are the "memphis goons" real?

that sounds like something i'd like

real or fake

Actually I hear Obscure Band Name are reuniting for a one show only thing, I think in New York this summer. The guy from NRBQ is their drummer for that show I believe.

aaron wrote:are the "memphis goons" real?

Absolutely real, but also kind of fake, which makes the joke by Mr. The Classical even better.

Jesus. A Memphis Goons reference.

This website is pure dynamite!

I always assume that most people--and by people I mean music fans, people with similar interests--know about most of the bands I do. If they haven't heard something, they at least know OF it. Etc.

Casual fans, radio listeners, and people 5-10 years younger will think everything you might mention is obscure and that you automaticaly hate bands that are, quote, "popular."

What I hate are people who say, "Oh, you like New Indie Band? Well, you need to hear Some Old Band. They were doing that like 20 years ago, and waaay better." I wouldn't mind this, but it usually seems like one-upmanship and a way to make you feel lame for liking something. I get excited about new bands sometimes. Even some new bands that get good reviews in Pitchfork. I'm not a music historian. I don't feel obligated to trace the lineage of everything I listen to.

Why won't you let me listen to The Postal Service in peace!

One of my friends gets all of his music from IRC, so he only really has access to new stuff that just got released, or resissues... after a CD's been out for a while, people will stop sharing it on IRC and as a result, he doesn't hear anything past a certain point in time, and he has no sense of musical history at all.

That bothers me, though. I like knowing about the growth and evolution of different bands and genres of music, I mean, I don't think I'd appreciate a lot of what I listen to now if I didn't have a clue to the context. Context, I believe, is very important in music.

STF wrote:What I hate are people who say, "Oh, you like New Indie Band? Well, you need to hear Some Old Band. They were doing that like 20 years ago, and waaay better." I wouldn't mind this, but it usually seems like one-upmanship and a way to make you feel lame for liking something. I get excited about new bands sometimes. Even some new bands that get good reviews in Pitchfork. I'm not a music historian. I don't feel obligated to trace the lineage of everything I listen to.

Why won't you let me listen to The Postal Service in peace!

Listen away! There's no mandate that says you have to do anything.

Speaking as one for whom "newly minted" music has grown exponentially stale over the past 10 years, I find digging into the likes and dislikes of bands that I like and dislike acts as a pipeline to "new" music, not necessarily made within the past year.

Ex: without Scratch Acid references I never would have listened to the Birthday Party, having already filed it away sub-Nick Cave.

Without the Fall I never would have found the Monks. Without SY and Helmet, I never would have heard Branca.

Same goes for Television, Can, Hendrix, Emmit Rhodes, Bongwater, Gene Clark, VU, Aerosmith, Funkadelic, Talk Talk.

That list can go on and on and on. Point being that I'm not particularly in love with all of those bands, some, in my opinion, are shit when compared like this:

Well, you need to hear Some Old Band. They were doing that like 20 years ago, and waaay better

The point is if someone challenges you, fuck the one-upmanship. It's a waste of thought and energy. Rather take the opportunity to branch off and make your own comparison.

You may end up with a completely justified opposing opinion, and the next time a clown tells that same "so-and-so" did it better earlier, you can enjoy a refreshing discourse about the topic, instead of wasting energy internally loathing some music snob asshole.

I knocked the Strokes on a different thread here recently, but that was really about the whole of the New New No Wave New Hipness in music happening recently. I actually like the Strokes as a band, don't own a record, but have never found displeasure in the fact that they they can be easily knocked as a combo of late 70's NYC goodness.

But that doesn't stop me from having a conversation about Television.

aaron wrote:are the "memphis goons" real?

that sounds like something i'd like

real or fake

Yeah, I really need to know some more about Memphis Goons. I drove to work thinking about this band.

I'm being totally serious.

Dylan wrote:If you guys liked early Obscure Band Name, try to find Johnny Couldn't-Get-Along-With-The-Singer's solo 7": oh, nevermind, you'll never find it, it's impossibly rare but I have one of the 25 copies pressed.

that's not the 5-off 7 and 3/4 inch cut by hand onto aircraft aluminium then? no? oh well....i'm sure you'll 'enjoy' your ordinary copy anyway.

So where did you buy it? Independent Record Shop? Yeah, that was great until Hipster Clerk left. Now I usually go to Ultra Hip Shop In Really Scary Part Of Town...

Somebody mentioned Sun City Girls. They seem to inspire a collector freak-out reaction because they put out so much stuff. I only have a few of their records. I have heard some that were so-so, but when they are good they are SO good. Sir Richard Bishop "Salvador Kali" record is also really good. "Grotto of Miracles" is great. My friend lent me "3 fake female orgasms" record which is also wonderful. I think they are a pretty well known band but put out so many records that a lot of the records are obscure. You would need a lot of money to get all of their records.

Name dropping: crap
Telling people about music you like or playing it for them: not crap

johnnyshape wrote:Independent Record Shop? Yeah, that was great until Hipster Clerk left. Now I usually go to Ultra Hip Shop In Really Scary Part Of Town...

I saw Hipster Clerk at the New Indie Band show (which was awesome, btw - Some Old Band did it better of course, but those guys have lost it over the years. Y'know they lost their edge). He was with his new girfriend Coffeehouse Girl, who sold me her copy of Johhny-Couldn't-Get's 7". I already had the aluminum one, but I figured the regular one I could play for people. She totally didn't know who he was, it was awesome! I paid, like $20 for it!