Talking Heads- Classic or Dud?

really wish i'd heard all this praise before he came through the pnw!

*sees he's coming to dallas in....fuck thats a long time*

Ok, got tix for the SF show. The Oakland shows are already sold out.

Clay otm

well, he did announce the tour by calling it his most ambitious since SMS ...

ok you guys convinced me to get tickets to the forest hills stadium show. 35 years since we last saw him there!

Benjamin Clementine (of the Mercury Prize and Benjamin Clementine - I Tell A Fly (!!!!!) ) opened and baffled and/or failed to distract the Chicago audience.

There was no introduction, and I hadn't bought the Byrne tickets, so thought it was the first song or two of the Byrne show itself. And in a way threw the audience a "difficult" curveball (Tune-Yards may do the same when they open later shows).

Just missed his show here, fuck man

According to Andy Zax, the producer of Talking Heads' Once in a Lifetime box set, the band has an enormous cache of completed songs that Byrne is continuing
to withhold.

Does it say why he’s withholding them? (Like Lucille Bluth, does he “get off on being withholding”?)

I know that he would maybe know, but imo that seems unlikely. First, the band released their stuff at a pretty good clip, and it's not like those albums were bursting with material, even as contemporaries were eventually releasing double and triple albums. Even then, say it was an artistic decision to keep things short, there have been a couple of sets of reissues - Sand in the Vaseline and that Once in a Lifetime boxed set, plus that other boxed set - where unreleased songs might have popped up, but the bonus stuff was pretty scant or just sketches. Googling around, there seem to be maybe a couple of tracks they played live but never put on an album, but I'd be shocked if there were tons of unreleased things that were never played live, never put on a reissue, and escaped being bootlegged.

I've always wondered if Byrne and Bowie had any sort of relationship. Longtime New Yorkers, smart, friends of Eno, arty and erudite ... you'd think they'd be fast friends.

i asked zax about remain in light outtakes at some point and he said there really wasn't that much of releasable quality left over from those sessions (don't know about other albums). the bonus tracks that have come out are fantastic, but they're essentially jams, not completed songs.

JiC otm, I'd be very surprised if there were any fully realized unreleased tracks at all

I recently discovered that the version of "New Feeling" on the B-side of "Love Goes To A Building On Fire" is an earlier version with cool horns and other production touches! Not on YT or I would link it...

re: Byrne and Bowie.

Tina Weymouth made a dismissive remark in the David Bowman biography to the effect that people like them and Brian Eno live in
their own spheres and would be happiest if in near-total isolation with artists like each other for company

Didn't Byrne introduce Bowie at the latter's RnR Hall of Fame induction?

Yes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GeFtpjuXk0

Of course, Bowie wasn't there, was he? Madonna accepted!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D8RLzOHk1Y

And Bowie was reckoned to be trying to sing like Byrne on D.J.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgPUxjQOk-w

My gf went with a friend night before last. She's not a particularly big fan of TH/Byrne but she raved about the show. And they even had nosebleed seats.

It was something. Weirdly comforting.

This interview is a tad indulgent, but has some gems in it:

https://www.gq.com/story/david-byrne-talking-heads-icon-profile

Including a link to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adUtlz0GcCg

A++++ cover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkVC2p4gz1Y

Nosebleed seats were fine, because the whole stage was used and the sound was clear. Here was my view from Friday night (Auditorium Theater in Chicago):

http://i68.tinypic.com/2qisrcg.jpg

Yeah, she took some brief videos and it looked like the show was staged to be enjoyed from pretty much any distance. And is it just me, or has Byrne's voice remained magically unchanged for forty years?

did i already miss the nyc part of this tour? Y'all are waking me up here.

Seeing him in a month on a festival, guessing he won't be doing these exact shows in that setting. Still, psyched!

Been trying xyzal but th

did i already miss the nyc part of this tour? Y'all are waking me up here.

Ha, my unposted fragment of seasonal allergies post that went unfinished came along for the ride, sorry

I wish they were playing 'Totally Nude' instead of 'Blind.' Setlist looks awesome otherwise. I don't know much of his solo oeuvre. Is the material from the new album strong?

And is it just me, or has Byrne's voice remained magically unchanged for forty years?

― On the Wingers of Love: The Kip & Debra Story (Old Lunch), Tuesday, June 5, 2018 9:03 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah it's kind of amazing, his voice doesn't really sound different than the 80s...

quite nice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByTLLEdL8Og

New stuff was nothing special, was really all about the visuals imo.

Interesting essay: https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/angelique-kidjo-interview-myth-of-cultural-appropriation-covering-remain-in-light/

How do you all rate the new record? I haven’t really given it a full listen. Feel like I’m a completist at this point

It's nothing special.

Alexa just played “No Compassion,” followed by a live acoustic version of “Heaven” – and I’m not gonna lie, the combo was poignant.

First song on the new album is off-putting. After that it gets better.

Angelique Kidjo has just covered all of Remain in Light:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR8jgFGmqvU&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR8jgFGmqvU&feature=youtu.be

Hmm. Anyway, pretty great.

was pretty blown away by benjamin clementine as the opener at the show i saw. had never heard of him before.

byrne was excellent too ofc :)

Man the reviews are excellent for this. Just got it and excited to listen to today

this version shits on the original from a high place

That's... a very vivid image

xp FP'd you for that, don't take it personally

i'm kidding of course, but it's amazing

sorry i was in passion's control, bad place, no harm sleeve

Back in style *yawns*

What’s back in style?