Nobody saw this coming

[UnseenParticipant]

I occasionally chastise reactors to TW when they refer to them in terms like “a girl group/band,” “a chick band,” or some such. I tell them that TW is a rock band, not a band with any sort of qualifiers or asterisk needed. They are not good “for girls.” They can hold their own against any band when it comes to stage presence, big sound, and good songs.

I heard most of the great guitar bands of the 60’s and 70’s including The Beatles and Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix (a trio), and Cream (another trio), and TW has a bigger sound and puts on a better, more entertaining show. They are right up there with The Stones and Jimi Hendrix when it comes to stage presence. (It’s hard to top The Who, though, LOL)

[DavisModerator]

I agree, there is a window, say 1 or 2 pints where it can be easier to understand, but once you get past three and especially past 6, I find the slurred speech and reverting to local dialect makes it pretty tough to understand. Following a drunk man in a bar in Glasgow (or in my experience in a Pub in county Kerry) was so impossible I just nodded and laughed when they laughed.

I was in Belfast just seven weeks ago which was a glorious trip. I could live off of soda bread and potato bread and bacon/egg baps for breakfast for months.

• This reply was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by  Davis.

[Simon PayntonParticipant]

Unseen wrote:

the classic scottish brogue as epitomized by Sean Connery (more off screen than on)

There are many Scottish accents.  To me, Sean Connery sounds a bit American and English as well as Scottish.  But then, American itself sounds a bit Scottish and Irish, and maybe Old English / West Country English.

[UnseenParticipant]

Simon Paynton wrote:

There are many Scottish accents.  To me, Sean Connery sounds a bit American and English as well as Scottish.  But then, American itself sounds a bit Scottish and Irish, and maybe Old English / West Country English.

The closest contemporary analog to Elizabethan English is thought to be spoken on N. Carolina’s Ocracote Island, according to the BBC.

• This reply was modified 11 months, 2 weeks ago by  Unseen.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

LOL, captions help me feel better when they don’t come out right, neither.

[UnseenParticipant]

OMG another live concert by the best rock band since the days of the Stones and The Who. The audio is remarkably good, just shy of Teatro Metropolitan 2022.

Fresh from Shiprocked 2024 (Miami, FL), it’s just a few days old. Enjoy 45+ minutes of The Warning, a band that delivers.

BTW, I LOVE it that they show up to play in street clothes any girl their age might wear to the mall or out on a light date. Very garage band/grunge.

An example of their use of augmentative tracks is in the “Whoa-oo-00” part of Enter Sandman. The voice is there but no one on stage is singing it.

 

[UnseenParticipant]

To truly understand the importance and specialness of The Warning, you need to realize that while they are not the most technically adept band (Japan is crawling with bands playing at astronomical levels of musicianship, and then there’s Rush), I would say that no band EVER—not even The Beatles—were as good at writing memorable, singable, and hummable songs.

And that they accomplish this in a trio format is almost miraculous. They manage to have both a recognizable BIG sound and to write tunes so distinct that it’s impossible to say this one sounds an awful lot like that one.

In TW’s mature period, which they are in now, and I would say starting approximately with their Queen of the Murder Scene album, every single song they have written is memorable and worth a listen and is being sung or hummed by someone as they go about their daily  duties.

The Beatles have a great canon, but as time went by, how much was really “original Beatles” and how much was George Martin? TW does collaborate with outsiders, but not always the same ones and alway, I’m sure, based on their own ideas.

And The Warning is probably just getting started. The oldest of the sisters is only 24 (just turned last month) and the youngest, Alejandra, just turned 19. I have little doubt the day will come, probably well after I’m gone, that they’ll be inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

[UnseenParticipant]

Never thought I’d hear TW doing an AC/DC cover, but here you go…

[UnseenParticipant]

I wonder if Dany can lick her eyebrows with her tongue, too?

[UnseenParticipant]

Experienced rock musician answers the question “Is The Warning worth the hype?” and also makes some observations on women in rock (not mansplaining at all). He does have one criticism of a sort in that he wishes to hear a guitar solo. I’ll explain to him why that’s a vain hope. This band plays for fans not other musicians.

[UnseenParticipant]

I have said that watching someone who has no idea what they are in for discover The Warning is like being present when someone has their first orgasm and seeing their whole world change in front of your eyes. Now and then, I’ll stumble on a music reactor listening to a TW tune not knowing what to expect and not expecting much. Here is a recent good one:

[PopeBeanieModerator]

We’ve both said we like the skeptical reactors who seem surprised when they finally listen after being pestered by commenters. I’m slightly disappointed in the reactor’s video above, because of the spoilers he drops in the beginning, including a preview from what he’s about to play in full. I would have skipped the first four minutes to here, for anyone interested in skipping the spoilers. But to be honest, even then, I have trouble telling how much of his reaction is an act, especially since he mentioned that he already watched the live version of the song. Maybe this wasn’t really his first orgasm? 🙂

I’ve been adding to a playlist I call “converted”, or something like that. It’s for skeptical reactors who begrudgingly listen to a second song, and are then jumping into the rabbit hole. I’ve gotten the impression that part of their initial resistance comes from all the hype they see from superfans of TW. I know that feeling, and have personally resisted hyped up bands. I think that’s why I never even tried to see what Rush was all about. In fact, I even resisted Led Zeppelin, and other great bands because of the hype. (I’ve learned from some of these mistakes!)

So here’s an example of a convert who downplayed the first TW song he listened to. My link skips to the end of his reaction, and then we see his conversion in the second song he watched. (And it’s Choke, which I’ve seen most people say they’re awestruck by.)

Second song, making him a fan, diving into the rabbit hole:

[UnseenParticipant]

@ PopeBeanie

Or maybe the reactor I presented wasn’t convinced by the live performance he had already seen and maybe he’s someone who’s more swayed by official studio videos than live videos (I’m the opposite). It seems to me that he finally got it in the official video he is reacting to.

I’m a little reminded of a situation from my photography days. I had three girls in the location at the same time and it often happened that when they talked among themselves, they’d forget I was within earshot. Somehow, the conversation got around to orgasms and one of the girls said she didn’t know if she’d ever had one. The other two looked at each other and said virtually in unison “You haven’t had one.”

The point is, there comes a moment when something dawns on one. This is new. This is excellent. This is changing my world. That may have been the case in my example.

I can still remember my first hearing of The Warning. It was through Phil of the Wings of Pegasus channel in which a rock guitarist comments on other musicians and bands, not so much songs, though of course songs are used as examples of points he’s making. Here is the exact video that converted me because they were already so excellent I started a quest to learn all about them:

 

[UnseenParticipant]

A fairly good semipro recording with decent audio of TW playing Hell You Call A Dream.

[UnseenParticipant]

The Warning is, I maintain, the best songwriting band to come along since The Beatles, and may in some ways be even better than The Beatles in terms of rock and roll, because at some point in TB’s career arc, they largely abandoned rock and roll to create songs in other genres as well as songs that defy any sort of categorization. Clearly, Eleanor Rigby is not a rock song. It’s hard to wedge even Norwegian Wood into the rock category. Now and then, they’d return with a true rock song like Back in the USSR, but in the interim there’s stuff like Hey Jude, She’s Leaving  Home, and then WTF is A Day in the Life?

In fact, TB may have written more bad songs than good. Look at this ranking. Now, they rank the tunes without regard to whether or not they are truly rock (A Day in the Life is their #1). You will find many songs you’ve never heard of and you’ll find, I wager, that if you listen to them, it’s because they range from forgettable to terrible.

By contrast, starting with the Queen of the Murder Scene album, you’d be hard pressed to find even one truly ho-hum song, and since that album every single song has been well worth an enjoyable listen. Of course, you’ll like this song rather than that one and you’ll have favorites (for me, 23 and Martirio), but there isn’t one single song any reasonable rock lover would call a stinker. By contrast, TB put out tons of stinkers.

TW is basically a three-person songwriter. The band is simply a vehicle for presenting their material. They aren’t there to show off their musicianship, even though it’s getting recognized. That’s why Dany and Pau don’t take five-minute long self-indulgent solos to show off for other musicians. I’m sure Dany and Pau could, but TW isn’t that sort of band. They don’t want to be Cream or Rush.

Here, a performing musician and composer analyzes The Warning’s advancing songwriting skills:

One thing he doesn’t mention or maybe doesn’t know is that TW occasionally collaborates with others on songs. That is happening even more now that they have signed with Lava Records and a Lava producer is involved.

But, unlike TB where often one had to ask “Is this The Beatles or George Martin?” I think we can depend on outsiders doing little more than offering ideas and alternatives to these three talented girls’ original ideas. Their contract with Lava gives them nearly full artistic control. They know their fans and they know what will fly with them, and so I expect their output to do nothing but improve as time goes by.

[Author]

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