The Album Review Club - Week #144 - (page 1893) - XO - Elliot Smith

[OB1]

I like that record too but its softer in the middle I think, less quirky, and doesn't have the personal resonance with me. But I love the opening four songs and the closer "Telecide."

Wasn't Remote Control is part of them going AOR?

 

[BimboBob]

First listen seems to open up the possibility that this is somewhat of a joke band. A bit of Kiss, a bit of punk, albeit watered down, a bit of prog etc etc with no real style of their own.

All of the songs appear, on first listen, to be just standard American middle of the road music. Think Huey Lewis with more stage presence.

Obviously I'll listen a few more times but at the mo nothing is jumping out.

 

[RobMCFC]

First listen seems to open up the possibility that this is somewhat of a joke band. A bit of Kiss, a bit of punk, albeit watered down, a bit of prog etc etc with no real style of their own.

All of the songs appear, on first listen, to be just standard American middle of the road music. Think Huey Lewis with more stage presence.

Obviously I'll listen a few more times but at the mo nothing is jumping out.

Nowt wrong with Huey Lewis - my first concert. Another great San Francisco band.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Wasn't Remote Control is part of them going AOR?

It seems that way when I listen but I’m also not the one to ask as they were already being played on the local AOR radio stations in San Francisco after this first record.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

The Album Review Club – Week #93

The Tubes – The Tubes (1975)

Selected by FogBlueInSanFran
View attachment 94457
I know, I know . . . this is ridiculous.

“The Tubes” seems like the soundtrack to some failed 70s glam rock musical about drug addicts, or maybe “Tommy” were it done by some freakish combination of Kiss, Blood Sweat & Tears and the London Symphony Orchestra.

But this record means a lot to me.

That’s because despite San Francisco’s rich musical tradition, no other album reminds me so much of home.

The Tubes are San Francisco through and through. I’ve run into Fee Waybill at a Benihana, Roger Steen at a baseball game and Re Styles (not in the band yet on this record, but those are her hands on the cover) shopping at a supermarket over the course of my life.

For all its drawbacks – past, current and future – San Francisco is still a remarkably diverse city, unique in America save for maybe New York, in the variety of its neighborhoods, architecture, people, social status, and (as those of you who’ve been here know) climate.

Like the New York-based Beastie Boys’ “Paul’s Boutique”, “The Tubes” is a celebration of all of that, but couched in the 70s, when sex, drugs and rock and roll – all done to excess – were the bywords of white middle/upper-class culture here.

This record is unapologetically colo(u)rful, loud, brash, smutty, and filled with every instrument known to humankind – dozens of them. Is it pop? Rock? Prog? Big band? Metal? Show tunes? Punk? It’s a combination of all these.

I expect some of you to hate this, but I’m doubtful any of you will be bored. If you dislike a tune, skip to the next, because it will be different, I assure you. In fact, in many of these songs, you can simply wait one minute, and then the tempo and instrumentation will shift, radically so in some cases.

The thing is, as loony as The Tubes are, they can write and they can play. Certainly this record is produced in balls-to-the-wall fashion (by Al Kooper no less), but keep an ear out some really talented musicians showing off – especially the drummer, Prairie L’Emprere Prince (his real name), whose crazed fills are everywhere.

To me each of the eight songs offers something funny, rousing, celebratory, hooky and most definitely over-the-top. I do tend to love records that don’t take themselves seriously, and this one (and this band) lead a lot of other artists in that regard. From the opener “Up From The Deep”:

“Listen to our single / Watch how they play it / Tell me how you want it / That's how I'll have our guitar player, Roger Steen, play it / Listen to him / [guitar riff] . . . And all my boys will play along / Even if they don’t like the song.”

See? Ridiculous.

From there we have “Haloes”, and if you’ve ever driven the 101 freeway and exited the Rainbow Tunnel (now named after Robin Williams) in Marin County as the best view of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge spills before you on a fogless day with the ending guitar solo playing at top volume, you’ll come as close to a spiritual high as you can.

View attachment 94458

Things slow down with “Space Baby” and then a completely random cover of Mexican standard “Malaguena Salerosa” (covered by over 200 bands if you believe Wikipedia).

Side two amps up the guitar with “Mondo Bondage” (about exactly what you think it is) before segueing into an all time-70s classic “What Do Want From Life?”(“What do you want from life? / To try and be happy / While you do the nasty things you must”). If you want a time machine to observe 1970s American consumerism in all its glory, this is for you.

Next we have the unabashedly sexist “Boy Crazy” (also about exactly what you think it is) before we get to the piece de resistance, and one of my favo(u)rite songs of all time.

“White Punks On Dope” – affectionately known to all as “WPOD” – is basically San Francisco’s version of “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” Later covered by Motley Crue (yuuuucccckkkk), this is a song about rich drug addicts on the edge of suicide, and it’s as close to pre-punk as 1975 got. Of course, like everything else here, it crosses the silliness border. To wit:

“All the dudes are livin’ in the ghetto / But born in Pacific Heights don’t seem much bett-ooooo”.

See? Ridiculous. Again.

From the chatter in Japanese that opens and closes it to the full-speed name-checking of a bunch of 70s American celebrities, kinck-knacks and automobiles; from the mariachi cover to the punk/metal/arena rock anthem; from the periodically lumbering tempos morphing into insane firework-filled solos, “The Tubes” will always be one of my favo(u)rite records.

BECAUSE it’s totally ridiculous. Just like my home town.

I gave it a listen and found it really interesting and considering we’re talking about 1976 really beautifully produced or mixed. Thank you Al Kooper.

My observations for what they’re worth is that I don’t regard this as rock opera in the vein of The Who, but I would certainly call it rock theatre.
You mentioned a few bands that owe a debt to them in our exchanges Foggy, I personally couldn’t listen to this without thinking of the debt they owe to the likes of Zappa.

So much so that straight after listening to this I put on Zoot Allures from the same year. Remarkably in the same vein, I suggest you try doing the same.

Zappa of course was mixing it up like this since the sixties but his early seventies masterpieces like Hot Rats, (69 I think) Overnight Sensation and Apostrophe not to mention Joe’s Garage, can be heard influentially in The Tubes.
Well, to me anyhow.

Very interesting choice Foggy. I always liked that constant changing that keeps you on your toes, back then, and really enjoyed it now.

 

[FogBlueInSanFran]

Nowt wrong with Huey Lewis - my first concert. Another great San Francisco band.

I actually hung out with him for drinks for a few hours years ago. I’ll tell the story another time. Really down to earth guy. One of things I like about SF is also what I like about Manchester — they’re big cities but in lots of ways they feel like small towns.

I gave it a listen and found it really interesting and considering we’re talking about 1976 really beautifully produced or mixed. Thank you Al Kooper.

My observations for what they’re worth is that I don’t regard this as rock opera in the vein of The Who, but I would certainly call it rock theatre.
You mentioned a few bands that owe a debt to them in our exchanges Foggy, I personally couldn’t listen to this without thinking of the debt they owe to the likes of Zappa.

So much so that straight after listening to this I put on Zoot Allures from the same year. Remarkably in the same vein, I suggest you try doing the same.

Zappa of course was mixing it up like this since the sixties but his early seventies masterpieces like Hot Rats, (69 I think) Overnight Sensation and Apostrophe not to mention Joe’s Garage, can be heard influentially in The Tubes.
Well, to me anyhow.

Very interesting choice Foggy. I always liked that constant changing that keeps you on your toes, back then, and really enjoyed it now.

The rock theatre (or rock cabaret) description vs. rock opera and the debt they owe to Zappa are spot on. I need to listen to more of his stuff. I’ve heard smatterings from different records but don’t own a single album of his which is in retrospect odd. Come to think of it I don’t think I have any friends who were ever into him which is probably why.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

I actually hung out with him for drinks for a few hours years ago. I’ll tell the story another time. Really down to earth guy. One of things I like about SF is also what I like about Manchester — they’re big cities but in lots of ways they feel like small towns.

The rock theatre (or rock cabaret) description vs. rock opera and the debt they owe to Zappa are spot on. I need to listen to more of his stuff. I’ve heard smatterings from different records but don’t own a single album of his which is in retrospect odd. Come to think of it I don’t think I have any friends who were ever into him which is probably why.

As I said Zoot Allures straight after this album was refreshing for me.
It’s not one of his albums I’d have on repeat as much as others, but as a snapshot of 1976, it doesn’t place The Tubes too far out on their own.

The thing about Zappa is, depending on what mood you are in there is a go to album.
Hot Rats is absolute classic composition but it’s instrumental bar one song.
Overnite Sensation and Apostrophe are go to albums for me.

Give them a go.

 

[bennyboy]

Surprise surprise I'm quite enjoying this.
Shows you how your musical tastes can change.
It is bugging me who it reminds me off.None of the groups mentioned so far I would really know about.
Maybe an wee REM vibe to them,we're they influenced by the Tubes.

 

[BlueHammer85]

Surprise surprise I'm quite enjoying this.
Shows you how your musical tastes can change.
It is bugging me who it reminds me off.None of the groups mentioned so far I would really know about.
Maybe an wee REM vibe to them,we're they influenced by the Tubes.

only heard a few tracks... prefab sprout ?!

 

[RobMCFC]

I actually hung out with him for drinks for a few hours years ago. I’ll tell the story another time. Really down to earth guy. One of things I like about SF is also what I like about Manchester — they’re big cities but in lots of ways they feel like small towns.

That is cool. Feel free to tell it now! (If you have time).

Enjoyed the first listen to The Tubes - not what I expected and there's definitely something theatrical about the sound. My knowledge of 70s American bands isn't great so my instant comparisons are Supertramp (yes I know they're British) and Steely Dan.