No, I would read that, though!
― timellison, Saturday, 27 August 2016 02:59 (seven years ago) link
Too bad. Seems out of print and currently unavailable. You can look at it through Google Books though. Guess what the top two albums are.
― Put Out More Flag Posts (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 27 August 2016 03:02 (seven years ago) link
I have it (though not accessible at the moment) - worth buying for a reasonable price.
― skip, Saturday, 27 August 2016 03:04 (seven years ago) link
Mostly worth buying to help discover new stuff, though many of the albums you haven't heard of are personal favorites of the author and obscure for a reason. Every power pop fan has stuff they like that is beyond the pale taste-wise but hits the spot somehow.
There's also another book of power pop albums and singles I picked up, lovingly prepared with A-B-C grades and short descriptions and done on a typewriter, but I can't remember the title or author. Helpful, I know...
― skip, Saturday, 27 August 2016 03:08 (seven years ago) link
So the reasons Marshall Crenshaw wouldn't like to be associated with the term Power Pop are maybe that1) He feels that his songcraft and musicianship are more nuanced and draw upon a wider base and he doesn't want the stigma of "ghettoization"2) He wants to distance himself from a perhaps to him distasteful component of his audience (cf. Robbie Fulks's "Roots Rock Weirdos")
― Put Out More Flag Posts (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 27 August 2016 03:13 (seven years ago) link
I guess I'd assume that you are meaning more nuanced stylistically rather than using the word "nuance" to refer to complexity?
If it's style, I would have to wonder if it is really something more broad or if, on the other hand, it's merely its own "ghetto."
― timellison, Saturday, 27 August 2016 18:01 (seven years ago) link
Crenshaw said this when I talked to him last year--he was no doubt tired of talking about it:
"I’ve always hated that term being used when someone discusses my music, but I hate to be thin-skinned about it. For some reason, it’s always annoyed me to be put into that sub-category. I don’t think it’s fair, and I reject the concept. My stuff is popular music, or it’s rock music, you know? There’s a lot of power pop, quote-unquote, that is made by American anglophiles, and I won’t wear that label."
When you get into the Sneetches or the Shazam, it loses me, the lack of meaningful content, the formalism of it all. That's what Crenshaw is talking about, maybe. Peter Holsapple and the dB's also transcend the Anglophile label, a great band and great songwriting from Holsapple (and Stamey). James OTM about the ur-power pop chord usually containing root and fifth. Folkies need not apply.
― Edd Hurt, Saturday, 27 August 2016 18:59 (seven years ago) link
yeah the way power pop rhetoric revolves around perfection and purity, it ends up prioritizing form over.. the transcendent potential of pop/rock. despite power pop arguably being "about" recreating the ecstatic/euphoric transcendence of the beatles et al.
― brimstead, Saturday, 27 August 2016 19:11 (seven years ago) link
that's not quite right... most power pop just sounds restrained to me, it has a stilted-ness that i attribute to its rejection of certain formal/technical possibilities.. idk
― brimstead, Saturday, 27 August 2016 19:16 (seven years ago) link
marshall should change his last name to scrimshaw and exclusively record and perform sea shanties
― hunangarage, Saturday, 27 August 2016 19:31 (seven years ago) link
Has anyone seen him him do his tribute to producer Tom Wilson? He's also making a doc about him, that's mentioned on the Tom Wilson thread that's on ILe.
Crenshaw talking a bit about the planned doc and Wilson
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/marshall-crenshaw-pays-homage-to-late-producer-tom-wilson/2016/08/10/b0ef4e00-5d85-11e6-8e45-477372e89d78_story.html
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 27 August 2016 21:33 (seven years ago) link
I don't think the dB's transcend power pop. I think they are not textbook power pop but I don't see how their deviation from it is ultimately more expansive.
And if Bryson is in any sense an archetypal power pop guitarist, I'm still disagreeing also with the root-fifth argument on power chords. He played thirds all the time.
― timellison, Saturday, 27 August 2016 21:42 (seven years ago) link
I was commenting on the confusion between the correct definition of power chords and the incorrect one influenced perhaps by the term power pop and, as is often case, confusion may have increased instead of decreasing.
― Put Out More Flag Posts (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 27 August 2016 21:47 (seven years ago) link
This guy is so fucking good. I will hear no complaints about the production on Field Day.
― I like queer. You like queer, senator? (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 15 November 2018 02:18 (five years ago) link
Yeah "whenever I think about you" dazzles
― brimstead, Thursday, 15 November 2018 02:25 (five years ago) link
Could definitely use some more MC in my life right about now
― calstars, Thursday, 15 November 2018 03:11 (five years ago) link
hell, even MC could use more MC
― I like queer. You like queer, senator? (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 15 November 2018 03:31 (five years ago) link
Love that both he and fellow smarty pants cult songwriter Robert Forster were astute enough to cover Grant Hart's "2541."
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 15 November 2018 04:53 (five years ago) link
Also love how MC screwed up the lyrics ("big windows, to lay in the sun") but rolled with it anyway...
― henry s, Thursday, 15 November 2018 05:06 (five years ago) link
Does he still use the wrong lyrics when he plays it live?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 15 November 2018 13:13 (five years ago) link
Had to ponder for a second to recall what the real lyric is. “Big windows, to LET in the sun,” no?
― Buckaroo Can't Fail (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 15 November 2018 13:26 (five years ago) link
That's right, though I have to admit I had, for years, misheard "we had to keep the stove on all night long so the mice wouldn't freeze" as "so the PIPES wouldn't freeze"...
― henry s, Thursday, 15 November 2018 14:33 (five years ago) link