From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V1 #334 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Sunday, December 9 2001 Volume 01 : Number 334 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] Van der graaf generator [Carolyn Dorsey ] Re: [loud-fans] Van der graaf generator [mweber@library.berkeley.edu (Mat] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2001 22:50:52 -0800 From: Carolyn Dorsey Subject: [loud-fans] Van der graaf generator Can anyone tell me about them and what record is good to start to listen to them? I heard a really nice song of theirs called House with No doors from 1970 and would like to know about them. Carolyn ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2001 21:26:18 -0700 From: Stewart Mason Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Van der graaf generator At 10:50 PM 12/8/01 -0800, Carolyn Dorsey wrote: >Can anyone tell me about them and what record is good to start to listen to >them? I heard a really nice song of theirs called House with No doors from >1970 and would like to know about them. That's from H TO HE, WHO IS THE ONLY ONE, their third album and my personal favorite. A lot of people think more highly of the 1971 follow-up, PAWN HEARTS, which has one of the few really worthwhile side-long prog-rock suites, "Plague of the Lighthouse Keepers," but I think H TO HE has the edge because it's a little darker and harsher sounding. I think the first four albums (the first two are AEROSOL GREY MACHINE and THE LEAST WE CAN DO IS WAVE TO EACH OTHER, from '68 and '69) are the only interesting ones. They split up just after PAWN HEARTS, with bandleader Peter Hammill going solo, and by the time they got back together ('74 or '75, I think), their records were pretty seriously blah. The second through fourth albums sound an awful lot like the contemporaneous King Crimson albums -- Fripp actually plays guitar on much of PAWN HEARTS, VdGG's own lead guitarist having fucked off after the H TO HE sessions -- only without the jazzy influence and with a bit more of a folk-rock feel that's close to early Genesis in some ways. AEROSOL GREY MACHINE is a weird little anomaly that doesn't sound like anything else the band ever did, sounding weirdly like Ray Davies on acid, although unfortunately not quite as interesting as that description sounds. Stewart NP: CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE -- The Melody Unit ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2001 23:40:50 -0500 From: Stuart Bell Subject: [loud-fans] The Rosenbergs Caught this band 'The Rosenbergs' opening for The PushStars the other week in Buffalo....well...they impressed me so much I bought their CD (2 for 1) and it has become a favorite. They are power pop. What the Strokes could (should) have been! Anybody else heard of these guys? If so, would love to hear any other bands that sound like them because they are music to my ears. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2001 23:52:28 -0800 (PST) From: mweber@library.berkeley.edu (Matthew Weber) Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Van der graaf generator At 10:50 PM 12/8/1, Carolyn Dorsey wrote: >Can anyone tell me about them and what record is good to start to listen to >them? I heard a really nice song of theirs called House with No doors from >1970 and would like to know about them. I vote for PAWN HEARTS, partially because I'm a sucker for concept albums, and partially because it doesn't have any obvious embarrassments on it (e.g. H TO HE WHO AM THE ONLY ONE and "White Hammer"). Plus you get a guest spot from Bobby Fripp... Matt The age for the veneration of governments, notwithstanding all the hypnotic influence they employ to maintain their position, is more and more passing away. And it is time for people to understand that governments not only are not necessary, but are harmful and most highly immoral institutions, in which a self-respecting, honest man cannot and must not take part, and the advantages of which he cannot and should not enjoy. And as soon as people clearly understand that, they will, naturally, cease to take part in such deeds--that is, cease to give the government soldiers and money. And as soon as a majority of people ceases to do this the fraud which enslaves people will be abolished. Only in this way can people be freed from slavery. Leo Tolstoy ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V1 #334 *******************************