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Post by Blacksmile on Jul 10, 2011 14:21:55 GMT -8
Sweet. I have slowly been getting acquainted with Elephant 6 stuff. Big fan of Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk and Apples in Stereo. Looking forward to this album for sure.
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Post by Horned Gramma on Jul 11, 2011 9:01:01 GMT -8
Good call on that one there, Drew. I've had a troubled relationship with the first Circulatory System album over the last ten years so I want to make sure I listen to it with fresh ears before I start trying to put down my feelings regarding it.
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Post by StormyPinkness on Jul 11, 2011 11:35:56 GMT -8
Here are my belated N.A.S.A. comments. It is extra challenging for me to do this as I cannot stream stuff at work and since HG listens to this stuff during the day when I am at work, I feel bad coming home from work and making him listen to them again. So I listen on the youtubes and so between that and people constantly coming and bothering me in my cubicle it can sometimes take a little while to get a good listen.
This album is fun to me in the way the summer blockbuster movies are. A lot of big names on the bill, a large voiced announcer, and some fun content that doesn't make me feel like I need to exercise my brain all that much.
There were tracks that I liked better than others, but none that made me feel like I hated them or would turn it off. I enjoyed "The People Tree", "Way Down", "Strange Enough", and "Whachadoin?" specifically from the times I heard this.
This album did not remind me of Girl Talk at all. I see where the people who say that are coming from, but I don't see this album as a mash up at all. I see purpose behind the tracks. The recordings from the people involved may be different, but they are all involved in the same thing. It is playing with sounds and beats, not just hearing independent sounds and mashing them together.
This album is not a groundbreaker or anything, but they do have a lot of talent and a lot of really interesting sound. I like that the genre of hip hop is continuing to be expanded upon in ways that are not just gangsta rap. This is a good summertime listen and would be fun to have on while some of your friends are over drinking beers and enjoying the day.
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Post by Horned Gramma on Jul 11, 2011 11:38:12 GMT -8
I'll wait to listen to this stuff until you're at home and we're playing Mario Cars.
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Post by StormyPinkness on Jul 11, 2011 11:43:58 GMT -8
Also there are some really cool videos for the songs on that album. I didn't really get to sit and watch them all the way through but some of them were pretty neat.
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Post by Drew on Jul 11, 2011 12:27:34 GMT -8
Stormy - we have the same amount of posts. If we respond to each other's posts all the time, we'll be tied forever.
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Post by StormyPinkness on Jul 11, 2011 12:47:32 GMT -8
Dang it, I saw this too late and it is already thrown off.
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Post by know ID yuh on Jul 11, 2011 13:46:30 GMT -8
Drew, that wasn't the album I was thinking of. Did you change your mind, or am I forgetting why I should have guessed it?
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Post by Drew on Jul 11, 2011 14:38:04 GMT -8
I think I listed this as one of my favorite albums at some point, and as board archivist you usually know those things. What were you thinking of?
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Post by know ID yuh on Jul 11, 2011 15:10:28 GMT -8
I was thinking of Marquee Moon. And you must have forgot, I ignored all of your posts.
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Post by Blacksmile on Jul 11, 2011 15:15:44 GMT -8
I was thinking of Marquee Moon. And you must have forgot, I ignored all of your posts. Oh man...that was one of the albums that I was considering for my October turn!
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Rusty
North American Scumfoot
Posts: 710
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Post by Rusty on Jul 11, 2011 18:20:38 GMT -8
Holy Shit Drew. Thanks for choosing this one. I had always heard this name talked about, but never thought about it much. Just finished my first listen, this is some amazing stuff.
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Post by know ID yuh on Jul 12, 2011 22:24:39 GMT -8
I still need one more listen to the Slint album before forming an opinion, but I'm digging it more and more each listen (4 times now).
Drew's entry was a lot different than I expected. I have also never listened to this album. The music sounded a bit like the Beatles, and that's just my opinion after one listen because I'm not a Beatles lover, and the harmonies just sounded that way. I'm 25% hipster by the way.
We need to develop an "alternate" in this thread, because it seems like I'm not the only one looking forward to the next entry, yet we haven't heard from brad since the inception of this thread. I'm not sure how we would go about choosing the alternate, so suggestions are welcomed. Obviously, the first criteria would be to have a review prepared, and haven't gone yet. Thoughts?
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Post by J-Dawg on Jul 12, 2011 22:27:06 GMT -8
I'm 25% hipster by the way. OK so after the next post we should now 100% of Know's hertiage...
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Post by know ID yuh on Jul 12, 2011 22:40:52 GMT -8
I'm 25% hipster by the way. OK so after the next post we should now 100% of Know's hertiage... I could say I'm also 25% nerd, but that is too close to hipster (many I know consider me a nerd). I could say I'm 25% prep, but that is too close to jock (Stormy and HG accidentally caught me with my pants on, which is just as rare as a normal person being caught with their pants off. It was just as weird for me as it was for them). I could also say I'm 25% intellectual, but that is pompous. So I'm saying my other 25% is pompous. Now you know everything about me.
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Post by Horned Gramma on Jul 13, 2011 10:53:12 GMT -8
So; Circulatory System. This record came out at the very height of my obsession with the Elephant 6 collective and it's always had a difficult time finding it's place in the vast E6 catalog for me. Olivia Tremor Control beat the problems I usually associate with having multiple songwriters by not really allowing any one song to maintain the distinct style of any one of them. On records like Dusk at Cubist Castle and Black Foliage it seemed like they just threw all of their good ideas into a bucket and mixed them all around and that worked really well for them.
When Olivia Tremor Control first began fracturing I realized that I definitely preferred the sensibilities of Bill Doss's Sunshine Fix project -- The Future History of the Sunshine Fix is one of my favorite E6 releases. He capitalized on the sunnier psychedelia while Pete Erchick got deeper into the 4-track experiments with his Pipes You See, Pipes You Don't project. Will Cullen Hart's work with Circulatory System felt a lot like Olivia Tremor Control, but without the fantastical elements so strongly pronounced. And kind of without as much personality.
The Circulatory System record has some really great moments; particularly 'Round', with that totally rad low-end chanting about halfway through. And 'The Lovely Universe' sounds like it could have come right off an OTC album. It's unnecessarily long, though, kinda like most of the OTC records and I think that's because Will Cullen Hart was the one who had the hardest time editing himself. The middle of Circulatory System gets kind of muddy.
It's gotten better over the years, though -- strangely, due largely to the absence of the more stark fantasy elements and the perma-grin of kids on lots and lots of LSD. It sounds more grown up, which I suppose as the E6 boys were leaving the 90's behind and moving around a little bit is probably exactly what Will Hart wanted.
This music always makes me feel twenty years old again, and now that I've gotten back into this one I'll probably pull it out more often than I do Cubist Castle just because I've basically played that album into the ground. Even if it's not my favorite example of classic E6 material it still has that generosity of spirit and the ability to spontaneously generate a body high on most days.
Appreciate that album art for a minute, too. Will Cullen Hart is an amazing painter; definitely the best visual artist of the original collective.
Once again Drew, really good call on this one. Listening to this album this week I enjoyed it more than I ever have before. A couple months from now I'll probably come back all of a sudden obsessed with it.
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Post by Horned Gramma on Jul 13, 2011 10:59:20 GMT -8
Also worth mentioning that until very recently, the release of the first Circulatory System album and the subsequent tour in support of it was the last time Jeff Mangum was seen in any capacity. I told the story more than a year ago, but my girlfriend at the time was a girl named Steph who was the touring flautist for the dearly departed auxiliary E6 band Beulah, and when Circulatory System passed through Philadelphia, Mangum crashed at her place and I was able to have him 'sign' my original copy of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.
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Post by Lump on Jul 13, 2011 19:58:59 GMT -8
geturdicksuckedalot?
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Post by Lump on Jul 13, 2011 20:06:59 GMT -8
Also, listened to both NASA and Circulatory System today on my way from my visit to ATL with Stampz and Catz.
Circulatory System: With both this and most E6 albums, this album is like a comfort food for me. 'Taint dazzlin' me or nothin', but I'll always know I'll like it and it will always be that consistent sound. So that's a positive thing. Highlight for me: "Symbols and Maps"
NASA: I'm no good at analyzing hip-hop albums, but here goes: Liked the up-beat feel of it. Always refreshing to hear hip hop that isn't completely, "I have the biggest ego in the world, and you will for damn sure know it." I also can't disagree with an album that has Karen O and ODB in the same song. ALSO WHAT THE FUCK with the Donald Dock sounding "Play with my balls." thing. I've never found something quite so simultaneously hilarious and disturbing.
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Post by emptyfox on Jul 13, 2011 20:21:52 GMT -8
I can't for the life of me remember where, but I've totally heard the Donald Duck soundbite before.
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