February 11, 2005

• Franz Ferdinand is Bangin'! Theres no props for the sickest rap though. Mm food is wicked.
• Modest Mouse at number nine?!? WTF
• Oh yo, Sullivan. What do you think of Jackolobe?
• Favorite comment: So in the months leading up to the most politically charged presidential election in decades, hip-hop's outspoken firebrands were Jadakiss ("Why?") and Eminem ("Mosh"), while Mos Def and Talib Kweli were functionally irrelevant. It's the hip-hop equivalent of Bizarro World. My picks...
• Dude, you're eclectic and shit.
• Franz Ferdinand, cool. You know, with all these young hipster bands if not exactly ripping off, but sounding like direct descendants of the great bands of the post-punk era (Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Siouxsie and the Banshees; Interpol: Joy Division; the Rapture: the Cure; BRMC: Jesus and Mary Chain; Arcade Fire: Echo and the Bunnymen), it's at least nice that there's one band that's doing something original. Or maybe the Ferdinands are ripping off an early 80s band I never heard of. /geezer rant
• Gang of Four, perchance?
• I dunno... To me Les Savy Fav is more closely linked (in sound) to the Gang of Four, but they also mix in some Mission of Burma and Fugazi type rhythms. I guess what I like about Franz Ferdinand is that they do show their influences from that era too, but they just don't sound like ONE of those bands, maybe they sound like several of them. The rest of those bands I listed above sound like tribute bands... not that I don't like them, it just comes across as a little cheap.
• Every time I hear "Take Me Out" it sounds more like a ripoff of and less like a tribute to Talking Heads. Overfamiliarity breeds much contempt and whatnot. But hey, didja see The Shat is at 140?
• It's the Talking Heads they're ripping off, specifically their first couple albums. Unlike TV on the Radio, who are ripping off Talking Heads' later albums. (I still love 'em). I didn't know you were a journo, Reynolds. (Of course, you're still wrong. So wrong! Ha. That's the only fun of lists.)
• I don't get the "ripping off" part. To me FF sounds only vaguely like early Talking Heads. And I speak as one who's very very familiar with early Talking Heads.
• I had this guy who used to play in a band called (drum roll please) Public Domain who never heard of Mission of Burma and didn't know that Bob Mould was gay. You can listen to his music and Henry Rollins spoken words stuff here. I like to see some monkey reviews.
• Really, Hawthorne? Upon hearing "Take Me Out" you didn't think: "Skinny, Scottish singer, angular New Wave pop... Hmm... 'Speaking in Tongues,' anyone?" Right. Well....
• Bob Mould is gay?!
• Next thing, you'll be telling me Ru Paul is really a man.
• But "ripping off," js? I totally don't see it.
• Also, Speaking in Tongues is definitely not "early" Talking Heads.
• They're ripping off the idea of being skinny and Scottish? I feel that's a slightly harsh assessment, dude... Also, sounded like you were talking about Orange Juice more than Talking Heads. Who the Ferdies also sound a bit like, which isn't completely surprising. It's a big post-punk party, and everybody's invited! Anyway, I think the point was something about how sounding a bit like a load of other bands doesn't stop them being thrilling and great and still original and stuff. Or something like that. I think.
• Fair enough. Mid-period Talking Heads (I tend to define Speaking In Tongues as the last of the early Talking Heads, but tha's just me). And yeah, when a song can easily be labeled as "Franz Ferdinand, performing in the style of Talking Heads," I call that ripping off. They were one of the year's most over-hyped in my humble opinion. (I also think that Modest Mouse owes a huge debt to the Talking Heads, and that their "Good News..." was the year's MOST overhyped). Orange Juice? Wasn't that Edwin McCain's old band? Sometimes originality is like light coming through windows- it can only go through so many before losing the sparkle that makes it original. After that, it's just colored shadows. But hey, I think that the Liars first album is wildly overrated, but their second one is fantastic despite being panned by nearly everyone...
• It's weird the U2 album is rated so highly. I haven't heard it but I thought the consensus was that it was pretty bad.
• It's also weird that there doesn't seem to be any pazz left, only jop. Ahh, for those days when Spoonerized swing could be considered popular...
• Mackerel, what I've heard from the latest U2 album doesn't remotely appeal to me. Yet all the reviews are saying that it's a great album and reminiscent of their early stuff. Admittedly, there is a hint of War-era U2 in there, but not enough to satisfy me. The two released singles off it so far sound far too middle-road pop-rock to be real U2 - in fact, the first time I heard the second single (I can't remember the title, or even how it goes, right now), I thought it was a derivative band. Yet it's getting rave reviews. WTF?
• tracicle, give Bono a break. You try saving the world and making an album at the same time. Bono is like Peter Parker. The day he's a mild-mannered international rock star. At night he's hanging out with Jesse Helm and Paul O'Neil trying to find a cure for AIDS and debt relief.
• js, for the record, I'd say that Talking Heads entered a second, more mature phase starting with Remain in Light.
• Haw- Are you on Audioscrobbler? I'd like to see what you're listening to. I guess that Speaking In Tongues and Fear Of Music are the connectors for me. I mean, you've got the sharp and sparse '77 and Buildings/Food, then the dark Fear onto Remain and the ultimate pop resolution of that in Speaking. Then they do their live album, and kinda get washed out into more boring worldy stuff (I think they kicked the cocaine or something). I can hear connections between True Stories or Naked and Speaking, but I tend to think of those as the "late period." And I'm not closing my geek tag.
• Orange Juice? Wasn't that Edwin McCain's old band? I am having difficulty telling if this is a joke or not. Damn you, internet, with the no tone of voice and no body language. Anyway, my advice to the world tonight is: listen to OJ's "Rip It Up" next to FF's "Darts Of Pleasure" for a fun Rock Family Tree of laconic Scottish vocal melodrama.
• Brush with fame: I met Jerry Harrison last week. And js, I think you're right, you *could* draw the line for the the "middle" phase with Fear of Music instead of with Remain in Light. To me, early Talking Heads is the first coupla albums. See the first record on The Name of this Band Is Talking Heads. (A great record, to me the better live Talking Heads record.) I kind of stopped listening to anything after Remain in Light because I think it's the coolest record they ever did, and b/c Speaking in Tongues was kind of when Talking Heads broke into the mainstream, and I was young, and your favorite bands's later albums are never as good as their early albums, the ones before they sold out etc. I.e. I was a proto-alt-snob. How do I join/take part in this Audioscrabbler?
• Download a plugin. I'm there as Honest Engine.
• Orange Juice? Wasn't that Edwin McCain's old band? Singer Edwyn Collins seriously ill after brain haemorrhage.
• Oh, god damn, no. Motherfucker. Could shite things please stop happening to all the good people? Please?