Red Mosquito

With the Rolling Stones playing Cuba this week I thought of that time when the very first western band played Cuba.
It was not the Stones, nor Audioslave. No it were the Manic Street Preachers. I remember some of that footage, Fidel Castro was in the audience. Legendary performance.

So I had my mind set on the Manics this week. Been listening to their records and watching vids on youtube:



Some people say that this is the best band in the world, not sure if I agree. But they could very well be the best band that never made it big in the US. I guess playing in front of Fidel didnt help

Last night I watched their documentary: NO MANIFESTO



What a story this band has. Such an unique and weird band, they really have a story to tell. They are overly political and intelectual. They have both punk and glam antics. But are more known as a pop/rock band. They are almost too pretentious/ambitious in what they do. No encores, no humor and no love songs. The short and tragic life of Richey who dissappeared after their 'In Utero' , 'The Holy Bible' was released. Which is a record I can barely listen to, so depressing.

I guess most of you know some of their hits, songs like: Motorcycle Emptiness, Design for Life or If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next. Or even if you don't you should watch that documentary and perhaps it will be your introduction to a really unique band.

If this doesn't draw Lament out, nothing will.

my first attempt at ranking their 12 records:

01- Everything Must Go
02- The Holy Bible
03- Journal for Plague Lovers
04- Send Away the Tigers
05- Gold Against the Soul
06- This is my Truth tell me Yours
07- Generation Terrorists
08- Postcards from a Young Man
09- Futurology
10- Rewind the Film
11- Know your Enemy
12- Lifeblood

I love The Holy Bible and Journal for Plague Lovers. Haven't been able to really get into any other albums unfortunately, however I haven't tried a whole lot. THB and JfPL are just so good.

Leatherhead wrote:I love The Holy Bible and Journal for Plague Lovers. Haven't been able to really get into any other albums unfortunately, however I haven't tried a whole lot. THB and JfPL are just so good.

Those are their most raw and personal records almost. Expect something different from some of their other work.
But, yeah the Holy Bible is just phenomenal.



Revol revol
Revol revol
Lebensraum kulturkampf
Raus raus
Fila fila

\m/

Fidel Castro, cool!!

Amazing

Great track!! Looking forward to this reissue!!

Following the success of 1998’s’ This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours’, Manic Street Preachers planned an ambitious follow-up to be released as two distinct albums: an aggressive, rapid fire return to their roots called ‘Solidarity’ and ‘Door To The River’, a more conciliatory, reflective collection. During the recording sessions, the band got cold feet and settled on a single album that forced often conflicting ideas to sit side by side on the same record. Whilst going through the band’s archive to put together an anniversary version of ‘Know Your Enemy’, Nicky Wire found the original tapes of ‘Solidarity’ and ‘Door To The River’ that he’d made up in the studio during recording. When he put forward the idea of recreating those records, James Dean Bradfield agreed on the condition that he could remix the entire record with the band’s longtime studio partner Dave Eringaz

joostone wrote:Great track!! Looking forward to this reissue!!

Following the success of 1998’s’ This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours’, Manic Street Preachers planned an ambitious follow-up to be released as two distinct albums: an aggressive, rapid fire return to their roots called ‘Solidarity’ and ‘Door To The River’, a more conciliatory, reflective collection. During the recording sessions, the band got cold feet and settled on a single album that forced often conflicting ideas to sit side by side on the same record. Whilst going through the band’s archive to put together an anniversary version of ‘Know Your Enemy’, Nicky Wire found the original tapes of ‘Solidarity’ and ‘Door To The River’ that he’d made up in the studio during recording. When he put forward the idea of recreating those records, James Dean Bradfield agreed on the condition that he could remix the entire record with the band’s longtime studio partner Dave Eringaz

I know 4-5 Manics albums pretty well. Know Your Enemy is not on Spotify though, so I do not know this one.

I love know your Enemy. Too long, all over the place, moments of genius, truly terrible moments, great lyrics, questionable publicity stunts, dumb lyrics and intravenous agnostic. If you could only have one album to represent MSP this would do the job.