Any Severed Heads fans here?

[Steven West]

I think Tom Ellard is just brilliant. 'Come Visit The Big Bigot' is in the top 3 of the most revolutionary albums of the 80's and modern music IMHO. So I've learned he's released a new CD in 2003 called 'f**k Your Bullshit' - and all the previews on AMG are this slow droning heavy metal sounds? But on every track?

Just curious if anyones bought the CD and what they think of it. The last 'commercial' Severed Heads CD I bought was Gigapuss - and hate to say, I wasn't too impressed with it.

Hoping Tom's got his groove back.

[Cabinfever]

they are bad - but then they were always bad. the worst product of the school of art-wankers. i saw them on tour - they looked like bored but arrogant nerds who thought their farting noises actually meant something.

for a good 80s experimental bad try SPK (severed penis clinic). their commercial track was 'metal dance' - big in some of the clubs at one time.

[Cabinfever]

just on SPK: they were big users of power tools on stage. i got showered with grinder sparks once, then thought i was going to be squashed when the lead singer lifted a 44 galleon drum over his head and prentended to fling it into the audience. later there was a knife fight and i crawled on stage and hid behind a foldback wedge. good night

[dystonia_ek]

SPK sucked after 'Auto-Da-Fe'. The whole 'Metal Dance'/'Machine Age Voodoo' period was total disco shite, and Graeme's claim that it was 'intentionally bad to be subversive' doesn't really wash - guess it's not surprising that he's churning out paint-by-numbers film scores for B-grade action flicks now. 'Leichenschrei' is the essential album, even if their subsequent career moves invalidate its authenticity somewhat compared to their more uncompromising contemporaries (Whitehouse, MB, etc.).

Severed Heads were interesting... 'Big Bigot' is IMO one of the best technopop records of the 80s, and I hate technopop so that's saying something. Their early tape experiments are very interesting too - grating and catchy at the same time. See the 'Clifford Darling, Please Don't Live In the Past' anthology for a good selection of their early phase, though 'Since the Accident' is maybe better.

[BONES]

I've never been a huge Severed Heads fan but Tom Ellard is one of the nicest blokes it has ever been my good fortune to know. If he comes across otherwise on stage it is most likely because he is uncomfortable with the fact that lots of people would want to pay money to see him. SPK were exactly the same every time I saw them, maybe a dozen times over 5 or 6 years. It was OK the first time but it got old very quickly.
Tom still sells his stuff on-line and it seems to keep him pretty busy.

[Meffy]

Are they the same as the Beastie Boys? If not, Futurama says they will be in 1000 years.

[Cabinfever]

i'd like to do film scores for action flicks ! beats churning out the same old pseudo art crap after 20 years.

[BONES]

I think Graeme Revell's scores are generally very good in that you really don't notice them unless you listen for it, yet they add to the mood really well.

[deastman]

Rotund for Success was the last Severed Heads album I really liked, but the early stuff is the best. I never did get a chance to see him live...

[Scot Solida]

SPK sucked after 'Auto-Da-Fe'. The whole 'Metal Dance'/'Machine Age Voodoo' period was total disco shite, and Graeme's claim that it was 'intentionally bad to be subversive' doesn't really wash - guess it's not surprising that he's churning out paint-by-numbers film scores for B-grade action flicks now. 'Leichenschrei' is the essential album, even if their subsequent career moves invalidate its authenticity somewhat compared to their more uncompromising contemporaries (Whitehouse, MB, etc.).

Severed Heads were interesting... 'Big Bigot' is IMO one of the best technopop records of the 80s, and I hate technopop so that's saying something. Their early tape experiments are very interesting too - grating and catchy at the same time. See the 'Clifford Darling, Please Don't Live In the Past' anthology for a good selection of their early phase, though 'Since the Accident' is maybe better.

SPK can't be discounted after Auto Dafe..."Zamia Lehmanni" is a beautiful record, and the Wolfli tribute is good stuff, too. Revell did that disco stuff to make a buck. While it didn't float my boat as much as, say, Chris and Cosey, he didn't abandon his less beat-oriented stuff to do it. I met him once backstage at a Pink Dots gig, and he was as down-to-earth as you could want. Totally unpretentious...suggested a night out drinking and watching "lady mud wrestlin'"... And this was after he had found fame as a movie composer.

As or Severed Heads...well, Ellard is always surprising. While I didn't care for "Gigapuss", I thought it was in keeping that he crammed a very inaccessible EP onto the CD version...
He has always balanced the accessible with the downright weird. "Gashing the Old Mae West" will never burn up the dance floors, yet when he did turn up the levels on the drum machines, he did it as well or better than most of his contemporaries. "Petrol" and "Hot With Fleas" are among my favorite four-to-the-floor tracks ever. I always loved the combination of the calm, pleasant vocals juxtaposed against some pretty unusual samples (for the time). And any guy that has a pop song that begins with the lyric "I am covered in filth, but at least it's my own" is okay by me.

[dystonia_ek]

I didn't care for Zamia Lehmanni so much - Coil did that sort of thing better, and Graeme's protege Brian (Lustmord) Williams had far surpassed him at this point with 'Paradise Disowned'. The Adolf Wolfli tribute was worth it for DDAA and Nurse With Wound though.

[xoxos]

you guys are stoned. tom ellard is worth ten of any of you. conceptually, his animation is like.. "..now there's a guy you could pump full of salvinorin who would keep the ("his") shit together.."

why, he could outprogram your kids or some shit. hehehe... hahahahaha...

hell, just "special day" alone would do worlds for some of you.

[Steven West]

Okay, okay - Tom is GOD then.

But what about 'f**k Your Bullshit'? Did 'God' make that in 7 days or what?

[smp]

Slightly old thread now but anyway...

I've never really been into Severed Heads (not a conscious decision - just lack of exposure except for "Dead Eyes Opened" - which suffered from the exact opposite). However, I recently picked up the OST for "The Illustrated Family Doctor". The score is based on Tom's Sevcom Office Server music. Quite ambient (it sent my wife to sleep) and the bonus DVD contains all 4 Office Server works that the OST was based on.

I don't know what the rest of Severed Heads music is like (and judging by this thread, probably not much like this) but I'm really enjoying this.

Anyone got any Severed Heads suggestions?

-s

[Z3R0T0N1N]

personally I loved early severed heads; goodbye tonsils comes to mind; horray for that one.
jeez, I haven't thought about them for ages! thanx for bringing it up.
I played the 12" single on coop radio in vancouver, and didn't realize that it started skipping during that extended rythmic, noisy, tapeloop sounding part near the end - a part wich was REALLY long as it was - and so it just kept going, and going.. etc. The skip was just perfectly placed so that with the moniters turned down it sounded totally normal. fuckin' stupid!