I really wasn't guessing what a fan of the band would feel like, I was saying what I'd feel like. If I found out that the guy who wrote the lyrics that I'd been singing along to for years was a pedophile, I'd be pretty upset. There are a lot of things I can dismiss or forgive, but pedophilia and taking advantage of people in a way like that is not one of them. I'd also imagine it had to be a really hard moment for the band, but they did the right thing by immediately separating themselves from that guy.
I felt I'd read snark in your response, but if you didn't mean anything by it, my apologies for responding back snarkily. This is basically like the fans of Woody Allen, Bill Cosby or R. Kelly having to come to terms with either continuing to like them and/or their works or dismissing them outright. Knowing the other guys in the band don't support the awful behavior in question probably makes everything easier, but I'm sure it's harder for some people. Whatever happens, I hope the rest of the band can or already have salvaged what they could and the fans can as well.
Glad you knew about it, because I don’t follow these guys. It’s completely new to me. So, glad you’re aware of things others might have missed and can get uppity about it.
Man, this one is hard to listen to. Bill Withers original is awesome, just like Withers himself. This is just bland, and when I hear it in public I cringe. I'm glad Club Nouveau were successful, and Foster & McElroy definitely left their mark, but I don't ever need to hear this version again. As I'm sure everyone else is going to mention, the moment the "we be jammin" bit comes in, that's when I peace out. Love me some real go-go though!
Yeah, I’m not taking anything from that book seriously. It reads like a set of tales from a nutjob trying to make themself out to be enormous, lining up with the beginning of the end of his popularity. Not to mention, Trent isn’t the only person Manson tried to make look awful. So, yeah, I suppose Trent could’ve been acting like a dick, but I don’t buy it. That book had a lot more insane stories about things that, if they happened, you would’ve had to been looking for serious trouble. And that sounds more like Manson than Trent or anyone around him during that era, apart from Twiggy Ramirez.
I hate this song with a passion. Not the music, which while bland is rather smooth and innocuous. It's perfectly good background music, the type of thing you hear while shopping for groceries, though not something I'd search out to listen to. The lyrics though, they are the most tepid, preachy "white man sees what's wrong with the world" lyrics you could write. They sound like a quick first draft that someone thought were fine because they'd grab the attention of those who also see what's wrong with the world. The heart is in the right place, but the brain is not engaged beyond 3rd grade English class.
I don't want to bash on Hornsby, because he's actually a really good songwriter and musician. I have a lot of respect for him and enjoy a ton of the other stuff he's been involved with, even if it's not generally music I'd search out for my own listening enjoyment. This is one of those songs where he got lucky and it gave him a career. I can't wrong him for that, especially since so many other musicians have been successful for similarly lightweight hits and so many more would give their souls to succeed as big as Hornsby did here and later on. Though it's almost one of those deal with the devil moments, where the milktoast song got to be an enormous hit but you don't know how something that ridiculous actually got there. Like Salma Hayek complaining about Home Alone in Dogma, someone had to have sold their soul for that one, even if it's arguably good.
Anyway, as a mention for a deep cut, DJP and Z-Trip's amazing mixtape, Uneasy Listening, has a section where DJP drops That's The Way It Is into the mix with the beat from Newcleus' Jam On It underneath and Run-DMC's It's Like That popping up during the chorus. It comes about 12 or 13 minutes into the mix and is a really fun moment alongside a wealth of really fun moments. If you need an eighties fix, go look that mix up and let it entertain you.
I wish I had something clever to say, but he just looks like an ass every time he opens his mouth. His Mom is funny though. I wonder if she knits him sweaters and sings I Just Called To Say I Love You to him. Anyway, good riddance.
I have to disagree about Hip To Be Square being a 5, it's at the very least a 6 and, in my humble opinion, a solid 7, but this is a 3. I have love for Huey Lewis, but this is a song that needed its video more than the video needed the song. Of course, Huey had great videos for days. If This Is It is an amazingly fun video, though I'll also notch that song up to a 6. Huey isn't going to change your life, but he's fun to listen to while drinking a beer on a nice summer day, maybe on a boat. I don't drink though, and while I love the water I don't like boating, so I'll just remember my parents playing him a lot while driving around in their Maxima. A fond recollection of simpler times, at least for me.
She was robbed for album of the year, but she's so classy it's ridiculous. If she wins, I hope she takes her sledgehammer to the stage, smashes the grammy, and then they take the pieces and shove them down Dr. Luke's throat. I know that won't happen, but nice dream, eh?
OH MY DOG! I love this song! It's so brilliant! He actually re-recorded it for something years later, though this version is still light years better. JWH for the win!
Personally, my dream is Miles' wife, Betty Davis, got to record her first album with Miles' quartet as her backing band but Jimi as the lead guitarist! She recorded with the quartet as her band, and they sound amazing, and she was cool with Jimi, but could you imagine giving her some real firepower behind her wonderful voice?
Have you ever heard Lou Reed's Original Wrapper? Glad Lou came to his senses, even if it was a joke. As for John rapping, like really trying to rap, glad we never heard that.
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that doesn't like this song. Didn't Hucknall fire his band after this album? This crap is like full-body cottonmouth, just makes me numb and miserable. And I'm with Tom, I'm dreading their next "hit".
I would've loved to see the Clash stay together, but I don't think it would've been possible. Bernie Rhodes was an idiot and destroyed them. Mick wanted to get weird with samples and dance beats while Joe wanted to go in twenty different directions, none of which involved dancing. If Cut The Crap had never come out, maybe something interesting could've happened, maybe even a proper reunion, but that shitty album ruined whatever they had going for themselves after Mick's firing. At least they patched things up personally and collaborated outside of the Clash label. Nice dream, for sure.
Jack, you are so right. Prince's best offerings to Miles were mostly ignored and for good reason as far as I'm concerned. They're good Prince songs and bad Miles pieces. Can I Play With U is great, but it's a Prince song with Miles noodling a bit on it. The closest Miles came to sounding inspired in the eighties was the stuff he recorded for the unfinished Rubberband album, which sounds like he stole a bunch of Prince's keyboards and drum machines. The versions that were released a year or two ago are mostly fucked-with crap that should be ignored unless you like overly smooth jazz you'd hear at a doctor's office. Same goes for Miles working with Hendrix. Just because they got each other doesn't mean they were musically compatible, at least not without letting go of their pretensions. Nice dreams, but they're better left in our dreams.
I don't think he's necessarily implying she's illiterate but noting that just because you're a "successful" performer doesn't mean you know how to do things most "average" people do. Lots of "famous" folks, legitimately famous or otherwise, don't concern themselves with sending their own messages or communicating with those they have to directly. And furthermore, I think YBB was saying that some people reading a note might be barely literate or worse, not Teyana. Regardless, kvetching about your predicament via a video on the internet for half an hour is pretty silly. I'm sure she's less than thrilled about her situation, but talking yourself up to be HUGE when you're basically another semi-pro Kanye protégé is silly. I don't care how many plays she's gotten on Spotify, she doesn't get hyped big like other artists and she's heading for Trapt's level of self-importance in quoting her numbers.
Color me fascinated! Bruce has a unique fan base, but all the multigenerational artists have them too. Still, I'm always interested in seeing what makes them tick. I'm assuming I'd be walking into quite the trap if I came right out and announced my opinion that The Ties That Bind was a better album than what it eventually became as The River.
I get that, but isn't the Bowie mix the one everyone always complains about? I've heard the rough mixes, unused mixes, weird mixes that showed up only once on odd European re-pressings, and of course Iggy's remix, both the CD version and the vinyl reissue, and there are some good ones there, but I return to the Bowie mix only because it's probably the most listenable, though more in the sense of examining a car wreck than enjoying the music. I still like the Big Black albums, but I'd say that kind of abrasiveness is a rather questionable decision. After all, you can be terribly abrasive and still have your music be thoroughly enjoyable. John Zorn anyone?
I think Albini makes interesting... choices. Some of his work is brilliant, and some of it is awful. If you produce music that long, you’re going to have a record like that. As for Rid of Me, I think it sounds great but it also sounds kind of tinny. That tinny sound is a massive sin. Was it engineered well? Sure, and that’s what Albini would say he did as he never claims to produce, but people go to him for his style, which seems to focus on the highs but not the lows. It reminds me of Big Black’s Songs About Fucking, where there is no excuse for the tinny sound, even in the late eighties or early nineties. Still, I’d have Albini record my music in a heartbeat given the opportunity, but I’d let someone else mix and master it.
Those mixes are great! If I may suggest, check out GIMIX, which is the “official mixtape” for SILY, and their At Home mixes are excellent too. The Cornerstone live tape is awesome too.
Damn I love this record! It’s definitely one to be played from front to back, or at least only stopping to switch sides of vinyl. I loved Wildflower and I’m looking forward to the new one, but very little they’ve done since meets the joyous vibes of Since I Left You. If anything, I’d say tapes of their DJ sets are the closest you can get to SILY, since those are made without any concern for sample clearance. Anyway, if you get it, great! If not, just go find something that makes you feel good. Myself, this makes me feel really good! And they’re finally dropping the deluxe reissue next year! Bless The Avalanches!
Oh, and seriously, how about a 40 year retrospective on Fagen's The Nightfly? It was the first fully digital album and is both deliriously uncool and super cool at the same time. Most of the longtime Dan players contributed to it too, so apart from Becker, it's kind of a Dan album. And I.G.Y. is still amazing!
It's funny, but this all goes back to my complaint about downvotes when you're not saying anything nasty. I just don't feel like the Dan are the general faves of many Gummers, though there are plenty commenting here so perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps I truly am home now. Still, I hate the idea of downvoting a comment intended to provoke discussion until it's hidden as opposed to downvoting something because it's filled with hate and bad vibes. Anyway, I'm gonna go and listen to The Royal Scam some more. Sign In Stranger is the soundtrack to a movie that exists only in the mind.
I get it, but I’m sure you know where I’m coming from. By the way, I know Hey Nineteen is prime “yacht rock”, but damn it, it’s soooo good! My favorite though is Green Earrings. That is money makin’ music!
Seriously, as cool as this list is, it also feels completely wrong. What was the motivation for this one guys? I love the Dan, but is Stereogum the place for a deep discussion of the oeuvre?
I’m expecting to get downvotes for this one.
This. I think attacking her without knowing all the facts is ridiculous, but her getting petulant about it and attacking someone right back is just wrong. This doesn't make me hate Sia or anything, we all makes mistakes and sometimes they're big ones, but she should really just keep a lid on her responses in situations like these. If she wants to make this right, apologize and don't talk publicly for a while. That's at least a start.
Saw this online this morning. Kept wondering to myself, when is a cop gonna run out and shoot this guy. Glad that didn't happen, and also glad Dupree didn't hurt anyone, unintentionally or otherwise. Art for art's sake, money for Dupree G.O.D.'s sake.
I did drink a can of this once, just out of shear bemusement from the packaging. It's water, and when it's cold it's good. Glad they've got a good sense of humor to go along with the dumb labeling of their product. That said, if I find myself at a GetGo at 3am, I'd have no problem drinking another one.
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