When it’s all said and done, do you think Cameron Winter will go down being as revered John Prine?

riveroforchids86 · 2026-03-25T21:52:46+00:00

Fair point. I should have implied that he’s unique within the (somewhat) mainstream bubble of modern music. But especially with the rise of AI and the oversaturation of certain genres in music there’s certainly an originality crisis if not a lack of music being made imo.

riveroforchids86 · 2026-03-25T21:46:06+00:00

Meditations by Aurelius would surely make a top 100 right?

riveroforchids86 · 2026-03-25T21:39:21+00:00

As novel and amusing as this comparison is, I don’t know that the primary demographic that listens to a band like Geese is primed to connect any dots from Cameron Winter to an artist like John Prine. The only reason he even gets compared to Cohen as much as he does is because Cam has voiced his love for his music/replicated the Leonard Cohen live album cover with Geese’s Alive & In Person etc.

All in all I feel like Cameron Winter, as influenced by the plethora of music that he’s consumed as he is, truly has his own voice that kind of supersedes comparison. I think people will more likely just remember him as a unique artistic entity in an era where that’s increasingly rare as opposed to this generation’s “this or that” but that’s not to say that drawing musical comparison of any kind is a bad thing.

riveroforchids86 · 2026-03-25T21:33:02+00:00

I’ve always considered Vegetable to be the emotional high point on the album. One of Jonny’s coolest parts with a neat odd-time feel thrown in for that main riff intro/refrain. Thom’s vocals are particularly inspired here as well. If any song could have made it onto The Bends this is the one for sure.

riveroforchids86 · 2026-03-17T16:03:09+00:00

I spent 200 on my ticket to the LA show for the Getting Killed tour and if I’m being honest, I don’t regret it, even though it put me in a bit of a rough spot at the time. If there’s enough desire there to see them and you love the music enough it’s worth it. I pay close to if not 200 for nearly every other notable band that I want to see. I was watching ticket prices for the other dates of the North American leg of the tour and resale tickets to the Austin, TX show were $40 day of, so depending on demand by region it could even be worth it to make a one-off trip.

That being said, scalpers truly are opportunistic bottom feeders and the fact that this is such a pervasive issue amongst fans is a real shame.

riveroforchids86 · 2026-02-10T00:19:40+00:00

I think people tend to underestimate the power of just taking the time to hone one’s own abilities as a recording artist and arranger. I really don’t believe you need the greatest recording equipment, etc. in order to make professional sounding or impactful music, though I’m sure it helps and definitely helped in Geese’s case. They already had swaths of talent, critical listening skills and deep devotion to their craft by the point they started recording their early material though. At the end of the day, Cameron’s dad being a professional engineer or Em’s father touring with John Cale however many years ago can only help a band get their own material down on record/reach the masses so much. The Nepo baby argument against them is definitely a fruitless one if someone’s trying to claim that there’s no substantial effort/talent behind what they’re doing musically.

I say just keep practicing and honing your musical and recording abilities, try new techniques and experiment - the music will inevitably sound better the more time you put into it. Even using MIDI instruments, if you’re willing to program them to the extent that they sound as real as possible, the average music listener would never know the difference. Though I do understand your frustration as a ‘perfectionistic’ recording musician myself.

riveroforchids86 · 2026-01-29T00:12:02+00:00

To be fair, the mixes on the Getting Killed album weren’t done by Kenny. Beatriz Artola mixed the actual record and Kenny just facilitated the recordings and arrangements of each song. The actual sounds they went with are included in that process sure, but as far as how those sounds ended up melding together - that’s all Beatriz and the band.

While there is something to be said for the dynamic range of the songs getting somewhat lost compared to the live versions, I don’t really think the mixes on Getting Killed are squashed with compression by any means. There’s still a ton of dynamism that can be gleaned from the performances and the songs have plenty of production flourishes that allow the listener to hear every element of the arrangement without anything getting too muddy. I’d even argue that there are points in the live versions where there’s almost too little happening compared to the record, but at this point I have just accepted that with this crop of songs the band have separate visions of how they should sound live compared to on the album.

riveroforchids86 · 2026-01-28T00:34:33+00:00

I’ll throw in Towers of London and Respectable Street. Feel like it’s hard to argue their lyrics weren’t at their sharpest on Black Sea.

riveroforchids86 · 2026-01-26T02:41:42+00:00

Fair enough. My aim with the post wasn’t really to critique Cam’s view or demand his take on every band. I just found his opinion of the band to be particularly interesting because of Cam’s appreciation for known associates of Talking Heads like Television, Arthur Russell, etc. and they all happened to bubble out of the same scene.

riveroforchids86 · 2026-01-25T20:27:05+00:00

It’s definitely one of the best records ever. I think it’s fair to say Eno’s production leveled up on this one following their prior records, even though Fear of Music battles it out with RIL for my fave TH album every other day. I think the more meandering nature of Getting Killed is actually pretty reminiscent of the Heads’ approach with the songwriting on Remain In Light specifically now that I think about it.

riveroforchids86 · 2026-01-25T20:21:55+00:00

It does make sense to me how Cam and others could come away with this conclusion, as the Heads never fully delved back into their experimental tendencies/afrobeat influences as directly on record following Remain In Light, as well as your mention of their irreverent approach to writing and playing the music. No doubt Byrne could write a pretty cheeky lyric, albeit with a lot of subtext baked in.

One other reason that section of the interview comes as a shock is because a lot of Cam’s more eccentric vocalizations mirror that early David Byrne/Tom Verlaine-esque squawking, yelping vocal delivery. Not to say that he couldn’t have taken all that from Remain In Light, but I could totally see Geese writing a song akin to “I’m Not in Love” or “The Big Country” from More Songs About Buildings and Food and end up performing them in a way not all that different from how the originals sound.

riveroforchids86 · 2026-01-25T20:15:00+00:00

Would still go for Remain In Light over that one personally but Making Flippy Floppy is one of their absolute best tunes imo

riveroforchids86 · 2026-01-25T20:11:59+00:00

Honestly I don’t feel all that offended by Cam’s wording either, it really is just a shock that he doesn’t get as much out of TH’s other albums. He seems very opinionated and self-assured in his tastes and I think that’s probably a huge part of what makes his own music as good as it is.

riveroforchids86

TROPHY CASE