#the verlaines

[guessimdumb]

The Verlaines - Just Mum (1988)

One of my favorite LPs ever - one that rewards repeated listens. Ambitious and brilliant.

At level best we'll just survive

#The Verlaines #Just Mum #Bird Dog #Graeme Downes #Flying Nun

[punk-chicken-radio]

ax trax of the week

the verlaines + shayne carter - some fantasy

the guitar in this song is one of my favorite sounds in the whole world.

-ax

#ax trax of the week #the verlaines #shayne carter #some fantasy #Youtube

[bandcampsnoop]

4/25/24.

The Verlaines (Dunedin, New Zealand) are one of my favorite bands of all time. Yes, their early work is in a world of its own. Their mid and later work really doesn't hold a candle to 1980s Verlaines.

I always thought the beginning of their demise of "Way Out Where". It has one of the worst album covers of all time and I always thought the songs were subpar.

But now I really see that these songs were betrayed by production. The Verlaines sonics were always key to their songs and this album sounds like it has one sound and gear. Today, in the spirit of George Michael, I listened without prejudice. If you're a Verlaines fan, and can imagine a different production, you'll hear songs ("Blanket Over the Sky") that rival some of their best.

Schoolkids Records released a remastered version of this for Record Store Day 2024.

#The Verlaines #Record Store Day #Dunedin #New Zealand #2024 #Schoolkids Records #Bandcamp

[mywifeleftme]

86: The Verlaines // Bird-Dog

Bird-Dog The Verlaines 1987, Flying Nun (Bandcamp)

The Verlaines, authors of an all-time (apt and fav) album title in Some Disenchanted Evening, are probably the most ‘acquired taste’ of the original wave of Flying Nun/Dunedin sound New Zealand bands (The Clean, The Chills, The Bats, Tall Dwarfs etc.). Though the jingling single-word chorus of debut single “Death and the Maiden” proved they could be as elfin and twee-sounding as any of their peers, main Verlaine Graeme Downs tended to favour downcast melodies, played with buttoned-down desperation, like running to catch a bus to a job interview in the rain while holding an umbrella and a suitcase. All the good Flying Nun bands played with the tension between their poppy sounds and frequently dour or sarcastic lyrics, but of the lot Verlaines are the clear prescription for wry depressives (or at least people who think Robert Forster was the better of the Go-Betweens).

There’s an argument to made for 1987’s early singles comp Juvenilia as the most accessible introduction to their sound, but Bird-Dog is their most complete album statement. I was thrilled when the album was finally repressed on vinyl after 36 years, primarily because it is an essential “stare at the cover while listening” LP. Forget the rain/bus/umbrella metaphor I tried earlier; this brave brown smudge of a dog heedlessly pursuing (or being lured by?) a bird to the edge of a seaside cliff is bang on. At 12” x 12”, the visible brushstrokes of the hidden cliff in John Collie’s oil painting have a roiling texture, almost as though it is eating away at the soft green turf above. On the reverse, the same location is depicted sans dog, this time in gentle watercolour, the world at peace without all that barking and striving.

It's all there in the title track too. The lyric begins as a withering assessment of a man’s life spent yearning for transcendence who eventually grows old and slow, buys “a boarding house for slaves / and drinks imported German beer.” But if our escapes often become our jail cells, in the end we love our bars despite it, and the coda of “Bird-Dog” turns into an all-timer of a drinking song, basically a post-punk “Master of the House” from Les Miserables. Thrill of chasing bird despite cliff, one more brew to put off morning.

It's subtle at first, but throughout Bird-Dog, the Verlaines augment their basic power trio sound with unusual instrumentation, a flugelhorn here, a xylophone there, till the album closes with a fully orchestrated* flourish. The tricky, XTC-like “Icarus Missed” adds Gregorian chant (!) and bassoon (!!), followed by “C.D. Jimmy Jazz and Me,” a re-recording of their first single’s B-side with its humble accordion ride-out replaced with a sugary string and horn fanfare that wouldn’t be out of place soundtracking a Sonic Generations level. For an album that starts out as morose and minimal as this one, it's quite an about-face—one of those moments maybe when you shake off your malaise and see the richness in the life you’ve earned.

86/365

* Okay, so they don’t go full philharmonic; it’s the usual band plus five-piece string, trumpet, and trombone accompaniment, if you’re a stickler. But it sounds plenty sweeping!

#flying nun #the verlaines #new zealand music #dunedin sound #indie pop #alternative rock #'80s music #music review #vinyl record

[allmusic]

AllMusic Staff Pick: The Verlaines Juvenilia

A singles collection covering the first few years of New Zealand's pre-eminent alternative pop groups, Juvenilia includes tracks from the very beginnings of the band (Dunedin Double EP), plus noisily tuneful early-'80s singles such as "Death and the Maiden" and "Doomsday."

- John Bush

#allmusic staff picks #the verlaines

[differenthead]

Volume 283

0:00:00 — "It's Not My Life" (Demo) by Swedish Fish (1986)

0:03:56 — "A Day Out of Paris" by Ash Can School (1986)

0:07:59 — DJ

0:12:01 — "Another Place to Hide" by Even Greenland (1986)

0:15:37 — "Cry" by Model Workers (1981)

0:17:51 — "Crave" by Batwing Chaps (1984)

0:21:46 — "The Sky Is a Limit" by Exit Smiling (1981)

0:26:06 — DJ

0:31:11 — "Nos Plus Belles Années" by Eliot Ness (1988)

0:34:14 — "Death and the Maiden" by The Verlaines (1983)

0:38:37 — "I Want to Be Alone" by The Cantels (1988)

0:41:09 — "Normal" by The Petticoats (1980)

0:43:19 — DJ

0:48:42 — "My Baby" by Maggie Parker (1981)

0:52:29 — "Watching the Skyline Grow" by W******* (1985)

0:55:48 — "Man on the Street" by PC 2000 (1983)

1:01:11 — "She's Only Sleeping" by Ash Can School (1986)

1:06:03 — DJ

1:12:36 — "The One He Likes" by The Miss Alans (1987)

Stream

Download

#swedish fish #ash can school #even greenland #model workers #batwing chaps #exit smiling #eliot ness #the verlaines #the cantels #the petticoats #maggie parker #pc 2000 #the miss alans

[spilladabalia]

Verlaines - Doomsday

#verlaines #the verlaines #doomsday #graeme downes #jane dodd #robbie yeats #jangle pop #art pop #12'' single #1986 #Youtube

[carrotkicks]

used Hoshikawa's art as inspiration for this one.

#doodles #chuuya #verlaine #cloneboy #professor n #bsd #stormbringer #art

[flamie-42]

Japanese doomed yaoi

French doomed yaoi

International doomed yaoi

#sorry for falling off the face of the earth for a hot sec #doomed gays #bsd old man yaoi #fukufuku #skk #soukoku #rimlaine #bsd #bsd ships #bsd shitpost #bungou stray dogs #bsd dazai #bsd chuuya #bsd fukuchi #bsd fukuzawa #bsd rimbaud #bsd verlaine #bungou gay dogs

[bsdtual]

HEAR ME OUT--

#i'm shaking #two beautiful brothers indeed #bungou stray dogs #bsd #bsd 112 #bsd stormbringer #chuuya #chuuya nakahara #paul verlaine #bsd verlaine #manga panels #bsd icons

[thedarkdisgrace]

I really need to be sedated. He’s so small, he’s just a child.

Chuuya was 5 when he was taken by those scientists.

He was 7 when they took him out and he was left with no memory on the street and had to ask what bread was.

I’d die for him i’m so serious

#bsd spoilers #bsd 15 manga #chuuya nakahara #chuuya #dazai osamu #dazai #paul verlaine #arthur rimbaud #bsd rimbaud #bsd verlaine #soukoku #bsd #skk #15 skk #bsd manga #bungou stray dogs

[little-blurry-stars5]

friendly reminder dazai had a genuinely hard time telling chuuya about his humanity. friendly reminder akutagawa kept his promise to not kill even though killing was his first instinct even after death. friendly reminder poe was the only detective that ever made ranpo feel something. friendly reminder fyodor was the only one who ever truly understood nikolai. friendly reminder tecchou placed jouno over the only thing hes ever believed in. friendly reminder rimbaud changed verlaines entire veiw on humanity and gave him faith in the human race. friendly reminder albatross didnt care if he got hurt or killed if it meant he saved doc. friendly reminder fukuzawa was the only one who understood fukuchi and his motives and couldnt kill him even if it meant saving the world. friendly reminder kunikida calls dazai every morning to make sure hes okay. friendly reminder ango genuinely felt so guilty about odas death he betrayed the government. friendly reminder-

#stupid gays #these HOMOSEXUALS #making me FEEL THINGS #😒😒😒 #bsd #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #jett posts #sskk #soukoku #fyolai #shin soukoku #rimlaine #kunizai #ranpoe #suegiku #fukufuku #dazai osamu #chuuya nakahara #fukuchi ouchi #fukuhara haruka #atsushi nakajima #akutagawa ryunosuke #kunikida doppo #doc #albatross #arthur rimbaud #paul verlaine #ranpo edogawa #edgar allan poe

[bandcampsnoop]

4/26/23.

Yes, Record Store Day has lost its initial charm. But I still love it - it helps me fill in my record collection (The Verlaines "Bird Dog") and helps me discover new bands - Wild Carnations were mentioned a few days ago.

It also helps me appreciate bands I never appreciated or even thought to give a listen. I'd always thought of Romeo Void as 1980s new wave. I knew that ONE song "Never Say Never" with its lyric "I might like you better if we slept together."

Record Store Day saw the LP release of "Live from Mabuhay Gardens: November 14, 1980". This San Francisco, California based band was much more post-punk than new wave (at least initially). Think Pere Ubu, Magazine, Gang of Four, Blondie or early The Cars.

This is released by Liberation Hall.

#Romeo Void #San Francisco #California #Record Store Day #RSD #The Verlaines #Wild Carnations #Pere Ubu #Magazine #Gang of Four #Blondie #The Cars #Liberation Hall #Bandcamp

[lotus-pear]

VERLAINEEEE as promised

#HE IS SO BEAUTIFUL WHAT THE FUCK😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 #YALL SEE WHERE CHUUYA GETS THE GENES FROM???????? #BEAUTIFUL ELEGANT ETHEREAL TRAGIC SAD GAY FRENCHMAN #I CANT BELIEVE THERES PPL WHO DONT LIKE HIM WTF #PPL WHO DONT LIKE VERLAINE ARE EMBRASSING...........KEEP THAT TO URSELF😐 #im actually so insane im im im im #i actually found a new brush and i've been absuing yf out of it if u couldnt tell the colorings a little different #anyway yea #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #bsd #bsd verlaine #verlaine bsd #stormbringer #bsd stormbringer #lotus draws

[frenchonionsoop]

mlm on mlm hostility

#and in response verlaine kills everybody hes ever cared for #god i love stormbringer #bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd chuuya #chuuya nakahara #bsd verlaine #paul verlaine #bsd rimbaud #arthur rimbaud #bsd memes #my art #stormbringer #stormbringer fanart

[allmusic]

AllMusic Staff Pick: The Verlaines Juvenilia A singles collection covering the first few years of New Zealand's pre-eminent alternative pop groups, Juvenilia includes tracks from the very beginnings of the band (Dunedin Double EP), plus noisily tuneful early-'80s singles such as "Death and the Maiden" and "Doomsday."

- John Bush

#allmusic staff picks #the verlaines