Scott Miller - Discussion

[Ike and Tina Tuna]

Have been listening to quite a bit of Game Theory/Loud Family over the past couple of weeks and feel they may become my musical obsession of 2024.

Lolita Nation is one of the most remarkable records I've ever heard - a sprawling assemblage of everything great about guitar-based pop music into one 27-song album. Every track is at the very least interesting to me, even the weird collage pieces, although 'The Waist and the Knees' stands above particularly, just a magnificently relentless track.

I feel like Miller's combination of offbeat but insanely catchy songs and quirky lyrics probably means his groups would have quite a few fans on here. So here's this thread to discuss their stuff, I guess?

(Sorry, I'm not great at posting so sorry if this sounds a bit journo-ish)

[McChesney Duntz]

Oh, nice, a thread where I can post a link to a long, indulgent piece I wrote about Lolita Nation a good many years ago. Scott was one of the greats, no question - his death utterly devastated me in ways celebrity passings aren't supposed to. Anyway, this:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120216080135/http://www.dancingaboutarc.com/essays/gameessay.html

[McChesney Duntz]

Hell, while we're at it, my review of the Loud Family's Interbabe Concern from the book Lost in the Grooves...

...and my interview with the man himself from around the time the penultimate (or antepenultimate, depending on how you classify What If It Works?) Loud Family album was released.

Used to be fairly good at this whole rock-journalism thing, I think...

[Stoneage Dinosaurs]

Love him. Fantastic songwriter, god of melody with a knack for cramming as many chords and pop song/literary references into his songs but in a way that always seemed to work without being clunky. First heard the Loud Family's Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things and it absolutely blew me away.

[McChesney Duntz]

Great album, Plants. But then, most of his albums are pretty great. A few other faves:

There's more, of course, always more. But I'll leave it be for now.

[crashintojune]

It took a Game Theory thread for me to set my decade-long lurking to one side and actually post. Also, see username.

Delighted to see some love for Scott Miller here. The Big Shot Chronicles is all-time. Omnivore did an amazing job with the reissues.

Love this cover by Home Blitz

Right, back to lurking it is.