| Author | Message | ||
     spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1139 Registered: 05-2005 |
Too all the people on the board, I hope you all have a great 2007, and that you manage to achieve all your aspirations. Ciao, Spence! x | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 519 Registered: 08-2004 |
Hear Hear & then some.  | ||
| Elizabeth Robinson Member Username: Liz_the_new_listener Post Number: 51 Registered: 10-2006 |
A Happy and Healthy New Year to all my fellow Go-Betweens afficionados! I believe Australia's festivities start a lot earlier than ours, I hope I got this in on time. | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 131 Registered: 11-2004 |
Happy New Year Everybody with great taste in music :-) | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1285 Registered: 05-2005 |
Sláinte, Prost, Cheers, A votre sante, L'chaim, Salute - to everyone in the United Nations of Gobetweenia ! | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1087 Registered: 04-2005 |
Happy New Year everyone. Let's all wish for the usual cliche--peace--spearheaded by an impeachment of Bush! And, of course, we'll hope for lots of great music in 2007 too. And best wishes for the coming year to everyone in the Go-Betweens family. Those in Australia are already celebrating 2007 (we have 13 hours yet to go here on the U.S. west coast). | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 139 Registered: 09-2006 |
That's the problem with living in Gobetweenia...the borders keep shifting, and an official national language is out of the question...Happy New Year, all... Seconded on the Bush impeachment...I'm just glad his bubble is finally beginning to run out of hot air...I was a little worried there someone was going to try assassination and turn the smirking little fuck into a martyr. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 247 Registered: 08-2006 |
Hope everyone enters the new year safe and sound, and with as much merriment as you'd wish. Me, I'm playing tonight, so I'll have a microphone stuffed in my gob instead of a whiskey, which is a good thing. See y'all in '07. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 874 Registered: 03-2005 |
Hear hear to all of the above. For those of you alluding to our provincial embarrassment remember, we must also impeach Cheney. Then perhaps a fate like Mussolini, or like someone else just recently. | ||
| Elizabeth Robinson Member Username: Liz_the_new_listener Post Number: 53 Registered: 10-2006 |
Ah, Bush should go into solitary and have to live with the aftermath of his own religio-fascist hypocrisy for the rest of his life - as if on the same poverty level as those who have suffered most due to his domestic policies - in hopes that he might actually show remorse. Same with Cheney. And taking away all their stock options would be the icing on the cake - perhaps seeming to people such as them a fate worse than death. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 358 Registered: 01-2005 |
I hope the Dems in congress pile up so much evidence against Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeldt, Wolfowitz, Condi Rice,etc that they all have to serve jail time and pay massive, massive fines that will leave them all destitute. Especially the Bush family and the unholy alliance they have with the Saudi's. Saudi Arabia certainly has benefitted fom the war in Iraq. They get to continue their oil dominance, plus the US troops are now in Iraq with permenent bases being built, and they are no longer in Saudi Arabia which pleases the Saudi people to no end. I hope the freedom of the press stays up front and center as well to guard us against lies told by unholy liers who drape themselves with the US flag and patriototic slogans. Some of the press spoke out in late 2002 and early 2003, but not loudly enough as they were cowered by the damned in the White House. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 876 Registered: 03-2005 |
To add to your comments, Michael, we also need a reversal of (or major change to) the single worst thing Bill Clinton put his signature to--the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This law permitted the dramatic concentration of ownership of media in the U.S. which is why our press was such a failure through this decade and why Mr. Murdoch has such an enormous footprint. The reason that the White House and the Congressional Republicans could inhibit the media so thoroughly is because they only needed to threaten a tiny handful of giant corporations, each with pet legislation awaiting their action or inaction. | ||
| Martin Schori Member Username: Martin_s Post Number: 7 Registered: 05-2006 |
I wonder what's the definition of "great taste in music"? | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1091 Registered: 04-2005 |
Liking the Go-Betweens, I'd assume. That's all you need to be let into the "great taste" club. Of course, if a person's favorite acts are Sting, Celine Dion, Phil Collins, and the Go-Betweens, would the first three disqualify that person? Luckily, I don't think such a scenario is possible. | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 137 Registered: 11-2004 |
Very good point Kurt. I actually do believe that this scenario is possible. Maybe somebody will own up? I think such a person should be looked upon kindly. However, if their favoite acts alongside the Go-Betweens were either Bon Jovi or Oasis then I would never wish them a Happy New Year. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1094 Registered: 04-2005 |
Well, we've all revealed some favorite acts or guilty pleasures that many others turn their noses up at, but none as bad as the ones you and I have named. Although maybe I'd be a bit more tolerant of Oasis than the others mentioned... | ||
| John B. Member Username: John_b Post Number: 85 Registered: 10-2006 |
I was shocked to hear about a reunion of The Police and hope 2007 won't be remembered for that... A belated Happy New Year to the entire board... | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 359 Registered: 01-2005 |
2007 reunion tour for The Police??? I liked them well enought to buy their albums on vinyl when they came out, but I never bought them on disc aside from the hits collection. I much rather have Talking Heads get back together. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1095 Registered: 04-2005 |
Geez, don't those guys have enough money already? I mean, they hate each other and Sting doesn't like rock music, so why else would they do a reunion tour. Just say no. | ||
| Austin McLean Member Username: Bruegelpie Post Number: 32 Registered: 09-2004 |
If the reunion is done right it will totally rock. Let's just hope the back up singers from 1983 aren't brought along for the ride. With the Police and Van Halen with DLR as the major tours for the summer, it should be interesting. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1098 Registered: 04-2005 |
Calling Kevin...your thoughts, sir? | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1353 Registered: 03-2006 |
Everybody hear that sound just now? It was Kevin's head exploding! | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1100 Registered: 04-2005 |
Unless he secretly digs the Halen with David Lee... Welcome back, LK! | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1295 Registered: 05-2005 |
Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! This is a wind up, right? | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1358 Registered: 03-2006 |
Thanks, man. Good to be back where people are relatively sane... Whew! If Kev digs the Halen, that will shake me to my core and force me to re-examine all my basic assumptions about the universe - things like gravity and the earth revolving around the sun... | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1144 Registered: 05-2005 |
and I thought 2007 and bringing in the New Year was about going forward!... | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1145 Registered: 05-2005 |
and I thought 2007 and bringing in the New Year was about going forward!... | ||
| John B. Member Username: John_b Post Number: 86 Registered: 10-2006 |
Kevin, the double-shocked Spence...and others, it is apparantly not a wind-up and according to my radion the record company has confirmed that a Police record is planned for summer. I don't know about a tour, though. I also bought their first album at the time and may even still like a few tracks. Van Halen? What's next: Asia? Angel? Boston? Peter Frampton? | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 147 Registered: 09-2006 |
It all falls together, doesn't it...the self-fertilizing turtle awhile ago, today a calf born with two faces, the Police tour...finally, after all the endless jokes made about it: Revelations. This year. For sure. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 251 Registered: 08-2006 |
Didn't Nostradamus predict something about a Police reunion? | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 524 Registered: 08-2004 |
The Police are not as bad as Genesis, every cloud & all that.  Stewart Copeland is currently a judge on a Comic Relief duet singing show called The Two Of Us, beware!!! This could be the year of The Jam & The Smiths to make a karaoke style comeback. I'm looking forward to the 'Audience With' TV specials. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1151 Registered: 05-2005 |
Police for me, come under guilty pleasures, amongst my friends anyway! They do transport me to a time in my life as a lot of music does for all of us when I was nothing but happy, young and excitable. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1367 Registered: 03-2006 |
Let me tread carefully here - there is nothing wrong with the Police's early output. Very cool, very tuneful, very sharp and well-played. Which is not in any way an endorsement of present-day Stin', who is the very definition of pompous ass. He is, today, a complete joke and I can't f-ing believe he put out an album of f-ing lute music - it seems more like a Saturday Night Live sketch than reality...And this is also not to say that a reunion of the Police's members today would be a good thing. They, in fact, reunited temporarily for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame awards a few years ago (the same year Costello won) and, judging by footage I saw, were quite gratifyingly awful. That's a lot of ego for one stage to hold. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 362 Registered: 01-2005 |
I liked Sting's half-assed cover of "My One and Only Love" that was in Leaving Las Vegas. It seemed to fit in the movie perfectly. That's not to say he sang it with the conviction that Johnny Hartman, June Christy or many other jazz/pop singers in the 50's and 60's did though. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1112 Registered: 04-2005 |
To me, the Police made fairly decent music, but they were so fake (three musos cashing in on the punk/new wave thing) and such assholes to boot. And even when the tunes and music were good--as they often were--the lyrics were terrible. "Roxanne" was probably as good as they got lyrically. What irks me is how they somehow got elevated to the status of an "important" band and "great artists." A lot of critics (in the States, anyway) and I suppose almost all their fans viewed "Synchronicity" as some sort of profound artistic masterpiece, when it was just the usual collection of arch, pretentious nonsense. I was going to college in Fresno from '82-84, and the Police played a stadium show there during that time. Everybody I knew went (except me, of course) and treated it as the event of the decade, like the second coming of the Beatles or something. (In Fresno, it may well have been.) That turned me off the group more than ever. Probably the most unjustifiably arrogant and overrated band ever--or at least tied with the Doors for that honor. I will grant you, some of their stuff remains a guilty pleasure when I hear it on the radio. But still...boycott the reunion! | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 366 Registered: 01-2005 |
Kurt, I thought that the Police made a handful of very good songs, Spirits In The Material World, Canary In Coal Mine, So Lonely, Can't Stand Losing You. I was enjoying the album Synchronicity when it first came out somewhat, but then I picked up this ep called Chronic Town in the Summer of 1983, and the Police quickly were shuffled to the side. Not to mention I bought Murmur shortly thereafter. I would rather listen to the English Beat than the Police these days. Der Stingel can't hold a candel to Ranking Roger, Dave Wakeling, etc. The Beat kicked arse. I also liked The Specials. Give me A Message To Rudy anyday over Message In A Bottle. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 887 Registered: 03-2005 |
If you can fill a stadium in Fresno, your music sucks. Period. | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 148 Registered: 09-2006 |
Agreed, the Beat kill (where they're concerned I'm one of those semi-purist types who files their records under B, because the 'English' was forced upon them)...THEY actually reunited, too - they were at the Bumbershoot festival here in town last year. I missed seeing them, but that was partly to due to "what if they suck now?" fear. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1121 Registered: 04-2005 |
I didn't go to Bumbershoot, Allen, but we got the "English Beat" fronted by Wakeling last year, didn't we? In one of the other threads, somebody recently saw the Beat fronted by Ranking Roger and said it was great. It's a shame they can't all just get back together and be the complete original group (and what happened to the two guys who went off to be Fine Young Cannibals?). Like you said, Michael, the Beat was way better than the Police. Randy, I think your statement says it all. The opening band, as I recall, was Oingo Boingo. Another "big in Fresno" act. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1308 Registered: 05-2005 |
I would kill to go to a festival called Bumbershoot! | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1374 Registered: 03-2006 |
Hey, let's not knock Fresno too much. It produced Sam Peckinpah and the velvet stylings of one Randy Adams... Kurt, I can understand why you hate the Police, they are eminently hatable and their egos have been out of control practically from the git-go, but I gotta say, I never bought into all that "punk" bullshit that it was a crime to know how to play your instrument, and would much rather hear great music played skillfully, still with a lot of moxie and verve, I might add, than a bunch of sludgy, half-assed noise from "authentic" punks. Also, I think the lyrics to the majority of their songs, particularly the singles are pretty great. From "Can't Stand Losing You" to "So Lonely" to "King of Pain" (or as a misguided friend of mine called it, "Little Black Spot") to even, "Mrs. Gradenko". "Peanuts", "Walking on the Moon", even "Doo Doo Doo" (it had a certain Zen charm), you could go on and on. Admittedly, they did get a little pretentious when they started trying to incorporate literary concepts into their albums... | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1122 Registered: 04-2005 |
Just arrange for a business trip to Seattle the first few days of September, Kev, and you don't even need to kill to go to Bumbershoot! It's kind of pathetic that I've lived here for almost six years now and have never gone (passing up acts like Lou Reed, Wilco, Pixies, New Pornographers, etc.), but I'm no fan of festival crowds, and that place is a madhouse, I'm told. LK, it's not possible to knock Fresno too much. Yes, some good people have come out of the city, but the key word there is out. You gotta get out of there. And I respect what you're saying about the Police. Like I said, they had some good tunes and the question of "sell out" ethics is probably moot, as is it worse to have commerical intentions from the start rather than sell out later? No. In fact, if anything, it's more honest. But they're still a hateful bunch of self-important pricks. They'd get a little less bile from me if Sting hadn't gone on to new levels of twatdom after the group broke up. (I'm mixing my genitalia analogies here.) | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 150 Registered: 09-2006 |
I lived in Seattle 22 years and went to Bumbershoot selectively...depending on the day and time you went it could be very pleasant or way too much stimulation. In my experience the crowds rarely got too obnoxious - it's more the sheer number of people than anything else. I've seen great shows there from: Al Green, Randy Newman, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Old 97s, They Might Be Giants, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Loudon Wainwright III, Rufus Wainwright, Ani Difranco, and I'm sure more that don't come to mind right now. Oh yeah, Jethro Tull (my friend dragged me to that one, and they were OK - it helped that they stuck to the hits). | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1375 Registered: 03-2006 |
Ah, you got me there, dude. I can cheerfully and ably defend their music and lyrics, but have no arrows in my quiver to defend against their self-important twatdom. The height of said twatdom and prickery being when Stin' implied that he made love to his special lady for 8 hours or whatever it was. First, euuwww! and second, no you didn't. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 525 Registered: 08-2004 |
Oh yes he did LK. He did it once fell asleep for 7 hours. Watched some porn when he woke up, then did it again. Apparently the wife wasn't even there! Then he practised on the lute & penny whistle for a bit. | ||
| John B. Member Username: John_b Post Number: 88 Registered: 10-2006 |
Jerry, you made my Monday morning with that statement. Poor Lady, anyway...that it took him that long | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 208 Registered: 04-2005 |
Sorry to bring this thread with its appalling news back to life, but "Spinal Tap lives!" Quote from The Guardian about Sting and the wondeful news... "Last week he finished a performance in California by dedicating a lute only version of Message in a Bottle to his former bandmates Copeland and Andy Summers" The mind boggles... + If you need more... http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0 ,,1991518,00.html | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 272 Registered: 08-2006 |
Gee, Copeland and Summers must be so flattered. A lute-only version of "Message in a Bottle"? It's like having a paint-by-numbers copy of "Dogs Playing Poker" dedicated to you. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1149 Registered: 04-2005 |
Ha! Funniest post of the year so far, Rob. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1103 Registered: 05-2005 |
OMG. I read Rob's post first and figured he was fantasising... and then read Andrew's post and saw that it was all too real. Oh, the humanity. Didn't out grandfathers and great grandfathers fight wars so we wouldn't have to listen to lute-only versions of anything? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1104 Registered: 05-2005 |
In 1992 I used to work in a bar in Sydney which had an early music combo play every Sunday afternoon for a month or two. It was lutes ahoy, lyrics about maid goin' a-churnin' and period costumes. It was unbelievably awful. I was inevitably hungover from the night before in those days too, making the pain I felt even more excrutiating. I should gotten all medieval on their ass. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 276 Registered: 08-2006 |
Oh, man, Padraig. If your employer was a man of honor, he would've installed an iron maiden in the bar for you to use as needed. Sunday afternoons would've been so much... nicer. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1109 Registered: 05-2005 |
I often thought they belonged in an iron maiden. I'd gladly have slammed it shut. I used to think about using a mace on them too. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 915 Registered: 03-2005 |
checking eBay for a "Dogs Playing Poker" painting . . . . 216 items. I can buy 66 of them from "eBay Express." Never heard of eBay Express. checking eBay for lute . . . . 413 items with 43 from eBay Express. "Dogs" are more exclusive and hence more flattering. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1425 Registered: 03-2006 |
None of "Dogs Playing Lutes"? |