Old Man Music

[RocDoc]

I've been menaing and meaning and meaning to post something here, seeing as my name was mentioned in such hallowed company as Layla's Dad and her husband, as being inspiration/satirical fodder ( ) for the term 'old man music'...

Yeah, there's one less here these days for WeverTF reason it was that Phil 'stormed off' in a huff.
As much as one can 'storm off' in a medium where no-one sees you.

Still, Prog(-y) Rawk and World/Yurripeen music with an emphasis on anything Gallic is definitely the poorer with him gone.

I'm tellin' ya, before 9 / 11, politics meant nothing 'here'.
We all kept to our musical convos and everyone pretty much dug one another, especially when someone praised performers who we also liked.

Then came the inevitable divergences after having the crap scared/shocked out of us...and here's where I'll stop any analysis.

I've actually had that convo once with thorn already.

The Rory Gallagher Montreux DVD fucking ROCKS, by-the-way...and I was just listening to AC/DC live in Paris, 12-9-1979 with Bon Scott that is simply unbelievably intense and take me back to the THREE AC/DC shows I saw while Bon Scott was still with us....Aragon Brawlroom baby!

[dolly]

I'm the 'old man' in this house. Probably why Holzman and Paul (with a pinch of Roc Doc) are my board soulmates, music-wise. I've always been at least one decade late with my music preferences (goth in the nineties anyone?)

Only the other day I decided I needed to give the Allman Bros a chance, Strat, after JLLM's Dad picked me up from the station in his two-seater convertible, blasting one of their albums out of the window, giving me a track-by-track rundown whilst impressively breaking all speed and road regulations with gay abandon.

Like father, like son.

Where would you start, Strat? I forget which one Paul's Dad wants to lend me....

[Paul]

Probably about 85% of what I listen to is "old man music" -- Hell, even the hip-hop I listen to is "old school" -- I mean Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest are like classic rap or something.

Lately I've been trying to pimp Comets On Fire -- they've been around since the turn of the century and have put out 4 albums. Two have been on SubPop, and the last one 'Avatar' is fucking spectacular. However, even though they're new, they have an old man sound.

[dolly]

Can't beat a bit of the 'ol Public Enemy.

I might have to check out Comets on Fire - especialy if they have a song called 'avatar'. How superbly nerdy!

[Paul]

Avatar is the name of the album.

here's the allmusic review:

wo full years after the dazzling acid-dredged, sonic song mash-up that was Blue Cathedral, Comets on Fire return, all members intact -- despite many solo projects in the intervening years -- with Avatar. There are distinct nods to the distant West Coast past on Avatar and yeah, it is a good thing For starters, the double- and even triple-tracking of Ethan Miller's voice on many of these cuts sounds like the triumvirate of Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, and Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane! The rhapsodic clamoring for ecstatic release sound in this method is beguiling, and offset by the sheer acid rock heaviness of the band's instrumental attack. Take the opener "Dogwood Rust" as an example. The cut sounds like it starts mid-jam with guitars soloing, with Ben Chasny and Miller going back and forth. The verse kicks in immediately and the sheer swirl of sound around them forces them to get over the top. The empire of psychedelic sound is formidable, so they have to. Everything from non-descriptive electronic noise, organ, thudding bass throb (Ben Flashman) and clamoring hypnotic drums (Sir Noel VonHarmonson and Utrillo Kushner) are played with force and menace. Those two guitars are the only real foil for the singers as they collide, counter, meld, and wind around one another with feedback and plenty of bite for seven-and-a-half minutes. By contrast, "Jaybird" begins calmly with the guitars twinning the blues in a riff that leads into the melody line. Sooner rather than later VonHarmonson's drums elevate the entire proceeding, ushering in splattering feedback electronics. Miller's vocals begin almost whispering, holding their own as the entire tune slowly builds into intensity. But the element of song is never lost. Chasny and Flashman hold it still for a moment or two, but the architecture is teetering and it has to flay off into many directions at once because the tune is being torn apart from the inside. Amazing. But that's how it is with Avatar: the notion of song comes first in each of these selections. All but one are given room to stretch: the only song here that isn't between six and eight minutes is the wooly, Blue Cheer-like wail of "Holy Teeth." The rest are fire breathers to be sure, but they take their time stoking the blaze. The slow, Quicksilver Messenger Service-esque melody of "Lucifer's Memory," is almost gentle as Kushner's piano and VonHarmonson's skittering backbeat carry Miller's voice -- singing Kushner's lyric -- as subsonic bass, while distorted guitars simply hold back until the cut breaks open in a gorgeous melodic swirl in the middle. The bridge section repeats over and again until, near the end of the cut, it just cracks wide open into the stratosphere without losing its sense of melody or harmony. "Sour Smoke" is a knotty, multi-storied instrumental narrative seemingly driven by one riff until the guitars start to unfold their schematic. The drum pattern keeps it all in one spot though the tune is traveling with twin arpeggios building all over the rhythm. There is a bluesy piano solo covering over a vocal chant hidden in the background; an electric piano covers over the bass and re-creates another layer of the rhythmic trance. Think Quicksilver Messenger Service's "Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder" and you get an idea. There is jamming here, but it's scripted, with many parts written in, as the track feels more like a suite than a single song, all of it along a time pattern that changes timbres and tonalities, but never loses its focus to bridge the various harmonic segments. The set closes with Kushner's piano laying out the melodic frame for "Hatched Upon the Age." Miller begins his raspy vocal swell (which at times really does sound like John Bell of Widespread Panic) and the ever-present, overdriven guitar lines enter, sparingly at first under the organ, under the disciplined rocksteady bassline and the meandering piano. But then they cut in, sting, and retreat until they get their moment to explode near the end of the cut. Avatar is the next step from Blue Cathedral, where Comets on Fire are more involved as a band in crafting actual songs, messing around with dynamic and textural tensions, and getting the noise not so much to behave as to move in more controlled directions. It is an absolute gem of an album and an ecstatic listening experience: play very loud, please. Not only was Avatar worth the wait, but moreover, it is the mark of a band who is singular, taking from the past in order to create something new, something bold, at times accessible, and sometimes ugly, but more often than not, Avatar is stunningly beautiful, even if the definition of that word needs to expand a bit to embrace it.

[RocDoc]

I absolutely LOVE that Comets On Fire!
And I actually got it because of your mention.
Tho if I didn't THE greatest group of libraries in the world at my disposal, I likely wouldn't have sought it out.
I punched in CoF's name and up it popped!
'Request' was immediately punched....and i had it 3-4 days later.

Oh, it's a knockout!
Reminded me of that Natsumen immdeiately on that first song, though they are not quite that nuts.

~

The Allman's are a tricky bag.
In the best possible way.
Primarily because they still exist and are making some pretty damned cool music with a great bunch of musicians who've stepped in as others have dropped out.
Greg Allman's prob the last original left.

But Butch Trucks and Warren Haynes guitars breath FIRE baby....so then that leads me to work by BOTH of those players.
Trucks has 3-4 wonderful very subtle disc out with his band and then Warren Haynes does a great power trio bit with Gov't Mule....

I for one love the near-symphonic compositional approach that the 'old' Allman's Band used in their live playing, especially on the early '70's Fillmore East concert discs.

But there are gems throughout their eras.

I wanna hear Strat's take on this!

[RocDoc]

CoF definitely cop that 60s-70s San Francisco sound...and then take OFF with it.

Bits of the Airplane and Quicksilver and Big Brother all over that disc.

[dolly]

....Jefferson Airplane!.... mid-jam with guitars soloing.......feedback electronics.....

Eek. Sounds like totally not my kind of thing - just as well you bolded the 'stunningly beautiful' or you might have lost me altogether there.

If Roc Doc is in agreement.....

So the Allmans are still around, albeit with an altered lineup? Interesting. Sounds like a minefield to dive into ad-hoc. I also would love to hear Strat's take. I think the album I nearly had my eardrums puctured by was an early 90s effort, with some Gulf War I slant? ? ?

[Paul]

Yes!!!!!

I'm soooooo happy you picked up CoF, and that you liked it!!!! I hadn't been blown away by any band from this century until I heard Comets On Fire -- It was like a sigh of relief to finally find new music that I love.

[RocDoc]

Not your kind of thing??

What kind of 'Old Man' are you?
;D


'Stunningly beautiful' does include much of the late 60s'/ early 70s JA and Quicksilver output...

JA's Lawman from 'Bark' say...or as they mentioned Quicksilver's suite, 'Edward The Mad Shirtgrinder' (with Nicky Hopkins playing bee-yootifully) in fact that whole 'Shady Grove' disc its from....I mean there's elements of noise and space-altering effects to psychedelia and 'Avatar''s got it, definitely...but the reviewer made mention of architecture to the way they layer their bits onto one another which I think probably is one of the better explanations for why it tickles my ears.
They positively sculpt for us on that disc.

[RocDoc]

There was no way in hell that I wasn't going to like that disc, Paul....

[dolly]

What kind of 'Old Man' are you?

I'm from the Holzman's 3minute max school of Old Man. Jamming sounds a little too proggy to me

[Kensterberg]

dollybeadz said:

What kind of 'Old Man' are you?

I'm from the Holzman's 3minute max school of Old Man. Jamming sounds a little too proggy to me

Good girl.

[dolly]

Woof!

Over and out

[Paul]

I guess I should've mentioned that if you don't like songs over 6 minutes you probably won't really go for Comets On Fire....

RocDoc, seriously, that has made my day that you like them so much. Now if Ken would just come around on the Kinks my work would be complete...