Tortoise: Classic or Dud

can't say I love this on first listen, it's fine but it doesn't feel like they've gone anywhere for the last couple of albums.

yeah the cover's a little unfortunate.
kinda dig some of the mid-to-late-70s herbie hancockisms on a few tracks.

this went in both ears and then out one or the other, but it makes me want to go listen to the last two. there are definitely some great ideas on It's All Around You.

the cover is gross

i have been enjoying listening to the recording well enough but would rather see them live

yeah! just saw that they are coming through denver in may -- i think i will go. i haven't seen tortoise since 1998!
look at all these tour dates

Sat. Jan. 23 - Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall [In The Round performance] (early & late show) — SOLD OUT
Sun. Jan. 24 – Milwaukee, WI @ Mad Planet [Tix]
Sun. Feb. 7 - Copenhagen, DK @ Vega Jr. [Tix] *^
Mon. Feb. 8 - Hamburg, DE @ Fabrik [Tix] *^
Tue. Feb. 9 - Berlin, DE @ Berghain *^ - SOLD OUT
Wed. Feb. 10 - Antwerpen, BE @ Trix *^
Thu. Feb. 11 - Utrecht, NL @ Tivoli [Tix] *^
Fri. Feb. 12 - St. Gallen, CH @ Palace *^^ [Tix]
Sat. Feb. 13 - Geneva, CH @ Antigel Festival *
Sun. Feb. 14 - Zürich, CH @ Stall 6 ^^ [Tix]
Mon. Feb. 15 - Reutlingen, DE @ Franz.K [Tix] *
Tue. Feb. 16 - Vienna, AT @ Arena *^ [Tix]
Wed. Feb. 17 - Budapest, HU @ A 38 [Tix]*
Thu. Feb. 18 - Zagreb, HR @ Mochvara*
Fri. Feb. 19 - Bologna, IT @ Locomotiv Club* [Tix]
Sat. Feb. 20 - Rome, IT @ Monk Club* [Tix]
Sun. Feb. 21 - Milan, IT @ Magnolia Club* [Tix]
Mon. Feb. 22 - Istanbul, TR @ CRR Concert Hall
Tue. Feb. 23 - London, UK @ Village Underground * - SOLD OUT
Wed. March 9 - Minneapolis, MN @ The Cedar Cultural Center # [Tix]
Fri. March 11 - Ann Arbor, MI @ The Blind Pig # [Tix]
Sat. March 12 - Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace # [Tix]
Sun. March 13 - Montreal, QC @ Fairmount # [Tix]
Mon. March 14 - Northampton, MA @ Iron Horse # [Tix]
Tue. March 15 - Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair # [Tix]
Wed. March 16 - New York, NY @ (Le) Poisson Rouge # [Tix]
Thu. March 17 - Brooklyn, NY @ Littlefield # [Tix]
Fri. March 18 - Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts # [Tix]
Sat. March 19 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat # [Tix]
Sun. March 20 – Charlottesville, VA @ The Southern # [Tix]
Mon. March 21 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel # [Tix]
Tue. March 22 - Louisville, KY @ Headliners Music Hall # [Tix]
Wed. March 23 - Newport, KY @ Southgate House Revival # [Tix]
Thu. March 24 - Indianapolis, IN @ Radio Radio # [Tix]
Tue. April 26 - Boise, ID @ Radio Boise Tuesday [Tix]
Wed. April 27 - Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile [Tix]
Thu. April 28 - Vancouver, BC @ Imperial [Tix]
Fri. April 29 - Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall [Tix]
Sat. April 30 - Sonoma, CA @ Sonoma Winery / Redwood Barn [Tix]
Sun. May 1 - San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall [Tix]
Mon. May 2 - Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom [Tix]
Tue. May 3 - Solana Beach @ Belly Up [Tix]
Wed. May 4 – Phoenix AZ @ Desert Daze Phoenix at Crescent Ballroom
Fri. May 6 - Austin, TX @ Mohawk [Tix]
Sun. May 8 - Dallas, TX @ Dada [Tix]
Mon. May 9 - St. Louis, MO @ The Ready Room [Tix]
Tue. May 10 - Chicago, IL @ Metro [Tix]
Wed. May 11 - Lawrence, KS @ Granada Theater [Tix]
Thu. May 12 - Denver, CO @ Bluebird [Tix]
Fri. May 13 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge [Tix]
Sat. May 14 - Albuquerque, NM @ Launchpad
Fri. May 27 - Torino, IT @ Cap10100
Sat. May 28 - Brescia, IT @ Latteria Molloy
Sun. May 29 - Munich, DE @ Feierwerk [Tix]
Mon. May 30 - Frankfurt, DE @ Das Bett [Tix]
Tue. May 31 - Paris, FR @ TBA
Wed. June 1 - Koln, DE @ Kulturkirche
Thu. June 2 - Besancon, FR @ La Rodia
Sun. June 5 - Nimes, FR @ This Is Not A Love Song Festival
Mon. June 6 - Toulouse, FR - Metronum
Wed. June 8 - Metz, FR @ Les Trinitaires
Thu. June 9 Tourcoing, FR @ Le Grand Mix
Fri. July 3 - Keflavik, IS @ Asbru (ATP Iceland) [Tix]
Tue. July 5 - Berlin, DE @ Columbia Theater

* w/ Sam Prekop
^ w/ Blondie Brownie
^^ w/ Little Tornados
# w/ Mind Over Mirrors

SOLD OUT ;_;

another chicago show on may 10 though!

they're playing in Madison on March 10 too.

I agree there was stuff that interested me on It's All Around You. It was really mostly the last one that lost me, and even that had Gigantes, which I thought was a great track.

Hmm, seeing them at Poisson Rouge or Littlefield is tempting.

What's the story on the cover? Whose photo? I don't find it too offensive..

I assumed it was collaged from the band members faces, but i may well be wrong

i liked some of the oneida-aping on their last one. and i was just listening this morning to a disco single by someone named "paul atreides" that reminded me of their '98 tour single.

that said i'm not sure i feel like committing the time to listening to this right now. maybe in a few months.

"Rock On" cover is a slog. Is it supposed to be funny?

The whole album is sloggy and unmemorable, imo.

"Flabby" is the word that came to my mind.

They sound closer to their weaker postrock imitators than they used to.

Listening to this on Spotify and the "Rock On" cover is not part of the album.

New album´s a good excuse to check out related projects as Brokeback, Matana Roberts' Chicago Project and The Mercury Project.

there's a song near the end with some singing that's a bit dull, but otherwise I think this is pretty good, fairly similar to the last one, which is ok by me

Last few Brokeback albums >>> Last few Tortoise albums

Brokeback are still at it?

(I tuned out after someone else joined the band; see also, Zomes.)

I have a promo of this and plan to review it at some point once I've given it a fair airing.

I think it's their best in a while but nowhere near their best. Their best albums had a sense of moment and purpose - a deliberateness and a stridency, even when they felt laid back. After "Standards" this kinda faded (though I returned to IAAY a while ago and it was better than I remembered). This new one feels like they're finally grasping for purpose again but aren't sure how to get there.

(And if I can see them on this tour I will)

I really like ROCK ON.

brokeback played free monday at the empty bottle last night with golden void
i wanted to go but it was the night before my first class of the semester, ie a terrible idea/time to go out

Brokeback are still at it?

(I tuned out after someone else joined the band; see also, Zomes.)

― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Tuesday, 26 January 2016 02:36 (17 hours ago) Permalink

I think Doug had shelved it for a few yrs, but they've been active since 2010. They just finished recording another record a week or so ago.

I think it's their best in a while but nowhere near their best. Their best albums had a sense of moment and purpose - a deliberateness and a stridency, even when they felt laid back. After "Standards" this kinda faded (though I returned to IAAY a while ago and it was better than I remembered). This new one feels like they're finally grasping for purpose again but aren't sure how to get there.

I've said this before (maybe even in this thread?) but I don't think it's an accident that Tortoise's early years—when they felt a lot more unpredictable—coincided with an unstable lineup. Bundy Brown in and then out. Pajo in for an album, also contributing a lot to TNT. Parker coming in late in the making of TNT, plus the modest influence/presence of Rob Mazurek—that's all Tortoise in the 90s. Starting with Standards the lineup totally stabilized and that's when Tortoise really nailed down their aesthetic and became a lot more predictable.

I don't necessarily mind—to this day, no one really sounds like Tortoise. And their stew of influences feels less obvious now than it once did. They just sound like themselves. I have a playlist that gathers all their albums (plus most of their side projects) and it makes a great and pleasurable listening experience on shuffle. New album will add to that—won't really enhance nor detract. But that's okay.

Yeah, it wasn't bad or exciting. I want to give it a try on my car's bose surround-sound though. I'm thinking the bass needs to be felt.

What struck me as odd was some of the geeky keyboard(?) sounds at the end of the album which fit perfectly with the dorky album photograph. It was odd because it wasn't anything I wanted to hear.

Let me rephrase that. It's odd because they purposely mixed dorky into those last few tracks

Just saw these dudes last week, and it was one of the most dull concerts I've ever been to.

Ah, don't tell me that! Got cajoled into accompanying some friends to see them in a few weeks. Said friends are superfans. I'm more an 'appreciator' than a fan, though I loved TNT back in the day.

ha yeah i was thinking about seeing them in a couple months. last time I saw Tortoise was ... 1998?

My biggest issue I've had with Tortoise see the wee early days here is that they just don't improvise at all. They're all great players, but they're like a chamber group sticking to the script. It can be kind of a bummer.

I never loved them... more respected them. I pretty much prefer all their other projects to Tortoise, but was somehow not expecting something so... boring. I've never before felt a compulsion to leave a concert as strong as I did at this one. Very disappointing. Curious to see if anyone else has had a similar reaction. Was this one just a bad show?

the no improvising thing is kinda surprising since Jeff Parker has now been in the band so long. I've never seen them since he joined actually. i suppose he puts all in improv energy into other projects.

tbh and fwiw, I've never liked Parker's playing

millions of lemmings can't be wrong

I saw them on the tour for Beacons and thought it was good but not amazing. Then they played "Djed" and it was pretty outstanding - and I don't feel like it was just nostalgia. More that it underlined how ambitious they'd once been.

millions of now lemmings can't will never be wrong

― Naive Teen Idol, Friday, March 18, 2016 2:35 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've seen them a few times. They were pretty good when I saw them at a Thrill Jockey anniversary show at I think Bowery Ballroom, although somehow I feel like everything they do would work better live if it was just a little tighter and more intense, especially in light of not improvising -- it always feels ambitious but falling short, like there's this weird tension between fussiness and not giving a fuck among the band members.

The last time I saw them was at a Bang on a Can marathon and they were terrible -- they were like accidentally knocking over instruments, they handled the poor acoustics of the room really badly, and the tightness of all the musicians who proceeded them made them come off as extra sloppy.

Saw them in Mpls, first time ever, and enjoyed it. Lack of improvisation doesn't bother me, but there were a few spots where the playing was definitely more laborious / not as tight as I'd expected. The guitar was off the beat on "Yonder Blue" (kind of unraveled a song that should sound effortless) and John McEntire seemed to be working really hard to maintain a pretty simple hammering rhythm on "Shake Hands with Danger." That said I found his style compelling. I like when a drummer overplays the seriousness of his task. The band's other two drummers are looser, more dynamic, really impressive.

I think McEntire is such a great drummer that he has spent most of his career trying to perform like a lesser talented drummer, to sometimes awkward effect/affect.

I definitely enjoy Bitney and Herndon more. McEntire is great but uptight.

Herndon is the funkiest one, right? I really dig his drumming in 5ive Style.

I always thought Ryan Rapsys from Euphone would've been a great fit for Tortoise. Monster drummer, super underappreciated. Dude can play circles around McEntire and Co.

I forget that Tortoise used to be quite an interesting band at one point. Always thought Standards was a fantastic album and kind of pre-empts the whole Dawn of Midi / Girls in Airports / Go Go Penguin style of nu-jazz-electronica.

Cosign. Really I like all of their albums through It's All Around You (which itself I think had some foreshadowing of chill wave and sea punk) and even Beacons had a few moments.

live recording over here: http://www.nyctaper.com/2016/03/tortoise-march-17-2016-littlefield/

Dawn of Midi / Girls in Airports / Go Go Penguin/sea punk

Haha, I don't know what any of this means! Thanks, google. Well, more or less, because I still don't get sea punk as a concept, sound, look or idea. Do they sing about pirates?

being kind of have facetious about seapunk, but that record definitely used some repurposed 90s tacky synth sounds, and that sort of thing became all the rage like 8-10 years later.