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The Broken Family Band


blind-fitter

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I'm really enjoying THE BROKEN FAMILY BAND recently.

Trad-country with elements of punk-rock. Great songs, great lyrics.

"You're Like A Woman"

"It's All Over"

"The Booze And The Drugs"

"Leaps"

"Love Your Man, Love Your Woman"

Links to more TBFB info/music:

The Broken Family Band's website

The Broken Family Band on myspace , with more music, naturally.

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I very seldom spend much time listening to new bands. My mistake. Many thanks to Mr. Fitter for posting this introduction. :thumbsup:

I've just spent the past 30 minutes listening to these songs, and I'll be spending more time aquainting myself further. On 3rd listen I'm loving: "You're Like a Woman" ... "The Booze and the Drugs" ... "Leaps" ... these are great freaking songs!

:bow: :bow:

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  • 1 month later...

I don't see the Crowded House or the Madness, and I'm not familiar with Mojo Nixon. But otherwise, I'm glad you like'em.

I may have overstated those comparisons , but when they harmonize ( as on ' It's All Over ) , I thought them a bit like Crowded House , but granted , I don't have the best of speakers on my laptop . Madness for the touch of silliness they put into their videos , and Mojo for some raunchy lyrics .

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  • 11 months later...

I've just got back from seeing The Broken Family Band in a small social club about a mile or so from my home. Great stuff. Thoroughly enjoyable; i think everyone agreed.

Bought the new album (out this week, people, entitled "Please And Thank You") and a previous CD release "The King Will Build A disco" to add to my collection.

Have had a few beers so apologies for any lack og cohesion in this post,

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Did they do "Borrowed Time"?

They certainly did. My mate, who had never heard anything by them before, singled it out as "the outstanding song", and bought the album on the strength of it (and several other great songs they played from the new album).

The bloke next to me had his camera-phone up in the air quite alot. By the end of today, I suspect there might be footage of last night's gig on youtube.

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I have listened to the new album countless times over the last week. It's pretty chuffing brilliant, I have to say.

The BFB have cited (with some pride) their recent NME review describing them as a "dickless Radiohead". The first two things that struck me about this comment (which I haven't seen in its proper context) are: a) the irony: is there a more dickless music mag than the NME? Formerly a bastion of intelligent, articulate commentary on the broad spectrum of rock music, it has become a glossy, fad-following epitome of cultural mediocrity - the "Smash Hits" of the 21st century, a mere addendum to the moronic music coverage on "national Radio 1". B) Is it possible to be more "dickless" than Radiohead? I'm confused. It just seems such an odd comparison. It's as odd as complaining that The Smiths weren't as butch as Iron Maiden, therefore missing the point of both bands. Whilst The BFB might be seen as having some roots in UK "indie-rock", if they have anything in common with other bands from this (rather loose) genre, I would suggest perhaps The Wedding Present, Pulp / Jarvis Cocker, and, at a push Supergrass (though that would be stretching it a bit.) The only tenuous common-ground shared with Radiohead might be an occasional tendency (in the lyrics) towards self-pity, confessions of insecurity, inadequacy or seething resentment. Crucially, however, The BFB's Steve Adams lyrics- whilst they do frequently err in that direction- are underpinned by dry, sly wit and a total lack of pompous self-importance. If you miss the humourous element in his tales of malfunctioning human relationships, you miss the point entirely.

In all other respects, The BFB and Radiohead are simply worlds apart. Last week, I saw The BFB in a small local social club, with an audience of perhaps 300 people. The BFB have no pretentions to esoterica, grandeur, to becoming the "new Pink Floyd", or even to being taken particularly serriously. Essentially, they are a relatively uncomplicated, balls-to-the-wall rock band, who write cool songs of a human-observational nature, in the tradition of Difford / Tilbrook (Squeeze), Jarvis Cocker (Pulp), Wreckless Eric, et al. So, to whichever ignorant journo wrote the NME review, I'd like to congratulate you on your own dicklessness, and your witlessness,while we're at it. There, that's got that off my chest.

I can't imagine Radiohead opening any album with two swaggering sex-obsessed tracks based around the twelve-bar boogie, the first of which invites some disagreeable music-biz character (probably an agent / tour manager) to go and pull himself off in his hotel room. "Please Yourself" also boast the best pronunciation of "moustache" (moo-stah-sh) you ever heard in song.

"St. Albans" is slightly Cocker-esque account of a man's sordid (and apparently failed) attempts to procure sex in the Hertfordshire town of that name (with a Polish girl; he didn't even have the sense to buy her flowers) I like to fancy this song is about our erstwhile SFer , johnnyguitar, but it probably isn't really.

Sadly, I don't have time for a full album review just now. But I might try to tackle it in stages. ;)

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  • 3 months later...

About half an hour ago, I received this email:

Hello friend,

Yesterday those good people at Cooking Vinyl put out a statement on our behalf that reads thus:

“After eight happy years The Broken Family Band has decided to give it a rest. We can’t pin it on musical differences, we’ve just decided to quit while we’re ahead. We’ve had a fantastic time being in this group together, and we’re all still friends so we haven’t ruled out doing stuff together in the future. There’s no dramatic ending, but these shows are our farewell to The Broken Family Band. We’d like to thank everyone who’s helped us out and given us so much pleasure since we started, but we’re not going to.â€

Although in reality we will get around to thanking everyone!

The shows are:

Wed 21st Oct LONDON, "Relentless" Garage

Thu 22nd Oct SHEFFIELD, Academy 2

Fri 23rd Oct LIVERPOOL, Academy 2

Sat 24th Oct CARDIFF, Chapter Arts Centre (SWN Festival)

Sun 25th Oct OXFORD, The Jericho

Plus the magnificent End Of The Road festival in a couple of weeks.

We're also going to be adding a proper farewell show in the pub where we first played together, which we'll announce shortly.

While we're about it, Cooking Vinyl also said:

To coincide with these dates, the band will be releasing a digital download single, Cinema vs House (FRYDL404) on Monday 19th October. Taken from their critically acclaimed album, Please & Thank You, the track is a witty dissection of the eternal dating seesaw, which starts sweetly and ends up as a rock juggernaut. The single will also feature their cover of the Mann & Kolber standard I Love How You Love Me.

With love,

TBFBx

This is crushing news. I want to be alone. :puppyeyes:

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