it worked for alanis
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Sunday, 8 April 2018 16:48 (five years ago) link
I pitched Todd Burns on a feature for Stylus in the late aughts on Cash’s American Recordings era that he dug but I never actually delivered. So I was pleasantly surprised when this came across my Twitter feed this am (I follow Kaleb). Anyway, I thought the piece was excellent – the ambivalence mentioned upthread was exactly what makes it interesting to me. I loved that he actually concluded that the record was important but not actually great (I’ve always struggled with getting through the whole thing myself). He had some inspired reasoning as to why – that some of the covers are poor fits, sure, but also that it’s virtually an a cappella record in a lot of ways (which he correctly notes made it more of a statement but also a bit of a slog). In general, I prefer retrospectives that blend analysis with a bit of archaeology – and show their work when necessary. To that end, I enjoyed the slightly nonlinear take here on the competing histories and mythologies (i.e., the public history with Columbia and U2, but also the less well-known Branson debacle, etc.). Ultimately pitchfork may be dumb but this was a great piece – one that could’ve been pretentious as fuck but wasn’t. Thankfully.
― Naive Teen Idol, Sunday, 8 April 2018 16:55 (five years ago) link
never heard the story about rubin trying out having the rhcp back cash before, that sounds so bizarre
Iirc Chili Drummer Chad plays on the Rubin-produced Dixie Chicks record. There's a similarly eclectic lineup backing Nanci Griffith on her album "Flyer" (which sort of fits in with the Cash and Emmylou Harris of the era as crossover/hipster resurgent). Flyer (produced by Peter Buck) has U2's rhythm section, some Peter Gabriel vets, Indigo Girls ... I love these sorts of hodge podge all-star session line-ups. Syd Straw's Surprise, that one features everyone from Eno to Van Dyke Parks to Bernie Worrell, though there is that Golden Palominos connection.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 8 April 2018 17:35 (five years ago) link
hurt was on mtv a fair amount in the early 00s which i think counts
hah as if having your music video on MTV in the early 2000s (during the only non-reality-based programming slot from 5am-630am) counted for anything.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 8 April 2018 19:59 (five years ago) link
Cash is a cool guy with a cool voice who has made a thousand unlistenable gospel records and whose entire reputation rests on like seven good songs
yeah this is one of the dumbest takes ever and likely the audience pitchfork is writing for.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 8 April 2018 20:03 (five years ago) link
Was "Hurt" a "hit?" It was a "hit" video, but that's really not the same thing, is it?
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, April 8, 2018 11:11 PM (yesterday)
pretty sure Johnny Cash was immortality cemented long before he did a NIN cover
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, April 8, 2018 11:15 PM (yesterday)
this is the exact opposite of the point Kaleb was making though
I found it charming but lol pitchfork the way Kaleb's eyes start darting around the room in panic when he has to try and mention non-outlaw-Americana musics. British punk musicians like... uh... Cabaret Voltaire and Voice Of The Beehive. Noted... uhhh... [misreads Less Than Zero sleeve] Public Enemy producer Rick Rubin. U2 - the very U2 who had, once, previously, made an album.
― just noticed tears shaped like florida. (sic), Sunday, 8 April 2018 20:15 (five years ago) link
it is always classic to see hipsters dismiss country or gospel, entire careers worth of music, because it doesnt fit some narrative, the last dregs of rockism. like i got news for you buddy, country music and gospel sells millions of records, it doesn't need punk rock cred to be relevant. it has been relevant for millions of people for decades.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 8 April 2018 20:16 (five years ago) link
Rubin is a miracle worker and he encourages Johnny Cash to make the best music of his life. This is the door Johnny Cash walks through to dethrone Hank Williams as the king of country music.
lol this is the stupidest fucking thing ive read in a long time
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 8 April 2018 20:21 (five years ago) link
that's meant as a caricature of the standard narrative iirc
Hurt is by far his biggest hit on Spotify/Youtube btw
― niels, Sunday, 8 April 2018 20:22 (five years ago) link
Great job misreading the essay Adam, well done.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 8 April 2018 20:24 (five years ago) link
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau),
you realize he subverts this sentence with the following one, right?
Also, Kaleb Horton wrote some of the loveliest and most informed bits about Hag when he died in 2016.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 8 April 2018 20:24 (five years ago) link
like, he's been steeped in country music longer than ten people on the Pitchfork masthead.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 8 April 2018 20:25 (five years ago) link
The album is good, but more importantly, it’s a shrewd marketing idea.
pitchfork in a nutshell
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 8 April 2018 20:26 (five years ago) link
the most important thing is narrative, music is afterthought
how're you doing in that hole you're digging for yourself?
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 8 April 2018 20:28 (five years ago) link
Before U2 and Rick Rubin, Johnny was covered by all kinds of cool people in the 80s and early 90s: Elvis Costello, Social Distortion, Nick Cave, Bongwater, The Mekons, Dead Moon, Blondie, Wall of Voodoo, Dwight Yoakum. The coolest rap record of the 80s, Three Feet High and Rising was named after a Cash line. He's sampled on Paul's Boutique too.
― Whiney G. Weingarten, Sunday, 8 April 2018 20:33 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rM14-JucaLI
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 8 April 2018 20:41 (five years ago) link
Xpost It went both ways, too, because not only was Johnny Cash covering Bruce Springsteen, he was covering Costello, he was covering Nick Lowe ...
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 8 April 2018 21:14 (five years ago) link
uh trl was still very much a thing in the early 00s? also “hurt” was up for video of the year and mtv still had shows like VIDEO CLASH and ALL THINGS ROCK on its schedule. but i’m sure you feel great about the exacta of being a dick and trotting out the “mtv doesn’t play videos” canard
― maura, Monday, 9 April 2018 13:51 (five years ago) link
Paul Ponzi is Shakey no?
― droit au butt (Euler), Monday, 9 April 2018 13:58 (five years ago) link
my three year old sings "Hurt" all the time, so it obviously connects with the younger demographic
― President Keyes, Monday, 9 April 2018 14:00 (five years ago) link
i dont think so xp
― marcos, Monday, 9 April 2018 14:00 (five years ago) link
ok kinda has the cadence but I dunno
― droit au butt (Euler), Monday, 9 April 2018 14:01 (five years ago) link
impossible to say for sure until paul ponzi comments on a celebrity death, really
― star wars ep viii: the bay of porgs (bizarro gazzara), Monday, 9 April 2018 14:02 (five years ago) link
My challop is that Johnny Cash is not the greatest country singer ever because...he's not really a country singer imo
please sign up for my webinar
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 9 April 2018 15:18 (five years ago) link
in the same way that Bob Marley isn't the greatest reggae star i concur
― vermicious kid (Noodle Vague), Monday, 9 April 2018 15:23 (five years ago) link
was Jesus a Jew?
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 9 April 2018 15:27 (five years ago) link
Cash the man was country. But he was maybe more a ... folk artist?
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 9 April 2018 16:00 (five years ago) link
MTV showed videos until the mid-00s at least, and even then MTV2 was still showing like half videos.
― flappy bird, Monday, 9 April 2018 16:26 (five years ago) link
i remember watching MTV in 2003-2004 and seeing tons of videos during the afternoon.
― omar little, Monday, 9 April 2018 16:29 (five years ago) link
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, April 9, 2018 11:00 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yeah i mean like to me, stylistically most of his classic stuff is either really idiosyncratic rockabilly or basically folk music (ira hayes, man in black etc)...
he's really apart from i guess what i consider the main line of country descended from acuff/rose/hank sr/ernest tubb etc, whereas i feel like willie or merle or george jones are way more from that tradition of honky tonk
― The Desus & Mero Chain (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 9 April 2018 17:10 (five years ago) link
i think you trade in your "folk artist" card when they give you your own tv show
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:25 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVu78DSovhI
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:30 (five years ago) link
Honky Tonk is only one strain of country music though. (And Gospel is way more important in country than people like to admit.) Cash was accepted and influential within Country music. (Where do guys like Roger Miller and Marty Robbins and Merle Travis slot in, exactly?) As recently as 10 years ago you had Josh Turner rise to country stardom with a Cash throwback image and sound.
― President Keyes, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:38 (five years ago) link
stylistically most of his classic stuff is either really idiosyncratic rockabilly or basically folk music
Most of the classic Sun artists/recordings were 'marketed' as country, and recognised as such - rockabilly is really an after-the-fact genre, a bit like film noir. This is a good feature on Elvis' country roots, a lot of which equally applies to Cash:
http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/elvis-country-music.html
― Ward Fowler, Tuesday, 10 April 2018 13:49 (five years ago) link
I was thinking of checking out "Wild Wild Country" last night but haven't gotten around to it yet.
Today Pitchfork posted a headline about it and I no longer want to watch this show.
― billstevejim, Friday, 13 April 2018 01:02 (five years ago) link
It's pretty good, but not perfect. Check it out. There's a whole thread about it.
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Friday, 13 April 2018 03:02 (five years ago) link
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/captain-beefheart-and-his-magic-band-trout-mask-replica/
wrong thread, but at least PF made me smile with it's opening line, which i freudian-slippery misread as 'Though it's hard to listen to' .
― Ludo, Saturday, 28 April 2018 19:11 (five years ago) link
I take issue with the idea that Zappa basically let things roll in the production. There are some very specific things he did that intensify the murk and confusion of the tracks, and add to the overall weirdness of the album vs various similar follow ups. I was amazed to hear the instrumental demos and hear how clear and crisp they were vs the final product. A lot of this is down to Zappa doing stuff like taping big chunks of cardboard to the drums and cymbals to muffle them, and making it so Beefheart couldn't properly hear the backing tracks when recording vocals so that the singing was somewhat out of sync.
― Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Saturday, 28 April 2018 19:27 (five years ago) link
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/built-to-spill-perfect-from-now-on/
of course the same jerk that panned the new Andrew W.K. bc he was highly skeptical of all the "empty platitudes" is jacking off all over himself for generic 90s indie rock
The instinct to say something seemed so obvious that to just not somehow felt like a political decision, a meta-commentary on what it means to lead a band and manage the dynamic between performer and whoever you’re performing for.
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 29 April 2018 14:22 (five years ago) link
haven't read that review but built to spill is a good band
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Sunday, 29 April 2018 14:27 (five years ago) link
hard to think of a record with more quality hooks than keep it like a secret, for instance
But there’s also something aspirational about being labeled “classic rock”—about wanting to make something that could both iconically represent a specific time and become unstuck from it.
unless you are Andrew W.K., then you are merely a poser wallowing in "mindless 1988-ass arena pablum"
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 29 April 2018 14:28 (five years ago) link
i've tried to listen to Built to Spill. it's generic and boring indie rock. Keep It Like a Secret made me fall asleep the one time i heard it.
"generic 90s indie rock" is both v wrong and half-right bc they helped shape what "90s indie rock" sounded like
xp
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Sunday, 29 April 2018 14:29 (five years ago) link
first time i heard Keep It Like a Secret i literally fell asleep halfway through
― Hazy Maze Cave (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, 29 April 2018 14:30 (five years ago) link
thanks i didn't get it the first time
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Sunday, 29 April 2018 14:30 (five years ago) link
man ned fell asleep right in the middle of a godspeed show, you need to step your hater game up
― j., Sunday, 29 April 2018 15:45 (five years ago) link
Adam, does that mean that you haven't heard Perfect from Now On? It's just really good post-Neil Young guitar jams. I listen to it and Built to Spill Caustic Resin all the time but I don't listen to other BtS albums nearly as much. Not for everyone, of course.
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Sunday, 29 April 2018 15:52 (five years ago) link
Admittedly, I didn't make it all the way through either this review or the Andrew WK review.
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Sunday, 29 April 2018 15:57 (five years ago) link