Harry Klippton
Not Interested
You struggled to get through it for 22 minutes and didn't give up?
The Record Shop...
- Thread starter Coda
- Start date
dawson
Well-known member
22.5
I'm not as smart as I look, but much stronger.
*also, that album cover is dope.
Bricksnbeatles
Member known well
I’ll give most albums a full listen at least once even if I don’t dig it at all
Harry Klippton
Not Interested
I try to give things an honest listen but for something that's not working, I gotta bail
dawson
Well-known member
It's sort-of a karma thing.. I don't want people to leave in the middle of our garage-band's set, so I do my best to be inclusive and give benefit of the doubt.
*In this particular instance, I also had to get to the bottom of why Hawkwind was getting grouped in with these Wishbone Ash characters.
Bricksnbeatles
Member known well
I mean generally if I’m not digging something I'm finding in my own musical exploration I'll bail after a while, but if something is recommended to me or otherwise is really important to someone I care for, I'll give it at least a full listen to find an appreciation for what they get out of it or what they think I'll get out of it. I've listened to triple albums that I really didn't vibe with until side 5, and then it sorta clicked and I was like 'Yeah! Looking back, that wasn't so bad. I think I'd like to hear that again now that I get it'
Here's a deal. I'll check out anything and everything y'all recommend to me by 12 EST (roughly 35 min from now) in full and report back with the things I appreciated about each track and if I liked it overall. Don't take advantage and give me like 10 hours of stuff, but feel free to recommend multiple things as long as its not a TON of stuff. Any genre, as long as you like it yourself
Here's a deal. I'll check out anything and everything y'all recommend to me by 12 EST (roughly 35 min from now) in full and report back with the things I appreciated about each track and if I liked it overall. Don't take advantage and give me like 10 hours of stuff, but feel free to recommend multiple things as long as its not a TON of stuff. Any genre, as long as you like it yourself
Coda
Well-known member
Meat Puppets II…
Bricksnbeatles
Member known well
I mean to me, I've always felt that Hawkwind, Heep, Procol Harum, and Wishbone Ash all fell into a category that I jokingly call post-proto-prog. Like, musically they seem like the stuff that evolved from proto-prog that wasn't prog. For all intents and purposes, I categorize them under the Prog umbrella (though I often seen Hawkwind listed as 'Space Rock,' which is a further justification of my hatred of genre classification– I mean come on, that's such a forced classifier), but I see them. as distinct, parallel branches extremely closely related to prog.
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Bricksnbeatles
Member known well
First reply! I'll get on this one first. might squeeze it in before bed, but otherwise I'll get to it in the morning
This one for me to check out, or just sharing it to the thread? I'll be watching this either way because I really dig the way the KEXP sessions are held, but I wanna make sure that I don't seem crazy when I post a track by track listening-journal here and it turns out to be unsolicited
dawson
Well-known member
OK..is Yngwee Malmshteen prog? Because I hear he is, which makes me think, "Oh, easy- I don't like prog," which furthermore makes me confused to read that a band I like is prog.
First reply! I'll get on this one first. might squeeze it in before bed, but otherwise I'll get to it in the morning
This one for me to check out, or just sharing it to the thread? I'll be watching this either way because I really dig the way the KEXP sessions are held, but I wanna make sure that I don't seem crazy when I post a track by track listening-journal here and it turns out to be unsolicited
Meat Puppets shouldn't put you to sleep.
Do as you wish, but I won't be posting a journal here. I just shared Squid for the triangle solo at the end.
Bricksnbeatles
Member known well
(Please excuse the horrible formatting that will follow. This is being posted from my notes app in my phone where I wrote as I was listening)
Meat Puppets II thoughts
Split myself in two
First thought: I dig this. Cool tones and a fun vibe.
Second thought: after all these years of having forgotten to ever check out the meat puppets, I always thought they’d be more boisterous and entropically noisy— kinda bummed that it’s actually sorta just regular rock structures, but I dig it overall.
The mod stuff on guitar at the end is cool
Magic toy missing
Cool tune. Totally wasn’t expecting this to be more Dixie Dregs than Sonic Youth
Lost (I)
I get a bit of a Neil young meets ween vibe. Is that slight bits of electric sitar I’m catching deep in the mix? Again, very shocked by the backwoods blues vibes, but it’s tight. Not able to hone in the lyrics too much in the two non-instrumental tracks so far, but I like the vocal delivery.
Plateau
My favorite so far. It’s got a sleazy and greasy groove to it, and the lyrics have a wicked vibe to them. This is a great example of a singer who uses their shortcomings as an advantage rather than limiting themselves to a small comfortable range.
Aurora borealis (I)
Cool guitar stuff. I like how it segues from plateau, and I can’t imagine that the two would be listened to separately much. They’re definitely a good pair. Bass tone is simple but effective, and the whole delay guitar riff is cool with all the non-diatonic suspensions.
We’re here
Cool repetitive bass riff ala crimson, soft machine et al (I’m thinking like Sailors Tale; kings and queens; the man who waved at trains)
The messy pseudo-wall of sound folksy backing instrumentation has a nice atmosphere and the vocal melody is simple but captivating. The whole tone/augmented echoey stuff around 3/4 into it is always welcome in any song
Climbing
Honestly don’t dig this track much— it just feels kinda generic and cliched without doing anything interesting, but I like the lyrics— they’re self aware without being uncomfortably so, and they have some clever figures. I could do without this extended instrumental bit at the end
New Gods (I)
Fun Fuzz and modulation! I definitely get what ween drew from the meat puppets in this song. I know ween was somewhat influenced by meat puppets and this definitely gives me that same sort of vibe.
Oh me
Fun bass riff and I like the change in attitude in the vocals on this. It feels more confident, and gives me the same “I can’t sing well, but I can sing cool” feeling that I get from Ric Ocasek. The guitar doubling the bass riff with a ton of phaser and then breaking into a very amateurish-but-interesting solo is an interesting choice that ultimately pays off (I love that sort of solo. Country Joe and the fish; Neil young; early ween; etc. I call it “naïve” playing, because it’s clearly not someone who has no idea what they’re doing, but you can feel them searching for the notes and trying to find direction. It’s a type of playing that, wether intentional or not, imparts a truly captivating narrative arc to the music)
Lake of Fire
Chill but chatic instrumentation. The vocals delivery is killer and the vivid imagery of the lyrics and really bizarre thematic content really grabs me.
I’m a mindless idiot
This honestly sounds like the kind of lofi long-form looping stuff I sometimes record. I like the timbral aspects of the track with what sounds like electric guitar, banjo, and resonator all playing different permutations of the same riff, and the jarring loop-transition
The whistling song
Songwriting-wise I think this is the strongest song so far. The lyrics and melody work well together, the whistling melody is cool, and the harmonic structure is pretty novel while still evoking a 60s folk rock and 70s garage rock vibes. I really like the way the whistling melody lingers on some non-diatonic notes the second time around before blending with the fuzz guitar outro. Only song so far I could see being successfully covered by other artists without completely restructuring the entire song
Teenagers
Ween vibes on the intro. More naïve soloing which I love, especially with the sorta randomly fingerpicked backing. I also love any time the snare is the focus of the drumming like this. Overall reminds me of if Steven Stills tried heavily emulating Fripp for a solo on a Manassas track.
I’m not here
I really dig the phasing on here. Slow and chewy with a snappy guitar part— just wonderful. Just thinking rn that I can’t believe how further this album as a whole leans towards a garage-rock version of country rock than the avant-garde no-wave cacophony I was expecting
New gods (II)
I think I heard Andy play this once in a pro guitar shop demo. Cool riff, sweet fuzz tones, and I love any sort of major-to-minor turnaround like that!
Lost (II)
Cool blend of a really janky driven guitar and acoustic guitar tone. I like how the tempo is extremely fluid. The way the vocals sort of trail in and out is really compelling, and then how the vocals are much more direct and centered in the first half of the second verse before trailing out is a nice juxtaposition. After around 2:10 the vocals get really shaky and broken, which is pretty unique and fun
What to do
Great drum sound in this track. The terribly out of tune backing vocal reminds me of a lot of the backing vocals on we’re only in it for the money. The lyrics are simple and capture a reminiscent relatability. The vocals actually come together at the end which is nice. I dig the dissonance in the beginning, but it becomes a nice harmonization at the end.
100% of nothing
A really rad instrumental, with a cool guitar melody and awesome phasery goodness, but it really highlights that the drummer and bassist here are actually pretty damn proficient and lock together really well
Aurora Borealis (2)
I don’t know if I’m imagining it or if there really are song ghosts of vocal “aah”s on this one, but it sounds like there were backing vocals that were wiped from a tale and then had something overdubbed on top of it, with some remnants of the old track lingering. I dig Easter eggs like that, if that’s the case and it sounds as much as that.
Final Conclusions:
As a whole I really liked the album a lot more than I expected I might’ve. I was really hoping it would be an over the top noisy mess with no real song structures, because I love that too, but this was just a bunch of some really palatable twangy-fuzzy-phasery folksy stuff. I’ve enjoyed it; I added it to my Spotify library, and I’ll surely check out more of their stuff. It’s absolutely nothing at all like what I expected meat puppets to sound like based on everything I’ve heard about then over the years without having ever actually listened to their music, and I always had the feeling I’d gel with their music, but I liked it way more than I even imagined I might.
Bricksnbeatles
Member known well
Simple answer: No
More complicated answer: yes, in a sense, but it depends on how you define prog
My answer: it depends on how you definite prog, but I love most of what is considered to be prog and can’t stand malmsteen so… draw from that what you will. Also prog is such a meaninglessly broad term with such broad criteria. Even though I love prog, as well as many other genres, I firmly believe the concept of genre is a pointless game of limiting peoples horizons by boxing them into arbitrary groups of “familiar in an unfamiliar way” and “unfamiliar in a familiar way”
Well, I’m still awake, eh? Guess that confirms it!
I’ll check out the KEXP thing tomorrow since now I’m legitimately exhausted.
Bricksnbeatles
Member known well
Didn’t get to check out the KEXP yesterday. I’ll check it out in an hour or two
PapaBear
Well-known member
Steppenwolf by Steppenwolf, my cousin turned me on to it, probably around 1968 or so