i've noticed a few mentions of "the The" in both suggestions of albums to listen to, and in the favourite lyrics thread, so i thought i'd start a thread to discuss the music of Matt Johnson, as it seems there are those around who greatly enjoy the music, but he isn't as well known as perhaps he should be, considering the fantastic critically acclaimed music he has created
it's also a difficult band to search for online due to the name, which really doesn't help, and that's perhaps why they aren't as successful as other similar artists. jeff buckley may have found new fans due to a song he covered himself being covered on american idol and then the uk pop idol, but i can't imagine simon cowell digging up a MJ track to sing on the show
i've been a fan i first heard heartland in 86 and saw the video album on channel 4 and bought infected the day it was released and became instantly hooked. i saw them live on the 3 uk tours, the the vs the world, the jingle hell tour and the nakedself tour, each time at the barrowlands in glasgow, one of my favourite venues, and a favourite venue of many bands. johny marr was in the band for the first tour, and on the second tour he turned up as a surprise guest for a few songs during that show. i remember going to the first show and wondering who would be there, as it was a band that you would rarely find someone in person who would know of them, and this was long before the internet was popular. for these reasons also, i wondered how many people may be fans who post here
for anyone wanting to check out the music, the main albums to checkout are soul mining, infected, mindbomb, hanky panky and nakedself, with burning blue soul being an early matt solo album. personally i'd suggest starting with dusk, then infected and soul mining. hanky panky is a hank williams tribute album, but with the signature the the sound from dusk. nakedself is a heavier indie rock album, whereas soul mining is more electronic 80s sounding perhaps. infected is a very varied album with many collaborations from the time when the the was more of an umbrella organisation instead of a real band. mindbomb was the first album recorded as a band, with johnny marr on guitar, who also appears on dusk, an album that noel gallagher claims influenced him greatly (although it doesn't sound much like oasis, but if you like early oasis you may well like it)
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just dug out my ticket from 23 sept 1989 st georges hall bradford the mind bomb tour, if memory is right it was a pretty good show johnny marr can really play a guitar. regards duder
just dug out my ticket from 23 sept 1989 st georges hall bradford the mind bomb tour, if memory is right it was a pretty good show johnny marr can really play a guitar. regards duder
about 30 minutes of that show was broadcast on radio one on 17th november 1989. i remember taping it from the radio at the time. i wasn't a smiths fan back then, but he was a great guitarist. in an interview with either matt or johnny, one of them said that if the the were a band a bit earlier, johnny would have joined the the instead of the smiths
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Dusk is one of my favourite albums of all time and, probably an obvious choice, Slow Emotion Replay is my fave track off it, with Johnny Marr's gorgeous harmonica
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I've loved The The since Infected and continue to listen them now. MJ is an excellent songwriter
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Always been a big fan of his ever since his pre-The The album Burning Blue Soul, which may still be my favourite of his.
did you buy it before soul mining came out? i have the some bizarre sampler LP that has the untitled track on it, and i have 3 or 4 albums by the gadgets, an early band matt was involved with. the albums weren't much good, but similarly experiemental sounding like burning blue soul. apparently matt played synths with marc almond for a short period in the early days too
something else a bit strange is that this is the day was used in an M&M's commercial in the states, and i thought matt would be against that kind of thing. i suppose as he hasn't released an album in 10 years or toured in about the same time, he could probably do with the money
it's a shame he didn't get round to getting sony to release the dvd boxset, or the second cd boxset. i was looking forward to getting gunsluts and a proper version of pornography of despair
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I was introduced to The The by a friend years ago. The sound was something I had never heard before as I was more used to 'commercial' stuff. When I heard 'Uncertain Smile' I was blown away, breathtaking. Soul Mining is such a stunning album on all levels from the music to the haunting lyrics and it was me wrapped up in a record sleeve . I had to buy more. Infected was next then I bought two copies of the 12" version of 'Perfect'. I was a bit obsessive .
Mind you I bought the 'singles of The The' and didn't much care for that. The versions I had heard prior to this were so much better IMHO. I also remember being in hospital for a few weeks and playing 'This is The Day' on my Walkman non-stop (those were the days). I hope he never becomes too commercial as it would be rude to share such genius with the Simon Cowell generation.
Laurel and Hardy, The The, Perfect, what more do you want .
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Yes, I did. I still have the original LP with the original cover, before it got re-released and remixed with a different cover as a The The album. Coming to it later it's probably quite a difficult album to get into, but I was into experimental, industrial music at the time. Soul Mining is an amazing album too and much more accessible.
Last edited by Todd Tomorrow; 04-05-2009 at 11:38 PM.
Yes, I did. I still have the original LP with the original cover, before it got re-released and remixed with a different cover as a The The album. Coming to it later it's probably quite a difficult album to get into, but I was into experimental, industrial music at the time. Soul Mining is an amazing album too and much more accessible.
the original cover with the eye is really rare, in fact matt doesn't have a copy of it himself apparently, as a fan asked him to sign a copy a few years ago and he was surprised to see the rarity and told them he didn't have one himself. i don't have it myself, i got the first reissue with the blue tinted photo, and the cd with the third cover a few years later. i have all of the original 12"s though
infected also came with an alternate cover originally, a limited edition photo of matt from one of the videos, i think it has a poster inside. the lp and cd versions of infected and sweet bird of truth are different to each other
it was really great for the 4rpm to come out with the 12" versions on one disc and the rare 7" mixes on the first, as most of the singles from soul mining were completely rerecorded for the album. matt had fallen out with sony, but when he heard they were going to reissue the albums he worked with them to remaster them so the fans would get something worth buying. he also removed the extra remixes from infected and perfect from soul mining as the album was supposed to end with giant, and not have the single of perfect tacked on the end. the cassette version also has another 5 extra tracks from the unreleased pornography of despair, with the other tracks from that album having been released as b sides etc, although some are very rare
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Also been a The The fan since 1987 when I bought Infected while at Uni.
Listened to it every night for about 18 months. Superb album.
Great songwriter - had the odd depressing song but overall he wrote some great music. Shame he wasn't more prolific. I always really wanted to see him live but don't think it will ever happen now.
top band first got into them when the video for heartland was played constantly on Music Box late at night. ( ITV used to show it through the night years ago ).
i also had The Beat-en Generation 12" it came in box with a poster and badge ( god knows where it went i think i probably flogged it for about £3 at a record fair )
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