Golden Smoghead

Thanks for the heads-up, this sounds awesome!

I thought a few episodes were terrible, but the one with Kris Kristofferson, Rosanne Cash and Norah Jones was very good.

Given his strong anti-digital-compression views expressed in that article, I find it ironic his record company has a stream for the album. I haven't checked, but no way they're doing that uncompressed... Right?

To my taste, yes, Big Star was the best 70s band.

I'm ready for the hate mail, but my number two would be Skynyrd.

And, I'd add that this is all b/c of playing by the rules. Definitely that early 70s Stones exceeds Big Star.

I thought it was kind of weird / interesting they put the two TVA / dam-related songs back-to-back. This album really turned my week around though... Circumstance and all that, had a bad week at work and this hit the spot.

May be sacrilege to both sides of the equation, but occasionally I hear Uncle Tupelo in DBT and dig it for that reason alone.

"George Jones Talkin' Cell Phone Blues" and the cover of Tom Petty's "Rebels" are worth the price of admission.

Sorry if there's another thread on this, I couldn't find one. So far I think this album is great for a b-sides collection, second opinions?

Dude it's amazing how no matter how closely you read the books, etc., there is ALWAYS some kind of error / the program doesn't recognize the USB input / whatever. I've had to reinstall my favorite program probably 8 times over the years and it never really seems any easier than the last time! Always four hours of headache.

Good luck out there man! I am actually headed to the studio for the first time ever in a couple weeks, I just want to cut a demo with my new band and am waaaay too intimidated to try micing drums on my own.

Like Wilco, his new stuff is more laid back, when it really needs to be more rocking somehow.

Now this is a sentiment I can get behind. I kind of think of it as there's not enough "fuck you" in the music... or something. Just a meanness / toughness for me, particularly with RA. I was listening to "Dancing with the Girls at the Bar" the other day and just missing whatever Ryan Adams wrote that song.

Just wanted to chime in on the SBS-disliking bit earlier: some of us really just didn't like the album very much at all. I think I unpacked why I didn't like it in threads after it came out, but the gist is that it didn't resonate with me other than "What Light," largely because I am not a fan of Nels' long solos. I think a large part of why I prefer W(TA) is because this Nels-wank-factor was greatly reduced.

ARE YOU HAPPY NOW SBS-HATER-HATERS?? SEE HOW THERE IS LOGIC IN THAT?? SBS-disdain was not some sort of odd Wilco fan internet hari-kari, it was an actual response by actual fans; not that hard to compreehend.

I totally think Speed Racer is right though, we just all have different tastes. And again: w(ta) really is kickass and grows on me more and more.

I was a little underwhelmed on the first listen, but definitely this album has grown on me a ton. I haven't even given it enough spins for a track-by-track, but "Sonny Feeling" popped on my iPod today at work when I was zoned out, and I was like, "wow what's this great song I don't think I've heard before?" I had a similar experience yesterday with another track (not sure which but it was another of the more pop-y tunes too).

Personally I have just never ever gotten into SBS, so it's great to have new Wilco to listen to, I think I have been subconsciously holding my breath and fearing I will never like another new Wilco song (or something).

Welcome, newish person!

Yes, the song is called "Laminated Cat," and was released on the groovy "Loose Fur" CD by Tweedy / Kotche / O'Rourke's side project "Loose Fur."

Here's the wikipedia article on that album:

wikipedia on loose fur

You can find the CD available online for sale, I couldn't find any vendors in the top results in Google that I'm familiar with, though. Not sure about iTunes.

Hope this helps and welcome to VC!

edit: foiled again by the fast-typers!

This is a little random but so am I so I'll carry on regardless... Does anybody know what key harp Ryan Adams uses on the Whiskeytown song 'The Ballad of Carol Lynn'? I'd be ever so grateful if somebody with a full set could tell me. As somebody who only owns an Eb and a C, I find it frustrating that it's a trial and error thing when you want to play along with something.

 

mini rant over, please help...

Based on the only tab I see for this song on the internet, I think it is in the key of C (so your C harp should work). If I have a chance I will try to double-check that later this week. In general if you can figure out what key a song is in, that's the harp you use. For minor keys basically it's the major that compliments the minor (so you use a G harp for a song in Em, a C for a song in Am, etc). I think there are minor key harps but most people just do what I described... Or so I've been thinking for a long time. hahah!!

now, music seems so disposable.

I do not know that I totally agree with this. Yes, albums are probably much, much less important. Recordings are effectively free and therefore of far lower value than they were previously. But to me that just means that the most valuable parts of music have left the recording studio where they lived for 80ish years, and migrated back to stages and porches.

In a lot of ways I'm OK with that. Bring on the ephemeral magic of music-in-the-moment! I think it's good to put music back into instruments and out of machines / earbuds / what have you.

Of course this is exaggeration, but I support the arc of music-emphasis AWAY from recordings and TOWARDS making the live show be the pinnacle musical experience.

I occasionally mention these guys as one of my favorite relatively-unknown regional acts (out of Raleigh, NC: think a rougher, tenser Whiskeytown). Their new album is a solid step forward to my ears. It sounds a little less like BJ Barnham's album, and more like an album from a band who has a good singer/songwriter leading them.

The horns on this album version of the songs were kind of surprising to me, and lend a 70s-Springsteen vibe to some tracks -- in a good way. I think a couple tracks underrepresent their songs though, and it's hard not to blame the production. For example "Ain't Going to the Bar Tonight" is a lot lower-energy than the blistering live versions they've been playing.

Overall, recommended by me, but readily admit I'm just a straight-up fan and plan to catch them in DC on the 7th of July.

I have not read the other reviews/posts, so I hope to not repeat too badly, but I will argue this album is quite different than the others (minus maybe some of Shootenanny) in one significant way: Most of the songs (in the same vein of W(TA)) are much less self-aware, more confident, organic, animalistic, down-to-earth tunes than the other albums. Which is refreshing. After E's recent divorce... an entire album dedicated to getting laid. God bless him. That is one thing that we HAVEN'T heard from Eels in the past very much. So, although some of the effects, keys, and chord progressions may be similar to other Eels works, the theme IS unique... and maybe that is why some don't care for it...

This nails where my heart is at on this one. Also I think most Eels albums can be loosely categorized into loud-eels / quiet-eels, but I find this one synthesizes the parts I like of each of those sides quite nicely.

RIP Jay. You will be missed more than you could know, like you were loved more than you knew. Travel safely.

Honestly man I couldn't follow your explanation, partly because you didn't mention the initial key in your example. The other part, well that's just my natural thick-headedness.

If my math is correct, then the bVI --> bVII --> I progression for the key of C would be, A-flat --> B-flat --> C

In the key of G, it would be E-flat --> F --> G

weird shit, dude. The only key I could imagine playing this with open positions is probably D.

If I were going to buy a guitar under $500, it would probably be this one:

Washburn D10SCE

I kind of randomly picked up this model around 2000 and sold it early last year as a trade-in on my Martin.

I really, really regret selling that guitar. It had great tonal balance (not boomy on the low-end) and was just a very-solid strummer-type guitar, which would be a good alternative to my Martin in some situations.

This is how wikipedia describes the name stuff, kind of explains how this could have the name on it:

In 1960, Gibson experienced a decline in electric guitar sales due to their high prices and strong competition from Fender's comparable but much lighter double-cutaway design: The Stratocaster. In response, Gibson modified the Les Paul line. This 1961 issue Les Paul guitar was thinner and much lighter than the earlier models, with two sharply pointed cut-aways and a vibrato system. However, the redesign was done without Les Paul's knowledge. When the musician saw the guitar, he asked Gibson to remove his name from the instrument and parted ways with the company. Although this separation occurred in 1960, Gibson had a surplus stock of "Les Paul" logos and truss rod covers, and so continued to use the Les Paul name until 1963. At that point, the SG guitar's name was finally changed to "SG", which stood simply for Solid Guitar.

I have a '61 that's had the tremolo arm broken off since the 70s, I'm always tempted to replace the tailpiece but that's kind of irreversible.

The only two things that I have found make a difference for me personally is:

1. I prefer a wood comb sound, an example that uses wood comb is the Hohner Marine Band.

2. As far as harmonica holders go, I really cannot get the wide-style ones to work for me very comfortably on a consistent basis. However I have found that the slightly-lighter, slimmer style work pretty well for me, like this one (this one is Lee Oskar):

I really enjoy Ben Harper and Steve Earle while on road trips. Especially early Earle, when he's still writing troubadour songs.

I actually got into Eels mostly after hearing an amazing live version of "Fresh Feeling" (from Souljacker) on a late-night tv show. I think Shootenanny! is one of my fave albums by them, probably for me right now it's: Daisies > ESB > Shootenanny > everything else. Blinking Lights was good but I think a little draggy in places.

This new song is great! I love their creepier songs best, I think that "Tiger in the Tank" song is wai underrated. What a great idea for an album, I am now on pins n needles waiting for this one.

I think the reason early Dylan is better than later Dylan for me is b/c of the perspective / "voice" behind the lyrics. The early stuff has hope, anger, fear, longing -- just intense emotions on a lot of those songs. "He used to care," to turn Bob on Bob against Bob.

I find all these latter-day albums to be fine, but full of ennui and a sort of indifference. Gimme some of that early pentacostal, self-righteous, fire any day -- even though he's remained an excellent musician / writer and I look forward to listening to this one.

And since age is getting brought up: I'm 30 years old. First Dylan exposure was Blonde on Blonde when I was in college.

Search tells me that Led Zeppelin was brought up at some point. This page tells me not to bother finding that reference. So...

Everything by Led Zeppelin. I don't hate people who like Led Zeppelin -- it somehow just all comes off as smarmy mysogeny to me, even if it's about angels or trees or sunshine.

I see what you guys are saying about it being a bit "samey" and that's definitely a fair critique. But on balance I personally prefer it to Post-War (his other album I am most familiar with). "For Beginners" is one of my favorite tracks of all time.