From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V6 #174 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 Monday, September 4 2006 Volume 06 : Number 174 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [loud-fans] OT: GbV primer? ["outbound-only email address" ] Re: [loud-fans] my swap review belated [2fs ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 13:43:50 -0400 From: "outbound-only email address" Subject: [loud-fans] OT: GbV primer? Some years ago, somebody (Dan Schmidt?) sent a song-by-song listening guidefor /appreciation of a GbV album (Alien Lanes? or maybe Under the Bushes?) and I was sure I had it archived somewhere, but I'm danged if I can lay hands on it either locally or with the aid of Google. Does anyone else have this stashed away somewhere? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 11:39:15 -0700 (PDT) From: "Joseph M. Mallon" Subject: [loud-fans] [Loud-fans] Alien Lanes (fwd) As requested... Joe Mallon jmmallon@joescafe.com - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: 01 Mar 2001 15:30:46 -0500 From: Dan Schmidt To: loud-fans@loudfans.com Subject: [Loud-fans] Alien Lanes Michael Mitton writes: | On 1 Mar 2001, Dan Schmidt wrote: | | > Oh and I forgot ALIEN LANES. It was the first Guided By Voices | > record I heard, and on my first listen I found it incredibly | > boring, not a single memorable moment on it. Now it's in my top | > five of the decade. I have no idea what I was thinking. | | This is interesting, because just yesterday I bought ALIEN LANES. | It's the fourth GBV record I've heard, and on my first listen I | found it incredibly boring. But since BEE THOUSAND is in my top | five of the decade, I'm inclined to believe that there are memorable | moments on the album. OK, I got a similar response by private email, so clearly there is a need for A Listener's Guide to ALIEN LANES. I'm no music critic, so pardon my limited vocabulary and lack of specificity. I don't have the album here at work, so I'm just working with an online lyric sheet to jog my memory. By the way, where's the division between side 1 and side 2 on vinyl? I really hear the whole thing as a 28-song medley (more so than any of their other albums) with some songs that are best off being perceived as transporting you from song A to song B; don't get so wound up in them that you get disappointed when they fall apart after forty seconds. A Salty Salute: Those repeated eighth-note bass notes to open the album always remind me of the beginning of DOOLITTLE: just a taste of the real core of the music before everybody jumps in. A perfect anthem to start, and what could be more inspirational than "the club is open"? Evil Speakers: The tempo picks up in a little transition that falls apart just as it reaches its target. Watch Me Jumpstart: A real song with multiple verses and choruses, and a catchy chorus it is. Dig the triple time. They're Not Witches: Another transition that also falls apart once it gets where it's going. As We Go Up, We Go Down: Well, only one verse and one chorus here, but hearing the perfect transition into the chorus ("I speak in monotone / Leave my fucking life alone") more than once would be overkill. (I Wanna Be a) Dumbcharger: Another intro, this one providing a sense of creepiness we haven't heard yet. Game of Pricks: Perfect Pop Song. "You could never be strong / You can only be free / And I never asked for the truth / But you owe that to me". The Ugly Vision: An intro that blossoms unexpectedly in the middle. A Good Flying Bird: Ur-Sprout. Just try to resist the yeahs. Cigarette Tricks: OK, this is a throwaway. But now that I've heard the album a zillion times, something would be missing if we elided it. Pimple Zoo: A powerful slogger. "Sometimes I get the feeling / That you don't want me around". Suddenly a left turn into sweet acoustic guitar, which is immediately squashed without mercy by the reprise. Big Chief Chinese Restaurant: This is the third transitional song in a row, so I can understand the listener growing restive at this point. Closer You Are: But you're rewarded for your patience with more perfect pop. "Try to be nice and look what it gets you". Auditorium: I guess this counts as another transition, but it's one of my favorites anyway, with those great wailing harmony vocals at the end. Motor Away: An anthem that anybody's life would be poorer for not hearing, chugging irresistably from start to finish. One of my favorite GBV songs. Hit: I can take it or leave it, but again, by now it feels like the beginning of the next song: My Valuable Hunting Knife: Another fave. Rocks out even with the spartan instrumentation. The lyrics are uncharacteristically lucid: objects are more trustable than people. "Everything I think about I think about / Everything I talk about I talk about with you / But you don't know what I go through". Gold Hick: A little outburst that doesn't outstay its welcome. King & Caroline: I'm not sure I can tell you why I love this one. The melody just works perfectly for me. Striped White Jets: Powerful in its restraint, always threatening to explode but staying contained. Ah-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-sh. Ex-Supermodel: Not that memorable until "So I write music for soundtracks now", which is much more affecting than it has any right to be. Blimps Go 90: A beautiful song of regret and resignation. Straw Dogs: Urk, I'm looking at the lyrics here but I can't remember the song. Chicken Blows: I bet lots of people hate this song but it's great, in scary White Album mode. Little Whirl: And then we're released into another just-right simple Sprout song. I dare you not to sing along with the chorus. My Son Cool: I don't have strong feelings for this. Always Crush Me: A menacing song that builds up the tension as high as it's been, setting up the catharsis of Alright: Alright. - -- http://www.dfan.org _______________________________________________ Loud-fans mailing list Loud-fans@loudfans.com http://eris.illusions.com/mailman/listinfo.cgi/loud-fans ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 03 Sep 2006 17:46:36 -0400 From: Dan Schmidt Subject: Re: [loud-fans] my swap review belated 2fs wrote: > On 8/27/06, Paul King wrote: > >>On 27 Aug 2006 at 16:23, 2fs wrote: >> >> >>>Rhett Miller "Brand New Way" - I'm trying to think of the well-knownsong >>>with this rhythm (6/8; "buh-dump buh-dump dah dah dah") but (as is >>>apparently usual for me today) can't come up with it [...] > To be a bit more specific about the rhythm of the Rhett Miller song: > > ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ > 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & > > Make sure that's in a monospace font... That looks kinda like "America" from West Side Story - Is that what you're thinking of? Dan ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 18:27:52 -0500 From: 2fs Subject: Re: [loud-fans] my swap review belated On 9/3/06, Dan Schmidt wrote: > > 2fs wrote: > > On 8/27/06, Paul King wrote: > > > >>On 27 Aug 2006 at 16:23, 2fs wrote: > >> > >> > >>>Rhett Miller "Brand New Way" - I'm trying to think of the > well-knownsong > >>>with this rhythm (6/8; "buh-dump buh-dump dah dah dah") but (as is > >>>apparently usual for me today) can't come up with it > > [...] > > > To be a bit more specific about the rhythm of the Rhett Miller song: > > > > ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ > > 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & > > > > Make sure that's in a monospace font... > > That looks kinda like "America" from West Side Story - Is that what > you're thinking of? Nope: the second part of the phrase is similar, but the first part of "America" hits on all six beats accenting the first and fourth. This song has a lighter feel and the "missing" third and sixth beats are essential. It's a pretty common rhythm - just damned if I can think of another song exemplifying it! Seriously, though: my note that it's basically "Take Five" but in six conveys the right feel. - -- ...Jeff Norman The Architectural Dance Society http://spanghew.blogspot.com ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V6 #174 *******************************