Sep 292008
tGDa1C4rH10]
Tonight’s Episode: All Star Jam.
Say what you will. But watch your back man.
Mar 062007
Open thread. Shred it up. Why not offer your 2 cents on the new Stooges album? Who cares if you haven’t heard it yet!
15 Responses to “All-Star Jam”
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I have heard it and would like to comment. ON just one listen, my review is thus: The Asheton Brothers, Mike Watt and Steve Mackay sound great, and Steve Albini. But Iggy, poor Iggy. The fire is gone. He just can’t compare to the young, desperate lad of yore. It renders the whole album pretty much useless.
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Meant to say, Steve Albini does a fantastic engineering job.
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Here is a video interview (NYTimes – free login may be needed to see) with Iggy and the Ashton brothers in the studio. Mr. Albini can be seen scurrying around in the background. (Scroll down the page a little when you get to the Times page…)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/05/arts/music/05choi.html?pagewanted=2&th&emc=th
I agree that Iggy is probably the weakest link on this new CD.
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All the reports I’ve heard about the Stooges’ recent live gigs have been extremely positive. If the problem is coming up with appropriate new material, maybe they should have done like the Gang of Four and just re-recorded their old songs.
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They coulda just toured. I don’t think any of us needed a new album.
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Man, I have a friend who is gonna die re: Genesis. Sloan is also coming – who on here wants to go?! The Canadian is buying! I’ve seen them a zillion times, but I never get tired. I’m kidding, about the buying part.
YRock on XPN Welcomes Sloan
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Doors 6 PM / Show 7:30 PMAll Tickets: $20
Pre Sale is Wed. 3/7 at 10AM – Thurs. 3/8 at 5PM.
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Never heard of those Cornershop fellows. I liked that song. Are they worth exploring? Or is that their full load?
Same with Big Dipper. Them I heard of but never heard. Ditto on that song.
Some interesting tunes there coming from a fellow who self-proclaims a disdain for all things 1980 on (except XTC).
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shaun, you’re right, they coulda “just toured”. since they actually bothered to do an album, i figured that it wasn’t because they had to. i imagined that ron asheton was sittin on an assful of riffs and the rest of them actually had a desire to record.
i agree that on what i’ve heard, iggy doesn’t sound so great.
but i also think he had the hardest job. sure, the rest of them had to put some riffs together, and make sure the sound was right. but riffs are timeless, non-verbal. plug the fuck in and play ’em. doesn’t matter if it’s ’69 or ’09. but what does an aging iggy sing about all these years later and have it still sound like the stooges, without sounding like a parody?
i can see why he’s the weak link. i wouldn’t want to have to do what he had to do.
art
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sammy,
i’m a fan of cornershop’s early singles and their very first album: Hold on, it Hurts (1994 – 95).
from there on, they begin to lose something…although Woman’s Gotta Have it (95 – 96) aint bad either, it sounds much tamer, much less adventurous than the first.
others may disagree (berlyant, i’m looking in your direction).
art
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I just listened to bites on iTunes. Ugh. Iggy sounds like shit. The riffs may or may not be there for me but I can’t tell as Albini choked all the treble out of it for me. Or is that just the crappy iTunes preview?
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Never heard of those Cornershop fellows. I liked that song. Are they worth exploring? Or is that their full load?
I only recall hearing this song and another one that was pretty good. I’m a sucker for any song that cops from “Sweet Jane”.
Same with Big Dipper. Them I heard of but never heard. Ditto on that song.
“Faith Healer” is from their first ep or album. I’m a huge fan of their second release, Heavens. I’ll have to throw some tracks up one of these days for those of you who don’t know the album. They were great live too.
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i’m a fan of cornershop’s early singles and their very first album: Hold on, it Hurts (1994 – 95).
from there on, they begin to lose something…although Woman’s Gotta Have it (95 – 96) aint bad either, it sounds much tamer, much less adventurous than the first.
others may disagree (berlyant, i’m looking in your direction).
I’ve never heard their 1st 2 albums, so no comment there. Furthermore, while I liked “Brimful of Asha” at the time of its release in late ’97, I had the misfortune of seeing them open for Oasis (hey it was free) right around that time and they were dreadful, as were the headliners.
I do, however, have another one of their later albums (Handcream for a Generation) and it’s pretty good, though I rarely play it.
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I too saw Cornershop in 95ish I think and their live show was decent but not anything overwhelming, although I remember the tablas on stage for Jullander Shere and that was kinda cool because who had tablas? I think we might have all just waiting for Stereolab to come on though…
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I too saw Cornershop in 95ish I think and their live show was decent but not anything overwhelming
I saw them on the Handcream tour (2002 or so) and said to my wife as we were leaving “They’re breaking up at the end of this tour.” Sure enough, they did. One of those gigs that was just OOZING with bad vibes, with a singer who basically refused to acknowledge the audience to a band who couldn’t be arsed to actually start and end the songs at the same time. On the other hand, opening act Smokey and Miho were fun. I love me some bossa nova.
About two weeks ago, around the time of the last Dead thread here at RTH, I was subjected to what I now believe to be the worst cover song. Twice. In the same week.
Is anybody familiar with the Dead’s cover of “Dancing In The Street”? I should clarify, this was apparently their second version of the song; after getting assaulted by it the second time, I sought out a Dead-loving (but otherwise all around good guy) friend and angrily confronted him about it, and he brought up its storied Dead history, how it returned to their repertoire in the late ‘70s.
And it shows, because this is Disco Dead. Holy shit, this thing is 15 minutes long, and it’s the Dead doing a disco-dance-party-Up-With-People-esque version of Dancing In The Street and never, ever ends.
I heard it the first time while visiting family, who had one of those digital cable music stations on, and this inexplicably came up. We were all kind of spellbound by its awfulness and how it kept on going. A few days later, I was back in the city at a bar with one of those internet jukeboxes, and someone, somehow chose to play it, a mere 96 hours after the first time I heard it. This thing was following me.
I think, for pure, punishing length and almost equal cheese, it outdoes the infamous JaBo version. What is it with this song? The original is perfectly fine, but is there something about it that makes it uncoverable? Is “Dancing In The Street” haunted? I think it is.
I definitely don’t want to relive the recent Dead thread, but if alex heard a 15-minute version of Dancing in the Street it must have been a live recording. The version on Terrapin Station is listed at 3:16.
That album, the second to last good Dead album, was produced by Keith Olsen, notorious for having produced Fleetwood Mac and Foreigner, so Deadheads kind of freaked when he got his slick hands on their mixing desk. But here’s a little rock trivia I discovered when I was checking my facts. Keith Olsen played bass for The Music Machine and played on the immortal Talk Talk. Plus he produced the Sons of Champlin, so he can’t be all bad.
Oh man, I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard The Dead’s cover of that song. You’re right, no one can cover it adequately. “Heatwave” is another Motown song that I think sucks whenever covered.
I knew about Music Machine – and he’s also connected to The Millenium and/or Saggitarius (The Great 48 can probably help me here), but I had no idea that Olson produced Sons of Champlin! The one production of his that I would like to punch him in the face for is Matthew Sweet’s Altered Beast. Following up on the guy’s breakthrough, once-in-a-lifetime album, Girlfriend, which I think worked because of its dry, direct honesty and expression of desire, shameless in the simplicity of Sweet’s messages, Olson enabled Sweet to make the kid-in-a-candy shop album with a DeMille-like cast of guest musicians that any super-duper pop nerd musician would make if given the chance. I sold Altered Beast about 2 weeks after buying it. It was hazardous to keep on my record shelf, even unplayed.
Next, we’re going to have to dig up that 16-minute Dead version of “Dancing in the Street”!
Yet another reason to melt the flutes and never more desire them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0OZ9W2K_z0
Jeez, I spoke too soon.
That’s priceless, Sammy! Thanks.
Don’t sweat it, Tvox! Your alternate placement of the Pollard facial tic story is worth Townspeople checking out. (It’s in the comments on today’s Comment of the Month post.)
Gotta hand it to you guys for taking shots at me as write-in entries in today’s poll! I’m aware that all of the shots are deserved, and I’ll learn from them. As for the one about the poll feature getting stale, help me out, will ya? You know how to reach me with your own fabulous poll ideas.
IMPORTANT QUESTION
Do Coldplay suck?
Thanks,
HVB
hr: yes
Cheers,
smaudlin
Mr. Mod: Yeah, I got yer fabulous pole. RIGHT HERE!
For the record, I think you’re doing a swell job with the polls.
That said, here’s my suggestion
Poll: Famous drummer who is the worst at keeping time (not one who overplays like neil peart, that’s just bad taste, and the suject of an entirely different poll)
Michael Clark – Byrds
Jerry Nolan – Heartbreakers
Jody Stephens – Big Star
Keith Moon – the Who
I should qualify:
Michael Clark – Byrds (most of his tracks)
Jerry Nolan – Heartbreakers (Chinese Rocks)
Jody Stephens – Big Star (Sept Gurls, and many more)
Keith Moon – the Who (Anything form Live at Leeds that didn’t make the original single lp.)
A SERIOUS QUESTION
Where can I find data about album sales on a per-artist level? next best thing would be per-album. Urgent request!
Thanks —
HVB