Just last night I caught wind of what went down at the Flaming Lips New Years Eve show this year. More than enough material there to raise my ire, and hopefully at least some of yours.
1.) They played a cover of "Purple Rain." It was. Ho. Ren. Duss. Horrendous. Musically it was what all of their covers lately are, pretty faithful but not as good as the originals. The vocal is terrible. Not only does Wayne forget the words, obviously he had to spend more time on the light show than learning the song, but his tries to scream like Prince are completely pathetic. Worse than karaoke. I tried to listen to it last night and I lost interest very quickly. By the time it ended I realized I had zoned out partway through and hadn't heard much of it. Tried to give it another go today to make sure it was terrible. It was. I'm reading a lot of praise of this cover from their fans. They're idiots. Like they get a free pass for a terrible rendition because it's a good choice of song. I really wish Prince would find some way of getting litigious over this.
2.) Definitely will not listen to the whole show, because I still have not listened to the songs from the last album.
3.) Three songs included in the set that they haven't played in a really long time. "Turn It On" and "Mountainside" both had the same problem for me. Without the noise that only Ronald Jones could create live over top of them, they sounded incomplete. I know "Mountainside" is not originally a Ronald-era song, but he tore it UP live with sounds that were completely out of this world. What could Steven do? Bend some notes? Try to make some noise? FAIL.
Also, "The Process." When Ronald Jones was in the band, "The Process" was probably, as far as what I've heard, the greatest alt-rock instrumental that ever was. A masterpiece. They played it without him after the NYE countdown. Two words. Limp. Dick. I don't care how much people want to praise him as the real musical force behind the Lips even when Ronald was in the band, Steven Drozd is not Ronald Jones. He may be a good musician that can adequately handle several different instruments, but he cannot will the insanity out of a guitar the way Ronald could.
So of course then it all comes together and makes me mad. I used to have a favorite band. I used to have a band that I could point to amongst all others and say, "They do shit right." And now they're awful, and what I look for in music is a lot more aimless. Very frustrating.
Should you get curious, download it.
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Why must you tempt me with such filth... yet I will download it, and listen, and fume... Their Tommy medley pretty much killed them for me.
ReplyDeleteYou're going to be so mad. I can't WAIT! Apparently they have an album that might be released this year too. Nothing would make me happier than for them to completely turn it around and...
ReplyDeleteHad to stop there. What do I want say? Revisit old glories? Not really. Recapture some of their old spirit? That's closer. At this point, how about, make something halfway decent?
I am now downloading it at work, since I didn't listen to the copy I downloaded at home...
ReplyDeleteIn other Yuck-Out-Loud Blurting News...
Hot Damn Jamz II - Is out over at AMG... So far, you guessed it, YUCK. What are they thinking?! I feel dirty listening to it.
I read it last night but I haven't listened to any of it yet. Actually "read" is kind of an overstatement, I skimmed it. I can only imagine they're all terrible. The descriptions seemed even less musically specific than the first edition. And, ya know, I'm sure the fact the named it "Hot Damn Jamz" made me hate that feature before I even knew what it was.
ReplyDeleteIt is UNBELIEVABLE how forgettable it all is... and also that nothing in there is a funkin' JAM!
ReplyDeleteI just got done listening to it all... the list should be called, "Here's Ten Bands That We Checked Out - They're All Either Horrible Or Average (with a couple exceptions) - Now You Don't Have To Waste Your Time On Them"
I'd say the last one, Fever Ray, is the only one worth while... cause it's a Knife side project... and The Knife are incredible.
AND ANOTHER THING!!!
ReplyDeleteIt is also an exercise as to how many clever and witty combinations of music genres each band can come up with in their description that don't actually describe them. That shtick was funny right around the time Alternative/Japanese Classic Music/Tropical was at its peak... which was NEVER.
RAGE!!!!
Do you get the feeling that the people at allmusic are going to myspace music and just putting in stupid search terms and seeing what they come up with? The grand majority of those links are coming from myspace, which is mainly what's keeping me from checking it out. Something about the way the music player in myspace works I find irksome. Would be way easier if the would set it up like soulbounce, pick their good, or least horrible, song and make it playable right there immediately.
ReplyDeleteLet me know when you've listened to the "Purple Rain" cover. New rage might warm me up on this chilly day.
I am about to listen to it.
ReplyDeleteOH
ReplyDeleteMY
GOD
Freakin' Amateurs... how is it possible that he has completely lost all ability to sing? My biggest problem, and this is the problem with most covers of this song, is that they get the drama and the anticipation of it all wrong. The desire to jump right to the OOOO Oooo OOOO Ooooo's right away is too great to resist, and it always sucks... once a band blows their load on that, it's over. But good god his voice is horrible... Do I dare even listen to the rest of the concert?