Caltrops - No Stairway to Heaven

Forum Overview :: No Stairway to Heaven

by jeep 12/09/2005, 4:55pm PST

"Modest Mouse-y" certainly worked well enough to get me to buy Wolf Parade's "Apologies to the Queen Mary." It really isn't very Modest Mouse-y, but it really is pretty good, so I recommend it. I wasn't a big fan of the Arcade Fire album "Funeral," which is sort of dull, so comparing Wolf Parade to them was not the best sell, but there you go. I guess the Modest Mouse comparison comes from the kind of stompy percussion and weird guitar changes, though it isn't as pronounced here. I'm linking you to Sub Pop's page which has a couple mp3s. Click on the track "Shine a Light" to get the general idea, though I think the two tracks right after it might be better, especially "I'll Believe in Anything".

I got Broken Social Scene's self-titled album, which has good bits, but is not spectacular. It splits time between instrumentals like Godspeed You Black Emperor and this neo-jangly pop which is really just Beat Happening with more instruments. I have a lot of friends who insist vocals are critical to their enjoyment of music, so I'll say this: I don't give a fuck, go listen to Celine Dion or something. On the other hand, the vocals on this record are very noticeably weirdly arranged and not in an interesting or beneficial way.

I got the new Bill Hicks concert album "Salvation" even though I probably already have everything else his estate has released, this was recorded in Britain in 1992, and I've heard he did different material there. Something about a whole segment of the act devoted to his own weird hang-ups revolving around some "goat-boy" persona. I've seen a clip of it and it was...well, edgier than you could've done in the US. So the differences between Britain's take on Hicks and ours has been a) they like him and b) he did edgier stuff there.

There's only a few minutes of the goat boy stuff here, and the rest of the record is pretty much the same as you've already heard from his other stuff. He does extended bits about Britain and throws in the typical comedy localisms to ingratiate himself with the audience. Also, it's at Oxford/Cambridge, so he treats part of it like a lecture and keeps asking for questions at the end.

Anyway: get the Wolf Parade record, Bill Hicks if you're a fan or would like to know where funny comedians' jokes come from, and probably not Broken Socail Scene.

/jeep/