Blogcritics Comments on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Comment by Mat Brewster on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 01:34:32 EDT

They really are quite fantastic. Old and in the way was a cool bluegrass side project too. Oh, and I've got a couple of shows of Garcia on broadway that have him doing a lot of really old stuff too. Lots of fun. Garcia was like an encyclopedia of all sorts of music.

Comment by Mark Saleski on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 07:30:10 EDT

"Mark, did you ever hear the Garcia/Grisman disk So What?" oh gawd yes! i have that and also The Pizza Tapes. at some point, i'd love to get everything they put out. really great stuff, and totally reveals Garcia's old timey/jazz/bluegrass influences.

Comment by Mark Saleski on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 07:25:38 EDT

"Life is an all-day event, and Deadheads enjoy grabbing a chair and watching it go by with like-minded folk." just like we do up here in new england. chairs in front of the garage, watching the traffic go by. wait, new englanders can't be the only ones....

Comment by Mat Brewster on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:43:53 EDT

I think a lot of people don't realize how jazzy the dead could be. In a lot of ways they way they played together was very jazz-like even if the sound wasn't always so. Mark, did you ever hear the Garcia/Grisman disk So What? Lots of cool jazzy stuff on there.

Comment by El Bicho on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 01:42:30 EDT

Life is an all-day event, and Deadheads enjoy grabbing a chair and watching it go by with like-minded folk. The concert is just one part of the festivities. No one is telling you to adopt strangers into your home, but what's the harm in meeting new people, seeing new sights, having some beers and laughs with friends? It's a big world. Don't be scared of it.

Comment by JC Mosquito on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:17:40 EDT

Blues for A - urk. But I luv the first Dead album - and Bear's choice version of Smokestack Lightnin'. I don't think the problem people have with the Dead is the jam thing... but I don't know what it is. I periodically try their albums, but never care for them. But I was like that with Bob Marley for years, and now I get the point - it just took me 20 plus years.

Comment by Mark Saleski on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:58:10 EDT

oh nuts, mat brings up Blues For Allah, my favorite studio Dead. i once "tricked" a professed Dead-hater with that album. i played him part of "King Soloman's Marbles," which is from their jazzier side...and he loved it. the look on his face when he found out it was the Dead, freakin' priceless.

Comment by Glen Boyd on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:57:47 EDT

Just for the record, the whole thing about the drugs was meant to be somewhat tongue in cheek. Partially as a bad attempt at humor after something Donald said, and partially to clarify that I, in fact, was not high when I saw them (after Bicho had indicated I might've been). Also for the record, my Mama once told me never to eat a burrito served by a girl caked in mud, sitting in one of those grill plates you see at the engine shop, complete with the black oil stains. I love a half-naked hippie chick as much as anybody, but if she is going to serve me a burrito, she had best be a CLEAN half-naked hippie chick. -Glen

Comment by Mat Brewster on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:44:33 EDT

Donald I think lots of those folks hanging out all day are actually on tour with the band. I know people used to tour with the Dead and still do with other jam bands They camp out when they can or sleep in their vans, and then with nothing better to do until the show starts they hang out. Or sell veggie burritos. Or t-shirts. Or drugs. I always dig a good lot scene, and have tried the burritos, Glen (not bad actually) but yeah I only need a half hour or so of that before I'm ready to go inside.

Comment by Mat Brewster on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:23:09 EDT

Sorry I'm late, but I'll throw in my nickel's worth on the dead. That bit about needing to be high to get the dead is utter BS. I don't do psychedelics and I love the Grateful Dead. There is an old quote about the band that goes something like - the dead are like black licorice, not everyone likes it, but those who do really like it. They wrote some great songs. I'd put Hunter/Garcia right up there with Lennon/McCartney and Dylan. And that's not including the great stuff Bob Weir has written over the years. They were very eclectic as Mark mentions. In their songs you can hear old timey folk music, jazz, the blues, and of course rock. I mean these are guys who have covered Dylan, Warren Zevon, Martha and the Vandellas, and Blind Gary Davis. Their studio work is a bit spotty. Albums like American Beauty, Working Man's Dead and Blues for Allah are pretty brilliant in my opinion, but later albums like Go to Heaven and Built to Last are marred by terrible production. Live is really where they're at and this comes from a guy who never attended one of their concerts (I've seen the various incarnations post-Garcia but never saw the fat man himself.) What I do have is a thousand odd hours of recorded concerts and even without the benefit of being surrounded by a thousand friends and being high, the music moves me like no other. Concerts were like grand experiments with the audience just as much a part as the band. They never had written setlists and no one ever know what was going to happen. This certainly meant that sometimes they failed horrible, but it also brought them to amazing peaks. As for the noodling, sure it was there sometimes. They improved pretty much on every song. Sometimes this was very little, and the songs stayed pretty much like it was written, sometimes the song lost all sense of its structure and you cold hardly even call it a song. When they were on it was like every member of the band was psychically connected to each other playing just the right note at just the right time. They certainly aren't for every one, they aren't even for me all the time, but man sometimes they hit just the right spot. As Bill Graham used to say the Dead aren't the best at what they do, they're the only ones who do what they do.

Comment by Donald Gibson on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:05:30 EDT

I can understand tailgating at all-day events, like festivals or whatnot. But if a concert starts at 8 and the doors open around 6:30, I don't need to be in the parking lot at noon to shoot the breeze with people while eating cold burgers behind some random guy's van. Just because I like the same music as 20,000 other people on the same night doesn't mean I have to be their buddy for the whole day. Being in a venue among thousands of people during a concert is a great rush. Excluding the performance, that rush doesn't translate to the parking lot.

Comment by Mark Saleski on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:36:52 EDT

the funny thing here is that i wouldn't know if the Dead were any better in concert or not because i never got a chance to see a show. only had one chance up at school and couldn't afford it (man, i think it was 15 bucks! woo!) anyway, i'm not arguing that you should like them, because that's just silly. was just pointing out that they were not high percentage freeform jamming.

Comment by El Bicho on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:31:36 EDT

I do enjoy tailgating. I just don't see any difference between music fans beyond their surface.

Comment by Donald Gibson on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:02:48 EDT

"The Boss fan trying to recapture his glory days from high school by getting drunk in the parking lot on Natural Light and Jack Daniels doesn't impress me much, either." And here I thought you liked tailgating, Bicho.

Comment by El Bicho on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:30:34 EDT

"I am very much into musical experimentation and the whole idea of expanding boundaries...which is why my CD collection" You not getting it might be because you don't appear to understand what they were doing from what you are writing. It wasn't so much about experiments and expanding as it was creating something from scratch. They didn't release CDs of their "space" jams because they were temporary art pieces not completed works. I can't verify what went on at the shows you attended (although if you can remember the dates, I might be able to find them at the Archive) but they don't resemble the shows I went to during the late '80s/early '90s. The Boss fan trying to recapture his glory days from high school by getting drunk in the parking lot on Natural Light and Jack Daniels doesn't impress me much, either.

Comment by Glen Boyd on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:26:55 EDT

Come to think of it, the shared community thing works much better for me at a Springsteen show. That shared experience gives me a joy, and brings a shit eating grin to my face for those couple of hours that I simply can't adquately put into words. -Glen

Comment by Glen Boyd on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:16:55 EDT

I tried them out at two shows and what I saw -- and heard -- is what I saw. I actually found the experience to be culturally entertaining, devoid of any mind altering substances as I was. Watching time flash backwards and stand still is in fact quite fun from a distance. I just wouldn't want to live there. Bottom line though, is I just didn't care for the music all that much. Now that said, do I know these guys are good musicians? Of course I do. And have I heard well constructed songs on their records? On occasion, I have. Again, I just don't like their music all that much. And I have tried giving it a chance, both on record, and when that failed, in concert (because the Dead, like Bruce, simply must be experienced live right?). Just didn't work for me. And that was basically the point of the article, right? -Glen

Comment by Mark Saleski on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:07:15 EDT

while i can appreciate that you don't "get" them glen, your characterization of the music isn't really close to what really goes on. i'd say on most nights, well over 95% of the material is song-based...very much like the records i pointed out. sounds to me like the scene freaked you out too much. and the need to be in an altered state is just bullshit.

Comment by Glen Boyd on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:23:53 EDT

Its not that I don't like jamming or improvisation, Bicho. Quite the opposite actually. It's just that for me to appreciate it at least, it needs to have some point of reference. I am very much into musical experimentation and the whole idea of expanding boundaries...which is why my CD collection includes everything from Radiohead to Miles Davis to Robert Fripp to some of those other sixties bands that I thought did a far better job of it (Airplane, Quicksilver, Cream's "headier" stuff for example). What I saw at the two Dead concerts I attended was five plus hours (or so I'm told, cause I lasted about two) of cosmic noodling without much of a common point of reference at all. Like I said, I just disn't "get it". And that is probably because I was in fact, not wasted. That's where I probably messed up and as a result missed the "experience." As for the whole community deal, all I know is that when the hippie chick caked from head to toe in mud offered me a $1. burrito from what looked like the sort of grease pan you'd see in an engine shop, I wasn't buying. No sir. -Glen

Comment by El Bicho on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:07:45 EDT

"song structure is important to you. And they just don't have it." Sounds like you only heard them live, Glen, and were too wasted at the time to pay attention because anyone who has listened to the albums Mark mentions or their greatest hits knows that line is a bunch of ill-informed hogwash. It's not like every song has a 30-min jam in the middle of it. Now I understand people not liking jamming, but that means they are only fans of music as a final product, and they don't appreciate the process. You see the band create during jams, communicate and interact without words. Is it always successful? Of course, not but it isn't supposed to be. They are like deleted scenes from a movie, early brush strokes on a canvas. It's about the moment: what it offers and what you bring to it. "I just don't get what the phenomenon was all about (and I'll never understand tailgating at a concert)." They were an unpretentious band who understood that they were a part something bigger, providing a soundtrack to people's lives. Much like the unheard tree falling, music means little if no one is there to hear it. Their music belongs to everyone, which is why they led the way in authorized bootlegs. Hell, there's over 2k shows of theirs online. Plus, there's a mindset, similar to "On the Road," that's there's an adventure out there waiting for you. The Dead were like a traveling circus, a musical Brigadoon, setting up for a whole weekend in different towns as the house band for whatever you wanted to make out of the day.There was a sense of freedom, and the rabbit hole was there if you chose to go down it. No show was ever the same and it went beyond the set list. What's not to get about tailgating? Are you clean and sober fellow who just parks and runs inside the auditorium. How is it different than a sporting event? Are you not curious about the people who also enjoy the same music? Much like Jimmy Buffet, the parking lot scene was at least half the fun of the event. Rare was it to see more smiling faces, induced by whatever means, and more friendly, outgoing people at a concert than a Dead show. There's a reason that regardless of record sales, they were consistently a top-ten concert draw every year. If you didn't get the Dead, half the fault is yours.

Comment by Tom Johnson on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:50:09 EDT

I think "silliness" is an intentional component of early Genesis, Eric. There's a very thought-out campiness going on in the Gabriel-era Genesis songs, and I have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of that era. What I do like I LOVE, however, but I consider that era far spottier than most fans. As for The Lamb, the first half is very strong while I can hardly remember a thing about the second half. It just loses steam and, thus, I lose interest. As for The Smiths, I find Morrissey simultaneously intriguing and annoying. I think his sense of melody is stunning, but at times he just overdoes it, cramming too much lilting melody into every cranny of the song. I only got into them because of Neil Finn's really lovely cover of "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" on 7 Worlds Collide. Otherwise, I might never have bothered at all. And, yeah, as for Steely Dan, my reaction will likely never change: great musicians but they gross me out.

Comment by Pico on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:45:35 EDT

"Inverse Musical Resonance"...I wonder if a prog-metal band has claimed that for their name yet ;&)

Comment by Eric Gagne on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 10:59:08 EDT

mark. i'm one of the bonny billy friends. i love that dude, and i'll probably buy everything his name is attached to until i die. it's just one of those things for me. but what i really want to say is, thank you for the genesis comment. i have friends that think genesis is the most incredible band to emerge from that english prog business. it's so strange to me. they sound ridiculous. actually most of that music sounds terribly silly to me. all with exception of king crimson. they are the heaviest goddamn band on the planet sometimes (69-77). how anyone can have a different opinion on that is beyond me.

Comment by Mark Saleski on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 06:55:55 EDT

i'm hoping mr. brewster chimes in here on The Dead. first of all, i've never done any psychedelics so that part is out for me. i dunno, i guess what i like about them is how they blend so many influences in there to make their own thing. specifically, on records like American Beauty and Workingman's Dead, you have tidbits of rock, folk, blues, jazz, and bluegrass. they say that their studio stuff wasn't nearly as good as the live material. i'd say it's just different. the longer jams, i can definitely see how somebody wouldn't like them.

Comment by Glen Boyd on The Friday Morning Listen: Various Artists - Inverse Musical Resonance

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:04:42 EDT

Cool Robert. I look forward to it. -Glen