And speaking of Rick Astley as we were yesterday, how come I never saw this video before?
Ah, Nick Lowe. As was said of Keith Moon, the British really should have nationalized him.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
An idiosyncratic blog dedicated to the precursors, the practioners, and the descendants of power pop. All suggestions for postings and sidebar links welcome, contact any of us.
Contributors
PowerPop Fund
Blog Archive
-
▼
2016
(264)
-
▼
March
(25)
- It's Brinsley Schwarz Week: Part Three -- Your Thu...
- Closed for Monkey Business
- It's Brinsley Schwarz Week: Part II -- Special Her...
- It's Brinsley Schwarz Week: Part I -- Buddy Holly ...
- Your Saturday Moment of Zen
- We Come From the Land of Ice and Snow
- I'm Here to Tell You That Dick's a Liar
- Annals of Our Noble Democracy (An Occasional Series)
- Closed Due to Monkey Business
- Monday Pop Quiz
- Sometimes the Good Guys Win
- Closed Due to Technical Difficulties
- Your Thursday Moment of Words Fail Me: Special OH ...
- Guilty Feet Have Got No Rhythm
- Closed Due to Monkey Business
- Your Monday Moment of Words Fail Me: Special Walk ...
- Sir Ken Adam 1921-2016
- Closed Due to the Will of Landru
- Sir George Martin 1926-2016
- Your Tuesday Moment of Words Fail Me
- Your Monday Moment of Words Fail Me
- Great Lost New Wave Singles of Whenever
- They're Gonna Put Me in the Movies....
- Closed Due to the Vulgar Talking Yam (An Occasiona...
- Closed for Monkey Business
-
▼
March
(25)
Music Resources & Blogs
- .
- Absolute Power Pop
- AMG
- Aversion.com
- Basshead
- Bedazzled!
- Dewey Beach PopFest
- Fingertips
- fluxblog
- For the Records
- Glorious Noise
- Hooks and Harmony
- IPO Festival
- Little Hits
- Lost Bands of the New Wave Era
- Music Web Express 3000
- New Wave Outpost
- New York Power Pop
- Obsessed with Music
- Perfect Sound Forever
- Pitchfork Media
- Pop Narcotic
- PopMatters
- Post Punk Junk
- Power Pop Lovers
- Powerpopaholic
- Powerpopulist
- Ready Steady Go
- Rick Redux
- Seattle Power Pop
- Sheer Golden Hooks
- Smother.net
- The 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s of Power Pop!
- The Cure for Bedbugs
- The Mod Pop Punk Archive
- the old punks blog (inactive, but great archives)
- Trouser Press Online
- TweeNet
Bands We Love
- 20/20
- Apples in Stereo
- Barenaked Ladies
- Beat, The
- Brinsley Schwarz
- Cheap Trick
- Couple
- Dave Edmunds
- Dressy Bessy
- Elvis Costello
- Fountains of Wayne
- Lolas, The
- Matthew Sweet
- Move, The
- Myracle Brah
- New Pornographers, The
- Nick Lowe
- Portastatic
- Records, The
- Redd Kross
- Richard X. Heyman
- Robert Pollard
- Rockpile
- Shoes
- Sid'n'Susie
- Starjets
- Superchunk
- They Might Be Giants
- Velvet Crush
- XTC
Other Good Blogs on Progressive Politics & Culture
- Adventus
- Americablog
- Atrios
- Bitch, PhD
- Blah 3
- Blast Off!
- Bouphonia
- Cab Drollery
- Corrente
- Dependable Renegade
- Dohiyi Mir
- Echidne of the Snakes
- FireDogLake
- First Draft
- Gardner Writes
- Great Orange Satan, The
- Huffington Post, The
- Hullabaloo
- I speak dog
- Jesus' General
- My DD
- New Pairodimes
- No Capital
- No Pants Productions
- Online Blogintegrity
- Opinions You Should Have
- Pax Americana
- Poor Man Institute, The
- RawStory
- Rising Hegemon
- Rising Hegemon After Dark (NSFW)
- Stayin' Alive
- SteveAudio
- Suburban Guerrilla
- The Kenosha Kid's Blog
- The Supreme Irony of Life
- Thje Rude Pundit
- Welcome to Pottersville
- Whiskeyfire
- Wolcott
- Wordshed
- Zen Cabin
13 comments:
When did Nick get his teeth redone?
Nick is vastly underrated. Tune is good. His commentary on Astley is pretty funny.
Oddly enough, when I saw the Rick post yesterday, this was the first thing that came to mind.
Not to be a contrarian or, hell, an asshole, but am I the only person who thinks that Nick is actually vastly OVERrated? I love most of "Pure Pop for Now People" or "Jesus of Cool," whatever you want to call it, but after that, meh. I think I prefer him as a producer. I file him under "Bands Whose Appeal Eludes Me" along with U2, The Smithereens, and The Talking Heads. There, I said it.
Well, he did write "Peace Love and Understanding", after all.
I totally give him "Peace Love and Understanding." I give him "Cruel to Be Kind," too. But I can't even listen to "Labour of Lust." Sounds like warmed over '50s rock 'n' roll to me.
He seems like a great guy. I wish I could like him. And I was very happy when he made a million from the "Bodyguard" soundtrack. But, I just don't see the appeal.
Were you a Brinsley Schwarz (the band) fan?
I thought those guys were great. Even the first two albums, before they went all pub rock.
I like some Brinsley Schwarz, yes. Not a huge fan, though.
To be honest, I thought the lone Rockpile album was a howling disappointment. I greatly preferred the Edmunds "solo" stuff.
Agree on the Rockpile album.
I'm all for designating Lowe a national treasure, but I'm sorry. Robyn Hitchcock comes before Lowe. And as far as Lowe goes, he's about as distinctive an artist as anyone can get. ALL MEN ARE LIARS is more than 25 years old now, and Lowe's most recent albums, QUALITY STREET, and especially THE OLD MAGIC, are wonderful, but I'm 65.
In 2008, I saw Lowe and Robyn Hitchcock at Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC, both solo, and both very good. But what occurred to me at the time was that to young people, Lowe must appear to be a lot like what Perry Como sounded to me some 45 years ago, and in contrast to Robyn Hitchcock, who has always played off his weirdness, Lowe was as normal as they come. And from a distance, he looked a little bit like Dick Van Dyke.
As for Brinsley Schwarz, I didn't understand them in the early 1970s when Capitol released their albums here, and I tried again in the 1990s, when BGO did a two-fer release of NERVOUS ON THE ROAD and something else. But around three months ago, a friend sent me the first four Brinsley albums in digital format, and I rolled through them one after another over the course of two afternoons. Nice, and in some places, better than nice, but I still don't get what all the fuss was about over (to me) middle-of-the-road country rock, and especially so after SWEETHEART OF THE RODEO and THE GILDED PALACE OF SIN had been around for a couple of years.
I hope to live long enough to finally get Brinsley in ten years or so when digital formats are replaced by virtual digital formats, or some other format that does something special, like 3-dimenional projections of band members playing in legendary locations. And I hope Nick Lowe'll be around, too.
If the lone ROCKPILE album we're talking about is "SECONDS OF PLEASURE" (from 1980), then I respectfully disagree. I played it a couple of weeks ago and I think it still holds up pretty well.
Re: BRINSLEY SCHWARTZ. One of my all-time favorite tracks from the first half of the 70s is their song "Unknown Number" (which I believe Lowe wrote), from the "SILVER PISTOL" album. It has one of my favorite opening verses ever in a song: "It took twelve good men to build this road/But it would take an unknown number, to say where it's going." That still makes me smile.
J. Lag
Re: unknown Number.
Check this space on Monday.
The Ugly Things
VR
Nick - great guy and I don't want to piss on it, but just another example of someone that was much more entertaining when he was more pissed off himself. When he got to be more satisfied with his position in life - Impossible Bird say - he kind of lost me. Always had a sense of humour - lot's of points for that. But the world has enough stately troubadours.
All that said - Happy Birthday Nick. You on a bad day still beat most others out there.
Post a Comment