So, what have you been listening to lately?

[westen44]

I've been catching up on the Rolling Stones.  I see why I was so interested in them in my youth.  I also see why Mick Jagger has good reasons to complain when he says Jagger-Richards doesn't get enough attention as a songwriting team.  On the other hand, Keith Richards actually singing is usually not a very good idea.  He can write, but singing is another matter.  Usually, that is best left to Mick. 

[uwe]

I think Keith's backing and harmony vocals have real outlaw charm. And of course his rhythm playing is the pulse of the Stones everyone in the band follows. And while there are singers with a greater range than Jagger even in his prime, he's extremely rhythmically accurate and innovative when singing, he hasn't lost that.

I've never been a Stones fan, yet I never doubted their status and relevance as one of the greats either. Very few Stones albums are good from front to end (my favorite still is Sticky Fingers), but they all always contain at least one or two gems.

As songwriters, Jagger/Richards work a narrower field than Lennon/McCartney + Harrison, but within their essentially white RnB confinements they do that well. It's only when they try to write something too poppy that they quickly sound banal. They're best when they retain a certain rootsiness.

[westen44]

I totally agree that it's only when the Rolling Stones try to go beyond the genre that defined them that they have problems.  Other than that, they do great as far as I'm concerned. 

Here is Sydney Sweeney commenting about being in the "Angry" video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1rF8ss8fOQ

[morrow]

The Stones were a big reason I got into the blues , but once I did they lost their appeal. That said I'm a Keith fan , down to earth , he can laugh at himself. Who'd a thunk it? Getting older , I'm not as rigid as I used to be.

[uwe]

No mention of genes/jeans though! 

[westen44]

I hope my bringing up Sydney Sweeney in the Stones video didn't do anything to affect the purity and moral steadfastness of this site.  If so, it was unintentional.  I'm only interested in the music. 

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/sydney-sweeney-rolling-stones-angry-video-objectified-reaction-1235563403/

[Basvarken]

Rest In Peace Tetsu.
Just saw Simon Kirke posting that he passed away today.

[Son of Dave W]

I hope my bringing up Sydney Sweeney in the Stones video didn't do anything to affect the purity and moral steadfastness of this site.  If so, it was unintentional.  I'm only interested in the music. 

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/sydney-sweeney-rolling-stones-angry-video-objectified-reaction-1235563403/

Wait, there is purity and moral steadfastness here?

[Basvarken]

Rest In Peace Herman Deinum.
Incredible Dutch bass player with a super-distinctive and characteristic style of playing.

[westen44]

Wait, there is purity and moral steadfastness here?

Uwe would be the expert on that.  In fact, he is an expert on quite a lot. 

[westen44]

Rest In Peace Herman Deinum.
Incredible Dutch bass player with a super-distinctive and characteristic style of playing.

I can't find where this news has reached the English-speaking world yet. 

[Basvarken]

He was probably not well known enough outside of The Netherlands for English-speaking press to care to write about his passing?

But he was amazing nonetheless.

[slinkp]

In the "trying hard not to get old(er) and (even more) out of touch" category...
I can't tell whether it's confirmation bias of The Algorithm(TM), but the interwebs seem to be telling me that Doom Metal is all the rage these days. I didn't even know what that was and literally had to google!

TL;DR it all goes back to Sabbath. There is a whole sub-genre of people playing slow, sludgy, moody riffs tuned ever lower and lower. (I've literally seen people on reddit asking about string gauges and gear for playing in DROP E. Like, tuning the whole bass one octave lower than standard). Also about ten thousand "What fuzz/distortion/amp should I buy for doom?"  Seems to heavily overlap with stoners.

Anyway, I listened to both some vintage stuff (mostly sounded to me like lesser-known Sabbath clones) and some modern stuff. Not really my thing, but not bad, and I kind of get the appeal?
This seems fairly representative:

But, as is my wont, I also recently went on a binge of re-listening to stuff that I've known for decades.
In this case, Canada's best complicated hardcore-adjacent band, NOMEANSNO.
I used to try to play along with one of their albums and it was very challenging!
I love, love, love the sound of Rob Wright's aggressively picked P-bass through a distorted amp.
Recently came across this great live footage I'd never seen:

[westen44]

He was probably not well known enough outside of The Netherlands for English-speaking press to care to write about his passing?

But he was amazing nonetheless.

The English-speaking press can do a pretty good job of not caring about things that really matter and caring about things that don't.  When Jack Bruce's death didn't really get the attention it deserved, that was a big warning to me.  Yes, they covered it, but not as much as they should have.  So, they have plenty of practice of not knowing how to prioritize. 

[Basvarken]

The other day I posted a remastered version of the song Back Against The Wall that we recorded with my old band Bittermoon back in 1996.

Here's a cover of the song that we recorded. Only the lyrics survived word for word. The rest of the song is completely different.