Wow, that's fantastic. Thanks, NickS and Stanley! Smooth Steely Damnbulances indeed!
A group of friends of mine one night conceived of a Steely Damnbulance, in which the members of Steely Dan ride around (the siren plays Steely Dan riffs, duh) trying to find and save instances of music that's not smooth enough. It amuses me to no end.
Somebody needs to take that to Burning Man.
I think I've mentioned this before, but my mom and I had an unusually prolonged fight about whether Burning Man was wrong and wasteful or not. She feels like it's fine to build a city in a desert for a week, but afterwards the items should be given to community projects instead of burned.
I don't really care, but I argued like I cared a lot about it being art and the point being that it is temporary like an ice sculpture. Also I didn't think Burning Man was a particularly meaningful way to attack American wastefulness and consumerism.
I think I've mentioned this before, but my mom and I had an unusually prolonged fight about whether Burning Man was wrong and wasteful or not. She feels like it's fine to build a city in a desert for a week, but afterwards the items should be given to community projects instead of burned.
It's a good question. Even outside of the things that get burned, it's a phenomenal amount of resources -- fuel, money, time, skilled labor -- directed towards something that could (somewhat reductively and plausibly cruelly) be called a week-long party. I generally come down on the side of it being worthwhile, for various reasons, but it's not so simple a question, even for people who attend.
Yeah, but it's certainly no worse than any one week of Las Vegas or Disney World or other vacation party spot.
5: oh, much better, not least because attendees tend to be pretty conscious of it. And, you know, compared to Disney World or Vegas, the footprint is tiny.
Not for an instant do I believe that Steely Dan recorded playing as a group in the studio.
If it's still a spot of disagreement between heebie and her mom, we can send a Steely Damnbulance to smooth things over.
I'm concerned about the m in Damnbulance. I don't understand why it's there.
10: Various arguments remain about that. I argue that it's the last "n" in "Dan" bowing to the "m" in "ambulance" as the band realizes just how critical this mission is. (Bonus points: you get "Damn" in there for extra mission-critical goodness.)
But an alternate accepted spelling is "Danbulance".
To make it rhyme with "Waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhmbulance".
But an alternate accepted spelling is "Danbulance".
Definitely smoother.
No one advocates for Danmbulance? Is it not the smoothest?
14: There's an advocate for "Dambulance" with no "n" at all. That's close?
Smooth like marshmallow-laden St. Patrick's Day cake icing, Heebie. That's smoooooth.
What about Danombulance? Or Dananambulance?
On the pursuit of smooth music.
I still think you should have called your band The Masturband. Now that's smooth wordplay.
Smooth like marshmallow-laden St. Patrick's Day cake icing, Heebie.
Oh, you mean the Danomnombulance.
When I'm running from the law, I'll be sure to drive my Lambulance.
Oh no, I'm on my one-trick-pony-bulance.
BACK UP THE LAMEBULANCE, YOU DIZZY DAMEBULANCE
GRANNY
I guess there could be a Wham!bulance, but what would that even be like?
I think a good name for a band could be generated on the model "Frontperson's Name's Convenient Location". E.g. "Stanley Kowalski's Convenient Location".
heebie, you should totally tell your students that it's much better to keep up all semester. Otherwise, they'll be all aboard the Crambulance.
I'm pretty sure these kids would be on it, all growed up. I spent the better part of the last hour watching Kids Incorporated videos, by the way.
I was going to make a pun about "Somnambulance", but realized that it's a real word.
THIS THREAD IS MALARKEY WITH AN ONION TIED TO MY BELT.
This version of Wild Wild Life is how I got on the Kids Incorporated trip in the first place. It's kind of doubly surreal and weird and normal. And wonderful. I keep rewatching it.
In fact I was thinking about posting it, but I guess I just sabotaged that.
I either killed the thread or everyone is hypnotized by Kids Incorporated. I'm betting the latter.
34: I was watching it. The name rings a bell, and I must have watched it. But it's not bringing up any memories, unlike Standpipe's recent Zoobilee Zoo mention.
No, I never watched it either. I think it was on the Disney Channel, so easily missable. But I'm still fascinated. Such breadth of covers. There seem to be hundreds of songs.
I don't even know if there was a plot or a show, or if they're just a rock band. (Just!)
Also Fergie figures prominently.
24: CONVENIENT LOCATION
What, like the back of a Volkswagon?
And a very small Jennifer Love Hewitt.
I watched it a lot, and have absolutely no memory of it.
Seems as though it had a loose sitcom format, It was never explained how the KI [Kids Incorporated] group funded or profited from their performances, but the show did not aim for strict realism.
So apparently a welcome rejection of the Vermeerian aesthetic that so dominated teen-oriented television in the 80s.
Sentimental Breugelian pastiche-- these are just tavern scenes in motion.
Now HG has me watching the damn things. So far like two Go-Gos songs, and "You Can't Hurry Love". Not to mention this one, which shows they were way ahead of their time.
Not unrelated to the OP: I'm trying to transcribe some drum parts I did, like, a year ago from a crappy recording. Not easy!
For a long time I thought the Steely Dan lyric "Who is the gaucho, amigo" was really "Who is the gaucho lindo". I still like my version better.
For a long time I thought the Steely Dan lyric "I crossed my old man back in Oregon" was really "I crossed my old man back in Aragon". I still like my version better.
Kids Incorporated taught me to hate "Rockin' Robin", which featured (along with "Jump!") on a KI cassette that was briefly in heavy rotation at the Bathyscaphe family home.
49: You didn't appreciate his rocking in the treetops, all the day long, hoppin' and a-boppin' and a-singin' his song?
I guess there could be a Wham!bulance, but what would that even be like?
Getting people in comas to wake up before they go-go?
50: I could deal with the hoppin' and the boppin'; it was the tweet-tweet-tweedle-ee-deedle-ee-deetin' that got me.
re: 8
Why not? I thought that was their whole modus operandi: rotating sets of session musos, which they'd group together into different combinations depending on what they thought would work? With the basic backing track laid down as a live take and then vocals and solos overdubbed later? That'd be pretty standard practice back in the pre Pro-Tools world, no? I've seen a couple of those Steely Dan recording documentaries and it's quite interesting how random a lot of it seems to have been.
Intense attention to detail from Becker and Fagen, but a lot of the time the soloists and some of the other musicians just did whatever they wanted, and then Becker and Fagen picked the take they liked. Sometimes there were several versions of a track, with completely different 'bands', iirc.
Anyway, I think I generally prefer Royal Scam, and, in particular, what is, I assume, Purdie's drumming on Green Earings.
back in the pre Pro-Tools world
Is there an active anti-Pro-Tools backlash? I figure there must be, having just recently been in a studio that used it. It can neaten everything up just a bit too much. I suppose it's a matter of the engineer making those decisions, but still.
32: that cover of Talking Heads features a future AC Slater on the drums.
I've seen a couple of those Steely Dan recording documentaries and it's quite interesting how random a lot of it seems to have been.
That sounds interesting. This was the first Steely Dan documentary that I had seen, and I thought they all came across very well. They seem really smart about the music and sincerely proud of having pulled off a good album -- both the session musicians and Becker and Fagen.
I did end up blogging about that clip at my place and got into an interesting back and forth with Dr. Slack that unfortunately trailed off.
One of the other things that was interesting for me, after getting to know the names of some of the session musicians that they worked with, was to notice Chuck Rainey and Bernard Purdie on something like quiet fire
re: 55
I suppose there must be. There are certainly bands who eschew it, and prefer to record using nothing but old analogue gear, and to go live to tape as much as possible. The backlash against digital predates Pro-tools, though. Lenny Kravitz* was talking about using old valve powered 8-track desks nearly 20 years ago. The White Stripes work in the same way.
I have some jazz albums that are explicitly made in the 1950s style -- 4 or 5 guys in a room, playing completely live to big fat analogue 2-track tape, no edits -- but that's not really part of the same backlash.
* not really a big fan of his own music, but his production on the Vanessa Paradis album he did sounds fantastic.
Seriously, not shit. But I'm desperate for attention from all of you people so I'll keep posting nonsense. Hey, look at me! Me! Me! Me!
re: 57
The thread over at your place with Doctor S is interesting. I have to admit, I do sort of see his point. I like bits of Steely Dan [the afore-mentioned Royal Scam, for example) but I can rarely stomach more than a couple of songs at at time, for precisely those 'muzak' reasons. Despite that, there are still bits on their records that I really love. Although, saying that, the bits I love most are often things like some of the more out there guitar solos -- and there's some surprisingly odd/dischordant shit that gets played in the instrumental breaks on those otherwise smooth records -- or a cool beat.
I have some jazz albums that are explicitly made in the 1950s style -- 4 or 5 guys in a room, playing completely live to big fat analogue 2-track tape, no edits -- but that's not really part of the same backlash.
Speaking of which, there's a Tommy Smith* album from about 2000 (Spartacus) made with mostly US-based players, which is recorded that way. Just a bunch of really top notch guys in a good-sounding room, direct to tape. It's lovely stuff.
* Scottish tenor sax player, really beautiful tone** that can take him everywhere from Garbarek to Coleman Hawkins. Sometimes a bit lacking in an individual voice, imho.
** it's hard for me to think of any other contemporary player who can sound just quite that lush, tbh.
I have to admit, I do sort of see his point.
Oh, I can see his point as well. I'm an unapologetic fan of Steely Dan but their sound is . . . unusual. I mean, I would have zero interest in "lite-funk" from anybody other than Steely Dan. I do feel a little bit sorry that I never talked about their lyrics in my discussion with DS. I didn't bring them up because I don't expect them to convince anybody who is skeptical of the Dan, but their lyrics and Fagen's delivery are crucial to my appreciation of them.
From an unfogged perspective I should mention that the fan e-mails section on their website is a comedy gold mine. Consider this, from a randomly selected group of e-mail:
Apart from you guys, I also rate Prince. In fact in many ways he has more talent in his little finger than others could dream of. What do you say. And when does the new album come out? And finally I can't help feeling - despite this, my, e-mail, that there is something still suspiciously and horribly geeky about this whole web page fan stuff. Sorry. PP
or this
It's me again, the guy from St. Louis with the Dan cover band that can't get laid. We've tried reggae Dan, rap Dan and angry alternative Dan, where we simply ignore all chord changes and just scream the lyrics out like we're pissed. Actually, since we're a trio in our late forties trying to cover all the shit you've got going in this material, we are. Pissed. No one appreciates how tricky it is to cover "Deacon Blues" without horns.
Or their statistical summary of e-mail received but not posted to the website.
The second blockquote should actually end in an ellipsis since he goes on to talk about their plan to translate all of the Steely Dan lyrics into Esperanto.
Why not? I thought that was their whole modus operandi: rotating sets of session musos, which they'd group together into different combinations depending on what they thought would work? With the basic backing track laid down as a live take and then vocals and solos overdubbed later? That'd be pretty standard practice back in the pre Pro-Tools world, no?
I dunno, I guess I had heard of their famous fastidiousness and just assumed that every track was recorded individually. If you say that wasn't the norm, though, I'll believe you; you seem to know a lot more about this stuff than I do.
Okay, I can't resist one more, though I should really be working (from '97 when, apparently, they replied to their e-mails).
Q: Dear WB and DF: What inspired you to write the song Your Gold Teeth? Is there special significance to the line: Throw out your gold teeth and see how they roll? Paul S.
A:Well, Paul, I guess - "Throw out your gold teeth and see how they roll" - it's the goddamn CHORUS, isn't it? Ain't that "special"? As for "significant", I suppose that depends on whose teeth we're talking about - if they happen to be your teeth, then it's significant.
Interesting exchange with DS over there—I'm not entirely convinced that his It-ness doesn't in the end have something to do with something fundamentally balls-like, though.
re: 64
I'm not really sure when the whole 'one track at a time' thing became really common. Obviously it's been done since Les Paul in the 1950s and became ubiquitous by the 90s, but when it became completely the norm I have no idea.* But my understanding is that part of the reason people like Steely Dan hired top notch session players is precisely that they are the sort of guys who can sit down together and lay down perfect take after perfect take.
* people I know in recording bands still seem to do a fair bit of recording as a band, although they do overdubs and multitracking and all that later.
Interesting exchange with DS over there
Thanks.
I'm not entirely convinced that his It-ness doesn't in the end have something to do with something fundamentally balls-like, though.
Nor am I, though I do think that the connection is closer to a threshold than a linear relationship. A musician or band has to have some amount of quote unquote balls to be in the discussion for "it" but more is not necessarily better.
Thinking about it now it also makes me think about this bit in an article by Johnathan Lethem which I was puzzling over this morning. I think it's only partially correct, but I haven't decided which part.
Ultimately, the nature of the vocals in post-Elvis, post-Sam Cooke, post-Ray Charles popular music is the same as the role of the instrumental soloist in jazz. That's to say, if it isn't pushing against the boundaries of its form, at least slightly, it isn't doing anything at all. . . . We judge pre-rock singing by how perfectly the lyric is served. That's the standard Frank Sinatra exemplifies. We judge popular vocals since 1956 by what the singer unearths that the song itself could never quite. It explains why voices such as Joan Baez or Emmylou Harris or Billy Joel never really seem to be singing in the contemporary idiom, no matter how much they roughen up their material or accompaniment, and why Elvis -- or Dylan -- is always rock, even singing "Blue Moon."
& it seems as if Steely Dan isn't supposed to have that kind of je ne sais quoi. Their music wouldn't work the way it does (DS might contest that it does) were it not smooth or even glib. (Perfect execution is a red herring; things can be perfectly executed and still sound raw, because that's what the execution is after.) "Kid Charlemagne" needs that surface superficiality.
69: The people head-bobbing in the audience there are great.
I love Steely Dan. People's aversion to them is mysterious. But then I could name a bunch of highly regarded acts I'm supposed to like that I just don't and I often can't pin down why. Probably not much more analyzable than "I don't like the way they sound."
re: 68
I think Lethem is wrong about Sinatra. Sinatra's vocals, at his peak, are f'cking unearthly. We forget that the melodies we now think that a lot of those standards have aren't the melodies as written, they're the melodies as sung by Sinatra,* and sometimes his phrasing is pretty far away from the 'notes'. The control of timbre and tone, the shaping of phrases, the way he slows down and/or speeds up, the way his voice can shrink or expand is just amazing at times. Mid-to-late 50s Sinatra is striking vocally, not just as an interpreter of songs. Sinatra said nice things about Tony Bennett, but he's not in the same league. Also, a lot of those classic 50s Sinatra albums were, again, recorded live in the studio, with an orchestra (and sometimes an audience). It's a performance of the same type and quality as the best small-group jazz soloists of the period [Davis, Sonny Rollins, etc]. In the moment, but perfect.
It took me a long time to get into that stuff, I think the prejudices I had against it were strong. But I'd put sings for Only the Lonely on just about any canonical list. It's that good.
* or Ella Fitzgerald, and maybe, at a push, a few others like Nat King Cole.
* or Ella Fitzgerald
This by Ella Fitzgerald is kind of silly, but she's really all over the place there. It's great.
73: Or, if you prefer an .mp3 to youtube, you could try here.
ttaM, you're convincing me that I should listen to Sinatra sooner rather than later.
ARG I HATE "SOONER RATHER THAN LATER"
75: It is what it is*, neb.
*Someone here hates that one, too, right?
75: I started to write a longer comment explaining that I hadn't listened to Sinatra in years; not because I don't like him but because he just isn't somebody that I think of often. That felt clumsy, so I was trying to find a shorter phrase.
nosflow is filled with the Lord's hate.
75: How do you feel about "sooner or later"?
"Sooner or later" is fine by me. AFAICT it is more or less equivalent to "at some point".
nosflow: everyone's just going to try to work in "sooner rather later" more often now. Surely, you must know this, right?
I'm going to use "sooner than later", just to hone in.
||
I seem to recall the issue of Japanese-Korean relations coming up on some recent thread or other. This article sheds some light on the issue. As a person with a very unusual name myself, I found it particularly interesting.
|>
I used to work with Ja/mie Gore/lick, who would ask for things to be done "soonest." That got annoying.
I'm trying to think of a way to work an Oklahoma joke into this conversation, but I'm not coming up with anything.
Hmm! Seems like Ms Madison possibly worked with a friend of mine. (Not JG! Someone from WH.)
86: I walked out of the end of a meeting today right as someone from Arkansas was getting ready to tell some Oklahoma jokes. I kind of regret leaving, so go ahead!
The problem is that I don't actually know any Oklahoma jokes.
There's Coburn and Inhofe, for two.
re: 74
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MZ2ZmQCYuA
Or better, if you have Spotify:
http://open.spotify.com/track/3sa51kHJqK5SOVWqKlMxcz
or
http://open.spotify.com/track/29qrVH2rYCP4a5ujp1Hyqs
with added Stravinsky.
[Whole album: http://open.spotify.com/album/3Pwg6fBaMoPmgfNNVJ5y8O ]
Q: Why are Oklahoma grads like tornados?
A: They both end up in trailer parks.
Q: How is Oklahoma like mcmanus's crazy theories?
A: Both are surprisingly difficult for ari to completely avoid.
Q: How many Okies does it take to fuck an armadillo?
A: Two, one to fuck it and the other to watch for cars.
Q: How many Okies does it take to ruin California?
A: Whyn't'cha go ask 'em, hippie!
I'm bad at this game.
(Admittedly revised from a thing nosflow recently linked): Did you hear about the guy who was wandering through the forest?
True story. He found a fuzzy creature and inquired, "Who is your leader?"
The answer: "I am but furry number one."
He found another and inquired just the same; the answer, "I am but furry number one."
This went on for hours with each furry giving the same result.
Finally, he found a furry with a hypodermic needle stuck in its head and inquired the same; the answer, "I'm the furry with a syringe on top."
Oklahoma!
It is what it is
I'm not here to make friends.
Q: How many Okies does it take to fuck California?
A: 33.4%
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MZ2ZmQCYuA
You won't get any argument from me. That's a good example of how much he plays with his phrasing and tempo. It is in no way a conservative reading of the song.
Also, more Ella Fitzgerald.
Actually, as long as we're talking about great singers I was just having a conversation with someone who was talking about how great Left Frizzell is. Take, this for example, and just listen to his singing. It's great. "She warned me she'd leave and she left me. / Before my first tear hit the ground."
Upon reflection the Ella Fitzgerald linked in 101 is either proof that Lethem is wrong about older singers being judged by their ability to serve the lyric or, since the record was released in 1960, proof that everything really did change after 1956. The latter explanation seems less convincing to me.
In a feeble attempt to resurrect a dead thread: Metallica's "Sandman" [smoove version].
Doesn't sound a thing like smooth jazz.
And this is the first polka I've ever heard with blastbeats.
The heavy metal Taylor Swift one is pretty neat, though.
Given that no vocal harmonies are really audible I have to wonder if the dark-haired backup singer in the background is actually the only one singing at all.
I had never heard the term "blastbeats" before. That's interesting! I wonder if Art Ensemble of Chicago used them on "Theme de Yoyo"? I wonder if Lightning Bolt uses them, like, 100% of the time in every way? Does that even count? I wonder about things.
106: I'd not heard the term blastbeat before, but it makes sense. Neato-burrito!
[on preview partially pwned]
Ah, so it was all a big misunderstanding. My apologies.
The metal Bee Gees is pretty good. Weak vocals, but it's still an improvement over the original. Not entirely unrelatedly, Henry Mancini's Pink Panther theme turns out to be a good foundation for a Bachian fugue.
Metal Bee Gees. I think I've posted this here before.
Metal Bee Gees. With blastbeats.
Huh. That's awesome. Oh yeah, also: punk Beach Boys.
Now I totally want that Anal Cunt album.
A comment to that post (in 118) contains a link to this blastbeat-rich tune.
Genre mixing in a slightly different direction--three of everyone's favorite things rolled into one.
The track listing sure is compelling.
I was going to mention that, inspired by Ttam's comments, I listened to Only The Lonely last week and thought it was quite good.
I can tell however, that it will take at least couple of listens to be able to appreciate it for what it is. The problem is that Frank Sinatra is both a very mannered singer, in his way, and famous enough that his mannerisms have entered the culture and been reproduced in so many different ways that it's hard to hear them as original.
Every time he sings I feel as if it was surrounded by invisible quotation marks.
But, if I try to ignore that, it's really impressive.