Hello ,

When Voodoo Lounge came out ,an American friend came to my place to listen to it and he bought me "Dusk" from "The The".
I never heard about that band in France .Is the band famous in USA ?

Lyrics were a bit too dark and sad for me but I found the singer had an interesting voice.
What about their musical value ?



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

The The were fairly big in the UK between 1983 - 95. They were only ever one person - singer-songwriter Matt Johnson - and a revolving door of cohorts (including Johnny Marr and Gail Ann Dorsey).

After 1995, Johnson recorded a The The album called Gun Sluts which his then record company, Sony/Epic, refused to release because it was uncommercial. He signed to Universal/BMG and released Naked Self in 2000. He fell out with the record company over promotion and wound up putting the songs on his website as free downloads.

That was the last album Johnson/The The has released. Rumour is that he's quit music altogether.

I rate Soul Mining (1983) very highly. It has his most popular song - This is the Day - on it. The others have dated quite badly: Infected and Mind Bomb sound very 80s. There's also an album of Hank Williams covers called Hanky Panky, which is actually pretty good.

Saw them live promoting Dusk. Very good but not entirely my cup of tea. Lots of beautiful women in the crowd though ...

C

"The Beat(en) Generation" is a great track off the "Mind Bomb" album

Thanks for your answers.

"Dusk " and "Mind Bomb " are the CD"s I am talking about .I liked them.

bv ,is :
[www.thethe.com]
the official forum of the band ?

.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-05-10 23:13 by SwayStones.

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SwayStones
Thanks for your answers.

"Dusk " and "Mind Bomb " are the CD"s I am talking about .I liked them.

bv ,is :
[www.thethe.com]
the official forum of the band ?

If the answer is yes,please quickly delate my thread .
Many thanks .

Yeah it is. But no one ever goes there. Except to talk politics.

Mind Bomb was always one of my fave albums -
i'll have to dig it out, hasn't been played for ages.

"Uncertain Smile" is one of my favorite songs. Great "band", never got the chance to see them live. Is it true, that Matt Johnson left the music buseniss?

sjouke

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Nikolai

Quote
SwayStones
Thanks for your answers.

"Dusk " and "Mind Bomb " are the CD"s I am talking about .I liked them.

bv ,is :
[www.thethe.com]
the official forum of the band ?

If the answer is yes,please quickly delate my thread .
Many thanks .

.
Yeah it is. But no one ever goes there. Except to talk politics.

OK ,I think I get it .
Thanks for your help.
I just wanna know where I put my feet.


I really loved the music , but the gloomy ruminations on love and politics seems too theatrical,to me .

check [www.thethe.com]

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SwayStones

Quote
Nikolai

Quote
SwayStones
Thanks for your answers.

"Dusk " and "Mind Bomb " are the CD"s I am talking about .I liked them.

bv ,is :
[www.thethe.com]
the official forum of the band ?

If the answer is yes,please quickly delate my thread .
Many thanks .

.
Yeah it is. But no one ever goes there. Except to talk politics.

OK ,I think I get it .
Thanks for your help.
I just wanna know where I put my feet.


I really loved the music , but the gloomy ruminations on love and politics seems too theatrical,to me .

Matt Johnson was/is a fairly humourless sod. There's a very funny section in Luke Haines (of The Auteurs/Black Box Recorder) autobiography Bad Vibes, about falling out with Johnson and getting kicked off a The The tour.

Quote
Sjouke
"Uncertain Smile" is one of my favorite songs. Great "band", never got the chance to see them live. Is it true, that Matt Johnson left the music buseniss?

sjouke

They say he became mentally disturbed ,paranoiac and megalomaniac.
Last record,"Naked Self " in 2000 ?

Here I found some other things to read :
[mattjohnson.org]

Thnaks to you all for the answers.



I am a Frenchie ,as Mick affectionately called them in the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977 .

Quote
SwayStones

Quote
Sjouke
"Uncertain Smile" is one of my favorite songs. Great "band", never got the chance to see them live. Is it true, that Matt Johnson left the music buseniss?

sjouke

They say he became mentally disturbed ,paranoiac and megalomaniac.
Last record,"Naked Self " in 2000 ?

Here I found some other things to read :
[mattjohnson.org]

Thnaks to you all for the answers.

Johnson was always paranoid.

Megalomaniac? Absolutely!

He was signed a multi-album deal with Universal in 1999, but fewll out with them wheh they wouldn't promote the Naked Self tour. I saw the the at a small venue in London around that time and Johnson pointed to a lightbulb and said "that's Universal's contribution to the tour". Relations between him and the record company broke down, so Johnson oput the album up on his website as a free download.

The last gig he played was as a duo at David Bowie's Meltdown in London in 2002. I saw it and it was a disaster. Johnson promptly retired from playing live and has vowed never to do so again.

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Nikolai
The last gig he played was as a duo at David Bowie's Meltdown in London in 2002. I saw it and it was a disaster. Johnson promptly retired from playing live and has vowed never to do so again.

So...did you buy the Silent Tongue / Film Music 2CD by the The? Only issued at this show, i'll gladly buy it from you!
btw: NakedSelf is one of my favourites, and the shows the The played were excellent, imho! Don't you agree, Barbabang?

[www.discogs.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-05-11 16:38 by gimme_shelter.

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gimme_shelter

Quote
Nikolai
The last gig he played was as a duo at David Bowie's Meltdown in London in 2002. I saw it and it was a disaster. Johnson promptly retired from playing live and has vowed never to do so again.

So...did you buy the Silent Tongue / Film Music 2CD by the The? Only issued at this show, i'll gladly buy it from you!
btw: NakedSelf is one of my favourites, and the shows the The played were excellent, imho! Don't you agree, Barbabang?

[www.discogs.com]

I didn't. Sorry. Can't remember why. Maybe because the gig was so dispiritingly awful I wanted to get as far away from the venue as fast as possible. Wish I'd bought ten now.

Quote
Nikolai
I didn't. Sorry. Can't remember why. Maybe because the gig was so dispiritingly awful I wanted to get as far away from the venue as fast as possible. Wish I'd bought ten now.

Haha, you should've. I've been looking for this sucker a long long time. Only have a CD-r of it.....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009-05-11 17:53 by gimme_shelter.

Pretty good rendition of Hank Williams songs on his/their album "Hanky Panky"...

gimme_shelter wrote : NakedSelf is one of my favourites, and the shows the The played were excellent, imho! Don't you agree, Barbabang?

Well, as you know The The is one my favorite bands!I like the music, and the lyrics as well, and the beautiful artwork from Andy Dog. My favorite album (this week anyway) is Mind Bomb. Very well produced by Bruce Lampcov. Great sonics (no clipping or brickwalling)

Hmmm .

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Rather than the Rolling Stones, who are pretty much just businessmen in my book

JUST BUSINESSMEN

It's here :
[www.thethe.com]

I think I am not gonna read more about it ,and I will just go on loving Dusk ...