nodep5

Nice call out to Damien Jurado and Josh Ritter.

I also never bought into the Radiohead hype. The Bends is amazing no matter how you slice it. Everything else is sort of lost on me FWIW. I know for me it is the lacking melody. Thom Yorke whining above music tends to become tedious.

It was supposed to come out Nov. 23rd, but that appears to have changed.

 

I got an email from amazon.com about my preorder - they're now estimating a delivery in December, while the product page simply states that the item has been discontinued.

 

Music Direct is now saying January 15th.

 

I'll probably just leave my preorder alone and see if I ever get a record or not.

This feels like the same thing we went through before the Wilco reissues were officially announced. Once again, here is a great example of why record companies are struggling. How much cost can really go into reissuing the entire UT catalouge on vinyl? You have a built in market, the music already exsists, it is a no lose situation. Instead we get months of fiddle farting likely because some contractual issue that is 20 years old. Geez!!

At the end of the day, these reunions only make since (for all parties involved) when the original band was more successful than any subsequent projects. I mean Pink Floyd, Zepplin, dino jr. pixies etc all reunite after years of solo albums or reincarnations of original band that never achieved the success the original lineup did. In the case of UT, both Wilco and Son Volt achieved greater than UT (commercially and some would argue artistically (even though Anodyne is a recording that I would rank above anything else related to these guys). It just doesn't make sense to revisit something that never amounted to what you are doing now.

All that being said, a reunion would better serve Farrar (I feel the current Son Volt is a joke) and he hasn't made a solid record since WST or maybe his first solo album.

Man, I always thought that was Orton singing on "English Girls" and found it weird that she'd sing on a song like that about herself... but it turns out it's Marianne Faithfull? Equally weird.

Speaking of English Girls and Love is Hell in general. That is what I believe to be his artistic masterpiece. I've been wanting to listen to it lately, but I'm holding off, it is like having a gift that I could open but waiting makes it more worth it. I need help for this.

I wanted to reinforce what Analogman is saying, the majority of this can be found through blog/google searches.

Anyway (speaking of the subject) I just finally got my hands on The Swedish Sessions. Here is my lame fan boy moment. I can't listen to For Beth without getting misty eyed. This song was of course later released offically as Friends on Cold Roses and I always enjoyed that version and dug the sentiment, but hearing this original version kind of killed me. I believe the story goes that Ryan was in Sweden laying down tracks while hanging with Beth Orton. (He appears on her song Concete Sky, and I believe English Girls is about her) anyway, I can just see him writing this song a few days after meeting her and singing it to her in the studio. I feel lame typing this? Breaks my heart this song.

As for the rest of the Swedish Session, it doesn't feel as awesome as 48 Hours or Suicide Handbook or Destroyer, maybe ranks along with Elizabethtown.

My wife came home from grocery shopping today and said she had heard a song off this and thought it was pretty. Later I heard a song off this in the car and was impressed. I have been largely not cool with any of the "new" Son Volt stuff and I'm not a hug Death Cab fan, but this seems to work. I will agree that listening to a couple sample tracks, the lyrics are a little clumsy like mentioned above. Anyway, guess I might put some money down on mr. farrar again after all.

Just got done pulling my copy off the shelf and listening again. No this doesn't seem samey to me, it actually is much better than I ever remember. What a beautiful sounding record and what a strong record. I'm excited. Neato.

 

Stay tuned for my next thread, where I will pronounce hidden tracks as generally being lame.

There was a time in the first 10 years of the CD that hidden tracks were awesome.

1. Cracker - Euro Trash Girl

2. Hayden - Poledo's Sandwich/Kraft Dinner

Ok those are the only memorable ones for me.

This reminds me to revisit Trials Of VanOccupanther. I really liked that record, but wasn't in the right head space to thoroughly jump into it. It definetly had a vibe about it that was cool.

Ok, just got my hands on the new record (cd version) and I'm five tracks in. How good is this? I mean this truly shocking me how good this is so far. I enjoyed Warpaint, but by no means felt it was near as strong as earlier efforts. This however feels close to Southern Harmony-Three Snakes in vibe and peformance. You know that loose,druggy feel. This kicks so far!

Putting naked ladies on your album cover is annoying, especially when nodep5 is scrolling through the now listening in Oct thread at work and there pops up naked lady on album cover. Thanks guys! I appreciate that flash of anxiety wondering if I'm going to get in trouble because of this.

Not only do they not bother me, but it seems silly to even think about it. Does a song title make or break the quality of the song?

IMHO it can be as important as album art and album titles (which are important to me). I'm on a Hayden kick lately so I'll use this example. When his second album came out "The Closer I Get", the first single released was titled "The Hazards of Sitting Beneath Palm Trees". Now my image of Hayden was this gruff Canadian writing folk songs in the wilderness (or his bedroom). That album title alone perplexed me beyond no end. I of course loved the song, but the mental image from the title was hard to shake. I don't know, how about "The Hazards of Freezing Your Butt Off (Because I Live In Canada)" See that would make more sense.

But you could also just remove the parens. and call it "My Love May Have To Do".

It's your song, but that's a thought.

:shrug:

 

Also... send me a link and I'll give 'er a listen.

You are right, it could go either way, but I like it.

Also I would love to send a link, but I don't have the first clue on how to post a link to an mp3 (sorry if that is really stupid of me).

 

Does anyone else share this pet peeve? Anyone else think too much about trivial stuff?

My wife has always hated this. I have about a half dozen of my own songs that use this and I think it makes the title cooler on some level. It ticks my wife off, but I think it does add some mystique. It also adds meaning that would not be understood (maybe). For example I have a song called "My Love (May Have To Do)". If it was just "My Love" it could be taken for a straight forward love song, which with the parenthetical it obviously is not. Since only 5 people will ever hear the song, it doesn't really matter.

I haven't seen Wilco on this tour, but recently SBS and AGIB tour, I really like this lineup's version of Pot Kettle Black. Jay Bennet era Wilco doing Passenger Side was awesome.

Avett Brothers - Laundry Room

Hayden - The Place Where We Lived

Dinosaur Jr. - See You

Ben Kweller - Hurtin You

Great Lake Swimmers - Pulling On A Line

Manchester Orchestra - I've Got Friends

Just to name a few!

personally, i think nora might be trying to stir the tupelo pot a bit. im sure she heard 'okemah and the melody of riot' and had the idea or something like that. that being said, im glad jay gets a shot too. i always pictured him being secretly bummed wilco got to do it.

Does anyone have a picture of Jay looking "secretly bummed"? That would be cool.

Very cool!

Out of an entire era of fighting terror, and based on debated views of torture (what is/what isn't), I think it is more fair to say that mistakes were made in some instances, debateable forms of "torture" were allowed, and I'm sure a few innoncent individuals were unjustly detained, and I'm sure a few individuals may have died during this entire period. I'm also sure there are people with an agenda writing books out there stating that the evil Bush administration did alot of things including bringing down the towers. So yes, I go back to what I believe to be true or not.

Also in terms of the specific music arguement, I can't see playing music repeatedly and loudly as being torture.

You’re assuming, incorrectly, that everyone imprisoned at Guantanamo is guilty of a terrorist act. It has been well documented that some prisoners were guilty of little more than being at the wrong place at the wrong time - including minors.

Your comment about "Bush's little torture scheme" sheds light on where you stand on this issue. I don't think we will resolve our differing viewpoints on ViaChicago. I am not going to buy into a belief that our goverment was setting out to torture people just because. I'm sorry if I'm suppose to feel differently. Were mistakes made? I'm sure they were. Was our goverment on a wholesale level setting out to do evil things on an organized level? I'm not going there.

yeah, don't get me wrong, metal music gives me anxiety attacks, so I get the point that it can have an "impact" on someone. However, if I was caught committing terrorist acts and this was treatment I recieved, I'd be counting my lucky stars.

What do you think the effect on ones mental health would be if they were forced to listen to "Crazy" by Britney Spears over and over at loud volumes or the sesame street theme song? I believe the article states that the use of music in this manner is considered torture by the UN Convention against torture.

It is a song. (Not a bad one at that)

The UN doesn't hold a lot of credibility for some people (harking back to my previous comments about differing opinions). Someone much smarter than myself could point out the UN's own inconsistencies when it comes to human rights violations.

The great irony being the same person started both threads.

That is me, making folks happy at ViaChicago since 2008

You know, the whole discussion was built on the premise that we all believe that this particular issue constitutes torture. I for one don't, and was willing to put that aside. So, if I sound flip about it, it may be because playing loud music pales compared to what has been done in the name of torture in this world.

Now the broader arguement is about other forms of torture that I assume most here believe the US is taking part in. We can argue that all day, but this isn't the place.

So all I will say, is that there is probably a percentage (who knows exactly) that don't believe the US is torturing people down at Guantamo. Their opinion isn't uneducated or ill informed or cold hearted, it is just an opinion built on their own belief system. So once again, If I sound flip it is because I don't believe in the merits of this arguement.

Don't Pearl Jam, REM, NIN, Tom M from Rage have some music to record or something to keep them busy. Oh this stuff just rings of pompousness. I do appreciate the geo policitcal views of my rock stars, I'd just rather hear their music.

I mean this is truly kind of ridiculous as someone already pointed out. (not to compare the next few sentences to torture) but I have probably taken a dump to a pearl jam song before, would they appreciate that? Once it is out there, it is out there. If I want to mow the lawn wearing boxers and cowboy boots with a budweiser in my lawn mower's cup holder while listening to "everybody hurts" on my ipod, who can really stop me.