The Confessions Thread

[snipelfritz]

On this page ILFers have chosen guitar over:

1. Self-improvement
2. The law
3. Basic survival needs

Good work all!

[phantasmagorovich]

Trying to write a review for "Crazy Clown Time" made me realize I actually hate everything David Lynch has done since Lost Highway.

[behndy]

only thing Lynchian i ever liked was Eraserhead and Wild At Heart. everything else always feels like he's trying to hard to be THE WEIRD ARTY DOOD.

[skullservant]

On this page ILFers have chosen guitar over:

1. Self-improvement
2. The law
3. Basic survival needs

Good work all!

Sold some pedals to get some food

[D.o.S.]

While I'm a fan of the music under any circumstance, I really do believe that reggae is way better when bud is involved.

[snipelfritz]

While I'm a fan of the music under any circumstance, I really do believe that reggae is way better when bud is involved.

I really really want to like reggae because of my "white reggae" influences (i.e. The Police, Vampire Weekend), but I really can't get into it. Bob Marley bores the shit out out of me. I'm sure there's much better stuff in that category, but I can't find any pure reggae that I like. I really like the idea and influence, but just don't enjoy it.

[sonidero]

Schmeggae... DUB is where it's at... Check Scientist, Scratch Perry, King Tubby or Niney...

[alexa.]

On this page ILFers have chosen guitar over:

1. Self-improvement
2. The law
3. Basic survival needs

Good work all!

Sold some pedals to get some food

Sry, it's "Sold some food to get some pedals."
Food is overrated anyway.

[skullservant]

hahahaha

Trying to do some Spring cleaning!

[Chankgeez]

While I'm a fan of the music under any circumstance, I really do believe that all music is way better when bud is involved.

Fix'd

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsjdxDZMuds[/youtube]

[Chankgeez]

I really really want to like reggae because of my "white reggae" influences (i.e. The Police, Vampire Weekend), but I really can't get into it. Bob Marley bores the shit out out of me. I'm sure there's much better stuff in that category, but I can't find any pure reggae that I like. I really like the idea and influence, but just don't enjoy it.

You're listening to the wrong shtuff, kid.

[dubkitty]

the thing about Bob Marley, and about many of the other reggae artists who became popular in the 70s, is that they're so heavily influenced by American R&B and by 70s Island Records business demands that they don't really represent reggae music or Rasta culture that well. though all reggae--and ska and rocksteady for that matter--had/has one foot in American black music, the Jamaican artists who broke overseas in the 70s and 80s made crucial compromises in their approach to satisfy the global pop market and Chris Blackwell's twin desires to globalize the reggae he loved and to make metric tons of money for his label. particularly, they simplified the rhythmic underpinnings of the music and domesticated the sometimes wildly undisciplined song forms, both of which grew out of a blend of soul music and Rasta ritual drumming and chanting. it's the latter that was bled out of reggae to make it commercial, and that gives reggae its power.

given my nick, you won't be surprised that i agree that dub is one place to find a more essential reggae. it can be interesting to find sets, or classic tracks, and their dub "versions"--"version" is used as a single-word noun and verb--and compare them to see how Lee Perry or King Tubby deconstructed the tracks in an aesthetic that was organically invented in Jamaica years before Derrida was popularized outside of a tiny cult in academia. get yourself a copy of "King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown," "Blackboard Jungle 13" by Lee Perry and the Upsetters, one of the "African All-Stars in Dub" CDs, and one of the Keith Hudson discs that the Basic Channel dudes in Berlin reissued...i recommend "Playing It Cool And Playing It Right."

from there a good place to go is more stuff by Augustus Pablo, the co-author of "King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown." one of the most unique instrumentalists ever, Pablo is the best-known exponent of the Hohner melodica. he was a strange dude, a soft-spoken mystical fellow who suffered from a congenital nervous system disorder which made him unnaturally frail and pale, and his playing style reflected him...his playing sounds like it's shyly peeping around the edge of the doorframe, hoping to be invited in. just about everyone who plays the melodica in rock-ish music is biting Pablo...if it weren't for him you wouldn't hear the melodica played by Jon Gill in Go4 or by Damon in Blur/Gorillaz.

IMO classic reggae is a lot like 1950s R&B, in that it's not so much about great artists with long careers as it is about great records and about great producers who find talent and, in the positive sense, exploit it. so rather than listening to the whole careers of people, i tend to find records i really like. to a large extent, if you want to find great reggae you have to approach it like that, or like garage rock...you're not going to find that many artists with six LPs worth of stuff. there ARE some...i like the Gladiators, the Congos, Max Romeo, Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus. but in many cases the best reggae is going to be fopund on compilations of singles by people who got one shot.

if you're going to try one place, go to the Blood & Fire label. they've done a huge amount of unearthing and reissuing with rigor and love, and i haven't heard anything they've done i was disappointed with.

[Chankgeez]

IMO classic reggae is a lot like 1950s R&B, in that it's not so much about great artists with long careers as it is about great records and about great producers who find talent and, in the positive sense, exploit it. so rather than listening to the whole careers of people, i tend to find records i really like. to a large extent, if you want to find great reggae you have to approach it like that, or like garage rock...you're not going to find that many artists with six LPs worth of stuff. there ARE some...i like the Gladiators, the Congos, Max Romeo, Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus. but in many cases the best reggae is going to be fopund on compilations of singles by people who got one shot.

Not sure I fully agree with this paragraph. Do agree that for most of its history Jamaican music has been more about singles than truly cohesive albums.

There are as many great artists in Jamaican music as there are in any other music. 6 LPs worth? Show me any band or artist (in any genre) with 6 LPs worth of great music and I'll show you a rare talent.

[dubkitty]

true. my point, i guess, is that it's fruitless to approach reggae in the same way folks approach post-Dylan rock, as an auteur-driven medium.

[Chankgeez]

Yeah, I might agree with your approach, but there certainly artists whose music I seek out.

Like this man's music, for example:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3SchFUke5s[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJpKOw0HNbA[/youtube]