Random Music Talk CXXIX: Gump attends a concert

[gump]

Originally Posted by LemonMelon

Looking forward to your Japanese Breakfast review. You'll have a blast. She's been covering Dolly Parton as well lol

I have Wilco with Faye Webster at the Hollywood Palladium coming up on the 23rd.

I was so bummed by all the rain/wind/lightning delays when I saw them. The band is in such good form right now. Nels is just a joy throughout the show. With their catalog it's just impossible to have a perfect set, but I think they are mixing it well and not overlooking some of the more recent favorites in order to overplay the warhorses. It's always great to see them live, you'll have a blast.

And don't click on this if you are not looking at setlists

 

Opening their shows with A Shot in the Arm is just fantastic right now.

Faye Webster's album is so good, this should be fun.

Originally Posted by iron yuppie

I definitely feel this.

Originally Posted by Hewson

I think you and most of us here are of a certain breed that will likely never age past concerts.

There's truth in both of these things. When I realized that the opening act (Katy Kirby, who is great) was starting at 9pm and Waxahatchee wouldn't come until 10:15pm on a weeknight, I felt 65 years old (there must be a law against concerts in Bushwick not starting at a reasonable time). But once they started, I just felt that rush of excitement of live music that hadn't been there in such a long time.

__________________

[gump]

By the way, were either of iron yuppie or GAF at Pitchfork? I'm curious about how The Weather Station and Fiery Furnaces sounded. The clips I've seen were so promising.

I mean, this is just gorgeous stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DTpJJtVMPY

[iron yuppie]

I was but only for Friday night.

[bono_212]

Originally Posted by iron yuppie

I definitely feel this.

I thought I was pretty done, but I think the pandemic shocked me back into wanting to go. I'm seeing Hellogoodbye this weekend and recapturing some of my college youth.

Originally Posted by iron yuppie

Speaking of concerts, has anyone ever seen Magnetic Fields live? I'm debating a series of shows they have here in November.

No, but could you please go for me and let me know if I should go if they ever deign to stop by LA?

[the tourist]

So as I’ve probably mentioned here before, The Cure have either tied or overtaken U2 as my favorite band, and on a whim I listened to one of those Spotify playlists that has some of The Cure on it, but lots of other stuff. So working my way through it I’ve discovered a whole heap of late 70s-to-mid 80s goth, synth, and dreamy stuff that I probably should have had on my radar but hadn’t yet. Some of my favorite recent discoveries are Bela Lugosi’s Dead (Bauhaus), Blasphemous Rumor (Depeche Mode), Swamp Thing (The Chameleons), Reptile (The Church), and Twenty Four Hours (Joy Division).

For some reason I always thought Bauhaus was cheesy 80s pop and was surprised to discover they’re not. I must have been thinking something else. I’m really surprised I never got into Depeche Mode because a few of my good friends were, but I’ve listened to a few of their albums (Some Great Reward, Speak and Spell, Black Celebration) now and am really liking them. For The Church, I knew Under The Milky Way but that was it previously, and I know I should know Joy Division better than Love Will Tear Us Apart, but for some reason had never felt inclined to dig further since that’s one of my favorite songs from that era and knew nothing could touch it and it would only be disappointments.

Anyway, good stuff.

[gump]

Originally Posted by iron yuppie

I was but only for Friday night.

Wasn't that when Fiery Furnaces played?

Edit: I supposed they must have played earlier in the day.

[iron yuppie]

Yeah they were on inexplicably early.

[bono_212]

Originally Posted by the tourist

So as I’ve probably mentioned here before, The Cure have either tied or overtaken U2 as my favorite band, and on a whim I listened to one of those Spotify playlists that has some of The Cure on it, but lots of other stuff. So working my way through it I’ve discovered a whole heap of late 70s-to-mid 80s goth, synth, and dreamy stuff that I probably should have had on my radar but hadn’t yet. Some of my favorite recent discoveries are Bela Lugosi’s Dead (Bauhaus), Blasphemous Rumor (Depeche Mode), Swamp Thing (The Chameleons), Reptile (The Church), and Twenty Four Hours (Joy Division).

For some reason I always thought Bauhaus was cheesy 80s pop and was surprised to discover they’re not. I must have been thinking something else. I’m really surprised I never got into Depeche Mode because a few of my good friends were, but I’ve listened to a few of their albums (Some Great Reward, Speak and Spell, Black Celebration) now and am really liking them. For The Church, I knew Under The Milky Way but that was it previously, and I know I should know Joy Division better than Love Will Tear Us Apart, but for some reason had never felt inclined to dig further since that’s one of my favorite songs from that era and knew nothing could touch it and it would only be disappointments.

Anyway, good stuff.

I'm absolutely going to come back to this post, but in general, you're on a very good path. Have you been listening to any Siouxie and the Banshees?

[DeVaul]

Originally Posted by gump

I thought I had aged past concerts, but not the case yet.

Hell no… but I may prefer a seat more often.

Was your Wilco show at Forest Hills?

[gump]

Originally Posted by DeVaul

Hell no… but I may prefer a seat more often.

Was your Wilco show at Forest Hills?

Yup. I was wet and tired and annoyed and grumpy. First concert in almost two years, and that's what I got.

[DeVaul]

I honestly found it kinda exhilarating

[cobl04]

Baker Boy's debut is here and I highly recommend anyone who reads this post to listen to it. Australia's Indigenous music scene is riding high right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myKF...l=BakerBoyVEVO

[HeartlandGirl]

Thanks for sharing that, Cobbz - catchy stuff. He's got dance moves too!

[cobl04]

Thanks HG, glad you enjoyed

[cobl04]

Aaaaand here is why music sites like Pitchfork are right in changing how they do things.

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists...h-anniversary/

Three of the top four albums are by Radiohead, no women until #17.

[namkcuR]

I really shouldn't waste any time writing about a list like that, but here we go.

I mean, I actually counted, and something like 49 out of 200 are women(I'm including the Beach House records there). In a perfect world, you'd like a 50/50 split, but 25% isn't terrible. And then 7 of the top 20 are black artists.

IMO there are bigger things to criticize about the list. I understand that readers voted on this, so this isn't the Pitchfork staff's opinion, it's just a popular vote in the end, and all lists like this are totally subjective, but just some thoughts...

First off, there seems to some recency bias. But that's just a gut response, I could be wrong.

I continue to simply not get the adulation for Kanye West, and that he has seven albums on here mystifies me. That's all I'll say about that.

I have no problem with Radiohead getting six, on the other hand.

I love In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, so I'm happy to see it there, but it is perhaps a bit too high.

Of the three Outkast records there, Spearboxx/Love Below is ranked lowest, which surprises me. I'm not too familiar with their work outside SBLB, but it was the "biggest" of their albums.

Some noticeable omissions:

I know it's the cool thing to not like Coldplay and they haven't been great in a long time, but A Rush Of Blood To The Head was one of the biggest albums of the 00s and it certainly belongs on a list like this. Maybe Parachutes and VLV too, but even if those don't make it Rush should.

I realize that most of Tupac's work was before 1996, but All Eyez On Me came out in 1996. One of the biggest albums of perhaps the most legendary MC ever doesn't make the cut.

Hot Fuss is another of the biggest records of the 00s that didn't make it.

Surprised there's no Lykke Li here, as she used to be a Pitchfork darling.

There are two back albums here, but Midnite Vultures and Morning Phase don't make the cut.

Sigur Ros's "Agaetis Byrjun" is there, but not "()".

Muse's Absolution has an argument.

Would've though Franz Ferdinand's debut would've snuck in.

Timberlake's 20/20 Experience Part 1 was a massively successful pop record just eight years ago, with a huge single to boot. Maybe readers don't wanna vote for him because the Britney stuff?

And here are some that I had little to no expectation of being on a P4K list - so I'm not at all surprised - but that I think should've been.

No RHCP. Obviously they were never, ever a Pitchfork kind of band, but Californication was an enormous album, Stadium Arcadium won grammy awards, etc.

Green Day's "American Idiot" was huge.

Audioslave's debut was one of the best rock records of the 00s imo.

Some 96-99 records that I feel have an argument -

REM's "New Adventures"
Tori Amos's "From The Choirgirl Hotel"
Beastie Boys' "Hello Nasty"
Smashing Pumpkins' "Adore"
DMB's "Crash" or "Before These Crowded Streets"
and although I'm not really familiar without it outside "Bittersweet Symphony", I know The Verve's "Urban Hymns" has a lot of fans here.

And finally, not to be that guy, and obviously I never ever expected them to make a P4K list in 2021, but no Shuttlecock. Just from their 21st century work, ATYCLB was huge album. But even if you don't want to do that, "Pop" falls in the time frame, having come out in 1997.

But whatever, it's just another list. In the end, the biggest conclusion I draw is that I simply don't have much in common with a large bulk of P4K readers in terms of listening habits outside of a mutual love of Radiohead.

[intedomine]

The list actually surprised me that it didn’t have more of a recency bias, but I do feel that it was a lacking a little from the first five years of the period. Urban Hymns does seem like an unfortunate exclusion - the album was mammoth (perhaps less so in North American markets?) but is it a case that it, and maybe Hot Fuss, hasn’t aged well in the view of the pitchfork audience? It didn’t even rate well on release from memory.

Delighted to see The National, Tame Impala and War on Drugs feature prolifically. Would have loved to see Grimes’ Art Angels album higher. Listened to it again a few weeks ago and damn it hits sweet spots throughout.

[HeartlandGirl]

I think the value of a list like this (for me) is that it reminds me to go back and listen to some of these classics again. I've been revisiting 2004 a lot already, but there's a lot of wonderful music on the list that I haven't heard in a long time.

[intedomine]

Black Country, New Road just released a new song. Their most recent album finally clicked with me last week - Sunglasses and Opus are super thrilling, Science Fair is messed up in the best way possible. Hope this crew make it to Oz as soon as it’s possible - would be immense live.

[bono_212]

Lmfao, The Weather Station is touring with Cassandra Jenkins? Did I dream this?