The Bad Plus

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Here's my inevitable thread about the new Bad Plus record. I really like it, no surprise there. It's more concise than These Are the Vistas and the covers are de-emphasized, although their Iron Man is fucking brilliant. It's dirtier sonically too...instead of that big clean larger-than-life sound, when they play loud it sounds like everything's JUST shy of distorting.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

'And Here We Test Our Powers of Observation' is the joint, it's the Big Eater of this one. It's as if Photek was into necromancy and brought John Bonham's tormented soul back to cut drum tracks.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 14:40 (twenty-two years ago)

i knew this was you.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 14:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I would hope so. I knew this would be a nine post thread where a couple people say they're overhyped and maybe Sundar likes it, but I felt I had to go through the motions.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I knew this would be a nine post thread where a couple people say they're overhyped and maybe Sundar likes it, but I felt I had to go through the motions.

Haha. At least someone else is reading it. I hope my library buys a copy, but probably in these city/state double-whammy budget crunch days.

― Rockist Scientist, Tuesday, 16 March 2004 15:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I've only heard about the first half of it, but from what I've heard think I like it way more than Vistas. I admit though I was a bit biased when I first heard that one in an unfair "these guys really wish they were Medeski Martin and Wood" kinda way. They're on some totally different shit, and what I've heard of this album sorta pushes that distinction.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 15:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Ha, that warms my heart, Nick, since I just glanced over that Vistas thread and thought "MMW, WTF?"

I do think that even though they've very much had their own concept since their s/t album, the confidence is just bursting through on this one.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 15:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Is there more crazy drumming on this one? I really like Vistas, but my favorite thing about it is the drumming -- which is kind of weird, because I usually have low tolerance for overly clattery jazz drumming.

― spittle (spittle), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 15:47 (twenty-two years ago)

The drumming is off the hook on this one. He doesn't really use traditional jazz vocabulary anyway, I think, unless you're talking free jazz. There are a lot more straight-up rock gestures too. Those time-stretched fills on Iron Man...Dave King, you so crazy.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 15:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Dave King is a great drummer, kind of reminds me of Ben Perowsky. That said, I thought he was kind of underused on the first record. Based on the description here, I'll have to check some of it out.

― dleone (dleone), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:09 (twenty-two years ago)

ie, second record

― dleone (dleone), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Interesting...I love Ben Perowksy too, my top three'younger' drummers are probably Dave King, Ben, and Ari Hoenig.

Neither of them consider themselves jazz drummers in the traditional sense, but where Ben Perowsky seems to still be happy to do it if it comes up (like that record with his dad, and most of his stuff has a lot of spang-a-lang in it), Dave King seems pretty vehement in his disdain of 'mainstream' jazz and I think it shapes his playing a lot.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:29 (twenty-two years ago)

dave king kills it. i wish i could study under him.

― cutty (mcutt), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I was going to get a lesson from him a couple years ago. It fell through, but it's probably just as well...I figure with a guy like that, the most important things to learn from him are his attitude and approach, and that's all upfront when you watch him play with a band. Same with all those guys, it would seem like kind of a waste to study rudiments or whatever with them.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:49 (twenty-two years ago)

"Cheney Pinata"

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:55 (twenty-two years ago)

It's nice, but I sort of phase out when I'm listening to it and do other things. Giving it a hard listen and reviewing specific aspects of the record might be more effort than I willing to put forth.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 17:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I am definitely getting this. And you're right, his playing is anything but "jazzy" -- he also doesn't sound like a rock drummer trying to play jazz, which often comes across as either precious or clumsy. (NB, there are lots of straight-up jazz drummers who I like; it's just exciting to hear someone not constrained by the expectations of the form.)

― spittle (spittle), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 18:00 (twenty-two years ago)

fwiw, my fave drummer in this mode (of not really being straight up jazz or rock or anything obvious) is Jim Black. But I have heard him in straight jazz settings, and he's great there too.

― dleone (dleone), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 18:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I love this record but really find that it doesn't hook me quite as easily as Vistas did. The whole record feels a bit soft to me.

― dean! (deangulberry), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 18:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not finding it soft...they've always had their quiet and pretty moments, which I love, and a lot of it is heavier than before (like that bit in Dirty Blonde that's metal as fuck).

However, I would agree that although melody is still a really fundamental part of their thing, as a whole the melodies aren't as a razor-sharp as on Vistas. Maybe it just seems that way because there are less pop covers, or because I've only listened to it a few times though (god, I listened to Big Eater, like, an infinite number of times).

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 20:07 (twenty-two years ago)

I found that after hugely enjoying them live and really enjoying Vistas on a first few listens I found it got old fairly quickly. I will definitely give the new one a few listens but I'm not as excited about it as I would have expected to be at one point.

― ArfArf, Tuesday, 16 March 2004 21:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I just realized I'm going to see Dave King and Jim Black in the same week next month...for Wisconsin, that's pretty damn cool.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 16:13 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

Wow, I don't think I listened to Give after this thread died!

I did get the new Bad Plus record (Suspicious Activity) though, and I like it a lot. It seems more confident and relaxed without being as soft as Give (ha, I was wrong). They ditched the crazy covers thing too, although some of the originals seem weirdly like re-tooled power ballads anyway (in a good way!).

Part of the reason it sounds so good to me right now is that I got it the same night as Vijay Iyer's Blood Sutra. His quartet has a very similar style of playing in many ways, except completely without the melodic sense and pop impulses that make the BP click for me.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 18:48 (twenty years ago)

I didn't know there was a new album...

― kurt broder (dr g), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 18:50 (twenty years ago)

Came out yesterday. I didn't know either actually, I just happened to see it in the store on Monday night when I was looking for Arrested Development dvds.

― Jordan (Jordan), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 18:51 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWk-n0ue-wg

yes!

― Crackle Box, Friday, 3 September 2010 20:53 (fifteen years ago)

dave king, lookin' good, sounding good, makin' jokes

― the parking garage has more facebook followers than my band (Jordan), Friday, 3 September 2010 21:16 (fifteen years ago)

lots of the stuff on that video sounds like free-er jazz vince guaraldi charlie brown stuff

― Making Easy Money Pimpin' HOOS In Style (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 3 September 2010 21:28 (fifteen years ago)

i love how he's co-ordinated his shirt and kit, proper nice guy. did you get into the buffalo collision stuff jordan?

― Crackle Box, Friday, 3 September 2010 21:34 (fifteen years ago)

hill street blues joke funny because it's true (but I do love dave king as a drummer!)

― Dominique, Friday, 3 September 2010 21:38 (fifteen years ago)

i didn't check out the record, because i don't have a lot of patience these days for 20+ min unstructured pieces. do you like it?

― the parking garage has more facebook followers than my band (Jordan), Friday, 3 September 2010 21:40 (fifteen years ago)

i do like some stuff on dave king's piano + drums solo record though, it's extremely king-ish

whoa, 1 hr 40 min interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH1URa1laSI

― the parking garage has more facebook followers than my band (Jordan), Friday, 3 September 2010 21:42 (fifteen years ago)

so far he's channeling zach galifianakis

― the parking garage has more facebook followers than my band (Jordan), Friday, 3 September 2010 21:44 (fifteen years ago)

ha yeah, i listened to that interview at work last week. i saw buffalo collision over here in london, they were incredible haven't heard the cd yet tho.

― Crackle Box, Friday, 3 September 2010 21:57 (fifteen years ago)

six months pass...

anyone digging the new one then?

― Crackle Box, Monday, 28 March 2011 11:43 (fifteen years ago)

four years pass...

Love the new record with Joshua Redman.

― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Monday, 30 November 2015 03:01 (ten years ago)

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The Bad Plus - Give