“These kids got it easy, huh?”
Honestly, how many of these artists did you at least once own records by?
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Sep 252008
Sep 252008
Velv, don’t get any ideas from The Velvet Fog‘s move, beginning about 59 seconds into this clip!
Sep 232008
Get the message?
We’ve all been there. The party’s long over. A couple of guests don’t seem to notice that you’ve been yawning for a half hour while beginning the task of straightening up a bit before hitting the sack and resuming clean up in the morning. It’s time to leave, but you can’t just tell your friends to scram. Instead, you pull out that special album that hips even the most oblivious houseguest that it’s time to go home. What’s your ace-in-the-hole room-clearing record?
Sep 232008
Please closely examine both of these videos (make sure you watch the first one all the way through), then answer the questions. I look forward to your responses.
Question: every band has one — what’s YOUR drummer horror story?
Question: Please share the most heinous misappropriation of ethnic/multi-cultural music you can think of.
HVB
Sep 232008
It’s good to hear a band make something worthwhile out of the scrapheap of Yamaha DX-7 synths and Linn drum machines that was the ’80s. Whether sounding like Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark on human growth hormone on “Halfway Home” or INXS with the shades pulled back and a window opened on “Crying”, human hands firmly guide the mouse. Unlike Gnarls Barkley, another practitioner of Silicon Soul, there’s a muscular sexuality at the core of TV’s productions. Like mid-period Roxy Music, you can take this band to a fancy restaurant but you suspect all sense of decorum is out the door once back at your place. Guitarist/producer David Sitek deserves a lot of credit for the success of this album. An affectless, wheezy, 4-note bass synth pattern underpins the Prince-worthy party of “Golden Age”. It’s a subtle triumph of minimalism that ties back to Brian Eno and David Byrne’s subversive commercial highwater marks. The album closes with “Lover’s Day”, with a martial snare beat and an orchestral coda worthy of the Portsmouth Sinfonia.
TV On the Radio, “Golden Age”
Sep 222008
The following video is not exactly safe for work.
Close watchers of the occasional function of the RTH Poll had to know this one was coming. The poll question I’m referring to will change soon enough, but here’s your chance to specify the album or artist you did or did not hear in a new and improved way depending on how you answered the following statement:
I have been convinced that an album I previously did not like was actually great only after hearing it again in an altered state.
If you’ve had an altered state conversion, do tell the album or artist. You are not obligated to share details of the altering substance(s), but there are those in the Halls of Rock who desire living vicariously through your tales, so there’s no need to hold back.
If your exquisite powers of taste withstood the influence of an otherwise altered state, you are similarly encouraged to share details.
My apologies in advance for those of you who do not have a stomach for the fictional splattering of fictional multi-eyed ram’s blood.
The following video is safe for work but contains potentially disturbing images of mimed jump roping.
Sep 202008
Townsman cdm‘s Last Man Standing thread on bands named after band members who are not the front man got me thinking about an album by a solo artist that I bought solely on the strength of the backing musicians. I was going to suggest Jackie Lomax was a solo artist who was not the front man of his own band, but I’d already had enough creative suggestions shot down. I’m not bitter. Instead, in this offshoot thread, I’d like your thoughts on albums that have sold almost solely based on the backing musicians. There’s no way to quantify this, but I would suspect that 99% of the people who bought that first Jackie Lomax album did so because of the backing musicians, including his “sponsor,” George Harrison, other Beatles, Eric Clapton, and a host of other late-period Beatles associates. I’m too lazy to pull out the record right now and list all the credits, but trust me. Similarly, I’d bet about 85% of those who bought the Delaney and Bonnie album that includes Harrison and Clapton bought it almost solely based on their being on the record.
There’s no shame in any of this. It must be great for an unknown artists to see a few more than 500 albums thanks to the input of well-known backing musicians. I’d like to know a couple of things:
- Which albums do you suspect sell to any degree based almost solely on the allure of the backing musicians? (Since you have no way of calculating this, your personal experience with said albums should be a prime factor in your answer!)
- Who’s your favorite previously unknown artist that you were turned onto thanks to some better-known supporting musicians?
- Which artist, for you, failed to capitalize on this opportunity?
I look forward to your thoughts.
