Loaded vs. American Beauty

lorax: you are baffled by the same bands as I am (except Waits and the Velvet Underground)! We are like bros of confusion!

No Edward, he is baffled by The Fall. He's a King Crimson fan who holds all those bands to vocal standards, which is a little lol but in a diff way. (I do <3 Wetton and Lake's voices)

ok, I get it, he doesn't like rock n roll

I don't think you can explain music in a way that will make people like it, not really... but surely it should be obvious that part of these guys' appeal to other people is that they DON'T conform to typical singer standards, that they have each developed their own strange diction/vocabulary/style in order to make a tool of what would otherwise be a physical limitation.

Vocal standards are sooo subjective. But I like to think that if you grouped people by what vocals they like and dislike and come up with some sort of spectrum with two vocal standards as opposites, the people on either end of the spectrum would have significantly different personality traits.

I guess I don't really have vocal standards. I mean I like all those guys (well, Nick Cave probably the least), but I also like a lot of conventionally pretty singers - I mean the Beach Boys are like ALL TIME gods to me. same with Mavis Staples. what does that say about me

i used to dig tom waits and i can't listen to him anymore. he's too waitsian. same with nick cave! i just can't listen to it. if the mercy seat came on the radio i wouldn't turn it off, but, man, i really can't take those dudes now.

yeah I don't think they're bad but I rarely dig that stuff out. I'm just not in the mood mostly.

the tortured, drunken melodrama mood

might feel differently if some horrible tragedy befell me tbh

'Too Waitsian'

Bingo! This is exactly why I can't listen to him any more either. I tried to bring the magic back about 3 years ago and it just wouldn't take.

well, it's a schtick like any other

that tom waits lyrics thread on ilm might be my favorite thread of all time. sheer genius.

"I tried to bring the magic back about 3 years ago and it just wouldn't take."

my last stab at it was buying those two vinyl albums that came out at the same time. blood money and alice.it was torture.

great record covers though.

Tom Waits & Nick Cave: I've only had one album of each and I think I've listened to both maybe once. Neither of them clicked. But I don't think I'll ever get over The Fall.

Go figure.

Smith's stuff is a good deal denser than Waits or Cave imho, he's a little more inscrutable. also funnier.

But I like to think that if you grouped people by what vocals they like and dislike and come up with some sort of spectrum with two vocal standards as opposites, the people on either end of the spectrum would have significantly different personality traits.

On what grounds do you think this?

Hongro's Law iirc

Xp

Maybe I'd do multiple spectrums on different grounds tbh. Plus I would go ahead and do statistical tests on stuff besides vocals... I'm generally interested in the relationship of various music genres/traits and different aspects of personality (openness and neuroticness for example)

100% of insane people love the beatles in my experience

I think you have a lot of work in front of you Cap'n

I'll be the 1st to admit it: I despise "good" singers. They tend to come across as a bit precious & pretentious. 'You were born to rock, you'll never be an opera star.' I like Waits, Cave, Smith, Reed, etc much better.

I'm deeply saddened by the tragic tale of somebody buying Alice & Blood Money in hopes they would re-ignite the Tom Waits spark. For my money they rank - oh, Last & Even-Laster-Last on the Waits list. I can't think of anything since, or even a bit before that that's not superior to those clunkers. Mule Variations is straight-up amazing. Real Gone is really interesting, emphasizing tuned percussion EVEN MORE than Tom usually does. But yeah - Alice & Blood Money stink.

82% of jerks like the Dead

I'm totally serious tho, worked in mental health for a decade and a half. Go onto any long-term psych ward and put on a Beatles record. See what happens. It's like magic. Somebody should commission a study about it.

100% of chill bros love CCR

2% of uptight Norwegians enjoy Ice Cube

50% of insane people love Half Man Half Biscuit

100% of terminal wards will yell at you if you try to get them into Merzbow, also

wait what is this thread about again

http://www.onlinemovieguru.com/images/movies/loaded.jpg
vs.
http://www.energyenhancement.org/testimonial_pics/AB_poster_big.jpg

tbh they're both terrible

that poster says "look closer" because if you stare at the belly button long enough it looks like the face from that one edvard munch painting btw just fyi

ok, I get it, he doesn't like rock n roll

I know you were kidding but I do think it's a bit interesting when some people identify a particular sort of (broadly) post-Dylan (or post-punk) non-singing as being more authentically "rock and roll", considering that people like Elvis Presley or Jerry Lee Lewis or doo-wop groups had much more vocal technique. (Not saying they sang like Jon Anderson or Greg Lake either, mind.)

i need to get a copy of american beauty only heard it a couple of times

I did some science here
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/617/truckin.jpg

Love American Beauty the movie!

you definitely change as you age. i know for a fact that underrated aerosmith albums is gonna LOVE loaded in his golden years. he's gonna be like: wait, i had a problem with this! this album is so much fun to listen to while i sit on the front porch whittling!

it's gonna happen. you wait.

anybody who likes Uncle Tupelo or Wilco should have no problem getting into stuff like Candyman or Brokedown Palace or Jack Straw or He's Gone or Brown-Eyed Woman from Europe 72...

Captain Lorax did you really make that chart, it is a thing of beauty

Yessiree

Jack Straw is definitely one of my top 5 Dead songs

yeah that's a big one for me too actually...

Both are my fave album by the respective act. This has to be "American Beauty" though.

Picked up Loaded last night.at.the.local library*. I made it about halfway through and my first.impression is that it reminds me a lot of the Stones or something. The band sounds less engaged or something. I've never heard a full VU album before. My impressions are based on an old greatest hits album I had on cassette, plus hearing sister ray once. I'll definitely give it more than one spin though.


*along with Emporer Tomato Ketchup, the Richard D. James album, and the last Jay Reatard! It doesn't seem like that long since I would feel lucky to find a Little Village album or something there. My how the times have changed.

my last stab at it was buying those two vinyl albums that came out at the same time. blood money and alice.it was torture.

― scott seward, Thursday, May 20, 2010 5:45 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

there's some crazy shit on the original alice demos recorded in germany in the 90s

Actually I did DL those demos and they were pretty nice, it's true.

i started with what a long strange trip its been when i was 16. just cuz i'd never really listened to them before and thought i should give them a shot. and this was at the height of my punkdom. but, like i said above, also the height of my acidness. i devoured that 2 album set. i couldn't believe how much i loved the songs. black peter, tennessee jed, ramblin' rose, they sounded amazing to me. i stuck to studio stuff for years. and dead set (and reckoning), which is another great showcase for the songs. i still listen to the studio albums way more than i listen to live stuff.

What a Long Strange Trip It's Been was totally my jam way back in high school in the early Eighties. It was the first Grateful Dead album that I ever owned until I bought a cassette of Workingman's Dead in the early Ninties. Point of clarification: while the first half of
What a Long Strange Trip It's Been was studio stuff, the second half was all live performances. I had it on cassette and used to listen to side two way more than the first side. Loved those renditions of Jack Straw, Tennessee Jed and Ramble on Rose.

It's a very solid compilation that is also the only place you can get the single version of Dark Star (which I have used to convert people to the cause fwiw).

Voted for Loaded over Ameerican Beauty. It would have been lot more difficult choice to make if it had been Loaded versus Workingman's Dead, but I think I still would have leaned towards Loaded