East River Pipe

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have we really never had an east river pipe thread? your opinion?

― gareth, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Great stuff -- only have two albums (the early singles comp and one other), but both always make me very, very happy. Something about the enjoyable simplicity of it all.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My favorite was the last one--pseudo concept album about cars and driving. 'Shiny Shiny Pimpmobile' is way more affecting than a song by that name has any right to be. That must have been released 4 years ago; wonder what's happened to him... Lambchop's ERP covers are all superb as well, especially their ebullient take on 'Hey Where's Your Girl?'

― erik, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've got everything except The Gasoline Age and I still prefer the earliest stuff. The similarity of sound between the albums really started to bug me after a while but if you dip into the alter albums occasionally the songwriting is still great. "Axl Or Iggy" remains my favourite, closely followed by "Make A Deal With The City". The first few Hell Gate / Sarah singles are absolute classics.

― electric sound of jim, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I was really impressed by that last record too. In a way, it's so underachieving, so sketchy, so moany--so indie--but every time I listen to it, I get sold all over again. I get especially dizzy when confronted with the one-two punch of "Down 42nd Street to the Light" (wherein Johnny Thunders is reincarnated as a four-track soul poet) and "Atlantic City (Gonna Make a Million Tonight)" (in which our hero throws his hands in the air and embarks on a road trip to cash in dreams he knows are gonna bounce in the morning).

― Lee G, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I like how so many of his songs sound like just the ending part of songs. He stretches out that bittersweet cadence sort of like Sugar Plant does in a different style.BTW, The Gasoline Age came out in late summer of 1999, so he's not necessarily MIA yet.

― Curt, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Awww man, I'd forgotten about "Down 42nd Street" and "Atlantic City," and how at the time I was listening to this heavily I developed a theory that the East River Pipe was the indie spawn of Nebraska . Both great, great, Bruce-haunted songs; gotta pull this album down tonight and give it another listen.

― erik, Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i was ambivalent about the gasoline age. i really like it, but it is let down a little for me by his occasional oversinging (which he doesn't do on the other albums), also theres a couple of rockier ones which seem out of place for him to be doing. having said that, i love all you little suckers though, a rinkydink beachboys ghost. party drive is very good as well

poor fricky i like, especially the last song, which was the message music on my machine for a long time. but my favourite song has got to be make a deal with the city (as jim said). a perfect manifesto...

― gareth, Tuesday, 25 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

two months pass...

i have been listening to 40 miles a lot recently. its all shot through with this self-defeat that probably isn't that healthy to listen to for extended periods of time. theres something really resigned about East River Pipe. even the hope is tempered with this knowledge that its doomed anyway.

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 2 September 2002 13:55 (twenty-three years ago)

40 miles . there is no greater song.

― Saleen Shah, Sunday, 15 September 2002 00:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Nobody's mentioned Mel?! Or "Miracleland"? I keep coming back to those; the others, not as much.

― Ernest P., Sunday, 15 September 2002 01:20 (twenty-three years ago)

seven months pass...

I wanna revive. Hasn't there been a new album in the works for a while now? He always has this adult contemporary radio vibe that I really like mixed in with the Galaxie 500 jangle. Favorite album is The Gasoline Age, since it feels more of a piece and the songwriting is more anthemic, though my favorite song is probably "Spotlight" off of Mel.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 27 April 2003 18:09 (twenty-three years ago)

the new album has a November release date on Merge

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Sunday, 27 April 2003 23:53 (twenty-three years ago)

two months pass...

The new album now has a name and a release date. Garbageheads on Endless Stun will be released through Merge on 9/9/03. They must be protective with the promo copies, because it's yet to turn up on slsk. I'm already reserving a spot for it on my year-end list, though.

― Andrew Frye (paul cox), Monday, 14 July 2003 06:26 (twenty-two years ago)

four months pass...

revive. I only have The Gasoline Age. Recommend me next

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Monday, 1 December 2003 21:10 (twenty-two years ago)

get "shining hours in a can" - the comp of the singles and the first mini-LP he did for Sarah. still my favourite stuff of his by a country gallop

― the surface noise (electricsound), Monday, 1 December 2003 21:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Garbageheads on Endless Stun is awful awful awful.

― Michael Patrick Brady (Michael Patrick Brady), Monday, 1 December 2003 21:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I was really freaked out to see the new album in the store without ever hearing a word about it beforehand (missed the revive from Andrew), especially since The Gasoline Age was pretty well-liked (it's my fave of his). Such a lack of announcement made me worry its a major step down (as does the last post). Anybody else heard it?

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 1 December 2003 22:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah. It's not good.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 00:11 (twenty-two years ago)

In a lesser-version-of-same way or did he take a major left or something?

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 02:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Not a major left by any means. The same spaghetti was thrown at the wall, but nothing sticks.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 03:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I listened to a feature on him on that show with the deep-talking woman on Radio 2. Patty Schmidt? It was about how he was homeless and he really hated himself and all of his songs were about people who didn't have jobs but then he became famous for a while.

― d k (d k), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 04:24 (twenty-two years ago)

seven years pass...

new album is streaming on the Merge site. http://www.mergerecords.com/store/store_detail.php?catalog_id=760

What do people think?? I really like the first song.

― i love it when a suggest ban comes together (cajunsunday), Tuesday, 1 February 2011 21:04 (fifteen years ago)

Just got "We Live in Rented Rooms" and it's very nice. I've loved all of his album since the first eps, and on this one, not much has changed. Maybe there's more of an adult contemporary feel than before. But he still extends a lot of the songs with sad codas.

― JacobSanders, Monday, 14 February 2011 21:05 (fifteen years ago)

five years pass...

I'm not sure where the thought came from (alcohol?) but I thought about buying "Poor Fricky" as a Christmas present for someone, this evening.

― djh, Tuesday, 13 December 2016 21:51 (nine years ago)

I've been looking for a copy so that would be an amazing present.

― Evan, Tuesday, 13 December 2016 21:55 (nine years ago)

Norman Records have the CD in stock, apparently.

― djh, Tuesday, 13 December 2016 22:15 (nine years ago)

one year passes...

"Poor Fricky" was sounding incredible last night, accompanying insomnia in a Suffolk B&B.

― djh, Monday, 27 August 2018 16:46 (seven years ago)

I love how music is essentially infinite and, as summer joins the queue of other summers, driving into the dark, I get to find songs as good as 40 Miles.

― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Tuesday, 28 August 2018 16:34 (seven years ago)

That song could be infinite. One of the few that comes close to that similarly quiet power is "Powder" by Bedhead.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 28 August 2018 17:12 (seven years ago)

Weird, I was going to repost my love for 40 Miles just yesterday in this thread but got distracted.

― Evan, Tuesday, 28 August 2018 17:16 (seven years ago)

I should have added 'thanks to this thread'. What a song. Reminds me, in scope I suppose, of Drive Somewhere by the Vulgar Boatmen and Train to Mercy by the Walkabouts.

― The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums (Chinaski), Tuesday, 28 August 2018 17:27 (seven years ago)

six months pass...

He's a top 10 artist for me at this point.

― Evan, Friday, 15 March 2019 18:37 (seven years ago)

I only got into him recently, but I can’t get enough of Shining Hours In A Can. I’m not permitting myself to listen past Poor Fricky for now because i want to memorize those two albums first, become them first. I want to make a deal with the city right now.

― L'assie (Euler), Friday, 15 March 2019 20:33 (seven years ago)

That range of material is my favorite! Mel and Gasoline Age are also really great. TBH I haven't yet given anything beyond that the time of day.

― Evan, Friday, 15 March 2019 21:10 (seven years ago)

I mean to, but I am addicted to the early albums so I just end up resorting to those again and again.

― Evan, Friday, 15 March 2019 21:10 (seven years ago)

I know my life is wrong

― brimstead, Friday, 15 March 2019 21:23 (seven years ago)

"We live in rented rooms" is v good

― . (Michael B), Friday, 15 March 2019 22:56 (seven years ago)

two weeks pass...

This guy! Shining Hours in A Can is bloody gorgeous (and beautifully named - it's like, well, shining hours in a can, all metallic gleam. Makes you think).

― Good cop, Babcock (Chinaski), Saturday, 30 March 2019 21:03 (seven years ago)

one year passes...

I like this guy but all of his stuff is exactly the same.

― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Saturday, 27 March 2021 17:11 (five years ago)

I mean, if you're saying it's all really sad and lonely and almost hypnotically pretty then you're not wrong, but of course there are plenty of acts whose output is all the same, too, except it's bad.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 27 March 2021 17:24 (five years ago)

Well, yes, but too much of a good thing...

― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Saturday, 27 March 2021 17:30 (five years ago)

It's only seven albums though, and ten years since the last one. I'd love to hear another.

― swing out sister: live in new donk city (geoffreyess), Sunday, 28 March 2021 03:35 (five years ago)

I have so many associations with different East River Pipe songs, in different contexts, that the songs don't really seem the same.

― swing out sister: live in new donk city (geoffreyess), Sunday, 28 March 2021 03:37 (five years ago)

Yeah it’s all the same not really a problem here. But it’s also not. Many of the songs are distinct! And memorable. The Clientele has the same non-problem.

― Evan, Sunday, 28 March 2021 03:43 (five years ago)

I bookended a mixtape with "New York Crown" and "Three Ships" once, those are quite different e.g.

― swing out sister: live in new donk city (geoffreyess), Sunday, 28 March 2021 03:46 (five years ago)

three years pass...

happy 25th to 'the gasoline age'

― mookieproof, Sunday, 11 August 2024 00:26 (one year ago)

Totally forgot about this

― Thrapple from the Apple (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 11 August 2024 00:26 (one year ago)

prescient title for track three

― mookieproof, Sunday, 11 August 2024 00:29 (one year ago)

got really into this album when I lived on a 14th Street

― moral ziosk (geoffreyess), Sunday, 11 August 2024 14:52 (one year ago)

"The cherry bombs, confederate flags
Don't forget that's all you are"

Kinda used that to explain 2016 back then.

Wonder if he's still working at Home Depot?

― fajita seas, Sunday, 11 August 2024 16:03 (one year ago)

one year passes...

Man ...

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

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 16 February 2026 23:08 (four months ago)

Last month there was a 30th anniversary reissue of the Mel album.

― furtho, Monday, 16 February 2026 23:50 (four months ago)

Being re-pressed, apparently.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 17 February 2026 00:52 (four months ago)

Remember when Lambchop covered no fewer than three Poor Fricky tracks (including the above) on the one album? Must be the most obscure set of compositions to have suddenly appeared twice in my juvenile record collection!

― Heavy, downy baby goose (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Tuesday, 17 February 2026 03:58 (four months ago)

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