5 Responses to Sorry for Temporary Lack of Posts

1. plok says:

   January 30, 2018 at 6:05 pm

   Don’t worry, we’ll all be quite well occupied with listening to old Kinks albums for the next little while, you devil.

   And as far as the panic goes: no, no. Take it nice and smooth.

   Remember we all love you and think you’re the best.

   Is that not so, fellow Andrew peeps?
   • plok says:

     January 30, 2018 at 7:28 pm

     Oh no, we’re still alll thinking about Rasa, and I have commited the sin of trying to Make Fetch Happen!

     (covers head)

     (slinks away)
2. TAD says:

   February 1, 2018 at 10:11 pm

   Sorry to divert from the topic, but Andy, was your early songwriting influenced by The Smiths much? I’ve been listening to some early Smiths lately, I definitely hear some of your vibe in the guitars and the overall feel of some songs. Just curious. I don’t remember you mentioning The Smiths as influence, though.
   • Andrew Hickey says:

     February 1, 2018 at 10:32 pm

     No, definitely not — I’ve never liked the Smiths.
     I think there is probably a similarity there, but it comes from Johnny Marr sharing a lot of the same influences as me — Marr was the person who brought the influence of people like Bert Jansch back into British guitar music after punk, but also combined it with strong influences from Motown and glam. If you’re a technically-limited guitarist (as Marr was when he started out, though he got very good, and as I still am) trying to incorporate those influences into an idiom that’s been influenced by punk, and you’re doing three-minute pop songs, you’re going to end up doing the same sorts of things.
     (Even so, I think there’s no more similarity there than there is to, say, REM).
     But I’ve never actually listened much to the Smiths — when growing up around Manchester in the early 90s, they were liked by the people who used to bully me, and that put me off. And I’ve always felt that while the backing tracks sounded OK, they were ruined by Morrisey. But I can’t even call more than two Smiths songs to mind (Panic and This Charming Man — though I also know You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet Baby from Kirsty MacColl’s cover version). And Morrisey having turned into (or having always been) a raving fascist put me off ever examining them any further.
     • TAD says:

       February 2, 2018 at 12:22 am

       I was also thinking that on the early Munchkin stuff, Rebecca’s vocal often floated over the chords in a way similar to Morrissey’s. If that makes sense. It was probably her lack of musical training, I suspect, more than a Smiths influence though. I probably know about the same number of Smiths songs that you do. I liked Morrissey’s first 2 solo albums, but lost track of him after that. I haven’t followed his politics, although I know he’s a bit of a curmudgeon about people and the world, in general. Perhaps what started off as something funny and unique, became outright hatred as he got older.

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