Obviously, there's the occassional diversion from white funk territory, but when their entire discography is taken into consideration that is what is dominant.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:06 (seven years ago) link
At least until the Speaking in Tongues era I think of the TH as sort of academic anti-funk. They were one of those bands, like VU (iirc) who made a point of avoiding blues licks and progressions, at least early on. If anything they presage no wave as much as new wave, not unlike Devo. TH's Al Green cover is to funk/soul sort of what Devo's "Satisfaction" is to rock, sort of a weirdly sideways glance.
Josh OTM. It's that POV that is most explicit in "The Big Country": detached, skeptical of appetite and happiness. Part of what makes Little Creatures sufferable is how it feels like they earned that joy of parenthood, instead of viewing it from a distance.
― Eazy, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:06 (seven years ago) link
but when their entire discography is taken into consideration that is what is dominant
I don't think this is accurate at all
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:08 (seven years ago) link
Turrican, what are the TH songs that are representative of white funk? What funk songs do they remind you of?
― Moodles, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:08 (seven years ago) link
I think you'll find the music speaks for itself, Tom. It's others that project stuff onto it. Given that you're generally someone who perceives himself to have some sort of sophisticated and exotic taste, it surprises me none to find you're offended. Sorry to burst your bubble, it wasn't intentional
I am offended by someone posting ill-informed nonsense which they fondly imagine, and apparently persist in fondly imagining, is provocative but is, in fact, mere ill-informed nonsense. I'll pass over the rest of your post o_0
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:10 (seven years ago) link
Not even remotely.
bizarrely reductionist take on a band whose string of charting singles in the US indicates a pretty strange breadth, only one of which can accurately be described as a "white band playing funk music" (let's see if you can spot it!)
Psycho KillerTake Me to the RiverLife During WartimeBurning Down the HouseThis Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)And She WasWild Wild Life
xp
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:10 (seven years ago) link
It's really not, Turrican. There is no reason to call it 'white funk' when terms like 'new wave' or 'post-punk' are both wider and more precise. If Talking Heads is a funk-band, then Gang of Four is a funk-band, The Contortions is a funk-band, Liquid Liquid is a funk-band, ESG is a funk-band, !!! is a funk-band, Franz Ferdinand is a funk-band. So much is funk, and then the term doesn't really say anything, other than it's white people making music slightly more syncopated than Rolling Stones...
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:12 (seven years ago) link
I imagine what Turrican was referring to, with regard to TH, was more in the area of the Gang of Four and, I don't know, Pigbag(?) than the Average White Band or Wild Cherry. Art school funk.
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:17 (seven years ago) link
It's great of you guys to make out that funk was just a coat that Talking Heads were trying on but... no, it's a dominant part of their DNA.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:17 (seven years ago) link
(Rolling Stones totally a white funk band btw)
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:18 (seven years ago) link
Side project Tom Tom Club, though, does fall closer into the category.
― Eazy, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:18 (seven years ago) link
Οὖτις OTM above re: the juxtaposition of disparate elements. "Funk band" to my ears is like The Dap-Kings, a recreation of a particular era of R&B music. There is so much more going on in Talking Heads' music that this seems just ridiculously reductive.
― "Celebration" encourages the listener to celebrate good times. (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:18 (seven years ago) link
there's funk in there, but there's a distance from it, and it's combined with a bunch of other things that don't bear any relationship or resemblance to funk.
Rolling Stones is a white r'n'b band.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:19 (seven years ago) link
I... don't think that's an insane way to describe the Stones?
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:21 (seven years ago) link
Honestly, Talking Heads is closer to being a white r'n'b band too. I could call Remain in Light a funk-record, Stop Making Sense a funk concert, sure. But the idea that funk is a 'dominant part of their DNA' basically just tells me that Turrican knows nothing about Talking Heads nor funk.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:21 (seven years ago) link
where is the funk here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bKW7JkHKm8
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:22 (seven years ago) link
etc. What I'm getting from this thread is that Turrican has just heard Remain In Light for the first time.
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:24 (seven years ago) link
just another slab o' funk, remember all those marching zydeco accordian arrangements James Brown used to do
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWtCittJyr0
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:24 (seven years ago) link
(xp) Which is no crime btw.
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:25 (seven years ago) link
TBF the bass plays a syncope every second measure in Heaven. So it's kinda funk, right?
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:27 (seven years ago) link
You would be wrong, Tom.
(x-post)
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:29 (seven years ago) link
Oh right, you haven't even heard it yet.
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:30 (seven years ago) link
Ha! Okay Tom, you're getting desperate now.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:32 (seven years ago) link
Well, yeah, I'm not a fan of this band but, of what I've heard, I only really think of them as funk-based in the Remain in Light/Stop Making Sense era. I do like "Road to Nowhere" and "Psycho Killer" a lot btw! xps
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:34 (seven years ago) link
an outtake from "Mothership Connection" iirc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvua6zPIi7c
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:35 (seven years ago) link
I'm hoping anyone using roaming minutes in Florida as their phone batteries have 3 percent power doesn't find this thread.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:36 (seven years ago) link
Apologies to everyone in the world.
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:37 (seven years ago) link
'Funk' really just means thinking ever so slightly about rhythms, right?
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:40 (seven years ago) link
funk is a joint rolled in toilet paper iirc
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:41 (seven years ago) link
watch out folks, turri's expounding heads band
― plp will eat itself (NickB), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:44 (seven years ago) link
ok lol
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:45 (seven years ago) link
Haha!!
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:47 (seven years ago) link
A whole bunch of their last two albums are clearly influenced by Talking Heads,
Well, yeah. But inexplicably people were comparing them to TH c. "Funeral," which is so not TH.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 16:49 (seven years ago) link
calm down, nerds.
― Shart Dressed Man (kurt schwitterz), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 17:05 (seven years ago) link
Um...TH are definitely funk. As is Gang of Four and the Stones are r'n'b. Everyone knows this. The ridiculous part is claiming Remain In Light is derivative or for people who don't listen to r'n'b genres. Remain In Light is a perfect album for Fela Kuti fans who want to hear that groove taken places.
― gospodin simmel, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 17:14 (seven years ago) link
Steering away from this madness, it occurred to me that I've never heard any of jerry harrison's solo records. What's good?
― plp will eat itself (NickB), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 17:20 (seven years ago) link
they are not good
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 17:28 (seven years ago) link
The Red and the Black rips off so much of Remain in Light's sound that Byrne could have sued Harrison for plagiarism (if Harrison hadn't been part of creating that sound.) The other ones I can't even remember.
― "Celebration" encourages the listener to celebrate good times. (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 17:33 (seven years ago) link
If everything syncopated is funk, then Talking Heads is definitely sorta kinda a funk band? The really insane thing is that Turrican then says Can isn't a funk band. So The Overload is funk, but this isn't?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp6oPyQnX60
Btw one of the first reviews of Arcade Fire I remember reading called them a funkpunk band. Guess that's halfway to being a TH cover band, then?
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 17:35 (seven years ago) link
Of course Can aren't a funk band.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 17:38 (seven years ago) link
Now you're getting the picture.
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 17:41 (seven years ago) link
Halleluhwah is funk
― gospodin simmel, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 17:41 (seven years ago) link
Tom, you'd have a point if I hadn't already said the same thing a zillion posts up.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 17:44 (seven years ago) link
The point being that playing funky stuff every so often doesn't make you a funk band.
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 17:47 (seven years ago) link
TBF to Tom you never ever do anything but repeat yourself, so it's kinda hard to react to.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 17:48 (seven years ago) link
I LOVE TALKING HEADS
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 17:50 (seven years ago) link
You can't handle the real thing, admit it.
― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, 13 September 2017 17:50 (seven years ago) link
this sort of thinking is A-OK by me:
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/07/46/2d/07462d5c14327ec81075f9ccae163e26--weird-music-hipster-tattoo.jpg
― brimstead, Wednesday, 13 September 2017 17:54 (seven years ago) link