Yes Virginia, I still love Music Club

Hated missing 2 meetings in three months. Wanted all to know that in no way have I lost interest. Since the last meeting I divorced my wife, sent the kids to foster homes and disowned my family so now nothing should interfere.....

My topic response;

Relevent Still
Neil Young
Bob Dylan
Ian Hunter (just listen to the last one)

Should Die Awful Deaths (just musical career deaths)
Rolling Stones
Sting or anything he touches
John Cougar Mellencamp
...any revival that does not have the original members

have meeting, then post

Nine-Inch Nails
Nine-inch nails are supposed to be some important band right. Can someone remind me why? This cd surely does not. Mister Reznor please step away from the computer and put something human in your noise (for it is surely not music). The fake drum sound sucks and then just becomes irritating. Switching from one computer key to another is not genius its just laziness. And by the way your lyrics suck. ½

Rush
This is a rush cd. No other band sounds like them so from note one to the conclusion there is no escaping that this is Rush. The musicianship is great, as you would expect. But there are no truly stand out tracks on this cd. Rush has penned some truly memorable song throughout their career but as this continues to play nothing makes one say wow. Or is even memorable after the listening is over. 2.5

Replacements
It is a shortly after this cd was released that I got to see The Replacements in a club so I have a fondness for this cd. I challenge anyone to find me an artist (except the Beatles) who had a string of three cd’s as great as Let it Be, Tim, and Please to Meet Me. It was the pinnacle of Paul Westeberg’s song writing, it was a band that hit its stride and went with it, even as one member was self-destructing. Now Please to Meet Me is the weakest of the three cds. I personally hold the song Alex Chilton responsible for the Replacements need to write another pop single rather than just great songs. Thus to this day I still skip over it. (And bands that need to play a Replacement cover, and many should, choose another song) Otherwise there is not a week song on the cd. The guitar is raw and riffy, the bass and drums driving, and the occasional horn section a nice touch. The ballads are nice, and The Ledge is the definition of epic. 4.5 PS Anyone who uses the term the Mats in their review is a pompous prick who is just trying to show off by making it seem that they know the band better because they can call the band by a nickname.

Get up Kids
Didn’t get a lot of time to listen. Liked the first song. Second song was rehashed afghan Whigs. Third song was great. Oh shit here comes the rest of the emo. Not horrible but at times really repetitious. This band seems like it has the chops and ideas to be a lot better than the formula the settle for. Track 13, track 16,19,



Topic
What I find more interesting is how few great bands there are that have a great catalog after being around for 10-15 years.


Still Good
U2
Iron Maiden

Go away
Rod Stewart (should have retired 20 years ago)
Any of the following bands that are supposedly reuniting for another tour i.e.
Chicago, America, Deep Purple, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc

Damn that Mongillo, I Want the Curmudgeon title

Looks like I was too generous this month....

Nine Inch Nails – I made an honest effort to give this one the benefit of the doubt, and in fact after the first two songs thought it might not be too bad. However, the disc quickly falls into the 9 inch formula of Trent’s distorted vocals, fuzzed guitars and synthy beats. “Vessel” sounds like one Lenny Kravitz left on the cutting room floor. Overall, the disc sounds like everything else they’ve ever done, and certainly won’t change anyone’s mind about them, pro or con. 2 stars

Rush – There are so many easy cheap shots here to take, from Geddy’s Mickey Mouse-on-helium vocals to the goofball lyrics , but why bother? These guys have been doing what they’re doing for 30+ years, and they are what they are: great individual musicians playing mostly overblown, self-indulgent, pseudo-intellectual nonsense. The band has a handful of great ones in their catalog, but tragically, there is no “Spirit of the Radio” or “Tom Sawyer” on this one. 2 stars

Rancid – For the life of me, I don’t know why, but I sincerely thought these guys were a death metal band; so obviously, this one was a surprise. Reminded me a little of the Clash, a balls to the wall rock and roll band with the elements of ska, reggae thrown in to keep things fresh. The ska tracks are a little repetitive by the end of the disc, but “Olympia, WA” is a great one. Got me looking a little deeper into the band’s catalog. 3.5 stars

Replacements – The beginning of the end, this is exactly where the wave broke. A marriage of the band’s punkier roots with Westerberg’s evolving songwriting abilities, it has everything great about the Mats in one neat package. There’s the sloppy-drunk punch of “I Don’t Know”, the down and dirty raucousness of “Shooting Dirty Pool”, the pop brilliance of “Alex Chilton”, and the uber-sensitivity of the gentle “Skyway”. A little more experimentation instrumentally than on their other releases, notably the great string and horn riffs on “Can’t Hardly Wait”. A must own. 4.5 stars

The Get Up Kids – This one didn’t do much for me. Nothing bad about it necessarily, but not more than 2-3 tracks that got my attention either. A lot of it reminded me of Ben Folds, which is not a compliment. They definitely have the whole dewey-eyed teenage romantic woe-is-me thing down, and if I was 17, I might have connected with more of it.

Discussion Question

I think we've covered this ground before but....

Old School artists that still matter:

1) Dylan
2) Neil Young
3) Ian Hunter

Go away please:

1) The Stones
2) The Who
3) REM

May sans Topic

Nine Inch Nails-Year Zero
I’m ready to take one for the team on this selection, but I’ll admit I have always been a fan. Sure Trent takes himself a tad serious and his music is almost always abrasive, ballad or not. To me it’s just fine. Year Zero is a little more conscious of his fellow man. He sings of environmental concerns, political messes and he is almost apologetic about his past vile preoccupations. For a change it isn’t all about degradation but about how to repair or address it. Do some of the efforts go a little longer than necessary? Yea. A little noisy? Yea, but I like the noise and I accept that I am probably in the minority by stating I like this disc. (3.5).

Replacements- Please to Meet Me
I owe D’Arcy an apology. For the good part of 20 years he has tried patiently to get me to “get” this band. I reluctantly popped in this disc and to my surprise liked much of it, not all, but most. It’s more polished than earlier releases but not too much to lose any shine like Don’t Tell a Soul. While I can’t deify the band I can understand their importance and why they touched so many bands that followed and helped pave the way to the first wave of alternative rock. (3)

Rancid-And Out Comes the Wolves
Apology #2 to D’Arcy. I remember when this was released. I shunned it and probably mocked a much younger Mr. Lucas. Well, 12 years later and I think this disc aged quite glowingly. I rocked to the ska-laden-guitar blazers as well as the straight ahead bangers. What was I thinking in 1995? Who the hell knows. All I can say is that I really enjoyed this disc. There was a little monotony in the delivery which could make this disc float from a 3.5 to a 5 depending on mood. (4).

Rush- Snakes & Arrows
I will avow right now that I am far from a Rush apologist. Never been a fan, though I appreciate the skill that each individual member has (except Peart’s lyrics still suck). While I will never listen to this disc beyond this month, I can’t with fairness say that it was horrific. Within the songs were good, boisterous guitar solos and pulsating drumming. But it still ended up in the background without enough to entice me to get too interested. Also, again Peart’s lyrics suck. (2)

Get Up Kids- GHITS
What was interesting with this mix, is that there was some I hated and couldn’t get through and there was some I really liked. What I found was that I liked everything off the late On the Wire and hated songs from Something to Write Home About. So I deduce the Emo-ites are maturing into a band that I may actually look out for.

May's Topic

Alright guys...here's your topic. We may have discussed this before, but it can be revisited if so.

Name 3 "old school" artists who still matter musically and why. Band/artist must have been around for at least 25 years.

then

Name 3 who should retire now before the fans forget how good they used to be.

Notes from LA-la Land

“The Mong” – Music Group Commentary, May 2007

MUSIC COMMENTARY

NINE INCH NAILS – YEAR ZERO = 1 STAR

To suggest that I maintained an interest in NIN after “The Downward Spiral” would be untrue so I admit that I’m not sure if he/they have changed what he/they have been doing after their big smash hit. But if “Year Zero” is any indication, my guess would be that NIN did not evolve much. Or maybe this is an intentional shift back to their old sound? I don’t really know. Not that knowing the proper context would not change that this sounds pretty much (exactly) the same as NIN did back then or that back then it felt new and now it doesn’t. Still, it is very well done (clearly great care was put into writing and recording it) yet, even beyond it sounding like old NIN, it somehow crosses that fine line (that he/they always walked so skillfully) from dangerously aggressive to annoyingly abrasive. And that’s not good.

THE REPLACEMENTS – TIM = 4 STARS

I’ve always liked The Replacements, and this is my favorite of what I’ve heard of Paul Westerberg’s works, but I just cannot agree with the general consensus that he’s a genius. He’s a good and consistently solid songwriter but, I don’t know, I guess it’s just that even at its ballsiest, his stuff still sounds kind of wussy in an R.E.M. sort of way to me. Maybe it’s just this period-specific type of “college rock” that I don’t like very much or maybe I’m just an idiot. All that being “said,” this is still a darn good record that easily rivals most crap being passed off as great today.

RUSH – SNAKES & ARROWS = 1.5 STARS

Insert my Nine Inch Nails’ commentary here but replace “The Downward Spiral” with “Power Windows” and replace “dangerously aggressive to annoyingly abrasive” with 'inspiringly innovative to shockingly tired.' The slightly elevated rating is because the first ten odd years of Rush is among my favorite music of all time (so respect given where due) and, yes, I know that not only calls my collective musical taste into question but also outs me as a big, giant nerd.

G’HITS

THE GET UP KIDS

I’ve always thought of TGUK as the wimpy little brother of Walt Mink. They’re a bit too adamantly emo but still a great band and this is a great collection of songs by a sadly overlooked band. Not overlooked by us music snobs but almost everyone else I know has never heard of them … Too bad...so sad … Emo sad.

TOPIC

If there was one, no one ever told me and it wasn’t posted at the blog.

April Junk Mail

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – Not really the best release they’ve had, so it was not the homerun I was thinking it would be, but he’s interesting and literate, so that counts for something. Just not as tunefull as his earlier work. Still, by today’s standards, way above average. 3.5

Fratelli’s - Half Arctic Monkeys, half Art Brut, with just about every other current brit pop band of that ilk thrown in for good measure. What separates this from some of the others is the enthusiasm level and the cleverness. I was turned off by its derivative nature at first, but this grew on me to the point that nearly every song was a hit in my mind. 4.0

Archers of Loaf – (Note - I reviewed Vee Vee, the CD released prior to All the Nation's Airports. I know Mike said All the Nation's Airports, but my mind heard Vee Vee) I remember one critic calling this record the sound of a hangover taking place. I liked this a lot when it came out, but hadn’t listened in years. He’s right to a degree, it does at times sound like a hangover, but it’s that hangover that you keep trying to stave off with the odd bong hit or beer once you wake up. You remember what that was like. Nothing cures a hangover like a bong hit or a beer, but it is a temporary, though exhilarating, remedy. Eventually the "noise" in your head returns. Same here with Archers of Loaf, no matter how melodic and exhilarating parts of this record can seem, the noise is just around the corner. Luckily, I like noise and this is even more melodic than I remember. A great, inventive record. 4.5

Material Issue – Another band, like last month’s, that was unjustly overlooked, probably even more so than Mott the Hoople. Great pop music sounds familiar the minute you hear it for the first time and so it is with these guys. I know I have not heard much of this, yet songs sounded so familiar, that I kept thinking they were covering a song I already knew. That’s the sign of expertly crafted pop. Not a dud in the collection. Lightweight to be sure at times, but great. And I finally know what’s behind the name of the International Pop Overthrow Festival. I buy a 2-3 disc compilation from the festival via Not Lame every year.

Who killed the rock star? The rock star might not be dead. It may be a function of our age and cynicism. If they have disappeared, it is the the media, specifically video and the internet who have killed them. Our stars are no longer elusive and mysterious, when they emerged only for a tour and a new record. Now they are everywhere and we know everything about them. And most of them simply are not cool. Mick set the rock star standard and it may have been all down hill since then. Also, the term rock star connotes a certain dangerousness and lawlessness that 20 years ago meant getting busted for drugs or beiing involved in some daliance with a starlet or some other rock star's wife. The equivalent right now is having sex with Pam Anderson on the internet. Not mysterious at all and definitely not that cool. Swagger is another rock star trait that just does not exist as much as before. Mick and Keith have swagger. I mean who has swagger these days?

Synpsis de Abril

One the best meetings ever as Mongillo decided to blow us off. We drank like Lyndsey Lohan and laughed harder than Ed McMahon....

For the poop- All recording fared well. I was the lone dissenter by bashing the Fratellis (just typing their name pisses me off). Pinchers of Loaf were the months leaders with a lofty 3.42 group rating. Who Killed the Rock Star? Well read the posts and you'll find out. Good ideas all around. Most answered intertwined at some juncture. Our discussion of the tamourine was more scientific than expected until we realized it was all bollocks and agreed that the tambourinist was just the best musician in a group.

Biggest news- The Mikes are battling for group curmudgeon being separated by only .01 points.

Next meeting is May 22nd.

Host is the lovely Jen (Ghits TBA)

New: Greg : Rush - Snakes and Arrows
Ken : Nine Inch Naile- Year Zero
Old: Jay/Monsta (TBA)

My Review Dump for April

Music Club
April 2007

Fratelli’s- Costello Music
Costello music my ass. This is an annoying roaring 20's whoop-de-doo that really isn't as fun as their song titles might suggest. No heart in it. Sounds like they tried to make it interesting instead of letting the “interesting” come out naturally. Yuck.. (1.5).

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists- Living with the Living
This disc is going to make me have to go and re-listen to Ted’s past releases. On first listen I had the same feeling as in the past. Good guitarist who writes favorable songs but generally didn’t warrant me another go around. Being force fed Living this month made me listen to it multiple times and each time I had something new grab me. His songs are not predictable and feel natural and energetic. Could do without any prattling sound effects, but they were few. Good disc, glad to have my eyes re-opened to Ted. (3)

Archers of Loaf- All the Nations Airports
Leave it to Mongillo to give me something to sink my teeth into. Thank god it wasn’t Isis redux. I place Archers in the same vein as Pavement, with nods to Sonic Youth and a sly wink to Dinosaur Jr. An interesting listen that I could see could turn off some real fast. Lucky for me I like the oddball, quirky stuff usually- but not as quirky as Mr. Bungle- and as I delved deeper and deeper I got into the wavering vocals, odd guitar nuances (“Assassinations..”) and the songs that would seem out of place but weren’t (“Chumming the Ocean”). This disc has pop appeal for pretentious music fans (“All Nations Airports”, Scenic Pastures”), but it may take too many listens for the weak at heart to find. Again, lucky for me I’m weak at heart. (4)

Material Issue- GHITS
Enjoyed this little pop disc of Matthew Sweet’s cohorts more than I expected. Succinct songs that when they were on, left you wanting more. Tended to get a bit sappy in the middle third but then it came back to basics at the end. Good mix.


Who Killed the Rock Star?
Sure I could blame Bush or Carl Rove. Possibly the icons for selling songs for moolah. I could even point a finger at radio since it has made mediocre classic rock acts actually considered
“classic”. But I feel I have to pin the blame on the rock stars themselves. They cannibalized their image. They felt they had to act a certain way to be a rock star instead of just being a rock star. They forgot about what it meant to just let the music move them into action. Smashing your guitar means nothing when it is written into the show. Impromptu has given away to script. Trashing a room, boinking groupies and drugs are not the whole definition of a rock star (just a few of the perks). Until style is less than substance the rock star will remain in hibernation.

Why is it no matter what the band you can always hear the tambourine?For me I don’t hallucinate the tambourine. Instead it's the cowbell.