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TarTar
* Dog in the Sand *
1965 Posts |
 Posted - 10/20/2003 : 01:03:53
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I'm baffled when I think back on what I considered to be good music just two years ago, before I discovered the beauty of off-kilter pop that is Frank Black Francis, both with the Pixies and solo. I didn't expect much from music, other than it be an easily accessible listen or well structered (the latter was often not even a requirement in retrospect). Since I first really got into the enjoyment of listening to music when I was 13, I had been jumping from rock to rock, trying to hear it all, and only every so often stopping and really feeling the music. Sure, at the time, I thought I dug a lot of stuff, but much of it, especially standard classic from the 70s and mid-90s mainstream alternative, seems so stupid now that I'd like to think that deep down I knew better than to dig such crap. There were definitely some points where I stopped and really focused on a band that I feel wasn't time wasted even now, such as my obsessions with Weezer, Smashing Pumpkins, Miles Davis, Frank Zappa, Ween, The Beatles, Queen (yeah, that sounds strange, but I still really dig the cheesiness of that band), but there is a slew of vacuous artists on the list as well, mostly mid-90s crap and classic rock as I stated earlier. Then I discovered The Pixies, and while my ears had a difficult time adjusting at first, I kept listening regardless cuz I felt there was some importance to uncover in these cryptic, raucous ditties. I had purchased Bossanova and Surfer Rosa simultaneously, and Bossanova was definitely a much easier ice breaker than Surfer Rosa, which I didn't think much of at first. But as Bossanova slowly became a favorite, Surfer Rosa kept getting put in the CD player more and more simply because I knew there had to be something, and one day, I was listening to Surfer Rosa, and it was just bam! there's the hook! It's such a strange hook, not a traditional rock hook, but there it is. Ride a tire down River Euphrates!
I managed to get into Teenager of the Year early on in my discovery of the Pixies, more the first half of TOTY than the second half at first. I thought it was different, much tamer, but not really weaker. If anything, it was better than the Pixies in ways because each song really breathed, didn't just clamor to a weird climax (not that the Pixies do, but, ya know), so I have never really been one of those people who didn't dig Frank solo stuff as much as the Pixies, though his solo career has had a few records that didn't really speak to me. Still, as of late, it's been nothing but solid gold (which, ironically, is a song from a record I didn't care for much).
But yeah, since I developed an ear for Frank's brand of music, I've gotten into everything from Pere Ubu to Pavement to the Velvet Underground to Thinking Fellers Union Local #282, and so much more beyond that. And there are now quite a few "normal" sounding CDs that are just sitting on my shelf, collecting dust, that, while I don't care for them at the moment, I can't part with them, because they are part of my musical progression and I will have a desire to listen to them again some day, I know. Hell, I was listening to 2Pac and Snoop Doggy Dogg in my car earlier today for nostalgic reasons, because rap was one of the first forms of music that I really pursued for active listening purposes. It's been one long, crazy, and now off-kilter ride since. |
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here she comes now
- FB Fan -
Spain
12 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2003 : 02:11:28
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It's a strange and different reflexion from you. I don't agree or disagree with you. It's your life, and it's yours. And it's been interesting to know your progression.
For me, living with frank black music it's been also a life with changes.
I adored "surfer", I cryed with "doolittle" (best record in the last 15 years), I bored "trompe le monde"...
...I've been plus excited with TOTY, depressed with "pistolero"... and now I am really happy with the last one, "Show me..." because everytime I hear it, I discover a new feeling. Let them say "When will happiness..." is a stupid and too much easy sond, but it is the song with the best melodies, chords, change of intention of his last 5 years.
Just keeping the growing.
baby, that's art |
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billgoodman
>> Denizen of the Citizens Band <<
Netherlands
6217 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2003 : 02:16:17
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If find it strange that lot's of boardies, like me, have or had a Queen-period
''it's not a box, it's a submarine'' |
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jbstevens
- FB Fan -
United Kingdom
102 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2003 : 04:47:29
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Must be something to do with the drink induced sing-a-longs to Bohemiam Rhapsody.
"Yellow fifty-two / He's an undertaker bee" |
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TarTar
* Dog in the Sand *
1965 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2003 : 05:59:27
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| While Bohemian Rhapsody is what got me interested in Queen, I quickly became sick of how that song and other novelty favorites like We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, Another One Bites the Dust, and Fat Bottomed Girls overshadowed much better songs that weren't so campy like '39, Brighton Rock, All Dead All Dead, and Procession/Father to Son/White Queen. Queen's early records (up until about 1980) were so diverse from song to song, and Brian May had such an ill guitar sound. Freddy Mercury was over the top and theatrical, but in such an almost Vaudevilian fashion, and when they did an old sounding ragtime numbers like Bring Back That Leroy Brown or Seaside Rendezvous, Freddy's showmanship characteristic shined through beautifully. I felt as though the band knew that the music was overly dramatic and overblown; it seems as though their tongues were often firmly planted in their cheeks, but they also took that playful attitude seriously enough that sincerity bled from the same spot that the goofiness did. Once the 80s came, Queen started using the synth, an instrument they used to detest using, and because they became what they had once hated, they have no reason to complain about their fans saying the 80s Queen sucked. |
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