Lucky Pineapple – The Bubble Has Burst in Sky City (Noise Pollution) 2008. This represents the last of the Noise Pollution Louisville releases (at least for this go around). Let me be completely up-front here. Lucky Pineapple has a terrible name. Just terrible. Reminds me of the late 60′s psych band Ultimate Spinach and that is definitely not a good thing. Like Ultimate Spinach, Lucky Pineapple are prog in their aspirations. However, unlike Ultimate Spinach who sucked, Lucky Pineapple is amazingly good. Really there is very little in common between Lucky Pineapple and Ultimate Spinach other than the names. The most obvious comparison I can make is probably to Zappa. Like kinda if Zappa was in Slint and they went vacationing in the Peruvian Andes and then came back and recorded an album immediately. See, my number one complaint about prog and prog-like dreck like math rock is that it is boring as fuck. I rented a Tortoise album once from the library and it nearly killed me. I have the scars to prove it. But Lucky Pineapple is really fun and entertaining and surprising. This is a really great album and it throws in a lot of disparate elements together while being totally engaging. I have been playing it frequently while doing work late at night. It keeps me awake and entertained. Now, if only they could change the name.
Hardcore Podcasts
September of 2010 I put together eight Hardcore Podcasts. You can check them out here if you are interested. For more insight into how I came up with the years 78-90 for the First Wave you can read about The Hardcore Superiorty Myth.
Hey, Ultimate Spinach’s song “(Ballad Of A) Hip Death Goddess” is amazing! One of my all-time favourites.
Aside from that though, you’re right, their name and just about everything else they did was… not very good really.
I will give Lucky Pineapple a listen this evening – sounds interesting.
I pretty much agree with your take on prog, Joe. For a good laugh, take a look at the Emerson, Lake, & Palmer footage from the Ramones documentary “End Of The Century”. I mean, really — what the fuck is that piece of gear he’s trying to play!?!
Ben — i remember there being one track on that Ultimate Spinach LP I liked and I bet it was that one. The rest was utter dreck.
Scott — ELP is so outside of anything I can conceive of as entertainment that I think I just closed my eyes in horror at that moment in End of the Century
The one truly sad thing re: prog is that, by and large, the people playing it are really great musicians (from a technical standpoint). Bill Bruford (King Crimson/Earthworks) had a great quote that I’ll paraphrase: “King Crimson may be the only gig in the world where you can get away with playing in 16/18 and can still afford to stay in a decent hotel on the road.” I mean, sure Mr. Buford, you’re a drummer that can play in 7′s. But why? It’s just kind of masturbatory if you ask me.
I’ve had arguments with proggers over the years about this. They’ll diss the Ramones for playing in 4/4 for 30 years, and then I’ll stun them by saying “So did John Coltrane”.
If you like something this odd, yet more straightforward and definitely NOT suckage, find “Intoxicated Birthday Lies” by a fantastic band with a stupid name: SHOEGAZER. They definitely do NOT shoegaze. They are blistering hardcore punk with screamed/ranted vocals, done in the GODDAMNEDEST time signatures I have heard a punk band use. It sounds great to the casual ear, yet if you do one simple thing – count the beats – your jaw drops. Whatever possesses them to use 3, 5, 7 and 4 time mixed together in the same songs? I took my buddy Mike Livingston (Mau Mau’s) to see them play one night about 10 years ago, and Mike said afterward: “Reminds me of live Black Flag.” Yep: fast, blistering and INTENSE.
cheers
ShitEd (ex-Flipside fanzine)