Jul 082020
Do the Doughnut with our Lockdown Sessions captain and close personal friend Townsman hrrundivbakshi! That hole in the middle is for you to fill in this All-Star Jam.
Do the Doughnut with our Lockdown Sessions captain and close personal friend Townsman hrrundivbakshi! That hole in the middle is for you to fill in this All-Star Jam.
As the arbiters of all things rock, are we expected to have an opinion on Haim?
Man, I picked up the new 1/2 speed remasters of the Stones’ Voodoo Lounge and Bridges to Babylon because I bought mostly cd’s in the 90’s, and I forgot how much I like these two albums. Great pressings that sound terrific to me. I’m a pretty happy little Stones fan here.
Is Haim that sister act? If so, they had a song a few years ago that I found catchy in the way I can sometimes find late-period Fleetwood Mac cheese like “Hold On” enjoyable. I then tried listening to their whole album, but it went nowhere. What made you think of them?
Yes, it’s the sister act. I am looking for the song that first caught my ear, but this one is similar. They also reminded me of Wilson Phillips, and scanning through videos, they do a lot of girl power promenading in their videos, like that group did.
https://youtu.be/kiqIush2nTA
63% facetious. I seem to keep seeing their name pop up with positive connotations from critics. I saw a clip of them and they were playing Gibson Les Paul and SG guitars which is something. Since they are three sisters in the same band, I assume their bio and dynamic might be interesting. From the little I’ve heard of their music, I’m not interested, but it seems like their career is on a path where people will say how important they were. (like Taylor Swift is considered important now) We can go back to debating if The Kinks had a good drummer or not.
Yes, the dynamic sisters wielding cool guitars is part of their initial appeal. They’ve got a lot of energy, as witnessed by their Fitbit-driven videos, and it looks like they can actually play, as witnessed on their SNL appearance from a few years ago and other live clips I’ve seen. Where they run out of gas, for me, is in the interesting songwriting department. Give me Sleater-Kinney (pre-St Vincent production) any day of the week over Haim. Big surprise?
The other day, a FB friend posted the question, “Is Mick Fleetwood a great drummer?” I’m not too up on that myself, other than figuring he certainly plays what suits the song and keeps a pocket. I’d barely looked into the rabbit hole of youtoob Mick Fleetwood drum solos when I found this video of him playing his “percussion vest” (there are triggers inside it). It may be worth some dissection – or it might just disturb you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TwO2Wfn46o
It sounds to me like the guy from “Pan’s Labyrinth” is doing most of the work.
Haim do a serviceable version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well.” I thought they were pushed when they came out about 5 years ago, but they never seemed very compelling from what I’d heard. Also, I’m not sure that any “rock” act in this era can be culturally important like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé et al.
I also don’t think they can be an “important” rock act a la Sleater-Kinney or even the aforementioned St. Vincent. Their style tends toward classic arena rock, not the ideal approach for critical importance. Think Greta Van Fleet.
This is not to say they can’t somehow wind up playing to huge audiences like the innumerable country-bro acts that I can neither name nor tell apart.
I got fooled by the Fleetwood Mac thing when Haim first came out. I listened but didn’t hear anything that I could recognize (or that was particularly interesting. Not bad, just meh).
I think if there are Millennial women in a band and that band plays rock and has harmonies, there’s some requirement somewhere that they be compared to Fleetwood Mac. Similarly, if it’s an all guy Millennial band with harmonies, they will be compared to post Pet Sound era Beach Boys. If they are related, they need to have spent their childhood harmonizing on long car rides.
I don’t know what’s funnier, cher, the Skinemax soft-porn filters on both Fleetwood’s vest solo and the crowd reactions, or geo’s Pan’s Labyrinth reference. Either way, THIS is the sort of pandemic relief that RTH was brought back to provide. Bravo!
I was thinking that Mick looks like me after a beef and bean burrito.
That Mick solo is just long enough to permit costume changes for the other members of the band.
The other videos I saw – none of which I could take for very long – seemed to consist of Fleetwood yelling goofy, crowd-working chants into a headset mic while playing some just ok drum solos. Why is he wearing a pair of dangling balls, is that his thing? The pan’s labyrinth comment made me LOL. Drum solos are problematic for me, in general. If Max Roach were the only person to ever take a solo, I’d be fine with that. He does more with one hi-hat than most rock drummers do with an enormous kit. Supposedly Ringo had to be pressured into taking the solo on Abbey Road, points to him for that.
Right at the end of that Rolling Stone video chat with Ringo, which BigSteve posted, he talks about the only drum solo he ever liked. I forget what it was now or who played it. Then he adds something like, “I believe Bonham once recorded a worthwhile drum solo too.”
So, is Mick Fleetwood a good drummer? I think he’s good for Fleetwood Mac, but is he a one-trick pony, with those big, muffled tom-tom beats? Is there a drummer in the house to tell us whether they think he could add anything to another band, say Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, the Kinks, or Haim? 🙂
I was thinking Fleetwood had a nice swampy feel. I put on “Then Play On” to verify and noticed that about half the record has no drums! I guess Peter Green has the nice feel.
Mick Fleetwood was never considered an extraordinary technician, ala Ginger Baker or John Bonham. He was all about the feel, and when it came to that, he was nearly unequaled.
There’s the famous story of trying to record Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London.” They tried it with seven separate groups of musicians, going through the very greatest session players in Los Angeles—and since absolute monster drummers such as Russ Kunkel, Rick Marotta and Jeff Porcaro play on the rest of the album, it’s safe to say each of those guys almost certainly gave it a try. And it just didn’t work. Until they finally gave Mick Fleetwood (and John McVie) a go and BOOM. Their second run-through is the one on the record.
That Werewolf story is great.
I don’t like drum solos in general and the Rhythm Vest is particularly cringey, but I like Fleetwood’s drumming quite a bit. Was Ringo a great drummer? I don’t know but he (with assistance from Bernard Purdie) was perfect for his band and so is Fleetwood. Plus, I think he’s subtly odd. Something is going on with the drums in Rhiannnon. I can’t put my finger on it but it’s not straight and it’s sounds cool. A certain amount of technique is necessary but feel is much more important to me.
Speaking of Haim, they were on The Price Is Right repeat of Music Week (originally broadcast the week of the Grammies) yesterday. It was Pop day & they were the featured band. The previous day was Rock & Roll & the featured band was Fallout Boy
WXPN, Philly’s AAA station out of University of Pennsylvania, is in the midst of a live block of The Boss. He and His band are giving it everything They’ve got. The fans are eating it up. Something tells me The Big Man is about to take a booming sax solo. Ooh, but first an audience singalong! Bless Him and His enthusiastic crew.