Colors Fading...responding to the comments

It feels a bit like unearthing some old machine buried under a pile of rubble in your grandfather's basement. It takes a bit of work, some head scratching, some oil, and a lot of mumbling, but once it gets going again you wonder why it sat unused for so long. Such, at least, is my hope for this as I excavate back 8 months to respond to the the critics out there.

As most of the comments were song specific, I'll get right into those, but Dan did make one fairly important meta comment that I'd like to address.

This will probably remain one of those areas where Dan and I do not quite jive, but I think it's worth fleshing it out a little bit. The basic thought was that these collections are more "album-like" when the songs are drawn from the same genre of music (country, ambient, funk, reggae, whatever). On its face, that is hard to argue with, but while I have also compiled collections drawn from specific and shared genres, I find the challenge of assembling a collection that is not, more entertaining. Using the ten songs included on this collection as an example, I had lots of choices to select from, way more than the ten I ended up choosing, but by virtue of wanting to present certain artists and by wanting to create a flow through them, I whittled, and shifted, reordered and tweaked until I felt liked they worked together and more importantly flowed from one to the other. This is never going to feel quite like an album as it contains music from vastly different minds and even vastly different eras, but even still it attempts to be more than Now This is Music 17! Whether it succeeds is ultimately in the ear of the beholder.

On to the songs....

Track 1 - Blue Caravan
Universally liked once Stephen found his listening moment, and entirely without controversy.

Track 2 - The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth

• Dan - I dislike affected country twangs because they seem to be demanded of artists by the industry and listening public. If you don't actually sound like that when you sing, and nothing about the song is improved by singing like that, don't affect the twang. Contrast with the lead singer of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, who while gaining some notoriety (see David Byrne, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan) for having a highly unorthodox, and possibly annoying to many, singing voice, is not singing like that because of choice.

• TClog - any reference to West Virginia makes you thing of John Denver.
• MT - this song was not the inspiration for the collection but found its way on very quickly.

Track #3 - Red Oyster Cult

• T-Clog - yes, through puberty, as old as we are.
• The Who - I'd be interested in knowing specifically what parts sound Who-lie. You too went through a rather obsessive Who stage about the same time as these guys formed their band. I wonder if they did too.
• I have no real wisdom regarding the lyrics, but it you like this song, you would not be disappointed in either this album Keep it Together, or the one before Lost and Gone Forever. It's all filled with pop jewels with great harmonies and skin-based drumming.
  

Track #4 - Pink Triangle
Everyone likes the idea of Weezer, and MT is basically right in saying their albums don't really hold up, but they do hold enough gems like this to be worth listening to.

Track #5 - Silver

• MT - I think I can recreate your memory without actually remembering the moment. Ames. West of campus. Hickory Avenue. Faith renting a room in a house out there. You were out of school. Hickory has a bit of a country lane feel to it. Faith was very into the Pixies.
• Never a song I expected to blow the doors off. It did provide a good transition.

Track 6 - White Girl
I guess I'll have to work more SC into future compilations. Be-bop IS jazz. Samsung is NOT iPod. I think Dan ascribes (ascribed?) far too many negative intentions into far too many people, at least in the art community. Plenty of pomposity out there, but why assume it and ruin possible enjoyment. John Lennon could be a real pompous dick, but he made some great music.

Track 7 - Gold to Me
Also never really expected revelations from this, though MT's thoughts were interesting.

Track 8 - Green Arrow
Universally appreciated, and funny convergence with a comic book hero. A very simple song that does little with even less and still sounds great.

Track 9 - Orange Colored Sky
More appreciated than I would have expected, and happy for it. So great.

Track 10 - Olive
Dan - as far as I know the music is improvised (many and varied interpretations of that concept, especially in jazz) and he 'talks' over the top of it. Glad y'all liked it.

Wrap-up

• Stephen - She's a Rainbow is one of my favorite RS songs, and would have been a lovely inclusion.
• Dan - only one 'green' allowed.
• MT - Purple Haze...also a good option.
• TClog - glad you liked it.

And with that I pass the baton (baton rouge perhaps?).

May the new year find you healthy, wealthy and wise.

A CMC Crusade

I am hoping that 2008 will be a year that is full of good music. I believe that we are all on board with the lose deadlines, but I hope we get more than one album out and enjoyed. Now that Meth is back from the land down under, (I suspect an Austrailian album coming in the future) we can get to it after the holidays. I hope that you are as excited as I am about 2008.