Thursday, July 29, 2010

Umm Hmm

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have no clue what that Urban Adult Contemporary (heh heh heh) linkage is about, but I want to offer my admiration for your possessing Luke Haines's best work:

The Auteurs.

Ethan said...

Hey, that's no Urban Adult Contemporary! That's Erykah Badu!

The Auteurs are great, though I have to admit that, the farther out from the 90s we get, the more unwilling I am to listen to 90s-style rock production. Still, great stuff. I've only got Now I'm a Cowboy, should I assume you would recommend tracking down the others?

Anonymous said...

Absolutely. You need to listen to New Wave, it's the one that really matters to my high esteem for the Auteurs.

I saw them at the old 9:30 in DC, they rocked it solid.

You won't hear that Albini-esque, grating-guitar production on New Wave.

One thing about the 90s production era -- at least there weren't highly-compressed, tinny, trebly productions with endless syndrums. Talk about something getting old... I have a really hard time listening to a lot of my vinyl from the 80s for that reason. So many good bands and great albums ruined by that stuff. I'd love to have someone bust out the old masters and re-master them with a bigger, more open sound... and dub in some organic drums to replace the stupid syndrums.

Did I remember to mention how much I hate syndrums!

(apologies to Ms Badu)

Anonymous said...

PS: Sometimes the Albini Factor is a blessing. I think Nirvana's best album is In Utero and I think a big part of the reason why is Albini's input. And the grating guitars can be good in some contexts, my favorite Fugazi album is In on the Kill Taker, which is very metallic, grating, corrosive in its sound.

Ethan said...

I love drum machines, though obviously it's very easy to use them poorly. 80s mainstream percussion production is atrocious.

I have magically acquired New Wave and will listen to it shortly.

Anonymous said...

The only syndrum sound I liked in the 80s was what Bruford was doing with the then-current iteration of King Crimson.

Most times, the syndrum's sound makes me cringe when set against the sounds of organic guitars.

I like electronic music, so I don't mind the syndrum when it's coupled with other synthesized sounds. I can almost understand the appeal of Animal Collective, that's how generous I am toward the syndrum in proper context.

Heh heh heh.

I'll be interested in how you think New Wave compares to Now I'm a Cowboy. You should also listen to the Albini-produced After Murder Park, which is good but not quite what New Wave is/was.

I'm not as keen on Haines's other work with Black Box Recorder and Baader Meinhof, at least not from what I've heard from those two groups.

Ethan said...

My feelings on Animal Collective: unceasingly wonderful up to and including Feels, utterly worthless afterward.

Electronic percussive music: do you like Ikue Mori? I find her just astounding, both for her apparent ability to instantly pick up virtuosity in whatever instrument she feels like, and for her sense of composition.

I listened to New Wave, excellent stuff! Possibly quite a lot better than Now I'm a Cowboy, though that one has familiarity on its side. Thanks for the recommendation.

I kind of love Black Box Recorder, but probably only because I'm a faggot and that is some campy shit.

Anonymous said...

You mean I can blame not liking Black Box Recorder on my liking women? Dang. A revelation, that is!

I still remember listening to the song "England Made Me" and wondering what sort of context/background/influence created that song. It went over my head, or under my feet, or whizzing past me somehow. Didn't quite get it.

Can't say I'm a connoisseur of electronic -- I got into it reluctantly, my hand forced by Radiohead's album Kid A, being curious as to why they'd change direction and what they were doing, what they were listening to. When I lasted worked full-time for The Man, I had an eMusic account and would spend down-time at work scouring eMusic for things that might interest me in the electronic genre. Mostly what I've got and enjoyed was compilation stuff. I like electronic for solo MTB rides, the hyper-regular beat is good for lengthy climbs, it distracts me and keeps me from thinking about how much I hate the work involved in climbing. The one album that works best for me is Hydra - Super Human.

The more the electronic music sounds like it was self-generated by a thinking computer, the less I tend to like it. The more it sounds like rock, the more I like it.

Animal Collective I stumbled across while cross-referencing bands on Allmusic, and saw that they had a highly-regarded album called Merriwether Post Pavilion. I listened to several of the cuts and found them just a bit too treacly for my taste.

Glad you liked New Wave. I like the snide, sarcastic lyrics as much as I like the folky, glammy take on rock.