Music for the Masses

[Highway]

The Spirit one is a lot more atrocious for me. And is that Sheila E as the percussionist in the Give Blood video?

[Warren]

Pick the more horrifying 80s abomination:

Pete Townshend - Give Blood. Pete's makeup, 5 backup singers, 2 drummers, a horn section, a headless/fretless bass, and cuts/transitions that are physically painful. Oh, and David Gilmour for some reason.

Spirit - I Got a Line on You. There are actually more people on stage than in the Townsend video (including Bob Welch and Jeff goddamn Baxter on a plexiglass guitar), the clothing, the transitions, the atrocious mugging for the cameras...

I don't know which is more horrifying between the two. Neither one can compete with hair metal. I feel like the competition should be between:

Ratt - Round and round

Luis Cardenas - Runaway

[Painboy]

Pick the more horrifying 80s abomination:

Pete Townshend - Give Blood. Pete's makeup, 5 backup singers, 2 drummers, a horn section, a headless/fretless bass, and cuts/transitions that are physically painful. Oh, and David Gilmour for some reason.

Spirit - I Got a Line on You. There are actually more people on stage than in the Townsend video (including Bob Welch and Jeff goddamn Baxter on a plexiglass guitar), the clothing, the transitions, the atrocious mugging for the cameras...

I don't know which is more horrifying between the two. Neither one can compete with hair metal. I feel like the competition should be between:

Ratt - Round and round

Luis Cardenas - Runaway

There's not much of a contest there. Luis Cardenas by a mile. I mean the constant shots of the Tiger on his drum set is bad enough. Throw in the weird dinosaurs and what's there to debate?

Ratt was silly hair metal but they weren't Winger.

[Warren]

Ratt was silly hair metal but they weren't Winger.

I almost went with Winger. Uncle Miltie in drag tipped it for Ratt.

[Highway]

For sheer trying-too-hard, I always liked Autograph's "Turn up the Radio". When the keyboardist pops up with the dinky little transistor radio just makes me feel so bad for them.

[Sandy]

For sheer trying-too-hard, I always liked Autograph's "Turn up the Radio". When the keyboardist pops up with the dinky little transistor radio just makes me feel so bad for them.

They opened up for Van Halen, IIRC, and they were...uninspiring. I remember the guy having this big "solo" on his Poly-61 that consisted of him pointing into a green light with one hand while playing an arpeggio in the other. It was like Heavy Philip Glass.

[Painboy]

For sheer trying-too-hard, I always liked Autograph's "Turn up the Radio". When the keyboardist pops up with the dinky little transistor radio just makes me feel so bad for them.

They opened up for Van Halen, IIRC, and they were...uninspiring. I remember the guy having this big "solo" on his Poly-61 that consisted of him pointing into a green light with one hand while playing an arpeggio in the other. It was like Heavy Philip Glass.

What was up with all the closeups of the mechanical pencil? Did PaperMate pay for advertising in that video?

[Highway]

For sheer trying-too-hard, I always liked Autograph's "Turn up the Radio". When the keyboardist pops up with the dinky little transistor radio just makes me feel so bad for them.

They opened up for Van Halen, IIRC, and they were...uninspiring. I remember the guy having this big "solo" on his Poly-61 that consisted of him pointing into a green light with one hand while playing an arpeggio in the other. It was like Heavy Philip Glass.

What was up with all the closeups of the mechanical pencil? Did PaperMate pay for advertising in that video?

I can imagine that PaperMate did pay them, since they are Autograph.

[Mo]

The uncanny valley of music. Though all the comments about it sounding like something off the soundtrack from a late-90s/early-00s teen movie is dead on.

[Kolohe]

It sounds like Weezer.

[Mo]

Very much so.

[dhex]

opening riffage has a bit of pavement thing going on too.

that is kinda creepy.

[JD]

I am deliriously happy because I just rediscovered a really obscure band that I liked from the late 80s/early 90s; I had one or two cassettes by them back in college, but at some point I lost it, and I was never able to find their stuff again, or even any reference to it. Even Spotify has absolutely nothing from them. But the internet does know all and see all...

[Warren]

The uncanny valley of music. Though all the comments about it sounding like something off the soundtrack from a late-90s/early-00s teen movie is dead on.

Please o please do the same thing for "Smells Like Nirvana".

[Eric the .5b]

The uncanny valley of music. Though all the comments about it sounding like something off the soundtrack from a late-90s/early-00s teen movie is dead on.

That explains a lot about those songs. Like, their existence.

It's like how heavy metal turns into surf rock when you take away reverb.

[Andrew]

"Althea" from Nassau Coliseum, May 16, 1980

Garcia's tone is just perfect, every little solo is well done, the rest of the band does a great job of getting out of Garcia's way, and then the main solo (5:55 to 7:55) is stunning. This is apparently Al Franken's favorite version, and while I'd be hard-pressed to think of one good thing to say about him, he's not wrong about this song.

[dead_elvis]

I'm not big on the overall execution, but I love the conceptual commentary:

[D.A. Ridgely]

Working with my new turntable slowly through my LPs, most of which are at least thirty years old and many of which haven't been played in twenty, I am heartened by how good they still sound. I always handled and stored my albums properly but FWIW I have found using one of those record washing kits also cuts way down on the inevitably worse S/N ratio for vinyl.

Of course, every silver lining has a cloud and I'm now faced with the question of what to do about new shelving and whether I should spring for a new copy of some of my favorites when the originals are still in such good condition. OTOH, think of all the exercise I'm getting walking back and forth to the stereo every half hour or so!

[Warren]

one of those record washing kits

One of those what now? All I had was a kind of lint brush shaped like a powder puff.

[D.A. Ridgely]

one of those record washing kits

One of those what now? All I had was a kind of lint brush shaped like a powder puff.

I had and still have that, too. What I got recently was this.

[Sandy]

one of those record washing kits

One of those what now? All I had was a kind of lint brush shaped like a powder puff.

I had and still have that, too. What I got recently was this.

Those were a thing back in the day as well, though I could never afford one.

[Warren]

one of those record washing kits

One of those what now? All I had was a kind of lint brush shaped like a powder puff.

I had and still have that, too. What I got recently was this.

Those were a thing back in the day as well, though I could never afford one.

Seems to be a massive price disparity not only between brands but where you buy. Also happened across recipes for mixing up your own solution if you don't want to buy the stuff in the bottles.

[Sandy]

one of those record washing kits

One of those what now? All I had was a kind of lint brush shaped like a powder puff.

I had and still have that, too. What I got recently was this.

Those were a thing back in the day as well, though I could never afford one.

Seems to be a massive price disparity not only between brands but where you buy. Also happened across recipes for mixing up your own solution if you don't want to buy the stuff in the bottles.

I had the cleaner solution, I just had to apply it and dry it on a running turntable by hand like a filthy pleb. Those machines did everything automatically like god intended.

[lunchstealer]

I thought about cross-posting this in Eye Candy.

Came across her when she did a cover for the I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats podcast, and hers was good enough that I googled, and this one is kind of stuck in my head, plus the taxidermy vignettes are amusing. Also eye candy.

[Andrew]

That "Feel it Still" song by Portugal the Man is fucking inescapable. The gym, yoga, grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants... It's hard to believe the level of saturation it has reached.