Ultra Vivid Scene
 

I'm listening to the excellent "Joy 1967-1990" at the moment. To the best of my knowledge (and according to amazon.com), they've only had three albums. I've only got two. Whatever happened to these guys? Better yet, has anyone else heard of them?

Well, I've heard of them, and I even have a couple of their albums. Still, I can't for the life of me remember what they sound like...

Joy is their best album. The most catchy for sure. I used to have all three, but I think I sold their 3rd disc (the one after Joy). Joy is worth it just for the duet with Kim Deal. Come to think of it, I even saw these guys in concert for support of their last recording. I had forgotten about that.

On a related note: Whatever happened to 4 AD? They used to have lots of good bands...

Absolutely! I never get tired of that song. Sublime!

And custom001.....good question. 4 AD had a great roster.

I actually wanted to start a thread called "Bands that have fallen off of the face of the earth". The Darling Buds certainly would have been on my list. Another favorite of mine from the late 80's to mid-90's.

I have a single by them - Starring at the Sun - but that's it.

I have the one with "Blood and Thunder" on it - it even came with a 4 or 5 song bonus disc. I haven't listened to it much. Maybe I'll pull it out again in a bit.


I don't know anything by them expect "Crystal Clear." Now there's a great summer song right there. I may just have to make a summer comp.

All three of their albums are quite good. "Crawdaddy" though (that features "Crystal Clear", GREAT tune btw) is their best. "Please Yourself" on their last album ("Erotica"), was also very good. All albums are OOP. But you can find them for nothing on Ebay. I highly recommend this.

I have all of the Ultra Vivid Scene cds and singles-great stuff. I was thinking he just gave up due to sales.



The Darling Buds are one of my favorite fun Brit pop bands. I also have all of their albums and singles. Crawdaddy is my fave with Pop Said... a close second.

:thumbsup:

I'm a fairly big fan of Ultra Vivid Scene. Here's what I know:

1. It's not really a band, it's one guy named Kurt Ralske. He's an American who lived in the UK for years. He's classically trained and his music is tighly structured because of it. This is about as far from "jam band" material as you can get.
2. Ralske is a long time friend of and collaborator with Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine fan. Shields has called Ralske a "genius" and credits him with some inspiration for the sound of both "Isn't Anything" and "Loveless".
3. All of the Ultra Vivid Scene albums are out of print at this point. Too bad as I cut my teeth on his stuff years ago.
4. Ralske's first album is guitar/electro-pop along the lines of Magnetic Fields fuzzier moments. It has some truly great stuff on it but a lot of fluff spoils it.
5. UVS' second album (Joy) is, IMO one of the better pop albums of the early ninties. It's very, very clean sounding guitar-based pop with a drum machine. Its overall sound is sweet but forceful and creepy. Along the lines of bands like the Housemartins, Ralske puts a few pits in his cherries. Great stuff.
6. The third album, Rev, is another forgotten classic, IMO. It's got longer songs, a heavier guitar sound and less pop. It reminds me of Yo La Tengo and Stereolab a little. Blood and Thunder is still one of my favorite post-punk guitar epics, with Ralske sounding like a seriously evil and fuzzed-out Television.
7. Bizarrely, I heard songs from the scarily intense and dangerous Rev in a Cindy Crawford workout video that my mother used when I was a kid. Watching my middle aged mum work out to the sound of "Candida" was incredibly disturbing...