Ryan Adams

His rock album wasn't too bad, but I think I'm the only person who liked it.

and i never would have gotten into the replacements if it werent for a freind hearing me listen ROCK N ROLL and sneering "It sounds like a wanna-be Let It Be" or something like that

I would never have thought to make such an accusation. Little on the album implies awareness of or desire to replicate Let It Be.

after loving heartbreaker and then hearing everything else sucked I avoided all these albums, that was a big mistake, in one week I've gone through the majority of it and most of it is brilliant. I understand he may personally be a prick but he writes really great songs. I can't believe Love is Hell is not regarded as some modern masterpiece.

love is hell is his best record. never gonna understand that pitchfork score.

i feel like demolition & easy tiger are both really underrated. kinda hate 'rock n roll' and never really 'got' love is hell beyond the title track tbh.

apparently just this week they put out iii/iv which is a collection of outtakes from the easy, tiger sessions. i didn't realize they'd spent 6 months in the studio on that one.

its a 2 disc collection of outtakes!

I'm not entirely sold on III/IV yet. I vastly preferred the Dead-style meandering Cardinals of Cold Roses or the "country" Jacksonville City Nights, but none of it is really bad. Douche or not, the guy writes some great songs.

Yes. He knows what he's doing and written a buttload of great songs. Cold Roses is my favorite

new single from new album of same name, very gram, i love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4VGlkcBtfw

The Whiskeytown albums and Heartbreaker are essential. Caitlin Cary's albums are very nice as well. I don't know why I stopped paying attention to him after Heartbreaker.

Can't say that song set me on fire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82SaWx3-gks

http://yankeewombat.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/bush_devil_horns.jpg

lol

don't know why I stopped paying attention to him after Heartbreaker.

Can't say that song set me on fire.

― thinveneer, Thursday, September 15, 2011 3:35 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

he got all mercurial after heartbreaker so one either had to keep listening because one was a fan or one had to have the patience to trudge through stylistic detours, and a regular human's patience runs thin.

new record streaming at npr

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/25/140640429/first-listen-ryan-adams-ashes-and-fire?sc=fb&cc=fp

very mellow & analog, i like.

this is hilarious from that NPR write-up:

"He can successfully crib just about any style of popular music he chooses: the Dead, the Stones, The Flying Burrito Brothers — it's all in his wheelhouse."

THE WHOLE SPECTRUM OF POP MUSIC RIGHT THERE. three fucking country rock bands!!

fan of all four artists btw

otm tho

Love everything unconditionally through "Rock'n'Roll", including all the studio bootlegs, the really lost interest. I guess I just filled up the Ryan Adams tank.

That and I can't stand the Dead.

This really does feel like a well-polished mellow solo record, which Easy Tiger excepted he hasn't really done before. Not much in the way of Deadisms, which you can't have really said since the days of 29 & Love is Hell. It's a little monochromatic, like Easy Tiger, but more intimate.

Yeah ok, officially lovin this.

You're right, the Deadisms seem to have cleared, but I found the vocals lacking a little something... Did he sober up or something? :-P

mellow is def the word!

this is really good dude.

So we can thank Laura Marling for this one?

According to Adams, Laura Marling's second studio album, I Speak Because I Can, inspired him re-write the majority of the album's material. After being sent a copy of her album, by former producer Ethan Johns, Adams noted, "I thought: 'For fuck's sake.' I literally threw out 80% of what I had. And it felt good, to ask: 'What am I really capable of?' I felt competitive again to write great songs."

But also, kinda lol @ the personnel listed on wiki:

Ryan Adams – guitar, vocals
Norah Jones - backing vocals
Mandy Moore - backing vocals
Benmont Tench - Keys

xp

then he got smart and got ethan's dad to produce it

yeah that personnel is unexpected

it also seems to be selling really well -- that, combined with positive critical reception (!) for a lot of his shows in the past year, it seems like most people are willing to forgive and forget the early 00s.

Also -- Ashes & Fire:Harvest Moon::Heartbreaker:Harvest ? Think about it in terms of a 'comeback' after genre experimentation/fan base and critical alienation between each album. Not to mention everyone's always saying they want Adams to make another Heartbreaker, just like everyone used to want NY to make another Harvest (which remains one of his most boring albums by a mile). Thoughts?

Thoughts?

Ashes & Fire sure is boring.

it's quiet, but i dig it.

The Dyson Fan of music. You don't even notice it's there.

I mean I think if you are really into Ryan Adams, which involves "buying into Ryan Adams" it's obviously much more exciting to have him releasing like three albums/forty songs in one year and they're all over the place and keeping half of his greatest stuff unreleased/unofficial and him generally being an asshole and doing crazy stuff than, like, chilling in LA with Mandy Moore and releasing a "tasteful" 10-song album every two years right?

ah give the guy a break. at least he's dumped the cardinals. as long as he's playing amazing sets like i saw last night i will forgive him quite a lot:

Oh My Sweet Carolina, Ashes & Fire, If I Am A Stranger, Sylvia Plath, Two, Everybody Knows, Dirty Rain, My Winding Wheel, New York, New York, Lucky Now, Please Do Not Let Me Go, Firecracker, Rocks, Crossed Out Name, Why Do They Leave?, When Will You Come Back Home, English Girls Approximately, Houses On The Hill, Avenues, Jacksonville Skyline, In My Time Of Need, Dear Chicago, Halloween, Come Pick Me Up

First RA album I've bought since Gold. More than ready for Heartbreaker Moon. Like!

at least he's dumped the cardinals.

This isn't really a good thing imho, I loved some of the stuff he's done with them. I'd be okay with him switching off between something like the new one, then back to something with the Cardinals.

they were fine for Cold Roses but by the last few records it had got soooo boring and the last tour I saw where he had them was by far the worst i'd seen him. no wonder he didn't bother releasing Cardinals 3 and 4 properly.

I can't disagree about the slide in quality, but I had been holding out hope for another Roses.

Why is it good he dumped his band? I agree it was total downhill slide/diminishing returns but Cold Roses is a massive peak for him IMO. The few times I saw him with the Cardinals were superb.

To sum: I think Ryan Adams should take a more Robert Pollard-like approach to his solo career, and Pollard a more Adams-like approach.

Definitely agree with the first part of your sum there MFB, but NOOOOOOOO to the second, Pollard don't change a thing you goddamned drunken genius you.

I just think Adams would benefit from a faster production process/getting more out there (he was in that mode for a while, obviously) whereas Pollard's assembly line of solo albums and side projects hasn't delivered much of value for years now.

LOL!

Anybody read "Losering," the official unauthorized Ryan Adams biography (whatever that is)?

Also almost two years since a RA album, is that a record?

I just think Adams would benefit from a faster production process/getting more out there (he was in that mode for a while, obviously) whereas Pollard's assembly line of solo albums and side projects hasn't delivered much of value for years now.

I'm pretty sure this has to do with his hearing loss. Dude has been battling Meniere's Disease, which could end in total hearing loss eventually. Sounds brutal. Say what you want about his music, but it's pretty impressive he continues to put out music and tour. That being said, I don't know a whole lot about Meniere's.

I honestly believe Ryan is one of the greatest folk/pop/rock songwriters of all time.

That is all.

https://i.gyazo.com/e88e3d3adfa0f27e075ebea3a589321d.png

Me too, Tay.

I remember him saying way back in 2002 or so that he had a cover of the entirety of Is This It?.

no eyeroll emoticon?

I don't know how good/bad this will be, but I do appreciate guys like Ryan Adams or Beck saying "y'know what fuck it. i'll just cover a whole record someone else made."

What a coincidence I'm covering my ears.

and he's doing it "in the style of The Smiths"

"in the style of the Gin Blossoms"

"in the style of the Gin Blossoms"

would be awesome tbh, but maybe a little too close to whiskeytown

...and that would be bad how?

it wouldn't! more of today's music should be performed in the style of the gin blossoms imo

agreed.

the gin blossoms and ryan adams have a lot in common come to think of it (not just sonically or lyrically)

both are constantly traversing the line between sorta-indie and sorta-commercial mor. they also both wear their Westerberg badge proudly

Live at Carnegie album sounds great! Maybe a bit tiresome to listen through such much acoustic emo in one sitting though...

Beyond tiresome.

"shake it off" snippet sounds great tbh tho not very Smithsy

I think only one tune was going to be in a Smiths style. I really enjoyed his self titled album. Reminded me of early Petty...maybe that was just Benmont's playing?

first full cover is "bad blood," record drops this coming monday http://www.vulture.com/2015/09/ryan-adams-is-releasing-his-1989-covers-album.html?mid=twitter_vulture

...i fuckin love this

Ryan Adams Is Finally Releasing His 1989 Covers Album

Ever since Ryan Adams announced last month ...

Yeah, finally, what took him so long?

"There'll be a very special guest on the phone..."

Golly, I wonder who that could be!

still wish he would've done Red

is this a digital only release, or, physical version as well ?

(suspect digital only, but hey, we can but hope .. )

"all you had to do was stay" is wonderful

OK, Brad, because it's you.

lol

he's also successfully renewed my interest in "this love" and "i know places," or in the case of the latter generated interest. it makes so much more sense as an expansive dirtbag rock song

Yeah, he actually improves on the weakest tracks. "Bad Blood" is better, too. The stronger tracks he just follows their lead. It would be hard to screw up "Blank Space," but I like his take -- I foresee a Taylor/Ryan duet of it on Fallon or somewhere similar.

They match pretty well, IMHO. Adams is a better singer and arranger than her or Nathan Chapman (hard for me to compare him to Max Martin since they're so different), and I prefer her songwriting. Blank Space is great, though it sounds not too far removed from the original Swift voice memo version from the 1989 deluxe edition.

Yeah, I had the same thought about the demo. It's basically a fleshed-out version of that, with some nice harmonies on the chorus.

These covers sounded more exciting as snippets posted on Instagram. Hearing the full thing is proving to be a bit of a drag.

I think this is the lamest thing I've ever heard

waaaaaayy too quiet. This is precisely why I avoid Adams' kind of music.

I liked Ryan Adams in the early/mid 90s circa Whiskeytown's debut, but I haven't bothered with him since then. these covers are borrrrrrring.

I hadn't listened to Ryan Adams in years, because he is generally full of shit, but I really like his self titled from last year. So sure, this marks a return to fucking around, but I have hopes it is something my kids and I can enjoy.

I'm with Josh that self titled album is his best record.

Cold Roses is definitely my favorite of his solo records. Strangers Almanac with Whiskeytown is pretty hard to top overall.

idk i kinda think the s/t while refreshing is a little underwritten. maybe that's what ppl like about it

Finally, someone found a way to rob "Shake it Off" of any sense of energy or fun, and make it dreary and boring, like it was always meant to be!

I wonder if I can con one of these fuckers into doing a hot acoustic guitar take on Toni Basil's "Mickey?"

he's also successfully renewed my interest in "this love" and "i know places," or in the case of the latter generated interest. it makes so much more sense as an expansive dirtbag rock song

― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Monday, September 21, 2015 7:02 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i have zero intention of giving this the time of day because acoustic indie covers of pop songs can go fuck themselves always & forever, just popping in to defend the honour of the og "i know places". it's sooooooo dramatic and one of the few songs on 1989 that i fully adore

i know you love "i know places" lex

The RA self titled has a nice way of nodding to lots of stuff I like, like the War on Drugs album, but better played, recorded, arranged, etc. I think that's why I liked it. Never really liked his capital A alt country stage.

listened to a few tracks. sounds like something he just threw together at home for fun and he should have just given copies to his friends and family as a goof. but maybe he was sad that nobody cares about him anymore? and here people are talking about him, so, there you go.

Ryan Adams is so far up his own ass he very well might disappear.

Wonder if this is going to be his highest-charting album.

mark kozelek version would have been better.

normally completely agree with suggestion that treacly acoustic covers of chart pop songs by pale balladeers are unwelcome

but it's taylor swift

that's baked into her thing at the molecular level no matter what collaborators she's currently using

also fwiw it's mostly a full-band record, not some tossed-off "ironic indie aoustic covers" thing. almost as slick as the original, in a different way.

yeah it's also not really ironic

anyway i kind of hope the ultimate product of this is ryan producing taylor's next record

also, it's a lot more roots than indie isn't it? makes more sense in a swift genre perspective too

i am just coming by to say I love that he turned Welcome to New York into a Springsteen song, it was so obvious looking back now but it kinda delighted me

and i really like this album

sounds pretty good to me altho I'm not a taylor fan so i don't know 70% of these songs. So for me it's basically a new Ryan Adams originals album with a few covers.

Shake it Off is annoying by both artists tho.

i am just coming by to say I love that he turned Welcome to New York into a Springsteen song, it was so obvious looking back now but it kinda delighted me

the verse kinda reminded me of "i could never take the place of your man" so i was just sort of hoping that was a natural result of compressing taylor's lyrics into a rock structure

omg you're right. i didnt hear that the first time but that's def there

'style' is not my favorite, something about it feels illfitting/awkward

his version of 'out of the woods' makes me like hers a bit more now, i never took to it til now

http://i.imgur.com/ZTuatCU.png

can't figure out if this is expert trolling or otm

omg

all you had to do was stay!

brilliant
it's one of my faves on her album & he nailed it, pretty much perfect <3

sorry I'll stop

i was tentative about this but i've listened to it like three times idk

think "this love" is the best cover on this, he really expands it emotionally

feel like greg dulli could do a killer cover of "i wish you would"

I really wish he and mark lanegan would cover more things.

so yeah v predictably the sparest covers here work the best for me (plus "All You Had to do Was Stay")

i wish ryan adams and mark lanegan and greg dulli would make an album together that i would never listen to. of N.W.A. covers naturally. done country style. because those are HILARIOUS.

I don't really think any of those people are into ironic lolsy covers?

I gave up on him from gold onwards but akm is quite right aboug love is hell, it is pretty good. He often reminds me of jeff buckley there. Another diva. Btw the title track is one of the weaker songs.

And why the hell did he cover wonderwall, the biggest stinker in the universe?

My 10-year old daughter's reaction: "Wow, this really makes you pay attention to the bad lyrics." I think she liked it, though.

father john misty covering ryan adams covering taylor swift:

https://soundcloud.com/fatherjohnmisty/blank-space

In future, we will all have covered Taylor Swift.

the narcocorrido ballad style on "I know places" is p dope imo

'that's how you get the girl' <3 <3 <3
aaahh killing me rn

I would never listen to Taylor but I like this album

He is slated to play Bridge Benefit this year (and I am going), hoping for a Taylor set (plz o plz)

Yeah, this is very much of a piece with that last album, so I like it a lot. Swift's songs are at their essence pretty simple, so it's neat to hear him take them in the opposite direction. Not huge pop productions but dark night melancholy, more or less built on the same basic frames. Fun exercise to hear them re-contextualized. His conviction is key.

listened to a few tracks. sounds like something he just threw together at home for fun and he should have just given copies to his friends and family as a goof. but maybe he was sad that nobody cares about him anymore? and here people are talking about him, so, there you go.

― scott seward, Monday, September 21, 2015 9:01 AM (8 hours ago)

The first part of this may be true - and I suspect might've been had Taylor not responded publicly - but the second part of this makes me think that it's just maybe a teensy weensy bit possible you have no idea what you're talking about. There was significant press/buzz around the self-titled release. He sells out multi-thousand-capacity venues all over the world. People definitely care about and talk about Ryan Adams, though not as many as Taylor Swift.

I'm not here to play Cap't Save-A-Sad-Troubadour but the ignorance of RA's sound, style, stature, etc., in this thread is ... oh wait, no, it's exactly as expected.

i guess i just never hear about him.

Fair enough. :)

read the rolling stone thing today where he said he started doing it by himself with a 4-track a la Nebraska but then went into a studio instead. he also said he had no intention of releasing it and that he was just gonna make it and play it for taylor and be done with it. which i totally don't believe.

he's big in Japan

you have to admit though that people who NEVER think or talk about ryan adams are doing just that right now. including me. so, really, it was a good idea in the immediate scheme of things.

"you got that Daydream Nation look in your eye"

you just have to mean it.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ryan-adams-on-his-full-album-taylor-swift-cover-you-just-have-to-mean-it-20150921

ok calling this a "novelty-free endeavor" is either reaaalll tongue-in-cheek or just absurd

(this thread was also started 10 years ago and it took 6 years for someone to revive it. i'm not the only person not thinking about him around here...)

There are probably two dozen Ryan Adams threads, I'm pretty sure at least one other was active before today.

This album is definitely a novelty, so I think by "novelty-free endeavor" someone might mean it's not ironic. Which it is not. Which, of course, means it is. (Though it isn't)

i have zero intention of giving this the time of day because acoustic indie covers of pop songs can go fuck themselves always & forever...

― lex pretend, Monday, September 21, 2015

oh please

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLWpyRAaybU

I really like most cover versions from the Speak Now tour, even the lamest ones sounded earnest. Her "Summer of 69" cover is a total highlight.

This improves on the second listen, with diminished expectations. Getting to track #10 wasn't as difficult as the first time.

Even though the arrangements in this version of the album sound more unified than the original, in Swift's version there was a sense of progression from track 1 to 13 that's missing here. The original sounded like there was a story unfolding; this one goes for more of an atmosphere or a kind of mood, but I find it more aimless.

So much hate. I like it a lot.

I can't stop listening to it, I love it

I'm even warming up to 'Style'

i am just coming by to say I love that he turned Welcome to New York into a Springsteen song, it was so obvious looking back now but it kinda delighted me

― Flamenco Drop (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, September 21, 2015

OTM

his version of 'out of the woods' makes me like hers a bit more now, i never took to it til now

― Flamenco Drop (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, September 21, 2015

man i can hear a kate bush cover of his cover of into the woods dying to get out and it is incredible. or tori.

what is "how you get the girl" reminding me of?
there's springsteen in the vocal and "re:stacks" in the guitar but there's also a specific song i can't place...

xpost ooh good call re kate bush

lol at my freudian on "out of the woods"

everyone's namechecking born to run-era springsteen on "welcome to new york" and i listen to the melody and hear "no surrender"

There's one remake with rim taps that reminded me of "I'm on Fire." Which is that?

that would be "shake it off"

and you would be otm

what is "how you get the girl" reminding me of?
there's springsteen in the vocal and "re:stacks" in the guitar but there's also a specific song i can't place...

― resulting post (rogermexico.), Tuesday, September 22, 2015

omg it's "black boys on mopeds"

okay imma stop livetweeting here but this is his best record i'n'it?

I'm On Fire/Shake It Off killed me, like i had to repeat it a couple of times because i was so into it

I have liked Adams for along time but I dont think I've ever flipped out this hard for a whole album of his before

it helps that i like 1989 a lot already though too. i think if you are lukewarm on both it's a bigger leap to get there

I've only listened once and it was with my daughter, but I liked everything I heard. I'm also a long time Ryan Adams fan, and love 1989. My daughter refers to Taylor Swift as "Her Style" and seemed amused to hear a guy singing Her Style songs.

Man this is good.

Anyone who likes this and hasn't heard the self titled, do yourself a huge favor and check it out.

I heard S/T back when it came out and it didn't do much for me, but I'll give it another shot.

i slogged my way through this in the end, did it over the course of two days because i lost the will to live midway through. what a terrible album. i can't tell if he's murdered all of the original melodies deliberately or bc he just can't sing

(i actually had...not high hopes, but hopes, after "welcome to new york", which is indeed much better and even nearly acceptable! then, the rest of it.)

oh lexpaws

btw the intro to "all you had to do was stay" = "just like heaven"

the guitar riff at the beginning of bad blood is wonderwall

read the rolling stone thing today where he said he started doing it by himself with a 4-track a la Nebraska but then went into a studio instead. he also said he had no intention of releasing it and that he was just gonna make it and play it for taylor and be done with it. which i totally don't believe.

― scott seward, Tuesday, September 22, 2015 12:35 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol i totally believe this i have a half dozen bootlegged unreleased albums, this could totally be another

he did cover all of Is This It and it's never been released. So it's not like he doesn't have previous

My daughter refers to Taylor Swift as "Her Style" and seemed amused to hear a guy singing Her Style songs.

― JacobSanders, Wednesday, September 23, 2015 1:15 AM (17 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is adorable

I gave up on him from gold onwards but akm is quite right aboug love is hell, it is pretty good. He often reminds me of jeff buckley there. Another diva. Btw the title track is one of the weaker songs.

― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Monday, September 21, 2015 8:44 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i definitely hear love is hell as a precursor for this, he always said it was his morrissey record

"This Love" is like the greatest Sam Smith song ever. And this is just me reading into it, but in his version it strikes me as not a love song but a guy deciding not to commit suicide. Like someone on the other side of a midlife crisis, re-engaging with life.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/21101-1989/
Don't agree with Richardson but I think he wrote a very good review

The strained effort and feeling with which he sings the last chorus of 'Style' is exhilirating and puzzling...'we never go out of style'...it sounds like he's pleading for his life...as a listener I feel like consoling him somehow...'ok man, don't worry about it. You won't.'

Time for a reality check for that metacritic score.

that was an admirably straightforward review.

Swift's 1989 songs are written for a specific kind of production—the melodies are clipped, percussive, and designed to hit with force at very specific times. They are written to be electro-pop songs, which rely more on big dynamic changes and repeating cells of melody.

I don't think this is true of most of the album, is the thing. I think it's more the reverse -- they were largely written as Taylor Swift songs, and then retooled and polished as Max Martin productions. Which is why I think the Adams version of "Blank Space" works just fine (even though I think Richardson's right about "Shake It Off"). And the mid-tempo songs, which aren't all that electro-pop on Taylor's album anyway, adapt easily to Ryan's settings.

I don't love the Ryan record, but I like it, and the best 5-6 tracks off of it I think work really well.

they were largely written as Taylor Swift songs

I don't know – this album feels more like a full-on collaboration between Swift + Shellbck + Martin, et. al instead of "Here's some songs, add drum machines to them."

I don't think this is true of most of the album, is the thing. I think it's more the reverse -- they were largely written as Taylor Swift songs, and then retooled and polished as Max Martin productions...

― something totally new, it’s the AOR of the twenty first century (tipsy mothra), Friday, September 25, 2015

Exactly. It's an especially weird position to take given the sentence that comes before, which is kind of the point of the entire exercise: "Every recorded song is the end point of a long road with many possible forks in it—a series of small decisions about chord changes, melody lines, lyrics, and arrangements."

I don't love the Ryan record, but I like it, and the best 5-6 tracks off of it I think work really well.

Can I agree with this and still believe it's among his best records? He's never not done concept albums (the Dylan record, the 70s rock record, the 80s rock record, the Grateful Dead record, the Nashville record etc etc) and this feels of a piece with that project but while I know the sequencing was debated endlessly in the 1989 thread, his 1989 benefits from the original's tight curation.

Everyone's always saying he needs an editor, and what makes this work as a Ryan Adams record is that he doesn't have an opportunity to cover the compositions that didn't make the final cut.

xpost Not like that, more like "here are some demos with me and a guitar, do the thing you do with them."

xpost Yeah, if this were a Ryan Adams album proper it would be twice as long, with original Adams songs in the style of Taylor Swift.

Though as even my lil' daughter (who is not a big fan of Swift's 1989, for some reason) noticed, presented as guy with guitar songs as opposed to big productions really shines a light on the weakness of the lyrics when they lose the top 40 turbo boost.

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, September 25, 2015 7:48 AM

pfft what does your lil' daughter know. the lyrics are great. what does she want Jason Mraz?

Man, I'll take Nobel Laureate poet Swift over almost everything else she and her peers like these days.

the Dylan record

which one is this?

Heartbreaker

cool!

depression sets in. 1989 is a very good record, and RA's 1989 is a very good record, and the freeway pileup of thinkpieces (and inevitable Wave 2 thinkpieces about the thinkpieces) is enough to make me slit my wrists. music/"culture" writing in the twitter age can, by and large, go fuck itself.

Yeah, tbf I really hadn't encountered or looked for any mass of reactions, and now that I've seen them ... ugh, they just make everyone look bad, for their blanket dismissals of Adams, for their dismissals of Swift, for claiming that he makes her sound good, to claiming that she is a better songwriter than he, to people invoking the term "mansplaining," all sorts of shit. The fact of the matter is, if this had a different title and slightly different lyrics, no one would know its inspiration, and most Adams fans would probably put it on par with some of his moodier albums. Like the one that came out last year.

people might not think it was inspired at all

?

Adams' 1989, for all its sincerity and technical execution, is ultimately hollow because it's nothing but context. There's everything surrounding it (the unexpected match of singer and song, the details of the release) and there's what you bring to it (your relationship to the music of Swift and Adams, your demographic profile, your feelings on rock and pop and covers in general) but there's no essential reason for it to exist.
Fuck this shit, I wish I didn't know what this is suppose to imply, but this makes me hate critics and never want to read reviews of music.

yeah i hated reading that

i get what he's trying to say but the thing is he's trying to say something very stupid. get one quixote of pierre menard.

mark richardson is caca

claiming that he makes her sound good, to claiming that she is a better songwriter than he

these are both true to the point of obvious

surprised to find 1989 available for download on google's own server

http://i.imgur.com/nB9gA99.png

then again, since it's not available on any streaming services apart from apple music...

(a lot of people use google drive for filesharing)

I guess that makes sense, still surprised to see a pirated version of 1989 as result #2

claiming that he makes her sound good, to claiming that she is a better songwriter than he

these are both true to the point of obvious

Clearly not, because on the former point I was relating the claim some have made that she is terrible and he makes her sound good. That's what I meant. She's definitely a better songwriter than Adams, though I personally don't rate either that high, tbh.

I don't know taylor swift at all but this cover album is pretty great. Adams sounds so much like a reincarnation of springsteen that it hurts. I am pretty sure i wouldn't give a shit about taylor swift's original. Or am i wrong?

Yeah, i probably wouldn't push Taylor on people who like painful Springsteen imitations

mark richardson is caca

A couple of us have hammered at it, but anyone who has long tuned out Ryan Adams, or never tuned in to begin with, would probably like that self-titled Adams record, which is rife with nods to Springsteen, Tom Petty, etc., and sounds like a better version of (his) "1989." I mean, check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lpGaTzHb9c

Or this, which is similarly "Refugee"-esque to great effect: For that matter, I could imagine this totally Max Martin-ed out into a huge pop-rock song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu4CxPKBTK8

I still think of this guy as the guy from a b-squad Uncle Tupelo ripoff band

He is/was. But he's released so much, from metal and punk to generic alt country that every once in a while he gets on base.

Thanks for hammering at it, finally gave in and looked it up and it delivers

I still think of this guy as the guy from a b-squad Uncle Tupelo ripoff band

― Ma$e-en-scène (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, September 28, 2015 2:38 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

m@tt u r better than this bad opinione

has his singing improved in the past 20 years? b/c i heard a whiskeytown song on the radio the other day, and it wasn't terrible, but his voice was all over the place.

Depends what he's imitating

i think in whiskeytown he was going for a much more affected country thing and hadn't really found his voice yet? idk imo

He + band sounded good doing Bad Blood and Style on The Daily Show tonight. He played coy when Trevor said people assumed he was covering the album ironically, but *shrug*.

All You Had to Do Was Stay still getting overlooked the same way it did last year when people were talking about Taylor's album. Best song on either version imo.

"He delivers "Shake It Off" in a grim and determined tone that would be appropriate if he were singing about how conservative politics have decimated rural families at the inaugural Farm Aid"

Can't hate a review with a line like that

Maybe those rural families should have stayed home from the first Farm Aid if they didn't want to be bummed out (by the debut of Van Hagar).

I just appreciate a Farm Aid joke in 2015. Sometimes a reference is so far from topical that it becomes sublime.

Sigh It's now a world full of a bunch of cargo dad pants bands with soulless, bullshit lyrics and about the level of danger you might feel if you mixed hot fries with ginger ale. Fuck that

lol this from a guy who's last album is a Taylor Swift cover record

tbf that's a more dangerous move than any cargopants band is gonna muster

Ryan's super self-conscious, deliberate fashion affectations always kinda bothered me.

New album, "Prisoner" has leaked, out next month. It's all about his divorce. Some really good songs, some boring retreads. The press says he's channelling Bruce Hornsby's 80s work.

Really liked the self-titled, really liked the Taylor Swift, like what I've heard of this so far. It's like he glommed on to what Kurt Vile and War On Drugs have been doing and is sort of doing the same thing but turned around. That is, rather than indie guys nodding to Tom Petty/classic rock etc., this is someone closer to Tom Petty nodding to indie stuff nodding to Tom Petty/classic rock. Meta MOR?

His episode of WTF podcast the other day was pretty good.

There's no reason why I *shouldn't* like RA because I like all of his touchstones, but somehow it's always so MOR that I can't latch on to anything and then the song is over

I like but don't love the new one so far. The WTF interview was very, very good IMO. Live he still brings it. I don't mind the direction on the last couple studio albums, I think the songs are there, but the production is wearisome. I really liked what he did with 1989...

I want to back up my praise a little, I don't like the new one nearly as much as I like self-titled and Taylor Swift.

new one seems a little underwritten (lyrically - but more importantly - musically)

there's no stand-out track like Shadows, for me. a track that UPS the drama.

instead it fedexes the drama

new one seems a little underwritten (lyrically - but more importantly - musically)

I concur, it's *almost* a very good record but it feels like it needed more time in the oven.

i like this better than the s/t because it seems more written, actually. many of the songs on the s/t seem to stop just on the edge of being memorable and feel very automatically written. at least "prisoner" and "doomsday" on this record remind me a lot of love is hell which imo was his strongest record melodically

though "haunted house" sounds like a more unconsciously-written springsteen song than any song on the last few actual springsteen records lol

all right i will admit on second listen that maybe some of these songs could use bridges

Yes, that's it precisely. And we all know that Ryan is exceedingly prolific, sometimes I wonder if he just tosses something off and then moves on to the next idea, maybe gives a quick rewrite/addition before recording and that's that.

instead it fedexes the drama

gheh! :D (for a minute I thought you were taking a socretean approach to understanding the praxis of R. Adams)

but seriously, the super glossy production (which I do like - in a guilty pleasure kind of way) only emphasizes the fact that the songs are a tad too simple.

maybe he should release a lo-fi tape version of this.

self-titled one was jawdroppingly good imo so I'm looking forward to checking this one out but the kv/WoD comparisons aren't encouraging -- even though I like both of those acts fairly well but that's not what I want from Ryan Adams

fwiw the album does not sound like a new war on drugs record

No, it doesn't. I just meant sort of this Springsteen/Petty/et al. classic vibe, but with atmospheric indie reverb and rougher production.

Listening again, I still like self-titled better, at the least as a mood piece.

I think "Haunted House" reminds me of a cross between East River Pipe and Melissa Etheridge.

"Anything I Say to You Now" might be my fave, but it sounds a lot like the last record.

this is good comfort food as were the self titled and ashes & fire. i still approve

It's nice to see people really like the s/t album, because that was my jumping on point with Ryan Adams. The production on this new record is great, but outside of a few tunes (ie To Be Without You, Do You Still Love Me, and Haunted House) nothing is sticking with me like the last album. It's very odd that he wrote over 60 tunes and these are the ones that made the final cut.

Did anybody pick up the box set? I'm interested if he ended up cutting some of the better songs off the album.

In Edinburgh he's playing the Usher Hall, in Belfast he's playing the Ulster Hall. My girlfriend got a bit confused buying tickets this morning... any Belfast holiday tips?

i love sharpling shitting on ryan adams too good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn4vnQg09bw

My younger daughter was singing Taylor Swift songs, and of course she's been in the news again, so I put on his "1989." Still really good. "I Know Places" might be my fave, that and his "Shake It Off."

i'm really digging prisoner (and the b-sides).

don't know any of his other stuff really, he has a lot of albums!

Prisoner seemed like a big let down after the great self titled album, but it has never left my potation since it came out.

happy he's happy/sober, but he's fully settled into paint-by-numbers w/ Prisoner

His recent attack on the Strokes makes me wonder, but I hope he is.

Yeah, well.

for years, Ryan Adams has used his influence in music to lure in and emotionally torment women@melenar & I talked to some, including Mandy Moore, Phoebe Bridgers & a young woman who says her sexual texts w Adams while she was underage killed her dreams https://t.co/OuGkTDzyNQ

— Joe Coscarelli (@joecoscarelli) February 13, 2019

The most shocking thing about that piece is that Mandy Moore went on the record. Given her status thanks to This Is Us, this piece could fuck up his year pretty badly.

This article was texted out as a NYTimes news alert

this guy is simply vile

that was a dark read

i mean, he pretty much oozed LA rock cokehead scumbag vibes but this is worse than expected

ugh

This fuck.

Worth noting that Ryan Adams sent this deranged (and now deleted) tweet earlier today ahead of the New York Times exposé being published. pic.twitter.com/rd8mVkSEQk

— ⭐ amy o'connor ⭐ (@amyohconnor) February 13, 2019

I interviewed him when I was a magazine intern, around the time of Love is Hell. He was repulsively dumb and made a joke about how his bad reviews were karmic payback for his ancestors lynching slaves.

dfjafldjgl;f;fkgjaf;jdl;sfadfsdzf

Christ.

i imagine that a lot of rock star guys are scared right now

— Juliana Hatfield (@julianahatfield) February 13, 2019

Days later, Adams expressed anxiety: “If people knew they would say I was like R Kelley lol,” he wrote.

you ain't wrong buddy

Let's learn I bait

...

What a sad little man.

it’s always “I’m sorry but”. but what!? the women who have come forward have nothing to gain by telling their story. nothing! they risk losing everything though. pic.twitter.com/pJNa5G0jnN

— Sarah MacDonald (@sarahsmacdonald) February 13, 2019

when I first heard him in 2000-2001, saw how he dressed, and how he comported himself in interviews, I thought there was now way this man who probably smelled like a jockstrap from which toadstools sprung would ever make interesting music and was probably a post-rock-boom asshole.

Well here's a nexus.

good lord pic.twitter.com/XQzohaqrWQ

— josh terry (@JoshhTerry) February 13, 2019

He's enthusiastic about semicolons.

Somehow I doubt the same person who wrote the deleted tweet also drafted those two tweets

These must be boom times for the crisis management field

At least not the same person in the same state. xp

Let's learn I bait

what?

Not sure "let's learn I bait" is the type of thing to tweet the day an expose comes out about you with underage girls.

A crisis management pro would have ordered him off of Twitter by now, I think.

They're gonna have to edit that scene in "This Is 40" where Paul Rudd drags Leslie Mann to see Adams in concert... make it the guy from Eels, or somebody like that.

He's DIY crisis management, maaaan.

Nah, he’s had two decades of polished lawyers and publicists.

I wonder how many mistaken hate tweets Bryan Adams is getting

— Miss Behavior (@Rbrbndgrl) February 14, 2019

summer of 6 and 9

Encountered Ryan Adams one night long ago. He was a complete piece of shit + it involved how he was treating his ex-girlfriend. On the upside, I did become a character in his song ‘Harder Now That It’s Over’. This is true. And the handcuffs in that song are not a metaphor.

— Carl Newman (@ACNewman) February 13, 2019

https://genius.com/16494876

Everything I’ve ever heard about Ryan Adams has been very very bad, but not as bad as his 29 album

Love to Mandy Moore. I remember feeling bad for her then - she always seemed more level-headed and capable than her teenpop peers at the time but kept making terrible dating choices (Andy Roddick, Zach Braff before Adams). And then they got married and she stopped releasing albums. I just thought she was done with music. :(

She seems fine, here's a good discussion with her:

http://wearecampfire.media/episodes/baby-one-more-time-with-mandy-moore/

I haven't seen "This Is Us" but I'm happy her acting career seems to be doing well!

Hmm, had never heard this...

OHMYGOD! THE LINDSAY LOHAN IS DATING THE RYAN ADAMS!

I went to see Ryan Adams on his Rock'n'Roll tour in 2003 and I knew from the show that he was a total bellend. Nothing about this seems even remotely surprising, particular after figuring out that Motion Sickness was about him.

Anyone who writes that many pseudo-personal songs is clearly adept at fabricating emotions.

_Days later, Adams expressed anxiety: “If people knew they would say I was like R Kelley lol,” he wrote._


you ain't wrong buddy

Maybe his Everything I Do, I Do It For You song was him trying to cover his manipulative behaviour?

— Mart (@coronafcjohn) February 13, 2019

Hahaha, that's top trolling, poor Bryan Adams.

The "I don't recall anything" line when the Times has thousand of your text messages is an ambitious defense.

I hope Juliana Hatfield is right and a lot of rock star guys are about to be exposed.

ryan adams once asked me if i wanted to start a goth band with him and i told him to fuck off

— yung zeej feat. lil zoji (@ZOLAJESUS) February 14, 2019

I am kind of surprised that the revelation he groomed an underage girl isn't the lead in the NY Times headline.

All the other stuff is horrible, obviously, but that's a criminal matter and surely jail time.

I was surprised about that too. The other things are worse than I imagined—the obsessive messaging, threatening suicide and controlling behavior stuff—but not a surprise to fans of phoebe bridgers.

I feel like I've read this exact same story before about Chris Hardwick

surely jail time

if there's one thing the #metoo movement has reliably given us so far, it's jail time for the guilty

For some it has

I doubt he'll be convicted. But I do hope he will be blacklisted. Fuck this dude.

And most of them weren’t pursuing 14 year olds.

when I first heard him in 2000-2001, saw how he dressed, and how he comported himself in interviews, I thought there was now way this man who probably smelled like a jockstrap from which toadstools sprung would ever make interesting music and was probably a post-rock-boom asshole.

― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, February 13, 2019 11:41 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

honestly whenever i heard about or saw a photo of ryan adams my first thought was always, "that guy almost certainly smells bad." obviously that was the least of it.

i liked that whiskeytown record when i was in college but i tried listening to it a few years ago and tossed it in the garbage.

of course he could be stravinsky and his behavior would still be horrid as fuck, so i guess my opinion of his music is beside the point.

I'm just gonna come out and say it....I never liked the music of Ryan Adams

bold stance!

"if there's one thing the #metoo movement has reliably given us so far, it's jail time for the guilty"

How many of them were caught grooming a kid, though?

at least one other musician (jesse lacey of brand new) but most of the grooming had occurred ten-fifteen years before the news came out iirc, i don’t expect him to face jail time

I like "Firecracker" and that's about it. He will not be missed.

was he really putting out three albums this year

the times article made it seem like adams probably knew the girl was underage—and even joked about it— but the text messages leave enough room for plausible deniability. i doubt a prosecutor takes this up

xposts Ugh Jesse Lacey. I loved Brand New but couldn't stomach their music anymore after reading about what he did.

And I was disappointed that some ilxors actually nominated and voted for their album in last year's EOY.

By last year, I mean 2017.

As #metoo's go, Ryan Adams is probably the least surprising this side of TJ Miller.

Did he date Winona Ryder at some point, or am I confusing him with another shaggy-haired musician?

rip

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzX3UuvWsAAJuU9.jpg:small

Wasn't James Franco busted texting with an underage kid, too?

Anyway, I like one or two Ryan Adams things, so I guess ... 3% of his output? I always knew he was a scumbag, though.

xpost Hes always had a reputation as a giant douche. He comes across very badly in the "meet me in the bathroom" book where it says he introduced Albert Hammond Jr to heroin

Did he date Winona Ryder at some point, or am I confusing him with another shaggy-haired musician?

― yuh yuh (morrisp), 14 February 2019 15:40 (one minute ago)

You're thinking of Dave Pirner from Soul Asylum

lol neil 'i'm friends with bono' mccormick, what a dipshit

xp Ah, thx

i always wonder how we're gonna react when prince me too stuff comes out

the parsing of her age in the piece just illuminates how stupid age-of-consent arguments are. it's just weird that showing your 40 year-old dick to a 16 year-old is wrong but showing your 40 year-old dick to an 18 year-old is fine and dandy. they're both super gross!

I think it’s important to have a legal line though.

Not all sleazy behavior is criminal

I don't know anything about Ryan Adams, but I remember listening to Phoebe Bridgers on this podcast, where she told the PR-version of the Ryan Adams story (ie no bad behavior, just getting 'discovered' etc), and feeling that there were weird vibes around the edges of it. I just remember thinking that it was kind of a miracle that he wasn't trying to take advantage of the scenario as it was described. Oh well.
http://www.noeffectsshow.com/blog/2018/4/17/100-phoebe-bridgers

i always wonder how we're gonna react when prince me too stuff comes out

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), 14 February 2019 15:50 (seven minutes ago)

Do you know something we don't?

only thing one time my boss at a temp job was dancing at Glam Slam and a big bouncer came up to her and said Prince wants to meet you so she went up to his lair and he was reclined on a couch, she was wearing a cat suit (90s) and he said "is that a mystery suit?" and she was like "uh...i guess?"...then it became apparent that she wasn't going to strip and f him on the spot so they stood there for a sec and then they led her back to the club

a guy i used to work with was his main video guy in the 90s, i'm not saying he said that prince did anything heinous but overall he was very manipulative and cold to people, he's achieved a sort of sainthood in death...he did stiff this guy for hundreds of thousands then tried to sue him to death but i think prince had to settle

just saying given the times he lived and all it wouldn't shock me if there was a lot stuff that would not be okay by today's standards

Adams and Winona were supposedly involved in the early 2000s, although take that with a grain of salt because (A) Ryder was supposedly 'linked' w/lots of musicians then, and (B) since then almost all of that has been proven to have been blown out of proportion.

I think it's nearly completely useless to circle around the "I knew this guy was sleazy" or "this guy gave me a bad vibe" talk because it comes way too close to "I told you so" type of things or, in the absolute worse case, "these women knew what they were in for"

I'm probably soured by the twitter replies to this story where fans -- a lot of them women -- are saying things like "oh this isn't as bad as I expected it might be" and "he has mental health/substance abuse issues and people know that" as if the magical combination of being talented/popular and having issues means that we're supposed to accept that shitty things will happen.

the entire "well, you know what you signed up for" line of opinion takes for granted the fact that no, a lot of people (and especially not fourteen year olds (!)) have no clue what they're in for, and even when you have an inkling that bad things could happen. by the time you're far enough in to a personal interaction/relationship the curve of complete shittyness might have been gradual enough that your own life is stuck in that shit, or your fate seems entwined enough that you feel like you can't walk away. especially when the total shithead is standing there explaining that you're less valuable alone

this is all regarding Adams, I don't know or want to speculate about anyone else. it's just too much for one day

this is a bit of a tangent but when I read this story I had a vague memory, googled, and sure enough, he was apparently involved with lindsay lohan in the mid-2000s. the reason I bring this up is that she seems to have known, if not everyone, then a huge cross-swath of terrible peole in the movie and/or music industries. (there was that article about the canyons movie where the reporter mentions her pleading not to have to be around james deen, and everyone took it as a "lol she's acting out" kind of thing, then the story about him broke a few years later.)

btw my probably vv obvious read on Adams saying "tell me you're 18" was that he knew she wasn't, but he wanted her to say it so he could say she told him she was 18.

xp In her new MTV show about her beach resort in Mykonos, she mentions "safety" a few times as a reason for opening that resort, wonder if that has to do with ^^^

I would suspect he is relatively small fry in that, but who really knows

xpost Def. heard a story of an underage girl being groomed for Prince for when she turned 18.

I got into an argument with my wife about groupies. She thought it was a different situation, because the groupies aren't necessarily out for professional gain, but I thought the imbalance of power was still pretty rife for exploitation.

I was very good friends with Ryan during the short time that he lived in NYC, for about six months, and was in a punk-metal band that he had for a very short time in 1999-2000. I was friends with the woman that he wrote all the songs about on "heartbreaker" and so for a short time he rolled with the people I hung with in town at the time and I ended up spending a lot of time with him, playing music with him and other shit. This was the time that Whiskeytown had broken up and he may have been considered a has-been, too bratty, never sold that many records, fucked over some influential people, but he in my experience was somewhat humbled at the time.

the odd thing is that I strongly disliked Whiskeytown before meeting him, and his music from 2000 to now, including the shitty Taylor Swift album, makes my skin crawl. I cannot stand the New York song he's most famous for and everything I've heard him do since, on like WFUV or wherever, I am allergic to. Either this is a genuine reaction to him trying too hard to sound classic rock, or I am jealous of him, being that I have the same reaction to other guys that I have grown up with or have been friends with who have become very successful singer-songwriters who have made music that people all over the world care about, and I didn't.

And yet, he was a terrific friend to me; at one time, when I really needed a friend, he was emotionally generous to me. Apart from that, he was a super fun, charming guy who was voluble about music in ways that I appreciated, and also, admittedly, he was fun to do drugs and drink with. And as much as I didn't like his music, one time in a rehearsal room, he sat down at a piano and played a Richard Manuel sounding song that he wrote, and it was like he had an aura around him as he was performing this song with so much conviction and, yes, soul in front of three other guys. I had never been in a situation where I was around someone who had been touched like that. The music we did in the band wasn't like that, but they were good, mean punk-metal songs that were leagues better than songs by anyone I had played with at that time or would again. He had confidence in himself that was not charlatan-y.

But for talking to him briefly ten years ago, I have had no contact with since 2000. He evidently became sober in the mid 2000s, but various friends have told me that his success has emboldened his worst traits, which are quite abominable and you guys reading these words know all about them. The handcuffs incident that Carl Newman refers to was in my understanding was utterly repulsive, and it is true that he was an early adopter in terms of having disputes with and then harassing people online. There is no doubt that he has gotten away with shit because he has been lucky enough to sustain a very major label lifestyle/ support system that is unusual for someone of his commercial status for the past. He is spoiled rotten.

In the Me Too era, has there been a spouse, former or otherwise, that speaks up and says "Yeah fuck him" alongside other accusers? I think Mandy Moore is the first such spouse to have a role as such. And she's also more famous and more powerful than he is.

xp -- I'm sure there are dozens of stories like that about prince, but it's also just on record that he met several women he was involved with when they were under 18, like the whole anna fantastic thing

In the Me Too era, has there been a spouse, former or otherwise, that speaks up and says "Yeah fuck him" alongside other accusers?

― veronica moser, Thursday, February 14, 2019 11:54 AM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

joss whedon, rob porter, tons of others

“I feel like I've read this exact same story before about Chris Hardwick”

They are both celebrities with massive alcohol problems who engaged in this shit during times that coincided with dry periods which indicates to me that they probably didn’t really get sober in a very good way and/or this is the sort of behavior that fuels relapses. Not an excuse just an observation.

i have no doubt that he was cool and fun at times and capable of being a good friend.

i think i really turned on him after reading a long form strokes interview where he was described as a hanger-on who was always bringing heroin around.

and the way he dresses, that is enough to convict

ryan adams once asked me if i wanted to start a goth band with him and i told him to fuck off

— yung zeej feat. lil zoji (@ZOLAJESUS) February 14, 2019

Someone posted these recent Counting Crows lyrics on Twitter last night.
http://i67.tinypic.com/2u8v3ae.jpg

It's always the Ryan Adams types though never the Top people. Vaguely washed up spent forces from yesteryear. Same in Hollywood.. Spacey, Hoffman.. old decades-past-their-peak farts. It's never the Top 10 actors or massive rock stars or whoever. Like in England with the whole Yewtree stuff; always Fred The Weatherman and the bloke with the Wobbleboard, or Jim Davids0n never (INSERT BIG STAR HERE). It crosses my mind a lot to ask why that might be.

"too big to fail"

even w/something as extreme and blatant as the Weinstein crimes he had to be taken down by the biggest female stars currently working in Hollywood banding together with those whose careers he destroyed or inhibited. And it had to be a huge number.

les moonves was probably the most powerful person taken down by allegations

in the entertaiment industry, i mean

Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose

It's always the Ryan Adams types though never the Top people. Vaguely washed up spent forces from yesteryear. Same in Hollywood.. Spacey, Hoffman.. old decades-past-their-peak farts. It's never the Top 10 actors or massive rock stars or whoever. Like in England with the whole Yewtree stuff; always Fred The Weatherman and the bloke with the Wobbleboard, or Jim Davids0n never (INSERT BIG STAR HERE). It crosses my mind a lot to ask why that might be.

― piscesx, Thursday, February 14, 2019 12:29 PM (seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seems pretty obvious, more clout = more repercussions for someone speaking out, more people doing the math and deciding the risk is too strong

I feel like a lot of extremely famous people have lost their positions due to metoo. I disagree with the premise

well now I need to know more about big Jim D

whether Louis CK has been ruined is a debate as he's still out there doing comedy

but he certainly was one of the top comics and not perceived as washed up

also House of Cards was really big deal

The distinction being made is between house of cards-level established and absolute imperial phase fame (“top 10 actors or massive rock stars”), I cant think of any examples of the latter but if there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that ilxors love to argue endlessly on exactly how famous something is and I’m not sure that would be super helpful here

And CeeLo!

recent Counting Crows lyrics

those lyrics are 26 years old

Louie hasn't exactly emerged unscathed

Who is in that kind of untouchable “top 10 superstar” echelon? I’m not sure i even know

That’s ok

Re counting crows, i know nothing of the band, but those lyrics sound like they’re “in character” in some sense

The Lohan connection struck me because they were involved in early 2006, when she was still doing well (A Prairie Home Companion had just wrapped). And discovering this right after reading a rumor (lol Twitter) that he had introduced heroin to Parker Posey as well.

Someone might have mentioned it before, but the strokes hate him bc he kept encouraging one of them to do heroin with him

also ICP fans, the juggalos

lol

I think it's nearly completely useless to circle around the "I knew this guy was sleazy" or "this guy gave me a bad vibe" talk because it comes way too close to "I told you so" type of things

OTM. Also add "I never rated this guy..." to the completely useless file when discussing this stuff.

DO NOT read the comments on that Telegraph piece linked above, holy cow

honestly, i'm seeing a lot of posts from friends and acquaintances about their relationship with ryan's music and how hard these allegations are hitting them, and i'm not feeling a knowing glee or anything because i never liked the man or his music (besides 4 or 5 tracks on heartbreaker)--what i'm feeling is relief that i never had a deep musical connection with this guy.

I heard an interview with Jenny Lewis about working with RA on the Voyager album. While she told stories about him mostly as jokey anecdotes, there did seem to be a lot of pass/agg behavior & negging going on, and she still sounded a bit rattled.

Also add "I never rated this guy..." to the completely useless file when discussing this stuff.

― Position Position, Thursday, February 14, 2019 10:25 AM (ten minutes ago)

I actually rate his former band's cover of Gram Parson's "Song For You" pretty highly (never owned it though, unlike R. Kelly records).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoLZWWGM0EI

I actually forgot he was with Parker Posey, poor gal.

I heard an interview with Jenny Lewis about working with RA on the Voyager album. While she told stories about him mostly as jokey anecdotes, there did seem to be a lot of pass/agg behavior & negging going on, and she still sounded a bit rattled.

― We were never Breeting Borting (President Keyes), Thursday, February 14, 2019 11:37 AM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my mind immediately reeled back to this interview too

In a July 2014, interview with Rolling Stone, she spoke about Ryan Adams producing the album, saying: "In some ways, I felt like he was needling me. He was winding me up. I was somewhat agitated at times, and I think it put me in a really cool place to perform those songs. Ryan is the most unique producer I've ever worked with, in his approach and behavior… He made me listen to five or six Creed songs, really loudly on these beautiful tube speakers. My ears were bleeding. And it was Creed! He was like, "This is great music. I want you to hear it." And by the third song, I was like "Huh. Umm. Yeah, I can maybe see that."[4]

I’m wary of drawing connections between that type of thing and emotional abuse or sexual exploitation, honestly

Never admire anyone, never be disappointed.

(Doesn't mean don't disapprove or be outraged, n.b. it just saves you the step of "oh I thought he was a good egg.")

In hindsight that does seem ominous but still

that seems like typical record producer bullshit

It’s impossible to not admire anyone, ymp, without turning as bitter and cynical as most posters on ilx

Jenny Lewis story sounds obnoxious but innocuous, except for the Creed part.

tube speakers eh

ryan adams, go on the ‘awesome audiophile snake oil’ thread

I guess he was trying to tease her? Like, trick her into believing he thought creed was good

The Voyager is a good album

Evergreen comic

We found him, the smartest person on Earth. 🖋 by @Lubchansky pic.twitter.com/pKmnmNYv4B

— The Nib (@thenib) January 2, 2019

There is such an innate difference in power between famous people and civilians that I'm sure (most) of Adams' story is far from unique. I remember hearing an interview with Billy Joel, and he flat-out said some people are good looking, some people are funny, but he's rich and famous and that is what gets him beautiful women, or something like that. That's why groupies exist, the pull of that power. Now, the counterargument (from my wife) is that people attracted to famous people for the sake of it are different from people attracted to famous people with hopes for their own potential careers, and that's true, but the fact remains that it's still the person's fame that is usually pulling people in in the first place, and the dynamic is still unhealthy. Might be why so many famous people end up partnering with other famous people?

The underage stuff with Adams is the most damning of all these accusations.

the stuff with minors is bad but it's difficult for me to say it's quantifiably worse than manipulating/exploiting an adult

Well, to start with, one's illegal.

It’s less ambiguous

please god let’s not start this

What?

The "actually it's ephebophilia" argument

I said the opposite of that i think

Googles. Immediately regrets Googling.

Treesh, just admire artworks, it's way easier than admiring artists.

engaging in discussion about whether one type of abuse is ‘worse’ than another

it’s not going to be a useful or productive discussion xp to treesh

Oh Jesus don't Google that

Exploiting a minor is a cut and dry crime, deserving punishment.

Making your romantic partner feel bad about themselves and their abilities is evil, insidious behavior, but it’s harder for outsiders—or the state—to weigh in there, even if adams in the end did more harm in this instance

As a society i think we need to stand firm against hurting kids and not let this crime get lumped in with all ither kinds of bad behavior

*other

that comic is amazing

https://media.tenor.com/images/6963d20d7b183c1f9f5ce2ac6de1039f/tenor.gif

i've already seen the "the kid stuff is the worst part of these allegations" wrt to this case many times, and i find it specious, virtue signally, inconsiderate of other victims

les moonves was probably the most powerful person taken down by allegations

CBS is currently paying for the office space for Moonves' new business

i've already seen the "the kid stuff is the worst part of these allegations" wrt to this case many times, and i find it specious, virtue signally, inconsiderate of other victims

Ironically, I find your argument specious, because you mention "virtue signaling," which is not a thing - "oh, you don't really believe children shouldn't be sexually exploited - you're just showing off for the rest of the Internet!"

xp fair enough rip. i don’t want to downplay the other charges at all

^^ No, it's not "fair enough." To say one thing is worse than another, when it definitively is, is not to "downplay" the second thing. I know naïveté is your whole thing here, but just this one time, don't back away. You're not wrong.

xp really it's the notion that anything crepey automatically trumps anything else that i take issue with but moving on!

les moonves was probably the most powerful person taken down by allegations

CBS is currently paying for the office space for Moonves' new business

― steven, soda jerk (sic), Thursday, February 14, 2019 2:27 PM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

jeez. just more proof of his power, i guess.

To say one thing is worse than another, when it definitively is,

**puts on rubber gloves and breathing suit**

I'm not sure that sending lewd messages to teens is necessarily worse than psychologically abusing women and effectively ruining their careers

**runs away**

I take it back we should totally be debating whether Kevin Spacey is more famous than prince for 100 posts instead of this

If I do, I’ll write about it. But I think you can extrapolate. My experience was nowhere near as personally involving, but yes the record ended and the similarities are upsetting

— Liz Phair (@PhizLair) February 14, 2019

“Virtue signaling” is going on the internet and ranking abuses when you could say ... nothing?

boredom signaling iirc

Every man has the same come on
I'll make you a star
I'll take you a million miles from all this
Put you on a pedestal
Come on, come on
Have you ever heard those opening lines
You should leave this small town way behind
I'll be your partner
Show you the steps
With me behind your tasting of the sweet wine of success
Because I'll take you to the top, baby
Hey baby
I'll take you to the top
Step on the ladder
Toe in the pool
You're such a natural you don't need no acting school
Don't need no casting couch
Or be a star in bed
Never, never, never let success go to your pretty head
Cause I'll take you to the top, baby
I swear we'll never going to stop, baby
I'll take you to the top
Don't let the world pass you by
You better take your chance now baby
Or be sorry for the rest of your sweet loving life, baby
Oh, sugar
Hey sugar, I'll take you to the top
I'll take you to the top
I'll take you to the top, sugar

Great debate everyone. But let's not forget that in addition to all the bad things in that article, he also demeaned Mandy Moore for not playing an instrument.

Which means he is also rockist.

he is a rockist that makes music that could be none more rockist, and thus he by all rights should be a Blofeld/Luthor/Dr. Doom level villain w/r/t ILM . He does interviews where he sez "this is my Kreator song!" "this is my 45 Grave song!" or "This is my Green Velvet song" yet it always comes out as Petty/Springsteen/Parsons readymades.

An alt-country-rock performer I know IRL is a complete rockist by these standards, but the few times I have seen him mentioned here have been approving.

the thing about having the power of fame/talent means you have nearly endless resources to learn how to not be an abusive asshole and people double down because of this myth that you got to that point based on who you are as a person, so why change anything? people work with you and fans show up to your shows, so hey, keep on doing you, I guess

I mean, it sounds like Adams at least had glimpses of the reality that he's a total shithead but his bargaining phase was to try to get people to tell him that he's ok, or tell him lies about their age, or accept his cruel statements about them

Re: rockism — the day before the recent news broke, he made some press with this tweet:

Heartbreak Warfare by @JohnMayer is one of the best songs on one of the best albums of all time.
I don’t care what you think.
It’s his Blood On The Tracks. And it’s perfect. A perfect album https://t.co/oNaIgnqnhI

— Ryan Adams (@TheRyanAdams) February 12, 2019

john mayer also has a reputation

this Mayer fellow wrote a song called "Waiting for the World to Change"

he's in the Grateful Dead

"This is my Green Velvet song!" OK, I am actually curious to hear what the hell this sounds like

Making your romantic partner feel bad about themselves and their abilities is evil, insidious behavior, but it’s harder for outsiders—or the state—to weigh in there, even if adams in the end did more harm in this instance

― Trϵϵship, 14. februar 2019 20:21 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Psychological abuse is criminalized in many countries, and is in the process of being so in Denmark. While the age of consent is 15. So.

wonder how many teenage girls the Dead fucked while on the road. probably all of them!

Adams is obv a piece of shit. The whole spectrum of things he's accused of doing are bad. I do think he's written some great songs but they make up about 1/16th of his output from what I've listened to; and we've already established pieces of shit can make good art. doesn't mean you have to give him money or listen to him anymore though.

(xp) It's a criminal act in the UK. Or, it's a criminal act under English (& Welsh) Law and under Scottish Law but imagine it isn't in N. Ireland, judging by their past record.

john mayer also has a reputation

― theorizing your yells (katherine), Thursday, February 14, 2019 3:30 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He claimed his primary sex organ was a "white supremacist"

excuse me what

wrt prince

https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/how-princes-charisma-helped-him-7814476

When Prince spotted 18-year-old Tara Leigh Patrick in the early 1990s at a nightclub, he asked her to audition for him.

Prince signed her to his record label and came up with her new name: Carmen Electra.

After their romance the model went on to marry basketball player Dennis Rodman and singer Dave Navarro, but Carmen said of Prince: “I will always love him.”

English actress Anna Garcia met Prince at a London gig when she was 16 and lived with him in his Minneapolis home at the age of 17.

Prince gave her the name Anna Fantastic and she inspired his songs Pink Cashmere and Lemon Crush.

Marvin Gaye’s daughter Nona fell in love with Prince but their relationship ended when he met Mayte Garcia , who would become his first wife.

The relationship with Nona came to a screeching halt when Prince invited her to a show and she saw Mayte wearing an engagement ring.

Mayte had sent Prince a video of her bellydancing in 1990 when she was 16, and she was soon hired to be part of his Diamonds and Pearls tour.

On Valentine’s Day 1996, Mayte, then 22, married 37-year-old Prince. White doves were released when they said their vows. Prince wrote his 1995 hit song The Most Beautiful Girl In The World about her.

Mayte told the Mirror: “All the songs he wrote for me, that’s a pretty hard act to follow.

'I’ve dated a couple of guys, musicians, who have written me poems or songs and I’m like, ‘Seriously, don’t even go there. You can’t compete!’”

MAYER: Someone asked me the other day, “What does it feel like now to have a hood pass?” And by the way, it’s sort of a contradiction in terms, because if you really had a hood pass, you could call it a n****r pass. Why are you pulling a punch and calling it a hood pass if you really have a hood pass? But I said, “I can’t really have a hood pass. I’ve never walked into a restaurant, asked for a table and been told, ‘We’re full.'”

PLAYBOY: It is true; a lot of rappers love you. You recorded with Common and Kanye West, played live with Jay-Z.

MAYER: What is being black? It’s making the most of your life, not taking a single moment for granted. Taking something that’s seen as a struggle and making it work for you, or you’ll die inside. Not to say that my struggle is like the collective struggle of black America. But maybe my struggle is similar to one black dude’s.

PLAYBOY: Do black women throw themselves at you?

MAYER: I don’t think I open myself to it. My dick is sort of like a white supremacist. I’ve got a Benetton heart and a fuckin’ David Duke cock. I’m going to start dating separately from my dick.

Inspiring.

"What is being black? It’s making the most of your life, not taking a single moment for granted. Taking something that’s seen as a struggle and making it work for you, or you’ll die inside. Not to say that my struggle is like the collective struggle of black America. But maybe my struggle is similar to one black dude’s."

my fucking god

my struggle, by john mayer

https://ih0.redbubble.net/image.378578184.6509/throwpillow,small,750x1000-bg,f8f8f8.u11.jpg

Laura Snapes straight up mowing pricks down here:

Anyway here’s what I think about male “genius” and the pathetic lengths the music industry will go to in order to cover for awful men https://t.co/mVx3lqCwkU

— Laura Snapes (@laurasnapes) February 14, 2019

wonder how many teenage girls the Dead f****d while on the road. probably all of them!

I’m open to being schooled by someone with more knowledge on the subject, but I’ve never had the impression that the Dead were known for this.

I specifically meant a reputation with women but shit like that interview tends to be comorbid with that

also I can't believe there exist people in the world who don't know about that interview

I would pay $1500 right now to not have the mental image of a 4-inch-tall engorged Klan leader standing proud in the pubic forest of a multiplatinum blues-pop singer-songwriter

Mein Cock

I sort of regret mentioning the Mayer tweet

You can drop 'the' and 'tweet,' really.

My Body Is A Dixieland

Making your romantic partner feel bad about themselves and their abilities is evil, insidious behavior, but it’s harder for outsiders—or the state—to weigh in there, even if adams in the end did more harm in this instance

― Trϵϵship, 14. februar 2019 20:21 (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Psychological abuse is criminalized in many countries, and is in the process of being so in Denmark. While the age of consent is 15. So.

― Frederik B, Thursday, February 14, 2019 4:51 PM (thirty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is interesting-- i looked it up and it seems ireland is the first country to specifically criminalize emotional abuse and they did so this year. from what i read of the legislation, i support it, but it will be interesting to see how this legislation ends up being enacted

sorry -- forgot how to read -- france did this in 2010.

How is it defined under the law?

many xps, but I know blessedly little about most of these people! I'm too busy in my own community of musical interest and only perked up last year to figure out whether I wanted to go to a local music festival a couple years back where Adams was a headliner and opted not to go.

It's appropriate that Mayer comes up here, since he kind of had the career Adams was set up/setting himself up for, down to the gig w/the Dead.

From the Istanbul convention:

Article 33 – Psychological violence
Parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that the intentional conduct of seriously impairing a person’s psychological integrity through coercion or threats is criminalised.

The FBI is now involved. That was quick!

yeah, was just reading that. it's a serious crime.

14!

"What is being black?"

I'm gonna be stuck on that at least through the weekend, folks

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/arts/music/ryan-adams-fbi-explicit-communications-underage.html

patchy fucker

I...I don't think this year will see three Ryan Adams LPs.

In related news:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/prosecutors-are-moving-to-indict-r-kelly-after-the-discovery-of-another-videotape

I...I don't think this year will see three Ryan Adams LPs.

Apparently the pre-orders have been pulled from his website...

https://shop.paxamrecords.com/collections/big-colors

This made me think of Conor Oberst, who was cleared of a rape charge years ago. If that accusation had happened today, the conversation would have been entirely different. I wonder if we need to look at those past accusations in a different light. Perhaps he didn't rape someone, but did he exercise some sort of power or do anything that, today, would be considered sexual misconduct? I'm not trying to distract the conversation, but it does make me think some people have gotten off easy in the past, when really shitty behavior was passable as long as it didn't involve a crime.

the conor oberst thing turned out to be made up and was retracted by the accuser

and it only was resolved like 4 years ago and lots of people assumed his guilt

one of the things that burns me up the most about this is the way he insidiously poisoned his victims' relationship with music. not only is he a lying, promise-breaking, misleading, objectifying POS, he made it difficult for women to find peace and emotional security in music, which i believe is precious. his lying and manipulation took something else away from people that is more precious than a hundred thousand virginities if they were countable. i was not a fan but i am disgusted on behalf of the people who did like his music and trusted him. ugh fuck this guy.

i just read laura snapes' thing and she really gets to the heart of it

It is, in the words of the New Statesman critic Anna Leszkiewicz, women doing “the boring work of killing our idols” – the male artists who let us down time after time – while male predators kill the dreams of the young women who admire them. Two women in the NYT’s report about Adams say that their interactions with him extinguished their desire to ever make music again. If the allegations are true, these women – and probably thousands more with similar stories about other men – are the collateral damage of a protectionist industry whose power brokers operate out of fear of their own irrelevance. It is pathetic.

For an example of an interviewer abetting this letting off the hook dynamic

http://clrvynt.com/michael-gira-interview/

man hearing these fucks "extinguished their desire to ever make music again" really stings as someone who loves to make music and understands how fulfilling it can be

/wonder how many teenage girls the Dead f****d while on the road. probably all of them!/

I’m open to being schooled by someone with more knowledge on the subject, but I’ve never had the impression that the Dead were known for this.

Broad agree with lalecera apart from..

something else away from people that is more precious than a hundred thousand virginities if they were countable.

.... Whoa horsey!

His whole insta is positive comments. Are the management team keeping clean?!?

ll otm. Without meaning to downplay the sexism suffered by women in other professions, music means more to me that movies, etc. It's primal and spritual at the deepest level. Ever since I was a child, I have woken up looking forward to the music that I'm going to experience throughout my day and how fucked would it be to take that away from someone else?

A few years back, Jessica Hopper started something on twitter, where a ton of women spoke up about the abuse and indignities that had been piled on them by men in the music industry. It was eye-opening and disheartening for me. But I don't think many names were named, if at all. And a lot of the abuse came from audiences and fairly anonymous types like security guards and recording studio staff.

There have obviously been other accusations against more high-profile artists and producers, but for some reason it doesn't feel like it's taken on the snowball effect of the Hollywood Me-Too movement.

xpost - Instagram has an options where only accounts you are following can comment. So he either has that activated or has turned off new comments altogether.

The Adams story, Snapes article plus the Hopper thread does make you wonder whether there will be an avalanche of stories about musicians on the horizon similar to what we saw with Weinstein. Lord knows there’s more than enough material – but I suspect the question will be whether there are enough resources in the music press or clicks to be had in the MSM to drive the investigative reporting necessary to unearth them.

Well, it's official.

This just in. pic.twitter.com/WCDuOwAkJG

— Bull Moose Vinyl (@BullMooseVinyl) February 15, 2019

ok i got a little carried away there for a second :) (though i do truly believe that a music-loving/music-making person's relationship to music is more spiritually sustaining and precious than the garbage concept of virginity) that's how angry i am. when j hopp started collecting those stories, i didn't even know where to begin. i still don't! the cumulative damage is so spread out and diffuse. i can only make up for lost time at this point.

Literally couldn't remember what RA sounded like, so checked out "New York, New York" on Youtube.

Top comment: "This song was the last straw for Bin Laden."

one of the things that burns me up the most about this is the way he insidiously poisoned his victims' relationship with music. not only is he a lying, promise-breaking, misleading, objectifying POS, he made it difficult for women to find peace and emotional security in music, which i believe is precious. his lying and manipulation took something else away from people that is more precious than a hundred thousand virginities if they were countable. i was not a fan but i am disgusted on behalf of the people who did like his music and trusted him. ugh fuck this guy.

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, February 15, 2019 12:59 AM (thirteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM and I was glad that the LS piece highlighted this. From speaking to people in other industries that have had MeToo headlines this totally happens everywhere - women get to a promising point in their career and then are completely put off or feel unable to do certain jobs/work with certain people, which always seems to end up with them compromising on success. Even other women who see it are mentally weighing up what (most) men never have to.

btw I have never knowingly heard any music by this guy

I'd like to hear from Caitlin Cary on all of this.

a more mundane reason why music is more insidious for this than movies, etc. is that it is far easier/more normalized for a fan to be in regular contact, virtual or physical, with a musician than an actor. film, for instance, doesn't really have an analogue to concerts. of course this can result in a lot of great and positive experiences, but it can also... not.

Kinder, me too, although some groupie man-worshipping type I knew was repping him, and that was reason enough for me to hate-listen to him.
"Authenticity" is a trap for women, since women have long been accused of being "fake" anyway just for being themselves. Found a link to this article, which I haven't seen before, on Twitter. Good reading:

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music-theatre/2015/09/ryan-adams-s-1989-and-mansplaining-taylor-swift

XPS Was wondering what happened to Cary, as she seemingly fell off the map in the late '00s. Apparently she's been part of a protest band called The North Carolina Music Love Army since 2013.

This discussion reminded me of what Alanis Morissette experienced as a minor in the music business (as she has documented in several songs), and made me realize how remarkable it is that she even continued with music.

friend of ours posted on her FB that she believes the women because she was one of them. i'm not sure when it occurred but apparently he claimed he wanted to write songs with her and it took another turn when his true intent was revealed, so she walked out. She says she really just thought he liked her music and wanted to work with her! She's a pretty accomplished musician but on a much lower level profile-wise than RA. I imagine it's heartbreaking to think that a star musician would want to help you and you start to think this could be a boost to your career, and then that happens.

and not just heartbreaking. disenchanting, depressing, infuriating, horrific.

soul-crushing
dream-squashing

and to think that even for the ones who didn't walk out, he poisoned them on their own music, on themselves, so he could maintain control. he needs to be completely reprogrammed.

Tip of the indie rock iceberg, indeed

hey @thethermals (Hutch) what’s up w these tweets? pic.twitter.com/duG3tnK7FO

— Get Better Records (@Getbetterrecs) February 15, 2019

"I know our love is wrong
I am a criminal
Mmm, I am a prisoner"

Ryan Adams - "Prisoner"

Just lost his association with JHS guitar pedals, where he had a branded pedal:

https://scontent-msp1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/51931636_2490108351017307_5641229643949277184_o.jpg

https://scontent-msp1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/51931636_2490108351017307_5641229643949277184_o.jpg?_nc_cat=111&_nc_oc=AQnFkH1AamtkHJd_DWS93bJ-5ArfOOmsP2yklPxOz0-iiHWws503UThWlkZTHvcmKxU&_nc_ht=scontent-msp1-1.xx&oh=f55cb9b52b44f68666994d12236fa563&oe=5CE07854

His amp sponsor is out as well.

https://www.wweek.com/music/2019/02/14/portlands-benson-amps-announces-it-will-no-longer-make-ryan-adams-signature-amplifier-following-accusations-of-sexual-misconduct-against-the-musician/

was he really putting out three albums this year

not-entirely-relevant sidebar but releasing three albums in a year (or trying to release three albums in a year but having his WILD GENIUS be UNFAIRLY TRAMMELLED by THE MAN) was a frequent part of his personality-marketing

2000: first solo album released, after a previous first solo album was abandoned in label limbo [aka THE MAN still owned it] = 2 (plus a bootlegged album of demos he later used for B-sides and at one point remastered to release in a box set, so sort of 3)

2001: second solo album (a double that THE MAN cut the fourth side from except for a limited edition), final Whiskeytown album released from label limbo = call it 2.5

2002: has three discrete solo albums (one double) written & recorded & promoed, THE MAN takes them away and releases a disparate compilation of tracks from them. under a pseudonym, he records two EPs with a punk band, releases one, and a compilation of the two is released the next year = 4.5 (plus a leaked album of demos he threatened to include in a box set at one point, so sort of 5)

2003: has two albums ready to go. THE MAN decides one of them is too much of a downer, and this time cuts it into two EPs, but adds tracks to make them album length (then recompiles them into the original album the next year). two are released on the same day, one a month later = 3

2004: broke his wrist

2005: forms The Cardinals. in seven months he releases a double album, records & releases a single album, then releases a solo album recorded earlier in the year. also records a fifth album while essaying the unreleased soundtrack to a Cameron Crowe film and plays the entire thing over the PA before Australian shows = 4.5

2006: records another two Cardinals albums but THE MAN refuses to release any more, they come out as a double in 2010. he and the Cardinals do an album with Willie Nelson instead. apparently he released like 10 other albums for free download under various aliases or whatnot, I'd stopped listening in 2003 and stopped reading anything by now

anyway the point was always that he was a VERY SPECIAL ARTIST and you should LISTEN to what he HAS TO SAY and he shouldn't have to COMPLY WITH your RULES and shit. just DO WHAT I WANT because I have ART TO SHARE and it'll be magical if you just go along with me

but if he got shut down firmly he would nearly always lose interest completely and drop the matter except for some mild whining about how it wasn't his fault, later on, if asked.

hmmm

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ryan-adams-being-dropped-by-radio-stations-sexual-misconduct-claims-1187264

"Once we got his texts of him sexually harassing a 14-year-old girl, it was like, no, we have to stop," one Virginia programmer told Billboard. "As of midnight [Feb. 15], it's gone. I mean, all of it. The entire catalog."

Noting that though there had been numerous previous accounts of Adams being a "jerk," the programmer said that once the Times allegations came out, "I'm not rewarding this guy anymore. That's stupid. Go count your money. I don't wanna be complicit."

XP Radio Stations play Ryan Adams?

Funny bit of jackassery from thisGold-era Magnet piece he declined to take part in (and later bitched loudly about, inspiring another good piece from the mag that I now can't find online).

Anyway:

“Ryan always talked a good game about how ‘Whiskeytown is a band,’ but deep down, I don’t think he ever believed that,” says Menconi. “Caitlin used to call her song ‘Matrimony’ the ‘Ryan Interlude,’ because he didn’t have anything to do while she sang it. So he would sometimes leave the stage. One night, they were playing the Brewery in Raleigh, which is connected to the Comet Lounge (namechecked on the Strangers Almanac song ‘Yesterday’s News’). And during that song, he went next door, bumped into a friend, had a few drinks. Suddenly, he remembered he was supposed to be onstage and ran back to find the band had gone on without him; they’d run out of songs and were playing covers. So he ran to the front of the stage and started heckling them, yelling that they suck. He told me later that there’s ‘nothing more fun than heckling your own band.’ He really understands rock mythology and how to play into it. He’s perfect for the part of a rock star.”

General catchup on things.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/15/arts/music/ryan-adams-album.html

it bums me out pretty hard that people only seem to care about the 14 year old girl. i realize that is the part that is against the law and probably is the most disgusting but still. i heard a portion of a podcast where a woman was talking about her experience dating him (very briefly! she used a pseudonym for him) and i had to stop listening because it was getting too gnarly.

it did remind me, however, that 1) he used to date winona ryder, wonder what she has to say and 2) i was reminded that i never bought the "lovable loser" schtick of the replacements (to bring it back to the OP of this thread). they weren't losers -- they were guys in a pretty well-loved and critically acclaimed rock band. i read the book! i still feel this way. his dumbass entitled "rock star" behavior over the years always reminded me of an arrogant jerk who thought deep down that he would never lose his prized perch. to that guy i have a message: good news! you lose!

could do without any further "why does everyone only care about the 14 year old" posts

i'm sorry
i didn't realize there were more of them
i just really hate him