Random Music Talk CXXX: The AFL Finally Gets Revenge on Meat Loaf

[Hewson]

Caught Wolfgang Van Halen's performance at the Taylor Hawkins tribute. Inspired me to buy his debut album Mammoth. I don't know why it took me so long. Wolfie is an amazing musician. I would have to think that Hewson has this one being the VH fan that he is.

Have it. Love it. Best album of 2021 by a longshot. Saw him live in March, he and his band were awesome.

 

[mikal]

Have it. Love it. Best album of 2021 by a longshot. Saw him live in March, he and his band were awesome.

Now we're talking. Count me in as a fan as well. Hoping to catch him live at some point.

 

[MrPryck2U]

Have it. Love it. Best album of 2021 by a longshot. Saw him live in March, he and his band were awesome.

The album is loud too. You don't have to raise the volume too much. Sure, you can hear EVH in his guitar playing, but Wolfie definitely has his own style. For anyone saying Rock is dead, it lives on with him.

 

[cobl04]

Caught a few clips from the show (nearly six hours!), pretty special.

 

[lazarus]

Misty just dropped a live album from his Los Angeles show that happened just a few weeks ago, performed at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, which one of his songs was famously named after. Full band plus string section. Fairly even selection from all the albums save for Pure Comedy (which is probably fine with most people here).

$10 for 21 tracks is a pretty good deal.

Live at Hollywood Forever Cemetery - Los Angeles, CA 8​/​19​/​2022


You can sample one of the songs on there and it sounds great.

 

[iron yuppie]

There's apparently a 4 LP box set of Revolver coming soon. Looking at the rumored tracklist, it makes me wonder whether anyone actually sits and listens to 5 alternate versions in a row of "Got to Get You Into My Life" on vinyl. Given the terrible environmental impact of vinyl pressing, these super deluxe LP packages really should stop being a thing.

 

[mikal]

The album is loud too. You don't have to raise the volume too much. Sure, you can hear EVH in his guitar playing, but Wolfie definitely has his own style. For anyone saying Rock is dead, it lives on with him.

And I'd say Rock isn't anywhere near dead. There is so much good stuff out there. I know it's not anywhere near the levels of the 60's-90's, but when you dive in, there is so much great rock music. The Metal scene specifically is really killing it right now.

 

[phanan]

Let’s just say it doesn’t get the attention it deserves anymore.

 

[lazarus]

There's apparently a 4 LP box set of Revolver coming soon. Looking at the rumored tracklist, it makes me wonder whether anyone actually sits and listens to 5 alternate versions in a row of "Got to Get You Into My Life" on vinyl. Given the terrible environmental impact of vinyl pressing, these super deluxe LP packages really should stop being a thing.

Vinyl boxed sets are a joke, but I think the format has been overhyped post-2010 or so to begin with.

Loads of outtakes seems much more suited to CD sets; I don't think the deluxe reissue thing is intrinsically problematic.

Looking forward to getting the Revolver set on disc.

 

[lazarus]

ALLONS-FUCKING-Y

Phoenix Announce New Album Alpha Zulu, Share New Song With Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig




I'd absolutely love to see these two bands tour together.

 

[cobl04]

That's a cool song.

 

[DaveC]

 

[Hewson]

^Tying that back into the earlier discussion of Wolfgang Van Halen, the night I saw Mammoth WVH last March was the day after Taylor passed, so they worked this up for the show:

 

[bono_212]

Yo Laz, are you seeing Pavement tonight, or have any interest to? My boss has an extra ticket that at this point he's just trying to give away to someone.

 

[Hewson]

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Good album

 

[lazarus]

Yo Laz, are you seeing Pavement tonight, or have any interest to? My boss has an extra ticket that at this point he's just trying to give away to someone.

Thanks for thinking of me, but I'm out of the country at the moment!

I suspect this reunion tour will be better than the last one, which didn't do too much for me. But I have no regrets, I got more than my fair share in the 90s.

 

[bono_212]

All good! Hope the travels are treating you well.

Travis is going on Saturday, so hopefully he can give you some good reactions.

 

[cobl04]

This review of a new Afghan Whigs album is really lovely, and has me wanting to listen to it: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/the-afghan-whigs-how-do-you-burn/

I only know of them because one of you (I'm 90% sure it was LJT) included John the Baptist on a DI playlist, and I love that song. It's horny as lol, but pulls it off well. I also recall checking them out at Coachella in 2014 but it was a pretty sparse crowd and I didn't know any of the songs.

 

[LemonMelon]

Didn't even know Afghan Whigs were dropping. Funny that they're releasing an album on the same day as Built to Spill; I saw them live together a few years ago.

Also looking forward to new albums from Preoccupations and The Garden today. Next week is more stacked but this one looks solid.

 

[lazarus]

This review of a new Afghan Whigs album is really lovely, and has me wanting to listen to it: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/the-afghan-whigs-how-do-you-burn/

I only know of them because one of you (I'm 90% sure it was LJT) included John the Baptist on a DI playlist, and I love that song. It's horny as lol, but pulls it off well. I also recall checking them out at Coachella in 2014 but it was a pretty sparse crowd and I didn't know any of the songs.

Pretty sure I had a Whigs track on one of mine, and then a Twilight Singers track on another. Huge, huge fan here.

I really would dissuade you from pulling a Cobbler starting with a late-period album though; while the recent LPs have all been enjoyable to one extent or another, the absence of the band's original guitarist Rick McCollum results in a major downgrade between the classic 90s run and the albums post-"reunion" (only Dulli and bassist John Curley returned).

John The Baptist is from their last pre-breakup album 1965, and it has a great mixture of rock and r&b, recorded in New Orleans at Daniel Lanois's studio (and they cheekily named the instrumental closing track after him). The song Citi Soleil is one of the best Rolling Stones songs you've never heard, a bastard cousin of Gimme Shelter. It's probably their poppiest, most accessible.

There's also their breakthrough Gentlemen, which is an epic, self-flagellating tour through the wreckage of Dulli's romantic/sex life that is a masterpiece with a lot of great stuff, but might be too of its time for a new listener. The title track was a staple of college radio in 1993 and is pretty representative. There's also a great duet with vocalist Marcy Mays on My Curse.

For my money, the band's greatest masterpiece is 1996's Black Love, which is a film noir/crime fiction-inspired, loose concept album soaked in Los Angeles atmosphere, bringing in influences as disparate as Prince's Purple Rain (the song), Stevie Wonder's Superstition, The Who at their most anthemic, as well as their own brand of alternative rock with McCallum's signature slide guitar work. And the opening and closing tracks are two of the best album bookends I've ever heard.

Here's a ranked look at their catalog up through Do To The Beast, the first comeback album, that's well-observed, and the placements aren't too far off what I would do myself (I'd have 1965 higher, personally):

The Afghan Whigs Albums From Worst To Best

Happy hunting!

 

[namkcuR]

Hey guys - two records from this year you might wanna check out if you haven't already:

Lykke Li put out a new album back in May; I only just realized it a week ago and, looking back through this thread, I see no one has mentioned it, which is somewhat surprising since she used to be a darling here. I didn't love her last one, but this one is intriguing, a return to her more stripped-back norm. I guess she's been going through some stuff in her personal life, so she's kind of baring her soul on this short, tight, hypnotic, sparse piece that clocks in 33.5 minutes. "Carousel", "You Don't Go Away", and "Over" are highlights for me.

3rd Secret is a grunge supergroup comprised of Soundgarden's Kim Thayil on guitar, Nirvana's Krist Novoselic on bass, and Soundgarden/Pearl Jam's Matt Cameron on drums, along two younger female vocalists, Jillian Raye and Jennifer Johnson, that have put out a self-titled record. About half of the eleven-track album is rock songs evoking the prettier side of the grunge movement, think mellower Soundgarden/Alice In Chains(even though the latter band doesn't have any representatives in the group). The other half is of a more folksy, acoustic variety, some of which evoke 1960s/early 70s folk, some of which evoke(to me, anyway) acoustic Jar Of Flies-flavored Alice In Chains. Worth the listen if you're a fan of grunge and/or hippie-flavored folk music.

 

[LemonMelon]

Saw Pavement tonight, as Ashley mentioned:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/pavement/2022/balboa-theatre-san-diego-ca-1bb0fd50.html

Wowee Zowee and Terror Twilight should never, ever get the same level of representation in a setlist, but otherwise I can't complain. Wonderful show. Crowd was so loud I couldn't even hear the band introductions.

 

[LemonMelon]

Saw Pavement tonight, as Ashley mentioned:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/pavement/2022/balboa-theatre-san-diego-ca-1bb0fd50.html

Wowee Zowee and Terror Twilight should never, ever get the same level of representation in a setlist, but otherwise I can't complain. Wonderful show. Crowd was so loud I couldn't even hear the band introductions.

N/m posted the wrong setlist:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/pavement/2022/orpheum-theatre-los-angeles-ca-4bb0e38e.html

There were a lot of highlights, but discovering Frontwards might have been the big one for me. I'd heard it before but didn't really know it until tonight. What an incredible song.

 

[gump]

Frontwards is one of my favorite Pavement tracks. So glad they are playing it live. I cope they are still playing it when they get to NYC.

Los Campesinos! have a nice cover by the way, which they released in the Sticking Fingers Into Sockets EP.

Frontwards -> Stereo -> Range Life is a pretty amazing way to close the main set, at least for a casual fan like me.

 

[lazarus]

N/m posted the wrong setlist:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/pavement/2022/orpheum-theatre-los-angeles-ca-4bb0e38e.html

There were a lot of highlights, but discovering Frontwards might have been the big one for me. I'd heard it before but didn't really know it until tonight. What an incredible song.

Half the setlist being from the first two albums is a nope from me, as previously stated. The San Diego one you accidentally posted got a killer set though.

 

[LemonMelon]

Half the setlist being from the first two albums is a nope from me, as previously stated. The San Diego one you accidentally posted got a killer set though.

They played just as many songs from Brighten the Corners and Terror Twilight as they did from Slanted and Enchanted and Crooked Rain. 10 songs post-Wowee Zowee is pretty good if that's what you're into.

I'm not a huge fan of the later stuff but what they chose from it was really strong.

 

[david]

I’ve been binging Bad Religion’s discography (via Apple Music) from 1988’s Suffer, to their last release: 2019’s Age of Unreason album. So, 1993’s Recipe for Hate, 1994’s Stranger than Fiction and 1998’s No Substance albums have been my favorite albums.. Stranger than Fiction does give me nostalgia because it came out when I was in high school and Los Angeles radio station KROQ played the hell out of the songs “Infected” and “21st Century Digital Boy”. I totally forgot that Eddie Vedder appeared on Recipe for Hate and sang a verse on the song “Watch it Die”. Anyways.

 

[cobl04]

They played just as many songs from Brighten the Corners and Terror Twilight as they did from Slanted and Enchanted and Crooked Rain. 10 songs post-Wowee Zowee is pretty good if that's what you're into.

I'm not a huge fan of the later stuff but what they chose from it was really strong.

I wish I could see them. Those setlists look really great. 49 songs across 7 shows, regular changes, great mix of well and lesser-known stuff, some rarely played tracks... they're killing it. I see they even played my favourite deep cut, Fillmore Jive, for the first time since 94.

 

[cobl04]

Haha, they literally just announced a tour!