ih8music

The series finale of Silicon Valley was very satisfying. It’s always a pleasant surprise when show runners get it right.

Recently heard the president of the RRHOF discuss the nomination process.  Given that they only induct a maximum 5 artists per year, there will always be a huge list of artists who "deserve" to be in there, especially when you consider how wide of a net they cast to define "rock & roll".  It was obvious that a huge part of their marketing/advertising plan for the museum is to have debates like this arise every time the nominee list goes out.

Spent the weekend listening to Sturgill Simpson's latest, Sound and Fury.  Holy crap!  Has there been an artist that's put out a more diverse first four albums?

 

This one is, as he describes it, a “sleazy synth-rock dance record."  There's nothing even remotely country about this album, aside from his deep Kentucky accent (which is buried under heavy guitars and "sleaze" on many tracks).

 

Apparently there's also an anime film that was produced along with this album -- because why not? 

 

One of my favorite tracks is called "Make Art Not Friends" and pretty much sums up the ethos behind this album.

 

I love saying "no" to all the "yes" men

Just to see the look on their face

I love how everybody knows what's best

But nobody knows their place

Sucker every second, stack 'em up to the sky

For every winner, there's a hundred that died

So you get yours, and stay outta mine

Here's to the memories, where do I sign?

 

Face in the mirror, all skin and bones

Bloodshot eyes and a heart of stone

Never again, I'd rather be alone

Think I'm gonna just stay home

And make art, not friends

 

I have no idea how he's going to top this, but I'm excited to find out.

 

Well Dead Man's Pop is out and I've gotta say, I'm blown away.  It is SUCH a different album, and while I still think it likely belongs in the lower 1/3 of their cannon, it is markedly better than the '89 version.  I now realize why the band was so disappointed with the final cut - the album they created with Matt Wallace is so superior -- everything from the mix, track sequencing, quirky little intros/outros, etc. 

 

Some of the weakest songs on the album benefit the most -- an earnest and anything-but-polished "They're Blind" transitioning into the raw, brash "Anywhere's Better Than Here" is just brilliant.

 

I could go on, but if you have any feelings (good, bad, or indifferent) toward Don't Tell A Soul, you've gotta check it out.

have folks heard Trump lamenting that he can't execute the whistleblower?

Zelensky also pointed out that he stayed in Trump Tower. as in "oh, yeah, and also I lined your pockets, so..."

 

That definitely caught my attention, too.  I bet many foreign leaders pull that out at some point in their conversations with him.

The “transcript” of the call is more explicit than I expected. While he isn’t directly tying aid to investigating the Bidens, the implication is definitely there.

Uh, yeah. Impeachment? Doesn't even feel real.

 

I wonder what Trump's calculation as he's preparing to release the transcript of the call with Ukraine. Maybe it's another example of brazenly owning things ('I grab them by the pussy') in order to normalize it and take the wind out of it.

The transcript could easily be edited (or even be from a different call) so I don’t think that will tell us much. But the complaint itself (which is supposedly also going to be released tomorrow) should give us a better picture of what Trump did that caused the whistleblower to be concerned.

 

If it’s what people are alleging (using the power of the office to bully a foreign country into digging up dirt on a political opponent) it’s clearly legit grounds for impeachment. I just hope Pelosi didn’t jump the gun here, because if it’s anything short of that - it’ll hurt more than help.

First time in a while that anything political made me smile. Valerie Plame is running for Congress— hell yeah! https://youtu.be/ICW-dGD1M18

The Misfits certainly seem more popular now due to their iconic logo.

Frank Turner's "Wherefore Art Thou Gene Simmons" takes quite a good jab at him...

 

A mother said, "Beware of boys in bands
And certainly don't let them write you songs
For they will come to you on bended knee and kiss your pretty hands
When the singing's done, and the suns up they'll be gone."
While her mother has a point, I might resent the implication.
That every boy who plays guitar plays women like Gene Simmons.

4600 photographs, stuck into a scrapbook beneath your bed.
4599 broken hearts, and one more you can't get out of your head.
And though you swear you can remember every pair of lips you've kissed
Deep down you're scared there's 1 or 2 you might've missed.

Oh, Chaim Witz, wherefore art though?
Does your mother know who you are now?

Not that I can point a finger, I've been a sinner just the same
Fallen hard in love in motels and by sunrise lost their name.
And I have crept out into cold air in the smallest hours to leave
And in the pockets of my jacket I've kept my last infidelities

A navy coin and a broken plastic compass that someone gave me.
That can't find north anymore. Just like me.

Oh, Gene Simmons, wherefore art though?
I could sure use a hand on my shoulder now.

'Cause when fedelity runs low that theres the moment when you choose
In the life of things you love, some you keep, some you lose.

Isn't there an entire genre of hip hop devoted to name dropping and calling out other artists?

Hillary isn't running this year.  And the "Bernie Bro" movement was egged on by Russian trolls.  No need to revisit 2016 again.

 

On a lighter note, we've managed to go how long since there's been a mass shooting? 2 days?  w00t!

I greatly admire Warren's intellect, elocution and passion, but I'm not in favor of the revolution she and Bernie are advocating.  For me, it's feeling like "clowns to the left of me, joker to the right . . . "  Give me a centerist/moderate who can get things done.  There's one from Minnesota I like. 

 

I like many of Warren's ideas, I'm just realistic about their chances (~0%) of actually getting turned into legislation that can get through Congress.  But that's actually the appeal (for me) of Warren over Sanders.  She seems much more capable of compromise and rational argument, whereas Bernie is willing to go down in flames for his cause if it's not adopted 100%.

 

But I'm far from sold on anyone in particular yet.  All I know is that we can't make the same mistake as the GOP did and pick political novices like Wang or Williamson just because they're entertaining on the debate stage.

Here’s the remixed version of Talent Show

 

https://rhino.lnk.to/TalentShowMW

Probably more accurate to call it the de-mixed version, as it is the original mix that the band and Matt Wallace submitted to Sire. All the “polish” in the album cut was added on (and a ton of band character removed) after the fact.

 

Definitely makes me eager to hear the other tracks!

This is great news!  Here's what Bob Mehr posted about this on Facebook:

 

A bit of “personal news” as they say. This morning The Replacements and Rhino announced the release DEAD MAN’S POP, the first ever ‘Mats box set. I was lucky enough to have produced the project (along with the estimable and ever diligent Jason Jones of Rhino) and wrote the liner notes. There’s a funny bit of backstory as to how this set came about…which, like the band, started in a basement in South Minneapolis.

 

In late 2014, Slim Dunlap’s wonderful wife Chrissie Dunlap was cleaning out the basement of the couple's house when she came upon a stash of Ampex reels hidden in a cupboard. She realized, based on the songs and dates, that these were Replacements tapes from the “Don’t Tell A Soul” era. After sessions at Cherokee and Capitol in Los Angeles with producer Matt Wallace, the band had finished tracking the record at Prince’s Paisley Park studios in the fall of 1988 – at which time they absconded with a handful of reels, reels that included Wallace’s unreleased "quick mix" of record, and a session the ‘Mats had earlier cut with Tom Waits while in California.

 

Upon this discovery, Chrissie asked Slim if they should call and alert someone to the fact that they had these tapes, to which Slim replied, “No!” Asked why, he said “I don’t want to go to jail!” (as you can see, Slim still has his sense of humor very much intact). Credit really has to go to Slim for saving these tapes rather than, say, tossing them in a large body of water. But he’s always had great foresight -- “Slim’s a smart son of a country lawyer” as Paul Westerberg once told me.

 

Likely because I have earned my PhD in Replacements studies, I was dispatched by the band’s management to retrieve the tapes in early 2015. I brought them back to Memphis where we had them transferred (fittingly enough) at Ardent Studios.

 

Listening back to Matt’s original (if admittedly hurried, somewhat incomplete) Paisley Park mix it was clear that a far different version of “Don’t Tell a Soul” actually existed than the one that had been mixed by Chris-Lord Alge and released in 1989.

 

It’s worth noting here that the released version, the Lord-Alge mix, is a fine LP – and was, quite frankly, the more commercial and radio-geared record that needed to be released in 1989 to keep the band afloat. But, the truth is, it didn’t *sound* much like the album the Replacements had recorded. Over time, I think that fact became clear and the record’s reputation suffered somewhat. In the end, “Don’t Tell A Soul” would become The Replacements’ best-selling album, and also their most divisive. A perfect encomium for a band built on such contradictions.

 

It also became clear that a new package, built around a version of DTAS the way the band and Matt had wanted it to sound, would be a good idea (this was a desire that Westerberg had expressed many times over the years). But, of course, there was more, including other much discussed but little heard recordings from the era, like the band’s first attempt at making DTAS in Bearsville with Tony Berg, and the Waits session. On top of that there was the Inconcerated live show, from Milwaukee in 1989, of which only five songs had ever been heard previously.

 

After many fits and starts and lot of legwork, we finally got the okay to push ahead with the box set this year from the band and from the good folks at Rhino Records.

This past May, Matt Wallace finished the job he’d started 31 years earlier, finally completing the mix of the record, which is called, “Don’t Tell a Soul Redux.” As I wrote in the liners, while it’s impossible to unhear a record that’s been around for three decades, this version is the album the band made and intended to release. In addition to Wallace’s mix, "Redux" also restores several crucial elements from the sessions, including original drum tracks, vocal takes and tempos that were altered in post-production and the band’s original sequence of the album. Matt’s new mix finally brings out all the sounds that were committed to tape – along with the Replacements' singular spirit, humor and passion.

 

The man, the myth, Brian Kehew -- who mixed "Live at Maxwell’s 1986" for us -- was brought back onto the team to help mix the bulk of the material that appears on the disc of rarities, “We Know The Night: Rare & Unreleased.” Brian also did a masterful job mixing “The Complete Inconcerated Live” show – and actually did some heroic salvage work on several tracks that had technical issues. Happily, this is now a sparkling and remarkable sounding set, that’s every bit as important a document of the band’s Slim-era lineup as Maxwell’s was to the original foursome.

 

The whole package was brought together sonically by Justin Perkins of Mystery Room Mastering. Justin had a truly epic task pulling these various audio sources together and making it all sound right. He did amazing (often tedious cleanup work) so that the listening experience on this box would be perfect. And it truly is.

Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman cut a beautiful vinyl master of "Redux" for us under the supervision of Matt Wallace (when you get your copies of the box, be sure to check the run-out groove on the LP).

 

The whole package is presented in a 12 x 12 hardcover book – loaded with dozens of rarely seen photos -- and features a detailed history of the "Don’t Tell A Soul" era written by yours truly.

 

Like all things Replacements, this project was a labor of love (and sometimes hard labor). At the risk of being embarrassingly personal, I was given the opportunity to work on this at a pretty terrible time in my life, following a personal tragedy. Having a creative purpose like this probably saved me. For that, among many other things, I’m eternally grateful to the band and its management (especially Darren Hilll), all the folks at Rhino including my co-conspirator Jason Jones, as well as the Dunlaps, the Jespersons, Michael Hill and all who helped with this project in ways big and small.

 

Anyway, that’s some of the how and why this came about. I’m sure I’ll share more as things go along and we get closer to release. In the meantime….DEAD MAN’s POP is available for pre-order here (if you get it now you also get a little bonus gift with the box) https://www.rhino.com/…/dead-mans-pop-4cd1lp-deluxe-cassett…

 

Paul released about 10mins of the Waits stuff on the "3oclockreep" download.  If the rest of the session was as entertaining as that part, it'll be a sure treat!

Racism is so American that when you protest it, people think you're protesting America. 

 

Oof. Painfully true.

We haven't gotten around to watch Season 3, yet ---- my kid has been begging me to let him watch it, but I knew it would be too much for him - he is 10 --- but last night, I turned Season 1 - Ep. 1 on for him---he lasted up to the point of Will running off the road on his bike, which is a whopping 6 minutes in or so, he then told me it  was ok for me to turn it off...

 

Probably a good thing.  Season 3 is more intense/gory than the other two, IMO.  We have 2 more episodes to go! (it's killing my kids that we didn't binge it all at once, lol)

Iowan here, so I matter more than most of you. Here's my current ranking:

 

1. Harris

2. Warren

3. Buttigieg

4. Booker

5. Castro

My list would be exactly the same. I’m really hoping for Harris or Warren get the nomination with Mayor Pete as the veep. As much as I’d love to see two women on the ticket, I don’t see that happening (and I don’t really think either one would be a good #2)

McConnell wouldn’t be running the Senate trial, it would be Roberts. And even though I agree that there’s no way that they would vote to convict, I think a trial would bring the findings of the Mueller report to life much in the way his 10 minute speech yesterday did. There’s a huge difference between watching someone of Mueller’s stature say something and reading the words in a report (especially since nobody reads things anymore). And when GOP senators stick up for Trump and try to attack him, that’s only going to hurt them.

 

Let’s not also forget how batshit crazy this would make Trump. His twitter feed would be full of rants and personal attacks against whoever is testifying against him. While that wouldn’t hurt (and likely would help) him with his base, polling shows us that it turns off everyone else.

 

But most importantly, I think Congress must act because it’s their fucking job. If they let this behavior go unchecked then what’s stopping the next president from committing crimes in office, knowing that they can’t be charged and won’t be held accountable? Sometimes you have to do the right thing, even if you think it’s politically risky (which I don’t think it is).

Agree with many already mentioned... some other favorites from that year:

 

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother's Milk

B-52s - Cosmic Thing

The Cult - Sonic Temple

Love and Rockets - S/T

The Sugarcubes - Here Today, Tomorrow Next Week!

Big Audio Dynamite - Megatop Phoenix

GOT - Battle Of Winterfell.  Wow!

 

 

 

I'm a catalog copywriter.

Meaning, I just write descriptions of the products in the catalog. Industrial supplies, so nothing sexy.

Although I did get a promotion, so I get to have a say in defining out copy style. So... still not sexy.

 

You don't get random inspirations like this?

The images and videos coming out of Paris today are heartbreaking.  All that art and history - gone. 

Game of Thrones ending begins tomorrow. Any other fans on here? I've reconciled that this isn't George RR Martin's story anymore but since he hasn't released a book since 2011, I'm just happy to finally have any sort of ending for A Song of Ice and Fire.

Yep. My wife and I just finished rewatching all 7 seasons as of last night. Completely up to speed on every nuance of every storyline (yeah right). Hopefully they don’t eff it up too much and we get a satisfying closure.