Get Kramer is an earlier, more obscure, example in the long tradition of Half Man Half Biscuit deriding shoegazing indie also-rans. Thoroughly deserved, naturally. Thanks to Peter
See lyrics to Get Kramer
Get Kramer is an earlier, more obscure, example in the long tradition of Half Man Half Biscuit deriding shoegazing indie also-rans. Thoroughly deserved, naturally. Thanks to Peter
See lyrics to Get Kramer
s.g.d. a ShropshireLad
At the risk of being a pedant,
I’ll have a pint… should be in speech marks.
Shoegazing also-rans should be in quotation marks.
P.S. gig finally announced in my home town – Shrewsbury 25/3/10
3 December 2009
simon smith
Are we destroying a holy cow if we point out NB57 has got this quite wrong?
The ‘Kramer’ who is known for producing bands that provoke tumescence in the purists (Sonic Youth, Bongwater, Butthole Surfers, Daniel Johnson, The Palace Brothers, Bonnie Prince Charlie, y’know that sort of thing?) is the figure behind ShimmyDisc and, even if we factor in Eddie Kramer, who produced a lot of the big 60’s bands and dismiss any Seinfeld or late 70s love tug movie connections, the Wayne Kramer who was in MC5 doesn’t seem to fit the profile.
Is it possible NB57 has naturally assumed the ‘Kramer’ responsible for esoteric productions must be the former MC5 man?
Or maybe I’m a berk.
14 July 2010
Chris The Siteowner
Mark Kramer is the producer.
14 July 2010
s.g.d A Shropshire Lad
I think that Wayne might have produced Mudhoney.
14 July 2010
simon smith
Good grunge based knowledge, SGDASL. However…
The one off collaboration was in 2001. The track was released in 1996. I know NB57 is a remarkable person, but can he really see into the future?
Though perhaps Wayne and Mudhoney heard the obscure B-side and thought: “Now, there’s an idea. Scrap the Eno collab, Mrs Arm”.
14 July 2010
s.g.d A Shropshire Lad
2001 – a very good point S.S. but he was also producing his own solo work in the early 90’s.
So I think that Mudhoney knew this when they heard the song and said yes – “let’s get Kramer.”
It sounds like NB57 may have predicted this playground chant – by John Bevis – on the same E.P.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te7FkeGmdA8
14 July 2010
Swanaldo
Perhaps it is Liquid Greek that have their Kramer’s confused, making fools of themselves in the Falcon in the process…
19 July 2010
Charles Exford
Their Kramer’s what ?
[This has to be the most perfectly pedantic thread EVER on The Project, and with my musical ignorance I had no hope of contributing …until I just happened to be goal-hanging at the Grammatical End when you left the goal wide open there]
19 July 2010
Swanaldo
Punctuation rather than grammar, surely.
Either way, I’m ashamed.
19 July 2010
MIKE IN COV
Lloyd George knew my father. Not my mother, fortunately.
Alan McGee, bleedin’ obvious for everyone except me who had to look him up.
I can’t get any mileage out of the Aleister Crowley reference, though I read a biography of him once. But I like the image.
And to tick the Really Obvious boxes as usual, Get Carter and Woody Guthrie. Well someone needs to do it, maternal violators.
10 July 2012
John Burscough
Possibly a reference to Crowley’s distaste for games of chance: “Gambling is to be encouraged as the means of eliminating the imbecile.”
10 July 2012
Dr Desperate
New Noise has been taken up as a German music festival
http://www.newnoisefest.de/2015/
since 2005, and as a French magazine
http://www.noisemag.net/shop/new-noise-1/
since 2010, apparently. Not sure how violent or ultimately beautiful either of them is.
8 August 2015
EXXO
I think that after the ‘Kramer’ A-Z entry, Simon (above, 5 years ago) finally deserves a response, albeit ironic that it comes from the very persona which eventually caused him to abandon this site 🙂
That seems to be the joke – the voice in the song is confused, not Nigel. He’s telling everyone who will listen that the wrong Kramer is coming over to produce his band.
25 August 2015
John Anderson
Now we know why Crowley was at the hotel: http://tinyurl.com/j4cxmsg
24 December 2015
Dan mud
I hear the hopeful group’s name as Liquid Grieg, as in Edvard the Norwegian composer. Possibly an echo of arty shoegazer band names like The* Cocteau Twins?
Or not.
*Handy tip: adding “The” is 100% guaranteed to irk Cocteau Twins purists.
18 April 2017
gipton teenager
@ Dan Mud See also Art Of Noise (the band) and Tate Modern (the gallery). But not Stig (driver/of the dump) or Rock (wrestler/of Gibralter). Probably. (anybody got a tin opener for these here worms?)
20 April 2017
dr desperate
On the other hand, removing ‘The’ is 100% guaranteed to irk ‘The The’ purists (and record store staff when asking for their new single this Saturday).
20 April 2017
GOK WAN ACOLYTE
@Gipton Teenager/Dan Mud
or indeed Small Faces or Carpenters. And I would suggest that ..of the Dump has no “The” either.
@Dr Desperate Fans of The The prefer you to remove both “The” and simply gesticulate to record shop owners instead.
20 April 2017
Brumbiscuit
Watching a rose-tinted BBC4 rockumentary last night, a 2017 Mark Riley (shown in the Peel Sessions clip with a 1980s Mullet) clearly said ‘THE Cocteau Twins’, yet the band member used ‘THE Cocteaus’. Talulah Gosh (q.v.) made an appearance, as did a cameo of The Trumpton Riots.
22 April 2017
GOK WAN ACOLYTE
@Brumbiscuit
I watched about 20 minutes of that, and then when Alan McGee (q.v.) came on, went to bed humming “4 Skinny Indie Kids”. (I know “Get Kramer” would have been more appropriate at that particular juncture but a) 4SIK is more hummable and b) the documentary was a general hagiography of the sort of bands that NB57 loves to mock)
BTW wasn’t Mark Radcliffe, not Marc Riley?
22 April 2017
Brumbiscuit
Yes; Radcliffe. Dunno where ‘Riley’ came from. I gave up just after Talulah and the C86 bit.
22 April 2017
gipton teenager
I always thought that ‘Art of Noise’ had no definite article, but the Wiki-thing says sometimes it was used, sometimes not. That would bugger up pedants who put their records in strictly alphabetical order.
25 April 2017
dirk the tourist
To my ears the band’s name sounds like ‘Liquid Grief’
However, other discussions have shown my hearing to be slightly defective.
28 August 2017
dirk the tourist
Might the last line be a reference to The JAMs?
They were surely odd enough to come to the attention of NB57.
5 October 2017
dirk the tourist
As you were – it’s an MC5 reference. As I now know. Apologies.
5 October 2017
dr desperate
From the artist’s notes to ‘Grayson Perry – The Charms of Lincolnshire’ exhibition at The Collection, Lincoln in February 2006:
“My initial idea was to focus these themes around an unknown artist, a mentally ill (Victorian) farmer’s wife driven insane by the loss of her children.”
3 August 2018
Chris from future doom
I noticed in Tesco this morning that the compilation CDs that come with Metal Hammer magazine are called “New Noise”. This month’s is vol. 7…
12 October 2018
EXXO
Probe Plus was the featured label tonight on Gideon Coe’s weekly Label of Love ‘feature’. It was noticeable that despite featuring five songs from five bands, Coe managed to say nothing whatsoever about the label or its significance, other than that Geoff had founded it after running the Probe Records shop.
The groups featured from about 10.15-10.35 were Cook da Books, Brenda and the Beachballs, Walkingseeds, Mel-O-Tones,and HMHB (Reflections in a Flat).
The Mel-O-Tones became WalkingSeeds at about the time when HMHB’s success gave Geoff enough cash to put out plenty of records… The reason I mention them here is that then they went to Glass Records, and produced by Kramer, kind of invented ‘grunge’ a bit.
28 March 2019
EXXO
11.15-11.35 in fact.
28 March 2019
JUST MARK
Over on The Fall forum, where pedantry is also regarded highly, mention has been made of 1980 release “Newtrition” by The Versatile Newts with guitar credited to “New Noise”.
29 May 2019
THAT SWAN
I don’t think shoegazing needs a hyphen.
(It does not. Thanks. – CtSO)
16 August 2019
GOK WAN ACOLYTE
Former Word Mag journalist and HMHB fan Andrew Harrison posted this tweet earlier today
https://twitter.com/Nndroid/status/1218184078941396993?s=20
And for those who want to check out the records, you can find the playlist here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWT2jS7NwYPVI?si=u167ETDZR_G8g5NWv716Rw
17 January 2020
FEATURELESS TV PRODUCER STEVE
Could someone please kindly shed some light on what the phrase “friends at school were very much thin on the ground” means?
30 April 2020
Lord leominster
@TV Steve, it’s just an expression that means there weren’t very many of them. He had very few friends. “were very much thin on the ground” could be replaced by “were few and far between.” I hope that answers your question.
30 April 2020
FEATURELESS TV PRODUCER STEVE
I certainly does. Thank you, my lord.
1 May 2020
FEATURELESS TV PRODUCER STEVE
By which I meant “It” certainly does, of course. Yes, that are what I does mean. Sometimes me need editly button.
1 May 2020
EXXO
Been thinking, whenever the new Alan McGee biopic has ben chatted about recently on the wireless, etc, that it’s quite the coincidence that this 1996 song juxtaposes the two Als, given how obsessed McGee became with Aleister Crowley (q.v.) in latter years.
Apparently there are also cameos in the film for Jimmy Saville (q.v.), Mr. Blair (q.v.), New Labour (q.v.) and the New Deal (q.v.).
27 February 2021
Beltane Beard
Haven’t commented for many years now, but have just discovered “And Some Fell On Stony Ground” and realised what I was missing.
This is such a great song, tapping into that rich vein of clueless indie band snobbery. The whirling guitar line here is very reminiscent of Dogbowl, which fits perfectly with it being (Mark) Kramer in the title.
There’s some absolute lyrical gems in here; the Lincoln woman, Crowley playing the fruit machines and the burly farmhand chasing off private land some ropey shoegazers who have mixed up their Kramers. That last one makes me smile every time.
21 October 2021
Borough sURveyor
I do believe Get Kramer was the song that hooked me into the HMHB habit. Appeared on the PeelSesh recording of Goodnight Irene pointed out on a Bristol Rovers fan forum where a few of us took pleasure in all things Ledbelly. Although Mars Ultras (drill) was the intravenous that finally dragged me in. Happy innocent days, and the Gas are still shit.
21 October 2021