Jan 282012
Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!
In this week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In your host, Mr. Moderator, samples mostly new releases, or at least new additions to his collection. This is sure to ignite the long-awaited RTH Youth Movement. Members of the Bad Attitude Club are encouraged to listen in, if only to strengthen their staunch opposition to most things new and unfamiliar.
[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-64.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 64][Note: The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player. In fact, you can even set your iTunes to search for an automatic download of each week’s podcast.]
Neil Young joins Bad Attitude Club:
http://www.musicrooms.net/rock/44826-neil-young-blasts-the-sound-of-today-s-music.html
The Royale household could also be called The Church of Talk Talk. When you announced the band, we literally froze waiting to hear whether you were going to dis them or not (Mr. Royale was prepared to no longer Talk Talk to you if there was anything derogatory said, that’s how strong his feelings are). There was an audible letting out of breath when “Eden” came on.
Mr. Royale can speak much more eloquently than I on this band. Here he is guesting:
“Eden” is from their penultimate album, and the song is part of a sequence of songs on an album that bears resemblance to Miles Davis’ “In a Silent Way” and Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks”.
Talk Talk are a phoenix-like band to me (see also Japan > David Sylvian, or The Walker Brothers > Scott Walker) in that they started off poppy, riding on the heels of Duran Duran, and then tore everything down, coming up with new and unheard of changes with each reticent release.
Mark Hollis had been struggling with heroin use previous to the “Spirit of Eden” LP, and you can hear echoes of the V.U.’s “Heroin” guitar stabs in “Eden”. There are moments in this album where the guitars rival The (then current) Jesus & Mary Chain for feedback squall.
Talk Talk took things to their apex with their next album, “Laughing Stock”, bringing in jazzy syncopation and ambient sounds that played as much on silence as on rock per se.
After that, they imploded, with Hollis going into Barrett-like seclusion, and the remaining rhythm section forming a band called O.Rang, and then backing Beth Gibbons of Portishead’s solo work. We saw them on this tour and they were fabulous. Ladymiss met Beth Gibbons and was in a happy cloud for days afterwards.
Here’s a track from the Beth Gibbons/Rustin’ Man album/tour. Look for Paul Webb and Lee Harris (2/3rds of Talk Talk) along with Adrien Utley of Portishead:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AmKkz5-lyA&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=AVGxdCwVVULXeeNmhh3OFKLX0itxMxQZym
Very cool, Royales. I liked that track, by the way, and now feel more confident about listening to the rest of the album, which I bought a month ago and feared listening to for memories of their early Duran Duran-like hit.
I don’t know much about Talk Talk except the hits, but that song was something fantastic.
Hear, hear for the Talk Talk number. Kinda heavy in a good way.
I don’t think you’re gonna attract a huge Youth Movement with Merle Haggard, Bob Wills and Talk Talk. The Cloud Nothings song is pretty good. They’re from here (well, at least Dylan Baldi is) and he’s making a pretty big noise for a really young guy.
You’re moving on up, to the (youth) side….But have a long way to go. Let’s keep that time machine moving forward!
And by the way, thank you for playing what I believe was Broadcast as your bed music.