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Post by scoOter on Nov 9, 2015 15:47:39 GMT -5
jenny lewis is pretty amazing. the new album is great, last one, too. side one of "more adventurous" is probably as good as any album side in the rock and roll. i wrote this about the album recently: newswhistle.com/archives/15941
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Post by scoOter on Jan 16, 2013 10:31:36 GMT -5
there is still over a week on these auctions, too, right? man, this is wonderful news. i think paul, tommy, and (figures crossed) chris could parlay (sp?) this into a very lucrative reunion tour. obviously, there hasn't been the desire to do it up until now, but maybe slim has changed the equation a bit. doing it for a good cause might cause more serious consideration?
admittedly, chris is a long, long shot, but IF such a reunion (one off, or tour) were to happen it would make it all the sweeter if chris was behind the kit. hell, strap a guitar on him, and have someone else play drums. that would be interesting. they could set up a doomtree style week of shows @ first ave.
i can dream.
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Post by scoOter on Jan 15, 2013 13:25:29 GMT -5
great interview. shitty news re: slim. it is far worse than i thought. keep hope alive, etc.
i can't wait to see what the final haul is from the auctions, and then i will certainly buy my copies to help in my own small way.
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Post by scoOter on Jan 15, 2013 13:14:22 GMT -5
the first EP that went up on EBAY is now at $10,000! following it myself. this is great news.
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Post by scoOter on Jan 5, 2013 14:29:32 GMT -5
Call me crazy, but the features of the eyes in Chris's painting bear more than a passing resemblance to Slim... you are not crazy. that was precisely my first thought upon seeing the cover.
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Post by scoOter on Dec 19, 2012 15:31:13 GMT -5
So, knowing that Paul and Tommy took cheap shots at Chris in the press, are they the "popular creeps" that he wrote about? i'm fairly certain that the bulk of mars' early 90s musical output is directly none too subtly @ his former bandmates, and in particular westerberg.
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Post by scoOter on Dec 19, 2012 10:54:54 GMT -5
I always felt Chris' first solo record put to bed any discussion that his drumming lacked any ability. horseshoes & hand grenades should & probably did scare paul at the time. not only was it the first post-mats solo album (putting aside asd for the moment), and it was smart, tight, and it rocked, but sounded distinctly different (subtly, to be sure) than what one would expect from a former replacement. think i will listen to it today. it's been awhile.
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Post by scoOter on Dec 8, 2012 10:18:45 GMT -5
I had a brief discussion with Steve Vai (of all people) after one of his shows and he agreed that PW is an American treasure. Actual musicians know who has the goods. yeah, well kip winger called westerberg a hack ;D
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Post by scoOter on Dec 8, 2012 10:13:24 GMT -5
49:00 is a proper album as far as I'm concerned. The songs flow well together and thanks to the editing and sequencing the whole thing feels like there's some overall artistic vision involved in putting it together. More so than some of Paul's "proper" albums I'd venture to say. I don't believe that production values or standard song structures (verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus) should necessarily be the criteria that define what makes a record a "proper" release or not either. Those values are for the commercially and conventionally minded artists, not for someone like Paul. If Paul wants to sprinkle in some short songs that may only have a verse or chorus, who are we to say the songs aren’t complete. One of the things that makes 49:00 refreshing for me are those unique and terse songs that come and go all short and sweet like. It may seem tossed off to many, but I’d argue that as a whole it’s as cohesive a piece of work as anything else the man has released to date. So yes, definitely a proper album, and at 44 minutes it is actually the length of a typical vinyl record so even better. good points all, mr. guitar (hello, by the way). i don't necessarily have a problem with paul being "uncommercial", but honestly 49:00 (along with some of the other internetrock - esp. gls) is more than simply "uncommercial". it is actively challenging. this can be a good thing, but not always. westerberg has, to me, never, until 49:00, been an actively challenging artist or particularly uncommercial. he did things in the marketing realm that sabotaged success for most of his career, but the music, while largely awesome, wasn't breaking much ground. no one should take the above as a slam, because it isn't. i said earlier that i think 49:00 lacks focus. i may have misspoken. 49:00 seems, again - to me, entirely focused on challenging the listener to make it to the end. i don't think this impression is or should be what westerberberg was going for; esp. considering for the better part of 20 years it wasn't his m.o. granted, i am happy to get any releases from paul, and the price has been almost free. also, considering how incredibly awesome some of the internetrock has been, i count myself lucky to have it. still, 49:00 will never be a proper album to me; not because it was digital only, or because it was one long track. i buy into both of those concepts, as well as any song structure experiments he wants to do. it is simply the way songs simply stop, or suddenly bleed into one another so both are existing in my ears for a time, and all of that tomfoolery that make this a non-album. whether a song has a chorus or not is immaterial to me. i just want to hear and appreciate it from start to finish. (don't get me started on grandpaboy's last stand)
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Post by scoOter on Dec 6, 2012 11:25:02 GMT -5
Mono was the last good one and it paled in comparison to 14 songs. I was so disappointed with the horrible drumming on Folker and 49 is practically unlistenable...I dont see him making th effort again some 14 songs love! i agree with most everything you said, but for me it isn't just the drumming that i dislike with the most recent stuff. in fact, drumming is the least of my worries. it is the lack of focus/effort. there are super high points on folker through the internetrock, but there overall it is a mush of samey sounding boombox recordings. sometimes i imagine a studio recorded version of "folk star" or "gun shy" with michael bland or josh freese on drums & tommy on bass, and i get a little sad. i hope you are wrong on your last point, but secretly i feel that you are probably correct.
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Post by scoOter on Nov 30, 2012 11:42:50 GMT -5
wow, no. i cannot agree that 49:00 is a "proper" album at all. that's not to diminish it, but i don't see how it can be considered such at all. it is (roughly) 49 minute gift to fans that gives a cracked mirror view into the creative process of one mr. paul westerberg. it is great. it is terrible. it is revolutionary. it is an inside joke. it is almost the craziest commercial ever created. if you weren't a paul fan already (but had good taste in rock & roll), and you got through the whole thing you would be positively salivating for more from this guy.
the problem is that the only folks who have heard it are existing paul fans.
anyway, this is is all subjective, but i call a "proper" album one that contains completed songs; about 10 or so. it has nothing to do with the way it is delivered. 49:00 doesn't fit the bill. folker does. my dream would be to have paul & tommy & his only friends or whoever go into a studio, and record complete versions of the 49:00 songs. release them digital only, an ep's worth at a time or whatever. i just want to hear full versions of the best of 49:00.
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Post by scoOter on Nov 30, 2012 11:17:37 GMT -5
Village Gorilla Head is his best overall album IMO. couldn't disagree more. i really like vgh, but the middle of it drags it down bigtime. there are 3 or 4 songs in the middle that i cannot bother to listen to. i've tried. it starts & ends very strong. i think the first & last tracks are among my favorite songs of all time by a replacement (or anyone else for that matter). all that said, fnikm to my ears is the best, the best post mats record front to back. it is well-produced, sequenced, etc. if i have any complaint at all is that tommy's voice very occasionally can get "screechy". small complaint, and one that i always overlook when i listen. if paul helped out, well, that makes sense, but it doesn't really affect my feeling about it one way or the other; save for it makes me yearn for more paul/tommy collaborations in the future. and, yes, i said fnikm is the best post mats record in my opinion.
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av club
Aug 4, 2010 10:17:19 GMT -5
Post by scoOter on Aug 4, 2010 10:17:19 GMT -5
minus the slowed down parts, i thought the cover was just fine. i sort of liked the trumpet part, actually. the slow parts were something awful, though, and they ruined what could have been a passable, funish cover.
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Post by scoOter on Jul 12, 2010 13:17:02 GMT -5
go paul stanley. i really don't give two shits about kiss, but his response is pretty much dead on.
"have you voted? i know i haven't."
that little bit is perfect.
what makes a band "great", mr. marsh? i'd love to know. god, the longer this discussion goes on, the less esteem i hold the rock hall. i am a rock & roller through & through. the place should appeal to me. it never has. that isn't my shortcoming.
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Post by scoOter on Jul 9, 2010 8:43:30 GMT -5
there's no perfect formula, as rock & roll really is a bastard child of mixed parentage. to me, johnny cash & hank williams deserve to be in the rock hall, too. wait, are they? to me, worthy bands/musicians don't necessary have to have produced revolution rock (it helps, though), but they need to be hugely influential to the ebb & flow of the rock & roll waters.
i recognize that my loosey goosey interpretation of "rock & roll" can be problematic as, in order to have musical halls of fame, boundaries need to be drawn, but i know rock & roll when i hear it. as i typed this, husker du, alkaline trio, public enemy, and tom petty came on my ipod. ask me what i have on my ipod, and i will anwer "rock & roll".
it bears mentioning that, like freerider, i really, really don't care about the rock hall. i'll tune in if the mats or some other musician i respect get in, but whatever. really.
in closing i will quote another artist who has similar sentiments as mr. mos def:
hot funk cool punk even if it's old junk it's still rock & roll to me
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Post by scoOter on Jul 8, 2010 12:54:30 GMT -5
i'm going to go ahead & take a contrary position. first off, i have to say that i understand what everyone says about rock & roll, and the hall itself. i get get where it is coming from when people say "no rap!" "no madonna!" or whatever. i think of the term "rock & roll" far more broadly, however. to me, i think "rock & roll" is a musical spirit that strongly affects people. it rebels, it changes, but it isn't strictly blues-based shuffle with guitar, bass, drums & vox.
to my eyes & ears, public enemy is about as rock & roll as they come. madonna utterly altered popular music, and while it might not sound like the rolling stones it, she has been swimming in, and charting her own course, in the rock & roll stream for a long time now (plus, i have heard some kick ass rock & roll madonna covers in my day).
mos def speaks to this issue in his song, "rock & roll":
kenny g ain't got no soul john coltrane is rock & roll you may dig on the rolling stones but they could never rock like nina simone
(it's a great song)
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Post by scoOter on Jul 5, 2010 12:48:56 GMT -5
One of the things I like the most about Paul is that if he has anything to be proud of it is about crafting a good song or riding a bicycle instead of running over animals with a car or being a good family man- real things that real people do. He doesn't need to wear anything on his sleave. high oh! yes x 1,000,000.
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Post by scoOter on Jun 23, 2010 6:55:09 GMT -5
Seems Paul has been hinting at a Mats reunion since Mono came out.It seems to coincide with things he's promoting.Do you think he's turned that age old question of the Mats reuniting/touring into something that works to his advantage by stirring up a little interest while promoting something,when in actuality he has no interest at all in ever putting the band back together?Maybe it's his way of letting all the people who would love a Replacements reunion down lightly.Or do you think they've almost gone through with it?Maybe it's all of the above depending on what mood he was in. that is a very, very cynical, and shockingly plausible concept.
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Post by scoOter on Jun 19, 2010 9:17:42 GMT -5
I recently started a firestorm on my facebook page when I posted that after twenty years of listening to The Jam I realized that my deepest response to them is akin to what happens when you scrape fingernails down a blackboard. Paul Weller solo I like. The Jam? (Shuddering). DUCK & COVER!
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Post by scoOter on Jun 19, 2010 9:15:49 GMT -5
But hey, the general public obviously disagrees when Runaway train is a huge hit and World Class Fad is a flop, so what do I know? when you put it that way, it almost could be argued that wcf was about the direction sa was taking/about to take....
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