From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V3 #52 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 Thursday, February 20 2003 Volume 03 : Number 052 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [loud-fans] NS [dmw ] [loud-fans] Top 20 of 2002, Amandla [DOUDIE@aol.com] [loud-fans] Interpol-Bright Lights [Carolyn Dorsey ] [loud-fans] Andy's Midtempoitis Pinnacles [Miles Goosens ] Re: [loud-fans] Andy's Midtempoitis Pinnacles [Miles Goosens ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 08:50:16 -0500 (EST) From: dmw Subject: Re: [loud-fans] NS On Wed, 19 Feb 2003, Aaron Mandel wrote: > On Tue, 18 Feb 2003, Steve Holtebeck wrote: > > > My top two so far for this year are the two albums I downloaded today > > from eMusic, the Go-Betweens BRIGHT YELLOW BRIGHT ORANGE and HEARTS OF > > OAK by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. I still haven't bought any physical > > CDs this year. hey! that wasn't there (Ted Leo) when I checked yesterday...I bought a physical copy yesterday. I prolly woulda eventually anyhoo. And yesterday I decided that the pleasure I'd already got from amy's copy of _Loose Fur_ (the O'Rourke/Tweedy thing) meant I oughtta buy it for real rather than just taking mp3s home. I'm kinda with aaron on _Hearts of Oak_ not quite living up to my (super high) expectations ... I heard a bunch of those songs (most especially "Rude boys") evolving in performance since last spring or so, and was hoping for a whole record of songs as bouyantly and unexpectedly melodic, and it isn't quite. But it's still good. On the other hand, Ad Frank's brand new record (In Girl Trouble) surpassed my expectations. I still don't really like his voice -- a little too nasal, and less nuanced than I might prefer (yeah, the pot calls the kettle noir... but i never said i liked my own voice, let the jury note) - -- but everything else about the record (melodies/arrangement/performance /production) was notches better. - -- d. np OK Go (less annoying than i expected) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 13:44:27 EST From: DOUDIE@aol.com Subject: [loud-fans] Top 20 of 2002, Amandla Yes it might be a bit late for this but you can't really evaluate a record until you have it a couple of months and many of these records came out late in the year. 2002 was a decent year for music, with a large number of good but flawed records and possibly the weakest year in hip hop since the pre BDP era. 1. Tori Amos- SCARLET'S WALK While not as musically ambitious or song-oriented as BOYS FOR PELE, this record is so thematically brilliant that no other record from this year even comes close. Do yourself a favor and spend some time studying the map and song lyrics on this record... it reflects on 9/11 historically and personally in a way no one else has even attempted. 2. Gomez- IN OUR GUN Britpop is dead, long live Gomez. With this, their third record, Gomez evokes a modernized Traffic. A great band playing great songs and mixing it up with great arrangments. 3. The Streets- ORIGINAL PIRATE MATERIAL I sometimes wonder why there aren't more classic hip hop records these days. I am not sure this qualifies as a hip hop record but it sure is a fun ride. To me a classic hip hop record is one on which you can hear every word, follow every narrative and not find yourself rolling your eyes at cliches. Deserves the hype. 4. Laura Cantrell- WHEN THE ROSES BLOOM AGAIN Followup to the superior NOT THE TREMBLIN KIND, uniquely molded in its shadow. Still a great listen. Laura Cantrell's taste in covers is unbeatable. Why can't all country music be this accessible? 5. Ed Harcourt- HERE BE MONSTERS Is Ed Harcourt the new Neil Finn? His perfect Crowded House cop, "She Fell into My Arms" qualifies him. Some grandiose production from Mercury Rev's Dave Fridman makes this record sound epic... in the end its just a great batch of songs. 6. Cornershop- HANDCREAM FOR A GENERATION Easily the most fun record of the year. Too bad its so spotty because the great songs, "Wogs Will Walk", "Lessons Learned from Rocky I-III", "People Power" are all-time great. Take out the 11 minute "Spectral Mornings", and this record might not have been criminally overlooked. 7. The Vitamen- FUN Williamsburg Brooklyn's funniest bad. But this isn't joke rock. The songs are great and memorable. You will laugh out loud listening to FUN but you'll also sing along. Some samples: FUN opens with "Molested", the chorus of which is, "Is every girl on earth molested, or am I just bad in bed?" appropriately setting the tone for the rest of the record. "Roomate" has a chorus of, "I'm afraid if I live alone, I'm gonna rip all the skin off my dick", which puts "Happy Jack" and "Captain Jack" to shame. Brad Krumholz would love this. Trust me and buy this: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/vitamen 8. Spoon- KILL THE MOONLIGHT Songs that groove, don't really go anywhere yet that's the point. GET HAPPY! without the choruses? Britt Daniels' got a great voice and this record is better than GIRLS CAN'T TELL. It will be very interesting to see what Spoon does next. "The Way We Get By" really sounds like the Beatles gone indie rock. 9. Oasis- HEATHEN CHEMISTRY This is the first Oasis record since 1995's (WHAT'S THE STORY)MORNING GLORY that hangs together. You aren't looking forward to a better song coming soon while listening to it and that says alot considering Noel Gallagher wrote only about half of it. "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" is classic Oasis and my pick for song of the year. HEATHEN CHEMISTRY droops a bit at the end but its still good for your standard 100 spins as with most Oasis records. 10. Interpol- TURN ON THE BRIGHT LIGHTS I saw Interpol open up for Sasha Alcott and the Possibilities at the Luna Lounge before this was released, under the pseudonym Chubbly Wubbly or some such name and was really unimpressed. TURN ON THE BRIGHT LIGHTS surprised me. How often is a band better on record than live? Or maybe it is just the nature of this type of well arranged music; that it needs a chance to grow on you. The problem with this record is that the first four songs and the last song, "Leif Erickson" far outshine the middle part of the record. Still essential listening. 11. Sarah Shannon- SARAH SHANNON Who'd of thought I would wind up missing Velocity Girl as much as I have. On first listen, I was put off that SARAH SHANNON is loopy chanteuse record, but on further review only two of these songs are cringe worthy. "Look to the Sky" and "I'll Run Away" are as good as anything put out this year. 12. Coldplay- A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD Am I getting old? I probably listened to this record more than any other this year. Lyrically, Chris Martin isn't really saying anything, making the Radiohead-lite comparisons all the more apt. I've always been a sucker for a good U2 song so I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised at how much "Clocks", "Daylight", "Warning Sign", "The Scientist" and "Green Eyes" got under my skin. Still there's nothing indispensible about this record. 13. Clinic- WALKING WITH THEE Another British band yes but Clinic takes its cue more from the Fall than from the Beatles. These songs have great grooves, and great playing, especially on the melodica, but again, there's not much going on here lyrically. They are a great band though, see them live. 14. Mates of State- OUR CONSTANT CONCERN This record should have a warning on the label: "Do not compare to Quasi". The Mates of State have an infectiousness that Quasi doesn't. On a Quasi record, you wind up having three or four songs you can dig, but you don't necessarily have to hear again... all of the Mates of State's songs are memorable. Great singing and harmonies and really unique organ playing. 15. Badly Drawn Boy- ABOUT A BOY SOUNDTRACK This was such a pleasant surprise. Badly Drawn Boy's Hour of Bewildabeast was very disappointing considering how brilliant its single "Once Around the Block" was. This little soundtrack is more like it. It has the accessiblity his debut lacked. It actually works better on the record than in the movie, where the repeated themes become a little irritating. "Silent Sigh" is vintage Tears for Fears. 16. McClusky- MCCLUSKY DO DALLAS Colin Newman of Wire named this one of his ten favorite records. Period. That alone ought to get anyone who's heard CHAIRS MISSING or 154 to run out and buy it. They are labelmates of Hefner too. This is the record that suffered the most from my wanting people to hear it. It hasn't been in my possession long enough for me to evaluate it properly but its as close to being really smart punk rock as I have heard in a long long time. Steve Albini engineered it and it definitelly bring Big Black to mind though its alot more clever and humourous. 17. Neil Halstead- SLEEPING ON ROADS Former Slowdive, Mojave Three leader releases a lost Nick Drake record. The problem is that he doesn't have whatever it is that makes Nick Drake's music timeless and soulful. But I love Nick Drake so much that I'll take a less soulful version who can write pretty pastoral songs. I have spun this record endlessly. 18. Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man- OUT OF SEASON Does anyone ever listen to the second Portishead record? I highly doubt it. Beth Gibbons' new one tones her Bjork imitation down to a less irritating level and there are some great songs on here, particularly "Tom the Model". Maudlin city. 19. Belle and Sebastian- STORYTELLING Belle and Sebastian are poised for greatness. You can feel it. This soundtrack sounds effortless and yet contains two or three classics and some harmless instrumental themes from Todd Solondz' horrid STORYTELLING. The movie dialogue is much easier to bear if you haven't seen the movie. "Big John Shaft" ranks with B&S's best. 20. The Stratford Four- THE REVOLT AGAINST TIRED NOISES Funny title, since Stratford Four actually does sound tired through most of this record. Long loping songs, drawn out vocals... still... this is the typical best record released on Jetset this year (see Kid Silver, Death By Chocolate in previous years). Some of these guys were in BMRC at one point. Records I got too late to evaluate properly that would likely make my top twenty: Nas- GOD'S SON Wilco- YANKEE FOXTROT HOTEL Missy Elliot- UNDER CONSTRUCTION Blackalicious- BLAZING ARROW Also, my friend Lee Hirsch's documentary, AMANDLA opens at theaters around the country tonight. Even if I hadn't seen him suffer penniless over the past nine years to get this film made, I'd still endorse it heartily as a great film. The use of song in the struggle for freedom from Apartheid is deeply moving. You can email me for further information on it if you'd like. Here are some reviews: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0308/powers.php http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/19/movies/19AMAN.html Cheers, Steven Charles Matrick ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 13:50:14 -0500 From: Carolyn Dorsey Subject: [loud-fans] Interpol-Bright Lights I mistakenly bought this without hearing it and I really don't like this at all. Is anyone interested in swapping something for this? Carolyn ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 13:36:02 -0600 From: Miles Goosens Subject: [loud-fans] spam news; dana FoW agreement I just got a spam e-mail advertising a spy camera "better than the X-10." I wonder if it's even better at generating popup ads? Prompted by FoW advocates Andy H. and (offlist) Bill Silvers, not to mention fear of completely agreeing with Dana, I brought out the FoW albums for another go-round. Played them both last night, and am spinning them in the car today and tomorrow. So far, the revelation hasn't come. The first one rocks harder out of the gate, but the hooks don't stick in my head, and the second half unleashes the smarm and condescension that actively turns me off. UTOPIA PARKWAY seems to ratchet up the smarm while delving into the midtempo sorta stuff that usually bores me, though it's waiting for its second listen of the week this afternoon. The sounds on both albums often draw upon the side of Merseybeat that I don't like much, and for good measure cross it with another pop-fans-go-"yay!"-I-go-"bleagh!" influence, the Beach Boys. I see why people like FoW, but I don't think I'll ever be a fan, and I'll likely be selling these CDs once I listen to UTOPIA PARKWAY again. For what it's worth, I hate Ben Folds far, far more. later, Miles, living popup ad-free these days thanks to PopUpCop ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 14:44:07 -0500 (EST) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [loud-fans] spam news; dana FoW agreement On Wed, 19 Feb 2003, Miles Goosens wrote: > So far, the revelation hasn't come. The first one rocks harder out of > the gate, but the hooks don't stick in my head That's probably the key. The hooks are sticky enough for me (on the first album, at least, and on several b-sides) that it takes a lot of weight off the lyrics. I suspect some songs that seem smarmy to you are lyrical voids in my head, lines I could sing along with but have never once envisioned an actual person speaking as a means of emotional expression. I mean, my favorite FoW b-side is about how stupid the narrator's girlfriend is ("I'll Do The Driving") and yet I think I had listened to it a dozen times before I noticed that. This hardly speaks highly of the band or of me, but so it is. I admire your willingness to give them one last try with an open mind, but don't knock yourself out. a ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 14:17:45 -0600 From: Bill Silvers Subject: Re: [loud-fans] spam news; dana FoW agreement Miles doesn't get it: >Prompted by FoW advocates Andy H. and (offlist) Bill Silvers, not to >mention fear of completely agreeing with Dana, I brought out the FoW >albums for another go-round. Played them both last night, and am spinning >them in the car today and tomorrow. > >So far, the revelation hasn't come. The first one rocks harder out of the >gate, but the hooks don't stick in my head, and the second half unleashes >the smarm and condescension that actively turns me off. UTOPIA PARKWAY >seems to ratchet up the smarm while delving into the midtempo sorta stuff >that usually bores me, though it's waiting for its second listen of the >week this afternoon. The sounds on both albums often draw upon the side >of Merseybeat that I don't like much, and for good measure cross it with >another pop-fans-go-"yay!"-I-go-"bleagh!" influence, the Beach Boys. > >I see why people like FoW, but I don't think I'll ever be a fan, and I'll >likely be selling these CDs once I listen to UTOPIA PARKWAY again. For >what it's worth, I hate Ben Folds far, far more. Well, we're in agreement on Ben Folds, thank heaven. But without dissecting what it is about songs like "Sick Day" or "Senator's Daughter" (the remake) that bury themselves into the soundtrack in my head, or why insubstantial silliness like "I've Got A Flair" can so thoroughly charm me, or why I fell in love with "Red Dragon Tattoo" the first time I heard it and the affair's still running strong nearly four years later, or how "Troubled Times" became an "our song" for my fiance and me, I guess I'd just conclude that either you get it or you don't. I'm sorry you don't, Miles, but before I was reminded of FoW's upcoming record, I'd have suggested that The (a/k/a "the other", "A.", "former V-Roy") Scott Miller's upcoming second record will likely be atop my year-end best-of list...maybe we'll end up agreeing on that one. b.s. p.s. as regards other country music as good as Laura Cantrell's latest one, there's actually quite a bit of it- and on most of those records, the singers can actually sing. Lovely gal, though, and I hear that her radio show is quite good. Her heart's in the right place, at least. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 14:27:25 -0600 From: Bill Silvers Subject: Re: [loud-fans] spam news; dana FoW agreement Forgot to snip and snipe: >The sounds on both albums often draw upon the side of Merseybeat that I >don't like much, and for good measure cross it with another >pop-fans-go-"yay!"-I-go-"bleagh!" influence, the Beach Boys. Hmm. I'd never consciously heard the Beach Boys in FoW before, and thanks for nuthin'. Your FoW listening experience reminds me distinctly of my yearly "maybe this time PET SOUNDS will move me" exercise. Sadly, it hasn't happened yet. b.s. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 14:50:31 -0600 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: [loud-fans] spam news; dana FoW agreement At 02:27 PM 2/19/2003 -0600, Bill Silvers wrote: >Forgot to snip and snipe: > >>The sounds on both albums often draw upon the side of Merseybeat that I >>don't like much, and for good measure cross it with another >>pop-fans-go-"yay!"-I-go-"bleagh!" influence, the Beach Boys. > >Hmm. I'd never consciously heard the Beach Boys in FoW before, and thanks >for nuthin'. Glad to be of service! >Your FoW listening experience reminds me distinctly of my >yearly "maybe this time PET SOUNDS will move me" exercise. Sadly, it hasn't >happened yet. It finally happened for me (mostly, with some caveats even now) in '94 or '95. But like Nick Drake, who I'd always liked, it doesn't mean that I endorse all or even most of PET SOUNDS' offspring, and it remains the only Beach Boys I can tolerate. Also recently failing the "re-try" experience, though I hadn't done the reevaluation on an annual basis: Sugar. At this point I'm holding onto the Sugar CDs mostly because it's Bob Mould, and less and less because I still believe that I'll eventually come to like them. In a couple of years, they may find their way to a used bin, but I'm not ready to chuck them just yet, even though the latest listens left me as cold as ever. later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 21:38:28 GMT From: dana-boy@juno.com Subject: Re:Re: [loud-fans] spam news; dana FoW agreement That's probably the key. The hooks are sticky enough for me (on the first album, at least, and on several b-sides) that it takes a lot of weight off the lyrics. I suspect some songs that seem smarmy to you are lyrical voids in my head, lines I could sing along with but have never once envisioned an actual person speaking as a means of emotional expression. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> It's actually pretty rare for me to care much about lyrics, since I normally blank them out as well. But FoW get so much notice for their "clever" lyrics ("Please Leave the Biker" seems to be a critic's fave, probably for obvious reasons) that it seems fair to take them to task for the words. And honestly, I'd much rather have Shari catch me listening to The Dwarves than to the preppie elitist wit-fest that is FoW. I've got nothing against smart post-preps forming bands (god knows, I'll buy anything with Jesse Hartman's name on it) but when a jingle-writer is trying to bait me with "radio ready rock" wrapped around a clever distaste for all the people who actually listen to radio ready rock, I draw the line. Unless he's a monsterously good songwriter, which Schlesinger isn't. Allmusic puts it a little less dramatically (re: Utopia Parkway): "...if you don't share their disdain for hippies, laser shows, proms, malls, and bikers, it will be a little hard to sing along with those glorious melodies. For some, this may be a minor point, but consider this: emotional depth is what lifted Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend to classic status and what keeps Utopia Parkway from truly soaring, despite its many virtues." It might be worth mentioning that I grew up not all that far from Wayne. - --dana ________________________________________________________________ Sign Up for Juno Platinum Internet Access Today Only $9.95 per month! Visit www.juno.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 14:15:48 -0800 (PST) From: "G. Andrew Hamlin" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] spam news; dana FoW agreement >The sounds on both albums > often draw upon the side of Merseybeat that I don't like much, And which Merseyside would that be? -) For that matter, what is the other side? > I see why people like FoW, but I don't think I'll ever be a fan, and > I'll likely be selling these CDs once I listen to UTOPIA PARKWAY again. Tell you what: name a reasonable price offlist, say, what your local CD store would give you, and I'll take them off your hands. Early Christmas shopping! On the midtempoitits question, I don't think we ever heard from Mr. Goosens on what I like to call the Midtempoitis Pinnacles. You know, ASTRAL WEEKS, PINK MOON, KIND OF BLUE, TILT, SONGS FOR A BLUE GUITAR, the Galaxie 500 box set, Low, Richard Youngs... Oh, and Mr. Sharples never reviewed those albums--"Someone gets a SCHPANKING!", Andy NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Country singer Johnny PayCheck, the hard-drinking hell-raiser best known for his 1977 working man's anthem "Take This Job and Shove It," has died at 64. PayCheck had been bedridden in a nursing home with emphysema and asthma. He died Tuesday, Grand Ole Opry spokeswoman Jessie Schmidt said. Specializing in earthy, plainspoken songs, PayCheck recorded 70 albums and had more than two dozen hit singles. His biggest hit was "Take This Job and Shove It," which inspired a movie by that name, and a title album that sold 2 million copies. His other hits included "Don't Take Her, She's All I Got," (which was revived 25 years later in 1996 by Tracy Byrd), "I'm the Only Hell Mama Ever Raised," "Slide Off Your Satin Sheets," "Old Violin" and "You Can Have Her." "My music's always been about life. And situations. Situation comedies, situation life," he said in 1997. Born Donald Eugene Lytle on May 31, 1938, in Greenfield, Ohio, he took the name Johnny Paycheck in the mid-1960s about a decade after moving to Nashville to build a country music career. He began capitalizing the "c" in PayCheck in the mid-1990s. PayCheck's career was interrupted from 1989 to 1991 when he served two years in prison for shooting a man in the head in an Ohio bar in 1985. He and another ex-convict, country star Merle Haggard, performed at the Chillicothe Correctional Institute in Ohio while PayCheck was imprisoned there. "I heard from fans constantly throughout the entire two years," PayCheck said after his release. "The letters never stopped, from throughout the world. I looked forward to mail call every day." Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste commuted PayCheck's seven-to-nine-year sentence for aggravated assault, and the singer returned to his career. His brush with the law wasn't his first. He was court-martialed and imprisoned for two years in the 1950s for slugging a naval officer. He was sued by the Internal Revenue Service in 1982 for $103,000 in back taxes. This landed him in bankruptcy in 1990, when he listed debts of more than $1.6 million, most of it owed to the IRS. After his prison release, he seemed to put his life in order. He gave anti-drug talks to young people and became a regular member of the Grand Ole Opry cast in 1997. Still, PayCheck said when people came to hear him play, they still expected to see the whiskey-drinking, cocaine-using, wild-eyed performer with unkempt hair and a surly frown  a reputation he built early in his career. "They still remember me as that crazy, good-time-Charlie honky-tonker, and I don't tell 'em any different," he said after his Opry induction. PayCheck was playing the guitar by age 6 and singing professionally by age 15. After a stint in the Navy in the mid-1950s, he moved to Nashville and found work as a bass player for Porter Wagoner, Ray Price, Faron Young and George Jones. He recorded for Decca and Mercury records as Donny Young until he renamed himself and built success first as a songwriter and then as a singer. One of his early compositions was "Apartment 9," recorded in 1966 by Tammy Wynette. In 2002, a PayCheck compilation album, "The Soul & the Edge: The Best of Johnny PayCheck," was released. PayCheck and his wife, Sharon, were married more than 30 years. They had one son. - --John Gerome, Associated Press ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 14:26:52 -0800 From: Steve Holtebeck Subject: Re: [loud-fans] NS dmw: > > My top two so far for this year are the two albums I downloaded today > > from eMusic, the Go-Betweens BRIGHT YELLOW BRIGHT ORANGE and HEARTS OF > > OAK by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. I still haven't bought any physical > > CDs this year. > hey! that wasn't there (Ted Leo) when I checked yesterday... It doesn't show up when you do an artist search for "Ted Leo" or "Pharmacists". You need to do an album search for "Hearts of Oak" to find it. There's lots of good stuff on eMusic, but they could have the worst search engine on the internet (even worse than amazon's). Anyway, I'm listening to HEARTS OF OAK again today, and concur with the sentiment that it starts strong but kind of fizzles out on its second half. The best starting point for anyone curious about this Ted Leo guy would probably be his previous album TYRANNY OF DISTANCE, which is pretty solid all the way through. It's also on eMusic, and even shows up on a search for "Ted Leo". I still haven't made it all the way through Ted's first album yet -- it's noisy and tape-loopy and really not my thing. Miles: > But like Nick Drake, who I'd always liked, it doesn't mean that I > endorse all or even most of PET SOUNDS' offspring, and it remains the > only Beach Boys I can tolerate. How about SUMMERTEETH? I like that album just fine, but it's so obviously Beach Boys influenced that I couldn't imagine why Miles would like it so much. - -Steve ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 16:50:39 -0600 From: Miles Goosens Subject: [loud-fans] Andy's Midtempoitis Pinnacles At 02:15 PM 2/19/2003 -0800, G. Andrew Hamlin wrote: >>The sounds on both albums >> often draw upon the side of Merseybeat that I don't like much, > >And which Merseyside would that be? -) For that matter, what is the >other side? Take the ferry to... Gerry and the Pacemakers, Herman's Hermits, the Hollies, Peter and Gordon... basically NotBeatles. :-) >On the midtempoitits question, I don't think we ever heard from Mr. >Goosens on what I like to call the Midtempoitis Pinnacles. You know, >ASTRAL WEEKS, PINK MOON, KIND OF BLUE, TILT, SONGS FOR A BLUE GUITAR, the >Galaxie 500 box set, Low, Richard Youngs... ASTRAL WEEKS: more interesting than any other Van Morrison I've heard, which isn't saying much. I at least learned where Bruce got the half of his first two albums that he didn't get from Dylan. I hate Morrison's vocals, I hate jamminess (though later stuff like WAVELENGTH would of course make this album look downright structured), and I'm ultimately bored by it. PINK MOON: I did cover this on list! I like it lots, but what it has going for it is (1) brevity and (2) as I realized thanks to the intelligent discussion onlist, an assortment of different tempos. There's an overall feeling of seriousness and somberness, but the songs are at many different speeds, far more varied than I had thought before examining the issue, and this may have been one of the reasons I liked the album even before I was so conscious of this factor. See also Beck's MUTATIONS, which does a wonderful job of being sad and serious while changing the music around enough to keep my ears eager to hear what's coming next. Too bad I can't say the same thing about SEA CHANGE. KIND OF BLUE: Assuming you mean the Miles Davis album. I like it as a mood piece while reading or doing something else, but Melissa hates jazz even more than I do, so even the Coltrane and Davis stuff I like OK doesn't get played much. TILT: Haven't heard, and descriptions make it sound like something I wouldn't enjoy. SONGS FOR A BLUE GUITAR: I've heard some Bruno/RHP mp3s courtesy Aaron Mandel, and was sorta mixed on them. Didn't associate any of them with a particular album, so I don't know if there was any correlation between what I liked and this album. Galaxie 500 box: I own this, and enjoy a majority of the songs, but they do tend to be the ones that have more musical ("4th of July"). I like Luna a lot better. Low: Still a band that I haven't explored to any extent. Once owned THE CURTAIN HITS THE CAST and it didn't grab me. Richard Youngs: Have no idea who this is. later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 17:57:33 -0500 (EST) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Andy's Midtempoitis Pinnacles On Wed, 19 Feb 2003, Miles Goosens wrote: > SONGS FOR A BLUE GUITAR: I've heard some Bruno/RHP mp3s courtesy Aaron > Mandel, and was sorta mixed on them. Didn't associate any of them with > a particular album, so I don't know if there was any correlation between > what I liked and this album. Songs For A Blue Guitar is by Red House Painters, fronted by Mark Kozelek, who tends to be a lot more mopey than Franklin Bruno (and more prone to recording entire albums of AC/DC covers). I do like RHP as well, but not as fanatically. a ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 17:10:26 -0600 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: [loud-fans] NS At 02:26 PM 2/19/2003 -0800, Steve Holtebeck wrote: >Miles: >> But like Nick Drake, who I'd always liked, it doesn't mean that I >> endorse all or even most of PET SOUNDS' offspring, and it remains the >> only Beach Boys I can tolerate. > >How about SUMMERTEETH? I like that album just fine, but it's so >obviously Beach Boys influenced that I couldn't imagine why Miles would >like it so much. The only place it seems to be overt about it to my ears is "My Darling," and as variety for one song, I can take Obviously Beach Boys, just like I can take and even enjoy Obviously Jobim/Gilberto for a single song in the context of an album (see MUTATIONS' "Tropicalia" or VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY's "Monica"). As for the other SUMMERTEETH songs, PET SOUNDS is in there, sure (please note that I just said that I *like* PET SOUNDS), but kept at appropriate levels, where it's AN influence, not THE influence. Magnetic Fields seems like just as big of an influence on SUMMERTEETH, what with all the whirring, buzzing synths about. Mostly it sounds like Jeff Tweedy transcending his influences and making something that's subsumed them all into a varied and accomplished whole. SUMMERTEETH isn't PET SOUNDS as Fetish Object, but as something that can be used, mutated, or discarded, whatever the song calls for. later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 17:16:20 -0600 From: Miles Goosens Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Andy's Midtempoitis Pinnacles At 05:57 PM 2/19/2003 -0500, Aaron Mandel wrote: >On Wed, 19 Feb 2003, Miles Goosens wrote: > >> SONGS FOR A BLUE GUITAR: I've heard some Bruno/RHP mp3s courtesy Aaron >> Mandel, and was sorta mixed on them. Didn't associate any of them with >> a particular album, so I don't know if there was any correlation between >> what I liked and this album. > >Songs For A Blue Guitar is by Red House Painters, fronted by Mark Kozelek, >who tends to be a lot more mopey than Franklin Bruno (and more prone to >recording entire albums of AC/DC covers). I do like RHP as well, but not >as fanatically. Subliminally associating Nothing Painted Blue and Red House Painters! Thanks for clearing that up for me! Maybe that's the reason I never explored either one -- never bothered to sort out which was which, though I don't have negative connotations (or positive ones) with either. A friend of mine put off listening to Sonic Youth for years because he kept associating them with Musical Youth. pass the master-dik on the left hand side, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 17:27:04 -0800 (PST) From: me@justanotherfuckin.com Subject: [loud-fans] what to do with all that duct tape http://sfgate.com/columnists/morford/ Duct Tape Origami Bongs Another bogus Orange Alert, and you with all that tasty excess emergency supply. Stick it where? long, but very funny, article from the SF Chronicle brianna - -- recent adventures in tech support at http://www.scenario.com/people/hello/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 17:29:11 -0800 (PST) From: me@justanotherfuckin.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] what to do with all that duct tape in case you don't get there before the column changes, here's a better link: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2003/02/19/notes021903.DTL - -- recent adventures in tech support at http://www.scenario.com/people/hello/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 20:00:41 -0600 From: Bill Silvers Subject: Johnny Paycheck (was Re: [loud-fans] spam news; dana FoW agreement) Andy Hamlin clipped >NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Country singer Johnny PayCheck, the hard-drinking >hell-raiser best known for his 1977 working man's anthem "Take This Job >and Shove It," has died at 64. > >PayCheck had been bedridden in a nursing home with emphysema and asthma. >He died Tuesday, Grand Ole Opry spokeswoman Jessie Schmidt said. > >Specializing in earthy, plainspoken songs, PayCheck recorded 70 albums and >had more than two dozen hit singles. His biggest hit was "Take This Job >and Shove It," which inspired a movie by that name, and a title album that >sold 2 million copies. >In 2002, a PayCheck compilation album, "The Soul & the Edge: The Best of >Johnny PayCheck," was released. It sure was- it was one of my very favorite reissue/compilation records of last year, and I highly recommend it to those who either fondly remember some of Paycheck's hellraisin' late 70's hits, or who'd like to check them out. Even more essential and worth seeking out is the wonderful compilation of the best of his sixties material, THE REAL MR. HEARTACHE: THE LITTLE DARLIN' YEARS, on the CMF label. The AMG description (from the late great Cub Koda) is a good one, and will spare you my poor blithering on about it: http://tinyurl.com/63wk . I'm not gonna tell you that your record collection is incomplete without gems like "A-11," "He's In A Hurry (To Get Home To My Wife)," "The Ballad of Frisco Bay" (which details the ill-fated escape of the narrator from Alcatraz), "(Pardon Me) I've Got Someone To Kill," "(It's a Mighty Thin Line) Between Love and Hate," etc., but it is. Hear me now and believe me later. b.s. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 23:50:53 -0600 From: Jeffrey with 2 Fs Jeffrey Subject: [loud-fans] this week's entry in the "too much time on one's hands" competition http://www.entrances2hell.co.uk/index.html - --Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society http://www.uwm.edu/~jenor/ :: "Provoking an attack absolutely does NOT mean that the attack would have :: happened eventually otherwise. It's like going into a bar and acting like :: a dick until someone punches you and then having that guy arrested for :: assault. And a 'pre-emptive strike' is just going into a bar and hitting :: the biggest guy you see as hard and fast as possible because he's clearly :: a threat." :: --Jeme Brelin ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 00:55:01 -0500 (EST) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [loud-fans] NS On Wed, 19 Feb 2003, Steve Holtebeck wrote: > The best starting point for anyone curious about this Ted Leo guy would > probably be his previous album TYRANNY OF DISTANCE, which is pretty > solid all the way through. It's solid, but it's solid along the same lines as the weaker parts of HEARTS OF OAK, which is what I think is so weird. Admittedly, I've been listening to the James Chance box set, but I swear there's a funk-via-postpunk influence on the best parts of HoO that I don't hear on TYRANNY, nor on his older records with Chisel (which I like better than his pre-HoO solo stuff, and which I think are also on eMusic? maybe?) a ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V3 #52 ******************************