Would you rather -- music edition

I saw the Supersuckers open for The Rev. Horton Heat in 2011, and they rocked our faces off.

 

I never saw Cowboy Mouth but their live shows were legendary. That' a big help if you're going to stretch out that career.

 

True. They have that reputation and their live shows are unique. They literally play for about 90 minutes straight -- not a normal set, with even 15-20 seconds between songs, but one song bleeding into the next so that it's like one long song. Sometimes it gets weird. I went to one of their shows a few months ago and at one point they weaved in and out of three different covers while framing it around one of their own songs.
Anyway, it's a reputation and a gimmick that probably does give them some drawing power.

 

I saw an opening act do the bleeding-together thing once and thought it was kind of brilliant. Phantom Planet opened for Elvis Costello and ran about 8 songs together without stopping. They were very good, but in a theater that's still half-empty the reception probably would have sounded pretty weak after each song.

 

So many stages and phases. Ray Davies is amazing.

I need to go pull out "Low Budget" and put it on. Loved that album, even if I got *really* tired of "Superman".

 

Yo La Tengo and the Feelies covering Velvet Underground and The Modern Lovers (sound quality is shit)

 

Maybe somebody more in tune with hip hop and rap can help me make sense of this: any time I read about the latest hip hop or rap sensation in Rolling Stone (not talking about artists as prominent as Jay-Z or Drake) they all seem to be boasting about owning a dozen luxury cars and buying massive mansions and tons of expensive jewelry. Nobody sells records anymore and few rap and hip hop artists sell out stadiums. I'm curious, where does the money come from? Established rock bands tour incessantly to make money these days.

 

On the theme of bands playing state fairs and lounges long after their sell-by-dates.

The Feelies at the Hoboken Art & Music Festival in 2013. Cut to the end to get the full effect.

 

I love this cut. I've seen them do it live. They don't even make a comment about the obvious lift of the melody, because it's unnecessary. Basically, everyone just keeps playing the same song with the exception of a few vocal flourishes once they slip into "Good Lovin'". Good stuff. I assume everyone knows that Los Lobos did the music for the "La Bamba" movie, including the single, but I'll note it just in case. It was a few years back, after all, and some of y'all are young'uns.