tBS: Jam Session

[BRIAN HALLIGAN]

John said...

>I think most of tBS songs could be done acoustically, or in some other
>form, and would sound fairly cool.  Music can be played in a variety of
>ways and still sound good.  True, some songs in tBS repetoire (especially
>some of the Trepanaion tunes) would probably sound best behind a thick
>wall of guitars as they are today, but I think it's cool to take a song
>and turn it around some how.  Sure, the whole "Unplugged" thing is kind
>of a fad that eMpTyV decided to jump on and claim as theirs (but hey,
>at least that's remotely connected to MUSIC - not like all the other
>stupid stuff they do - I mean "singled out"?  Please!  Jenny McCarthy
>may have nice t*ts, but they don't exactly make music, do they?).

        Has anyone seen MTV2?  It's the "all music, all the time" concept
that made MTV originally interesting.  Unfortunately, almost everything that
you can do with a music video has already been done.  I mean, how are you
supposed to top a Peter Gabriel video?  I personally think that videos are on
the way out.  Hopefully this means more kids will go to shows and a new
generation of arena-rock bands will flourish.

>Of course tribute albums are also a recent fad that we could probably do
>without.  I don't mind cover songs, but just getting a bunch of currently
>hot artists to do an album-full of covers on one artist is a bit much
>(sometimes they can be cool though).  To me, doing something "Unplugged"
>can be cool, but it's not for everybody - it's like listening to studio
>outtakes or something - it's interesting to hear a few times, but is
>usually no substitute for the original - and it certainly doesn't seem
>like it should be some sort of "fad" that MTV has made it.

The only MTV Unplugged performance that I appreciate more than the original
recording is when Great White played "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You".  Now GW is
not Led Zeppelin, but for some reason everything came together for them on
stage.  I also have some acoustic performances by The Cult which draw my
attention sometimes.  On the whole I agree with your observation though.

>Having said that, I think it would be cool to hear some tBS songs done
>acoustically (or orchestrally, or even electronically for that matter).
>Again, I think any of their songs could be done acoustically in some
>form and be interesting, but here's a few additions to Brian's list:
>
>Most Romantic Place in the World
>(666) Devil Got Your Mother  (this could be really wacky)

 666 would sound incredible with a choir and orchestra.  Imagine "O Fortuna"
mixed with Zappa's "G-Spot Tornado".

>Time Will Take Care of You
>Hansel & Gretel
>St. Vitus Dance
>Date With A Guitar
>Tender Was the Night
>Donkey Show
>Laura's Plastic Swords
>
>As you can see, I picked a few "heavier" songs than Brian did (well, he
>took all the mellower stuff ;-) ), but I think a heavy song can work
>acoustically - it would at least be interesting to hear.
>
>John

        Some of those are a stretch, but I'll buy it.  I've personally thought
that Tender Was the Night would make a cool polka- but that's another post (one
you won't be seeing here for sure).

Brian