When did Echo and The Bunnymen become not-cool?

Dammit, will someone start copying me on these things?

Crocodiles freakin rocked.

And Radiohead couldn’t exist without Echo.

The kool kids are all into what they now imagine ‘postpunk’ to have been. (=early Gang of 4, plus Blurt, Pop Group, Kleenex, Crispy Ambulance, etc.)

Grmph. So reductionist.

Thanks, TC. I was afraid to be the first to unveil my apparently uncool Echo-approval. Now, Gavin, I trust that the Bunnymen haven’t distracted you to the point that you’ve ignored your Photoshop homework . . .

You know, on the left side of things, there are about 3 or 4 really good Photoshoppers. The right has NAAAH-THING……….

Spare us the cuttaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!!

No, Gavin, Teh Right ™ has 3 or 4 really good photoshopperspotters. Well, ok, maybe not really good, but really enthusiastic photoshopperspotters. And when you’re stupid, you can make up for a lot of your shortcomings with enthusiasm. See professional football…

mikey

No, Gavin, Teh Right â„¢ has 3 or 4 really good photoshopperspotters.

As in, ‘eat ’em up, yum, good.’

Dude, I try to hang out at prof’l Photoshop sites, on the off-hours. Their kung-fu is not riveting.

Gods will be Gods.

And Echo and the Bunneymen were. Their music noow…not so much.

I got to see them at a free stage at the last SXSW with about 20,000 other Austinites… he/they still kicked ass, although I think that Echo (the drum machine) has been retired.

As for the video: I think it cost 29 pounds and recycled some set decorations from a community theater production of Godspell.

I’ve seen Echo about six times, Mac once solo, and Will and Mac once as Electrafixion. I will agree that this video kind of sucks, but only because it cuts out most of the guitar work at the end (about the 3:51 mark of this video), which is really the best part of the song. Same deal with the Lips Like Sugar video. They cut out all of the cool guitar during the intro.

Top Ten EATB songs (in no particular order):

Crocodiles
All That Jazz
All I Want
Villier’s Terrace
Do It Clean
Heads Will Roll
Killing Moon
New Direction
Flowers
Ocean Rain

Honorable Mentions: Lips Like Sugar, Supermellow Man, It’s Alright, Back of Love, and pretty much everything else off of Ocean Rain.

Ian McCullough. Very tasty.

Just shoot me now.

Top Ten EATB songs (in no particular order):

Crocodiles
All That Jazz
All I Want
Villier’s Terrace
Do It Clean
Heads Will Roll
Killing Moon
New Direction
Flowers
Ocean Rain

Sorry, without The Cutter I just can’t see this list as legit. It was the first song of theirs I ever heard.

But if you think THAT’S uncool… I still like Duran Duran. (ducks tomatoes, runs away in shame…)

My favorite is “Clay.” Oh, isn’t it nice, when your heart is made out of ice?

Man, I was a HUGE fan back in the day. Not so much anymore.

Man, I was a HUGE fan back in the day. Not so much anymore.

You should give the new stuff a chance. Flowers is as good as any album they’ve ever done aside from Ocean Rain (which is one of the three greatest albums ever).

I love EATB; saw them for the first time in 1983, but I never really got the whole ‘Lips Like Sugar’ thing. Is it just that it was super-poppy (I almost typed super-poopy) and therefore gave everyone a chance to like the band? To me, it just seemed like… nothing.

Ocean Rain is my fave. “Killing Moon” is an all-time great mope song when you are getting dumped by someone that you never even went out with. It is somewhat uncool because Donnie Darko made in cool for hipsters but then the second wave of musical name-droppers that followed because of the popularity of the film made it uncool again for ultra-hipsters. But first time-arounders are still OK with it. And I love it.

“Ocean Rain” just destroys me it is so so so so so good.

Seitz has awesome lists. Thing is he could do that for any band anyone here could name. He is on fire like that.

Lips Like Sugar is the seemingly happier version of “Killing Moon.”

cuz remember that “you’ll NEVER give her/lips like sugaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar/sugar kisses.” Plus there is all those little Will Sergeant noodle blurps throughout the song. “and my siamese twin/alone on the river/mirror kisses/mirror kisses.” Dudes, when she floats like a frigging swan and you never get to give her sugar kisses, how could this be anything but a mope-pop masterpiece????

“There are no divisions between things about to collide” (from Porcupine, which is shamefully not on the list above) ~ was my sig line for my first ten years of email ~ or whenever it was that someone borrowed me a copy of “Evergreen” (god-music in pseudo-hip disguise). {sigh} i miss the old days….

I always though the saddest EATB lyric was: “We’ve got those empty pockets And we can’t afford the beer.”

Brings a little tear to my eye every time.

I liked EATB. Still do. I even like Siberia and I don’t care if it is cool or not. Because I am old, and I don’t have to care.

Thanks for the video, Gavin!

Thought I’d pop in to see what you guys were up to and there was the EATB video. Wow, pretty soon now I’ll be, “Froze to the bone in my igloo home, countin’ the days till the ice turns green…” Gotta go dig out my Echo now. Thanks a million for posting that.

The Echo box set is pretty tasty too.

Live version of Television’s “Friction” included.

Live version of Television’s “Friction� included.

And Jonathan Richman’s “She Cracked”. Apparently a bunch of that stuff come from a Scandinavian tour where they were their own opening act. They’d play a short set of covers, then come back and play their regular set.

Although it is hard to pick, and I can’t believe no one has mentioned it, “A Promise” is my favorite. Great vocals and guitars.

Although it is hard to pick, and I can’t believe no one has mentioned it, “A Promise� is my favorite. Great vocals and guitars.

Yeah, the Puppet and Rescue were tough to leave off, too.

(I blame the lack of a preview button for that ackward sentence, and using commas instead of parentheses)

I was pretty lukewarm on Flowers, and Siberia does almost nothing for me. On the other hand, I REALLY didn’t like WAYGTDWYL, so they were definite steps up from that.

now this was out of left field – an informed comments section on Echo & the Bunnyman… I just stumbled on it even. Well done. Actually Ian was already reinstated by media and bands alike more than five years ago, as a kind of ageless godfather in the Manc resurgence, so he’s free of the cool-not cool list now, like a minister-without-portfolio. The album cover themes were smart for the time. Good stuff.