redpillbox

"Bran" by Sudden Death comes to mind.

(sidenote: whenever I see your avatar Moss, I think of his frozen character in "Scrooged"; that is all)

Now PJ Harvey on the other hand...

("This Mess Were In" = great duet)

You know, at this point in their career, I'm surprised U2 hasn't tried making an album without a producer. They've certainly produced a lot of great work under the guidance of Eno and Lanois and Steve Lillywhite, but I'd like to see them ditch the security blanket and try the process on their own.

It's funny, I think the reason they keep Eno and Lanois around is because they AREN'T a security blanket. In numerous interviews they emphasize how important it is for them to have someone that doesn't agree with them in the room. They always say that Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno are people who will fight it out against them and they appreciate this. This democratic process doesn't work for everyone (producers) and it takes a special amount of patience to work this way. They argue it out. Lillywhite has said that making a U2 album is like giving birth to a watermelon. I can appreciate that at their stage in their career they do not surround themselves with "yes men" -- they thrive on the creative tension.

I went on a nationwide road-trip from Seattle, last summer and I would say our stop at Gettysburg was the highlight of the the trip. I've heard others on VC recommend this one.

http://360.u2.com/

Wow! This looks pretty amazing.

edit: looks like they took on corporate sponsorship for the first time. Blackbery.

Thanks for that link: Very good read...and I don't usually enjoy Eggers' writing.

According to the new RS, a new U2 album, Songs of Ascent will be released in 2010 as a companion piece to No Line... ala Zooropa to Achtung...it is supposed to be stripped down and medatative..."but not indulgent" (Bono's words)...the first single will be "Every Breaking Wave" which should ring some bells with the people that have followed this latest release. Apparently it was pulled from the album ("No Line") at the last moment.

It's funny...in response to the question of whatever happened to the "background" survivors....I always wonder what the hell happened to the ruptured remains of the fuselage on the Beach....it's not like they can just roll it away.

i don't know what your intention was in posting that remark, but that seems like such a smart ass thing to do.

 

your opinion is not any more valid than anyone else's...good for him that feels that way, no need for you to be sarcastic about it.

agreed.

This is good news indeed--and so soon:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news...erst-album-tour

Looks like this whole Mystic Valley Band thing is the real deal for Conor Oberst-- they even have cool matching windbreakers to prove it (left). The Bright Eyes mastermind's non-Bright Eyes band is already set to drop the follow-up to last year's sorta-underrated Conor Oberst. It's called Outer South and it's out May 5 on Merge. While Oberst wrote nearly all of the songs for the first album with the Mystic Valley Band, Outer South includes songwriting contributions from Nik Boesel, Nik Freitas, and Taylor Hollingsworth in addition to Oberst. This makes sense because, when I saw the group in NYC last year, the main attraction played sideman on a few of the night's Gram Parsons-style songs-- in other words, Outer South looks to be more of a band album. Oberst is still prolific, but not inhumanly prolific, apparently. The record will include the gum-themed country track "Nikorette", which the group performed on "Conan" last year.

The Mystic Valley Band will endure the Coachella heat this year and they're doing some smaller gigs in the Western half of the United States starting April 9, too. Hang it on your calendar:

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band:

04-09 Omaha, NE - The Slowdown

04-10 Denver, CO - Ogden Theater

04-11 Aspen, CO - Belly Up

04-12 El Paso, TX - Barnett Harley Davidson

04-13 Albuquerque, NM - The Sunshine Theater

04-14 Tempe, AZ - The Marquee

04-15 Pomona, CA - The Glasshouse

04-17 Indio, CA - Coachella

06-18 Telluride, CO - Telluride Bluegrass Festival

I did the whole black-out thing with the last album (read no reviews, didn't listen to the single) and went in cold. This time I've been reading pretty much everything...downloaded the single. I was encouraged when I read that it would be pushing the envelope a bit and then discouraged when I read reviews that said it wasn't as big a departure as advertised...I listened to the album for the first time and the overall impression I gleaned was that it is anything but a "safe" record. All the experiments (and there are many) MIGHT not work in the long run, over repeated listens, but for a band at this point in their career, the record feels like they put everything on the line with it (no pun intended). They took chances.

They may fall flat on their face, but at least they'll go down swinging (this applies to Bono's vocal lines especially). This is what I've missed with the last two records (which I enjoyed), I missed the adventurism and the feeling of "what will they do next." The album is dense and sonically diverse. It'll take a while to process. I wouldn't read too much into the many snap reviews (both praising and panning), which at this point can only be described as "first impressions." Hell, I can put on Achtung Baby today and hear something new in it...it's always been amazing to me that people can take an album after one listen and attempt to wrap it up in a nice critical bow. Anyway, that's just an aside on the nature of criticism I suppose.

Bottom line: This has me pretty excited.

Another thing: I don't see how they can work the majority of these songs into the live set. They've always tailored their albums to be live vehicles...even choosing which songs to include based on what will be a better song to play live (I'm thinking specifically of cutting "Heartland" in favor of "Trip Through Your Wires" on JT here). It feels like Eno finally won them over on this album...he's always tried to get them to use the studio more as an instrument and not worry too much about the live show when recording. I can really see that in this record...it'll be curious to watch how they try and pull it off.

P(lease)M(e)?

I'm pretty sure I read they were going to release "Crazy Tonight" as a single.

Any thoughts on the title track "No Line On the Horizon" which debuted on Irish Radio a few days ago? The verses (musically) remind me of the guitar/drum breakdown before the big guitar solo on "The Fly" -- definitely feels like they are on to something less like the last two records...i.e. standard/verse-chorus-verse. The first two songs we've heard haven't really had choruses.

68%

68%?! WE LANDED ON THE MOON!!!

"I remain skeptical that PED use is connected to performance in a way that warps the game..."

I mean, I understand what he's trying to say, but seriously? Do you just gloss over the inflated HR totals, totals which have SEVERELY dropped after the ban went into effect? The great thing about baseball, why it's such a fantastic game built on tradition, is the numbers involved. The fact that you could look at the back of two baseball cards from two completely different eras and see how two players stacked up to one another. With the added variable of steroids and PEDs I don't see how you can argue that that comparison is viable anymore.

My list:

1. East of Eden - Steinbeck...epic in every way.

2. Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow...wrote my undergrad thesis on this book, much like the "Things They Carried" in that it addresses the nature of storytelling and fiction.

3. The Fountainhead - Rand...Read this in high school during the rebellious years, reread it years later thinking that I would find the philosophy ridiculous and it was still powerfully resonant.

4. To Kill A Mockingbird - Lee...the great American novel?

5. Timequake - Kurt Vonnegut...Love Vonnegut and this reads like he was throwing it all in, the summation of his life, his philosophies...it reads like he knew it was going to be his last book (novel), which it was.

honorable mentions:

Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury...don't know how many have read this since high school, but the man predicted reality television in 1952...that's insane.

Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood.

Thought last night's episode was hillarious...the part with Pam and the Mounds bars had me in tears.

Client: What's a Narddog?

Andy: This is a Narddog.

Don't think this has ever been done before here and I've always received the best book recommendations from the VC "Now Reading" Thread...so the next logical step is...

Name the Top 5 books you've ever read, any genre, fiction, non-fiction, anything goes...perhaps there will be some clear cut VC favorites? It'll be interesting to see...I'll save my list for now.

To all the readers: Lay it out there...I'm really interested to know what you think, pick up some recommendations, etc. What are they and why do they make your head spin?

Peace.

Red

Thanks for that link A-man...a lot of good stuff there, especially this:

"We're left out of his loop. We know he went into the (story's) past and infiltrated the DHARMA Initiative, possibly to gather information about their work. Could he go into the future as well?"

He's speaking of Farraday there. I had completely forgotten (already) that he had clearly been back at the creation of the DHARMA initiative...now whether he intentionally manipulated time to get himself back there or whether this was during a "leap" back into the past that hasn't happened yet and was the island's doing and not under his control...that is very interesting?

Sidenote: Is this the most complicated show in the history of television?

I would watch a Stoned Olympics...That would be fairly entertaining.

at first i thought hurley was a dumbass for turning himself in, but i dunno. i think ben has something more up his sleeve than just bringing everyone back to the island. im pissed i have to wait a week.

I thought that was the highlight of the first show(s). I'm so tired of people continuing to trust Ben...I mean...seriously?!

That was a great episode - the Desmond episode.

 

Flashes Before Your Eyes

Let us not forget that Des is Farraday's constant as well (if I remember correctly).

We thought the same thing. I have no answer. Time travel storylines seem to always get bogged down in their own logic. Already we see "there are rules" but apparently Desmond is an exception to the rules. Before they established Desmond as special, we were asking how Desmond was able to save Charlie all those times if the "rules" don't allow you to change the "stream." Clearly Desmond learned that time would self-correct eventually and realized that Charlie had to die, but he still changed the stream. Now they are saying he is special somehow. I get frustrated with that stuff.

I understand what you're saying. I think that Desmond is a "special" case because either he turned the key and became "unstuck in time" previously --OR-- lost his memory traveling off the island, cannot account for his time on the island, and therefore poses no paradox by having Farraday see him in the past (if he has no memory does this allow his past to be able to change, type of question). What I could never figure out and what they have never really addressed is whether or not Des regained his memory of the island? With this last episode (his dream, etc.) I believe the writer's answered that he didn't.

The question I asked myself during the episode: "If Locke goes into the hatch, under Mr. Eko's brother's plane and then time-travels into the past (pre-construction) or if Daniel Farraday is invited into Des's hatch and then time-travels forward (post-explosion), is he immediately buried and killed?"

Anyone?

And you know you gotta go

On that train from dublin up to sandy row

Throwing pennies at the bridges down below

And the rain, hail, sleet, and snow

...it's more the context than the actual lines themselves.