yeah just between early Devo and Ubu anecdotes you've got an awesome book already.
― the urinalysis of fire (Jon Lewis), Monday, 7 April 2014 20:26 (ten years ago) link
the only time i saw dave thomas he marched the whole band offstage mid-set to yell at them.then he got mad at the crowd and forbid any merch to be sold.
― Raptain Chillips (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 7 April 2014 20:28 (ten years ago) link
haha, yeah, the guy is a hoot! definitely has stage presence though.
― tylerw, Monday, 7 April 2014 20:30 (ten years ago) link
haha pardon this digression but: i thought you were talking about dave thomas from wendy's, and james a rhodes (former repub governor and all around jerkwad) was an early stockholder in wendy's iirc and that's why i was NEVER allowed to eat there as a kid
this picture features a pin with a suitcase featuring the initials JAR, which was meant to imply "go away JAR" but again, the joke is kind of lost to the mist of time
http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6ab8dtCxJ1rzge1ho1_1280.jpg
― Mayor Manuel (La Lechera), Monday, 7 April 2014 20:32 (ten years ago) link
i saw the numbers band a month or two ago. they're welcome back to nyc any time. i bet chrissie hynde must've learned her harmonica chops off that guy. the kidney brother who plays harmonica. he was pretty fierce.
― Thus Sang Freud, Monday, 7 April 2014 20:36 (ten years ago) link
i can't believe all the shitty music there is in the world and we're pitting awesome nyc mid/late 70s music against awesome mid/late 70s ohio music
come on ppl. let's uplift rock n roll. each one teach one.
― Raptain Chillips (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 7 April 2014 20:40 (ten years ago) link
yeah we could just listen to this amazing tape of television in Cleveland, 1975https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNxQM8Sl1Kgrocket from the tombs opened https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZLfG_KDLA
― tylerw, Monday, 7 April 2014 20:50 (ten years ago) link
damn that woulda been a show
― Raptain Chillips (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 7 April 2014 21:07 (ten years ago) link
if it was a shared dressing room maybe one of the biggest bunch of weirdos in one room ever
from what i've read about it, i think it was really awkward. RFTT might've broken up right after this?
― tylerw, Monday, 7 April 2014 21:15 (ten years ago) link
i'd lay money on really awkward
― Raptain Chillips (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 7 April 2014 21:16 (ten years ago) link
but yeah, both of those sets have to be some of the better rock n roll made in the 70s. cleveland and NYC unite!
― tylerw, Monday, 7 April 2014 21:18 (ten years ago) link
when we work together great things can happen!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbVGX4r5gmE
― Raptain Chillips (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 7 April 2014 21:23 (ten years ago) link
LL that anti-JAR button is now a deliciously vexing non sequitur! I love it!
Life is v confusing with the avant-garage Dave Thomas and the burgermeister Dave Thomas and the SCTV Dave Thomas and god knows how many other dave thomases out there making art and running companies and murdering ppl & c & c
― the urinalysis of fire (Jon Lewis), Monday, 7 April 2014 22:09 (ten years ago) link
Last time I heard this was when I was browsing at the Notting Hill Book exchange, then the guy started playing a computer game halfway through so you had all of these sound effects crossed w/Guiding Light I think. Like he ws passing a judgment on it.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 7 April 2014 22:16 (ten years ago) link
I need to get that Mars record.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 7 April 2014 22:18 (ten years ago) link
I had a dream this was playing in a store recently
― très hip (Treeship), Monday, 7 April 2014 22:58 (ten years ago) link
I think it was a dream. I have a distinct memory of hearing it but the store that comes to mind in association with this memory doesn't seem familiar. I'm losing it
― très hip (Treeship), Monday, 7 April 2014 22:59 (ten years ago) link
It took me 25 years to get into this album. AND IT WAS WORTH EVERY MINUTE.
― a lot of really bad records changed my life (staggerlee), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 05:32 (ten years ago) link
― Raptain Chillips (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, April 7, 2014 4:28 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― tylerw, Monday, April 7, 2014 4:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Saw Dave twice; first time was with RFTT (with Richard Lloyd, who killed). He sat down most of the set, chugging from a bottle of Courvoisier. After the show, he personally sold CDs, still sitting on the stage. He did this to get around the venue's policy of taking 20% of all merch sales. I said something like, "I love your work" and he said, "OK. Whaddya want?"
Second time I saw him was when Pere Ubu did a live soundtrack to The Man With The X-Ray Eyes. It was pretty great, but Dave kept wildly "conducting" the rest of Ubu, who would have none of it, and completely ignored his gesticulations (e.g., he would make a dramatic "cut-off" signal, and they just kept going).
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 14:14 (ten years ago) link
That live soundtrack to The Man With X-Ray Eyes was great. Thomas stood outside after the gig and basically just glared at people. I thought about telling him how cool it was, but he did not look interested at all.
― grandavis, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 14:20 (ten years ago) link
answer to thread question: absolutely, i think this album is terribly overrated. i never got it at all. there is so much noodling, so much guitar wankery leading nowhere on it. the trackss are too long and too unimaginative. i wouldn't call it pretentious, i just find it terribly boring and uninteresting. i preferred the comeback album to "marquee moon".
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 16:25 (ten years ago) link
i knew i had answered this before, couldn't find my post as it was a skipped message...
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 16:33 (ten years ago) link
Well, you know, whatever floats your boat, or sinks it in this case... Patti Smith's the one I've never quite got
― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 16:35 (ten years ago) link
i really liked the feelies anyway. they must have been big television fans. i REALLY liked the feelies in the 80's. oh i know the minutemen! i don't love them in the same way i don't love television. people who really like television probably really like the minutemen too. just a guess. pretty much everyone i know and hang out with likes the minutemen a bunch. (when i was a kid i liked the project mersh ep and their van halen cover and "little man with a gun in his hand".) (i don't think i've ever made it all the way through double nickles...) (so add minutemen to young marble giants, the saints, and television when it comes to bands i have tried hard to like and never loved...)
― scott seward, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 17:35 (ten years ago) link
Really dont get how this album = meandering wankery.
Everything on this album is there for a reason
― Master of Treacle, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 17:46 (ten years ago) link
yeah it's always felt extremely composed to me, not jammy
― Raptain Chillips (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 17:52 (ten years ago) link
the alternate takes on the reissue are interesting because the solos are not vastly different, but different enough to a) verify that there was a bit of improvisation or trying new things in each takes and b) they really picked the right takes, the other ones just didn't have the magic of the ones on the album.
― some dude, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 17:55 (ten years ago) link
i love the minutemen but i don't love television, as mentioned. tbh even though i love double nickels a lot, i don't think i've ever listened to it all the way through. it's 80 minutes! 40+ tracks! i tend to listen to it in chunks. that doesn't negate my love for it
― marcos, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 17:55 (ten years ago) link
i never thought television was meandering wankery. maybe it would be better if it was
i love tv but don't love the minutemen. i like them; they like boc so how could you not like them? i know what you mean, the mathiness, though. i think i love tv with the same genes that make me love yes.
― Thus Sang Freud, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 18:08 (ten years ago) link
the bruford/ficca gene.
that's kind of the root of my problem with the television album. i have based a large part of my existence on 70's riff rock (of all stripes) and that album is just low on my list as far as that goes. i love the two nerd bird riffs a bunch (which is why the roir blow up tape is the only thing i owned for years), but in comparison to the sheer volume and wealth of amazing 70's stuff i just found it...slighter than the stuff i love? (i always liked the composed and deliberate quality the album has though. fussy even. but in the end i'll take "city slang".)
― scott seward, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 18:12 (ten years ago) link
can you name a few albums we should be checking out?
― markers, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 18:13 (ten years ago) link
haha, i think that's all i've done on here for ten years. i definitely like VU via detroit via new jersey. wonder if the feelies were starz fans?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn3ADSvZRa0
― scott seward, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 18:22 (ten years ago) link
dunno, those riffs sound great to me. xgau isn't always otm, but i like this: "I don't ask much from life--a classic new rhythm guitar figure at medium-fast tempo like the one on "See No Evil" can keep me going for months. When the call-and-response chorus of the song that follows peaks at a perfectly timed "Huh?" I begin to act silly. And when two consecutive albums, eight songs each, offer a total of 16 unmistakable ident riffs, I apply hyperbole first and ask questions afterward."
― tylerw, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 18:22 (ten years ago) link
and i think it's doubtful the feelies were starz fans? i think you can tell pretty much what the feelies are fans of from the songs they've covered over the years.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 18:25 (ten years ago) link
This thread inspired me to listen to Richard Lloyd's "Real Time" for the first time in years. I still really like it though it's not as good as Tom's solo stuff. I've never heard the studio versions of these songs, I assumed he was better live.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 18:26 (ten years ago) link
Television are super hyped though.
― waterbabies (waterface), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 18:27 (ten years ago) link
Peopl freak out over them. They're "good" but not great
around the 1:48 mark and after on "detroit girls" is kinda what i live for. in life. my math skills aren't very advanced though.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 18:28 (ten years ago) link
i really want to hear a starz cover by the feelies now.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 18:30 (ten years ago) link
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 18:56 (ten years ago) link
i once saw starz/rush/bob seger at the palladium. just sayin. after rush played this whole row of kids raised their arms and screamed "black sabbath!" and walked out on the silver bullet band.
i really like the painterly autumnal aspect of mm. it's like they're saying, hey, we're these sorta repressed aesthetes, we can't compete with the riff rockers, we'll just sit here with our legs crossed over our little jazz amps and build this here cathedral. on the one hand that's totally elitist so i can understand why the haters hate. on the other hand, unlike so many other repressed aesthetes, they did build the cathedral.
― Thus Sang Freud, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 18:57 (ten years ago) link
Once driving through Ohio a few years ago I heard "Marquee Moon" (the song) on an AM station. I love it anyway, but holy hell, hearing it on AM was like wandering into an alternate universe. I didn't think I could have a new perspective on a song I'd heard thousands of times at that point, but there it was.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 19:10 (ten years ago) link
i can imagine the shimmery part around 8:20 (?) sounding totally sublime under those circumstances.
― Mayor Manuel (La Lechera), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 19:21 (ten years ago) link
Struggling to figure out what I want to say here. There's something unprecedented about their use of guitars. There are precedents in VU/2nd MC5 album/Modern Lovers, but it's never the focus like it is with Television. They always sound punk even in the midst of major pastoralism.
― timellison, Tuesday, 8 April 2014 19:29 (ten years ago) link
that part sounds like a burst of Fichelscher-era Popol Vuh to me (shimmery pastoral guitars, even if it's just for a tiny moment)
― Mayor Manuel (La Lechera), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 19:32 (ten years ago) link
but i hear what i want to hear, obvs, ha
― Mayor Manuel (La Lechera), Tuesday, April 8, 2014 3:21 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Indeed it did; and the pause between that and the drums' re-entrance was just, I mean, I think I was holding my breath.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Tuesday, 8 April 2014 19:33 (ten years ago) link