{"id":3832,"date":"2010-11-03T17:22:54","date_gmt":"2010-11-03T21:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=3832"},"modified":"2010-11-03T17:47:07","modified_gmt":"2010-11-03T21:47:07","slug":"bullshit-on-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/bullshit-on-can\/","title":{"rendered":"Bullshit On: Can"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"425\" height=\"319\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"data\" value=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/bullshit2.swf\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/bullshit2.swf\" \/><embed type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" width=\"425\" height=\"319\" src=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/bullshit2.swf\" data=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/media\/blogs\/rth\/bullshit2.swf\"><\/embed><\/object><\/div>\n<p>Granted, the following video of <strong>Can <\/strong>is probably\u00a0not considered representative of the band&#8217;s sound, but the revolutionary, political mumbo jumbo surrounding it is &#8211; I believe &#8211; a major factor in this band&#8217;s critical acclaim among rock snobs.<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wkRczBPRbCk?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>I can empathize with many of you who identify with the &#8220;socialist&#8221; stance of a Can or <strong>Henry Cow<\/strong>, with the &#8220;anarchist&#8221; stance of an <strong>MC5<\/strong>. It&#8217;s hard to give up on the belief that rock &#8216;n roll is <em>important<\/em>, and who better to uphold rock&#8217;s claims to social relevance than some avant-garde German hippies? If only these high-minded expressions were upheld in the grooves&#8230;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Any time I&#8217;ve tried to get into Can I&#8217;m reminded of those &#8220;tweener&#8221; <strong>Pink Floyd<\/strong> albums, when the Roger Waters-led band was trying to find its way as song sculptors. Here&#8217;s Can playing &#8220;Paperhouse,&#8221; probably on Beat Club, with all those snazzy psychedelic projections.<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/x76CeJBbJs8?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>I guess this stuff was a huge influence on a lot of noisy, &#8217;80s-era Homestead bands. Congratulations.<\/p>\n<p>Here, on &#8220;Bring Me Coffee or Tea,&#8221; the band takes a stab at &#8220;Riders On the Storm&#8221; moodiness&#8230;minus anything that I can imagine would possibly make a listener care about the song.<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ilk-2tXzlvE?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>Finally, here&#8217;s the band performing a song called &#8220;Spoon,&#8221; probably what inspired the ice-cold Austin indie band&#8217;s choice of name.<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3buYpfYRlaA?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>This is all right, and it&#8217;s a rare example of a Can song that I could see influencing <strong>Public Image Ltd.<\/strong>, an influence that got me interested in checking out Can in the first place way back in 1981. Is this as good as it gets? Does singer <strong>Damo Suzuki<\/strong> ever add anything worthwhile to the band other than being a sexy Asian presence with great hair? Bullshit on Damo, if nothing else!<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to my dissatisfaction with Can I did feel compelled to investigate other German bands from that time with much better results: the repetitive focus of <strong>Neu!<\/strong> delivered,\u00a0<strong>Amon D\u00fc\u00fcl II<\/strong>&#8216;s loopy psychedelia is very cool&#8230; But Can? <em>No Can do.<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"polls-12\" class=\"wp-polls\">\n\t<form id=\"polls_form_12\" class=\"wp-polls-form\" action=\"\/blogs\/index.php\" method=\"post\">\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"poll_12_nonce\" name=\"wp-polls-nonce\" value=\"28afc4403e\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"poll_id\" value=\"12\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Now that I've considered the current \"Bullshit On\" piece on Can, I can definitively say:<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"polls-12-ans\" class=\"wp-polls-ans\"><ul class=\"wp-polls-ul\">\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-45\" name=\"poll_12\" value=\"45\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-45\">Can do!<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-46\" name=\"poll_12\" value=\"46\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-46\">No Can do!<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<\/ul><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><input type=\"button\" name=\"vote\" value=\"   Vote   \" class=\"Buttons\" onclick=\"poll_vote(12);\" \/><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#ViewPollResults\" onclick=\"poll_result(12); return false;\" title=\"View Results Of This Poll\">View Results<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"polls-12-loading\" class=\"wp-polls-loading\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-polls\/images\/loading.gif\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading ...\" title=\"Loading ...\" class=\"wp-polls-image\" \/>&nbsp;Loading ...<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Granted, the following video of Can is probably\u00a0not considered representative of the band&#8217;s sound, but the revolutionary, political mumbo jumbo surrounding it is &#8211; I believe &#8211; a major factor in this band&#8217;s critical acclaim among rock snobs. I can empathize with many of you who identify with the &#8220;socialist&#8221; stance of a Can or <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/bullshit-on-can\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[87,360],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3832\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}