What the hell's music coming to?

[anonymous]

Between bad remakes of great songs and rediculously loud CD's...is there anything to look forward to in music?

*Why is it so many crappy bands feel compelled to screw up a perfectly great song by putting there signature on it? Is this EGO, or are they running out of their own crappy ideas and still need to to make a record?

*Is it me or is Matchbox 20 all production and no balls? I'm guessing something's cooking, but they left the bathroom door open.

*I USED TO LOOK FORWARD TO THE LATEST FROM MY FAVORITES, BUT IT SEEMS THEY WOULD RATHER I SPEND MY MONEY ON THEIR PREDECESSORS. WOULD I BUY A BOOK PRINTED IN ALL CAPS? NO. SO, WHY WOULD I BUY THE SONIC EQUIVALENT?

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to drinking beer and listening to old records.

Mitchell

 

[BarefootStudios]

I here ya. By the way,I Am drinking beer and listing to old records.Barefoot

 

[GentleG]

'I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to drinking beer and listening to old records.'

yeah, I know.

Problem is, I like electronic music.....

So once in a while I just have to listen to 'Pink Floyd - Animals' (on a serious repeat) for a long time and have a tranquilizer beside me.

A bit related:

I even like Techno once in a while when I want to go out. Problem is the clubs play it louder then their PA's can handle (and my ears

 

[audiowkstation]

Amen!

To really hear top flight productions these days, look at "old Mans music" or "smooth jazz" (not kenny G)

Even Rick Derringer has joined the club as well as many "has beens"

This genre is putting out the "super fidelity" these days.

Is it a shame? Does the genre suck?

Go get that Derringer album. Wow, sounds killer!

 

[Pez]

No use in us all whining about it. Like they say if you ain't part of the solution you're part of the problem. If someone wants you to squash the crap out of a song just tell em no. Lose the sale and keep the integrity. I'd rather sit on a stump eating beans listening to a great mix then a comfy leather sofa listening to a bad one. I am not in the least bit worried about the state of music today. I stopped seeking out great music from the corporate music business long ago. Good music is out there. People just tend to look in the wrong places.

 

[byacey]

Generally, the words "educate" and "DJ" in the same sentence are somewhat of an oxymoron.
To be fair, I am sure that there are some DJs out there somewhere that understand and promote good sound; most of the ones I have seen are kids that think they know it all because they own a loud stereo at home - this is their credentials.

Personally I look towards ethnic music of acoustic origin. IMHO electronic sounds no matter how good cannot replace the beauty and subtle nuances and timbre that acoustic instruments have. In my area there seems to be a revival of interest in Roots type music, and that's just fine for my ears.
Bill Y.

 

[Lue]

I'm new around here but I have some thoughts about music. I hate it when the singer can't sing and they try to hide it with 45 effects and excuses of all kinds. Why? is there nothing more damaging to the ear then a perfect recording with bad vocals on it? I hate it and it seems to me that we have way too many now a days. Is it the producers that insist on recording them anyway, even if they suck? I know its the job and all but if it turns out bad, who is blamed?
thinking... :

 

[sdevino]

Originally posted by John Grimm (Vintage Studios):
No use in us all whining about it. Like they say if you ain't part of the solution you're part of the problem. If someone wants you to squash the crap out of a song just tell em no. Lose the sale and keep the integrity. I'd rather sit on a stump eating beans listening to a great mix then a comfy leather sofa listening to a bad one.

Yeah, if I owned a restaurant and someone wanted ketchup on their eggs I would toss em out on their ear. Everyone knows salsa tastes better on eggs.

Wow what a bunch of old men. I listened to a classic rock station on the way back from NYC today. There were plenty of "Fake" pop stars, crappy sounding albums and over produced crap (remember ELO?), back in the 70's when I was a kid.

There is good stuff. Just as much as there ever was. You have to go find it, just like we did in the 60's, 70's and 80's.

Steve

 

[realdynamix]

Originally posted by sdevino:
There were plenty of "Fake" pop stars, crappy sounding albums and over produced crap (remember ELO?), back in the 70's when I was a kid.

Hey, we did the best we could, let's not get personal, LOL :
--Rick

 

[Kurt Foster]

Steve said;

There is good stuff. Just as much as there ever was.

What? Where? ... and I like ELO... Jeff Lynn rocks.. Fats

 

[sdevino]

Its all a matter of taste.

Pink floyd, Chick Corea, Focus, the pre pop Blue Oyster Cult, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Gentle Giant, Al diMeola, and many others were not mainstream radio play in the 70s. Especially if you lived outside of the NYC or LA markets.

I don't know about you guys but we used to spend many weekend nights with our musician buddies playing obscure album cuts for each other because we coiuldn't stand what was on the radio.

As far as today goes you had better ask a teen or someone in their early 20s because the opinins of us 40+ year olds absolutely does not count anymore than it did when we were kids and our parents "knew" that Perry Como was a much more capable proven musician than the beatles or the stones would ever be. And that someday we would grow up realize they were correct (I know I am still waiting to grow up).

So if I ask my very talented muscian teenagers they would say:

- Dave Matthews (amazing live performer), U2, Foo Fighters, Linkin Park (sp?) (great arrangements), Christina Agulara (sp?)(you might not like her presentation but she is a talented singer)(dirty old men can reverse the last statement), and so on.

Just like it was OK for you to like ELO despite the overuse of overdub, maximum use of reverb and amzingly compressed sound, it is OK for kids to like these guys and its too bad for us old farts if we think everyone should sound like what we listened to.

Come on guys we are getting old and starting to sound like our parents.

 

[Beau Landry]

Hey. I'm a young guy who likes ELO and hates most modern radio music. The thing with ELO is that the sound is squashed for artistic reasons (and it never seems too loud to me, unlike the new radio sound). They (ELO) were painting with sound and pleasing themselves and had some vision. Most of the classic rock of the seventies seems this way to me and I enjoy the sound. It's weird to try and listen to a Beck (not Jeff Beck) record and be unable to get into it simply because it's TOO ^#$%ing LOUD! He is a great artist and it's a shame his last few records have gotten murdered. Right now I am drinking beer and listening to Guided By Voices' "alien lanes" and loving it. I will probably play it at least twice. However, if I put on their latest record I won't even get all the way through it! For those of you unfamiliar with this band, they are the pioneers of "lo-fi". The record I am listening to was recorded on 4-track cassette and sounds like it. The songs are brilliant and the production reveals it's glorious nuance's more and more again with each listen. The new album also has brilliant songs but I can only enjoy it while listening to it on my ^#$%ing alarm clock! You can't turn it up in the car! You can't turn it up at home!

Anyway, the new Bowie album sounds close to new-greatness at least. But he's a ^#$%ing dinasour! Just kidding. If anybody would like to check out my stuff, you can go to <www.beaulandry.com> ..... I've got three records on there that I recorded on my own, playing all of the instruments and singing all of the voices. MP3's abound on the site but have these little voice-overs (not my idea) that appear in small portions of the tunes to prevent "theft". But hey, ^#$% it. If youv'e got ten dollars left on your credit-card, you can own a beautiful and "not-too-loud" rock record.
Beau Landry
p.s. pretty good plug, eh?

 

[Doc@BeefyTreats.com]

Current artists doing quality work:

-Built To Spill (top notch guitar rock, check "Keep It Like a Secret" Warner).

-Wilco (formerly rootsy, now a more experimental sound).

-Sleater Kinney (three rockin' ladies with more melodic energy than any ten other bands).

-Beck (Mutations, Sea Change).

-Modest Mouse (guitar rock, "Lonesome, Crowded West" is early and raw and fantastic, "Moon, Antarctica" is moe polished).

-Flaming Lips (Psychadelic, "Soft Bulletin").

-Radiohead.

-also G. Love and Special Sauce, Critters Buggin', CAt Power, Rheostatics, Hot-Hot Heat, Lauren Hill...

Music isn't dead. Doc

 

[Pez]

"Yeah, if I owned a restaurant and someone wanted ketchup on their eggs I would toss em out on their ear. Everyone knows salsa tastes better on eggs."

Actually, if you go into some of the great restaurants you will find an attitude like this from some of the great chefs. It's because they don't care if you return or not as they have plenty of customers who appreciate the difference between good cusine and bad. Being opinionated is not necessarily bad for business. :tu: It's an entirely different business ethic and those that "get it" can become very loyal customers.

Yeah, I'm with Doc on this one. Wilco, Beck, and Radiohead are great. Lauren Hill has some of the most intellegent lyrics out there and hey Nora Jones won the grammy's so all can't be bad except it'll probably ruin her career. I also find tons of talent in the Oldtime and Bluegrass communities. I especially like the bands that aren't afraid to stretch the boundaries a little. Gee... I thought I was the only person in the world that listens to Cat Power. With your good taste I'll have to be sure to check out some of the other folks you mentioned Doc. Have you ever heard of One AM Radio or Wind up Bird or old-time stuff like Doc Boggs?

 

[Alécio Costa - Brazil]

hey, I am not so old and really enjoyed Elo, Bread, Sweet, BTO, Nazareth, Yes.
At the age of 6 Nazareth and Bread were my toys down here in Brazil. Of course, there was ABBA, Suzy Quatro, Left Side, Rod Stewart doing plenty success on here.

If ya want weird sound, listen to Boston´s Walk On. very strange Mix.

 

[Doc@BeefyTreats.com]

John, Will check out some of the bands you mentioned. Also liking Sigur Rose, Gomez, Anni DeFranco, and my favorite album purchased last year...

SHUGGIE OTIS! It is a rerelease from the 70s but man is it great. Doc

 

[Beau Landry]

Right on Alecio!
Beau.

 

[Doc@BeefyTreats.com]

You know, I think that there is a lack of good critical scrutiny and writing about music these days. I bet that Lester Bangs (highest recommendation on his book Psychotic REations and Carberator Dung- best writing about music ever, all seventies stuff including Lou Reed and the Clash) would have kicked a lot of people's asses in the last ten years, people who needed a good ass-kicking. Haven't yet read Nick Hornby's new book of reviews, will do so- wish he had a regular column somewhere. Anybody know any good music critics these days? Doc

 

[sign]

It was an itsie bitsie teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini, that she wore for the first time today.

Yeah.....those were the days!!