# The The
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 15, 2001, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488 "2001-11-15T07:01:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Dave\_Stewart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Stewart)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2001, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488/1 "2001-11-15T07:01:35Z")
Where are you Matt?
All my early university memories are associated with the Infected album (one of my first CDs - I bought it before I owned a CD player). “Infected”, “Slow Train to Dawn” with Neneh Cherry… God, I feel like going to my old uni tavern and playing some pool and drinking beer.
And there was that amazing song from his previous album, the name of which I can’t remember, but the lyrics of the chorus are:
"I’ve got you under my skin where the rain can’t get in…"etc
What happened to this guy?
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### Author:  [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2001, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488/2 "2001-11-15T07:21:43Z")
That’d be _Uncertain Smile_ off _Soul Mining_. _This is the Day_ is another great track off that record.
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### Author:  [@Dave\_Stewart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Stewart)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2001, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488/3 "2001-11-15T09:29:26Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by hawthorne \*
> \*\*That’d be _Uncertain Smile_ off _Soul Mining_. _This is the Day_ is another great track off that record. \*\*
You are right - and _This is the day_ is another great track, indeed.
So…is he still recording? The last The The album (vinyl, too) I bought was the one with the dove on the bayonet on the cover. But I’ve heard nothing since…
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### Author:  [@Dragon\_Phoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragon_Phoenix)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2001, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488/4 "2001-11-15T10:52:28Z")
According to Amazon, The The have released eight albums/CD’s. I have three in my collection: Soul Mining (a big amen for the comments on the top tracks of this album), Infected and Mind bomb (the dove/bayonet one). Most recent CD listed is Naked Self (2000).
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### Author:  [@Purdzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purdzilla)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2001, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488/5 "2001-11-15T12:51:23Z")
For years, when people would ask me what my favorite CD is, I would tell them _Soul Mining_. I don’t listen to it as often these days, but whenever I put it on I am BLOWN AWAY by how well it has stood the test of time.
My favorite cut is “Perfect,” one of my all-time 10 favorite songs, which is to me the perfect pop song (pun intended): brilliant lyrics (see subject line, slightly altered from the original) and a hummable melody. I actually find myself disappointed whenever the song ends.
When _Infected_ came out, I bought it, I liked it (then), and I listened to it fairly frequently. But rather quickly, it began to gather dust on my CD shelves. Frankly, as much as I like Neneh Cherry and female vocalists in general, I didn’t really like them on a The The record.
Over the years, I acquired other Matt Johnson CDs (_Dusk, Solitude,_ etc.). Aside from the collection of Hank Williams covers (_Hanky Panky_) which was _interesting_ if hardly _timeless_, none have been particularly memorable.
I haven’t bought his most recent CD (which, interestingly, was released on Interscope records, same label as Nine Inch Nails), but I have heard a few cuts. While not bad, per se, it’s hardly the sort of release that inspires me to spread the word that “Matt is Back!”
Who cares if he is or not? My copy of _Soul Mining_ should last at least another 30 years or so. Fine by me.
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### Author:  [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2001, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488/6 "2001-11-15T14:25:43Z")
[porky pig voice]
Thththe thththe thththe that’s all folks!
[/porky]
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### Author:  [@bourbonstew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bourbonstew)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2001, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488/7 "2001-11-15T14:28:20Z")
Dusk also features some Johnny Marr work. I like the album, but it isn’t quite as good as _Soul Mining_.
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2001, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488/8 "2001-11-15T15:38:47Z")
When I saw the title of this thread, I thought it was going to be about that immortal _Mystery Science Theater 3000_ classic, “Attack Of The The Eye Creatures.”
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### Author:  [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2001, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488/9 "2001-11-15T15:49:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by bourbonstew \*
> \*\*Dusk also features some Johnny Marr work. I like the album, but it isn’t quite as good as _Soul Mining_. \*\*
Unfortunately it seems like all he did was play the harmonica. ☹
I miss Johnny.
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### Author:  [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2001, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488/10 "2001-11-15T16:48:59Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I miss Johnny.
Do you have the latest Electronic album, released last year?
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### Author:  [@HalberMensch242](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HalberMensch242)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2001, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488/11 "2001-11-15T19:03:38Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Purdzilla \*
> \*\*
> I haven’t bought his most recent CD (which, interestingly, was released on Interscope records, same label as Nine Inch Nails), but I have heard a few cuts. While not bad, per se, it’s hardly the sort of release that inspires me to spread the word that “Matt is Back!”
> \*\*
Actually, Matt released **The Naked Self** on the Nothing label, which is actually owned and run by Trent Reznor…he of course latter decided to leave Nothing…for reasons i don’t quite fully understand.
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### Author:  [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)
#### Post date: [November 15, 2001, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488/12 "2001-11-15T19:59:10Z")
Where to begin…?
FWIW, I thought “NakedSelf” was hands-down the best thing to come out in 2000. The Jeff Buckley-esque “The Whisperers” is one of my favorite tracks; anybody know if it was inspired by the c. 1965 British horror flick? Excellent headphone album, BTW – aside from all the richly resonant strumming, I keep hearing little slithery and crackly sounds in there… interesting that he bought up a defunct Shanghai radio station’s ancient analogue (and vacuum tube-reliant) equipment to record it. 🆒
Was anyone else hoping against all hope to see The The at one of these post-WTC concerts? I’m still haunted by the tearjerking live performance on national & international TV of “Love is Stronger Than Death” – THAT NEVER WAS. [I’m thinking of the first concert, in particular.] Aaaargh! The concert organizers really blew it… :mad: Especially when you consider that Matt J. lives in Chinatown in lower Manhattan, about a mile (or less) from the WTC. I have to admit it: one of the things that occurred to me after WTC was whether the abrasive dust has affected his home recording… has Matt lost any work in progress? Yes, I really am that shallow…
And I wish I’d made the effort to see him in NYC last year. I’d bought a ticket for his Jersey show [at the Stone Pony?], but that concert was cancelled for “lack of interest”. Damn. And how depressing…
Put me down as one who thinks his material has gotten better over time; “Soul Mining”'s my least-favorite of his.
For all things The The, it’s his somewhat annoying website:
[http://www.thethe.com](http://www.thethe.com)
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### Author:  [@Dave\_Stewart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Stewart)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2001, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488/13 "2001-11-16T01:50:29Z")
Thanks for the update, people - 8 albums! Obviously I have seriously lost track of what he is doing…
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### Author:  [@KSO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KSO)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2001, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488/14 "2001-11-16T03:04:46Z")
Ah,yes. The The. It was 1986, I was young and naive and enjoying my junior year abroad at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. “This is the 51st staaaaate…of the Uuuuuu S Aaaaaa…”
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### Author:  [@HP\_Ellison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HP_Ellison)
#### Post date: [November 16, 2001, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-the/93488/15 "2001-11-16T03:13:54Z")
Matt Johnson left Nothing due to the merger with Seagrams. Due to the tremendous overhead that this merger entailed, Nothing is no longer such a desireable label to be on; Seagrams needs money, and The The simply don’t make that much. Einsturzende Neubauten also left the label as well after finding out that their last album (Silence Is Sexy) was flat out not going to be released. I saw The The about a year ago in Pittsburgh, and at one point he said something along the lines of “when you sign to Nothing, that’s what you get”.