The Album Club 2017

**Frownland** · 05-05-2017, 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

I'm not quite sure what you're saying here. Daniel is Daniel Johnson, who isn't part of the band. What's your point?

Quote:

There are six cover songs, including "Gloria", a song by the band Them famously covered and rewritten by Patti Smith. Two songs were co-written with Daniel Johnston; "Titanic" and "Hand Without a Body".

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Trollheart · 05-05-2017, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

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Yeah I know that. I can look up Wiki too, and I did; I did my research while I listened. But writing "Daniel wrote it" is pointless. Unless he says who Daniel is, what's the point he's trying to make? I just feel it was a useless post, with no information and I don't see what he was saying. It's like having an album on which, say, Paul McCartney wrote or co-wrote a song and saying "Paul wrote it", but not saying Paul who?

**Frownland** · 05-05-2017, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Yeah I know that. I can look up Wiki too, and I did; I did my research while I listened. But writing "Daniel wrote it" is pointless. Unless he says who Daniel is, what's the point he's trying to make? I just feel it was a useless post, with no information and I don't see what he was saying. It's like having an album on which, say, Paul McCartney wrote or co-wrote a song and saying "Paul wrote it", but not saying Paul who?

1: I think he posted it because Alyosius said it was an original.
2: You appear to have figured it out who it was without the last name quickly. I don't see the issue here. Do we need to establish a rule that we only use full names with middle initials and birth years?

Aloysius · 05-05-2017, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

Daniel wrote it.

Admittedly I didn't bother to check the writing credits. It's just that I loved some of the album and wanted to give it a 9/10 but some of the covers let it down for me. I've certainly never heard that lofi aesthetic working so well and with such clarity.

Anteater · 05-06-2017, 09:21 AM

Half Japanese - We Are They Who Ache With Amorous Love

At the end of the day, it never matters much to me how conventional or unconventional a band is. I mean, you can hate Steely Dan's Aja, but go watch Behind The Scenes for that album's recording and you'd be blown away at the Kubrickian lengths Fagen and Becker would go to to achieve perfection. On the opposite side of the spectrum, The Residents have been recording music even before they knew how to pluck stringed instruments in the 1960's. That's something to be admired, and being completely outside the box has its own appeal.

All that taken into consideration, Half Japanese are fun because they're completely and utterly irreverent. They don't fit comfortably into any particular experimental niche and transcend time and space through the sheer force of their individuality. I wouldn't be surprised if Jad Fair or somebody else ran across a live rip of Cromagnon's Orgasm some Les Rallizes Dénudés concert as elementary school students and thought "**** this sounds great but its too long" and went from there. And the more lo-fi they get ('Gloria', for instance) the more their charm shines through.

8 out of 10.

OccultHawk · 05-05-2017, 08:50 AM

You take a song that was already stripped to the pure essence of rocknroll. Stripped again by Patti Smith and then you would think there's nowhere to go but incredibly they strip it yet again even further exposing the joyous core.

**Frownland** · 05-05-2017, 09:28 AM

If you come around on this album and end up loving it, revisit The Beatloads because my guitar style on that album rips off Half Japanese hard.

Trollheart · 05-05-2017, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frownland

If you come around on this album and end up loving it, revisit The Beatloads because my guitar style on that album rips off Half Japanese hard.

Hmm. I doubt I'd ever end up loving or even particularly liking it. I just think the original post I was going to write was too harsh and my opinion of it changed from horrible to not too bad. That's about as far as I see it going.

**Frownland** · 05-05-2017, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elphenor

Anything with any dissonance Trollheart can't stomach aha

Not everyone can see the beauty in ugliness.

Trollheart · 05-05-2017, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elphenor

Anything with any dissonance Trollheart can't stomach aha

I actually think the first 4 tracks are explosive and then it loses its pace just a bit

That's why I picked this particular album though wanted showcase some of their cleaner material and not aleniate everyone

I've never made a secret of this. Doesn't mean my taste is any better or worse than yours. It would be a weird world if we all liked the same music, would it not?

Also, you should know I sat through Merzbow (though I hated it) and I absolutely loved Metal Machine Music, which surprised a lot of people, to say nothing of the surprise when they heard I dug GTT...

05-05-2017, 09:28 AM	#7 (permalink)
Frownland SOPHIE FOREVER Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: East of the Southern North American West Posts: 35,541	If you come around on this album and end up loving it, revisit The Beatloads because my guitar style on that album rips off Half Japanese hard. __________________ Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth. d e a f b o x

05-05-2017, 08:50 AM	#6 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	You take a song that was already stripped to the pure essence of rocknroll. Stripped again by Patti Smith and then you would think there's nowhere to go but incredibly they strip it yet again even further exposing the joyous core.