Aug 152010
Aug 132010
Where is the line between “rock” and “pop”? To start on the same page, consider “rock” to be music in a guitar band format that knowledgeable music heads (or “Townsmen/Townswomen”) would consider worth listening to and discussing, especially 5 or more years after its release. Consider “pop” as hit-driven product that is only fresh until its sell-by date.
I think we can all agree that all ’50s, most ’60s and some ’70s music (like The Beatles and The Eagles) fill the rock requirements while being huge pop hits. For The Eagles, note that I didn’t say it had to be good, but I don’t think many would argue that they are not “rock musicians.”
At some point these 2 categories broke apart. Consider Counting Crows. I know a number of folks who own and will listen to August & Everything After (myself included). After they did the big pop hit from Shrek, they went to the pop bin never to be taken seriously again. This may have something to do with the realities of marketing movies to children.
Wait, it gets worse. Continue reading »
Aug 132010
Why, oh why do some of us feel compelled to dance and sing in front of others? And why does that desire frequently force us to act, you know, really stupid?
In college, I was in a band with townsman kcills, in which we wrote music with no words. By which I don’t mean that it was instrumental music — it was just music to which I would make words up, on the spot. If they were good, they might make it to the next show — or they might not, if I forgot them between one gig and the other.
Now: I was madly in love with a girl on the crew team at the time (oh, Emily! If you only knew how I pined for you! If you only knew how I yearned to kiss you! If you only also knew how disgusted I was when I discovered my best friend had plowed your bean field in a drunken stupor at a frat party!)
Anyhow — because I was a seething cauldron of pain and romantic confusion, I would frequently get up on stage and, for lyrics, just shout out some unintelligible nonsense about how tortured I was by my unrequited love for this girl. It was absolutely, completely pathetic. One day, it dawned on me that the only thing separating me from a screaming lunatic in a tinfoil suit was that I had a guitar and a microphone in front of me. I started getting a bit more serious about lyrics after that.
But I can’t be the only one with an embarrassing story to tell. Do share. I ask you: Musicians! Tell us your most embarrassing moment on stage or in studio. Listeners! Please share the most excruciating musical moment you’ve ever witnessed. Let the healing begin!
Oh, Emily!
HVB
Aug 132010
I’ve always thought classic REM sounded like Neil Diamond in a minor key with added twinkly guitar bits. Until the other night, I had not heard more than a single REM song at a time in a good 15 years. One of the friends we’re renting a place with in New Mexico played a half dozen or more REM songs from his or her iPod, and my old thoughts about REM and Diamond were revived.
Michael Stipe has similar phrasing and vocal tone to Diamond. He projects a similar “solitary manliness,” laying into the opening phrase of almost every line. The choruses of REM and Diamond have a lot in common too, sweeping upward and pouring on the solitary manliness established by the verses.
Listen to almost any classic REM song and see if you can’t sing the lyrics and melody of one of Diamond’s big hits. You may have to pause between verses now and then to allow Peter Buck to play one of those twinkly parts, but it’s not that hard to hear the similarities in songwriting and structure.
Like Diamond, Stipe and company abandoned their “forever in blue jeans” Look and gussied themselves up to project “larger than life.” For the last 20+ years Stipe has felt compelled to act out some larger drama for a loyal, aging audience. Diamond perfected this approach 20 years earlier.
I’m not holding this comparison against REM; in fact, I’ve always had the slightest of soft spots for Neil Diamond. Thinking of REM in this way helps me like them more than when I think of more common comparisons, like how they used to be compared to The Byrds because of the twinkly guitar parts and folky vibe. I think that comparison has always sold the band short.
Aug 122010
Mr. Ladymisskiroyale passed along the following NPR story for us to check out, on odd musical pairings.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129082648&sc=emaf
He’s certain we can come up with entries those latte-sipping NPR listeners would never have thought of. See if you can prove him right! Thanks.
Aug 122010
What’s the best dance in rock? Not best dancer, mind you, but the best dance that almost anyone can do, or at least wish to do? Here Debbie Harry demonstrates the pogo. I can’t say that all do it even half as well as she does it, but if more of us could I’d consider putting the pogo at the top of my list.
Aug 112010
“You can trust me, I play in a band!”
Surely someone in a band you trust has given you bum advice on buying an album before. It’s possible that musician even used his or her “insider knowledge” as a musician as part of the pitch. If so, any if you’d like to now call out that person in public, be it a musician you know or a musician whose advice you took from an interview, for steering you wrong, here’s your space to do so. Calling out the musician by name is optional, especially if it’s a friend. If it’s a fellow Townsperson, we’ve got thick enough skin to take it! If it’s a musician whose advice you followed from an interview, by all means call that person out! What album did this musician convince you to buy based on what special insights?
