"Street Horrrsing" is the best new thing I've heard since No Age's "Weirdo Rippers" and for the most part I totally love it.
When I first started posting on DiS there was quite a buzz going on the boards for Fuck Buttons and I thought "How good could a band called Fuck Buttons be?'. I was definitely interested but thought I'd just wait for the cd to fall into my hands at the record store. But then, after I read a blurb about Fuck Buttons' upcoming Pitchfork tour date in Chicago I decided I better find out more so I called up Mandy at the local shop and said " Ah, gee, could you order in something called (ahem) Fuck Buttons"? Just got it yesterday and I'm really quite smitten with it. I love the total DiYness of Fuck Buttons, love the cover art and love 4 out of the 6 tracks on the cd. I have compartmentalized my listening experience of "Street Horrrsing" into 3 sections:
Section 1: Tracks 1,2
Section 2: Tracks 3,4
Section 3: Tracks 5,6
Section 1 and 3- I love and section 2 is a small eternity with Fuck Buttons.
Section 1 opens with the instant classic "Sweet Love For Plantet Earth" which begins with ultra tinkling magic keyboard riffs reminiscent of Saint-Saens "The Aquarium" and builds with washes of fuzz and delay soaked keyboard pulses and lovely chord progressions all deliciously juxtaposed by some guy shrieking into a toilet paper tube. "Sweet Love For Planet Earth" segues beautifully into the Japanese tribal drum driven "Ribs Out" which ultimately reminds me of Pink Floyd's "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gatherd Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" from Umma Gummas studio album.
Section 2 is not without merit though; It is the part that helped endear Fuck Buttons to me by reminding me of Tangerine Dream's soundtrack for the film "Sorcerer" and Pink Floyd's "Meddle" but I'm 53 and I can only stand so much of a guy shrieking into a toilet paper tube. But that aside Section 2 is a guite beautiful trial which eventually flows into the almost jubilant final section.
Section 3 I kind of imagine as the house music for the coolest church in the world. "Bright Tomorrow" (which is the new Neu track that never came) being the bit where the parish is filing in to the chapel and "Colours Move" as the sermon proper.
Ultimately, "Street Horrrsing" segues nicely through all six tracks making the overall listening of it a worthwhile journey.
I can't say enough good things about Fuck Buttons and my excitement for what I hope is yet to come from these people- stunning BRITISH experimental this!
went to their ICA gig
on a friend's recommendation, and was totally blown away. so first impression = very good.
but tough to tell the boss at work what i'm listening to.
tell him
"If you must know, it's some guy shrieking into a toilet paper tube." that's better than saying you are listening to Fuck Buttons.
Lucky about the FB gig, if I'd gotten into them a little sooner I might have made my way out to Portland for their show at the Doug Fir.
Hope to catch them soon though, they are big on the list.
Shit
The ENd.
they are not for everyone
I can't rip you for that
you'd like them if they wore dapper suits and carried umbrellas
you know me too well
actually bowler hatted men shrieking into toilet paper tubes would be unstoppable.
that isn't a reply to you.
Oh really?
Who then?
Me
Yeah Bobby!
? Are you dapper?
does the pope shit in the woods
he's the most dapper man in Britain, no joke!
Ta
follow the indentations.
it has the same indentation as your post, so it's obviously a response to the same post as yours was. if it was a response to your post, it would have been indented further than your post.
Bear with me
The indentations on "you'd like them if the wore........ appears to line up perfectly with "they are not for.......
so that tells me the previous is a response to the latter? But you said it wasn't a reply to me. Explain the indentation dynamic once more please.
...
guntrip's post is indented relative to prole's, therefore he's replying to him. If he were replying to you it would be indented rleative to your post. Of course prole ruins this by replying where ever the hell he likes so you're always unsure of who he's replying to.
thanks
it's the little things that make all this so interesting.
i do recommend the live experience
and am looking forward to catching them again at the battles/dirty projectors gig in a few weeks!
toilet paper tube suggestion noted.
Did someone post about a candlelight fuck buttons gig?
.
heard them for the first time
on sunday - really good stuff - may just pick up the album
:)
I was so impressed when I saw them last year
and the album is wonderful. I've had it in my car on loop all week.
It's not quite as good as any of the Black Dice records but is slightly different as it mixes in a bit of Boards of Canada and Isis as well. Absolutely love it.
describe the show a little
Do they always wear plaid shirts? What is the green amp? What about candlelight?
saw them
live and it was pretty whatevs
well...
it's nice that a UK band are doing so well and being pushed by the ATP people, sonically they're great but musically I find them a bit formulaic, meh... simple 2 chord progressions and not much musical overlaying, and their laptop when they play live is completely underused. I'm interested to see what their next record will be like though...
they
are a great band, its just shame that so many people dismiss them on the basis of their name or the fact that pitchfork rate them so highly. you just have to glance at their last.fm page to see how many idiots dismiss them as 'hipsters' or 'scenester shit' or whatever and it's a shame.
furthermore, this band has kind of acted as a catalyst for me to get into other noise stuff and if it helps others broaden their horizons abit then this cant be a bad thing. i commend atp for having so much faith in them! one of the albums of the year!
When I heard their name for the first time I was impressed!
Then when I heard some of their tracks I was even more impressed!
Hopefully I can catch them live sometime soon.
my first f**k
was shit
This better not turn into a first fuck thread
.
^ this!
And when you do catch them live, you'll be in for a treat.
My album of the year so far also.
I've been neglecting this album
apart from the first track which Im in love with. I will put it on later I think. I agree with you mostly and love your bloke screaming into a toilet roll tube description.
I have no quarrel with the 'buttons
I saw them at a Brainlove gig and they had smoke machines and lazers and loud noises and it was all very theatrical and exciting and a jolly good show all round. However, I do wonder what exactly is 'experimental' about them. Can anyone enlighten me? Is this just a tag that makes them more easily identifiable as members of a genre?
i think
they're trampgash personally but, y'know, different stuff for different things or whatever.
nothing official about the "experimental" reference
It is a broad term like all the rest i.e., "alternatinve", "avant garde" (which is kind of a way to refer to a more radical "experimental" artist, in my mind), or "indie". I referred to Fuck Buttons as being "experimental" because of a few unconventional idiosyncrasies they have like the length of their "songs", their use of nontraditional intruments (lap tops, electric clothes dryer tumbler- I'm sure they employ other such things) and most of all their slightly odd sonic and musical motifs like pitting harsh mechanical shrieks against layers of quite beautiful music textures. I would consider Fuck Buttons' treatment of the human voice in general rather experimental as it is not meant to convey clear verbage but to merely suggest emotion or mood. Not like Fuck Buttons are pioneers by doing these things, but in MY mind they are experimental artists.
Ah
so it is a handy genre thing rather than a claim to be doing anything that pushes boundaries. As audio 'collage' and performance this sort of thing is endlessly fascinating and exciting and should be judged on its own merits. However, it's irritating when people get confused and start claiming that this style of 'sound art' is in some way charting new territories and represents a cutting edge that flies in the face of 'standard' popular music. To claim that it is anything other than enjoyable, good quality pop music aimed at a non-mainstream (but clearly identifiable) audience would be to claim that abstract painting is a shocking revelation. As you point out - there is nothing pioneering here. Merely fun, theatrical 'music'.
Handy for me anyway
I should know better than throw words like that around but I struggle for words sometimes, and words like "experimental" help me describe someone who is doing just that ,experimenting, although to Fuck Buttons it's not experimenting, it's just what they do. And as YOU point out theatrical 'music' could describe them just as well- I hear they are given to cloud machines and such at the gigs.
the 'buttons
Good on you! That's what I'm calling them from here on in. I keep on saying: "I saw this great band called the fuck buttons" and the response is always "yeah, yeah, pretentious name", and the conversation stops there, pretty much. I saw them at ATP last December, and with the possible exception of Balazs Unger, they were the biggest (wonderful) surprise of the whole thing.
Thanks
Balazs Unger, there's anyother one I've never heard of, I should start writing this stuff down. I usually preface mentioning Fuck Buttons name with a definite throat clearing or obvious "ahem", but I'm confident the day will come when we can utter their name freely and openly. Or they could change their name to Buck Futtons.
Mr Unger...
..is the bloke who plays cimbalom with Hawk and Hacksaw. His solo (this very one here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl-eaDIt7PE) was quite jaw-dropping, although where it sounds on the video as though he was making mistakes, in reality, he was just playing bloody fast, and the recording doesn't pick up the subtlety of it well. I just hope he's going to be at EITS in May.
thanks
I'm trying to download it now.
CHUDDACHUDDACHUDDAWAAAAAAA
CHUDDACHUDDACHUDDAWAAAAAAA ipIPipPIIPIP
CHUDDACHUDDACHUDDAWAAAAAAA
DRZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
...right?
Yep.
That's my favourite bit, too.
I expected better, after all the buzz.
It's still quite a good album, but there's tons of good psych/freak folk experimental gubbins going about and doesn't stand out too much for me.
Still would be really interesting to see them live.
It's good
But i'm already bored of it.
All the tracks are so
long and never really go anywhere. I saw them play in a pub in Bristol ages ago before all the hype and whatnot and they were pretty good. I'm going to give them a watch at Primavera and see how they've evolved but I don't think that I'll re-visit the album much.
I've only heard sweet love for planet earth or whatever its called
and was totally bored by it.
Poor mans
noise music.
this is true in a way
its a good album but there is more inspiring stuff within noise for sure.
i hope people broaden their horizons and have a look for themselves rather than just having this album as their token 'weird' record or something.
Don't know about the "poor mans" reference
But Fuck Buttons can hardly be lumped into the noise genre. They have melody and clear song structure. All the songs on "Street Horrrsing" have beginnings, middles and ends.
Allow me to rephrase:
Noise music for people who dont like noise music.
Allow me to re-rephrase:
People for noise music who don't like people noise.
:O
mind = blown
I saw FB last night
Andy was a nice chappie, and sez hello to ...well, Alcxxk specifically (he asked, you didn't).
I'll spare you my mini-review except for saying Caribou/FB is a most enjoyable double bill.
HaHa
You Dog
Bye the bye
did they have any "fuck buttons" in merch? Did you get me a T?
My buddy bought a t-shirt
with a vase on it (or vahsse, if you're french). Canna remember if it was Fbuttons or Caribou though.
Yeah, it is a fantastic record.
Bright Tomorrow is my favourite song on it, but I love it all.
Bright Tomorrow my fav too
It must be the single- ha.
Fuck Buttons =
Wolf Eyes for beginners. This is true because I bet there aren't many that love the Fuck Buttons albums that think 'well they're no Wolf Eyes'. As Wolf Eyes are far superior.
Wolf Eyes huh
I'm hardly a beginner but I'll check em out.
That's a bit of a strange comparison.
Black Dice? Maybe.
So, so wrong
For a start, Wolf Eyes, live and recorded, rely heavily on improvisation. From what I can gather, Fuck Buttons songs are much more structured. Secondly, Fuck Buttons are surprisingly melodic, Wolf Eyes are not. Two completely different bands who you can't really compare.
Thank god you split the album into three sections
Don't think I could ever have come close to understanding your review if I'd have had to keep tabs on all 6 (SIX) tracks on the album.
Thanks for reading
have a ciggy break
saw them at ATP last year
and didn't enjoy them, thought they were boring and the type of band people go to see because they feel they should be there. But hey, what do I know, different strokes for different folks
I've been to some amazing shows in the last year
I wish I could trade you one of them for the FucK Buttons show you went to.
No no no!
I saw them there as well, thought that with a name like that they would be gimmicky nonsense and was absolutely transfixed. But as you say, different strokes.
i wonder
if they know there's some band called F Buttons ripping them off, getting radio play and everything...
seriously though, they're fucking great!
After listening to it more
I think I only really like half of it. Sweet Love For Planet Earth, Ribs Out and Bright Tomorrow. The two tracks in the middle are ok but they remind me of bad versions of this Thomas Bangalter track from ages ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYy5RL3gzhg
P.S.
the 12" by Thomas Bangalter with Outrage and Paris By Night on is awsome.
i keep
meaning to get their album do they sound owt like Xilinsupreme?
I don't know who they are I'm afraid
I'm sure some one else will fill you in on that.
^ you should check out
a track of Xilinsupremes called 'murder licence', its quality
I think I might just do that
as I'm pretty new to the noise genre.
The middle tracks sound great at higher volumes
I was listening to them cranked on the PA yesterday and they are really quite splendid. I had trouble with them in the beggining.
yeah I will try that
I might grow to love them yet, I aint given up hope just yet.
Personally I think its awful
Like up there with the worst noise ever produced by a band. I just can't understand how anyone can call the same sample repeated over and over again with some wierdo yelping or making animal noises over the top of it. The samples arn't even that good.
*music
Go figure
I know it sounds crazy when you put it like that. Would it help if I told you they use a Boss DD-6 Digital Delay and Boss Super Octave OC-3 and a bunch of other cool stuff and write cool songs and set up on garden tables and perform in clouds of smoke?
See? There's a little more to Fuck Buttons than you might think.
Oh, did I mention they have cool artwork- I always give points for that. I don't let bad artwork get in the way but totally appreciate good art and it adds to the whole experience.
I not sure of you reasoning...
I own both of those pedals and have written songs outside. Yet i'm not critically acclaimed.
It just comes accross as completly pretentious to me. It just seems like people are only really into this type of music becuase it is so far removed from what makes a song good in 95% of the populations eyes.
However, I like good artwork
so they are slightly better than westlife
Sorry, I was tired, migraine cummin on, got a little flippant.
I was hoping to make Fuck Buttons out to be a little more substantial than your slightly offhand summarization by pointing out things about them I f