Brad, I have mucho mucho respect for you based on the years you have provided insight and enthusiasm for stuff such as RHCP that would be challenging for the average late 40s/early 50s person such as myself, who loved the band 30 years ago but find them in the past 20 to be thematically the Eagles (LA will fuck you up, LA is alluring) in the format of Aerosmith (white bros inspired by black music), i.e. conservative radio rock. And yet here is this guy who this band needs, who when he is in the band provides them with these song structures and melodic elements that are no doubt the key to the success of that radio rock, but on his own nickel does very pure, adventurous music. Why do you think that none of his adventurous inclinations rub off on the band? Do Flea and Anthony not want that? (they posture as if they do)? Or do you think he says "RHCP is where I do easy to digest music, which I like and is part of me." For all the guy talks about Squarepusher or Sparks or Steve Howe or Schoenberg or Stockhausen or free jazz, I wonder why he can't put a bit of that in this band…he claims to do just that, but all comes out as conservative twaddle…not like I want the band to sound like Twin Infinitives, but they— not just him, but all three of them— could do better…
Yesterday the band was on Stern, and I do find them all to be pretty likable people… none of them think that they are toxic bro jocks…
― veronica moser, Wednesday, 6 April 2022 18:28 (two years ago) link
Does he claim to do that? I think he's just a mature musician that he wants to add exactly the right supportive part for their (largely boring, radio rock) songs, rather than squeezing in something jazzy, shreddy, dissonant, or trying to turn them into Radiohead.
I don't know what Flea's excuse his, except that maybe now they have so much experience as an arena band with a huge audience that they know what works on that scale, and save the weird shit for their private time or side projects.
― change display name (Jordan), Wednesday, 6 April 2022 18:35 (two years ago) link
by the way is 100 percent the record where frusciante’s ambitions guide them, especially across the last 4-5 songs, so it’s not like it’s never happened
i think the very simple answer is the soul of the band is them jamming together, and when they jam together it tends to produce this sound and these kinds of songs. frusciante usually has a few moments per record where he gets to fuck with the formula though, cf. “animal bar” on stadium arcadium, the rubin interview reveals he brought “these are the ways” whole into the ultimate love sessions, and you can certainly tell, etc. etc.
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Wednesday, 6 April 2022 19:04 (two years ago) link
I like that tune "Montreal" off one of the Ataxia collections. It sounds like what PIL with Bob Dylan as lead singer might sound like.
― earlnash, Thursday, 7 April 2022 00:38 (two years ago) link
once again i am absolutely obsessed with the will to death
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, 7 April 2022 14:23 (two years ago) link
Dunno, as much as I tried, nothing of his ever grabbed me like To Record Water… I guess that one will remain an outlier.
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Thursday, 7 April 2022 16:56 (two years ago) link
it only took eight years but wow i adore enclosure now
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 8 April 2022 14:51 (two years ago) link
the skittery, constantly morphing drum programming is just the right counterpoint for the static yet gorgeous melodies he's singing over it. also even though his focus soon drifted toward making actual idm, i think he was really onto something when he was incorporating his guitar playing in his dance music experiments, especially on this record and "same" from the outsides EP
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 8 April 2022 14:56 (two years ago) link
this'll be a really messy ranking but here we go
to record only water for ten daysenclosureniandra lades and usually just a tshirtthe empyreanthe will to deathrenoise tracks 2009-2011dc epmayashadows collide with peoplepbx funicular intaglio zone / letur-lefr trickfinger: look down, see ustrickfinger: she smiles because she presses the buttona sphere in the heart of silenceoutsidesinside of emptinesstrickfinger iiforegrow4-track guitar musictrickfinger
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 8 April 2022 15:13 (two years ago) link
Have to co-sign veronica's sentiment here Brad. Thanks for spending the time with this stuff and sharing thoughts. I know I'm very cynical about this dude's music these days, but there was a time I considered him one of my GOATs. So it's refreshing to be reminded of how I came to revere him so much in the first place. Thanks.
(earlnash also otm RE: Ataxia — that stuff can get pretty wild!)
― Let's disco dance, Hammurabi! (Austin), Friday, 8 April 2022 15:20 (two years ago) link
as usual i forgot to rank ataxia!!! put both records above maya
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 8 April 2022 15:27 (two years ago) link
That 'Montreal' track has this thing where you got the vocal which has this folky drone and then you got the droning guitar (kinda Keith Levene say in style) and then this repeating bass and drum groove. It's moving but it's got that statis that to me really captures the ever present waiting to get somewhere. I get a visual of a head leaned against a car/bus window while the miles roll on in a totally dead and gray landscape of rain.
"Sold all my records. What a stupid thing to do."
To me, it just captures the emptiness of the quiet times when you have to fight the loop of rumination of your mind turning over failures.
I'm not a huge fan, but I thought this song was pretty killer.
― earlnash, Saturday, 9 April 2022 01:56 (two years ago) link
again, maya is soooo good
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Thursday, 21 April 2022 18:53 (two years ago) link
^^listening to it now, and Maya is sick. Much more immediately convincing than his other electronic records I've heard. Still has that Aphex/breakcore/IDM tinge, but it's ravier too.
― change display name (Jordan), Friday, 20 May 2022 18:17 (one year ago) link
https://acidtestrecords.bandcamp.com/album/i-i
his most recent release: improvised dark ambient drone. and really good for being his first foray into that realm
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 24 February 2023 18:03 (one year ago) link