Man, "High Hopes" sounds elderly.
― Inside Lewellyn Sinclair (cryptosicko), Monday, 6 January 2014 06:36 (ten years ago) link
http://www.cbs.com/shows/the_good_wife/springsteen
album streaming here for now
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 8 January 2014 15:40 (ten years ago) link
It's pretty uneven. Whose idea was the bad 80s tv soundtrack production for "Harry's Place"?
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 9 January 2014 15:18 (ten years ago) link
Said I: ""Harry's Place" could be an '80s Glenn Frey/Don Henley tune."
The album is a hodgepodge of leftovers. I have a theory that Tom Morello is sick or something, and Bruce feels bad, like Make a Wish Foundation bad.
Tom: Hey Bruce, can I sit in for a few songs?Bruce: Sure, let's do Tom Joad.
(song ends)
Bruce: Good job, Tommy!Tom: Yeah, that was awesome. Hey, can I go on tour with you?"Bruce: Um, sure.
(calls Steve) Hey, Steve, sit this one out, Tommy is sick and we want him to feel better.
(tour ends)
Tom: Wow, Bruce, that was a blast!Bruce: Sure was, Tommy! Have a good flight back to ...Tom: Hey, you know what we should do? We should record an album!Bruce: Um, I'm not really sure we have many songs to ...Tom: Sure you do! There's that one "High Hopes," and "Tom Joad," and "American Skin" ... that's practically an album right there! C'mon, it'll be fun!Bruce: OK.Tom: Awesome! Let me buy some fresh 9-volts for all my shred effects!
(Morello leaves)
Bruce: Wow, Tommy must really be sick. Anyway, break out the porta studio, we're making an album.Jon Landau: For release?Bruce: Nah, just for Tommy, to make him feel better.Jon Landau: What if he asks to release it?Bruce: Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine once he gets this out of his system.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 9 January 2014 18:39 (ten years ago) link
hahaha
― i like HOOS but this took the cake off my table (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, 9 January 2014 19:29 (ten years ago) link
yes!
― curmudgeon, Friday, 10 January 2014 14:53 (ten years ago) link
This Sunday, January 26, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will begin their first ever tour in South Africa.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 24 January 2014 21:32 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aopKk56jM-I
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 24 January 2014 22:20 (ten years ago) link
That video is such a trip that I have to post a better version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlMdYpnVOGQ
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 24 January 2014 22:22 (ten years ago) link
I'll happily cross-post this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltpP6anAVVI
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 27 January 2014 15:45 (ten years ago) link
Don't think this was discussed upthread.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2014/01/14/262485987/a-long-road-to-high-hopes-an-interview-with-bruce-springsteen
Long Ann Powers NPR interview with him. He sure loves his producer Brendan... Too bad imho. It's interesting reading about him talking about current country music that he heard via taking his daughter to school (cuz she is a fan). Plus his his take on Kanye and other stuff like the NY Dolls
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 5 February 2014 21:38 (ten years ago) link
I haven't heard all the O'Brien Springsteen records, but is it going too far to say he's the worst producer Springsteen's had? I mean, even the relatively muddy sound of the first two records was preferable to the used-car-salesman-hectoring production style on O'Brien's records.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 5 February 2014 22:12 (ten years ago) link
Tbf, I don't think any of the Springsteen albums are terribly well produced. The only one I may have no problem with at all is the pretty raw "Seeger Sessions." The rest ... dunno. Obviously they were right for him at their respective times, and "Born to Run," "Darkness" and "The River" have a solid neo-wall of sound thing working in their favor, but aside from "Born to Run" (the song), it's just variations of fussy muddy that never quite did his stage show justice.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 5 February 2014 22:20 (ten years ago) link
(xp) i'm not a big fan of the bruce/brendan pairing, but "worst producer" is relative. he's basically had three in 40-plus years.
― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, 5 February 2014 22:21 (ten years ago) link
True. I love the production on The River and Born To Run, can take-or-leave BITUSA, find Darkness deeply frustrating if ultimately effective. But O'Brien's one of those producers where you know he only has the best of intentions, but doesn't seem to know what to do with those intentions, so he adds reverb.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 5 February 2014 22:24 (ten years ago) link
There's a really telling observation in the making of Darkness doc, where they point out how you can make the drums loud, or the guitars loud, but you can't have each equally loud. That's perhaps one mistake O'Brien makes, thanks to our friend compression and her studio buddies. Of course, the new one was also worked on by Ron Aniello, who did the last one, so he's not helping.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 5 February 2014 23:27 (ten years ago) link
O'Brien makes Pearl Jam sound exactly how they should sound, and I love Pearl Jam, but a Springsteen record should not sound like a Pearl Jam record. this is a pretty common dilemma, though -- how does an artist who made their mark in the '70s move forward after the way things were recorded back then becomes practically extinct? even the producers from back then that are still working, by and large, they don't have the same mics and mixing boards they had 40 years ago, they aren't trying to hang back. maybe Jack White or Rick Rubin could work with Bruce and turn out something more spare and naturalistic, if we stay in the plausible lane of big name producers, but it's not like ANYBODY would be able to give him the Darkness On The Edge of Town sound now. i mean, we may love the sound of Bruce's 80s records, but back then a lot his '70s fans hated how trendy and modern that stuff sounded, it's all relative.
that said, it would totally be a dream job for me to be able to sit in the studio with Springsteen and produce an actual great Bruce album in 2014 and somehow get out of the rut he's in.
― scott c-word (some dude), Wednesday, 5 February 2014 23:45 (ten years ago) link
actually, screw Jack White, Bruce should work with Jimmy Page, he seems able enough to retain '70s sounds and methods, and Bruce would be revisiting someone else's '70s heyday instead of his own (but still blues-based and not that far out of his comfort zone).
― scott c-word (some dude), Wednesday, 5 February 2014 23:47 (ten years ago) link
There's a really telling observation in the making of Darkness doc, where they point out how you can make the drums loud, or the guitars loud, but you can't have each equally loud.
so how do they explain the eightites?
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 February 2014 23:52 (ten years ago) link
speaking of Jimmy Page, he made a similar observation, that you can't have the drums and guitars all the way loud, and he let the drums dominate the mix in Zep. i feel like there's a similar principle at work in AC/DC, you think of them as a guitar band, but there's so little distortion in their guitar tone and the drums being mixed up front are really what make their sound rock so hard.
― scott c-word (some dude), Wednesday, 5 February 2014 23:56 (ten years ago) link
on a serious note: if the rhythm section is strong, there's no need to mix it LOUD; you should be able to hear it if you're any kind of discerning listener. For the purpose of the Roxy-Ferry poll thread, I listened to their work and was struck by how upfront late Roxy's bass tracks were and recoiled because the bassists weren't playing anything memorable; the engineers thought mixing those tracks loud signified "funk" or something.
― Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 5 February 2014 23:59 (ten years ago) link
i feel like there's a similar principle at work in AC/DC, you think of them as a guitar band, but there's so little distortion in their guitar tone and the drums being mixed up front are really what make their sound rock so hard.
This is otm. But man, O'Brien managed to make the most unlistenable AC/DC record of the last 25 years (which, granted, is only like 4 AC/DC records, but still).
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 6 February 2014 00:40 (ten years ago) link
You know who should produce Bruce? Bob Dylan! Those last few self-produced Dylan records sound better than 70% of his other stuff. There's also, what, Ethan Johns? Maybe Tony Visconti. who has done OK with the past couple of Alejandro Escovedo albums. T Bone Burnett or Lanois would be totally wrong. Joe Henry would probably be a good Bruce producer.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 6 February 2014 01:18 (ten years ago) link
oh god a lanois record would be a nightmare
― i have the new brutal HOOS if you want it (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, 6 February 2014 01:51 (ten years ago) link
i wouldn't mind hearing a good nashville producer take on bruce. luke laird, say.
― fact checking cuz, Thursday, 6 February 2014 03:26 (ten years ago) link
So really when Brendan stepped in, he had an idea about the way that the E Street Band should sound in the studio in 2000.
No Bruce no...I wish Jon Landau or someone else close to Bruce could convince him there are others he should try.
There are other interesting bits in the piece. Bruce discovering Yo La Tengo, his kids telling him about the Eric Church "Springsteen" song, and his love for Slim Dunlap (the guy who joined the Replacements) albums...
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 6 February 2014 03:41 (ten years ago) link
John Agnello
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Thursday, 6 February 2014 09:35 (ten years ago) link
From Cyndi Lauper To Dinosaur Jr. To Kurt Vile.
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 6 February 2014 14:46 (ten years ago) link
Somebody please just fucking the compression knob away from Brendan O'Brien already.
― Your Favorite Album in the Cutout Bin, Thursday, 6 February 2014 15:57 (ten years ago) link
He's so angry he lost his verbs. ;_;
― Ian from Etobicoke (Phil D.), Thursday, 6 February 2014 16:05 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, I words when I angry.
― Your Favorite Album in the Cutout Bin, Thursday, 6 February 2014 16:06 (ten years ago) link
Bruce covers AC/DC!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3rtFfGmH6Q
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Sunday, 9 February 2014 16:17 (ten years ago) link
Now that's just awesome.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 9 February 2014 20:23 (ten years ago) link
Odds that Morello is the only one on stage who owns an AC/DC album?
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 9 February 2014 20:25 (ten years ago) link
It's a trifle, but I really like "Frankie Fell In Love" off the new album.
― Inside Lewellyn Sinclair (cryptosicko), Monday, 10 February 2014 04:05 (ten years ago) link
It's a joyous song. I'm in the strange position of liking a Springsteen album more than most dedicated Springsteen fans. 2/3 of High Hopes is great imo. It helps that I like Morello.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, 10 February 2014 09:46 (ten years ago) link
Has anyone here seen the Springsteen Selfies? http://brucespringsteen.net/news/2014/i-get-around-working-for-the-weekend
― DDD, Saturday, 29 March 2014 20:29 (ten years ago) link
Greetings from ... (the) State of Florida! ... or as we refer to it up North ... New Jersey’s penal colony! (no offense Floridians!)
offense taken, bruce springsteen
― Daniel, Esq 2, Saturday, 29 March 2014 20:37 (ten years ago) link
Man, the life that guy must live.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 29 March 2014 20:39 (ten years ago) link
Kids off in college so he's touring and traveling non-stop
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 29 March 2014 20:59 (ten years ago) link
this rules:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4octJwjb7LE#t=59
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 24 April 2014 19:12 (ten years ago) link
I believe he did a different iconic Aussie song on each of his Aussie stops. I mean, holy shit at this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFIkABkwlLY
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 24 April 2014 20:38 (ten years ago) link
(even better because they totally fuck up Born to Run after it!)
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 24 April 2014 20:42 (ten years ago) link
Damn! Springsteen=the best covers artist working in 2014!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfJvrH7iQ3c
― Inside Lewellyn Sinclair (cryptosicko), Thursday, 24 April 2014 21:54 (ten years ago) link
Wonder if he'll do local covers in the US next month. Can't wait until he hits Albany and plays...um...that Albany classic...song...shit, yeah, nothing here.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:01 (ten years ago) link
"I wanna be a part of it - Upstate New York!"
― EZ Snappin, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:02 (ten years ago) link
That INXS cover is fucking awesome.
He opened Pittsburgh last night with The Clash's "Clampdown."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuVkCxZL53o
― bi-polar uncle (its OK-he's dead) (Phil D.), Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:10 (ten years ago) link
http://imgick.nj.com/home/njo-media/width620/img/springsteen_impact/photo/14759781-mmmain.jpg
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:18 (ten years ago) link
What a shame that Morello is still in this band.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:20 (ten years ago) link
truth
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:24 (ten years ago) link