Re: Car Wheels on a Gravel Road syndrome

I think we have a case of it with the Black Lips. Arabia Mountain is going to end up on numerous lists, but I find 200 Million to be a much, much better album. . . that likely many missed the boat on (though clearly not folks on this board).

I haven't seen Arabia on many pro lists (Uncut, Paste, Q)... It will certainly make mine.
I haven't listened to 200 million. Frankly the name Black Lips offended me sufficiently that I really never listened to there stuff til a stink was made here. I really need to pick it up.

Wow, it never even occurred to me to think Black LIps was an offensive name.

It's not straight up offensive...it just reminds me of the more offensive term "n#$$@r lips"
Idk. It just never sat right with me.

Bon Iver's the one I'm seeing on most every list (coincidental to the Grammy nomination.) To which I gotta ask: If Bon Iver's 2011 is top-of-list material, then what's that make Iron & Wine? Chopped liver?

Concerning the Black Lips' moniker? Black is beautiful, baby.

Although I thought very highly of "Arabia Mountain," the next thing by them that I heard was the copy of "Good, Bad, Not Evil" that I signed out of the library. It was decent ... but the slightly higher silliness quotient left me thinking that there were better things to do with my time than rummage about in their b(l)ack catalogue. They don't strike me as one of those "I-must-own-every-note-they've-ever-recorded" bands. I did the retro-60's-garage-band thing back in the 80s. The local mom-n-pop has practically all of the band's stuff. It isn't going anywhere. All things being equal, I'd rather see a comprehensive Plasticland boxed set.

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On a related note (being generally nonplussed/library offerings): I heard Robert Mitchum's calypso record ("Calypso ... is like so") the other day. It wasn't what I was expecting.

I'd wager that if you heard it for the first time unannounced at a party, you'd NEVER in a million years say "Hey! This singer sounds a bit like Robert Mitchum." He's utterly incognito. I was hoping for something a little more embarrassing and inept. Where's William Shatner when you need him?

Speaking of THAT? I also gave David Bowie's very first LP another spin on a loaner from the library. It's been years since I gave Bowie any time. I know that I'd heard his debut at one time or another back when. If it is at all possible ... I hate it even more now.

What a stone-cold stinker. Not one decent song on the entire thoroughly nauseating TWO-CD set. The bonus-disc track "London Bye Ta-Ta" is the closest candidate and that might have been the worst thing on the "Sound + Vision" boxed set. My memory is hazy.

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"… we join the Bowie show in progress at the dawn of the '70s, when he dropped some of his more theatrical Anthony Newley affectations and got down to rock'n'roll cases."

"Þæs ofereode, þisses swa mæg."

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Correct me if I'm mistaken, but it seems to me that with "The Laughing Gnome," Bowie distinctly and single-handedly limned the heinous and misguided outlines of …



"The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins."

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Now I want to hear Nimoy doing karaoke to Tin Machine. Sorta.

"Now I want to hear Nimoy doing karaoke to Tin Machine. Sorta."

Awesome.

Maybe they were just ahead of the curve with the name: [main.stylelist.com]

Arabia Mountain is good, but those guys have yet to really nail it in the studio, IMHO...not sure if it's possible, considering how insane they are.

The love that Bon Iver album's been getting is kinda freaky to me. It's very deliberate and been put together in an exacting, painstaking manner that lends itself well to headphone listening, but if there's a there there, it's eluded me.

I have to say I actively dislike that Bon Iver album. I liked his first acoustic record. But this one has such horrible new-agey orchestration accompanying that extremely artificial falsetto, I need to turn it off within 10 seconds. CD has incredible packaging though.

Arabia Mountain made my Top Ten list for 2011. Will probably find time in January to backtrack into their earlier stuff. The name doesn't offend me. (Dogs have black lips, and I love dogs.)

> Speaking of THAT? I also gave David Bowie's very first LP another spin on a loaner from the library. It's been years since I gave Bowie any time. I know that I'd heard his debut at one time or another back when. If it is at all possible ... I hate it even more now.

Yeah, but Davey does look fetching in his pixie do.

Arabia Mountain is probably my fave album of 2011 if I'm just going by the record I actually played the most - I mean that thing was non-stop for me during the Summer (great Summer record that is, great record to drive to also).

Their previous albums never did much for me but I always thought they had flashes of terrific stuff here and there. Good Bad, Not Evil seemed like where they were going to peak for me - but they came up with their best batch of songs and the production to go along with it this time.

200 Million is their most adventurous record though - I like that one too but more for its best moments rather than the whole thing. They were pushing themselves on that one........