Moon Pix

If I understand Boo Boo's various arguments right there is one thing he has said that I will agree with and thats when he talks about indie being pretentious at times.

All too often the Pitchfork Media crowd will defend bad song writing by claiming that its 'difficult' or 'artistically uncompromising' and that because of this only the truly enlightened will get it. When you see an album described as difficult it basically means that the guitars are probably out of tune, the singer can't sing a sh*tsworth and the lyrics are extremely bad. Sewn to the Sky is difficult. "Juicy Juicy Juice" and "The Banana Question" are difficult. The Godz are difficult. They arent unlistenable trash. No, thats what you thought but we the enlightened know that they are merely too 'difficult' for such cultural philistines such as you the listener to understand. Basically what this does is create an elite of listenership in order to make the enlightened feel better about themselves because they can listen to extremely obscure records with no commercial potential whatsoever and so are 'the true alternative.' Personally I just call it bad musicianship, bad songwriting and bad recording and labelling it as 'difficult' doesnt change that.

Its the same sh*t estate agents pull. Its not small and cramped. No its cosy.

Its a f*cking cupboard mate.

__________________
There’s a dream that I see, I pray it can be
Look 'cross the land, shake this land - "Maybe Not", C. Marshall

Urban Hat€monger ?

Although I do think thats true in some ways I don't think always the case.
I don't see good or bad musicianship as the be all & end all of everything.I enjoy a bit of difficulty. I'm more likely to listen to a song more if I can't decide if I like it or not because every listen of it is a challenge.

For example people always go on about how much of a great guitarist Dave Gilmour is. Now that may well be true but when he plays stuff from the Syd Barrett era to me it just sounds all wrong. Syd Barrett might not have been a great guitarist but when he played those songs he gave them character , to me when Gilmour plays them he just sounds like some session musician trying his best to get the right sound but totally missing the point.

__________________

right-track

I think the same about Eric Clapton playing the blues.
This comment of mine should really belong in the 'Unpopular Music Opinion' thread, but on reading your opinion of Gilmour, which I agree with, I felt I had to comment.

Moon Pix

Me too but I think sometimes they just use it as something to defend bad songwriting. Id say that Sonic Youth's first album is incredibly difficult because of the compositional style and the recording quality but to me it has a character no other album Ive ever heard has. Same thing with some of Smog's albums. The sort of stuff Im talking about is like Jandek or the Shaggs. That stuff has no redeeming features but the Pitchfork types will always defend stuff like that under the pretense that the total lack of talent makes it 'purer in its naievety' than somthing by somebody who actually knows three chords.

__________________
There’s a dream that I see, I pray it can be
Look 'cross the land, shake this land - "Maybe Not", C. Marshall

boo boo

And thats the kinda crap Pitchfork writes on a regular basis, "Gilmour sucks, Syd rules", how many times have you gone through with rants like that and I don't even bother to respond with more than a simple I disagree just not to start an argument? It's f*cking annoying.

You're saying it as if people only like Gilmour more because he's more skilled, hell David Gilmour isn't even very skilled to begin with, his solos are strictly pentatonic 99.9% of the time, and he rarely riff's, he's even admitted himself that he's not much of a riffer. Gilmour is just a great guitarist, it has nothing to do with skill as far as I'm conerned. And because you prefer one Floyd album and two solo albums over someones 40 plus career of superior musicianship that you likely haven't even heard half of just strikes me as bizzare, though not in the least bit surprising.

Syd however is a very influencial guitarist, and I don't hesitate to call him a great guitarist, or at least an important one. Effects like his were rarely used back in the day.

If you were refering to someone like George Thorogood rather than Clapton, then I would have agreed with you.

__________________
It's only knock n' knowall, but I like it

http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

Urban Hat€monger ?

Yeah Claptons work has always left me cold too apart from a couple of Cream albums.
To me his music always seemed slick , over produced & soulless.

Which to me is the total opposite of what blues should be about.

__________________

right-track

I think I've said this before on these boards (ages ago) that Clapton lacked the natural feel for the blues that someone like SRV (for example) oozed.
Your comment about Gilmour and Barrett is similar, in that I don't think it's possible for Gilmour to feel Barrett's music in the same way.
All great guitarists, but if you don't make it your own, it remains a technical zero.

Urban Hat€monger ?

Woah woah woah

Where did I say Gilmour sucks?
And for the record I reviewed Barrets solo albums on this site & I said they were patchy at best and that the presence of Gilmour made his 2nd album much more listenable.

I think you're reading far too much into that. I happen to like a lot of Pink Floyd stuff , not just the Barrett era. It's only The Wall & Atom Heart Mother I don't like. All I was saying is that Gilmour playing the Barrett era stuff sounds wrong to me and that just because Gilmour is a better guitarist it's not the be all & end all of everything. That's not a rant , thats just an opinion. Right-Track managed to see the point I was getting at so why can't you?

__________________

boo boo

Oh ok then, sorry. Your point? Well I don't agree with Gilmour sounding like a session musician who dosen't know what he's doing, not at all. But I can understand why you like Barrett more, his style is pretty all over the place and wild, Gilmour is the exact opposite, contained and disciplined. I always appreciated the stark contrast in the twos playing, I think it makes Floyds catelog of music all the more diverse. Whatever style suits you better though, thats cool, sorry I misunderstood you. I usually get very PMS when I think someone is dissing either one of them. Thats how devoted I get when it comes to my irrational Pink Floyd fanboism.

__________________
It's only knock n' knowall, but I like it

http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

KT Samurai

"Selling out" is largely an irrational fan-made philosophy, and a worthless one at that. There are times when it applies, but for the most part it's a lot of crying over nothing.