Favorite albums that friends just wouldn't understand. . .

I don't have the time or the inclination to explain or justify the following; I'd rather just enjoy them on my own:

The Queers "Live in West Hollywood"
Denim "Back in Denim"
Faust "Faust"



Post Edited (03-02-07 00:25)

eesh....
My friend's wives unplugged their stereos when they got married. They now think everything is harsh and/or too weird.

real:

Nina Hagen lost me a girlfriend; she insisted that Nena and Nina Hagen were the same person; it was pre-internet and just as bad as the similar argument where I tried to defend, unsuccessfully, that Redbone and Leon Redbone were not one and the same to a different girlfriend.

Husker Du ("why don't you just scratch the needle back and forth; it would sound the same")

Jesus Mary Chain (" your stereo's broken")

Cure ("I've never heard someone moan in such a whiny way. he should just kill himself and get it over with")

Minutemen ("That's just some asshole with a guitar.")

Mountain Goats ("I like their guitarist but they need a new singer" )

Pixies ("That guy sounds like he's retarded or something. Can't he play normal music?")

REM (2nd LP "You have a nice home but weird taste in music")

Replacements, Let it Be ("Is this serious, for real?")

Siouxsie & Banshees ("If everyone listened to this the world would turn psychotic"; "The singer's OK but she needs a new band cause you can't hear the guitar")

Sleater-Kinney ("This sounds like a bad Heart cover band")

Bad Religion ("They sound like a junior high band covering the Ramones but with stupid lyrics and way too fast")

Stone Roses ("This is the most derivative band ever. This kind of music was done much better in the 70s")

Thermals ("I'm glad I was around in the 80s. I feel sorry for kids today. Did these guys completely miss the entire U2 revolution?")

Ween ("You're teasing me. This is Adam Sandler, right??")

MBV ("Itn't your stereo speeding up and slowing down?"; "It's like what it's like to be seasick"; "It's all woobly. I think you bought a bad copy" ; "I don't think they recorded this right")



Post Edited (09-18-12 15:48)

Damn, Paganizer, that's a tough crowd of friends you've got!

Even my deadhead friends can appreciate/understand something like the Minutemen or Husker Du, even if they wouldn't "enjoy" it, and even my most hardcore punk friend has been to see the Dead and will admit to liking "Anthem of the Sun".

I suppose I'd get some funny looks if I put something like Fred Frith's "Guitar Solos" on at a party, but truth be told, I hardly ever listen to that sort of thing myself anymore.

And for the record, I saw Echo & the Bunnymen back in 1984, and they were AWFUL.

This reminds me of the time when I attended Emerson College in the early 80s & I got a friend a copy of the Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society for her birthday. One day I was in her dorm room listening to it when her best friend came in. She listened for a moment and then said, "It sounds like the Beatles. I hate it." The last I heard, she was working at a "classic rock" station.

diskojoe wrote:

> She listened for a moment and then said, "It sounds like
> the Beatles. I hate it." The last I heard, she was working at a
> "classic rock" station.

That sounds perfect for her, since most Klassik Rawk[tm] stations never play the Kinks and almost never play the Beatles.

Yeah, it's one of the great mysteries of the world why in every American city Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" must come across the airwaves several times a day. The classic-rock format is compelling. Meatloaf="classic" The Kinks=not "classic."

erikalbany wrote:

> Yeah, it's one of the great mysteries of the world why in every
> American city Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" must come across the
> airwaves several times a day. The classic-rock format is
> compelling. Meatloaf="classic" The Kinks=not "classic."

Unfortunately, that attitude is not unique to "Classic[sic] Rock" stations. WFNX Boston (one of the first "alternative rock" stations in the country) recently told a friend of mine that there was no point in requesting Graham Parker songs since they would never play him. They still play Elvis, I'm pretty sure they still play Joe, but Graham is apparently now an angry young persona non grata.

But let some lame flavor-of-the-month record a note-for-note cover of a Scorpions song, they're all over it.

A good point. We have an independent alternative station here (WEQX Vermont) that plays whatever it wants to from whatever era. . . and I'm thankful for that. But that's the benefit of an independent, which don't exist much out there anymore. The cookie-cutter playlists are hard to stomach. Any shout-outs to good independent alternative stations out there (non-college)?


I'm listening to the brand new Graham Parker, "Don't Tell Columbus," and while I have a lot of respect for the songcraft throughout, I consider it diminishing returns for our music-listening culture when Graham Parker ends up sounding like John Hiatt. So now we have two Hiatts and no Parker. He's really gone down the Americana path. . .

most of my friends don't like ANY music unless they heard it on the radio when they were in high school, so i lie about everything. listening to dino jr, i tell em it's neil. playing sloan, i say it's the who. raunch hands? no, that's the stones! the time flys? CHEAP FCC'ING TRICK, baby! you kids should try it, i rarely get any complaints.

yeah and while we're on it fuck my coworkers too.
I had to drive my subordinates 4 hours in a van to a conference in Miami and I brought 5 cds I had at my desk:
"First Step" Small Faces
"Exiles on..." Stones
"Singles 45 and...." Squeeze
"rain Dogs" Tom Waits
"THe Weirdness" Stooges
with each Cd getting heckled as I played it,("What is this crap? The Greatful Dead?" for The Small Faces, "This music is really moving, moving my bowels" for the Stones, an out burst of laughter for Squeeze, "Turn this pirate shit off", and "Arrrrrrrrr matey" for Waits). What was surprising was that, except for the Stooges,(which I ended up playing full blast the entire way there and back after that) that stuff is pretty tame and almost mainstream.

That's funny that you mention 'FNX not playing Graham Parker. I was reading on a website that he contributes to that he was saying that Boston was once one of his stongholds, but has now become more trend of the week & he can't find a place to play there anymore. If radio stations still play Elvis C & Joe Jackson they should also play Graham Parker

>
> Sonic Youth (people supposedly sneer at them for being popular;
> where are all these fans? I don't anybody else that likes them
> and they certainly never got airplay)
>

"kool thing" got a ton of play here in the midwest. "teenage riot" and "dirty boots" got some, too...

The new Stooges just sounds like a new Iggy (update of Skull Ring) with a heavier backing band; one that really likes to use open E. That's not to say I haven't been enjoying it. I love Watt's work, for one thing.

---

Better than madis co-workers....
But I've never had anyone last through Exile on a car trip, either. If it's not the Stone's top 10 hits, they can't hang.
This includes a roommate who (before tape insertion) claimed she was a Stones fan.

---

On the J & MC thang, 4 separate freaking times somebody has thought the stereo was broken!

1. Car stereo. A buddy spends several miles fiddling with the knobs trying to "fix" the broken sound
EDITops, just remembered this incident involved Social Distortion's Mommy's Little Monster
2. Dinner party. An old friend's new wife says "He what's wrong with the stereo?" followed by "It's not supposed to sound like that is it?" followed by "Are you sure you're stereo's not broken?" "Then why are they playing that way?". The friend, cowed by his wife to this day (the type that conformed to spousal tastes and threw out the Husker), looked at his shoes.
3. A date arrives, listens for a moment and says "Would you agree it's time to fix your stereo?"
4. We were outside kicking sack. A non-athletic friend stays inside and drops the needle on the stereo, turns volume up for our pleasure outside then comes outside claiming "I swear all I did was put the needle down. The stereo must have been already broken. I swear I didn't do it!"

---

The Redbone argument came up again recently.
The Nina argument I've had 3 freaking times!

---

Classic Rock somehow means "Rock that appealed to lowbrows in its day and is now guaranteed not to offend the average listener". Problem is, why not play the true classics? Wouldn't the same audience accept it for the same reason: because it's what you say is "classic rock"?
Is it because the programmers have zero taste?
Is it because Seger et al are cheaper to purchase rights from?

There's no empirical evidence that Seger/Boston/Eagles are the tried-and-true only tracks that fit the bill.

The current buy-up of all American stations is a sad thang but terrestrial radio's dead anyway. Sat radio will eventually be free.

---

Satch - that's the greatest recommend I've had so far this year. Fun will ensue.
I need help, though.
Who do I tell them the new Stooges is?
How do I get away with Rather Ripped?



Post Edited (09-18-12 15:43)

> There's no empirical evidence that Seger/Boston/Eagles
> are the tried-and-true only tracks that fit the bill. When I
> checked classic rock the other day, they were still
> playing "We Built this City"!

Who are the people whose day gets better when they hear "We Built This City" on the radio, that's what I want to know. I mean, if people only want to hear the Stones/Zeppelin/Boston/Eagles, whatever, I can understand that. I can't EMPATHIZE with it, but I can understand it intellectually: most people don't want to listen to anything but the music they listened to as teens. People like us who continually seek out new music -- and who don't find the younger generation's musical choices scary -- are relatively rare.

But when you get to the real dross -- the Starship, the Bad Company, the Foreigner -- who are the people who still get excited about that shit thirty years later? Even when I was in high school, I don't remember ANYONE -- even the people who listened to nothing but Stones/Zeppelin/Boston/Eagles -- EVER getting excited about Starship or Foreigner or Bad Company.

Here's the quintessential "Clazzic Wrawk" moment:

"And now here's a forgotten classic by The Who!"

"Great", thinks I, "What somewhat obscure album track are they going to pull out to fill out the inevitable three-fer with 'Squeeze Box' and 'Pinball Wizard'"?

Turns out the "forgotten" obscurity they were touting was "Slip Kid". Wow. Way to find the deep cuts, guys.

> 4. We were outside kicking sack. A non-athletic friend stays
> inside...



rather than having one's sack kicked, indoor non-athleticism would seem the sensible route.


"i'm not sure why the cassette has 'the jesus and mary chain' written on it, it's actually a bread bootleg..."

> Who do I tell them the new Stooges is?


twisted sister



> How do I get away with Rather Ripped?


unfortunately, you can't. you have to at least try to meet them halfway-ish...hehe

If my wife heard my Blowfly records she would probably divorce me.

Ditto for Cheap Trick's "Daddy should have stayed in school" which is one of my favorite Trick songs really.

I had a friend at University who only ever listened to three albums: Eagles Greatest Hits, Stones Hot Rocks and U2's Rattle and Hum. We went on a road trip to Santa Barbara and since I was driving I got to control the music. I forced him to listed to "Exile on Main St" and "Let it Be" the whole way there and back. We really weren't friends anymore after that.

go figure...

How come when your driving and you choose the music, and try to pick something that is enlightening but still accessible to everyone in the car, you get shot down and told not force your own music tastes on everybody, just because they never heard the name of the band before, and then they tell you that you have to enjoy all music, and respect other people's taste's, and play something they all enjoy, what the fuck do we end up listening to . . . . . . . . . The Best of The Doors

some of my favourite comments

Television - "he should learn to play guitar better" and "one guitars sound keeps getting in the way of the other, its too irritating"

Suicide - (on hearing frankie teardrop) "i hope he got arrested after he killed those people or maybe for that awful song"

MBV - "this is shit it sounds like they're playing underwater"

Scritti Politti - "it sounds like a whiter version of michael jackson"

Roxy Music (listening to for your pleasure) "whats with the saxophone, its sounds crap, put on Avalon its their best"

On a side note i knew it was always time to leave the party, when either these three songs were played for the second time

Jack and Diane - Mellencamp
Summer of 69' - Bryan Adams
Copperhead Road - Steve Earle

Summer of '69? them's fighting words to this Adams weenie...

i just gotta stop talking to the guy...every time i've interviewed him he's made me like him less and less...

explaining summer of '69 (it's a sex thing...D'OH!) was bad enough, but when i suggested that taking pictures of beautiful women (he's a photog on the side, don't you know) was a good way to meet them, he assured me in all seriousness that he did not have any problems meeting women. jeez, dude, i was kidding!!!

yeah, I see what you mean...

I like Bee Wry-un too, but I must admit, your interviews with Vivian Stanshall and/or Pete Townshend were much better reads.

PS
By the way Ira, what is your most memorable interview, and howze come?



Post Edited (03-05-07 21:28)

i don't have a ready answer for your question steve, but here's a list of some people i've gotten a big kick out of interviewing more for who they were than who I wanted them to be; in other words, the ones who were still heroic to me afterwards:

Ian McCulloch
Iggy Pop
They Might Be Giants
Alex Harvey
Sparks
Holly Beth Vincent
Pete Townshend
Ray Davies
Ice Cube
Spiral Stairs
David Bowie
Elvis Costello
Keith Richards

i'm sure i'm forgetting tons

i "interviewed" al "lady" friom ghana who SWORE her mama needed cash for the operation

does this count?

michael baker...social worker.

> michael baker...social disease worker.


that's better...

>
> Roxy Music (listening to for your pleasure) "whats with the
> saxophone, its sounds crap, put on Avalon its their best"
>


i have nothing against for your pleasure, but avalon IS their best.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is likely the first Blowfly* reference on the TP board.

This guy, now in his 60s, recently released "Punk Rock Party" which includes covers of:
"Should I Stay Or Should I Go" retitled "Should I Fuck this Big Fat Ho"
"TV Party" as "V.D. Party"
"Holiday in Cambodia" = "R. Kelly in Cambodia"
"I Wanna Be Your Dog" = "I Wanna Fuck Your Dog"
"I Wanna Be Sedated" = "I Wanna Be Fellated"

He predates Weird Al by a decade and released "Rap Dirty" in 1965!

*probably not an office-safe click, but then, neither was this post
---------
wait, a whiter version of michael jackson?
wouldn't that be "Thriller"?



Post Edited (03-05-07 19:58)

I have a soft rock side -- Fleetwood Mac, Todd Rundgren, Hall and Oates - that I keep pretty quiet. Daniel Johnston is a tough sell for a lot of people, as are The Meatmen in a completely different way. My love of Arto Lindsay is a private obsession, of necessity.

In general I find that when you are talking with girls/women who came to music through 80's synth pop, you kind of have to conceal your love for 70's guitar rock and 80's thrash. It's only when your wife goes to visit her parents, that you can drink a 6 pack and crank up Powerage and Kill Em All.

Great advice, nose
This I do, often.
Even my neighbors have gotten hip (used to) to my sporadic speaker shredding when Im home alone, and I thank them.
But they are a very observant lot, and have noticed the instant reduction in volume the moment the missus pulls in the drive.
Somehow I've lost all hard earned cred by playing Older (Gang Green) and Made to be Broken on ten.
Some day I'll show em all who's the boss!



Post Edited (03-05-07 22:02)

thanks for sharing some of your finest with us ira.
I am now on a quest, a mission, to find out more about one Mr Alex Harvey.
A man, for some reason, whose name keeps regularly popping up on this site. Thus begins a new adventure.
Ain't life grand!