hardwood floor

Wait, are you upset when artists dismiss their early work?

There's always been something about this that bothers me -- especially when the early work is obviously far superior than the recent work that said artist claims is "the best work of my career."

I find it disingenuous and sometimes hypocritical.

REM did this for years, until nobody was buying their lousy records. So then they suddenly began playing all those old songs live and even recorded an album that was designed to sound just like those old songs.

I think for a lot of bands it's something they say to try and convince people -- and maybe themselves -- that their new stuff is really good. but if it is, it'll stand on its own.

Now ... some artists really did suck early on and I can see where they're coming from. but 90 percent of artists seem to put out their best material somewhere in their first two or three records.

and way too many dismiss that stuff while they churn out dud after dud. it just gets old.

i dig an artist who really embraces his early stuff while still finding a way to stay relevant, and I think tweedy has done this as well as anybody

What an amazing record. I love Straightaways also, but Trace has to be the highwater mark. You listen to the "new" Son Volt and then listen to Trace, is it even really the real Jay Farrar?

For me, songs like methamphetamine and highways and cigarettes are every bit as good as windfall and tear-stained eye

a little more enduring, actually

same guy

brilliant songwriter

I saw Tupelo on the last tour and Wilco on the AM tour four or five times and Son Volt on the Trace tour three or four times, so .... a lot

Uncle Tupelo at some point will be appreciated as one of the greatest bands ever.

30) Robert Pollard - Robert Pollard is Off to Business

39) Boston Spaceships - Boston Spaceships

nice to see somebody is still listening to uncle bob

i think you have these both ranked about right -- i thought both were a bit better than most of his post-GBV stuff (not counting From a Compound Eye, which i thought was fantastic), but still uneven

off to business really did have some good tracks - the blondes, gratification to concrete and wealth and hell being i liked the most

the spaceships ... you satisfy me and winston's atomic bird were the tracks that stood out for me

i still think pollard has a great record in him -- he puts out like 20 really vintage pollard tracks a year. unfortunately, he releases like 120 songs a year

i'm told the next solo record, crawling distance, is very good

I always felt Fountains of Wayne were an under appreciated band and got a bad rep with that silly Stacey's Mom song.

bad rap? that song is typical of what they do, just happened to be a fluke hit

Trace is brilliant. I still think The Search is just a tad better, but maybe that's just because it's newer.

Farrar and Tweedy are so talented. Imagine if they were ever in a band together? They'd be incredible.

REM was once the greatest band in the world.

Now they're the worst band in the world. (except for coldplay)

So U2's last three suck less I guess

Found this on a GD related site.........thought I'd share....

 

Echoes and Reverberations: The Night of the Tripping Dead ...

awesome

me ... on a '73 kick lately

amazing year

Close to the Edge

For every page that Nick Cave isn't mentioned, I lose a bit of respect for this thread.

i have less respect for somebody who's critical or judgmental of other peoples' musical taste than somebody who digs Nick Cave

why not just say you dig Nick Cave and post something about what you like about the guy and write about his current work instead of jumping on people who don't dig him?

i think Fables is greatly underrated

i'd probably go

Murmer

Reckoning

Fables

Lifes Rich

Document

top 20 robert pollard post-gbv tracks

Miles Under The Skin, Coast to Coast Carpet of Love (Robert Pollard)

There Will Be no Island, The Crawling Distance (Robert Pollard)

Death of the Party, Blues and Boogie Shoes (Keene Brothers)

The Blondes, Robert Pollard Is off to Business (Robert Pollard)

Fresh Threats, Salad Shooters, Zip Guns, From a Compound Eye (Robert Pollard)

Circle Saw Boys Club, Silverfish Trivia (Robert Pollard)

The Butler Stands for All of Us, The Crawling Distance (Robert Pollard)

Serious Bird Woman (You Turn me On), Normal Happiness, (Robert Pollard)

U.S. Mustard Company, From a Compound Eye (Robert Pollard)

Zoom (It Happens under the World), Zoom (Robert Pollard)

Light Show, From a Compound Eye (Robert Pollard)

Folded Claws, Standard Gargoyle Decisions (Robert Pollard)

Shadow Port, Standard Gargoyle Decisions (Robert Pollard)

Beauty of the Draft, Blues and Boogie Shoes (Keene Brothers)

Catherine From Mid-October, Zoom (Robert Pollard)

Jesus the Clockwork, All that is Holy (Psycho and the Birds)

Pattern Girl, Sgt. Disco (Circus Devils)

Dancing Girls And Dancing Men, From a Compound Eye (Robert Pollard)

Winston's Atomic Bird, Brown Submarine (Boston Spaceships)

Our Gaze, Coast to Coast Carpet of Love (Robert Pollard)

...but I love 'em. Another extraordinary voice, beautiful melodies. I just put it on because I hadn't in years and I'm crazy about them.

I just saw Grant Lee at a small acoustic club in philly

He was good.

I can see that. I was told not to listen to it in the car. Considering it was made in the cold alone I guess listening to it in the cold alone makes sense.

 

LouieB

Most overrated record of 2008.

Didn't do a damn thing for me.

His voice ... just wow.

The Grateful Dead.

Rejected them forever for the wrong reason, because of the culture surrounding the music.

Never dreamed that a band whose music I believed to be as pointless as the lives of the lifers who followed them around in VW vans was actually some of the best American music ever created.

I still can't stand the endless Dark Stars and some of the Weir tracks and most of Donna's yowling and much of the second-set jamming.

But the songs and the melodies and the garcia/hunter lyrics are just mesmerizing.

I just didn't realize it until I was about 40.

It's just pop music, who cares how old they are or when they had their last hit

Let 'em rock

More power to 'em

I'll go if it swings through town

Calexico did the Free at Noon show at World Cafe Live in Philly today. I was five blocks away but couldn't go, which killed me. Anybody make it over there?

Valentine's Day

Steve Earle

May God bless and keep you always,

May your wishes all come true,

May you always do for others

And let others do for you.

May you build a ladder to the stars

And climb on every rung,

May you stay forever young.

I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes

and just for that one moment i could be you

yes, i wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes

you'd know what a drag it is to see you

Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties

Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise

While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell

An innocent man in a living hell

Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don't criticize

What you can't understand

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

Your old road is

Rapidly agin'.

Please get out of the new one

If you can't lend your hand

For the times they are a-changin'.

tony banks is the greatest musician who ever lived

all-time top-5 band for me

tremendous up through wind & wuthering and still pretty damn good up through duke

always thought lamb was a wee bit overrated, a little thin in areas ... great record but selling england, foxtrot and nursery cryme and even trick of the tail were their peak moments. although the high points on lamb are ridiculously great (carpet crawlers, lilywhite lilith, lamb, riding the scree and of course in the cage)

my genesis top 10

1. supper's ready

2. musical box

3. cinema show

4. firth of fifth

5. one for the vine

6. watcher of the skies

7. you might recall

8. the knife

9. burning rope

10. afterglow

that genesis is not in the r&r hall of fame is just a fucking travesty

I once payed a waitress $10 to stop playing a Dave Matthews CD. True story.

a bargain!

Eddie Jobson!

rock some UK

that depends....was leroy once an up and coming songwriter who released a couple of decent earlier efforts, then a timeless unforgettable album (can you fly) before turning into a boring, angry miserable songwriter with nothing left in the tank who played terrible live shows?

Freedy really did slide downhill in a hurry after those first couple great records.

I saw Freedy live once and it was phenomenal. Didn't hurt that his band was Kevin Salem and his band.

off topic:

 

give me a cd by them to start with

 

THANKS!

start with Isolation Drills if you're into more polished, produced off-kilter guitar-blast pop brilliance or Alien Lanes if you prefer sloppy propulsive lo-fi genius

not including pollard solo EPs like zoom, music from bubble, silverfish trivia ... which are all tremendous ...

1. Fast Japanese Spin Cycle

Insanely great. My Impression Now, Indian Fables, Dusted ... Amazing record, belongs right up there with B000, Alien Lanes, Under the Bushes and Universal Truths.

2. Sunfish Holy Breakfast

If We Wait and Heavy Metal Country alone vault this to the top.

3. Tigerbomb.Holy fucking shit. Amazing record. My Valuable Hunting Knife Refraze version? better than the original. Pricks' alternate version rules. And you get a superb Tobin song too in Dodging Invisible Rays.

4. Hold on Hope

You can argue that the non-album EP castoffs are stronger than the Do the Collapse tracks themselves. Underground Initiations, Interest Position, Fly Into Ashes , Tropical Robots, A Crick Uphill, Idiot Princess, Avalanche Aminos, Do The Collapse. all fantastic tracks. the gillardian avalanche aminos especially

5. Clown Prince of the Menthol TrailerMatter Eater Lad, Pink Gun and Johnny Appleseed are all album-worthy tracks that maintained pollard's penchant for hiding great tracks on obscure EPs

6. Static Airplane Jive

I love the way this sounds. Just jagged filthy great pop music. Big School and Glow Boy Butlers were welcome additions to the live set during the final tour.

7. Dayton, Ohio, 19-something-and-5

The title track is an all-time top-20 GBV track

8. Plugs for the Program.

Short but what a 1-2-3 punch - remarkable unreleased track in Sucker of Pistol City, demo version of Picture me Big-Time and alternate version of Surgical Focus.

9. Forever since Breakfast.

Technically an EP, so I'll list it. The first GBV studio recording. I once begged Bob to add either Sometimes I Cry or She Wants to Know to the setlist. That would slay. Very REM-circa-Murmer-ish but great songs.

10. I Am a Scientist

I'm one of the few who prefers this version of I am a Scientist. And Do the Earth is an awesome track too.

11. Pipe Dreams of Instant Prince Whippet

A shame that tracks as strong as Visit this Place & Dig through my Window were relegated to this. But not much past those two.

12. Wish in one Hand

Real is one of the most underrated unknown gems in the Pollard canon. And nice to get the non-Ric Okasek demo version of Teenage FBI too

13. The Grand Hour

Brought us Shocker in Gloomtown.

14. Get out of my Stations

Not a huge fan, although I do dig Scalding Creek

15. Plantations of Pale Pink

meh