I was thinking about whether Sugar was a guy-in-a-band return to older sound move for Bob Mould when I instead found these URLols:
https://flagpole.com/music/music-features/2016/11/09/bob-mould-gets-back-to-basics
https://wgnradio.com/2016/04/09/musician-bob-mould-is-getting-back-to-basics/
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/arts/music/bob-moulds-advice-keep-it-simple-and-avoid-streaming-music-services.html
― President Keyes, Friday, 16 November 2018 16:56 (five years ago) link
The term “taking it back to basics” tends to get overused. Any time a musician subtracts a couple bells and whistles from his sound, the spin immediately becomes that he wanted to strip it down, and stick to the essentials of the songs. With Paul Westerberg, now, as ever, there is no spin.
― President Keyes, Friday, 16 November 2018 17:00 (five years ago) link
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/devendra-banhart-gets-back-to-basics-on-new-album-121546/
― President Keyes, Friday, 16 November 2018 17:01 (five years ago) link
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/yg-the-architect-of-fuck-donald-trump-is-getting-back-to-the-basics-706184/
― President Keyes, Friday, 16 November 2018 17:03 (five years ago) link
Sugar is a good one!
― The Poppy Bush AutoZone (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 16 November 2018 17:06 (five years ago) link
Primal Scream's "Give Out But Don't Give Up" is surely an archetypal example of this
the credits for this album are three times as long as for screamadelica.
― visiting, Friday, 16 November 2018 17:07 (five years ago) link
Just the sound of 83 guys in a room
― omar little, Friday, 16 November 2018 17:17 (five years ago) link
uncomfortable with donald trump being named "the architect of fuck," by rolling stone no less
― |Restore| |Restart| |Quit| (Doctor Casino), Friday, 16 November 2018 17:50 (five years ago) link
many xps but The Next Day wasn't so much a "return to form" for Bowie as simply a return after 10 years w/o an album.
― flappy bird, Friday, 16 November 2018 18:27 (five years ago) link
https://slate.com/culture/2013/03/david-bowies-the-next-day-reviewed.html
The Next DayDavid Bowie’s excellent new album is a return to his high ’70s form without being a retread.
By Geeta Dayal
― President Keyes, Friday, 16 November 2018 18:44 (five years ago) link
amazed that bill wyman managed to refrain from naming that album pictured upthread 'back to bassics'
― lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living (Merdeyeux), Friday, 16 November 2018 18:45 (five years ago) link
xp there's a difference between critics evaluating an album as a "return to form" vs. an album being promoted as a return to form. also, that subhed uses "return" as a qualitative judgment and not as a description of the music or Bowie's approach.
― flappy bird, Friday, 16 November 2018 18:51 (five years ago) link
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0brzps8
... just try to stop me watching (anything else but) this. I suppose I should watch it for more Boaby G material.
― ROCK MUSIC (Tom D.), Friday, 16 November 2018 19:00 (five years ago) link
there's a difference between critics evaluating an album as a "return to form" vs. an album being promoted as a return to form
Not really. If the publicist writes the press release, the critics will fall in line. It's a subset of "their best since Some Girls" syndrome.
― grawlix (unperson), Friday, 16 November 2018 19:06 (five years ago) link
The return to 70s Bowie narrative was pretty big with that album. It wasn't just one critic.
― President Keyes, Friday, 16 November 2018 19:09 (five years ago) link
Bowie invited it a bit himself w/that album cover.
― omar little, Friday, 16 November 2018 19:12 (five years ago) link
― President Keyes, Friday, November 16, 2018 12:01 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Back to the basics of never writing a single memorable song.
― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Friday, 16 November 2018 19:18 (five years ago) link
and being a creepazoid
― macropuente (map), Friday, 16 November 2018 19:23 (five years ago) link
"return to form" is distinct from "back to the basics" anyway - the former can just mean they're back to being good again, while the latter taps into the whole "four people in a room" trope.
― |Restore| |Restart| |Quit| (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 17 November 2018 04:43 (five years ago) link
exactly
and I stand corrected re: The Next Day, I don't remember any of that in the press release. Reviews seemed tepid at best.
― flappy bird, Saturday, 17 November 2018 05:47 (five years ago) link
I know this isn’t the thread for it, but allow me to tip my cap to another fun (and frequent) cliché:
“This group is an open forum for anything,” the Men’s Nick Chiericozzi told Pitchfork in a 2012 interview. At the time, the singer/guitarist was speaking to the stylistic eclecticism of the band’s third album, Open Your Heart, the record where the Brooklyn quartet first embraced the idea that the most punk thing a punk band can do is not sound “punk.” They had added a permanent lap steel player; before long, they were making records in the woods and hiring horn sections.
― my guitar friend wants his money (morrisp), Sunday, 18 November 2018 01:14 (five years ago) link
^^That reminds me of something Corin Tucker (iirc) said about Sleater-Kinney embracing Classic Rock because she got bored listening to Modern Rock radio during commutes, so she switched to the Classic Rock station and started hearing all these Zep, Rush, Yes etc. songs that were long and had interesting time signatures that "...felt more Punk Rock [in their daring]...than the new stuff so-called 'Modern/Punk' station."
― The Greta Van Gerwig (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 18 November 2018 02:00 (five years ago) link
The Kooks (yes, they still exist) have a new album out.
https://musicfeeds.com.au/features/the-kooks/
"... I think this album, it was just time to go back to four guys in a room, just loving playing music together. I think you can hear that."
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 22:28 (five years ago) link
Embrace had a new album out, I imagine most of you were unaware of that though.
http://theseventhhex.com/post/169341912015/embrace-interview
"The studio dynamic was much more relaxed this time around and we went back to a much simpler palette."
"Completing this album felt like quintessential Embrace really - it’s just five guys in a room doing what they love."
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 22:33 (five years ago) link
What is the Sleater Kinney album that sounds most like Zep/Yes/Rush?
― Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream (Sund4r), Wednesday, 21 November 2018 22:49 (five years ago) link
The Woods
― The Poppy Bush AutoZone (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 22 November 2018 00:31 (five years ago) link
Though that's a bit overblown, SK always sounds like themselves
― The Poppy Bush AutoZone (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 22 November 2018 00:32 (five years ago) link
I like SK just fine, but that’s like asking which of an art major’s sketches looks most like Rembrandt etc
― calstars, Thursday, 22 November 2018 00:41 (five years ago) link
Oh, I do have a copy of The Woods somewhere. It was OK.
― Locked in silent monologue, in silent scream (Sund4r), Thursday, 22 November 2018 16:40 (five years ago) link
Bob Mould on the new Interpol:
When I heard “The Rover,” which they led with, I was knocked out by it. It just sounded perfect. It brought back all of the urgency. They’re sort of a precise band, but I like when it frays a little bit. The record had a lot of precision but a lot of frayed edges, too. I was like, “Yes, this sounds like a band, in a room, making a record.”
― flappy bird, Sunday, 9 December 2018 04:47 (five years ago) link
From U2: A Musical BiographyDavid Kootnikoff · 2010
Larry wanted to return to basics and go back to working with just four guys in a room.
― Non, je ned raggette rien (onimo), Sunday, 9 December 2018 09:58 (five years ago) link
I like to imagine that's from the chapter on the 'Pop' album. "Shut up Larry, we've told you we're not doing that"
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 9 December 2018 10:09 (five years ago) link
Sadly not. It's from the post-Pop 'All That You Can't Leave Behind' chapter entitled A Sort of Homecoming
― Non, je ned raggette rien (onimo), Sunday, 9 December 2018 11:11 (five years ago) link
The Kooks (yes, they still exist)
― What Do I Blecch? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 9 December 2018 11:23 (five years ago) link
For the new record, we wanted to go back to the sound of just four guys in a room.
Not playing instruments or singing; we really got back to the bare guts of that raw sound we had before we started a band. Dave was mostly doing Words With Friends and Buddy was just zonked on the sofa, those are his snores on "Gift of Pride" and "Darken the Light."
I can't remember what Andy was doing. Shoot, you know ... he might have left the room actually before we started recording. It was a great session though, and it was incredible to get to work with a producer like Tony.
― mick signals, Monday, 10 December 2018 14:28 (five years ago) link
the fifth Beatle was the Room
― President Keyes, Monday, 10 December 2018 14:38 (five years ago) link
a band, in a room, making a record^^the heart, the soul
― niels, Monday, 10 December 2018 15:57 (five years ago) link
when you think about it, all records are made in rooms
― No Smockin' (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 10 December 2018 16:21 (five years ago) link
what if it's a live album recorded at an outdoor venue?
― 21st savagery fox (m bison), Monday, 10 December 2018 18:59 (five years ago) link
space is a room
― flappy bird, Monday, 10 December 2018 19:05 (five years ago) link
the place, iirc
― niels, Monday, 10 December 2018 19:05 (five years ago) link
all records are made in rooms, but not all records are made by four guys in a room, together, learning how to be a band again
― sans lep (sic), Monday, 10 December 2018 19:29 (five years ago) link
As I said it upthread, most of these guys have never recorded that way - well, at least not as a professional band - so they're not really going back to anything.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Monday, 10 December 2018 19:43 (five years ago) link
someone mentioned Stipe but i was gonna say there's at least a couple R.E.M. records that qualify for this, right?― alpine static, Wednesday, March 7, 2018 9:24 PM (nine months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― alpine static, Wednesday, March 7, 2018 9:24 PM (nine months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
"Accelerate" was supposed to be REM's "back to basics, four guys in a room" record, wasn't it?
And it's easily the worst sounding album they ever put out. Even if I had any desire to listen to it, I don't think I could get more than two songs in as the bad mastering is torture.
― Brainless Addlepated Timid Muddleheaded Awful No-Account (Pheeel), Monday, 10 December 2018 21:38 (five years ago) link
Seems to me the issue with the "four guys in a room" type records is, it rarely seems like "four guys in a practice pad writing like their lives depending on it" and more often like "four guys in a room who want to do like two takes maximum because I'll punch a puppy if I have to look at your stupid face for one minute longer than I have to"
― chr1sb3singer, Monday, 10 December 2018 21:42 (five years ago) link
Which I believe was the original title of St Anger
― chr1sb3singer, Monday, 10 December 2018 21:44 (five years ago) link
https://thequietus.com/articles/25902-fennesz-agroa-stripped-back-album
Fennesz' new album, due in March, sees him go back to basics."It was all done on headphones, which was rather a frustrating situation at first but later on it felt like back in the day when I produced my first records in the 1990s," Fennesz says. "I used very minimal equipment. I didn't even have the courage to plug in all the gear and instruments which were at my disposal. I just used what was to hand."
"It was all done on headphones, which was rather a frustrating situation at first but later on it felt like back in the day when I produced my first records in the 1990s," Fennesz says. "I used very minimal equipment. I didn't even have the courage to plug in all the gear and instruments which were at my disposal. I just used what was to hand."
― mirostones, Sunday, 20 January 2019 17:48 (five years ago) link
He could have used the sample trigger software a friend developed in the 90s, called Back To Basics http://www.wizardmaster.com/bludgeonsoft/btb/index.html
― eva logorrhea (bendy), Sunday, 20 January 2019 18:10 (five years ago) link
Former bedroom artists whose greatest successes are in the past trying to move back into shitty apartments where it all started
― calstars, Sunday, 20 January 2019 18:32 (five years ago) link
Fennesz' last album was one of his best though
― the word dog doesn't bark (anagram), Monday, 21 January 2019 10:24 (five years ago) link