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Oh Oinkers (Bar 17 link and now with reviews)


scottieking

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I have this friend. He's a first class top rate harmonica player. Then, inexplicably, he decided he was going to focus on two things, songwriting/singing. While he is a decent songwriter, he lacks the natural talent and brillance that he used to bring to the harp (he doesn't even play anymore)

Trey Anatasio seems to suffer from the same ailment. And while I would never, ever, begrudge anyone their happiness, it always amazes me when they fail to see that the path they pursuing is clearly one that pales in comparison to their earlier genius.

The album has some nice guitar playing, but overall suffers from fairly weak songwriting. The lyrics fail to inspire, the vocal presentation varies from soft to downright weak and the compositions, while ultimately being more complex than Shine's drivel, still lack any real hook. Some like Dragonfly have even lost any momentum that they gain live by a slowing of the tempo and lack of "jam" development.

It's tough being an aging rocker, let alone an aging solo rocker. On a Trey solo scale, with first album scoring an 8, Shine scoring a 2, the most I can give this one is 5, and unfortunately, that's mostly due to the inclusion of Bennevento, Russo, Gordon and others.

Serves me right for listening to Deer Creek 2003 right before this came out I guess.......

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i only checked the four tracks as well, and i doubt they album will be much better....

however, "Trey Anastasio Band" Self Titled release was fantastic....

I'm very happy that my remaining memories of Trey are at Red Rocks, listening to him bust out amazing versions of Last Tube and Windora Bug.

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I think it was in Relix or www.jambands.com that I read a review of the new album and it concluded with something along the lines of "this effort shows the emperor is ready to reclaim his throne"

I think if Trey wants to reclaim his throne he needs to regroup Phish, or even TAB with the full on horn section and just stick with it. Give us the live jams we wanna get down to!

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I think it was in Relix or www.jambands.com that I read a review of the new album and it concluded with something along the lines of "this effort shows the emperor is ready to reclaim his throne"

I think if Trey wants to reclaim his throne he needs to regroup Phish, or even TAB with the full on horn section and just stick with it. Give us the live jams we wanna get down to!

Yes, that bullshit was in Relix.

Also, WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH THE STRINGS IN GOODBYE HEAD?!

That song gets all zappa-ish, and he ruined it with Phil Specter's production tip # 3 "Adding Strings will make everything better". blech.

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It's official.

I like 18 Steps more than I like Bar 17.

I don't get it. How is the bonus disc the better album? Is it ike an in-joke?

The playing is better, the production is more sparse and less cluttered.

Warning: Trey's singing on the first track is enough to push stop.

Push through. Track 2 and 3 are quite enjoyable. I've always liked Discern and this version is outstanding.

Warning 2: Still contains unnecesary horns and strings throughout.

The last two tracks are really, really nice acoustic tunes.

Baffling....6.5 for Step 18.

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