Holy crap. I just spent the last 45 minutes typing out the longest, most rambling-ass intro ever.
It was a reaction to reading a review of Fred Eaglesmith’s 2008 album Tinderbox in which somebody from the Calgary Herald wrote sounds like “Tom Waits meets Pink Floyd meets Hank Williams.” I got all ticked off and started rolling with the keys about how worthless comparisons are when it comes to music. Ironically, after two example stories – one in which I talk about how in 1996, Pavement did NOT, in fact, sound like “a smarter Weezer” to me – I realized I make comparisons all the time myself and had done it just this past weekend by saying that Surfer Blood sounds like (coincidentally) Weezer meets Versus. Then I started analyzing what that meant. Then I realized this was a to-do post, not a diary.
Long story short, I nearly wasted five times as much of your morning as I already have.
So yeah, Fred Eaglesmith is in town tonight at the GoodFolk house. He’s been here before and he’s real good (think Tom Waits meets Pink Floyd meets Hank Williams) so if you wanna see him, you’d better go make a reservation now.
What else is happening? Well, George’s will probably be packed. Sevendust is playing and they just released a new album. On 4/20!!!!1!!
Besides that, there’s the usual Tuesday night lineup with jazz at Scarpino’s, Jeff Fox at JJ’s, and somethin’ classy at Stella Boyle Smith.
Here’s a list. Get back to work.
Pavement came before Weezer, so Weezer maybe could be a dumber version of Pavement.
I’m a fan of Weezer, but each album seems a little bit dumber than the last. I know they are smart guys, and it makes me wonder if they are trying to see just how juvenile a lyric they can get away with. That ‘start to cry/want to die’ stuff could be written by an eighth grader.
@ArkInvestor – I agree. As cliche as it is to say, nothing past Pinkerton really floated my boat.
This Eaglesmith guy gives off a Bill Engvall vibe in the pictures at the top of the column. And I guess the hat is part of his schtick. But I checked out his site and it sounds like good stuff. Funny how first impressions can be misleading.
I think Weezer’s green album was really good. But that Beverly Hills song with the Playboy mansion video…*shudder*
I always felt that Cuomo put alot of heart into Pinkerton and that it’s lack of initial success (although it’s pretty much a cult favorite now) drove him into a depression about writing music from the soul.
It seems that he’s happy writing poppy crap that’ll sell albums now.