16 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

Wow, the music press is all in on nostalgia for Radiohead's Kid A.  I hadn't listened to it in 15 years so I dug into my CD collection and put it on. 

 

Wow - just as soggy and dragging and boring as I remembered.  Plus, I realized what a blatant but inferior Iggy Pop ripoff the third track is, The National Anthem.  It's a straight ripoff of the B-side of 1970's Funhouse, where a berry sax shows up and the whole thing dissolves into a 3-4-5 minute "jam", and I use those parentheses derisively.   And the fourth song has the same sort of annoying orchestral synth swells that made some of the later 1970s Pink Floyd stuff not-good. 

 

The chord voicings are not complex.  These damn tracks present themselves as being sophisticated but they're not.  This band and whoever produced it don't know how to color a song.  I mean, bring in somebody who understands chords, substitutions, pedal tones.  Either dig up Stan Kenton or borrow Paul Simon for 30 minutes.  Synth swells are always the sign of desperation. 

 

The drone attempt on "Optimistic" is weak compared to, say, The Velvet Underground's Venus in Furs.  I can tell they're just screwing around with an open E or open A string...you know basically the first thing you "discover" when you get an electric guitar when you're 14. 

 

In track #7 we get what I believe is a Fender Rhodes run through a delay pedal...we get a hint at maybe something like Pink Floyd's epic Echoes jam but instead was get mushy "layering".  I don't want layers.  I want balls.  I mean, "layering" sounds like you're doing a "collaboration".   I mean, go work over in human resources, already.  Lead that breakout session. The song ends in a mess because they couldn't figure out how to wind down a mess. 

 

Ooh and here we get that annoying drum sequencer on "Idioteche".   Now, more not-compelling droning.  If you're going to drone, drone.  Another song they couldn't figure out how to end.  That's the problem with sequenced drums...once you press go on a manic drum pattern how do you turn it off? 

 

Like, people want to think that this singer is beautiful and tender and haunting and all that.  No, he's not.  He's none of those things.  He's like the opposite of Roy Orbison.  He's not even half as good as...Bono.  

 

This album should have been a flop.  I have no idea how it got popular. 

 

 

 

 

Radiohead fans reacting your post:

 

13 minutes ago, JYP said:

Radiohead fans reacting your post:

 

That picture is more stimulating than the entirety of Radiohead's oeuvre.

rip evh -- but thx for fixing the mideast before you left:

 

 

 

Jack White played SNL last night.  The first time I heard his band playing on a small radio in the kitchen while waiting tables way back in 2000 I had no reason to anticipate that he'd a)still be playing 20 years later or b)be pretty much the last guy playing a loud guitar.  Now I work with about 20 young adults between my two jobs and if what comes off their blue tooth speakers is any indication, they have never heard a live electric guitar and drums.  America in 2020 is awash in wuss music. 

 

 

Here is a flyer from a house show the White Stripes played about 20 years ago in Cincinnati (Geraldine was from Athens):

 

 

 

 

Before Thee Shams added the second e!

and here they are five years before that bogarts show at pats in the flats in cleveland  ?

 

 

^The Electric Company was a house venue.  The White Stripes played in Cincinnati many times in the 90s which is how numerous Cincinnati musicians ended hooking up with Jack White on various other bands like the Raconteurs. 

 

Incidentally, I ran into a guy from Geraldine AT Bogart's two years ago.  He had driven into Cincinnati just to see a band.  The music scenes in this region of the country aren't really that big.  If you're in a band that tours or just go out a lot you will know a few people in every town.

 

The guy playing harmonica in this clip - I went to a party in a cemetery in Athens about 20 years ago and he showed up and passed out on the grass in front of a tombstone.  Some girls pulled every flower off a big flowering bush and covered him in a heaping mound of flowers.  When I left he was still passed out. 

 

I don't care what anyone says, this is in heavy rotation now. I'm sad and I'm going back to high school.

 

 

 

On 9/30/2020 at 7:39 PM, mrnyc said:

does anybody even make real music videos anymore?

Are you saying WAP isn't a real music video? 😁

I was skimming through the newly released Ed Sullivan Show music archives and stumbled on this incredible clip...a casual performance by Gladys Knight in a military hospital, filmed offsite (obviously) but apparently aired on the show:

 

This is such a terrible example of everything American music lost thanks to rap, electronic dance music, and Simon Cowel's stupid shows.  People don't even know what a real singer and a real band sound like anymore. 

 

 

 

 

 

On 10/15/2020 at 10:23 PM, jmecklenborg said:

^The Electric Company was a house venue.  The White Stripes played in Cincinnati many times in the 90s which is how numerous Cincinnati musicians ended hooking up with Jack White on various other bands like the Raconteurs. 

 

 

 

it couldnt have much earlier, the white stripes had just formed in summer 1997. so lets see these pics, there must be something. early shows are more interesting than when they were already popular.

^Yeah, like when going to the library and all the music DVDs there are '70s acts live in 2007 and I'm like, "Le sigh"

18 minutes ago, mrnyc said:

 

 

 

 

it couldnt have much earlier, the white stripes had just formed in summer 1997. so lets see these pics, there must be something. early shows are more interesting than when they were already popular.

 

 

I don't think that's necessarily the case.  I saw a few groups before they were famous...but they weren't any good yet.  There was nothing whatsoever to portend their fame.  Meanwhile, I have seen a few mid-career or late-career performances by well-known bands that had the energy of artists with something to prove.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

 

I don't think that's necessarily the case.  I saw a few groups before they were famous...but they weren't any good yet.  There was nothing whatsoever to portend their fame.  Meanwhile, I have seen a few mid-career or late-career performances by well-known bands that had the energy of artists with something to prove.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

unh ok, so crappy college band vids and non sequiturs aside, whenever you are ready to get back to that ws played cinci multiple times in the 90s with some deets.

and speaking of early days, here is a pretty cool new insta of pics someone posted of the stooges playing a hs show in 1971.

 

it was actually williamsons first show and zettners last.

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CG7MJ1-jKAW/?igshid=1n3ztg2lem1kz

Was anyone ready for that? It was probably like taking someone to see Top Fuel dragsters for the first time without telling them what is going to happen. 

3 hours ago, GCrites80s said:

It was probably like taking someone to see Top Fuel dragsters for the first time without telling them what is going to happen. 

 

At the car museum in LA next to the tar pits they have a few of the very first dragsters...like where the engine is right in front of the driver. 

 

 

3 hours ago, GCrites80s said:

Was anyone ready for that?

 

This German documentary wasn't really known in the U.S. until somebody uploaded it to Youtube back in 2007 or 2008. The best part is the third minute where he takes them to the student union at the University of Michigan and you hear the echo in that space and the way he gets wide-eyed and talks about "Marshall Amps On 10".  It's hilarious to me when I hear these young guys talk about DJ's at festivals when they haven't ever heard a Marshall full stack on 10 in an ambient room.  Or those fearsome 100 Watt Fenders from the late 60's. 

 

This guy I was playing with last year had one of those amp emulators and it pretty much hit the "sound" dead-on but through a small amp you just aren't moving much air.  It doesn't have any impact.  Plus it doesn't naturally feed back.  When I was 16 or 17 years old I went to an all-ages event at the now-demolished Sudsy's and heard a band playing with TWO MARSHALL FULL STACKS in that tiny space.  It was UNBELIEVABLE.  I also have to hand it to Jackyl for showing up with FOUR MARSHALL FULL STACKS to a mid-sized room in 2003 and creating an amazing stereo field by putting one stack for the lead player and one stack for the rhythm player on each side of the stage.  People don't get that when you go to the major effort of doing stuff like this you create a really amazing visceral experience for the audience. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've never had my stack past 6. Just couldn't do it -- was never in the right room. I might have tried 7 once. It's a master volume model. Right now at home it is on 2.

On 10/29/2020 at 6:47 PM, mrnyc said:

ws played cinci multiple times in the 90s

 

If you're White Stripes fan, I highly recommend this podcast series about their early years. They didn't play a ton of shows in Cincinnati, but Cincinnati comes up several times in the podcast. Including the fact that the White Stripes almost had a third member, Johnny Walker, but he moved to Cincinnati to attend UC and therefore couldn't join the band. (Walker later formed the Soledad Brothers which was pretty successful, and recently has created some other bands that play locally like Cut in the Hill Gang and All Seeing Eyes.)

On 10/29/2020 at 6:47 PM, mrnyc said:

 

unh ok, so crappy college band vids and non sequiturs aside, whenever you are ready to get back to that ws played cinci multiple times in the 90s with some deets.

 

There is a Facebook group called "Cincinnati DIY in the 90s" or something like that where house show photos are posted regularly.  This is Jack White when he was probably 23 years old (around 1998 or 1999):

 

 

 

On 10/30/2020 at 6:50 PM, taestell said:

 

White Stripes

 

Last week I searched using the keywords "Meg White drumming analysis" and found a video where a douchey guy actually wrote out and explained how to play the "Top 5 Meg White Beats".  Anyway - the one thing I took away from it was the emphasis on the use of large crash cymbals to fill in the space left by a lack of a bass player, which honestly I hadn't thought too much about previously, however I then looked up some live clips and saw that her main crash was most likely a Paiste 2002 16", which obviously is not a large crash cymbal.  Her ride cymbal wasn't exceptionally large either, a 22" at most.  Honestly I think there is something about her bad technique that managed to get a big sound out of those ordinary cymbals. 

 

There were A LOT of bands in Detroit in the 90s with no bass player.  The Gories, The Demolition Doll Rods, etc., but the White Stripes managed to get famous whereas the others are all still waiting tables.  The other thing is that several of the bands had drummers with no cymbals whereas The White Stripes always had cymbals.  I don't know if this was a self-conscious thing by the bands to emulate The Velvet Underground or what. 

 

The Demolition Doll Rods were a highly controversial band among the indie scenesters.  I was in the minority for saying they were fantastic.  I'm still in disbelief that they, like Gil Mantera's Party Dream, never appeared even once on national TV.  

ddr were ok, but not fantastic. they were the kind of band my fav dj jonathan toubin would get when he put together the ny night train live shows, which is where i saw them. they got some press.

 

i do miss those oughties days when we would go around and easily see all kinds of stuff like psychic ills, telepathe, matt&kim, death from above, cat power, magik markers, yadda yadda in all the little clubs, like cake shop, kingsland, and all that, most of which have closed down.

 

anyway, as for ddr on tv, i dk if brazil counts?

 

 

I really enjoyed this experimental cover of Arcade Fire's "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)".

 

 

A lot of White Strips stuff has been re-uploaded to youtube as part of the promotion of their stocking stuffer greatest hits CD. 

 

I think what's really hilarious looking back at this band is that they had huge gaps in their playing...and Jack White still does.  Like, it's obvious that Meg White can't play a double stroke and doesn't even know what one is.  Like, if you take drumming lessons, you do that the very first day and you play doubles in various combinations for hours every week for months until both hands are equally capable. Similarly, Jack White has had 17~ years since this video to learn how chords and modes work and how to color a song with pedal tones, substitutions, and other arranging tools, but he's pretty much just doing more of the same (although the guys he plays with often know this and do this stuff when he's not looking).   

 

That said it's pretty obvious that this band was much, much better with dynamics and sounding good than almost anyone else.  Meg's drums and cymbals sound awesome and you really hear them because they aren't fogged in by a bass guitar.  It really illustrates how bass players are often detracting from a song because they don't know how to get out of the way. 

 

 

 

Mariah Carey is a bad person, she definitely isn't a musician, and the internet and cell phones are lame:

https://www.tmz.com/2020/12/25/mariah-carey-all-i-want-for-christmas-smashes-streaming-spotify-record/

6 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

Mariah Carey is a bad person, she definitely isn't a musician, and the internet and cell phones are lame:

https://www.tmz.com/2020/12/25/mariah-carey-all-i-want-for-christmas-smashes-streaming-spotify-record/

 

I saw her on some morning talk show a couple days ago, nestled in her pajamas and little purse dogs, complaining how she had to leave the city because of the pandemic and spend a entire 10 hours upstate in a recording studio "working" on an audio book.   It was extremely trying, according to Mariah.  

3 hours ago, Cleburger said:

 

 10 hours 

 

I went to an extended family Christmas party last weekend at an Eagles lodge where her Christmas song played 8-9 times before I finally stood up and started yelling to whoever was in charge of the music that I was going to leave if I heard that song one more time.  I was completely serious.  It turned out it was one of my cousins who I have basically never spoken to ever about anything.  So now my entire lifetime interaction with this cousin is yelling at her over the goddamn Mariah Carey Christmas song.  Somehow Spotify was juicing that song to play 10X more than any other Christmas song.  It was a minor song when it came out but the music industry has gone all-in on every Christmas being a massive Mariah Carey revival.  I turned on Apple TV for the first time in months and there they were promoting her fat face and some sort of Christmas special. 

 

The music situation was so bad at this party (the music kept being interrupted by the cousin's text message alerts) that I spoke with my aunt twice (yes, two phone calls) afterward about "next year".  The current plan for next year is *I* will be bringing MY pair of QSC K12.2's and will be playing BURNED CD'S of my own making.  Because the speakers will be fueled by a CD player, there is no way for a retaliatory cousin to sneak Mariah Carey into the party. 

 

 

Where is Rudolph?  Where is Blitzen?  I'm really wondering where and how I lost the CD that had this song on it.

 

I'm also for sure going to sneak this one into the playlist:

 

1,000 watts of Mr. Punchy filling the Eagles Hall basement rec room.  I can see it all now. 

2 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

I went to an extended family Christmas party last weekend at an Eagles lodge where her Christmas song played 8-9 times before I finally stood up and started yelling to whoever was in charge of the music that I was going to leave if I heard that song one more time.  I was completely serious.  It turned out it was one of my cousins who I have basically never spoken to ever about anything.  So now my entire lifetime interaction with this cousin is yelling at her over the goddamn Mariah Carey Christmas song.  Somehow Spotify was juicing that song to play 10X more than any other Christmas song.  It was a minor song when it came out but the music industry has gone all-in on every Christmas being a massive Mariah Carey revival.  I turned on Apple TV for the first time in months and there they were promoting her fat face and some sort of Christmas special. 

 

The music situation was so bad at this party (the music kept being interrupted by the cousin's text message alerts) that I spoke with my aunt twice (yes, two phone calls) afterward about "next year".  The current plan for next year is *I* will be bringing MY pair of QSC K12.2's and will be playing BURNED CD'S of my own making.  Because the speakers will be fueled by a CD player, there is no way for a retaliatory cousin to sneak Mariah Carey into the party. 

 

 

 

 

no it was not a minor song when it came out, it was instantly popular unfortunately.

 

but anyway for that situation you need a fix of the classic john mulhaney skit:

 

 

1 hour ago, mrnyc said:

no it was not a minor song when it came out, it was instantly popular unfortunately.

 

Has anyone ever physically seen a Mariah Carey CD?  It's like, you hear that these pop people were selling millions of CDs, but you never actually saw one or heard somebody playing one live. 

 

I think a lot of pop CDs got discarded after only a couple years. Or they wound up in car CD wallets and forgotten about in the trunk.

^I think a lot of pop CD's like the Mariah Carey Christmas (or whatever it was called) were given to relatives as Christmas gifts, opened and played once, and then sat on a shelf for 8 years before being tossed. 

Christmas records in general flood used media stores. People are always trying to sell you Firestone Christmas 1959. "But it's OLD! It HAS to be worth money!!!!!!" they yell and scream. No, because they sent Firestone Christmas to every single person that bought tires in 1959 and since tires only lasted a year back then that means everyone that owned a car got one.

Speaking of Jesus, I subscribed to a band's Patreon content this year, the satanic ska band Mephiskapheles.  For $5 you get access to their monthly seance.  The December 13 seance featured a retelling of the spontaneous combustion of their RV on their way to their 2018 tour kickoff in Cincinnati.  They used Ronnie Solerno's (aka Gordan Bombay) photos to illustrate the story.  I made the following short video with my phone to send to him. 

 

This band is Frank Zappa-level obnoxious and their seances don't disappoint. 

 

 

On 12/26/2020 at 4:56 PM, jmecklenborg said:

 

Has anyone ever physically seen a Mariah Carey CD?  It's like, you hear that these pop people were selling millions of CDs, but you never actually saw one or heard somebody playing one live. 

 

 

sales and holding a cd in your hands has nothing to do with the popularity of the song. its a christmastime staple from day one to this very day. 

On 12/27/2020 at 1:44 PM, GCrites80s said:

Christmas records in general flood used media stores. People are always trying to sell you Firestone Christmas 1959. "But it's OLD! It HAS to be worth money!!!!!!" they yell and scream. No, because they sent Firestone Christmas to every single person that bought tires in 1959 and since tires only lasted a year back then that means everyone that owned a car got one.

 

 

there is only one christmas album i can stand and thats the phil spector album. it gets played by us once every year on christmas when we are cooking. it helps that it isnt very long, they get in and get out with the songs and phil leaves you with his nutty little el lay goodbye. i think there may be a few classic christmas records like that which are perennial steady sellers, but who knows.

7 minutes ago, mrnyc said:

 

 

there is only one christmas album i can stand and thats the phil spector album.

 

 

The Elvis Presley Christmas album is...awesome. 

 

 

17 minutes ago, mrnyc said:

 

sales and holding a cd in your hands has nothing to do with the popularity of the song. its a christmastime staple from day one to this very day. 

 

It absolutely was not a "staple" for 20 years.  Only recently when the record company decided to turn every Christmas into a Mariah Carey revival was the horrible humorless thing dusted off and forced up our nostrils like a covid test. 

 

Nobody seems to remember this.  It was a big deal in Cincinnati in the late 80s, when the object of this song managed to sell out Riverfront Stadium. 

 

 

^ no it wasnt only recently popular it was always an immediate staple from the moment it was unfortunately spawned, in part because of the song itself and in part because mc used to be very popular. i suppose it could be only recently popular to you in cinci given the 20yr delay thing there still holds lol.

I remember never, ever hearing "Last Christmas" by Wham! in the '80s or '90s. The only '80s Christmas song you'd hear was "Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer". "Last Christmas" didn't get hot until about 2012.

I don't hear "Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer" on the radio any more.  

They probably took it off for being too hokey for today's proclivities 

ha yeah — there is no end to wacky and often surprising xmas songs. ie., check out the nsfw springsteen song ‘pilgrim in the temple of love.’ thats right, nsfw. and here is more oddball bad idea insanity for the holidays:

 

 

https://www.spin.com/2017/12/30-weirdest-christmas-songs?amp=1

2 hours ago, GCrites80s said:

They probably took it off for being too hokey for today's proclivities 

 

I mean, Kindergarden Cop is too intense for today's audiences.  

On 12/28/2020 at 10:36 PM, jmecklenborg said:

Speaking of Jesus, I subscribed to a band's Patreon content this year, the satanic ska band Mephiskapheles.  For $5 you get access to their monthly seance.  The December 13 seance featured a retelling of the spontaneous combustion of their RV on their way to their 2018 tour kickoff in Cincinnati.  They used Ronnie Solerno's (aka Gordan Bombay) photos to illustrate the story.  I made the following short video with my phone to send to him. 

 

This band is Frank Zappa-level obnoxious and their seances don't disappoint. 

 

 

Mephiskapheles is still around? Wow.  I used to host a ska radio show on WRUW 91.1 FM and I remember interviewing them in the late 90s at the Agora before their gig. It was funny because their trombone player’s dad was my Physics professor at CWRU at the time, so that’s what I started the interview with. 
 

(My radio show was “Screw the Buzzard” and it later evolved to mostly punk. I had fun with that show, especially when I got the safe harbor midnight time slot and no longer had to hover over the mute button to bleep out every swear word.)

 

On 12/31/2020 at 11:23 AM, Boomerang_Brian said:

Mephiskapheles is still around? Wow.

 

 

They disappeared on Y2K.  They played a final show on Dec 31, 1999 and disappeared without explanation until they reemerged on Jan 1, 2013 at a bowling alley in New Jersey.  They didn't even have a website for exactly 13 years.  They've now been back for almost as long as the original incarnation of the band.  Actually there was a period in 2012 where there were two competing Mephiskapheles revival groups (using parody names), which was itself a parody of the two rival Guns N Roses and Black Flag revival groups, but in aggregate a flimsy promo effort for their upcoming 2013 reformation.

 

The guys in their original incarnation were all jazz-trained guys who somehow found their way into a satanic panic parody band.  They had an awesome trumpet player.  The Wikipedia page lists no less than 23 former members: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephiskapheles

 

They have recorded two EP's since their 2013 reformation.  This is their best-known "new" song (it is now 6 years old)...it's the sort of thing that in the past could have gotten a push form college radio but today just never gains any traction whatsoever because the internet ruined everything:

 

 

 

A video just surfaced of The White Stripes playing at a house venue in Cincinnati circa-2000.  Whoever filmed this minute of them playing Jolene (at 9:20) probably wishes they had filmed more of that show instead of their dumbass friends goofing around:

 

12 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

A video just surfaced of The White Stripes playing at a house venue in Cincinnati circa-2000.  Whoever filmed this minute of them playing Jolene (at 9:20) probably wishes they had filmed more of that show instead of their dumbass friends goofing around:

 

 

The house looks like 2270 Vine, which somehow sold for $100 in 2016.

8 minutes ago, Ram23 said:

 

The house looks like 2270 Vine, which somehow sold for $100 in 2016.

 

Yeah it's in terrible shape now.  I got mugged while riding my bicycle uphill in this spot in 2011.  

 

 

among the many celebrity deaths recently let's not overlook today's passing of Phil Spector at 81 from Covid. Sure it was in prison since he was there for murder, not to mention the other generally abusive things he purportedly did over the years🤔 At least his music was great!

 

 

 

Edited January 17, 20214 yr by eastvillagedon