https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82SaWx3-gks
― Jamie_ATP, Thursday, 15 September 2011 19:57 (thirteen years ago) link
http://yankeewombat.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/bush_devil_horns.jpg
lol
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 15 September 2011 20:29 (thirteen years ago) link
don't know why I stopped paying attention to him after Heartbreaker.
Can't say that song set me on fire.
― thinveneer, Thursday, September 15, 2011 3:35 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark
he got all mercurial after heartbreaker so one either had to keep listening because one was a fan or one had to have the patience to trudge through stylistic detours, and a regular human's patience runs thin.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 15 September 2011 20:35 (thirteen years ago) link
new record streaming at npr
http://www.npr.org/2011/09/25/140640429/first-listen-ryan-adams-ashes-and-fire?sc=fb&cc=fp
very mellow & analog, i like.
― thank you BIG HOOS, you brilliant god-man (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 26 September 2011 18:47 (twelve years ago) link
this is hilarious from that NPR write-up:
"He can successfully crib just about any style of popular music he chooses: the Dead, the Stones, The Flying Burrito Brothers — it's all in his wheelhouse."
THE WHOLE SPECTRUM OF POP MUSIC RIGHT THERE. three fucking country rock bands!!
― surfboard dudes get wiped out, totally, Monday, 26 September 2011 21:01 (twelve years ago) link
fan of all four artists btw
otm tho
― thank you BIG HOOS, you brilliant god-man (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 26 September 2011 21:05 (twelve years ago) link
Love everything unconditionally through "Rock'n'Roll", including all the studio bootlegs, the really lost interest. I guess I just filled up the Ryan Adams tank.
That and I can't stand the Dead.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 26 September 2011 22:58 (twelve years ago) link
This really does feel like a well-polished mellow solo record, which Easy Tiger excepted he hasn't really done before. Not much in the way of Deadisms, which you can't have really said since the days of 29 & Love is Hell. It's a little monochromatic, like Easy Tiger, but more intimate.
― thank you BIG HOOS, you brilliant god-man (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 26 September 2011 23:09 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah ok, officially lovin this.
― thank you BIG HOOS, you brilliant god-man (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Tuesday, 27 September 2011 17:10 (twelve years ago) link
You're right, the Deadisms seem to have cleared, but I found the vocals lacking a little something... Did he sober up or something? :-P
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 27 September 2011 21:01 (twelve years ago) link
mellow is def the word!
― thank you BIG HOOS, you brilliant god-man (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Tuesday, 27 September 2011 21:04 (twelve years ago) link
this is really good dude.
― surfboard dudes get wiped out, totally, Tuesday, 4 October 2011 15:33 (twelve years ago) link
So we can thank Laura Marling for this one?
According to Adams, Laura Marling's second studio album, I Speak Because I Can, inspired him re-write the majority of the album's material. After being sent a copy of her album, by former producer Ethan Johns, Adams noted, "I thought: 'For fuck's sake.' I literally threw out 80% of what I had. And it felt good, to ask: 'What am I really capable of?' I felt competitive again to write great songs."
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Tuesday, 4 October 2011 15:37 (twelve years ago) link
But also, kinda lol @ the personnel listed on wiki:
Ryan Adams – guitar, vocals Norah Jones - backing vocals Mandy Moore - backing vocals Benmont Tench - Keys
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Tuesday, 4 October 2011 15:39 (twelve years ago) link
xp
then he got smart and got ethan's dad to produce it
― surfboard dudes get wiped out, totally, Tuesday, 4 October 2011 15:41 (twelve years ago) link
yeah that personnel is unexpected
― thank you BIG HOOS, you brilliant god-man (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Tuesday, 4 October 2011 15:48 (twelve years ago) link
it also seems to be selling really well -- that, combined with positive critical reception (!) for a lot of his shows in the past year, it seems like most people are willing to forgive and forget the early 00s.
Also -- Ashes & Fire:Harvest Moon::Heartbreaker:Harvest ? Think about it in terms of a 'comeback' after genre experimentation/fan base and critical alienation between each album. Not to mention everyone's always saying they want Adams to make another Heartbreaker, just like everyone used to want NY to make another Harvest (which remains one of his most boring albums by a mile). Thoughts?
― answering_machine, Tuesday, 25 October 2011 23:41 (twelve years ago) link
Thoughts?
Ashes & Fire sure is boring.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 04:51 (twelve years ago) link
it's quiet, but i dig it.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 26 October 2011 04:55 (twelve years ago) link
The Dyson Fan of music. You don't even notice it's there.
― your way better (Eazy), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 04:56 (twelve years ago) link
I mean I think if you are really into Ryan Adams, which involves "buying into Ryan Adams" it's obviously much more exciting to have him releasing like three albums/forty songs in one year and they're all over the place and keeping half of his greatest stuff unreleased/unofficial and him generally being an asshole and doing crazy stuff than, like, chilling in LA with Mandy Moore and releasing a "tasteful" 10-song album every two years right?
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Wednesday, 26 October 2011 14:48 (twelve years ago) link
ah give the guy a break. at least he's dumped the cardinals. as long as he's playing amazing sets like i saw last night i will forgive him quite a lot:
Oh My Sweet Carolina, Ashes & Fire, If I Am A Stranger, Sylvia Plath, Two, Everybody Knows, Dirty Rain, My Winding Wheel, New York, New York, Lucky Now, Please Do Not Let Me Go, Firecracker, Rocks, Crossed Out Name, Why Do They Leave?, When Will You Come Back Home, English Girls Approximately, Houses On The Hill, Avenues, Jacksonville Skyline, In My Time Of Need, Dear Chicago, Halloween, Come Pick Me Up
― Jamie_ATP, Friday, 28 October 2011 14:56 (twelve years ago) link
First RA album I've bought since Gold. More than ready for Heartbreaker Moon. Like!
― mike t-diva, Friday, 28 October 2011 15:13 (twelve years ago) link
at least he's dumped the cardinals.
This isn't really a good thing imho, I loved some of the stuff he's done with them. I'd be okay with him switching off between something like the new one, then back to something with the Cardinals.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Friday, 28 October 2011 15:14 (twelve years ago) link
they were fine for Cold Roses but by the last few records it had got soooo boring and the last tour I saw where he had them was by far the worst i'd seen him. no wonder he didn't bother releasing Cardinals 3 and 4 properly.
― Jamie_ATP, Friday, 28 October 2011 15:24 (twelve years ago) link
I can't disagree about the slide in quality, but I had been holding out hope for another Roses.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Friday, 28 October 2011 15:26 (twelve years ago) link
Why is it good he dumped his band? I agree it was total downhill slide/diminishing returns but Cold Roses is a massive peak for him IMO. The few times I saw him with the Cardinals were superb.
To sum: I think Ryan Adams should take a more Robert Pollard-like approach to his solo career, and Pollard a more Adams-like approach.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Friday, 28 October 2011 16:20 (twelve years ago) link
Definitely agree with the first part of your sum there MFB, but NOOOOOOOO to the second, Pollard don't change a thing you goddamned drunken genius you.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Friday, 28 October 2011 16:27 (twelve years ago) link
I just think Adams would benefit from a faster production process/getting more out there (he was in that mode for a while, obviously) whereas Pollard's assembly line of solo albums and side projects hasn't delivered much of value for years now.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Friday, 28 October 2011 16:37 (twelve years ago) link
LOL!
― The Butthurt Locker (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 7 August 2013 17:07 (eleven years ago) link
Anybody read "Losering," the official unauthorized Ryan Adams biography (whatever that is)?
Also almost two years since a RA album, is that a record?
― Your Favorite Album in the Cutout Bin, Thursday, 15 August 2013 16:26 (eleven years ago) link
I'm pretty sure this has to do with his hearing loss. Dude has been battling Meniere's Disease, which could end in total hearing loss eventually. Sounds brutal. Say what you want about his music, but it's pretty impressive he continues to put out music and tour. That being said, I don't know a whole lot about Meniere's.
― Benjamin-, Thursday, 12 June 2014 18:31 (ten years ago) link
I honestly believe Ryan is one of the greatest folk/pop/rock songwriters of all time.
That is all.
― alpine static, Sunday, 24 May 2015 07:43 (nine years ago) link
https://i.gyazo.com/e88e3d3adfa0f27e075ebea3a589321d.png
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 6 August 2015 13:47 (nine years ago) link
Me too, Tay.
― Benson and the Jets (ENBB), Thursday, 6 August 2015 13:54 (nine years ago) link
I remember him saying way back in 2002 or so that he had a cover of the entirety of Is This It?.
― ... (Eazy), Thursday, 6 August 2015 14:28 (nine years ago) link
no eyeroll emoticon?
― Wimmels, Thursday, 6 August 2015 14:57 (nine years ago) link
I don't know how good/bad this will be, but I do appreciate guys like Ryan Adams or Beck saying "y'know what fuck it. i'll just cover a whole record someone else made."
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 6 August 2015 15:20 (nine years ago) link
What a coincidence I'm covering my ears.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 6 August 2015 15:21 (nine years ago) link
and he's doing it "in the style of The Smiths"
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Thursday, 6 August 2015 17:34 (nine years ago) link
"in the style of the Gin Blossoms"
― hackshaw, Thursday, 6 August 2015 17:48 (nine years ago) link
would be awesome tbh, but maybe a little too close to whiskeytown
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Thursday, 6 August 2015 19:47 (nine years ago) link
...and that would be bad how?
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 6 August 2015 20:50 (nine years ago) link
it wouldn't! more of today's music should be performed in the style of the gin blossoms imo
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Thursday, 6 August 2015 20:59 (nine years ago) link
agreed.
the gin blossoms and ryan adams have a lot in common come to think of it (not just sonically or lyrically)
both are constantly traversing the line between sorta-indie and sorta-commercial mor. they also both wear their Westerberg badge proudly
― hackshaw, Thursday, 6 August 2015 21:04 (nine years ago) link
Live at Carnegie album sounds great! Maybe a bit tiresome to listen through such much acoustic emo in one sitting though...
― niels, Monday, 10 August 2015 15:04 (nine years ago) link
Beyond tiresome.
― Your Favorite Album in the Cutout Bin, Monday, 10 August 2015 16:54 (nine years ago) link
"shake it off" snippet sounds great tbh tho not very Smithsy
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Wednesday, 19 August 2015 16:12 (nine years ago) link
xxp Don't think that's unique to L.A. I've seen plenty of NYC-focused profiles like that.
― Shallot Shortage 2021 (morrisp), Monday, 9 August 2021 19:55 (three years ago) link
One thing that really rubs me the wrong way in that article is how handwavy the writer is in dismissing Adams' accusers. For instance, musing that because she was successful in the past, Mandy Moore should have had no problems relaunching her singing career, or implying that Phoebe Bridgers built her career on writing songs about her relationship with Adams.
― “Heroin” (ft. Bobby Gillespie) (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 9 August 2021 21:51 (three years ago) link
It’s not really the music he misses, it’s the power trip.
― Citole Country (bendy), Monday, 9 August 2021 22:02 (three years ago) link
Also he didn't abuse some of his female employees!
― Number None, Monday, 9 August 2021 22:03 (three years ago) link
Also must be hard to know he will likely never set foot onstage again at the Ryman and so on.
do you think he thought of himself as The Ry-man?
― wankee hotel fuckstrot (peace, man), Monday, 9 August 2021 23:16 (three years ago) link
― Naive Teen Idol, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 00:30 (three years ago) link
I was into different music when this guy got popular, so I have only heard most of his music by Adams second hand - but from the start from someone that played a couple shows with Whiskeytown way back in the mid-90s I heard this dude was a serious dick. And pretty much any story from when that band broke up onward, pretty much any story had him being enfant terrible as an undercurrent. I just never gave his music any real chance and this was years and years before all this other stuff broke out...
― earlnash, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 01:11 (three years ago) link
I'd just moved to North Carolina (pretty much for the twang music scene) as he was beginning his ascent, and he'd already stepped on so many people in the scene I didn't have much interest in hearing him. I've had friends from other regions who were really struck by his songs. To the extent his art has bled into my life, it's struck me as about the level of solo Paul Westerberg.
It's only post #metoo that I'm starting to see that there's many successful people may feel some passion for songwriting/corporate management/owning a shop/directing prestige TV, but that's secondary to the high of controlling people.
― Citole Country (bendy), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 13:16 (three years ago) link
I'm not going to lie, I was a huge fan of Whiskeytown and his first couple of solo records. But yeah, I remember lots of rumors about him being a complete asshole and essentially that being why they split up.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 13:42 (three years ago) link
Good post, bendy.it's struck me as about the level of solo Paul Westerberg.Particularly sick burn.
― No Particular Place to POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 13:42 (three years ago) link
David Berman said back in 2001 "I don’t expect to be insulted by being told Ryan Adams in the best songwriter in America. Maybe mid-period Steve Forbert B-sides sound fresh to some ears. It's just self-pity in rock."
Which sounds like a sick burn just from the sound of the word Forbert, but then you hear Forbert's "Romeo's Tune" and (for better and worse) it's completely Adams's predecessor.
― ... (Eazy), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 14:19 (three years ago) link
it's struck me as about the level of solo Paul Westerberg.
in what universe is this a burn?
Ryan Adams was never a tenth the songwriter Westerberg is / was
― Paul Ponzi, Tuesday, 10 August 2021 17:17 (three years ago) link
He said "solo Paul Westerberg."
― No Particular Place to POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 10 August 2021 17:27 (three years ago) link
Dude is doing Instagram ads now, guess he’s taking promotion into his own hands:https://i.imgur.com/lLZBVav_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium
― Hops: Mosaic, Citra, Simcoe (morrisp), Wednesday, 4 May 2022 04:06 (two years ago) link
it bums me out that this guy i used to like sucks but it bums me out more he got away with it for so long
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 5 May 2022 17:30 (two years ago) link
I thought the FBI was investigating him - what happened with that?
― birdistheword, Thursday, 5 May 2022 17:35 (two years ago) link
https://www.nme.com/news/music/ryan-adams-cleared-by-fbi-in-investigation-into-underage-sexts-2856567
― Hops: Mosaic, Citra, Simcoe (morrisp), Thursday, 5 May 2022 17:57 (two years ago) link
https://variety.com/2022/music/news/ryan-adams-new-team-concerts-move-past-allegations-1235284292/
Interview w/new managers.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 4 June 2022 22:53 (two years ago) link
There will always be an audience for him, people for whom Wilco is just too spicy.
― papal hotwife (milo z), Sunday, 5 June 2022 01:44 (two years ago) link
fuck variety for entertaining that bullshit.
― Let's disco dance, Hammurabi! (Austin), Sunday, 5 June 2022 02:00 (two years ago) link
Weirdly enough, I was listening to some music on random shuffle the other day, and I was given not one but two or three songs that turned out to be by Ryan Adams (or Whiskeytown). I'd never really listened to more than a couple of albums of his, and the couple of shows I'd seen were shitshows, but these songs were all pretty good. And he's a shithead.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 5 June 2022 04:06 (two years ago) link
Kind of interesting to see their strategy, as hideous as it is:
Cancel culture freezes bad behavior. It doesn’t give people a chance to apologize. Everything we like about our legal system is the presumption of innocence, the right to confront your accuser, the statute of limitations; none of that kind of stuff exists in cancel culture.Personally, I see ‘call-out culture’ as better, far better than cancel culture. I understand that you can call attention to someone’s wrongdoing, and then, with the right people, they can have a chance to learn and correct the issue and become a better person. You can’t turn the clock back. We can’t change what’s happened. But I feel that everybody deserves a second chance, and as long as they follow the right path, then they should be allowed to certainly pursue that.
Personally, I see ‘call-out culture’ as better, far better than cancel culture. I understand that you can call attention to someone’s wrongdoing, and then, with the right people, they can have a chance to learn and correct the issue and become a better person. You can’t turn the clock back. We can’t change what’s happened. But I feel that everybody deserves a second chance, and as long as they follow the right path, then they should be allowed to certainly pursue that.
― groovemaaan, Sunday, 5 June 2022 06:34 (two years ago) link
Here's the path he is actually on:
Since he participated in the Los Angeles magazine profile last year, Adams has avoided directly referring to the events that seemingly brought him down. But he may have said a lot just in a response he offered to Johnny Depp’s victory-lap post on Instagram, following a court verdict that went mostly in his favor. Adams added a comment under Depp’s post that consisted of a congratulatory heart and fire symbol.
― Position Position, Sunday, 5 June 2022 11:48 (two years ago) link