Billy Joe smashes his Gibson

[westen44]

They're not the first band to throw a tantrum re an allotted slot, Blackmore delayed DP's California Jam gig uintil the last minute (locking himself into his trailer) to make sure they could use the light show, then overran and destroyed the stage with his Marshall explosions to make sure that the last band on the bill - ELP - could not play.

30 minutes is of course short for any band to get into gear, but it has been done before without such hiccups (Bandaid) and Green Day knew what they were buying into.

The band as such leaves me cold, but I don't dislike them, they are your typical post-punk bar chord chuggers, melodic yes, but not riff-oriented enough for my taste. Girl rock. For some reason women prefer simplistic chord oriented music over riff oriented songs, most likely because it is close to the singer/songwriter stuff they also like, albeit electrified and played faster. Think about it: There are relatively few riff-oriented rock bands especially popular with women, U2, Coldplay, Snow Patrol, My Chemical Romance, The Strokes and Kings of Leon all tend to be chord-chuggerish.

U2, Coldplay, Snow Patrol...go no further.  You have just named three of my least favorite bands, period.  How Snow Patrol can be considered an actual band anyway is beyond me, since they have no talent whatsoever.  U2 and Coldplay=infinite boredom.  I guess I'm into the riff-oriented stuff for keeps, even though girls may prefer the chord-oriented music.  I have never even thought of it in these terms, but thanks for that insight.  It makes things a little clearer and may also explain why there are certain bands I can't stand, but they are really popular with a lot of other people. 

[nofi]

i'm not buying your latest hoo doo, uwe. imo the SONG is what matters first, it always matters first. riffs, chords or sitars need not apply. the music will attract the audience that likes it no matter who or what they are. i know being german everything has to examined, categorized and stored in a dust free environment. i think you hold up well under this obligation to your country. you should listen to more jazz.

[Hörnisse]

[gweimer]

i'm not buying your latest hoo doo, uwe. imo the SONG is what matters first, it always matters first. riffs, chords or sitars need not apply. the music will attract the audience that likes it no matter who or what they are. i know being german everything has to examined, categorized and stored in a dust free environment. i think you hold up well under this obligation to your country. you should listen to more jazz.

Music or jazz?  Pick a side.   

[Rob]

clipped 30 minutes is of course short for any band to get into gear, but it has been done before without such hiccups (Bandaid) and Green Day knew what they were buying into.

You know being not as old as Dave (but close) acts used to share a backline and do 20 minutes sets.  Particularly true with a collection of one hitters uhhhh the Aus Band that Angus and Malcomb's brother George was in. . .   Ronnie Dio was the support band leader/ house act that played while they were tweaking the drum kits 6 minutes until the next "Headliner"  BTW Dio was playing backup for Gene Pitney 

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Green Day went from being a band that didn't take itself too seriously and put out halfway decent adolescent guitar pop to finding a cause with American Idiot, and ever since then have been trying to take themselves WAY too seriously as some sort of senior spokesband for a Gen Y audience that disposed of them long ago. American Idiot is good because they were pissed at Dubya and found the right mix of songs, sincerity, and production to give them "serious" stardom from a real album, but they, just like Metallicunt, have been trying to recapture fire that ever since and failing miserably. Much as I disliked most of their music when new, Blink 182, Green Day's contemporary counterpart, have aged far more gracefully and have seen their members actually grow as musicians. It makes me respect their back catalog a lot more.

[uwe]

i'm not buying your latest hoo doo, uwe. imo the SONG is what matters first, it always matters first. riffs, chords or sitars need not apply. the music will attract the audience that likes it no matter who or what they are. i know being german everything has to examined, categorized and stored in a dust free environment. i think you hold up well under this obligation to your country. you should listen to more jazz.

Of course a song is a song. But you can ice a good riff with harmonies and vice versa. I'm not sure Jumping Jack Flash would be the same if they had just chugged a B major throughout, but of course you can play it that way. You can also play Black Dog without the opening riff and Detroit Rock City strummed along to a C minor would have stormed the charts just the same. Likewise, Superstition didn't meed that riff, hitting the empty E would have done it too. Beethoven's 5th, no one would miss the intro, just like Brubeck's Take Five didn't need that 5/4 bass run.  Alice Cooper's School's Out didn't need a riff etc ... Smoke on the Water is fine with that elaborate G/F harmony (also put to good use in My Woman from Tokyo), the riff had nothing to do with it conquering the airwaves, hey, and Highway to Hell sounds great just with an open A ...

Frankly, you have to be deaf not to notice that today's top twenty music offers a lot less riff oriented songs than the charts in, say, 1973. And the art of a lead vocalist singing a largely unrelated vocal melody over a dominant riff - a characteristic that defines most hard rock - seems to be a dying art. It's what I dislike about punk, it washed away riffs and made the bar chord the dominating musical theme. Try as I might, I hear more differences between the riffs of Kashmir, Smoke on the Water and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath than I hear in the umpteenth drone of D, A, B and G, which Olivia Newton John, Aha, Journey, U2 and dozens of others (I take exception as regards Maxine Nightingale's Right back where we started from, it used the same harmonies, but I like it, it also had an intro riff!) have turned into hits. It's a lot more difficult to swipe the Smoke on the Water or Enter Sandman riff and not get caught.

Does regretting the lack of a idiosyncratic instrumental musical theme in many of today's songwriting make me a dinosaur or a teutonic overanalyst or both? And while we're at it name me 10 trademark riffs of chart songs in the last, say, three years. I believe singers, producers and the music listening public have all adopted a certain arrangement laziness. If a melody is good today, you give it a simplistic backing and don't "clutter it up". However, some of the greatest rock classics are cluttered in arrangement by today's minimalist standards. What happens in DP's Burn alone (huge riff, wild drum rolls throughout the verses, neo-classical guitar and organ solos, a majestic chorus carried by two lead singers) would today never see the light of day but be dissected into three or four songs.

Where is my Blood, Sweat & Tears collection? ; - )

[Dave W]

IMHO everything they've put out since Dookie has been dookie. And from American Idiot forward it's been pretentious dookie.

[clankenstein]

i agree with everything.make everything louder than everything else.what squirell?

[uwe]

A timeless quote from Ian Gillan to the soundman on Made in Japan: Can we have everything louder than everything else? Even Lemmy has admitted to lifting it from that record. And it is fitting that it is on that album because the slightly overloaded instrument tracks battle each other on MIJ, Gillan's voice is rougher than usual after a bout of bronchitis, but it all adds to the - untampered with, Rob! - urgency of MIJ which popularized its songs more than the more squeaky-clean poduced originals on Machine Head.

[clankenstein]

I remember rocking out to made in Japan when I wa s in high school.lots of fender abuse but no Gibson smashing.where's billy boy when you need him.probably at pre school smashing his teddy bear.

[Highlander]

Squirrel...? Did someone say squirrel...?

Uwe... don't forget the triple cd that has the MIJ "roughs", for a bit more honesty in production...

[hieronymous]

I can kind of buy the idea that it was staged. My theory is that they didn't want to tour right now so this gives them publicity but they can bail on playing live. Maybe they don't want to compete with No Doubt whose album came out on the same day...

[Denis]

No doubt another band I don't know much about.

[gweimer]

No doubt another band I don't know much about.

I took my daughter to see them when they were on top of the charts.  They were a great show, and sounded excellent.  Lots of energy, and Gwen has the pipes to sing the whole show without pre-recorded vocals.  Tony Kanal's bass was outstanding and sounded great.



The vocals always give me the chills on this one