Chorus.fm Record of the Week Club • Page 63

There are parts of this that work for me and others that don’t. I think it starts opening up with Tripping. The weirder it is, the more I like it. That guitar solo in You Don’t Know is sick, as is the whole song. On Gypsy Blue now and loving the jamminess

 

Will catch up on Litto Nebia and Max Creek tomorrow/Monday.

 

Ill double up and do Max and the new pick tomorrow

 

I finished Drink the Stars and it's an interesting album. I think I ultimately walk away from it appreciating and respecting the musicianship of the band rather than the album itself. I could dig more stuff like Signature throughout the whole thing though I'm not sure what it was about the first few songs I couldn't grab onto. Maybe I just like the jams. Def could see myself recommending this to my family who are Dead/Phish fans.

 

Fair takeaway! They certainly fit the jam band stereotype of being much better musicians than songwriters. I do love those first two songs a lot haha but Signature is definitely the biggest showcase on there. This reaction is what you hope for from musically curious people haha. Mission accomplished as far as I'm concerned.

That said if anyone is inclined...

 

(listened to this 5 times since posting that voice) maybe my favorite song of theirs overall

 

I will post one more fun Max Creek fact: "Dead Cat" is about my father lmfao

 

Bazar de los Milagros is a really neat album. I keep getting surprised at how nice the spacey, prog rock keyboards sound with the acoustic guitars and rhythm section.

 

I believe @Swaddle is up and then the rotation starts over?

 

Maybe we can breathe some new life into this thread in the new year. It might be good to clean up the OP, give folks a chance to reassess if they want to stay or leave, invite some new peeps. Maybe we can also reevaluate the rules- like if we want to keep it weekly, etc.

 

Starting Max

 

I'm with you on this. The jams go hard but are let down by the vocals. I know its somewhat of a genre trope but its one that prevents my from enjoying bands like this and King Gizzard where its obvious they have spent an incredible amount of time and effort on mastering the craft of their instrument but don't approach lyrics or vocals with the same consideration yet they are still presented up front in the mix as equals. To contrast with bands like The Mars Volta where the vocals match the band's electric musicianship, creativity and execution, and are produced in a way the blends them into the songs. Or The Flaming lips where the technical chops aren't there but he still puts in work to cohesively blend them into the songs. I realise that in the case of jam bands the vocalist would need to have lyrical and vocal free styling skills and that isnt something that currently exists in the genre but there's no reason that it couldn't.

 

Heh, this is absolutely the case for Creek. The guy who sings Katie Mae still sings and is now...43 years older than this tape so...yeah that's just part of it. Hah. I think this is also why the live experience is so important for these bands because you (I) just don't get nearly as bothered by the vocals when you're either singing along or know that an insane jam is coming or there just was one or, worst case, you can head to the bathroom. It also is admittedly just a trade-off you tend to have to make for these bands. I will maintain that Scott (sings Trippin etc) is a very good singer and a very very good singing performer who does not have a very good voice.

I *do* think though that there should be instrumental jam bands. Why not? The scene needs to embrace the aspects of jazz that it hasn't. Don't be so slavish that the songs you write essentially have to be rock n roll tunes. Just write sick shit you can shred over. That's why I like Medeski Martin Wood so much - they straddle that line as much as any band ever have, although I think gun to my head they're more jazz-fusion than jam band.

But yeah I think you have identified a frustration I have with jam bands. I wouldn't want Creek to change anything after 53 years, they can do what they want, but the newer bands do consistently disappoint me with a lack of creativity on top of their chops. I do think Gizz (arguable jam band) is the best at this though even if its not necessarily being applied in the vocal area, their "marathon" shows and shows with different musical themes and just the breadth of their music puts them in a different category. But you're right that they're still not like great singers. It's just nice to have a band doing what they're doing from kind of outside the "scene," which is just terrible.

All that said, Phish does do this:

 

Also in general production is something jam bands need to embrace. Phish fans love to talk about how the light guy is the 5th member and improvises with them, I want a band to treat their sound guy like that. Let him fuck with the mix live, let him add harmonics and saturation and compression and stereo. No one does that shit

 

Bro you should’ve just chosen a Phish record. Teasing lol but maybe it is time I intentionally check out their stuff

 

I did think about it! I was considering A Live One (the standard starting point but >2hrs) and Slip Stitch and Pass which is only 72m and lets you in on a few other aspects of their sound. Either one are great starting points imo. I think if I ever do Phish in here I might try to be a little more creative than either of those...maybe one ~30m-ish jam or a custom playlist...try to subject everyone to less of the actual songs lmfao. But I'm gonna do at least one go-round without a jam band haha.

 

Anyone want to chime in with their thoughts on this? Or I guess we can continue the rotation

 

I'm down for whatever. It seems like we have trouble collectively listening every week, but 2 weeks seems okay. The flipside of that is we have a ton of people so that'd make it even longer between picks

 

I am gonna do a better job now that the holiday break is over

 

I’m three picks behind, the holidays and being super sick kind of knocked me off for a bit. But i want this to keep going, i enjoy finding new bands through it

 

I personally like the week-long time span and feel like people are bound to fall behind and catch up when they're more available regardless

 

I like the week-long format too. Is there another place to plug this thread elsewhere so more folks know about it? It would be good to revive it a bit

 

Yeah I think 2 weeks might kill the thread, when a pick comes around that isn't for me I often skip and usually won't comment if I didn't like it but I'm still checking back next week.

I'm working from home on Saturdays now so I'll be right on it this year.

 

I would honestly be good with 2-3 albums per week but I’m crazy like that

 

Aslong as I get my 2 OhTheWater picks a year I'm good