|
Grex > Music2 > #32: THE GRAB BAG: Musical Meandering | |
|
| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 416 responses total. |
mcnally
|
|
response 25 of 416:
| 
Apr 30 04:00 UTC 1997 |
Well, the first phrase that comes to mind is "hard to describe.."
They describe themselves as "avant garage.." which doesn't seem too
far off the mark. I'd personally recommend some of their later
stuff as a starting point (particularly the 80s albums "Cloudland"
and "The Tenement Year") but I'd also add the caveat that their music
is definitely not for everyone.
|
orinoco
|
|
response 26 of 416:
|
May 1 20:45 UTC 1997 |
mcnally--"hard to describe..." Yeah, that's the sort of thing I like. :)
|
mziemba
|
|
response 27 of 416:
|
May 3 17:35 UTC 1997 |
"Avante garage"? I like it...I like it...
Never heard Pere Ubu. Sounds like somthing that I should check into.
For some reason, I'm thinking about Wall of Voodoo at the moment. Anyone into
Stan Ridgway? I picked up his latest solo album a little while ago.
Interesting fellow...
|
mcnally
|
|
response 28 of 416:
|
May 3 22:28 UTC 1997 |
Since there've been several expressing an interest in Pere Ubu I'll
offer some recommendations:
Their most accessible albums, and a good starting point are their
mid-80s stuff on Fontana, particularly "Cloudland" and "The Tenement
Year." After those, I'd recommend their earlier, more experimental
punk-like stuff from the late 70s particularly the "Datapanik in the
Year Zero" EP and the "Terminal Tower" collection on Twin/Tone.
Unfortunately I think *all* of the above is out of print and the only
stuff currently available is the Datapanik boxed set and a couple of
recent albums that I didn't like as much..
|
mziemba
|
|
response 29 of 416:
|
May 8 09:13 UTC 1997 |
Mike- They go all the way back to the late 70s? Didn't realize there was
that much history behind them!
|
raven
|
|
response 30 of 416:
|
May 8 13:53 UTC 1997 |
Yeah "The Tenement Year," is good it's sort of like slightly disonant
(but well produced) mostly instrumental thrash with a horn section.
|
mcnally
|
|
response 31 of 416:
|
May 8 19:50 UTC 1997 |
re #29: Yep, they've been around forever, though the band's membership
has fluctuated considerably over the years (mostly from people leaving
for side-projects and then coming back, or not, afterwards..)
|
mziemba
|
|
response 32 of 416:
|
May 20 16:38 UTC 1997 |
Recently, I've gotten into music associated with wandering and travel. I
chanced across a book about hobos by "Steam Train" Maury Graham, someone who
appears in the liner notes to U. Utah Phillips' new album, _Loafer's Glory_.
Along the same lines, I've been reading a book about New York subway
musicians. It's interesting to see how music is associated with journeying...
|
mcnally
|
|
response 33 of 416:
|
May 20 21:03 UTC 1997 |
I always think of Jimmie Rodgers and "Blue Yodel" when I think hobo song..
(sure beats "Boxcar Willie"..)
|
anderyn
|
|
response 34 of 416:
|
May 21 23:28 UTC 1997 |
Utah has a new album?! Cool!
|
katt
|
|
response 35 of 416:
|
May 23 16:48 UTC 1997 |
Just listened to "The Producers" last night, along with Sesame Street Gold.
. .:)
|
mziemba
|
|
response 36 of 416:
|
May 27 08:07 UTC 1997 |
Yeah, new album, old songs, new recording, apparently along with some excerpts
from other performances. Backed by Mark Ross, Court Minstrel of Hoboes. Good
stuff...
|
mziemba
|
|
response 37 of 416:
|
May 27 08:14 UTC 1997 |
One of my favorite guilty pleasures is The Tubes, a large rock band from
Arizona/California in the 70s who never took being a rock band too seriously
(perhaps to their own misfortune). One of my favorite Tubes albums is _Now_
(currently out of print), which contains a song called "Smoke", in which
coughing is used as a percussive instrument.
This set me to wondering where body sounds have found an atypical way into
music...
I guess my first guess would be that _Music From the Body_ album by Roger
Waters and Ron Geesin...
Any other suggestions?
|
raven
|
|
response 38 of 416:
|
May 27 16:25 UTC 1997 |
Laurie Anderson plays percussion sensors on her body while dancing in her
concert movie "Home of the Brave," it looks and sounds fantastic. That
should be availible at Liberty St. video and is well worth checking out in
general.
|
orinoco
|
|
response 39 of 416:
|
May 27 19:41 UTC 1997 |
I heard an album of that name a while ago--I assume a 'soundtrack', or
whatever, of the video. Crazy stuff...
Bobby McFerrin would be the obvious suggestion, at least for mouth sounds,
but I doubt that's what your'e looking for.
A while ago, on an album of percussion music, there was a track of people
'drumming' on their bodies--you'd be surprised how much variety of sound there
was. I unfortunately do not recall the album--something in the posession of
the A2 Public Library.
|
krj
|
|
response 40 of 416:
|
May 28 04:11 UTC 1997 |
I found the HOME OF THE BRAVE cd quite disappointing, mostly through
omission: the program is LP length, not CD length, so huge portions
of the film were dropped from the soundtrack. Anderson presented some
of this material at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor way back when.
|
mziemba
|
|
response 41 of 416:
|
May 29 14:59 UTC 1997 |
I still like the album, even though I am similarly disappointed at the missing
music. The video was absolutely amazing, though... I saw it about six years
ago, and my mind has been reeling ever since...
|
mziemba
|
|
response 42 of 416:
|
May 29 15:07 UTC 1997 |
Well, perhaps you'vealready run across this one, but I thought I'd pass it
on, for amusement value, at least. Apparently some DJ in Boston suggested
strange parallels seen between _The Wizard of Oz_ film and _Dark Side of the
Moon_ album. The idea is to start the soundtrack after the last roar of the
MGM lion, turn down the sound of the movie, and then enjoy the results. I'm
really unsure about the suggestion that there was any intentional connection,
but apparently there are some amusing coincidences between events and sound.
If you've got some time to burn, check it out. I can forward you the e-mail
I received on this, too, if you request...
|
albaugh
|
|
response 43 of 416:
|
May 30 18:13 UTC 1997 |
Subject: The Dark Side of Oz
Follow the Yellow Rock Road
A Floydian analysis of 'The Wizard of Oz'
By HELEN KENNEDY
Daily News Staff Writer
Call it Dark Side of the Rainbow. Classic rockers are buzzing about the
amazingly weird connections that leap off the screen when you play Pink
Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" as the soundtrack to "The Wizard of Oz."
It sounds wacky, but there really is a bizarre synchronization there.
The lyrics and music join in cosmic synch with the action, forming
dozens Upon dozens of startling coincidences -- the kind that make you go
"Oh wow, man" even if you haven't been near a bong in 20 years. Consider
these examples: Floyd sings "the lunatic is on the grass" just as the
Scarecrow begins his floppy jig near a green lawn. The line "got to keep
the loonies on the path" comes just before Dorothy and the Scarecrow
start traipsing down the Yellow Brick Road.
When deejay George Taylor Morris at WZLX-FM in Boston first mentioned
the phenom on the air six weeks ago, he touched off a frenzy. "The
phones just blew off the wall. It started on a Friday, and that first
weekend you couldn't get a copy of 'TheWizard of Oz' anywhere in
Boston," he said. "People were staying home to check it out." It's fun,
he said, because everyone knows the movie,and the album which spent a
record-busting 591 straight weeks on the Billboard charts, can be found
in practically every record collection.
Dave Herman at WNEW-FM in New York mentioned the buzz a few weeks ago.
The response -- more than 2,000 letters -- was the biggest ever in the
deejay's 25-year on-air career. "It has been just unbelievable," said
WNEW program director Mark Chernoff. "I've never seen anything like
this." The station plans to show the movie using the album as soundtrack
at a small private screening tomorrow.
Rock fans always have loved to speculate about hidden messages in their
favorite albums. But seeking connections between the beloved 1939
classic kid flick and the legendary 1973 acid-rock album pushes the
envelope of the music conspiracy genre. Nobody from the publicity-shy
band would comment, but Morris asked keyboardist Richard Wright about it
on the air last month. He looked flummoxed and said he'd never heard of
any intentional connections between the movie and the album. But the
fans aren't convinced it's just a cosmic coincidence.
"I'm a musician myself and I know how hard it is just to write music,
let alone music choreographed to action," said drummer Alex Harm, of
Lowell, Mass.,who put up one of the two Internet web pages devoted to
the synchronicities. "To make it match up so well, you'd have to plan
it." Morris is convinced that ex-frontman Roger Waters planned the whole
thing without letting his fellow band members in on the secret. "It's
too close. It's just too close. Look at the song titles. Look at the
cover. There's something going on there," Morris said.
Here's how it works. You start the album at the exact moment when the
MGM lion finishes its third and last roar. It might take a few times to
get everything lined up just right. Then, just sit back and watch. It'll
blow your mind, man.
During "Breathe," Dorothy teeters along a fence to the lyric: "balanced
on the biggest wave." The Wicked Witch, in human form, first appears on
her bike at the same moment a burst of alarm bells sounds on the album.
During "Time," Dorothy breaks into a trot to the line: "no one told you
when to run." When Dorothy leaves the fortuneteller to go back to her
farm, the album is playing: "home, home again." Glinda, the cloyingly
saccharine Good Witch of the North, appears in her bubble just as the
band sings: "Don't give me that do goody goody bull---t." A few minutes
later, the Good Witch confronts the Wicked Witch as the band sings, "And
who knows which is which" (or is that "witch is witch"?). The song
"Brain Damage" starts about the same time as the Scarecrow launches into
"If I Only Had a Brain."
But it's not just the weird lyrical coincidences. Songs end when scenes
switch, and even the Munchkins' dancing is perfectly choreographed to
the song "Us and Them." The phenomenon is at its most startling during
the tornado scene, when the wordless singing in "The Great Gig in the
Sky" swells and recedes in strikingly perfect time with the movie. When
Dorothy opens the door into Oz, the movie switches to rich color and --
and that exact moment -- the album starts in with the tinkling cash
register sound effects from "Money."
Anyone who has ever nursed a hangover watching MTV with the sound off
and the radio on can tell you how quick the brain is to turn music into
a soundtrack for pictures. But this is uncanny. The real fanatics will
point out that side one of the vinyl album is the exact length of the
black-and-white portion of the movie. And then there's that iconic album
cover, with its prism and rainbow echoing the movie's famous
black-and-white-into-color switch -- not to mention Judy Garland's
classic first song.
The real clincher, though, the moment where even the most skeptical of
cynics has to utter a small "whoa!," comes at the end of the album,
which tails off with the insistent sound of a beating heart. What's
happening on screen? Yep, you guessed it: Dorothy's got her ear to the
Tin Man's chest, listening for a heartbeat. Maybe it's just a string of
coincidences. Maybe the mind is just playing some really cool tricks.
Maybe some people just have waaaay too much time on their hands. Or
maybe, as Pink Floyd sings to close out the album, everything under the
sun really is in tune.
|
mcnally
|
|
response 44 of 416:
|
May 30 18:26 UTC 1997 |
Apparently this rumor (true or not) is gathering steam locally..
A friend's co-worker who was looking for a concert video apparently
called several local record stores yesterday. When he asked if the
stores sold videos he was generally interrupted with a curt "No, we
do not have 'The Wizard of Oz'"
|
orinoco
|
|
response 45 of 416:
|
Jun 1 18:47 UTC 1997 |
Hmm...
umm...yeah...
Right...
|
krj
|
|
response 46 of 416:
|
Jun 6 07:36 UTC 1997 |
OK, The Walkabouts...
I was introduced to The Walkabouts around 1990 or '91 when "Folk Roots"
magazine, which is my musical bible and polestar, gave a very
favorable review to one of their current releases. The CD I bought
was a compilation of the ep RAG & BONE and the preceding lp CATARACT,
and it was perfect for me: it was everything I thought a rock CD should
be. Carla Torgeson's voice had this lovely dusky quality to it, and
she sang lots of harmonies with guitarist Chris Eckman. Eckman's guitar
tone was precisely what I wanted: anyone know how to describe it?
They'd shift rapidly between acoustic and feedback. They had some
guest players on piano and violin who added a lot: the honky-tonk
piano line in "Anvil Song," or the violin lead in "Whereabouts Unknown."
And they had a really inventive drummer in Chris' brother Grant Eckman;
the drums became another melody line, almost. The band talked about
their Richard Thompson/Fairport Convention influences, and they included
some traditional or faux-traditional songs on each of their early
releases.
Well! I searched a long time for a copy of their previous album,
SEE BEAUTIFUL RATTLESNAKE GARDENS; finally one day an import LP copy
sent out psychic thought waves summoning me to the bin where it awaited me.
RATTLESNAKE was quite good; definitely the work of a younger band,
but definitely worthwhile.
So I was all primed to love the next album, SCAVENGER, when it came
out on their label SubPop. Uh-oh. Maybe half of the album had the
same incindiary brilliance, most memorably the song "River Blood;"
the other half just seemed to be listless. Around this time the band
came to play at The Blind Pig in Ann Arbor; I was one of about a dozen
people at the gig, and I startled them by calling out for an older song,
"Last Ditch," as an encore. After the show I chatted with Chris Eckman;
I was all effusive about the 1990-era stuff, and he was pushing for my
opinion of the new songs, and I found myself having to hedge and scramble.
Sigh. Chris also talked about his disappointment with the lack of
support they were getting from their label.
SubPop at this time was at ground zero of grunge, and I get the impression
that they did not know what to do with The Walkabouts. The next album,
NEW WEST MOTEL, sounds like perhaps the band, or the record company,
felt a need to graft grunge onto the band's style. I find it an awful album
to listen to; it doesn't swing, it screeches, and almost all subtlety
is lost. I still have occasional bad memories of Chris and Carla
yelling "Glad Nation's Death Song!" over and over... I revisited this
album just a few months ago, and it's still yucky.
Drummer Grant Eckman left the band around this time. The woman who replaced
him was a perfectly fine ordinary drummer, but she couldn't
make the percussion sing like Grant had. This didn't help.
The band's next two albums went in one of my ears and out the other.
SATISFIED MIND was an album of covers, mostly country and folk songs;
it seems like the sort of project I should have loved. SETTING THE WOODS ON
FIRE was back to original material. To be fair, I need to excavate these
two discs and relisten to them.
SubPop declined to release NEW WEST MOTEL in the USA. It was becoming
apparent that the band had almost no commercial market in the USA --
remember those dozen people at the Pig? -- but they had a loyal following
in Europe, so they were picked up by a German label, Glitterhouse.
Eventually an American indie label picked up SATISFIED MIND and ON FIRE
for a belated USA release, but that seems to have been a dead end too.
Chris Eckman and Carla Torgeson began moonlighting as a duo.
Their first disc, SHELTER FOR AN EVENING, was a live recording; there
is a nice Richard Thompson cover on it, but much of the rest of the
album consists of the Walkabouts songs that I didn't like.
According to the band's web page, there are two more CDs by the duo.
I still love Carla's voice, maybe I'll take a flyer on them some day.
"Folk Roots" recently blasted SETTING THE WOODS ON FIRE. Their brief,
dismissive review complained that in the eight years since the magazine
had singled out the band for praise, the Walkabouts had gone from
being the leading American folk-rock bands, to one of a thousand
alternative-rock-with-country-flavorings band, with nothing special to
recommend them. So I'm not the only person who feels this way about
their career trajectory. Since I gave up on the band, there has been
one limited-edition live CD, now unavailable; one new studio CD (??);
and two more releases from Chris and Carla.
All of these are Europe-only; if one wants copies
in the States, one has to get them from the band. There is a
comprehensive Walkabouts web page with ordering information.
I have this odd belief in the Melody Fairy. The Melody Fairy capriciously
picks a musician, and she settles on the musician's shoulder, and she
might stay for one song, or one album, or she might stay for 20 years;
but eventually, capriciously, the Melody Fairy flitters off.
From that point on the music from that artist loses its appeal for me:
it seems tedious, cacophonous and just plain uninspired.
|
mziemba
|
|
response 47 of 416:
|
Jun 6 09:55 UTC 1997 |
The Muse is a fickle lover...
|
mziemba
|
|
response 48 of 416:
|
Jun 6 10:39 UTC 1997 |
I'm pretty thrilled to announce a new Ben Harper album is on its way out,
soon! I've already heard a couple tracks, and I'm pretty impressed,
already. I'm not entirely surprised at this, either.
When I first ran across Harper, I had no idea who he was. I was at St.
Andrews Hall, in Detroit, to catch up with Michael Franti, formerly of
Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy (another band I was instantly impressed
with), then heading Spearhead. Harper opened the three-part show, and I
was immediately enthralled. He switched effortlessly between delicacy
and thunder, humor and anger, folk and funk. His slide guitar playing was
exceptional, and his delivery was nothing short of spiritual.
I caught Harper, again, about a year later at the Blind Pig, in Ann Arbor.
The crowd was so thick that I could barely breathe, and some girl in a
stupor was shoving me from behind to get a closer look. Neither could
detract from the brilliance of the show, which I waited outside for in
the middle of winter for over an hour before the doors opened.
His first album, _Welcome to the Cruel World_ would have to rank as one of
the best albums I've ever heard, and the follow-up was rather strong, too.
Given his ability to perform in person, and his track record in the
studio, it's no surprise that the new album is sounding good, already.
Welcome back, Ben...
|
katt
|
|
response 49 of 416:
|
Jun 9 14:45 UTC 1997 |
Ya know, I've never heard Ben Harper. . .I keep hearing hopw amazing he is,
and then miossing him for some reason or another. . .I've got to check him
out.
|