punk rock blues

rock and roll musings by Tim Byrnes

About me

User: timbyrnes
Name: tim byrnes
subject appears to be a white male, early 50's, pathologically tall/skinny. brain patterns show evidence of a life in alcohol - first swimming in it then running from it. fingers show wear from years of guitar playing. heart presents slow repair, through writing, from being broken by rock and roll.

  • Contact me
  • My profile
  • Linkme

Recent comments

Anonymous on Bleeker and ...

Counter

visited *loading* times

« View the previous post.  |  Home  |  View the next post. »
Thursday, August 02, 2007

OK, Maybe There Is a God.......

 

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I copied this from antimusic.com's 'Day in Rock feature and have posted it here for the sheer perverse joy this occurence brings me. It doesn't quite make up for 'The Raven' or those Tai-Chi DVDs the old goat recently put out, but it helps.  tb)

 

 

Avant Lou Reed

   
08/01/07
.
(PR) Lou Reed and German contemporary classical avant-garde chamber music ensemble Zeitkratzer are to release a live CD/DVD entitled "Lou Reed: Metal Machine Music - Performed by Zeitkratzer Live". The CD/DVD will be released by Asphodel Records in the UK on Monday 3rd September and in North America on Tuesday 4th September.

Avant-Garde German saxophone player, Ulrich Krieger, transcribed Lou Reed's original 1975 studio album Metal Machine Music to create an acoustic music score for the ensemble to play live. Zeitkratzer premiered Metal Machine Music 'Live' at MaerMusic Haus Der Berliner, Festspiele, March 17, 2002. Lou Reed plays guitar on on track 3. The DVD includes the entire concert mixed in 5.1 Surround and includes an exclusive 25-minute interview with Reed.

Reed's original 'Metal Machine Music' may be the most misunderstood work ever created by a popular musician. The original album, released in 1975, was mostly noise: feedback squalls, amplifier hums and the tortured screech of electronic gadgets. At the time, many felt it wasn't music, but a protest by Reed to his then, record label, RCA.

Avant-garde musicians like John Cage, LaMonte Young, Iannis Xenakis and Reed's Velvet Underground partner John Cale had a considerable influence on the way he approached composition, even his more accessible rock songs. Metal Machine Music was a logical extension of atonal romps like "Heroin" and "Sister Ray." Today, Metal Machine Music is highly regarded by the avant-garde for its contribution to the "noise" movement in popular culture

 

( ,,, sorry I gotta run so soon, but I just got promoted to Assistant Manager at work and will be pulling double shifts for the next few weeks. Till then think happy thoughts. Or not, it's a free world hahahahahahahahahha......... tim)

Posted by: timbyrnes at 19:27 | link | comments (6)


Comments:
#1  03 August 2007 - 01:55
 
I'll seriously have to check out what all of the fuss is about Lou Reed sometime. Like every other Joe Sixpack, all I know is the "take a walk on the wild side" song. I'll have to get a "best of" sometime, and see which period of his I would like the most.

One album's greateness that I forgot about was "The Nylon Curtain" by Billy Joel. I saw it in Rite-Aid for only 9.99 last night and picked it up. Holy cow, what an ambitious and powerful CD, there's not a glitch on it, except for the f-word in the second song. And if imitation were a form of flattery, John Lennon would have been blushing all over, had he been alive when it was made. The JL influence is one of the very unique things about that particular BJ album. Most fans and critics agree that it is a masterpiece as well as his most ambitious project. A dark album, to be sure, but so were Pet Sounds and Dark Side of the Moon.
Anonymous
#2  03 August 2007 - 02:14
 
Oh, and also, congrats on the promotion, hope a reasonable raise came with it.

Jim
Anonymous
#3  09 August 2007 - 18:50
 
Yr welcome. Been so busy I haven't had time to post anywhere. Hopefully that'll shake out in the next few weeks as we hire more people and I get a better handle on what I'm doing. Billy Joel's a tough one, I'm always ready to write him off and he pops up w/a gem like 'Vienna" or 'We Didn't Start the Fire' showing a real brain/heart beneath the lounge piano schamltz. (Hey I admire his musicianship and talent, but much like Paul McCartney I don't care for what he does w/it.)

As for Lou Reed, I'd recommend the self-titled 3rd Velvet Underground record for the neophyte, but if you really want to just dive into what made the old goat great, get 'Berlin' and listen w/headphones. It's a dark, adult record that doesn't shy away from the foibles and self inflicted pain of the human being.

Seriously, it's a great work of art while Metal Machine Music, which I love and still own on vinyl, is a great f*** you to the music business and fans. I respect the nerve it took to commit such commercial suicide (it's a double record set of, basically, feedback don'tcha know) but I really appreciate the irony that this drug addled mess has influenced an entire genre of post-rock music and has been lionized to the point of creating it's own 'cover band'.

Oh, well, gotta get back to work. Ciao!
tb
Anonymous
#4  10 August 2007 - 03:12
 
Yeah, sometimes I wanna strangle BJ for "Only the Good Die Young", but then there are songs like "Goodnight Saigon", and its like, wow, this guy is great. I always liked that "Second Wind" song as well.

Well, I took your advice and ordered LR's "Berlin" on ebay, so I'll let you know what I think once I give it a good listen on the headphones. Hopefully its not too raunchy for my precious holy ears.

Jim
Anonymous
#5  17 August 2007 - 15:07
 
So it's a beautiful Friday morning here, and I'm driving into work hearing Lou talk through all of his songs on Berlin, even the one about the guy who's wife slit her wrists on the bed. I have to admit that the music stands the test of time well, it sounds like it could have been made today. I like how all of the songs segue into eachother, and I like the blues outro to Hey Jim. Probably the best moment is the segue from The Bed into the last song.

So, overall impression is a little give and take on the lyrics, but I can see where people can apprecaite LR as one of those "artist's artist" type of artists. The musical landscapes are certainly first rate, and kind of relaxing, not what I think of when I think of punk rock music. Velvet Underground was probably much different, no?

Jim
Anonymous
#6  02 October 2007 - 00:54
 
They're taking her children away.

Because they say she is not a good mother.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21087621/
Anonymous
Comments: