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tugmoose

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Posts posted by tugmoose

    Wilco considered safe for Classic Rock fans!

    in Just A Fan

    Posted

    Parts, anyway. I deleted the name of the site because it includes something I consider very distasteful.

     

     

     

    MODERN BANDS EVERY CLASSIC ROCK FAN SHOULD TRY: WILCO

     

    by: Dave Lifton

     

    Here at (deleted by tugmoose) we like to branch out once in a while and listen to some music that’s not made by our favorite artists of the past. We love that Van Halen can comeback so strong with ‘A Different Kind of Truth,’ but, let’s face it, there’s a reason the phrase ‘Here’s one from our new album” is an excuse to run to the bathroom.

     

    We can’t say that we always understand the stuff that our friends at (different site) are writing about, but once in a while we hear something that’s heavily influenced by the classic rock that we love. Our new series, ‘Modern Bands Every Classic Rock Fan Should Try,’ is a guide for those of you that have wanted to take an interest in new music, but weren’t sure where to begin. And we can think of no better group to start than with Wilco.

    It’s hard to think of Wilco as a modern band. After all, they’ve been around since 1995, and frontman Jeff Tweedy’s first group, Uncle Tupelo, started recording in 1990. But for most of their career, Wilco have become the group that all other modern bands look up to. While they don’t sound like the Beatles, their songwriting chops, talent and ambition have made them indie’s equivalent of the Fab Four.

    Classic rock fans should start with their first few albums. ‘A.M.,’ from 1995 is straightforward folk-rock, heavily influenced by the Byrds and early-70s Rolling Stones. Their sprawling 1997 double-album, ‘Being There,’ sounds like a love note to 1970s rock: some Neil Young here, a touch of Mott The Hoople glam there – all with harmonies reminiscent of the Grateful Dead or the Band. But there’s also the beginning of their experiments with feedback and dissonance, particularly on the opener, ‘Misunderstood.’

    Following a detour where they worked with English punk-folkie Billy Bragg to put music to unreleased Woody Guthrie songs (the ‘Mermaid Avenue’ project), Wilco released two masterpieces. 1999′s ‘Summerteeth’ combines the sunny, melodic studio pop of the Beach Boys with dark lyrics to create something both beautiful and unsettling.

    The follow-up, ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot,’ strips away the classic rock influences in favor of experimentation. It’s brilliant and cohesive, but might be off-putting as an introduction to Wilco, just as ‘Tonight’s the Night’ isn’t the best ways to discover Neil Young. Unfortunately, Tweedy fired multi-instrumentalist/studio whiz Jay Bennett before the album’s release, which allowed the band to go into a different direction.

    Stay away from their next few albums, ‘A Ghost Is Born,’ takes the avant-garde sounds of its predecessor one step further, and ‘Kicking Television: Live in Chicago’ documents that tour. ‘Sky Blue Sky’ is a return to the classicism of ‘Being There,’ but the songwriting is weak. The inspiration returned on their two most recent albums, ‘Wilco (the Album)’ and 2011’s ‘The Whole Love,’ which find their sonic experiments folded into their pop instincts in ways similar to ‘Summerteeth.’

    RIP Davy Jones

    in Someone Else's Song

    Posted

    I've been obsessing on "Last Train To Clarksville" recently (I know, not a Jones tune) and I noted to coworkers last week that the Monkees were one of the few big 60s groups whose members were all living. Sorry, Davy.

     

    I was a huge fan back in the day - all my allowance went to Monkee cards (with banana flavor gum!). Pretty cool for a 5 year old.

    2012 President?

    in Tongue-Tied Lightning

    Posted

    My take is, the world is evening out. The U.S. had it pretty good for a long while - prospering in relative isolation while the old world squabbled, coming out of WWII pretty much untouched while the rest of the world was on the balls of its ass. But now it's a global economy and it was inevitable and nothing's gonna turn it back, and the middle classes in China and India are rising toward the level of the middle class of the U.S., which is descending. Or we're just descending. Point is, the standard-of-living gap between the U.S. middle class and much of the rest of the world's middle class is shrinking, and it doesn't matter who is president (especially since multinational companies can now spend as much as they want on elections, and they're gonna take jobs wherever the labor is cheapest. Wouldn't you?) as long as he's not a total screwup.

     

    As far of the debt goes, totally appalling, sickening. Everyone just pushing it down the line and taking cover in party rhetoric.

     

    But that's just me.

     

    Cheers!

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