Yesterday, as I was playing "Baltimore" on my guitar, croaking along with it, I suddenly realized that in my opinion, "Baltimore" it's somehow perfect. It may well not be JD's best song, but still it's a perfect, well, pop song. You know, it is short, but not too short, it's got a nice, memorable hookline, a singable chorus, it's melancholic, but not too melancholic, it has a balanced use of the instruments, it sticks in your head without being cheesy or simple or dumb, you know what I mean?

It's the same with Weezer's "Hash Pipe". I think that's also a perfect song for its genre. There may be better Weezer songs, but this one's just perfectly crafted, perfectly balanced. "Buddy Holly", the Weezer song, is a bit too long, has a bit too much solo.

And the first Strokes album is full of such songs. I don't think they're the future of rock, as they were called back then, I don't even think made rock as in punk rock or in garage rock, but those songs are just perfect guitar pop songs.

And now I stumbled upon "Baltimore" again and must say, yes, it's a perfect song. While "No Children" is a bigger hit, it has this instrumental part that's totally cool (and even totally beautiful), but also a bit too much "complexity".

So, I hope you understand what I mean, I just needed to tell someone. Ah, oh, yes, and please discuss!

Cheers, Doc



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2012 08:26AM by Doc Sanchez.

It's not even the best song called "Baltimore". But it's certainly better than that Smalkmus & the Jicks track. I dig it.As someone from the Baltimore area I prefer "Going To Maryland".

Despite the wonky production, it's a gem. Just the right amount of melancholy. Bruno's instrumentation is top-notch. JD's vocals are really spectacular: "will you hold on while I catch my breath? / listen".

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do I have to hit you over the head with it?
nigelewan.com · last.fm

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robertjohnson
It's not even the best song called "Baltimore". But it's certainly better than that Smalkmus & the Jicks track. I dig it.As someone from the Baltimore area I prefer "Going To Maryland".

So what's the best "Baltimore"?

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I've got big plans. ◊ Talking Blanket ◊ Yay, Butts! LOL!

I love "Baltimore". It's one of my all-time favourite JD songs, and I think Martial Arts Weekend is the best album he has crafted thus far. (Though my judgment might admittedly be coloured by the context in which I first listened to the album.)

Still not entirely sure what it's about, though.

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Why's everyone in this thread a f***ing Mountain Goats fan?!

Kirkeby Kritikk • Kvitter

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EvilEivind
I think Martial Arts Weekend is the best album he has crafted thus far.

Bold claim!

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EvilEivind
(Though my judgment might admittedly be coloured by the context in which I first listened to the album.)

I'd love to hear what the context was.

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I've got big plans. ◊ Talking Blanket ◊ Yay, Butts! LOL!

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nigel
Despite the wonky production, it's a gem. Just the right amount of melancholy. Bruno's instrumentation is top-notch. JD's vocals are really spectacular: "will you hold on while I catch my breath? / listen".

Wonky? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

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[www.last.fm]

i have this really neat thing where i am so totally deaf to production quality. i just dont understand good from bad or the difference or anything. so when people say something like this has wonky production i feel strangely grateful because i dont even take things like that into account.
useful when listening, paiiiinful when recording.
so... wonky? how so? anyone else agree?

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myopic mirror

Wonky? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

I hope that was a Wurster-Best Show "whaaaaaat"

As for the production--my take on its "wonkiness" is how different the arrangement is from most of tMG* (even the studio work, though this predates that). It does seem like it could fit on one of Franklin's solo records, which makes sense as it was recorded by Bob Durkee, who recorded most of FJB's eponymous work. It also strikes me that it seems like an odd choice to make the lead guitar electric. Rather than giving FJB's piano an occasional filling role, perhaps it should have been given the lead line, and the electric guitar could have been given some of the background riffs? Anyway, those are just my opinions.




*Which is what makes it tEG/L, of course. (See JD's old "more than three chords or with a bridge" comment)

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shlack

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myopic mirror

Wonky? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

I hope that was a Wurster-Best Show "whaaaaaat"

You bet your bathroom area it was. I think your wonky points are slightly valid, I just think it sounds full and nice. I was confused at the initial mentioning; as all of "Martial" sounds very pleasant to me.

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[www.last.fm]

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myopic mirror
You bet your bathroom area it was.

Immediately adopting this into my vocabulary.

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justindaley.bandcamp.com
feearsofthemammoth.bandcamp.com

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myopic mirror
Wonky? Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

Don't you mean, "Eeeeeeh?!"

Definitely wouldn't say it's wonky. Other than "Memories", which has some... crinkling? Distortion? Not sure what the right word is. Like when you record into a microphone with the levels set too high, and sing a bit too loudly, or hit notes it can't quite cope with. That's pretty wonky. Other than that, I'd say it's a wonk-free album.

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Why's everyone in this thread a f***ing Mountain Goats fan?!

Kirkeby Kritikk • Kvitter

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dollabill

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robertjohnson
It's not even the best song called "Baltimore". But it's certainly better than that Smalkmus & the Jicks track. I dig it.As someone from the Baltimore area I prefer "Going To Maryland".

So what's the best "Baltimore"?

not a rick roll

from 1973

[www.youtube.com]

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clams on the half shell and roller skates; roller skates.

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mike10k

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dollabill

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robertjohnson
It's not even the best song called "Baltimore". But it's certainly better than that Smalkmus & the Jicks track. I dig it.As someone from the Baltimore area I prefer "Going To Maryland".

So what's the best "Baltimore"?

not a rick roll

from 1973

[www.youtube.com]

I thought you were going to post this song. From 1977

[www.youtube.com]

Beat up little seagull
On a marble stair
Tryin' to find the ocean
Lookin' everywhere

Hard times in the city
In a hard town by the sea
Ain't nowhere to run to
There ain't nothin' here for free

Hooker on the corner
Waitin' for a train
Drunk lyin' on the sidewalk
Sleepin' in the rain

And they hide their faces
And they hide their eyes
Cause the city's dyin'
And they don't know why

Oh Baltimore
Man it's hard just to live

Beautiful. Although, regardless of what it sounds like and what songmeanings says, I believe the lyric might be "man it's hard, just a little."



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/2012 10:19AM by trurl.

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EvilEivind
"Memories"

I LOVE their version of "Memories"! As a huge Cohen fan, I always hated what Spector had done to him on Death of a Ladies' Man, and then along came those two guys with their, well, wonky ( ) version of it, and I instantly loved their passion, combined with their well-read and knowing kind of "dilettantism" (in lack of a better word for "Can we do it? Don't care, fuck it, let's DO it!" Is is "punkrock"? Maybe). And then I got back to Cohen's version and started to love it, too. But tEG's version is much, much better.

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Doc Sanchez

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EvilEivind
"Memories"

I LOVE their version of "Memories"!

I used to really like it too - it sounds more like a Leonard Cohen song than the original version does - but once I noticed the recording / engineering mistake, it was sort of ruined for me. So now I normally skip it.

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Why's everyone in this thread a f***ing Mountain Goats fan?!

Kirkeby Kritikk • Kvitter

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EvilEivind

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Doc Sanchez

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EvilEivind
"Memories"

I LOVE their version of "Memories"!

I used to really like it too - it sounds more like a Leonard Cohen song than the original version does - but once I noticed the recording / engineering mistake, it was sort of ruined for me. So now I normally skip it.

I will (I MUST) keep on ignoring it. And anyway, from time to time I like it when the sound is a little bit overdriven, as long as it's done while recording, and not while pressing the vinyl, like on the new Extra Lens...

Seriously, what is wrong with me?
i am just not hearing what you guys are hearing.

This is a socially frustrating blessing.

(Layladarling, don't tell Eivind, but I can't hear it either. Or don't want to, but that makes no difference.)

your secret's safe with me



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2012 12:46PM by layladarling.

Its a decent song. but on that album I'd rather listen to all rooms cable, someone else's parking lot, going to michigan, going to marrakech and ambivalent seascape y before baltimore. and I'm not even a massive fan of the album!

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[kidsteel.bandcamp.com]

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Zopilote Steel
Its a decent song. but on that album I'd rather listen to all rooms cable, someone else's parking lot, going to michigan, going to marrakech and ambivalent seascape y before baltimore. and I'm not even a massive fan of the album!

I guess the thing with what I call "a perfect pop song" is that you don't have to like it, it even doesn't have to be good, you know what I mean? It has just the perfect measures in some way. This could even make the song boring, if it wasn't this tiny bit too charming.

I still haven't figured out yet, what makes a song "a perfect pop song" for me, except that most of my favourite songs are far from being that (like "No Children", where the outro is far too long to be "perfect", but I so love the piano figure in it and would never want to miss it. My favourite Cohen song, "Night Comes On", that's far too long to fit in that category, and is, speaking of it's structure, too boring (but still GREAT)).

Sanchez, i'm with you. Baltimore is probably my 2nd most listened to TMG song ever (behind Against Pollution) and i never really deconstructed it in my mind like that before