Premier Rock Forum

Why has it taken so long for Mayfair to tan my hide on this one?

Come on, you Carpenters-loving guy, you. The minivan's running.

Bradley R. Weissenberger wrote:The Carpenters are an interesting phenomenon to me....Why? Because no matter how vapid and maudlin their music might be, people of taste and intelligence will step up to defend this band without hesitation......I do not understand it. ....Plain. Hollow. Vanilla. Empty. Shit.....

Now I do not know you very well Brad (may I call you Brad?) but here is what I fear has happened to a portion of our punk rock listening chums.

They (maybe you?) have been desensitized. The music they (maybe you?)listen to has pushed the limits of volume, brut force, and what can be seen as urgency. Wearing your heart on your sleeve (as seems to be a trait of much modern day emo and punk rock) has replaced subtlety and mystery. Screaming or yelling the lyrics and being very blunt has taken the place of vocal craft and lyrical complexity. I think music like the Carpenters in contrast seems quiet, happy, maybe even vapid due to it not pushing the needle into the red, literally and figuratively. I think once you get the love of wielding a chainsaw it is often times hard to appreciate the simple work of hand inlay.

I think the emotional depth of some of the Carpenters music, as well as the care of the arrangements is a much wider scope than a lot of 'rock' bands we speak of here. I personally like detail like that. I think it is good to appreciate the small details in songwritting and execution. This is the same reason I like the Beatles. There was a good article many years ago about architecture. It was actually a Prince Charles interview I think. Anyway, the gist was that good architecture multiplies as you approach it. It is good and seemingly simple from a far. There is more design and details as you move closer and still more the closer you look. This brings a richness to what is being made up.

OK, I got off the subject a little.

Carpenters.. good stuff.

Mayfair, you have made many excellent points about the appreciation of fine music of craft, subtlety and substance.

I just can't believe that you applied these points to The Carpenters.

Salut, Mayfair. You will enjoy The Carpenters. I hope that they serve you well.

Cheers,
Brad

P.S. I prefer hand inlay to chainsaws. It's true.

Hmmm... I hear a lot of soul in the music. There is an incredible aching in some of these songs... a creepy vibe that pulls the sound beyond the simple pop confection one may think they're hearing upon an initial casual listening.

I also think the fact that the music is very suburban and sterile, makes it all the more disturbing. Like a scene in a movie where the family is all trying to keep it together, even though Mom's addicted to pills and Dad's having an affair. They still have dinner parties with forced conversation. There is something beneath it all that is terribly wrong; it makes your imagination wander into dark places.

Especially with Karen's back story, it puts an entirely different spin on the music for me. I see beyond its mint-green, freshly vacuumed and raked shag carpeting. There's all this twisted melancholy and tension wrapped in these deceptively simple, sad love songs. I can't listen to them too much for this reason, it's beautiful, but incredibly depressing to me.

Bradley R. Weissenberger wrote:There is no emotional heft. Dull dull novocaine dull.

Bradley R. Weissenberger wrote:You would think that a damaged soul like Karen Carpenter would cough up something at least slightly off-kilter. Nope. Not even "Rainy Days and Mondays" rings true. It sounds like she's singing from a phonebook. It's almost like she was detemined to be soulless.

You have identified precisely the fascination the Carpenters hold for people like Todd Haynes, Angus Jung, etc. This emotionless, soulless perfection, presented by damaged souls.

People have no trouble identifying and appreciating this kind of surface-level horrific sterile vapidity aesthetic when it is presented by, say, Stanley Kubrick.

That the Carpenters most likely didn't intend to turn out the eerie, frightening works of art that they did in fact create is beside the point.

Plus, there is "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft."

N/C

Linus Van Pelt wrote:

Maybe I just haven't heard the right album.

"A Song For You" is the best lp.
Not Crap

I almost made a poll for the Carpenters yesterday while I was thinking of how beautiful and enjoyable their music is. I think there is such a deep feeling in their music, that many people find it too hard to grasp on to and therefore feel it too depressing for them to enjoy. I agree that some of these people are the same type who would watch a movie with the same type of feeling presented through the imagery, and would find it to be very amusing and enjoyable

Sonic Youth's cover of "Superstar" is one of my favorite covers ever...but the real deal: CRAP...the kind of music i'd listen to if i was in the mood to have my vagina vomit...

Mayfair wrote:

mattw wrote:
Rick Moranis, RIP: 1981-1989

Rick Moranis is not dead is he? Google did not say he was.

Yeah, for sixteen years. Though his life was short, the world is a richer place because of him and his gift, whose legacy is laughter.

Somebody on these blessed pages once said they wished they could hear "Stairway to Heaven" in a cultural vacuum (was it "Stairway to Heaven" or "Free Bird"? And was that T. Midgett?).

Anyway, I sort of feel the same way about the Carpenters. I have very fuzzy memories of them from my childhood -- it seems like they really hit their stride when I was very young. So hearing them reminds me of my mother, when she was my age (!), and general happy/sad stuff like riding in the back seat of a 1970 Ford LTD and watching the raindrops drip patterns on the windows as you roll down Main Street, USA.

Add in the tragic back-story and the ace production and you've got a generation of people who probably can't come to anything resembling an objective conclusion. And I count myself among them. I don't sit around and listen to The Carpenters (well, hardly ever), but I find their white-bread tunes to be as comforting as the fetal position, while at the same time making the muscles in my head hurt like I've just taken a bunch of LSD and sat down to watch a few hours of infomercials.

Mysterious...