Date: Wed, 1 Oct 1997 01:23:09 -0500 From: Jeremy L Orr Subject: Re: RHP runaround ---from robn: > i went to buy a red house painters cd today, but they had > 4 and i couldnt remember which i had heard mentioned as > the best... Actually, they have five, and here are my totally subjective opinions on each one: _Down Colorful Hill_, Sept '92. I believe these are demos which were slightly remixed and then released. Not their best, but definitely interesting, if not downright essential for "Medicine Bottle" (9:49) and the title track (10:49). Great cover. _Red House Painters_ (the Rollercoaster album), May '93. This is the one that comes up as being most RHP fans' favorite whenever we do these things, and I'd agree completely. I could do without "Mother" and maybe "Strawberry Hill", but the rest is absolute genius, especially "Katy Song", "Down Through", "New Jersey" (wonderful vocal interplay), "Mistress" (both versions), and so on. Another great sleeve, too - the sepia-toned shots of the abandoned (?) rollercoaster perfectly mirror the loneliness of the music. _Red House Painters_ (the Bridge album), Oct '93. I'd hazard a guess that this is probably considered the "worst" RHP album...I've often wondered if these songs weren't outtakes from the "Rollercoaster album" sessions. "Evil" is really great though (the album-opening interchange between Mark and some unidentified female is oddly unsettling, and sets a wonderfully tangible mood somewhere between sad and eerie), and I even like their cover of "I Am a Rock" (though I HATE "Star Spangled Banner"). _Ocean Beach_, sometime during '94? I've never owned or even heard this album, for some reason, so no comment. _Songs for a Blue Guitar_, sometime during '96. I personally consider this to be the worst RHP album. I do like a couple of the songs - "Have You Forgotten" (a real tear-jerker), "Song for a Blue Guitar", "All Mixed Up" - but there's also a LOT of crap that I've just never been able to get into. It does sport another great sleeve, though...maybe even my favorite of all the RHP albums. While on the topic, a friend of mine in the SF bay area is in a band called Vapor Trail, and he says that they're talking to (former?) RHP drummer Anthony Koutsos in hopes of getting him to play with them. (I'm hoping that if he does sign on, it will be under the stipulation that they change the name of the band...) ---Jeremy "Two worlds collide, we bury them." Date: Wed, 1 Oct 1997 07:39:57 +0000 From: Andrew Norman Subject: Re: RHP There will probably be disagreement, and I haven't heard the last album, but I'd say the non-rollercoaster self-titled one (let's call it "Bridge") is definitely the worst one. "Rollercoaster" is very good, I think "Ocean Beach" possibly has the edge over it but it's a close-run thing. Date: Wed, 1 Oct 1997 16:10:59 -0400 From: RBNRy@AOL.COM Subject: To Rollercoast or to not rollercoast (RHP for aleppo) >non-rollercoaster one? No. Definitely the rollercoaster one. An absolute masterpiece. And a lengthy one at that if you want your dollar to Disc Elapsed Time ratio heavily weighed in favor of the latter (even if you buy the import). For what it's worth, my favorites from from mostest to leastest are... 1. RHP "Rollercoaster" 2. "Down Colorful Hill" 3. RHP "Bridge" 4. "Ocean Beach" 5. "Shock Me" EP 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. "Songs for A Blue Guitar" The blank spaces are for any future RHP releases. If the next eight RHP records were the entire band lip-farting songs, I'm sure they'd still be better than "Songs...". At least the sleeve was good. O.K. well maybe it wasn't that bad, but there's already one Neil Y. and Crazy Horse in the world isn't there?