The Lute responds: http://www.idolator.com/tunes/sting...ou-an-open-letter-from-stings-lute-226317.php
Nicely played. Actually "Sting's Lute" is going to become my new euphemism of choice. It also sounds like a great Ron Burgundy exclamation: "Great Sting's Lute!"
Steward Copeland speaks. I have no idea when this interview was recorded, but it's kinda funny. It seems like his blood system generates his own caffeine. Via Stereogum.
Meh, I saw Nirvana a couple of times in like '89-'90 or so and didnt think they were anything special, sort of a cheap imitation of many many better bands that came before them. The fact that they broke in '91 and made the cool alternative 80's sound mainstream really only did one thing: it divided the music going world into two camps, those of people who liked good music before Nirvana, and those that jumped on the Nirvana bandwagon afterwards and claim them as the beginning of their everything, propogated soon afterwards by the likes of Pearl Jam and Soungarden, etc. It makes me laugh, because what was going on in the previous 10 or so years before Nirvana broke was so much more important than anything nirvana did. The Police? Yeah I'd totally go see them, as I saw the Pixies a couple of summers ago and Dinosaur Jr recently. To me that's the important stuff, not the ramble on poser crap of Nirvana that's remembered with such reverence today by people who so deserately want "cred" but who really just have no idea.. (yeah im a crotchety bastard, to which I say...YEAH? AND??)
Police headlining Coachella? Pre-sale Coachella tickets are now on sale, and the password is ROXANNE.
I can't think of any definition of "credibility" whatsoever that would favor The Police over Nirvana. I saw that Pixies tour, too, and it was great.
A surprise Grammy performance, but no Coachella... major US tour set to be announced though... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,248040,00.html
I can. The definition that involves being more competent musicians. I'll say up front that I liked Nirvana, don't care one bit about being one of the "cool" people who was there when some little local/regional band did it first in some tiny club, but they simply were not players on the level of Sting, let alone Andy or Stewart. Most rockers aren't. I think I could trust any of the Police on a jazz gig- I'd never be able to say the same about Nirvana, the Pixies, or any number of rock musicians out there selling albums that display precious little mastery of the fingerboard.
Cobain and Novoselic were serviceable guitarists, but Dave Grohl is an outstanding drummer (and not a terrible guitarist, either).
I agree completely, but "serviceable" doesn't cut it outside of rock. Cobain wrote some great songs, at least as the genre goes, but he wasn't fit to string Andy Summers' guitar. And I don't consider Andy anywhere close to the level of a George Benson (check his Blue Note stuff, not the crap that made him famous), Pat Metheny or Wes Montgomery. Those are true musicians with the only credibility that matters- chops and the sense of when to use them. I'd always thought of Novoselic as a bassist, because that's what I always saw him playing with Nirvana. Sting's no technical monster, but he plays well enough to match Krist. Grohl's good, but Stewart wins that one every day of the week and twice on Sunday. He is the best ALWAYS tasteful (which excludes Appice, Peart, Van Halen, Colaiuta, and Simon Phillips) drummer in rock history. Nirvana was a great rock band. It's pointless to discuss rock credibility, because rock requires so little real talent. But if we must, I'd give the Police the nod because they more closely approach the talent level required to play serious music.
We could argue until the cows come home about how genuine of a threat Nirvana really posed, their major label status, etc., but when it comes right down to it, they made violent noise. They made older people uncomfortable. There was genuine rebellion and subversion there. I hear the Police in the friggin' grocery store.
A bit of side topic-I really like the Pixies, but I can't really tell if they're good musicians or bad musicians. Help?
They're good in the sense that they don't "overplay" a song, but I doubt anyone would really consider Dave Loverling or Kim Deal (who famously makes many, many mistakes onstage) to be especially amazing. Black Francis's strength is in making wonderful, unique songs with basic chords. Joey Santiago, on the other hand, is one of the great underrated guitarists of our time. He's great for the same reason that Andy Summers and Robert Quine were great: instead of relying on flashy solos, Santiago uses the full range of the guitar to add texture to the song. His greatness lies in how he thinks about a song.
Why does any of that matter? We're adults, not silly kids judging music on the basis of who finds it offensive. When I want to make someone feel uncomfortable, I'll move next door to them.
Because it's an essential characteristic of rock music. Rock is for the kids. The kids need it--it channels their sexual energy, anger, frustration, idealism, and desire to scream and yell and fuck shit up. The original poster argued that Nirvana consisted of a bunch of milquetoasts who made watered-down alterna-rock for the masses. No, they weren't. When I think of the Police, I think of that "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" video in which the cr-r-azy guys in the Police are switching their hats around and doing a goofy dance. And to think that, the entire time, Sting was up to his eyeballs in cocaine! I'll concede your point about tasteful musicianship, though. There's no question re: the band's talent and style.
You think of the video for a single that was the one relatively light track on a politically serious album and you don't think of Nirvana breaking through with a video that was at least as cheezy for 1991 as that was for 1981?
I didn't want to hit below the belt and mention "Spirits in the Material World" (as awful a song as has ever been written), or the mispronounciation of "Nabokov," or the new-and-improved version of "Don't Stand So Close to Me."
I didn't think it was that bad, really. Maybe the lyrics, yes, but the music wasn't horrible. It is the worst song on the CD, tho. I like "Every Little Thing", "Omegaman" and "Darkness" best from Ghost. Sting's English. If you play Winning Eleven, you'll hear a lot of non-Anglo names getting butchered. The Police owed A&M an album, and that's how they got it done. I doubt anyone takes that revision seriously.
As much as I really really want them to keep it simple, you just know that they're going to end up doing some Sting-ified version of a classic and ruining the whole damn thing.
Sting hits the Roxanne notes about as well as Robert Plant can recreate the sound of Zepplin. Oh well, they sounded good enough for me to go see them if they are nearby.