dEUS anyone?

I am a bit cautious to post this up. But, feck it, I am going for it anyway. GYKD posted up a mad sappy songs that made you cry post, which I was sure would bomb. And, I am even more sure this will :P

So, I have always been fairly into music, generally speaking I like more alternative sort of stuff. Basically, the sort of music that I would never play if anyone else was around, for fear of retribution. I like stuff like Tom Waites, Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa. But, most of all, I like dEUS.
And, when I say like, I mean, I have been absolutely hopelessly obsessed and in love with their music for about 8 years.

I was given the album In A Bar Under The Sea, when I was about 19 or 20. And, thought it was pretty rough sounding muck. But, since I was already big into my Tom Waites, I didnt let that put me off.

Tom Waites was my gateway drug. I was given a tape by this guy. He said I should listen to it. And, I listened to it I did. Unmitigated rubbish altogether. Acutely angry unpleasant dangerous stuff. (For any fans it was Raindogs.) He insisted that I keep the tape, like a good dealer, the first hit was for free. I kept it only because it was a nice metal tape. But, it never got taped over somehow.

Anyway, somehow Tom crept into my life, and now I dont actually need to listen to him any more, because, I can play every song perfectly in my head.

But, this is not what I am talking about. This is about dEUS.

So, I persevered. I listened and listened, and I got it, bit by bit, track by track. I got the layers of noise, and the schizophrenic singing style, and the building up riffs and pretty melodies only to wreck them and mess them up with introduced horribley flat notes and things. I got them.

I needed to extend my habit a little bit. Because, this is what it was. I would sneak home from uni, for an hour, make sure there was no one around, and play dEUS tracks. I would ration them, use them as treats for getting a problem solved. Derive the equation, and you can play Theme From Turnpike. But, just one.

So, soon enough, I went out and bought another album. Awful sounding. Dreadful stuff. Heeeeeexcelent. Thats the deal. The worse it seems, the more you have to suffer, the more you will like it in the end. Things were fine, I played and played those two albums. Drifted into more hard core stuff.
But, then, dEUS released The Ideal Crash. Which is basically the best album in the universe. That was it. As far as I was concerned they were the best band in the world that I knew of at the time. Then they broke up.

I never saw them play. And, it gutted me.

And low, 9 years later or something, for no reason, I looked at the Bowery Ballroom gig guide, and there it was. 30th of March. Gig. Up the road.

dEUS. dEUS minus the old guitarist, but still dEUS.

All they needed to do was turn up, and I would have been happy. But, they actually played a gig. The audience was entirely non american it seemed. I sat there, watching them, in as near as religious awe as anything I have felt, and laughed. Every track, I just started giggling. The songs that got me through a degree in maths actually being played.
They didnt play so much, and... I wanted more, and I want to see them again. But, I saw them. I was there. Keep your U2 gigs, even your Pixies gigs. It wasnt even a great gig per se. Like the Air Moon Safari gig was amazing. Thats not the point. The point is it was dEUS, playing.

So, this is what I want to ask a (sort of ) normal group of people.

Are there many people into this layering of noises over noises with melodies barely peeking out of what ends up being a big car crash of sound.
I am not talking about some NIN track, or some metal song. These are far more organised and regimented sort of stuff. I am talking about the Beefheart bellowing stuff, the Tom Waites banging metal drains stamping on wooden boxes sort of choas stuff.

And, are there any other dEUS heads here? I know Northwind is a tom waites boy. Who knows where he led poor northy. Does anyone else actually enjoy listening to this sort of stuff?

( I am not sure I enjoy it, but, I do have to listen. I need it.)

[Spiderman]

Now i'm intrigued Not heard music by any of those you have named Phil. My musical taste was far more dance orrientated.
Having said that i worked with a guy once who was into buying these mad old tapes that had some of the most bizzare mix of music/speech/vocals and the oddest noises you could imagine.
And i loved it

Wanna post up a link to where i could find one of these dEUS tracks, i'd love to hear what it is that got so under your skin.

And like every good junkie, i noted that your story didnt end with you kicking your habit..... more enjoying your resignation to it. Thats the spirit man.

[northwind]

Hmm, I saw them support someone in Glasgow a while back... But I've got no recollection of it whatsoever.

My sister lived in Dresden for a few years in the early 90s, and she used to go to a place called the Star Club, both for club nights and live music. Being that our continental cousins don't have that nasty prejudice against any music not of British or US origin, she got exposed to all sorts of stuff, including dEUS.

Every now and then she post me a cassette of whatever new thing she'd discovered, and one thing she sent me was there first album, "Worst Case Scenario". And I had a similar first reaction: "What the hell is this crazy row?". But it really grew on me, and I ended up wearing out the tape and buying the album anyway, and "In a Bar, Under the Sea".

Sometime in the mid-nineties I saw them at the Reading Festival, and they were incredible in spite of the usual apalling sound you get at outdoors gigs! Then I became obsessed with "The Ideal Crash", never got round to seeing them on that tour, and that was that......

........until last year when my sis told me they were touring again, and we saw them at the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth, and once again they were brilliant. They released another album at the end of last year too, "Pocket Revolution", which pretty much carries on where "Ideal Crash" left off.

Jaysus. I must have had some free time last night eh?

Catdog has exactly the correct response. This is the way that they travel, via cassette tapes, almost all of which get left in drawers or taped over. Once in a while you will give it a second listen, simple because "this tape came of Greir and Greir knows what he is on about, so there must be something about it..." kind of thing.

Spidey. My partner in crime. The album you will want to initially innoculate yourself with is "The Ideal Crash", IMO. However, since it probably easier to get, you could pick up the Pocket Revolution one. I paid 10 bucks for it in Tower here. And I paid 10 pounds for the Crash album in Ireland a while back.

this is what you should be looking out for:

Bang it into a few search engines.

The best way I can describe it is like an abusive spouse, who beats you and treats you like ****, but once in a while will show you a perfect glimpse of pop perfection. Followed by more beatings.

Northwind, so, this gig you saw... do you by any chance remember if there were fire eaters and jugglers and circus people on stage with the band? If you do... that was the Ideal Crash tour. Most of the tracks were close to impossible for them to play live it turned out. Then the band split up, Craig Ward, (Scottish) guitarist walked.

I would have... i dunno, let my brother borrow my SV for the weekend for a chance to see that.

[northwind]

Nah, I'm sure I'd have remembered that

God I am soooo old !!!

17th February 1995, MTV filmed a gig at the London Astoria (2), the second dEUS visit to the uk.

Suds and soda - thats me in front of the stage

Originally Posted by Halonic

17th February 1995, MTV filmed a gig at the London Astoria (2), the second dEUS visit to the uk.

Suds and soda - thats me in front of the stage

Oh. There you go man. There you ****ing go. That's what I want to hear, exact dates, exact tracks. And you were there, that was pre Scottish Craig even. That was before I knew about them even. Nice one Halonic. That's what I wanted to hear. I hope you were bouncing around the place.

They played suds and soda the other night too. Fell off the Floor, Serpintine, Worst Case Scenario.
They LIFTED the place out of it with the New Jersey Turnpike song. Intro was just that metalic sounding WOWwow bit, stage all dark, wierd lighting, steadily bringing it up, then that BOOmdaboomBOOm-uga-booga drum loop, Then Tom comes, all writhed up, and hisses "He went to the bottom, put his soul on fire" into the distort mike.

And, the crowd starts freaking out. The whole thing was so agro, I was almost expecting to see fights breaking out.


Ahhh. Fond memories. Good stuff Halonic. They might end up round your neck of the woods over the summer maybe. (Turns out now, an ex gf of mine knows the new Guitarist, Mauro... he is cool.)

[Richie]

just downloaded a track to hear this band.... my thoughts........Bloody good so far, need to hear more.

what are the best tracks or albams to look out for?


What we talk about & Revolution are the only tracks I've heard so far.