I just came across this article about the TV programme, and it seems the directors are the same two people doing the "art installation" thing at the Colston Hall in Bristol (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiBMYv7BFfo) that Jarvis is also part of.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-02-11/jarvis-cocker-and-neil-gaiman-team-up-for-likely-stories-tv-series

Http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b079cp2k - iPlayer link
It's about 55 minutes in.
Can't be more specific, as BBC seem to trim the shows to more "the actual show" times, after a day or so.. I've made that mistake before!!

Eamonn wrote:

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Radiohead, StoneRoses, SuperFurries and Pulp releasing comeback material at once would cause a severe warping in the space-time continuum.

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I think we've hit a wormhole, Eamonn. Time to dig out the black velvet suit...

ArrGee wrote:

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Not so sure about Radiohead nor Stone Roses either. If only all comebacks were as good as Bowie's. Well without the dying part, obviously.

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The frustrating thing is, I know that Pulp have a Blackstar in them, if only they could get together and keep the momentum up, rather than second guessing themselves/

Its ok. I kind of dig it when the backing vocals come in.

Not hearing the similarities to TIH though? Sounds more like We Love Life era stuff to these ears... a bit of Weeds II, a bit of My Body May Die, a bit of Forever in my Dreams.

calumlynn wrote:

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ArrGee wrote:

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Not so sure about Radiohead nor Stone Roses either. If only all comebacks were as good as Bowie's. Well without the dying part, obviously.

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 ...I know that Pulp have a Blackstar in them...

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 I'm not sure what Pulp would do if they ever got back into a studio.  It's about 15 years since they recorded anything of any consequence (I exclude Miner's Strike and After You as they were one offs).  I'd like to think they could make an album that would stand alongside anything from Separation onwards, but I fear it would be more of a curate's egg like a Jarvis album.   There has to be a Pulp/Jarvis/Relaxed Muscle album sometime this decade though there are only about three years left to do it.

ArrGee wrote:

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 If only all comebacks were as good as Bowie's. Well without the dying part, obviously.

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It struck me this morning that the verses in Leftovers have a lot in common with Bowie's Eight Line Poem 

I got mine from iTunes, but only the lead song that was on the radio was available last Friday, the other 3 will appear this coming Friday, which is the release date that was given in the press. I have to say I am a luddite about audio stuff and find digital music so much more convenient that I much prefer it. I don't have a record player any more, so records pass me by now. Argee is right that they do seem to be aimed at the hipster market.

Hey there! I ordered my copy of it from Rough Trade's US store and it appears that they still have a stock of it available?

shopusa.roughtraderecords.com/music-from-likely-stories

You will more than likely have to pay higher shipping costs, but it's at least something other than paying the ridiculous things people are asking on Discogs already. I haven't gotten mine yet, will be arriving tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure it's the same pressing as the UK ones, too.

(Also hello HAHA just an off topic introduction of myself because I'm obviously pretty new here, but I have been checking out this forum for about a year and half or so now. Finally broke down and signed up and joined the conversation. )

Hi !! okay wow, new person popping in too, hello :)

I ordered my copy of the EP from Rough Trade's US store last Friday, and it got here on Monday. Very good in my opinion ! Particularly loved "Looking For The Girl" (them innuendos tho ;) Wrote a short review here in case anyone's interested..

As for the Steve Mackey, the notes on the back of the sleeve say - "Recorded and Engineered by Ross Matthews at Narcissus Studios, Neasden / Mastered by John David at Metropolis / Initial piano and guitar on "Theme from Likely Stories" recorded at Steve Mackey Studio, London / Produced by Jarvis Cocker".  Steve is also included in the 'thanks' section :)

Additionally, anyone going to partake in that scavenger hunt ? If me and my geocaching machine were closer, man, i'd be all over that ! to get my mitts on a signed Jarvis record *0*

Lol i keep coming back to add stuff to this ! - anyone wanna talk about the swarmatron cos i've been all about that thing since the Barry Gray concert back in February ! any instrument that sounds like bees is right up my alley !! :)

ArrGee wrote:

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the-gothic-stringbean wrote:

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Hey there! I ordered my copy of it from Rough Trade's US store and it appears that they still have a stock of it available?

shopusa.roughtraderecords.com/music-from-likely-stories

You will more than likely have to pay higher shipping costs, but it's at least something other than paying the ridiculous things people are asking on Discogs already. I haven't gotten mine yet, will be arriving tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure it's the same pressing as the UK ones, 

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 They have stock, but you can't select Uk nor France as shipping destinations.  

 

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 It's all a bit psychedelic....... They ship to any country in the world but the UK and France, surely Jarvis' two key markets, and then far too little stock to satisfy demand where people might want to buy it. Going to the US in a few weeks, will have to have a hunt in some record shop bargain baskets...

superchob wrote:

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ArrGee wrote:

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the-gothic-stringbean wrote:

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Hey there! I ordered my copy of it from Rough Trade's US store and it appears that they still have a stock of it available? 

shopusa.roughtraderecords.com/music-from-likely-stories

You will more than likely have to pay higher shipping costs, but it's at least something other than paying the ridiculous things people are asking on Discogs already. I haven't gotten mine yet, will be arriving tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure it's the same pressing as the UK ones, 

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 They have stock, but you can't select Uk nor France as shipping destinations.  

 

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 It's all a bit psychedelic....... They ship to any country in the world but the UK and France, surely Jarvis' two key markets, and then far too little stock to satisfy demand where people might want to buy it. Going to the US in a few weeks, will have to have a hunt in some record shop bargain baskets...

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 You really might have luck. I was at a record store the other day and found about 4 copies of Primal Scream's new album and Further Complications in the 20% of bin because, as the shop owner said "nobody will  buy it because nobody knows who they are" their loss, my gain.

If people aren't completely averse to a "stranger on the internet" having their address, I'm happy to buy copies and mail them to people in the UK/France for the cost of the record/shipping. Otherwise I'm afraid the limited supply is going to drive up the price on discogs to ridiculous amounts for no reason. I think maybe it already has, but I haven't checked.

ArrGee wrote:

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iwatch-thebees wrote:

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If you have any friends or relatives living in a country other than the UK or France I'd get in touch with them to see if they can help you out, or if you're going to be in the US soon, see if where you're staying will allow you to ship items there :)

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Ah for the good old days where I could walk down the road to Woolworths and just buy the damn things.   The stupid thing here is I could get it shipped to Iraq or Syria, but not to UK, Ireland or France.  Not even Portugal where I will be on vacation this summer.   Even if I was still in Kuwait where I worked for a year or so, it would cost $23 for postage on top of the $6 for the record.

I know this may sound like a crazy idea, but given the plethora of charity shops out there selling second hand records (our local Oxfam Books & Music does a roaring trade) wouldn't it be a good idea for them to sell some new records like this on sale or return like they did with Arctic Monkeys Crying Lightning?  Surely it would be better to do that rather than letting the eBay hawkers make their excessive profits.

 

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I wish that could be possible and I wish Rough Trade wasn't being so ridiculous about it, but sadly the way vinyl is produced now is not the same as use to be. It just comes down to the fact that there are not a lot of pressing plants anymore. Also, doing another pressing probably would not be profitable for record shops or pressing plants because the amount of time it takes to make records. It takes at least a few months for things to be pressed, and by that time the 'consumer' has moved on to other things. It's why we have the 'limited pressing' problem that inevitably translates to 'sales' and $$$ for the eBay hawkers. It's really annoying, and seeing how Jarvis is not as recognizable or popular as let's say Damon Albarn or Jack White, I don't see a repress really happening.

If anything, they should at least do a CD EP instead that has some exclusive stuff with it. Goodness, even a cassette tape would be really interesting, too. There is some sort of demand for it considering that it sold out almost the minute it was announced on the Rough Trade UK store (no joke, it sold out while I was checking it out. Even had the record in my basket and suddenly it said it didn't exist anymore. Talk about frustrating...) But, check out the geocaching ones! I would love someone on here to get them instead of seeing them sold for the sake of easy money. 

Well, if I do come across a glut of the 7"s in NYC in a couple of weeks, I hereby undertake to import an armful and advertise them here, at face value plus a stamp. Fingers crossed..............................................

Just to put my two cents in here about the music - (in a more elaborated sense than, "I LOVE IT !!") - what this EP is, first and foremost, is a soundtrack. It was created as a soundscape for a television series, and, similar to the way Jarvis has talked about song lyrics, it's a part of a whole being set aside and observed independently. In this case, it does feel a bit wrong to call it new 'solo' material. It's quite a collaborative piece - created for a TV adaptation of a writer's works and recorded by a variety of musicians. The music was meant to compliment and enhance the episodes, and as such, should thematically match, both in musicality and lyrical content. Comparing it to something such as Further Complications seems unfair, as this is by definition a different type of music - a soundtrack, rather than a solo album.

It being a soundtrack, it makes sense that each of the tracks would feature the same melody throughout. Listen to any film soundtrack - heck, any music written for opera or ballet even - and it's practically guaranteed that you will hear the same melody repeated. This is to tie the parts together, and have them recognized as being parts of a whole. For Jarvis to employ this technique for Likely Stories really signifies that he's an experienced and talented songwriter. Four tracks, each variations on a theme, using different instrumentation and different lyrics to create a distinct piece of music. The four tracks match the episodes - each a different story, but alike in theme to create a singular series. Now, I have not been able to see any episodes yet, but as I understand it (at least in the case of "Foraging" and "Looking For The Girl") Jarvis' lyrics match the storyline of the episodes, to an extent.

All this being said, I'm absolutely not trying to say that you should like it. You can hate it, that's absolutely fine! But I feel before we bag on it for being four tracks of the same thing, we should take into consideration what its intended purpose is as a piece of music.

(Opinion time tho I love it, pls talk to me about how gr8 it is !! Has anyone here been able to catch any of the show yet ?? Were there clues in there about the geocaching thing, cos i've still not seen any info about that online anywhere...)

iwatch-thebees wrote:

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Just to put my two cents in here about the music - (in a more elaborated sense than, "I LOVE IT !!") - what this EP is, first and foremost, is a soundtrack. It was created as a soundscape for a television series, and, similar to the way Jarvis has talked about song lyrics, it's a part of a whole being set aside and observed independently. In this case, it does feel a bit wrong to call it new 'solo' material. It's quite a collaborative piece - created for a TV adaptation of a writer's works and recorded by a variety of musicians. The music was meant to compliment and enhance the episodes, and as such, should thematically match, both in musicality and lyrical content. Comparing it to something such as Further Complications seems unfair, as this is by definition a different type of music - a soundtrack, rather than a solo album.

It being a soundtrack, it makes sense that each of the tracks would feature the same melody throughout. Listen to any film soundtrack - heck, any music written for opera or ballet even - and it's practically guaranteed that you will hear the same melody repeated. This is to tie the parts together, and have them recognized as being parts of a whole. For Jarvis to employ this technique for Likely Stories really signifies that he's an experienced and talented songwriter. Four tracks, each variations on a theme, using different instrumentation and different lyrics to create a distinct piece of music. The four tracks match the episodes - each a different story, but alike in theme to create a singular series. Now, I have not been able to see any episodes yet, but as I understand it (at least in the case of "Foraging" and "Looking For The Girl") Jarvis' lyrics match the storyline of the episodes, to an extent.

All this being said, I'm absolutely not trying to say that you should like it. You can hate it, that's absolutely fine! But I feel before we bag on it for being four tracks of the same thing, we should take into consideration what its intended purpose is as a piece of music.

(Opinion time tho I love it, pls talk to me about how gr8 it is !! Has anyone here been able to catch any of the show yet ?? Were there clues in there about the geocaching thing, cos i've still not seen any info about that online anywhere...)

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 This exactly sums up my feeling about this, that these songs have a purpose that is not primarily just being a song, but being a soundtrack. I watched the first episode of Likely Stories last night and the bit with the list of mushrooms makes perfect sense within the context of the programme, for example. I haven't listened to the song in isolation yet, but certainly as soundtrack it did it's job very well.

Ah, glad you feel the same way about the songs ! I'm pretty eager to watch the series, though don't know if/when I'll ever be able to, unless they air it some time in America :/

I have seen that video ! Quite a few times actually. My dad was a big fan of Gerry Anderson's shows growing up, and he had me watch them when I was young too. Seeing Jarvis be a part of a musical tribute was quite something, and of course I was fascinated by the ondes martenot but more so the swarmatron (in case you couldn't tell from my username, I absolutely love bees :) That video is the closest thing I've got to seeing the real concert, but that's fabulous that you got to go !! I'd do anything for a full recording of Jarvis singing "Aqua Marina" though ;)

iwatch-thebees wrote:

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Were there clues in there about the geocaching thing, cos i've still not seen any info about that online anywhere...)

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Sorry, I glossed over this comment as I don't actually have a clue what geocaching is, but if it just means hiding stuff, then this could be relevant, I've just seen it on Rough Trade's twitter:

"Pay close attention to tonight's "Likely Stories" on @SkyArts at 9pm, we've hidden signed Jarvis Cocker soundtrack 7"s in related locations!" 

-- Edited by Fran on Thursday 2nd of June 2016 04:45:44 PM

We've got a pretty decent list of Jarvis collaborations and sides growing. More than enough for a compilation. The first two tracks of Likely stories could certainly make the cut (and would sit ok on FC, for that matter). I also liked his cover of I Just Came to Tell You I'm Going. But Jarvis' "side projects" page on Pulp Wiki is huuuuge and I've heard far less than I thought I had. Any major recommendations? Any essentials? Any playlists on the iPods of the cognoscenti worth a listen?