What are your thoughts on the tune, maaaaan. You likey? You no likey? Why?!
Harness your rock nerd powers and impress us with your bold critique. You might just stumble on the artist.
If you know who it is, shut your yammer.
Oct 212008
Oct 212008
The Abbey Road medley is a common point of controversy among Beatles fans, both of the “regular people” Beatlemaniacs and the rock nerd variety. One one hand the medley is dazzling, especially, I would think, to young or otherwise impressionable ears. Of course, I’m giving away my bias: even when I was a kid I found it unsatisfying and a cheap ploy. Over the years, as I’ve matured and grown as a human being, I can better appreciate the craft of the medley–even its place in cementing the Beatles’ legacy. However, I’m not totally certain of how I feel. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this key late-period Beatles work. How should I feel about the Abbey Road medley?
After the jump…perhaps the most fascinating slice of Beatlemania I’ve seen in some time…and the final word?
Continue reading »
Oct 212008
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October 21, 2008
TELEVISION REVIEW
‘Nova: Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives’By ROBERT LLOYD, TELEVISION CRITIC
“Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives” is not your usual edition of “Nova,” the PBS science anthology. The film, which airs tonight, follows rock musician Mark Oliver Everett — better known as E, leader of Eels — on a journey to discover the physicist father he never really knew and to understand something of his “Many Worlds Interpretation” of quantum mechanics — at first, painfully ignored, but now taken quite seriously.
Full story here.
Oct 172008
Sorry to post and run, but it’s late, and I have a two-bourbon buzz on. I had to get a couple of drinks down my gullet to withstand the jam-tastic wankathon that confronted me at a Little Feat show I got backstage tix to tonight. I want you all to know that the only reason I went is because a number of you — including many whose musical opinions I otherwise respect — swear by these guys.
It wasn’t terrible. I mean, it wasn’t even 20% as bad as the Phish show I got dragged to once. Or 5% as bad as I imagine Dead shows used to be. But it wasn’t really my cup of tea. Fair enough and “big fucking surprise,” I hear you guys moaning as you roll your eyes and lunge for the bong. But, seriously, do me a favor and tell me why you like Little Feat so much. What I heard was an extremely competent roots-rock/jam band, with very, very little of interest to say. Here’s a way to get at what I want to know: why do I love Lynyrd Skynyrd so much, yet find Little Feat so uninteresting?
Before you throw rotten tomatoes at me for trying to get you to say (once again): “because it’s jam-band hippie shit, and you don’t like that stuff, HVB!”, let me just say that there were a few bourbon-fueled moments where I was actually able to nod my head sympathetically to lead guitar player dude’s sextagenerian stratocaster bliss-out, and I was actually mightily impressed with drummer dude’s game. But, really, what the fuck are these guys singing about? Why do I love “Get Up, Stand Up” by Marley so much, yet find Little Feat’s version so lame?
If ever I needed some serious RTH Healing, it’s now. Please explain, so that I may grow and mature as a music listener.
Thank you all, and I look forward to your responses.
HVB
Oct 172008
Townspeople,
This is your Rock Town Hall! If you’ve already got Back Office privileges and can initiate threads, by all means use your privileges! If you’d like to acquire such privileges, let us know. If you’ve got a comment that needs to be made, what are you waiting for? If you’re just dropping in and find yourself feeling the need to make your voice heard, don’t hesitate to register and post your thoughts. The world of intelligent rock discussion benefits from your participation. Even your input, Links Linkerson.
Oct 162008
I’ll start things off: Status Quo. For better or for worse, they seem to have been ubiquitous among a generation or two of British bands while making little to no impression on US audiences. Beside “Pictures of Matchstick Men”, from their early psych incarnation, did anyone in the US ever hear their popular UK boogie music without tracking it down in cutout bins? Once tracked down, did it ever make a positive impression on any set of American ears?
Feel free to speculate on why these artists were unable to make the jump across the pond.
Oct 162008
Bill Murray was on Late Night with Conan O’Brien last night. I’m a bit disappointed that, 11 hours later, no one has yet posted a YouTube clip of his appearance, but I did find another clip that will do the job of illustrating my concern. Go to around the 3:53 mark (or watch the excruciating if occasionally funny intro, if you want to hate white folks at Blooz festivals).
Conan must have been hipped to this performance. He brought up the fact that Murray can only play “Gloria” on guitar and asked if he would perform it with the Max Weinberg 7. Murray, ever the showman, readily complied. He kicked off the song playing at least one totally wrong-sounding chord. After about two rotations through the progression, Conan’s guitarist covered for him, and they pulled down Murray’s guitar in the mix. As is the case in this Blooz fest clip the second chord in the progression seemed to be the culprit. This has raised at least two questions:
1) Isn’t the chord progression to “Gloria” E-D-A? That’s how I’ve played it for the last 30 years.
2) If so, does Murray have no idea where to fret a D chord? I know his guitar at the Blooz fest isn’t perfectly tuned, but it can’t be that two different guitars have intonation problems around the D chord only.
A third question might be, Does anyone in the entertainment industry break the news to Bill that he doesn’t even know this one song on guitar?
