godthedog

that's amazing. i picked up 'murray street' recently, supposedly their best album in years, and kim gordon's most obvious contribution, "plastic sun," is atrocious, with lyrics like Get your hands on my tomato Cherry juice on a rotten potato Subway slasher is on my ass Steals my money and smokes my grass i don't even know what that's supposed to mean.

i got introduced to the velvet underground solely because i liked the holographic cover of the special edition of 'loaded'. i saw the cover, and i instantly bought it. i think that's the only time i've ever done that.

some of my favorite parts of the reivew:

i don't find the resthold segments boring, really. the last third or so actually gets frustrating for me, as shawn is pretty clearly winded and bret has to basically kill time till his big comeback, and he starts blanking out (doing a lot of stuff in the corner and using a camel clutch twice, IIRC). and when shawn DOES get to his comeback, it's just 2 minutes straight of big moves, done in slow motion cause he's so winded. there should've been more back-and-forth, especially towards the end to make the desperation more clear and up the tension. a regular match that ends up going 30+ minutes can create just as epic a feeling, and in retrospect that's what they should've done. in the end, there's only so much you can do with an iron man match. when done properly you DO get a pretty unreal tension for the last 2 minutes or so as the clock is wearing down, cause they fucking EARNED that tension, but you sacrifice the suspense that a match can end at any time. after you pass the 20-minute mark or so, you can still really play up fatigue and add a lot of tension to it, cause the fans can reasonably expect it to end with the next big near-fall. that gives you a lot more to work with than the iron man format.

pitchfork, deep down, stays pretty close to the indie party line. they will never ever write a less-than-deifying review of any radiohead album. about as bad as rolling stone, just with different people.

i recently read the allmusic.com review of 'i'm wide awake'/'digital ash'. they tore him a new asshole, completely berating him as a posing untalented pissant who lacks any basic ability to craft a song. the fact that he got such a review from such a normally neutered, overrating source makes it funnier. also from the review i found out that bob dylan was my age when he released 'bringing it all back home'. this severely depresses me.

i deserved it today. yesterday between a conference, the post-conference reception, the post-reception party, and the post-party "where do we stand now" conversation with a classmate that lasted 2 1/2 hours (by the end of which i was hoarse), i pretty much ran around from 7:30 in the morning to 4 in the morning nonstop. to a lesser extent, that's been my whole week, and last night was the first time i've gotten more than 4 1/2 hours of sleep in a while. and i'm sure 3 more albums will be added to the list before i go to sleep.

http://www.cafepress.com/dontfeedterry i recommend the classic thong.

madonna - true blue fiona apple - when the pawn pearl jam - yield rolling stones - beggars banquet smashing pumpkins - siamese dream sonic youth - murray street fiona apple - extraordinary machine perfect indicator that i did absolutely nothing today.

michael jackson, the reigning king of overlong pop wankery, 'invincible': unbreakable heartbreaker invincible you rock my world speechless whatever happens 'dangerous': jam why you wanna trip on me in the closet remember the time black or white who is it give in to me will you be there

i think you fear commitment. the novelty has worn off, and you don't seem to be comfortable just being comfortable.

no. now you've cut too many, and you have to start all over.

what would you consider to be the difference between good instrumental sloppiness (i.e., velvet underground) and bad instrumental sloppiness (i.e., 'horses' apparently)? cause i have no idea. i mean, i think there IS a difference somewhere, but i've never been able to define it. nothing to do with anything, but i really dig marilyn manson's guilty-pleasure cover of "rock n roll nigger."

ween, 'quebec': it's gonna be a long night zoloft transdermal celebration happy colored marbles the fucked jam the argus

you only cut one real song. not much of an edit.

"albums bought in the last week" edition: smashing pumpkins - soma billy joel - stiletto madonna - la isla bonita mariah carey - alone in love (i have no idea why) billy joel - zanzibar

shocking. i find the last half a lot more satisfying. they kinda explore the same territory, but they tend to cut a lot deeper and explore a lot more (save for "inertia creeps," which is a mini-epic in its own right). i always thought of the first half as being more about surfaces and kind of surveying the sounds they were going for, then exploring them more fully later. "angel" is catchy as hell, but something about it seems more superficial than "dissolved girl" or "black milk." if i had to choose between, say, "mezzanine" and "risingson," i'd pick "mezzanine" in an instant. so basically, i guess my edit would be: inertia creeps dissolved girl black milk mezzanine group four either way, makes a pretty mindblowing EP.

i looooooooooove me some 'beggars banquet'. sound- and texture-wise, it's the most cohesive album by them i've ever heard, and i love that edgy dirty gritty blues sound. i heard 'let it bleed' a good 4 years earlier and the parts of that i most latched on to were the gritty numbers like "country honk" and "you got the silver," and i'd always wondered why they didn't go further in that direction instead of switching to a more straight beefy rock sound by 'sticky fingers'. this record was kind of an answer to that (i.e., they'd already DONE that sound before for an entire album), and it was like a wet dream when i first heard it. the tracks aren't so worried about distinguishing themselves (unlike 'let it bleed', where they tend to build each song around one key exotic instrument in a weird kind of beatles trick to separate the songs from each other), and for some reason it just works really well. mick gives probably his best set of performances on any album, and makes a great case for being one of the best vocalists ever. fuck being sonorous, he's ALL attitude (especially on "stray cat blues" where he cares a lot more about being thickly tongue-in-cheek seductive than staying on key), and that's what sells the sound. "jigsaw puzzle" is an incoherent, shitty dylan ripoff, but mick puts everything he has into it and almost makes it work (especially when he sings "what the HELLLLLLLL is going on"). on top of that, it's one of the funniest "classic" records ever. on top of being great songs, "dear doctor" and "factory girl" are hysterical. that kind of tongue-in-cheek sensibility is there in more subtle form for the whole album, except during "salt of the earth" when they try to play it straight and it doesn't work. but i have that problem with a lot of stones records, where they're evil and sarcastic for a whole album and then suddenly beg to be taken WAY too seriously at the end. here it's especially a problem, just because they're so much funnier before it. i might like it better than 'sticky fingers', i haven't made up my mind yet. 'sticky fingers' rocks more and has better songs, but it doesn't have that same unity that 'beggars banquet' has.

for me, not "unlistenable" so much as "bland."

i will say for 'loveless' that it has the most appropriate cover-to-album-content relationship ever. the color, the blurriness, & what the picture is actually of, do really sum their sound up in a picture.

I like "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" though. "Dollars and Cents" and "Hunting Bears" don't do it for me. "doors" is the wankiest thing on the album. it's like they mashed together "fitter happier" and "kid a," removing the content from "fitter happier" and the interesting textures from "kid a."

speaking of which... my bloody valentine's 'loveless'. i kinda like it, but it just doesn't grab me. the hazy sea of distortion is cool in a 'siamese dream' kind of way, but it lacks bite, and the songs and melodies and such don't seem that strong. it's especially hard to get into with the vocals so far back in the mix.

i'd cut "packt like sardines..." and replace it at the beginning with "knives out," then put "like spinning plates" back in (which i think is the best song on the album), but i essentially agree.

i agree more or less about the white album. it's more about mood and scope than about tight, solid songs (which is what most double albums are about anyway, but the beatles did it better than anyone else). i'll try to cut the fat anyway and play around with the order a little, for the hell of it: back in the ussr dear prudence obladi, obladah happiness is a warm gun martha my dear blackbird birthday mother nature's son everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey while my guitar gently weeps sexy sadie helter skelter long long long yer blues julia (cut 17 tracks) most of the unnecessary stuff is on sides 2 and 4. side 2 is still solid and has probably the most cohesive vibe on the whole album (very stripped-down material with a distinctive unified feel to it), but it doesn't have the sheer volume of "knock you on your ass" material that side 3 does. side 4 always struck me as just weak, like a dumping ground for the "not quite there yet" tracks. throwaways and gimmick songs, with the possible exception of "goodnight" (which only works as a closer anyway, and which i chunked cause i think "julia" makes a better closer). rolling stones, 'exile on main street' (which, again, kinda defeats the whole point of the album, but oh well): rocks off rip this joint shake your hips casino boogie tumbling dice loving cup turd on the run ventillator blues all down the line let it loose (cut 8 tracks) that one seems like it'd be a tight little rocking album. pearl jam, 'vitalogy': last exit tremor christ nothingman satan's bed corduroy better man immortality (cut 7 tracks) too easy. madonna, 'true blue': papa don't preach open your heart live to tell true blue la isla bonita (cut 6 tracks i think) way too easy. i love all those singles, but every deep track is exceedingly shitty. cat power, 'you are free': good woman werewolf fool shaking paper baby doll names keep on runnin (cut 7 tracks) good EP to slit your wrists to. which is essentially what cat power's really good for anyway. bob dylan, 'time out of mind': not dark yet tryin' to get to heaven make you feel my love cold irons bound can't wait highlands (cut 5 tracks) the whole stretch from "standing in the doorway" to "til i fell in love with you" all sound like pretty much the same song, so i took the best of the bunch ("tryin to get to heaven") and threw the rest away. "dirt road blues" kinda sucks, and "lovesick" is all atmosphere with very little substance to it.

November Rain better than Freak on a Leash? Ha I say, Ha!