Close your eyes.

Following some recent comments regarding a couple of Townspeople's distaste for Cheap Trick, BigSteve suggested the following advice:

It's too late for y'all to get Cheap Trick, but, as with Herman's Hermits, they're a great example of the 'listen but don't look' principle.

The listen but don't look principle should be of assistance for Townspeople who can't get past a variety of visual beefs: from silly stage wear and goofy antics to the vagaries of aging and genetics. Think of all the artists whose music might benefit from the application of this principle in your own listening life. Certainly this principle has its limits, but BigSteve may be onto something. This may be why some of us find rock 'n roll most enjoyable when holed up in a dark room, alone and listening to recorded music.

What's least surprising and most surprising in the Nielsens' design choices? Does the place jibe with his musical identity? How would being in this house make you feel? And hey, who wants to tour Rick Nielsen's house and not get to see the music room?

If you can convince me that Cheap Trick is way better than power pop predecessors The Raspberries, more power to you, but let's keep this challenge simple: Is there evidence that Cheap Trick should be thought of as anything more than The Raspberries with a highly evolved schtick?

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There's a nice treat in this old post that has been an entry for many into the Halls of Rock. Never having been a big Cheap Trick fan, I have yet to download and listen to this treat in its entirety, but it came on during a mastering session with an engineer friend just Wednesday night, and then it came up for discussion again on Thursday, so I'll download this bad boy myself. Finally. If you haven't done so already, why don't you check it out and report back to us? Thanks!

This post initially appeared 9/27/07.

This is from answers.com and seems identical to what I read awhile back on Wikipedia but is now mysteriously gone.

On the radio show "Rockline" in 2003, someone called in and asked the band for the history behind the rumored Steve Albini version of the "In Color" disc, and Bun E. Carlos gave the explanation. The "In Color" album was produced by Tom Werman, but the band always felt that Werman screwed up the album. "He made it safe for radio, but the album sounds like it was done in a cardboard box." So in the late 1990s they were in the studio hanging around with the producer Steve Albini, and had nothing to do for a few days, so they said "Yeah, that would be fun to redo that." So they started re-recording the songs. They Did not finish the album, not all the harmonies or instruments are on it yet, but it can be found on the internet. It includes two versions each of "I Want You to Want Me" and "Oh Caroline" as well as a cover of John Lennon's "I'm Losing You."

More gifts below the fold!

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