haha studio is a little metropolitan, listening to buckingham nicks on the drive to vegas was pretty epic i must admit
― Bomb Bomb Iran (san frandisco), Monday, 20 October 2008 22:12 (fifteen years ago) link
That point of relaxation where you become supremely supine.
^^ not to make light of addiction, but i wonder if a lot of these LA cats tended to make good 'desultory' shit because a lot of them were into heroin in a big way
― max, Monday, 20 October 2008 22:12 (fifteen years ago) link
I got to admit that I sort of wish that Disco had become more of a big thing in Laurel Canyon.
Maybe it was just too insular back in the late 70s, not much from outside seemed to make a dent.
But then I really like the idea of Yacht Disco, so maybe thats just my thing.
Smacked out studio musicians playing lazy music with superb chops. Yup.
― Siah Alan, Monday, 20 October 2008 22:13 (fifteen years ago) link
Its entirely possible that I've listened to Gaucho more than is healthy for any one person though.
― Siah Alan, Monday, 20 October 2008 22:16 (fifteen years ago) link
yeah I think the important thing to stress here is that we're dealing with a continuum here that (I think Max correctly suggests) has one foot planted in "americana" and one foot planted in "balearica". And these aren't mutually exclusive terms but I think they define the state of play, in which all sorts of varying articulations can occur. Max's bio stuff seems to fit the americana end, definitely, though I'm hardly one to judge.
Another way to put the above is that this continuum stretches from a very rooted sense of geography at one end to a very internationalist, escapist idealized vision at the other. One thing I like about the term "yacht rock" is the fact that it implies a sense of placelessness - quite obviously, yachts aren't tied to the land, they can go anywhere. Yacht rock and balearic are different things, but they share that impulse I think, and that sense of upper-middle-class "global village" syncretic fusionism that I think really begins in the 80s (though there's a few 70s antecedents).
And the music that I think defines the core of the continuum-canon I'm trying to sketch out is the stuff that sets the two polar impulses off against each other, dialectically as it were - one difference between The Band and Fleetwood Mac for me is that the former seem totally, er, geographical, whereas Fleetwood Mac seem both "of a place" and "internationalist", they turn their geographical particularism into a universal. But you could run it the other way: maybe Studio and other Swedish bands are the anti-Fleetwood Mac, in that they turn an apparent geographical universalism (in their music) into a byword for "Sweden".
― Tim F, Monday, 20 October 2008 22:20 (fifteen years ago) link
The covers of DJ Harvey's (bootlegged?) Sonic Disco DJ mix series are pretty telling:
http://img02.shop-pro.jp/PA01009/066/product/1612857.jpg
http://www.zona.ws/uploads/posts/1165495829_dj_harvey__sonic_disco_2.jpg
― Tim F, Monday, 20 October 2008 22:23 (fifteen years ago) link
the jack nitzsche solo stuff that came out a few years back called "three piece suite" is def in this category. surprised i haven't heard much talk about it on ilm, maybe i missed a thread
― velko, Monday, 20 October 2008 22:25 (fifteen years ago) link
The narrative that I'd like to hear in a mix of this stuff is roughly:
Yacht sets sail in the Bermudas in the late 70s loaded to the gills with models and playboys, blow and champagne.
Finds a mysterious hole in the fabric of space time, and is mysteriously shunted forward into 1988, right off the coast of Ibiza.
Sort of going from international waters into deep space and then back to the beach.
― Siah Alan, Monday, 20 October 2008 22:26 (fifteen years ago) link
Alright, I'm only sharing this because I really like everyone in this thread.
If I was going to do that mix, I'd start with this song.
http://www.zshare.net/audio/5010660562548279/
Recorded in California but from an band from Illinois.
The Ship - The Ship, The Order
― Siah Alan, Monday, 20 October 2008 22:36 (fifteen years ago) link
WTF I don't see any connection between any of these things. But the first thing that came to mind for me was Summer Breeze (Seals and Crofts) which is mellow and smooth but also creepy and weird, to me anyway
― akm, Monday, 20 October 2008 23:52 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.101apparel.com/_2008SUMMER/t-shirts/balearic_kelly.jpg
haha we got people making balearic t- shirts now !!!
― oscar, Monday, 20 October 2008 23:59 (fifteen years ago) link
So where does a band like High Llamas fit in this conversation?
― Moodles, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 00:13 (fifteen years ago) link
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/410AEFRBZSL._SS500_.jpg
― The Wild Shirtless Lyrics of Mark Farner (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 00:33 (fifteen years ago) link
JD feels your pain
― The Wild Shirtless Lyrics of Mark Farner (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 21 October 2008 00:37 (fifteen years ago) link
^^ this is a dope idea that helps put into place some things ive been thinking abt balearica.
what interests me most though--and i think u point toward this, or are saying it in a slightly different way--is the interplay btw the placenessless/rootlessness of the stuff (in the specific sense of, lets say, lacking definite coordinates) vs. the serious dependence on, i dont know how to put this, but, like, geographical zone? or something? by which i mean: beaches, obviously. or, you know, The Beach. i dont know if that makes sense! but im into the way that balearica taps into a this cosmopolitan/internationalist fantasy of never being tied down, whether its boating around on ur yacht or jetting from island to island for beach parties--while still being totally dependent on a very specific *kind* of place, i.e., The Beach. so its sort of internationalist in a very narrow sense--the music doesnt imply the frozen tundra or, like, the desert, or uh, stonehenge, or whatever. (i think btw that this dual sense of rootlessness/rootedness is intrinsic to the idea of the ocean and the beach and sailing in general--complete and utter freedom to go wherever you want, as long as that place is a port, and i think that the fact that balearica taps into the same feeling is part of why its so successful at evoking those ideas/places/practices)
― max, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 01:05 (fifteen years ago) link
what is interesting to me (as a geographical literalist who only wants to interpret musical production around the framework of climate zone) is how swedes and brits and dudes from the bay area, none of whom have proper beaches, are cranking out the best 'balearica' around. but i guess the answer to that is sort of apparent--if balearica requires a certain placelessness (and i think thats true in particular of the 'nu'-balearica of the last 3-4 years) it is probably advantageous to have no beach-y tropical art forms around that will influence and make specific your far more 'general' Beach music.
i am not sure that i believe any of what i am saying about why artists from some places are making certain specific types of music but i enjoy doing it as a thought experiment, and i have to say that it seems particularly 'right' to do so when talking about so much of this--its weirdly difficult to have a conversation about studio, say, without talking about how theyre from sweden
― max, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 01:13 (fifteen years ago) link
good beach music from germany too
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/25/Boney_M._-_Oceans_Of_Fantasy_%281979%29.jpg
― scott seward, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 01:18 (fifteen years ago) link
I think that for me this music is almost purely escapism, I've only been to LA a couple of times and they were two very short visits.
As someone who lives a fantasy life through music the reverse slumming of listening to music that was explicitly upper class can be sort of freeing.
That and I live in the center of the North America and coastal beaches are in short supply here.
Its interesting that you choose the Band as an example of specifically regional music Tim, seeing as they were a Canadian band making music heavily indebted to a rural and mostly Southern experience. The Dead were similarly very far away from the Ozarks from which they derived so much of their sound. But yes, Fleetwood Mac took that a step farther (UK band making music that was sort of a cosmopolitan synthesis of blues and country and arguably some soul). Almost all of these Californian bands who went so stylishly rural in the 70s had very little to do with the experiences made reference to in their music. Except for some very specific cases like Gene Clark or Gram Parsons.
I feel that the yacht sound was more honest, it at least sounded like California, like privilege and wealth.
― Siah Alan, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 01:24 (fifteen years ago) link
i was actually going to mention this! cause the thing about "cosmic american music" or "americana" is that at the level of "AMERICA" is way totally rootless/placeless--i mean thats why its called "americana" instead of "country western" or "appalachian" or wvr! except that--tim is from stupid australia, so at a global level "americana" is pretty specific and geographically limited.
― max, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 01:28 (fifteen years ago) link
ha you know what fits into this thread? brightblack morning light.
― max, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 01:32 (fifteen years ago) link
hippie-ass-rootless-american-beardo-codeine-funk
― max, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 01:34 (fifteen years ago) link
they are from the south! though they do live in the desert now. and are happy to be rooted there.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 01:38 (fifteen years ago) link
i do like the idea that they made their new album using only solar power. they are funny hippies.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 01:39 (fifteen years ago) link
in that arthur interview i just read, brightblack dude goes on about how he doesn't like people using phony southern accents when they sing.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 01:41 (fifteen years ago) link
i know! they're from rural louisiana (or at least the dude is) and then they started making music smokin a ton of weed in huntingdon county and then moved down to the desert! rootless!
― max, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 01:45 (fifteen years ago) link
haha the dude has a major LA accent
uh LA there means louisiana
Brightblack's first album really made me wonder why no one picked it up and remixed it.
Maybe its just too stoned and too slow, but I was listening to a lot of dubstep and disco when it came out so it made sense to me.
― Siah Alan, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 01:52 (fifteen years ago) link
is it sort of hard for anyone else to link balearic and beardo so easily? kind of like sonny crockett hanging out with chong or something?
― winston, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 04:02 (fifteen years ago) link
i guess i'm still thinking of beardo as that harvey "mad dog chronicles" and led zepellin but that thread is kind of all over the place...
― winston, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 04:04 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.8ballrecords.it/database/database_public/img/GERRY-RAFFERTY-CITY-TO-CITY.jpg also this:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51B91V046XL._SL500_AA240_.jpg
which i think was actually recorded at a desultory beach party. liner notes:
So here we were --singing for a small crowd thatstood so far awaywe couldn't see their faces clearly,so -- not worrying about it -- playing pretty much for ourselves,having some fun in Florida --performing in a tiki hut (!) --mandarin orange slices with almonds,fresh fish,a big condo all to ourselves with awashing machine in the very building --The Rough Squirrels and I enjoyed this gig and on a return engagement decided to get a tape machine rolling --these are some of the highlights --purely for your pleasure --Here's your Pizza!
P.S. The real words to the first line ofthe first verse of "Samson and Delilah" are"I'm-uh ease your mind an' tell youwhere to find the best salon."The second verse is supposed to start with"Donna's gonna graduate an' Katy'sgot a date -- Alright!"
― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 04:33 (fifteen years ago) link
does bob welch fit here, or is that too slick? fleetwood mac connection tho
― velko, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 04:49 (fifteen years ago) link
also, some nilsson. possibly all nilsson. definitely this nilsson:
― tipsy mothra, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 04:54 (fifteen years ago) link
xpost. welch totally fits. check this track? slick, and wonderful http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Let-Me-Fall/dp/B0017QQAE6
and this one is totally driving, bearded rock
― jaxon, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 04:56 (fifteen years ago) link
"tim is from stupid australia"
Yeah we have no clue. Even our one big country singer is called Keith URBAN.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 06:27 (fifteen years ago) link
sorry i seem to have dragged this thread into "max has fantasies about sweden and los angeles"
― max, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 10:34 (fifteen years ago) link
stuff from the 70s thread that does NOT fit this: the beau brummels & the byrds
― max, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 10:35 (fifteen years ago) link
― max, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 10:37 (fifteen years ago) link
maybe some rick roberts solo stuff? burrito bros probably not. maybe firefall
― max, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 10:43 (fifteen years ago) link
siah and max's points about the imaginariness of americana are interesting. I guess you could say that americana is like a fascimile of realness where balearica is like a photocopy of a photocopy on an order of infinite regress. Which I imagine is what siah is getting at when he commends the "honesty" of "yacht rock". It's the honesty of faking so real u are beyond fake.
― Tim F, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 11:36 (fifteen years ago) link
what beardo's listen when it's raining and they can't get to the beach:
http://www.whiskeyexperience.co.nz/music/images/m/Martyn,%20John%20-%20Bless%20The%20Weather.jpg
― caek, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:46 (fifteen years ago) link
apostrophe catastrophe
― caek, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:47 (fifteen years ago) link
Haven't read this thread all the way through, but would "In The Skies" by Peter Green qualify?
― Discordian, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 15:55 (fifteen years ago) link
i don't want to come off all mike taylor about this, but let's try to keep one foot firmly rooted in reality. i've lived most of my life within sight of the ocean. in fact right now i live close enough that i can hear the waves on the beach. the "geographical literalist" argument makes no sense to me. practically nobody here listens to this kind of music. surfers listen to jam bands (like dave matthews, jack johnson or tortoise), indie rock (modest mouse, ratatat), rap music (conscious or not), new punk and AOR reggae (marley family offshoots). if they listen to 70s music its likely to be stones, sabbath or bowie rather than freak-folky obscurity.
― moonship journey to baja, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 18:09 (fifteen years ago) link
jokes bruv
― max, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 18:11 (fifteen years ago) link
lol tho vahid one of my posts above had "i should stop before vahid jumps on me for just making shit up" but i edited it out
i'm not trying to deny that it's interesting to try to sketch out an "imaginary genre" here but i just don't want anybody thinking that this is some sort of california cultural phenomenon or anything like that.
― moonship journey to baja, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 18:13 (fifteen years ago) link
back to suggestions
bobby brown's 'The Enlightening Beam Of Axonda'
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61GH2KN4C9L._SL500_AA240_.jpg
― jaxon, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 18:17 (fifteen years ago) link
OMG YES
i just bought the reissue on sundazed last week and i was thinking of adding it to this thread before i decided to rant
― moonship journey to baja, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 18:19 (fifteen years ago) link
xxp i think ive made it clear that im not trying to account for anything outside of my head here; that the blog-ass ramblings above are mostly half-hearted attempts to articulate my own, uh, i dont know, like, 'spiritual' or 'psychic' relationship to this music and what it represents in terms of places that ive lived and visited.
that being said i do think that a sense of place, or lack thereof, is at stake in a big way w/r/t much of the music being discussed here--both on the strictly formal level insofar as a lot of it involves the wrangling of quite culturally/geographically specific musics and on the more, like, cultural level where its produced and received as a piece of the tropics, from or for or out of the beach.
― max, Tuesday, 21 October 2008 18:19 (fifteen years ago) link