Dude — I’m sorry about your Phillies. As a sincere token of my sympathies, please accept this obscure Thom Bell number I thrifted just this morning. Perhaps it will make you feel good about what could yet be in your home state.
Quick question: Ever bought or listened to an album that made you feel like the artist was doing something akin to what our friend Mr. Gorilla is doing here? First person to say “Metal Machine Music” gets an RTH Gilded Lemming in recognition of his or her lack of effort.
I look forward to your responses.
HVB
Radiohead has announced it plans to let its fans decide how much they want to pay for their new album, due out October 10 — from nothing for a digital download (in exchange for registration information, of course) to a shitload of cash for a fancy boxed set featuring all kinds of pointless rubbish. Between these two extremes, fans are being asked to pay what they think is fair for a copy of the CD, which will be shipped to them, as I understand it. Check out the following story for more information, then tell us:
a) Is this clever stick-it-to-the-man-in-the-21st-century-ism?
b) Does this kind of shit totally fuck things up for bands who haven’t experienced multi-platinum success yet, and thus don’t have the luxury of being “revolutionaries”?
c) Are Radiohead simply recognizing the fact that musicians are going to have to go back to making a living like the glorified minstrels they really are, after an 80-year run of technology- and marketing/distribution-fueled good luck?
d) How much, if anything, would you pay for Radiohead’s new album?
e) How much, if anything, would you pay for (insert name of your fave band here)’s new album, if offered in the same fashion?
I look forward to your responses–especially yours, Berlyant (you over-rationalizing, thieving, music-murdering turd).
HVB
Great 48: sadly, must ask you to recuse yourself from this quiz, as I feel certain you’d know who these two dudes are. The rest of you — first one to identify the nappy-headed Robert DeNiro lookalike and his exasperated buddy gets a patented RTH No-Prize.
I look forward to your responses.
HVB, Quizmaster
Townspeople:
Other than an early, head-scratching introduction to the band through periodic spins of my Dad’s copy of “Lark’s Tongues In Aspic” (not bad for a guy born in 1930!), my experience with King Crimson is limited, and I am wary. A recent flyer at a used copy of “Beat” didn’t do much to make me like the band more — but I did spin 30 seconds of the title track from “In the Court Of the Crimson King” on iTunes and liked it well enough. Oh, and lest ye think I’m a knee-jerk prog hata, I can also put a check-mark next to the “saw Robert Fripp deliver lecture on Frippertronics at Georgetown University and liked it okay” box.
What I really want to know is: are King Crimson really Great, and — well, if so, why?
I look forward to your responses.
HVB
Good God — this teevee performance is pretty much sheer rock and roll perfection. Fellow Townsmen and Townswomen — use your eyes and help me spot all the things that make it so wonderful. Seriously, the TV industry should’ve just hung it up after this was broadcast, so they could go out on top.
I look forward to your responses.
HVB
It’s time, people… time to TAKE RTH TO A WHOLE ‘NOTHER FUCKING LEVEL! Time to RAMP UP THE INTENSITY TO THE EXTREME! Time to KICK SOME MUTHA-FUCKIN’ AY-UHSSSSS! Time to DECIDE WHAT KIND OF BREAKFAST CEREAL YOUR FAVORITE ROCK BAND WOULD BE IF IT WERE, LIKE, TOTALLY A BREAKFAST CEREAL! TO THE MAX!!!!!!!!
Beatles
Rolling Stones
Kinks
Dylan
Van Fucking Halen
ZZ Top
Prince
ELO
Lou Reed
Television
Elvis Costello
Walter Becker’s Beard
