Name a band that changed their name by either adding OR subtracting a word or words but not doing both.
Adding AND subtracting to a name does not count (eg, Jefferson Airplane to Jefferson Starship, which involved the deletion of “Airplane” followed by the addition of “Starship”).
Also, the name change must have occurred before the band made their mark and not later on, when they are doing their Big Cash-In tour with some new guys (eg, The Cars to The New Cars).
A recent issue of GQ is sitting in the men’s room at my office, with Jake Gyllenhaal making goo-goo eyes at me. I’m sure it’s just the way God made him – and I’ve only seen him in one or two movies that he did not single-handedly destroy – but that guy really annoys me. Believe me, I know nothing about him (he may be a fantastic human being and all that), but every time I look at him he strikes me as a world-class kiss ass!
This got me thinking about Townsman E. Pluribus Gergely‘s Six-Pack or Shotgun theory on how we actually assess acting talent. To summarize, if you don’t have the time to go back and read the original thread, Gergely’s legendary late-night pronouncement on the topic should do:
“There’s no such thing as Acting Ability!” he said in typically definitive fashion, slamming his fist for emphasis. “When we watch any any actor in any movie it comes down to one thing: If that actor showed up unannounced at your back door, would you greet him or her with a six-pack or a shotgun?“
Today, let’s see if we can tackle the near-impossible task of applying this theory to related pairs of polarizing musicians. Sure, we’re loaded for bear when it comes to passionate, informed musical opinions, but let’s see if we can leave musical content out of it and investigate whether there is a deeper truth to our feelings on the following pairs of artists.
Your mission is to choose which artist in each pair gets the six-pack and which gets the shotgun. There’s no in-between, no ties, and especially none of this! The only risk you face in participating is the risk of revealing something deep about yourself.
A final reminder: If at all possible, leave your opinions on the artists’ music out of it. To aid in this I have attempted to kick things off with the selection of a few pairs of artists whose music most Townspeople have equal amounts of musical interest in.
When you’re done assigning the six-pack and the shotgun to each of the following sets of related polarizing artists feel free to add your own pair of related polarizing artists for us to ponder.
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My apologies to a few of you who heard this story already. On Saturday my family and I were suited up and hitting the road for the Bat Mitzvah of the daughter of a friend and Townsman. Car rides to formal events always start off with a bang in our family. In the hour leading up to our departure we’re all on each other’s case, pointing fingers at each other for jeopardizing our ability to get on the road on time. One person’s shower is taking too long, while another person is taking too long to get into the shower. There’s always one more chore to knock out, like a basket of laundry that needs folding. I begin sweating like a pig as soon as I begin putting a tie on. There must be a pill I can take to stop sweating when I’m putting on a tie! I inevitably yell to no one in particular.
For this trip, although I had to finish reading the sports page and have one more cup of coffee before hitting the shower – and although I was already feeling the heat of the tie – I vowed to be the roadtrip’s Dr. Feelgood. I refrained from pointing fingers and threatening to leave without anyone who wasn’t ready at the appointed departure time. Then, in what seemed like a brilliant stroke of spreading some good vibrations, I readied disc 1 of Paul McCartney‘s Wingspan collection – nothing but the hits! I knew this CD would ease my wife’s rising stress level, and if Mom’s relaxed the boys have a better chance of being relaxed. (I was cool, mind you, totally sold on my pose as Mr. Calm.) Continue reading »
Years after the fact, years after I wrote off all of these bands (with the huge exception of X-Ray Spex, whose “Oh Bondage, Up Yours” is one of the most-invigorating songs ever) as undisciplined, often shrill, distaff entrants into the punk world, what am I to make of bands like Au Pairs, The Slits, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Raincoats, and many more? I so quickly dismissed these bands in my first few years of hearing punk rock and early post-punk that I’ve got them all confused these days. This called for a candid, from-the-gut reassessment.
On Saturday a couple of friends were talking about Au Pairs. One of them described them as a “female Gang of Four,” which is how I’d remembered them. Just now I found the clip that kicks off this post and confirmed both my memory of the band and my friend’s comparison. It’s pretty good, but as I felt back then, there was only room for one Gang of Four in my tastes. I still love hearing my Gang of Four albums a couple of times a year, but their style of music is a dead end. How many variations on the choppy funk chords and didactic, talk-shouted, 2-note vocals does a man need?
I went back and revisited Delta 5, another band I recalled being in this vein and having similar strengths and limitations, and my gut feelings held true. The music of this song is as good as the music in a Gang of Four song, but the lyrics sound like something a few creating kids would crank out for their 8th grade basement band. There’s a lot to be said for the off-the-cuff creativity of youth, but I felt a hundred years older than that when I was young. My loss, I’m sure. Although I truly understand the appeal of this style of music, I’m surprised young bands are still trying to ape that pose. We get it already, or at least I do.
I believe that in an ideal world, involving slight time travel and possibly Black Magic, The Move as produced by Jimmy Page to capture the band’s low-end rumble and provide space for Roy Wood‘s reedy tendencies, could have been a much easier band for me to sell to friends.
Check out this late-period song, “Ella James.” It’s melodic, it boogies, it’s hard rocking, and it has elements of Byrdsy jangle and late-period Beatlesy melodicism all the while reaching for The Power and Glory of Rock. However, the parts are not-quite-definted, and it you know the album version you may agree with me that, like just about everything The Move recorded, it’s a mess of a production. For a band led by two highly conceptual multi-instrumentalists The Move had trouble sorting through the details of their ambitious productions. They badly needed help.
Jeff Lynne would take The Move’s template and polish it up to nice effect for ELO, but I believe he avoided dealing with the parent band’s maximum heaviosity. Page would have known how to incorporate those elements while modernizing the band’s sound, making them more than a clunky version of The Who.
How I wish I could go back in time and make this so. What artist would you say needed the production skills of what producer?
Part of it’s the mix, but I listened to the studio version of this Thin Lizzy song, “Whiskey in the Jar,” and heard the same lack of restraint in the lead guitar. I’m not an expert on matters of tasteful guitar – and I’m a big fan of The Velvet Underground‘s “I Heard Her Call My Name” – but is the guitarist (Eric Bells?) stepping all over Phil Lynott’s vocals? I guess it’s supposed to be “Celtic” sounding, but man, get a little stringed instrument!
Tasteful guitar experts, what do you think? Is there a song that comes to mind when you think, Lead guitarist showing absolutely no restraint?
