Taking Sides: The Roches vs. Kate & Anna McGarrigle

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70s era Folkie crit darlings/sister acts. One gal from each group was married to Loudon Wainwright III. Who wins? I love them both, i think the Roches self-titled debut is the best thing either released, but the Canucks were more consistent than the Jerseyites. But they also get a demerit for Rufus.

― timmy tannin (pompous), Sunday, 25 June 2006 00:55 (nineteen years ago)

the mcgarrigles are grebt -- their voices are a little shot in their old age but whenever they do "mcgarrigle hour" recs with their extended family it's really charming. the sisters' early albums are still the best.

i've always found the roches a bit too cloyingly quirky, but i'll admit i haven't gone out of my way to listen to all their material.

― aimee semple mcmansion (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 25 June 2006 01:00 (nineteen years ago)

and i LOVE rufus, yupster cliche tho he is. martha has a beautiful voice, but her material can be iffy. i have a cd by sister (?) sloan that i got for a dollar once, but it's pretty bad.

― aimee semple mcmansion (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 25 June 2006 01:01 (nineteen years ago)

Tough. The Roches' debut is one of the weirdest, most spectral batch of songs ever commited to disc. The McGarrigle album is just as beguiling.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 25 June 2006 01:04 (nineteen years ago)

the first three roches albums are great and so is seductive reasoning by maggie and terre which came before any of the trio albums. but my heart really does lean toward the McGarrigles. who were and are darker and richer to me, yet just as quirky and goofy as the roches. i lost track of the roches after speak (which came out a long time ago). but matapedia, by the Mcgarrigles, which came out in 1996, is one of my favorite albums of the last 20-odd years. so, for longevity, and how often i still play them, i gotta go with kate and anna.

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 25 June 2006 01:16 (nineteen years ago)

and how great is dancer with bruised knees!? actually harder for me might be:

heart like a wheel -vs- the hammond song

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 25 June 2006 01:19 (nineteen years ago)

and how great is dancer with bruised knees!?

goddammit, VERY great.

― aimee semple mcmansion (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 25 June 2006 01:38 (nineteen years ago)

i liked 2 or 3 songs from matapedia, but otherwise that's when i stopped being interested in K&A. I'd actually rate Heartbeats Accelerating much higher, despite the oh-so-dated synthy sound - it has some first-rate songs.

― timmy tannin (pompous), Sunday, 25 June 2006 01:46 (nineteen years ago)

i need to buy a copy of Matapedia. or rip my mother's copy. actually, the only albums i know are the first two and Matapedia, all of which i love. what else is vital? i don't like rufus, and have not heard martha.

oh, McGarrigles obv.

― derrick (derrick), Sunday, 25 June 2006 06:06 (nineteen years ago)

The Roches, for the sense of humor on their first (and by far best) album. But it's close.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Sunday, 25 June 2006 07:58 (nineteen years ago)

(First album as a TRIO, that is; I used to own Seductive Reasoning, but haven't heard it in years now. I think I still have Nerds though -- that's the second trio one, right?)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Sunday, 25 June 2006 08:00 (nineteen years ago)

and it's spelled "Nurds" (which is irritating enough).

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 25 June 2006 12:16 (nineteen years ago)

The Roches sound like Raffi.

― Shoes say, yeah, no hands clap your good bra. (goodbra), Sunday, 25 June 2006 13:23 (nineteen years ago)

Is that a bad thing?

― max (maxreax), Sunday, 25 June 2006 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

i can definitely hear the roches singing: "a peanut butter sandwich made with jam/one for me and one for david amram".

― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 25 June 2006 16:58 (nineteen years ago)

I saw a bit of some documentary back in the late 80s, in which an interviewer played McGs tracks for young secretaries in a big Canandian city. They said it was the kind of thing they'd had to sing for "fun" in Catholic school, which is why they'd moved to the big city. The interviewer looked like she wanted to strangle them, she also looked like them (those cute 80s perms, I miss 'em). C'est la vie say the old folks, it goes to show you never can tell. I kinda knwe what they meant, as far as some of the McG's harmonies went, but not saying I was that much more familiar with their albums than were the secretaries. (I did like cover versions, and should check out more of their own.) There was a class that I could only make myself go to if I played the Roches' "Man On A Train" first: the daily assroute, amen. Most of the Roches LPs I have are good, but that first one's the One. wait, there's more than one McGarrigles' Hour? Must have!

― don (dow), Sunday, 25 June 2006 18:19 (nineteen years ago)

wait, there's more than one McGarrigles' Hour? Must have!

there was a christmas album last year that was a family affair. i think it was just credited as a kate and anna album, but everyone was involved.

― aimee semple mcmansion (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 25 June 2006 18:23 (nineteen years ago)

the Xmas album was really annoying

this can be the thread where I talk about seeing Kate and Martha joining Rufus at Carnegie Hall. Kate wore a gold Elvis suit, a folkie joke (Phil Ochs, har har) that I thought was pretty wonderful. I liked Rufus a lot, too; Martha, torching "Stormy Weather," just seemed overly self-involved.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 26 June 2006 13:34 (nineteen years ago)

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