Yes, really. Because we all know that's how a mother who beats her child will speak to him: "'Cuse me, you don't mind if I beat on your behind, do you? Be a dear. Because I really need to have this line have an internal rhyme."
It's actually so bad it's good. I used to walk around picking fights in bars with that line.
― brittle-lemon (brittle-lemon), Monday, 8 August 2005 03:41 (eighteen years ago) link
― my favorite cover band, crystal shit (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 8 August 2005 03:58 (eighteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 8 August 2005 04:33 (eighteen years ago) link
― my favorite cover band, crystal shit (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 8 August 2005 04:48 (eighteen years ago) link
Re: Rob Buck's guitar playing, I dunno about bum notes on Unplugged, which I've never heard, but his squealy sustain tone on the early stuff is just terrific, I think, and his superfast scale-playing solos on a lot of songs ("Death of Manolete," even) is pretty terrific. Basically it occurs to me that he was always kind of ahead of the curve on guitar sounds and tended to always sound great doing it, from those new-wave-isms to something like "Don't Talk," with those big sweeps of guitar -- I said earlier that "Maddox Table" puts Marr to shame, which would make "Don't Talk" something like their "How Soon is Now." (And again, the fucking guitar playing on "Maddox Table" -- COME ON, that spindly shit is TIGHT, let's not even get into it.) Beyond which I guess he kinda blanded out into blah, which is fine, though it was funny to hear little touches of his old high-up on the Gibson neck new-wave stuff come through later, like at the end of the solo on "What's the Matter Here."
GIANT post is mostly just cause it's late at night and I'm typing rapidly as a break from deep-cleaning my apartment, but mostly because yes, it's true, this was maybe the first band I was seriously obsessed with, so even with the stuff I don't think is so great anymore I can still very vividly remember how one might have appreciated it at the time.
― nabiscothingy, Monday, 8 August 2005 05:00 (eighteen years ago) link
(Also yes I'm ashamed of myself; there was that thread for like "what album would you write about in a 33 1/3 book," and I went on about Max Tundra but the truth is that YES, I might sadly be most qualified to do In My Tribe.)
― nabiscothingy, Monday, 8 August 2005 05:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 8 August 2005 05:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― nabiscothingy, Monday, 8 August 2005 05:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― nabiscothingy, Monday, 8 August 2005 05:35 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 8 August 2005 05:38 (eighteen years ago) link
"so what you're saying then is 'the reason the lyrics are great is that they're totally fucking awful!'"
... with these quotes from the post in question:
"I still find that lyric approach pretty charming through most of the early stuff, and I think she's actually quite good at it; I can't imagine many college girls writing better songs about multiple personality disorder than 'Katrina's Fair,'"
"'Death of Manolete' makes perfect sense and has loads of great details in it. enough that I can remember plenty of them even apart from my teenage Maniacs fandom -- 'there were women holding rosaries ... teenage girls in soft white dresses, standing silent, peace-respecting.'"
"How cutely and beautifully and period-piece early-80s collegiate is it"
"'Back o' the Moon,' which in terms of character-creation and period-history-creation is just plain the most nicely sophisticated moon-reference I can think of in a pop song"
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 8 August 2005 05:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 8 August 2005 05:51 (eighteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 8 August 2005 05:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 8 August 2005 05:55 (eighteen years ago) link
No, he genuinely likes the stuff. I do, too.
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 8 August 2005 06:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 8 August 2005 06:05 (eighteen years ago) link
you rock so hard.
2) "back o' the moon" is on wishing chair, not tribe.
3) one of my favorite phenomena in music/whatever is when the artist's creativity/originality/sophistication of ideas supersedes her ability to carry it all out technically. i was thinking about this over the weekend w/r/t to some bands i like that usually get labeled "primitive" or not-especially-masterful but whose work is actually full of really sharp arrangements that i could really see being the envy of more practiced musicians. 10km, at their most interesting, fall into this group.
― my favorite cover band, crystal shit (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 8 August 2005 06:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 8 August 2005 06:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― my favorite cover band, crystal shit (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 8 August 2005 06:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 8 August 2005 06:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― my favorite cover band, crystal shit (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 8 August 2005 06:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 8 August 2005 06:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 8 August 2005 06:46 (eighteen years ago) link
keep in mind i'm not talking so much about natalie as i am lombardo, buck, and the others.
― my favorite cover band, crystal shit (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 8 August 2005 06:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― my favorite cover band, crystal shit (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 8 August 2005 06:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Monday, 8 August 2005 14:28 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 August 2005 14:55 (eighteen years ago) link
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:00 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:02 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:05 (eighteen years ago) link
DUCK, FIRST ROW OF THE AUDIENCE! (Second and third rows just have to lean back a little.)
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:06 (eighteen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:08 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:11 (eighteen years ago) link
haha no, no no no! contrasting not comparing, dude!
― my favorite cover band, crystal shit (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:12 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:13 (eighteen years ago) link
I dig "Carnival" and "Trouble Me." Both good sunny pop songs.
There is some excellent guitar playing by Jennifer Turner on the former, and I suspect that if I listened to Blind Man's Zoo again I might find a gem or two that I've forgotten about. The rest of Ms. Merchant's work I can usually take or leave.
That said, please please let me never again hear "Because the Night." Has a great pedigree and all and I suppose I should like it, but in its bombast it always sounds to me like a lost Pat Benatar or maybe even Sheena Easton track from circa 1983.
― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:16 (eighteen years ago) link
i think it just started out as a pretty typical "ilm hates any female performer who isn't a nu-bubbledisco bimbo or adorably fucked-up rap chick" thread.
― my favorite cover band, crystal shit (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:18 (eighteen years ago) link
(xpost)
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:19 (eighteen years ago) link
RESULT
― The Ghost of "Not" Is Such A Tiny, Easily-Missed Word (Dan Perry), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:19 (eighteen years ago) link
MPuff, It is awful. And I always assumed she got the lyric wrong and said "Love is a [picnic?] blanket, on which we feed." Or so I'd like to believe.
― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:20 (eighteen years ago) link
Wow, I'll take "Blatant Mischaracterizations Of A Ginormous Group Of People" for $1200, Alex.
― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:21 (eighteen years ago) link
take it up with springsteen.
(ts: natalie's "because the night" vs pat benatar's "wuthering heights")
― my favorite cover band, crystal shit (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Monday, 8 August 2005 15:23 (eighteen years ago) link