Random Music Talk CXXIX: Gump attends a concert

[U2inUtah]

I really need to write about my thoughts on it, but yes, I love it.

Awesome. I'm interested to hear your thoughts. As you can read in the other thread, I loved it too.

You just reminded me to get a move on so I listened to half of it. So far, I’ve heard about god and Jesus more than I would ever like to from Brandon Flowers. Im hoping that’s just me being slow to soak up the lyrical meaning.

Interested to hear your review as well once you've given it a full listen or two.

yeah religion is def a part of it, I mean its a concept album with characters and stories from the town he grew up in, which is like 95% religious, so yeah its gonna be a theme. I can see how it would turn off some people though, especially if you go in expecting more traditional Killers record thematically and sonically.

 

[LemonMelon]

Just got back from seeing Japanese Breakfast. She's such a treasure. Three great albums and only seems to be getting better with time. Bonkers setlist at this point, with my favorite part being the superb In Heaven/The Woman That Loves You combo. Peef's DI11 list reminded me of how amazing The Woman That Loves You is.

 

[bono_212]

[emoji813][emoji813]

Thanks cobbz. I did end up going. Some bad vibes for a while, but then it got OK. Glad to get that one off my back though.

 

[bono_212]

The amount of storytelling going on in it, the somewhat absurd but forgivable and appreciable center-piecing for home… err… New Jersey.. it didn’t really hit me until I saw it live. Chinatown isn’t super duper Brucy, but the keys in there are pretty Brucy… but…

Big Life
Stop Making This Hurt
Don’t Go Dark

Ooof. All so good and all heavily Bruce influenced, IMO. They walked off the stage to the sax in Stop Making This Hurt at the end. So good.

I don’t think most people would’ve guessed it was Jack Antonoff and not Nate Ruess who would come away from fun with the bigger career but here we are.

Hmm, I'm going to just slightly continue to disagree here. Especially Stop Making This Hurt (which is probably my favorite song on the album). It's got some Bruce-like lyrics, but he'd never write that song's music in a million years, unless he started his career in the late 2000s. If anything it's Bruce by way of The Killers. Who feel like a much heavier influence on the album, and are of course also heavily influenced by Bruce themselves.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Well I’m commenting on the sound, not too focused on the lyrics, we can agree to disagree, but also I’ll leave you with this:

Spoiler

 

[cobl04]

Apparently Josh Klinghoffer is in Pearl Jam now. huh.

 

[gump]

Just got back from seeing Japanese Breakfast. She's such a treasure. Three great albums and only seems to be getting better with time. Bonkers setlist at this point, with my favorite part being the superb In Heaven/The Woman That Loves You combo. Peef's DI11 list reminded me of how amazing The Woman That Loves You is.

She's playing here in two weeks and I'm still debating whether to go. You made that decision harder. I've got Waxahatchee that week and Cassandra Jenkins the week after, so it might be a bit much. But I love the latest album and really want to see it played live.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

Apparently Josh Klinghoffer is in Pearl Jam now. huh.

This shit makes me so glad that our old guys never pulled that shit. Sorry but a band isn’t just a name. Doesn’t mean you can’t change members, of course not. None other than the chili peppers themselves are the best example of a four piece that came to be well after they started.

Just like Matt Skiba isn’t in blink-182.

 

[cobl04]

To be honest I actually wouldn't mind U2 having more touring members. I know the techs do stuff under the stage but I wonder how they could sound, and what other songs they could play, if they brought in other members.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

A touring member and a brand new frontman because your last one went batshit and you had a falling out are two different things though.

 

[lazarus]

I'm confused, they already have two guitarists, plus Eddie, and they needed another? Why?

I also didn't realize they've had their own Terry Lawless for years, some guy named Boom Gaspar.

I can understand U2 needing the extra help, but when your band already has 5 members it's crazy to me that you'd need 7 on stage to cover keyboards (which at least 2 people in PJ can play) and more guitar.

 

[Hewson]

Klinghoffer not just playing guitar apparently with them.
He's doing some additional keyboards (different from Boom's Hammond B3), some other percussion and backing vocals.
Some of the songs from Gigaton required some of the added instrumentation live.
Josh's band Pluralone was slated to be the opening act for Pearl Jam in 2020 before the tour got scrapped, and he played with EdVed at that Vax Live concert in LA, so I think he's become close with Ed, and when that happens, sometimes you get to become a touring member.
That's what happened with Boom, Ed was introduced to him in Hawaii while on vacation, they hit it off began playing some music and volia (wallah for some of us) he's on the road with Pearl Jam for 20 years:

https://ultimatepearljam.com/boom-gaspar-pearl-jam/

And, they have played 4 festival shows with him...he's not exactly "in Pearl Jam" at this point.

 

[lazarus]

Still seems unnecessary. It’s not like they need to reproduce some intricate arrangements, either.

 

[bono_212]

I'm failing to see the issue here, mostly because I'm unfamiliar with the name, is this person somehow distasteful or something? Adding a member to a band, rather than replacing, isn't usually a bad thing.

 

[LuckyNumber7]

He replaced was a touring member with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and subsequently replaced and then was replaced by John Frusciante as guitarist for them. Other than that I think he’s pretty much just a technically talented journeyman.

 

[bono_212]

Oh right, I remember him.

 

[cobl04]

Very interesting read - Pitchfork Reviews: Rescored

I wholeheartedly agree with the Big Boi and Random Access Memories rescores. I adored that Big Boi record and I recall saying in here that it was as good as MBDTF (and Shouter backing me up). But with the benefit of time and hindsight, it's not even in the same league. RAM has about six fucking great songs and the rest are trash, and the marketing of it irks me. The Interpol change is a bit harsh though.

 

[gump]

LCD just announced like 15 shows in Nov/Dec at my neighborhood venue.

 

[LemonMelon]

Very interesting read - Pitchfork Reviews: Rescored

I wholeheartedly agree with the Big Boi and Random Access Memories rescores. I adored that Big Boi record and I recall saying in here that it was as good as MBDTF (and Shouter backing me up). But with the benefit of time and hindsight, it's not even in the same league. RAM has about six fucking great songs and the rest are trash, and the marketing of it irks me. The Interpol change is a bit harsh though.

Wholeheartedly cosign Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea and Moth reclamation.

Turn on the Bright Lights will always be at least a 9.

 

[cobl04]

LCD just announced like 15 shows in Nov/Dec at my neighborhood venue.

I'm incredibly jealous. I'm excited to see what songs they play and if they do any new ones.

 

[lazarus]

Very interesting read - Pitchfork Reviews: Rescored

I wholeheartedly agree with the Big Boi and Random Access Memories rescores. I adored that Big Boi record and I recall saying in here that it was as good as MBDTF (and Shouter backing me up). But with the benefit of time and hindsight, it's not even in the same league. RAM has about six fucking great songs and the rest are trash, and the marketing of it irks me. The Interpol change is a bit harsh though.

Was shocking that they went after Interpol, which I thought was an untouchable early 2000s cornerstone. Personally, I never cared for the Joy Division vibes.

Somehow most of these "rescore" capsules are almost as insufferable as the original reviews. The Liz Phair turnaround "selling out with trendy producers is now commonplace, she's a pioneer!" is a bunch of bullshit. That album might not be a 0.0, but it's still garbage and not worthy of more than a 5.0, even if you're being kind. The gulf between the brilliance of Whitechocolatespaceegg and its follow-up needs to be acknowledged in the score.

I guess they weren't interested in revisiting their No Line on the Horizon 4.2 rating, which was obnoxious, as was their cheap dunking review.

Random Access Memories is still a fantastic work of art, regardless of it not being as lean and mean as Discovery. I posted an article not too long ago (after the Daft Punk breakup) from Rolling Stone about the making of that record and I have even more respect for it and those guys now. Calling the rest of it "trash" is pretty disingenuous.

 

[gump]

Wholeheartedly cosign Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea and Moth reclamation.

Turn on the Bright Lights will always be at least a 9.

Totally agree on Stories From the City.

I loved that they came around on Sky Blue Sky, an album that was dismissed too easily as dad rock and which, with hindsight, turned out to be the sound of Jeff healing.

Room on Fire is a masterpiece and I like that they finally recognize it as such.

Some of those are a bit random though. Revising something from 7.2 to 8.1 or whatever is not particularly vital.

 

[cobl04]

Was shocking that they went after Interpol, which I thought was an untouchable early 2000s cornerstone. Personally, I never cared for the Joy Division vibes.

Somehow most of these "rescore" capsules are almost as insufferable as the original reviews. The Liz Phair turnaround "selling out with trendy producers is now commonplace, she's a pioneer!" is a bunch of bullshit. That album might not be a 0.0, but it's still garbage and not worthy of more than a 5.0, even if you're being kind. The gulf between the brilliance of Whitechocolatespaceegg and its follow-up needs to be acknowledged in the score.

I guess they weren't interested in revisiting their No Line on the Horizon 4.2 rating, which was obnoxious, as was their cheap dunking review.

Random Access Memories is still a fantastic work of art, regardless of it not being as lean and mean as Discovery. I posted an article not too long ago (after the Daft Punk breakup) from Rolling Stone about the making of that record and I have even more respect for it and those guys now. Calling the rest of it "trash" is pretty disingenuous.

I think Interpol (and Foxygen too, not that I listened to that record more than once) both suffer from the culture change we've talked about before. White dudes making music that borrows heavily from a previous sound. It's not so groundbreaking now. But I would totally have it at least a 9.

Not sure moving a U2 album no one cares about from a 4.2 to a 6.8 (I'd have it at like 7.0) is that worthy of a read.

I'm surprised that's your take on RAM. There's a great EP on there - Get Lucky, Lose Yourself to Dance, Doin it Right, Contact, maybe Giorgio by Moroder and Instant Crush too if I'm feeling generous. But it's 75 minutes long and half of it is the same slow, boring yacht rock sound. It sounds nice, cos of the people involved, but I find it pretentious. "Give Life Back to Music". Please.

 

[gump]

Also, that Miss Anthropocene wasn’t an 8.2 was clear from day one.

 

[LemonMelon]

I'm not a big Random Access Memories guy either. It's bloated and relies too heavily on features to maintain the personality that Discovery had. And I don't think even one song comes close to Digital Love, my favorite track by them.

 

[HeartlandGirl]

Thanks cobbz. I did end up going. Some bad vibes for a while, but then it got OK. Glad to get that one off my back though.

I'm glad to see that you went. I'm sure it was hard but I hope you got to enjoy the show a little.

 

[bono_212]

You all are giving Pitchfork what they want. Look at the seeds of discontent they have sowed!

But seriously, idc how much time has passed, silly to revise scores. Save it for reissues. Also I do love RAM.

I'm glad to see that you went. I'm sure it was hard but I hope you got to enjoy the show a little.

Thank you. I did! He somehow didn't play any of my favorite songs, and yet I had an amazing time. That level of club music with a goth crowd is a STRANGE mix, to say the least.

 

[cobl04]

Interested to hear your thoughts on the Prince change, Laz

 

[the tourist]

Nice. Room on Fire is the best Strokes album and one of the best of its decade. Good to see the rising grade.

 

[iron yuppie]

The Interpol change is a bit harsh though.

My only reaction to this list is I would listen to Turn on the Bright Lights 1000 times out of 1000 over anything The Strokes have ever done.