Giuseppe Zangara

One of those two times was at an MTV taping! Anyway, in my experience, their live shows expose Black Thought. Granted, up until what I assume is recently (I haven't seen them since 2003), he had to handle both his and Malik's parts on stage. Rapping that much—especially with a less than perfect backing band (they can be a little sloppy)—isn't easy, but that doesn't mean he should get a pass just for trying.

I've seen the Roots twice; pretty dull both times. And I like them on record.

Why are Kreese and the Capt. placed with us? (No offense to either.)

My first impression of THRAK: eh. Nowhere near as bad as its follow-up, The Construcktion of Light, but something feels off. Maybe it's the contemporary production. I'm not a big fan of the guitar sound here, either; Fripp sounds like Vernon Reid on most of it.

What about

Argayde Fire

An aside: Not too long ago, I was rooting around Fripp's blog over at the dgm site. I found an entry where he stated that Tool are the only band that ever makes him want to pick up his guitar and rock out anymore. Considering that, we should all be grateful he hasn't found more inspiration to make another KC album.

I'm weighing downloading THRAK instead of doing a blind buy, which is how I've mostly acquired my KC albums. (Really dodged a bullet when I pirated TCoL, ya know.)

In the meantime, my five favorite KC songs of the moment. Only one song per album. (Otherwise, this list would be a little Discipline-heavy.) 1. Frame by Frame 2. Larks Tongues in Aspic, Part II 3. The Great Deceiver 4. Cat Food 5. Three of a Perfect Pair

I find whenever I get in a King Crimson mood, my opinion on certain albums changeâ€â€remember, I once stated in another thread that I preferred Beat to Disciplineâ€â€so the above list is liable to change in a couple of months (though Discipline is secure at the top, believe me). Every time I listen to a bunch of their albums, I discover a lot of things to like and appreciate that completely escaped my notice on earlier spins; that's exciting, as there aren't very many bands like that. I suppose it helps there aren't many bands with as wide and varied a discography as King Crimson. So, the day may come where I'll get over the hump that is "Providence" and truly love Red. That said, what's your beef with SaBB? It has, for higlights, "The Great Deceiver," "Lament," "We'll Let You Know," "Trio" and "Fracture." So much good stuff.

Re: Three of a Perfect Pair Production, mainly. Almost every song here is trumped by the live versions on Absent Lovers, thanks to the latter's rawer sound. That said, I do like the studio take of the title track and am quite fond of the Tony Levin mix of "Sleepless," though not so much any of the other myriad versions, including bonus tracks. Re: Red "Providence" just isn't that good. Everything else on the album is great. And you didn't ask, but yeesh, The Construcktion of Light is dire. I'll likely never check out The Power to Believe because of it; it makes me a little nervous about THRAK, too, though I'm sure I'll get around to that one eventually, as Levin and Bruford are on it.

http://wilcoworld.net/sbs/ 11pm, est Now I'm debating whether to go out.

Ranking the KC I have/heard: 1. Discipline 2. Larks Tongues in Aspic 3. Starless and Bible Black 4. Red 5. In the Wake of Poseidon 6. In the Court of the Crimson King 7. Beat 8. Three of a Perfect Pair 9. The Construcktion of Light I put LTiA over SaBB because why not. I didn't include Absent Lovers, but that's top five material, easily. #s 1-7 are all good; 8 & 9 are so-so and utterly forgettable, respectively.

Oh.

I can approach your post either one of two ways: 1) "Hey, good thing taste is subjective," or 2) "Hey, you like Arcade Fire, the Fiery Furnaces and Nellie McKay. Should you be so quick to judge?"

I'm not going to the Isis show, and here's why: Jesu is the opening act for Isis. Except they've had to postpone their involvement with the tour for the first two weeks, thanks to visa issues. (Jesu being from England.) The cancellation of the second of those two weeks—which covers the show I was planning on seeing—allows me, according to an e-mail I received the other day, to get a refund. Now, it so happened I wanted to see Jesu in addition to Isis, and was bummed to learn they had to bow out. Still, I was plenty excited to see Isis...until I listened to In the Absence of Truth yesterday, details of which are just a few posts above. After discussing it with Gene, I made the error of listening to it again, which served to further diminish the excitement I had for seeing them live. Now add how, from what I've read, the current Isis set list is mostly stuff from the new, boring album and very little of the earlier, better material (we're talking just two songs, though they'll throw in a third if they're feeling generous) AND that there won't be the plus of seeing Jesu AND that going to and from Gainesville just to see this show will result in me only getting four hours (if that) of sleep before going into work the next day, this all equals me no longer thinking it'll be worth the effort involved. So I'm taking advantage of the available refund and not going. For what it's worth, if either Jesu had been able to make it or Isis were playing a show here in town, I'd still have gone.

It's good to know I could brodown with a two-year-old, should the occasion arise.

Hey, I've warmed up to the guy's voice. And, to be fair, his singing isn't the only thing I dislike about that song.

How do you feel about The Night Watch double album? It was recorded around the same time as USA. edit: This was for Blak. THANKS SLAYER

This decade? Stankonia's in there, sure, but I don't know what else. If I considered this a year ago, I definitely would've given props to Young Liars, but now I think Return to Cookie Mountain is superior. But why not both?

They didn't know the real you. I'm finding, re Wetton-era, that I have no real favorite between Larks Tongues in Aspic and Starless and Bible Black. It isn't Red, for, as high the highs are on that one, "Providence"—which eats up almost a third of the album's running time—is more interesting than good.

Let's just eliminate the whole of Ontario.

This can be another general King Crimson thread, too.

I'm convinced it'll be so much better live, prompting me to go back and keep listening to it until it finally clicks. Or maybe it won't click, but it'll still be better live. I'm hoping. Either way, I don't like that Turner's doing more clean singing. He sounds a little too nü when he doesn't growl.

Today, I listened to In the Absence of Truth for the first time since November. I gave it a good, solid, distraction-free listen, which helped give me a higher opinion of it than I previously had, but it's still my least favorite of the Isis albums. Still stoked to see them Tuesday, though.