking.

Speaking of fact-checking, it's "Sasha".

Yay new Fall!
posted by dfan at 10:04 AM on November 14, 2011

Everybody gets fifteen minutes of fame, but only every eighth person gets to be kicked out of the Fall.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 2:56 PM on November 14

My fellow-guitarist friend and I have a running joke which has long since passed the stage of "Used to be funny and then got overdone" and moved into that sublime realm of "So far beyond overdone it has achieved permanently ethereal perfection." Basically, whenever one of us refers to something in the past that the other does not recall, the other says "Was that before or after you were in The Fall?"

Okay. I admit you'd probably have to be there. And in receipt of at least eight pints of Abbot Ale.

Ah, shit. Let me offer some small recompense in the shape of a typically magnificent Fall cover.
posted by Decani at 10:47 AM on November 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh, what the hell. Have another.
posted by Decani at 10:55 AM on November 14, 2011

Bicycle powered?
posted by spectrevsrector at 3:29 PM on November 14, 2011

Well, Decani, while we're at it one more!
posted by lumpenprole at 4:02 PM on November 14, 2011

I'm actually interested in where the Financial Times reporter got the 'More than 60' number.

Just last year the best I could come up with was 35. That's a big gap.
posted by lumpenprole at 5:09 PM on November 14, 2011