so tell me, why is Kaputt better or worse than Let England Shake?

Tell me whyyyy-y-yyyy...?

I'm listening to Les England Shakes and I'm crying tears. Englisher's tears!

that album sounded like Pocahaunted covering a Kinks record to me, but w/e

if i had to choose either of these records i'd rather never listen to music again

i've listened to kaputt a few times now and it's an incredibly cold record imo

Now I'm listening to Destroyer. Sounds like a fridge.

do they drink shakes in england?

Shittest thing about both these bands part 1: Neither of them are bands.

Shittest thing about these bands pt.2: Destroyer are not the greatest living thrash metal band that ever walked

Shittest thing about these bands pt.3: PJ Harvey has never been remixed by DJ Harvey, AFAIK

Have they released that app that stops you going on the Internet when you're drunk yet?

i've listened to kaputt a few times now and it's an incredibly cold record imo

this is its magic and beauty

For me Kaputt is the musical descendant of albums like Steely Dan's Gaucho, Boz Scaggs' Silk Degrees, and Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man, but filtered through a modern sensibility where sounds of the 70s and 80s are used for textural or atmospheric purposes rather than as basic songwriting tools.

Obviously this is a drunken thread so this seems extraneous, but Kaputt is very clearly very American and Let England Shake is very clear very English. I like both, a lot, but I prefer PJ's.

but destroyer isn't american...

this entire episode definitely made the US posters seem more parochial than the UK ones, which i hadn't thought was the case before

Ah, I'd forgotten I started this thread.

Parochial? Not really feeling the Destroyer album, but are you seriously suggesting some underhand conspiracy on the part of western-atlantic voters?

that's not what "parochial" means

Okay, what do you mean?

well we have better taste, for starters.

It's better because ILX says so. It's official. It's definitely better.

Kaputt that is. Obviously.

that bonus track on the vinyl which is now also on the cd, "the laziest river" reminds me a little of talk talk around "spirit of eden". there is a lot happening rhythmically and harmonically in that 20 minute song and the best is most of the time bejar does not open his mouth!

having now re-listened to Kaputt I will strongly endorse that last point (not re that specific track, it isn't on the CD I have) - if dude really wanted to salute his 80s MOR godheads he should in all seriousness have got someone else to sing

most of it's just not the sort of thing I'm likely to ever busy myself w/ but there are some nice 'Balearic' (I know I know) instrumental parts here and there

for some reason on 'Bay of Pigs' I had the idea of giving it to Underworld circa 'Second Toughest...' and just getting them to use it as a basis for one of their own songs (rather than a cover per se)

this entire episode definitely made the US posters seem more parochial than the UK ones, which i hadn't thought was the case before

lol, if anything, "this entire episode" suggests that certain PJH fans are rather narrow-minded

See u in March, ILX!

I can't believe anyone would be so narrow-minded as to dislike these poor underappreciated albums. They should really consider open their minds to new strains of indie.

well, narrow-minded as in "unable to tolerate differences of opinion". i could hardly care less who likes or doesn't like either album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St8uz4ioha0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwE8dlRnsio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQwSRlta020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTW3-1f3krs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ejRtQJdRWY

scott, u are one of my alltime fave ilx posters, just btw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W3gmC52dPM

thanks!

that ton steine sherben clip is great, by the way. they had a very hip look.

love the klaus & klaus act.

For me Kaputt is the musical descendant of albums like Steely Dan's Gaucho, Boz Scaggs' Silk Degrees, and Leonard Cohen's I'm Your Man, but filtered through a modern sensibility where sounds of the 70s and 80s are used for textural or atmospheric purposes rather than as basic songwriting tools.

You don't think Gaucho is written with atmosphere in mind????

i really hate the part of ilx where people try to kill threads by flooding with youtubes or jpegs. Its childish, just like the reactions on the poll thread.

I do, but with Steely Dan, the songwriting and musicianship come first and then sounds and textures. On Kaputt, the texture is the primary concern.

the form of one generation of artists becomes the content of the next

kabutt vs let england shit

Mass turdmantic vs 4 poop demos

I do, but with Steely Dan, the songwriting and musicianship come first and then sounds and textures. On Kaputt, the texture is the primary concern.

this is otm. Steely Dan just pays a lot of attention to every detail - lyrics, music, harmony, texture, sequence, it all gets the fine-toothed comb. Kaputt seems to have begin with a structure & feel idea and put all else afterward.

boy, we've got a real algonquin round table around here

also in a rare moment of agreement between me and the Algerian Goalkeeper, I like Scott a lot but posting a bunch of youtubes that share the word "kaputt" is nagl imo

it's a good luck imo

metal poll

i really hate the part of ilx where people try to kill quality threads by flooding with youtubes or jpegs oh wait

I like kaputt but lex is right, awarding the best album award to pj harvey would have been a chance to deliver a slap in the face to canonical indie rock

yes the indie rock domination of the ilm polls has gone on FAR too long

god that was fucked. though it's poor form, i'm just gonna try again...

you should really read this book, contenderizer

http://www.amazon.com/How-Beatles-Destroyed-Rock-Roll/dp/019975697X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328828397&sr=1-1

i probably should, thanks for the tip. but again (and it's hard to say without having read it), even anti-canonical perspectives help build the canon, right? either by expanding it or by providing it with alternatives to triumph over. at this point, the "official" canon been so widened by appeals to inclusion that it's become all but meaningless, a history that encompasses all of history. simple efficiency is arguably a bigger motivator for the creation of alternative canons than the failure of Thee Canon to adapt.

people really do seriously rep for the enduring importance and quality of like shakespeare, joyce and dostoyevsky, though. it's really no different than putting leadbelly and led zep up on a pedestal.

it's quite different actually imo

yeah come on...joyce is way better than led zep. ffs.

http://ribike.org/wp-content/uploads/detour.jpg

well i think its also important to note that there a bunch of sites and magazines and big national newspapers whose critics all share somewhat of a similar aesthetic sensibility that can work to codify the new tv canon whereas music criticism is becoming more fractured and specialized.

Agree with this 100% but I think this critical consensus in itself is a product of the developments I identified in my preceding post.

How will format effect today's youth digesting of the canon, whatever the canon includes or excludes? I mean I have a cousin who is getting into music and he's 15. He will probably never buy a cd or a record and thinks I'm very weird for collecting record when I could be like him and just download what I want. I imagine him as an example of the future average music consumer. I always thought of the canon as being a package type deal, format and all. What bearing does the canon have on someone who thinks of music as only disposable singles? I imagine very little. I dunno, this probably has nothing to do with kaputt or LES.

well, i think that canon has only ever really mattered to the sort of people who attach a lot of significance to the idea that certain types of music more "important" than others, and/or those who wish to have "good taste". people like that tend to look to voices of authority for guidance, sometimes even aspiring to join the ranks of the tastemaking arbiters.

music fans who aren't concerned with those things will probably have little interest in canonical importance or quality.

i kind of disagree, i think lots of people are or have been concerned with those things! people want to have 'good taste'

or see themselves as discerning

yeah, i know. i was breaking it down to canon people vs "don't give a shit about a canon" people. not saying that either group is more numerous, and lots of folks are obviously somewhere in the middle.

probably most people in the middle, tbh

deej p much 100% otm so far

i listened to the pj harvey album and realised its that thing i always make my housemate turn off in the kitchen when we are cooking. he doesn't really like kaputt either.

ah c'cmon, he's just swiping at tangents. grumble, kvetch...

man i still can't really get down with bejar's vocals, and there are large portions of kaputt that are a yawner for me and that i have problems with,

but that "sounds, smash hits..." couplet is just all-time. doesn't really scan but perfect. how did he do that?

he read a magizine, iirc

Played Kaputt in the car today, every song is a jam.

http://sickmouthy.com/2012/02/14/lets-talk-about-destroyer/

this thread inspired me to go back to all of PJ Harvey's albums on Spotify

she fucking owns

great post, mouthy.

Obviously this is a drunken thread so this seems extraneous, but Kaputt is very clearly very American and Let England Shake is very clear very English. I like both, a lot, but I prefer PJ's.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Sunday, February 5, 2012 5:05 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

but destroyer isn't american...

this entire episode definitely made the US posters seem more parochial than the UK ones, which i hadn't thought was the case before

― first period don't give a fuck, second period gon get cut (lex pretend), Sunday, February 5, 2012 5:38 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes in a lot of ways kaputt feels very... canadian to me. don't ask me to explain how or why though. peace

Nick that's a wonderful post

Thanks dude.

Dudes.

Yeah, just read the blog - nice one sicko, enjoyed it

yeah, same here. loved reading that (though i'm still in camp shake).

what's that a link to

this entire episode definitely made the US posters seem more parochial than the UK ones, which i hadn't thought was the case before

hm.

can i just take a moment to laugh at whoever compared pj harvey to ts eliot

hey they both have initials

So does JFK.

I'd been wondering why I'd suddenly got lots of people following me on Twitter.

good thread.

a favorite post:

there's an album called hats?!?!

fuck all of you who like it

― first period don't give a fuck, second period gon get cut (lex pretend), Wednesday, February 8, 2012 6:13 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i just went through this whole thread again. forgot all about it. tim going full nabisco. lex bringing the hilarity. good one.

I'm always about the judith posts in this thread

you are a judith fanboy. who was judith?

oh at some point in the past year i finally listened to the blue nile (indeed, hats) and thought it was really bad

just another 2 billion verdicts to go and then we can all kill ourselves safe in the knowledge that culture has been logged

yes why even have opinions

oh at some point in the past year i finally listened to the blue nile (indeed, hats) and thought it was really bad

― the hallouminati (lex pretend),

I wasn't too fond of it either after my bff Brad recommended it.

Hats is cool you guys drool. First album is my fave though.

i listened to a few tracks off of Kaputt in honor of this thread last night and, yeah, still no....

he should have asked Superpitcher to produce it. maybe then it would have worked a little better.

is disco in the sky the last thing that superpitcher did? he needs to put out an album and save the world.

i am legit shocked that alfred doesn't care for hats

just another 2 billion verdicts to go and then we can all kill ourselves safe in the knowledge that culture has been logged

all this talking is only bravado

gonna relisten now, Brad, because I gotta write a film review.

there's a double vinyl superpitcher comp that came out last month, looks like it collects a bunch of his singles.

https://www.discogs.com/Superpitcher-So-Far-So-Super/release/8395925

no "softmachine", though.

and wow i was not aware that he did a single with Westbam ten years ago

i just ordered one. impulse buy! though to be honest i'd rather have it on CD.

in honor of this thread i'm gonna listen to kompakt all summer.