From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V4 #179 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, July 1 2004 Volume 04 : Number 179 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] Roundup of review swap review reviews ["Rex.Broome" Subject: [loud-fans] Roundup of review swap review reviews Jeffrey: >>I think I might have said in the notes, but I think Nesmith's fame as >>an ex-Monkee actually worked against him. If he'd released this stuff >>& it'd been received on its own terms, I think he could've been huge. >>I really should check out more of his stuff - since every song of his I've >>heard I like a lot (and that includes the handful he wrote while still >>w/the Monkees). I need to dig into his stuff, too. I like his Monkees songs a lot* ("What Am I Doin' Hangin' Round" makes me wish Stephen Stills had passed the audition for that TV show, leaving Nesmith free to be in Buffalo Springfield and subseqently Crosby Nesmith Nash and Young), and my dad speaks fondly of a few Nesmith solo songs I've never heard. It seems to me that all the Nesmith compilations I've ever seen are less than career-spanning, though... any recommendations? (In the interests of full disclosure, I know Nesmith's son socially and have occasionally had some of my musical efforts reconfigured by him in ways that are not especially to my liking... while I was gonna mention that Nesmith Jr. actually appears on my Tinfoil Thoths compilation, that would be cross-list and cross-promo, but also vaguely relevant in that one song on Jeffrey's disc was lifted from that comp...) Andy: >Oh I'd be perfectly happy with another Magnetic Fields argument! >Whatever that involves. I think Mr. Sharples, whom I recall as the >main Merritt-hater, is no longer with us, however. I'll step in. I don't know that I *hate* Merritt, but he leaves me very very cold and my feelings about him are definitely sub-mehhh. There's a sonic barrier (I dislike his voice and find his music both kinda sterile/freeze-dried and cursory, inasmuch as it sounds to me as if he just kinda puts it together because he needs something to go with this nifty lyrical idea he has). There's also a too-clever-by-half thing going on, although a big part of me is very aware that I would have no problem with his writing, might even love it, if it were presented in a more musically appealing package (as in, the guest vocalists make the 6ths relatively listenable to me until the same-iness of the production starts to grate). Flipside: I like Soul Coughing even though I feel like I'm not supposed to. DMW says of them: >>but mostly they just seemed (from the limited >>samples i've heard; mostly the record my old roommates played with >>the "you are listening to los angeles" song) a little too in love >>with their own cleverness, while not actually being as clever as >>all that. Which is part of my beef with Merritt, and oddly not with Soul Coughing... maybe because SC is more genuinely art-fuck sounding in their cleverness to my ears (and Aaron's too, apparently), whereas Merritt has that novelty, wink-wink-nudge-nudge thing going on. Weird. I'm not a huge fan of Soul Coughing but I'm glad they exist(ed) whereas Merritt kinda makes me embarrassed to be the kind of person I am (that is, the kind of person who's supposed to like him) for reasons I can't quite explain. >>"Unmarked Helicopters" does deserve props for playing in the stereo of >>the Lone Gunmen's trailer when Mulder walks in, which was cool. Not the Lone Gunmen's trailer... it belonged to a serial abductee named Max Something-or-other. Hey, look, I was in a deep-geek nosedive but I pulled out at the last minute by managing (pretending?) not to know the character's last name! Actually, I think that was the first time I ever heard Soul Coughing and I was dead certain it was J Mascis. I doubt anyone else has ever made that mistake, but when Doughty comes closer to singing than rapping, there *is* a vocal similarity, I swear. Bradley: >Clinic songs are all the same, but so far they're >>mostly good. I wouldn't buy an album of theirs, but I saw them live and >>had a blast. I loved a live radio performance of theirs, rated it wayyy higher than most other "garage revival" stuff, and then found out about the surgical mask schtick and haven't been able to bring myself to buy a record. They remind me of the Monks via Wire. Writing which makes me want to buy a record again, but sadly I have everything the Monks and Wire have ever put out already. - -Rex, who really should pony up and join the swap ring, huh? *iPod moment: just as I typed the word "Monkees" I heard Michael Stipe crooning "the number and the Monkeeeees... the Monkees and the Monkeeeeeesssss..." ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 14:17:05 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Roundup of review swap review reviews On Wed, 30 Jun 2004, Rex.Broome wrote: > Which is part of my beef with Merritt, and oddly not with Soul > Coughing... maybe because SC is more genuinely art-fuck sounding in > their cleverness to my ears (and Aaron's too, apparently), whereas > Merritt has that novelty, wink-wink-nudge-nudge thing going on. Early Magnetic Fields records are sonically stylized to the point of art fuck-ity. I do wonder whether Merritt has consciously lain aside his distancing devices or if he just thinks the (sometimes obvious) big quote marks around all his music now function that way. a ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 11:25:18 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: RE: [loud-fans] Roundup of review swap review reviews Aaron: >>Early Magnetic Fields records are sonically stylized to the point of art >>fuck-ity. I do wonder whether Merritt has consciously lain aside his >>distancing devices or if he just thinks the (sometimes obvious) big quote >>marks around all his music now function that way. I should also put a disclaimer on my comments that I haven't heard enormous amounts of Magnetic Fields other than the higher-profile stuff, and I'm totally aware that Merritt is enormously prolific and has oodles of genre-specific side projects from which I've not heard a single note. It's starting to feel like full-disclosure week on loud-fans, so there's my contribution! - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 14:35:07 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: RE: [loud-fans] Roundup of review swap review reviews On Wed, 30 Jun 2004, Rex.Broome wrote: > I should also put a disclaimer on my comments that I haven't heard > enormous amounts of Magnetic Fields other than the higher-profile stuff, > and I'm totally aware that Merritt is enormously prolific and has oodles > of genre-specific side projects from which I've not heard a single note. > It's starting to feel like full-disclosure week on loud-fans, so there's > my contribution! The number of disclaimers my posts are generating make me feel like I'm jumping down people's throats when I sure don't mean to. My apologies if I did. Merritt's not nearly as prolific now as he was during the short period when he acquired that reputation (or if he is, he's not releasing the songs to the public), and I don't know how different most of the side-projects are from some of his Magnetic Fields work. That said, if you believe there is any danger you might like Stephin Merritt, you may want to hear either the Distant Plastic Trees/Wayward Bus twofer (Motown-meets-4AD sound, Susan Anway on vocals) or Holiday (synth-pop colored by, though not built around, 'experimental' noises). As I guess I already alluded to, it's not so much that his mixture of sincerity and irony has changed over time as that it's now framed in a way that makes it less clear what's going on. a ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 11:49:27 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: RE: [loud-fans] Roundup of review swap review reviews Aaron: >>The number of disclaimers my posts are generating make me feel like I'm >>jumping down people's throats when I sure don't mean to. My apologies if I >>did. No, not at all... it's just an occupational hazard you face as being among the most musically well-rounded and eclectically knowledgeaeble people I know, and I for one love you for it. I think of you as most of my friends probably think of me... "that guy really seems to know a lot about a lot of music that's probably extremely cool but no way in hell can I keep up with him". Perhaps I overrate my own hipness quotient... - -Rex np. one of Aaron's holiday comps ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V4 #179 *******************************