Post a controversial music opinion

Ad-Rock and Kathleen Hanna appear to be still married? maybe he is a retired house husband.

nah Hello Nasty is their best, I think it's wildly creative album, hard to even tag it as 'hip hop' really

not really a fan of the ones after that - when that anthology came out it was strongly implied they were retiring. their live shows at least still ruled.

I think the Beastie Boys did update their rap style after Paul's Boutique. Their first two albums have a lot of the group-focused approach where they trade single lines back and forth, one guy setting up a rhyme and another finishing it. On Check Your Head and Ill Communication, they did a lot less of that, and lot more taking turns reciting sets of their own lines. Four bars of just MCA, then four of just Mike D, etc. CYH and IC also have a lot less of the move where everybody shouts the word at the end of a line. I suspect both shifts were influenced by the way rap had changed in general by that point.

It's not that the first two albums have no songs where one guy raps a bunch of lines in a row, or that the next two have none of the old school group-focused approach. But there's a clear trend. Compare "Brass Monkey" and "Shadrach" with "So Watcha Want" and "Sure Shot".

Then they shifted back on Hello Nasty, which is interesting. It seems more self-consciously retro at that point.

After that they just paid a bunch of A-list producers to prop up the same old shit

I don't think the Beastie Boys ever used an A-list producer after Rick Rubin, outside of a remix here and there. Unless you count the Dust Brothers because of their stuff with Tone Loc.

yeah I think they are largely self produced after Pauls

You're right. I should have looked that up before posting. I don't know why I thought that was the case. I think I also overstated Money Mark's involvement on "In Sound".

i think that constant self-improvement as musicians (NOT rappers lol) is part of what helped their enduring goodwill among fans+colleagues. also, personal opinions about some of its topics aside, they mostly made really positive vibe music. same kinda energy as people like biz markie.

(note to self: de la soul collabed with both the beasties+biz.)

"dance away" is annoying, bry stop whining challenge

barry white sang it better

My mum loved that song - and Bryan Ferry, frankly - so I must disagree.

out of reach is out of touch

he shd have stuck to doxxing her car's numberplate imo

It goes over well at karaoke, despite American audiences not having a clue what it is; and I like the weird dissonant bass pokes in the verses.

real hedz kno that best roxy-karaoke practice is to screw up yr eyes as u bellow-emote "GROWING POTATOES BY THE SCORE"

The version on the Babylon Berlin soundtrack is so good.

Money Mark? I chatted with his kid at a coffeshop here in Ams a couple of summers ago.

(maybe that belonged in the name-dropping thread)

"Lean On Me" is the single most overrated song of the 1970s

Maybe not most, but def vastly overrated. Always flip the station when that comes on, and that goes for the Timex Social Club version too.

its just overplayed.

my dad has an al jarreau cd that he plays at night and i can hear al's version from my dad's bedroom sometime and i kinda always wonder why al jarreau felt he had to cover a massive 70s hit IN the 70s. its not that different. he did a whole album of bill withers in the late 70s. but my dad just has it on a best-of.

practically alone among early 90s pop rave hits i don't think i get bassomatic's fascinating rhythm

should "Lean On Me" replace "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the US national anthem?

should “lean back” replace “the star spangled banner” as the US national anthem?

practically alone among early 90s pop rave hits i don't think i get bassomatic's fascinating rhythm

appropriately sampled by real lies for 'one club town'

I buy and enjoy about 75% of International Anthem's releases but I can't believe people take Carlos Niño seriously

dying at the CPAC rendition upthread which I somehow missed. holy shit.

oops wrong thread

Fugazi would have been a better band with more Guy and less Ian.

no guy and i'd probably own all their records instead of none of their records. so, i disagree. but i guess that is why they call it "controversial".

best fugazi album is the instrumental soundtrack

instrument

They're perfect as they are.

They were a bunch of swell guys.

The MC5 were the worst major band to come out of Michigan. Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, the Stooges, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Grand Funk Railroad, Rare Earth, the Alice Cooper band — all miles better than the MC5.

not miles. they were all good.

MC5 weren't even major.

they were like rock critic major.

people should listen to those SRC albums more. they were so cool.

the big question is: Frijid Pink -vs- Frost. its like they were the same band! i refuse to choose. i like them both a lot.

you must choose, scott. it takes 5 seconds, 5 seconds of decision.

They were a bunch of swell guys.

Here's two:

- the best MC5 album is High Time
- Robert Plant's first couple of solo albums are probably at least as good as what Zeppelin might have released if they'd stayed together

That's not controversial!

Spending the afternoon w/many of the 1999 and SOOT outtakes, I realized: as much as I like or love most of these tracks, I don't want them on the original studio albums. This judgment also applies to Smiths, Pet Shop Boys, Suede, or any other act that recorded exemplary B-sides. Keep the okay or bad songs on the original albums.

I don’t know where else to post about this, but I’ve seen many incredible shows in the past year, some all-timers, Bernice Trio at The Tranzac being the most recent mind-blower

But last night I may have seen the best live set in my life? Coupled with the fact that it happened in an arena, where music goes to suck shit? But it was amazing and it was Jacob Collier and Kimbra. I don’t know how to describe how amazing this show is, the songs are treacly garbage, the choice of covers laugh-worthy (“Fix You” ffs??) but I was pummelled by so many spectacular modulations and ridiculous solos that I submitted and was transported. “He’s G-rated Zappa”, I said, which it basically is, except better than Zappa in every regard.

I’ve always thought that the escalation in popularity of certain music trends was a response to the saturated environment we live in— electroacoustic is like popular now, people stan Grouper all the time and some of that music is just pure noise drone— I believe Collier is benefitting from the other end of the spectrum, maybe; that our ears are thirsting for music that modulates.

The weak link (aside from the consistently insipid songwriting) is the dude’s voice, but he’s got one of those voices that improves with age. I fully expect this guy to be his generation’s Stevie Wonder except perhaps even more popular

My guitarist friend I was with tells me “the albums are so terrible”, that any possibility for soulfulness is quantized out of the picture.

He did “A Bridge Over Troubled Water” entirely on a vocoded Prophet synth and for the first time I heard a use for that bizarre glide-on-a-polysynth feature and it was profoundly moving

About a quarter of the show was being run like choir practice, he treated the audience like a class. It was fun! I miss being in a choir. He played us like an organ to provide accompaniment for fucking “Fix You” and it was shockingly good. Had us singing a cappella for a couple minutes and then went to the piano and I said “no no no it can’t be” but yes, we collectively hadn’t dropped pitch even a cent, we’d stayed in tune, like he’d just transmitted a mist of his own talents on to us. I shook my head saying “wow this is just magical” because it was!

My guitarist friend said “he makes a VST plugin of his audience choir stuff” and I said “I’m buying it tomorrow”

it sounds horrible! but i'm glad you had a good time. i do remember this kid from those videos of him doing all the parts to songs. i was so glad that he wasn't my kid. but its cool that he is still doing it? maybe?

Honestly Scott I recommend everyone going, the bigger the skeptic you are, the better.

Last night was his first show of the tour I guess? But he did play Troubled Water somewhere, solo, a week ago, this performance wasn’t as good as he was last night but it is still crazy good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TADvrlGLCO8

Like I was in a room with 8000 people in rapt silence while this was happening. He was getting standing ovations repeatedly just during the set and I was absolutely one of the ones on my feet

Maybe the corniness of it all just gets diluted once you’re seeing it in person. Like sports!

Haha my god

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHkKMJ6DCZQ

It’s a homemade harmonizer! “Oh, yeah you can see it was signed by Herbie Hancock, there. And Quincy Jones, there.”