Thursday, July 15, 2004
Radio felt pretty blah tonight, frankly. Need to strike a balance between playing the required amount of new stuff in rotation (hearing which is one of the main reasons I still do this) and making what I bring from home count. Wouldn't hurt to lend a hand reviewing new CDs, either.
I'm not a whole lot calmer than I was Sunday, but I'm doing my best to take myself in hand. A few quick items:
Scornful to suspicious to intrigued to guardedly enthusiastic is not an uncommon movement for me, so I am not entirely surprised that Rodney Graham's Rock Is Hard turns out to be right up my alley; fairly varied, crisply arranged and performed, maybe a few too many guitar solos, with little if any air of being a 'piece' rather than, you know, some music. Vancouver is tight: The production is by John Collins, also involved with most of Destroyer's records, and one of the main players is Mike Ledwidge of Zumpano -- I've wondered for a while what's become of him, I hope he's in the touring band that's here next Thursday. Vocally, Graham sounds like Lou Reed, but good mid-to-late Lou Reed, entirely appropriate for a 55-year-old.
I'm well aware that my biases are on display, but: If more metal bands underwent therapy, wouldn't there be...fewer metal bands?
Jordan: Your point is well-taken, but among prosody fiends, I wouldn't be inclined to call the late Gerald Burns 'icky.' Too singular to be broadly useful, maybe. I wish some of his prose were online (esp. something from the 1989 collection A Thing About Language, but I'm not finding anything. Also, doesn't Annie Finch try fairly hard to be non-icky?
Does Mike Skinner remind anyone else of John Cooper Clarke? Just a little? (Try "I Mustn't Go Down to the Sea Again," near the bottom of the page, for starters.)
I'm not a whole lot calmer than I was Sunday, but I'm doing my best to take myself in hand. A few quick items:
Scornful to suspicious to intrigued to guardedly enthusiastic is not an uncommon movement for me, so I am not entirely surprised that Rodney Graham's Rock Is Hard turns out to be right up my alley; fairly varied, crisply arranged and performed, maybe a few too many guitar solos, with little if any air of being a 'piece' rather than, you know, some music. Vancouver is tight: The production is by John Collins, also involved with most of Destroyer's records, and one of the main players is Mike Ledwidge of Zumpano -- I've wondered for a while what's become of him, I hope he's in the touring band that's here next Thursday. Vocally, Graham sounds like Lou Reed, but good mid-to-late Lou Reed, entirely appropriate for a 55-year-old.
I'm well aware that my biases are on display, but: If more metal bands underwent therapy, wouldn't there be...fewer metal bands?
Jordan: Your point is well-taken, but among prosody fiends, I wouldn't be inclined to call the late Gerald Burns 'icky.' Too singular to be broadly useful, maybe. I wish some of his prose were online (esp. something from the 1989 collection A Thing About Language, but I'm not finding anything. Also, doesn't Annie Finch try fairly hard to be non-icky?
Does Mike Skinner remind anyone else of John Cooper Clarke? Just a little? (Try "I Mustn't Go Down to the Sea Again," near the bottom of the page, for starters.)
