Vacant Horizon
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Posts posted by Vacant Horizon
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I have seen almost every incarnation of Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt. Although I strongly prefer the Boquist version, the latest version got after it pretty good. That said, I prefer Jay solo these days (or w/Mark Spencer, Anders and the like). Jay has found a nice stride to my ears and it really comes out when he is solo. I think he struggles with pulling in the larger crowds without "Son Volt". However, I would think it more lucrative so tour solo and play the smaller venues.
Oh, and Brent, no Chaos Streams? I love that tune.
saw him solo in 04 with spencer. stood up the whole time and didn't even care. the show was amazing! i hope he tours solo again at some point. not many artists solo are as compelling as tweed and farrar. maybe neil young. incidently, i went to see mark kozelek a few weeks later at the same venue and it was terrible.
also, i hope jay gets to some more of his new folk stuff a la gob iron. that would make for a good solo outing.
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Funny how Neil's stream of conscious behavior can get in one's head....he probably will present a masterpiece next. Or perhaps just bring eggs to the farmer's market in link volt
i think he's got maybe 1 or 2 masterpieces left. however, i don't think we're gonna get those until neil is well into his 70s. when all he can do is sit, play his acoustic, and sing low...we'll get some classic neil.
interestingly since prairie wind it's basically been every other album being pretty good.
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Worse that Landing on Water? Bad album or not, I've seen upwards of 20 Neil shows and have yet to see a bad one. The dude brings it live.
i actually like the 'songs' on LOW, but the production is terrible. the song drifter would make an awesome acoustic powerhouse in the vein of hitchhiker i think.
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Neil's set from last night.
Mr. Soul / When You Dance, I Can Really Love / Are You Ready For The Country? / Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere / Spirit Road / Barstool Blues / Words / Cinnamon Girl / Mother Earth / Change Your Mind / The Needle And The Damage Done / Lost In Space / The Ways Of Love / Goin' Back / Heart Of Gold / Old Man / Speakin' Out / Tonight's The Night / Albuquerque / World On A String / Hit The Road / Get Behind The Wheel / Just Singing A Song // Love And Only Love
true to form, the dude put's out probably his worst album and then plays a set like this! gonna have to get a copy of this show. lost in space, ways of love, goin' back, change your mind...awesome!
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I get most of my stuff off eMusic. Tracks cost roughly a quarter, making an album cost about $3. The quality is pretty good. Plus, with the lack of record stores here in Fort Worth, I prefer the instant gratification to waiting for albums to ship. It also enables me to try out artists that I wouldn't otherwise be willing to spend 9-12 bucks on for a CD.
personally, my problem with emusic is that i download 30 songs in half an hour on a whim only to delete it all later. my $10 is better spent on a new cd that i really really want. the next one being the new wilco:)
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I still for the life of me don't understand how somebody could spend 9 - 12 bucks on a digital download. the quality is poor and you don't get any of the artwork (meaning booklet). You can spend the same amount on the CD and you'll have all the extras AND you'll be able to transfer the album at any mp3 rate to your itunes library. I transfer my CD's at 320 rate mp3 to my library.
I buy vinyl (on occasion) and i buy CD's...but i'll never spend my cash on itunes or any other mp3 site.
true, downloads are way overpriced. $5 for an album would solve a lot of problems with pirating and bring in so much more revenue. the ease of downloading at itunes or amazon is so great. if albums were only $5, i would never torrent again. seriously!
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as someone who is on a indie label i'd say the CD is dying quick.
labels are going towards wanting to only release albums digitally unless they know they can make their money back for sure.
the average person just doesnt buy cds anymore.
i played spaceland the other night with the great lake swimmers and numerous people said oh i'll buy your album on itunes or emusic. im sure their getting it off a blog/torrent site though.
the people that want it and that want to support you will get the music legitimately. others may get it 'free' but only listen to it a few times only to delete it. consumers finally have the power to review music before they buy it. i used to buy lots of music, only to get totally screwed by how bad it was. now, i 'review' music and buy what a really like and by artists who really have something to say and aren't just some 'other indie band' clogging up the already saturated pipes.
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I'm half-joking. But must I always have to pull out a dictionary or encyclopedia when I read his newest record title?
What IS a Thrid shift grotto slack?
Do people get blues about geographical terrain?
What big event happened in the little-known Ukraine city?
Is he referencing the Oklahoma city or the Indian chief the city was named for? Did you know the word means "things up high"? Interesting.
Anyone want to explain what Amercian Central Dust might mean?
I mean, who the hell knows why Pavement named an album "Brighten the Corners", but I'm OK with it. The Eels named a record "Daisies of the Galaxies". Wierd, sure. But I can get a feeling or images in my head.....I understand the words.
Many of Farrar's titles just make me scratch my head.
his titles make me say, 'fuck yeah!'...so much to sink your teeth into both lyrically and musically. btw, really digging the search, but am glad the new one is gonna be back to basics.
I HATE the backwards tracking stuff "space noise" or whatever he calls it between songs on that album.I mean....WTF IS that anyways? Was that his arty response to YHF or something?
Makes it tough to throw it on the player. Otherwise, its an ok album.
space junk, to be precise. i love that shit!
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nice post rider.
I'm also looking forward to hearing this. Glad the title is revealed ... "American Central Dust"
Now we just need Wilco's new album title!
What exciting new releases await us fans!
thanks for the kudos Wendy. the next few months are gonna be great with son volt and wilco releases. i think the title of the new son volt album is classic farrar.
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He's the poster child (at least recently) for the opposite impact of the whole "artistic freedom" issue between record companies and artists. I think Reprise is so scared to stand up for what they may believe due to past issues with Neil and bad press from the whole Wilco issue. I've yet to listen to this entire album, but after trying to listen to Chrome Dreams II, Living w/War I can only imagine how awful this is. It makes me think less of Neil and I consider myself a pretty hardcore fan. Crap is crap and record companies do not have to appease him just because he is Neil Young. And whoever drew a link between Tonights the Night and its initial critical response vs. Fork In The Road, cmon!
well said. i'm beginning to re-read shakey and i'm convinced neil is an asshole and everyone just gives into him. i'm beginning to think geffen was right in suing neil. reprise needs to do the same. they should have shit on cdII and said put the archives out now or we're dropping you. 'nuff said.
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Another one to add to this year's list...
farrar never disappoints. this sounds like it's going to be another classic. i've been doing a lot of soul searching musically as of late and tweedy and farrar are really all i need. two of the greatest song writers of the last 2 decades.
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it's not BAD, but considering all parties involved I expected it to be insanely great, which it's not
yep.
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I pretty much buy vinyl exclusively. I don
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In the old days a double album or at least an album with a gatefold was good for sorting out the seeds. Cd's ruined that and digital just makes it absolutely impossible.
seeds?
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You can say that again, awful was more along my line of thinking. The production is really terrible as well.
it just feels "soul-less". the organ sounds good though.
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was really looking forward to this, but it is really boring. too bad.
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http://www.glidemagazine.com/articles/54606/neil-young.html
glide magazine review. spot on! i would add old ways and blue notes to their list of shitty neil albums.
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I'm hoping places like Best Buy and Walmart will continue to decline in CD sales and give the independent stores a shot. Appears to be happening already. One of the most enjoyable things to do is walk around in a good indy music store. I know that sucks for the people in small towns that don't have those stores but really, with amazon you do have access to anything anyways. I still buy quite a few CD's.
yeah, nothing better than a good local cd shop with a nice staff. it's impossible for big box stores and big book stores to sell cds anymore. that leaves room for good indie stores and for USED stores. that's where the business is gonna be these days. used cds.
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Just MO:
CDs are certainly dying / soon to be dead.
the Good: MP3s provide a very portable way to transfer music (itunes / ipod). This ability of transfer allows many musicians and bands to distribute their music to a broad audience with very low cost. Distribution channels are now open to the small guy that were never there before. As an independent / semi-professional musician, I find this to be phenomenal.
MP3s are easily shared. Anyone who has been in a cover band and learned a song knows the merit of emailing a mp3 to all the band mates.
No longer is the consumer forced to purchase an entire album for one song.
iPods are awesome. Carrying that 50lb book of CDs in my car was a joke.
the Bad: MP3s sound lousy compared to CDs. Uncompressed audio has far more "texture" and depth than an MP3 does. This could spark a whole different debate, but anyone who has worked with / manipulated (digital) music recordings can vouch that this is a large drawback for the mp3. However, I think this is a moot point, as 99% of music listeners have no idea there is any difference.
Illegally downloading music is sickeningly easy. I see no end in sight for this.
People stop buying CDs. Record stores aren't necessary. Record store employees lose jobs. The flip side of this is that somewhere, someone is saving money by not sinking capital into physical inventory.
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In ten years, I think most disk-based media will be a thing of the past. We've seen it happen with music. Movies will be next...or are almost there. I see blu-ray technology becoming antiquated before being mass-adopted.
Anyway...IMO.
good points. as for record stores, i'm not lamenting the assholes who lose jobs. yes, blueray is really not catching on. at some point, everything will be stored in the 'cloud' with no need for physical media...however, vinyl will never go away and there will still be a market for deluxe sets in the future.
as far as fidelity goes, tests have been done where people cannot tell the difference between lossless and 192kbs. everything we buy now is at least 256kbs which sounds just like a cd. only audiophiles can tell the difference because or their ridiculous audio systems. compression is no big deal any more. not to mention the fact that we've been listening to shitty bootlegs for decades. if you like the song, you'll listen to it no matter what and not care about 'fidelity'.
i do miss getting cds, but i've had to make friends with the fact that it's a real pain in the ass to buy a cd and only like a few songs and have to sell it on ebay or something. the other issue for me is having 30g of music in my hands at one time. it's utterly overwhelming!
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I was one of those people in the crowd, cough up the bucks is freaking awful
after a few listens, i'm having a hard time getting all the way through. i like the music of cough, but he lyrics and the rap is just unlistenable. i love light a candle. just singing a song is okay too as is the other slow one. the rest is really bad.
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I ask this with a little bit of sadness. The recent 20th anniversary of the CD has got me thinking about its rise and fall. Ironic, really. The birth of the CD (digital music) leads directly to its downfall (MP3).
As one born in the 1970s and coming of muxical age in the 1980s, I grew up with cassette tapes (I kinda miss the FFFFfffffffff hiss in the backgrounds
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I'm not sure you and I, both HUGE Neil fans, could disagree more about him. I guess that's what makes Neil Neil.
well, i am so hot and cold with neil. but, i like neil. i like his guitar sound and his voice. so, i just decided to listen to this album that way. on a quick first listen though, it is junk. and, if somebody had put this out as a second album, the would be immediately dropped upon release:)
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i actually like the album. it's quick and actually has two good songs...light a candle being one...still wish Get Around was on there):
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That's what people said when Tonight's the Night came out
But seriously, I don't think this album will age very well. For what it is though it's a good record.
too bad one of his best new songs is not on the album...Get Around...there is a video up on mog.com though. oh well
Son Volt
in Someone Else's Song
Posted
nice post here. i've been hot and cold with jay over the years, but as i said in an earlier post, jay has emerged as one of my top 3. it really did take jay a few years to get son volt back together. okemah and the search are excellent, but different. i loved terroir blues, but hated the tour with canyon. jesus, that band sucked ass. keyboards were terrible and i'm glad that dude left son volt. now he's cheesing up jason isbell's sets. i really want to warm up to stone steel at some point thought.