Shiny Beast…imagine a mix between Killing Technology-era Voivod and the Jesus Lizard with Germbox and Drive Like Jehu and mathier-Black Flag/Greg Ginn, you get the idea! FINALLY they have a reissue compilation filled with unreleased tracks etc–37 tracks long! The first 11 are from the Boner Records session and adds like 7 new, fantastic tracks from that era. Also includes the Regraped split material–sounds like the remastered this or something, sounds way better than I remember the 12″ sounding–and a live show! The guitarist David Sullivan is in the awesome band Red Fang (which is opening for Mastodon on their latest tour) and drummer Brian Walsby does comics etc)…
Kurt: “Exactly which parts of daydream nation sound like pink floyd? Minutemen are prog rock? I think you are stretching your “everything is prog rock” thesis a bit too far. If you said that husker du sounded like king crimson on zen arcade then yes, but really, come on. Exactly which parts of daydream nation sound like pink floyd? Minutemen are prog rock? I think you are stretching your “everything is prog rock” thesis a bit too far. If you said that husker du sounded like king crimson on zen arcade then yes, but really, come on.”
Trickledown:
Basically, the first two Minutemen albums as prog rock: the complicated bass and the tricky timing that’s way different from punk rock, the bass is like in Yes or Gentle Giant, the guitar is complicated and tricky, so is the drumming, it’s way different from punk or hardcore, and the Minutemen were big fans of Captain Beefheart which falls under the prog rock umbrella in terms of experimentation.
I would say the first two Minutemen albums are as much prog rock as they are punk, not necessarily like keyboard laden prog but tricky time change prog (Yes and Gentle Giant happen to have bits of both). Daydream Nation, the echo and noise breakdowns like in Silver Rocket and Total Trash, are very similar in parts and vibe to a lot of Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn, it’s their most indie album, with Syd Barret, I’m not talking about Dark Side of the Moon or anything.
Check out songs like Interstellar Overdrive (the beginning few seconds sounds exactly like a song on Daydream Nation or Goo even!) or Astronomy Domine, they’re quite different from more mainstream Pink Floyd (which I happen to like too). They’re very experimental noise rock, art rock, postpunk even at times, much different from what people consider more “bloated” PInk Floyd (but which has become much more influential on bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor etc in recent years).
Pink Floyd: Astronomy Domine
Here’s another person in a book on rock calling Minutemen prog rock, saying they fused hardcore and prog… Also here: “Borrowing the pagan impetus from hardcore, the harsh quirkiness from the new wave and the cerebral, and the convoluted indulgence from progressive-rock, the Minutemen concocted the miniature hardcore shrapnels of Punch Line (feb 1981 – nov 1981) and What Makes A Man Start Fires (jul/aug 1982 – jan 1983).
The acrobatic primitivism of these albums became even more neurotic and atonal on Double Nickels On The Dime (nov 1983/apr 1984 – jul 1984), one of the most ambitious recordings of the decade, a veritable encyclopedia of musical styles revisited from the point of view of a spastic genius reminiscent of Captain Beefheart and the Pop Group. After Boon’s untimely death in 1985, the survivors hired a new vocalist, renamed themselves fIREHOSE (1), released Ragin’ Full On (oct 1986 – nov 1986) and pursued a more conscious program to refound the song format, except that R.E.M.-like folk-rock took over Minutemen’s unpredictable structures.” http://www.scaruffi.com/history/cpt49.html
Also,
“As D. Boon of the Minutemen famously said, “Punk is whatever we made it to be.” This seemed especially true of the generation of American iconoclasts associated with independent labels such as SST and Discord in the 1980s. Not unlike prog-rock or fusion of the time, these bands experimented with song structure, lyrical content, improvisation, and even crowd control. But unlike their more “respectable” counterparts, the punks sought to disrupt the complacent social order they inherited.” http://www.bassplayer.com/article/21st-century-upright/April-2010/110637
I’d been trying to learn two-handed tapping on guitar due to liking bands like Don Caballero and Maps and Atlases, this great new-to-me band Adebisi Shank, Marnie Stern, Hella, etc, and of course Van Halen etc but could never figure it out. I watched this video http://www.jamplay.com/guitar-lessons/full/basics-of-tapping-111.html and it taught me what I was missing! Basically, I was missing that you can “flick” the string to play a note you’re holding down, and you can flick it at a different fret than the note you’re currently fretting, at a fret that you’ll play later–so say you’re holding down the 3rd fret on the high e string, you can flick the high e with your right hand finger at the 12th fret to play the string, it will play the note of the fret you’re holding down such as the 3rd fret, then you can hammer on the fifth fret with your left hand, then with your right hand you can press down at the 12th fret or whatever for a cool two-hand tap triplet of the 3-5-12 notes. Anyway, I had been missing that “flick” motion to play notes, I had though you were supposed to sound certain notes by just hammering on, but the “flick” while actually holding down the note actually sounds a lot better. I would try to just hammer on say a 3rd fret instead of flicking the string first and it wouldn’t sound good or wouldn’t make any noise at all!
Must have been a great time for music fans in the 70s and 80s when you could depend on Robert Fripp to show up playing guitar on not only King Crimson but Brian Eno and David Bowie albums. I think he should do the same now, hiring himself out to play those 70s Robert Fripp solos (that Slash sometimes kind of mimicked on Appetite) for bands like Daft Punk etc. And yes, Robert Fripp, you should start soloing like this again, and playing on other people’s pop records.
So, always having been a fan of San Diego indie/postpunk/math rock/pre-emo/indie prog band Drive Like Jehu, I always wondered about their unique sound, sounding like a mix between stuff like Sonic Youth, Fugazi, and King Crimson. Lately though I’ve come to the conclusion that a lot of their parts remind me a lot of Rush! Which, isn’t taboo to say anymore, as opposed to the early 1990s, after bands like Don Caballero, the Fucking Champs, Mars Volta etc, and even bands like Daft Punk have brought prog rock back to the spotlight after years of mockery from punk rockers etc.
Especially listening to Rush’s Tom Sawyer–the main part of the verse, when the guitars come in after the lyrics “A modern-day warrior / Mean mean stride, / Today’s Tom Sawyer / Mean mean pride,” is quite reminiscent of the main riff to Drive Like Jehu’s O Pencil Sharp, and almost exactly like the outro to Drive Like Jehu’s Turn it Off, and also sounds quite a bit like some Pitchfork parts.
Rush-Tom Sawyer
Then Rush’s Red Barchetta–quite reminiscent also of the guitar and bass on some of the more tuneful Pitchfork songs like maybe Twitch or something (pre-Drive Like Jehu band with the same singer and two guitarists etc). Especially the guitar riff at 1:16 in the video below, that postpunk sounding guitar part that comes after the first verse part in Red Barchetta, that could be from a Drive Like Jehu song (such as the main riff of Human Interest) or a Siouxsie and the Banshees song. And check out the harmonics and everything!
Rush-Red Barchetta
Pitchfork–Flatland Farming/Drop Dead
Two of the least remarkable Pitchfork songs (Placebo, Twitch, etc are much more remarkable), but the only ones I could find on YouTube…
Just saw the phenomenal Thollem McDonas play at the awesome Pianoforte gallery in Chicago, with pianist Frank Abbinanti. Thollem McDonas plays all sorts of piano; his sound ranges from classical to experimental indie music, prog rock, death metal, it’s hard to explain, but it’s fantastic. I imagine fans of any classical to music like Sonic Youth and Don Caballero and Slayer would enjoy his playing. Frank Abbinati is also awesome though I can’t find any videos of his stuff on YouTube. His playing was amazing though kind of scary! My wife liked Frank Abbinati’s performance the best and I liked Thollem McDonas’ performance the best, so it was a great night all around. Check out these videos of Thollem McDonas playing. I bought two of his CDs last night which I haven’t listened to yet. I heard him first on the WNUR, Northwestern University, and lo and behold, I found out he was playing the same week in Chicago! He lives in the Bay Area and travels playing around a lot, so if you like any kind of music, make sure you see him, it’s quite a treat.
The piano show was put on by the Pianoforte Foundation, which puts on lots of piano shows in a variety of venues, and they have a piano showroom/store also in the building, as well as their performance studio where we saw the show.
The show was in the Fine Arts Building, a hidden treasure on Michigan Ave in the Loop in Chicago, just a few blocks from the park and the downtown library. It’s amazing; a whole building with tons of art galleries, music stores and performance spaces, and every second friday each month they have a killer open house kind of thing, where all these galleries etc put on shows and have wine and cheese and art openings. It’s like a dream, kind of a multi-level art opening/hotel/co-op/mall/party. You literally can walk up and down the stairs and there are art shows and openings on every floor with great art, nice people, wine and cheese, etc. Going up and down on the elevators you can look out onto each floor thinking, “Wow, that looks amazing, I’d better stop off on that floor later!”
Ah, their website blurb reads, “The Fine Arts Building in Chicago is a haven for artists. Established in 1885, it has become an all artists colony that promotes all the arts.” It’s an f’n arts colony! That is a great description. I kept thinking of the Happiness Hotel in the Muppets Movie, I’ll have to see if that is an apt comparison, I saw it so long ago.
A great night all around and quite a find. If you like music and art at all, you will probably enjoy visiting second fridays at the Fine Arts building!
Wow…what a surprise, Jay-Z came through and delivers an awesome album! I actually like this more than the Black Album (which I thought was kind of spotty) and way, way, way more than his last two forgettable albums, American Gangster and Kingdom Come. I actually was indifferent to/or hated much of Blueprint 3 on the first listen and a half. The next day, I started to really like it.
Jay-Z’s lyrics are as far-ranging, insightful, and wittier than ever (“I’m in the hall already, on the wall already, I’m a work of art, I’m a Warhol already”), and his delivery is better than ever. He sounded kind of half-assed and indifferent on his last few albums, he finally is rapping with much more obvious intent and effort, it really comes across. Very good lyrics.
Standouts tracks are What We Talkin’ About (could be a great Daft Punk song with all of its dramatic synths and disco/post-punk drum beat), Thank You (sounds very 1994 Tribe Called Quest/Pharcyde/Souls of Mischief), D.O.A. (awesome prog rock/jazz/fusion/psychadelic rock sample action), and Run This Town (more awesome prog rock/jazz/fusion/psychadelic rock sample action).
The only noticeable lack is…no Just Blaze beats!!! WTF??? Okay, time to start planning for Blueprint 3.5 or 4, with more Just Blaze on the boards. Luckily, Kanye West paried with No I.D. is an amazing production team, producing way better tracks together than on their own. None of the producers are letdowns on this album. Most significantly, the whole thing works as an album, it flows real well, it’s very cohesive, you can listen to the whole thing from start to finish, on repeat even, for a very, very good listen. Haven’t listened to an album from start to finish like this in a really long time. What a surprise and quite welcome, who would have thought? This sort of resets hip hop back to like 2002 or so when it was a much more viable art form than of the last few confused years…
Here’s Jay-Z on Kool Keith! One of the few to acknowledge Kool Keith’s ongoing (though obviously sporadic) genius:
Q: With a successful Blueprint 3, you could really make it cool to be a 40-year-old rapper. But, playing devil’s advocate, success could also encourage 40-year-old rappers who should hang it up to continue rhyming professionally, because Jay did it. Ever consider that possibility?…Understood, but you’re one of the few rappers whose movement is still followed by artists old and young. How conscious are you of that position?
A: I think that, as long as the heart is in it. Because even if you miss it, it’s art. Like, Kool Keith, he may not sell any records, ever. But I think his type of art is needed, and there are people who follow his music. I think, when it’s done… Larry Holmes in the ring for money, that type of thing, then I don’t want to see that. But, like I said, if the genre needs the game to be stretched out, ’cause you have those guys who are 35 years old trying to make the smiley face or whatever, competing with Soulja Boy. http://www.xxlmag.com/online/?p=56297
Someone needs to make a Rather Good video of D.O.A. with cats playing all the instruments!!!
Check out some of the original samples, the prog rock/fusion/psychadelic tracks are incredible, such as by the 4 Levels of Existence (incredible guitar action and killer solo! and Janko Nilovic & Dave Sucky). Here are the original samples: mp3s: Kevin Nottingham: Blueprint 3 original samples
*UPDATE: Just Blaze is set to produce 4-5 tracks on Eminem’s Remedy 2 album! I’ve never been an Eminem fan, but this is what Jay-z should have done, should have had 4-5 Just Blaze tracks on Blueprint 3!*
