Music WAS so much better then

Zelja

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Courtney Barnett is a gem.
Yup, very refreshing & she has a way with words & some wry observations.

In the song Avant Gardener (where she decides she needs to get out more, does some gardening, gets an asthma attack & has to call the paramedics!!) there's a line a that says something like:

"She thinks I'm clever because I play guitar, I think she's clever because she saves people lives" - a bit of perspective that cracked me up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcnIhzaDTd0

There's a song called "Depreston" (Preston is a suburb in Melbourne) that seems to talk about fairly mundane things but I find so touching (especially come the Vietnam reference): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NVOawOXxSA

I can understand how some people wouldn't gel with her vocal delivery on most songs (almost talked) but she can actually sing - see her performance of one of my fave Velvet Underground songs below with Billy Bragg:

 

gjmalcyon

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In the song Avant Gardener (where she decides she needs to get out more, does some gardening, gets an asthma attack & has to call the paramedics!!) there's a line a that says something like:

"She thinks I'm clever because I play guitar, I think she's clever because she saves people lives"

She first came to Philly in June, 2015 (supporting The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas), and killed it. She is much loved here, thanks in large part to WXPN who has her material in heavy rotation. "Avant Gardener" got (and still gets) a lot of airplay, and the first time I heard my favorite line, I'm happy I didn't have a mouth full of coffee:

I take a hit from
An asthma puffer
I do it wrong
I was never good at smoking bongs.
I’m not that good at breathing in.


She and Philly's Kurt Vile just finished a collaborative record, and will tour to support it this fall. That will be some concert.
 

fronobulax

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Argh, the heavily played 1981 version of "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell is on my all-time "Songs I Never Want To Hear Again" list!

walrus

The American Shakespeare Company strives for authentic performances. This includes members of the cast picking up instruments and serenading the audience before and after the show, intermission and sometimes to cover scene changes. At a performance of "The Winter's Tale" I started snickering when the "actors band" started playing a pure acoustic (obviously) version of "Tainted Love". I had to explain to my audience neighbors that the song was "Tainted Love" (bass players can often Name That Tune from an opening riff or two) and that it was somewhat appropriate given the (imagined) infidelity (fueled by insanity) in the play.
 

Quantum Strummer

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Some of the new(-ish) albums I've been enjoying lately:

Slowdive – Slowdive. My fav of the early '90s so-called "shoegaze" bands. First new album in 20+ years, and it hangs right up there with their earlier stuff. Saw 'em c. 1993, then in 2014 after they started performing again, and just got tickets to see 'em this November.

Semper Femina – Laura Marling. Fine songwriter, singer and musician. Saw her play in early May. Got clued in early on by an English cousin.

Man In A Neon Coat – Aoife O'Donovan. Has a gorgeous voice, solid original songs and great taste in covers. This is a live recording.

Arclight – Julian Lage. Not sure how to describe this one. Jazz with some country inflections maybe. Fine tunes and great playing. Lage uses an old Telecaster through a tweed Champ on some of the tunes (and, I think, a tweed Vibrolux on the rest). In my experience you can't go wrong with that combo! There's a top-notch live album from the club tour that followed this album too. Lage also records & performs with Chris Eldridge of the Punch Bros (and they sometimes perform with Aoife O'Donovan as a trio) amongst a wide variety of projects.

Also stoked for Jeff Tweedy's (Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, etc.) solo album, Together At Last, coming out next week. I think it's just Jeff and an acoustic guitar, reworking some choice older songs. I've seen Wilco play a few times: always killer.

-Dave-
 

bluesypicky

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Speaking of musical nostalgia, I went to a concert last night, and boy did I get my shot of 80's flashback.....
When I got there I burst out laughing. Here's why:

ngziwx.jpg


Marshall wall comprised of 52 heads on 18 cabs! (probably 8 or 10 were actually working... LMAO), gold chains, spandex, open shirt on hairy chest, it was all there. Hilarious.

The guy's name is Yngwie Malsteem, mostly popular among metal lovers, with an interesting and unique neo-classical approach to his guitar work.
He can play a mean blues too (as demonstrated here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4l1Jk3ZCb4 ) , but unfortunately doesn't play enough of it, to my liking.

Overall disappointed because these guys don't seem to understand that SOME of us in the audience are actually coming to "hear" some guitar playing.... which the power overkill rendered quasi impossible.
They had enough power for an outdoor venue and a crowd of 15000, and this nice little 1200 seats theater was completely overloaded.
Unless you plugged your ears with your fingers (as I did the whole time) it was mostly impossible to discern who was doing what, and 75% of his notes were inaudible, drowned in a big, borderline painful, explosion of kilowatts.

It was a fun flashback to the 80's hard rock bands I grew up with though, and I did manage to enjoy his killer version of Red House (maybe the biggest part of my decision to go see him) and bailed out after that with a smile on my face. :)
 

Quantum Strummer

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They had enough power for an outdoor venue and a crowd of 15000, and this nice little 1200 seats theater was completely overloaded.

Most likely you could get way better sound in that venue with a properly mic'd Fender Champ and a good PA. Rout the Champ into a 2x12" 4 Ohm cab for more bottom end!

-Dave-
 

bluesypicky

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Most likely you could get way better sound in that venue with a properly mic'd Fender Champ and a good PA. Rout the Champ into a 2x12" 4 Ohm cab for more bottom end!
-Dave-
Absolutely. Theater=Combo amp set up.
But this guy would be lost without the Marshall wall.... plus, the combo amp wouldn't be a match for the spandex.
 

Zelja

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Yngwie does bot believe in restraint or subtlety! How many of amp heads were actually turned on (or speaker boxes for that matter)? 52 heads into 18 cabs doesn't make much electrical sense.

Did you get a chance to have a look at the back of the cabs - may have been something like this: :wink:

Immortal-fake-cabs-604x453-1000x515.jpg

Black-Veil-Brides-fake-cabs.jpg
 

bluesypicky

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Ah!... I see we googled our way in the same places...lol I saw these pics when I tried to find out how many heads he was actually using, but couldn't manage to come up with an answer. But whatever the number was, it was too many anyway.
Don't get me wrong: I love the big "Marshall wall" sound, (having personally experienced it, I can vouch that there is nothing like it) but as I said earlier, in stadiums, or outdoor venues.
 

Zelja

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I love volume you too - the ringing in my ears is testament to that! Image is so important to some acts (as the pics above show) but I really was interested in how many amps he used. OK, I assume some of them were for the bassplayer as well.

I mean that's way more than ACDC used at the Olympic Satdium concert I saw. Their tone (both Angus & Malcolm) was amazing.
 

adorshki

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Yngwie does bot believe in restraint or subtlety! How many of amp heads were actually turned on (or speaker boxes for that matter)? 52 heads into 18 cabs doesn't make much electrical sense.

Did you get a chance to have a look at the back of the cabs - may have been something like this: :wink:

Immortal-fake-cabs-604x453-1000x515.jpg

Black-Veil-Brides-fake-cabs.jpg

I love it that's freakin' hilarious.
At first I was thinking, "I wonder if it's just for show and if the audience don't see all those cabinets they'll think they ain't gettin' their money's worth" :glee:
Then remembered Pascal said he had to keep fingers in ears.
Can only remember one time I was in physical pain from volume:
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jeff Beck duet on "Superstition" in arena size venue in mid '80's..even then I blamed it on the sound engineers.
You know who really knew how to get the most out of a given room (or outdoors , too?)
Dan Healy of the Grateful Dead.
Ya never heard any mud at a Dead show.
 

bluesypicky

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I mean that's way more than ACDC used at the Olympic Satdium concert I saw. Their tone (both Angus & Malcolm) was amazing.

Yep, it's at an AC/DC concert (early 80's) that I discovered one could actually feel pain from a certain amount of volume. (wish it had been at a SRV/Beck show, but never got so lucky...)
 

NEONMOONY

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Some of the shows nowadays, at least indoor venues, despite what you may see on stage, you don't really hear the amps directly. The musicians play through a smaller, nightclub sized amps that are mic'd into a house system, so it can be mixed, and that's what you really hear. I was at some shows where I realized most of the sound wasn't coming directly from the stage but from above-front and from the sides.
 

adorshki

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Some of the shows nowadays, at least indoor venues, despite what you may see on stage, you don't really hear the amps directly. The musicians play through a smaller, nightclub sized amps that are mic'd into a house system, so it can be mixed, and that's what you really hear. I was at some shows where I realized most of the sound wasn't coming directly from the stage but from above-front and from the sides.[/B}

Right, Don't know if he pioneered it, but Healy was doing that in about '78 when I saw the Dead for the first time.
They were using regular sized cabs but Healy had other cabs all over the venue placed strategically for no echo/phase cancellation/ "mud", and sound was equally excellent everywhere.
He actually sat with the boards in a spot close to the center of the auditorium and was surrounded by the roped off "taper's section".
The only live sound I've ever heard cleaner than the Dead was at the UC Berkeley Greek Theater (a genuine amphitheater) for the annual Jazz Festival. (Larry Coryell's 11th House came close in a small theater once in '74.)
OK, so when you're on the grass at the top it's nice to have a pair of binoculars, but it's still like swimming in a crystal clear pool of sound.
931cb5ce757c6b25acbba81dacd6a84f.jpg

****************************************************
FigDBJBrowne0820.jpg

Sonny Rollins didn't even need a microphone to fill that pool in '79 (although the rest of his band did):
Just amazing!
6a0e7b7e5289a00df953777f34188ffc.jpg

But the fringe benefit of sitting at the top is the view, especially at sunset:
14545805067_483db4ba73_b.jpg

That was about the time Weather Report came on.
245c9b6352674722696eb7f9114cba42.jpg

Between Jaco and Joe Zawinul it sounded like saucers were landing in the hills behind us.

That might be the only place I'll ever go see a concert again.

And as for extreme volume, I forgot about electric Hot Tuna in a movie theater in Santa Cruz around '76, almost but not quitepainful, and the loudest thing I'd ever heard until the aforementioned Beck/SRV show..
 
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