Comments on: Friday Fun Thread

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 18:29:42 +0000

Holy. Shit. Saying either that rock died in 1969 or that rap is not music would have marked you as an old fogey, Dave F. By saying both, you have transcended that label. What does that make you now? A transcendental fogey? A fogey overlord?
I’m in awe.

By: lane

lane — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 18:43:51 +0000

is that what happens when academics gather to discuss music? radiohead haven't released a good album since The Bends? the arcade fire are too earnest? pavement forgot to write songs on slanted & enchanted? sonic youth jumped the shark? Nevermind is overrated? For a bunch of people i'm counting on to save the world, you sure have bad taste in music.

By: Dave F

Dave F — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 11:26:16 +0000

Rock music died in 1969. It’s just marketing set to music now. Or even without music, as in rap. Trite rhyming is telling it how it is? Bullshit. And I am a former rock musician. Yes, before 1969.

By: Don Grimm

Don Grimm — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 21:34:26 +0000

Don Van Vliet was an amazing live performer with The Magic Band. A great deal of the rythmic power and amazing ensemble playing they were capable of didn’t transfer to vinyl. I saw them live three times in the 1970’s and each show was wildly different with the musicianship at a very high level each time. The records that he recorded just don’t reflect that live presence very well.

By: jonnybutter

jonnybutter — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 19:19:44 +0000

Jake-

I personally like Trout Mask, but it’s not something you want to sit around listening to for hours day after day. Clear Spot is denigrated by some cooler-than-thou types as too ‘commercial’, but that’s hokum. It’s a wonderful album, and well-recorded, which a lot of his records decidedly aren’t.

By: Jake

Jake — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 18:11:16 +0000

I’ll give it a try, jonny. The allmusic blurb makes it sound like it might be more to my taste than Trout Mask Replica was.

By: kth

kth — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 15:42:39 +0000

If you like, say, Big Star, and middle-period George Jones, it's hard to see how you wouldn't like Pet Sounds. "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and "God Only Knows" are practically the same song. But Smile, the followup to Pet Sounds, is quite dreadful despite near universal acclaim from rock critic types.

By: Walt Pohl

Walt Pohl — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 14:27:58 +0000

Teresa Nielsen Hayden makes an important point. Just because you don’t like some music doesn’t mean it’s bad. That’s the difference between you and me. If I don’t like some music, then it’s because it really is bad.

And I liked Slanted and Enchanted. Does that mean I can get a job as a rock critic?

By: tvd

tvd — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 20:34:55 +0000

What’s “bad music”, anyway?

“There are only two types of music, good music and bad music. Good music is music that I want to hear. Bad music is music that I don’t want to hear.”—-Fran Leibowitz

I suppose one could make a case that there are psychoacoustic phenomena like wave forms resonating in mathematical “harmony” that sound “good,” but it would be a value judgement to say this isn’t the pinnacle of all human sonic endeavor.

By: jonnybutter

jonnybutter — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 19:48:26 +0000

Since when is rock or pop music criticism about music? Since never, for the most part. It’s always mostly been an excuse for musically ‘challanged’ writers to blather self-importantly, usually in an attempt to seem ‘smart’. This guy is no exception.

And Don Van Vliet does not suck at all oh no.

That’t right, he doesn’t. Some of his records are better than others – and some of them are just bad – but he’s not a ‘product’ which simply ‘sucks’ or ‘doesn’t suck’. (Jake might want to have a listen to ‘Clear Spot’)

By: J. Ellenberg

J. Ellenberg — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 17:05:50 +0000

Lots of criticisms one could make of Slanted and Enchanted, great as it is, but “they forgot to write songs???” I have to say that there’s not much I find myself singing as I walk down the street more than early Pavement. That stuff is catchy.

By: Mr. Bill

Mr. Bill — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 14:47:40 +0000

Steely Dan’s recent “Two Against Nature” was a, to my mind, a dreadful rehash of their old stuff. It’s critical reception made me think we need a manditory retirment age for ‘contemporary’ music criticism.
And I was a Steely Dan fan….

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 08:02:13 +0000

The Pavement haters can represent in a steel tank full of paint fumes. If you’ve held your breathe long enough to bleat out one last diss of a seminal 90s band then try and make it something other than “cryptic” or “amateurish.” Just to be contrary and all though, agreed on the Radiohead hating as The Bends was their last great album.

By: bad Jim

bad Jim — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 03:55:56 +0000

A footnote to jtthomps’ complaint: the lyrics to Crown of Creation were taken directly from John Wyndham’s science fiction novel The Chrysalids, where they did indeed make sense.

By: yoyo

yoyo — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 01:36:10 +0000

sonic youth is interesting, especially in a history of music sort of way, but not really enjoyable. and i didn’t think people still enjoyed the sex pistols. the archetype of a historically important band that is shit outside the context.

pavement albums should be listened to in reverse chronological order if S&E doesn’t take right away.

canonical bands i don’t get, but don’t doubt are great?: tom waits