have you noticed how much of the music we've covered so far -- and hae yet to cover -- has been not only on the short side of creative, but also in a sense hostile to creativity? granted punk is punk, but harmonically, melodically, rhythmically, instrumentation and production wise, creativity has been -- and promises to remain -- something of an exception.
so many of these artists manage to craft something interesting and worth listening to by other means. they embody an underrepresented populace, they play faster than before, they played old songs in a different way. all of these are i suppose in a sense a kind of creativity, but they are _artistic_ creativity, much more than musical creativity.
and the more creative you get, the smaller a chunk of audience you will carve out for you own. the more elemental and basic you keep things, the more people you will reach. because humanity is essentially simple, and receptive to simple art.
the lower standards for creating accessible musical art have the effect of also lowering the cost of entry into music. learn a few chords and you're off. but that lowered cost of entry comes at what cost?
this is pretty central stuff, and something i anticipate coming up more as we go, and it's a discussion i hope you're both receptive to. but this felt like a good time simply to bring it up, because i listened to this album and it was like a wave of cool water came over me -- i felt relieved, refreshed, recharged. because here again FINALLY was ACTUAL CREATIVITY.
i love punk and hardcore and all that, very genuinely in fact, but it's so nice to return to what comes across to me as actual musicmaking. as in, "the grand old art of". and not just creativity, but real production!! oh man, hours in the studio and a sweaty man moving knobs and sliders, how i have missed thee.
dd sent me the first track years ago and it has long since been in my rotation, and i love when it comes on. the groove is so unbelievably positive and happy, and the swing is just right. so i was happy to hear the rest of the album was up to the same standard.
again, not all of it. androgynous i had a hard time listening to. not because of the subject matter but because this is a perfect example of what i described to d a little while back as lazy "keyboard clichees". just plunking down the chords with random "emotional" accents to make it sound legit. in fact, every time the piano appears in this album i get a sour taste, it just doesn't seem to fit.
i'm similarly not a big supporter of the "diddle randomly on the keyboard to create chaotic, dissonant art" school of circumventing the acquisition and exercising of actual ability. they did it once, and i'm doubting they did it in any subsequent albums, so whatever, they had their dopey fun there.
but anyway really positive impression overall. lush production but not overdone -- in fact quite spare at times. and "answering machine" is an amaaaaaaazing track.
seriously i can't get over how awesome answering machine is. what better than some sizzling guitars bringing the album to a slow burn before fading out. with NO DRUMS.
i am always absolutely FLABBERGASTED at the distinctions your crazy music-genius brain makes of all this music. i felt for SURE you would hate the replacements. drunken deadbeats playing punk/folk. ideologically, the replacements are what you'd get if you took led zeppelin and made them the ramones. at least, that's how my brain qualifies this excellent, excellent band.
the replacements were maybe the first "underground" band i liked. i know they're not UNDERGROUND underground, but they made an entire career out of being the next big thing but never quite hitting (kinda like matthew sweet, but good). their music is sufficently pop to get a guy like me with the catchiness, but not pop enough to really get many songs stuck in your head. tunes like tommy gets his tonsils out demand your attention, then stop short of 2 minutes as kind of a "fuck you for giving a fuck." they're a tease, and like all teases they want your adulation but reserve the singular right to hate you for not caring more.
and can we take a second to recognize the size of paul westerberg's BALLZ for coming out with an album called LET IT BE. laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaf. hey, you know that classic album, the last album the beatles released called "let it be"? let's call our album "let it be" but make all the songs not about peace and love and universal themes, but about guys getting their tonsils out and guys dressing in drag and gary's boner. effing. awesome.
the low point on this album for me is probably the 1-2 punch of "unsatisfied" and "seen your video." unsatisfied is one of westerberg's typical "stop-trying-to-sound-like-bruce-springsteen-dammit" songs, where i just want to tell him, "dammit, stop trying to sound like bruce springsteen."
and yeah, "unsatisfied" has kind of a pathetic piano, intentionally artsy and obnoxious. it's rad that the song goes on for 2 minutes before any lyrics come in -- another awesome fuck you to the listener -- but it's just not a very engaging instrumental. the lyrics don't add too much when they come in, either.
but i gotta disagree on androgynous. great song. great lyrics. and i really dig the piano. maybe it's cliche, but to me, the cliche is cut entirely by the twisted sentimentality. it's not really a ballad, but it kinda is. it's entirely judgmental (in a very negative way) and it's still kinda accepting.
"cupie dolls and urine stalls will be laughed at the way you're laughed at now."
wow. i love paul westerberg. and like everything he's done, this album is sometimes great, sometimes lame, occasionally disappointing and 110% manic. when i grow up, i wanna be in the replacements, say great things and be ignored.
i did not know that the lead singer was paul westerberg! fear not, i am now all read up.
seems you were right about the drunken shows ... what a self-defeating group! they totally could have had a bigger audience and bigger acclaim. such fear of success!
Seriously dainty, just write "I like this album" or something so we can move on with our lives and the world can resume its path around the sun. You're doing a number on my OCD by leaving this blank, the further afield we go without your comments here, the more times I have to touch the doorknob before leaving the room.
hehehehe. love this album. i actually wrote a blurb on it a while back, but it didnt post to blog and i didnt save it. i got so pissed off i guess i shelved this review.
but anyway, 'let it be' rocks, its humorous, its original, its pop, its indie... after this album came out, amazingly, they were still working at pizza parlors. they had to sign to a major label for their next few albums because their label just could not give this album the promotion and distribution it needed. and i think they were stiffing the band some cash, too.
this album was kinda the last of a progression. they started out hardcore and really childish, then just matured musically, personally, and even production-wise. and albums after this one sound almost flat in comparison to the variation and emotional range on 'let it be.' husker du, their 'rival band' who also came from minneapolis, is noted as being the first of the hardcore-come-earl-indie-80s-rock bands to sign to a major label. their music and the band kinda bombed after that (i'm going on what i've read, i have not heard their major label material). the replacements followed soon after husker du, for similar reasons. they sold more records while signed to a major, but not nearly as much as the label wanted or expected, and kinda bombed as well, even though their major label albums are really good, albeit more toned down and 'forced.' but not as good as 'let it be.'
i honestly think that if they were not as afraid of success as they were, they just would have been charmless douchebags. they would probably have been a really mediocre U2, or a one hit wonder new wave band.
apparently, the name for this album came from the band wanting to piss off their manager, who loved the beatles. and when they played shows down south in dive bars, they'd play country songs until the punks left the bar in disgust, and then play loud punk songs until the country folk left the bar. for the first track on the album before 'let it be,' they all picked another band members instrument and played a really sloppy messy blues. they spat in success's face, and wrote really great pop songs while they were at it.
Reminds me a little of a band you might be familiar with called "UltraBunny", who consider clearing the room at the end of the show the mark of a good show.
Not sure I feel ever comfortable separating the Replacements from their fear of success, as I think that their fear of success is more a symptom than a problem. Their problems? Addiction. Depression. Insecurity. Etc. But yeah, I like Disdainty's thought that all that fucked-uppedness is particularly what makes them interesting.
pitchfork's top 100 of the 70's + top 100 of the 80's, considered, scrutinized, explored, assailed, defended, appreciated and deprecated, fussed over, held up high, kicked to the curb and held back up again. education by fire and a middle finger to disdain. tea, anyone?
have you noticed how much of the music we've covered so far -- and hae yet to cover -- has been not only on the short side of creative, but also in a sense hostile to creativity? granted punk is punk, but harmonically, melodically, rhythmically, instrumentation and production wise, creativity has been -- and promises to remain -- something of an exception.
ReplyDeleteso many of these artists manage to craft something interesting and worth listening to by other means. they embody an underrepresented populace, they play faster than before, they played old songs in a different way. all of these are i suppose in a sense a kind of creativity, but they are _artistic_ creativity, much more than musical creativity.
and the more creative you get, the smaller a chunk of audience you will carve out for you own. the more elemental and basic you keep things, the more people you will reach. because humanity is essentially simple, and receptive to simple art.
the lower standards for creating accessible musical art have the effect of also lowering the cost of entry into music. learn a few chords and you're off. but that lowered cost of entry comes at what cost?
this is pretty central stuff, and something i anticipate coming up more as we go, and it's a discussion i hope you're both receptive to. but this felt like a good time simply to bring it up, because i listened to this album and it was like a wave of cool water came over me -- i felt relieved, refreshed, recharged. because here again FINALLY was ACTUAL CREATIVITY.
i love punk and hardcore and all that, very genuinely in fact, but it's so nice to return to what comes across to me as actual musicmaking. as in, "the grand old art of". and not just creativity, but real production!! oh man, hours in the studio and a sweaty man moving knobs and sliders, how i have missed thee.
dd sent me the first track years ago and it has long since been in my rotation, and i love when it comes on. the groove is so unbelievably positive and happy, and the swing is just right. so i was happy to hear the rest of the album was up to the same standard.
again, not all of it. androgynous i had a hard time listening to. not because of the subject matter but because this is a perfect example of what i described to d a little while back as lazy "keyboard clichees". just plunking down the chords with random "emotional" accents to make it sound legit. in fact, every time the piano appears in this album i get a sour taste, it just doesn't seem to fit.
i'm similarly not a big supporter of the "diddle randomly on the keyboard to create chaotic, dissonant art" school of circumventing the acquisition and exercising of actual ability. they did it once, and i'm doubting they did it in any subsequent albums, so whatever, they had their dopey fun there.
but anyway really positive impression overall. lush production but not overdone -- in fact quite spare at times. and "answering machine" is an amaaaaaaazing track.
seriously i can't get over how awesome answering machine is. what better than some sizzling guitars bringing the album to a slow burn before fading out. with NO DRUMS.
ReplyDeletethree things every song the replacements perform has in common with sex with me:
ReplyDelete1. Always drunk
2. Deeper than you want it to be
3. No good reason for it to ever last more than 3 minutes
i am always absolutely FLABBERGASTED at the distinctions your crazy music-genius brain makes of all this music. i felt for SURE you would hate the replacements. drunken deadbeats playing punk/folk. ideologically, the replacements are what you'd get if you took led zeppelin and made them the ramones. at least, that's how my brain qualifies this excellent, excellent band.
ReplyDeletethe replacements were maybe the first "underground" band i liked. i know they're not UNDERGROUND underground, but they made an entire career out of being the next big thing but never quite hitting (kinda like matthew sweet, but good). their music is sufficently pop to get a guy like me with the catchiness, but not pop enough to really get many songs stuck in your head. tunes like tommy gets his tonsils out demand your attention, then stop short of 2 minutes as kind of a "fuck you for giving a fuck." they're a tease, and like all teases they want your adulation but reserve the singular right to hate you for not caring more.
and can we take a second to recognize the size of paul westerberg's BALLZ for coming out with an album called LET IT BE. laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaf. hey, you know that classic album, the last album the beatles released called "let it be"? let's call our album "let it be" but make all the songs not about peace and love and universal themes, but about guys getting their tonsils out and guys dressing in drag and gary's boner. effing. awesome.
the low point on this album for me is probably the 1-2 punch of "unsatisfied" and "seen your video." unsatisfied is one of westerberg's typical "stop-trying-to-sound-like-bruce-springsteen-dammit" songs, where i just want to tell him, "dammit, stop trying to sound like bruce springsteen."
and yeah, "unsatisfied" has kind of a pathetic piano, intentionally artsy and obnoxious. it's rad that the song goes on for 2 minutes before any lyrics come in -- another awesome fuck you to the listener -- but it's just not a very engaging instrumental. the lyrics don't add too much when they come in, either.
but i gotta disagree on androgynous. great song. great lyrics. and i really dig the piano. maybe it's cliche, but to me, the cliche is cut entirely by the twisted sentimentality. it's not really a ballad, but it kinda is. it's entirely judgmental (in a very negative way) and it's still kinda accepting.
"cupie dolls and urine stalls will be laughed at the way you're laughed at now."
wow. i love paul westerberg. and like everything he's done, this album is sometimes great, sometimes lame, occasionally disappointing and 110% manic. when i grow up, i wanna be in the replacements, say great things and be ignored.
i did not know that the lead singer was paul westerberg! fear not, i am now all read up.
ReplyDeleteseems you were right about the drunken shows ... what a self-defeating group! they totally could have had a bigger audience and bigger acclaim. such fear of success!
Seriously dainty, just write "I like this album" or something so we can move on with our lives and the world can resume its path around the sun. You're doing a number on my OCD by leaving this blank, the further afield we go without your comments here, the more times I have to touch the doorknob before leaving the room.
ReplyDeletehehehehe. love this album. i actually wrote a blurb on it a while back, but it didnt post to blog and i didnt save it. i got so pissed off i guess i shelved this review.
ReplyDeletebut anyway, 'let it be' rocks, its humorous, its original, its pop, its indie...
after this album came out, amazingly, they were still working at pizza parlors. they had to sign to a major label for their next few albums because their label just could not give this album the promotion and distribution it needed. and i think they were stiffing the band some cash, too.
this album was kinda the last of a progression. they started out hardcore and really childish, then just matured musically, personally, and even production-wise. and albums after this one sound almost flat in comparison to the variation and emotional range on 'let it be.' husker du, their 'rival band' who also came from minneapolis, is noted as being the first of the hardcore-come-earl-indie-80s-rock bands to sign to a major label. their music and the band kinda bombed after that (i'm going on what i've read, i have not heard their major label material). the replacements followed soon after husker du, for similar reasons. they sold more records while signed to a major, but not nearly as much as the label wanted or expected, and kinda bombed as well, even though their major label albums are really good, albeit more toned down and 'forced.' but not as good as 'let it be.'
i honestly think that if they were not as afraid of success as they were, they just would have been charmless douchebags. they would probably have been a really mediocre U2, or a one hit wonder new wave band.
apparently, the name for this album came from the band wanting to piss off their manager, who loved the beatles. and when they played shows down south in dive bars, they'd play country songs until the punks left the bar in disgust, and then play loud punk songs until the country folk left the bar. for the first track on the album before 'let it be,' they all picked another band members instrument and played a really sloppy messy blues. they spat in success's face, and wrote really great pop songs while they were at it.
Reminds me a little of a band you might be familiar with called "UltraBunny", who consider clearing the room at the end of the show the mark of a good show.
ReplyDeleteNot sure I feel ever comfortable separating the Replacements from their fear of success, as I think that their fear of success is more a symptom than a problem. Their problems? Addiction. Depression. Insecurity. Etc. But yeah, I like Disdainty's thought that all that fucked-uppedness is particularly what makes them interesting.