Anybody here have the word, or a take, on a band called Free The Bees? I'm sending this question for a friend, who says the band's work reminds him of early McCartney solo records.

Thanks.

And by the way, while I'm stuck out here, I just want to say a friend recently passed along to me the first four Hawkwind releases, up through the double live record. Kinda rocks, huh? Each record better than the previous one? Psychedelic space time with real rhythmic bite and a healthy sloppiness that's half crap and three quarters the the real thing (note to bakshi: yes, I know, that's 5/4).

Watching the weather--

I had no idea what was going on out your way, Mwall. Good to know you're OK. Enjoy those Hawkwind albums. I need to get back to that band since I had my first taste of them earlier this year.

Thanks, Mr. Mod. Nothing like some creepy end of the world musical effects right about now. Word is 150,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. All's well my way, but other folks around here are going have to wait and see.

You don't know the half of it! One of today's LA Times headlines:

California fires disrupt TV shoots

Oh yeah, and 270,000+ people evacuated from their homes.

Anybody here have the word, or a take, on a band called Free The Bees? I'm sending this question for a friend, who says the band's work reminds him of early McCartney solo records.

Thanks.

The band is actually called The Bees (or A Band of Bees in the U.S. where they had to change their name since there was apparently another band here called The Bees) and the name of the album in question (their debut, I think) is called Free the Bees. With that point of the way, I have this album and I like it, though I haven't spent that much time with it. I remember it reminding me more of mid '60s British Invasion stuff and even garage rock at times than early McCartney solo, but I'd have to pull it out again.

Have you guys read this yet? It's right up there in rock gossip-potential with that Hornby piece that RTH tore into a few years ago.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2007/10/22/071022crmu_music_frerejones

And here's a rebuttal from Slate:

http://www.slate.com/id/2176187/


ac

Thanks for passing along those links, Tvox. This Frere-Jacques guy's argument lacks some meat, but I wholly agree with his premise. The spark that ignited Whitey Rock, however, was not Pavement but Joy Division/New Order and U2. For the first time, I believe, rock embraced bands that had rhythm sections incapable of playing anything remotely related to rock's swinging rhythms. These bands made some good music, of course, but they inspired legions of flat rhythm sections.

You know, when I first read that piece, I thought "Frere-Jones didn't need to bring race into the equation. He's just asking for something very similar to that 'driving beat' Mr. Mod values so highly. He just doesn't know it." You guys should totally hang out!

Totally, Oats! What gets me is that this guy gets to write a half-assed plea for Rock's Big Beat in a major newspaper while I've been doing the heavy lifting in near obscurity with the likes of my friend E. Pluribus Gergely, for years.

Seriously, where this guy loses me is his inclusion of hip-hop into the equation and his fantasy that the White Man has run from the "challenge" posed by Snoop Dogg. That whole segment makes me squirm.

How come no one mentioned these for the most rocking shoes? Pretty sure they're Converse One-Stars.

Some of you may have noticed intermittent disruptions today. Turns out some of our server relays are located in California fire zones. We'll do our best to keep rockin' in the free world. Your patience is appreciated.

Someone might want to check in on Townsman mwall. They are moving in on 1M evacuees. Reports liken it to a "migration".

Townsman mwall, if you're reading this,let us know you're alright.

I actually happened across Frere-Jones article yesterday. I was with him at the beginning, but he seemed to run out of steam before really making much of an argument.

I liked the Slate rebuttal for the sociological analysis. Have you read the NYTimes article about the Odyssey Years? http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/09/opinion/09brooks.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Brooks writes about "the decade of wandering that frequently occurs between adolescence and adulthood." I was thinking that this parent-funded period of finding oneself before law school or whatever has contributed to the efflorescence of indie rock.

That Frere-Jones writes so well you believe him whether he right or not. The world of popular and unpopular rock is too diverse to make the sort of argument he making. Where's Beck's success figure into all the this? Devendra Banhart's Latin rhythms? great closing paragraph. Slate piece was well-written too.

Thanks for asking, all you guys. I actually sent a post last night that must have gotten lost in the Rocktown technical problems, because I saw it post but it's not anywhere today.

Things are much better here this morning. After a little clearing around noon yesterday, the red smoky
sky moved in again for the afternoon, leaving more ash all over everything. But by last night there was starting to be a small, but still cooling, "onshore flow," that is, the air started moving from the ocean onto the land (the usual way) instead of the reverse Santa Anna way.

Things are getting better inland too, but much more slowly of course, and some major fires are still burning. But with onshore breezes come more humidity, etc.

My university is closed until Monday, and so is much of the rest of the inland county.

It was cooler last night and finally possible to sleep okay, so I did--I'm just now getting up.

It's a cool sunny day today, quite a relief, with a few remaining wisps of smoke in an otherwise clear sky. But we've still got the sound of sirens all over the place.

That Frere-Jones writes so well you believe him whether he right or not. The world of popular and unpopular rock is too diverse to make the sort of argument he making. Where's Beck's success figure into all the this? Devendra Banhart's Latin rhythms? great closing paragraph. Slate piece was well-written too.

Well, he may write well, but wow what a pompous blowhard with serious hang-ups about race and contradictions abounding in almost paragraph. The Slate response, on the other hand, was one of the best response pieces to shite like that or the Hornby piece that I've ever read and a great piece of music criticism as well.

Thanks for passing along those links, Tvox. This Frere-Jacques guy's argument lacks some meat, but I wholly agree with his premise. The spark that ignited Whitey Rock, however, was not Pavement but Joy Division/New Order and U2. For the first time, I believe, rock embraced bands that had rhythm sections incapable of playing anything remotely related to rock's swinging rhythms. These bands made some good music, of course, but they inspired legions of flat rhythm sections.

While I agree with your basic premise somewhat, I wouldn't blame those bands exclusively for the "whitening" of what would become post-punk and indie-rock. Again, you're painting with a really broad brush here. Many post-punk acts (including New Order and Factory labelmates A Certain Ratio) were inspired by mostly black disco and electro acts. Furthermore, the entire concept of the bass coming to the forefront of the mix, like on those Joy Division singles or on say, Joe Jackson's 1st 2 albums, comes from the influence of dub and reggae. Thus, I don't buy Frere-Jones' race-based arguments for that and many other reasons.
Regardless, I think this relates to another thread from a few months back where eplurby made some comment about how "white" certain CBGBs bands were and I stated that punk was the first rock and roll where white people didn't have to feel guilty about stealing from black sources. In other words, it was a predominantly white, middle class and often college-educated as well (I mean the Talking Heads/Television contigent here and those 2 bands clearly have influenced a lot of indie rockers). Of course, this doesn't get into hardcore, which is suburban in origin.

I guess my overall point, which yes is a bit muddled, is that even songs like The Decemberists' "The Perfect Crime" (which owes a lot to Talking Heads) can be considered distantly influenced by the so-called "driving beat" of r'n'b. Hell, on "The Sporting Life", they even employ their version of what sounds like the Bo Diddley beat, which is another reason why that Frere-Jones article made me cringe.

We interrupt this moment of contentious and thrilling rock criticism for more evidence of early Seger greatness:

http://ironleg.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/
the-caretakers-east-side-story/

While they're not my favorite band, there is far, far, too little discussion of The White Stripes in either of those pieces to make any sense.

Oh, and for my own interruption: I saw a massive and awesomely lunk-headed B-List All-Stars Jimi Hendrix tribute Sunday night, and man, Mitch Mitchell CANNOT play anymore. Like, at all. It was really sad watching him come out of every single fill on the three-and-a-half or the four-and-a-half on the one and only song his drumkit mikes were actually turned on for.

Matt says:
"Well, he may write well, but wow what a pompous blowhard with serious hang-ups about race and contradictions abounding in almost paragraph."

I didn't get that vibe at all, I like the fact that he dared to dive in and talk about race rather than just steer away from it like many do. Thought it was brave of him to bring up his own example of trying to sing in Ui (who I've always liked).

The piece is too conveniently reductionist though. I see the temptation as a writer to develop an idea that, while it might be "arguable", is not actually "true".

-db
np Richard Youngs - AUTUMN RESPONSE

Nice tip on the Seger cover AC. Shame no one has yet to package all those classic early singles. I need my "Persecution Smith".

-db

Berlyant wrote:

Many post-punk acts (including New Order and Factory labelmates A Certain Ratio) were inspired by mostly black disco and electro acts.

First of all, don't drag "labelmates" into the equation. I specifically talked about the rhythm section of Peter Hook and that Steven guy. Not to get racist about it, but who hears an octaroon's worth of African American music in the music of Joy Division??? Don't give me dub (not American, not part of rock's traditional rhythms). Don't give me disco stuff that was filtered through Giorgio Moroder (ie, the Krautening of soul music). That flat disco beat that first hit our shores thanks to Moroder's work with Donna Summer was hated by some fans of previous versions of African American rhythms for good reason. F-L-A-T. I'm not saying that nothing good could come from the flattening of rock (it actually cuts across racial lines as you head into '80s black music), and this is where that Frere-Jones lost me. I'm not sure how much some of those Snoop Dogg-era hip-hoppers are any more "black" in terms of African American musical traditions that fueled rock's big beats.

Hey, Trolley -- that shit was *awesome*! Thanks for the burnin' Seger track!