From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V5 #72 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 Saturday, March 19 2005 Volume 05 : Number 072 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [loud-fans] For Ted Leo Fans ["Stewart Mason" ] Re: [loud-fans] For Ted Leo Fans [Roger Winston ] Re: [loud-fans] The Single Dead ["Douglas Stanley" ] Re: [loud-fans] from The Flagpole magazine [LkDylaninthmvies@aol.com] Re: [loud-fans] from The Flagpole magazine [Jeff ] Re: [loud-fans] For Ted Leo Fans ["Stewart Mason" ] Re: [loud-fans] bob drake/5uu's? [Jenny Grover ] RE: [loud-fans] from The Flagpole magazine ["Heyman, Elo A" ] Re: [loud-fans] bright stipey eyes [Jenny Grover ] [loud-fans] mp3s ["Bradley Skaught" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 03:05:52 -0500 From: "Stewart Mason" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] For Ted Leo Fans - ----- Original Message ----- From: > He's covered Ashlie, or however she spells her name, Simpson's Since > You've > Been Gone. Havne't heard it yet, but I bet it's a joke along the > lines of > Fountains Od Wayne covering Baby One More time, from BS. A news > flash from the > NY Times, and probably available at Leo's site. You can hear it at: http://junk.haughey.com/tedleo-sinceubeengone.mp3 And it doesn't sound like a joke -- the original "Since U Been Gone" (which is Kelly Clarkson's song, incidentally) is one of the most enjoyable mainstream hits I've heard in a while, and a solidly-written pop song to boot, which Leo gives an enthusiastic acoustic rendition of. Remember: just because a song is popular, that doesn't necessarily mean it sucks. S ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 03:37:40 EST From: AWeiss4338@aol.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] For Ted Leo Fans In a message dated 3/18/2005 3:08:28 AM Eastern Standard Time, craigtorso@verizon.net writes: And it doesn't sound like a joke -- the original "Since U Been Gone" (which is Kelly Clarkson's song, incidentally) is one of the most enjoyable mainstream hits I've heard in a while, and a solidly-written pop song to boot, which Leo gives an enthusiastic acoustic rendition of. Okay, it's KC. I'm glad Leo played it straight, but Clarkson on this song sounds little too much like Avril Lavigne. If you're going to ape AL, at least make yourself sound like she did on My Happy Ending, her one good song. Remember: just because a song is popular, that doesn't necessarily mean it sucks. I know. I can think of another good one, John Mayer's song Daughters. Andrea ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 07:34:20 -0600 From: Jeff Subject: Re: [loud-fans] from The Flagpole magazine On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 02:25:43 EST, LkDylaninthmvies@aol.com wrote: > Of Montreal > > Why they're going: If last year's SATANIC PANIC IN THE ATTIC revitalized the > career of the erstwhile Athens pop act, THE SUNLANDIC TWINS, Of Montreal's > upcoming April album, should tweak that appreciation. Of Montreal's albums > are becoming more and more the handiwork of Kevin Barnes all by himself, and it > seems that he's got an itch to dance--the new album incorporates more > electronic structures and dancey beats than ever before. Reinvention, when it comes > across as this rewarding, natural and genuine, proves itself a good thing. What's funny about that is that _Satanic_ (and _Aldhils_ before it) sound more like the work of a band than a lot of OM's earlier stuff - which did seem more like one guy's ideas (even if played by a bunch of people). I think it's the drumming: it's far more "rock" now than it was on the earlier releases, and that makes the music sound more band-like. - -- ...Jeff The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 09:11:23 -0500 (EST) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: [loud-fans] bob drake/5uu's? I just got The Shunned Country by Bob Drake and find that it's methodically overcoming my resistance to liking it... 52 tracks, most under a minute, with unrhymed eerie lyrics, e.g. "Nobody knows what to do / Because that / Old farmhouse which was said to be badly haunted / Simply crumbled to the ground / And that's really really good, but / In its place they found a seemingly bottomless abyss / Nobody knows what to do." The internet tells me Drake is a producer and member of several new-music-y-looking prog bands. Anyone here a fan or detractor of his? Opinions on specific albums? a ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 08:00:45 -0700 From: Roger Winston Subject: Re: [loud-fans] For Ted Leo Fans At Friday 3/18/2005 01:05 AM, Stewart Mason wrote: >You can hear it at: > >http://junk.haughey.com/tedleo-sinceubeengone.mp3 > >And it doesn't sound like a joke -- the original "Since U Been Gone" >(which is Kelly Clarkson's song, incidentally) is one of the most >enjoyable mainstream hits I've heard in a while, and a solidly-written pop >song to boot, which Leo gives an enthusiastic acoustic rendition of. Thanks for the link, Stewart. I like how Ted digresses into a bit of "Maps" there in the middle... Latre. --Rog - -- Distance, Redefined: http://www.reignoffrogs.com/flasshe ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 09:51:00 -0800 From: "Douglas Stanley" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] The Single Dead Yeah, just because you liked a band in High School, doesn't necessarily mean they sucked. Doug S. - -------------------------------- Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 12:21:12 -0600 From: Jeff Subject: Re: [loud-fans] RE: The Single Dead On Thu, 17 Mar 2005 09:26:50 -0800, Douglas Stanley wrote: > Yes, you are definitely not alone in that opinion. If you can separate the > music from the culture, there's a lot of things to like. My belief is that > "Bertha" is on of the finest songs around. I feel sorry for anyone who's > missed it just because they're afraid of second-hand smoke. > > Recently, I'm feeling the same way about Led Zeppelin. I think you're both right. I suppose for some listeners, getting past Robert Plant's vocals might be a problem (come to think of it, in a very different way getting past the Dead's vocals might be a problem). People forget how intelligently arranged and layered much of Led Zeppelin's material - it's not just the same five songs rock radio plays (including their worst song, "Living Loving Maid"). Even the dreaded "St - no, I will not mention its name - will prove to be - once it's exhumed from its fifty-year exile - a very well-done track. So there. - - -- ...Jeff The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com - ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 10:07:53 -0800 (PST) From: "Tim Walters" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] bob drake/5uu's? > The internet tells me Drake is a producer and member of several > new-music-y-looking prog bands. Anyone here a fan or detractor of his? > Opinions on specific albums? I really like 13 SONGS AND A THING. About as Beefhearty as Tom Waits, but not at all like Tom Waits, if that makes any sense. I also really like HUNGER'S TEETH by 5UU's, but it's not at all like his solo stuff. IIRC his only contribution is singing. Warning: contains prog (albeit the avant kind, not the playing-Hammond-organ-with-a-cape-on kind). - -- THE DOUBTFUL PALACE Free exquisite music http://www.doubtfulpalace.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 10:34:44 -0800 (PST) From: zoom@muppetlabs.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] bob drake/5uu's? > I just got The Shunned Country by Bob Drake and find that it's > methodically overcoming my resistance to liking it... 52 tracks, most > under a minute, with unrhymed eerie lyrics, e.g. More details, specificially a record label and a release date, if you could? Amazon lists a few Drake albums (and I designate 13 SONGS AND A THING my favorite album title in a long, long time) but nothing on anything called THE SHUNNED COUNTRY. Wondering why *Tanya* Haden never gets any ink, Andy JUKEBOX JURY Castaways and Cutouts Seattle Weekly plays Jukebox Jury with Colin Meloy of the Decemberists. by Mark Baumgarten As songwriter for Portland pop band the Decemberists, Colin Meloy has spent the last five years writing twisted Victorian tales about drunken mariners, prostituted mothers, and promiscuous chimney sweeps set to jarring pop orchestrations. After Kill Rock Stars released Castaways and Cutouts in 2002, the Decemberists found themselves with a devout fan base and an unfairly pretentious tag: literary pop. But long before he penned his first tall tale, the 30-year-old Meloy grew up in Helena, Mont., spending his formative years writing plays and listening to mixtapes his uncle Paul brought him when visiting from the University of Oregon, as recorded in detail by Meloy in his book about the Replacements' Let It Be (released last year as part of Continuum's "33 1/3" series). Meloy quickly cut his music snob teeth and found a home for his Chicago and Robert Palmer tapes in the trash can. On March 22, Kill Rock Stars will release Picaresque, the Decemberists' third album, which sheds much of the band's curious whimsy for a darker humor. Songs like "The Engine Driver" and "Of Angels and Angles" show Meloy as a heartbreaking balladeer, while the lyrical wit of "Sixteen Military Wives" puts him in company with his hero Robyn Hitchcock. Also, his band gets compared to Neutral Milk Hotel. A lot. The Jukebox took place on the sunny all-season porch of Meloy's Portland home. R.E.M.: "Voice of Harold" (1984) from Dead Letter Office (I.R.S.) Colin Meloy: "Voice of Harold." I love this song. Seattle Weekly: You were a big R.E.M. fan, and your first band, Happy Cactus, used to cover them. . . . Meloy: Yeah, that band was all about late-'80s ecologically minded college rock like R.E.M., 10,000 Maniacs, and other things like that. It worked in some places and didn't work in others. SW: Do you look on your time in that band fondly? Meloy: It's a little painful. It's not something that I would want to put out into the world again. If you listen to it, it's obviously just me trying to get my footing. It was the first time I was doing any real songwriting. I was, like, 15 years old. SW: When you first started writing songs, was it difficult? Meloy: It came pretty naturally. My first attempts at it seemed kind of difficult, but when I started to get more playful with it, things started to work a little bit better. I think that being able to approach songwriting with a sense of humor makes it easier. SW: Does everyone in the band share that approach? Meloy: Well, I tend to hang out with people who have an ironic sensibility. But we did have a guitar player once who didn't quite get it. I remember showing up for a show and Carson [Ellis, who illustrates the band's albums] had painted a little ship on my guitar. I was so excited about it. I showed it to the guitar player and was like, "Don't you think this is cool?" He was like, "I think that's cheesy." And then he was like, "But, then again, I don't know what's cool anymore," and I was just like, "You are such a loser." He left the group shortly after that. Anybody who's offended that I painted a boat on my guitar is not going to fit in with us. Waterboys: "Church Not Made With Hands" (1984) from A Pagan Place (Island) Meloy: This is the Waterboys. Which album? SW: A Pagan Place. Meloy: I don't have this album. I don't know why I haven't heard this. But I don't have [any Waterboys] until the mid-'80s or so. SW: The Big Music movement that Mike Scott started sits comfortably beside the Decemberists' music. He really knew how to throw together an ensemble with the fanfares and the pop orchestration a lot like you do. Meloy: To be honest, some of this doesn't really hold up very well. I play some of the early stuff for my girlfriend and she despises it. Some of it's a little over the top, with the saxophones. But for all of his missteps, there's such a truth and earnestness to Mike Scott's singing and songwriting that you can't fault him. He approaches music in a very spiritual way, and even though my approach to music is very secular, you can't not recognize the emphaticness and the passion in this music and [not] be moved by that. SW: Do you feel like you're able to do that with your music without the spiritual aspect? Meloy: I might be too much of a cynic to really have all of that good stuff. I really feel the need to weigh all my heightened transcendental moments with low, dirty ones. Cheap Trick: "Southern Girls" (1977) from In Color (Epic/Legacy) Meloy: Oh wow. I haven't heard this in so long. Can I see [the lyric sheet]? I probably get all the lyrics wrong. SW: You cover this song fairly often. Why? Meloy: 'Cause it's great. It's just an awesome song. The lyrics are completely vapid. SW: Well, it is a Cheap Trick song. Meloy: Yeah, but they mastered the art of creating something meaningful out of nothing. Like, what does that mean, "Ooh baby, need some brand-new shoes"? Maybe it's just like he needs some new shoes to impress the girl or whatever. I think I just sat down one day, and I really wasn't that big a Cheap Trick fan, but you can't help but know this song. And I played it, and when you're playing a song on guitar, it always takes on a bit of a melancholy air. So I sang it as a country ballad, and it seemed to work pretty well. SW: In concert it completely transfixes the audience. Meloy: Well, everybody loves "Southern Girls," and by doing it slow and kind of mournful, it really puts a completely different spin on it. When it says, "I need some brand-new shoes," you feel sorry for the guy. The Hold Steady: "Certain Songs" (2004) from The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me (Frenchkiss) Meloy: Who is this? SW: The Hold Steady, from Brooklyn. The lead singer once told me that he found it almost impossible to tell a true story in a song. Do you feel that way when you write? Meloy: I think one of the most impressive mantras I ever took from my time in a creative writing workshop is that when you're reading a story about someone's mother, you don't really care about their mother or their relationship to their mother, you care about your relationship to your mother. So even though that lesson was from a creative nonfiction class at the University of Montana, which is so far from what I am doing now, I think there is so much truth in that. Like, "Billy Liar" [from 2004's Her Majesty, the Decemberists] is a total invention about this imaginary adolescence, but it's very important that everyone be able to see something about their own adolescence. By pulling it out of myself, the potential for making it universal is a lot bigger. Robyn Hitchcock: "The Man Who Invented Himself" (1981) from Black Snake Diamond Role (Rhino) Meloy: The first solo Robyn Hitchcock album. I always thought that this song sounded like the theme song to some sort of really bizarre, depraved sitcom that I really think needs to be developed at some point. SW: Why is he, as a songwriter, so important to your life? Meloy: He sets up a vernacular that is totally unique to his songwriting world. He really has created a world, and with each one of his songs he adds onto it, even though the songs aren't connected thematically, but they all make sense together. Like, "Please don't call me Reg, it's not my name." There is this sense of humor that is in all his songs. He's not a chameleon. Even though he switches his style, he stays doggedly true to his approach. He's one of the only true originals in music today. Bright Eyes: "Lua" (2005) from I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (Saddle Creek) Meloy: Who is this? SW: Bright Eyes. Meloy: I have one record by him that I would have traded in years ago, but I started a new thing before I bought it that I wouldn't sell any more records back. So, I bought one of his records, Fevers & Mirrors. I listened to half of two songs and put it away immediately and haven't listened to it since. His voice and his writing are just so irritating. SW: Why do you think he's so popular? Meloy: Because he's really hot. I mean, I think there's definitely something in this that you can relate to, but it is so easy to swallow it and imagine yourself in poor Conor Oberst's shoes. You know, everybody wants to be in that bedroom. But it does seem a little shallow and emotionally and creatively corrupt. SW: When he played in Portland last month, he came out in a 10-year-old's raincoat, and when he got excited, he clapped like a hand puppet. Meloy: They call it indie autism, and he's the poster child for it. Seriously, can we stop this? Morrissey: "America Is Not the World" (2004) from You Are the Quarry (Attack) Meloy: Ah. The new Morrissey. SW: This song has a lot of the same sentiment as "Sixteen Military Wives" on Picaresque. Meloy: Well, both songs address that bullying that I hated in high school and junior high growing up, and you immediately recognize it. It's that captain-of-the-football-team attitude towards the rest of the world. To have that be representative of who I am, it's just really hard to swallow that and be comfortable with it. And celebrities think that they can somehow cure these things, which is really offensive as well. SW: "Sixteen Military Wives" is an interesting song, because you are trying to say something about the pomposity of both the nation and the creative class. But you are a musician, a part of the creative class. Meloy: That's why the cannibals, in the end, consume everybody, including myself. The Replacements: "I Will Dare" (1984) from Let It Be (Twin/Tone) SW: Have you listened to this since you wrote the book? Meloy: I don't think I have. No. I listened to it so much while I was writing the book that I couldn't listen to it anymore. SW: Do you miss it? Meloy: I do. It's nice to listen to, actually. SW: Your book isn't really about the Replacements so much as it uses them as a jumping-off point to talk about coming of age in Helena, where you obviously had a number of musical influences. So why the Replacements? Meloy: The Replacements taught me a lot about how to approach music with a sense of humor. They really embodied that whole drunken "We don't give a fuck" approach to music, which I really respected and thought was pretty powerful if done right. And I think the Replacements proved that audiences like to be abused a little bit. To their detriment, I think that's what Replacements shows became. But at first, like, when they showed up at CBGBs and the place was filled with industry people from labels, they got too drunk to play. You kind of have to hand it to them; that's pretty amazing. Most bands would be all scared shitless and freaked out and try to play the best show they could. You have to hand it to them that they, like Robyn Hitchcock, stayed totally true to what they wanted to do. I hope that there is an aspect of that in my music, although I'm too much of a pussy to do that. If I were playing for a house of industry people and didn't have a label, I would never do that. Neutral Milk Hotel: "King of Carrot Flowers Pt. One" (1998) from In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (Merge) Meloy: Get out of my house [laughs]. SW: When was the first time that someone said you sound like Neutral Milk Hotel? Meloy: Someone said that to me when I was in Tarkio [Meloy's band prior to the formation of the Decemberists]. I have a similar voice [to Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Magnum], and I've always had a voice that is kind of reedy and nasally. It's just the way I singI try to sing like Michael Stipe. And obviously, he's been influenced by R.E.M. And the songwriting approachwhen I first heard this, I immediately thought of Robyn Hitchcock. Whatever. I just think it's lazy journalism when I get pegged with that. But it's my cross to bear, I guess. The Decemberists play the Showbox with Okkervil River at 8 p.m. Fri., March 18. $12 adv./$14. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:08:30 -0500 (EST) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [loud-fans] bob drake/5uu's? On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 zoom@muppetlabs.com wrote: > More details, specificially a record label and a release date, if you > could? Amazon lists a few Drake albums (and I designate 13 SONGS AND A > THING my favorite album title in a long, long time) but nothing on > anything called THE SHUNNED COUNTRY. ReR Megacorp, just came out within the past few weeks (I think; mine is a promo). http://www.rerusa.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=2611 Clips at: http://www.bdrak.com/sounds/shunned.htm a ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:08:50 EST From: LkDylaninthmvies@aol.com Subject: Re: [loud-fans] from The Flagpole magazine In a message dated 3/18/05 8:34:46 AM Eastern Standard Time, jeffreyw2fs.j@gmail.com writes: What's funny about that is that _Satanic_ (and _Aldhils_ before it) sound more like the work of a band than a lot of OM's earlier stuff - which did seem more like one guy's ideas (even if played by a bunch of people). I think it's the drumming: it's far more "rock" now than it was on the earlier releases, and that makes the music sound more band-like. I agree, though I find the loosey-goosey drumming charming. ALDHILLS ARBORETUM to me is OM's best work (and last, IMO) of their first phase (though my favorite is CHERRY PEEL, for silly romantic reasons). You could tell the seeds of a stylistic change were sewn in the last record. I think Kevin Barnes has gone from quirky shy boy, watching him "watch birds watch people," to a very confident, competent and mature musician (with a boy's heart) who makes incredible pop records. I just don't want him to become Neil Tennant. "The Blank Husband Epidemic" is my favorite off of AA ("my God they're everywhere"), - --Mark, listening to his neighbor's four-year old grandson do his daily John and Yoko primal scream therapy in the back yard (he screams at the top of his lungs repeatedly for fun). I used to have a neighbor from Bob Jones University two doors down who'd practice his bagpipes in the afternoons ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 13:44:45 -0600 From: Jeff Subject: Re: [loud-fans] from The Flagpole magazine On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:08:50 EST, LkDylaninthmvies@aol.com wrote: > I used to have a neighbor from Bob Jones > University two doors down who'd practice his bagpipes in the afternoons That's a euphemism I've never heard before. - -- ...Jeff The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 11:56:25 -0800 (PST) From: "Pete O." Subject: Re: [loud-fans] from The Flagpole magazine - --- LkDylaninthmvies@aol.com wrote: > I used to have a neighbor from Bob Jones > University two doors down who'd practice his bagpipes in the afternoons > Apparently, that's good for the prostate. - - ====== "I'm a white male aged 18 to 49, everyone listens to me, no matter how dumb my suggestions are." H.J.S. ====== ===== __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Make Yahoo! your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 11:51:23 -0800 (GMT-08:00) From: Steve Holtebeck Subject: Re: [loud-fans] For Ted Leo Fans At Friday 3/18/2005 01:05 AM, Stewart Mason wrote: >You can hear it at: > >http://junk.haughey.com/tedleo-sinceubeengone.mp3 > >And it doesn't sound like a joke -- the original "Since U Been Gone" >(which is Kelly Clarkson's song, incidentally) is one of the most >enjoyable mainstream hits I've heard in a while, and a solidly-written pop >song to boot, which Leo gives an enthusiastic acoustic rendition of. Anyone who's seen Ted Leo play a solo gig (without his band) or heard the solo stuff on the TELL BALGURY ep can attest that he's like a walking jukebox, with a fairly wide range of influences, so it's a fair bet that this cover of "Since U Been Gone" isn't a joke. And FoW's cover of "Baby One More Time" doesn't sound like a joke either. In one of the sidebar stories in last year's Blender issue on their picks for the 50 worst songs of all time, they sent Ted Leo busking in the NYC subway, and judged the popularity of various "worst" songs based on how much spare change he got for each tune. http://tinyurl.com/5mwn9 "Oh no, that poor fool playing Starship in Union Square on such a chilly day..." - -Steve ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 16:58:37 -0500 From: "Stewart Mason" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] For Ted Leo Fans - ----- Original Message ----- From: >> Remember: just because a song is popular, that doesn't necessarily >> mean it sucks. > > Tell that to the listers who savaged Liz Phair's last record .... > > Wait -- that only *wanted* to be popular. And given that it had a Top 10 single, I'd say it got what it wanted. S ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 16:28:42 -0600 From: Jeff Subject: Re: [loud-fans] For Ted Leo Fans On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 16:58:37 -0500, Stewart Mason wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > > Tell that to the listers who savaged Liz Phair's last record .... My copy of this message (which wasn't from Stewart) didn't come through, so I'm replying to it indirectly. I think there's a difference between savaging something because it is, literally, actually popular (that's dumb) and because it apes a currently popular style that you, perhaps, can't stand. Most the criticism of Phair that I read was in the second camp (including my own initial responses to the record - fwiw, I mostly came around on that record, and publicly "confessed" to same) - which I think is completely legitimate. I mean, removing it from actually existing music, if alla sudden everyone wanted to put bagpipes on their records, and you hate bagpipes, it seems reasonable to say, if you hear that Liz Phair's new record is covered in bagpipes, that you're gonna hate it. (The cover photo was *really* nice, though.) I'd relate this to last week's bit about defining traits of genres... - -- ...Jeff The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 17:25:35 -0500 From: Jenny Grover Subject: Re: [loud-fans] bob drake/5uu's? zoom@muppetlabs.com wrote: >Bright Eyes: "Lua" (2005) from I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (Saddle Creek) > >Meloy: Who is this? > >SW: Bright Eyes. > >Meloy: I have one record by him that I would have traded in years ago, but >I started a new thing before I bought it that I wouldn't sell any more >records back. So, I bought one of his records, Fevers & Mirrors. I >listened to half of two songs and put it away immediately and haven't >listened to it since. His voice and his writing are just so irritating. > > > Okay, this cracked me up, because every time they play the Decemberists on 3wk, I always think at first that it's Bright Eyes, mostly because I think his voice sounds a lot like Conor's. Jen ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 15:35:37 -0800 (GMT-08:00) From: Steve Holtebeck Subject: [loud-fans] bright shiny eyes > Okay, this cracked me up, because every time they play the Decemberists > on 3wk, I always think at first that it's Bright Eyes, mostly because I > think his voice sounds a lot like Conor's. From later in the same article that Andy cut & pasted.. +Meloy: Someone said that to me when I was in Tarkio [Meloy's band prior to +the formation of the Decemberists]. I have a similar voice [to Neutral +Milk Hotel's Jeff Magnum], and I've always had a voice that is kind of +reedy and nasally. It's just the way I sing. I try to sing like Michael +Stipe. And obviously, he's been influenced by R.E.M. Conor Oberst is also (obviously) influenced by R.E.M., his voice also sounds a lot like Michael Stipe, and three singers who sound like the same singer would tend to sound like each other as well. - -Steve ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 18:35:15 -0600 From: "Heyman, Elo A" Subject: RE: [loud-fans] from The Flagpole magazine What's funny about that is that _Satanic_ (and _Aldhils_ before it) sound more like the work of a band than a lot of OM's earlier stuff - which did seem more like one guy's ideas (even if played by a bunch of people). I think it's the drumming: it's far more "rock" now than it was on the earlier releases, and that makes the music sound more band-like. I wanted to do a big SXSW posting on all the good MP3s available, and haven't had a chance, but, anyways, this was going to be one of the recommendations - "So Begins Our Alabee" is the track available - and it sounds like they are channeling the Moody Blues. Great stuff. The singer also does some really interesting things with his range from middle to high to low, and you catch that in this one quite a bit. It's not quite as complex-sounding a singing note as the "bored" line from "Sad Love," but along the same lines. Also check The French Kicks "Trial of the Century"- I didn't even know they had a new album out. What music is going to sound like in the future. Go Team! "Huddle Formation" -- sounds kind of like a group of cheerleaders cheering over Belle & Sebastain's "Electronic Renaissance". Has to be the happiest song of the year so far. Not sure if I could take a whole cd, but one song is lots of fun. Damnations - "New Hope Cemetary" - What I wish Courtney Love's new cd would sound like. and (if you like bluegrass) The Grassy Knoll Boys - "Buck Eyed Rabbit" - they overdo the sugar metaphor just a bit, but I like that singing style enough to recommend it, especially the drop on "sugar town" in the second verse. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 16:53:23 -0800 From: Rex Broome Subject: Re: [loud-fans] bright stipey eyes Steve: > Conor Oberst is also (obviously) influenced by R.E.M., his voice > also sounds a lot like Michael Stipe, and three singers who sound > like the same singer would tend to sound like each other as well. Maybe I've listened to REM too much too closely for too long, but I rarely hear Stipe in *anyone* reputed to sound like him. I've barely heard Oberst, but nothing I ever heard sounded Stipey in the least. Meloy sounds like an ironically slightly more British Robyn Hitchcock. The one that really lost me, though, was a review of the Long Winters which I read after listening to thier album extensively... I think it was the AMG review. It said something like "the vocal comparison to Michael Stipe is unavoidable"... and I hadn't heard it at all and still don't. You'd think it would've crossed my mind, since Pete Buck even plays on that album. Weird. People useta say Murray Attaway was a Stipe clone, too, but I'll call a spade a spade: the dude was ripping off Mike Mills. You could drop "Texarkana" onto a Guadalcanal Diary record and nobody would know the difference. - -Rex ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 22:32:23 -0500 From: Jenny Grover Subject: Re: [loud-fans] bright stipey eyes Rex Broome wrote: >Maybe I've listened to REM too much too closely for too long, but I >rarely hear Stipe in *anyone* reputed to sound like him. I've barely >heard Oberst, but nothing I ever heard sounded Stipey in the least. >Meloy sounds like an ironically slightly more British Robyn Hitchcock. > The one that really lost me, though, was a review of the Long Winters >which I read after listening to thier album extensively... I think it >was the AMG review. It said something like "the vocal comparison to >Michael Stipe is unavoidable"... and I hadn't heard it at all and >still don't. You'd think it would've crossed my mind, since Pete Buck >even plays on that album. Weird. > > I'm with you all the way, Rex. Jen ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 23:04:45 -0500 From: "Stewart Mason" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] from The Flagpole magazine - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Heyman, Elo A" > The French Kicks "Trial of the Century"- I didn't even know they had >a new album out. What music is going to sound like in the future. This album (also called TRIAL OF THE CENTURY) actually came out close to a year ago, although I think it might have been picked up for major distribution and reissued, because the French Kicks were on one of the late-night talk shows a while back as well. Maybe they were tacked onto V2's buyout of Brendan Benson's contract or something. The first song, "One More Time," spent a long time on my iPod last summer. S ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 23:17:56 -0500 (EST) From: Aaron Mandel Subject: Re: [loud-fans] bright stipey eyes On Fri, 18 Mar 2005, Rex Broome wrote: > The one that really lost me, though, was a review of the Long Winters > which I read after listening to thier album extensively... I think it > was the AMG review. It said something like "the vocal comparison to > Michael Stipe is unavoidable"... and I hadn't heard it at all and > still don't. The two of them don't have such similar voices, but their phrasing kind of matches-- I don't have much trouble imagining Stipe singing "Scared Straight", whereas none of the Bright Eyes songs I've tried to imagine him in ring true at all. Particular the "Can you stand it?" part of "Scared Straight"'s chorus. John Roderick sings it more like "stand aaaat" and Stipe would sing "stand eh-et" but the way that syllable is drawn out seems very Stipe to me. a ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 23:03:52 -0800 From: "Bradley Skaught" Subject: [loud-fans] mp3s The new Go-Betweens single is available for free download at yeproc.com = and I think it's really fantastic! Also available for free download is "Sacred Heart" from the Cass McCombs = album PREfection. The album is sheer genius and this song is too great = for words. It's at www.monitorrecords.com Don't say I never did nothing for ya. love, B Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 266.7.2 - Release Date: 3/11/2005 ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V5 #72 ******************************