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No,I’m in a my little lucid moment:) and I really ask you this question..motorpsycho are for you more understimated band of the world or not?
Do you mean underestimated as underrated?
If so….
They generally have the reviewers on their side, and receive positive coverage on both albums and live shows. They’ve had major label backing for a long time, and are now releasing albums on a highly established and well renowned indie label.
Credibility-wise I don’t think that they are underrated at all. As far as album sales are concerned, I’m sure most people here agree that the band deserves a spot further up the album charts than where they reside. They’ve had some no. 1 albums in Norway, but that’s basically because most fans in Norway rush out to grab a copy of a new album on the day of its release… thus a major chart plunge usually follows.
On a more positive note, the band has one of the most dedicated fan bases out there, they seem to be selling enough albums and make enough money through touring to get by and keep doing what they are doing. In addition they’ve made their mark internationally (although in a relatively “small scale”) which is not a common thing for Norwegian artists.
So in my opinion they are far from the most underestimated/underrated band out there. I’d give that “prize” to someone else. Perhaps Aereogramme (although they too have received a fair share of positive reviews)…who have recently re-emereged as The Unwinding Hours. Have a listen to their album. They deserve the attention.
Oh… and keep supporting mp – that’s a given.
They do get coverage and warm critics but mostly only at release dates. No scandals and drug stories inbetween. I find them very underrated when I ask around. People know their indie and alternative bands and lots of obscures, but I’m always surprised how little they know of Motorpsycho. Maybe it’s because in the big german media – the ones I can speak of, I don’t know anything about their status in Norway – like Spex or Visions they never get big coverage. There was the odd front picture though in 98-00 and very surprisingly two special editions on Viva’s “wahwah” shows. Oh, those were the days. But since they walk their own stubborn path of rather humble promotion and marketing activities, that won’t change.
I love that album.
As far as mp are concerned, I know little about media coverage abroad. I guess that the coverage in Norwegian media has slipped a bit as well. I remember them getting 2 page gig reviews in the newspapers around the time of Blissard and AAAP. There was also a Norwegian music magazine with a less genre specific focus around the time (BEAT) who wrote about them quite often.
These days the more stable music magazines seems to be genre specific. Motorpsycho, I suppose, are not genre specific as a band, so they don’t really fit into any of the boxes required to give them coverage in, say, a metal magazine. However, I guess the music magazines are losing their momentum in general. It’s not the most important source of up to date information. It hasn’t been for a long time.
Motorpsycho could have focused on designing a fancy pants website and massively promoted their gigs and releases on the web. It seems that the band instead has channeled their DIY mentality into making great records and touring extensively to promote it. It’s an old trick. I guess it doesn’t expand their fan base, but it keeps the machine going, it maintains stability and the creative focus is kept on the artistic level as opposed to the business level.
I speculate that it’s how the band likes it. A more business oriented focus would perhaps make the band fragile, because it doesn’t seem to be in keeping with their philosophy regarding what music is supposed to be about.
In addition, this work ethic has resulted in the band relasing a whole heap of albums and doing extensive tours. They’ve pretty much maintained artistic freedom throughout, and they are still going strong.
Here’s me speculating again, but I’d consider that a success at a level that the band seems comfertable with.
I also think that if MP would have a more business orientated focus they could be better known but that never seemed to be their goal. This way they can keep their freedom to do whatever they want to do and that’s pretty cool. Keep themselves fresh and exciting, not getting bored of their own music and instruments.
On the other hand they have to buy their bread and milk everyday so I wouldn’t mind if they got a little more famous, that wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Underestimated? That’s hard to tell as a fan but they DO make music that’s not always compatible with the mass. They have their niche and that’s good like that. I remember showing it to people (no underground hippie-psychedlic-freaks
) and it was hard to tell but I think alot of people just need that sort of pale, sober, straight production with a save singer up front. MP is some kind of freaky thing. You have to occupy yourself with music maybe to understand what it’s all about.
I think you’re right about that.
Safe production and predictable three minute tunes is the way to go go if you won’t/can’t invest time in experiencing music. The easy way to go is to pick up on some “catchy” little tune on the radio. You can hum along to it while driving the kids to kindergarten, and it doesn’t require that much focus.
At the end of the day, I can understand and respect the fact that people approach music in that manner. And the fact that the most popular songs are created to be “easy to swallow” makes me appreciate MP’s music even more.
Listening to a song like Gullible takes nearly half an hour. It requires attention and time. And, for a person not familiar with the band, it requires repeated spins in order for the song to grow.
So I’m not being judgemental towards the people who buy Now! Thats What I Call Music. It’s just that I personally prefer spending the time required to get into songs like GT.
I don’t know if this is edible for MP, but since I had children I’ve really come to appreciate the fact that I have an Ipod. It enables me to listen to MP and other great artists on the bus, in the car and numerous other places.
Because the stereo in my living room seems to have been taken hostage by the Smurfs…
I’m currently in the process of getting my daughter used to wearing headphones
However, she does seem to enjoy Super Furry Animals (particularly the smurfy vocoder songs) so I’m not complaining….that much.
Yep, you can’t blame anyone to listen to mainstream music.
In Heidelberg I had a friend with me who’s always been listening to music but not in such an extreme way as I and probably the most MP concert goers do. He listens to different styles of music, always had a favour for house music but you’d probably consider him as a mainstream guy.
But man, he liked what MP did! I always told him he gotta see them live and here was the chance. He won’t become a hardcore fan but he liked the concert.
So I think it’s cool when people give things a try even though it’s not 100% their cup of tea. On the other hand I go with him dancing our asses off the whole night to some groovy house music, and I really like it!
I don’t have anything against ipods either, I just read there’s better sounding devices that are even cheaper and you don’t have to use itunes…
So I’d rather choose one of that and be less cool… kidding!
Yup, I’m sure there are better sounding options to the Ipod. My reasons for buying it was basically down to storage space. I’ve got a 160GB version, which basically allows me to pop my entire music collection on there, more or less.
Which allows me to um….travel light
. I`m completely off topic here. In addition I’ve suddenly realised that I’m shamelessly promoting Apple. That wasn’t my intention at all…
Anyways, I’ve got a friend in France who’s quite an odd one (in a positive way). He’s quite commercially oriented as far as music is concerned, but he does enjoy listening to Motorpsycho. However, he doesn’t care that much about the albums…strangely enough he basically prefers the b-sides. It’s a bit puzzling to me. I’ve tried to give him a little insight into the band, but it seems that I’ve gone about doing it the wrong way.
He’s not seen them live yet, though. I’m hoping to invite him to Norway around the time that mp plays a gig in my home town. It will be like visiting a very loud tourist attraction..
Ok, a quick off topic comment here too concerning MP3 players:
I don’t have one and for listening with little ear plugs saving music as MP3s on them would be just ok for me qualitywise.
But probably I’d check if you could save music in an uncompressed format on the player, so I have perfect quality whereever I take it or connect it to of course with the disadvantage to have less space then.
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