Nah, I saw the Gris Gris at Rudyard's--I've actually heard them, I've only heard about Hamburger. Here's by Decemberists double dip tale: At 9:30, we arrived at this hellhole club with a ****hole sound system, but we new that going in. I can’t count the number of instances of a band complaining about the sound at this place. Still, an inexplicably high percentage of great bands that come through town play here—Arcade Fire, Xiu Xiu, Beulah, Of Montreal, Do Make Say Think, Animal Collective—and those are just some of the ones I’ve seen. We missed the first band entirely, so the Decemberists were on within half an hour. Things started off comically with the drummer getting up on the microphone saying, “I’m Colin Meloy and we’re the Decemberists.” Cheers all around as they belted out a rock version of “Love Will Keep Us Together.” Song finished, the real Colin got off the drums and on the mike to announce, “April Fools!” They started the real set with “The Infanta,” and sounded about as well as you could expect a band of this caliber to sound in a venue this poor. But not to Colin, obviously. Throughout the night, seemingly after each song, he complained about the monitors—I can’t hear myself in this one, Why am I coming out of that one on the wall?, and on and on. The band played an excellent set in Dallas the night before, according to my friend—nearly and hour and three quarters. They played “The Mariner’s Revenge Song.” The encore was “The Tain.” They blew up. Not here, though. Not in this pit. They quit before getting to the whale song—evidently Colin claimed he couldn’t sing any longer, but we knew who was to blame. Mary Jane Fat Cat’s. Fortunately we had tickets to see them in Austin the following night. Austin, the live music capital of the world. We won’t be let down. We got to the venue at 9:30 again—but the first opening act hadn’t even stepped up. They were listenable, with some great moments here and there. Several Newcastles later, time for the Decemberists. Same set, better sound. After the second song, Colin said, “We played in Houston last night. Ugh…” A mixture of boos and applause rose from the crowd. “I’m sorry, but a city that big should have at least one good venue. With a decent sound system.” A combination of anger for the Decemberists not playing a full set the previous night because of a subpar venue and elation for knowing how amazing tonight’s show would be rushed over me. We were not disappointed—they were fantastic, playing nearly an hour longer than they did in Houston. Just before “The Mariner’s Revenge,” the song we were unjustly denied 24 hours earlier, Colin apologized, “For those of you who were at the Houston show, I hope this makes up for it.” I yelled out, “It does,” keenly articulate boy that I am. So that’s the tale of two Decemberists. Bad venue. Good venue. Not as good as the time I saw them a year ago play a set in which “The Tain” was played in the middle of the show, and they closed the second encore with “I Was Meant for the Stage,” Colin writhing about with his guitar on the floor in front of the stage, five feet away from me, but it was nice. I like this band.
The Decemberists are the best American pop/rock band right now. Castaways and Cutouts is a good starting point, but all their stuff is top-notch, so start with whatever you can find.
Been enjoying that trial of Napster -- listening to: Bush - The Science of Things Fleetwood Mac - Rumors Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West John Butler Trio - Sunrise Over Sea NWA - Straight Outta Compton Lightnin' Hopkins - The Aladdin Recordings Amandla! - Amandla Soundtrack Jessy Moss - Street Knuckles Black Eyed Peas - Elephunk Barry White - Greatest Hits Oh, I picked up that "The Bravery" album the other day too -- haven't listened to the whole thing yet. Kind of felt a bit like Depeche Mode, but I haven't listened to it enough to really have much of an opinion of it.
Win, No, I am not listening to "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" now - I am in a university library fixing to go to class. But I did listen to it a couple of weeks ago several times. I still like "Selling England by the Pound" better, but it is a very good album. I ordered recently "Foxtrot" and should be getting it within the next week or so.
Fatty, I can see how one as prolific as yourself might become disgruntled over the multitude of music threads here. After all, they get in the way of your more pressing topics such as "We need a new fajita recipe", "How great am I?" and most importantly, your endeavoor to make millions by changing your name to 'Dallas Mavericks'. To be fair, I can see where a new 'what's in your cd player?' thread every week may seem unoriginal and hackneyed; especially to someone who stopped evolving musically shortly after AC/DC put out 'Back in Black, but the music threads ALWAYS garner lots of responses. Just face it, there are quite a few here who care passionately about music (sorta like the Rockets, eh?). Indeed, there are quite a few musicians who post here
DAMN!Accidently hit post before I finished my love note to Fatty. In short, while a new thread every week may not be the best way of addressing all the music posts (perhaps Manny can come up with something) needed for this dynamic group of music lovers who crave the inside on the latest and best new music, it's all we currently have and I don't see it changing anytime soon. XOX Win
Win, Great post. I like the Fat b*stard as much as anyone and he is a good guy (I met him at the Smeg thing). But his disdain for music threads is getting tiresome. We get it - you don't like people talking about music here - so move on to another thread. That would be like me always posting in some politcal thread or some other thread that I don't care for saying "Boy this is real original" or whatever. And your standard excuse of "Well, I am only kidding with you guys," is getting old and tiresome as well. I'll just add that I have learned a lot of new music from this place whether it has been about specific genres, artists, albums whatever. And I am very grateful for that and I will be damned if I am going to let someone whether it is you or anyone else discourage me or anybody else like a Win talk about music with your vapid criticisms about it.
I agree, I love reading Manny's posts about music, I love music and discussing music, and Manny is one of the most knowledgeable people I know when it comes to music. BTW Manny, I am going to be getting "Animals" and "Wish You Were Here" as well, looking foward to listening to those.
Mott the Hoople... what a great band! Quite a string of guitarists, with Mick Ralphs, who eventually quit to join Bad Company, Luther Grosvenor of Spooky Tooth, AKA Ariel Bender (changed his name when he joined Mott), and Mick Ronson. Terrific live, when Hunter and Ralphs were in their element. Bender, for anyone who was a Spooky Tooth fan (get Spooky Two... their best record), was a great replacement. Ronson was fantastic, and underrated by many, along with Grosvenor/Bender. Ian Hunter was/is brilliant. You've got good taste.
thanks for the info. manny. i have actually listened to pretty much all of pinks stuff including obscured by clouds, final cut and all the others. I have also read there book saucer full of secrets. But i have never listened to animals. Ill have to make it point to pick it up sometime.
animals, shmanimals everyone knows that pink floyd reached their creative apex with piper at the gates of dawn. gilmour is a wanker!
Animals is the perfect marriage of awesome Waters lyrics with searing guitar work from Gilmour. If you have listened to lesser known albums like Obscured by Clouds and The Final Cut, you have got to get Animals. jo mama, Syd Barrett fan by chance?
Thanks Deck. Yeah, they're pretty sweet. Looks like you know a lot more about them than me though. It's weird that you don't hear them talked about very much; just an unusual amount of good songs there. Win - don't have Brain Capers yet; only know 'Sweet Angeline' off that one. I suppose it'll be my next pickup from them - I've got the two I mentioned, along with 'Mott'. I'll probably need your expertise after that in knowing where to go next.
i like syd. not going to say they were better with him, but they were definately more psychedellic and experimental. totally different band when he was the frontman. i dont think they would have been nearly as popular if he was never booted. they would have been a velvet underground style cult band, i think. ever heard his solo album, the madcap laughs? good stuff. as far as floyd, i definately like the earlier stuff better - piper, saucerful of secrets, atom heart mother (fat old sun rules) and meddle (fearless is my favorite floyd song ever). darkside too, of course.
jo, I know of the madcap laughs album but have never gotten it. You and I are about at the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to Floyd. But there is nothing wrong with that. I will say that I feel "Fearless" is one of their most underrated songs ever. Ciao.
I was wondering about that dude (Barrett). I heard he think he's a broom now... Is that even remotely true??? Then, after he was gone, the lead was Waters or Gilmour? Sorry for such a rediculous question.
Roger "Syd" Barrett founded Floyd with Roger Waters in the mid '60s (can't remember if it was '64 or '65). IIRC, Rick Wright or Nick Mason was a classmate of Waters and don't remember how the other one joined the band but that was the original lineup - Barrett on guitar and vocals, Waters on bass, Wright on keyboards, and Mason on drums. Syd was a heavy LSD user and he had a pretty sh!tty childhood. The combination of these 2 things caused him to pretty much flake out. He would forget notes or words during the middle of live performances and later even go into catatonic states while on stage. It became painfully obvious he couldn't handle the stress of performing live. So, the band brought in an acquaintance that they all knew in David Gilmour. Gilmour actually performed on the band's 2nd album, "A Saucerful of Secrets" along with Syd (the only Floyd album that had 5 members but Syd isn't on every song). Gilmour was to participate in all live performances and on most studio cuts but the band still wanted Syd in the studio (ala Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys), but this didn't work out either. By the time "A Saucerful of Secrets" was finished recording, Syd had to be kicked out of the band. He went on and did some solo stuff (like the album that jo mama mentioned) but he never gained anything more than a cult audience. As far as I know, he is still alive but pretty much spends all of his time in a room in a house and is pretty much fried. Starting with the band's 3rd album, "More" (it was the soundtrack to some obscure movie and one of my least favored albums), the band was Gilmour on guitar and vocals, Waters on bass and vocals, Wright on keyboards and vocals, and Mason on drums. This was the classic Floyd lineup (Dark Side of the Moon to The Wall). All of them wrote songs but Waters emerged before the '60s ended as the group's dominant composer. Stories about Gilmour's struggles as a lyricist are legendary among Floyd fans (he could write the music fine but just wasn't a lyricist). Floyd really struggled after Syd left and from "More" through "Atom Heart Mother", they were highly experimental as they were searching for that right sound. They finally got it with "Echoes", the last song on "Meddle". Its space rock atmosphere paved the way for "Dark Side of the Moon" (which came after another soundtrack album, "Obscured by Clouds"). The success of DSOTM made Waters, unofficially, the group's leader. "Wish You Were Here" came after DSOTM and has 2 themes: 1) Honoring Syd (on the tracks, "Shine on You Crazy Diamond" (both parts) and the album's title track, and 2) Floyd's disdain of the music industry (with the tracks "Welcome to the Machine" and the underrated "Have a Cigar" featuring guest vocals from Gilmour buddy AND Zeppelin pal, Roy Harper). By the time, "Animals" was recorded, Roger had taken complete control - he was writing the lyrics AND music for all songs and doing most of the vocals. Rick Wright, who used to be a solid songwriter and decent vocalist, was pretty much pushed aside and would later get fired by Roger during the recording of The Wall (even though his name still appears on the credits). Don't think I need to talk much about "The Wall" but it was a concept album of Roger's and delved into his psyche about his childhood, his disdain for war, fame, and other things through the eyes of a rock star named "Pink". "The Final Cut" was the last album done by Floyd with Roger in the band. By the time it was over, both Gilmour and Mason were ready to part with Roger, which was fine with him. Roger went onto a solo career that has been critically impressive at times but of course nowhere as successful as what he had with Floyd with albums like "The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking", "Radio K.A.O.S." (his weakest album), and "Amused to Death" (his masterpiece). Gilmour after bombing with his second solo album (his first is very good), "About Face" decided to re-form Floyd without Waters and released the group's 13th studio album in 1987 in "A Momentary Lapse of Reason". This album is generally regarded by many Floyd fans to be their weakest as it has no Roger, still no Rick Wright, and half of Mason. In 1994, Wright was back and he along with Mason recorded with Dave the final studio album of Floyd - "The Division Bell". Not a bad album but nothing innovative. Did that answer your question, rockets #1?
