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R. Stevie Moore (And Other DIY Recording Artists)

Started by A Car With No Doors, September 02, 2016, 09:34:50 PM

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As far as I'm aware there's only been one other thread concerning this brilliant, brilliant man, and since that was back in 2008 I feel inclined to start a new one.

A lot of stuff is repeated when it comes to the guy: having over 400 albums, recording at his house on a reel-to-reel, but most importantly he is just a fucking fantastic songwriter.

Your Daughter and I: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj7SNFbj_Mc (an underrated track, not his poppiest but with a gorgeously mournful melody)

Cool Daddio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpBkdzeL2HQ (joyous rocker: I especially love those cardboard box-sounding drums. seems to pre-empt the Pavement-esque wave of 90s indie somehow?)

We're In Vietnam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6xO1PRALMg

Any other RSM fans here? The man's still pumping out music (a lot of it work-in-progress material) and there are supposedly some exciting collabs with the likes of Jason Falkner and Gary Wilson coming up. And if you wave a flag for any unique, singular musicians of a similar disposition to Moore and Wilson, post them here: I'd be very interested to check them out.


Calistan

I think there was meant to be a collaboration with Black Francis which never came to fruition. He's someone I've always meant to check out and on the basis of the above songs I'll definitely try to find some albums now.

marquis_de_sad

I tried to get into him back when I first heard of Ariel Pink, who was a big booster of his. He's similar to Pink in that he's prolific and interestingly derivative, but didn't have the atmosphere that a lot of Haunted Graffiti stuff had for me.

Epic Bisto

His discography is too wide for me to fully delve into, but I really like the stuff of Moore's that I've heard. This particular song always gets stuck in my head for days in a row. Cracking tune, that!

Irony
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w65tQa33mZw

non capisco

He's a fascinating, mercurial cat is R. Stevie. I saw him live a couple of years ago and he started his set with some free jazz before getting on the drums and giving his set over some kid he'd met in the bogs who said he was a rapper. When it turned out this kid wasn't very good Moore started just fucking about on the drums, bashing away arrhythmically like a toddler. Then when that fell about and the rapping guy just skulked away Moore and his band played two amazing songs then Moore said he was too hot and went away for a rest. Then came back on 15 minutes later and played three more amazing songs then dicked about on a keyboard whilst dramatically intoning some (intentionally?) bad poetry. It was quite a night. I don't think anyone felt short changed, just "Yeah, this is what I expected an R. Stevie Moore show to be like."

NoSleep

Quote from: marquis_de_sad on September 02, 2016, 10:09:29 PM
I tried to get into him back when I first heard of Ariel Pink, who was a big booster of his. He's similar to Pink in that he's prolific and interestingly derivative, but didn't have the atmosphere that a lot of Haunted Graffiti stuff had for me.

I'm of the complete opposite opinion. Ariel Pink's music just leaves me cold whilst R.Stevie Moore's work brims with warmth, humour and sheer musical adventurousness and experimentation. In comparison Ariel Pink's palette is much narrower.

Moore embraces his independence (it isn't just a label for him) to allow himself the widest musical scope he's capable of; he will record a little pop song one day and be off into unknown regions the next.

Saw Stevie live a couple of years back, too. Had a drink with him beforehand and observed some eccentric behaviour from him after the gig (I've written about this elsewhere on here). Whaddaguy.

Shaky

Quote from: Calistan on September 02, 2016, 10:05:13 PM
I think there was meant to be a collaboration with Black Francis which never came to fruition. He's someone I've always meant to check out and on the basis of the above songs I'll definitely try to find some albums now.

Good thread. I'm a big fan of Black but was only vaguely aware of Moore. The influence of the latter is pretty glaring, isn't it?

Relatively recent track here, still awesome:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anx8eUxI33o

hewantstolurkatad

My attitude to this dude when someone links me a track has always been "yep, it's alright, but out of thousands of songs and this is the best thingy you can find from it?"

What I'm expecting is something like he has an insane number of okay-to-good songs but fuck all great songs.

NoSleep

He had a great run in the 70's, but if you are after slick production you are going to be disappointed. The quality is there, and, unlike Ariel Pink, he doesn't purposely lay on the lo-fi grunge, but there are limitations determined by his home studio set-up that require you to make concessions.

Here's a 70's (and a bit of the 80's) "Best of" for you to try:

Hobbies Galore: https://archive.org/details/lf060mp3

And another retrospective (this one even has an early appearance as a nipper on a Jim Reeves tune):

Tra La La La Phooey!: http://www.comfortstand.com/catalog/008/

Shaky

At the risk of sounding like a complete twat (too late?), I've been pouring through this guy's catalogue thanks to this thread and good holy fuck, there's loads of incredible stuff.

Honestly, one of those artists where you think, "Why haven't I listened you before?"


Noddy Tomkey

Never even heard of this before, thankyou so much

hewantstolurkatad

Ach, I've given that compilation a few tries. I'm not are slick production but I'd love something that could either (a)  sustain interest for the length of an album or (b) have such amazing singles that the raw quality of the individual songs on a compilation is able to power past a.