Oh, and I'm halfway through S1 of The Wire and you were dead right - it's astonishingly good.

Jim - awesome. I took Li'l Sphere down to SXSW, but he didn't get to hear much of the music. I bet he's going to love it next year, though.

Also glad, but unsurprised, that you're digging The Wire. It keeps getting better, too, so stick with Seasons 2 & 3.

Form can be freeing as well as restrictive.

Damn straight, but it's different for different artists. I think that Beefheart, by the time he got to Doc At Radar Station and Lick My Decals Off, Baby had completely mastered his own ambition, which is why they're much better albums than the sprawling Trout Mask Replica. Love, with "7 & 7 Is" and Forever Changes, is another good example of how an artist can destroy the form of the song in favor of their own internal logic and make the song better. Or, more conventionally, Big Star, who took the form of the Kinksy pop song into all kinds of crazy directions, most of which it blended so seamlessly that it all sounds like happy, good-time music until you think about the chords, structure, and instrumentation of the song.

Currently, I'm listening to the epitome of the guy following his own muse on the rock/folk/whatever side - Jandek. I've decided that my review of Blue Corpse in LITG is definitely lacking because I don't talk about several things that are obvious to me now - the singer on the first three songs isn't Jandek, but someone else. Jandek can be heard Bob Willsing his encouragement in the background. On the other hand, Jandek only plays guitar on the first three songs; the rest are clearly a different guitarist. The words and even the phrasing are pure Jandek throughout, so the other singer must have been coached by the weird man, and I'm assuming that the other singer is the second guitarist who plays throughout the rest of the album. Jandek calls him "Eddie" at one point. Eddie knows how to tune a guitar or, at least, cares enough to do so. Eddie guitar isn't Jandek's - they have different tones. Jandek is recording his voice by mic'ing an amp, which is either a Fender Reverb or another tube amp with a reverb pedal on it (which explains the odd feedback on his version of "House of the Rising Sun." Also, most of Jandek's lyrical obsessions are hit throughout the album, and his lyrics are more simultaneously poetic and direct than on any other album (of the 30 or so I've heard, at least - the man is up to 42 as of this month, but has been very prolific recently - four albums last year and three this year already).

scream, flail, act like a geebling babybat

Bauhaus are playing in Seattle on Oct. 21st! I just bought tickets!

geeble geeble geeble

1. Paging Jon B.:

I was doing some digging in the tech thread and saw that you have (or had) Shure E3C earphones - are you still using them? How have they held up? Would you get something different if you could?

My parents are buying me a b-day present and I want to go half-and-half with them on a really good pair of earphones and I think I want the E3Cs...but there are some others I have my eye on as well if you give them a bad review.

2. Now playing:

I'm hyperventilating over how great two recently purchased CDs are: The Les Breastfeeders CD is SO good. Think Detroit Cobras, but les feminine and with more surf guitar and all in French (and in general much better). Really fun. And I'm not one for loving foreign language albums.

And I can't stop listening to the debut Clap Your Hands Say Yeah CD. Such a solid album. Like every song is mixworthy solid. David Byrne-esque vocals is about the only comparison I can make right now. I would pick "Upon this Tidal Wave of Young Blood" to listen to if you are so inclined: [link]

3. Oh and...

ETA: It's been a while since Misha abused me for not using paragraphs.

Please allow me to do so in her stead.

Dear joe b.,

Oh how I love to read your musings and recollections about all kinds of things that I don't know anything about and have never heard of because regardless of whether or not they are my cup of tea, they are always written with passion, intelligence and, often, funny anecdotes. Your amazing recall of music minutiae and concise translation of volumous biographies into well-framed snapshots of artists' lives and works does not, however, excuse you from the using the occasional paragraph break. I'm not saying you have to do it all the time, but once every twenty lines or so probably won't kill you.

Your faithful and devoted reader thanks you in advance,
tina

Bauhaus are playing in Seattle on Oct. 21st! I just bought tickets!

They are also working on a new album.

They are also working on a new album.

I know!

(Oh goodness, everything I post about Bauhaus will end with an exclamaition point, I just know it.)

I knew about the album, and I knew they were going to tour. I just didn't expect them to be playing Seattle THIS October! Glee!

I knew about the album, and I knew they were going to tour. I just didn't expect them to be playing Seattle THIS October! Glee!

I saw them on their last reunion tour, and they were REALLY good. I was wary, because reunion tours can so often be lame, but even if I hadn't had semi-diminished expectations, the show would have kicked ass.

I'm curious if they are one of those bands that tries out the stuff they are working on on the road.

They are also working on a new album.

So are the New York Dolls. (I think Joe already mentioned that upthread.) And The Pixies. And maybe X. I dismember.

I'm not saying you have to do it all the time, but once every twenty lines or so probably won't kill you.

Heh.

The new Mojo has Dylan's 100 Greatest Songs (and Bob on the cover). There's some fascinating stuff in it, particularly different musicians discussing the songwriting of their favorites. Loved Richard Hell's bit particularly. I recall them doing a similar issue on Brian Wilson with "'Til I Die" gaining a surprise slot at #1. There will be no such surprise in the Dylan issue, with Greil Marcus going on about Like A Rolling Stone.

Also, Lost in the Grooves gets a capsule review in this issue. (They liked it.)

I saw them on their last reunion tour, and they were REALLY good. I was wary, because reunion tours can so often be lame, but even if I hadn't had semi-diminished expectations, the show would have kicked ass.

I saw Pylon on a reunion tour and they were so incredibly good.

I saw Pylon on a reunion tour and they were so incredibly good.

I know that the reunion album they did was seriously good, so this doesn't surprise me.

I do have to say I've had good luck with the few reunion shows I've seen. Roxy Music was enormous fun too when I saw them. It's a toss-up between them opening with "Re-Make/Re-Model" while projecting a montage of the band in their early days, or the points in the show where the dancing girls came out, as to what was my favorite part of that one.