i'm not gonna lie. you kids are kinda dumb.

[bebopbalogna]

for those who are curious, i did it.  i broke down and got the new Who album.    haven't listened yet.  about to put it in now.   update  later.   i'm just too big of a who fan to not get it.  even if i hate myself for it.  (i also have purchased the EVERY thing iggy pop has put out, if that is a testament to my loyalty as a fan.  and i could PROBABLY compile ONE good 60 min album if i had the last 6 albums to pull from.)

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

Do you believe in love?

Love won't hurt anymore.
It's an open smile on a friendly shore.

[attachment deleted by admin... had to make some room, kids]

[bebopbalogna]

if only you could turn back time.

i could wear 4 strategically placed strips of black leather to the grammys without scaring the shit out of everybody.

[bebopbalogna]

Do you believe in love?

Love won't hurt anymore.
It's an open smile on a friendly shore.

its exciting and new.  come aboard.

[Tripp]

question: would you get it on with Cher at any point in her career?

[Tripp]

pitchfork review

The Who
Endless Wire
[Universal; 2006]
Rating: 4.7
Buy it from Amp Camp
Download it from Emusic

It's become a critical reflex to auto-pan records of new material released by classic rock legends, a seemingly coordinated effort by the music-scribe community to create a unified message of "shut up and play the old stuff!" It's usually a justifiable knee-jerk: So many acts reunite with dollar signs in their eyes and a diluted pool of talent that the few artists who do make relevant albums in old age-- your Neil Youngs, your Tom Waitseses-- are miraculous by comparison. Furthermore, there's something depressing about watching formerly popular bands persevere long past their prime, usually lacking some critical piece of their identity, be it simply youth, hunger, or the drive and courage to create something different.

The Who are more prone to these allegations than most, having famously decried the horrors of being old from their very beginning. Now 20 years past the release of a record called Who's Last, and four years after the 2002 death of bassist John Entwistle, the band's continued existence seems feeble on paper. Retaining the group's two most visible personalities, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, is enough for the Who to remain a viable touring act for as long as they please, but anything new to come out of the group can't help but be predictable and hollow by this point, right?

Well, would it surprise you if that wasn't entirely the case with Endless Wire? Obviously the rating up there isn't gaudy, but it certainly could be far worse for a band that arguably hasn't produced worthwhile new material since the Carter administration. The first half of the record is everything one fears from a museum-piece band an entire generation past its prime: rehashes of old hits, preachy, creaky acoustic numbers, the noticeable absence of deceased contributors. The second half, on the other hand, throws a bit of a curveball for a band expected to be robotically strip-mining the past, debuting a portion of a new Pete Townshend rock opera that provides fleeting glimpses of the Who sounding remarkably true to their younger selves.

About that first half: It says it all that the lead track and single (if there really is a radio station out there that would play a new Who song), "Fragments", is full of the same synthesizer arpeggios that grace the recently fashionable "Baba O'Riley". That the song was produced by the "Method" from the aborted Lifehouse project (scraps of which became Who's Next) is the kind of trivia that will make the song excusable only to Who fanatics, while casual fans hear a knockoff with about 1% of the original's massive chorus. Elsewhere, the first half veers between acoustic naps inspired by The Passion of the Christ (seriously) and forced upbeat numbers (the commercial commentary "Mike Post Theme", and the Fleetwood-Mac glossy "It's Not Enough") that sorely miss the rumble bass of "The Ox", not to mention Keith Moon's spectacular clatter.

Strangely, all the missing elements and nostalgia-grabs that make the first half of Endless Wire such a sad listen organize themselves into a form that is faintly exciting for the second part, which is comprised of songs from a rock-opera-in-progress called Wire & Glass. This shocking turn of events sorta makes sense; after all, it's vain for Townshend & Daltrey at 60 to strive for their raucous early days, but the song-cycle heritage of Tommy and Quadrophenia remains within their now limited range.

Focusing on a narrative, confusing as it might be, appears to give the band more purpose and to transmute its new weaknesses into old strengths. Daltrey's bellow, which sounds silly over the front half's thinner sound, works better in the service of dramatic material like "Sound Round" or "Mirror Door" (which, like the album cover, hearkens back to the imagery of Tommy more than a little bit). In service to his story, Townshend gets more interesting with his arrangements, like the interwoven piano and guitar of "Unholy Trinity" or the much weirder reprise "Fragments of Fragments", segueing together mini-songs like a calmer, wiser "A Quick One".

Is all that enough to save Endless Wire? Again, based on the score, obviously not. But it is a rare, unexpected move from a Hall of Fame band, creditable for being more than the usual Give The People What They Want pension scheme. In most instances, the best case scenario for a reunion album is to justify its existence, to appear as more than just a pointless exercise in career perpetuation. For the second half of Endless Wire, the Who at least meet those qualifications, producing work that adds, if incrementally, to their career body of work rather than just damaging the reputation of their long-ago days.

-Rob Mitchum, November 02, 2006

[bebopbalogna]

only if greg allman was watching.  

[Tripp]

(shudder)

[Doctor Rock]

Can you still rock in America..?

Yeah, but everyone will pretty much ignore you...

[Doctor Rock]

Do you believe in love?

Sure!  

[Doctor Rock]

question: would you get it on with Cher at any point in her career?

No!  Like... Eww!

[bebopbalogna]

Can you still rock in America..?

Yeah, but everyone will pretty much ignore you...

sad how true that is.....

[Sabamah]

Should we change our Halloween names?  I dunno, I kinda like mine.  

[Just Some Girl]

Should we change our Halloween names?  I dunno, I kinda like mine.  

Translation for Rosa: Savannah's sad because she's just the disembodied ghost of her former alive self, so she can't change her name.

[bebopbalogna]

ok.  so far (i'm at track 5)  the good news-  it sounds like the Who. (in as much as that i can tell its the Who.)   the bad news- the intro to the first song is a such a ridiculous reference to Baba O'riley, it is a disservice.  mr.  daltry's voice is toast.  "in the ether"  he actually sounds like tom waits.  not sure if that is on purpose.  lyrics are a little pretentious (nothing new about that,  actually kind of a pete townshend trademark)but not near as clever as in his youth.  so far i like the acoustic songs better than the more fully realized productions, although  "black widow's eyes"  is pretty good. great moon-ish drum fills on that one.   more later.