Aug 252008
 

My promised Trippin’ report on my recent visit to Seattle’s Experience Music Project is forthcoming. Until then, let’s get some Dugout Chatter going around some thoughts I had during that trip. As always, your gut answers are what matter. Don’t think too hard!

To recall a question from our last Dugout Chatter, in which I quizzed you regarding the music being played in a Boston hotel’s public bathroom, which three of the following songs did I NOT hear playing in the lobby during my recent stay at a downtown Seattle hotel?
a) Billy Bragg, “Levi Stubbs’ Tears”
b) Brian Eno, “Sombre Reptiles”
c) The Cure, “Boys Don’t Cry”
d) XTC, “Ball and Chain”
e) Psychedelic Furs, “Love My Way”

Does it compute that an intelligent 24-year-old I know would have, in the same conversation, expressed enthusiasm about both the tickets she bought for an upcoming Journey show as well as a series of shows she recently attended by emo-type bands I’d only vaguely heard of if at all?

What’s your favorite album produced by Jack Nitzsche?

What classic garage tune have you finally tired of hearing?

Has any well-regarded band been listened to less in the last 25 years than The Wipers?

Which well-known favorite of a particular Townsperson was on my return flight?
a) Billy Gibbons (per Hrrundivbakshi)
b) Lou Reed (per Mr. Moderator)
c) The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn (per Oats)
d) Peter Noone (per E. Pluribus Gergely)

I look forward to your answers.

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  21 Responses to “Dugout Chatter: Sleepless in Seattle Edition”

  1. sammymaudlin

    I’ve been listening to The Wipers quite a bit lately so I’m going to boycott this Chatter due to Wiper fan insensitivity.

  2. The Journey/emo connection totally computes. It’s about, uh, emoting. The more you feel it…

  3. BigSteve

    1. I’d guess a, d, and e.

    2. No, it does not compute. Someone that age would not have been born yet when Journey was at its most popular. Perhaps she was going to the show ironically?

    3. I’ll say the Performance soundtrack, even though I don’t think he produced the whole thing, just because of the awesome Gone Dead Train and Memo From Turner. He also produced at least some of the tracks on the great but virtually unknown C.C. Adcock’s Lafayette Marquis.

    4. 96 Tears

    5. I think all of the Krautrock bands from Kraftwerk to Can and beyond are more name-checked than actually listened to.

    6. The Hold Steady dude is the only one I can think of as having a good reason to fly SEA to PHL. He’s also the most likely to be not actually the guy but just some doofus who looks like him. If you saw Gibbons or Reed, you’d know it for sure. And I don’t think anyone, even epg, would recognize Noone today.

  4. Mr. Moderator

    Nice start, BigSteve. You got two out of three right on the first question. The Journey thing was not said with irony. I was shocked when I heard her saying this stuff.

  5. 1. a,b,d

    2. It doesn’t compute (actually the whole ironic (or non-ironic love) of Journey is something I just can’t wrap my brain around. My guess is, that Journey represents some nostalgic joy (perhaps equal to my “like” of Herb Alpert records from the 60’s…probably mocked at the time by music geeks of that era but since I was more or less removed and they sold, I have some weird misguided and unfounded appreciation).

    3.Squeezing Out The Sparks

    4. If I am totally honest? No, I haven’t gotten sick of any of it yet.

    5. I love the Wipers and I’ll nominate The Leaving Trains to the list (but then I am not sure they are name checked enough to count). Make that Giant Sand.

    6. Peter Noone is who you shared a flight with.

  6. Mr. Moderator

    Although Petesecrutz only got one of the three songs that I did not hear in the hotel lobby, he nailed questions 3 and 6! Well done.

    Can any of you direct me to a few Wipers songs worth revisiting?

  7. alexmagic

    What classic garage tune have you finally tired of hearing?

    Dirty Water, though possibly because of the context where you’re most likely to hear it.

    Which still hold up the best? Psychotic Reaction is kind of musically bulletproof, isn’t it?

    Re: Journey, I think what people have to remember is that nostalgia has become frozen on the very late ’70s/early-to-mid ’80s, so that a 24 year-old today has the exact same pop culture background to call on that a 34 year-old does.

  8. diskojoe

    I kinda figured someone would mention “Dirty Water” as a garage rock song that people get tired of. As a member of the Red Sox Nation myself, it’s still pretty boss to me. There’s a book out called “Love That Dirty Water” that tells the story of how that song became the anthem of the Red Sox, as well as being a history of the Standells themselves, so there’s plenty to read even if you’re not a baseball or Red Sox fan.

  9. 1. a, b, d
    2. Yes. Both are artistically shallow.
    3. “Expecting to Fly” (yeah I know it’s not an album)
    4. “Wild Thing”
    5. Soft Machine
    6. ?

  10. sammymaudlin

    I’m taking my Wipers-snub indignation a step further and am proclaiming that The Wiper’s “Over The Edge” album is a perfect album as we defined in a thread awhile back that can’t find. In-short: no needle-lifting required.

  11. 2000 Man

    1. A, B and D?

    2. Journey? Ugh.

    3. I bet Nitzcshe produced the first Stones album. No way Andrew did it, it’s way too good for someone that didn’t have any idea what he was doing.

    4. Man, not many of them. That’s like my Happy Place. Probably Time Won’t Let Me. Living in Cleveland, they play that far too often.

    5. I’ve never heard The Wipers. Do I like them or are they a jam band in disguise.

    6. Craig Finn?

  12. abd

    i agree wholeheartedly with Alexmagic’s assesment of the arrested pop culture cycle.
    also, Journey may be a bunch of giant personality-less cheesedicks, but their songs make people feel good, and are operatic without the satanic qualities of metal. just like emo.

    my favorite thing about Jack Nitzsche, is that he spanned a lot of genres, time, and disciplines. He was involved with Neil Young, Mercury Rev, and One Flew Over the Coukoo’s Nest. That’s a solid resume as far as i’m concerned.

    I’m gonna second the nomination for Time Wont let Me. It’s on Nuggets AND WMGK. Yuck. Iggy’s worst studio album, PARTY, has a wretched cover of this song. Jesus, I wanted to fucking die when I heard that awful shit.

    Yeah, the Dils.

    Lou Reed was on your fucking plane, and you tried to score a RTH interview and got tazed by air marshals.

  13. Mr. Moderator

    Here are the correct answers, at least as much as correctness applies:

    To recall a question from our last Dugout Chatter, in which I quizzed you regarding the music being played in a Boston hotel’s public bathroom, which three of the following songs did I NOT hear playing in the lobby during my recent stay at a downtown Seattle hotel?

    a) Billy Bragg, “Levi Stubbs’ Tears”
    c) The Cure, “Boys Don’t Cry”
    e) Psychedelic Furs, “Love My Way”

    I DID hear “Ball and Chain” and “Sombre Reptiles”! (And I heard no smooth jazz to boot.)

    Does it compute that an intelligent 24-year-old I know would have, in the same conversation, expressed enthusiasm about both the tickets she bought for an upcoming Journey show as well as a series of shows she recently attended by emo-type bands I’d only vaguely heard of if at all?

    Those of you who tried to explain this made some sense, but it does not compute for me, other than to make me think more cynical thoughts about Today’s Generation than I already had been thinking:)

    What’s your favorite album produced by Jack Nitzsche?

    Squeezing Out Sparks.

    What classic garage tune have you finally tired of hearing?

    I get no kick out of “Louie Louie”.

    Has any well-regarded band been listened to less in the last 25 years than The Wipers?

    No.

    Which well-known favorite of a particular Townsperson was on my return flight?

    d) Peter Noone (per E. Pluribus Gergely)

    I really wanted to get his autograph for EPG, but he was off the plane and long gone by the time I got off.

  14. Mod, I can appreciate your Journey related suffering, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to get used to something (and I am too): Journey is now Classic Rock. Which means the band is going to be cited as an influence for a long long time.

  15. I’m tired of “Louie Louie”. I know this is probably some sort of rock sin, but if I never hear that tune again…

    “96 Tears” on the other hand…

    TB

  16. general slocum

    For Iggy’s “Party” album, I’ll say that “Pumping For Jill” makes up for the whole rest of it. And wasn’t “Time Won’t Let Me” the featured in a praising thread here a while back?

  17. Mr. Moderator

    I love “Time Won’t Let Me”. Even on that half-dead Party album I dig that version enough. It combines two of my “gimme” devices in music: a 4-on-the-4 beat and a Stax-style 3-note riff.

  18. diskojoe

    Mr. Mod, I also dig “Time Won’t Let Me” ever since it was a hit & I was a 4 yr. old lad. How do you feel about the Smithereens’ cover? I think it was half-decent.

  19. Mr. Moderator

    Agreed. For me, the Smithereens define “half decent”:) There are a million reasons why I should love that band, but their actual music leaves me cold.

  20. diskojoe

    Mr. Mod, you’re right about the Smithereens. They did have a bunch of good to great songs (the first line of “Behind The Wall of Sleep” is my favorite opening line of a song), but they haven’t been mentioned too much in comparison to the Replacements, even though they sold more albums & had Top 40 hits.

  21. I’m okay with Time Won’t Let Me. There’s a great version of it on the live Plimsouls album.

    I could never hear Journey To The Center Of Your Mind again and still lead a rich, full life.

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