chevelle

Protest the Hero - Tidal

One of the best songs they've ever released, honestly. This monthly subscription model is working out pretty nicely.

I think you sort of answered your own question. When you release two albums a year, you're not writing 10-12 amazing songs for each one. You're just sort of banging out tunes for the hell of it, not because you want to really prove anything or top yourself, it's just something that's fun to do. Maybe once in a while you strike gold and write something really great. But there's no songwriter on Earth that could consistently write that many great songs a year, I don't care who you are - so it's a matter of a fuckton of filler, a handful of great songs, and not a lot of public interest in sorting through it all.

That conclusion collapses however when you analyse the careers of most of the great acts up to circa the late-1970s. Most of the greats such as The Beatles, Stones, Floyd, Beach Boys, Dylan, et al. released masterpieces at a very high rate, of approximately one-two long-players per year, and this is not including the many stand-alone singles/extended players released, during the 1960s in particular. The Beatles for instance released twelve studio albums 1962-1970 and a further two compact discs worth of singles and EP tracks. How many of them are masterpieces? Most of them. It is The Beatles! Similarly, the Stones released fourteen studio albums between 1963-1978 and only a few of those are duds. Zeppelin released their entire studio output of eight studio albums between 1969-1979 and most of those (so Zeppelin fans tell me haha) are considered masterpieces. Perhaps the most impressive achievements belong to Dylan and Hendrix however. Dylan's immortal trio of masterpieces - Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde - occurred within a two year period, 1965-66! Hendrix's three Experience masterpieces, Are You Experienced?, Axis and Electric Ladyland were 1967-68!

To me, those artists are the exceptions. We can't expect every musician to pump out classics at the rate The Beatles did, or totally reinvent guitar music the way Jimi did. That's why they're still revered to this day, because they did things most other musicians couldn't or haven't done since. But really, I should've mentioned that I was talking about an artist's career after their prime. The Beatles wrote all that amazing music in a short period of time, while they were young and hungry. Same with Dylan, same with the Stones, and Jimi died too young to know the full breadth of his potential - but they all made their mark in a relatively short period of time. The Beatles' solo work didn't excite the world the same way as it did when they were fresh and breaking boundaries, The Stones never released anything influential after '78, and Dylan's put out a hell of a lot of just okay music in his career. And that's really what I wanted to get at, but didn't: the fact that most musicians have a prime when they write their best work, and after that they never truly touch the levels they were at before. That's where Prince is at in his career now, and that's why he's not consistently writing an album's worth of classics twice a year.

I think you sort of answered your own question. When you release two albums a year, you're not writing 10-12 amazing songs for each one. You're just sort of banging out tunes for the hell of it, not because you want to really prove anything or top yourself, it's just something that's fun to do. Maybe once in a while you strike gold and write something really great. But there's no songwriter on Earth that could consistently write that many great songs a year, I don't care who you are - so it's a matter of a fuckton of filler, a handful of great songs, and not a lot of public interest in sorting through it all.

Oneohtrix Point Never - Betrayed in the Octagon

Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2

Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory

Tricot's show on Monday was fucking amazing. The venue is the smallest place I've ever seen a show in, tiny enough that I was literally leaning on the stage at times. The band themselves were totally on point too...tons of energy, technical ability, and even crowd surfing, you could tell they were just having a great time of it. Really hope it doesn't take them another three years to come to America again!

Oneohtrix Point Never - Garden of Delete

Silversun Pickups - Better Nature

Brand New - Deja Entendu

You're the right track, Bran. It's not necessarily the drugs that are the problem, but it's the fact that the mental health care system in this country is a joke. Instead sitting a person down and working through their issues with a therapist or whoever else, they get written a script and sent on their merry way instead - it's the same mindset our prison system works under. So combine someone who's already unstable with a heavy dose of mind altering drugs, and, well, it's not a surprise they pick up a gun and take it out on the world.

Ten is one of the best records of all time.

Musically and thematically Ten is a great album from front to back. Production wise its probably their worst.

Did the remastering make a significant difference? I never got around to checking it out.

A bit. They removed a lot of that corny 90s reverb it was drenched in, so it sounds a little leaner.

Bring Me the Horizon - That's the Spirit

Tesseract - Polaris

Scale the Summit - V

N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton

I love mid-era Pearl Jam- from Vitalogy, No Code, Yield, Binaural, up to Riot Act. I thought they started getting complacent beginning with the Blue Album and Lightning Bolt is where they lost me completely. Its basically a Vedder solo record with a few singles on front end. Great live shows though. I think they've lost their edge creatively though.

Totally agree, except I think the self-titled is still a decent album at its best. Backspacer and Lightning Bolt are basically phoned in classic rock records that somehow took almost 4 years each to make, and they really killed a lot of my love for the band.

As to what OP asked, I saw them live at the 2nd to last Spectrum show in October '09 (setlist) and it was a GREAT show, even from the nosebleeds. I remember they brought out a local string quartet for a few songs and they even played Hold On for the first time ever, so it was definitely the highlight of my time as a superfan of the band.

I agree 100%. The last 2 1/2 studio records I think feel very mailed in. It just feels (and sounds) like its a band just doing their homework. Seems like they've lost their anger and mojo- content to play it safe. Maybe the fanbase is so loyal that they've let it make them lazy.

They used to push themselves from album to album, up to Riot Act each album has it's own feel and sound apart from the album before it. Even when they lost their anger they still made interesting music, like No Code or Binaural. You're right, it sort of does feel like it's homework for them, like they have to put out an album once in a while just to keep touring but otherwise they couldn't be bothered.

I love mid-era Pearl Jam- from Vitalogy, No Code, Yield, Binaural, up to Riot Act. I thought they started getting complacent beginning with the Blue Album and Lightning Bolt is where they lost me completely. Its basically a Vedder solo record with a few singles on front end. Great live shows though. I think they've lost their edge creatively though.

Totally agree, except I think the self-titled is still a decent album at its best. Backspacer and Lightning Bolt are basically phoned in classic rock records that somehow took almost 4 years each to make, and they really killed a lot of my love for the band.

As to what OP asked, I saw them live at the 2nd to last Spectrum show in October '09 (setlist) and it was a GREAT show, even from the nosebleeds. I remember they brought out a local string quartet for a few songs and they even played Hold On for the first time ever, so it was definitely the highlight of my time as a superfan of the band.

Broke out MMLP2 for the first time in a while. It's weird, it's a pretty okay album and I don't dislike any of the songs (except Stronger Than I Was, ugh) but it's just so...middle of the road.

Really? I thought it was fierce.

It's a little hard to put in words, but I guess it feels a lot more...calculated than he ever has. From the title down to a lot of the pop culture references he drops on it, the nostalgia grab on it puts me off a little. I was also really hoping it was going to be the album where he started throwing shade at everyone and anyone like he did back in the day, just for the sake of starting shit, especially since he was bringing Slim back. Don't get me wrong though, I still like it, but I think it jumps back and forth between really great songs and some really average ones a little too much.

Perhaps the intensity of your scrutiny is different too?

Could be, I definitely enjoy it a lot more when I just throw it on in the background as opposed to really sitting there and listening to it.

Broke out MMLP2 for the first time in a while. It's weird, it's a pretty okay album and I don't dislike any of the songs (except Stronger Than I Was, ugh) but it's just so...middle of the road.

Really? I thought it was fierce.

It's a little hard to put in words, but I guess it feels a lot more...calculated than he ever has. From the title down to a lot of the pop culture references he drops on it, the nostalgia grab on it puts me off a little. I was also really hoping it was going to be the album where he started throwing shade at everyone and anyone like he did back in the day, just for the sake of starting shit, especially since he was bringing Slim back. Don't get me wrong though, I still like it, but I think it jumps back and forth between really great songs and some really average ones a little too much.

7/10. There's a lot of good songs buried under all those layers of sounds, and a couple of really 'meh' tracks. I really wish Axl would release a version of it stripped down to just guitars, bass, drums, and some synth. No other layers besides that.

Deafheaven - Sunbather

Bring Me the Horizon - That's the Spirit

Broke out MMLP2 for the first time in a while. It's weird, it's a pretty okay album and I don't dislike any of the songs (except Stronger Than I Was, ugh) but it's just so...middle of the road.

There's only one solution to all this bullshit: film yourself every time you have sex. It's a win win, really.

The Dear Hunter - Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise

Converge - Jane Doe

Radiohead - The Bends

Just nabbed tickets to see these ladies they day before my birthday, fuck yeah.

Steven Adler has remained quiet with all the reunion rumors circulating. I think that is very telling.

It's either very telling or he just found a new hook up. 50/50 either way.

Miley dropped a random, free album at the end of it all.

Kanye should have done the same though and destroyed the world.

Axl could have done it in 2002 before anyone ever did it to be cool.

I was praying Kanye was going to end that speech with something like "I'm dropping my album tonight", but hey, I'll take a presidential run instead.

Wow, just seems like when a gun is fired, reactions are quicker than that. That close, that bad of a shot? ok, if you guys say so.....

Bullets can sometimes travel faster than the speed of sound (depending on the caliber and the gun), meaning in some situations you can be hit by a bullet a split second before you even hear it.

Wow, I'm honestly completely shocked at this. Like someone else said earlier in the thread, this is the first GNR related piece of news that's actually, truly surprised me probably since CD had a concrete release date. I couldn't care less whether or not they ever work together or not again, but it's nice to know that two people who had such intense, bitter feelings towards each other for so long have finally put all that shit under the bridge. Those are two guys who shared the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows together, and created classic music through it all. They shouldn't stay mad at each other.

That Afropunk line up looks killer.

Agree 100%. Both great songs. Would love to have seen an album along the same lines as OMG released back in 2000 or so. Shame really.

Exactly what I wanted too. The promise of getting this harder edged, industrial flavored album from Axl was the reason I was willing to stay on board with him keeping the name.