I got yer Shoes huevos right here, pal.
"Your Devotion," my pretty much all-time fave Shoes tune rendered absolutely live, from the Fret Buzz album.
Wimpy? I don't think so. And that guitar solo, which slices the song neatly in half like a scythe, is absolutely killer.
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19 comments:
KROQ in LA played "She Satisfies" on a regular basis when it came out, and I thought it compared favorably to Cheap Trick. I picked up a used copy of "Present Tense" in 1982, and liked it enough to also get "Tongue Twister" and "Boomerang". I gave them a few weeks and familiarity bred contempt.
My problem with Shoes is that they sound like English is a second language both lyrically and in delivery. The words epitomize banality and are sung as if phonetically. None of it rings true. The clip of "Too Late" reminded me of this.
The are indeed craftsman, but of the most pedestrian variety.
"She Satisfies" is better than "Your Devotion". But it's second rate Cheap Trick wannabe stuff.
Sorry Steve, my temperature didn't go up a bit from "Your Devotion". If these guys want my devotion, they're gonna have to show me some emotion.
The guitar solo? Elementary and lacking passion IMHO. Any disconnected session guy could have delivered that better. And being as this is "live," it's even less excusable. Like a scythe? More like a plastic butter knife.
I never used the word "wimpy" before, but since you brought it up, yeah. And ultimately insipid.
They should change the name of the band to Low T.
So, even though I can see why some would find them interesting, I generally take a pass on these guys. Let's just agree to disagree on this one. What do I know anyway?
It's like that old Starkist Tuna commercial: Sorry, Charlie. Starkist doesn't want tuna's with good taste. They want tuna that tastes good.
Ever go to a restaurant where the food was so "nothing" that it was neither good or bad? At such establishments, if the waitress or proprietor asks me how the food was, I reply with "It will make a turd, I suppose."
I can't go for that.
Vickie Rock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJiCUdLBxuI
Why not?
Encore:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n0rk9Ey5PM
Vickie Rock
Vickie, get your own blog already...sheesh
Steve, I don't understand why others can't hear how great this band is....I've tried converting others over the years with very little success. People either love 'em or they look at me like I'm crazy in my admiration of their great songs.
Cheap Trick wannabes?? Hardly. The latest Shoes album stands up to anything they've done.
Perhaps I should have made it more clear. When I was talking about second rate Cheap Trick wannabe's I was referring specifically to the track "She Just Satisfies."
The rest of their work isn't even in the same ballpark IMHO. But don't hold that against me, I'm just a refugee from a Surf Punks video.
Vickie Rock
As a Midwesterner around those times - question: Why the fuck have I not heard of The Shoes? Until tuning into this blog? Discounting air play - never consistent - I do not recall reading about this band at all. Even from the mag FKASR. OK - not everything is stellar. Nor is pretty much every band. I'll take a nice nugget what I can find it.
Thanks much for the music and vids steve.
Interesting. I didn't realize we'd attracted a troll. Were you, like, sentenced to compulsory blog-commenting as some sort of community service deal?
Onto my defense: Someone once described power pop as "bubblegum with balls," and some people hear the balls, some the bubblegum, I guess. A chacque son goute.
But be aware: Shoes have tremendous critical respect and a passionate fan base. People hear them now, and remember the brief moment when they hit public consciousness, as dedicated now as then to their own vision, their own voices.
What people will learn from BDL is how long, and how creatively, they worked to make their way toward, and through, and then around the music industry. They are the grandads of DIY, and for that reason alone deserve respect. As pop formalists, they work within a fairly narrow genre, both lyrically and musically, and yet come up with endless permutations of their form.
So there's really no need to be a douche about it. If it's not your thing, it's not your thing. But what they accomplished, their story, transcends all of that.
Thank you, Mary. This has been going on for weeks.
Vickie, please get your own blog. It will give you the opportunity to find out if other people think you are as interesting as you think you are.
Forgive me Mary I don't usually talk this way but fuck off Vickie.
If you don't think like us, you're a troll. If you don't agree with us "fuck yourself." If you don't behave like us, get lost. If you don't conform like us "fuck off." If you don't like a band that we like you're a douche. If you have a personal relationship with the music you'd like to share, don't bother.
I now see that it's not OK to "agree to disagree."
I'm glad I was able to draw you out. Everything the collective "you" did was completely predictable and cliche.
Rock 'n' roll, at its best, is freedom. It isn't mannered. It isn't polite. It is crude and direct.
It's the universal connection with losing your cherry to "Suzie Q," at the River, being punished for broadcasting "Good Golly Miss Molly" in a parochial school, and on, and on, and on....
I have a great story regarding James and Bobby Purify's "I'm Your Puppet." It's not what you think.
In fact, you could never imagine this story in a million years....
Vickie Rock
You didn't "draw me out" I was asked to come see what was going on.
We have plenty of disagreement here **COUGH**bowie**COUGH**, but when a person so thoroughly hijacks a thread, that's trolling. Not the opinions, the behavior.
It does sound as though you have interesting stories, but perhaps beginning somewhere other than "your favorite band sucks" and working your way somewhere other than snail puke might be a way to proceed. Just a thought.
Typical over-reaction. You completely hijack thread after thread with stories about YOURSELF, and then bitch when people get tired of it. The host finally got to the point where she felt the need to call you out, and you basically told her to go fuck herself.
You're a spoiled brat. You don't just express your opinions and move on. You don't know when to stop, and then you complain about other people's intolerance when they ask you to put a sock in it. Then you start all over again.
I repeat, get your own blog. You can say whatever you want and go on as long as you want without anyone complaining. And then YOU will get to make the rules. I wonder how long it will take before one of your commenters gets on your nerves?
This is what I said:
"So, even though I can see why some would find them interesting, I generally take a pass on these guys. Let's just agree to disagree on this one. What do I know anyway?"
"Nevertheless, I'd be interested in reading about these guys. Mainly for their ability to persevere with a DIY ethic. At nearly 500 pages, the book must be very exhaustive. That's more than major artists sometimes get."
I even used self-deprecating humor and told you to qualify my opinions as coming from a refugee from a Surf Punks video.
I bought the book, Mary. I love music and like to learn about different bands whether I'm fond of them or not. I know very little of the back story on this band and I'm sure your book will flesh that out.
"Mrs. Peel," whomever that might be, said I basically told you to go fuck yourself. That's not the case. However, others are telling me precisely that.
Mary, you state that I didn't draw you out, but you were asked to come see. Interesting. So who was it that erased my comment about the live video you put up on your post? Just curious.
You seem to be quite a humorless crew. Very disappointing. This is devolving into the Jerry Springer Show. I try to avoid name-calling and other immature behavior and I get called the spoiled brat. It really is quite comical.
I try, with varying success, to inject humor in my comments. I don't self-edit. It just comes out the way it does with all the sidetracks intact. Of course it can be a bit much and tedious and boring to some, if not all. Anyone is perfectly free to ignore it. And most probably do. I don't care.
My contributions to the comments on this blog at least show some heart. Even Steve, at one point said, I had written the best comment ever on the blog.
He probably curses that day now. Where is Steve anyway? He's not hiding behind your skirts now, is he? I'm actually quite fond of the guy and his musings. Read his stuff since the Seventies. That's what brought me here.
But this sycophantism is very unbecoming.
Why don't you go after the idiots who write comments like "Steve is Gaiiiii!" That to me is the mark of a troll.
Vickie Rock
"Even Steve, at one point said, I had written the best comment ever on the blog."
And Francis Ford Coppola was responsible for both "The Conversation" and "Jack."
Thanks, Sal for that brilliant diffuser.
That said, can we please go back to Fun Town?
Vickie,
If we come across as humorless it's because YOU have sucked the life out of this place with your endless, self-congratulatory narcissism.
The mere fact that you continue to blather on and then complain that everyone else here just isn't as "hip" as you proves Mary's point: you are a troll and nothing more. If this were my place, you would have been banned by now. Steve and Mary are far more tolerant than I.
To say it yet another way, you're the guest who brings down the party by drowning out everyone else, then whines about how dull it is, and still stays well past her welcome.
For the last time, put your money where your keyboard is and start your own blog.
You have succeeded in something that I never set out to do in the first place. You have made this blog, at least for these moments, about me. And, obviously, it's personal from your end. So in that sense, it's about you.
If you want to put a sock in me with sock-puppet accounts and your sycophantic minion(s) that's OK. If you want your girlfriend to be a tattle-tale and have Mary do your dirty work for you, I understand. I can reach no other conclusion but that you're a wuss. To each his own.
This didn't get ugly till I spoke unfavorably of Shoes and called Simels out on his attempted "hit-piece" on Zappa in a post called "Let's Be Frank About Frank". I guess I was too frank. I just didn't think your article was fair or honest. And it isn't. You brought your baggage to it. And I'm hardly a Zappolgist.
The fact that your "girlfriend" has a major Nurse Ratched complex doesn't help matters. She's got some serious issues. I'd dump her if I was you. But then whose skirt could you hide behind?
I know that you're capable of deleting a person's comments, since you've done it to me before on a pithy, non-"narcissistic" one regarding Shoes recent live "Like a Bullet." In that comment I stated that for this performance, they harmonized about as well as the Grateful Dead. I said among the four members I couldn't find one testicle and finished with "Like a Bullet, my ass."
Now I have favorite bands too, but, if they give a shitty performance, I'll be the first to admit it. Others can't see beyond their allegiance. They also shut down those with differing viewpoints. The fact that these "children" are educating our youth should be disturbing to all. But that's beside my point.
The point is, knowing this, can you guys please delete all the comments I made on this blog? I'm kind of embarrassed that I was ever part of it.
Please grant this final request. I'm movin' on and have no desire to start a blog. I'm not narcissistic enough to do that. Just a very friendly and open person with diarrhea of the mouth (keyboard).
And Nunziato: What's wrong with "The Conversation?" :-)
P.S. Anytime I compare rock 'n' roll to famous short story authors, please shoot me.
See ya, surf’s up
Surf's Up
Aboard a tidal wave
Come about hard and join
The young and often spring you gave
I heard the word
Wonderful thing
A children's song
Steve Simels: "I think I speak for everyone here when I say that I am glad that self-expression is not one of Vickie's problems.
:-)"
"I'm not narcissistic"
"Please grant this final request"
Genius.
Now that was fun - who doesn't enjoy a good catfight, and that my friends was one hell of a catfight.
Come on back Vickie, this place needs a little life and I must say you apparently really know how to step on a few toes. Granted your posts did ramble a bit (OK - a lot) but I've always figured nobody was forcing me to read any of this.
For the record I'll have to admit I was pretty much with you on The Shoes. The fascination with that particular band absolutely eludes me, but I've always believed to each their own.
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