Support NeoGAF

[wenis]

Wikipedia Article

Talking Heads was an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City[1] and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison. Auxiliary musicians also regularly made appearances in concert and on the group's albums. The New Wave style of Talking Heads combined elements of punk, art rock, avant-garde, pop, funk, world music, and Americana. Frontman and songwriter David Byrne contributed whimsical, esoteric lyrics to the band's songs, and emphasized their showmanship through various multimedia projects and performances.

This one is a long time coming. Probably one of my more essential bands of my younger years and just one of those acts whose music you can't help, but dance when the opportunity strikes. The music covers an area of sounds, styles and emotion that you haven't seen since. And they also gave us the amazing and what I would consider the best concert movie of all time...

Trailer

Directed by Jonathan Demme the movie instead of panning from the band to the audience solely focuses on the band (as they are carted in piece by piece, with David Byrne starting off with an amazing solo rendition of Psycho Killer with backup boombox) and allows Byrne the opportunity to have created this stage show and visuals that match the music and mood so well you can clearly see that a lot of love and care was put into every decision. It's an amazing piece of film and music that I can not recommend enough (I fucking dare you to not dance during Life During Wartime, as dreary and upsetting as the song is, it's funky as hell).

True Stories is an American film that spans the genres of musical, art, and comedy, directed by and starring David Byrne of the band Talking Heads. It co-stars John Goodman, Swoosie Kurtz, and Spalding Gray. Byrne has described the film as, "A project with songs based on true stories from tabloid newspapers. It's like 60 Minutes on acid."

The Albums

Talking Heads: 77 (1977)
More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978)
Fear of Music (1979)
Remain in Light (1980)
Speaking in Tongues (1983)
Little Creatures (1985)
True Stories (1986)
Naked (1988)

Amazon Page

Live Albums

The Name of the Band is the Talking Heads (1982) CD/Vinyl/MP3 (Amazon)
Stop Making Sense (1984) Blu-Ray/DVD (Amazon) CD/Vinyl/Casette/MP3 (Amazon)

Music

This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) - Live Version
Life During Wartime - Live Version
Psycho Killer - Live Version
Found A Job - Live Version
Once In A Lifetime - Live Version
Slippery People - Live Version
Girlfriend is Better - Live Version
Take Me to the River - Live Version
The Big Country
Drugs
Houses in motion

Gifs

....

The End

StopMakingSense
Member
(Today, 07:03 PM)

<3

 

[StopMakingSense]

I approve of this thread.

 

[Grakl]

Quite simply one of the best groups ever.

 

[sgossard]

Big fan here. REAL Art rock.

 

[Phoenixazure]

My father introduced me to them when i was a kid. "Psycho Killer" and "Once in a Lifetime" are forever ingrained in my head and I'm forever thankful for it. Amazing band. Listen to their interviews as well ( i believe there was a recent one with David Byrne from NPR that was facinating)

 

[afternoon delight]

Nothing else even comes close to sounding like them, which is why I love listening to so many of their albums. I understand how some may not like them, but in my mind, they just don't get it.

Also, not single one person out or anything, but fucking David Byrne is a genius.

I'd like to suggest Road to Nowhere as an essential?

 

[Jack Random]

Stop making sense was one of the first cassettes i ever discovered, and by discovered, i mean i found it cast away in my parents basement. in retrospect it changed how i look at music to this day!

Edit: consider that i'm 35 now

 

[wenis]

Big fan here. REAL Art rock.

Indeed. I love the project Byrne did awhile back by turning a building into an instrument.

Pop star David Byrne, formerly of Talking Heads, has turned the inside of a defunct ferry terminal into a giant musical instrument, retrofitting an antique organ and wiring it to the pipes, the beams, and even the plumbing of the Battery Maritime Building.

Called Playing the Building, it's a project he first launched in Stockholm, Sweden, before bringing it to lower Manhattan in New York. WNYC Soundcheck's John Schaefer stopped by the cavernous hall a few days before the opening to talk to Byrne about why New Yorkers might relate to turning a building into music.

Playing the Building

Nothing else even comes close to sounding like them, which is why I love listening to so many of their albums. I understand how some may not like them, but in my mind, they just don't get it.

Also, not single one person out or anything, but fucking David Byrne is a genius.

Absolutely. He's one of the few musicians (and the rest of the band is included as well) to really show that they love and appreciate what they do. You can feel it in the music and just in their presence when they perform. I feel so frustrated that I'll never actually get to experience a live show like that.

 

[Exclamation-One]

I love, love, love this film.

 

[Lijik]

Talking Heads was one of my mom's favorite bands. I shed a tear for her every time i hear Once in a Lifetime

Excellent thread, wenis!

 

[Chichikov]

Love the band in general, but man, never liked "This must be the place", and I'm spending my life constantly shocked at the amount of people of say it's their favorite Talking Heads songs.
Also, this thread need more True Stories love.

Big fan here. REAL Art rock.

Oh hell no.
They're a punk band.
We did a draft, like the racial draft in Chappelle's, and we got the talking heads.
You can have The Mars Volta.

 

[wenis]

Love the band in general, but man, never liked "This must be the place", and I'm spending my life constantly shocked at the amount of people of say it's their favorite Talking Heads songs.

It's a beautiful love song I think. It's so stripped down and small, but it feels big when you're surrounded by it. Kinda like love

 

[Chichikov]

It's a beautiful love song I think. It's so stripped down and small, but it feels big when you're surrounded by it. Kinda like love

That is not what love sounds like.
This is what love sounds like.
Or something.

 

[Machine]

I really love the Heads. I really got into them around the time Burning Down the House came out my senior year in HS. I was crushed when I found out they stopped touring before I ever got a chance to see them live. '77 thru Little Creatures is an incredible run of albums (I'm not as fond of the last two). I'm also a big fan Tom Tom Club. They've really done some great stuff over the years.

 

[wenis]

That is not what love sounds like.
This is what love sounds like.
Or something.

Or something...

 

[TheKaeptain]

This thread is exactly what I need right now. Rough day. need some music.

 

[sgossard]

Oh hell no.
They're a punk band.
We did a draft, like the racial draft in Chappelle's, and we got the talking heads.
You can have The Mars Volta.

I'm completely ok with that (but I don't care for the Mars Volta). I think Talking Heads can be both art and punk.

 

[afternoon delight]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNbjeDMr29I&feature=related

Never heard this song until now - unbelievable amount of energy.

 

[dafinezt]

Stumbled across this thread just as I was watching Stop Making Sense.

I've been on a Talking Heads tear for like 3 weeks. Just now getting to their live stuff and wow do they know how to put on a show. Damn.

 

[Phonomezer]

This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) - Live Version

One of my favourite live performances. EVER.

 

[LCfiner]

I love this band so much. I got into them in college around 15 years ago with the “sand in the vaseline” 2 disc set. then I saw “stop making sense” and everything just clicked for me. Now I got all their stuff.

For anyone looking to get into them for the first time, I highly recommend their live “The Name of this band is talking heads” 2 disc album. Their performances are incredible.

I love this band.

I love the purposefully mundane lyrics of their early stuff.

I love how the music is full of tics and quirks.

I love it when Byrne says “The name of this song is 'New Feeling'. And that’s what it’s about"

I love it when they add some real funky percussion in the 80s

I love Tina Weymouth’s arms in their Rome 1980 performance.

I love this band

 

[IMACOMPUTA]

The end of Little Monsters is made about 999,999,999 times better because of this band.

 

[Onemic]

Just get Remain in Light and your soul will be quenched.

 

[Devolution]

I grew up on the Talking Heads and David Byrne.

Had that on tape along with the Talking Heads stuff.

 

[wenis]

The end of Little Monsters is made about 999,999,999 times better because of this band.

oh shit, i forgot completely about that movie

Little Monsters (Ending)

 

[FrenchToastDisciple]

great band. Remain in Light and Fear of Music are two of my favorite albums.

 

[IMACOMPUTA]

oh shit, i forgot completely about that movie

Little Monsters (Ending)

Love that movie.

 

[Chichikov]

I'm completely ok with that (but I don't care for the Mars Volta).

Good man!

I'm completely ok with that (but I don't care for the Mars Volta). I think Talking Heads can be both art and punk.

Of course they are, those definitions are rather pointless anyway.
Culturally, they came from punk, but their body of work as a whole is quite different from the mainstays of the genre.

 

[meijiko]

David Byrne is one of my favorite musicians ever to grace this planet. Watching him "dance" was one of my earliest memories.

Psycho Killer is probably my favorite of the Talking Heads songs.

 

[Machine]

This thread made me put on More Songs About Buildings and Food. For some reason, it's my favorite Heads album. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF866xp-tag&feature=related

 

[wenis]

This thread made me put on More Songs About Buildings and Food. For some reason, it's my favorite Heads album. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF866xp-tag&feature=related

you know why that is? because you're a good person...


and also I would have accepted Speaking in Tongues (which is my most favorite of theirs).

 

[rdrr gnr]

...punk label? I'm not sure I understand. Are we using one of those definitions of punk? Even as a person who understands the label, I'm not sure if that's what I'd use today.

I could go my entire life without hearing Burning Down the House again. All their other songs are not yet old -- with the acoustic version of Psychokiller being my favorite. One of the few timeless bands of that era.

 

[LCfiner]

I just remembered that I used to write down their lyrics in the margins of my notebooks back when I would be bored during class lectures.


years ago, I was an angry young man
and i’d pretend that I was a billboard
standing tall, by the side of the road
I fell in love with a beautiful highway

this used to be real estate
now it’s only fields and trees
where, where is the town
now it’s nothing but flowers

the highways and cars
were sacrificed for agriculture
I thought that we’d start over
but i guess i was wrong

there was a factory
now there mountains and rivers
we caught a rattlesnake
now we got something for dinner
there was a shopping mall
now it’s all covered in flowers
if this is paradise
I want a lawnmower

 

[Rockandrollclown]

David Byrne is one of my favorite musicians ever to grace this planet. Watching him "dance" was one of my earliest memories.

Word, I can watch the Once in a Lifetime video over and over thanks to Mr. Byrne's sweet moves.

 

[wenis]

Word, I can watch the Once in a Lifetime video over and over thanks to Mr. Byrne's sweet moves.

random other gif

 

[Mully]

FUCK YES!

 

[JediMasterMatt]

The only bad thing I could ever say about the band is that David decided not to reunite for their R'n'R Hall of Fame induction... which on scale of offenses, can be easily be forgiven.

Love this band.

Can't tell you how many times I've been crusing down the road in the middle of the night and will put the Heads on and time just melts away. Great driving music.

 

[akira28]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NXkM8PsPXs

 

[Judderman]

Talking Heads appreciation thread? Fuck. Yes.

 

[Staccat0]

TWO of my avatars in the OP.
I of course approve.
I love these guys. Edgy in a sort of backwards way. Danceable without being dumb. Talented without being boring. Artsy without being humorless. Great live without losing structure...
So many reasons to love them.

GOOD SHIT

For me, this was the antidote to my teenage years of thinking dark = good. Serious = Good.

Not to say they were never dark or serious, but TH were a band that seemed to purposely thumb their nose at stuff like that and test that boundry. They zigged instead of zagged. They sang songs about apartments, books and appreciating modern conveniences. It was refreshing for me in a way that is stuill hard to explain to peers.

 

[xbhaskarx]

I have considered starting such a thread many times...

 

[UrokeJoe]

Most deserving.

 

[mattiewheels]

Anyone who loves them and hasn't heard this yet, you should really get the first Tom Tom Club album too. It's really beautiful stuff.

 

[hateradio]

I instantly fell in love when I heard Remain In Light, but their other records never really pulled me in.

 

[Machine]

Anyone who loves them and hasn't heard this yet, you should really get the first Tom Tom Club album too. It's really beautiful stuff.

2nd and 4th albums are pretty awesome too. Man with the Four Way Hips and Sunshine and Ecstasy are pretty awesome songs.

 

[bomma_man]

Naive Melody gives me chills ever single time I hear it.

 

[Songbird]

It's fitting that Talking Heads gets an OP full of love. Good stuff.

 

[madkiller]

Subscribed

One of my all time favorite bands.

 

[FantasticMrFoxdie]

Fuck yea.

 

[PigSpeakers]

I love Naive Melody. I haven't heard too much from the Talking Heads outside of the songs that get played out on the radio, but every time I hear Naive Melody, it gets to me. It has such a nostalgic feel to it that makes you think of home.