Loaded: best VU album, rite guys?

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(byrds i can hear, the other ones mentioned less so. not saying they weren't *influenced* by those bands, just that it's not readily apparent. to me.)

tylerw, Friday, 30 March 2012 22:52 (twelve years ago) link

I totally hear Pere Ubu in REM come on now

You big bully, why are you hitting that little bully? (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 30 March 2012 22:52 (twelve years ago) link

really? what songs?

tylerw, Friday, 30 March 2012 22:53 (twelve years ago) link

the whole mechanical dance-rhythms plus jingle-jangle plus inscrutable yelping

like say Ubu Dance Party

You big bully, why are you hitting that little bully? (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 30 March 2012 23:00 (twelve years ago) link

and then there's the surrealism-by-way-of-Americana angle, I dunno I see lots of parallels

You big bully, why are you hitting that little bully? (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 30 March 2012 23:01 (twelve years ago) link

is not far from Chronic Town/Murmur tracks to my ears. I mean obviously Dave Thompson's vocal style is pretty different but there's some similar elements

You big bully, why are you hitting that little bully? (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 30 March 2012 23:04 (twelve years ago) link

Most "9-9/Wind Out"s from pre-'86 shows have distinctly Ubu-esque moments.

Dancing with Mr. T (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 30 March 2012 23:07 (twelve years ago) link

Radio Free Europe is a little bit reminiscent of Non Alignment Pact, that bassline especially sounds Ubu-ish, it's got that wobbly urgency.

Valéry Giscard d'Staind (NickB), Friday, 30 March 2012 23:12 (twelve years ago) link

Too bad Stipe sounds more like James Taylor than Crocus Behemoth, although on Murmur he at least sounds like JT sliding into his methadone escalator, cool. There was some re-contextualized jangle in "Lady Godiva's Operation"(as LG gets her own re-context on, or off). Otherwise, the jangliest thing I can think of is "Who Loves The Sun," released in 1970, one of the least jingle-jangle morning years evsh, even for those of us who weren't in Cambodia at the time-time. Music was going into the heavy arena boogie, or getting back to its roots--a bit of jangle in nascent country rock, come to think of it, but not getting the kind of radio play VU may have been hoping for. ("Pack up your tent McGuinn, you ain't goin', nooowhere.")

dow, Friday, 30 March 2012 23:14 (twelve years ago) link

Sunday Morning and Femme Fatale or total jingle jangle

You big bully, why are you hitting that little bully? (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 30 March 2012 23:17 (twelve years ago) link

yeah, I guess, but if so, that was the jangly folk-rock moment, so why not--while 1970 was so not, so fucking why??

dow, Friday, 30 March 2012 23:19 (twelve years ago) link

although I never had any prob with it--first hearing it in '73, q much sunnier year

dow, Friday, 30 March 2012 23:20 (twelve years ago) link

wow that quine interview is great.

s.clover, Friday, 30 March 2012 23:20 (twelve years ago) link

How are The Quine Tapes? Xgau's review ends w mention of "new guitar"(?)

dow, Friday, 30 March 2012 23:23 (twelve years ago) link

lol yeah I dunno. I love Who Loves the Sun but it's definitely not of-it's-time

You big bully, why are you hitting that little bully? (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 30 March 2012 23:23 (twelve years ago) link

Femme Fatale def has some jangle. I'm Set Free too. What Goes On sounds like an epic outtake from Love's first album (except for the vocals)

Sunday Morning has xylophone which is totally diff't

what is a dog-robber? (loves laboured breathing), Friday, 30 March 2012 23:31 (twelve years ago) link

yes it has xylophone, but it also has Sterling's rhythm guitar part

You big bully, why are you hitting that little bully? (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 30 March 2012 23:34 (twelve years ago) link

Maybe they were trying to cheer us up! Yeah, maybe would have worked if I'd heard it in '70. Pretty sweet funny sly sometimes badass album overall. Speaking of Quine, I just remembered this email I sent out a couple years ago, the main link still works, haven't checked the hound's blog lately:
Hey came across this, new to me anyway, linked from the MySpace page of The Black Keys, whose Dan Auerbach turns out to be a member of Bob Quine's family, and what a family, wish I knew them, here's their hearty brainy Midwesten site, with much about Bob & other goodness: http://rubbercityreview.com/tag/Robert-Quine
The Quine site link to houndblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/quine.htmlis worth checking too, though the Hound's account of RQ's last days is pretty harrowing Tons of links to music and vids on both sites, though I haven't had time to check nearly all of them.

dow, Friday, 30 March 2012 23:36 (twelve years ago) link

xpost nitpick: xylophone is made up of wood bars and has a lower register. i think that's a glockenspiel (sic?) or something like that

epigram addict (outdoor_miner), Saturday, 31 March 2012 00:00 (twelve years ago) link

Oh my bad

what is a dog-robber? (loves laboured breathing), Saturday, 31 March 2012 00:07 (twelve years ago) link

I love Who Loves the Sun but it's definitely not of-it's-time

A lot of bubblegum rock on the radio in those years.

timellison, Saturday, 31 March 2012 00:14 (twelve years ago) link

To answer the question posed in the subject line of this thread: yes.

chromecassettes, Saturday, 31 March 2012 01:44 (twelve years ago) link

sunday morning has celeste on it.

tylerw, Saturday, 31 March 2012 01:53 (twelve years ago) link

anyhoo, re: REM maybe it's just that stipe is such a singular vocalist that it's hard for me to hear those other bands in their overall sound.

tylerw, Saturday, 31 March 2012 02:00 (twelve years ago) link

Whoever mentioned Train Round The Bend upthread is OTM, Man I love that song, maybe the most.

JacobSanders, Saturday, 31 March 2012 03:29 (twelve years ago) link

*plays 'I Heard Her Call My Name' on the loop while reading thread*

xyzzzz__, Saturday, 31 March 2012 08:48 (twelve years ago) link

As a result of this thread CCR totally clicked for me.

Great Quine interview:

The deliberate cretinism of the drums and the bass. The way that the bass walks at the end. In the middle of the song, he says 'work it now' and there's no guitar solo. That's beyond cool.

xyzzzz__, Saturday, 31 March 2012 08:50 (twelve years ago) link

More lol:

We limped on with various personnel. Jake Riveria picked us up and Nick Lowe produced us- he was too poppy for what we were doing. By then, in late '78, we realized that no one was interested in us. So the deal was that we'd tour with Elvis Costello for two months, stay in England and Nick Lowe would produce an album for us. It was a grim tour. Costello was getting more and more popular, less punk. The audience had no interest in us- when we hit the stage, the applause would stop. We played in some dire villages that looked like they didn't even have electricity.

xyzzzz__, Saturday, 31 March 2012 08:56 (twelve years ago) link

My introduction to the Velvets was the Joy Division version of Sister Ray on Still and that put me right off for the longest time.

― Valéry Giscard d'Staind (NickB), Friday, March 30, 2012 3:05 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Me too ... and sometimes I'd hear "Sweet Jane" on the radio and think "what is this shit, the Cowboy Junkies totally rescued this song".

NoTimeBeforeTime, Saturday, 31 March 2012 09:27 (twelve years ago) link

just re: outtakes & all everyone has to get with this, whatever they think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmmSfru60MY

& scott is otm, loaded is so easy to like. i mean it's got rock & roll on it, it's such a good lou record, stuff like the above included.

john-claude van donne (schlump), Saturday, 31 March 2012 10:11 (twelve years ago) link

As a result of this thread CCR totally clicked for me.

no slam, but genuine lols

ccr, by any means necessary

welcome aboard

my work here is done

diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Saturday, 31 March 2012 18:19 (twelve years ago) link

three re Quine 1) on VU bass & drums: "deliberately cretinous"--well, Mo dug Bo, don't know Cale's agenda, but sure does seem like this combo loved to veer into strobe visions of Times Square topless go-go bar (foretelling classic headline "Headless Body Found In Topless Bar"). Also keeping mynd Seeds, Standells, Electric Prunes etc, who had the hits after all, but VU too cool to linger (although good for their club act, of course) 2) He may have been miserable on the UK tour, but a really good live legit CD very eventually emerged 3) forgot what I was going to write

dow, Saturday, 31 March 2012 18:44 (twelve years ago) link

How are The Quine Tapes? Xgau's review ends w mention of "new guitar"(?)

― dow, Friday, March 30, 2012 4:23 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

they are amazing, a total revelation, imo better than 1969 Live, etc.

Flat Of NAGLs (sleeve), Saturday, 31 March 2012 18:47 (twelve years ago) link

Thanks! "a really good live legit CD": Richard Hell and the Voidoids' Time (longer and better sounding edition of the show on their ROIR live tape)

dow, Saturday, 31 March 2012 18:49 (twelve years ago) link

dow - we've got time for yr 3). Plese come back sometime.

In other developments I'm kinda regretting listening to ccr as I clicked on a HIGHLY OFFENSIVE Pavement cover of Sinister Purpose.

Minuteman must have done something w/one of their songs so I'll hunt that -- to clear the damage, you understand.

xyzzzz__, Saturday, 31 March 2012 18:59 (twelve years ago) link

Minuteman must have done something w/one of their songs so I'll hunt that -- to clear the damage, you understand.

they did, more than once!

yes quine tapes are great -- dunno if i'd rank 'em above live 69 because the sound quality on that is superior. if the quine tapes were as hi-fi as live 69 it'd be the quine tapes on top for sure.

tylerw, Saturday, 31 March 2012 19:10 (twelve years ago) link

Isn't there a decent amount of overlap between the two?

Singularities Going Steady (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 31 March 2012 19:46 (twelve years ago) link

nope, iirc just one ("rock n roll") is the exact same performance on both releases. they're both recorded around the same time, and both have tracks from the Matrix Club.

tylerw, Saturday, 31 March 2012 19:48 (twelve years ago) link

A little fixated, maybe, but now I'm wondering about the opening to Train Round The Bend in relation to Bowie's Speed of Life. Where does that idea of a distorted repeated note bouncing from speaker to speaker start...?

The problem w/all live tapes at the moment is that they're utterly destroyed by the samples from the Matrix tapes that still haven't come out, which is sort of crazy making.

dlp9001, Saturday, 31 March 2012 21:38 (twelve years ago) link

crazy making indeed. those tapes would essentially render both the quine tapes and live 69 (great as both of those are) obsolete.

tylerw, Saturday, 31 March 2012 21:50 (twelve years ago) link

iirc, when The Quine Tapes were first released, Lou mentioned the Boston Tea Party (better known as "the guitar amp tapes" or something...?) as being the next installment. Then his bowels acted up, and he nixed all future Quine Tapes installments.

Dancing with Mr. T (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 31 March 2012 21:58 (twelve years ago) link

Ha at that description.

Singularities Going Steady (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 31 March 2012 22:19 (twelve years ago) link

"deliberately cretinous"--well, Mo dug Bo

Always thought that specific quote from Quine about the bass walking was a particularly spot on description. As far as Moe's love of Bo Diddley- and Babatunde Olatunji- always liked the way the Velvets and certain of their descendants, such as The Vulgar Boatmen, loved R &B but didn't try to copy it directly- Lou's rule about being fined for playing a blues lick-but instead came up with their own mutated equivalent, a groove of their own, as it were.

Singularities Going Steady (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 1 April 2012 00:08 (twelve years ago) link

oh yeah, that's what got me thinking about Beefheart and the Magic Band etc xpost. And Moe didn't play so many straight-up Bo Diddley Burundi beats did she? Lou: "We just needed somebody to play the telephone book." Whatta guy.

dow, Sunday, 1 April 2012 01:31 (twelve years ago) link

god I love the Vulgar Boatmen and their predecessor Right To Left, thank you so much for bringing them up - and I think they do have a clear lineage from the Velvets in many ways. (xp)

Flat Of NAGLs (sleeve), Sunday, 1 April 2012 04:05 (twelve years ago) link

The first Moe solo album is pretty damn amazing.

Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 1 April 2012 15:09 (twelve years ago) link


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