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listening to snippets now. thanks a lot.
i wont spoil it for me and wont listen to the whole thing before seeing it live myself. but the singing seems to be SUPERB! :mrgreen: especially on Proteus – a Prayer and the downtuned (is it really?) Mutiny rocks just like on the record.
Quote:let's just agree to disagree man!I'm not arguing. I'm just writing what I feel about it. We don't need to agree at all. It's a common usual thing to disagree and great minds do just that. :mrgreen: (i never bought that "great minds think alike" crap)
And my posting above got overlong because a train of thought went wild.
So…
I understood well you only have a issue with the singing and none with the music. But already on Demon Box I came to realize (and I thought it to be a common perception), they simply are not the common rock singer shouter whatever. There's a completely different mindset going on. The singing will be "flawed" but it will always be given a 100% onstage. Because it's the song, not the singer. It's the heart, not the notes. The feelings, not the phrases.
Then I shudder to think of a Chris Cornell or Mike Patton (and I like what they do in their careers) type singing in this band. It wouldn't work. No one wants Eddie Vedder in Sonic Youth or Pavarotti in The Velvet Underground. Think of the Jesus Lizard with anybody else but David Yow!
When "asking" MP to overcome certain flaws just because other bands can, well then I'd like first to see other bands overcome their flaws and limitations to be even able to think about producing something that holds up against MP's backcatalogue.
AND:
Where I am completely right is: Dream Theater are robots! And not because they are inhumanly good (and they are not in my book), but because they cut every little note and nuance right down to perfection till it's completely dead. And live you get them exactly like that. Is this what Keith Moon has lived and died for? Robots indeed. And that's the worst thing one can do to music. Unless you're Kraftwerk. But even they have more soul on stage.
And DT also have no style whatsoever. Maybe that's even their worst problem.
Short; Hail MP!
With Permanent Waves Geddy drastically lowered his range except for that Freewill part, which has reportedly the highest singing part in the whole Rush catalogue. I prefer the handful of albums they did right then up to Grace Under Pressure to the sometimes way too bombastic stuff from the 70ties. Then they did some terrible albums mid to late 80ties but came back to form with Counterparts. Vapor Trails and everything thenafter I find very enjoyable. Back to "classic rock" without the shrieking vocals. And the Feedback cover album has some nice tunes, taken from Neil Young to The Who.
Well I never got sourballs or bombing shows from them. That's because I enjoy what I hear as an overall presentation. I purposedly don't listen to details or little mistakes. For me MP live is a physical belly gutsy hearty thing and in the best possible case a transcendent experience. And their current music is most definitely more demanding to play. There's tons of odd meters and weird breaks and Snah's chords and harmonies are way beyond the usual rock scaling. Now they have to sing to all that every night at deafening volumes. Oh I never would want them to set any bar lower just to hit the notes right. That's a weird wish. I respect how they push themselves and their music, even at the risk of going over the brink, and I want to follow them when witnessing it. Like Led Zeppelin in their prime. Tons of odd and broken weird guitar solos by Jimmy Page but so what? They wanted to boldly go out there every night, too, at whatever cost, and sounded different every night. This going out there attitude is what brought TDDU to life in the first place and this is the reason why 99% of "progressive" bands will never even get close to its idea nowadays. Add to that the open nature of their live arrangements and the stretching out without safety nets. It's their desire to experiment and their total devotion to music and to being a musician. There's way too many people always traveling the safe side when making music. And the last thing I wish Motorpsycho to do is to get safe and boring. I'd take some sour notes anyday over that.
I had to endure Dream Theater for example due to working at a venue and it was terrible. Music by robots. Why not stay home listening to the records? Why not demanding a percentage of the entry ticket money back according to the mistakes played? I find it weird to "demand" anything from the artist expect their 100% energy and dedication for this evening (on a sidenote, to quote Rollins: "fuck the bands who do warm-up gigs!", because this stands for respecting one audience less than that other one in the bigger city's more important venue). So I'd rather have them screaming and playing wrong notes with full dedication than to be perfectly on pitch all the time while repeating the same songs in the same safe-bet manner every night, being in full control because the bar's been set just low enough. If they'd ever do that, that's when I probably will stop going to see them and I shudder to think of this. But I'm convinced this will never happen. That's just the way they do it and what they deliver and so it's what we get, teh 100% real shit in a manner incomparable to other bands. Very much fortunately.
I know I'm playing one thing (energy & dedication) against the other (perfect playing and singing) when both could go together just fine. But maybe not in things Motorpsycho, and if so, then I simply prefer the first to the second thing. And who are we to demand that? Shall we boycott the shows to make them practice more or what? :lol:
I pretty much stopped listening to audience live recordings btw. Because they never sound right (no offense to you recording guys, that's in their very nature) and sour vocal notes of course do jump out much stronger than when heard right there at the venue, but also the instrumentation is mostly way out of balance. So I don't know…, maybe listening too much to those recordings kinda stains the perception of Motorpsycho live? A band that's actually THE BEST FUCKING LIVE BAND EVER!?
Coming back to Rush again, I went to see them last year for my first time and I sooo didn't care if they played the solos and drumfill all correctly right down to the subatomar level, as opposed to probably 90% of the audience around me. I just enjoyed it. The sound, the music, the songs (though it was a bit of a disappointing setlist) and mostly the energy and their joy of playing.
Quote:In those days, the headliner tuned up on stage.true. makes me think why I even bother with muting tuning pedals. having everything as sterile as can be in a rockshow? hmm…
Glenn Hughes has some ear torturing singing attitude going. I'd take Geddy Lee anyday over him.
Quote:No offense, but I hate Geddy Lee & his shitty falsetto vocals! For me they have ruined quite a lot of the musical greatness that Rush have…I wouldn't agree on that considering their post 1980 and especially the most current stuff but their earlier albums really are a chalk-on-the-board listen due to him.
But…
Quote:I'd take a slightly sour Bent/Snah combo every day over Geddy LeeI definitely can't disagree with that.
that was one of the thousand examples that defy this simple statement but it's still a worthy thought.
and maybe they sing worse now than in the past – though I wouldn't go out on that limb since I haven't heard all the live recordings from 20+ MP years – because the playing nowadays is much more demanding.
But debates like these frighten me a bit. I'd rather expect these in a (shudder) Dream (shudder) Theater forum. Or one for Rush for that matter although I really like them. I see a nerdy male 37+ years old audience making notes during shows about the mistakes they hear to post and discuss on a board as soon as they're back home. :wink:
Quote:But my legs are old and weary, so I decided to stay put.ah tell me about it.
and of course sometimes one gets into a bad sounding spot but with the best view. decisions… decisions…
I'd like to point out that one should never judge the sound in a venue from only one position. Especially when writing reviews for people who weren't there. It's not really fair to the band, the mixing guy and the venue.
SNARF
Some stoner downtuned Hawkwindish triprock from Switzerland: http://www.myspace.com/snarfsappendix
yep there are millions of 'em but they're really good. 2lll is amazing.
btw you guys know these tour tracking thingies: http://www.songkick.com/search?type=initial&query=motorpsycho&commit=Search ?
