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| From | "Stewart Mason" <craigtorso@verizon.net> |
| Subject | Re: What do you want to like? |
| Date | Thu, 20 Sep 2007 17:54:33 -0400 |
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Drew MacDonald" <drewmacdonald1@gmail.com>
> This is interesting. I'm sure we all have bought music that was
> recommended
> by friends, is critically acclaimed, or is just somehow something
> we're
> "supposed" to like, but it just doesn't do it for us. But how many
> of us do
> what Judith has done with Beefheart--keep the music around and
> periodically
> take another run at it?
>
> Well, me, for one. It eventually worked with Joy Division. But I'm
> still
> waiting for the epiphany that will get me through an entire Nick
> Cave album.
>
> Anyone else?
After a full decade of considering them one of the most bewilderingly
overrated bands in existence, Belle and Sebastian finally kicked in
for me last year with THE LIFE PURSUIT, especially the highly T.
Rex-influenced single "The Blues Are Still Blue." Unfortunately, when
I went back through and listened to the earlier albums, they had not
retroactively become more enjoyable.
I had an epiphany last week in Toronto. We saw Bill Callahan, the
artist formerly known as Smog, play an intimate gig in an Anglican
church with a three-piece band. The handful of Smog records I had
heard previously had not moved me at all: I tended to think of him as
a junior-league WIll Oldham, at best. We had gone to the show solely
for the opening act, Sir Richard Bishop (formerly of the Sun City
Girls, one of my wife's favorite bands), who had done an outstanding
solo acoustic set that was more than worth our CDN$24, and it was hot
in there and I was perfectly willing to bail, but we stuck it out.
And about three or four songs in, the light went on. It was one of
those rare experiences where suddenly an artist MADE SENSE to me for
the first time, and we both enjoyed the hell out of the rest of the
show. That revelation, which I whispered to Charity in between songs,
was "Oh. He's Jandek made normal." Charity replied, "I had *just*
thought that during that last song too!" The appearance of a weird
deadpan sense of humor in his stage moves and between-song banter
helped a lot too. So there's an example. I'm now a Smog fan, when I
hadn't been before.
Speaking of Will Oldham, anyone else seen Kanye West's new video
starring him and Zach Galifinakis? Between this and the Can, Daft
Punk and Steely Dan samples on the new album, Kanye is now officially
going for the aging hipster market.
S
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