Revolutions!

Glyph

Glyph is worse than some and better than others. He believes that life is just one damned thing after another, that only pop music can save us now, and that mercy is the mark of a great man (but he's just all right). Nothing he writes here should be taken as an indication that he knows anything about anything.

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34 Responses

  1. Glyph says:

    These are my cans.

    What are you guys using?Report

  2. Reformed Republican says:

    I got some decent speakers for gaming, so I am using those. My headphones are not very good.Report

  3. Slade the Leveller says:

    No headphones for me. I want the neighbors to hear!Report

  4. Slade the Leveller says:

    Starting to sound like a dive bar in the chat room.Report

  5. Reformed Republican says:

    This album has a few things that appeal to me. The music is a bit dramatic, perhaps over-the-top at times, with orchestral elements and dynamics. Also, many of the tracks run into one another, and the have a fairly consistent mood to them. I like albums that are conceived as a whole, even if they are not concept albums, instead of those that sound like a bunch of individual songs thrown together.Report

  6. krogerfoot says:

    Re Spiritualized, I passed up a lot of chances to buy this CD used. The cover art looked tinkertoy compared to Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space, which is a triumph of packaging, and the live record, so LGM just never wound up in my cart.Report

    • Glyph in reply to krogerfoot says:

      Honestly, every Spiritualized album to me has been diminishing returns, with fewer and fewer tracks I like on each one and more and more reliance on certain Pierce tics (notably the “everybody-play-everything-including-the-kitchen-sink-at-once-free-jazz-freakout” thing).

      But IMO this album might be the single best album he’s ever done, and that includes my beloved Spacemen 3.Report

  7. krogerfoot says:

    I’ve long considered creating a Fela DIY app. Create your own Fela song.
    Song length: 13, 19, or 25 minutes.
    Number of horn and sax intro solos: 5, 9, 13
    Number of baritone saxes: 3, 5, 8Report

  8. krogerfoot says:

    I can’t understand the Lagos pidgin Fela uses when he sings, but Nigerians happily have a penchant for quoting vast selections of lyrics in YouTube comments.Report

  9. Slade the Leveller says:

    Oh, my gosh, what a great time. Terrific meeting you all. And I though I had eclectic musical taste.Report

  10. Glyph says:

    Sorry Slade! Next time…thanks to everybody, and feel free to make suggestions as to how to make the next one better…Report

  11. D Clarity says:

    Lazer Guided Melodies is in the top 5, along with Loveless, Ramones, Raw Power, and White Light/White Heat.

    I remember when I first listened to it, I was going to work, my car wasn’t working and I had been taking the bus for a few weeks but that day my roommate let me borrow his car. I put the cassette in (yeah, I bought it on cassette) and things were so easy that day.

    It is really amazing how much great music came out in 1991-92.Report

    • Glyph in reply to D Clarity says:

      LGM is 100% awesome. Pure Phase is maybe 80%. By Ladies and Gentlemen…, we’re down to 50-60%- don’t get me wrong, the good songs are real good (and the packaging as krogerfoot notes is excellent), but Pierce is really starting to rely on that one “noise” trick.

      The ones after that usually have a few good songs, but…

      …and man, his voice sounded like hell on the last one. I know he’s been very sick, but yeesh. Plus that was an awful album cover.Report

    • Glyph in reply to D Clarity says:

      @d-clarity – if you want to be added to the invite for the next one, just let me know.Report

  12. Tod Kelly says:

    Oh man, someone chose a Joe Henry album!!!!

    I am so sorry I missed it.Report

    • Glyph in reply to Tod Kelly says:

      We had some technical difficulties at the start, and poor Slade couldn’t catch a break, but overall I think it went pretty well.

      I think next time I am going to change the rules slightly: people were getting a little antsy by the end of an hour album, so I think we want to cap albums at an hour (though if someone goes like 65 minutes, I am not going to cry). But krogerfoot and aaron both chose what was essentially a “side” and not only is it easier to hold people’s attention, we got more variety in the time allotted. There’s some good, long albums out there that get disqualified, and that stinks, but maybe if someone chooses one of those, they can cut a “side” to get it down to an hour; or else, we’ll do occasional parties where longer albums are accepted.

      The other thing was, for some stupid reason Google Hangouts doesn’t let you get a transcript of the chat. I had originally thought I’d just copypasta the whole thing, but it would have required constant work (so I wouldn’t be listening) and I would have needed to be careful to scrub ppl’s real names from it before posting it here, and I didn’t want to risk that. So I am not sure the best way to resolve that awkwardness of trying to chat AND comment on the post here; but the comments here don’t really reflect the total conversation.Report

  13. Slade the Leveller says:

    @glyph https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/3115403?hl=en

    Maybe try this? We would NOT want the witty repartee lost to posterity.Report

    • Glyph in reply to Slade the Leveller says:

      @slade-the-leveller – thanks, but as near as I can tell from my research (Google comment boards, and also opened a video Hangout to see if there were settings I could change), that doesn’t apply to Video Hangouts, just the chat-only ones (if you can confirm otherwise, please let me know).

      Which of course, we could ALSO run, but I’m not sure that’s any easier to manage than a concurrent OT post…Report

  14. krogerfoot says:

    Glyph, thanks for your charming hostliness the other day. The carpet was clean, the beer was cold, I’m sorry about what apparently happened to your pool and I’ll bring back the sofa cushions that somehow ended up at my house as soon as I can.

    Though it might go against the traditional listening party concept, how about making it a YouTube party, where the participants go karaoke-style, cuing up a video at a time? I love albums, but as we discussed in the Sonic Youth thread, most of my favorites are like novels, with lulls punctuated by occasional blasts of terror. Making it a singles party would let us get in a lot more variety—concert clips, TV appearances, interviews, short films, etc. I know that might be a little too like the Friday Night Videos format, but part of the appeal is hanging out together and commenting in real time.

    What do you think?Report

    • Glyph in reply to krogerfoot says:

      I like the idea, but with a few ground rules – no choosing a 25-minute GY!BE track for your turn. We’ve got to keep things to a relatively short duration, so people don’t get crowded out (and have to sit through 25 minutes of something they hate, and then they cue something 30 minutes long next, for revenge). Each clip would need to be =<5 min,. IMO.

      But along with this, I can think of a few other permutations - say, choose a theme for the night and everybody comes with something that fits the theme.

      Or, like I say above, we do some nights where long (> 1 hr) albums are the rule. Or EPs, or album sides, or whatever.

      Let’s leave the next one as-is for now – I want to judge interest and turnout – but we may want to do them more frequently, and try out some of these variations.

      The other thing I want to check next time is whether I have to be present for the scheduled Hangout to work. I plan to show up a few minutes late, and see if y’all are able to start the party without me. I definitely can’t attend all the time, but if I don’t have to be present for them to work, we could designate a “Dungeon Master” to host each one, and they could set the rules for theirs as they wish.Report

      • Reformed Republican in reply to Glyph says:

        I tend to be unfashionably early for everything, and I was the first one there last time. I had no problem getting into it, though I did not attempt to start a video or anything.Report

      • Glyph in reply to Glyph says:

        Next time, go ahead and start up a video, and see if others can see it. If they can, we’ll know that it works without the scheduler there, and that means I can schedule as many as makes sense for the interest level.Report

      • Glyph in reply to Glyph says:

        Start up the chat too. I could also schedule a placeholder MD post to appear at the same time, that way even if nobody with posting privileges is attending, there would be an open comment thread to use.Report

  15. Chris says:

    Note to anyone creating a gmail address specifically for this (say you don’t want your secret identity revealed): use a plausible name. I was unable to attend this week’s party because Google had suspended my Google + access (which is apparently required for Hangouts) because the name on my 10 year old gmail account was rejected (it was just “Mixing Memory”).Report