Aging rock act on new album: This time we wanted to go back to the basics

though i don't think lightly ribbing some rock band about it is a big thing either

Kind of taking this a bit seriously? (xxp)

the interesting thing is opera - opera singers DO get booed for making mistakes, sometimes to the point where they walk-off mid performance. But outside of this, live performances are full of homers. part of it is "not being able to hear well at a loud concert", but if you go to a show where the vocalist just isn't singing well, often times they get cheered like they gave the performance of a lifetime. sure, there's a few documented instances like where Whitney Houston got booed, but usually those are egregious situations or situations where the singer has baggage that the fans are already incorporating into their feelings.

like the first time I saw Black Sabbath, Ozzy sounded abysmal. they had lowered keys of songs and something was up with his hearing, he could not find his note for just about any of the songs, so he was outright in a different key than his band.

he got roars and catcalls and OMG HE'S STILL GOT IT, people saying "wow Ozzy was on fire" and tbh he sounded like someone had set him on fire. even people listening to the youtube vids where you could hear more accurately in the sobering light of day.

xxp My point with the athlete example was that "giving 100%" probably feels as accurate to them as "four guys in a room" feels to musicians; these cliches seem to express something meaningful to these ppl who do things that I can't, artless as the expressions may sound to idle dude on couch (me).

People don't really expect athletes to speak anything other than cliches though, do they?

xxp My point with the athlete example was that "giving 100%" probably feels as accurate to them as "four guys in a room" feels to musicians; these cliches seem to express something meaningful to these ppl who do things that I can't, artless as the expressions may sound to idle dude on couch (me).

― juristic person (morrisp), Monday, November 1, 2021 10:39 AM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

no i'm saying it think it's largely a rote set of words they've learned over time are safe to say and prevent them from getting themselves in trouble so and they are largely just reciting them. i think a lot of musicians the four guys in a room thing actually has some nostalgia for a time when they were coming up, still liked each other, etc

it's like imagine having to do a press conference everytime you finish a guitar solo

I think there's a synth pop reversal of this thread premise - ie synth bands of the early eighties, as they push on into the nineties they go a bit rock and get out the guitars etc... and then at some point they decide to 'go back to basics', throw out their guitars and plug in the synthesisers again. I distinctly recall reading something along those lines in an interview with Phil Oakey in the 90s or 2000s.

― Zelda Zonk, Monday, November 1, 2021

well, Human League got a bit rock and got out the guitars in 1984.

xp Musicians often complain about having to do press for every album cycle, answer the same questions every time, etc.!

that happens every few years not every day, the equivalent would be having every concert you perform broken down in detail and hashed over for a few days, plus the music press is largely fawning

Also players have coached, owners, leagues, entire power structures that have direct control over them, in the extreme, you can see Colin Kaepernick who is still blacklisted from the NFL for his political views

Having to answer some dumb questions for Variety and Rolling Stone every 3 years isn't remotely the same

Are you guys just debating the strength of the metaphor? FWIW I agree that rockers saying rock marketing cliches in this case is not something they may be aware of, or would even care at all if it was pointed out to them.

Was gonna say - we're going much deeper into this analogy than the spirit in which I intended it

ILX in a nutshell

How about when novelists, who are (actual) wordsmiths and also only do interviews when they have a project to promote, say things like "I don't know where they story's going until the characters take me there," etc.

It means they are marketing savvy

xp Musicians often complain about having to do press for every album cycle, answer the same questions every time, etc.!

Perhaps they could avoid this by not performing old material every tour. I'm not suggesting "play the new album in full" shows, 'cause I hate those, but I've always kind of admired the radicalism of Fela Kuti, who would play songs for a while, then record them, and once they were on an album, he'd drop them and start playing new stuff. If bands, like (some) standup comedians, were presenting an entirely new hour of material every year, they'd probably get questions they'd find more interesting.

We are talking about albums of new material; the questions are just the same every interview. "What was it like to be back in the studio again?" etc.

"In writing my new novel, I was going back to one person in a room, just rocking out with a pencil and paper".

People don't really expect athletes to speak anything other than cliches though, do they?

― Des Weerelds Dool-om-berg ont-doold op Dool-in-bergh (Tom D.), Monday, November 1, 2021 11:43 AM bookmarkflaglink

there are definitely athletes who do, and unfortunately usually in the form of throwing a coach or a teammate under the bus, which leads to verbal arguments, sometimes fistfights, or being traded. which is why most athletes usually are told to just stfu

it's like imagine having to do a press conference everytime you finish a guitar solo

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, November 1, 2021 11:50 AM bookmarkflaglink

"hi, Mr. Hammett, Jake Stanislavsky from the Deerpointe Tattler. any reason you fucked up the solo to 'One' so badly tonight?"

"I'm still playing it."

"are you, though?"

In writing my new novel, I was going back to one person in a room, just rocking out with a pencil and paper"

None of that 24-track ballpoint pen shit

This really took a turn

How many threads must a man scroll down

We gotta get this back to basics... just a few guys in a thread, posting

real, authentic otms, no high-tech challops

It might be fun to start a thread of music journalist “so and so artist/band is BACK/sober/newly purposeful tropes”

+ “I’m not spiritually centered”

*now*

How about when novelists, who are (actual) wordsmiths and also only do interviews when they have a project to promote, say things like "I don't know where they story's going until the characters take me there," etc.

SCORPIONS have unveiled the cover artwork for their 19th studio album, "Rock Believer", which will be issued on February 25, 2022 (postponed from the previously announced February 11). The LP's first single, "Peacemaker" will arrive tomorrow (Thursday, November 4), with the accompanying music video following a day later.

During the pandemic the band retreated to the studio in their German hometown in Hanover and started working on new songs.

"The album was written and recorded in the SCORPIONS DNA with core [Rudolf] Schenker/[Klaus] Meine compositions," said singer Klaus Meine. "We recorded the album as a band live in one room, like we did in the '80s."

The new song is pretty good! They fired their drummer and got Mikkey Dee, formerly of Motörhead, and you can really hear the difference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ5cJMGl6-8

One interesting thing about "recording as a band live in one room" is that it only seems cool to people who had other options.

Like, yr old school Motown folx rarely crow about recording "in a room," because that's literally how you made records then. Ditto pretty much every jazz and classical musician ever.

No symphony orchestra in the history of ever has spoken about getting back to basics, you know, "just 80 musicians in a room."

i dunno, i find there's value to being the same room as musicians especially if that's what you're used to. doing stuff soloed or isolated always put me off on the wrong foot. i'm sure big bands get more used to it, but as a bass player i do watch the drummer's hands a lot, just little things

Not sure I believe the Scorpions recorded as a band live in one room in the 1980s - unless Billy Childish was in the band then.

It wouldn't surprise me at all. There is overdubs and vocals but I don't think doing basic tracks as a band is that rare

It's also not inherently low fi or backwards

Oh yeah, basic tracks, I was imagining Klaus was claiming the entire band was recorded live!

ooh yeah hell no was he doing vocals and stuff live with the band haha, i see what you mean how he said it

this entire interview: https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/spoon-lucifer-on-the-sofa-interview-britt-daniel/

OMG

Posted over on The Wrens thread: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/nov/24/its-repulsive-to-me-the-bitter-feud-of-indie-rockers-the-wrens

Whelan says he hopes for an eventual return to the band’s punk-rock roots, with “just four of us standing in a basement”.

two people squatting in it

just four of us standing in a basement

Good idea. More bands could benefit from stand-up drummers.

I think we opened for them once in Trenton. It was fucking EMPTY, which was weird since they were supposedly a well-liked NJ band. Also IIRC they played a pretty spot-on cover of War Pigs. This was before I remember that song becoming one of the most played out covers of all time.

Just four people dapping in a silo

Brett Anderson says "Autofiction is our punk record. No whistles and bells. Just the five of us in a room with all the glitches and fuck-ups revealed; the band themselves exposed in all their primal mess."

The record was produced by long-time Suede collaborator Ed Buller, and comes 30 years after the release of their debut single 'The Drowners' in May 1992. “Autofiction has a natural freshness, it's where we want to be,” Anderson continues. The album was recorded with a back-to-basics approach, thrashed out by the five members in a Kings Cross rehearsal studio. “When we were rehearsing and writing this record it was this sheer, physical rush. That thing where you're hanging on for dear life,” adds bassist Mat Osman.

Textbook.

Thrashed out!

"This one is from our new album."

ilxor must have a "prototypical lifecycle/album cycle of every band" thread? (even successful jokes would still be owned by "into the unknown/back to the known" tho. imo).

Red Hot Chili Peppers have a new album out!

Interviewer: "And what did it feel like the first time you were all playing together again?"
Anthony Kiedis: “It felt humbling and going back to square one... to remember what it was to be four guys in a room together playing music and then we started writing new songs.”