Random 10 for July 13, 2007
1. Pink Floyd, “Arnold Layne.” Last night, at the home of a Staticblog reader, we were discussing the relative merits of a Pink Floyd reunion, and our host, Kev, said that it isn’t truly necessary: Roger Waters had all the bases covered when he saw him in Vegas recently. Even had a David Gilmour soundalike. Of course, a true reunion is impossible now, no matter how relations between the Waters/Gilmour camps sour or improve. This video shows the late Syd Barrett in all his pre-meltdown glory.
2. Patrick Watson, “Luscious Life.”
3. Wilco, “Impossible Germany.”
4. Kings of Leon, “On Call.” The Followill boys slicked it up on “Because of the Times,” dispensed with some of their “Strokes on Capricorn Records/Allman Brothers at CBGB” vibe and aimed for the arenas. I don’t mind it when it’s done right, and they did it.
5. A Band of Bees, “Listening Man.”
6. Thee Hydrogen Terrors, “Sissy Bar.”
7. LCD Soundsystem, “Watch the Tapes.”
8. Barenaked Ladies, “Fight the Power.”
9. Dizzee Rascal, “Fix Up, Look Sharp.” This samples a semi-obscure piece of strutting monster truck blather from 1980 called “The Big Beat” by Billy Squier. Oddly enough, “The Big Beat” supplied many of the early Queens rappers with their backing tracks when they were still plugging into streetlights. But for anyone to use it in this day and age took guts, and ends up being both catchy and stupid/funny.
10. The Flaming Lips, “It Overtakes Me/The Stars Are So Big, I Am So Small… Do I Stand a Chance?”
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Comments
For the record, I didn’t mean to dismiss Gilmour, etc. as less than contributors to Floyd’s greatness. But having seen the “official” Floyd in ’94, and Waters’s solo show this summer, I’d say I missed Waters in ’94 a whole lot more than I missed Gilmour, Mason, or Wright in July. The modern Floyd comes off like a sterile recreation of the original, while the Waters show had an electricity that expanded on the source material. Plus, Matt had a good point that Water’s vision of Pink Floyd is so clear that adding the other members would just dilute it. Would Gilmour agree to let a giant pink pig covered in anti-Bush propaganda fly over the crowd? Or do “Bring the Boys Back Home” as an encore?
Waters was able to sequence and arrange his show in a way that made material from The Wall, WYWH, Animals and Dark Side of the Moon seem like one large, vital,and current work, while the most recent output of Gilmour’s Floyd plays like every other nostalgia act at the zoo.
I did just pick up the new-ish DVD of Pink Floyd at Pompeii, which is really great as a document of the band on the cusp of “Dark Side.” It comes off a bit like “I am Trying to Break Your Heart” if everyone in Wilco were on the same page.
I love Barrett for giving us Floyd, Epic Soundtracks and Robyn Hitchcock. But I’ve never been the fervent fan that deemed Barrett the ONLY Floyd that mattered. I rarely hit the space bar on anything pre-UMMAGUMMA. When we did that Floyd show, what… five years ago(?), I remember the Students immediately choosing DARK SIDE as their set. It made sense. Barrett was genius, but so were the other four. They just happened to be a bit more engaging in my book.
Do we need anymore of these silly, cash-cow reunions? 250 bucks to see a band that started out in dive bars? I’m sorry, but this Police reunion is just awful. They need a Sting-a-like to hit those high notes. They waited too long. There’s nothing about this tour that seems genuine. There are man other amazing bands that are far more relevant and honest that could use the press.
The only reunion I’d like to see is Mick Fleetwood with his spent cash so he can stop dragging those tired band mates around, pretending to care.
As an aside, we went to see the UFOs at the Zoo screening at the Ford last week. I think I saw most of you posters in the audience. That UFO is really something live. We saw it on New Year’s Eve, and it’s pretty cool. It made me go back and re-watch the 1978 ELO “Out of the Blue: Live at Wembley” show. Now THAT was a live concert. Amazing. By the way, when is the ELO reunion tour? Nooooooooooooooo….ooo…o.