Comments on: Trying Not to Be Evil Week’s Conclusion: Beards, Blazers & Glasses: The Raconteurs

By: CrimeNotes

CrimeNotes — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 20:36:00 +0000

Agree to the accessibility judgment. I think part of it’s the Brendan Benson influence. I’ve been listening to a lot of Brendan Benson in the past 18 months and I hear him coming through in a lot of the album. White may be the project’s Michael Jordan, but Benson is Scotty Pippin-plus.

By: Passion of the Weiss

Passion of the Weiss — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 22:45:00 +0000

I have to say it’s a tough call between the two but Hardest Button To Button and 7 Nation Army put Elpehant over the top for me…I think that was why Get Behind Me’s problem didn’t sell nearly as well…Blue orchird was the worst song on the album in my opinion and it was the first single. Plus, it was weird and not a familiar sound I suppose. He definitely backed himself out of the corner and did it well. I was shocked at how well when i gave it that re-listen.

The Raconteurs album is in a totally different vein as the White Stripes work..It’s just a good fun rock record. you don’t think too much and it’s very very listenable. I suppose I like it so much because they aren’t very many good “accessible” records made today.

and by the way…your frequent soulseek referencing has gotten me hooked on it. I’m not gonna’ get all sorts of spyware now am I?

By: Nate

Nate — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 21:23:00 +0000

I actually like Elephant better than Get Behind me Satan. But they are both very good albums. Hardest Button to button and No Faith in Medicine are two of my favs from that CD.

By: Ian

Ian — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 15:21:00 +0000

When my laptop gets back into town and I have Soulseek (no way am I putting that on someone else’s computer), I’ll get my hands on the Raconteurs (sic?). Mostly, I get my new joints from sendspace on the Stylus board, but you should see some of the shit that goes up there.

I agree with most of your commentary, since Pitchfork all but hands you the fish, the barrel and the shotgun when you go at them. However, I think “Get Behind Me” is a more enjoyable listen than “Elephant,” and it’s not just because Meg gets forty seconds of signing as opposed to three minutes. “Elephant” is pretty good, but it’s got some serious duds on it. This came out back when ‘Fork fought against critic hyperbole instead of creating it. I think NME called “Elephant” among the twenty best albums ever made a couple of months before it even came out. I’m a sucker for the “weird” album, and “Get Behind Me Satan” was a wise move for a band that was starting to paint themselves in a corner.

And as far as the Zep thing, I think the critical revulsion only really applied to their first album. But it’s morphed into a career-long argument that Creed used to justify their popularity. So I pretend it never happened.

By: Passion of the Weiss

Passion of the Weiss — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 22:00:00 +0000

Perhaps it’s revisionist history but in this Rolling Stone (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5940050/14_led_zeppelin/) Dave Grohl says that they were never acclaimed. Then again he’s not a critic so who knows. Plus, i also seem to recall hearing that critics HATED led Zep III, because it was too soft. From what I’ve read it was always that the critics never liked them because they thought they lacked originality. But oh well. I didn’t live through the time so I’ll take your word for it.

And about Teen Wolf…this is just must troubling…most troubling. And here I thought it was an American original.

By: amphimacer

amphimacer — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 21:44:00 +0000

“Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom’s. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own.” — Nelson Algren, predating “Teen Wolf” by about two decades. These are the original three rules, which the scriptwriter in question adapted (or stole, to be a little more direct). And I think you’re wrong about Led Zeppelin having a hard time gaining critical acceptance; pretty much everybody I knew thought they were excellent, from the first album on. I knew people who didn’t care for the Rolling Stones in the mid-sixties, though they tended to be younger than thirteen or older than thirty-five, and I knew people who thought that Jimi Hendrix was overrated (I’m not such a big fan of the Woodstock “Star Spangled Banner” feedback session myself, or the setting of his guitar on fire at Monterey — he was just aping The Who there), but I can’t remember anyone critically carving up Zeppelin; it wouldn’t have been cool.