Rock Town Hall • Rock Music Discussion

Since I Stole You

Jan 152011

Last weekend’s New York Times Magazine contained an article about Girl Talk entitled, “The 373-Hit Wonder.” In it, there is a brief history of the Mash-Up, starting with a 1906 entry of Charles Ives progressing through the Beatles‘ 1968 “Revolution 9”; K-Tel Records; Lee Scratch Perry‘s production of Blackboard Jungle Dub; Stars on 45; the 1989 Plunderphonic by John Oswald; 1996’s Endtroducing…, by DJ Shadow; the Avalanches‘ Since I Left You; The Grey Album, by Danger Mouse in 2004… and then craziness ensues with samples going wild.

The article states that Girl Talk’s “sound collages are radically different from their sources, far more than the sum of their parts,” but notes the potential for a “gold mine” of lawsuits that could ensue from gaining permission to use the samples. Gregg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, reported that he has never been sued or asked to desist, and that “one of the acts he samples…proudly put a link to Girl Talk on their home page.”

I have the last two Girl Talk “compositions” and I thoroughly enjoy them…at times and for certain purposes. It’s great fun trying to identify the samples, many of which are from Classic Rock (I’m hopeless at the Hip-Hop/Rap ones). The juxtaposition of some of the music and the lyrics can be very funny or ironic. Or it can just be good listening. I find that Girl Talk can be very good to listen to, especially on long stretches of freeway when I’m not necessarily actively listening but just driving to the rhythm. However, I don’t know if these “albums” will stand the test of time and be dusted off in another decade.

Rock Town Hall’s Saturday Night Shut-In: The Everly Brothers That Time Forgot

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 152011

Mom!

In tonight’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In, Mr. Moderator will spend time with a collection of songs by The Everly Brothers, from their post-peak years of 1965 through 1972. It is not a well-known period in their career, but it did yield a few minor hits and songs that were otherwise brought to the public through cover versions, including Mr. Mod’s favorite Bryan Ferry solo cover, “The Price of Love.”

“I first became interested in this period of the brothers’ career,” said Mr. Moderator in a pre-show interview, “in the early ’80s, when I bought a double-album collection of their greatest hits on the Arista label, with some pink-themed cover. As I got into the post-‘Cathy’s Clown’ material on side 3 I became fascinated by efforts to update their sound. They still made for a pretty strong, second-rate mid-’60s band, although I don’t think these strengths were reflected in their record sales.”

“As a student of long-running failure and dashed dreams,” Mr. Mod continued, “I’ve continued to dig out tracks from this point in the Everly Brothers’ career. I’m rarely let down by the feelings of empathy that sweep over me.”

“I’m sorry,” he concluded our chat, “I’ve got a show to do.”

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-11.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 11]

[Note: The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player. In fact, you can even set your iTunes to search for an automatic download each week’s podcast.]

A video taste of the wilderness years most of us missed follows the jump!

Trish Keenan of Broadcast Dead

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 142011

Townswoman ladymisskirroyale wrote me before heading off to a busy day at work with the following report:

Ok, I know you were broken up about Gerry Rafferty, but today’s news about the death of Trish Keenan, lead singer of Broadcast, really bums me out. Broadcast has been one of my favorite bands for a long time. They started out as Stereolab wannabees (but without the overtly political lyrics of Laeticia Sadier) and were also highly influenced by The United States of America. (Mr. Royale and I tried to get into The United States of America but had minimal luck; albeit, we sampled only one album. The only similarities that they had were the vocals, maybe a bit. We sold it back.) But Broadcast really started to go in some interesting sonic directions, and I would say that their being labeled “space rock” by others was too reductionistic. Trish Keenen’s vocals were at times chilly (a la Karen Carpenter), but she was singing about very personal things and from a singular perspective. Listen to her sadness on “Illumination” on The Future Crayon. One of my favorite tracks is “Tender Buttons,” off of the Tender Buttons album.

Rock Town Hall 451

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 142011

Here’s a quick set up on a busy morning after a long night’s work that I’m sure you will take the distance.

Imagine a world in which our nerdy rock banter and insights are banned by the State as being harmful and counterproductive to the social order of the music industry. Mainstream entertainment publishing titans, like Rolling Stone‘s Jann Wenner, don’t want our lot challenging the received marketing messages handed down with review copies of the day’s most heavily promoted sounds. Rock Town Hall, as a publicly available music discussion venue, is broken up. Our URL is blocked! Townspeople are tracked down in their mothers’ basements. Top 10 lists—and even the collected Billboard state-of-the-industry article links of RTH Chess holdout Links Linkerson—are wiped clean from hard drives! Townsman berlyant heads to the hills to organize a secret community for fugitive Townspeople and other rock nerds.

This secret community is organized along the lines of the one in Farenheit 451. To preserve our collective wealth of deeply held and off-the-beaten-path opinions for future generations, Townspeople pledge to memorize one musical opinion. It can be a personal view, a succinct record review (eg, J.D. Considine’s GTR review, that read something like “SHT”), a key quote from a landmark artist interview, or so forth.

Should this day come, what one musical opinion would you pledge to take with you for the sake of future generations?

Battle Royale: Who’s The Man Among Country’s Man’s Men?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 142011

Why have I never seen this clip before? Could Waylon Jennings‘ overall presence be any more macho? Look at his upright, angled stance! You can almost taste the chocolate thunder of that suit! Dig that starched, high collar! Best of all, check out how the lines from his erect shirt collar shoot right through his pompadour! And he has that style of looping his right arm under his guitar, rather than coming at the strings from over the top. Kinda looks like the way G.I. Joe would hold a machine gun! The song—and that twangy guitar solo—are all business! It’s never been hard to find a Man’s Man in country music, but is Waylon Jennings The Man Among Country’s Man’s Men?

All-Star Jam: It’s a Family Affair

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 142011

Hey, why did Johnny take Tommy’s guitar? Who dressed Don? In honor of this evening’s episode of Saturday Night Shut-In, in which Mr. Moderator meditates on the post-peak years of The Everly Brothers, we’re keeping this jam all in the family!

You say you want MORE? Well, be my guest…after the jump!

Listen But Don’t Look Principle Revisited: Something So Wrong

Posted by cdm

Jan 132011

Prompted by Townsfellow shawnkilroy, I just watched the video for “Something So Strong,” by Crowded House for the first time in a while. I think that this song is undeniable. It’s a great performance of a great song, the hooks are so big you could use them to go whale fishing and it still sounds fantastic despite the era in which it was recorded. Even Mitchell Froom managed not to go overboard with the production.

The problem? Everything about the video. When this came out, I almost blew off Crowded House solely because of that video. This may be an example of Bigsteve’s Listen But Don’t Look Principle, but let me catalog some of the atrocities that take place in a mere 3:13:

Shameless mugging
Slack-jawed bemusement
Milk drinking
Neckerchiefs
Cartwheels
Pratfalls
Horn-rimmed eyeglass—bedecked Nerds dancing with dresses
Video chicks that are so devoid of sex appeal that they make it seem like the Nerd made the right choice when he went for the dress
And a complete and utter disregard for one another’s personal space.

“Losing My Religion,” by REM is a distant second for me for songs that I ended up liking despite the video. The film-student pretentiousness of that video made it unable for me to give that song a fair shake. When I finally saw them do it live on tv, I ended up really liking the song.

Are there promotional efforts that ended up doing more harm than good for you?

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