What are you listening to right now?
- bambooneedle
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- Otis Westinghouse
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The Philly Sound: Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and the Story of Brotherly Love (1966-1976)
A big favorite of mine. I picked up this 3-disc box set through one of those dorky record clubs about ten years ago as a bargain (though now it's $60 used on Amazon-- and at 68 tracks still worth it!). It's a fantastic mix of stuff you probably know and stuff you don't, and is a seriously fun and funky listen. Fab packaging as well, with a great booklet.
I went to summer camp outside Philly four years running and these songs bring me back to hot days listening to WFIL on a charmingly crappy AM radio. But you don't need no stinking nostalgia to enjoy these tunes.
- mood swung
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- bambooneedle
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What irritates me about Radiohead more broadly is how everything they do is considered to be so "important"... does Thom ever play down this supposed importance self-deprecatingly in interviews? Because, really, in the grand scheme of things, are they really that important? Even if something they do IS innovative and important, it can't be THAT innovative and important, surely. They shouldn't take themselves so, so seriously. But they always have to play this game and pretend that they are. It gets so boring, who can be bothered, I tire of the snobbery. I don't have to be party to it by buying into them.
They have been playing the media game very experty all along, and really, without doing so they would have gotten nowhere, it's really part and parcel of their art, this constant creating and controlling of their image, much like Warhol, much like anyone in music increasingly now who comes to be considered "important" or "relevant". There's nothing wrong with that up to a point (especially when you're trying to make your name), but it makes it easy for me to understand why Kid A and Amnesiac came after their deification with OKC. The music's deliberate inaccessibility was more or less a 'fuck you' to the mainstream, which... fine, but my point is that the obsession with their image and its influence on their music should be acknowledged when thinking about Radiohead doing their 'experimental' stuff because that wasn't the only choice they had. In a way, it wasn't brave at that point, it was safe... they avoided vulnerability by being very inaccesible. By design, it was safer for them in terms of their bigger goal of preserving their "importance".
They were in a very enviable position, too, just after OKC. One that musicians dream about. From there, they could have done a lot of different things without compromising themselves or having their previous achievements undermined. The apparent fear of repeating themselves is overstated also, imo. Really, if you're so artistic in the first place, as if you could.
They're a pop act like anyone else ie. their albums are sold to the masses and it comes with a deliberate image (as I indicated above), so if they have ideas why not put them across more compellingly? No, instead he has to moan and mumble unintelligibly and the music has to be so self-indulgent and dreary with the odd slightly more accessible number. It's just playing the snob game to the extreme.
They have been playing the media game very experty all along, and really, without doing so they would have gotten nowhere, it's really part and parcel of their art, this constant creating and controlling of their image, much like Warhol, much like anyone in music increasingly now who comes to be considered "important" or "relevant". There's nothing wrong with that up to a point (especially when you're trying to make your name), but it makes it easy for me to understand why Kid A and Amnesiac came after their deification with OKC. The music's deliberate inaccessibility was more or less a 'fuck you' to the mainstream, which... fine, but my point is that the obsession with their image and its influence on their music should be acknowledged when thinking about Radiohead doing their 'experimental' stuff because that wasn't the only choice they had. In a way, it wasn't brave at that point, it was safe... they avoided vulnerability by being very inaccesible. By design, it was safer for them in terms of their bigger goal of preserving their "importance".
They were in a very enviable position, too, just after OKC. One that musicians dream about. From there, they could have done a lot of different things without compromising themselves or having their previous achievements undermined. The apparent fear of repeating themselves is overstated also, imo. Really, if you're so artistic in the first place, as if you could.
They're a pop act like anyone else ie. their albums are sold to the masses and it comes with a deliberate image (as I indicated above), so if they have ideas why not put them across more compellingly? No, instead he has to moan and mumble unintelligibly and the music has to be so self-indulgent and dreary with the odd slightly more accessible number. It's just playing the snob game to the extreme.
Last edited by bambooneedle on Tue May 23, 2006 3:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- so lacklustre
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I guess I just don't agree that it's self-indulgent, but I can understand how others might disagree. I think that if you took the more accessible moments from Kid A and Amnesiac you would have one hell of an album. Things like "Treefingers" and "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" put some people off (not me), but there are some real gems on these two discs IMO.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
- mood swung
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Having an early peek at The Avalanche, Sufjan Steven's album of Illinois outtakes. Aside from three alternate versions of "Chicago," all these tracks are new. Early favourites include "Dear Mr. Supercomputer" and "Adlai Stevenson." If you like Illinois, you'll definitely like this stuff.. though on first listen it's not as consistantly strong an album.
Last edited by BlueChair on Wed May 24, 2006 3:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
This morning you've got time for a hot, home-cooked breakfast! Delicious and piping hot in only 3 microwave minutes.
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I'm starting to think this is one of the most high-flown concept albums ever. It's quiet and moving in the way that only she can be (though the whole thing reminds me a bit of Jane Siberry's brilliant When I Was A Boy) but never dull, if you're listening attentively. It really needs the sort of attending to I would have given it as a teen, sitting on the floor reading the lyrics off the back, lights low, concentrating only on that.
- Otis Westinghouse
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Quite possibly, I found I got more out of it on returning to it after initial boredness. It's often a shame that the older you get the more music you have and the less time and the more incidental the listening of it can become. Not all the time. When I hit on something I really like, or by dsomeone who's incredibly important to me, I'll play it loads, e.g. ROTT or Time Being, but there are so many others I need to revisit. Re the lyric reading and the recent discussion of Pulp's We Love Life, I love them even more for instructing the listener never to read the lyrics while listening!
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
- mood swung
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- miss buenos aires
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mood swung, I am too listening to Nick Lowe. Lately I've Let Things Slide, from the Convincer, which I got this morning. I'm on a bit of a Lowe mission. I can't afford any of his earlier "classic" albums, so I ordered Rockpile, The Convincer, Dig My Mood and The Impossible Bird. Rockpile impressed me (though I don't really like Dave Edmunds' voice, I'm warming to it), and The Convincer is getting better with each listen.
All I have to do now is find £50 for each of his other albums!
All I have to do now is find £50 for each of his other albums!
If there were a king of fools than I would wear that crown/And you can all die laughing/Because I'll wear it proudly.
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- Who Shot Sam?
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- Otis Westinghouse
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- Otis Westinghouse
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I see. Wasn't aware she'd gone solo. Rock chick with good looks, who had her guitar nicked:
BASTARDO
Late one day, I led Spanish boy astray
His name was Antonio
Took him out, and of his charms I had no doubt
Stayed drinking Mohitos
Tender in the bedroom is all I can remember
And the way he looked when he moved so near
In my ear, he whispered and shed a tear
Oh my bambino
Tender in the bedroom is all I can remember
And the way he looked when he moved so near
And in the morning when I woke there was no Antonio
Just some money that he’d left for the memory of me
And oh my beautiful guitar, that’s what really broke my heart
Had been stolen by the two-faced low lothario
One night stand, lover you got out of hand
Oh yeah you went too far
Big mistake, falling for a first class fake
Who left me for my guitar
Tender in the bedroom is all I can remember
And the way he looked when he moved so near
Through my tears, I would have to find my dear
Guano Antonio
Tender in the bedroom is all I can remember
And the way he looked when he moved so near
And in the morning when I woke there was no Antonio
Just some money that he’d left for the memory of me
And oh my beautiful guitar, that’s what really broke my heart
Had been stolen by the two-faced lothario
Oh my beautiful guitar
On and on I go till I find you
My beautiful guitar
On and on I go till I find you
Oh I know, oh I know, oh I know Antonio
Won’t be back as I discovered on his track
He’s gone back to Mexico, oh Antonio
Oh my beautiful guitar
On and on I go till I find you
My beautiful guitar
On and on I go till I find you
And in the morning when I woke there was no Antonio
Just some money that he’d left for the memory of me
And oh my beautiful guitar, that’s what really broke my heart
Had been stolen by the two-faced lothario
Yeah had been stolen by the two-faced lothario
Yeah had been stolen by the dirty two-faced lover bastardo
close window
(By the way, it's spelt 'mojitos'.)
Sounds nice, quite power-poppy. I always thought she was American, and she sounds American, but appears to be from London.
BASTARDO
Late one day, I led Spanish boy astray
His name was Antonio
Took him out, and of his charms I had no doubt
Stayed drinking Mohitos
Tender in the bedroom is all I can remember
And the way he looked when he moved so near
In my ear, he whispered and shed a tear
Oh my bambino
Tender in the bedroom is all I can remember
And the way he looked when he moved so near
And in the morning when I woke there was no Antonio
Just some money that he’d left for the memory of me
And oh my beautiful guitar, that’s what really broke my heart
Had been stolen by the two-faced low lothario
One night stand, lover you got out of hand
Oh yeah you went too far
Big mistake, falling for a first class fake
Who left me for my guitar
Tender in the bedroom is all I can remember
And the way he looked when he moved so near
Through my tears, I would have to find my dear
Guano Antonio
Tender in the bedroom is all I can remember
And the way he looked when he moved so near
And in the morning when I woke there was no Antonio
Just some money that he’d left for the memory of me
And oh my beautiful guitar, that’s what really broke my heart
Had been stolen by the two-faced lothario
Oh my beautiful guitar
On and on I go till I find you
My beautiful guitar
On and on I go till I find you
Oh I know, oh I know, oh I know Antonio
Won’t be back as I discovered on his track
He’s gone back to Mexico, oh Antonio
Oh my beautiful guitar
On and on I go till I find you
My beautiful guitar
On and on I go till I find you
And in the morning when I woke there was no Antonio
Just some money that he’d left for the memory of me
And oh my beautiful guitar, that’s what really broke my heart
Had been stolen by the two-faced lothario
Yeah had been stolen by the two-faced lothario
Yeah had been stolen by the dirty two-faced lover bastardo
close window
(By the way, it's spelt 'mojitos'.)
Sounds nice, quite power-poppy. I always thought she was American, and she sounds American, but appears to be from London.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more