Tortoise: Classic or Dud

P.S. It's funny how I'm all surprised upthread that people would hate on Tortoise during the circa-2000 push back against post-rocky stuff -- now that that stuff doesn't feel at issue anymore, it's genuinely hard to imagine many people caring to hate them.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/new-tortoise-album-coming-in-april-1003932126.story

the title track from "it's all around you" is great.

is the will oldham covers album worth hearing?

YES!

http://www.staticmultimedia.com/music/reviews/review_1141521087

during the circa-2000 push back against post-rocky stuff

i blame the strokes

If you take Wicker Park to be post-rock central, it was actually De Stijl that seemed to do something -- there was a season where that seemed to be playing constantly in every cafe and bar, and I definitely assumed it was as a reaction to what had been going on in the area, stuff that made the idea of the Stripes strike people as refreshing.

I saw somewhere that one of the guys from Tortoise said the new album is close, sonically, to Standards.

well if they claim it is synth heavy then that makes sense

is the will oldham covers album worth hearing?

My favorite thing by either of them. I don't have much use for Oldham, but he is incredible on almost all of these tracks.

xp i'm looking much forward to that one. may I add the final track on "It's all around you" is also an excellent, swedish prog noodle closer.

Any of you guys heard the old synthpunk band The Units?? Check out this track 'Tight Fit' from their 1980 LP and tell me it doesn't sound like a Tortoise jam.

coincidence? I've been playing Standards as of late also.
also, It's All Around You is pretty good.. it just has more of an disciplined loungey atmosphere which is why I think some people don't like it as much. They don't want disciplined... They don't want loungey...

Do I remember right that Standards was the first one they recorded fully digitally? I do feel like it has a "colder" sound than the other ones, but I think the coldness serves it well.

Stretch (You Are Alright) is a great track off It's All Around You.

HORSE HAM:

Looking forward to the new one.

Salt The Skies

one of the best live bands in the world

Total drummer's band too, ha.

There career arc mirrors stereolab quite a bit imo (though not as prolific)...

fresh, creative singles
a couple solid albums
some insane remixes
lineup tweakage
widely unpopular shift of direction

also wildly derivative as well...

ie, their mutual ability to wear then-obscure influences on their sleeves.

1996 NEVER FORGET

Pretty sure TNT was recorded on a computer.

"widely unpopular shift of direction" with original fans since Stereolab's widely unpopular shift resulted in them selling a lot more albums.

what period of stereolab do you consider the john mcentire produced records?

@shasta

i'm sure it's a mix of analog and digital...soma has a ton of analog gear, no reason not to use it.

Thread inspired me to start a Tortoise Pandora station. It's amazing how many competent post-rock bands I have never heard of!

... such as:
Tommy Guerrero
Maserati
Benevenuto & Russo Duo
The Six Parts Seven

El Ten Eleven

I never posted on this Tortoise thread, but I did gush on how much I liked them on some of the others and the big 'post rock' thread that is around here somewhere. That being said, I STILL have not gotten around to hearing their last couple of releases. Really odd considering I probably listened to their first three albums constantly for years even to now.

I can kind of understand why people don't like Tortoise, but to me they were a group that kind of changed my musical outlook. They were just the right kind of band heading in a different direction at the right time that really appealed to me, so I say classic.

I've seen them live three times and thought they were always really good band to go and check out.

That being said, it probably time to check in.

dots&loops = shift... but yeah i can see where they shifted with mars, then the groop played, then emporer... but dots was the biggest departure... thematically, popularity, critically.

but to me they were a group that kind of changed my musical outlook. They were just the right kind of band heading in a different direction at the right time that really appealed to me

Yeah, me too, actually. At the time my friends got me into Tortoise I was mainly listening to straight-ahead jazz, classical, some "classic rock" like Pink Floyd and Zeppelin, Fugazi, and old blues records. I think Tortoise and their Chicago counterparts (Isotope 217, Brokeback, Chicago Underground, Sea and Cake, etc.) got me to start thinking of music in a less compartmentalized way -- more of a sonic continuum.

what

I was like 18 or 19 years old, granted. I remember reading the back of one of the Chicago Underground albums and there was this admittedly kind of pretentious text on the back about a more unified approach to music: "Start with SOUND!" etc. But at the time it was quite mind-expanding.

boring and masturbatory.

your opinions are, yes

― earlnash ― try A Lazarus Taxon (3 cds) - so much new material (or maybe I should say rare) mixed with old classics

For me, I was playing in bad bands in the midwest around that time going seeing many of those touch & go or related kind of groups. I had seen Johnny Machine play a couple of times with the Poster Children and when I first heard about Tortoise it sounded like a pretty weird idea for a side project. But about that same time I was starting to listen to Can and Kraftwerk and then heard the first stuff on Warp records and started listening to a bunch of jazz, so going from listening to Jesus Lizard or say Slint then Tortoise started to make sense to me with the other records I was starting to listen to. Criminy it was a band by people who were doing stuff that I kind of liked who started doing some newer music that fit in with new things I was finding. Omar and Dave Q also kind of hit it up at the top of the thread.

your opinions are, yes

well, when they weren't, people were deeply offended by my comments and i got banned for some time.

i like this new song
http://pitchfork.com/forkcast/12802-prepare-your-coffin/

Pitchfork Festival appearance was dope.

Set list:

1. Seneca
2. Djed
3. Ten-Day Interval
4. Swung from the Gutters
5. Along the Banks of Rivers
6. TNT
7. The Suspension Bridge at Iguazu Falls
8. Glass Museum

Was hoping for "I Set My Face to the Hillside," but oh well.

Whatever people say about Standards, "Seneca" is awesome live. Good band, not great, but unfairly maligned.

but to me they were a group that kind of changed my musical outlook. They were just the right kind of band heading in a different direction at the right time that really appealed to me

Yeah, me too, actually. At the time my friends got me into Tortoise I was mainly listening to straight-ahead jazz, classical, some "classic rock" like Pink Floyd and Zeppelin, Fugazi, and old blues records. I think Tortoise and their Chicago counterparts (Isotope 217, Brokeback, Chicago Underground, Sea and Cake, etc.) got me to start thinking of music in a less compartmentalized way -- more of a sonic continuum.

― Joe Bob 1 Tooth (Hurting 2), Tuesday, January 27, 2009 2:45 AM (5 months ago)

Yeah, they're a reasonable gateway band into a lot of better music, for younger listeners. And my impression is they'd be happy with that--as maligned as they are for being a pastiche-of-all-things-old-and-hip, I think it's evident they're sincerely in love with music, and probably don't think they're doing something revolutionary (unlike the impression I got from hearing/reading quotes from far worse "post-rock" bands who seemed never to have heard a fucking Can or Reich or Morricone record and thought they were inventing some new dramatic language). They surely aren't ashamed of their influences.

(or at least they pretended never to have heard any "experimental" music. It's possible, as Mogwai and GSYBE and Sigur Ros and all those Constellation bands seemed to take their sense of dynamics from Smashing Pumpkins or U2 more than anything else.)

I saw Tortoise live in LA last week. They were good, absolutely. Still, when they brought out "Djed" for the encore... man, that song is still so electrifying and exciting. It accidentally made the entire rest of the show feel lazy. Like, "Oh, you can be this good? Oh." I just don't get the sense that these guys are pushing themselves as hard as they once did.

saw these guys recently, sadly they didn't play Djed. they did Seneca though and a lot of older material. i agree with pgwp above, however tight and great it was, they didn't even break a sweat. i can appreciate the art in sounding like a cd on stage, but it would be cool to see them put a little more at risk.

...and oh yeah to my big surprise i saw at least half a dozen trucker hats in the audience

Off to see these guys tonight as part of the Melb Jazz Festival. The new album is so not-typical of them (and much less jazzy than their older work) that I'm wondering what material they'll be playing!

As long as there is a load of duelling glocks I'll be happy.

or vibraphones, or whatever they are.

Have fun :)