If (as one of my professors holds) the accomplishment of a good critic is to tell a story that the reader will remember, surely we should give it up for those who have, by typing some dashed-off heartfelt observation on a message board, altered our readings of the music we love! I cannot hear "Atomic Dog" anymore without thinking of this:
while "Genius of Love"'s got some great lyrics about funkin for funk's sake, "Atomic Dog" is a poignant address to the male condition. "why must i feel like that? why must i chase the cat?" indeed... it tears him apart and all he can do is howl at the moon, but the motherfucker's so cool it comes out "bow wow wow yippie oh yippie ay" -- people explosion (Sonny A.), Tuesday, 17 October 2006 23:16 (1 year ago) Link
― Doctor Casino, Tuesday, 12 August 2008 13:07 (4 years ago) Permalink
The best part of this song is when he sings "Return of the Mack: Oh My GOD!" - it's like he can't believe it himself!
― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, October 12, 2004 8:04 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― Doctor Casino, Saturday, 27 September 2008 13:24 (4 years ago) Permalink
Pretty much one of the most indefensible bands ever, but a friend of mine got drunk once at my house with a guitar and did the "I'm still living with your...GHOST" line over and over, a dead on impression, but of course exaggerated, and I think it was teh haredest I've ever laughed. And just when it stopped being funny, it got really funny again. I remember going in to take a piss and hearing him, muted through the wall, still doing it, amusing only himself. Now I can't hear the name Everclear without thinking of that night, which was a really good time.
― Manalishi, Saturday, May 5, 2007 7:59 PM Bookmark
― Doctor Casino, Saturday, 13 October 2012 19:45 (8 months ago) Permalink
i like to read the rza having the last verse on "so appalled" as a sly commentary on the crapfest that is that song
rza is just so appalled by cyhi da prynce -- like, he can't even rap, he's just reduced to screaming about how ridiculous it is
― J0rdan S., Friday, November 12, 2010 7:39 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Mary Ty$ Band (Whiney G. Weingarten), Saturday, 13 October 2012 19:50 (8 months ago) Permalink
one of my pet theories about the Gudda line was that it was "I got a ni**a: Grocery Bag," and Grocery Bag was actually the name of some 4th tier Young Money weed carrier who'd drop verses on Gudda Gudda mixtapes.
― max r who max r (some dude), Saturday, December 18, 2010 4:55 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalin
― Doctor Casino, Saturday, 13 October 2012 20:06 (8 months ago) Permalink
also reminds me of:
I'm picturing ODB giving a shoutout to this dude, then getting into a big fight with him, immediately rushing back to the studio before he has a chance to calm down, and recording over the original with a genuinely pissed-off "FUCK that nigga's name!"a few days later, the dude shows up at ODB's place to apologize; they have a good talk, and decide to bury the hatchet. only after the dude leaves does ODB realize with horror that the record has just been sent off to the mastering engineer that morning.― Smellishis Poon (bernard snowy), Sunday, October 5, 2008 11:25 PM Bookmark
a few days later, the dude shows up at ODB's place to apologize; they have a good talk, and decide to bury the hatchet. only after the dude leaves does ODB realize with horror that the record has just been sent off to the mastering engineer that morning.
― Smellishis Poon (bernard snowy), Sunday, October 5, 2008 11:25 PM Bookmark
― Doctor Casino, Saturday, 13 October 2012 20:08 (8 months ago) Permalink
hahaha
― balls, Saturday, 13 October 2012 23:03 (8 months ago) Permalink
When I saw the thread title I was thinking "this has never happened" but that Atomic Dog reading is great. I never thought of it quite that way.
― wk, Saturday, 13 October 2012 23:33 (8 months ago) Permalink
RIGHT ABOUT NOW
THE FUNK SOUL BROTHER
CHECK IT OUT NOW
― Whiney G. Torture Garden (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, November 2, 2008 12:02 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
keep it going Whiney
― The Macallan 18 Year, Sunday, November 2, 2008 12:06 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Doctor Casino, Thursday, 22 November 2012 02:13 (6 months ago) Permalink
This whole post:
When you solo in straight-ahead jazz, the notes you play will generally reflect the harmonic structure of the song -- i.e. the chords. In tonal songs that are harmonically simple, the palette of "key notes" you have to choose from remains largely the same from chord to chord, so that at any given moment there are particular pitches that you can use as touchstones or "common tones", feeling pretty sure they won't dissonate. (For instance, if you're playing a very basic B-flat blues, the notes B-flat, C, E-flat, F, and G are all "safe" in that they're present in the scales that underlie all of the chords in a B-flat blues -- B-flat 7, E-flat 7, and F7. However, a solo made up of only those notes will likely be terrible, not least because it excludes "chord-defining" pitches and can't convey any sense of harmonic motion.)
The thing that makes the title track of Giant Steps so unusual is that the chords are changing very rapidly, and each chord is fairly remote from the previous one, so those touchstones are quite few. On top of that, the song is so fast that any given common tone is fleeting -- if you play a particular pitch for longer than a measure or so, the odds are that it will clash with a chord that's changing underneath you. So basically, the experience of improvising over "Giant Steps" can feel a little like trying to play catch in one of those gyroscopic whirlythings in which they train astronauts -- your frame of reference is constantly changing, and you have to think ahead at high speed in order to make sure that each of your choices will connect with where you're going to be in two seconds.
Given all that, the fact that Coltrane was able to play melodic and memorable solos in such a context is really remarkable, let alone the fact that he played them with total mastery. He didn't just plow his way through the chords, he weaved them into the fabric of his improvisation in such a way that, while they were integral to his solo and completely implicit in it (i.e. you can reconstruct the chord changes from his unaccompanied solo), he wasn't at all governed by them: he wasn't just running down the changes, he was using them as one would use a blues or "I Got Rhythm" changes or any other ground. In other words, he made the seemingly unnatural sound natural, even effortless, and in doing so he normalized a new part of human musical experience. It would've been incredibly easy to make "Giant Steps" sound like a gimmick, but Coltrane's sheer mastery made it seem instead like an open door, full of possibilities for new harmonic approaches that both he and others -- and anyone willing to listen and work hard -- could explore.
― Phil, Tuesday, 4 June 2002 00:00 (10 years ago) Permalink
― SongOfSam, Thursday, 22 November 2012 03:31 (6 months ago) Permalink
Wow, that's great. I know next to nothing about jazz, or Coltrane, but listening to the track for the first time with that post in mind I feel like I'm "getting" it.
― Doctor Casino, Thursday, 22 November 2012 04:49 (6 months ago) Permalink
(note, i recognize that "i know next to ntohing about jazz, or Coltrane" might as well be followed by "or music")
― Doctor Casino, Thursday, 22 November 2012 04:51 (6 months ago) Permalink
For instance, if you're playing a very basic B-flat blues, the notes B-flat, C, E-flat, F, and G So he is saying play a C minor pentatonic over B-flat blues. I hadn't known this trick.
― When Blecch Friday Comes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 22 November 2012 15:37 (6 months ago) Permalink
Wow what a great post
― U.S. State Department, Office of Rare Psych (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 23 November 2012 23:39 (6 months ago) Permalink
Take "Glad to see you Go" from Leave Home - straight into a Beach Boys/Eddie Cochrane morphed melody and just listen to the way that the song shifts gear slightly on lines 3 and 4 of the verse as Tommy closes the high-hat a touch under the chords and melody. The shift into the chorus is sublime and the sheer rush as it comes back to the last verse from the middle 8 ("I need somebody good, I need a miracle") is like a ride in the space shuttle - on the outside.
I think of this post and the space shuttle image every time I hear this song
― Panaïs Pnin (The Yellow Kid), Saturday, 24 November 2012 01:37 (6 months ago) Permalink
i remember seeing an interview w/the sugar ray guy on tv when this song came out. he said something like, "yeah we've been wanting to work with supercat for a long time." I mean, I also want to work with supercat.
― Dominique, Friday, February 22, 2008 8:16 AM Bookmark
― Doctor Casino, Thursday, 21 February 2013 20:44 (3 months ago) Permalink
I actually recorded most of 'Folktronic' stark naked. Damn these overheated New York apartments!
― Momus, Tuesday, February 26, 2002 8:00 PM (11 years ago)
― garfield drops some dank n' dirty dubz at 2am (unregistered), Saturday, 9 March 2013 01:13 (3 months ago) Permalink
lol
― estela, Saturday, 9 March 2013 01:19 (3 months ago) Permalink