OFF: Cardiacs/Bic Question...

[Nick Medford]

In message <200201060755.CAA13140 at mail3.uts.ohio-state.edu>, K
Henderson <henderson.120 at OSU.EDU> writes
>Hi Folks...
>
>I know there are some Cardiacs' fans here, and as a big Levitation and dark
>star (one of MANY) fan (two other bands that Christian "Bic" Hayes has
>played with more recently), I'm interested in taking an aural peek at them
>also.

>Anyway, I was just curious if this compilation was a good sampling of their
>material.

<tracklist snipped>

It's a fair sampling, my own "best of" would be different, but there are
some top tracks there and it'll give you a pretty good idea of their sound.

Another good place to start is "Songs for Ships and Irons" which is a
collection of non-album tracks from various EPs etc, and is consistently
good as well as highly representative.

>If not, or anyway, can someone do just a brief runthough of the Cardiacs
>career for me - changes in style, personnel, top albums, live albums, still
>going?,  whatever's important for the newbie?  Thanks for that.

I can't give you the full lowdown as I've never been into them quite
enough to know all the details- but basically: formed around '79 by
guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Tim Smith, rather sporadic activity in the
early years, cassette-only (I think) album called "The Seaside" which
finally got a full release some years later. Not their best but sets out their
direction well enough- jerky, punky prog full of strange time changes and
brassy instruments, with bizarre and inventive lyrics which seem to
describe the world as seen through the eyes of a *very* strange child.
And singing style to match the lyrics.

Large, shifting group of musicians settle into fairly stable 7 or 8-piece.
Nucleus of group is Tim Smith, his brother Jim on bass, and his wife
whose name escapes me on keyboards (or was it sax? long time ago, all
this...).  Band cultivates image of being like a motley gang of disturbed
children. Become cult live act, release a series of moderately successful
(as these things go) EPs, although first studio album (not counting The
Seaside)  "A Little Man, a House, and the Whole World Window"
doesn't come out until 1987.  Excellent album, a little less frenetic than
much of their other work but perhaps the most sophisticated
manifestation of their odd style.

Atypically normal-sounding single "Is This the Life" is hit on the UK
indie charts. Band seemingly set to become very big indeed for a cult
act. "Cardiacs Live" released sometime around here. 1989 studio album
"On Land and In the Sea" is fiery and mad-as-a-fish (probably my
favourite Cardiacs recording). Unfortunately the band implodes at this
time with Smith breaking up with his wife (I think) and the line-up being
drastically slimmed down to a 4-piece. The last time I saw them- in
1991 if my memory serves- it was the 4-man line-up, they did a valiant
job of sounding like Cardiacs but without keyboards and brass it was an
uphill task. Album from this period "Heaven Born and Ever Bright" is
even odder than previous releases, with a strange operatic vocal style,
but lacks the surreal charm or musical invention of earlier efforts.

Thereafter there has been only sporadic activity AFAIK, although there
was a new studio album "Guns" not too long ago, but I haven't heard it.
Whatever has been happening seems to have been severely constrained
by lack of finances. Although the band were invited to support Blur at a
big stadium gig a few years ago, Blur apparently being fans and wanting
to give them some exposure.

Hope that helps. There's quite a bit of mythology around the band- their
onstage personae and interactions with each other could be genuinely
disturbing at times, notably Tim Smith's habit of taunting and bullying his
brother Jim in the manner of a sadistic six-year-old. Of course this was
an act but one had to wonder where it was coming from, and in some
ways they were almost a performance art troupe as much as a rock band.
I have to say though that in retrospect, their image of apparently
pretending to be mentally ill and/or retarded doesn't look so clever, and
a friend of mine who recently re-watched their live video "All that
Glitters is a Mare's Nest" pronounced it stupid and offensive.

And... oh yeah, what did they sound like? "Jerky punky prog" is my best
shot. If you've ever heard the UK festival band Poisoned Electrick Head,
they're not totally dissimilar, except Cardiacs were much, much better.
Pink Floyd's "Atom Heart Mother" was apparently one of Tim Smith's
favourite ever tracks and that's very believable when you hear Cardiacs
but they had too much energy and twisted pop sensibility (e.g. they
covered the Kinks song "Susannah's Still Alive") to be a weighty art-
rock affair.

I'm not really sure what the current state of play is with the band, but
there should be someone here who can flesh out the story and bring it up
to date I hope.

--
Nick Medford