Also while we are on the subject Albert’s album with the Brain Surgeons, “Denial of Death”, is kind of essential
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Saturday, 17 October 2020 22:49 (three years ago) link
i saw the brain surgeons circa that record, at a backyard in brooklyn. i spoke to albert for a few minutes. we were chatting about the kiss/teenage lust/iggy/BOC show i'd seen when i was, like, 15 at the old academy of music (later the palladium, now an nyu dorm). it was kiss' first appearance in a concert hall. albert remembered their roadie running in to the dressing room and saying "hey guys, the singer for the opening act just set his hair on fire!" albert was, like, "fuck, how are we gonna follow that?!?"
'Brooklyn Woodstock' breast cancer benefit on a Midwood porch, Sat 6/10
― Thus Sang Freud, Saturday, 17 October 2020 23:10 (three years ago) link
^LOL!!
I’m kind of split on imaginos, Albert did not quite have the voice to carry the whole thing but then the official release is such an awkward monster
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Saturday, October 17, 2020 6:47 PM (fifty-nine minutes ago)
tbf these are not his best vocal takes, maybe he's just getting ideas down but yeah listening to this I wanna hear Eric Bloom singing and Buck Dharma playing guitar. It's like a cupcake without the icing or something, it's still recognizably a cupcake. Idk that sounds dumb.
See, this is where Blue Oyster Cult starts to lose a little of its potency, when they brought in these damn portastudios and then Agents of Fortune is more like the White Album where everyone has their little corner and the band reconvenes to basically copy shit off the demo. BOC do not need portastudios, they just need a pile of Sandy Perlman lyrics and a dilapidated house in Long Island where they can convene in a moldy basement to put their stuff together collaboratively. Not that those later records are bad by any stretch, don't get me wrong I like that stuff a lot too.
I Ching this morning said 枯楊生稊,老夫得其女妻,无不利。(rougly: A withered willow tree sprouts new shoots, an elderly man takes a young bride, there is nothing that is not beneficial). I think the advice in this is to check out the new BOC record.
Full disclosure, Albert Bouchard is my friend's dad and I used to go to parties at his house in fuckin' Great Neck when I was younger. Fwiw I don't think I am biased because he was my favorite member of BOC for years before that.
― Deflatormouse, Sunday, 18 October 2020 00:41 (three years ago) link
I agree that it becomes a different band agents through mirrors (cultosaurus and fire kind of seeming to blend that vibe back with the original 3 album one somehow) that demands a different appreciation
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 18 October 2020 00:46 (three years ago) link
haha full disclosure: eric bloom is the uncle of my best friend when i was growing up, which is how i wound up at the academy of music when i was 15.
― Thus Sang Freud, Sunday, 18 October 2020 00:54 (three years ago) link
damn crazy BOC connectionsmy controversial opinion:Spectres is secretly better than Agents of Fortune but Reaper is so iconic it fools people
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 18 October 2020 00:57 (three years ago) link
Only listened to this album once through but I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. It's kind of like the most recent Judas Priest album where it's like "here's one of basically everything you guys like about us" — and that's good, because *ducks* BÖC have no front-to-back great albums; they always go off the rails somehow (usually with a fake doo-wop song or some gooey ballad) so this "new songs that sound like a greatest hits comp" approach was absolutely the right move. I'm gonna listen to it a few more times for sure.
I haven't heard the new Deep Purple album because to me DP were even worse than BÖC at the whole "two or three great songs, everything else is mediocre or awful" approach to album-making. May I recommend that y'all check out the last few Uriah Heep albums, though? They've done about five in a row now since 2008 that have been ridiculously solid — not great, because they were never great, but B+ material for sure.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 18 October 2020 01:06 (three years ago) link
xp dpectres is better than agents of fortune! reaper is not even the best song on it imo, i would say their best album is secret treaties, followed by tyranny and mutation but i don't have all the later ones so am unqualified to say. i would probably like their early 80s albums a lot.
― Deflatormouse, Sunday, 18 October 2020 01:08 (three years ago) link
heh, well, at least you ducked :)
― Deflatormouse, Sunday, 18 October 2020 01:09 (three years ago) link
yeah that’s certainly blatantly wrong
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Sunday, 18 October 2020 12:39 (three years ago) link
You think they have a front-to-back great album with no bad songs or missteps? Which one is it? I own everything from the debut through Fire of Unknown Origin and the only one where I never skip a track is Secret Treaties.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 18 October 2020 13:05 (three years ago) link
Secret Treaties is perfect
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 18 October 2020 13:11 (three years ago) link
there are no bad tracks on either secret treaties or fire of unknown origin. tyranny and mutation too
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Sunday, 18 October 2020 13:22 (three years ago) link
honestly i love every song on agents of fortune and spectres too
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Sunday, 18 October 2020 13:23 (three years ago) link
Cagey Cretins is the somewhat skippable track on Secret Treaties imo. Tyranny and Mutation is more reliable but the highs are higher on Secret Treaties. Supposedly The Marshall Plan is the real dog on Cultosaurus but I harbour a sneaking admiration for it.
― logout option: disabled (Matt #2), Sunday, 18 October 2020 13:25 (three years ago) link
I feel like Fire... falls apart in the second half. The best song after "Sole Survivor" is "Joan Crawford," and there are some painful keyboard choices on "After Dark" and "Don't Turn Your Back."
― but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 18 October 2020 13:27 (three years ago) link
man who gives a shit both of those songs rip
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Sunday, 18 October 2020 13:28 (three years ago) link
"after dark" in particular boogies
i recommend not listening to it through one's hangups about synth tones but i also loooove the 8-bit-sounding chimes on "after dark"
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Sunday, 18 October 2020 13:31 (three years ago) link
painful keyboard choices
8-bit-sounding chimes
Okay, clearly I NEED this record.
― Deflatormouse, Sunday, 18 October 2020 18:26 (three years ago) link
Adore all the synth work on FOUO
― covidsbundlertanze op. 6 (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 18 October 2020 21:54 (three years ago) link
my controversial opinion:Spectres is secretly better than Agents of Fortune but Reaper is so iconic it fools people
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown),
even more controversial opinion:side 2 of agents of fortune is better than side 1. morning final/tenderloin/debbie denise ftw.i agree with brad tho, love every song on it.
― Deflatormouse, Monday, 19 October 2020 06:50 (three years ago) link
so I streamed FOUO on youtube and about half the new album.
can't write a long post now but when i heard them sing "joan crawford has risen from the grave!" for the first time I laughed so hard my side hurt.
only regret is that i waited so long to check out this wonderful album.
― Deflatormouse, Monday, 19 October 2020 07:00 (three years ago) link
reaper is insanely great i think i just feel this disconnect between reaper and everything else, so when i feel like listening to blue oyster cult it's not the vibe i have in mind, and when i feel like listening to reaper none of their other songs really satisfy that.
― Deflatormouse, Monday, 19 October 2020 07:22 (three years ago) link
yeah reaper is such a singular work of arti hate that fucking stupid snl sketchbut nothing anyone ever did is like it
"I Love the Night" maybe comes close to the vibe, the weird romantic creepiness
Fire of Unknown Origin is so good
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 19 October 2020 14:15 (three years ago) link
even more controversial opinion:side 2 of agents of fortune is better than side 1. morning final/tenderloin/debbie denise ftw.
it's true
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 19 October 2020 14:20 (three years ago) link
also: mirrors is really fun and consistent
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 19 October 2020 14:21 (three years ago) link
I wish Mirrors didn't have such brittle production
I'm pretty on board Side 2 of AoF being better but only ETI is making me pause
that anthemic chorus melody mixed with the bizarre lyrics
All praiseHe's found the awful truth, BalthazarHe's found the saucer news
is one of my fav BOC moments ever
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 19 October 2020 14:23 (three years ago) link
I think I underrated Mirrors for a while because it kicks off with Dr. Music one of the corniest songs they ever wrote
In Thee is one of their prettiest songs
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 19 October 2020 14:24 (three years ago) link
yesss "eti" is one of my absolute favorite böc songs
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 19 October 2020 14:24 (three years ago) link
BTW was looking up lyrics on the new album and I really like the pre chorus (?) on It Was Me, but I'd been hearing it as "I'm the sad man that the ladies tease" and it's really "I'm the Saturn man that ladies tease"
classic wtf BOC word choice.
Do we know who wrote lyrics on this? My friend said one was a Richard Meltzer
You'll feel me in the urban breezeI'll be there when the moment's seizedI'm the Saturn man that the ladies teaseYeah, my darlin', that is me
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 19 October 2020 14:29 (three years ago) link
According to wiki the lyrics for that one are from author John Shirley. Meltzer only wrote for "The Return of St. Cecilia" on this new one.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 19 October 2020 14:32 (three years ago) link
hmmm interesteing. "St. Celicia" is a callback to the Stalk-Forrest Group song (which oddly Meltzer didn't write) so I wonder if it is something old of his they had sitting around?
I know that has happened before, he was pissed about Burning For You I think because they hadn't been in contact with him and just used it, not sure what their relationship is now
thought I suppose Meltzer has probably softened some and tbh could probably use money coming in the door
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 19 October 2020 14:47 (three years ago) link
"Box in My Head" feels very They Might Be Giants to me ("Dead," "Birdhouse in Your Soul").
Something I like about early BÖC is that they're in this uncanny space between dangerous and goofy. The murky, distant sound of the first album captures this best for me, where you can't quite discern whether you're on genuinely evil territory or not. The band sounds sharper after that, but never as mysterious. It feels of a piece with the schizophrenic attitude toward sheer evil in Last House on the Left (released the same year), an end-of-the-sixties thing, even though album and film are totally different experiences.
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Monday, 19 October 2020 16:48 (three years ago) link
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, October 19, 2020 10:23 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
This is my fav BOC moment ever.
It's the song I'd like playing as I line dance into the alien ship come to abduct me.
The rest of the album is incredible, too.
― Quiet Storm Thorgerson (PBKR), Monday, 19 October 2020 17:08 (three years ago) link
everyone knows rock attained perfection in 1980, on the second side of cultösaurus erectus, at some point in the middle of “fallen angel.” it’s scientific fact
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 19 October 2020 21:30 (three years ago) link
I thought that moment occurred during the jazz interlude of "Monsters."
― henry s, Monday, 19 October 2020 21:32 (three years ago) link
in other BOC new - Albert Bouchard's Re-Imaginos is up on streaming
pretty interesting take on the project....sounds *so* much better than the horrid production of Imaginos. Albert's vox can be a little rough at times but I dunno, it's growing on me...
sad Imaginos wasn't tackled around the time of Spectres as Pearlman wanted to
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 10 November 2020 14:54 (three years ago) link
"the girl that love made blind" is gorgeous
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 10 November 2020 14:57 (three years ago) link
omg hooray
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 10 November 2020 15:09 (three years ago) link
i got so obsessed with the imaginos lore when i wrote an essay about heavy metal a few years ago. the one deleted sequence from the movie is kind of an imaginos story in itself
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 10 November 2020 15:11 (three years ago) link
is that up?I think you'll really like thisonly bright spot of 2020 is an unexpected BOC revival
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 10 November 2020 15:16 (three years ago) link
that essay's definitely still up but there's a nonzero chance i will find it mortifying, it was for bright wall/dark room though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miar5eKG4uY
this is the very rad deleted/unfinished heavy metal scene
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 10 November 2020 15:25 (three years ago) link
That's better than most of the finished sequences.
― jmm, Tuesday, 10 November 2020 17:21 (three years ago) link
otm
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, 10 November 2020 17:27 (three years ago) link
i find myself singing it to myself butchering the lyrics like "there's box in my head and my head is a box and my skull is a box and there's a box in my skull and there's box in the box and a head in my skull"― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, October 14, 2020 11:43 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, October 14, 2020 11:43 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink
ha, that's me now. sometimes replacing 'box' with 'cat.'
― swing out sister: live in new donk city (geoffreyess), Wednesday, 25 November 2020 02:41 (three years ago) link
Good article detailing how a new album came to be
https://www.loudersound.com/features/cult-heroes-the-audacious-return-of-blue-oyster-cult
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 16 December 2020 18:50 (three years ago) link
Cool! Thanks for the link.
Also, Real Gone Music has a pre-order up for the first official release of their Pasadena show from 1983. Apparently a pretty popular bootleg, finally in an authorized release.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 16 December 2020 18:53 (three years ago) link
Relieved (and a bit surprised) that this album is basically quite good. I'd put off listening to it for a while because I had a feeling that after all this time it was bound to be a disaster but it's... not?
Am I the only one who likes Nightmare Epiphany? Don't think I've seen it mentioned. Otherwise the songs that stand out for me seem to be the same as the thread consensus: Box In My Head, Stand & Fight, Florida Man, Alchemist, Secret Road. Secret Road might be my fave at the moment.
In my head the album title keeps changing to The Symbol Remains The Same.
― Mr Andy M, Saturday, 19 December 2020 17:27 (three years ago) link
agreed Nightmare Epiphany is a definite highlight and has the vintage BOC feelI should make a play list where I cut the duds from this and fly in the highlights from Curse of the Hidden Mirror
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 19 December 2020 17:57 (three years ago) link
haha subbing Burnin for You for the Mashall Plan would bump Cultosaurus up the list considerably
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 10 February 2024 23:26 (three months ago) link
Subbing anything for the Marshall Plan would help
― realistic pillow (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 11 February 2024 01:08 (three months ago) link
“The Marshall Plan” was the first BOC song I heard as a new song of theirs. It was so weird!
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 11 February 2024 11:12 (three months ago) link
I could probably deal with like a singles edit that didn’t include Marshall’s rap where he’s conceiving his Plan. As I’ve said before BOC were the masters of a unique brand of lame-cool e.g. RU READY 2 ROCK but on a few occasions it gets away from them unlistenably - Marshall, dr music, let go
― realistic pillow (Jon not Jon), Sunday, 11 February 2024 21:32 (three months ago) link
Great revive!
― The Ginger Bakersfield Sound (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 11 February 2024 23:50 (three months ago) link