Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Discuss Maynard and Billy's side project
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Ravenpig
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Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by Ravenpig »

Since the other thread is turning into "when is my set getting here" (understandably) I thought it'd be better to start a new thread for reviews. So what did you all think?

I honestly liked them all, even the Emotive set (much better live, still my least favorite). There are some really kick ass moments such as the middle part of Orestes and the ending of Counting Bodies.

Stone and Echo sounds really fucking good but I just can't get past that set list.

May Jay sounds great in my opinion, at times even reaching back-in-the-day levels. I also found myself not hating Billy's vocals for the first time ever. I'll add more thoughts the more familiar I get with this.

Mer De Noms: 8/10
13th Step: 8/10
Emotive: 6/10
Stone and Echo: 7/10
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by Ettan »

Mer De Noms: 5/10
13th Step: 6/10
Emotive: 9/10
Stone and Echo: 8/10

Out of all live albums I never thought I would enjoy Emotive the most. Songs like Gimme Gimme Gimme, Let's have a war and of course the classic Napster hit Diary of a Lovesong made this live album the best out of all 4 imo. However, Diary was a huge letdown for me. Maynard didn't deliver and was drowned by the music sometimes. I want to hear Maynard in his prime, 2000 - 2004 was the best apc years. Why didn't they do a live album for each tour instead?
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by Ravenpig »

You know, on various cd singles back in the day they released live versions of Magdalena, Judith, 3 Libras, and Breña. It's something.
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by MAGNUS »

Ravenpig wrote:You know, on various cd singles back in the day they released live versions of Magdalena, Judith, 3 Libras, and Breña. It's something.
And there's the Promo Live disc from 2000 or 2001. That sounds great but no diary of a madman... or ashes to ashes.
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by gerbil »

MAGNUS wrote:
Ravenpig wrote:You know, on various cd singles back in the day they released live versions of Magdalena, Judith, 3 Libras, and Breña. It's something.
And there's the Promo Live disc from 2000 or 2001. That sounds great but no diary of a madman... or ashes to ashes.
The new Ashes to Ashes sounds great, IMO. Diary is good, too. Maynard backs away from some of the higher notes but the harmonies are dead on.
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by Baahumbug »

1. mer de noms live album was pretty bad to me (4/10). Maynard just didn't have it, which is understandable.
2. 13th step was a little better but not great (6/10). Honestly only like 2 songs off the album anyway..
3. Emotive was pretty good (8/10). it really seems they enjoy playing this album live.
4. Stone and echo was amazing (10/10). I know they added some post production to the sound but it still came out great. I went to 3 shows on that tour, it was just great. I know the setlist isn't a "fuck yeah" set but they nailed it regardless.
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by children »

Which 2 songs do you only like off Thirteenth Step?
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by gerbil »

Mer de Noms (3/5) The songs were a little loose but I enjoyed them nonetheless. Maynard's "I'm sick" speech made me feel a little bad for the guy as he's clearly congested and pushing himself on every song. Totally nailed Ashes, though.

Thirteenth Step (4/5) Almost perfect. The songs sound great but are still a little rough. Maynard's vocals sound a little better.

eMOTIVe (4/5) This is a pretty flawless attempt at this album. Plus Diary sounded great (not a popular opinion, I know).

Stone And Echo (5/5) A great performance. The atmosphere just oozes out of the songs. Any flaws from the Trifecta albums have been ironed out at this point. Aside from a few flubs here and there. I appreciate the care taken to make sure the songs sounded their best without taking too many liberties and fixing a whole buncha things in post production.
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by Ravenpig »

gerbil wrote:Mer de Noms (3/5) The songs were a little loose but I enjoyed them nonetheless. Maynard's "I'm sick" speech made me feel a little bad for the guy as he's clearly congested and pushing himself on every song. Totally nailed Ashes, though.
This was weird to me. They went to various cities in their "3 albums 3 nights" tour and they chose the one where he was sick? Did they only record the one show?
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by gerbil »

Ravenpig wrote:
gerbil wrote:Mer de Noms (3/5) The songs were a little loose but I enjoyed them nonetheless. Maynard's "I'm sick" speech made me feel a little bad for the guy as he's clearly congested and pushing himself on every song. Totally nailed Ashes, though.
This was weird to me. They went to various cities in their "3 albums 3 nights" tour and they chose the one where he was sick? Did they only record the one show?
Probably. Some people have said the other shows were different. Either way. Maynard's always sick while he's on tour.
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by lipanconjuring »

Why would they curate songs for a live album from a show where he was sick and even said so during the performances, lol.. so much for putting the best foot forward, maybe it's true they just didn't record all of the shows?

I dig the live versions of Gimme Gimme Gimme though, that creepy semi arpeggiated guitar intro and that sparse digital percussion during the verses. The chorus could have been tackled better but I love those verse melodies. Sitting here I'm a loaded gun, waitiiing to gooo off…

Hell, quite a few of those eMOTIVe tracks surprised me in their live incarnations. Let's Have A War is the shit.
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by jaimiej »

Well in all fairness while it was a "tour" it was only spanned over 3 weeks and he was sick for majority of it. I'm pretty sure they used SF cause it was towards the end of the tour. Although I must say I figured they would use Vegas for MDN and 13th Step being it was the last.
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by Ettan »

Maynard wasn't sick, he needed a reason not to tell the audience "I can't perform these songs as well as I could when we first made them". He's said it in plenty of recent interviews.

@Lipanconjuring, I totally agree with you. Gimme was great live, so was Let's have a war.
eMOTive is like V is for Vagina, the studio version sucks but they're awesome live.
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by jaimiej »

Right, he has said it in plenty of recent interviews so why would he need an excuse? I think he's fully admitted his voice isn't what he used to be and honestly you can hear the congestion in his voice, at least I can.
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by not tyson »

At this point we need to see your boobs
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by Ravenpig »

I just noticed Breña is now actually "Lei Lee". Or however her name is spelled.
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by thirdeye42012 »

No ones really spoken much about the actual sound quality, which while I've only heard Stone & Echo and eMotive, I feel is not great. I have plenty of audience recorded bootlegs, and these don't sound much better. It fluctuates a bit, some spots were better than others, but there's a lot of crowd noise, and Maynard is a little hard to understand or even hear above the music at times.

eMotive - 5/10
This was definitely the best of the 3 nights in person. But again, the recording quality suffers. Diary was pretty muddy. Passive, surprisingly is much better on the album. By and Down is pretty great, as is Annihilation, Gimme gimme gimme, Counting Bodies, Levy and Fiddle.

Stone and Echo - 7/10
As good as they were at playing the emotive songs in '10, they were even better the following year
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by Ettan »

jaimiej wrote:Right, he has said it in plenty of recent interviews so why would he need an excuse? I think he's fully admitted his voice isn't what he used to be and honestly you can hear the congestion in his voice, at least I can.
he wasn't sick though. you want to believe he was, but he wasn't. that tour was horrible compared to the other ones
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by jaimiej »

Ettan wrote:
jaimiej wrote:Right, he has said it in plenty of recent interviews so why would he need an excuse? I think he's fully admitted his voice isn't what he used to be and honestly you can hear the congestion in his voice, at least I can.
he wasn't sick though. you want to believe he was, but he wasn't. that tour was horrible compared to the other ones
To be 100% honest with you I don't have to try to "believe" anything because I'm actually at the shows to see Billy and really don't care much about Maynard. I just have a hard time entertaining the idea that he would lie about being sick when he's been pretty honest from the get go about the fact that he can't sing the older material. Just seems like a silly "lie" but I suppose we can just agree to disagree.
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Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by gerbil »

Ettan wrote:
jaimiej wrote:Right, he has said it in plenty of recent interviews so why would he need an excuse? I think he's fully admitted his voice isn't what he used to be and honestly you can hear the congestion in his voice, at least I can.
he wasn't sick though. you want to believe he was, but he wasn't. that tour was horrible compared to the other ones
The fuck is wrong with you. He's said in tons of interviews he gets sick whenever he tours no matter what band. He was upfront from the very beginning that he was gonna have trouble singing the MDN songs. And you can clearly hear the congestion in his voice.

Why the hell would he lie about that?

ED: And it's not just the APC shows. He's been saying this about Tool shows as far back as 01.
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by Ettan »

gerbil wrote:
Ettan wrote:
jaimiej wrote:Right, he has said it in plenty of recent interviews so why would he need an excuse? I think he's fully admitted his voice isn't what he used to be and honestly you can hear the congestion in his voice, at least I can.
he wasn't sick though. you want to believe he was, but he wasn't. that tour was horrible compared to the other ones
The fuck is wrong with you. He's said in tons of interviews he gets sick whenever he tours no matter what band. He was upfront from the very beginning that he was gonna have trouble singing the MDN songs. And you can clearly hear the congestion in his voice.

Why the hell would he lie about that?

ED: And it's not just the APC shows. He's been saying this about Tool shows as far back as 01.
He says that he can't walk and chew gum, and that's one of his reasons why he's located in the dark. haha bullshit. I know it's a metaphor but you get it. Nah bros, he wasn't sick during that tour.
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by Ettan »

and still no dvd up on the bay..
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by jaimiej »

Well according to Amazon you can buy the DVD and all the audio CDs for $50 to be shipped in January

Edit: just noticed it says 6 discs when I believe it should be 5...not sure whats up with that.
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by UndKeineZwEier »

Ettan wrote: He says that he can't walk and chew gum
That's why he doesn't play an instrument and sing, he can't concentrate on both. He stands in the back of the stage because all the camera flashes fuck with his head.
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Re: Thoughts/Reviews on Box Set/Stone and Echo

Post by Ettan »

UndKeineZwEier wrote:
Ettan wrote: He says that he can't walk and chew gum
That's why he doesn't play an instrument and sing, he can't concentrate on both. He stands in the back of the stage because all the camera flashes fuck with his head.
He plays bass and piano on several songs. what the fuck didn't you know that already?
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