Pimp Your Reviews!

[Josh]

She's also playing it on Jimmy Fallon tonight, along with John Paul Jones... and, rumor has it, The Roots as her backing band!

[enemy anemone]

Sara Watkins

http://tinyurl.com/cjwdvq

I really enjoyed the review.

a side comment on John Paul Jones: I've only really heard him play mandolin as a guest with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings. Gillian commented that there is already a king of rock and roll and a king of bluegrass, but John Paul Jones might be the king of rock-and-roll-and-bluegrass.

[murlough23]

She's also playing it on Jimmy Fallon tonight, along with John Paul Jones... and, rumor has it, The Roots as her backing band!

More specifically, with the Roots' Drummer. Questlove or Guestlove or whatever the hell he calls himself. The Roots are Jimmy's house band, so I guess that explains his inclusion, but it was still cool to see such an eclectic group of performers on the same stage.

Didn't hold a candle to her performance of the same song with Fiction Family, though. Sadly, the album version also seems a tad lethargic.

[bloop]

More specifically, with the Roots' Drummer. Questlove or Guestlove or whatever the hell he calls himself.

?uestlove, I think.

That's quite a house band.  Has Fallon gotten any funnier?

[murlough23]

?uestlove, I think.

Hard to be certain with a name like that.

That's quite a house band.  Has Fallon gotten any funnier?

Don't know. I only tuned in to see Sara Watkins. Caught a little bit of him pretending to play an Indigo Girls song with Jill Henessey. It was just odd. Before that I've only watched the show once, when he interviewed Tina Fey the first week he was on. He's fine as a host, though he doesn't stand out from the other late night hosts.

The thing is, I was actually a fan of his when he was on SNL. I know he was notorious for breaking character, but I found most of his recurring characters pretty funny (especially Nick Burns, Your Company's Computer Guy). I liked him on Weekend Update, especially when he did the song parodies. Saw him do stand-up once in 1999 and apparently the song parody bit came from that act. Random, but highly amusing. But he definitely stunk it up trying to be a movie star.

NP: "Pony", Sara Watkins

[Aaron]

It's written '?uestlove' and pronounced Questlove

[danny316]

This isn't a review in the strict sense (e.g. I didn't post it to Epinions), but after going to the Delirious? concert the other day, I figured it would be appropriate to write up an overview of their career, with my critical reactions and personal memories for each album. So I posted it to my Xanga.

Part 1 (Cutting Edge through Audio: Lessonover?): http://www.xanga.com/murlough23/696364853/audio-lesson-one/
Part 2 (World Service through Kingdom of Comfort): http://www.xanga.com/murlough23/696435772/audio-lesson-two/

I'll second dgp - I loved this. It was a great way of straightening things out and pointing out what else I should try to hear from them (I've only ever been a casual deliriou5? fan).

I'd love to see you do some of these for other groups, and I'd probably try to do the same if I could find the time.

Sara Watkins

http://tinyurl.com/cjwdvq

You are aware of John Paul Jones' long history of bluegrassiness, right? Giliian Welch refers to him as "the king of rock and bluegrass". He's put in a ton of appearances in that "scene" (Largo, MAS, Welch/Rawling, Watkins Family Hour, and probably tons of great stuff I don't even know about)

[murlough23]

I'll second dgp - I loved this. It was a great way of straightening things out and pointing out what else I should try to hear from them (I've only ever been a casual deliriou5? fan).

Excellent! Glad it helped. Delirious? is one of those bands that I've always really enjoyed but that I've had to recommend cautiously. I think their days of being smack in the center of the CCM spotlight were probably over circa 2001, and I think they've become OK with the fact that their music isn't for everybody.

I'd love to see you do some of these for other groups, and I'd probably try to do the same if I could find the time.

In order for me to not have to keep appending to it, it would work best as a tribute to a band when they break up or somebody passes away, etc. It would have to be somebody that I was a big fan of since the beginning. At some point when Jars of Clay disbands I'm sure they'll get an even more long-winded nostalgic write-up... but I pray that will be a long, long time from now.

[Josh]

Mastodon!

http://tinyurl.com/da3eev

[murlough23]

Wasn't John Elefante once in a band called Mastodon?

(Wait, I checked Wikipedia. They spelled it "Mastedon". Lucky for the other band, that appears to circumvent copyright issues.)

[enemy anemone]

I had to look that up too.

[bloop]

No, I haven't started writing, but I just think it's pretty amusing that Pablo Honey is now listed as Best New Music over at Pitchfork with its 5.4 rating (granted, under "reissues").

[spacebrat311]

And grouped with two 10.0 albums.

[bloop]

And grouped with two 10.0 albums.

Something tells me they should definitely have these things separated to prevent such silliness as average albums being lumped with stone classics.

I was actually a little surprised at the 10.0 for The Bends.  I knew they liked the album, but I didn't know they liked it that much.

[Josh]

... especially since (one assumes) their ratings are meant to be taken as relative to that particular artist-- thus, they think The Bends is just as good as OK Computer AND Kid A, while better than In Rainbows...

[bloop]

Technically, I suppose, they think The Bends Deluxe Reissue is as good as OK Computer and Kid A and the rest of what you said.  I haven't personally listened to any of the reissues, but the core albums are still what they are.

Where is that Kid A reissue anyway?

[Josh]

Their review indicates that there are more Capitol re-issues on the way.

On another note: Brian Blade.

http://thehurstreview.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/brian-blade-mama-rosa/

[murlough23]

I was actually a little surprised at the 10.0 for The Bends.  I knew they liked the album, but I didn't know they liked it that much.

Oh, bull SHIT.

[bloop]

Oh, bull SHIT.

I'm being honest.  I thought they would go with something in the late 8.somethings to 9.something.

(I just looked it up - it was #15 on their "Best of the 90s" list.  My guess wasn't unreasonable.)

[murlough23]

I'm being honest.  I thought they would go with something in the late 8.somethings to 9.something.

That would be perfectly reasonable. I don't personally like it that much, but I think that's probably most Radiohead fans' opinion of it. But giving it a 10.0 basically says they can only tie it, not top it, which is an absolutely ridiculous thing for any critic who would give modern-day Radiohead high marks to claim.

[bloop]

If you take 10.0 to mean "perfect" in the absolute sense, then that's true, but I doubt they see it quite that way.  I know I wouldn't want to paint myself in a critical corner like that.

Also, to a lot of Radiohead fans, they haven't topped it.  They've just done "perfect" in a few different ways.

[murlough23]

If you take 10.0 to mean "perfect" in the absolute sense, then that's true, but I doubt they see it quite that way.  I know I wouldn't want to paint myself in a critical corner like that.

I think the rating implies more than the critic who uses it might mean. It should be used sparingly. I don't think it means the artist can never improve, but if the artist does improve later, than you might need to rejigger your rating scale a bit to compensate.

Of course, I do realize that these albums were rated by different people at different times. So successive 10.0 ratings for different Radiohead albums as they release might be remotely understandable (still overstating the case due to fan excitement, in my opinion, but I'm not exempt from that temptation regarding some other bands), because they could then go back and see "what I thought was perfect a few years ago wasn't even close", or they could be stating a personal preference for a new album that other critics don't feel quite as strongly about.

But The Bends is over 10 years old, and plenty of Pitchfork critics seem to have gushed about how Radiohead's completely reinvented music for the new millennium, so it just seems backasswards to me to go back at this point and say The Bends is perfect, if they're truly on board with what Radiohead's doing now. I don't even think the members of Radiohead would still rate The Bends that high. I'm sure they're proud of it, but at the same time, they kind of seem to be over it.

Also, to a lot of Radiohead fans, they haven't topped it.  They've just done "perfect" in a few different ways.

And that's where a little objectivity might help. Seriously, nobody's THAT perfect.

[Aaron]

The Bends is my favorite Radiohead album but I wouldn't give it a 10.  Mid 8's to 9 probably.

[murlough23]

I gave OK Computer an A. My system is vague enough that this could be anywhere between a 9.2 and a 9.7 or whatever. Let's just say 9.5. If I had 100 different ratings at my disposal, I'd probably give out the highest of those even more rarely than I give out A+ using the letter grade system. (I can't recall giving an A+ to anything since Illinois.)

[bloop]

And that's where a little objectivity might help. Seriously, nobody's THAT perfect.

I think a lot of critics use such high ratings to mark landmark albums and classics.  I think there are bands that have more than 3 classics in their canon.

I gave OK Computer an A.

If I went with letter grades, I would definitely whip out the "+" for that one.  It's just the right thing to do.  I don't think I'd do the same for The Bends, although it is well-loved.

[murlough23]

While, I think a lot of critics use such high ratings to mark landmark albums and classics.  I think there are bands that have more than 3 classics in their canon.

Something doesn't need to be perfect to be a landmark or classic. I can think of recordings I'd consider to be "landmark" because they contain several indisputable classics from a band's repertoire, but where the album as a whole doesn't even rate an "A" with me. (War is one of them.)

[bloop]

I'm partly arguing that perhaps something doesn't need to be perfect in order to earn the highest score in a particular system.  IDK - it's strange to accuse Pitchfork of lacking self-importance.

[murlough23]

I'm partly arguing that perhaps something doesn't need to be perfect in order to earn the highest score in a particular system.  IDK - it's strange to accuse Pitchfork of lacking self-importance.

I just think it reveals how they set the bar a little lower for Radiohead than they do for a lot of other artists, quite frankly. I can understand it coming from an individual like you or me, but I expect a bit more effort to keep fan bias in check when it comes to a publication such as theirs that has a definite effect on the audience of the artists they're reviewing.

[bloop]

Or maybe the critic just genuinely disagrees with you and I on that particular album . . . ?

I mean, they're hardly the only one to give the highest rating in their system to The Bends.  See also:  allmusic, Blender, Q (just a brief wiki lookup reveals that allmusic and Q both awarded OKC their highest rating as well.)

[murlough23]

All music uses a 5-star scale, therefore the highest rating is much more easily attainable, and it could be equivalent to anything from an 8 to a 10, for all I know. I don't know about those other publications.

[bloop]

Allmusic avails themselves of half stars, but using a more limited scale doesn't mean that the highest rating is more easily attainable.  I've given more 10s than you've given A+, I think, but I'm pretty sure my scale has more possibilities.

Anyway, don't mind us.  Continue your pimping.

[Aaron]

Are you both on vacation?  LOL. Most daytime posting I have seen in a while 

[bloop]

Are you both on vacation?

In my case, yes.  Spring break, and I can't go anywhere because my childrens' spring break was last week.

[murlough23]

I type fast, and am on my lunch break.

[Josh]

Booker T. - Potato Hole

http://thehurstreview.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/booker-t-jones-potato-hole/

[Josh]

A threefer: Camera Obscura, Art Brut, and I Was a King!

http://thehurstreview.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/indie-round-up-camera-obscura-art-brut-and-i-was-a-king/

[murlough23]

Vienna Teng - Inland Territory

http://www.epinions.com/content_467973869188

[Aaron]

Vienna Teng - Inland Territory

http://www.epinions.com/content_467973869188

I did not know until a few minutes ago that VT is her stage name. Damn you NPR for giving me useful information!

[murlough23]

I did not know until a few minutes ago that VT is her stage name. Damn you NPR for giving me useful information!

Indeed, she was very protective of her real identity for a while, but the Internet being what it is, it got out.

I love that she used to work as a software developer. Makes me feel some solidarity with her.

[murlough23]

Jars of Clay - The Long Fall Back to Earth

http://www.epinions.com/content_468579487364