From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V4 #21 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 Friday, January 23 2004 Volume 04 : Number 021 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... [Miles Goosens Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... Jeffrey: >On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 17:31:09 -0600, "Miles Goosens" > said: >> DAMN GOOD >> Squeeze (wonder if they're angling for the Carrack version?) >> Dramarama >> >> HAD THEIR MOMENTS >> Romeo Void > >I'd actually say Romeo Void was at least as "damn good" as Dramarama - >they succumbed to David Kahne Disease on their third album, but the first >two and the EP are fine work indeed. I dunno -- I always thought of Romeo Void as second-rate Pylon. In fact, most of the other 415 bands (Translator and Wire Train come to mind immediately) were, to me, similarly cursed with vastly superior peers. Don't get me wrong, I like all these bands, and they each have considerable merit -- but they also had contemporaries who did their sort of thing better than they themselves did it. later, Miles ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 23:40:37 -0600 From: "Fortissimo" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... On Fri, 23 Jan 2004 00:12:17 -0500 (EST), "Miles Goosens" said: > Jeffrey: > >I'd actually say Romeo Void was at least as "damn good" as Dramarama - > >they succumbed to David Kahne Disease on their third album, but the first > >two and the EP are fine work indeed. > > I dunno -- I always thought of Romeo Void as second-rate Pylon. In fact, > most of the other 415 bands (Translator and Wire Train come to mind > immediately) were, to me, similarly cursed with vastly superior peers. Hmm... I see some similarities between Pylon and Romeo Void, but they're pretty much on the surface and I don't think extend too far down, at least not to my ears. Pylon were always more angular and pointy-sounding than Romeo Void - although admittedly, "Never Say Never"'s main lick is probably that band's most Pylonesque moment. I think it's more that era: similar influences in second-hand dance beats, and that whole late-seventies/early-eighties pronging bass sound. Along the same lines, Translator's best-known song "Everywhere That I'm Not" sounds more like...uh, who exactly?...than the rest of their catalog. I'm partial to the strange, discordant things like "My Favorite Drug" - plus there's the handful of Moon-like drum freakouts on songs like "Circumstance Laughing." Anyway, I'm not sure who they sound like, really. Are you thinking of any band in particular? I can't quite remember Wire Train...I think I liked one or two tracks in a kind of reverb-laden, j-wordish, early-eighties kind of way. So I might agree with you there. - ------------------------------- ...Jeff J e f f r e y N o r m a n The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com/ :: Solipsism is its own reward :: :: --Crow T. Robot ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 22:52:25 -0700 From: Roger Winston Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... The Rainmakers! The Rave-Ups! Red Rockers! Ride! And that's just the R's... Latre. --Rog - -- Distance, Redefined: http://www.reignoffrogs.com/flasshe ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 01:23:16 -0500 From: Stewart Mason Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Bands Reunited, and it feels so good... At 12:12 AM 1/23/2004 -0500, Miles Goosens wrote: >>I'd actually say Romeo Void was at least as "damn good" as Dramarama - >>they succumbed to David Kahne Disease on their third album, but the first >>two and the EP are fine work indeed. > >I dunno -- I always thought of Romeo Void as second-rate Pylon. In fact, >most of the other 415 bands (Translator and Wire Train come to mind >immediately) were, to me, similarly cursed with vastly superior peers. >Don't get me wrong, I like all these bands, and they each have considerable >merit -- but they also had contemporaries who did their sort of thing better >than they themselves did it. Pylon? Most respectfully (because I love Pylon, actually more than I love Romeo Void), I gotta say, "Aw, hell no." Other than the fact that both bands were clearly influenced by British post-punk (Pylon mostly by Gang of Four and that lot, Romeo Void much more by Joy Division, whose "bass carries the melody, guitar sticks to rhythm" style they rather flagrantly stole) and had female singers, there aren't many points of comparison. Pylon was always first and foremost a dance band, where the rhythms were paramount. Vanessa's vocals are really much more of a rhythmic element than anything else in most of their songs: does it really *matter* what the actual words are in a song like "Cool" or "Dub"? Whereas Romeo Void was always a much more word-oriented band, where the lyrics took precedence over the tune. Furthermore, I love Vanessa's voice, but even on the songs where she's being restrained, she eventually leaps into her Meredith Monk mode -- I'm thinking in particular of "No Clocks," where the first half of the song is all flirty and murmury and then for the bridge she suddenly becomes possessed by Mercedes McCambridge as Satan. Debora's voice, however, even on many of the really dark, depressing songs is just...sexy. As someone else (Tim? I forget) mentioned, there's a definite erotic undercurrent to many of Romeo Void's best songs, like "Charred Remains," "Just Too Easy" or "A Girl In Trouble (Is A Temporary Thing)." In fact, I'd argue that the tension of many of the best Romeo Void songs comes from the dichotomy of these anti-romantic, at times downright nihilistic lyrics being sung in this seductive fuck-me voice. (And on this topic, I also just gotta say this to the executives freaked out about the fat Indian girl at the front of the stage: fuck off and die, idiots. I think Benjamin Bossi said it best in the show: "Debora was A Big Girl. She was a gooooooooooood big girl.") I have always said that "Never Say Never" is one of those hit singles that doesn't really give a fair representation of the band's sound. On Bands Reunited, Peter Woods claims that the guitar riff was inspired by the Bush Tetras -- at which point I immediately said, "Oh. Duh. Of course it was." - -- and the manic forward motion of the song isn't something they did much in the rest of their catalogue. "Chinatown" had a similar feel, and to an extent "Out On My Own," but most of Romeo Void's songs were mid-tempo at best. I always hear "Talk Dirty To Me" much faster in my head than it actually is on record, largely because Frank's bass line is at a markedly faster tempo than everybody else's parts, and the rest of their best songs are downright languid! I can see liking Pylon more than Romeo Void, but I actually don't see many points of comparison. S ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V4 #21 ******************************