Looney Tunes, or Music in General

I was subliminally instructed to start this topic by Moose, who is well aware of the short lifespan of any of my topics. I feel like the drug runner pilot sacrificed every so often to the feds by the image-conscious drug lord.Right now I'm eagerly awaiting the mid-October arrival of the new CD from my Favorite Band of All Time of the Week, the Shins. Their brilliant first CD Oh! Inverted World was filled with shoegazer pop and strange lyrics. It should have ensured front man James Mercer a one-way ticket to the same zip-code of oblivion inhabited by Dogbowl or Lee Mavers of the La's, but instead I guess he's doomed to become a college rock Sisyphus, plugging away year after year to no avail like Robert Schneider of Apples in Stereo.So what's everyone else been annoying their neighbors with lately?------------------
I would not let the chickens cross the antidote road because I was already hospitlized for trying to say this!-Brad McFall

I'm glad this forum doesn't have a piped-in soundtrack, because it sounds like we don't agree on much as far as tunes go. As es la vida, folks.I'm a major league fan of Dylan. During the mid-Sixties, his stuff was so brilliant he can be excused the sporadic awfulness of his post-bike-crash output. Just when you want to write him off, he comes back with something cool. Hidden gem: "Clean Cut Kid," the razor-sharp Vietnam vet song off 1985's otherwise disposable Empire Burlesque.Wierd Al will be playing in Hell when I get there. And thereafter.I listened to my share of art-core, crunching hideous anti-rock, and psycho sludge in my day. Volcano Suns, Swans, Zeni Geva, Melvins, Cows, Naked City, Napalm Death, Pain Teens, and Foetus all helped hasten my exit from the ancestral homestead.Elvis Costello has always been one of my faves too. I respect more than enjoy his collaborations with the likes of Bacharach and Brodsky quartet. I truly enjoy the slew of extras he piles into the reissues of his stuff on CD. In visionary rocker mode, he made the insufferably pretentious but undeniably amazing Imperial Bedroom.I liked Nick Cave's early solo stuff, but it never achieved the scuzzy genius of those Birthday Party albums. Drunk on the Pope's Blood was a live document of a very sinister bunch.------------------
I would not let the chickens cross the antidote road because I was already hospitlized for trying to say this!-Brad McFall

Ah yes, the Clash. I revere their snarling punk debut, and even Blue Oyster Cult's producer couldn't tarnish their coolness on the roaring Give 'Em Enough Rope. My kids are in for years of therapy to cope with the embarrassment of watching their dad jump around when he hears "Tommy Gun." Their songs were so great on London Calling that no one realized how professional and rockist the erstwhile rebels had become. Wile E. Coyote would be shocked at the fall the band would take after that. A worse album than Sandinista! has never been conceived, recorded, or released. The remainder of their career is unworthy of comment. A couplet from Joe Strummer for our friends the Intelligent Design Creationists:"I believe in this and it's been tested by research
He who fucks nuns will later join the church"PS. Did I mention that Pink Floyd will be Wierd Al's backing band in Hell? That's the Syd Barrett Floyd, the Roger Waters Floyd, and the David Gilmour Floyd.------------------
I would not let the chickens cross the antidote road because I was already hospitlized for trying to say this!-Brad McFall

I'm not the biggest Van Morrison fan, but I think he gets the prize for the greatest straight-out cover of a Dylan song.Hendrix had to turn "All Along the Watchtower" from a brooding, macabre vignette into a psychedelic bad-trip nightmare. The slide guitar solo made it sound like a lava-soaked Hawaiian volcano sacrifice. Genius, but totally different from the Dylan concept.Similarly, the Byrds took the eccentric acid-folk of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and made it a shimmering pop gem, with jangling Rickenbackers and celestial harmonies. Great stuff, but unrecognizable from Dylan's original.Van Morrison's pastoral Seventies pop was too complacent for my taste. If Esteban here never hears "Brown Eyed Girl" again, he'll die a happy man. But back when he was in the Belfast beat band Them, Morrison did a version of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" that was absolutely astounding. It's an apocalyptic song, and Morrison refuses to turn it inside out or sidestep the desolate remorse that it's drenched in. So he just sings the shit out of it. And he never sounded better.------------------
I would not let the chickens cross the antidote road because I was already hospitlized for trying to say this!-Brad McFall

Moose,Your tastes are cool indeed. How interesting that you're a fellow fan of loopy geniuses such as Captain Beefheart and Sun Ra.I'm also fascinated by the 50's-60's heyday of modern jazz. Miles's stuff is a bit static for my liking, but I love that Coltrane set you recommended. Black Saint and the Sinner Lady is definitely Mingus at his most flamboyant and imaginative. The eloquent, eccentric Ornette Coleman has always been my favorite, especially The Shape of Jazz to Come. I have a real soft spot for Cecil Taylor's mind-blowing Conquistador! as well. Andrew Hill's Point of Departure assembled a stellar cast (including mad Eric Dolphy) for a free-jazz milestone.------------------
I would not let the chickens cross the antidote road because I was already hospitlized for trying to say this!-Brad McFall

Happy to report I finally got the Shins' new CD Chutes Too Narrow, and it's filled with the same brittle melodies and off-kilter lyrics as their debut. I just know we'll be seeing James Mercer warble 'Mine's not a High Horse' on TRL soon.While in Miami I located el nuevo disco de Basque rocker Mikel Erentxun, Ciudades de paso. Much as I like his new batch of tunes, some are, ahem, familiar sounding. I hope New Order's lawyers don't chase him into his outpost in the Pyrenees for the passing resemblance 'twixt 'Loco de atar' and 'Blue Monday.' I don't recall who did the 80's radio staple 'Pure and Simple,' but neither, it seems, does Mikel's publishing company. Buena suerte, hermano.------------------
The bear thought his son could talk in space about the time matter has to rotate but twisted heaven instead.
-Brad McFall[This message has been edited by MrHambre, 11-04-2003]

Wow. I had assumed that Bonnie Raitt's sleepwalk through 'Baby Blue' was the absolute worst cover of that Dylan tune. Bonnie keeps the top spot until I hear the Dead's version, which I'm sure is marked by their characteristic power and precision.Did anyone else see Fillmore, the documentary from the early 70's chronicling the final week of concerts at Bill Graham's hallowed hall? It's a laugh riot of gargantuan proportions. The performances by local luminaries such as It's A Beautiful Day and Cold Blood, as well as a moribund Jefferson Airplane, are notable only for their listlessness and ineptitude. To close the show, the Dead wowed the crowd with a comically plodding rendition of 'Johnny B. Goode' that didn't as much anticipate punk rock as make it inevitable.------------------
The bear thought his son could talk in space about the time matter has to rotate but twisted heaven instead.
-Brad McFall

quote:

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Hole did a cover of the Morrison cover which I dislike immensely (the Hole cover of the cover that is, not Morrison's).

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That doesn't sound too promising. Though I still wear the T-shirt I got at their show at Boston's Rat during their Pretty on the Inside tour, Hole's first two singles 'Retard Girl' and 'Dicknail' were by far the finest things they ever did. Now that Courtney Love is the Mary Tyler Moore of the new millennium (as well as having her material written for her by song doctor Linda Perry), we can safely ignore the rest of her career.I didn't realize Morrison didn't use all Dylan's lyrics. I still have my copy of the record by Them, but I don't have a turntable anymore. I'm pretty sure Van the Man himself penned the most-covered rock song ever, with 'Gloria.' I still prefer his own snarling 1965 version with Them.------------------
The bear thought his son could talk in space about the time matter has to rotate but twisted heaven instead.
-Brad McFall