4AD
 

Vote for your favourite, and generally discuss/reminisce

www.4ad.com

Pixies all the way!
They too have 2 00's bands that I totally love, TV on the Radio and Celebration.
I actually bought the 4AD's "1980 Forward" compilation containing 18 tracks from 18 bands from the label, it's great, and additionnaly, I found it for 2€ (I think it's around $2), so there's no need to say I jumped on it

I was never a fan. Out of those listed, I only liked The Birthday Party. Otherwise, I could listen to Cocteau Twins (for a short period) and Throwing Muses at a push.

It was all a bit twee for me.

I went with 'other' just because there are a lot of bands that I love equally as much and I'm not prepared to sit and decipher which one gets me hot and bothered the most.

I saw Lush live, supporting Felt and they were DULL.

I won't start on the Pixies (SHIIIIIIIIIT, sorry couldn't help myself:o ).

I will now stay out of this thread because I've tried in on for size, and it just isn't for me.

Really? I know they put out a lot of ''shoegaze'' stuff but, I thought they had some harder bands out also....oh well

I can't actually name a favourite 4AD band. The label's 80's output was consistently amazing, it was hard to put a foot wrong with them. They had the reputation of being all gothy/ethereal, but that only really counts for The Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil. The rock that they released (Birthday Party / Pixies / Throwing Muses) was hardly balls to the wall stuff, but it turned quite a few peoples' idea of rock updise down. And Colourbox... wel Colourbox didn't really belong on 4AD, did they, but everything they released was brilliant.

Yeah, I'm torn between Throwing Muses and Colourbox.

A lot of the 4AD stuff i was kind of force-fed by other people. I listened to a Peel Session by The Cocteau Twins (probably my favourite band on it, together with The Pixies) the other day, and it still sounded amazing, especially when they do 'Garlands', and suddenly you realize how heavier they could sound live than on record. Throwing Muses had their good moments too, University being one of them, and obviously Birthday Party. I've discovered recently that Dead Can Dance are not all shite, and i've been digging 'The Serpent's Egg' more and more. This Mortal Coil are also worth checking out, even though i wouldn't listen to them all the time.

I think that most of the stuff 4AD put out was 'quality', but I did find it a bit twee at the time (I'm particularly talking about the bands sonicl mentioned).

Lush, Cocteau Twins, Throwing Muses, Pale Saints, Pixies (maybe not twee, but a 'pop' version of pre-grunge/noise), This Mortal Coil.

Like I say, it was all listenable to me, and it was much played in the record shop I worked in in the late 80's/early 90's. And much of it was very pleasant to listen to in that context. It just never got me moist with excitement, unlike other bands at the time (Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Big Black etc) who sounded infinitely more exciting and most definitely DID get me moist!

But you were busy pushing over statues with Crass at the time, it's hardly surprising you found the "sonic cathedral" sound of most 4AD bands twee!

Out of curiosity, Pookie, was the fact that most people who listen to 4AD stuff tend to embrace the whole label and bands that put you off? To an extent that's what never really made me obsessive like others about it.

NOOO! Crass were out by then. It was 80's American noise (had to be American, with the exception of Silverfish and Fudge Tunnel!).

I see what you're saying and that makes oodles of sense.
As far as the current bands go, I like Blonde Redhead's new album ''23'', its imo an improvement from ''Misery Is a Butterfly'', at least its a little more diverse. Should be out on 4/23 for you UKers.

It was really weird, but at the time there was a tendency to have a favourite label, which you did support to an almost fanatical degree.

I knew people who bought every 4AD release, and those who bought every Creation release, and could tell you the catalogue number of every release.

There was a real pressure when I started working in a record shop to have a favourite band (I've never had a favourite band, so mine became Black Flag - the first band I mentioned I liked), and a favourite record label (mine became SST because of the BF connection).

And the fact that there is a thread here about a record label suggests that my experience isn't dissimilar to other's.

I have to say there was a fair amount of 4AD worshipping in the circle that I mixed in. I'll be blowed if I can remember what prompted me to start a thread about them though.

I was actually more of a Blast First man, they were the label that I bought everything they put out, but that belongs in another thread, which I'll start another day.

I was always heavily into Creation, until i started listening only to all the American bands like Mudhoney, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden (Ultra Mega Ok, was a favourite) etc.

Blast First were better for me, and put out a lot of SST stuff in the UK. Homestead to a lesser degree, but then as I say, I was a big fan of American guitar music at the time.

Can you remember the exact time when you switched to American bands? I remember it was when i was given a tape of Bleach and was lent Daydream Nation. For a while i was totally obesessed with American bands and i wouldn't listen to much else.

Other workers favourite bands:

Felt (seriously)
Fields of the Nephilim (seriously)
Hawkwind (ahem)
Yello (really)
The Replacements
Depeche Mode (now it's just getting silly)

Thinking back, a pretty varied bunch we were.

For me it was about 1980, when I first switched from UK punk to American. It was Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, MDC (never liked the homophobes Bad Brains), etc. And it went from there really: Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, Big Black, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Scratch Acid etc.


I was given a tape of Bleach. I was working in a record shop and I used to talk to people at small record labels a lot, one of them said, You've got to listen to this new Sub Pop band called Nirvana. But even by this time, I was getting a bit bored of Sub Pop. Anyway, she sent me a tape and it was on my Walkman pretty much constantly for weeks after. And I bored people witless saying how fantastic they were.

I never got the Depeche Mode thing. And they had (and probably still have) such a fanatical following.

I got a free 4AD CD once when I bought a pair of Doc Martens! (Desperate guilty attempt to get back to the subject:o ).

For me, a tough call between Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance. But I went for Cocteau Twins.

My ex boyfriend is obsessed with 4AD, and sometimes we would argue because i'd want to listen to noisier stuff and he only likes more relaxing music. A recent favourite of his on the label is The Hope Blister. I can't stomach them, so whenever i go to see him, i sneakily turn the volume down but in such a subtle way that he doesn't notice.

4AD didn't really start the whole shoegaze thing. Their sound is more commonly thought of as kind of ethereal or goth-light. Perhaps i'm wrong, but i've always assumed that Creation, in a way, was more responsable for the 'shoegaze' factor of a lot of bands.

I don't associate 4AD with shoegaze. The stuff on 4AD is way too interesting for that.

Porky, "goth-light" is perfect!

The Cocteau Twins probably inspired the shoegaze thing, rather than started it. There was far too much going on in their music for it actually be called shoegaze, but some of the later-80s drifty/ambient stuff that they put out was probably something that many shoegaze-type bands picked up on.

It's kind of difficult to decide who REALLY started or truly inspired the whole 'shoegaze' thing, and that's because throughout the 80's you had quite a few shoe-shiner wannabes who didn't particularly sound similar. Take the Mary Chain, never known to make that much eye contact with the crowds (unless they had to throw the odd bottle or two into it). The Cocteau Twins have most definitely inspired some of those bands, though.

t's a very long time since I've listened to any Dead Can Dance, but in my head, with Lisa Gerrard's vocals, I hear them as almost a precursor to dark ambient. The DCD that I have playing in my head would certainly fit in fairly seamlessly in a dark ambient DJ set.

I've always liked Depeche Mode but i've never been obsessed with them either. Some albums, namely Black Celebration or Some Great Reward, i go back to because of that 'Goth-light' factor that i can sustain for a few listens, but overall it's perhaps the thematics in their songs that draw me in but push me out with the other hand. It's a bit like when you're not entirely sure about a person's mental stability and part of you wants to trust them, but the other part is kind of sceptical about their potential.

Swervedriver have always been a favourite till they wanted to jump on the Britpop bandwagon. Both 'Mezcal Head ' and 'Raise' i can still listen to today and rock out to some air-guitar antics. Duel made saxophones more appealing to these ears.

what i wouldn't give to get my dirty mits into miki berenyi's pants

It's gotta be the Pixies with Birthday Party as a close second to me, even if they're not what you'd first associate with 4AD....

Where's M/A/R/R/S ? Their 'Pump Up The Volume' was a collaboration between A R Kane and Colourbox, so it kinda deserves a place in the poll too, if only as a good representation of how versatile this label can/could be.

The good thing about 4AD was that, alongside Factory, they had a total aesthetic. I never really liked them in the way that I did Factory, though. Factory was like football hooligans with art degrees (ie interesting) whereas 4AD were mere arty types with art degrees (ie not).

Re the origins of shoegazing. I sort of remember it coming out of some unholy alliance between the Cocteaus, MBV and the whole Ecstacy thing. I like to think of it as a kind of E psychedelia.

I figured that having Colourbox in there would cover M/A/R/R/S.

Bauhaus would be in there as well if I could have had more options, and A R Kane.

I'ver just noticed all the typos in my post and went to edit it. Shame Shame Shame Shame Shame Shame Shame!!!!

So when you going to edit this one then? Eh? Eh?

On the 4ad front, I guess my favourites would be Bauhaus and the Cocteau Twins.

I also really liked the couple of 'La mystere de la voix Bulgare' albums that they put out.

I think I also have a set of 23 Envelope postcards at home somewhere.

hehe.Notice how i didn't capitalize the first 'he' of this post. sHAME SHAME! Anyway, are you a 4AD fan? One of those labels that actually have fans.