brownie

I got caught in this trap a few weeks ago. I bought tickets for me and a friend to see Neko Case. And then, wouldn't you know it, comes the day of the concert and I can't make it due to work commitments. But because they were paperless, and I was the one who bought the tickets, my friend couldn't go either. So I had to eat the cost of two tickets. Grrr. I've been going to fewer concerts over the past few years due to a severe lack of time, and this is certainly not helping the situation.

I've been listening to all of Lhasa's albums lately, but this one (her current one) seems to stand out. She has a wonderful sultry voice, and the music is lovely.

Music to unwind by.

Somewhere on this board (ages ago, it seems) I said that What Could Have Been is the best song on that 7 Worlds Collide collection.

I stand by that opinion. Fabulous, fabulous song.

Susanna Hoffs is a beautiful woman who looks amazingly good for her age. I say that as a woman myself!

But that doesn't negate the fact that she and Matthew Sweet add nothing to the songs they cover together.

I would much rather hear new material from both of them. Maybe new material conceived together?

*yawn*

Matthew Sweet should go back to doing what he's good at - namely, his own material.

I have tried several times to get into the stuff he does with Susanna Hoffs. I always think I should really like it, because I really like him, and I really like her.

And yet the two of them together tend to bore me out of my mind. I can't understand it, but they've yet to do anything together that seems worth the time to listen to it.

(Yes, I did listen to the song at the link you posted, and it seemed just more of the same ol' Matt 'n' Sue yawnfest to me. What do they really add to that song????)

I'm gonna whisper this for fear of a massive back-lash but.....Kid A, and Radiohead in general, aren't actually as good as everyone thinks they are. sssshhhh. Don't tell Pitchfork.

No need to whisper - I'll agree with you. I hate Kid A. I was a pretty big Radiohead fan until they released Kid A. I tried to listen to it a couple of times, but never managed to make it all the way through. I have never gone out of my way to listen to anything they've released since. The couple of songs I've accidentally heard since then have not changed my opinion that Radiohead hasn't done anything that interests me since before Kid A.

Funeral: I adore about half of it. And those few songs tend to get put on constant repeat. I think it belongs on the list.

Panda Bear: I had never heard the names "Panda Bear" nor "Animal Collective" until I noticed that Panda Bear album appearing on just about every one of Pitchfork's guest reviewers' end of year list for whatever year that album came out. So I checked it out. It blew me away. I still listen to it on a pretty regular basis. I also really like Merriweather Post Pavillion, but have not been inspired to check out anything else by Animal Collective.

I love this album.

I became interested in it because I repeatedly heard Hellhole Ratrace on the radio and it consistently caught my ear.

I admit I was inspired to listen to the whole album after reading the Pitchfork review, and I love the whole thing. I've been listening to it nonstop since Saturday. No, I do not blindly follow Pitchfork, and I often hate things they rave about, but after falling in love with Album (dumb name), I read reviews on other sites that I hold in high regard and it seems to have received nearly universal acclaim.

What do I love about it? I can't put my finger on it....it's like Elvis Costello meets Jesus and Mary Chain meets Phil Spector. Or something. Whatever it is, I love it.

I am adoring this box set. It's worth the money for all the extras (mostly the demos and live stuff), and the package/book is great as well. I haven't read the (very fat!) book yet, but the pictures are wonderful. The sound on all the recordings is top notch.

Someone above was wondering about a tour - I don't know about a tour, but the band is playing in Brooklyn in November - and I very, very sadly won't be able to go!!

I have been listening to this incessantly for the past 6 days.

This is better than I ever could have imagined, and I was imagining some pretty great things about it.

Yeah, I've come across this too. That Neko Case show I mentioned in my post above? Ticketless. It's at the Beacon Theater in NY, and any tickets purchased within the first 10 rows are paperless, which means I have to bring my passport with me to collect the tickets! (!!!!) I'm not happy about that, but I guess I do prefer that to the other, seemingly standard situation at that venue where tickets in the first ten rows are never available except on the secondary market, where they cost 10 times what I paid for mine. The chances I won't be able to go are slim. And on the off chance I can't go, I guess I'll have to eat the cost of 2 tickets. I guess that's a risk I'm willing to take when I get to go to a show I'd like to see for a reasonable price.

I don't like any of it, to be honest. I don't like having to show government photo ID just to see a show. The alternative (hundreds of dollars for a ticket) is probably worse.

I honestly don't know. The whole industry stinks.

My reaction to the Ticketmaster extortion fees has been to severely cut back on the number of shows I attend. I stopped going to arena shows many years ago because I like a more intimate experience, but even the theater and club shows have gotten out of hand.

I didn't make a conscious decision about this until about 6 months ago, when I noticed I'd been going to significantly fewer shows, mainly because I couldn't justify the expense. Not that I'm broke, but I don't see the value for the money when an act I'd like to check out, but isn't necessarily one of my favorites, is topping $70 with all the fees. The recent David Byrne tour springs to mind, as does Neko Case, who I really like, but have put off seeing for several years now because her shows always top $50 with all the fees.

Neko is finally playing around here for under $50, so I'll be seeing her in November and am really looking forward to it, but in general I've come to feel over the past couple of years that I wasn't getting good value for my money at live shows. Consequently, the number of shows I attend has drastically decreased.

My thoughts on 9/11:

I did not lose anyone in this tragedy, but live close enough that I used to be able to see the towers from one block from where I live. I went up there on that day 8 years ago and watched the billowing smoke rising from where the towers used to be. I frantically called a friend on that day 8 years ago....a friend who worked in one of the towers and had the good fortune to wake up late that day.

I've thought about that day every time I take that particular PATH train into NY and come up into that godawful pit.

I have a friend who lives very far away from here, and has wanted to discuss various conspiracy theories about the attack with me over the years, and I always shut him down.

I have never really been able to talk about 9/11, let alone reminisce about it on the date. Although I will never forget that date.

This was the first year that I felt I could deal with it by watching whatever tributes they put on the news, even if it included video of the event, which I have been unable to watch for 8 years. But life got in the way of my watching any news tributes that day, and so what.

I really don't need to watch airplanes crashing into buildings, towers falling, and people talking about it.

I will never forget that day.

It does me no good to discuss it.

Big Star box set arrived today!!!!

*bounces up and down*

*bump*

I was at his show at Maxwells last summer and it was a revelation. I didn't recognize a lot of the songs at the time, but many eventually turned up on Temporary People.

I'd seen Joe only once before (also at Maxwells) and it was awful. *laughs* I think it was in the midst of some hard-rock/noise phase - totally not the Joseph Arthur I'd come to love.

So I went last year not expecting a heck of a lot, but left enthralled - particularly with a song I did not know at the time, but turned out to be the song Drive on Temporary People...And I got to keep a memory of my experience! - he was selling copies of the show if you hung around afterwards and he would chat to you a bit and draw a bit of artwork on your CD.

So it's been a year, and I'm going to see him tonight at the 2nd of a 3 show residency he's doing in NYC over late Aug./Sept. Hoping for a repeat of the extraordinary experience I had last summer.

Hoping very much that it's just Joe and his guitar again like last year because that was definitely a mind-blowing show and I'm anxious to repeat it! (or as near to repeating it as is possible)

I saw Big Star back in 1995, when they were touring with Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow in place of Andy Hummel and Chris Bell. And, let me tell you , they KILLED! Auer and Stringfellow sang a couple of the Bell-penned tunes and just nailed it. I think that the version they did of "I Am the Cosmos" sent chills up and down the spines of everyone there that night.

I saw them around this time too, and agree that it was wonderful. I remember thinking at the time that if I didn't know better, I would have sworn that Chris Bell was up there on that stage during I Am the Cosmos. Spine-chilling indeed!

I'm kind of giggling as I see everyone list 'the best' songs from Sister Lovers/Third - I think nearly every song has been mentioned now. *laughs* I was kind of cool towards that album when I first heard it and put it away for many years. When I came back to it, it was a revelation - I loved it, and couldn't understand why it hadn't moved me years before.

Has anyone here heard In Space, the 'reformed' Big Star album? I avoided it for a long, long time, thinking it would be dreadful. I finally bought it a few months ago and was pleasantly surprised with it, although it doesn't really sound like Big Star - it sounds like Posies songs and Alex Chilton songs. I don't know if my enjoyment of it is because I had such low expectations for it, or because I am so used to hearing all kinds of crazy shit from Alex over the years that nothing from him surprises me. Some of Alex's solo music makes me laugh - in a good way! And there is a song on In Space that has that effect on me.

then i'd argue you're not really that big of a Beatles fan...

 

honestly, i compared the Ebetts, the '87 CD's, and the original vinyls to these last night and it's just insane how much better and incredible they sound

 

who cares if they're songs you've heard a million times, it's the fucking BEATLES for god sake.

Sure I'm a Beatles fan. And if the Beatles were still an ongoing concern, putting out new music, I'd probably be all over it.

But there is no new music. I've been listening to these same songs for almost 50 years.

I've heard these songs so many times that I know every word, every note, every drumbeat, every nuance. I can hear the songs clearly in my head without even having to listen to them.

As I said, enough already.

As an old friend of mine said this weekend, how many times can you listen to the Beatles after having grown up with the original LPs and singles and heard them played over and over on the radio and everywhere else.

I completely agree with your friend.

Maybe it's just a function of age, but I have no interest in these new Beatles releases. I first bought the LP's, and then bought some (but not all) of the same music on CD. I'm done. I do love the Beatles, but those songs are so firmly entrenched in my brain that I never have to intentionally listen to them again. It's always nice to hear them on the radio, etc, but enough already.

If you recognize the man in my avatar, you'll know my opinion of Big Star.

I'm very much looking forward to the box set that's coming out in a few weeks.

I recently read the 33 and 1/3 book about Radio City, which was a fabulous and enlightening read. That is one of my all time favorite records. I never get tired of it.

I'm listening to this too, and loving it. Most thoroughly listenable and enjoyable YLT album (for me) in probably 15 years.

Fabulous.

At first, I listened to W(TA) incessantly. iTunes tells me I've listened to it about 50 times.

I was very impressed with it at first, initially thinking it was my second favorite Wilco album after Summerteeth. However, it doesn't seem to have had staying power with me. I find it difficult to remember individual songs. More likely, my initial euphoric reaction to it was because I think it's better than Sky Blue Sky, which I considered a disappointment.

So, after some time now, I have to say it's a very good album, but not great.

Maybe I'm the only one here who's heard this so far? (Yes, I'm a nut to have gone through the trouble to get this so soon.)

After listening to this about 10 times now, a question and a couple of comments:

Have John Stirratt or Pat Sansone ever sung on any Wilco recordings? I'm liking the sound of both of their voices on this album. Their songs are very nice. There's also a very cool percussion-only track with Glenn Kotche and Phil Selway.

I said in my earlier post that the version of You Never Know on this album is identical to that on W(TA). That is not in fact the case. Someone elsewhere pointed out to me, and my ears have confirmed upon close listening, that there is more instrumentation in the mix on The Sun Came Out (fuzzy guitar, Wurlitzer - both credited to Neil Finn). They're subtle differences (it's still the same take of the song), but they really flesh out the song and I think I prefer this version to the one on W(TA).

Even after 10 listens, I still think the Jeff Tweedy song What Could Have Been is the best thing on here. Followed closely by Lisa Germano's Reptile.

Looking forward to others' thoughts on this album - Wilco-related or not.

Oh my goodness, what a wonderful album! I have been known to listen to Ever Since You've Been Gone for hours on end. Definitely one of my all time favorite Nick Lowe songs.

I found a download link to this on a blog the other day. I love all the Sparklehorse albums, but frankly this recording does absolutely nothing for me. Too much atmospheric meandering....and does not create an atmosphere I can tolerate. It's mostly unlistenable noise to me. Too bad. I look forward to whatever Mark Linkous does next, but this one is totally not for me.

The Sun Came Out is available to purchase now as a download from play.com. It's missing the two KT Tunstall-related songs, which for some reason aren't available until next week. If you're not in Europe, you can circumvent the European-only download by entering your complete address, and just keeping the country to "UK". My credit card was initially declined for the incorrect country in the address (I'm in the US), but a call to my credit card company sorted it out and they put it through.

It sounds good. They seem to have captured the feeling of the live performance, for anyone who has managed to hear the recording of one of the Auckland shows from January.

To my ears, the version of You Never Know on The Sun Came Out is identical to the version on W(TA). If there are subtle differences, my ears can't pick them up.

The Jeff Tweedy song What Could Have Been really stands out for me.

Okay, I think I worded my post somewhat incorrectly and you got the wrong impression.

Yes, for sure I approach new music by artists I am already of a fan of by wanting to like it...and I definitely give it much more of a chance than someone I've never heard (or heard of) before.

But if it is an artist that is totally new to me? Even if there is hype, I swear to god I don't go into it wanting to like it. I really don't have any expectations whatsoever, I just want to hear it. Actually, some of my best discoveries have come from hearing something new without the hype, by stumbling upon it.

Joe Pernice springs to mind. I heard Crestfallen on a compilation CD that came with a magazine...I had no idea who he was, but that song hit me like an arrow. Calexico is another. I heard Minas de Cobre on a similar compilation CD and I went "What IS this?!!!?"....that was over ten years ago and now they're my favorite band. I had never heard a word about them. There are others I've discovered this way (Joseph Arthur springs to mind)....

So, um, there really are people out there who don't let the hype sway their expectations.

I suppose in the case of Bon Iver I was a bit turned off by the hype and then I listened to the thing and the guy's voice, slack song structure, out of tune guitar, over dubbing, and a few other things I simply couldn't get over. Had this been someone I really liked and knew something about I might have forgiven all those things, but under the circumstances I gave the thing a few listens and now it sits on the shelf.

My reaction to Bon Iver was much the same as yours - I gave it a few good listens, really liked it at the time, but obviously not enough to ever make me want to return to it, and now it sits on the shelf. I don't see the big difference between your reaction and my own.