Blue Moon Playlist Review Club - Season 2 - Episode 32 - threespires - Could have been a Contender (pg 472)

[Mancitydoogle]

Might be 1994's Throwing Copper with "Selling The Drama" their big single?

I think their 1999 The Distance To Here (TDTH) is my 2nd favorite album from them, very close to their second album and most popular release as mentioned above.

Lead singer Ed Kowalczyk really focused in his lyrics for this one. TDTH was their most spiritual, positive, and uplifting album to date. The name of the album refers to the importance of focusing on the present instead of the future.

yes your right it was called ‘Throwing Copper’ and it had a no of ’hits’ on it including’Selling The Drama’ .

I must listen to TDTH as I loved TC.
EK has a great voice .

 

[Mancitydoogle]

Might be 1994's Throwing Copper with "Selling The Drama" their big single?

I think their 1999 The Distance To Here (TDTH) is my 2nd favorite album from them, very close to their second album and most popular release as mentioned above.

Lead singer Ed Kowalczyk really focused in his lyrics for this one. TDTH was their most spiritual, positive, and uplifting album to date. The name of the album refers to the importance of focusing on the present instead of the future.


Agree with that description. Danger Mouse has that type of production influence that sounds like them, I'd agree.

I've enjoyed that entire album after hearing it last night, especially the title track and "The Final Frame". More to come, I am sure.

Their sound really is unique, agreed. That whole album was another soundtrack during the pandemic with those uplifting and powerful songs.

BTW, I highly highly recommend visiting the Stax museum in Memphis after enjoying some Central BBQ downtown. ;-)

Memphis is definitely next on my list I’ve been to Nashville and Austin and loved them both.

 

[threespires]

The Big Winner
For me it clearly was “Cold Little Heart” – Michael Kiwanuka. I usually listen to the songs on the playlist once it is fully complete, and the new ones will just hit me when they hit me, and this one did like a ton of bricks. Just a simply amazing song. Thanks for this, @threespires , and now I’ve now got an album to listen to (a great thing – not a joke!). I recognize the production and heavy influence of Danger Mouse, which definitely added to the surprise enjoyment of something new.

Glad you enjoyed it, he's been pretty quiet of late but he's got a few dates scheduled in the summer and I'm hoping he'll be recording again soon.

1. “In A Broken Dream” – Python Lee Jackson, Rod Stewart, missed this the first time around in the 70s
2. “I Don’t Understand Anything” – Everything But The Girl, channeling that Emily Sayers Indigo Girls sound I enjoy

I think technically Emily Sayers is channelling EBTG as they do in fact pre-date the Indigo Girls as recording artists (something I was quite surprised by). I hadn't really noticed the similarity before but I think you are right.

Best of a song I know:
"The Four Seasons: Concerto No. 4…" – Antonio Vivaldi, Adrian Chandler, just beautiful from start to finish, enjoyed hearing this as not a backdrop to something else

I'm glad some people enjoyed the chance to actively listen to this on its own terms. As you quite rightly point out this and lots of other music is so familiar as incidental music that it's easy to become blase about it. By all accounts Vivaldi spent a lot of his career focusing on quantity to fill the coffers rather than quality, hence the barb of not 600 concertos but 1 concerto 600 times, but if you were going to repeat the same thing multiple times you could do a lot worse than base it on the 4 concerti that make up the four seasons.

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

Glad you enjoyed it, he's been pretty quiet of late but he's got a few dates scheduled in the summer and I'm hoping he'll be recording again soon.

I really enjoyed that entire album afterwards. I'm going to listen to his others but my selections are currently stacking up behind Bruce (not the one from NJ!). ;-)

I think technically Emily Sayers is channelling EBTG as they do in fact pre-date the Indigo Girls as recording artists (something I was quite surprised by). I hadn't really noticed the similarity before but I think you are right.

Good point, I had only looked at the release date of the song. Not a band I was listening to in the 80s, which makes the selections here fun to find missing things I'd probably better appreciate now than back then. (I wouldn't have been listening to the Indigo Girls in the early 80's, tbf too...)

I'm glad some people enjoyed the chance to actively listen to this on its own terms. As you quite rightly point out this and lots of other music is so familiar as incidental music that it's easy to become blase about it. By all accounts Vivaldi spent a lot of his career focusing on quantity to fill the coffers rather than quality, hence the barb of not 600 concertos but 1 concerto 600 times, but if you were going to repeat the same thing multiple times you could do a lot worse than base it on the 4 concerti that make up the four seasons.

Absolutely, and it's got more than 1 listen to as not one I'll skip when going through the list as I have a few times now.

 

[Coatigan]

Edit. Spotify link on page 271

'Who you trying to get crazy with ésse, don't you know I'm locó..' (and then kicks in the big fat Bass)

This fortnight's theme is 'made by the bass'. I'm open to better wording.

Songs where the bass is either what makes the song what it is, is the key bit you are drawn in on, the bit that gets you moving or nodding along, or maybe even goes unniticed to most, but is a layer you can't help imagining the song without. Underlying bass, someone recently referred to it.

I'll open with:

1. Greenleaf - Stray Bullit Woman
2. Viagra Boys - Slow learner
3. Soul Coughing - Super Bon bon
4. The Twilight Sad - I can give you all that you don't want
5. Lefties Soul Connection - Chum Shaker.

The first song is probably as basic and predictable as they get, like most of their stuff nothing groundbreaking, but seems to work and is good to listen to. The second, the bass gives it the intensity and keeps it in rhythm throughout. The third, is kind of a nothing song really, some basic odd rapping, an abstract lyric or two, a few intense keybord drops, but that bass, that's juat what draws you in. The fourth, for all their mood tones, new romanticism references, indie boldness etc, it is for me the bass that carries the song. The last is self explanatory and just good fun.

Interested to see where people take this.
Away we go.

 

[Out on blue 6]

'Who you trying to get crazy with ésse, don't you know I'm locó..' (and then kicks in the big fat Bass)

This fortnight's theme is 'made by the bass'. I'm open to better wording.

Songs where the bass is either what makes the song what it is, is the key bit you are drawn in on, the bit that gets you moving or nodding along, or maybe even goes unniticed to most, but is a layer you can't help imagining the song without. Underlying bass, someone recently referred to it.

I'll open with:

1. Greenleaf - Stray Bullit Woman
2. Viagra Boys - Slow learner
3. Soul Coughing - Super Bon bon
4. The Twilight Sad - I can give you all that you don't want
5. Lefties Soul Connection - Chum Shaker.

The first song is probably as basic and predictable as they get, like most of their stuff nothing groundbreaking, but seems to work and is good to listen to. The second, the bass gives it the intensity and keeps it in rhythm throughout. The third, is kind of a nothing song really, some basic odd rapping, an abstract lyric or two, a few intense keybord drops, but that bass, that's juat what draws you in. The fourth, for all their mood tones, new romanticism references, indie boldness etc, it is for me the bass that carries the song. The last is self explanatory and just good fun.

Interested to see where people take this.
Away we go.

Bass How low can you go?
May be a decent title?

 

[GornikDaze]

Not happy with this one - how do I showhorn a Black Keys track into this?!!!
There are some onvious ones for me, but I’ll start with something off the beaten track

Schism - Tool

Absolute belter of a tune bass driven all the way.

The Soul Coughing tune is a great pick.

 

[Coatigan]

Not happy with this one - how do I showhorn a Black Keys track into this?!!!
There are some onvious ones for me, but I’ll start with something off the beaten track

Schism - Tool

Absolute belter of a tune bass driven all the way.

The Soul Coughing tune is a great pick.

I had a different Tool song on my list for the rest of the week. Talk about The Pot calling the kettle..

There is one or two I have on the longlist that one of us may beat the other to.

 

[Black&White&BlueMoon Town]

Great concept, @Coatigan! Now I get your reference in the Album Thread.

And oh boy, is this week going to be fun or what? (someone has to go first with it, might as well be me! ;-) )

"Animate" - Rush

"Polarize me, sensitize me, criticize me, civilize me"

 

[RobMCFC]

Great concept, @Coatigan! Now I get your reference in the Album Thread.

And oh boy, is this week going to be fun or what? (someone has to go first with it, might as well be me! ;-) )

"Animate" - Rush

"Polarize me, sensitize me, criticize me, civilize me"

Was only thinking, if this is not a thread for Geddy Lee, what is?!!!

 

[Coatigan]

Would someone kindly set up a spotify playlist please. I'll happily update the written list on here daily if that helps.

 

[Out on blue 6]

Simple Minds - Theme For Great Cities

 

[BimboBob]

A song that got me into one of the greatest multi instrumentalists of all time. Just love the bass on this song.

Stevie Wonder - I Wish

 

[lastmanback]

Something better change - The Stranglers.

 

[Coatigan]

A song that got me into one of the greatest multi instrumentalists of all time. Just love the bass on this song.

Stevie Wonder - I Wish

I shit you not, that was my tomorrow's pick!

 

[BimboBob]

I shit you not, that was my tomorrow's pick!

Sorry mate, it was the first one that sprung to mind.

 

[threespires]

Well, this is simultaneously a brilliant and utterly crap playlist theme.

Brilliant because it’s BASS, what’s not to love. Utterly crap because how are 7 choices even going to scratch the surface here???

I could easily put together 7 choices focusing exclusively on any of

• the classic bass players like Jamerson, Carol Kaye, and Jaco P but that would side-line the likes of Entwhsitle, Jack Bruce and Chris Squires
• Go all in on reggae and dub and just have a list of Sly and Robbie underpinning people the likes of The Mighty Diamonds to Gregory Issacs
• Go with double bass masters like Ron Carter, Percy Heath, Larry Klein etc etc
• Synth bass from dance and funk, tbf you could probably focus on just one iconic synth and have nothing but tracks that owe their groove to a Roland 303 but then that would mean no classic 80s from a Juno 106 (think the bassline from Into the Grove) or the huge sound from a Little Phatty
• Be a bit more contemporary and go for big beats and drops from the likes of Skrillex and Knife Party

I need a plan!!!

Anyway, whilst I work out my plan, I’m going to start with something very commercial and not falling into any of those categories

Wherever I lay My Hat – Paul Young Pino Palladino

I’m choosing this one because that song (or at least that version) doesn’t exist without that baseline, it basically is the song and:

• It’s Pino Palladino, the absolute dogs bollocks but with none of the drama of a nutter troubled soul like Jaco P. Pino is a gangly Welshman who is as down to earth and as humble a guy as you can wish to meet. He’s a pretty normal bloke who just gets on with his life and minds his own business, apart from the bit where every sane musician on the planet has got him on speed dial. The roll call of people he's worked with is insane. When Guy Pratt another great bassist, familiar to Pink Floyd fans amongst others, got married he started his speech with “I’m only here today because Pino couldn’t make it.”
• But it’s never about him, he just makes other people and their music sound brilliant.
• Bits of this are nicked from Stravinsky.
• He can be forgiven for launching a thousand fretless bass numpties on the world because he also brought P-Bass back into fashion in genres where it had been sacked off for years.

If I’m boring the pants off you now, wait till tomorrow.

Edit: I have a plan

 

[NotThreeSpireshonest]

Well, this is simultaneously a brilliant and utterly crap playlist theme.

Brilliant because it’s BASS, what’s not to love. Utterly crap because how are 7 choices even going to scratch the surface here???

I could easily put together 7 choices focusing exclusively on any of

• the classic bass players like Jamerson, Carol Kaye, and Jaco P but that would side-line the likes of Entwhsitle, Jack Bruce and Chris Squires
• Go all in on reggae and dub and just have a list of Sly and Robbie underpinning people the likes of The Mighty Diamonds to Gregory Issacs
• Go with double bass masters like Ron Carter, Percy Heath, Larry Klein etc etc
• Synth bass from dance and funk, tbf you could probably focus on just one iconic synth and have nothing but tracks that owe their groove to a Roland 303 but then that would mean no classic 80s from a Juno 106 (think the bassline from Into the Grove) or the huge sound from a Little Phatty
• Be a bit more contemporary and go for big beats and drops from the likes of Skrillex and Knife Party

I need a plan!!!

Anyway, whilst I work out my plan, I’m going to start with something very commercial and not falling into any of those categories

Wherever I lay My Hat – Paul Young Pino Palladino

I’m choosing this one because that song (or at least that version) doesn’t exist without that baseline, it basically is the song:

• It’s Pino Palladino, the absolute dogs bollocks but with none of the drama of a nutter troubled soul like Jaco P. Pino is a gangly Welshman who is as down to earth and as humble a guy as you can wish to meet. He’s a pretty normal bloke who just gets on with his life and minds his own business, apart from the bit where every sane musician on the planet has got him on speed dial. The roll call of people he's worked with is insane. When Guy Pratt another great bassist, familiar to Pink Floyd fans amongst others, got married he started his speech with “I’m only here today because Pino couldn’t make it.”
• But it’s never about him, he just makes other people and their music sound brilliant.
• Bits of this are nicked from Stravinsky.
• He can be forgiven for launching a thousand fretless bass numpties on the world because he also brought P-Bass back into fashion in genres where it had been sacked off for years.

If I’m boring the pants off you now, wait till tomorrow.

Edit: I have a plan

I agree there is some fantastic music going to come out of this playlist and I sympathise with your predicament. If I could be so bold as to help out by suggesting at least one track owing much to the bassline from a seminal synth.
Maybe you were thinking of something obvious for the use of a 303 like Fatboy Slim's Everybody Need's a 303 but in the spirit of the thread I will nominate something where it's importance isn't quite as immediatley obvious.

Orange Juice - Rip It Up

Probably the first thing that pops into mind with this song is the Nile Rodgers esque guitar riff that has been used so many times, but if you isolate it on it's own it actually becomes bit a bit anaemic quite quickly. However, put that brilliantly squishy 303 bassline underneath it and the whole think just skips along beautifully.

 

[Mancitydoogle]

Lou Reed ‘Walk on the Wild Side’

 

[Coatigan]

Well, this is simultaneously a brilliant and utterly crap playlist theme.

Brilliant because it’s BASS, what’s not to love. Utterly crap because how are 7 choices even going to scratch the surface here???

I could easily put together 7 choices focusing exclusively on any of

• the classic bass players like Jamerson, Carol Kaye, and Jaco P but that would side-line the likes of Entwhsitle, Jack Bruce and Chris Squires
• Go all in on reggae and dub and just have a list of Sly and Robbie underpinning people the likes of The Mighty Diamonds to Gregory Issacs
• Go with double bass masters like Ron Carter, Percy Heath, Larry Klein etc etc
• Synth bass from dance and funk, tbf you could probably focus on just one iconic synth and have nothing but tracks that owe their groove to a Roland 303 but then that would mean no classic 80s from a Juno 106 (think the bassline from Into the Grove) or the huge sound from a Little Phatty
• Be a bit more contemporary and go for big beats and drops from the likes of Skrillex and Knife Party

I need a plan!!!

Anyway, whilst I work out my plan, I’m going to start with something very commercial and not falling into any of those categories

Wherever I lay My Hat – Paul Young Pino Palladino

I’m choosing this one because that song (or at least that version) doesn’t exist without that baseline, it basically is the song and:

• It’s Pino Palladino, the absolute dogs bollocks but with none of the drama of a nutter troubled soul like Jaco P. Pino is a gangly Welshman who is as down to earth and as humble a guy as you can wish to meet. He’s a pretty normal bloke who just gets on with his life and minds his own business, apart from the bit where every sane musician on the planet has got him on speed dial. The roll call of people he's worked with is insane. When Guy Pratt another great bassist, familiar to Pink Floyd fans amongst others, got married he started his speech with “I’m only here today because Pino couldn’t make it.”
• But it’s never about him, he just makes other people and their music sound brilliant.
• Bits of this are nicked from Stravinsky.
• He can be forgiven for launching a thousand fretless bass numpties on the world because he also brought P-Bass back into fashion in genres where it had been sacked off for years.

If I’m boring the pants off you now, wait till tomorrow.

Edit: I have a plan

Well I was going to go for a presumably more niche 'songs in a foreign language' theme, but given we are likely going to move to a more restricted format, thought get one more in with lots of contributions.