I won't be running out to the record store to buy the Mickey Hart reissues

big mistake! this is mostly percussion and, more important, Hart worked with Zakir Hussain on it. it's really cool.

Hart really knows his stuff, percussion wise. The man is all about the World beat. I don't have Diga Rhythm but as I recall the Planet Drum thing is pretty cool.

i like Diga a lot more...but heck, i like anything if you add tablas on top of it. ;-)

I'm sure I've heard Diga at some point, but for whatever reason never actually bought it. I guess that's what reissues are for.

Man, this makes me want to pull out some of my 80s Dead shows just for the drums section. Man those guys could make some spectacular noise.

I'll make ya a deal. You can keep your Dead/Hart, I'll keep my Tunnel Of Love and Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, and we'll call it even...

-Glen

my point was not to convince you that you "should" like the Dead...just that Diga is really a percussion record.

I'm pretty much open to anything Mark. But everytime I've tried out anything associated with these guys, it's just never worked for me. And I'm not a real big fan of those world music type drum records to begin with. They are fun to watch every year at our Bumbershoot festival here in Seattle, but on a purely emotional level, the music itself doesn't move me a whole lot.

-Glen

I don't like opera either ya know...

-Glen

Aw, man, I missed all the fun the other day with Mark's post. That's what I get for actually working. I might not have been up for the grilling, however - I'm not a Dead fan, either. Just don't dig their sound, plain and simple.

Remind me to buy you a beer next time I see ya Mr. Johnson.

-Glen

i always knew there was a reason to distrust you Porcupine Tree fanatics.

I don't really care if either of you like the Dead or not, but it is fun talking about them.

If I wanted to be smart I'd ask which sound you didn't like, Tom. Depending on when you listen, the Dead created all sorts of sounds. From 65 to 69 they were straight up psychedelic craziness. In the 70s they focused on songwriting as well as long jams. In the 80s they found midi and the sound went a totally different direction and the 90s. Well the 90s weren't their best period.

Solo projects though, that's another story all together.

Ok, I think the dead have successfully hijacked enough threads for now.

Oh, I know how to switch the subject. Mark, give me some The Roches suggestions. I've just started listening to them and am really digging what I have (especially the Suzzy/Maggie disk Why the Long Face

What are your favorite albums?

well, to go way back, you can't go wrong the self-titled, Robert Fripp-produced record.
Nerds is also good.

Speak is really good too, but that might be out of print.

All I can say is that I've been around enough Dead stuff to say that I don't particularly dig any of it. It's just a band-feel thing - nothing grabs me, and I've heard enough that it covers the spectrum and that spectrum is decidedly "blechy" colored. I won't say "never," as Mark pointed out surprising a hater with something unexpected and he liked it, but it would take something extraordinary.

Percussion fans ought to check out the Ramiro Musotto record; Brazilian electronic and drum-based music. Very cool stuff.

I'm definitely checking out the Lanois.

Some people just don't get the Dead. Most probably associate them with these grand rock concerts full of wasted dancing hippies. They just don't get it. But there's so much to "it" that it takes a special person to be able to get it. I guess they'd rather go to a concert and hear tunes exactly like they are on the album? Beats me.

Actually, I'd rather just listen to the album.

I've seen Muse a couple of times in Atlanta at the Tabernacle..they really are meant to be a stadium band.