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Posted in music on August 15, 2004

Reid Paley opening

reidreid

Reid Paley is opeing for the Pixies at, at least, two of their six NYC shows in December. Who exactly is Reid Paley and what is he doing opening for the Pixies?

According to wayne-wise.com:

Reid Paley is something of a legend in the Pittsburgh punk scene. In the 1980?s he fronted a band called The Five. After relocating to Boston, The Five found themselves in a burgeoning Alternative music scene. Bands like The Pixies and Throwing Muses used to open for them.
The Seattle Weekly:
Right now, my favorite drinking album is Revival (on emusic), the second full-length by Reid Paley. The gruff Brooklyn bourbon-drinker sounds far from shocked by this disclosure.

This self-described "grizzled old gunslinger" started his career in Pittsburgh in the early '80s. He relocated to Boston, where his old band the Five shared bills with the Pixies; it was his buddy Frank Black who finally kicked Paley's ass back into the saddle after a long sabbatical

Frank Black, who produced Paley's first solo album, weighs in on the subject:
Years ago Reid Paley and I were neighbors, both struggling but not starving musicians (let me say straight out Reid is a fine cook) in a city called Boston.
But is Reid as good a musician as he is a cook?
Not according to triptronix.net (who saw Reid open for Frank Black):
they were better than the losers of the second opening band, the Reid Paley Trio. We at Bleahh respect Frank Black and believe him when he says that Reid Paley is a great guy. And he may be a great performer, but if so he sent his understudy last night, who is not a great performer. His understudy is a guy who doesn?t know when to shut up between songs, who?s been on the road too long acting the Brooklyn Guy and forgets when he plays Brooklyn that people don?t necessarily dig the caricature

Ouch. Luckily, other critics have much nicer things to say about him. You can read those reviews, listen to samples, and buy his albums at CD Baby, and make sure to catch him live at Hammerstein Ballroom this December.


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Posted on August 15, 2004 11:49 PM

Comments (5)

Gee. I can see now why triptonix.net is the internationally respected and renowned journal that it is.

I'm sure it takes a lot of hard work, grit, and yes, sheer talent to be the bitter loser(s) of triptonix.net. Clearly their contribution to the world in general (which would be: Striving to turn the internet into one big gas station bathroom stall to scribble semi-literately on) is far greater than that of those among us who actually make a contribution, whether through music, or being published in an actual magazine, fanzine, or website by someone who believes their opinions and writing are actually worth something.

It's always important to pay close attention to bitter nitwits sitting in front of their computers in their bathrobes, heckling dicklessly in safety of darkness. Their opinions clearly carry more weight than those of us who actually manage to do things.

Posted by Anonymous | August 28, 2004 6:08 PM

These guys opinions (taken from RP web site) are by no means as considered or well thought out as triptonix.nit's, but may be of some small interest:

"Though records like Revival drip with talent, sweat and humor, live is the way to experience Paley."
--The Village Voice


"A proudly weird talent with a nervy raw appeal."
--Time Out New York


"Straightforward, suicidal, funny and gifted at putting a song together."
--New York Press


"Reduce-you-to-tears razor wit...Reid Paley ought to be a household name."
--Pittsburgh City Paper


"Classic, damaged to perfection...His music carves it's initials into your heart with a rusty scaffolding bolt."
--MurphGuide


"Best Of Manhattan 2002"
--New York Press


"Everyone has a favorite drinking album. Right now, mine is REVIVAL."
--Seattle Weekly


"Put simply, the Reid Paley Trio knows how to get down. He's got mischief in his eye, Elvis in his joints, and booze everywhere else."
--NYRock


"An unholy howl of a voice."
--CMJ


"Another impossibly excellent piece of work flying low, under the radar."
--Ink 19


"I sing along with St. Reid as if purity itself hung in the balance...He's a red-blooded Brooklyn storyteller whose gruff, barking vocals and guitar playing will boost your foot tapping into stomping. Songs about hard luck and bastardization never sounded so good."
--The Village Voice


"A soot-black sense of humor as biting as an underfed Rottweiler."
--Cleveland Free Times


“For all his simplicity, Reid is like nobody else.”
--Seattle Weekly


"A great musical attraction...a sort of Sinatra for the disaffected."
--Mississippi Reflector


"Brutally honest and quite funny...Simple forms hit so hard by passion, intelligence and humor that they stretch into something surreal."
--Splendid Magazine


"He commanded the mic and his guitar like a true badass Just Don't Give a Fuck rock star should...A set that rocked right from his explosive opening roar."
--Monsur.org


“Paley is one of...check that, he's the only witty and acerbic songwriter around.”
--The Brutarian


"My new favorite band...This white boy can belt out some of the most raucous, foot-thumping, head-nodding blues I have witnessed in a long while...A wonderful storyteller."
--Ink 19


"This man's voice is the most unique voice we've ever heard."
--TheCelebrityCafe.com


"You can love this album, or you can fear it!"
--Westzeit Magazine, Germany


"As Baudelaire was the spleen of Paris, Reid Paley is the spleen of New York... How else could he write such messianic blues, such prophetic rock 'n' roll?"
--442éme Rue, Paris


REVIVAL "Best 50 Albums of 2000"
--Alternative Press


"A jarring reminder of what rock'n'roll once was and could be again."
--The Washington Times


"Paley's exposed-nerve aesthetic comes through loud and clear. He's a raw romantic with a sense of grand drama."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer


"For fans of churlish honesty and unaffected one-man shows, REVIVAL is a nonstop riot."
--San Francisco Weekly


"What this world needs is more singers with hell in their voice, something so scarred and crumpled by smoke and bourbon that you know that shit is going down. Thank goodness for Reid Paley."
--The Village Voice


"Reid Paley is the kind of artist Seattle loves."
--The Stranger


"Reid Paley's Revival is Album of the Year: I've gushed about this one several times already. While I only bought it in September, I already consider it to be one of my best drinking buddies."
--Fervor.net


"In an era where Image is King, Paley shares with (Lenny) Bruce the same disdain for bullshit, pretension and knuckleheads everywhere."
--Waterfront Week


"Wild, unpredictable and a great writer. Buy his CD."
--The Fevered Brain of RadioMike


"Paley's bare-boned and bloody-knuckled approach grabs you like a shot of tequila that's gone down the wrong pipe."
--Aquarian Weekly


"Don't miss Reid Paley, a gruff, bluesy rock troubadour with a bad attitude."
--The Washington Post


"REVIVAL has the immediacy of a blues album...too idiosyncratic to be summed up in one category."
--In Pittsburgh


"A monster set of vocal chords, a powerful strain of damnation, the dead-on ring of a classic."
--Chemical Imbalance


"Slightly terrifying. Clearly, Reid Paley has every right to be fucked off with the world, and every right to be drunk, and if we had half the brain he does, we'd probably be drunk too.."
--San Francisco Weekly


"The new 21st century Eastern Urban Blues."
--The Rocket


"Darkly comic. "
--New York Press


"A throat like Howlin' Wolf or Screamin' Jay Hawkins. If it was my job to make you buy this, I'd say that the production is handled by Frank Black. However, Lucky's Tune is great enough that I don't have to do any name-dropping."
--Fright X


"A legend waiting to happen."
--Muzic.com


"A voice to turn good girls bad...Maybe crazy but damn exciting"
--The Village Voice

Posted by Anonymous | August 28, 2004 6:14 PM

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Posted by watches | January 28, 2006 2:14 PM

Paley is listed (cddb source I believe) as composer on four songs on Frank Black's last double album Fast Man Raider Man . . . can anyone confirm that? A ton of collaborators on that album, so who knows.

Posted by Snapp Stare | July 13, 2007 10:36 AM

A lot of players, but not a lot of songwriting collaborators on that album.

Paley is co-writer with Frank Black of the following songs that appear on Fastman Raiderman:

I'm Not Dead (I'm In Pittsburgh)
Golden Shore
Dog Sleep
Down To You

As well as these, among others:

Another Velvet Nightmare (from the album Honeycomb)
Don't Get Me Wrong (from the album Christmass)

Posted by Anonymous | November 19, 2009 10:27 AM

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