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| From | Mike Bennett <mrhonorama@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Stewart's top 25 post |
| Date | Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:58:38 -0600 |
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I agree with the kudos for this post, as others have articulated well. I have some responses (as others have).
>
> 2. The Arcade Fire: Neither transcendent enough to warrant the
> effusive gushing that greeted FUNERAL (a very good and at times
> genuinely great album, but not the life-changing event so many
> claimed) nor bad enough to warrant the hipster backlash that followed,
> the Arcade Fire is probably going to go down as one of those bands who
> were destroyed by their own hype.
As
with Springsteen, I think a lot of the hype has to do with their live
show. I first saw them in a 250 capacity club and it was
transcendent. Earlier this year in front of 3,300, it was also
excellent. They put out an amazing energy and vibe. I think the fact
that they haven't tried to wring every dollar out of their success may
allow them to beat the curse of the hype.
>
> 6. The B-52's: With the exception of about half of the 1989 comeback
> album COSMIC THING (a handful of songs that are the only things the
> group ever did that has an emotional core underneath the kitsch), the
> B-52's entire legend is contained entirely within the first side of
> their first album.
Your
comment about the emotional core is spot on, though I don't think
that's the point with them. Unlike a previous poster, I could fill a
full 80 minute CD-R with B-52's tunes I love. Another swell live band.
> 8. Nick Drake: I truly believe that if Nick Drake's albums had been
> commercially successful in the early '70s -- as they deserved to be --
> then he would be thought of today roughly as people think of, say,
> James Taylor. That is, the hipster crowd wouldn't give a crap,
> because he would no longer have the whole "poor misunderstood genius"
> tag.
I'm
trying to get my head around this one. I think of the many modern
artists that Drake has influenced, for better and for worse. There's a
quality to his sound that isn't there with James Taylor (who I think is
alright) or most other singer-songwriters of the time. Question --
does this "poor misunderstood genius" apply to Judee Sill as well?
> 13. Van Morrison: Will always have a place in my heart for one of the
> all-time greatest one-finger-salutes in pop music history, the Bang
> Records demos. Otherwise, ASTRAL WEEKS and MOONDANCE are lovely, moody
> records that make for great late-night listening, but they're not as
> "mystical" and "spiritual" as their acolytes claim. Has been coasting
> on legend for decades now, making sloppy, flabby, half-assed records
> that turn his most notable characteristics (specifically the
> incantation thing) into lazy tics.
I
must be an optimist when it comes to Van, because I see his half-assed
as half full rather than half-empty. I've enjoyed a fair amount of his
output since Wavelength, though there's nothing there that I'd say was
great or necessary.
> 15. Nirvana: Yes, NEVERMIND is a great album, one that I found was
> actually better than I remembered it when I went back to listen a few
> months ago. But I truly think that if it hadn't been "Smells Like
> Teen Spirit," it would have been something else: the musical scene at
> the time was just in the mood for a change.
Would
that apply to Elvis and The Beatles as well? At one level, your final
comment is obvious - if a change was inevitable, then of course it had
to be somebody. And while I wouldn't put Nirvana up there with the
King or the Fabs talentwise, I think that Cobain and Co. synthesized a
lot of elements of the indie/underground scene of the '80s in a
commercially palatable form. Right band, right place, right time.
> 16. Pavement: I was there at the time, and to this day, I'm genuinely
> mystified as to why Pavement were chosen as the public face of The New
> Indie Underground post-Nirvana, when Superchunk so thoroughly kicked
> their asses in just about all respects.
Watching
Stephen Malkmus play some old Pavement tunes at Pitchfork this year, I
was thinking the same thing. I've come to really dig their first two
albums, yet I can't understand why they became so big since they were
so deliberately offbeat. I don't begrudge them their success, but I
wish Superchunk were equally as big.
>
> 18. The Rolling Stones: I never really believed they were "The World's
> Greatest Rock And Roll Band" -- I think the fact that they didn't
>
release ROCK AND ROLL CIRCUS because the Who's set smoked theirs says
> volumes -- but I certainly think that the way they still promote
> themselves as such while doing nothing more than proffering lazy
> nostalgia to well-heeled baby boomers is just kind of sad, for band
> and audience alike.
I
can't argue with the brilliance of the Stones during the '60s. Yet
there are a lot of '60s bands I love much more, both on the pop side
(Kinks, Zombies, Easybeats) and the rock side (Sonics, The Who, Jimi
Hendrix). That's probably more a matter of their ubiquity. And I even
like a lot of their '70s stuff into the early '80s. I just can't love
them, I suppose.
>
> 21. Bruce Springsteen: Maybe I'm just too middle-class. Maybe growing
> up in rural communities and college towns in Texas and Colorado didn't
> give me the proper Rust Belt archetypes. But hearing Springsteen,
> with very few exceptions, just leads me to think "Yeah, I see what
> he's doing and all, but...it don't move me."
I
really dig Springsteen through Tunnel Of Love but it's been diminishing
returns since then. Based on what I've heard from the new one, his
voice seems pretty close to shot.
>
> 25. Neil Young: My opinion of Neil Young will probably forever be
> colored by the fact that I came of musical age during the '80s, a
> period where he came off as a rather pathetic, hacky has-been who had
> lost his way. Now, of course, it's more obvious that he's just ornery
> and willful, and as much as I admire that about him, I still (with
> relatively few exceptions: his Buffalo Springfield songs, ZUMA, that
> great Massey Hall solo concert that got released earlier this year,
> "Like A Hurricane," etc.) like his music much more in theory than in
> practice.
I
actually like Trans, Everybody's Rocking and Old Ways. Not that they
are great albums, but they all have certain charms. I just thought he
was having fun at David Geffen's expense.
My two cents and then some --
Mike Bennett
Blog: http://blog.myspace.com/mrhonorama
Record reviews and more at http://fufkin.com
Find out about Chicago shows: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/chicagopopshowreport/
Blog: http://blog.myspace.com/mrhonorama
Record reviews and more at http://fufkin.com
Find out about Chicago shows: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/chicagopopshowreport/
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