Why No Hooks

That is one of my biggest gripes about a lot of the new generation jam bands.  No song structure, just musical wankery.

...enter Hunter-Garcia & Barlow-Weir for starters

El-Nino/ Ken

That was my biggest decision point in deciding on whether to see Phil w/ Goose guy at the Cap next week  .... lots of noodling, but no "there"/destination there

Wiser voices on Viva advised me to just go and watch the beauty that is Phil & Molo .... so I'm IN on Sat. Everything else is just garnish or a distraction

On a similar note, saw Marcus King (great) open for Twiddle in Albany a while back. Twiddle Heads were a bit annoyed at us pointing, laughing and shaking our heads at Twiddle for 30 min til we left early.

Great to ride the jam train, but some of us prefer some sort of musical foundation/destination - some rise / some fall to get there or anywhere..... can we float around forever without getting to any sort of a Terrapin Station?     ... some get on a jam train and never reach any meaningful destination/lost in the Twiddle zone IMHO

Everyone to their own path....

Waiting for some new player/band to pull the jam band train towards their own Terrapin

Musical masturbation is always fun but I do like to shoot my load a few times too!

If there is no tension there can be no release.

Moving away from songwriting porn, how often do you walk around singing or humming a Phish song?   Deadheads know the importance of the songwriters.  

Where is the soul?

Split open amd melt....mmm......split open and melt..........

Actually Eddie, I couldn't get "Lizards" out of my head yesterday, for some reason, and I'm not even that big into Phish.

But generally, yeah, what we forget is that the Dead were actually writing songs they thought might be chart hits.  And, while they didn't always get there, "if you aim for the moon you land among the stars", or however that saying goes. They were trying to write catchy songs.  Phish actually has a few catchy tunes too, especially in the 1.0 days.

I think a lot of "fusion" in the same way.  Great, but no landing spot. Not that I dislike it, but it's a different listening experience, and a different concert experience. I think the best bands mix it up in the right ratio...

>>>>Dead were actually writing songs they thought might be chart hits.  

We often listen to the Sirius station "Jam On" while hanging around the house.  Good mix, but after a while you notice they tend to play some of the songs over and over, including ones by Ghostlight and Pigeons that have pop sensibilities and catchy hooks and could be a Top 40 hit.  If anything, they are Top 40 for the Sirius Jam On Station.

Immediate red flags to never see a band play if someone thought it was a good idea to name themselves Goose and Twiddle. 

Perhaps it has to do with the organic process of creating music being compromised by an over-reliance on technical gadgets?  You still hear hooks in more stripped down contemporary music like Bluegrass, Alternative Country, Folk, Gospel, Blues, and Classic (aka Retro) Soul.  
 

Lots of contemporary Pop music is virtually unlistenable to me.  The over-use of the auto-tune program has led to a lack of actual singing.  Nuance and subtlety are missing.  Double entendre has been forsaken in favor of coarsely explicit content.  The lyrical content has become increasingly vapid and materialistic.  Songs with a conscience and soulfulness are the exception.  

Hopefully, most of you west coasters have had a chance to catch Achilles Wheel. They are out of the Grass Valley area and are as solid a band as there is out there right now. Some covers but mostly well written originals with a lot of great jamming and a base to go back to.  Catchy tunes. Great musicians/singers.  Check em out next time if you haven't already.

The hook brings you back

Anyone see Poker Face last night?  I wonder how many takes that took.

i blame trey