Musicology | Love 'em, Hate 'em

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Mr. Perfect
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Re: Overrated -- the list

Post by Mr. Perfect »

Typhoon wrote:I like two songs from the album Achtung Baby: One and So Cruel.

Johnny Cash did a remarkable cover of One.
You might like this. I think it's better than the original.

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NapLajoieonSteroids
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by NapLajoieonSteroids »

Typhoon wrote:
NapLajoieonSteroids wrote:That being said, you always hear these complaints about loudness but I wonder how much of bleeds over from the average listener?

I'm thinking teenagers, specifically because that's who this is aimed at.

They response very much to loudness and more loudness and the physiological response loudness creates. Maybe that Thomas Beechem observation is right, "People don't like music, they just like the way it sounds." :)
Have always found places with loud music frustrating as I have a low voice which is drowned out by the loud music and talk.
hah, I am mostly with you on this!

It's invasive, obnoxious and oft-unwelcome, even if I do not share your low voice grumbling. ;)
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NapLajoieonSteroids
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by NapLajoieonSteroids »

I've only seen two rock big rock bands as an audience member. And that's counting the Japanese band, Boris; which I do since they tour internationally, and the venue I saw them in had to have around 1000 people for the show:

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The other one was Pearl Jam, and it was the silliest thing I've ever seen.

The band was excellent and enthusiastic and played an eclectic mix of their back catalog for 3 hours and people clearly liked the songs.

But the stadium venue made them sound impotent. And that hard rock as religion vibe all these acts have creeped me out. The only thing about the band that fit the venue was Mr.Eddie Vedder himself, who had a stadium-style charisma (and probably a stadium-sized ego too.)

....somewhere in the middle of the concert, Mr.Vedder started speaking to the crowd and flipped his guitar over to reveal a mirror. He proceeded to reflect one of the stage lights onto the crowd and reassure them that they were the real stars. And I turned to my friend and said, "If I'm the real star, why am I paying this guy 120 bucks?"

It was at that point I sort of checked out.
Mr. Perfect
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by Mr. Perfect »

I don't know what these are, but there are some "new" strings on the market. The winding of acoustic strings in particular gives it a now familiar "rich" tone. These are of a purer tone, which will appeal to tone nerds, but at the end of the day it just sounds different

These are technically more pure, but also "darker" toned, and you either like it or don't. Sort of like how active pickups have never taken off.

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NapLajoieonSteroids
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by NapLajoieonSteroids »

I thought the metal guys use them?

I use them on an electro/acoustic guitar I have. It beats the piezo in that guitar.It''s a battery drain. Couple that with the colder sound people get from it, and it's not a winning formula for most.
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by Mr. Perfect »

Yeah. My understanding is they were invented to deal with the weak signal coming from the single coil strat but at the end of the day even though it's a weak signal we are all used to it. Active pickups on a strat just sound juiced. For whatever reason the state of technology in terms of creating tone, the late 60's early 70's can't be improved on and we keep circling back to it. Unless you are in metal.
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NapLajoieonSteroids
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

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I find it great to double rhythm with the electro/acoustic active pickups when playing songs with progressions highlighting a minor 4th. The perceived coldness adds to the melancholy and distance.
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by Mr. Perfect »

So he went with some cheap button pushing chords on this but I have to give credit to the dude, I don't know anyone who is putting out better production.

Listen to this with headphones or a big sound system sometime and just listen to the instruments emerging and fading into the mix on command.

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noddy
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by noddy »

the main aspect of the modelling amp ive loved is that i dont need to crank it to the amplification that "the tone" cuts in.

im not an 18 year old pissing off the neighbours anymore, all this needs to happen at comfortable lounge room volumes.
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Re: Overrated -- the list

Post by Typhoon »

Mr. Perfect wrote:
Typhoon wrote:I like two songs from the album Achtung Baby: One and So Cruel.

Johnny Cash did a remarkable cover of One.
You might like this. I think it's better than the original.

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Very good. Thank you.
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by Mr. Perfect »

Just saw Good Bad and Ugly for the first time, it's in my top 10 list of all time. They don't make em like that anymore.

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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by Mr. Perfect »

Top 10 all time movies. One chick flick for good measure.

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Expendables
3. Expendables 2
4. Fellowship of the Ring
5. Good Bad Ugly
6. Last of the Mohicans
7. Star Wars
8. Terminator 2
9. Pirates of the Caribbean
10. Wicker Park

Factors include story, characters, production, performances, casting, innovation, standing the test of time. Subject to change, this is off the top of my head.
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by noddy »

im finding movies dont really work so much for me now - i either like the immersion and wish it was a tv series or its a shallow remake and i cant be arsed sitting through it.

the good bad ugly is definitely an all time highlight of cinema, almost the perfect movie.

expendables 1 was a pleasant surprise, they went downhill very fast after that and john wick has replaced it in my mind, the second one of those was also a big step down but the first was brilliant with just the right amount of exposition.

the tim burton planet of the apes was universally panned by critics and audiences but i loved it - the killer hook was all the romantic tension happening between the hero protaginst and the chimpanzee with the hot blonde chicky being left out - i suspect this was the reason so many folks hated it but it appealed to my sense of absurdity.

my chick flick choice would be the 5th element - everything else he has done was crap but the fish out of water bruce willis and the hottness of a young milla made it a classic.

scifi movies as a whole are just soap operas in space - second star wars (empire strikes back) was fun to me as a child but everything since has destroyed any sense of enjoying it - now that i think of it the firefly movie was ok.

army of darkness is a real milestone - created one of my favourite genres, the splatter comedy.

i almost liked the lord of the rings movies but the hobbit movie that followed hilighted the bits i disliked - the forced romances, the cgi overload, the pacing problems etc.

the early pirates of the caribbean was a nice surprise - a solid action comedy without much earnest nonsense, something thats seemingly hard to do with the pattern being that its only allowed to be fun for the first half and the second half needs to be all serious.

marvel has largely mastered the modern action comedy but they all blur into one movie, i cant remember any in particular.

its rare i like a serious or intellectual movie, they have their place but on the whole they arent entertaining and id rather get that material in written form, my movie time needs to be relaxed and popcorny
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

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Movies don't work for me either anymore. Much to look into there.

Raiders to me is the perfect movie. Great character, straightforward story, visual and stylistic masterpiece, enjoyable action and the oft overlooked great villain in Belloq.

Expendables were just really great upgraded and modernized action movies the way they ought to be done. But the 3rd one was diluted.

Fellowship of the Ring was an astonishing masterpiece. Being fairly unfamiliar with the books I didn't have any preconceived notions and just went with it. The production on that series was the greatest of all time, easily. A masterful blend of outdoor sets, bigatures, trick photography and going to digital only when there was no other choice. I preferred the first movie because it was more into elves over walking trees and giant elephants. The last 2 movies to me devolved more into straighforward action movies. I will say this. Peter Jackson did what I could not do. When I saw Avatar I left thinking if you gave me his budget I could have made that movie. When I see LOTR to this day I watch it having no idea how I would do that. Hobbit was terrible for many reasons, probably chiefly because they screwed up their scheduling. From what I heard it might be one of the biggest tragedies in movie history.

Good Bad Ugly is a tremendous movie that defies description. The reason it doesn't go higher on the list is it is 30-60 minutes too long, but to be fair slower paced movies were the norm in the day. Also, it wasn't shot in the US, which made it hard for me because I've been to every place in that movie and it DOESN'T LOOK LIKE THAT lol. But that collection of characters driven to that goal created the greatest climax in movie history. Also the cinematography, shot construction and soundtrack are right at the top.

Star Wars at this point may be the worst franchise in history, but I have to put it on there because the first one blew everyone's mind on every level, and we thought at the time it was going to change life on earth. It didn't, but we believed it would for a time.

Pirates stood out for me because it was a formula movie that came to life some how. I have never finished the sequels, I can barely last a few minutes they are so bad. But that first one was a ripper. I might move it off the list when I remember other movies.

Wicker Park got me because I came into backwards. I first found out about it from the U2 cover I posted for CS earlier. It's the best U2 cover I ever heard, ever. In the background Wicker Park is playing. After playing the song for the 100th time I realized that I did not know what movie that was. After 200 times I thought I should look into it because maybe it paralleled the song in some way. There is not enough footage to make out the story, other than there is a love triangle. Well when I watched the movie I got the triangle WRONG and there is a plot twist in there I NEVER saw coming and I LOVE plot twists. So that is how that went.
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NapLajoieonSteroids
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

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You should check out the Korean parody, "The Good, The Bad and the Weird"

Treasures of the Sierra Madrid would have to be up there.

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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by NapLajoieonSteroids »

Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of my favorites too, and would go on this list. But is it better than Jaws?

Jaws is a perfect movie. So is Seven Samurai.

Metropolis [the restored version] is still quite a spectacle, if you have patience for silent films.

Dog Day Afternoon

Casino, which is superior to the overpraised Goodfellas

Napoleon Dynamite

The Firm

Die Hard

Ghostbusters

Arsenic and Old Lace

Possession:

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A Mighty Wind

The Life Aquatic & The Grand Budapest Hotel

Catch Me if You Can

The Jerk& Trains, Planes and Automobiles
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Typhoon
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by Typhoon »

Western film.

The Battle of Algiers

The Third Man

Chinatown

Bringing Up Baby

North by Northwest

The Wages of Fear

The Right Stuff

Cyrano de Bergerac

Blade Runner

Young Frankenstein

The Lives of Others

Metropolis
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

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Japanese film.

Tokyo Story

Seven Samurai

Throne of Blood

Branded to Kill

Tokyo Drifter

Lady Snowblood

Yakuza Graveyard

Swing Girls

My Secret Cache

Bubble Fiction. Boom or Bust
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Nonc Hilaire
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by Nonc Hilaire »

The 13e series format is closer to a novel, with room for character development and subplots.

The 2hr movie format is closer to short story or predictable genre novelette form.
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by Simple Minded »

excellent choices gents. I have enjoyed most of the above.

I have not seen any of those Spaghetti Westerns in decades. Gotta revisit them.

Of course you gotta throw in The Outlaw Josey Wales

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1EO ... SCP5voC-jM

I think most of the Star trek movies were entertaining, but probably not classics.

even non-motorcycle enthusiasts might enjoy the documentaries Faster, Fastest, or On Any Sunday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEMmKyR11yM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEvwTheO9a4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoEKHkvJIkQ

I have not watched this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001D0BI5W in a couple years, just might do so again this weekend.

Browsing some videos this popped up, another good one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkccqolaVGg
the first time I saw it, it seemed to drag on and on, each time I've seen it after that, I'm amazed how short the movie seems.

Of course, you will never understand America, if you don't watch My Cousin Vinny a few times https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nGQLQF1b6I
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

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My Cousin Vinny is a most entertaining film.
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by Simple Minded »

I also enjoy watching ethic actors play their ethic stereotypes.

Robert DeNiro playing an Italian. Samuel L. Jackson playing a black man.

Billy Crystal playing a jew. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4ftmOI5NnI

A Catholic dude playing a priest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3odMTPuzLwY

Easy to imagine them during the casting process as saying "Piece of cake, this is my cousin Fred, my father, my uncle, Father O'Malley, etc.
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by noddy »

omly the ethnics have ethics, it is known.
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by NapLajoieonSteroids »

hey SM, I told you I'd write you that song if you voted for Trump...well, this was one silly attempt from some time ago which I just came across while reviewing material from the past year and figured instead of just tossing it out, sending it your way. All rights reserved and all of that

Simple Minded

Simple minded epiphany
Ephemeral, as ill at ease
As Reimann surfaces upon our door

You take the good and you take the bad
Measure up like good ol' Euclid
You don't need to provide any bluster
But don't isolate yourself

We just wanna know
Which side your voting for
We can measure the hypotenuse of your angle (whoa whoa whoa)

You may think we're irrational
Acutely misshapen quadrilaterals
Isosceles straight from the pillars of Hercules
and parallelogram-ed

We just wanna know
Which side your voting for
We can measure the angles of your booth (whoa whoa whoa) (together)

(bridge) [I don't have anything for this part written down; nor is there anything recorded...so I figure it must have some sort of instrumental over the verse]

We just wanna know
Which side your voting for
We can measure the circumference of a win (whoa whoa whoa) (together)

Don't take the rhombus as a square
Don't line you up and vote for her
It's not pointless to be obtuse
Just vote for Trump whatdya gotta lose
Simple Minded Epiphany
Simple Minded Epiphany
Simple Minded Epiphany

The chords are:

Verse:

E maj/A maj/B maj/E maj/E maj/f# min/a min/E maj/E maj

Refrain

g# min/A maj/g# min/A maj/g# min/A maj/B maj

the vocal melody for the first two verses is something like:

EEE E D# D C# B

C#C#C# A BBB

EEEE E D# D B

B C C# ---> G#

refrain is:

B BBB BC#C#C#C#E

AC#...F# (this sort of changes depending on the silly ending tagline)

For the third verse and the last verse, it's something more like:

E..., last note F#

B...BAC#

E..., last note F#

B/C C# ----> G#

think Bob Dylan in 'Like A Rolling Stone" where the lack of melodic shape and insistent notes are a way to drive the lyrics in while focusing on the phasing.
Mr. Perfect
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Re: Love 'em, hate 'em

Post by Mr. Perfect »

I would appreciate a line about Elliott Wave in there.
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