Red Mosquito

HardTI wrote:I'm still really digging the shit out of Lightning Bolt and MYM. This is going to be an awesome album. Excitement level is at 8.6.

i agree with this, just want them to give us something new this week, even if its another bob interview or something where another song title gets mentioned.

harmless wrote:I'm waiting to be pleasantly surprised with LB. The live version has grown on me quite a lot but its flaws haven't disappeared.

flaws with the performance?

goddamn it, stip

Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:

harmless wrote:I'm waiting to be pleasantly surprised with LB. The live version has grown on me quite a lot but its flaws haven't disappeared.

flaws with the performance?

Let's not do this again. Yes.

Waiting to be pleasantly surprised means you won't be pleasantly surprised, unless you are, because that would be surprising and presumably pleasant, but unlikely, because you're waiting for it

harmless wrote:

Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:

harmless wrote:I'm waiting to be pleasantly surprised with LB. The live version has grown on me quite a lot but its flaws haven't disappeared.

flaws with the performance?

Let's not do this again. Yes.

wasnt trying to go round and round with it, just making sure it was still the same flaws we had talked about before.
nothing to see here

Cool, I'll keep that in mind Jorge. At present, I'm pleasantly surprised to be looking forward to the studio version of a song that has grown on me quite a bit, even in its shitty live form.

theplatypus wrote:Waiting to be pleasantly surprised means you won't be pleasantly surprised, unless you are, because that would be surprising and presumably pleasant, but unlikely, because you're waiting for it

that makes way too much sense for this speculation thread

Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:

harmless wrote:

Dr. Van Nostrand wrote:

harmless wrote:I'm waiting to be pleasantly surprised with LB. The live version has grown on me quite a lot but its flaws haven't disappeared.

flaws with the performance?

Let's not do this again. Yes.

wasnt trying to go round and round with it, just making sure it was still the same flaws we had talked about before.
nothing to see here

Yeah. I'm pretty sure certain things weren't played greatly (Mike's part, and Matt's intro -- the simplified intro is a live staple for Matt). But we'll find out. And obviously Ed's vocals at the end.

The frustrating thing is that however much we say 'Hopefully we get new info this week', we won't actually get new info this week.

Lament wrote:While I don't believe in the tortured artist myth per se, out of curiosity...

How many records can you name that you love which you would say are truly composed from a point of happiness/contentment/joy? I remember Bono at the very end of the 90's talking about how joy was the single most difficult emotion to genuinely and interestingly express in rock/pop music. Lovesexy by Prince is the only one that comes to mind for me. I'm sure some people would suggest Moondance by Van Morrison. I'm not counting things that are just a mindless good rock 'n' roll time.

I could see Pearl Jam being stuck between either trying to be mad about things that they really aren't THAT mad about just because it's what they're used to and having to make a serious artistic risk (one that more often than not fails for even the greatest artists; look at Springsteen's Human Touch/Lucky Town) and attempt to really express contentment (or joy) in a genuine and non-embarrassing way (and honestly, I don't know that they're capable of doing so for the course of an entire record, if at all).

There are plenty of joyful pop and rock songs. Just listen to some Stones, Motown, Stax, Reggae, One Direction etc (obviously there are also songs that deal with pain). Even some blues is joyful e.g. Sugar Sweet by Freddie King. Sure Bono can't manage it but then U2 is mostly bombastic awfulness. Also outside of that there is plenty of house, trance etc that is uplifting and comes from a positive place. I think some people who grew up in the 90s felt like music had to be about expressing pain and by a glance at the 'other bands' section there is a heavy bias towards angst here.

Certainty there is something special about communicating the difficult sides of the 'human condition' and some great music has come from people in difficult situations throughout history. I think this is what Pearl Jam excel at but also finding the positive within those negative environments e.g. In Daughter and Why Go the abused child takes the front foot and asserts themselves, in RVM you get the f*ck out of the situation - mostly they are about agency.

I don't think Backspacer was a more 'joyful' record than others - it just had average songs and dull arrangements. The music certainly wasn't as dark as Riot Act and Binaural but no one bashes Yield for having a positive vibe. I also don't think the music sounds relaxed and when you are happy you are relaxed. The music on Backspacer is awkward and forced, weak musical ideas taken too far and polished too much. Much of Pearl Jam's best work is a bit scrappy, Backspacer is an over-worked dough.

harmless wrote:The frustration thing is that however much we say 'Hopefully we get new info this week', we won't actually get new info this week.

Possibly a video of Brendan playing bass on MYM.

Blenheim Augustine wrote:

harmless wrote:The frustration thing is that however much we say 'Hopefully we get new info this week', we won't actually get new info this week.

Possibly a video of Brendan playing bass on MYM.

I edited the post, btw. Unacceptable spelling mistake.

Lament wrote:While I don't believe in the tortured artist myth per se, out of curiosity...

How many records can you name that you love which you would say are truly composed from a point of happiness/contentment/joy?

Dylan's "Nashville Skyline" is always the example I give of a light, happy record that really works.

harmless wrote:The frustrating thing is that however much we say 'Hopefully we get new info this week', we won't actually get new info this week.

It'll kick in eventually. September maybe. Or 14/15th Sept with one month to go.

harmless wrote:

Heathen wrote:

harmless wrote:When I think of how something like The Fixer should have been performed, I always come to stuff like R.E.M's 'Shiny Happy People'. *THAT* kind of video treatment would have had everyone in here falling in love with The Fixer... if they'd done it well. The trouble is, we don't have Ed looking 'Shiny Happy', we have him looking intense and almost furious, which, conceptually, doesn't go with The Fixer at all. It looks fake.

A different video wouldn't have made this song suck any less.

I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek when I said that kind of video would make people love the song, though. The Fixer doesn't 'suck', the problem is that Ed's performance in the video exactly mirrors his performance on the recording. It's sincere and earnest. Michael Stipe's video performance also mirrors his recording performance, but it's all knowingly OTT and a parody in both the original recording and the video, so the video at least seems to be an extension of what the song sounds like. If The Fixer had been performed with the same sense of insincerity and satire, we would have had a video to match, and... hey presto, the song would've worked better. Ed's performance -- his headspace and attitude when he wrote it, when he recorded it, when he filmed it -- feels inappropriate. Or rather, appropriate to a Bon Jovi song. But The Fixer, as a song, didn't have to sound like Bon Jovi.

of all the artists I was going to say the fixer reminds me of, Bon Jovi is pretty far down the list.

harmless wrote:I'm waiting to be pleasantly surprised with LB. The live version has grown on me quite a lot but its flaws haven't disappeared.

Both porch and RVM came on shuffle on my drive home, and I wonder if LB live is extended the way those two are, and if so, I wonder how the condensed version works.

theplatypus wrote:Waiting to be pleasantly surprised means you won't be pleasantly surprised, unless you are, because that would be surprising and presumably pleasant, but unlikely, because you're waiting for it

I am trying to follow this while my daugther is sitting in my lap grunting, wincing, and crying because she has to fart, and I just can't do it.

stip wrote:

harmless wrote:

Heathen wrote:

harmless wrote:When I think of how something like The Fixer should have been performed, I always come to stuff like R.E.M's 'Shiny Happy People'. *THAT* kind of video treatment would have had everyone in here falling in love with The Fixer... if they'd done it well. The trouble is, we don't have Ed looking 'Shiny Happy', we have him looking intense and almost furious, which, conceptually, doesn't go with The Fixer at all. It looks fake.

A different video wouldn't have made this song suck any less.

I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek when I said that kind of video would make people love the song, though. The Fixer doesn't 'suck', the problem is that Ed's performance in the video exactly mirrors his performance on the recording. It's sincere and earnest. Michael Stipe's video performance also mirrors his recording performance, but it's all knowingly OTT and a parody in both the original recording and the video, so the video at least seems to be an extension of what the song sounds like. If The Fixer had been performed with the same sense of insincerity and satire, we would have had a video to match, and... hey presto, the song would've worked better. Ed's performance -- his headspace and attitude when he wrote it, when he recorded it, when he filmed it -- feels inappropriate. Or rather, appropriate to a Bon Jovi song. But The Fixer, as a song, didn't have to sound like Bon Jovi.

of all the artists I was going to say the fixer reminds me of, Bon Jovi is pretty far down the list.

The delivery and mood established by 'I wanna fight to get it back again' is pretty similar to that created by 'It's my life. It's now or never. I just wanna live forever. I just wanna live while I'm alive.' Or whatever it is. I enjoy The Fixer whilst acknowledging that a bit more irony would've helped.