Quick interview #5: Thin Green Candles

Posted on Thursday 28 May 2009 by simonminter

1.What do you think you sound like?

A bus full of ravers on a bad acid trip through the darker realms of counter culture.

2. What do you do when you’re not making music?

Most of the band are always making music in one band or another: Spiral 25, Beaver Fuel, Drunkenstein, We are ugly (but we have the music), or can be found watching, mixing or promoting other bands.

3. Recommend us a good band or album and tell us what’s good about it.

Alphabet Backwards: loads of fun live and songs you can sing along to.

4. Where did you get your band name from?

It’s a line from obscure Leonard Cohen song: ‘I lit a thin green candle to make you jealous of me .’

5. What do you like and dislike about Oxford and its music?

Like: The width and diversity of music created is delightful. The venues are great and we have things like Nightshift and the Punt.

Dislike: It’s a shame some people aren’t that interested if it’s not tipped by the media or if they have to pay more that £3 to get in to watch diverse and interesting bands.

thin green fred.

Oh i made it a really short interview, Did not realise we had more space,
jamess

that’s ok – maybe you’d like to forward answers from the rest of us now?!
thin green fred.

go on then answer the questions here…

Also how comes we dont get a bit of an intro at the top like the other bands?
Thin Green candles are………
jamess

never mind the intro bit fred. The real question is why the comments haven’t descended into a diatribe about musical differences and the value of sound, like every other band on here!
Big Tim

Because TGC don’t sound like the Libertines.
To the man who would be king i would say only one thing

Thin Green candles are………

i can happily finish this off if you want
jamess

go on then! i dares ya!
thin green fred

thin green candles are……… a jumble of local musicians and electro experimenters mixing electronica with live instruments, to create a covering of sound that scurries between techno, ambient electro, spacerock, acid and psytrance.
I am sure you were goint to say somthing like that To the man who would be king i would say only one thing
http://www.spiral25.com/ Joe

Thin Green Candles are…

Me.

I’ve sacked the rest of the band and buried them in the Jordache’s garden, including Fred who started it, I’m taking the name and starting an animal sanctuary for disillusioned ex-hamsters with it then I’m going to dress as half woman half beaverfuel then stand in the middle of green road roundabout shouting about the demise of the dinosaurs to bewildered economic nationalists driving ice cream vans.
Beaver Fuel

Half Woman Half Beaver Fuel – why the f*** didn’t I consider calling the covers duo that?!!
http://www.last.fm/music/spiral+25 Joe

Thin Green Candles are:

Going to be out voting today, please do the same, the European elections are proportional representation, the racist BNP need a relatively small percentage of the votes to gain seats in the European Parliament, if they do that they get power and money, once they are in that position they will have been legitimised even further and will have access to resources so that they can further the cause of fascism along with their alliance with other European fascists. Please don’t be complacent, if everyone just thinks that everyone else will not tolerate it we could end up in a very nasty situation indeed. This is not a joke, it is not a scare story, it is very important that we don’t let the scum get ahold even more.

Please – get out and vote, it’s not really too much to ask for is it?

That ends the party political broadcast on behalf of the Thin Green Candles Party.
thin green fred.

yep
thin green fred.

Not sure what it is about TGC but I dislike them I think it’s something to do with the photo and the fat bald on with a laptop what kind of instrument is a laptop , no skills needed to press play.
matt scarlett

i know you told me to do this and its all a bit tounge in cheek anyway but…not only a hat but also shades in the dark! and looked down at the floor all moody! maybe hes trying to hide somthing. a huge forehead perhaps.

do like the tunes though. dispite being a “punk”
http://www.last.fm/music/spiral+25 Joe

GERFLUMPENFICKEN FLILILIP CUCKOO CUCKOO BOING!!!!!!!
thin green fred.

Is that the new sample for Invisible Pink Unicorns
Primark punk

Comment 14. should be proof enough that punk is dead in Oxford!
jamess

the hats are there precisely because fred hates hats.
the shades are there because i always wear them – my eyes are horribly sensitive to light, whether it’s daylight or car headlights. once broke glasses, so wore contacts whilst giving a mate a hand moving from halifax to oxford. by the end of the day i had arc-eye, and had to stay in house with curtains drawn for a week. imagine the pain of toothache, but in your eyes? hence prescription sunglasses, all the time.
Big Tim

Comment 17:

You’re obviously not looking in the right places for whatever your idea of “punk” is. Plenty of good punk in Oxford, from hardcore through to old school.

Still, the fact that you call yourself “primark punk” is probably a good indication that you’re either a) taking the piss or b) too young to know about punk anyway.
http://www.last.fm/music/spiral+25 Joe

Maybe the point isn’t actually about proper punks and punk bands but those that jump on the rebellious/iconoclastic/punk bandwagon. I suspect many real punks these days wouldn’t describe themselves as being punk.

Anyway on a serious note: Hats:

James is stupid and wrong because I wear my hat to hide my bald head, the hair is really stapled to the inside rim of the hat, if I were to lift my hat the hair would lift with it. A bit like Andy from the Hi-Lo, I dare anyone to knock his hat off, someone did once revealing a bald head with dreads around the outside. I don’t think Andy was too pleased.
Beaver Fuel

I think the fact I’m not wearing a hat in the picture illustrates perfectly why I wear the hat. Matt Scarlett was half right with his forehead accusation, he just had the wrong person…
thin green fred.

From now on we shall be known as Freddy and the Forheads,
Maybe Verity need to wear less clothes to stop people looking at the rest of us.
Beaver Fuel

Seconded! Mind you, given our usual positioning during practice it’s amazing I get any notes right with her cleavage staring at me the whole time…
http://www.gappytooth.com gappy

I think it’s amazing when you get any notes right full stop, Beaver Boy.
Beaver Fuel

That’s why I use the pitch shifter that isn’t tuned to a musical note. If everything you play is already wrong there can be no mistakes!
http://www.last.fm/music/spiral+25 Joe

Well, I am always in tune. Just not with anyone else.
jamess

oh…so that’s where i’ve been going wrong – silly me – there i was, listening to the laptop and figuring out what key each tune is in…….doh!
http://www.last.fm/music/spiral+25 Joe

Look out, cover your eyes, incoming negativity (depending on which way you look at it, probably too late now though):

“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a communist;

Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist;

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist;

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew;

Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak out for me” – Martin Niemöller

Low voter turnout in Nederlands, fascists get almost a fifth of the vote.

http://lancasteruaf.blogspot.com/2009/06/wilders-strikes-first-blow-for-european.html
http://www.last.fm/music/spiral+25 Joe

First indications from campaigning and local elections results suggests that people have been so caught up in all the MPs’ expenses issue that they “can’t be bothered to vote because they are all as bad as each other”.

Let’s hope I’m wrong.

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