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Paul Wesley

Certifiably Surly
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    1984
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Everything posted by Paul Wesley

  1. Love the Daft Punk and the "Wall"-era MJ. They definitely pulled out all the disco stops for this song, including Star Wars pew-pew laser noises.
  2. Agreed.
  3. If you’re 20-30 years old now, it would be hard to get your head around how totally pervasive disco culture became. The clothes, the lights, disco balls, the dancing shows on TV - it was unavoidable. Radio stations changed formats or went bankrupt. The Stones made a disco song, Barbara Streisand released an (awful) disco record, KISS made a disco song, Sesame Street had disco music, there were disco variety shows on network TV… If you walked through a department store, the clothes were everywhere- the clothes were strongly related to the music. And unlike today, when things go viral and are gone in a week, the disco stuff went on for *years*. The BeeGees documentary has a really great segment where the scene goes back and forth between the band on jumbo jets and limousines and fighting through throngs of fans - versus the “blow up disco” promotion in Chicago that turned into a riot. The band had no idea how sudden and powerful the backlash against them was about to be.
  4. Man, The Bee Gees and KISS - what a weird and wonderful musical time to grow up. I remember being 7- or 8-years old, riding home from school in mom's Ford LTD with its a.m. radio, and its vinyl seats that got blistering hot in the summer sun. We pulled up to a stoplight - I remember *exactly* where - beside a young guy in a Pinto, and he had a bumper sticker that said, "Disco Sucks. Rock and Roll is Still Number One" - or something very close to that. And I remember thinking that anyone who would put such a confrontational sticker on their car must be a sociopath (though I didn't have that term in my vocabulary)... and besides that, what kind of a monster doesn't love disco? Also, I'm out of rep or I would have given it to every post on this thread.
  5. More Bernie and Niles. Writing lyrics wasn't their strong suit, however. Pugilist Will Smith exploited this hook a lot more effectively in "Jiggy." It's silly but it's undeniably hooky. Sampled a thousand times, including the track that gave hiphop its name. Pure genius. I think this one is a masterclass in songwriting - I cannot think of a song that does a better job of building and releasing tension with its chord changes. The IV chord falling to a minor IV, the way you don't get a root chord until the chorus, the way the vocal in the pre chorus starts on a dissonant note that resolves within each measure... it's sublime. The bridge is just kind of unfortunate.
  6. I feel like that track is the exact moment that disco morphed into EDM. You really hear and feel it in the synth bass and the hi hat upbeats. Good thread, btw. I think it's unfair and perverse that disco - mostly made by some really talented musicians with great hooks/vocals/percussionists/string arrangements/etc. - had a 5- or 6- year run, and now the entire genre is considered a punchline. And EDM, which I would argue requires FAR less skill and imagination (dragging loops into software platforms) is going strong after four decades.
  7. I think his Eagles shows were several years back. I only know about Dolan because someone from NY told me stories going around among the musicians that Dolan hired. When Tbone mentioned millionaires buying gigs, I got really excited to share the City Winery clip, but it’s gone. I suppose someone could have made a scene just to embarrass him, but it came off as a sincere music fan who paid $$$ at a reputable listening room, and got beaten down until finally, between songs, in a desperate and exasperated voice, “Please give us our money back.” (Murmuring, staff goes over to talk to patrons standing up to leave) “You have a terrible singing voice!” (More murmuring) ”Hey! Do you guys like Johnny Cash?”
  8. A candidate's willingness to overturn democracy is now the singular de facto litmus test for the Republican Party. I actually expected far worse election-day shenanigans from them in 2020. I thought the arms-carrying overthrow of elections would occur on smaller precinct levels, but they saved them for the inauguration. Our country is in trouble.
  9. My experience: If singer sucks, people will say, "That singer sucks." Guitar player sucks... "That guitar player sucks." Exception to that is the drummer. If the drummer sucks - "That band sucks." The rest of the band simply cannot overcome a shitty drummer.
  10. According to this wikipedia entry, after opening for the Eagles, Allman Brothers, Dixie Chicks, Joe Walsh, and ZZ Top - Dolan released a record that sold 113 copies. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JD_%26_The_Straight_Shot
  11. I just saw the Eagles here in Austin last week, so I say this with the recognition that they arguably have the singularly most successful musical catalog of any American band in history... But they could have thrown a rope down to some relatively unknown but super talented musician in that opening spot instead of taking Dolan's money.... knowing that their most devoted fans who paid hundreds of dollars apiece were going to have to suffer through a shitty 40 minutes from this no-talent ass clown. It's just a horrid transformation from idealists to businessmen. If I had to think of an analogy here... A Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.
  12. So James Dolan inherited the corporation that owns the New York Rangers, New York Knicks, and Madison Square Garden. Thanks to his colossal inheritance, he's still a billionaire even though he's grossly mismanaged the sports franchises, and he's presided over some ventures that lost hundreds of millions of dollars (I cannot think of any other New York businessman who inherited Daddy's billions and remain billionaires despite their overconfident blundering). He is famously thin-skinned, combative, and vengeful. He gave Knick fans lifetime bans from MSG who wore anti-Dolan shirts to the arena. After Oakley publicly criticized Dolan for a decade of horrific trades/contracts, Dolan sent security guards to Oakley's seats during a game and had him forcibly ejected from the arena (Oakley lost his shit and lawsuits ensued). Speaking of bankrolling promoters... Dolan surrounded himself with superb musicians, formed "JD and the Straight Shot," who opened for the fucking Eagles (!!!!!!) -- and his band has been on numerous late-night shows. He was on Fallon, which should tell you everything you need to know about the integrity of a network choosing its musical guests. Anyway, I really wanted to link to a couple YouTube videos, but they've suspiciously disappeared from the website. The Fallon appearance is gone. Another video that is scrubbed from the internet was shot by a fan when Dolan was playing City Winery in New York. Between songs, a frustrated fan starts yelling, "I want my money back!" and later, "You have a terrible singing voice!" Then there was an awkward silence as the fan is ejected from the venue, and then as the room is still murmuring and buzzing, Dolan saying energetically to the crowd, "Hey, do you guys like Johnny Cash?" It was glorious. I wish I had saved it. There are only a few videos of him on Youtube, and they have comments disabled.
  13. Whoops. You asked "how well" he plays. I thought you asked "what" he plays.
  14. https://duesenbergusa.com/guitars/alliance-johnny-depp
  15. He has a signature Duesenberg, right?
  16. The DPS officer who they sent out to face the press was evasive and thin-skinned. He used the phrase "lot of moving parts" about 10 times. He had a lot of righteous indignation that anyone would question the law enforcement response ("I'm gonna clear some things up"), but then gave a lot of non-answers, e.g. "We're looking into that. I'll get back to you." In short: DPS spokesperson is terrible at this job.
  17. We're getting to a world of routine state-wide electrical grid failures, and women with no health insurance and also pregnant with their rapist's baby - each of them driving past schools where you can hear the pop-pop-pop sound of military rifles slaughtering children - and they're all on their way to vote straight-ticket R because they value some grossly perverted and hypocritical interpretation of White Jesus more than utilities, healthcare, women's rights, education, sensible gun control, and public safety.
  18. Good Lord, I never realized that show had so much talent. Also, guys good at playing guitar.
  19. Thank you. I kind of knew something like that was the deal, but I wasn’t sure how much control I would surrender to them to tow anyone they wanted, or how the guardrails worked to keep from getting myself or my clients towed by mistake. Also reluctant to ugly up my property with towing warnings, but the alternative is getting constantly pissed off at my immediate neighbors.
  20. https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/crime/amp/Austin-man-convicted-rock-throwing-brain-dead-11074043.php This guy was a poster here - I think he regularly gave advice on how to fight unethical towing companies, and seemed to enjoy being a defender/advocate for victims. “Sociopath” wasn’t a strong enough word.
  21. I-35 LC Lollar P90's Last week a musician friend who used to live in Austin texted me to ask me if I had ever owned a Rickenbacker 12-string. I haven't, but I tried to talk him into ordering a Duesenberg Double Cat instead. I found a couple of those on Reverb just to send him links. And, you know, as long as I'm on Reverb, I should go ahead and show him an example of what my own next guitar was going to be --- something semi-hollow with P90. Guess which one of us pulled the trigger? I played one of these a few years ago and was kind of smitten, but I figured I'd have to settle for something more realistic - maybe a Gibson CS-336 (they do a version with P90) or a Warmoth Thinline Tele body with P90 (Chad Fuck suggested some pretty cool-looking ones before when I mentioned the idea).
  22. Unfortunately I’m at work until early evening
  23. Jerry Reed is great, but am I the only one who had a hard time getting past how out of tune the other guitarist is?
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