Comments on: YouTube’s Newest Title: Killer Of The Live Album

By: cheesebubble

cheesebubble — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:28:19 +0000

Live albums can be great and exciting listens. But I feel like some distance needs to be put between the performance and the listener – with regards to time. Live recordings from the 1960s and ’70s are my favourites. Stuff harkening back as far as the 1930s can also produce goosebumps. But only a few relics from the 1980s stand up and, after that, the magic seems lost. I can’t figure out if it’s because the buffer of time’s passage is thin or because the nature of live albums has changed in recent years.

The advent of internet, incredible changes in technology, the way music is distributed and heard – it’s all altered the music-listening experience. This shift in interaction has caused me to look for the captivating essence of today’s bands in their live acts. If a band can meet or beat in a live setting what they do in the studio, then I want to be there to experience it washing over me. I absolutely love live performances and I prefer to witness today’s performers in person instead of gobbling them up in some detached media format. In this day and age, I think the mystery and magic of a live show separates the wheat from the chaff.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 04:49:04 +0000

+1 for the live Badu album, she KILLED that on “Tyrone”

By: KikoJones

KikoJones — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:30:09 +0000

@baconfat:

If that live YLT album is anything like the blistering set they played at Prospect Park, 6 yrs ago, bring it on!

By: baconfat

baconfat — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:36:01 +0000

8 kajillion shitty camera-phone videos of Daft Punk at Coachella didn't keep people from buying their most recent live album, right?

To bring this back to a thread from yesterday: Yo La Tengo needs to release a live album, posthaste.

By: Lax Danja House

Lax Danja House — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:35:13 +0000

Wouldn't this imply that there was an "era of the live album" to begin with? I have a vast memory that stretches back to a time when Youtube didn't even exist, and live albums have always been the exclusive concern of superfans and perverse people who like watching DVDs.

By: revmatty

revmatty — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:03:34 +0000

Depends on the fanbase as well. Some artists tend to have fans who want it to sound EXACTLY like the record when they pay $125 for tickets. Others prefer to hear reinterpretations as well as new material. I place myself in that latter category. I can listen to the album at home, I want to hear improvisation, rearrangements, medleys, bizarre cover songs, etc etc. And YouTube is fine for catching performances I didn’t see but I’d rather buy a DVD of an awesome Prince concert than watch crappy cell phone clips of the same concert on teh intarweb.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 05:45:31 +0000

The Roots Come Alive is effing great. But they’re so skilled at performing live, it’s almost unfair.