| Author | Message | ||
     Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 598 Registered: 04-2005 |
aka "desperately seeking new thread ideas" What are your favorite uncommon instruments used in popular music? Here are a few that come to mind: Oboe - Amanda Brown and Andy Mackay (Roxy) show how much this beautiful, haunting sound can add in a rock context. Clavinet - Of course, this was pretty much all over every '70s funk record. It's not used too often now (not a lot have survived), but it's a great sound in the hands of a good keyboardist. Crumhorn - I'm not even sure what one of these looks like, but it's appeared on some older Richard Thompson records, and it's a truly unique sound that sounds cool with a rock rhythm section and RT's electric guitar. Tablas - I've long thought that traditional Indian music blends with rock styles better than any other nonrock, "ethnic" form, although I'm not talking about George Harrison's most stilted sitar experiments with the Beatles. But groups like Cornershop have used tablas and other Indian percussion with rock and dance beats to make some really funky music. I'm worried this may be the board's "jumping the shark" thread. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 743 Registered: 05-2005 |
Dulcimer, especially if hammered, I love, nay adore that instrument. Lap steel/pedal Steel guitar. Again I adore thi ssound, like the way its been used on Gram Pasons in the past and more recently, Wilco, Its all over some new stuff I am doing with the Winebago's. Crumar, a late 70's keyboard, its making a comeback, real heavy strrings etc Flugelhorn, i know a great player, and she's always happy playing it! Flute. Again, its an adorable instrument. Very English is the flute. Natural recording techniques. Recording to tape, fu*ck digital and pro tools, its a shame, analogue and tape have gine in a way, everything's tinny and compressed, void of warmth and soul. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 599 Registered: 04-2005 |
I'm with you on that last one, Spence--I'd give up all the exotic instruments in the world for a return to all-analog recording. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 806 Registered: 05-2005 |
cor anglais(whatever the hell that is)used by Wire on Chairs Missing and 154 | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 218 Registered: 04-2006 |
spence, i love the lap steel/pedal steel guitar (and slide guitar) sound since back in the seventies and i am curious to hear the new winebago album. but i think this will take a long time. i will be patient. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 747 Registered: 05-2005 |
thanks andreas! I have just reeased an almighty sneeze, it nearly blew my head off, and unfortunately it went all over my screen, so if this msg comes to you all gobbledy gooky, like most of my msgs apologies. Ooh I do feel better tho!! | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 604 Registered: 04-2005 |
Thanks for sharing, Spence. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 786 Registered: 03-2006 |
the cor blimey | ||
| Andy Robinson Member Username: Andyblue Post Number: 46 Registered: 03-2005 |
Whassat LK, some kind of cockernee thing used in film musicals of the early 1960s? | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 788 Registered: 03-2006 |
I think Benny Hill plays it! | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 209 Registered: 01-2005 |
Kurt, Don't forget Kate St. John from The Dream Academy who also played a nice oboe. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 561 Registered: 03-2005 |
Autoharp is a nice sound relatively seldom used. And, while you've got to be pretty thoughtful about the context you put them in, I love the drone of bagpipes. I want to say something in favor of digital recording. I remember struggling with tape equipment, it's awesome unreliability and incredible expense if you wanted a rig that could actually do something. There's no love lost there. It is digital technology that has broken the death grip of record companies on the music being made. So I am totally in favor of digital recording. The sound quality will continue to improve. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 397 Registered: 10-2004 |
Vibes. I can't say enough good things about the vibraphone. I mean, vibes are featured prominently on one of my very favorite Go-Betweens songs, "Twin Layers," and you can't deny how they give that tune a nice layer of sophistication and grace. The world needs more vibes. And marimba. I *love* marimba. Oh, and kalimba too. And steel drum. I want a steel drum *so* freaking badly, but they're kind of expensive. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 562 Registered: 03-2005 |
All good choices Jeff. I especially love Captain Beefheart's use of marimba. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 398 Registered: 10-2004 |
Funny you mention Beefheart, Randy, as I've always loved the marimba in "Tropical Hotdog Night." | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 214 Registered: 01-2005 |
Loved the digireedoo, especially on Kate Bush's title cut from my favorite album of hers, The Dreaming. Also, one of my favorite albums of all time. I also love Uileann pipes, which are featured on the song after "The Dreaming", "Night of the Swallow". | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 800 Registered: 03-2006 |
the vibes on "Twin Layers" is a great example - part of the appeal, too, is the surprise: they seem so unexpected, in the context of a GBs record...I was going to make that (perhaps obvious) observation that underused instrumenation is is underused for a reason, a little goes a long way, and any more and you'd have, say, the Modern Jazz Quartet, instead of the GoBees... It's like cilantro - a little in a Mexican dish can be totally awesome, but if you put too much, you are fucked, my friend! Another fave I could stand to hear more of is the glockenspiel...nothing like it to conjure up that Phil Spectorish ambience and those images of teen sweethearts tragically killed in car crashes... | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 801 Registered: 03-2006 |
Holy shit! I just reached 800...Kev, I'm gainin' on ya, buddy! | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 815 Registered: 05-2005 |
so you are LK, you realise by me replying I have just knotched another post. i fully expect you to overtake me by the end of the month, with spence rallying on the blind side he could be the one to watch  | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 758 Registered: 05-2005 |
"red rum on the outisde now!!" | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 613 Registered: 04-2005 |
Of course, my only hope is that Kevin, Spence, and LK get non-permanent injuries to their typing fingers that sideline them for a couple of months, allowing me to catch and pass them all. It's rough being #4--I'm not even on the podium. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 404 Registered: 08-2004 |
As an elder statesman here, I demand the removal of post-counts. It's too distracting & I can't keep up. Anyway I love the sound of a well placed accordion. Ghost & The Black Hat & The Bunnymen's My Kingdom are fine examples. Glockenspiel as on Join Together, which also gets my vote as best intro. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 221 Registered: 01-2005 |
Jerry, Nice glockenspiel in The Beautiful South's "You Play Glockenspiel, I'll Play Drums" from one of my favorite albums from 1992, 0898. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 584 Registered: 05-2005 |
Jerry, there's a polka accordina intro to a song by Pere Ubu about 10 years ago that I love. After about 30 seconds of accordian it stops, David Thomas says rock and the very heavy guitar starts. Great song and album (though I can't remember the name of either right now!). | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 822 Registered: 05-2005 |
Padraig- I just played Dub Housing earlier on this evening. Dont know if its because I had headphones on, but I was struck by the fact that if David Thomas actually sung in tune he would actually sound identical to David Byrne. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 615 Registered: 04-2005 |
David Byrne sang in tune? | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 824 Registered: 05-2005 |
HA HA, Good point Kurt. Compared to David Thomas he does. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 586 Registered: 05-2005 |
Yeah, there are definite similarities there. The album I was trying to think of earlier is, I think, Cloudland from 1989. Or it could be Story of My Life from 1993. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 587 Registered: 05-2005 |
I think the track with the accordion on it is Wasted on Story of My Life! | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 409 Registered: 08-2004 |
I'll have to search that one out Padraig. Start my own Accordion Moods comp. Arcade Fire would have to be on there. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 621 Registered: 04-2005 |
In the States at least, "Use An Accordion, Go to Jail" was a very popular bumpersticker slogan, mostly because it's always associated with the dreaded polka. But there's been so much great use of accordion in popular music that I thought that bumpersticker was unfair. A better bumpersticker would be "Accordions Don't Make Polka; People Make Polka." | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 876 Registered: 05-2005 |
Melodica. Seemed to die out with the death of the late, great Augustus Pablo. Although Barney from New Order used it a few times in the 80s too. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 666 Registered: 04-2005 |
Jon King of Gang of Four also. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 667 Registered: 04-2005 |
In retrospect, I wish I'd written something a bit more apocalyptic for my 666th post. | ||
| C Gull Member Username: C_gull Post Number: 44 Registered: 05-2005 |
Ocarina -New Order - was it on Your Silent Face? | ||
| C Gull Member Username: C_gull Post Number: 45 Registered: 05-2005 |
And of course Einsturzende Neubauten (?) had a range of interesting instruments - cement mixers, milk bottles, chain saws spring to mind. | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 104 Registered: 01-2006 |
Spence if you like the dulcimer then you should definitely pick up some music by Washington Phillips. This guy recorded about 18 songs in the 30s using a dulcimer and it's some of the sweetest music I've heard in a long time. I recommend the Keys to the Kingdom, that has all his recorded work on it. | ||
| Cichli Suite Member Username: Cichli_suite Post Number: 168 Registered: 08-2004 |
C Gull, there was an urban myth a few years ago about Einsturzende Neubauten in which they relieved the tedium of being stuck in a traffic jam in their tour bus by jamming with some workers who were drilling the road nearby. I saw them live in the mid nineties and they really did use some type of modified pneumatic drill as an instrument. It was deafening. | ||
| Cichli Suite Member Username: Cichli_suite Post Number: 169 Registered: 08-2004 |
There used to be a guy on Grafton street on Dublin who played a saw with a violin bow. It had a trembling, quirky sound - very sad but slightly comical too. Are there any songs where a saw is used? I'm sure I've heard of one but can't recall it. It sounds like the sort of instrument that would appeal to Tom Waits. | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 105 Registered: 01-2006 |
Yep Tom Waits uses a saw to unbelievable effect on 'November' from the Black Rider...fantastic song from a fantastic album... | ||
| Cichli Suite Member Username: Cichli_suite Post Number: 170 Registered: 08-2004 |
Thanks XY, I knew it must have been Tom Waits! I must dig that album out. I haven't listened to it in years. Actually, I saw the Robert Wilson produced Black Rider show at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg with the Tom Waits band (Tom himself wasn't there). Probably the most spectacular piece of (musical) theatre I have ever seen. Looking forward to his new 3 CD set collection 'Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards' | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 106 Registered: 01-2006 |
Yeah a friend of mine went to London to see the Black Rider a few years ago and said it was great. Mary Margaret O'Hara was in it too. A mate burned a CD for me a few years ago with loads of Waits 12" tracks and instrumentals and a few out-takes from the Black Rider. Can't remember what it's called. Haven't come across it anywhere since. Yeah lookin forward to the new one, I really liked Real Gone after the disappointment of Blood Money, don't have Alice. I haven't heard his version of Daniel Johnston's King Kong which appeared on the DJ tribute album, it'll be on Orphans. I'd kill to see him live, a few friends havew seen him in the US and paris, they said it was unforgettable. | ||
| Cichli Suite Member Username: Cichli_suite Post Number: 171 Registered: 08-2004 |
I saw him at the Olympia in Dublin in 1987, the Frank's Wild Years tour. I met him afterwards in the little lane running down the side of the Olympia. He was with Mark Ribot and I was pretty speechless. He clearly had had a a few Jameson's! I gormlessly managed to ask him for an autograph and he took great care with it, scratching his name out with a pen that had no ink, handing me back the almost blank piece of paper with a swagger. I still have the paper with its barely etched autograph. | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 107 Registered: 01-2006 |
wow, nice one. I saw a clip of him doing In the Neighbourhood from the Tube a few weeks ago and it looked really great. Do you know that the front of the Olympia was knocked off by a reversing truck about 1-2 years ago? Looks naked now. | ||
| Cichli Suite Member Username: Cichli_suite Post Number: 172 Registered: 08-2004 |
I read about it. A real shame. I thought there were plans was to repair it? For any one not familiar with the place, the Olympia is a classic 19th century music hall/theatre and one of the best places in Dublin to hear music. http://www.irelandposters.com/dublin/images/olympia_front.jpg With its Victorian gilt decorations and slightly soiled velvet furnishings and old style proscenium arch, it was a perfect place for Tom Waits to play. I think the Go-Bees played there also on the Rachel Worth tour, if I'm not mistaken. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 632 Registered: 05-2005 |
The show in The Olympia was just Robert and Grant; but brilliant nonetheless. |