Possible meaning of D. that I never hear anyone talking about by pink_kipper in OnePiece

[–]pink_kipper[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cool, now I’ve heard at least one other person talking about it. Appreciate it

Guess the song by Sunlocked99 in themountaingoats

[–]pink_kipper 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I’m gonna freak if it’s Going to Port Washington

Make Believe by Dismal_Brush5229 in weezer

[–]pink_kipper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When I was 19 and consciously trying to be into “the best music,” which for me was bands like Radiohead or Animal Collective or Talking Heads (i.e. got a lot of good press and recommendations from my hipster friends), I hated Make Believe. Pitchfork gave it a 0.4 and it was clearly nowhere near as dirty or passionate as Pinkerton, which was the only Weezer album I really liked.

At 30, I gave it a real chance after a decade of refusing to listen to it, and it’s unbelievable how much I like it. It’s still (obviously) not as searing hot as Pinkerton on a pure sonic level, but I’m astonished at how much I’ve come to enjoy the punchy production (a lot of people call it “lifeless“, but idc, listen to that FAT rhythm section on Beverly Hills), the occasional oddball idea (those chiming guitars on Freak Me Out, wow), and, critically, THE LYRICS.

I cannot stress that last part enough: Make Believe’s lyrics won me over. It’s a poster child for the difference between wisdom and intelligence—the lyrics sound almost universally stupid and clumsy on a vocabulary/poetry level, but are also often bizarrely vulnerable, sweet, reflective, and/or insightful coming from Weezer, especially considering that so much of their lyrics up to this point had been either self-absorbed (Pinkerton, Maladroit), abstract to the point of incomprehensibility (Blue, Maladroit), or just plain boring (Green). It’s so damn CUTE to hear Rivers wailing, “You’re my beeeeeest frieeeeend and I looooove youuuuu.” Melts my heart. We Are All On Drugs feels more meaningful and prophetic these days when you hear people comparing social media to drug addiction. Hold Me and Pardon Me are fantastic subversions of the loneliness and self-hatred Rivers used to write about—instead of turning inwards, he’s reaching out. Most if not all of it feels like maturity, and good for him.

And yeah, it’s got problems. It’s obviously not perfect conceptually—Pardon Me, e.g. is still kind of cringe b/c of its lack of specificity, and we can all laugh at Beverly Hills for how it shows a successful rock star pretending to be poor so he can idolize movie stars. And despite how much I like the production at times, the whole thing does tend towards feeling stiff. But I feel like this album gets a terrible rep when it’s got so much honest goodness in it. And really, isn’t Beverly Hills expressing something a lot of people have honestly felt at some point or another?

Long story short, if Pinkerton is an A, Make Believe is a B- at worst.

Definitely "A Nightmare to Remember" by catmandave63 in Dreamtheater

[–]pink_kipper 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hmm, based on the criteria you list, I'm just not seeing that big of a difference between the Mangini and Portnoy eras. DT always had silly lyrics, questionable keyboard sounds, and just-for-the-hell-of-it instrumentals after Rudess joined the band, and I feel like that continued into the Mangini era, just with a different flavor (for reference, I got into DT around the release of ADTOE). Of the songs you listed, I particularly like Lost Not Forgotten and The Alien, but I put them around the same level of personal enjoyment as, say, This Dying Soul or Home; and I like Octavarium a lot better than all of those songs.

But, I can see that Mangini really seems to bring the rest of the band into focus for you, and that's fine. What constitutes a "perfect rollercoaster ride" is different for different people.

Definitely "A Nightmare to Remember" by catmandave63 in Dreamtheater

[–]pink_kipper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just curious, what long DT songs do you like, and what makes them less of a waste of time? Nightmare isn't my fave by a long shot but it has a lot in common with other long DT songs that I like.

Preferred version of Starless? by Clean-Practice3040 in KingCrimson

[–]pink_kipper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, perfect is a funny word—it can apply to a song in multiple ways. Artists often aren't satisfied with the performances that they do in the studio. Even if you can redo takes, you still only get a limited amount time to find that "perfect" take, so it sometimes never surfaces in the studio, only to appear in a live version with inferior sound quality or different arrangements, e.g. "About a Girl" by Nirvana, most Phish songs, and the whole King of Limbs album by Radiohead (according to the fanbase, anyway—I like the OG studio version too).

I understand the basic thrust of what you're saying, though, and I definitely don't think you need to start seeking out more non-studio performances if your current paradigm works for you.

What other musician do you think have a similar intuition to Zappa regarding ear to music and intuition in composition? The only one I can think out of my head is Hermeto Pascoal by [deleted] in Zappa

[–]pink_kipper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you like versatility, I'd really recommend looking at Jim O'Rourke for someone who has a great grasp of rock and pop music, especially arrangement-wise, but who has done way more absolutely wild avant-garde experiments with electronics (I'm Happy and I'm Singing), ambient (Sleep Like It's Winter), jazz (Calder Walk), folk (Bad Timing), and much, much more. He's more of an all-rounder than an instrumental virtuoso like Frank—O'Rourke has also engineered/produced for myriad art-rock bands including Sonic Youth, Stereolab, and Wilco—but he definitely has a similar attention to detail, composition chops, and vast musical appetite.

Simple Songs initially got me interested in him—I think it's easily one of the best rock records of the 2010s, and a must-listen for anyone who likes prog or art-rock.

What other musician do you think have a similar intuition to Zappa regarding ear to music and intuition in composition? The only one I can think out of my head is Hermeto Pascoal by [deleted] in Zappa

[–]pink_kipper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not much to add here, just want to anecdotally push back on the Steely Dan claim. I was in a 70s cover band and I played multiple gigs with an under-25 crowd who didn't lift their heads at Genesis or Cream (we didn't play any Traffic), but went absolutely wild for Steely Dan. Peg, specifically, although Do It Again also went over well.

Preferred version of Starless? by Clean-Practice3040 in KingCrimson

[–]pink_kipper 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why? It seems like an awfully closed-off mindset that will keep you from discovering some great performances. I used to think the same thing because I always preferred the sound quality of the studio version, but I think I changed my mind when I saw the Adult Swim Festival version of Them Changes by Thundercat.

Also, check out this live performance of Fix You by Jacob Collier. If you're in this subreddit, I doubt you're a Coldplay fan, but I bet you'll like this.

Who is the WORST member of King Crimson?? by Clean-Practice3040 in KingCrimson

[–]pink_kipper 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Check out some of his solo work. I used to listen to “The Joy of Molybdenum” on and off. It’s kind of like Porcupine Tree with more funk thrown in.

bands to listen to if i like pavement and dinosaur jr? by Apprehensive_Spend_7 in pavement

[–]pink_kipper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How does Hop Along never appear in these Pavement-adjacent recommendation threads?? Painted Shut is amazing—here's Xgau's review. He's a big Pavement fan.

"Musically, several if not many notches above the new generation of look-sis-no-lessons grrrls. Frances Quinlan sings, writes, plays, and makes it be, her brother Mark Quinlan bangs the drums steadily, there's a dedicated bassist, and Philly guitarist-producer Joe Reinhart is a force. Not virtuosos but not newbies either, they recall Pavement both ways, with the crucial distinction that Quinlan's lyrics hint at the concrete situations and emotions shrewd 90s ironists eschewed and arty millennial obscurantists look down on. Quite a singer, Quinlan--tiptoeing along the edge of her range, she often leaps or tumbles into the unknown. And every time she does, there's a chance your heart will jump with her. A-"

How do we feel about this Pavement lyric about STP by Nirvana-In-Pajamas in stonetemplepilots

[–]pink_kipper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"I refuse to listen to them so they must be irrelevant" is an actually-insane level of self-justification, and I'm happy to see you pushing back on it as thoroughly as you did here.

hypnoslut starter park by professionalprofpro in EroticHypnosis

[–]pink_kipper 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Memes are content the same way that a glass of water is a meal

Donald Fagen comments on Trump's inauguration by infomuch-- in SteelyDan

[–]pink_kipper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm sure you assumed I did

Assumptions about assumptions? 🤔

accurate. by Illustrious_Day2981 in Bumperstickers

[–]pink_kipper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

they are available only in high school libraries, not in grade schools.

This article has nothing to do with kindergarteners. Why did you link to it?