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questionable music criticism

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pat101:

--- Quote from: The Eyeball Kid on 30 Nov 2006, 16:26 ---The Hold Steady. Take Springsteen and Journey and put them in a blender and then have a 30 year old guy write interlocking stories about the music scene and literary life and fucked up scared kids just trying to find a bit of redemption and have him spit them out beat poet style over 3 albums (plus his old band LifterPuller) and you're in lit student classic rock heaven... they can best be summed up by stuff like the band singing "Tramps like us and we like tramps" and just a hint of 'Born to Run' in the background... or lines that perfectly sum up characters and situations, like "And I can't stand all the things she sticks into her skin/like broken ballpoint pens and steel guitar strings/she says it hurts but its worth it/yeah it hurts but its worth it/tiny little text etched into her lower back says Jesus lived and died but not for me"

Plus all the random Christianity, personal mythology, Craig Finn's sneering voice, and their pure FURY live... i can't stop talking about this band, though i know they ain't for everyone. If i prayed, it'd be like their song Citrus: 'Lost again in love and faithless fear/i've had kisses that make Judas seem sincere'

--- End quote ---

you beat me to it, and said it far better than I could have

that being said I have MANY favorite bands, the Hold Steady being one of them

Ernest:
Dunno, several favorites: At the Drive-In, Fugazi, Clann Zu, Dinosaur Jr, Propagandhi, MC5.  Faraquet is excellent to (even though they only released one album).  As is Bear vs Shark.

The Eyeball Kid:
Thanks... i've written about them so much. Its hurt my own writing, since its easier to quote Hold Steady lyrics then say my own stuff. Why'd my last relationship end? We went do a dance festival together, and 'how do i know that you're high if i can't even touch you/how do i know that you're high if you can't even dance'. How was i a few months ago? 'Burns being broke, hurts to be heartbroken and always being both is such a drag'.  How do you feel about the Mountain Goats? 'Put on track 3 of John's last CD/gonna make it through this year if it kills me/and it almost killed me'.

That's a perfect segue into talking about the Mountain Goats, but there isn't much to say. John Darnielle writes great, stripped down songs. Many are personal and many are not. He's written around 400 and runs a music blog and likes death metal and is a brilliant lyracist. I interviewed him for a website online and he listed alot of books he likes to read. His songs are sad, but he isn't. He hangs out with Craig Finn from the Hold Steady.

That was a really lame explanation. Almost as lame as my next few:

Joanna Newsom plays the harp. She's probably an elf and her lyrics are like ancient poetry. She is complex and beautiful and right now i can't say much about her.

My Chemical Romance are silly, but if you're as scared of dying as I am the defiant 'Welcome to the Black Parade' may provide brief, loud, cheering comfort.

Johnny C:

--- Quote from: The Eyeball Kid on 30 Nov 2006, 18:28 ---Joanna Newsom plays the harp. She's probably an elf and her lyrics are like ancient poetry.

--- End quote ---

Fantastic description. I will only add that I think she played the harpsichord on a song on her first album, "Peach, Plum, Pear." Am I right, guys? Someone confirm this.

Will:
I've often said that Converge is my favorite band, and I am willing to repeat that claim. ?I first got into Converge in the fall of 2001, right after 'Jane Doe' was released. ?I was going through quite a bit of heavy, depressing shit in my life at that point, and when I heard the songs on that cd, there was just something that connected with me. ?Obviously, I couldn't understand a damned word that the singer was saying, but just the music itself painted a mental picture that was synonymous with what I was going through. ?After I got ahold of a legible copy of the lyrics, I connected so strongly with everything that was written that it felt to me like it could have been my biography at the time. ?I haven't found any other band out there that both musically AND lyrically connect with me on that level. ?Both releases after Jane Doe have had the same effect on me since...

Converge epitomizes what I love about music. ?You don't have to be able to understand each word to get the song - you can just feel what is being said through the music. ?They may not be the most technically amazing band out there (pretty damn close though), but there's just such a raw passion to it. ?I've loved the progression that has been made from Jane Doe to You Fail Me to No Heroes...you can see Jake Bannon just looking into his demons' eyes, and in this ugly, visceral rage, just saying "Fuck you."

I also have to respect the fact that a band that has become probably one of the biggest names in their own scene over the past 15 years still does everything by themselves and for themselves. ?They still play all the little dive clubs - I saw them this year in a friggin' VFW hall in Pittsburgh, for shit's sake - and the small shows, they take bands on tour with them because they actually love the music and the people and not because it's a gimmick, and they're all just genuine and sincere people. ?I'm well aware of the fact that this band isn't everyone's cup of tea, but this right here is pretty much why I'm such a damned fanboy.

-edit-
Since you asked for a sample song, I'll suggest the song "Heaven In Her Arms" off of the Jane Doe album, which is my favorite song of theirs, for all of the reasons above.

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