From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V4 #276 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, October 7 2004 Volume 04 : Number 276 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] Bands reunited (the bands, not the show) ["Rex.Broome" ] Re: [loud-fans] yes! [John Swartzentruber ] Re: [loud-fans] Nile High [glenn mcdonald ] Re: [loud-fans] Nile High ["Pete O." ] Re: [loud-fans] american music club returns [dmw ] Re: [loud-fans] yes! ["Joseph M. Mallon" ] Re: [loud-fans] Hey Brian - It's Showtime ["Steve Holtebeck" ] Re: [loud-fans] Nile High [2fs ] [loud-fans] Around The Sun ["Bradley Skaught" ] Re: [loud-fans] Around The Sun [LkDylaninthmvies@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 09:47:00 -0700 From: "Rex.Broome" Subject: [loud-fans] Bands reunited (the bands, not the show) Aaron: >>And yet there's a particular *kind* of spiritlessness that >>bandleaders' solo albums sometimes have which it feels like >>working in a group could fix. There's something to that. But if that REM record was billed as a Stipe solo album, I wouldn't be so quick to say it sucks sucks sucks ass ass ass. I would just say, huh, that's different and not in a terribly interesting way. I think one of the healthiest types of reunions come when the "solo" artist has some degree of understanding of what the "band", and the chemistry which comes with it, brings out in their work that's not there otherwise... not necessarily even in terms of "sound"... and turns to the band judiciously when that makes sense. That is, the artist has a solid sense of themselves as an individual artist and a collaborator. I guess this is easiest when you basically have a backing band or two that you return to when you deem it appropriate (Neil Young), but there are other folks who seem able to assess what they're writing and whether it belongs with the band or not. Robyn Hitchcock blew it pretty badly on his new one by doing a tune ("If You Know Time") most of his fanbase first heard with the Soft Boys in a stripped down version which fits the mood of the album... unfortunately, that one turns out sounding like a demo. - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 09:43:34 -0700 From: "Douglas Stanley" Subject: [loud-fans] Hey Brian - It's Showtime So who here watched the Brian Wilson/Smile special on Showtime last night? It was surprisingly well done, and it amazes me that Showtime would play it in primetime. I would have thought a rerun of "Three Men and a Little Lady" (or "Bikini Airways") would have had more demographic appeal. Regardless, I was riveted for the entire two hours. Not a single mention of Dr. Eugene Landy (is he still considered a "Dr."?), but they skipped completely over the Eighties and Nineties. I wish they would have discussed some of the bands that were keeping the torch lit while Brian was under sedation. This certainly would have helped explain the popularity of BW/Smile and why it's still relevant after so many years. I'm not ever sure the word "Wondermints" was uttered even once. The climactic moment was, of course, the initial live performance of Smile in London. There was much buildup as Brian was vacillating about even being able to go onstage and perform Smile. Funny, my CD of the show has an entire opening set of Beach Boy classics preceding Smile. But for me, the most amazing and startling revelation was that Van Dyke Parks was married! Doug ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 15:17:05 -0400 (EDT) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: [loud-fans] yes! I've been listening to Yes lately. I thought I'd given them a try a few years ago but Fragile didn't sound familiar a week ago when I borrowed it... Last night I got Close To The Edge and was struck by two things: first, when the "aaah!" jumps into the noisy instrumental part at the beginning, I was reminded of the beginning of Days For Days. I mean, it's just one syllable (and a pretty common one!) but something about it felt familiar, maybe the sharpness with which the sound goes in and back out. Second, and maybe more obviously, the title of "Total Mass Destruction" must have owed something to "Total Mass Retain". Or am I just drawing spurious connections because I know Scott's a fan? After hearing CTTE, I played "Sister Sleep" for my Yes-loving friend Erika, who asked excitedly, "Does the whole album sound like this?" a ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 15:31:58 -0400 From: John Swartzentruber Subject: Re: [loud-fans] yes! On 10/6/2004 3:17 PM Aaron Mandel wrote: > I've been listening to Yes lately. I thought I'd given them a try a few > years ago but Fragile didn't sound familiar a week ago when I borrowed > it... > > Last night I got Close To The Edge and was struck by two things: first, > when the "aaah!" jumps into the noisy instrumental part at the beginning, > I was reminded of the beginning of Days For Days. I mean, it's just one > syllable (and a pretty common one!) but something about it felt > familiar, maybe the sharpness with which the sound goes in and back out. I never thought about it. It's queued up now. > Second, and maybe more obviously, the title of "Total Mass Destruction" > must have owed something to "Total Mass Retain". I never thought about it, but it does seem likely. > Or am I just drawing spurious connections because I know Scott's a fan? There is a rather obvious bit of "Starship Trooper" in one of the songs on TTOOL. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 15:52:50 -0400 From: glenn mcdonald Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Nile High I keep wavering back and forth on High. On the one hand, it's exactly everything you'd reasonably expect a Blue Nile album to be, and there's still nobody else who makes those. On the other hand, after all these years maybe it wouldn't be totally arbitrary of us to wonder whether they signed some contract with Linn that stipulates that they have to use the same ping-pong-balls-methodically-bouncing-on-xylophones drum-machine patterns for their whole career. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 12:59:19 -0700 (PDT) From: "Pete O." Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Nile High - --- glenn mcdonald wrote: > I keep wavering back and forth on High. On the one hand, it's exactly > everything you'd reasonably expect a Blue Nile album to be, and there's > still nobody else who makes those. On the other hand, after all these > years maybe it wouldn't be totally arbitrary of us to wonder whether > they signed some contract with Linn that stipulates that they have to > use the same ping-pong-balls-methodically-bouncing-on-xylophones > drum-machine patterns for their whole career. > When you crank out albums at the blistering pace that Mr. Buchanan & Co. do, there just isn't enough time to think out every little detail. - - ===== ====== "I hope I didn't brain my damage" H.J.S. ====== ===== _______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today! http://vote.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 18:50:56 -0400 (EDT) From: dmw Subject: Re: [loud-fans] american music club returns On Tue, 5 Oct 2004, Aaron Mandel wrote: > That's lame. And yet there's a particular *kind* of spiritlessness that > bandleaders' solo albums sometimes have which it feels like working in a > group could fix. > > Except it often doesn't, so I should be trying to justify the expectation > that it would. my take on this, not that anyone asked, is that most really good bands benefit from creative tension that is not necessarily pleasant for all the members. i think that consciously or no, front people putting new bands together almost always avoid members who will bring that kind of tension to the band. y'know ... now i'm the boss, and you're the sideperson, and if you challenge me too much -- even artistically, even productively -- you're outta here. i think there's probably a much smaller number of bands making really noteworthy music where there isn't that sort of tension ... and i bet the chemistry of that is even _harder_ to recapture. - -- d. np arrogance via emusic live the pathetic caverns: a zine - opinionated and eclectic reviews a studio - specializing in indie/rock/mobile/live/demo recording http://www.pathetic-caverns.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 17:56:32 -0700 (PDT) From: "Joseph M. Mallon" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] yes! On Wed, 6 Oct 2004, John Swartzentruber wrote: > > Last night I got Close To The Edge and was struck by two things: first, > > when the "aaah!" jumps into the noisy instrumental part at the beginning, > > I was reminded of the beginning of Days For Days. I mean, it's just one > > syllable (and a pretty common one!) but something about it felt > > familiar, maybe the sharpness with which the sound goes in and back out. > > Second, and maybe more obviously, the title of "Total Mass Destruction" > > must have owed something to "Total Mass Retain". I'd guess both are somewhat subconscious homages. > There is a rather obvious bit of "Starship Trooper" in one of the > songs on TTOOL. "Ballet Hetero". Joe Mallon jmmallon@joescafe.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 19:02:10 -0700 From: "Steve Holtebeck" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Hey Brian - It's Showtime On Wed, 6 Oct 2004 09:43:34 -0700, Douglas Stanley wrote: > So who here watched the Brian Wilson/Smile special on Showtime last > night? > It was surprisingly well done, and it amazes me that Showtime would play > it > in primetime. I would have thought a rerun of "Three Men and a Little > Lady" > (or "Bikini Airways") would have had more demographic appeal. I don't know.. SMILE debuted at #13 on the Billboard album charts, so I think this album has wider demographic appeal than you might think. - -Steve ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 21:07:09 -0700 From: "Bradley Skaught" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Nile High > On the other hand, after all these > years maybe it wouldn't be totally arbitrary of us to >wonder whether > they signed some contract with Linn that stipulates that >they have to > use the same ping-pong-balls-methodically-bouncing->on-xylophones > drum-machine patterns for their whole career. I'm strongly in favor of that sound, and I like that they didn't give it up. Since they've started using it its been in style, out of style, back in style and now probably going out of style again. And in six or seven years I expect to hear it again! B ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 23:19:50 -0500 From: 2fs Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Nile High On Wed, 6 Oct 2004 12:59:19 -0700 (PDT), Pete O. wrote: > > When you crank out albums at the blistering pace that Mr. Buchanan & Co. do, there just > isn't enough time to think out every little detail. Reportedly, Peter Gabriel is complaining that they've set an unreasonably high bar for productivity. To which Kate Bush responded, "Gabriel should talk, what with rushing out those CDs even in odd-numbered decades." - -- ++Jeff++ The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 21:32:20 -0700 From: "Bradley Skaught" Subject: [loud-fans] Around The Sun I've had Around The Sun on repeat for the past couple days now and I definitely like it. It's the weakest of their recent records, so I would guess that if you didn't like the last two you're _really_ not gonna like this one, but I think there's a lot of really good stuff on it. The tempo thing doesn't bother me at all. The problem is that if you're going to maintain a mood like that, you can't drag it on for as long as they have here--two or three songs should probably go in order to slam dunk the moody, meditative vibe I think they were going for. That said, it didn't bother me that there weren't any "rockers". Oddly enough, despite all the reports of how slick and produced it is, I find it to be very under-produced. Some of the less successful songs could use a little more detail, and more than half of the songs took four to five listens before I really got a feel for them. With Up I felt like the music and production really made up for Stipe's somewhat weaker performances, and with Reveal I thought Stipe was at the top of his game despite the band being a bit weaker, but this time around no one is really catching fire all the time. It's an uneven album, and one that could use a little more of Up's noisy soundscapes and Reveal's vocal presence. Reveal was also the album where Stipe, in my opinion, perfected a really brilliant and effective lyric style, and he's moved away from that towards something else that he hasn't quite nailed yet. It's a folkier, more direct style--it comes as over-simple and heavy handed when it could use more lyrical shades, but I don't think he's trying to be black & white so much as he's trying to capture some ideas that carry a lot of baggage. Like I said, I think Reveal is one of the finest sets of lyrics you could hope for, and I think it was the realization of what he'd been doing since Document, so this new angle might be the kind of thing that takes awhile to stick. I get the feeling he's not really a technician when it comes to working on his lyrics, so a lot of it is probably just a roll of the dice. That said, there are a lot of good lyrics here, but not all fo them stick. The more I listen to it, the more I like it. I've had it on repeat all day at work now for two whole days, and as the songs reveal themselves they start to hit home. It's very much a grower, but, again, if the last two never took off for you I think you'd be wasting your time with this one. The Q-Tip cameo is really awful, though, and there's no way around that. He's not a particularily talented lyricist anyhow, and he's especially akward here. I think most people find the KRS-One cameo form Out Of Time to be kind of embarassing, so i'm not sure why they thought to try it again. So it's a good album with some rough patches. It won't be remembered as one of their best, but I think it's worthwhile. And who knows, with a couple more days of endless repeat, it could become a favorite! I always like the difficult children best... B ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 01:42:23 EDT From: LkDylaninthmvies@aol.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Around The Sun In a message dated 10/7/04 12:49:56 AM Eastern Daylight Time, treesprite@earthlink.net writes: > I always like the > difficult children best... > Not if you have to keep them on-task for about seven hours. The last R.E.M. song that moved me was "The Great Beyond." I was hoping the new record would be more like that. The single is okay...I was just hoping for a rockier album. Got the new Hitchcock and it isn't really grabbing me, either. Desperately wanting to rock, I played the Hoodoo Gurus first album today and it grabbed me just fine. So I played it again. And again. And again. - --Mark S. np: Mercy Me "Here With Me" (a Christian Coldplay...guilty pleasure...I love this song) ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V4 #276 *******************************