Rolling Country 2006 Thread

http://cdbaby.com/cd/mmcdermott2

And a Nashville myspace guy who lists "getting kicked out of Catholic shool in Richmond" as one of his influences:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=68394213

It should probably be noted here, however, that Peter Steinfels' highly recommended A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America (which I've been slowly plugging through around bedtime all summer) refers to a polemic published in 1990 by liberal Newport, Rhode Island liturgical musician Thomas Day called Why Catholics Can't Sing. So be forewarned.

Also, not country; but what the hell?:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/nickalexander2

http://www.nickalexander.com/

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0111,sheffield,23030,22.html

>one of the weird things about growing up Irish American is that the Italian kids had all the rock stars. They had Madonna Ciccone and John Bongiovi and Aerosmith's Steven Tallarico, even Roseanne Liberto Cash on the country side of the dial. They cleaned up their names, they dressed up funny, they unlocked their bel canto sweet-emotion voices, and it was all gravy to the proverbial goose. What did Irish kids have? Well, there was Joe Walsh. And the Mahoney boy, Eddie Money, and let's see who else . . . uh, that Joe Walsh sure could play, couldn't he? The Italian kids had Pat Benatar. We were stuck with Laura Branigan. <

So, um...Did Dion Dimucci ever cross over country?

Country artists seem to all come from Texas or Oklahoma these days, so I dunno how Cat-lik that is. Fats Domino did country down in NOLA, Lee Dorsey did "Hey Good Lookin'," but right off the bat I can think of no country performers from those parishes. maybe the Florida parishes.

got the new Alan Jackson yesterday, and will investigate how he and Krauss do.

xps

http://www.metrolyrics.com/lyrics/2147433064/Sammy_Hagar/I_Love_This_Bar

http://www.pandora.com/?sc=sh123684599888936884

(Brie Larsen just segued into the Flower Kings, who seem to be singing about "looking for god's grace among cosmic dinosaurs" or something, so maybe they're Christian rock. Also, I don't think I like them; I'll probably nix them. But first I'll give 'em a chance.)

(Yeah, definitely Christians: "The untold Genesis of man," wow. Song just ended, and I'm still not sure how much I liked it. There was something psychedelic about it which I didn't mind. Now Christy Carlson Romano doing "Bounce," which I liked a lot right away.)

Q: What are other people listening to? How do I find shared stations?

We track the top 20 most-listened to stations and make them easily available to you. Click the share button and select "Find a Shared Station." Select from one of the 20 most popular stations or search for one of your friends by email address and add one of the stations they created to your list.

Ha ha, now "Asphole" by Pigface; how did it get from Cal Smith into that? (And who is Cal Smith, anyway?) I'm not sure if that is John Lydon singing, or just somebody who sounds like John Lydon. Either way, I like it a lot more than I thought I'd like a Pigface song.

as well, the new trace adkins single raises but doesnt settle the question raised by the first one, namely, is it just stupid and misogynst or accidentially brilliant

i don't care about no ilx station, anthony; i care about MY station. but anyway, how is last fm better than pandora? now i'm curious...

got new montgomery gentry,
"some people change." opening track "some people change" uses great whistling noises at first, while the opening of "hey country" is *really* skewed in a motor-city-tunin-up kind of way, and then it uses some I guess big and rich derived "heys" over a totally great spare funk groove, and an equally cool "whoa, whoa, whoa" section that then goes into "i don't know, but i've been told" thing like i believe we talked about upthread, and back to the "whoa, whoa" thing. and a really insane slide-guitar solo. this music happens real fast and man is it up. and then a banjo. it's so self-consciousl mythic like springsteen, in fact the achievement already, on this first listen, seems kind of comparable in terms of just density and this heroic reaching out.

not that I think I agree that "love" is what makes "some people change" from their racist ways, necessarily; but it's good to know they're utopians and they're thinking about what doofuses they are. like in "lucky man" eddie, I think, is complaining as usual, like his Bengals lost. and he hates the heat and his job. he has a "few dollars in a coffee can."

anyway, whatever, it sounds good, real good, I'm amazed, actually. I don't agree with turkey-hunting but it's huge around here. I used to go duck-hunting and dove-hunting when I was a teen. but shooting the noble wild turkey, I'm against. so, my brother-in-law's way into that shit and he shows me this video he was in, that's on the Men's Channel and it's this fairly professionally done locally produced and shot hunting show. in it, the guys are waiting for this male turkey to strut and have a good time, and then it's like, "he's beautiful! He's beautiful! NOW KILL THAT STRUTTIN' TURKEY (words in bold direct quote). bang bang. anyway, the music underneath it is Montgomery Gentry, "gone gone gone" they sing, and as you can imagine the turkey-hunters love it and I find it bathetic, I guess the word is. but apparently the guy who does this stuff gets the rights to the music free, there are several snippets of it thruout.

anyway, I'll check out xhuxxk-radio, and man it's a nice day here, sunny, low humidity, brisk with a window open, and montgomery gentry's record just sounds great. think I'll have a turkey and swiss on rye.

well, just remember that lots of the songs are ones that pandora, judging from what they figure out about my tastes, decide i'm going to like. and often, they are wrong. telling them when they're wrong is half the fun, but i can only do that when i'm actually listening. so caveat emptor, but still expect an intriguing listen (also, it's faster to program than village voice radio ever was!)

and man, i need to hear that montgomery gentry album. like, now.

Ha, that's exactly what happened to me with Pandora, when I started out with Aqua! They started throwing all these interchangeable Kylie Minogue songs I didn't care about at me, then "San Francisco (You Got Me)" by the Village People and "I Want a Dog" by the Pet Shop Boys, which were better. (I should add that it's an understatement to say that lots of the songs are Pandora picks not my picks; really most of them are. Last five, only the last of which had to do with anything I actually requested: Phil Seymour "Precious to Me" likeable indistinctive powerpop; Ian Gomm "Hold On" loveable and only slightly less indistictive powerpop with a sax part that I actually talked about on this thread a week or two ago; the Yellow Balloon "Can't Get Enough of Your Love" cloying late '60s powerless sunshine shlock with a My Three Sons/Captain and Tenile connection that I came real close to giving the thumbs down to then decided it's pleasant enough I guess; Neil Diamond "Solitary Man" great great great obviously; Apex Theory "Topsy Turvy" topsy-turvy herky-jerky jazz-fusion gnu-metal that sounds like how I wish System of a Down did.) (Now Fretblanket "Supercool" Clunky Weezer-wannabe pop-punk with a stiff drummer; I hate this and just nixed it. Amazed they still pick pop-punk and emo songs for me, when I nix almost every one. Though Busted sounded okay, I guess. Weirdest thing they picked for me: An Elton John ballad from the The Lion's King.) (Now Pure Sugar "Delicious," dancey girl-pop, not awful but it turns ridiculous when the singer tries to get soulful and sexy like some kind of house music diva. This gets thumbs down too.)

i like last fm better, because i ahve found more music on it, and the conenctiosn seem closer, and there is also a community building aspect--something that i care about, but realise there that mileage will varry.

and left hip is a little to indie edged, adn stylus fired me, so a review of either julie roberts or gentry is sort of tetherless for me, but we will find somewhere, cause dammit i love me the sext facists

PANDORA THINKS I'M TWEE

okay, here's what's been playing on my station in the last 2 hours or so:

gino soccio "dancer" (i requested him and this is great)
m "pop muzik" (didn't ask for this, and it's one of my favorite songs ever)
alison limerick "where love lives" (gave this generic techno-pop gal a thumbs down, so pandora starts up a new sequence for me)

classics iv "spooky" (didn't ask for this, but i've always liked it)
ars nova "well well well" (missed this since i was fixing a greek turkey burger in the kitchen; i'm a little annoyed by pandora's obsession with obscure psych-pop nonentities for collectors with limited taste, which i'm guessing this is an example of)
tuesday's childen "in the valley of the shadow of love" (sort of half heard this, but pandora has played these particular psych-pop obscuros before, and they seemed neither great nor horrible; i said i didn't want pandora to play it for another month)
spencer davis group "i'm a man" (i'd requested this song)
bryan adams "room service" (i'd requested a couple other bryan songs but not this one; out of one ear while i was eating my burger it sounded better than the dull late mellencamp and springsteen songs pandora keeps playing instead of songs from before they mostly stunk)
the three o'clock "i go wild" (they definitely didn't go wild, but i didn't give this the thumbs down, in honor of tim ellison i guess)
black lab "time ago" (this sucked major ass, though i already forget why; i gave it the thumbs down, so pandora started a new sequence)

war "slippin into darkness" (great; i'd requested them)
four tops "don't let him take your love from me" (at this point i went up to the post office and missed the next several songs, only one of which was by an artist who i'd specifically requested)
dyke and the blazers "funky walk parts 1 and 2"
tower of power "souled out (live)"
jonzun crew "space cowboy" (didn't hear this, but this is the one band i'd requested that i missed while i was gone)
steve spacek "slave"
stevie b "love and emotion
after 7 "kickin' it"
alan jackson "tall tall trees"
billy ray cyrus "what else is there"
billy joe shaver "it just ain't there for me no more"
sawyer brown "six days on the road"
gordon lightfoot "couchiching" (this is where i got back from the post office; the song, which i'd never heard before, sounded dark like gordon should, like it was recorded in the middle of ship capsizing or whatever; what was more interesting is that i swear i compared sawyer brown's singer to gordon in a review once, which connection is somewhat vindicated by him segueing from them here!)
townhall "ellie mae" (bland coffee-house folk and/or alt-country, thumbs down and sequence aborted)

the fantastic johnny c "got what you need" (sounds fine)
the jam "war" (didn't request this; it's the brit mod band, covering edwin starr reggae dub style, and i don't mind it)
bobby day "harlem shuffle" (didn't request it; better than the stones version)
joe south "hush" (i'd requested him just out of curiosity, and i'd never heard his original version of this great song, and it's pretty amazing. i'd actually considered requesting deep purple's version, which means they're doing an okay job of mapping my tastes i think)
brian setzer "sixty years" (good boogie crunch at the start, almost zz top in his density. vocals are too plain, but i'll live and let live, which is what i think he just said i should go. "i only got sixty years on the planet" - -definitely better than that stupid dave matthews song that says you've only got 100 years to live, yeah right, good luck dork. setzer ends with cool techno-like drum part)
bad company "lonely for your love" (i think i requested the drum'n'bass bad company not these guys, but these guys are better)
the jeff healey band "roadhouse blues (live)" (i dunno; isn't he blind or something? i always figured he'd be way too stodgy to tolerate, but i can probably live with him doing a doors cover.)

this canned hunting, done by neo cons, strikes me as popular and politically impt--in the sense, that it provides a simulacra of masculinity, while keeping the hunter reativley safe (cheney, and another promient republican have been caught doing it recently), one is reminded of the technocrat wars, that wishful thinking allows to be thot as contained but really arent, a wish to make violence safe...

Troy Gentry was arraigned on August 15, 2006, in Federal Court for the District of Minnesota. He pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiring with a licensed commercial bear guide and the owner of a private game farm in Minnesota. While up in a tree stand, Troy used a bow and arrow to kill a bear that was running free in a several-acre fenced area in the game farm.

Troy is an avid environmentalist and hunter who supports and follows all game laws. Before he killed the bear he was told by the bear guide that it was proper and legal to kill the bear which was not a tamed bear and was never in a pen or cage. Troy used his correct name on his Minnesota bear hunting license and never attempted to disguise his identity.

The allegation that the video of the bear shoot was edited for the purpose of mischaracterizing the circumstances of the bear shoot is false. The only editing done was to remove the "dead time" from the video tape (more than one hour long) reducing the tape to about 15 minutes. The video was for Troy's personal use and was never intended to be and was not used commercially. The bear hide was shipped under Troy’s name to a taxidermist in Kentucky and prepared into a taxidermy mount.

Troy is accused of knowingly and willfully conspiring to violate federal law by taking the bear and transporting its hide from Minnesota to Kentucky and later to Tennessee. Troy absolutely denies that he knowingly and willfully did anything illegal and is confident that he will be exonerated.

hunger "colors"
.38 special "stone cold believer"
deep purple "perfect strangers"
electric six "i'm the bomb"
yo gotti "get down"
waltham "be with me"
alison kraus "stay (live)" (gave this a thumbs down)
alice cooper "dead babies"
ac/dc "snowballed"
ted nugent "out of control"
ratt "wanted man"
the sonics "dirty old man"
? and the myterians "why me"
love "can't explain"
bee gees "bad bad dreams"
tom jones "she's a lady"
dave clark five "a little bit now"
divinyls "temperemental"
pat benatar "prisoner of love"
alannah myles "still got this thing"
moxie "sorry" (i forget what this sounded like)
little big town "bring it on home"
julie roberts "girl next door" (i like this!)
big & rich "big time"
trent willman "good one comin' on"
skye sweetnam "heart of glass"
noella "fashion" (must've left the room for this one)
amber pacific "save me from me" (thumbs-down emo)
veronicas "i could get used to this"
aly & aj "collapsed"

kelly clarkson "since U been gone"
liz phair "favorite"
chron gen "you make me spew"
gg allin "outlaw scumfuc" (to my utter surprise and shock, i LIKE this -- it's david allen coe's "longhaired redneck" with new words! and i don't think i've ever liked a gg allin song before in my life!)

aly and aj to gg allin in four songs is genius, you have to admit.

Has anyone here downloaded the Promo MPE player? Dave Moore used it for the one and only purpose of dl'ing the Bratz album, says he had no problems, but...

from Harp, since i never really got around to talking about them here in detail, my Victory Brothers review (which they messed up some of the punctuation of, but I'm not going to whine about it):

http://www.harpmagazine.com/reviews/cd_reviews/detail.cfm?article_id=4562

I agree with the anger thing--I mean, who else could put such sweet-and-sour pucker in such a kiss-off as "LubbocK?'--but on compulsive repeated listening, I just keep finding layers of things I wasn't looking for and thereefore am delighted to find.

What I feel nobody has really touched upon is the way, pirposelly or not, the Chicks and/or Rubin are using genre twich juxtaposition to negate genre and so get close to creating something new, but not 'new' in a lookit-my-refs-blend pomo way.

I think "Easy Silence" gets people because, yes, it's pretty as fuck and slow and intimate but it's to overt to be Low. Is it a ballad, folk--what the fuck is this thing? Are the background vocals gospelish or Beatles-ish?

Point is, the elements bounce off each other and reflect and what it is is "Easy Silence", no pun.

You get the same genre juxtaposing/neutering effect in "Silent House", whic chord-wise and even in some instrumental flourishes and harmonies, is an ELO ballad--about Alheimers. By a 'country' trio with a violinist from from Pennsylvania and a multi-string plucker from Massachusetts.

They don't just lift elements like Big & Rich might--they fuse them until the source materials are changed on, er, a genetic level or some other comparison that signifies 'essense'.

So on a sheer musical level, I think the Chicks thought long, hard and smart--and I'm also thinking, open-ear instincs had as much to do with it. OTOH, they are hyper self-aware--Natalie joked in NYC the amusing aspect of writing a song about infertility that has as chorus "it's so HARD with it doesn't COME easy" [her emphasis.]

[Side thought--have people written about how "Goodbye Earl" is not only about two women who kill a scumbag, but move into a house together to live happily ever?]

Anyway, on the newish one, I first thought the words were simply skillfully functional--but more and more they have this incredible elegance and economy. I mean, in four lines--

"And I will try to connect
All the pieces you left
I will carry it on
And let you forget"

--and they cover an arc that starts with tragedy, moves to acceptance and ends in honor and forced letting-go. Like, that's common skill?

What I mean is--well, listen to "So Hard." The intro is out of Procol Harum's "The Devil Came from Kansas." The verse would fit nicely in any song by The Veronicas. Thos chorus--which uses the inflection of the intro--smooshes these two wildly different genre gestures into a new and kind of amazingly gainly shape.

The point is, what I guess I'll cal signifying genre tags are somehow neutralized--and that's really hard to do.

On "Goodbye Earl" they take a basic pop song form and the only thing that makes it 'country' is the addition of banjos and Natalie overplaying the hayseed card with the yelped "black-eyed peas!" stuff. In other words, the signifying tags are seperate and it just makes it another recombination.

But on so much of "Taking..." the tags dissapear, the fusion is seamless, which makes the music itself have this transparent, existing-outside-identifer quality whose lack of genre actually makes the words more powerful, a carrier frequncy or something.

Rubin worked with the approach on the third Cash record, but there the legend was so rish and trenchant it couldn't go all the way in the fusion/transparency thing. But the Chicks are sort or inherently malleable--sound-wise--and so it gets there, and it's a pretty sui generis there.

Just saying that in the spirit of noting how different the Chciks project is. The Katrina Benefit version of "I Hope" even sounds like a dry run for "Taking..." It's faster ("soul/rock"), there's more Eagles semi-rock guitar, the sane sounds like Jeff Lynee produced it.

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0633,cavalieri,74173,22.html