[MUSIC]What Are You Listening To?

saw these guys tonight at walters... hottest accordion player EVER.

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Do you think there was any consideration given to the relationship between the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' new album artwork and the older Wilco cover art?


wilco a ghost is born

yeah yeah yeahs it's blitz

 

Considering that A Ghost Is Born is the only Wilco album I hate, I would love to smash that egg myself.

 

"It's Blitz" might be my favorite album of the year. Great stuff.

 

Best Buy is selling all remastered David Lee Roth era Van Halen cd's for $7.99. Of course i bought the ones i didn't have.

Van Halen I
Van Halen II
Women and Children First
Fair Warning
Diver Down
1984

 

Still:
A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head (firm in predicting this as my album of the year)

Also:
Soulsavers - Broken
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions - Through the Devil Softly

 

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE!

 

I actually never knew how good their 80s stuff was, outside of One on One and Next Position Please. The past few days I've been listening to Lap of Luxury and Standing on the Edge and they actually have a bunch of good songs on them too. Busted, on the other hand, is hard to listen to for the most part (but since it's from 1990 I guess it doesn't taint their impressive 80s run, minus The Doctor I assume, which I still have never heard). They really are amazing; I just created an 80s mix of 21 songs and not one single radio hit (that doesn't even include anything from All Shook Up, which I consider more in line with their 70s stuff). The amount of good songs they've produced is quite remarkable.

 

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Brother, I will give you an AMEN!!! on that. You are preaching to the choir.

Finally. Wednesday. Def Leppard and Cheap Trick (and poison) at The Woodlands Pavilion.

DEF LEPPARD:
High and Dry
Pyromania
Hysteria

Three of the essential albums of the 80s. Many good songs. Put on a great show.

POISON

I'll give them this- they do put on a good show, and I do like a few -a few- songs.

CHEAP TRICK

The most underrated band in rock history. No, I'm not exaggerating. I'm sure they have many, many haters or people who just don't care for their music at all. That's totally cool- but most of them can cite 4-5 songs the band has done and miss out on 100s of their great songs. You look at their goofball image, some of their goofy songs like She's Tight and Dream Police, and you think, "This band is just kid's stuff- bubblegum music for the 80s."

Totally wrong. First, Cheap Trick (debut album) is hard, fast, and raw. The Ramones didn't borrow "KKK Took my Baby Away" from "He's A w****" for nothing. You listen to this, and you're like, "wow, this stuff rocks as hard as the Ramones and The Clash." Then, In Color, Heaven Tonight, Dream Police, and All Shook Up are all great. Then, a few rough spots in the 80s- but out of the 6, 3 are very good, 3 are so-so- but then, in the 90s, you listen to Cheap Trick 1997, Special One, and Rockford, and you're like, "They did it again." All great CDs. And The Latest, the one that just came out, will be one of the classic rock CDs when it's all said and done. What a career.

Cheap Trick, additionally, is the Master of Allusion- you know, when you hear a small part of one group's song in another (like, listen to the guitar in the chorus of "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet" from BTO- exactly like "Baba O' Riley" from The Who). When you read about how many CT songs include these little 1-second references to other classic artists/songs, it's like an encyclopedia of rock and roll. AND IT'S NOT PLAGIARIZING, EITHER- it's not throughout the whole song like "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet." It's just a 1-2 second blip that you probably wouldn't catch if you didn't pay attention-cool stuff. Here is a list compiled by some on the CT site:

CHEAP TRICK ALLUSIONS

CHEAP TRICK 77
** Taxman, Mr. Thief – a direct reference to the Beatles classic
** Cry Cry – when Robin's singing during the fade out section "I'll be so lonely... I'll be so lonely"... ("Heartbreak Hotel" quote. Robin even mimicks Elvis' voice).
** ELO Kiddies – Gary Glitter, RNR Part 2, type drum sound and the title of the song nods the band ELO
** He's A w**** – rhythm pattern is an obvious quote from "26 or 6 to 4" by Chicago
** Ballad of Tv Violence - the opening riff is lifted from Uriah Heep's "Gypsy"

IN COLOR
** Hello There - refers to the opening riff of the Beatles Revolution

HEAVEN TONIGHT
** Surrender - Mom and Dad are rolling on the couch/rolling numbers, rock and rollin', got my Kiss records out. Keyboard similar to Baba O Riley
** Auf Wiedersehen - "There are many here among us, Who feel their lives are a joke."- Bob Dylan, All Along the Watchtower
** California Man – main guitar riff from that band's "Brontosaurus" in the solo section, too. End has same notes as the intro to Katmandu by Bob Seger
** On Top of the World - Peter Gunn Theme
** How Are You – based on the bridge from "Day In The Life. Also, after the line "You know you talk to much you even scare my friends", the sped up noise you hear is someone reciting the Lords Prayer/Our Father
** Stiff Competition - Guitar part from the Who's Won't Get Fooled Again

AT BUDOKAN
** Ain't That A Shame - 2nd guitar solo has a reference to "Please Please Me" from The Beatles
** Southern Girls – Train Kept A Rollin from The Yardbirds/Aerosmith, right before lead vocals begin on when played live.

DREAM POLICE
** The House Is Rocking – The Yardbirds "Think About It" in the fade out
** Dream Police- keyboard part similar to The Who's Baba O' Riley

ALL SHOOK UP
** Loves Come A Tumblin Down – Too many to list them all
** Stop this Game – begins and ends with the same chord as A Day In The Life from The Beatles.
** I Love You Honey,But I Hate Your Friends – 'the aging Mr.Martin' is a reference to "Sir George Martin" whom not only produced "All Shook Up" but all of The Beatles works , as well as many others
** Go For The Throat (Use Your Own Imagination) - lyric "I am what I am" reference to Popeye

FOUND ALL THE PARTS
** Everything Works If You Let It - in the middle, Robin sings, "Good Times, Bad Times...." as an obvious reference to Led Zeppelin

ONE ON ONE
** She's Tight - guitar part from Eddie Cochran's Somethin' Else
** If You Want My Love - guitar interlude compared to The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

NEXT POSITION PLEASE
** Invaders of the Heart (music)- beginning is an obvious allusion to "My Generation" from The Who

STANDING ON THE EDGE
** How About You – chords and guitar fills from Small Faces' "Whatcha gonna do about it"

THE DOCTOR
** Are You Lonely Tonight- lyric "Been all around the world, seen a million girls" refers to AC-DC's Girls Got Rhythm

LAP OF LUXURY
** Never Had a Lot to Lose (lyric)- the line "I have all the riches baby one man can claim"- The Temptation's "My Girl"
** The Flame - Listen to Spirit's "Nature's Way"
** Let Go – opening guitar riff refers to "If I Needed Someone" by the Beatles

BUSTED
** Had to Make You Mine - the lyrics "telling all the world, that you're my little girl" refer to The Beatles "I Feel Fine"

WOKE UP WITH A MONSTER
** Girlfriends – The opening riff is just like the AC/DC song "Rock N Roll Damnation" off the Powerage album. Middle, when Robin starts to sing, is a similar melody and vocals from a passage in AC/DC's "Bad Boy Boogie
** My Gang - The chorus quotes the verse from "Leader Of The Gang" by Gary Glitter; the words ( "Do you wanna be in my gang" ) and also the tune.

CHEAP TRICK 97
** Eight Miles Low (lyric/title)- obvious reference to "Eight Miles High" from The Byrds
** You Let A Lotta People Down, the part that goes, You've got a lot to learn, you can't do that reminds me of the Beatles You Can't Do That

MUSIC FOR HANGOVERS
** Oh, Caroline – they play The Yardbirds' "Heart Full Of Soul" at the end

SPECIAL ONE
** Scent of a Woman (music)- mentions "day in the life" as a nod to The Beatles "A Day In The Life"

ROCKFORD
** Come On, Come On, Come On - "temperature's hot 98 degrees...", "you're not n'sync with the boys in the band", "let's get back to the street boys" = homage to 98 Degrees, N'Sync, & Backstreet Boys, three of the greatest musical talents of all time. Ha Ha Ha! Also, from the same song: "no more epic tales to tell..." referring to breaking their ties with their former label.

THE LATEST
** Miss Tomorrow – A mention of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. guitar riff from "Christmas With The Devil" = Spinal Tap!
** Miracle – references John Lennon's Mind Games. finishes with the end of "Here Comes The Sun" = The Beatles

From Wikipedia: Bands citing Cheap Trick as an influence include Local H, The Datsuns, Enuff Z'nuff, Everclear, Extreme, Fountains of Wayne, Guns N' Roses, Mötley Crüe, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Green Day, OK Go, Smashing Pumpkins, The Pink Spiders, Terrorvision, Weezer, and numerous others.

And that's a fanatic for you- yes, I'm a CT fanatic, absolutely. After this concert, though, it'll probably be a year before I listen to the stuff again. Too much of anything, no matter how good, can be harmful (well, almost everything...)


The Who, The Beatles, U2, The Kinks, Radiohead, and Rush are still my favorites, but Cheap Trick is definitely somewhere in the middle. Great band.

 

Recent Acquisitions:

XTC - Drums & Wires
The Knife - Silent Shout
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours

 

Roy Buchanan: Sweet Dreams: the Anthology

Van Morrison: Moondance
Leon Russel: Retrospective

 

Trivia Question:

Why they are called Cheap Trick?

 

Back From the Dead - Spinal Tap

 

They went to a Slade concert in the early 70s, with Slade wearing the glitter and outrageous costumes and all the pomp & circumstance like a lot of the glam rock bands back then (Bowie, Sweet, etc.), and either Rick Nielsen or Tom Petersson said, "They've pulled out every cheap trick in the book." (although they do like that band a lot). Their DVD is also called Every Trick in the Book as a reference to that.