{"id":29412,"date":"2026-08-18T10:56:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T09:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=29412"},"modified":"2026-08-18T11:25:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T10:25:13","slug":"music-thoughts-on-tmr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=29412","title":{"rendered":"MUSiC: Thoughts on TMR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This was originally written as a comment on a Facebook post by guitarist and Beefheart alumni Gary Lucas, in response to his posting of a pretty Godawful piece on TMR<\/em> by Rylan Fischer, for Parade<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh dear!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the disappointing frequency of such responses to TMR<\/em>, it still always galls me to read such lazy drivel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To describe the music Beefheart and his musicians made around this time (which ought to include Lick My Decals Off<\/em>, as well) as like a child banging on a piano is such an insult to the skill and musicianship it took to make this unusual music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\u2019s far more revealing of the ignorance of the writer than illuminating of the music itself; so the journalist here is actually the inept one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Picasso.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This sad and hoary old line of \u2018thinking\u2019 (?) is the same as when people declare that five year olds are as good at art as Picasso.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beefheart and Picasso both harness aspects that appear<\/em> (esp\u2019 to those with a less nuanced understanding) simple, or ugly, or abrasive, or nonsensical, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s a massive difference, as well. These elements are filtered through a much more mature aesthetic sensibility, in a way that – to the surprise of many – may actually be a harder<\/em> art than simply playing by the usual rules. E.g. transcribing reality more photographically, in art, or abiding by the normal rhythmic and harmonic conventions in music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s far more music out there, ranging from the sonic Hell that is some Free Jazz, to a lot of shiny surfaced pap Pop, that is – IMHO – really and truly awful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TMR and Decals are, in places, challenging and unconventional. But they\u2019re also, in places, very much part of evolving traditions. The amount of Blues in there is terrific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Untitled no. 14, Don Van Vliet, 1994.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Beefheart really was an artist. Not just because he literally went on to swap painting for music, but in his poetic vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, having interviewed John \u2018Drumbo\u2019 French, years ago, I know – and people need to realise -Beefheart\u2019s musicians were\/are skilled and dedicated artists in their own right, on their instruments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was originally written as a comment on a Facebook post by guitarist and Beefheart alumni Gary Lucas, in response to his posting of a pretty Godawful piece on TMR by Rylan Fischer, for Parade. Oh dear! Despite the disappointing frequency of such responses to TMR, it still always galls me to read such lazy … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “MUSiC: Thoughts on TMR”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-7Eo","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29412"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29414,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29412\/revisions\/29414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}