official earthquake glue thread [Archive] - Matador Records Bulletin Board

bitterfruit

06-26-2003, 09:04 PM

I know I push it quite a bit, but the previous comment may be pushing it. (Yeah, I know. This is coming from the guy who did the whole Chan vs. Neko poll, but I apologized about that.)

Anyway, back to the subject. I'll maintain my previous stance on "I'll Replace You With Machines," but overall the album is quite interesting.

bmmello

06-27-2003, 01:50 PM

I really love Mix Up The Satellites. That and A Trophy Mule In Particular.

The album is awesome in my opinion. Definetely their best work since Under The Bushes.

Oh, and I like to support the bands I listen to. EG LP + CD already pre-ordered.

cungar

06-28-2003, 07:44 PM

From a MP3 downloader and CD purchaser (need that cardboard cover and Bob needs the money)

Earthquake Glue is the most mature GBV CD to date. I also think it contains the best lyrics Bob has ever written. I never thought the band would grow into such a sophisticated band but they are damn close to perfect at this point. I'm on about my 8th listen and in love with this CD. Even the originally released MP3's sound better in context with the rest of the CD.

Favorites so far -

Beat Your Wings - Think "Keep it coming" fleshed out to epic proportions.

Useless Inventions - Think Subspace Biographies with an even catchier chorus.

The Best of Jill Hives - I don't know if Bob has ever written a catchier song.

Mix up the Sattelites - The chorus sends the same chills as Liquid Indians. Sublime.

Secret Star - This one will kick ass in concert. Destined to be a GBV classic.

bitterfruit

06-28-2003, 10:43 PM

Originally posted by cungar

The Best of Jill Hives - I don't know if Bob has ever written a catchier song.

Agreed. What a fucking great piece. Oddly, pieces and parts remind me of the Smiths.

Paul

06-29-2003, 12:06 AM

Originally posted by cungar
The Best of Jill Hives - I don't know if Bob has ever written a catchier song.

Yeah, WOW! I have to agree. All this talk about leaked tracks caught my attention. I've been waiting for Bob to really pull me back in with something since I burned myself out on GbV in '98 or so. He came close a couple times on Isolation Drills and Universal Truths, but "The Best of Jill Hives" is the type of songwriting that made me fall in love with GbV in the first place. After hearing it once, I felt it was the best Bob composition I've heard since anything on Under the Bushes. After hearing it twice, I'm convinced it's one of the most wonderful GbV songs ever.

cungar

06-29-2003, 12:31 AM

Just as an aside, Tim Tobias lays down a killer bass line on Best of Jill Hives. I love the intro.

bitterfruit

06-29-2003, 01:35 AM

Originally posted by Paul
Yeah, WOW! I have to agree. All this talk about leaked tracks caught my attention. I've been waiting for Bob to really pull me back in with something since I burned myself out on GbV in '98 or so. He came close a couple times on Isolation Drills and Universal Truths, but "The Best of Jill Hives" is the type of songwriting that made me fall in love with GbV in the first place. After hearing it once, I felt it was the best Bob composition I've heard since anything on Under the Bushes. After hearing it twice, I'm convinced it's one of the most wonderful GbV songs ever.

Paul, maybe we can be friends.

interrust

06-29-2003, 02:42 AM

i agree with 'beat your wings' having relations to 'keep it coming' .. like i said, with how the songs were arranged [produced/mixed,] it kind of flows like pipe dreams, but its not like pipe dreams, for that's and odds and sods lp. earthquake glue is this new masterpiece bob and co have created.

'jill hives' might as well be the 'best of' earthquake glue. that and 'beat your wings.' i need to listen to it a few more times through to pick up alot of things.

defintely agreeing with how gbv have matured with the record. i really like the elements the album includes. im still a big fan of the opening to 'my son,' and how some of the bridges are with the songs, sort of spacey, free-formed compositions. but by far, a crowning achievement for the band.

-- rusty

James Riot

06-29-2003, 11:49 AM

Jill Hives is incredible, but I do want to reserve judgement since I've only heard the album a few times. At this point, the album is as good as anything they've done until Main Street Wizards, and then it kind of fizzles out for me. Maybe the songs that come after that are just the hardest ones to get into (the fact that people list Mix Up the Satellites, Trophy mule, and Secret Star as their favourites would lead me to believe that this is the case). Anyone else noticed the lifted Stones riff in Useless Inventions just before the chorus?

Paul30

06-29-2003, 12:39 PM

I finally got ahold of Earthquake Glue, and in my humble opinion it's an amazing album. It sounds like they've finally managed to make their masterpiece (B000 and AL came close). If Isolation Drills is Bob's Who's Next, then Earthquake Glue is his The Who Sell Out. It's as consistently wonderful as anything Bob has released up to this point. I know I should no longer be amazed by what Bob comes up with, but it still surprises me that he's able to come up with so many creative, beautiful melodies after all the songs he's written. I agree with the person who compared it with Pipe Dreams... (an underrated EP, in my opinion). It's also very UTAC-ish (especially the poppier songs on UTAC), with a dash of UTBUTS. Tim Tobias and Kevin March are the co-stars on this one.

Personal favorites: The Best of Jill Hives, A Trophy Mule in Particular, Useless Inventions, Mix Up the Satellites, and Main Street Wizards

The only songs that don't work for me are My Son, My Secretary, My Country, and She Goes Off At Night. But they're still good songs.

cungar

06-29-2003, 04:38 PM

Anyone (Patrick maybe) know who sings the chorus with Bob on Dead Clouds? It sounds like someone else is exchanging the line "Send the sunlight to me" with him.

Also are those actual horns on the beginning of My Son, My Secretary, My Country? To me it sounds like the beginning of The Night They Rode old Dixie Down by the Band.

And has anyone else noticed that this is the first GBV CD that I can remember that didn't have at least one aproximately one minute fragment song?

evil_speakers

06-29-2003, 04:57 PM

What about Do the Collapse? No 1 min. fragments there.

johansen smith

06-29-2003, 05:03 PM

Originally posted by evil_speakers
What about Do the Collapse? No 1 min. fragments there.

"an Unmarketed Product" was like a minute and 4 seconds.

Patrick

06-29-2003, 08:01 PM

Some of the later tracks have unexpected rewards. "Secret Star" in particular has a glorious second part that starts halfway through and transforms the song - indeed a "secret" and a wonderful one.

Patrick

cungar

06-29-2003, 08:45 PM

The end part where Bob sings

To Wish for you to fall
To Wish for you to burn
To Wish for your return

Incredible.

Where does he come up with this stuff?

Scott Frost

06-30-2003, 02:18 AM

hey, it's me! the only guy in America who doesn't own Earthquake Glue and won't until August

:mad:

gee beer vee

06-30-2003, 09:18 AM

Frostman says the earthquake needs to wait for you.

jt. r

06-30-2003, 09:23 AM

as much as i love music, i'm happy to wait for official releases. the rampant urge to accumulate cd-rs strikes me first as commodity fetishism more than anything else.
i do think that in lieu of singles that mp3's are great, but that's only because i split the cable modem bill with my girlfriend. i'm still keeping my fingers crossed for a single (besides the dark wave import) for steve malkmus.
as for gbv, i'll likely order it next week, along with new pgmg, and then just sit tight. it sounds like it's worth waiting for after all.

cungar

06-30-2003, 11:43 AM

I just hope everyone discussing the CD right now plans on buying it when it comes out. I don't want to start a morality debate, but when a hard working artist like Bob works his ass off to make the kind of music we all bitch about NOT being on the radio, he deserves our dimes.

Plus how is some cheap CD-R gonna look on my stack of classic GBV cardboard covers?

It will be cardboard right?

bitterfruit

06-30-2003, 11:48 AM

Originally posted by cungar
I just hope everyone discussing the CD right now plans on buying it when it comes out. I don't want to start a morality debate, but when a hard working artist like Bob works his ass off to make the kind of music we all bitch about NOT being on the radio, he deserves our dimes.

Plus how is some cheap CD-R gonna look on my stack of classic GBV cardboard covers?

It will be cardboard right?

Pre-ordering makes me not feel bad about getting it ahead of time. And the need to get the music early could possibly be related to fanatic behavior over anything else. Possibly?

cungar

06-30-2003, 12:24 PM

If you have a chance to hear it early why not? This is the 3rd GBV CD in a row I've downloaded early and yes once again, by the time the CD comes out I will have played it 75 times or so. That still leaves me 100 or so plays with the real thing.

Jason

06-30-2003, 04:50 PM

When it comes to new GbV records, I'm like a girl and her virginity. I want everything to be right the first time.

No downloading for me. When I first hear the album, I want to put it on the turntable, lay on the couch with headphones on, and look at the cover.

I like reading these early impressions, though.

James Riot

06-30-2003, 05:03 PM

I downloaded it primarily because there was no way I could resist the temptation once I knew that it was available. But Earthquake Glue also feels like a summer CD and deserves to be listened to over the course of the summer. I'm sure Bob would agree with that philosophy as long as you plan to buy the original (I'm sure that if a new Who album was leaked on the net, Pollard would get someone to download it for him early). An August release is kind of unfortunate for a colourful power-pop album like this but I guess that GBV needed a break and Matador needed time to wind down UTAC. It's also great to download the album now because CD's always seems to be released a week or two before the band come by on tour to promote the album, and this gives you a chance to really sink your teeth into it for a maximum enjoyment of the live performance.

cungar

06-30-2003, 05:18 PM

My friend from New York refuses to listen to it even though I offered to send it to him. I don't understand the mystique of the release date. When I was a teenager, I would have killed to get the new Clash or Elvis Costello 2 months ahead of time. Plus I downloaded 192 kps MP3's which are pretty close to if not CD quality. The only thing I have to adjust for is that some songs segue into others (My Son, My Secretary, My Country into I'll replace you with machine). I can have my "virgin experience" a couple months early. And damn this CD sounds great cranked in a car.

Your comment about the Who CD might have been true 30 years ago but Bob's gone on record as saying The Who haven't done anything worth listening to since the mid 70's so I doubt he'd be excited about a new Townshend/Daltrey release.

bitterfruit

06-30-2003, 05:36 PM

Well, I'm like a coke whore when it comes to some things. This is one of them.

tinobeat

06-30-2003, 05:43 PM

For me its not so much the mystique of the release date as the mystique of having the whole package. I can't listen to music on the computer, it sounds like shit and it slows my machine down. I can burn CDs however, but a CDr for me is a like a cassette whose cover you lost, basically worthless.

the magic for getting a new album for me is getting the thing, unwrapping it, popping it in the CD player or on the turntable, and listening while I look at the cover art and get to know the record as a whole.

I also have no way of hitting the P2P networks, nor any real desire. when I *did* have access I'd download shitloads of music and then never listen to it, because it would never occur to me to go to my computer for music.

Its all about me and the stereo and the packaging, havin' a moment...

so yeah, I'll be psyched in August. patience is a virtue.

cungar

06-30-2003, 05:59 PM

I'll have all those things in August (cover, lyrics etc.). For right now, it's all about the music, and it's a glorious thing my friend. I don't know why but when I go through these GBV periods, I can't listen to anything else. Everything else either sounds too pompous or too childish. The music just hooks you.

bitterfruit

06-30-2003, 07:06 PM

Originally posted by Patrick
Some of the later tracks have unexpected rewards. "Secret Star" in particular has a glorious second part that starts halfway through and transforms the song - indeed a "secret" and a wonderful one.

Patrick

I don't really pay that much attention to tracklists in general, but I actually had to come back and look up what track 14 was after it caught my attention. You're right, "Secret Star" is great.

There are a number of "secret stars" on this album.

gee beer vee

07-01-2003, 01:14 AM

James: Waterloo Ontario? Whereabouts?
Did you make it to Buff Saturday?

James Riot

07-01-2003, 09:44 AM

You know Waterloo? I live in the Laurel Creek area just north of Columbia and Fischer-Hallman. Yeah I made it to Buffalo on Saturday. A great show, though I still haven't realized my ambition of talking with anyone from the band.

gee beer vee

07-01-2003, 09:57 AM

Yup, I'm a K-W native. Where do you hang out? Phil's? Abstract? K-W sucks, dontcha think? Well, W isn't so bad but there's nothing to do in K.

Did you like the show? Thought it was great. Got a poster fully signed after the show, too.

My brother lives off of Columbia. I'm there often.

I thought our little group was the only gbv diehards in Kay-Dub.

newspearmint

07-01-2003, 05:52 PM

what is the overall vibe of the new album? does it have those meloncholy type songs that i love so like twilight campfighter or christian animation torch carrirers or powerblessings? or is it more nutty? or is it all of these? how long is it, in minutes?
and what is the first single?

cungar

07-01-2003, 06:12 PM

It's mostly power chord rock with an emphasis on mood changes within songs. There's very few slow bits, about the only acoustic guitars you'll hear are in My Son, My Secretary, My Country. Lots of loud guitars and some different time signatures (Dirty Water and Dead Clouds). Definitely a get in your car and crank it type album. Then there's the prog rock stuff - Mix up the Satelites, Trophy Mule, Secret Star that are each about 3 or 4 songs in one.

If I had to put a mood on the album, I'd call it bold. Bob definitely sounds like he's confident and the band is stronger than ever. Lyrically, it's a puzzle as usual but I have some idea what Useless Inventions and She Goes off at Night are about/

Sid Hartha

07-02-2003, 12:22 PM

Standout tracks (after 5 listens):

Beat Your Wings
Dead Cloud
Trophy Mule
Secret Star
Mites & Men
Jill Hives
Dirty Water

Main Street Wizards is growin' on me.

RichT

07-02-2003, 06:02 PM

RE: Main Street Wizards

That keyboard break is VERY COOL. I think I love how un-GBV it is.

cungar

07-02-2003, 06:33 PM

But the "Still they are coming back to you" part is SO GBV!

bitterfruit

07-02-2003, 10:11 PM

How many GBV tunes employ horns?

brians

07-03-2003, 10:13 AM

You guys might have EQG early, but I got to see GBV live last week. I win ;-) I can't wait (though I will) for 8-19...

gelgis olowana

07-03-2003, 11:11 AM

Originally posted by bitterfruit
How many GBV tunes employ horns? Wings of (T)horn? (S)trumpet eye? Chicken blows?

cungar

07-03-2003, 12:10 PM

I don't hear horns on any of those. The intro to My Son, My Seretary, My Country is the first I can recall.

Scott Frost

07-03-2003, 03:57 PM

me thinks it was a joke:

Wings of (T) ... horn
(S)trumpet eye
Chicken blows

cle-rat

07-03-2003, 04:17 PM

There's that amazing cover of The Ides of March's "Vehicle" they do.

Or was that just a weird, weird dream?

cungar

07-04-2003, 10:39 AM

Originally posted by Scott Frost
me thinks it was a joke:

Wings of (T) ... horn
(S)trumpet eye
Chicken blows

Oh he he. Sorry. I also thought of Go Back Snowball's Radical Girl but I think those are sythesized horns and that's not GBV so...

Ladt

07-12-2003, 08:44 AM

Not synthesized, mac said so on the Superchunk message board, and you can't get much more cnfirmation than that.

gelgis olowana

07-12-2003, 11:45 PM

this album is un-freaking-believably great

Scott Frost

07-13-2003, 11:58 PM

true that Bob told people "My Kind of Soldier" is the best song he's ever written?

damn

cungar

07-14-2003, 12:40 AM

How many Buds did he say that after? I find it one of the weakest on the album.

Scott Frost

07-14-2003, 12:48 AM

Originally posted by cungar
How many Buds did he say that after? I find it one of the weakest on the album. 41

Scott Frost

07-14-2003, 09:27 PM

a brief sort-of review of Earthquake Glue by some guy in his blog appears here (http://newflux.blogspot.com/2003_06_29_newflux_archive.html) ....

Paul

07-14-2003, 10:05 PM

Some guy?! That's THE BEEBS!

Scott Frost

07-14-2003, 10:25 PM

Originally posted by Paul
Some guy?! That's THE BEEBS! ?

Patrick

07-14-2003, 11:31 PM

The legendary the bbc

Patrick

portablefire

07-22-2003, 10:41 AM

there's a review here:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS805121302&sql=A4sd8vwrqa9yk

James Riot

07-22-2003, 10:57 AM

Wow, Allmusic.com likes Earthquake Glue. They usually don't rate GBV albums very well because their primary basis for rating music seems to be how consistent the work is. Is this a sign of reviews to follow? The only problem I have with it is when it says that it will be the closest thing to a masterful album that GBV will do. Who the hell are they to say? But they are correct in saying that Earthquake Glue is a good album in terms of satisfying old fans, and attracting new ones.

Ladt

07-22-2003, 02:38 PM

My main problem is it doesn't actually talk about the meat of the music. All that review told me was that it was good, not what the actual album is like, which, I dunno I'd just like a bit more information as I've not heard it .

bitterfruit

07-22-2003, 03:07 PM

Originally posted by Ladt
My main problem is it doesn't actually talk about the meat of the music. All that review told me was that it was good, not what the actual album is like, which, I dunno I'd just like a bit more information as I've not heard it .

The Pitchfork know-it-alls will be sure to tell us what's wrong with EG and why it's so wrong to make out with young girls. If anything, Pollard, Pete Townshend, and Roman Polanski just knows where it's at.

James Riot

07-22-2003, 03:18 PM

They might point out what's wrong with it, but I'm betting that Pitchfork will like it, and even liking it enough to give it a rating somewhere in the range of Mag Earwhig (8.0). I wouldn't even be surprised if they gave their highest ever GBV rating; it's solid and weird enough for them to stand behind, two things that they have criticized recent albums for. But then again you never can tell what those guys are gonna think.

cungar

07-22-2003, 04:17 PM

Originally posted by bitterfruit
The Pitchfork know-it-alls will be sure to tell us what's wrong with EG and why it's so wrong to make out with young girls. If anything, Pollard, Pete Townshend, and Roman Polanski just knows where it's at.

Uh, I'll bite. There's a huge difference between a 23 year old (Pollard's girlfriend) and a 12 year old (Polanski's girlfriend). I don't know if you'd think Polanski "knew where it was at" if that was your 12 year old daughter. I hope you were kidding.

R.Wilder

07-22-2003, 05:24 PM

Polanski raped the teenage girl, too. Read the girl's deposition on "Smoking Gun," it's pretty harrowing.

Uncle Bob should not be mentioned in the same breath as swine like Polanski (who is a great filmmaker ---one cannot deny the brillance of "Chinatown" but, again, don't talk about his sexual proclivities with Pop Bob)

Kameek N Deesha

07-23-2003, 07:31 AM

""""cungar
*** Insane Poster
Your comment about the Who CD might have been true 30 years ago but Bob's gone on record as saying The Who haven't done anything worth listening to since the mid 70's so I doubt he'd be excited about a new Townshend/Daltrey release.""""

Um, those records *were* released 30 years ago... the comment makes perfect sense, and Pollard owes Pete Townsend about 95% of his paychecks... GBV is still a good band though. And "Earthquake Glue" is a brilliant title.

Scott Frost

07-23-2003, 10:36 AM

another sort of mini-review here, not much to it ... http://www.surfinggirl.com/mindcandy/gvb/

cungar

07-23-2003, 11:30 AM

Originally posted by Kameek N Deesha
Um, those records *were* released 30 years ago... the comment makes perfect sense, and Pollard owes Pete Townsend about 95% of his paychecks... GBV is still a good band though. And "Earthquake Glue" is a brilliant title.

I'm not sure what the source of any disagreement is. Except that I'd say Bob owes 50% of his paychecks to Pete, 15% to Genesis with Peter Gabriel, 20% to late 60's garage rock bands and 15% to 80's power pop bands.

Ladt

07-23-2003, 03:22 PM

I'd say he owes a lot to the beatles, pretty obvious really. There's that bit in Underwater explosions I think it's the "Keeps em so clean " bit which really reminds me of mean mr mustard on Abbey Road.