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[Sox]

It's about time we started talking about good bands in the music forum again. I mean, actually talk about them, instead of just congratulating each other on liking similar shit. It's about time we shared good music, without relying on the ridiculously bloated, easy and unneccesary mediaf!re thread. So I thought I'd start by talking about the band, Billy Mahonie. With a thread, specific to the band.

http://www.myspace.com/billymahonie

Billy Mahonie were a great band in London during the late nineties and early noughties.
They formed in 1997 when guitarist Gavin Baker and drummer Howard Monk began to experiment playing music with a four track. It wasn't too long before they where joined by Hywell Dinsdale and Kevin Penney. They recorded themselves often and produced many demos and a few singles in the time building up to their debut album, The Big Dig, in 1999. It was a good album! Really! The three people that heard it, LOVED it. Unfortunately, at this time the band were criminally ignored among their peers, despite being consistently "very good", while bands of a similar ilk often jumped between "potentially very cool" and "horribly overplayed". Despite the band selling the album to their moms, twice, they got dropped by their label.

It didn't take long for them to get picked up by Southern, that record label that keeps signing underappreciated bands and putting out their best record. In this case, Billy Mahonie made "What Comes Before". After the release of What Comes Before, the band went into hiding for a little while. Howard polished his drumkit using a highly combustible homemade polish and burst into flames in the middle of a show. Kevin plumetted to his death after running from a cliff edge in pursuit of a "really pink butterfly". Hywell was sawn to pieces and stored in Gavin's basement after getting into a barfight with "That big bad dude from Westworld". After Gavin Baker reported these unfortunate, unlikely incidents to the police, he set about finding a new band. One that "knew who was boss".
This is when Billy Mahonie released their final album, Dust, with new bandmates Duncan Brown and Anthony Barratt.

I think there's a lot of people here who could love Billy Mahonie, and a fair few who already do. I've seen enough praise for similar bands that don't seem to be capable of playing without showing off or can't write an interesting song to save their lives, so I'll be amazed if this shit doesn't catch on.
There's a good selection of songs on their myspace page, and some fantastic footage on youtube.

Here's an interview with the members of the band from 1999. Here are some very good live videos.And because you fuckers have gotten fat and lazy from that fat thread at the top of the page, here is a comparitively very weak collection of alternate takes titled "Come On Billy Mahonie, Give It Your Best Shot".



So...how you like?

[michaelicious]

Those live videos are great. The songs on the myspace are really good too, but man those videos. I like how at times they are just totally nonchalant about everything, all smokin' cigarettes while playing but then later on in the same song they just totally go off. They really seem to love playing with each other too. I like when bands play as much for each other and themselves as they do for the audience.

Finding out about awesome bands after the fact of their existance is always a little disappointing though. I can never seem to get truly excited about a band knowing that I somehow missed out on it while it was happening and the only thing I can experience and share with other people about the band is their nostalgia.

[Sox]

Except for the guys Gavin Baker killed, they're still alive and they are occasionally still a band. Don't get your hopes up about anything though. I understand how you feel about discovering bands after the fact, it's always a little disheartening to find you were too late to participate. Unfortunately, all the best bands are dead, and most new bands are sad immitations of them.

Records, however, are as good as they ever were and as good as they ever will be. It'd be a shame to miss out on great records because a band is no longer active.

[Cernunnos]

Unfortunately, all the best bands are dead, and most new bands are sad immitations of them.

No, No, No. Sorry, this is just such a terrible attitude to have. While it may be true that the bands that best fit your tastes or interests are gone, to say that bands today aren't as good is, first of all, not true, second, dismissive, third, stinks of nostalgia (which is only felt for an imagined past), and last, and worst of all, prevents one from appreciating music made now for what it is. you are missing out if you think this way. 

sox, i would like to add that i do respect your taste. i just find this kind of silly, is all.

[Sox]

It's nice to hear you say that you respect my taste. Personally, I didn't think I had any. I just figure that if somebody already perfected a formula and somebody else tries and fails to pull it off, which is the case for a lot of new stuff I hear, I might as well just enjoy the first one. There's not much coming out that's totally original, and shit's often strongest at the root. Which is why I'm still gonna talk about old/dead bands. That's not to say that there's not a lot of great music coming out all the time, quite the opposite. There's so much new stuff coming out that I can't even begin filter it. Which is why I hope people start making neat little informative threads like this one. If they formed in the past few years, I've probably not heard it.

I'm gonna start saying that I don't like music, because that's way more accurate than saying that I do.

[Cernunnos]

Ah. I get where you are coming from. I guess I should probably say that I like this band while i am at it.

[Sox]

I'm somewhat paraphrasing from our conversation in the chat, but I think it's a pretty worthwhile post that sums up my feelings on current music pretty well.
There's probably a lot of really great music coming out. There always will be. There's also a lot of band music coming out, and I don't want to be the guy who has to listen to it all to figure it out. Frankly, keeping up to date with music is expensive and time consuming. I tried for a while, but it just clearly wasn't worth it.
Time is the great decider. I'm sure the nineties were just the same as the noughties are turning out to be. Fortunately, time has swept away most of the filler and left mainly gems, lodged safely in the cracks. In ten more years, we'll be looking back on the noughties in very much the same way a lot of us view the nineties now. But if those of you who are old enough try to think back, you'll probably remember how terrible it all was at the time. It's not a case of wearing rose tinted glasses, but of all the layers of crap slowly being washed away.

I implore you, if you're reading this, don't be that guy. The one who spends too much time keeping up to date with current music from a variety of sources. Don't be that guy who downloads every new album as soon as it comes out. Don't be that guy actively pursuing the latest trends. Don't be that guy who preorders the new album by the most talked about band.  Don't be that guy, because it isn't worth it.

[Cernunnos]

Another thing to note about that. while it's good to not get too stuck in the past, you are totally right to not try to be really really up to date, and to always crave the new, the next big thing. It's true, the way music is made, written, recorded and distributed is in constant flux. Which is good.  But no one can say that music has gotten better over time, at least in the long term. The change in musical form is merely a mirror of the shifting cultures and technologies that produce it, not a mirror of quality. In that sense, it makes little difference when a given piece of music was written, provided its context still allows it to be aesthetically, philosophically, artistically fullfilling.

so uh basically what i am saying is newer ain't better necessarily, but neither is older, I guess. So I'd say it's best to look around in all directions to find music (or any art form, for that matter).

[Sox]

This is turning into a really good (offtopic) discussion. I hope people don't miss it because of the title.

[michaelicious]

I implore you, if you're reading this, don't be that guy. The one who spends too much time keeping up to date with current music from a variety of sources. Don't be that guy who downloads every new album as soon as it comes out. Don't be that guy actively pursuing the latest trends. Don't be that guy who preorders the new album by the most talked about band.  Don't be that guy, because it isn't worth it.

More and more people seem to be becoming this guy. Because of the internet people are able to easily access an absolutely astounding amount of music with little to no effort. Downloading some mp3s from a blog is rarely, if ever, as rewarding as stumbling upon a cassette or CD in a used bin at a music store and discovering an incredible new band. As more and more people that have never lived without internet get older, that old way of appreciating music is becoming less common and perhaps less relevant. So people have to look for a new way to find that feeling of reward, I guess, and some people get it from staying ahead of the curve of all the Crystal Castles and Vivian Girls and Vampire Weekends.

[sean]

Man, I have kind of felt like that guy lately, because I pretty much discover all of my music via blogs and shit. I mean, I don't follow the trends and bullshit like that but I blog leach like crazy. But also this past friday I kind of felt what its like to discover music the good ol' fashioned way. I went to go see Monument play and they had a bunch of random music on their merch table and I bought some of it and it was so goddamn good.

Basically fuck the internet, man.

(a combination of both is good, actually. i never would have learned of monument without sam, who i would not know without interbuttz).

[Cernunnos]

Yeah, I sometimes feel like I have a really odd way of finding music. I could spend hours in a record store or something, but it would require being in an unfamiliar place. I don't feel as though I make much good use of the internet as a resource either. I mean, I don't even use last.fm. I would also say that it's a really important and rewarding experience to talk about and exchange music with friends, provided you can find people who have a good but not complete overlap in taste.

[GMM]

so uh basically what i am saying is newer ain't better necessarily, but neither is older, I guess. So I'd say it's best to look around in all directions to find music (or any art form, for that matter).

Amen to this. People who will only listen to music made in the last six months are just bad as people who will only listen to music made before 1990 and so on. I do a LOT of blog hopping and investigating of new stuff but in the aim of finding things I love, not to try and keep up and listen to NEW NEW NEW music. I mean sure, I will pre-order the next thing Los Campesinos! releases and torrent any TV on the Radio record the day it leaks, but I'm also damn keen to get stuck into everything Talking Heads ever recorded and so on.

I love finding new things I love regardless of wether or not they are new I guess?

Basically Cernunnos is the most right.

ON THE SUBJECT OF BILLY MAHONIE AND DISCOVERING BANDS AFTER THE FACT

I discovered that this band existed because Darren Hayman of Hefner remixed one of their songs and I discovered Hefner long after they broke up and was investigating everything they'd done (and continue to do so). Much as I adore Hefner and most everything Hayman touches, it was not a great remix but it was ok.

[Christophe]

I always feel out of the loop when listening to the bands I mostly listen to these days (see: SKWM, June of 44, etc.) and it kills me because I am essentially so far removed from that era in music. Nostalgia is not a good substitute for experience. Without the interwebs I would never had heard of them but at the same time I'm cursed because I'm never gonna see any of those bands live, and even if I do I feel like a fish out of water in a crowd I've never interacted with only because I've had the bad luck to be born in a place and time where I would not have heard of those bands in their prime, in a location where I could easily see them. I don't even listen to a lot of bands from the present day because my mind is way too musically stuck in the 90s and early 2000s.

On the mediafire topic: there is a good amount of music in there that I don't really listen to, and then there's stuff I've gotten from there that sounds absolutely amazing and I listen to it a bunch. I should probably clear some of it out, my hard drive could use the space.

In any case, Billy Mahonie sound rad, I've heard of them before but never listened to their music. I too remember hearing about them when Hefner were still around and they were on the same label, but at the time I was like "Instrumental music? FUCK THAT" and didn't give it a listen. Did Gavin really kill off the rest of the band members? That sounds kind of like if Damon Che and Jack the Ripper had a baby (not music-wise).

[Sox]

I don't mind hearing about bands after the fact at all. The experience of being around while they were active is something I feel isn't essential to enjoying records. I get my kicks out of being a part of my local music community. That is all the 'experience' I need when it comes to music. If I want to hear a really great record, it doesn't matter where they are now, it's still a great record. The fact I never saw them live doesn't cause me to enjoy the really good records they left behind any less.

Don't regret that you missed the party. Just be glad it happened.

[michaelicious]

That is definitely a better way to look at it than getting all bummed out because I wasn't a college student in North Carolina in the 90's. I think my earlier comments stemmed from the fact that for most of my music-listening life I was a pretty avid supporter of the position that live music is always better, but for the past couple years I have become less convinced of that as I discover that most of my favourite bands are bands that I never actually got to see live.

I am pretty lucky to live in a town with such a friendly and vibrant music scene, so I'll just be happy with that instead of moping about how I never got to see Archers of Loaf.

[Sox]

Exactly. Get involved in your own music scene instead of regretting you weren't a part of somebody elses. Don't place any importance on a factor that shouldn't affect the way you hear the record.

[Christophe]

I guess you're right, Sox. I'm probably just feeling meh about where I am right now since I'm probably one of the only people in town remotely into noise rock or punk of any kind, though there is a small music scene in town and I just turned 21, which means I get to go to the bar where if any cool shows happen, they happen there. There's also a cool (but small) post-rock scene in my hometown that I try to support every chance I get.

[Cernunnos]

That's a good point, Christophe. People shouldn't forget about the music being made in their own metaphorical backyards. I almost forgot about the bands in my town, and hell, even my school. Some of them are pretty good. I mean, some are awful, but hey. It works out.