We're All Bezos on This Bus
November 18, 2024 10:01 AM Subscribe
R.U. Sirius interviews Jeremy Braddock about his new book Firesign: The Electromagnetic History of Everything as told in Nine Comedy Albums and the place of the seminal comedy group The Firesign Theatre in 20th century technoculture.
LARB review by MetaFilter's own Colin Marshall
LARB review by MetaFilter's own Colin Marshall
+1 for title
posted by the sobsister at 10:34 AM on November 18, 2024 [5 favorites]
posted by the sobsister at 10:34 AM on November 18, 2024 [5 favorites]
I remember when comedy albums were a thing.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:37 AM on November 18, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:37 AM on November 18, 2024 [2 favorites]
i'm gonna grab some groat clusters and read this
posted by Sassenach at 10:43 AM on November 18, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by Sassenach at 10:43 AM on November 18, 2024 [4 favorites]
Shoes for industry!
posted by doctornemo at 10:51 AM on November 18, 2024 [4 favorites]
posted by doctornemo at 10:51 AM on November 18, 2024 [4 favorites]
Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers.
posted by whatevernot at 11:11 AM on November 18, 2024 [6 favorites]
posted by whatevernot at 11:11 AM on November 18, 2024 [6 favorites]
most prescient perhaps -- Everything You Know Is Wrong
if you are viewing this film, we are under extraterrestrial attack
posted by philip-random at 11:20 AM on November 18, 2024 [2 favorites]
if you are viewing this film, we are under extraterrestrial attack
posted by philip-random at 11:20 AM on November 18, 2024 [2 favorites]
my time has come
posted by away for regrooving at 11:30 AM on November 18, 2024 [5 favorites]
posted by away for regrooving at 11:30 AM on November 18, 2024 [5 favorites]
I love me some Firesign Theater but is the article worth enduring R.U. Sirius to read?
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 11:39 AM on November 18, 2024
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 11:39 AM on November 18, 2024
The review I linked under the fold was interesting as well and I always find Colin Marshall worth reading.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 12:06 PM on November 18, 2024
posted by Horace Rumpole at 12:06 PM on November 18, 2024
here's his first question:
This is not light reading for people who remember the Firesign Theatre as a silly comedy group with a few lines they like to quote situationally. You hit us right up front with references to the literary theories of Mikhail Bakhtin (heteroglossia) and with a series of left counterculture and avant-garde theater references that were part of their history. These made me swoon (partly with nostalgia.) But all this might not appeal to the old boomer stoner who might by now be pretty reactionary. Your thoughts?
posted by philip-random at 12:09 PM on November 18, 2024 [2 favorites]
This is not light reading for people who remember the Firesign Theatre as a silly comedy group with a few lines they like to quote situationally. You hit us right up front with references to the literary theories of Mikhail Bakhtin (heteroglossia) and with a series of left counterculture and avant-garde theater references that were part of their history. These made me swoon (partly with nostalgia.) But all this might not appeal to the old boomer stoner who might by now be pretty reactionary. Your thoughts?
posted by philip-random at 12:09 PM on November 18, 2024 [2 favorites]
Although I'm fully aware it's not considered their finest work, Eat or Be Eaten (CW: 80s casual cultural appropriation that reads pretty racist now) was a turning point in my absurdist comedy taste and coincided with a halcyon but also best left forgotten moment in technology when the constraints of technology were a kind of fun game to react against. (99 tracks on a CD playing a silly but crucial role in the story.)
posted by Lenie Clarke at 12:20 PM on November 18, 2024
posted by Lenie Clarke at 12:20 PM on November 18, 2024
My neighbor, in his late 60's, is the only human I know who can both- quote an entire Firesign Theater LP side, and- has never done recreational drugs. (Alcohol excepted)
posted by MtDewd at 4:42 PM on November 18, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by MtDewd at 4:42 PM on November 18, 2024 [2 favorites]
As a teenager in the 60s, their work was, of course, most welcome. At that age, in that time, Firesign Theater, Sgt. Pepper's, Timothy Leary, Jimi Hendrix, LSD-25, Abbie Hoffman, et al. It was all of a piece. The Surrealist Revolution, I'd say, even though that term was not/is not really a thing. Unfortunately.
posted by kozad at 7:14 PM on November 18, 2024 [2 favorites]
posted by kozad at 7:14 PM on November 18, 2024 [2 favorites]
We've been waiting for this for hundreds of years!
posted by Gadarene at 12:26 AM on November 19, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Gadarene at 12:26 AM on November 19, 2024 [1 favorite]
That tarnished piece of tin is worthless!
But this post is more certainly not (insane).
posted by tommasz at 8:17 AM on November 19, 2024
But this post is more certainly not (insane).
posted by tommasz at 8:17 AM on November 19, 2024
In the Next World You’re On Your Own is recorded on 24 tracks at the Burbank Studios with the guy who had just engineered Harry Nilsson’s Pussy Cats.
Oof. Not the high point of his CV.
Both Sterne and Williams are quite critical of Marshall McLuhan, who famously was a ‘determinist’ – his idea was that particular forms of media shape particular kinds of consciousness, whether we know it (or like it) or not, i.e. they unilaterally change what it means to be human.
Interesting.
posted by ovvl at 8:57 AM on November 19, 2024 [1 favorite]
Oof. Not the high point of his CV.
Both Sterne and Williams are quite critical of Marshall McLuhan, who famously was a ‘determinist’ – his idea was that particular forms of media shape particular kinds of consciousness, whether we know it (or like it) or not, i.e. they unilaterally change what it means to be human.
Interesting.
posted by ovvl at 8:57 AM on November 19, 2024 [1 favorite]
I love me some Firesign Theater but is the article worth enduring R.U. Sirius to read?
It is a question for the ages.
I got to interview Philip Proctor and Peter Bergman for Seattle's music monthly The Rocket back in 1980 or so. They were appearing at Bumbershoot back then if I recall correctly.This was sometime after their seminal albums had been released: they were pleased to be interviewed by a long time fan. It was conducted over drinks at the Mecca, I think -- Proctor concluded with Wow, I'm really zizzed!
I think that got included in the piece but, you know, that was forty odd years ago. I will have to check the archive.
posted by y2karl at 10:02 AM on November 19, 2024 [1 favorite]
It is a question for the ages.
I got to interview Philip Proctor and Peter Bergman for Seattle's music monthly The Rocket back in 1980 or so. They were appearing at Bumbershoot back then if I recall correctly.This was sometime after their seminal albums had been released: they were pleased to be interviewed by a long time fan. It was conducted over drinks at the Mecca, I think -- Proctor concluded with Wow, I'm really zizzed!
I think that got included in the piece but, you know, that was forty odd years ago. I will have to check the archive.
posted by y2karl at 10:02 AM on November 19, 2024 [1 favorite]
Are these the Cosmic Mushroom guys; "What god would kill his only son?"
posted by Mesaverdian at 11:24 AM on November 19, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by Mesaverdian at 11:24 AM on November 19, 2024 [1 favorite]
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posted by Going To Maine at 10:23 AM on November 18, 2024