My musical history, like your mom, is pretty broad.
My dad is a professional musician and was always playing bars/clubs whether he had a day job or not. He encouraged me to listen to mostly whatever I liked, as long as it wasn't "crap." So I once I was able to buy my own records I ended up with mostly stuff from The Stones, Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, The Who, etc. As I got older I moved onto a bunch of harder rock and heavy metal -- Blue Öyster Cult, Iron Maiden, etc., and went through a brief punk phase, mostly stuff like Black Flag, Bad Brains and Dead Kennedys. I also started listening to other random stuff and generally expanding my horizons. While I never could stand any sort of contemporary Country music, I liked the old traditional stuff and got into a bunch of the old country clues and bluegrass and stuff. I also started enjoying all different kinds of jazz especially Miles Davis. Anyway, I also went through an early techno/electronica phase. Tangerine Dream...
... and Jean Michel Jarre:
...made all my '70s childhood "space age" dreams seem possible, and were just the thing for a geeky, computer obsessed, very stoned teenager. Somewhat ironically, I still have that stuff on vinyl, but have never converted it. Haven't listened to them in ages.
So, to the present. While browsing around eMusic last night needing to use up my monthly credit, I ran into the new Daft Punk album. I'd seen it mentioned and the iconic cover art was familiar, so I gave it a try. This song:
Reminded me of all that stuff.
Ah, nostalgia.
Oh yeah, and this is my 100th post. Woo.
I have never really warmed up to Daft Punk.
ReplyDeleteUsed up some emusic on a crazy metal hybrid band called King Hell, though. They do a proper cover of "Hungry Like The Wolf"
Also, I saw Jean-Michael Jarre back in the 80s, in a littlish theater (same place we saw the Star Trek movie, coincidentally) got in free cuz I worked it as usher. I was mainly into punk at the time, but the proggy aspects impressed me.
I had never heard any of their stuff, I'd just heard of them. This album is decent, a couple songs I really like. I mostly wanted to post because it seemed notable that I'd completely forgotten about a whole phase of weird '70s prog/electronica/whateverthefuckthatwas taht I'd been through. Y'know, nostalgia.
DeleteAlso, same theater I saw REM on the Life's Rich Pageant tour. Camper Van Beethoven opened up.
DeleteI'm gonna have to go to a concert by a band you hate just so I know you won't already have seen them. ...Or have you?
DeleteThe second time I saw the Mekons, I hated them. They had just been dropped by their record label, basically abandoned in the middle of America with a new album that the label refused to release (and unlike Wilco, they couldn't get the label to give them the rights either).
DeleteWe left partway through. They were so bad and bitter.
The next time, though, they fucking kicked ass on the I (heart) Mekons tour, and I loved them again.
Sucks to go see a band you love and be disappointed by them, I don't know that I would've given them another chance -- you're a better zombie than I.
DeleteBack during my Rush phase -- late '80s I think --I went and saw them and they were terrible. The playing was technically ok, you could just tell they were really, really bored. And the sound mixing may have been the worst I've ever experienced -- actually physically painful. The only good thing to come from that was that Primus opened for them and they were fucking amazing. They used a tenth of the equipment and just had a blast. And their sound was fine. It's like the sound people said "oh, Rush is on, better turn it up to 11!" Bizarre.
The Mekons thing; the first time I saw them, I was totally stoked because the had released the amazing Rock N Roll album, and they were awesome. I turned as many people as I could on to the album, and the next time took my wife. She kept looking at me saying, WHY do you think these guys are so good?
DeleteSo yeah, the next time, I very nearly passed. But I went back to that album, which was so very very good, and decided to take a chance, it was 15 bucks. But went alone. Of course, they were amazing. Again. Took several tours before I got my wife to go see them again, though.
On Rush: they were the first band I ever took my wife to, before she was my wife. Signals tour, in madison; it was really her first full-blown RAWK concert, too, and it must have bent her brain because she eventually married me.
We went to see them on the Vital Signs tour, after they very nearly hung it up after Peart's wife and daughter had died. And they were, yes, so very VITAL. And they had a fuck of a good time playing, too. And the couple of times I've seen them since, they've been just a total party on stage, the joy of what they do is back in a big way.
We have tickets for the current leg of the Clockwork Angels tour, when it swings through Summerfest.
Primus? Seen 'em.
DeletePrimus? Seen 'em.
DeleteOf course.
I think the Rush tour I saw was Roll The Bones. Very "meh" -- maybe it was the end of the tour, who knows, but they seemed bored. And the terrible, awful, no good sound just made it unbearable. My wife actually stopped listening to them entirely after that.
Have you ever seen Kelly Joe Phelps? How 'bout I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In The House? I figure if I go with local folks I might have a chance to stump you.
DeleteOK, if you want to play that game, you ever hear of Tony Memmel?
DeleteHe played at my house.
Well KJP up there played at mine, so we're even!
DeleteCURSE YOU SNOB!!!
DeleteYou're gonna make me go to see Die Kreuzen this Sunday just so I can hang out with the band, aren't you? And here I've got tix for the Japandroids the next night....these old ears are just not built for that kind of abuse....
DeleteYou need to not only go see Die Kreuzen, you need to be sure to sit in on bongos. Or the lute.
DeleteIt helps that Summerfest offers the opportunity to see a dozen bands a day, for 15 bucks.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that would be nice. We don't have a decent festival like that nearby. Last time I went to a big multi-artist thing was for the Horde Festival back in the mid '90s.
DeleteI saw Wilco (on their first tour) and Morphine at a Horde festival. which was, coincidentally enough, held on the Summerfest grounds.
DeleteI mostly wanted to post because it seemed notable that I'd completely forgotten about a whole phase of weird '70s prog/electronica/whateverthefuckthatwas taht I'd been through
ReplyDeleteNeeds more Birdy Nam Nam.
That is gloriously weird.
Delete