I love Gloryland. The one time I saw Dr Ralph Stanley play, he and his band did such an amazing version of it, the crowd went crazy, and they did an encore of the chorus for us. And this was in Manhattan.

Tonight's Mountain Goats show (what? shut up, I'm a completist) featured the band in costumes and of course a version of "The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton" -- you think they're gonna pass up the opportunity to get a room full of people to shout "Hail Satan!" on Halloween? But the verse that goes "The best ever death metal band out of Denton/ never settled on a name/ but the top three contenders/ after weeks of debate/Were Satan's Finger, and The Killers, and The Hospital Bombers" ended instead with "...Satan's Finger, and the Fleshy Friends of the Demon, and the Hospital Bombers." I have to admit, I laughed.

Yeah, I love "Gloryland," too. Dr. Ralph Stanley's version, though, is far more uplifting than Dock Boggs's version, what with the soaring a capella harmonies. Boggs hammers the "all life is suffering" undercurrent to the song and sings like he believes that Heaven in a convenient lie in a voice ready for the grave. Since my disc and the movie were the same length, though, "Gloryland" would have been playing during the final scene, when Nosferatu meets his end due to Lucy Harker's sacrifice. I substituted Radiohead's "We Suck Young Blood" and saved "Gloryland" for the blue screen after the movie.

Mr. Industries, I believe that Nosferatu himself would do a more uplifting version of any given song than Dock Boggs. Which is part of Boggs's appeal. (Have you heard the NY-based The Boggs, btw? I've only heard a couple of tracks and am of mixed mind.)

I believe that Nosferatu himself would do a more uplifting version of any given song than Dock Boggs. Which is part of Boggs's appeal.

Amen to that.

(Have you heard the NY-based The Boggs, btw? I've only heard a couple of tracks and am of mixed mind.)

Nope, but with a name like that, I'd sure be interested to hear them.

Their CD is on eMusic here: [link]

Christ, put me down in the "no" camp. It's ok to be disrespectful of your material if you're funny, like, say, the Holy Modal Rounders, but there's no excuse for condescending to your material because you think you're too cool for it. I say, based on five 15-second song samples: lame.

Peter Guralnick talking about his new Sam Cooke bio yesterday on Fresh Air and today on Leonard Lopate. Some of the bits I caught were interesting, but I listen at work & miss a lot when it's busy, and it's been busy since July.

Misha, other New Yorkers, Bay Area Buffistas, & those in the DC area take note: also on Lopate today was the director Edward Hall, whose Propeller Theatre company will be doing The Winter's Tale at BAM this week, followed by Berkeley and then DC (I think that's what he said, could be the other way around -- check local listings) in the next couple weeks. They did A Midsummer Night's Dream at BAM last year & it was amazing. Great company. Don't miss them. Misha, I think Katherine got tickets for us (not sure which day). Let me know if you'd like to see it with us.

It's ok to be disrespectful of your material if you're funny, like, say, the Holy Modal Rounders

I like to think of it as a higher respect: the kind that says the material can take it, and I'm going to imbue it with the energy & spirit I get from it, not deaden it with reverence. The latter approach being pervasive among folkies & the reason I find it hard to say I like folk music even though personal icons like Richard Thompson, Peter Stampfel, & Zimmy have deep folk roots. I wish emusic would get some more Rounders & solo Stampfel.

Zimmy? Oy.

Corwood, based on the full-length tracks I've heard, and the coverage they get, I think they're serious about it. Whether or not they manage it is another matter.

Joe, I'm booked up with family stuff the second half of this week, but let me know. You in turn should go see Sweeney Todd, which we saw last week -- 10 performers, all of whom also serve as the show's musicians. Sounds awful, works brilliantly.

And, hey, who do we know who would be perfect to set up a panel for this conference, boys and girls?

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
“Ain’t That a Shame”: Loving Music in the Shadow of Doubt

The 2006 Experience Music Project Pop Conference Seattle, WA, April 27-30, 2006

What forces are at work when we like something we “shouldn't”? What role does shame, either shame succumbed to or shame resisted, play in the pleasure we as fans and interpreters take from the music we love? Is loving music passionately (collecting it, critiquing it, fashioning one’s identity around it) itself becoming a guilty pleasure, i.e. something increasingly rare and in need of explanation, something self-indulgent or questionable? To what extent do these issues reveal hierarchies of taste, transformed subjectivities, the effect of politics on culture, or other lines of contestation permeating popular music?

For this year’s Pop Conference, we invite papers, panels, or other presentations on these topics. Related questions include but are not limited to:

--In what terms do “guilty pleasures” operate beyond the U.S. experience? How do different genres define the inappropriate?

--Who are the performers, the issues and the hidden pleasures, that you have wanted to write about but never dared, or who you loved and then forsook?

--What happens when you center your focus on “minor” histories?

--How do the desires for novelty and permanence, diaspora and roots, or for that matter extremity and conformity, play out against each other in music?

--Can we think in less whiggish and salutary ways about pop and progress, or how music functions in dark times?

--Does doubt affect the creation of musical works, and not only reception? What guilty pleasure do performers feel about their own social impact?

--How does technology and futurist rhetoric affect distinctions in pop fashion between the sublime and the ridiculous?

--What are the connections between pop shame and “passing”: sexual, racing, class, nationality?

The EMP Pop Conference first convened in Spring 2002 and is now entering its fifth year. The goal has always been to bring academics, writers, artists, fans, and other participants into an all-too-rare common discussion. Most presentations are of the 20 minute panel talk variety, but unorthodox suggestions are our favorite kind and we can support a wide range of technological experimentation. Previous year’s conferences have resulted in the anthology This is Pop (Harvard, 2004), the current special issue of Popular Music (“Magic Moments”), and a second anthology that is under preparation. This year’s program committee includes Drew Daniel (Matmos), writer Jessica Hopper, Jason King (New York University), Michaelangelo Matos (Seattle Weekly), Ann Powers (Blender), David Sanjek (BMI), Philip Schuyler (University of Washington), and Karen Tongson (University of Southern California).

Proposals should be no more than 250 words, should be accompanied by a brief bio and full contact information, and are due January 16, 2006. Proposals are judged by liveliness of prose as much as pertinence of topic. Email them, as well as any questions about the conference, the theme, your topic, or the application process, to organizer Eric Weisbard at EricW@emplive.org. For more information on previous conferences, including a full range of participants and abstracts, go to: [link]

Am I the only one who just barely found out that BB King put out a nw album for his 80th birthday?