From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V15 #17 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, January 19 2006 Volume 15 : Number 017 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Pick an album, any album [Eb ] Re: Okay, I just have to ask. [Sebastian Hagedorn ] Re: Okay, I just have to ask. ["Matt Sewell" ] RE: Pick an album, any album [Tulloch ] Fegz in the news [FSThomas ] RE: I can't believe it took me all this time before I finally bought...... ["Bachman, Michael" ] RE: Pick an album, any album ["Bachman, Michael" ] RE: Pick an album, any album ["Bachman, Michael" ] Urgh! ["David Stovall" ] Re: Pick an album, any album [Eb ] Re: Okay, I just have to ask. [Spotted Eagle Ray ] Re: Pick an album, any album [2fs ] Re: Pick an album, any album / Broken Social Sound [Spotted Eagle Ray Subject: Pick an album, any album Some discs from my current Amazon "Recommendations" list. Go on, say something interesting about any of them. Okkervil River/Black Sheep Boy Chad Vangaalen/Infiniheart Silver Jews/Tanglewood Numbers Caetano Veloso/1967 Hermeto Pascoal/So Nao Toca Quem Nao Quer Wolf Parade/Apologies to the Queen Mary Caetano Veloso/1969 Jorge Ben/Africa Brasil Big Star/Nobody Can Dance Grandpaboy/Dead Man Shake Telepathic Butterflies/Songs from a Second Wave Gang of Four/Shrinkwrapped John Cale/Fragments of a Rainy Season Shout Out Louds/Howl Howl Gaff Gaff Robert Pollard & Doug Gillard/Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department The Magic Numbers/The Magic Numbers Broken Social Scene/Broken Social Scene Big Star/Big Star Story The Red Crayola/The Parable of Arable Land American Analog Set/Promise of Love Silver Jews/American Water The Hold Steady/Separation Sunday Lou Reed/Le Bataclan '72 David Byrne/Lead Us Not into Temptation Kim Gordon/Mori & DJ Oliver John Cale/Sabotage Live The High Dials/War of the Wakening Phantoms White Stripes/White Blood Cells Roger Waters/Amused to Death Pernice Brothers/Discover a Lovelier You Eb ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 09:44:13 +0100 From: Sebastian Hagedorn Subject: Re: Okay, I just have to ask. > Reggaeton: WTF? > > (Do any of you non-US fegs know what I'm talking about?) It's the first I hear of it. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 10:59:12 +0000 From: "Matt Sewell" Subject: RE: Pick an album, any album The Red Crayola/The Parable of Arable Land One of my favourite psyche albums. Usually comes with God Bless the Red Crayola in a 2for1 - GBTRC isn't anywhere near as good as POAL. You may have heard Spacemen3's cover of Transparent Radiation, but even that won't prepare you for the original. Their "hit" was Hurricane Fighter Plane, but I'm fairly sure the band were a little too far-out for the charts of 1967 or so. I think one of the things that makes this album so good is the fact it's nowhere near as accessible or mainstream as many of their peers. In between the tracks there are "Free form Freak-Outs" - mostly sounds like a bunch of hippies making a tremendous din with anything to hand. My favourite track is Pink Stainless Tail. The whole album sounds pretty much as close to taking acid as anything I've heard. Highly recommended. Blimey, it's a little early over this way... so apologies for the ramblingness of this post! Cheers Matt >From: Eb >Some discs from my current Amazon "Recommendations" list. Go on, say >something interesting about any of them. > > >The Red Crayola/The Parable of Arable Land >Eb ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 11:02:49 +0000 From: "Matt Sewell" Subject: Re: Okay, I just have to ask. Means nothing to me, Vienna... >From: Sebastian Hagedorn >Reply-To: Sebastian Hagedorn >CC: fgz >Subject: Re: Okay, I just have to ask. >Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 09:44:13 +0100 > >>Reggaeton: WTF? >> >>(Do any of you non-US fegs know what I'm talking about?) > >It's the first I hear of it. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 11:37:20 +0000 (GMT) From: Tulloch Subject: RE: Pick an album, any album Must be something in the Oxfordshire water, as this was the only album I could have commented on! On the shelf there are six buckets and they are for you... Matt Sewell wrote: The Red Crayola/The Parable of Arable Land One of my favourite psyche albums. Usually comes with God Bless the Red Crayola in a 2for1 - GBTRC isn't anywhere near as good as POAL. You may have heard Spacemen3's cover of Transparent Radiation, but even that won't prepare you for the original. Their "hit" was Hurricane Fighter Plane, but I'm fairly sure the band were a little too far-out for the charts of 1967 or so. I think one of the things that makes this album so good is the fact it's nowhere near as accessible or mainstream as many of their peers. In between the tracks there are "Free form Freak-Outs" - mostly sounds like a bunch of hippies making a tremendous din with anything to hand. My favourite track is Pink Stainless Tail. The whole album sounds pretty much as close to taking acid as anything I've heard. Highly recommended. Blimey, it's a little early over this way... so apologies for the ramblingness of this post! Cheers Matt >From: Eb >Some discs from my current Amazon "Recommendations" list. Go on, say >something interesting about any of them. > > >The Red Crayola/The Parable of Arable Land >Eb - --------------------------------- How much mail storage do you get for free? Yahoo! Mail gives you 1GB! Get Yahoo! Mail ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 08:14:55 -0500 From: FSThomas Subject: Fegz in the news (Of sorts.) Off BoingBoing today: "Mike Godwin has written a great primer on DRM for librarians." Link: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/18/drm_primer_for_libra.html - -- FS Thomas | Interactive Developer | fsthomas@ochremedia.com 404.758.8616 (home/office) | 404.274.1632 (mobile) | ferraatu (AIM) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 08:48:24 -0500 From: "Bachman, Michael" Subject: RE: I can't believe it took me all this time before I finally bought...... On 1/18/06, Spotted Eagle Ray wrote: > >On 1/18/06, Sebastian Hagedorn wrote: > >> > > > >BTW, Feg List...for twenty years, I've been pronouncing the title "one > > > >five four" and am clueless as to whether that's right. Any thoughts? > > > > >That's what I always say, but I have no idea what it means. > > >> I think it's the number of live gigs they'd performed at that time or >> something related to that. Jeff: >At least, if I were to call something "154," that'd be why I'd call it that. >Of the first three Wire albums, it's a tossup between 154 and Chairs >Missing. Maybe because Chairs Missing was the first Wire vers. 1 I >heard (first Wire I heard was, I think, bits of the Snakedrill EP at a >party thrown by a friend of my sister, or something like that, >probably around '88 or so. First Wire purchase then was Ideal Copy >(which included that EP on CD). I ordered 154 a couple of days ago, and it's in transit. Once I get it I'll compare it to Pink Flag and Chairs Missing. My first Wire experience was the Summer of '88 when our local NPR college station was playing A Bell is a Cup Until It is Struck. I bought it right away, then got the Ideal Copy and Pink Flag shortly after. I also got into Throwing Muses and the Pixies in the Summer of 1988 when the same DJ's used to play cuts from House Tornado and Surfer Rosa frequently, a lot of times in the same set with a cut from A Bell Is a Cup. >>And Lauren: you're spot-on about that CN1 ep that came with ...Singing >>Fish - excellent stuff. I just put "H.C.T.F.R." on a mix in fact. Looks like January of 2006 will be a Wire/Colin Newman buying spree month! Michael B. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 08:07:00 -0600 From: Steve Schiavo Subject: Re: Pick an album, any album On Jan 19, 2006, at 1:51 AM, Eb wrote: > Some discs from my current Amazon "Recommendations" list. Go on, > say something interesting about any of them. > > Telepathic Butterflies/Songs from a Second Wave I'll buy their 3rd album, should there ever be one. - - Steve __________ Bush's [domestic] political successes all have three main elements in common....The first is massive partisan discipline.... Element No. 2 is massive giveaways to well-organized lobbies.... The third element is - how should I put it? - lying. - Jonathan Chait ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 09:44:24 -0500 From: "Bachman, Michael" Subject: RE: Pick an album, any album Eb: >John Cale/Fragments of a Rainy Season I got his a couple of years ago. Live John playing solo piano. Nice set list. Enthusiastic singing/playing well received by the audience. It was recorded in 1992. I don't have any other live John Cale to compare it with though. Michael B. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 09:45:18 -0800 From: Spotted Eagle Ray Subject: Re: Pick an album, any album On 1/18/06, Eb wrote: > > Some discs from my current Amazon "Recommendations" list. Go on, say > something interesting about any of them. > > Wolf Parade/Apologies to the Queen Mary I stop reading band bios when I hit the word "emo". Caetano Veloso/1969 (etc) > There's a new one-disc Tropicalia compilation out. The only stuff from that genre I've really heard is the Os Mutantes compilation, which is cool... I've been curious, but this stuff was mighty trendy among a rather suspect crowd for a while.. still, I'm thinking maybe by now it's sorted itself out and someone can tell me where to start. Dunno. Gang of Four/Shrinkwrapped I haven't heard this, and it kinda caused me some confusion recently when the G04 reunited, because I had remembered this as a true "reunion" record. I was misremembering the marketing... apparently it was their return to "band" or "rock" or "four-piece" form after the sporadic duo records, but the rhythm section was a pair of ringers. I dunno... it still seems to have been written out of the band's history, but the AMG review is a rave. John Cale/Fragments of a Rainy Season This seems to be one of the most widely distributed Cale records these days. I think a lot of people own it as a substitute for a "Best Of". It's Cale, and it's great, but of the two on this list, "Sabotage" is far more essential Broken Social Scene/Broken Social Scene I think I'm bound to "discover" this band three years later than everyone else, per my pattern. Big Star/Big Star Story I can't imagine that this would be useful. A best-of for a band whose entire significant output already fits on two CD's with barely a track that's not worthy of inclusion? Hmm. The Red Crayola/The Parable of Arable Land I have the twofer with "God Bless" that everyone else has mentioned. I find it pretty amazing that something this crazy was released when it was, but the few times I've listened to it it hasn't grabbed me as I would have hoped. The "freeform" stuff is a little too freeform... seemingly pretty random, not possessed of the kind of intricacy or sense of purpose that you get in even the wildest stuff by, say, Beefheart or the Velvets. I haven't spent that much time with it, though, so I could have just been overwhelmed on those cursory listens. Definitely some good songs poking through. John Cale/Sabotage Live Very good. All or almost all original songs. Logical live appendage of HONI SOIT, some pretty essential stuff not available elsewhere. White Stripes/White Blood Cells I think that's the most recent White Stripes I have. It's a White Stripes record, but so are they all, it seems. Pernice Brothers/Discover a Lovelier You New one? I asked about this a few weeks back. - -Rx ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 10:03:36 -0800 From: Spotted Eagle Ray Subject: Re: Devo On 1/18/06, Eb wrote: > > > That "reggaeton" thing puzzles me a bit, too. Started seeing lots of > talk about reggaeton about a year ago, and it took me awhile to > actually hear the stuff. [...] > > To me, it doesn't seem distinctive enough to warrant its own genre > label. Just sounds like a dance-y mish-mash of reggae, hip-hop and > Latin influences, arranged in a highly synthetic way. Hard to figure > out what the hoopla is about. Exactly. And of all the things mishmashed, reggae is among the least detectable influences. I mean, reggaeton has a giant "thwock" on the 1 and 3 of every measure-- the exact opposite of reggae, right? I never would have made the connection... I would guessed "salsaton" or "house-cumbia" or something. And the key artist is named "Daddy Yankee"? Weird. > But, here, I believe 96.3FM is almost > nothing *but* reggaeton. Yeah, I hear that all the time in my office. In fact it has become more and more reggaeton-exclusive over the past few months, and interestingly more and more of the DJ's and ads have gone from Spanish to English in parallel. And maybe it's my imagination, but either the style has become more codified or the original version has come to prominence: it's always minor key, features male and female vocals alternating, and has some specific melodic figures that make me sometimes confused as to whether I'm hearing the same song, a similar song by the same artist, or it all just sounds the same in general (I can identify at least three distinct artists, although I only know one by name). > I still do not own a pure reggae album. Shameful, yes. > Same here. Too tainted by rich white fratboy pothead fans. It will take quite some time for me feel like giving the music its fair shake. At this point I feel like the fact that all my ska records are from the UK in the '80's instead of the OC in the '90's is makin' me look relatively "O.G."... - -Rx ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:16:06 -0500 From: "Bachman, Michael" Subject: RE: Pick an album, any album Rx: >Pernice Brothers/Discover a Lovelier You >New one? I asked about this a few weeks back. It came out about mid 2005. Thinner sound as they are down a couple of band members. I don't think it's as good the previous two studio albums, but it still made my top 25 for 2005. I wasn't overwhelmed when I saw them live last July, and walked out before the end. It's was only a $10.00 ticket and less then 50 folks were in attendance. Michael B. NP Go-Betweens - Oceans Apart (Remix Lo-Max version) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:29:16 -0500 From: "Bachman, Michael" Subject: RE: Devo Eb: >> I still do not own a pure reggae album. Shameful, yes. >> Rex: >Same here. Too tainted by rich white fratboy pothead fans. It will take >quite some time for me feel like giving the music its fair shake. At this >point I feel like the fact that all my ska records are from the UK in the >'80's instead of the OC in the '90's is makin' me look relatively "O.G."... I can heartily recommend RED by Black Uhuru and WA-DO-DEM by Eek-A-Mouse. I have both of these on vinyl for 20 some years and also have CD versions. Both are considered reggae classics. Michael B. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 10:36:04 -0800 From: "David Stovall" Subject: Urgh! On 1/18/06, John Barrington Jones wrote: > When the hell is Urgh: A Music War gonna be released on DVD?? There have been several versions torrented on semi-obscure BitTorrent trackers. I've got a rather nice transfer of the longest version (some versions omitted various tracks - one even blasphemously omitting Klaus Nomi's "Total Eclipse"(!) and another omitting the other Nomi track used over the closing credits) that I'd be glad to make a copy of for someone DVD-copy-enabled who would then pass the favor along. Nuppster - since I owe ya a disc anyway, are you able and interested in this? da9ve ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 10:51:41 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Re: Pick an album, any album Spotted Eagle Ray wrote: > Big Star/Big Star Story > > I can't imagine that this would be useful. A best-of for a band whose > entire significant output already fits on two CD's with barely a track > that's not worthy of inclusion? Hmm. What I'm curious about is that, apparently, there are some "alternate versions" included. And possibly, without the liner notes even commenting on them being so? PS to Steve: I already "rejected" the Telepathic Butterflies, based on soundclips. Too deep into the Audities world for me. Eb ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 10:53:27 -0800 From: Spotted Eagle Ray Subject: Re: Okay, I just have to ask. On 1/18/06, 2fs wrote: > > > RxRay wins the Feg Subrosa Communication Award, for encasing 95% of > that post within parentheses. That was so I could pretend to be pithy. I sometimes wonder what non-musicians, or casual music fans, > think musical genre is - and one theory is that they actually think > it's something "official," as if there's a recipe or rulebook for > making "blues" vs. "country" vs. "folk" vs. "metal" etc. The "genre" tags attached to mp3's support this theory. I think a lot of people find those helpful or essential, but to me, they're generally bothersome, if occasionally amusing (crossing threads, the only record my iTunes recognizes as "Reggae" is, I think, Glass Flesh 2, and then there's my sole "Gospel/Religious" album, "Plug Myself In" by D.O.S.E. featuring Mark E. Smith.) > So I wonder > sometimes if there isn't such a thing distinguishing all those > electroparamecia from one another Maybe it was the BPM's or some form of DNA traceable tthough sampled beats. I do recall that most attempts to create larger, more-inclusive terms that were still at least more specific than "electronica" were pretty weak. "Downtempo"? Wha? - -Rx ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 11:42:40 -0800 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: Pick an album, any album On Jan 18, 2006, at 11:51 PM, Eb wrote: > Grandpaboy/Dead Man Shake Paul Westerberg doing an album of drunken barroom blues while completely sober. Think "Mr. Whirly" on Xanax. - -tc ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 12:48:54 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: Pick an album, any album On 1/19/06, Spotted Eagle Ray wrote: > On 1/18/06, Eb wrote: > > > > Some discs from my current Amazon "Recommendations" list. Go on, say > > something interesting about any of them. > > > > Wolf Parade/Apologies to the Queen Mary > > > I stop reading band bios when I hit the word "emo". Did the band use it, or did the writer? If the band - stopping is a good idea. If the writer - proves the writer's laziness. Actually, they're pretty good - crazier and noisier (but not in a "rawk" way) but still tuneful. > > Broken Social Scene/Broken Social Scene I dunno...I just listened to this the other day, and while there are some fine songs on here, the band is so diffuse that I can never remember which band it is until a couple songs in. It sounds more like a compilation than an album by one band. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 12:13:49 -0800 From: Spotted Eagle Ray Subject: Re: Pick an album, any album / Broken Social Sound On 1/19/06, 2fs wrote: > > > > I stop reading band bios when I hit the word "emo". > > Did the band use it, or did the writer? If the band - stopping is a > good idea. If the writer - proves the writer's laziness. Don't remember, but isn't is a truism that all emo bands decry the label? That's like the only way I've been able to identify reggaeton bands. Emo bands. I meant emo bands. Plus, all rock writers are lazy until proven otherwise. > Broken Social Scene > I dunno...I just listened to this the other day, and while there are > some fine songs on here, the band is so diffuse that I can never > remember which band it is until a couple songs in. It sounds more like > a compilation than an album by one band. That seems to be to be the thing these days, the "Canadian Indie Model". I guess we'll have to see how it shores up. The New Pornographers definitely have an identifiable sound, but that's three albums in; Arcade Fire is equally diffuse but their record hangs together really well, maybe because the multitude of players tend to hammer on similar parts so it's more sonically dense than eclectic. Any comparison to BSS there? I heard some BSS earlier this year and took it for Sigur Ros on one track, and someone else on another (maybe Belle & Sebastian), so I have an inkling I'd agree with you. In some ways I'm more intrigued by a varied sound than a unified one right now, because there are a LOT of bands that are all sound. I just heard She Wants Revenge do a live set on KCRW and I think I can now say that the Joy Division/Bauhaus revival has officially rounded the corner into self-parody (which was a danger in bringing that type of music back to begin with). It was hard not to laugh at times. I feel bad for Interpol in the same way I might once have felt bad for Pearl Jam if I'd ever liked Pearl Jam as much as I like Interpol. - -Rx ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 12:27:51 -0800 From: Eb Subject: Re: Pick an album, any album / Broken Social Sound Spotted Eagle Ray wrote: > I just heard She > Wants Revenge do a live set on KCRW and I think I can now say that > the Joy > Division/Bauhaus revival has officially rounded the corner into > self-parody > (which was a danger in bringing that type of music back to begin > with). It > was hard not to laugh at times. I feel bad for Interpol in the > same way I > might once have felt bad for Pearl Jam if I'd ever liked Pearl Jam > as much > as I like Interpol. I haven't heard them myself yet, but there's a group called the Editors which EVERYONE is saying rips off Interpol 100%. Eb ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 15:41:14 -0500 From: "Bachman, Michael" Subject: RE: Pick an album, any album / Broken Social Sound Spotted Eagle Ray wrote: >> I just heard She >> Wants Revenge do a live set on KCRW and I think I can now say that >> the Joy >> Division/Bauhaus revival has officially rounded the corner into >> self-parody >> (which was a danger in bringing that type of music back to begin >> with). It >> was hard not to laugh at times. I feel bad for Interpol in the >> same way I >> might once have felt bad for Pearl Jam if I'd ever liked Pearl Jam >> as much >> as I like Interpol. Eb came back with: >I haven't heard them myself yet, but there's a group called the >Editors which EVERYONE is saying rips off Interpol 100%. The Double is another rip off of Interpol. I saw them at The Abbey Pub in Chicago, as they were one of the opening acts for The Go-Betweens this past June. They were pretty lame. Michael B. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:13:45 -0800 From: Spotted Eagle Ray Subject: Re: Pick an album, any album / Broken Social Sound On 1/19/06, Eb wrote: > > > > I haven't heard them myself yet, but there's a group called the > Editors which EVERYONE is saying rips off Interpol 100%. I kept expecting SWR to play what I thought was their "emphasis" track but they never did, so I now assume that *that* song is by The Editors. I guess this kind of music is really easy to "bandwagon"... the beats are metronomic, the guitar parts straight 8th notes that don't move around too much, the vocal range required is not too demanding... and at one point in time some of those very attributes made it kind of special. If I were Guitar Center I'd start offering a "buy a chorus pedal / get a smoke machine free" package. - -Rx ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:43:53 -0800 (PST) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: Pick an album, any album / Broken Social Sound Spotted Eagle Ray wrote: > On 1/19/06, Eb wrote: > > I haven't heard them myself yet, but there's a > > group called the Editors which EVERYONE is saying > > rips off Interpol 100%. > > I kept expecting SWR to play what I thought was > their "emphasis" track but they never did, so I > now assume that *that* song is by The Editors. Apparently, it's just "Editors" -- no The. And if it's that song where in the chorus he says he wants to tear you apart, then it's She Wants Revenge. Ian Curtis writes one songs mocking the Captain and Tenille, and 26 years later.... > I guess this kind of music is really easy to > "bandwagon"... the beats are > metronomic, the guitar parts straight 8th notes that > don't move around too > much, the vocal range required is not too > demanding... and at one point in > time some of those very attributes made it kind of > special. > > If I were Guitar Center I'd start offering a "buy a > chorus pedal / get a > smoke machine free" package. > > -Rx > "A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer." -- Mitch Hedberg . Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 13:43:53 -0800 (PST) From: Jeff Dwarf Subject: Re: Pick an album, any album / Broken Social Sound Spotted Eagle Ray wrote: > On 1/19/06, Eb wrote: > > I haven't heard them myself yet, but there's a > > group called the Editors which EVERYONE is saying > > rips off Interpol 100%. > > I kept expecting SWR to play what I thought was > their "emphasis" track but they never did, so I > now assume that *that* song is by The Editors. Apparently, it's just "Editors" -- no The. And if it's that song where in the chorus he says he wants to tear you apart, then it's She Wants Revenge. Ian Curtis writes one songs mocking the Captain and Tenille, and 26 years later.... > I guess this kind of music is really easy to > "bandwagon"... the beats are > metronomic, the guitar parts straight 8th notes that > don't move around too > much, the vocal range required is not too > demanding... and at one point in > time some of those very attributes made it kind of > special. > > If I were Guitar Center I'd start offering a "buy a > chorus pedal / get a > smoke machine free" package. > > -Rx > "A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer." -- Mitch Hedberg . Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 16:36:59 -0500 (EST) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: Pick an album, any album / Broken Social Sound On Thu, 19 Jan 2006, Spotted Eagle Ray wrote: > That seems to be to be the thing these days, the "Canadian Indie Model". > I guess we'll have to see how it shores up. The New Pornographers > definitely have an identifiable sound, but that's three albums in; > Arcade Fire is equally diffuse but their record hangs together really > well, maybe because the multitude of players tend to hammer on similar > parts so it's more sonically dense than eclectic. Any comparison to BSS > there? If you like The Arcade Fire, you shouldn't blow off Wolf Parade, who are pretty similar, albeit with more songwriting and less eclecticness. The Broken Social Scene record had one or two truly great songs on it, but the rest, I thought, was iffy, and the whole disc's mixing sucked; they squeezed everything into a tiny band of midrange frequencies. God knows why. a ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 14:26:16 -0800 From: Spotted Eagle Ray Subject: Re: Pick an album, any album / I'm starting to want revenge, too On 1/19/06, Jeff Dwarf wrote: > > > > And if it's that song where in the chorus he says he > wants to tear you apart, then it's She Wants Revenge. > Ian Curtis writes one songs mocking the Captain and > Tenille, and 26 years later.... Wow, I just picked up a discarded LA Times at luch and the Calendar has a feature on She Wants Revenge, and... well, their backstory is really bizarre. Turns out I have some records with the singer on them, but they're not the kind of records you might expect... for starters, they're like a decade old, and... well, investigate at your own peril using the Music Journalism Outlet of your choice. Warning: possible Limp Bizkit content. - -Rx ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 19 Jan 2006 16:26:28 -0600 From: 2fs Subject: Re: Pick an album, any album / Broken Social Sound On 1/19/06, Spotted Eagle Ray wrote: > > > > On 1/19/06, 2fs wrote: > > Broken Social Scene > > I dunno...I just listened to this the other day, and while there are > > some fine songs on here, the band is so diffuse that I can never > > remember which band it is until a couple songs in. It sounds more like > > a compilation than an album by one band. > > > That seems to be to be the thing these days, the "Canadian Indie Model". I > guess we'll have to see how it shores up. The New Pornographers definitely > have an identifiable sound, but that's three albums in; Arcade Fire is > equally diffuse but their record hangs together really well, maybe because > the multitude of players tend to hammer on similar parts so it's more > sonically dense than eclectic. Any comparison to BSS there? Kinda. But there's diverse, and then there's diffuse. I like the first - - variety is good, within a context of something that makes the music distinct as belonging to a particular artist - but the second is, to me, the sign of a band that hasn't figured out who it wants to be yet. As a music fan, you're probably into all kinds of different music...but unless you're a really distinctive composer, you probably shouldn't just try to do all those kinds of music. The exceptions one thinks of *are* distinctive composers or arrangers, so it works. (For that matter, even though they weren't that diverse stylistically, when early R.E.M. tracks tried on different styles (country, hard rock on "Burning Hell," quasi-funk on "Can't Get There from Here") their distinctive arranging and playing styles meant the songs still sounded like R.E.M. to me. Anyway: For me at least, the New Pornographers were always instantly identifiable (once I knew who they were, of course). And maybe it's the singer (except when it's the singer who's Bjork-lite) but I didn't particularly notice Arcade Fire being all that diverse. I like them pretty well...but they're definitely a band whose second album should be telling as to whether they have long-haul capabilities or just one good album. I feel bad for Interpol in the same way I > might once have felt bad for Pearl Jam if I'd ever liked Pearl Jam as much > as I like Interpol. And dammit I'm still going to insist Interpol doesn't usually sound much like Joy Division at all. Hrmph. One problem is all these imitator bands latch on to *one* aspect of a band's style and run with it...whereas often what makes a band distinctive, in addition to whatever traits are readily legible (such as the aforementioned steady 8th-note guitar parts, reverby production, etc.) are trickier things like predilection for certain kinds of chords or odd voicings, quirks of rhythm or song structure, etc. It's actually rather instructive to try to parody an artist well - you have to listen to a lot of the work and figure out what's distinctive and characteristic about the music, particularly as compared iwth seemingly similar artists. That is, you have to be a good musician to do a good parody - anyone can do a lame-ass parody. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V15 #17 *******************************