Red Mosquito

Juvenal wrote:Digression alert, you sluts:

Oh you malodorous malcontents, you did have to mention Avocado. I shall brook no opposition to a critique of this cover - you're all a bunch of tarts, even if some of you make me hard.

Let's go all art school, shall we? You yanks and your liberal arts or summat, snorting fair trade coffee and drinking drug lord cocaine. It's 2005 or 2006 or summat, and the band's bete noire is in the White House being a dick, killing people (a bit like the way his laudatory successor still kills brown people with drones but, ah, [YIELD ALERT!] you'd better stop me before I begin). So let's also suppose that you're Superman in that god awful Bryan Singer remake and you're looking at the earth in space. It's so pretty! Now, like the God of Google Earth you're zooming in. Ruh, roh Raggy, those big cityscapes (just about lacking the cavernous maw of DTE's video) start appearing until wham! Your nose is lodged in the dislodged guts of some grunt. Similarly - the Avocado artwork. Aint it nice? Peel back a layer and uhuh, it's the seed then another and oh teh oh noes! It's Eddie Vedder and the Pearl Jams zombified! Scratch the surface with your mourning paper, lie crying onto your stars on your pillow (a limp flag delivered by a grim-faced soldier during a rainy burial day) and you see it's all gone to shit.

Of course, we're not saying that the band were thinking this. Eddie is simply a dwarf with a penchant for fireman poles and delicious eggs; Mike gets in arguments via twitter about Ole for chrissakes and Stone - well, Stone is probably into some kinky, filthy shit. The album contains water bollocks Big Wave, Marker and it's wank chorus (HUSH YOU FANBOY FUCKS) and Mike's dreadful denouement of lyrics. But it is, as was stated at the time, (and I paraphrase but sucky dicky) "A product of what it means to be an American right now". (Or indeed, what some people were feeling - perhaps viewed through a liberal perspective. 330 million people feeling exactly the same? Probably not but fuck it.) Angry, grim and, er, corpsey. Looking California, feeling Minnesota. And the album cover facilitates this dirty little switcheroo.

turned2black wrote:Even if you buy into some kind of concept, the inside artwork for S/T is still pretty terrible.

stip wrote:welcome back, chris

harmless wrote:

turned2black wrote:Even if you buy into some kind of concept, the inside artwork for S/T is still pretty terrible.

The worst thing about the artwork is that the music inside doesn't match the bizarreness of it. You've got mediocre Springsteen-esque rock inside a wacky drug-infused zombie package. It all looks like an effort to make the music sound cooler.

WtOB? wrote:Hey, Juvey
Did Mike really get into an argument over twitter about Ole ??

Juvenal wrote:

WtOB? wrote:Hey, Juvey
Did Mike really get into an argument over twitter about Ole ??

Hello! Are you the fabled WtOB? of old? *rubs eyes, peers in wonder*

From what I can remember (and the rum has taken its toll on the old memory cells): Someone one Twitter said Ole was shite - Mike interjected and said "OMG you guys, Matt writes these difficult-to-play guitar riffs, sucky dicky!" or something like that.

WtOB? wrote:

harmless wrote:

turned2black wrote:Even if you buy into some kind of concept, the inside artwork for S/T is still pretty terrible.

The worst thing about the artwork is that the music inside doesn't match the bizarreness of it. You've got mediocre Springsteen-esque rock inside a wacky drug-infused zombie package. It all looks like an effort to make the music sound cooler.

I'm glad someone else out there agrees that Ed was heavily influenced by Springsteen for this record.

WtOB? wrote:

Juvenal wrote:

WtOB? wrote:Hey, Juvey
Did Mike really get into an argument over twitter about Ole ??

Hello! Are you the fabled WtOB? of old? *rubs eyes, peers in wonder*

From what I can remember (and the rum has taken its toll on the old memory cells): Someone one Twitter said Ole was shite - Mike interjected and said "OMG you guys, Matt writes these difficult-to-play guitar riffs, sucky dicky!" or something like that.

Nah I'm adamdude, ol boi. Geez, why couldn't someone tell him The Fixer sucks 4 years ago instead? Ole is a much better song.

Juvenal wrote:

WtOB? wrote:

Juvenal wrote:

WtOB? wrote:Hey, Juvey
Did Mike really get into an argument over twitter about Ole ??

Hello! Are you the fabled WtOB? of old? *rubs eyes, peers in wonder*

From what I can remember (and the rum has taken its toll on the old memory cells): Someone one Twitter said Ole was shite - Mike interjected and said "OMG you guys, Matt writes these difficult-to-play guitar riffs, sucky dicky!" or something like that.

Nah I'm adamdude, ol boi. Geez, why couldn't someone tell him The Fixer sucks 4 years ago instead? Ole is a much better song.

Could you give me a wristy, old boy?

And, in the words of one of the late, and much missed warriors of the old board: "Your dad is a dick"

Juvenal wrote:

WtOB? wrote:

harmless wrote:

turned2black wrote:Even if you buy into some kind of concept, the inside artwork for S/T is still pretty terrible.

The worst thing about the artwork is that the music inside doesn't match the bizarreness of it. You've got mediocre Springsteen-esque rock inside a wacky drug-infused zombie package. It all looks like an effort to make the music sound cooler.

I'm glad someone else out there agrees that Ed was heavily influenced by Springsteen for this record.

Hmm. Regarding the comment about the bizarreness - I can remember a lot of people on this board getting very excited about the oddity of Severed Hand's opening, and their disappointment of the (to quote Ament, I think) "Vedder funk" which follows. I like both but yeah - an album of SH intro/Inside Job outro weirdness would have suited the art a lot better.

harmless wrote:

Juvenal wrote:

WtOB? wrote:

harmless wrote:

turned2black wrote:Even if you buy into some kind of concept, the inside artwork for S/T is still pretty terrible.

The worst thing about the artwork is that the music inside doesn't match the bizarreness of it. You've got mediocre Springsteen-esque rock inside a wacky drug-infused zombie package. It all looks like an effort to make the music sound cooler.

I'm glad someone else out there agrees that Ed was heavily influenced by Springsteen for this record.

Hmm. Regarding the comment about the bizarreness - I can remember a lot of people on this board getting very excited about the oddity of Severed Hand's opening, and their disappointment of the (to quote Ament, I think) "Vedder funk" which follows. I like both but yeah - an album of SH intro/Inside Job outro weirdness would have suited the art a lot better.

I don't think there's anything weird about Severed Hand other than that intro-played-backwards (and even that isn't all that weird, it's just a sound effect / filter), but otherwise I agree.

Juvenal wrote:

harmless wrote:

Juvenal wrote:

WtOB? wrote:

harmless wrote:

turned2black wrote:Even if you buy into some kind of concept, the inside artwork for S/T is still pretty terrible.

The worst thing about the artwork is that the music inside doesn't match the bizarreness of it. You've got mediocre Springsteen-esque rock inside a wacky drug-infused zombie package. It all looks like an effort to make the music sound cooler.

I'm glad someone else out there agrees that Ed was heavily influenced by Springsteen for this record.

Hmm. Regarding the comment about the bizarreness - I can remember a lot of people on this board getting very excited about the oddity of Severed Hand's opening, and their disappointment of the (to quote Ament, I think) "Vedder funk" which follows. I like both but yeah - an album of SH intro/Inside Job outro weirdness would have suited the art a lot better.

I don't think there's anything weird about Severed Hand other than that intro-played-backwards (and even that isn't all that weird, it's just a sound effect / filter), but otherwise I agree.

Compared to rest of the straightforward rock on the album, the intro is almost avant garde

twoheadedboy wrote:Severed Hand just sounds like The Unforgiven Porch 2. There's no ground covered there that hasn't been in an extended Porch jam from 1995.

twoheadedboy wrote:Severed Hand just sounds like The Unforgiven Porch 2. There's no ground covered there that hasn't been in an extended Porch jam from 1995.