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Rutlefan

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Everything posted by Rutlefan

  1. Power Windows. Signals was a pretty huge disappointment after the glory that was those first eight albums. I thought Subdivisions was mopey adolescent whining, and apart from a few high points, I never warmed to the album until just the last few years. Rush was the love of my adolescent life and Signals felt like someone close who decides to "discover" themselves and just becomes silly. GUP felt more serious, and wasn't bad -- I listened to it a lot when it came out -- but it was clear Rush was no longer the Rush that had felt like the most special band in the world to me. By the time PoW came out I was listening almost exclusively to post-punk and the better new wave bands (Wire, Joy Division, Smiths, Cure, Bauhaus and offshoots, etc); I took one look at that cover with the Howard Jones-esque teenager (more Subdivisions-esque mopery?!?) and not only didn't bother buying it but had zero curiosity about how it sounded. When Hold Your Fire came out and I saw the Time Stand Still video, I actually felt pity and scorn for the band I once thought was not only the best band on the planet, but didn't have a close second (they became my favorite band with AFTK and with Hemi they became mythic to me). In the early '90s I met a younger guy who enthusiastically discovered Rush with Presto and RtB and though I was polite and supportive, I thought that he must have the worst taste in music one can have, almost. It wasn't long after that I gave away my Rush discs (I had the ones I liked on vinyl and that was good enough for me) and I hardly gave them any thought for years, except to sometimes wonder if I had only liked them because I discovered them when I was young and supposedly not so bright. I would sometimes wonder if I heard them for the first time as an adult, would I like them at all or would I dismissively think them stupid like most critics I'd ever read. I don't remember what exactly made me return to them but it was around 2006. I think I had bought ATWAS on eBay, thinking that it rocked no matter what they did later, and I should have it in my CD collection, and the seller mistakenly (?) included an extra CD case that had both The Spirit of St. Louis and the Bravado single. The funny thing was that I had recorded the SoSL show on a cheap cassette player when it was first broadcast on Westwood One radio. I fell asleep listening to that show every night for a year I think. I LOVED that show, so to have it show up out of the blue was fantastic. And Bravado surprised me as I didn't think it was bad at all. So, encouraged, I decided to buy their whole catalog off eBay, the cheap way, in lots. I found I loved the old stuff just as much as I did as a kid, warmed to the stuff that had caused the separation (Signals and GUP), and found that with Vapor Trails they not only still kicked major *ss, but were putting together fantastic and interesting compositions (like if a heavy metal band decided to make an album like Talking Heads' Remain in Light). Vapor Trails is still my favorite Rush album since Moving Pictures. S&A was more hit and miss but the musical performances were amazing and the production a whole helluva lot better than VT (I don't disagree with VT's critics re its production). PoW through T4E is still a hard sell for me, but I can at least appreciate the musicianship, and there's the occasional track I like or can at least tolerate. So I returned to Rush with a vengeance and that passion lasted several years, where they were my primary go-to band, except when temporarily supplanted by something like Wire's Change Becomes Us in 2013 or The Church's Further Deeper in 2014, or the 6-month Zeppelin phase which unavoidably comes back every few years like a persistent case of herpes. Outside those pauses, they kind of dominated until about 2018 when a Wire obsession started again, which is still going on (I've been listening to Send Ultimate almost non-stop for the last six months). Nevertheless, when I think if I could only take one album to a desert island, it would be Exit Stage Left, basically the best-of my favorite period (with ATWAS a close second). It will always be such. ESL side 3 is to my ears the best side of music there is anywhere (muddy production aside) and Alex will always be my favorite guitarist.
  2. I voted Aerosmith based on their early albums. If having to consider a band's whole output, I'd go with Pixies.
  3. Well acting like it's a miracle France rocks when France has one of rock and metals brightest bands of the millennium to date just seemed a tad of an oversight. But you're welcome to be delicate about it, it's 2020. Ha, I don't know about "being delicate" but you're awfully literal about things. You don't recognize tongue in cheek humor? (In this case the not unexpected joke about the French and rock; similar to the almost-mandatory Uranus/your anus joke among astronomers, but only the really really smart ones)? Do you really imagine I find it astonishing a good band has come from France, or that there had never been a good band before this one I posted? Relax, good grief. BTW, my kids listen to Phoenix's 1901 nearly every day to or from school. They're French of course and pretty good on the whole from what I've heard, despite not being quite in my sweet spot stylistically. There are many others of course; I've heard them over the years.
  4. I grew up with a French stepdad so I've always found if hard to sort my feeling about people speaking/singing French. I'm kind of inclined towards Steve Martin, "What happened what happened!?" "He spoke French, help him!" There are a few bands I listen to who sing in their native tongue - Nemo, Lazuli from France, Rammstein from Germany spring to mind - I guess if the music is good enough it doesn't really matter. Despite the importance some put on lyrics, and I admit I can enjoy a good turn of phrase, I mostly think of vocals as another instrument and don't really care what's being said. It's like listening to the Cocteau Twins; for the most part I can't make out the language let alone words but I loooove Elizabeth Frazier's voice. Or take early R.E.M.; intentionally nonsensical mumbling, but it worked.
  5. I grew up with a French stepdad so I've always found if hard to sort my feeling about people speaking/singing French. I'm kind of inclined towards Steve Martin, "What happened what happened!?" "He spoke French, help him!"
  6. Leave it to TRF to turn a thread about a VU-tribute band (in a sense) into yet another heavy metal thread. Not complaining just have no idea what you all are talking about. The idea of French heavy metal does make my skin crawl a bit though. BTW, saying Gojira is "much better than this" is like saying Metallica is much better than Simon and Garfunkel; they're not playing in the same sandbox.
  7. Well I did, mostly, until I heard this, L'Epee. Granted, this is VU-style rock 'n' Roll, which is a good thing, and the main musical force behind the band -- The Brian Jonestown Massacre's very own Anton Newcombe -- is American... U-S-A! Love the album, esp the first two tracks...
  8. This is me to a tee (apart from Sheer Heart Attack and NatO being my favorite from those bands not Led Zeppelin), though what what primarily bothers me about Page is not the plagiarism (though the hutzpah with some of it, Dazed and Confused being mind bogglingly brazen) but the increasing sloppiness through the mid/late '70s, maybe due to his drug use. I just listened to How the West Was Won straight through the other day. He's amazing in those shows. He's incredible. I understand listening to those shows why/how Led Zeppelin was the Biggest Band in the Universe at the time. Then you get to those later shows like in the '77 tour and the train wreck Live Aid performance and his playing seems like a bad parody of his earlier brilliance. I've always thought he's a much more significant producer and arranger than musician, though he's obviously a brilliant musician when not f*ked up. At any rate, Page is one of those childhood heroes whose heroism didn't hold up (not that I don't like him overall) whereas I appreciate Lifeson, Gilmour and May as much as I ever did.
  9. Now it's this, also by Ween. Funny that I had to look up "Zoloft"; had no idea what it was. Now the lyrics make perfect sense :)
  10. Best band of the 2000s? That would be Fat White Family of course :).
  11. Billy Mummy from Lost in Space! :) This video was shown all the time in the early days of MTV. Anyway, glad to know Will Robinson made if back safely.
  12. I've been such a huge Ween kick lately. I'd never paid too much attention because I thought they were just a jokey "stupid" band. Then I heard "Ocean Man" at the end of the Sponge Bob movie and started to explore and am now a huge fan. Quebec especially just blows me away. They are anything but stupid actually, they are brilliant. It's hard to find one example but this one from Quebec will do (I thought of "Zoloft" or Tried and True" also): Great track from White Pepper...
  13. I just did Zeppelin a couple weeks ago. I recommend Zeppelin.
  14. I just recently discovered Beato's channel. I'm hooked! The Rush and Zeppelin breakdowns are amazing (esp. love the one that debunks the frequently-repeated myths around the drums in When the Levee Breaks).
  15. Revolver is definitely my favorite Beatles album. Some of it isn't my favorite style -- Here, There..., Got to Get You..., etc -- but regardless of whether I'm into the style of a song I can recognize that they were just executing perfection, whatever they were attempting. It's the sweet spot between the pop efficiency of their early stuff and the psychedelic complexity of the later period, the transitional time, as you said.
  16. Stumbled across this, so cool. I grew up with an anti-Beatles bias until in college I heard Tomorrow Never Knows from Revolver, and then the proverbial light bulb went off! http://youtu.be/WGeF5RxlpaI
  17. The Police, U2, Talking Heads, The Cure, Dire Straits
  18. Very sweet remembrances from a classy guy. I had a secret hope that I would someday run into Neil at a track of Cars and Coffee. Not a rational hope but a "if I won the lottery" kind of hope. Now even that lottery-esque longshot is gone and I feel kind of sad about it. I admit though, apart from cars, I don't know what I would have said to him; I would have liked to tell him how much I loved his music and how much it meant to me growing up, but that's exactly what he didn't like to hear! Well, RIP then.
  19. That whole sequence in Moria, from the watcher in the lake to the fight on the bridge, is the best part of that movie; really propulsive stuff. Making out way through Return of the King, right now. It's long, but much more enjoyable than the Two Towers, which drags. Not that Towers doesn't have has some great moments, but in general it feels the most unnecessarily long of the three. I thought that The Two Towers was the one movie of the three that might be been better in its theatrical version. Bit, I'm all for more Middle Earth so I'll take the extra scenes.
  20. I agree with you regarding the LOTR extended versions... ...the same could be said about The Hobbit trilogy of films as well. The Lad and I started Fellowship last night and...I love the universe they created, but big-eyed Frodo really gets on my nerves. We made it through him getting stabbed. At Rivendell now...long expose... Liv Tyler certainly keeps one's attention through all the back story stuff. She sooo beautiful in this series. :) We are into the mines of Moria...a very fun part of the movie. Easily the best part of the Ralph Bakshi movie. Maybe the only really good part, though I thought he did the Black Riders well, despite them being brown and limping around making mewing noises like tired Emo teens. Bakshi's scene at Weathertop was better than Jackson's, which made the Black Riders seem rather easy to chase away; apparently all it takes is a little fire and some Mama's Family videos (Nickelback is also effective according to Elven lore; it's in one of those appendices that only Jackson has access to; lot's of crazy stuff in those secret appendices... saucy dwarves, warrior princess elves, hash-smoking bird-poop-covered wizards...craziness).
  21. I finally got around to watching season 2 of ST: Discovery with just the final two-part episode to go. Really enjoyed it. I get the criticisms (though don't care either way) but I like the acting and the production values (love the C. Pike character), and though the plots require more suspension of disbelief than the typical Bond movie, they are usually enjoyable. Now on to Picard.
  22. ^ I prefer the extended LoTR films to their theater versions; how do the Hobbit extended versions compare?
  23. 1. Green Day- Dookie 2. Michael Jackson- Off The Wall 3. DLR- Eat Em And Smile 4. Genesis- Invisible Touch 5. Frankie Goes To Hollywood- Welcome To The Pleasuredome 6. Styx- The Mission 7. Gwen Stefani- Love Angel Music Baby 8. b52s - Wild Planet 9. Material Issue -- International Pop Overthrow 10. Red Hot Chili Peppers-Mothers Milk 11. Weird Al-Running with Scissors 12. Steely Dan- The Royal Scam 13. Yaz - Upstairs at Eric's 14. Van Halen - 1984 15. The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night 16. ABBA - Arrival 17. Beck - Odelay 18. Level 42 - A Physical Presence 19. Marvelous 3 - Hey!Album 20. Men At Work - Business As Usual 21. Fall Out Boy - Save Rock and Roll 22. Jethro Tull - Christmas Album 23. Van Halen - Diver Down 24. The Wildhearts - Earth Vs The Wildhearts 25. XTC - Oranges and Lemons 26. The Clash - London Calling 27. The Knack - Get the Knack
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