cringleman

It's funny -- generally, I'm not very impressed with Audioslave ('Be Yourself' was probably the lamest way anyone could have written that sentiment into a song), but a couple of tunes they have are pretty good. 'Doesn't Remind Me' was a very odd one, given the usual stylistic tendencies of everyone involved, but I thought it worked. That said, I vote for Vedder. The others are fantastic, but Eddie's got a damn wide range of styles at his disposal. Everything from some sweet or angry Beatles and Dylan covers to 'Do the Evolution' to 'Yellow Ledbetter.' Then again -- man, can Cornell wail, and couldn't Curt brood like no other. [Edit: typo]

Sometimes revisiting old material can be quite an interesting experience, though -- to use a pertinent example, look at MG's acoustic "remix" of Near Fantastica. (Incidentally, I've always thought that doing that song stripped-down and calling it a remix was sort of a knock at the remix phenomenon.)

Go Omissions! If only that one had been on Rooms.

Mmm ... A&W mozza burgers ...

Or possibly incredibly disturbing ... 'Say, Billy -- whaddaya say we go have some extra credit ... assignments ... in the bushes?' Er ... I'm sure she was a lovely lady, full of poise and helpful advice. That's what I meant to say.

Maybe I'm a nerd, too, but Rush rocks. Continuing the nerd-out: Barenaked Ladies' Rock Spectacle is always enjoyable for me. I'm also a huge fan of Dylan and The Band's Before The Flood.

Name any musical artist that never had a bad song. I'm sure everyone here has a Matt Good song they're not real fond of, par exemple.

Go Taoism! Be the Uncarved Block. And, man, no Zep list is complete without Over the Hills and Far Away, in my opinion (but that's just my opinion -- yours is just dandy, I'm sure).

Looks like commentary on the poll is over, but I vote Null. It's apples and oranges, man. No country = no birth of Rock. Sage Francis = fantastic, straight-edge, positive rap. There're ups and downs.

Man. Sweet thread. I can't believe this isn't a repeat. Top 5 Dream Guitars: 5. Early-model Dobro (that's some sweet slide, man) 4. WWII-era Gibson or Martin acoustic 3. original Gibson Firebird III or V 2. 70s Fender Telecaster Thinline 1. Mid-60s Guild Starfire III or IV That is, until I start building them, myself. Top Five Dream Girls: 5. that girl who used to play xylophone for Windom Earle 4. Norah Jones 3. Jennifer Connelly 2. Zooey Deschanel 1. Scarlett Johansson Yes, I realize the Windom Earle reference may be hard to catch, but if you know what I'm talking about ... !!! That's all for now. This is hella fun.

Reminds me of my good friend's t-shirt: 'Don't drink and park -- accidents cause people.'

Mmm ... Narnian steaks ... Could a reincarnating lion solve world hunger?

You know, even if that's not one of my favourites, it sounds a lot better in this version of it. Thanks a lot, Anton, for the work you're evidently putting into letting us all see the sad, ragged glory of Matt's Last Stand. (Totally coined that, just now.)

Sorry. Didn't mean to kill the thread -- the practice of pre-treating livestock with antibiotics is deplorable, at best, but I just thought I'd inject some facts into the discussion. That was a damn good pun, though.

A good friend of mine from Calgary was just telling me about Luke Doucet. She seemed very impressed. Did he add some electric on the Hurt performace, with Matt and Melissa?

You know, as far as I'm aware, it's actually illegal to pump Canadian cattle with precautionary antibiotics, and it's also against regulations and laws, here, to inflate them with growth hormones. I've been led to believe (mind you, by fellow students of Biology, who've done research on the subject for classes -- not exactly anything I have citable sources for, at the moment) that the hormone-filled, drug-ridden meat problem is largely an American phonomenon, as far as this continent goes.

You can make grilled sandwiches using a regular iron: 1. Stick sandwich on plate. 2. Place hot iron (highest setting) on exposed bread. 3. Flip sandwich. 4. Repeat. Of course, you can't use it for ironing, anymore ... If you're into drinking, I recommend the time-honored practice of using your heritage as an excuse. For example, I am a typical Canadian Western European mongrel, so, going by my parents' last names, I'm of German, English, Scottish and Irish descent. That gives me Oktoberfest, Guy Fawkes' Day, all Royal birthdays and Robbie Burns Day. You'll notice that I omitted St. Patty's. That is, in fact, a gift from the Irish immigrants, making it a day where everyone gets to be Irish. Real Irish decendants will drink any day.

Personally, I take most exception to the idea that's been brought up that if Matt Good could write nothing but hit singles, regardless of what that would mean, artistically, he would. This is an arrogant, trite, and puerile assertion with no backing rationale. Clearly, many very talented musicians, and artists in general, have intentionally produced music and other kinds of art that were meant for things other than financial success. To put it in a less reverent way, if some would prefer, lots of artists are self-righteous enough to intentionally spurn commercial pandering. Beside that, a well-trained monkey could successfully arrange the necessary "musical" components necessary for the instrumental portions of your stock pop-diva hit, and the South Park manatees could write the words.

As far as the relevence of the naming of musical genres, it's really only important as far as the tracing of influences in music. It can be a useful tool for a sort of geneological study of contemporary popular music. Though, to be honest, the term 'alternative' is a catch-all term that means nearly nothing (except as a modifier of something else), and the new buzzword 'indie' is a bastardization, at best (indie = short for independent, as in: not on a major ... but not anymore). Besides, Manowar is the only metal that is real. I mean, that's what they keep saying, so it must be right, right?

I know her cousin. That is all.

Interesting -- thanks, Moncton. I didn't know any of that. I find it interesting that early post-rock was very guitar-driven, when the new front of the genre generally sees a large usage of guitars, but in a way that is almost equivalent to strings as arranged in more classical music. Cool.

Well, some of us enjoy the taste of alcohols (mmm ... brown ale), and if you learn to make decent espresso, it's delicious. I just got out of a field station where some filmmakers from Qu

Awesome. I'm happy to know it's not top-secret. La De Da is killer, and their new DVD, Make A Little Noise is keeping me from missing Halifax just enough that I'm still sane. He does some very, very sweet-ass remakes of old tunes in the concerts, on there. Plus, if you've never been out here to the good ol' 'Fax, you get to see our dependable Marquee Club, which is a great place for shows.

I've noticed that a lot of folk, here, seem to be Westerners, or at least from Ontario and past (barring a few exceptions -- I realize there are some non-Canadians among us, as well), but one of my great, simple, rootsy musical loves of the past year has been Joel Plaskett. He does solo stuff (lately, with a cat named Peter Elkas), which is sort of rootsy and folky, and also tours regularly (across this nation, and others) with two other guys as the Joel Plaskett Emergency. He also used to be in a little band called Thrush Hermit (you may have heard 'From the Back of the Film,' or 'The Day We Hit the Coast,' on the radio or Much, back around the time Sloan became nationally-beloved). Back to the East-West, rambling beginning: is he purely a phenomenon, out here? It's not high-concept art rock, but he's a very talented songwriter and a fairly capable guitarist (no virtuoso, but he picks a nice melody line while singing), and I wholeheartedly give it my official Seal of Approval. One of the musical experiences that makes me real happy to live in Halifax for eight months a year. (Not that it isn't cool, anyway.)

Basically: what you get for replacing an interesting musician with a guy straight out of (no joking at all) a Metallica cover band.