The Bad Plus' "Lithium"
 

The new Bad Plus (I'm a big fan) album is really good. Their first with a vocalist collab (which I'm normally not into vocal jazz much) but it seems to work most of the time. Anyway, it opens with a cover of "Lithium" that has this really effing weird tempo shift throughout the verse parts. At first it's kind of jarring (because you know the song) but after 2 or 3 listens it really REALLY works. Anyone hear it?

No, I've just heard the Polyphonic Spree cover of Lithium.

This band is six kinds of lame.

i've heard the cover of Lithium and it sounded interesting.

What exactly are you basing yr opinion on?

Agreed.

what the fuck?

I guess I should stop liking them if you guys say they're lame. Hey, know any good bands who only put out 9 copies of their album on cassettes that you have to play in a 16-track in order to hear it correctly?

Hey, man. I might seem like an indie fuck but I assure you, I am.

haha, out of curiosity, what are the six different kinds of lame that The Bad Plus is?

sometimes when jazz musicians play rock it can sound too precious. the bad plus do this sometimes.

not always tho. the lithium cover is really good. im thinking about getting this cd.

noisereductions have you read the bad plus blog?

thebadplus.typepad.com/

its mainly the piano player but i always read it. hes a fucking good writer. the milton babbit cover on the new one is real good too by the way.

NO! I never knew about the blog. Thanks! The "Lithium" cover kicks the shit outta their "Teen Spirit" cover. Though, I wouldn't hate it if they released an instrumental version of the new LP. Maybe a live instrumental version so that it's sliiiightly diff arrangements. The Wilco cover on the new one blows me away, though. Some great stuff on here, even if it's not my fav of their records.

cool. yeah ill get it in a minute i think. the singer apparently isnt even a jazz singer. she sang in a bunch of rock bands in minneapolis or somewhere before doing this.

the blog is awesome. a fair amount of pop culture stuff but also some serious serious critical writing on jazz and other things. hes been doing it for several years now so there is a ton of archives stuff for you to dig thru.

yeh, they chose her because she's not a jazz vocalist. They wanted someone to pretty much sing the harmonies "straight up" so they all the improvising would be them around her "standard" approach.

My opinion is based on having heard far too much of their tepid jazz-for-people-who-don't-really-know-jazz-but-know-they-want-to-hear-something"jazzy" since the day they started putting out recordings. Serious overexposure here in the Twin Towns.
Covering the likes of Aphex Twin didn't really make them "accessible" to my ears; just "gimmicky."

Good musicians playing limp, boring elevator music.

I never said I thought you were wrong to like them or that you should stop listening to them. We simply have a difference of opinion; you don't have to take it so personally. You like it, I don't. I'm sure they've got more fans than I'll ever have; it's not like they need my support to continue existing.

^yr right. (though I would say I really do know jazz, and yet still enjoy them quite a bit. AND I dn't mind gimmicky covers, since I'm a sucker for... well... gimmicky covers.)

Just listened to the cover. Interesting but not my kinda thing.

However, this is awesome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBwzd-6y8Yk