bad attitude club

Rock Town Hall’s Saturday Night Shut-In: (Mostly) New Music Edition

Jan 282012

Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!

In this week’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In your host, Mr. Moderator, samples mostly new releases, or at least new additions to his collection. This is sure to ignite the long-awaited RTH Youth Movement. Members of the Bad Attitude Club are encouraged to listen in, if only to strengthen their staunch opposition to most things new and unfamiliar.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-64.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 64]

[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 of each week’s podcast.]

DROP EVERYTHING…and DEAL WITH IT! (Pt. 5): Outtakes of Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” Video Require Your Analysis and Commentary

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Dec 022011

Thanks to Townsman cherguevarra for passing this baby along. Somebody must have had an ax to grind with The Boss.

DEAL WITH IT! (Pt. 4)

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Oct 182011

How does this performance by Fleet Foxes make you feel? What most stands out for you in the performance and the editing? What do you think my 3 favorite cuts are? What article of clothing is missing from this performance above all else? What do you like about this performance? I think even members of the Bad Attitude Club would acknowledge some good in this.

I look forward to your thoughts.

The Bad Attitude Club Presents: Nick Lowe’s The Old Magic

Posted by KingEd

Oct 072011

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/01-Stoplight-Roses.mp3|titles=Nick Lowe, “Stoplight Roses”]

This is terrible, this may be the worst attitude I’ve had about a new release in years. It’s been 2 weeks since I purchased Nick Lowe‘s new album, The Old Magic. I’ve yet to spin it. As anyone who knows me and my Insta-Reviews can tell you, “KingEd don’t sit on new releases for 2 weeks.” OK, I sat on a pile of Robert Pollard-related releases sent to me by Townsman kpdexter for too long, but that was because life was crazy busy, not because I had a bad attitude about listening to Pollards then-latest 19 albums.

I’ve got a real bad attitude about this new Nick Lowe album. Let’s start with the first contributing factor:

CON: “Post-Punk,” Rock’s Most Arbitrary Genre?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Sep 212011

I like some bands that get lumped under the “post-punk” banner, including at least three in particular that I object to frequently falling under that banner: Gang of Four, Public Image Ltd, and Joy Division. There’s a good chance that what I’m about to say is a case of me talking out my ass, at least in terms of the chronology of the term post-punk. I honestly don’t remember it being thrown around when I was a teenager getting into punk rock in the late-’70s/early-’80s. Do you? Do you actually remember that term carrying any weight in 1981, or is this a term that was, as I suspect and feel the blood rushing to my temples whenever I think about it, introduced years after the fact?

Maybe it was already in use in the then-legendary and completely annoying British music press at that time, but in the small world of US underground music fans, I don’t recall the term being applied to second-wave and lesser punk bands at the time. There were “No Wave” bands and other subgenres, but I remember them all being considered part of the broader punk (and New Wave) spectrum.

Life was simple then. There were fewer critical ghettos to annoy me.

Jack White: Throwback or Visionary?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jul 282011

Super-busy day ahead, but in a little side discussion I’m having with Townsman Oats in this week’s All-Star Jam regarding a new book by and interview with Simon Reynolds, he takes the following shot, which is too good not to bring to The Main Stage:

One key point from Noel Murray’s rebuttal: Reynolds may regard Jack White as some sort of analog purist poseur, but the majority of earthlings who rock out to “Seven Nation Army” don’t consider it a throwback. It’s considered a key rock song of the ’00s. No one hears that song and thinks back to 1971, except maybe some sticks in the mud who may comment on a rock blog;)

To my ears, putting aside the issue of the nonexistent bass, White Stripes couldn’t have been a more fan-friendly throwback unless he’d been backed by the Delaware Destroyers. Does Oats and the “majority of earthlings” who constitute His Generation actually hear the music of White Stripes as “visionary?” Where do you fall on the issue of Jack White: Throwback or Visionary?

I look forward to your comments—and members of the Bad Attitude Club can check their bad attitude at the door!

Mystery Date Revealed: A ’90s Artist and Her Collaborators

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jun 032011

Will Your Mystery Date Be a Dream or a Dud?

So our ’90s-era Mystery Date was California-born and -based singer-guitarist Barbara Manning, who’s released records as a solo artist and a member of various bands, including SF Seals (ie, the “local baseball team” ladymisskirroyale referred to) and the World of Pooh. These songs are from a collaboration called Barbara Manning Sings With the Original Artists she did Stuart Moxham of Young Marble Giants (who accompanies her on the first track, “When I Dream”) and Jon Langford of The Mekons (on the second Mystery Date track, “Gold Brick”), among others. You probably know the varying sounds of The Mekons. Young Marble Giants is one of those bands that you may have heard of but never actually heard. Here’s a Young Marble Giants track that showcases Moxham’s guitar style:

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