Saturday, September 7, 2013

Ben and Bruno - 100 Grim Reapers vs. The Waterboys - This is the Sea

vs.

Votes for this due by Monday at noon.  Happy weekend listening.  By the way, we still looking for people to break the Sharon Jones / Head and the Heart tie--it's like the slowest, least exciting overtime ever...

17 comments:

  1. And now we also have a tie on Morricone vs. Duff. Let's get it together here peeps.

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  2. I'll go ahead and vote for the Waterboys since they were my pick and I'll briefly try to explain why.

    I think you could fairly critique this album. For one, it sounds an awful like it was recorded in the 80s, and while it was in fact recorded in 84, the criticism still stands. It has that big U2ish, reach for the stars, quasi-mystical/spiritual kind of vibe to it. Maybe you don't like that, but I kind of do. If that's all it had, I probably wouldn't have picked it, but ultimately I think the songs themselves are pretty great. They all work well together, but at the same time, there's just enough variety to keep things interesting. "The Whole of the Moon" is pretty much a perfect pop song, "Medicine Bow" has a bit of that gaelic feel that the Levellers later ripped off (remember the Levellers?), "Be My Enemy" sounds almost Dylanesque if you listen closely, and "This is the Sea" is pretty heart-on-sleeve, big finale kind of stuff. I'm sure in post-ironic 2013 this all sounds quaint, but every time I get to the last track, I still get shivers. You can't deny, the man sings with conviction.

    Ben and Bruno are just about the opposite. It's very nice, personal, thoughtful, soft, kind of mumbly indie-rock, and I can totally see its appeal. It's apparent that this guy loves the Mircrophones, and I certainly can't fault him for that. It has nice backing, and let me stress, I am sure that ANYONE who ever played or sang with this guy is super-talented and probably some kind of musical genius/awesome person.

    So for me, this is a kind of reach-for-the-stars-and-then-not-quite make-it vs. reach-for-the-bedroom-ceiling-and-surpass-it kind of contest. Anyway, I'm sticking with the Irish.

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    1. Oh, one more thing. The Waterboys have lots of horns, including some hot sax solos. I'm sure reminding you of this is only going to cost them some votes, but whatever; I love me some hot sax solos.

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  3. I used to have a Waterboys tape with “Fisherman’s Blues” on one side and another album that I thought was “This is the Sea,” but I guess I am mistaken because I don’t recognize most of these songs. I prefer the songs from my old TDK SA-90 which were more from their more overtly Irish folk influenced era. I’d reach for it when I got sick of my Pogues tapes and wanted more rollicking Irish tunes. I also remember seeing a band in MI many a time called Dutch Mother Underground, fronted by a young lad named Michael Van Houten that would cover a handful of Waterboys tunes, and that endeared me to them more. In any case, I didn’t find this album, This is the Sea, too enjoyable. I don’t mind the bombast in general, and can appreciate the reaching for expansive themes but I simply didn’t enjoy too many of the tunes. Oh yeah, and those hot sax solos. Too hot for this guy. There is only one person in the history of Rock n Roll that is allowed to do smarmy sax solos and that is the Big Man.

    I do appreciate, however, the factoid on Wikipedia about how the band turned down a spot on Top of the Pops because they insisted on the band lip-synching which they refused to do. Stay punk forever Mike Scott.

    I am rather fond of this Ben & Bruno album. I think it has a very nice sound that is quite consistent throughout, with the mass of multi-tracks wordless backing vocals, balanced with enough variation, a piano here, some strings there, to keep things interesting. I find the whole complicated back story of the songs interesting as well….stuff like kidnappings, step mothers and Stockholm syndrome. Although having a conceptual framework tying together all of one’s songs is not unique, I do find it interesting and enables subject matter to enter into these songs that is somewhat atypical. Ya know, stuff like a flock of birds carrying off the main character by a series of strings, and how the one grim reaper tells the character to “get used to it” right before the other 99 grim reapers tackle him and cover his mouth. Spooky.

    I vote BB.

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  4. I'm going with The Waterboys as well. 100 Grim Reapers is unique and impressive and stuff. I just prefer The Waterboys.

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  5. I vote 100 Grim Reapers.
    I've always been impressed with Ben and Bruno. They give sad spooky vibe lyrical oohh ahhh committee background.. What bumps BB up in my book is the lyrics; I go to them when I'm ready to really feel my blues.
    "Not as lovers but as friends who love."
    "Maybe if you had a different wife, you could change all the things you wanted to. And do those things."
    "And I have meant to woo you..."
    Plus joelg used to be with BB and anything he touches musically, melts me biggietime.

    Waterboys gives little pep to step, that is for sure but not really my jam. Although, I love imagining AZ getting douchey-looking to the hot sax solos.

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  6. I vote BB. It's not just because it's my selection, or because I bought the album on Joe's front porch, or because "Pack of Light Blue Birds" far surpasses all other songs in my iTunes list (with "Killing in Name" #2...and no, I can't explain that either).

    Many of Karl's Criteria seem to fit the way I've been evaluating music, even if I don't like what that means for DM. For me to like an artist:
    --I have to want to listen to it. That doesn't mean everything has to be perfect, else I would have thrown out the live Sufjan CDs that we've nearly worn out. But deep lyrics with crappy instrumentation doesn't get an album played at our house (and I'm not sure my hearing is good enough to sort through all of the lyrics anyway).
    --It has to be real. I have to believe that the artist is interested in the music for more reasons than he or she hopes to make a boatload of money or meet a bunch of groupies. I'm also less inclined to like something that I'm only supposed to get if I'm cool.
    --It has to be creative. Inspiration is fine, but don't do what everyone else is doing or exactly what you've been doing for the last 20 years.
    --Plus some more stuff, but since these criteria led to me selecting the most lopsided loser in MDM history, I'm guessing no one wants to read about them.

    Ben and Bruno hits all of these good things.

    I have 15 minutes before my deadline plus a more important deadline for a class prep, so I might have to come back to write about the Waterboys later. I like them, but I'm sticking with BB.

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    1. My memory is short . . . what was that lopsided loser you picked?

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  7. Waterboys for me. BB=so pretty. I've always thought that when exposed to their music. And inventive, and all that good stuff. But maybe a bit mellow for me.

    Why Waterboys? I'm a sucker for, as Andrew called it, the "big U2ish, reach for the stars, quasi-mystical/spiritual kind of vibe." (My top pick is The National, so...)

    And it's noon.

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  8. I'm too late for my vote, but I would have (perhaps unfairly) voted for Waterboys. I didn't overly like the original album (dated and a little boring), but I listened to the 2nd disc of the re-release, and really like that one. BB I only listened to once, and while not bad, it didn't seem to grab me, maybe a second listen would have changed my mind.

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  9. Hmmm, Sarah tied it up, and then Pagey voted Waterboys, so maybe they won in overtime? But since it's my pick, I'll give it until tomorrow to see if there are any more votes. What's wrong with all you people? What, you think you have better things to do on the weekend?

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  10. Didn't Ms. Zwartitude sign up for this? Where's she been? Take a break from your prenatal yoga videos and chime in here!

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  11. Didn't Ms. Zwartitude sign up for this? Where's she been? Take a break from your prenatal yoga videos and chime in here!

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  12. And where is Steve D? I heard through Facebook that he said his status was "So bored." VOTE ON DEATH MATCH = NOT BORING MAN!

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    1. Above was Brooke commenting not joelg because I thought I was logged in but really it was joelg. And joelg only wants to smack talk Mama Zwart.

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  13. I got behind on my listening but just want to say I'm really glad for the motivation to listen closely to Waterboys. I don't think it would recommend itself to me otherwise, and I don't think I'll be buying the album, but it was very cool and impressive. Who knew a 12-string guitar strummy-strummy-strum-strum song could still be moving to a cynical heart like mine?

    Now listening to B&B and also enjoying. But too early to even abstain from voting, let alone vote.

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  14. After agonizing for a while, I'm going to vote Waterboys. Superficially I prefer Ben & Bruno, and I would more likley buy B&B over Waterboys. But despite the old-fashioned sound of Waterboys, despite my association of Waterboys with some repressed "no really they're Christian that's why they're okay to listen to" kids from my old youth group, despite my distaste for the straightforward reverby rock drum sound, I'm just repeatedly impressed by the Waterboys while listening. Sure, it's in a historical sense, and I'm not interested in them right now. But I wish I had listened to them before.

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