Listen to an album you've never heard by an artist you never listen to and then tell us about it!

what could be simpler? bonus points if you have NEVER listened to the artist or even heard them or heard them much. or if its a genre you almost entirely avoid. lots of people only know some things because of the radio or other "in the wild" experiences.

i'm actually putting my cart before my dumb horse because i haven't decided on an album. no bigs if i'm the only one who does it. i'm pretty good at amusing myself. but i am always interested in hearing what people think of new things. to them. first impressions. i already like that tom petty listening thread a bunch but most on there are pretty familiar with the music already.

i'm thinking i might try taylor swift. never listened to an album. i've never listened to a beyonce album! the possibilities are endless. or i could really hit my discomfort zone and try a smashing pumpkins album....*shiver*.

if i do taylor should i do nu-1989 or olde-1989 or do i have to do both? decisions....

anyway, if you are bored, try something and then jot down some thoughts. you don't have to write a book. you could go modern classical!

think of all the country records you have never heard. pretty much all of them!

i'll report back when i have something.

Sure, tell me what to listen to. I bought albums based on your recommendations, Scott! Was it you who told me to get A Salty Dog? that Procol Harum album. I bought Lansing-Dreiden but I didn’t like them and sold them. I love A Salty Dog tho.

I’ve never listened to Linda Ronstadt. Or A Tribe Called Quest. Or much country music at all aside from Willie and Dolly.

just close your eyes and pick one! the world is your unheard oyster. i'm still trying to decide myself.

i don't know if i want to go bad or what. i mean i'd probably enjoy a t-swift album just fine based on the the hits i know. she's super-catchy. though its possible that it ends up being a harrowing journey filled with haters and men who stab her and shoot her and stuff. okay you can probably guess which four songs i know...

Scott, listen to No Borders Here, The Speckless Sky and then The Walking all by Jane Siberry

Tell me what prog I should listen to. I only know Canterbury stuff like Charles Hayward This Heat Family Fodder. I have never listened to Yes or Genesis or any of that. I know Queen and Rush obv.

FGTI -- I'd be really curious what you get out of Jethro Tull album.

Yes - Close to the Edge
Genesis - Foxtrot
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
Van der Graaf Generator - H To He Who Am The Only One
King Crimson - Red

Gentle Giant's Power and the Glory I think is a good place to start, think you may find it more interesting than 10-20 minute tracks by Yes or Genesis

As a starter anyway. Cue rival posters denigrating my picks

xpost lol

I am listening to Fly by Night by Rush

I have never knowingly heard Rush

nah Matt those are good picks, kind of the same that got me into prog. that's definitely the VdGG album you wanna start with, Genesis it's either that or SEBTP, as for Yes...for me it was Fragile which is a lot more digestible, but CTTE *is* like the greatest prog album ever, so it can't be wrong

for me I'd like to hear some stuff that would sound cool in DJ sets, preferably something kind of exotic and available on vinyl

I know and like VdGG. I like Red and Discipline but not a tonne of other KC. I will listen to those vanguard other prog albums! I’ve never listened to any of them.

I am obsessed with Mark Leckey’s sets on NTS. I have been listening to one a week and then investigating all this new music I’d never heard of. Everyone should listen to Mark Leckey’s sets on NTS. He is amazing

"I have never knowingly heard Rush"

awesome! okay, i think i have a good one. its indie rock which isn't out of my comfort zone but i have only briefly scanned this album in the past and never listened to it and its indie-famous.

i did kinda mean to put "well-known" in the thread title but i forgot. i feel like it should at least be something that fans of a genre are well aware of. don't want to be too obscure. but people can do whatever they want.

I'd be willing to bet you've definitely heard Rush before, the thing with them though is it's generally the instrumental bits that are famous so it's harder to place them. they get sampled a ton (including by Saint Etienne) - once I started actually listening to their albums there was a lot of "oh, it's *that* song"

Fgti, if you've never listened to the debut King Crimson record, that one is definitely worth knowing.

I've never listened to a Pavement album. Or a Fleetwood Mac album (though I at least know a few songs from them). Probably have never listened to a complete Rolling Stones album, though I definitely have heard a ton of singles.

fgti, in my opinion King Crimson is the best of the best prog - they had a few distinct phases: early 70s psychedelia, mid-70s hard rock, early 80s new wave, and then a sort of mishmash of these going forward:

Red is really really good, and a great starting point. If you're not into 'Fallen Angel' or 'Starless' then I wouldn't proceed further really.

For the earlier phase, you could do worse than listen to either of their first two albums: In The Court Of The Crimson King (the canonical fave) or In The Wake Of Poseidon (my fave, but not disimilar to the former). I rather like the jazz-inflected Lizard album too.

For the eighties stuff (that sounds not too disimilar from Talking Heads' expanded work, especially since Adrian Belew is the singer), maybe start with Discipline or listen to the live album Absent Lovers which gives the material a nice bit of metallic grit!

Jordan: I love most Pavement and I like all their albums for different reasons, but I'd say give Crooked Rain Crooked Rain a go; it's all killer no filler

So my thoughts on Rush are:

Well, I guess I assumed they'd be a bit widdly, a bit overstuffed, but this is sorta punk by comparison to most "prog" (if I'm going to compare it to prog). I seem to recognise a lot of the riffs, but as far as I know Rush aren't a big going concern in the UK. I'm gonna listen to 2112 now

2112 title track suite is all-time.

Rush, especially early on, has way more hard rock (Cream, Zep, Who) than most other prog bands.

god foxtrot is theeee greatest

Haha no I know some King Crimson. I know Court and the second one. I know Red and Discipline and weirdly Thrak. I like Belew as a singer. I haven’t listened to Aspic or Perfect Pair or Islands or whatever. Maybe I should. I’m not an immense fan.

I am a big Art Bears/Slapp Happy fan. But I never got into Henry Cow. Listened to Unrest once and didn’t like it. The album, not the band; I love the band Unrest.

Some of my favourite music is “the stuff they did in the late 70s, before they became famous and popular”. Scritti Polliti early recordings. Cabaret Voltaire. But still lots of gaps in that realm. I need to listen to more Coil and more TG-related stuff beyond the famous albums.

I’ve realized that romantic new wave or whatever you call it isn’t for me. Tears For Fears and that other band, “The King Of Rock n Roll”. Prefab Sprout. No thanks

I am, at some point over the next couple of days, going to listen to this:

https://www.discogs.com/release/1142199-Asha-Bhosle-The-Best-Of-Asha-Bhosle-The-Golden-Voice-Of-Bollywood

Which is a random comp Discogs threw up. Seems all the tracks are on Youtube so I'll hear them that way. I have never knowingly listened to any Bollywood playback music, other than what I've heard in the background of things or in clips, so I'll start here!

Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

And so I hear The Ballad of April Ludgate in its entirety for the first time. I definitely remember the first song and I think that’s about how far I got long ago on Youtube. It sounds vaguely Modest Mouse to me. I don’t hate it! It’s approachable. Tuneful. I just assumed it would immediately start up with the barnyard lo-fi racket. The “I love you Jesus Christ” part next is kinda lame. Jesus after Spaceman 3 or Jesus shooting heroin in indie rock feels too cutesy dumb and I blame the Velvet Underground. I’m still expecting campfire singing saws and I do get high school trumpet. The dude is no worse than any other non-singer indie dude. The yelling is too yell-y for me though. For the record, I do agree that it is strange to be anything at all. I think that’s what he says. It feels like the song “Two-headed Boy” probably influenced generations of people that I don’t listen to. Is that what The Decemberists sound like? I can envision a sad crusty pit bull having to hear that song on a street corner somewhere for eternity. Poor pup. Then we get dreary marching band. I knew it would show up. The dude’s conversational voice is pleasant. But then in comes the shouting. In general, the guitar + voice on this album works best for me. Like a cracked Irish folk singer. Or a Scot like Dick Gaughan. (I’d rather listen to Dick Gaughan…) With indie-people it can often feel like mock-gravity though. You really have to sell that theater of suburban cruelty. The first song on side two feels like the centerpiece of the album. The most accomplished/successful alt folk-rock. In my opinion. It is blessedly horn-free for most of its length. I really want to blame this guy for punk-folk. They do take you somewhere on this album. It isn’t really where I personally want to go but I can see young people being swept away by it. It makes sense. The production sounds like mush except for the vocals. I guess I expected singalongs! My apologies. I guess I can’t blame this band for the future inane campfire indie to come. It really is one person’s voice. These are my first impressions of an album that I first heard less than an hour ago.

"SpaceMEN 3"

I also found myself thinking: "How rich is Mac from Superchunk...?""

I am going to listen to a whole Pavement album for this thread. I have only ever heard the Pavement song that Beavis & Butt-Head made fun of, but they are emblematic of so much that I hate about "indie" "rock" that if I find myself liking what I hear, I may be forced to reconsider my entire existence.

i love pavement so much. its weird almost how much i like pavement. those guitars are to die for.

pavement records sound good no matter how you listen to them. streaming. tape. LP. doesn't matter. i don't know how they did it. just the most ruling guitar sounds. they broke up and then never did it again kinda.

but if the voice bugs you there is nothing to be done about that. kinda like rush! right, fcc!?

but also, listen to Terror Twilight.

Hmm… that’s not the Pavement album I would advise anyone to start with!

Also they unfortunately messed up the S&E mix on the expanded reissue (IMO), I would advise against listening to that version…

(I mean it doesn’t ruin the album or anything, but you want that thin wild mercury trebel-kicker sound, not some weird bass boost)

Terror Twilight has some jammage with heft and i thought that might make an appropriate gateway drug for some skronky metalhead like unperson. but lord knows with him. he can be an enigma of sorts when it comes to likes/dislikes.

Haha no I know some King Crimson. I know Court and the second one. I know Red and Discipline and weirdly Thrak. I like Belew as a singer. I haven’t listened to Aspic or Perfect Pair or Islands or whatever. Maybe I should. I’m not an immense fan.

In the Court, Red, and Discipline are the main ones IMO - once you've heard those three I think you get most of what the band has to offer. I like Larks' Tongues a lot, IMO it's their most interesting record, though it's not as metal as Red (except for certain sections which are incredibly metal). I dig Lizard too but it's not exactly a record I like recommending to people. Three of a Perfect Pair has some excellent pop songs on Side 1 but they're kinda like Belew solo material.

Personally when it comes to prog I like to recommend Gentle Giant and Van der Graaf Generator. GG I think is a good starting point because they appeal to people's inner band geek and their songs are generally short. They're not trying to summon demons or invoke fantasy landscapes they're just trying to put wonky melodies together in odd ways. VdGG on the other hand are pretty dark and theatrical and in Hammill they've got a true rockstar persona which the other bands don't really have. At prog night (which coincidentally I am DJing tonight) that's the band that gets the uninitiated to pay attention, for better or worse.

Pavement are two bands to me. Westing and S&E, then the latter albums. I like both modes. There’s something smarmy about SM’s songwriting voice that keeps me from loving them, but I like them, I like him.

It’s funny, when I was young (20? 21?) I recorded with my friend James. He had IAAOTS and Moon Pix out, on CD. He talked to me about how much he loved both albums. I borrowed them both and listened to them on the same day. Moon Pix became a landmark album for me, I always want drums and guitar to sound like that. One time I recorded with Shahzad, he brought Jim White’s snare with him, I was so excited. NMH left little impression in comparison, good band good album tho. It felt in retrospect like a moment of choice, “choose NMH or choose Cat Power to define your young brain” and I chose Cat Power.

gentle giant are so awesome. van der graaf i would think might be a challenge or a chore depending on someone's tolerance for a LOT of words. so many words. but they were awesome.

depends which track you play - I find "Arrow" and "La Rossa" get a lot of "what the fuck was that" reactions, which I think is what you want

i love Nektar. both early and late. i would recommend them to anyone. they rocked so hard. i'm a big Barclay James Harvest fan - and a big fan of that pastoral/rural Harvest prog stuff - but for some reason i never push them on people. they might be underwhelming if you aren't into them. but also a band i like early and late. i feel like people see them as an afterthought. 3rd tier. whatever. but they could be so beautiful.

I'm listening to Slanted & Enchanted because it's the shortest Pavement album. I don't hate the vocals. They don't make me feel anything at all. Fucking Lou Reed. He and his enablers in the rock press (and at the three major labels that subsidized his lame ass for 40 years) convinced multiple generations of white dudes that if they couldn't sing they could just recite their lyrics and it would be fine. It's not fine. My biggest fear with this record, honestly, was that the drumming would be as limp and dead as 99% of "indie" "rock," but this guy actually seems to be awake and aware that he's playing a song and that it should have energy and dynamics. The songs are unmemorable, but at least they're alive while they're happening, which is more than I can say for Radiohead post-2001, to pick one example.

Aw man that’s not fair. I listened to In Rainbows again after years away from it, literally yesterday, and it’s even better than I remember. I get what you mean about Lou Reed though. I think with Malkmus it’s more about The Fall. “Two States” he’s even doing the MES thing

"I like Belew as a singer."

my tolerance is pretty low. and he makes things into his own image and it doesn't sit right with me. too bad fred frith didn't join KC. or derek bailey! hahaha!

i know for a lot of people S&E is the best but i think they got way better as they went from album to album. i love that last album. i like them all though.

omg the thought of Bailey and Fripp working together

i love Nektar. both early and late. i would recommend them to anyone

curious what the good late-period Nektar albums are. I've gone up to Recycled.

my tolerance is pretty low. and he makes things into his own image and it doesn't sit right with me. too bad fred frith didn't join KC. or derek bailey! hahaha!

I get what you're saying but on the other hand he's kind of the only guy who could've made it work, both in that he could keep up with Fripp and also write songs which you kinda needed by the 80s. I don't think Frith or Bailey could've done that. the downside is 80s KC sounds absolutely nothing like they used to, outside of maybe parts of Side 2 of ToaPP. Yes and Genesis at least retained *some* aspects of their prior sound.

someone listen to a City Boy album. i love them. the poor man's 10cc.

What's wrong with reciting lyrics, Lou Reed (or MES) style? Anyway, who taught all those metal dudes who can't sing that it's "fine" to tunelessly bark or growl lyrics? It's not fine! (lol)

if they couldn't sing they could just recite their lyrics and it would be fine

we're talking about pavement? melodies are kind of their thing.

Yeah, "Zurich Is Stained" is playing right now as I type this... great tune

Great thread idea

I'd love to do an 80s or 90s country record that is considered a classic, if anyone wants to recommend one

Dwight Yoakam, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc. Etc.

Sold! I'll get started on the way home.

i was gonna say garth brooks but dwight is cool.

I am going to listen to The Thievery Corporation - Sounds From The Thievery Hi Fi. I was suspicious of them at the time, I wanted all my trip hop/blunted beats people to wear puffy parkas etc

i never listen to whole country albums. i like comps. i see country like techno. singles rule. but i should try out an album too. it might be a bit much though. i listen to a lot of 50s stuff. hillbillies. the hillbillier than betterer. but i could go 80s probably. i like shania i a lot.

ooh yeah forgotten trip hop. that would be fun. probably.

you guys should bold your titles. i should have done that. so that we can see what people actually listened to. makes sense, no?

Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

My knock against them has always been that they're rhythmically slack and overly busy (isn't there a weird crossover with Pavement fans and jam band fans? My theory is that's why). I can hear why this never would have been my band at the time, I wouldn't have cared about the lyrics or the semi-detached aesthetic.

But this is sounding pretty good to me today, now that I have a lot more reference points for stuff that came before (Lou Reed and VU for sure, which is a recent thing for me) and after. The time is allll over the place, I still kinda hate the drums, but in 2024 it's refreshing to hear a big record that's this loose and live-sounding. The vocals don't bother me (was Thurston a big influence?). The guitars are nice. Tbh it all makes me want to listen to Sonic Youth, they have a great drummer.

I like the second half of Stop Breathin, kinda Radiohead-y for a bit? Gold Soundz is cool, I've heard that. 5-4=Unity is funny, for a band whose weak point is rhythm to do an instrumental where the rhythm is the whole bit. "I need to sleep" is a great lyric.

country does seem more like a singles music for the most part. Certainly with older country I'm more about songs. I love George Jones but I couldn't tell you about any specific George Jones "album" really. I assume by the 80s/90s it was a bit more album-oriented though?

I made it all the way through the Pavement album. There was some actual singing on it. Some of it was even OK. I understand why people thought he was imitating Mark E. Smith, but that was only one song out of 14 or 15 so I don't know why people fixate on it. The particular type of distortion on the guitars occasionally reminded me of the first Stooges album, which was a good choice, and as I said before the drummer was better than I expected him to be. I think ultimately metal has ruined this kind of music for me, because I just don't understand why anyone would write and perform songs that feel so...uncommitted, would be the best word. Like, Rob Halford and Ronnie James Dio and Bruce Dickinson (and their respective bands) gave fully committed performances at all times. And that kind of boneheaded theatricality is the minimum acceptable standard for rock performance, in my opinion. You don't even have to look to metal for comparisons, either. Think of Bad Brains. H.R. was fully committed, 100% from start to stop. This "indie" "rock" idea of acting cooler than the thing you're doing (singing a song), of mumbling and strumming and swaying slowly back and forth (whether they are or not, they sound like they are) is abhorrent to me. It sounded unprofessional in a deliberate way — like, it was sometimes mixed so that the vocals were buried, but not on every track, so the ones where they were seemed like mistakes that they didn't care enough to fix. I will never listen to Pavement again; they are Not For Me.

Dwight Yoakam is playing near me (in Montana "near" means a two-hour drive) in July and I am thinking about going. Tickets go on sale this week. I've always wanted to see him.

def curious what hearing Thievery Corporation for the first time in 2024 is like (xp)

I would participate here — agreed on it being a good idea — but a friend of mine have been doing basically this same thing for the past 6 years (I've got him listening to Aquemini for the first time this week, while I listen to Sinatra's Watertown)

my big one in the coming month or so is to dive into the Bob Marley & The Wailers catalog. that's one of those artists where the people i knew repping it during my younger days had me put that on the shelf.

do yourself a favour and start at the beginning with Marley: the Studio One comp then the Scratch-produced stuff before you do the Island albums

Finally doing a deep dive into Marley a few years ago, after long putting it off, was something I found so rewarding. There is an entire alternate career that could be carved out of his body of work without touching a single fucking song on Legend (which isn't to say all of the songs on Legend are terrible, far from it, but my god he has so many incredible songs in his catalog that you never need to hear those overplayed warhorses again).

i dig the Pavement thoughts. even the negative stuff i get. for me it really is about the guitar sounds. they just hit on something that connects with me in a huge way. and i really like how their albums are produced. especially later. and there is very definite effort when it comes to their presentation and production. the slacker thing almost seems like a front to me from people who really do dig rock deeply and wanted to create something lasting. as far as Matador guitar rock goes, Pavement/Come/Unsane are my pinnacles. they always sound good to me no matter what.

I am obsessed with Mark Leckey’s sets on NTS. I have been listening to one a week and then investigating all this new music I’d never heard of. Everyone should listen to Mark Leckey’s sets on NTS. He is amazing

FGTI I dunno if you've heard it or not but would totally recommend listening to his guest appearance on the Digging With Flo podcast, wherein he plants potatoes and chats about his life. Really good and wholesome stuff:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4UzCXiJuZhloApBPpWX1jM?si=K_nyLn7HRv6QlyyjGoTlJg

Flo has lots of other great guests on that too from the London music/arts scene, i love it!

*end of thread hijack*

I did this when someone ran a poll on the Libertines' self-titled album. I thought it was a self-indulgent mess. Did the same thing with Alice Coltrane's Ptah, the El-Daoud, thought it was tremendous. I would like to have more of the latter experience.

unperson – what do you think of the Germs, or Circle Jerks, or various other punk bands not fronted by H.R., which take some approach to performance (maybe involving a certain detachment, or irony) other than "fully committed" "theatricality"?

Moon Pix became a landmark album for me, I always want drums and guitar to sound like that.

imho Jim White is the greatest living drummer working within the rock and rock-adjacent field

trying to think abt what I should start with here and those Jane Siberry albums are tempting, otoh I already know I would prob like them

i think (GI) is as good as...hmm...name some art that came out in 1979. The Black Stallion? Apocalypse Now? a Cindy Sherman untitled film still? in that realm.

when Jim White came in my store the day after a Xylouris White show around the corner all i did was grill him about Nina Nastasia. he was cool with it. he loves her too.

I made it all the way through the Pavement album. There was some actual singing on it. Some of it was even OK. I understand why people thought he was imitating Mark E. Smith, but that was only one song out of 14 or 15 so I don't know why people fixate on it. The particular type of distortion on the guitars occasionally reminded me of the first Stooges album, which was a good choice, and as I said before the drummer was better than I expected him to be. I think ultimately metal has ruined this kind of music for me, because I just don't understand why anyone would write and perform songs that feel so...uncommitted, would be the best word. Like, Rob Halford and Ronnie James Dio and Bruce Dickinson (and their respective bands) gave fully committed performances at all times. And that kind of boneheaded theatricality is the minimum acceptable standard for rock performance, in my opinion. You don't even have to look to metal for comparisons, either. Think of Bad Brains. H.R. was fully committed, 100% from start to stop. This "indie" "rock" idea of acting cooler than the thing you're doing (singing a song), of mumbling and strumming and swaying slowly back and forth (whether they are or not, they sound like they are) is abhorrent to me. It sounded unprofessional in a deliberate way — like, it was sometimes mixed so that the vocals were buried, but not on every track, so the ones where they were seemed like mistakes that they didn't care enough to fix. I will never listen to Pavement again; they are Not For Me.

― Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Thursday, 7 March 2024 19:14 (seven minutes ago) link

I feel like a lot of these reflections on indie rock as a whole are 80% an uncharitable caricature and 20% true, but I'm not going to be the guy to drag you kicking and screaming through indie recommendations. Also there are so many sounds underneath the vague "indie rock" umbrella that it's easy to make it mean whatever you want it to.

I've never listened to Moon Pix or a Cat Power album so maybe I will do that next.

xp Yeah I feel like unperson is taking “indie rock sucks” as a starting point, and then trying to retrofit based on that (which is part of what my earlier comment was getting at).

I used to hate Pavement but I came around on them a while ago. You have to let go of what you want them to be and let them be what they are. They don't "groove hard." That's not what they're about. Their rhythmic approach is more like a piece of driftwood on a creek, just lazing along.

unperson – what do you think of the Germs, or Circle Jerks, or various other punk bands not fronted by H.R., which take some approach to performance (maybe involving a certain detachment, or irony) other than "fully committed" "theatricality"?

I hate the Germs. I love the Circle Jerks (saw them on their 10th anniversary tour, which I feel like was billed as a farewell, ha ha). I have also seen Keith Morris with OFF! and would never describe him as uncommitted or ironically detached/distanced from what he's doing. He's a flamethrower.

Do the Pavement dudes come from money? Because I feel like there's a class-based element to my hatred of "indie" "rock", like the music lacks energy because the musicians can just go get jobs at their dads' investment banks if it doesn't take off. Whereas metal bands mostly come from nothing (yes, Lars Ulrich was a rich kid, but James Hetfield absolutely was not) and need the band to succeed if they're going to eat that month. And that tension is audible in the music.

i don't know if i'll talk about it here but i definitely want to listen to more 20th century classical that i haven't heard. i think i appreciate it more now. i used to think a lot of it was too tedious but now that i am old and tedious its just right for me. i've been listening to Elliott Carter all day. i just got some great stuff in. your berg and your webern and your wolpe. tons of those cats.

but i'll totally talk about taylor swift here. maybe.

I think Malkmus was pretty much ordinary middle class. Not sure about the other guys.

one of them was a bartender after pavement.

re Neutral Milk Hotel

I guess I can’t blame this band for the future inane campfire indie to come.

ha tbh I have only listened to that album once, hated it, and I did think "so it's all this guy's fault"

xxxp I mean, what do you think of Bo Diddley? He's pretty slack & relaxed sounding... (and he rules)

I guess if you're using metal as your gold standard of what rock music should sound like, then you're not gonna like a lot of it... but I think you're pointing to qualities in "indie rock" that are present in tons of rock music generally.

by coincidence I listened to a Genesis album (Selling England By The Pound) the other day. the only Genesis I've ever heard before are a couple of the 80s hits and I Can't Dance was all over MTV when I actually watched MTV with any regularity. it was ok! might try a few more

this probably doesn't count because I love Art Bears but I have never listened to Slapp Happy for some reason. I will get on that

i don't think i've ever listened to a Kansas album.

I think you're pointing to qualities in "indie rock" that are present in tons of rock music generally

True. I feel very strongly that rock music should actually rock. When it doesn't, I get upset.

i don't think i've ever listened to a Kansas album.

The first five Kansas albums are all great. They rock. Plus violin solos.

lol what, that would not be my characterization of Bo Diddley.

xo

What's the best Paramore album? I don't think I have ever deliberately listened to Paramore, and they seem like a part of a whole style that is just a blank space for me.

xp How would you characterize him? He's loose! I'm listening to him right now, after S&E – I think they're aesthetically complementary.

Like tell me this isn't in the same musical universe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kMX9TGiQb0

the indie slacker aesthetic probably owes something to the original "hipsters" who were mostly white middle-class kids trying to act like black bluesmen and rock and rollers, so there is sort of a throughline there.

I would just be very bored with rock 'n roll if it all tried to "rock hard" like Judas Priest or something... but at least unperson is consistent I guess (and to be clear, I don't think it's a crime to be turned off by Pavement).

What's the best Paramore album? I don't think I have ever deliberately listened to Paramore, and they seem like a part of a whole style that is just a blank space for me.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, March 7, 2024 3:01 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i am having such a difficult time answering this question. anyway it's not their best imo but if you want the core, the heart sound of paramore, before they started changing things up a lot, brand new eyes

i listened to a bunch of paramore during the pandemic.

I've never listened to Moon Pix or a Cat Power album so maybe I will do that next.

I am very partial to Cat Power's The Greatest, although it was departure from her earlier work.

that live video where she sings that song that she's never done live omg what is that song? its nuts. i guess it fit my mood at the time.

Morrisp -- tight, syncopated, uptempo, and high energy! It rips.

There’s something smarmy about SM’s songwriting voice that keeps me from loving them, but I like them, I like him.

otfm

would amend to "i like them more or less, i appreciate him"

i've never listened to a cat power album but i think i'm good there for awhile. i think i do want to try some current pop people i've never listened to. there are only all of them as far as whole albums go.

I watched that recent Joan Baez doc despite never having listened to one of her albums and it made a pretty big to-do about Diamonds and Rust as a career high point for her. Which turned out to be an excellent suggestion because that album is tremendously lovely.

I really like What Would The Community Think by Cat Power but her other stuff I'm not really into, like Moon Pix is OK but I wouldn't actually put it on ever

I've been a longtime lover of Joni and obviously she's leaps and bounds ahead of Joan from a musical standpoint but in both cases the crystalline singing goes down very nice.

Cat Power's album from last year covering Dylan at Royal Albert Hall is outstanding. I didn't discover it until the very end of 2023 or it probably would have made my lists.

I feel allergic to Joan Baez's voice. I've never been able to get through an album.

"and it made a pretty big to-do about Diamonds and Rust as a career high point for her."

Unperson is totally going to tell you that Judas Priest rocked "Diamonds and Rust" way harder than Joan Baez...

which, you know, they did...

The Thievery Corporation - Sounds From The Thievery Hi Fi

This starts with some nice spacy dub crackles.. the beat then kicks in and it tastes fresh, pour some vodka in your Jamba Juice. Really really well engineered, the spacy keyboards coexist peacefully with the drums.

The random reggae DJ/rapper vocal samples aren’t too obtrusive but they just seem kind of random, like not a lot of thought was put into picking them and they don’t make the tracks sound “cool” or “street”, it’s just the audio equivalent of a shitty looking titles/credits on an otherwise high production tv show opening.

The repetitive beats are slicing and dicing nicely here, I must say, they have great texture. And the space is impressive. This completely shits on DJ Cam, no offense, DJ Cam

There are no surprises here, everything is integrated seamlessly but it’s produced so well that the sounds don’t mush together into a sludge, there’s a big space here that doesn’t get squashed by the beats.

It’s interesting thinking about this stuff in relation to smooth jazz stuff that was more in the air earlier in the decade. I can see how TC may been hostile to smooth jazz as a desecration of whatever Giles Peterson type eclectica they were going for but come on this is smooth af. You could have soprano saxes all over this album and it would sound great!

One thing I still can’t get used to is that sound effect that’s like a cymbal fading in “ssssssSSSSSHHHH”, it always breaks the… organic effect.

“Universal highness” should have just been the 30 second + intro. The rest is boring, not an interesting chord change and no neat sound effects.

This album is almost 80 minutes long.

Ok “scene at the open air market” incorporates some backwards cymbals that sound nice. Nice smooth chipper vibe, they do mix up the hip hop with the latin rhythms really seamlessly. So much space.

I could see myself throwing this on again when I have a bad headache or something. There’s not a lot I can do that with, tbh

“38.45” does some cool chill drum and bass thing, stuff like this that makes me think of the intertwining histories of electro and breaks, it used to confuse me

“Sleeper car” has nice echoing castanets but just a flimsy unconvincing noir mood.

I don’t know, this was pretty fine I guess. Nothing that made me want to turn it off. Production is nice, would like to hear them talk about their process I guess. How they get everything to sound all spacious yet crisp…

love it, nice work

I feel allergic to Joan Baez's voice. I've never been able to get through an album.

I can barely get through a song.

God I love Moon Pix. The sudden delay on the vocal when she sings “American Flag…” and then her guitar slips out of time from the drum loop. Magical.

Community is nice but I don’t love the guitar sound. You Are Free suffers from not-great recording to my ears. She’s great tho, love her to bits

Can’t listen to anything new today but I will do so tomorrow. Great thread. Thanks for that Leckey tip Nick!

Interesting to me ITT how the "slackness" of indie for some signifies privilege, whereas for me it always seemed to read as an expression of a everyperson's rejection of the ideals of mainstream pop music. Slackness as the opposite of slickness. To some folks this sounds like not trying or not caring, but to me it sounds like an evolutionary variant of punk. In the case of Pavement, AFAIK those guys were into hardcore punk early on and that lineage is spiritually there even if they don't sound anything like Bad Brains. I feel like in the 00s "indie" strayed from its punk roots and became more professional, more middle-class, and that stuff (Death Cab, later period Modest Mouse, Vampire Weekend) does bore me to tears.

anyway, carry on, this is a cool thread, fgti please listen to Midnight Marauders

nice thievery corp. rundown! i have the 2xlp here at the store maybe i'll put it on. i know i've never heard it. the orig. vinyl is pricey. though nobody has bought it yet...

xxp fabulous post, 100% cosign

"I feel allergic to Joan Baez's voice. I've never been able to get through an album."

"I can barely get through a song."

i don't listen to any of those trad folk revival people. bob gibson? glenn yarbrough? cisco houston? i don't even listen to odetta and she was rad.

i will listen to judy collins cuz her choice in covers was amazing and ivo taught me to love "my father" and she does a version of my fave alice cooper song.

Does Sandy Denny count as one of those? Cuz Sandy Denny rules and no one should sleep on her

xp Same, Scott, and I kind of wish it weren't so because that music runs in my family and I inherited records of it. I can't even really listen to Pete Seeger.

xp she does not count <3

Burl Ives ftw

Does Sandy Denny count as one of those?

Absolutely, categorically NO!

Brit folk is a different animal and I love Sandy Denny

I don't know any of those American folk artists, never been interested in them, it's all a bit too Pete Seeger.

Most of the folk music I don't like is from the "folk revival" school, where there was this fairly deliberate and didactic effort to stitch together an "American folk music" with political undertones. Most of that music is unfortunately boring and dreary.

In honor of unperson...

Dio - Holy Diver (2022 Remaster)

First track has pretty good riffs! And ridiculous vox! ("You've got the Pow-AH! You are the Fiy-AH!"). The driving pace and lack of dynamics are wearying on my ears...

Track 2 (the title track) is cooler... more Sabbath-like(?) The vocals are also easier to take; more in the realm of what I think of as standard hard-rock vocals of the era, whatever that is (note: I don't know exactly when this album was first released, I didn't look it up before listening). The drum fills are kinda funny... hard not to picture Spinal Tap in my mind's eye. Nice solo! "Ride the tiger / You can see his sweat, but you know he's clean" is a good couplet.

Track 3 ("Gypsy") is kinda G'NR like? The vox remind me more of AC/DC this time around. I like the slightly heavier "bottom" on this number (big bottom, my gal's got 'em)... The solo is somewhat dirtier, I dig that too.

"Caught in the Middle" – best groove yet! It actually swings. I like the verse melody, too... anthemic, with a clean vocal. I dig the whole approach (guess it's "poppier" than the others?). I turned up the volume on this song.

"Don't Talk to Strangers" – LOL at the opening whisper. This mid-tempo power ballad is clearly a sensitive warning to us a––oh shit, it's kicking into gear! Yeah, throw the horns up!

"Straight Through the Heart" – another big bottom. I like the "space" in the arrangement when everything drops out but the drums. Nice riffage in the chorus.

The rest was ok, I kind of lost interest...

when post punk, hardcore and college rock evolved towards what came to be known as "indie rock," it was an activity that scions of fancy upper crust families could by the mid 80s pursue, and I don't think that occurred in any american musical idiom beforehand, although somebody please gimme some examples other than Tina Weymouth if I am in error. Any american popular music, or semi-popular music, or experimental or underground shit of any consequence was produced by working class people before the 1980s, and it's still overwhelmingly so that musical artists/musicians outside of indie rock are composed of people without fancy family money since then.

Unperson is on point when he suggests that many indie rock big shots have the benefit of a safety net: many of the rigid ethics born of indie labels of the 80s and which many of those guys continue to hew to are afforded by the fact that they don't have to make decisions or compromise or make sacrifices that a metal guy or a hip-hop guy or a pop artist may feel like they have to.

He is also on point re: the laggardly drumming on Pavement records: Steve West far moreso than Gary Young, who isn't nearly Bill Bruford-esque as he should be. I don't think the haphazard, not trying hard quality of Pavement and many other indie acts of the time are born from that same "I don't have to try because I'm rich" quality; more out of "80s rock was so careerist, and I/we want to avoid that."

Scott if you’re looking for a 20th c sheet music masterpiece, look no further than Ives Concord Sonata. I rate it as highly as any film or novel or sculpture you could name, it’s the best thing.

My favourite performance of it is actually on YouTube, one sec:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDNPpsUaVYo

I don't think the haphazard, not trying hard quality of Pavement and many other indie acts of the time are born from that same "I don't have to try because I'm rich" quality; more out of "80s rock was so careerist, and I/we want to avoid that."

yep this

"Does Sandy Denny count as one of those? Cuz Sandy Denny rules and no one should sleep on her"

oh no no she is goddess. we should all have tattoos of her close to our hearts.

otm

i like the country versions though. i love listening to tennessee ernie ford and johnny horton doing folk songs. they were great! and trad.

Most of the folk music I don't like is from the "folk revival" school, where there was this fairly deliberate and didactic effort to stitch together an "American folk music" with political undertones. Most of that music is unfortunately boring and dreary.

Phil Ochs rules though

I don't think the haphazard, not trying hard quality of Pavement and many other indie acts of the time are born from that same "I don't have to try because I'm rich" quality; more out of "80s rock was so careerist, and I/we want to avoid that."

I often (not always) interpreted it as an ironic pose, sometimes (but by no means always) covering up for a lack of talent or creativity.

hell i'll listen to a frankie laine folk ballad album too. i love him. i think he made some. or connie francis!

i like the country versions though. i love listening to tennessee ernie ford and johnny horton doing folk songs. they were great! and trad

Yes, the songs are great, the execution not so much. What about Jean Ritchie? Never heard her and I get her mixed up with Jean Redpath, who is a different thing I suppose.

jean ritchie was good. her voice was cool.

but, in general, folk done by country people just kinda slays that seeger/baez school. just listen to a Stoneman family album and you are fine.

"Scott if you’re looking for a 20th c sheet music masterpiece, look no further than Ives Concord Sonata."

i was going to bring some ives home with me tonight! i dig him. he's from my neck of the woods. along with slacker thurston moore and folk icons youth of today.

What I can tell you about Pavement is that I went to see them when they first came to the UK (1992?), having read about how indebted they were to Faust and thus expecting something at least a little challenging, only to be confronted by what looked like a bunch of floppy-fringed rich kids churning out the most plodding and smug and unadventurous shite I'd ever had the misfortune to hear. I didn't like it.

Anyway I know they're widely worshipped but I've held that night against them ever since. They also had a 'wacky' co-drummer. I don't like wacky drummers either. This was the era when the last vestiges of the jangly Byrds influence was being excised from indie rock in favour of Lou Reed-isms, which had been there before obviously but it all started to drag and plod and I felt weary just hearing it.

Maybe I should give them a re-listen?

tbf they could be really shit live back then. when they reformed I skipped the first round of reunion gigs and took a lot of persuading to see them 2 years ago. I saw them 3 times in the 90s and they were pretty terrible 2 out of 3 of them - and the 3rd time was just before they split and seemed to be having a miserable time even if musically they were a bit more together

i never saw them. i just like the records.

the worst hyped band i ever saw was the strokes. before the first album came out. they sounded like a madchester band not like television. i had no idea what people were raving about.

They're rich kids!! (j/k)

One of the many bands I Never Got.

more like The Jokes, rite

so much indie rock that gets pushed these days is an NPR slurry, i miss Camper Van Beethoven types, or maybe something like HOT SNAKES.

i liked the Strokes' first album well enough but it got old vv fast and i'd be cool never hearing it again.

I never understood the Strokes at all, the music felt like it had all the blood drained out of it

Any american popular music, or semi-popular music, or experimental or underground shit of any consequence was produced by working class people before the 1980s

this is a ridiculous statement. Miles Davis, for ex.

The Modern Age EP sounded great when it came out, then when Is This It came out I instantly lost interest, it all sounded flat and tinny and bloodless, yup. EP still good though.

xp or Mayo Thompson, one of the most "consequential" experimental/underground rock figures of the '60s (...I think he had a fairly well-off upbringing, for whatever it matters).

Beyond that, I don't even follow the argument... what happened in the '80s where suddenly only "rich kids" (whoever those are, no one is named) had the luxury of being experimental, and suddenly it became bad? What was Black Flag's "fallback plan"? The whole point of the indie circuit was that you could work your butt off and tour and release albums that sounded like what you wanted them to sound like, not trying to be Bon Jovi or somebody, and there was a label/club infrastructure for that.

This concert ad just popped up on my FB. I’ve never heard *of* him let alone heard one of his 25 (!) albums, so I’m taking it as an omen and will choose one tonight, when I’m in the proper frame of mind. He’s apparently smooth jazz.

Over the course of crafting a 25-album catalog and architecting nearly 40 Billboard No. 1 singles as a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer, Brian Culbertson has charted a groundbreaking course in music.

Lou Reed's dad ran an accounting firm

haha and half of The Misfits went back to work at their dad's company to pay off the band debts

Black Flag had no backup plan aside from Ginn who was comfortable upper-middle-class

Roy Acuff's grandfather was a senator

"The whole point of the indie circuit was that you could work your butt off and tour and release albums that sounded like what you wanted them to sound like, not trying to be Bon Jovi or somebody, and there was a label/club infrastructure for that."

not to mention that hardly any of these people thought they would be doing it forever! or as a career! sometimes it happened. but mostly it didn't.

a lot of college dropouts just saying fuggit i'll go on tour and have some fun in the 80s. little did they know the 21st century reunion industrial complex would have them getting their flabby 50-year-old butts off the couch and off to summer euro shed tours for friggin' ever.

as if death metal bands in the 80s thought if they worked hard enough they could make a living as metal gods and they wouldn't have to go back to the potash mines. nobody thought that far ahead. they were just happy to be shredding in front of people.

why is this now another ilm chat opinions thread, more reportage please, oh boy someone doesn’t get the strokes

The Modern Age EP sounded great when it came out, then when Is This It came out I instantly lost interest, it all sounded flat and tinny and bloodless, yup. EP still good though.

Jane Siberry - The Walking

Wow, the first thing you hear on the album is this reedy, untrained voice, just naked and out there: “There’s a red leaf that falls from a purple tree, it falls, it floats down”. I’m bracing myself for an hour of manic pixie dream-girl pop. My closest reference points here is Kate Bush and i recently gave away my only Kate Bush record.
Okay, a minute into the song there are finally some other instruments, and it sounds like mid-career Talk Talk is her backing band, and whoa the song is suddenly taking all kinds of unexpected turns and not standing still in any one place for long. And now at 3 minutes in there are these whimsical horn lines. Make that *synth* horns (this is 1987 after all). She keeps you on your toes, i’ll give her that. I was worried that a 9 minute opening song would be a slog, but it’s really like 36 15-second songs all segued together. I bet Eleanor Friedberger slept with this album under her pillow in junior high. This feels like “art” in the sense that I don’t think anyone could teach you how to write songs like this — you’d need to have unfettered access to your subconscious or be able to lucid dream.

The second song, “Red High Heels” seems like it has a more traditional song structure so far, it’s got a semblance of a regular chorus, but the verses(?) have a melodic line that is entirely unpredictable. And there are passages where the rhythm and time signature shifts around and unbalances you.

“Goodbye” sounds like it’s going to be a spacey ballad, but i don’t trust it to stay put. This could be the most Kate-Bush-like song, and also the most 80’s.

“Ingrid (and the Footman)” feels like it was her concession to the A&R guy pressuring her for something he could get on the radio. Bigger production, lots more studio polish, some backing vocals. I haven’t been paying close attention to the lyrics, but i’m suddenly realizing this may be an album that’s all about the lyrics. Except that now the lyrics on this polished song have turned into her literally singing “yada yada yada…” The melody still leaps and swoops like it's outsider art.

“Lena Is a White Table” - yeah i definitely should have been paying attention to the lyrics, the titles alone tell you that. As i’m listening I keep involuntarily picturing all the modern dance routines that must have been choreographed to this album over the years.

“The Walking (And Constantly)” starts off like a Bonnie Tyler power ballad but quickly gets ethereal. When her voice lifts into the higher register, it never fails to kick the song up a notch. The drums on this album are the secret weapon to prevent you from getting too comfortable - i bet this was fun to see performed live. Beautiful melody on this one. I wonder if she wasn’t worried that album title was too close to “The Dreaming” (surely critics were already comparing her to Kate Bush)

“The Lobby” is the slowest song yet… this one sounds like one of those minor transition songs from a musical (i.e. the part where you normally glance at the program to count how many songs are left before intermission). The horn fanfare adds a little variety, but this one is draggy. It feels twice as long as its 6-minute run time.

“The Bird In the Gravel” has some Laurie Anderson influence. There are spoken word interludes. The live show of this album must have been amazing - it feels like it was conceived to be performed on a stage, with a full cast.

Good suggestion, fgti — this is clearly the kind of album that benefits from close listening, probably actively resists passive listening.

(And also, now I know that Jane Siberry is not in fact the singer of the 90's hit "I Kissed A Girl")

My nomination, btw, is for someone to review Força Bruta by Jorge Ben.

wow, you make me want to listen to jane siberry! i kinda always thought of her as the proto-tori and i probably have unfairly avoided her records after seeing the speckless sky in every dollar bin in every record store for the past 30 years. but way to entice!

For anyone interested, Brian Culbertson is not jazz at all but new age, more like a glossier George Winston. I listened to “The Trilogy – Part 2: Blue = Melancholy.” Relentlessly pretty (and glacially paced) piano with programmed percussion and occasional washes of guitar and whooshes of wordless vocal. I had no idea stuff like this was still popular in 2024. He apparently has some “funky” releases as well, but I’m not going there.

Thanks for listening enochroot! I def recommend coming to The Walking after the two albums previous… it feels somewhat like an inversion of what came before; she had a minor hit in Canada and it’s not as weird as O Superman but it’s… close! as minor hit singles go

Gordon Raphael (producer of Is This It) is perhaps the most brilliant producer who never got the recognition he deserves. Is This It has all the sonics of a metal record but it’s mixed with resolute hard panning and tonnes of mono, it expands and contracts with metric precision. Nothing splashes across the stereo field, it’s so calculated and every element perfectly placed, all the noise is tamed by digital automation. There’s no record like it and you might not like it but it’s a technical marvel. Every other rock album sounds messy in comparison, it’s using the most aggressive sounds imaginable but they’re tidied up in a computer so brilliantly, god I love that album. The preceding EP doesn’t haven’t the same magic.

Lol this is so backwards. The EP was tinny, they perfected the sound on the album.

also prefer the EP versions. maybe like the album slightly more than you but not a lot, can't imagine choosing to listen to it. have a friend who is still a huge Strokes fan so I hear their songs when we are back at our friend's flat after the pub anyway

Taylor Swift - 1989

"Welcome To New York"

A VERY first track first track. Tourism board material. Not great? I dunno. She must have been really excited to be in New York. I can dig it. It’s also not about a guy! Which is noteworthy.

"Blank Space"

Fatalism. She knows it’s over before it starts. People say she’s insane. This song is pretty awesome. I have to admit. It’s like the perfect culmination of every trick in Shania Twain’s very large book of tricks. A nightmare dressed like a daydream! I’m totally stealing that. “AND YOU LOVE THE GAME!” That echo? I love that echo. If you can project vulnerability and still sound triumphant you will be rich and people will be jumping on their beds singing into hairbrushes across the globe. In my opinion.

"Style"

I have known “Blank Space”. I was friends with “Blank Space”. “Style” is no “Blank Space”. It’s okay though. It brings James Dean into the 21st century. That little mumblepuss had no idea! Did he? Maybe he did. He had someone take iconic black & white pictures of him 24 hours a day. Kinda like Ian Curtis.

"Out Of The Woods"

Lots of echo! I guess that’s her thing. Hey, it worked for New Kids On The Block. Breathy echo. The couch. Polaroids. Screaming color. The woods. December. Furniture. Paper airplanes. 20 stitches. Hospital rooms. Monsters. Trees. There is a lot going on here. You can’t fault the construction though. It’s sturdy. It’s a song made out of wood. So, it makes sense.

"All You Had To Do Was Stay"

More bouncing on the bed triumphalism. She’s sad but I don’t buy it because she’s building these shiny, sturdy Teutonic anthems celebrating her own strength like it ain’t no thing. Not a great one.

"Shake It Off"

I dunno. What do I even say? It’s faster than I remember. This song, Katy Perry, and Meghan Trainor were the soundtrack to my morning drive to my kids’ school when they were young. The same songs on the horrible robo-station EVERY morning for YEARS. It was crazy. They never stopped playing them. The Spice Girls break in this song hasn’t aged well but whatever. This song is built like a friggin’ tank. You could drop this song on Russia and Putin would be in shackles by morning. It’s Late Capitalism and Peak Oil and the Marshall Plan all rolled into a bright blonde ball. Still not as good as “Blank Space” though.

"I Wish You Would"

She says the word “hear” like a baby does. This is a dance routine at the mall. She can do catchy in her sleep.

"Bad Blood"

This song is brutal. Deep cuts. Wounds. Scars. Knives. Bullet holes. Damn. She wrote this with Kendrick Lamar!!?? I had no idea. This is the only song as good as “Blank Space”. It’s as perfect as pop gets!

"Wildest Dreams"

Made for television. Glossy teen television drama. Euphoria. Something like that.

"How You Get The Girl"

I’ve been thinking about the words girl and boy. I remember watching Friends and How I Met Your Mother with my kids when they were pretty young and it struck me how these adults always used the pop music terms boy and girl and never said man or woman. Like they were kids forever. Which is what a lot of pop music is obviously. Being a kid forever. And now I think it’s kinda normal for younger people to use those words? Am I wrong? I didn’t grow up in that world. When you were an adult you were doomed to adulthood. Which could be a little depressing. You can be a kid forever with Taylor. She was 25 when she made this album? She could be 12 on a song like this. She could be Debbie Gibson. Who was 16 when she hit it big. Debbie is probably close to my age. She’s not a girl anymore.

"This Love"

I forgot I was actually listening to this song when it was playing. It will space you out. You will not remember it. You will give Taylor all your money. You will vote for Joe Biden. Zzzzzzz………….

"I Know Places"

Did she invent the way she says the word “find”? Because so many female popsters do it and I don’t know if Taylor was first. Foiiind. It’s a hard way to say a really easy word. It’s almost like the way that Bjork would say something.

"Clean"

I swear I thought she said “like a Weinsteined dress” and I went ewww did she meet Harvey!!?? But she didn’t say that. This is really really good songwriting. You could teach a class on this song. For real! I mean it. Writers should hear it. Alcoholic writers. Damn. That is a top-notch ballad. A+. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it. I really only knew “Bad Blood” and “Shake It Off”. This is not a song sung by a 12 year old. Or a 25 year old going on 16. A woman wrote this song! Haha! Sorry. I can’t help it. I like adults. I mean, I like kid pop too. It’s all good.

"Wonderland"

I can’t even keep up with all the fucking hooks on this fucking record. Holy crap. That “ay ay ay” almost feels like a nod to Cranberries. No doubt Taylor is a Cranberries fan, right?

"You Are In Love"

Burnt toast. That’s what I get from this song. Is this song needed after FOURTEEN slabs of hook heaven? Maybe not. She just couldn’t help herself.

"New Romantics"

This is dope. I was hoping for some good dance beats. This is really the first great dance rhythm. There must be some good remixes of this. Has there ever been someone so addicted to being heartbroken? Just ecstatic about feeling bad! It’s a little nuts. But, hey, I used to dance with tears in my eyes to Ultravox. So, there ya go. Nice one, Taylor.

The pull quote:

If you can project vulnerability and still sound triumphant you will be rich and people will be jumping on their beds singing into hairbrushes across the globe.

amazing, scott *applause*

and yeah I love "Clean", my fave deep cut on that one

"clean" is top ten t swift

Wow I can't believe that scott seward made me want to listen to Taylor Swift, what is life

haha!

i listened to the original recipe, by the way. not the new version. don't really know how much of a difference there is.

when she goes “and you love the game” in blank space it is the most joyous mischievous feeling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtSVwrYdJwg

Not kidding at all but I have thought for years that Taylor could do a really great cover of “cut your hair”

1. I had never listened to Split Enz other than "I got you" on the radio/MTV, and today listened to Mental Notes and Second Thoughts: man, did they ever love Roxy Music. Did they have a big brother/little brother problem, when the little brother writes and sings the big hit, has a huge hit that everyone alive in 1987 heard with his next band, and the big brother comes hat in hand, "uh, let me do this with you (goddamn, it's humiliating to beg my piece of shit little brother for this)"…

2. I had never listened to Nellie Mckay until earlier this week: most of the time, artists in thrall to the great american songbook are like Michael Feinstein or John Pizzarelli, but she obviously appreciates later kinds of music and invests her songs with energy as such…I 'm sorry she hasn't been more successful…

i like nellie a lot. she gave a talk at a local library and spent an hour comically evading the interviewer's questions. she also said she fell asleep in her parking spot and got a parking ticket while she was in the car!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS2D5KozDg4

OK, I'm listening to Yanni's "Live at the Acropolis" now. I listen to some "new age" music but it's mostly kind of like... Berlin school-adjacent stuff. And this isn't, at all. I thought there would be pan pipes, or synthesizers, or something. There's definitely prog-rock time signatures but mostly it sounds like, I don't know. Crossover classical or something. There was this jazz fusion bass solo somewhere in there, but it's about the only solo I noticed. A lot of strings. Maybe a few Mannheim Steamroller-isms, but the strings are just way more prominent to my ears. I kind of thought of this stuff as being like "Synth Lords Live at the Acropolis" or whatever that Adult Swim sketch was like. And the percussionist is like... a tabla player or something. Oh, wait, now we're doing a tabla solo. Does he have someone out there playing a sruti box too? Haha.

that's getting into john tesh territory. i feel like i'm in safer hands with kitaro.

for real. the bass player kind of reminds me of mike gordon from phish! and one of the violinists reminds me a bit of sugarcane harris from the pure food and drug act. overall though i remember yanni and john tesh getting a lot of hate in the 90s and at least in yanni's case i'm not sure why... it's just kind of "there". i'm really struggling to have any sort of opinion on this record... i've already mostly forgotten it exists.

I listened to the first three Little Feat albums - a band I have, to the best of my knowledge, never heard before. Snap verdicts:

s/t - I like this, it's basically the Band played by the Rolling Stones and what's not to like about that? Great guitar playing. It's only let down by the bizarrely undercooked version of "Willin'" and the boring Howlin' Wolf medley, both of which sound like they belong on different albums.

Sailin' Shoes - well it has a good version of "Willin'" but beyond that I didn't like this as much. It's very well played - the rhythm section is great - and it's clever but I didn't think the songwriting was very memorable.

Dixie Chicken - I found this bland and really not the sort of thing I've got much interest in listening too. Fantastic drummer though!

i hate to say it because i'll sound like a phish fan but their double live album is their best album. to me. its exciting!

Best Little Feat thing is the 73/74 Ultrasonic Studios radio broadcasts. I like one better than the other (the one where they open by referring to Mo Ostin as "Chairman Mo" before launching into Apolitical Blues), but can never remember which one it is.

I finally listened to an ATCQ album, Midnight Marauders, never listened to them before

My intense rap obsession was just before this album I don’t know why I missed The Low End Theory entirely

I want to listen again, I feel like I was just slapped in the face with the Iliad or something. How many MPCs sold because of this thing? How many people became MCs as a result? Idk this was a lot to just listen to, I knew it was supposed to be good I didn’t know it was This Good

it is one of the very best albums ever made

Also, am I wrong or has Matt Berry based his whole look on Lowell George?

Midnight Marauders is a big step up from TLET imo

Speaking of rap, I've spent the week marinating in Enter The Wu-Tang for the first time. Yeah um

this probably doesn't count because I love Art Bears but I have never listened to Slapp Happy for some reason. I will get on that

― Colonel Poo, Thursday, 7 March 2024 19:58 bookmarkflaglink

I listened to Sort Of by Slapp Happy. I liked it! I also did not realise until now that Blue Flower by Mazzy Star was a cover. I didn't much like the Henry Cow I've listened to so not sure what their other stuff will be like but will give it a go

Oh wow, Midnight Marauders is so incredible.

Idk why recently but I've had a craving to check out some over-the-top fantasy-based Prog Metal, but I was pointed towards 'Into The Electric Castle' by Aryeon and shall report back.

That seems to be a 2 hour rock opera, so good luck. On the plus side it features a vocal appearance from Fish as 'Highlander'.

slapp happy's their other stuff is a lot more like sort of than like henry cow.

gotta be honest, when i want over the top fantasy based metal i tend to go more for euro power metal. something like domine's "stormbringer ruler: the legend of the power supreme"

Blind Guardian seems to be lots of folks' pick, but I'm a Rhapsody of Fire guy.

I loved Ayreon in high school (I was that kind of kid), but in my advanced age I go back to Iron Maiden's "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" for epic fantasy metal.

Iron Maiden would be a good one of these for me to do. I don't think I like them but tbh have never really listened to them, have heard maybe 3 of their songs?

Powerslave is kind of the most Iron Maiden ass Iron Maiden album I think, it's like an entire 3rd grade history/literature curriculum turned into an entire album of fist pumping metal. But I like Seventh Son better, it's like they took just the plot summary from the back cover of a book from the middle of some random fantasy series and turned that into an entire album of fist pumping metal.

Iron Maiden are amazing

I need to relisten to Slayer. I only listened to Reign In Blood once about a decade ago and thought “these guys needed to rehearse more if they wanted to pull this off, they sound so sloppy”. Maybe my mind has changed

that's a good one for me as well

Try South of Heaven or Seasons in the Abyss instead. They're a little more polished, but they still have the power and aggression you want from Slayer.

And yeah, if you're gonna listen to just one Iron Maiden album (my controversial opinion is that Iron Maiden are not actually a great album band, but are one of the greatest live acts ever), it should probably be Powerslave just to see if you make it through "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" with your sanity intact.

The Dwight Yoakam did not really grab me on first listen. It wasn't bad, but much like with a lot of Springsteen, I found myself thinking it was good while not feeling it. The songwriting is pretty strong and the lyrics have some interesting twists on typical country lyrics. Will try to give it a more focused listen and offer more thoughts.

Separately, I would like to propose someone else ITT tackle an album by an artist that I believe has never been mentioned before on ILM -- Larry Sparks. I would either suggest John Deere Tractor or Silver Reflections, and if you need any convincing just listen to either the title track of the first one or Blue Virginia Blues from the second.

someone who hasn't listened to a new hip-hop album this decade should listen to playboi carti's whole lotta red plz

I did announce I'd be listening to the Asha Bosle compilation. Having played some of it though I can't think of anything much to say about it other than "oh yeah this kind of thing, she has a very nice voice".

So instead I decided on NRBQ - At Yankee Stadium. This is a band that the likes of Byron Coley would rave about back in the day but I'd never really heard. I was expecting something kind of swampy, Dr John meets Little Feat meets The Band. In reality they're more of a power pop band! For the first half of the album anyway - you could mistake some of it for The Raspberries filtered through those American rock-soul bands of the era like J. Geils or Southside Johnny, all played by guys with proper jazz chops. Maybe it was the era (late 70s)?

It's actually really good, does this album have better songs than the others or did they keep the quality up? I can kind of see why they never got bigger than being a respected cult act though, it's too eclectic for mass appeal. Then again you could say the same thing about Todd Rundgren and he was popular. But he was pretty image-conscious, and these guys looked like a bunch of dads, so that was probably the difference.

So the verdict on NRBQ is (pretty much) a thumbs up!

great band yeah

Yankee Stadium is peak NRBQ. They have the same quality on a few other releases (1977 - 1980), but the signal-to-noise ratio drops off pretty quickly. There are several times I've had their records on at home, and my wife says "is this a children's album?"

its weird, i love metal but i do not love iron maiden. i like those first two albums but i don't even know if i've made it through an entire album after those. maybe i should listen to one! i like "the trooper". i even reviewed a bruce dickinson album for a metal magazine once. my brother used to bring their stuff home from his job at record world. i loved the covers. he would get the 12-inch singles too. but i was more fascinated by the motorhead albums he brought home. they were insane to me. at the time 1979/1980 all i wanted to hear was judas priest and black sabbath though. and rush.

i was actually thinking i should listen to a devo album for this thread. i know for a fact that i have never listened to an entire album by them. i mean obviously i know what devo sound like but maybe the entire album experience would be different.

terry of nrbq has been a good customer of mine over the years. he's fun to talk to. he's a weirdo. he loves weird 45s. he got the test pressing of one of their latter-day records (2014) with the newer line-up from germany and he played it at the store with me for the first time to hear how it sounded. that was fun. and he also introduced me to legendary record collector and nrbq drummer tom ardolino before he passed away. which was cool. i think byron got tom's records. speaking of byron. if you ever get a chance to listen to tom's Unknown Brain album i highly recommend it. tape recordings he made when he was a kid.

Tom T. Hall - In Search of a Song

I'd been interested in hearing one of Hall's records since his death a couple of years ago, and this 1971 album seemed to be his most highly regarded.

Lyrically, Hall relays stories and anecdotes he's picked up, memories, and some aphoristic parables. A number of songs end with a meta-commentary about how he ended up writing the very song you're listening to, which might have been too-clever in someone else's hands. It struck me as unusual that he often used an ABAB rhyme scheme; without it perhaps the words might have risked being doggerel. I tried to think of who else at the time outside of the country genre was writing about these sort of quotidian details and scenes: John Prine, Paul Simon sometimes, Ray Davies maybe?

As you'd expect, the songs are based on simple I - IV - V progressions with an occasional key change up a tone for the final verse to goose the song along, but when he tosses in a iv (on "Tulsa Telephone Book") or a ♭VII ("Kentucky, February 27, 1971") it adds some unexpected emotional colour. The songs kept up a peppy tempo but a slower, less arranged track might have made for a bit of variety.

I was unprepared for the mix: two completely discreet instrumental arrangements in either speaker with Tom alone dead-centre in a haze of reverb. Sometimes an instrument would bounce from one speaker to the other. Arrangements are provided by a low-key small group but once in a while there'd be a touch of vibes or dobro to fill things out. Didn't notice any strings or choirs. Overdubs of church organ (at the end of "The Little Lady Preacher") and electric sitar (in "L.A. Blues", not a Stooges cover) seem to be used for satirical purposes.

Great thread.

I like the second half of Stop Breathin, kinda Radiohead-y for a bit?

― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Thursday, March 7, 2024 11:13 AM (one week ago)

this bit rips CAN's "Sing Swan Song" off pretty shamelessly...

(also i don't think Radiohead had any cred at the time of CR,CR... unless you think "Creep" was influential lol)

I have a huge blind spot that I need help with: Teenage Fanclub.

I only know a few songs from my college radio days "Everything Flows" (awesome/great), "The Concept" & "Star Song" (very listenable/good) and then "What You Do To Me" which I get is like a Big Star homage but never really clicked with me. I saw them open for the Afghan Whigs in 1991 or 1992 and they didn't leave any impression with their live show, it was kinda sloppy and underwhelming.

From what I understand they were a band with several prominent songwriters and they have a deep catalog, but I have not heard any of their records in full and maybe it's time to correct that.

[catching up]: I also have never heard a Cat Power full-length EXCEPT the Covers Record (Michael Hurley x2, Nina Simone, Smog, VU, "Sea Of Love", et al) but I do know her early singles and was "lucky" to see her with Mick & Jim from The Dirty 3... but she was a wreck, it took her about 20mins to finish a song... super painful to watch. But "Moon Pix" has 3 very good songs ("XBones Style" & "Colour & The Kids" & "Metal Heart") so that has to be one of her better records.

Wait, wasn't there another thread like this one? My old neighbor let me borrow his Alice Cooper records after telling me I *had* to hear them and he seemed like a decent enough guy and they were NOTHING like I thought they'd be.

This week I listened to both of Alice Cooper (band)'s 1971 LPs: Love It To Death & Killer, borrowed from an old head in the hood. Huge blindspot for me.

Compared to my "canonical analogues" of this era (Sticky Fingers, Hunky Dory, Meddle, IV/Zoso, #1 Record, Every Picture..., et. al.), I was genuinely surprised at how catchy and genre-less both these records are. Definitely some Detroit (Stooges/MC5) microflora seeping through at times, some southern-fried boogie/glam, some post-Altamont proggy psych, but honestly a lot more proto-punk than the proto-metal I expected.

4 bags of popcorn and maybe a little spidery eyeliner to add some drama.

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Friday, May 12, 2023 12:26 PM (ten months ago)

what was the last 'classic album' you got and were knocked out by?

Hi Scott.

First thing first. Thanks for your contributions to this board!

Although I have been in a slump lately with new music, I will try to find something new and report back.

If you haven't listened to Dumptruck, please give For The Country and Positively a try!!

i guess i didn't think that thread was always things that people hadn't heard before. and i wanted this thread to be a little more deliberate. or pre-meditated. choosing something to listen to that might not be the thing you ordinarily listen to as well maybe. and hopefully being surprised by something. people have really written some great stuff on here! kudos to all.

i love tom t. hall by the way! one of my fave songwriters.

if anyone here hasn't heard a 70s mickey newbury album, you should give one a try. they are very unique. i am always floored by his songs. I Came To Hear The Music/Lovers are two mid-70s records that don't get a lot of ink anymore probably but are so cool.

also: if you have never listened to him, David Ackles. i love him to bits. i can't believe that nobody has done a David Ackles jukebox musical but maybe he's just a little too off-center.

x-post

you are welcome! i will give dumptruck a try. i never really listened to them! i always think of big dipper when i think of dumptruck. probably just saw them in the D section together a lot in the 80s.

the 80s band that i became a BIG fan of late in life/21st century was Love Tractor. I had no idea! nobody told me how awesome those early records were. sometimes they almost reminded me of an american durutti column or something. or something that should have been on Factory anyway. i think i just assumed they were twangy or like the Dbs.

i mean i love Dbs and Pylon and REM and Lets Active obviously but i missed that band all throughout the 80s and 90s. better late than never.

if anyone here hasn't heard a 70s mickey newbury album, you should give one a try. they are very unique. i am always floored by his songs. I Came To Hear The Music/Lovers are two mid-70s records that don't get a lot of ink anymore probably but are so cool.

Agreed (and I too love your posts to this thread scott) but also people ought not sleep on later newbury stuff. Kind of amazes me that A Long Road Home is from 2002.

Tim, are you a David Ackles fan?

he only had four albums. broadway/cabaret-style songs. with an old-fashioned sensibility that might seem maudlin or overly sentimental but his lyrics are sneaky and can be pretty dark. he reminds me of sherwood anderson a little bit. or early john o'hara. he isn't bitter though.

this song breaks my heart every time. i'm such a sap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlKBfMxHA7E

Big Dipper was also from Boston and I think that they may have shared a band member or two.

Probably a toss up for me between For The Country and Big Plans for Everybody...

Thanks to man alive I listened to the two Larry Sparks albums they recommended, thank you man alive. I listened to and played a lot of bluegrass fiddle as a kid and enjoyed them, interesting not-Nashville production (or maybe it was? and just of its time, but the production was oddball in an appealing way). Title track of John Deer Tractor set me up for a consistently slant approach to the genre but it was not so, excellent standard bluegrass music and I look forward to listening again and hearing more. Larry is a fabulous guitarist/mandolinist

I have a huge blind spot that I need help with: Teenage Fanclub.

I only know a few songs from my college radio days "Everything Flows" (awesome/great), "The Concept" & "Star Song" (very listenable/good) and then "What You Do To Me" which I get is like a Big Star homage but never really clicked with me.

OK so Everything Flows is off their 1st album A Catholic Education which is OK but kinda patchy

The other 3 songs you mention are from Bandwagonesque which is their 2nd album and usually thought of as their most "classic" album, so maybe go for that one first

After that I would recommend Grand Prix as their other "classic" album

scott please listen to mellon collie in full

i listened to let it bleed a few weeks ago for the first time and i was a bit surprised just how bluesy and rootsy it is (i'm really unfamiliar with the stones). really not my thing at all past "gimme shelter" and "you can't always get what you want"

Re: Teenage Fanclub, Songs from Northern Britain and Man-Made are just as good, they have a lot of great albums!

2nd time this morning I have seen mention of Larry Sparks, who I had never heard of before today

I've heard of him via Soulseek when I was downloading Sparks albums :) Ditto for Beachwood Sparks

I decided to listen to a Taylor Swift album for the first time, so I picked her first one. I thought it was good! I didn't think it was anything particularly special compared to my other favorite country albums in the last couple decades, but it's a good listen. The only other Taylor Swift I've really heard were a few of the inescapable singles, when I've had a chance to listen to anything escapable I escaped.

(also i don't think Radiohead had any cred at the time of CR,CR... unless you think "Creep" was influential lol)

Oh yeah, I meant this in an anachronistic sense, like it coincidentally reminded me of later Radiohead for a few bars.

Are you familiar with CAN? Please listen to Ege Bamyasi and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for the TFC recs everyone, I'll jam some later this afternoon.

You know Can has never clicked for me, even though I should love it on paper + I love Neu and other krautrock + I love Jaki and recently got super into his late period percussion ensemble Drums Off Chaos (highly recommended!). I had Ege Bamyasi on cd but honestly haven't heard it for, uh, over 15 years. I put Tago Mago on sometime in the last year but wasn't in the right headspace to really take it in. So I'll listen to both today.

Post-Damo Suzuki CAN doesn't get quite as much love, but I think it's just as worthwhile to check out, these albums are a bit more song focused and funky as opposed to the loose psychedelic jam vibes of the Damo years. I highly recommend Soon Over Babaluma, Landed, and Saw Delight.

Can - Ege Bamyasi

Ok Jaki sounds amazing on this so far. The sparseness of the kick drum in the busy funk on Pinch, the tightness and the jazz touch on the ride cymbal crashes on Sing Swan Song, so good.

Love the interlocking bass/keyboard groove in 7 on One More Night, and the knife scrapes. I know this isn't a fresh take, but I like the reverse of the usual focus, how the vocals act as a sort of textural element to add some variation to the music.

Vitamin C, of course I know this from samples.

Soup is funky, some crazy left hand snare business. Not as into the jam/freak out section but the tones are pretty insane for 1972.

I'm So Green is almost a little too normal? Although that kinda highlights the weirdness even more. There's the thinnest line separating this from terrible hippie jam nonsense (a little dissonance, a little danger, and Jaki?).

Spoon is a nice simmer, maybe the closest it gets to motorik? Cool beat. Seems like it could go on for another 7 minutes.

i kinda love all can. landed and saw delight are so amazing.

"scott please listen to mellon collie in full"

oh man i would have to be in a good mood. maybe though. ned won't see what i write, right? isn't he a big pumpkin guy? my youngest kid was telling me how he was enjoying a SP song and played it for me and it was luckily one of the earlier ones that was less histrionic. then we were at a used record store and he asked me if i would buy him a SP best-of cd and i said no. no i wouldn't. for an 18 year old he has amazing taste thanks to spotify. such a wide range of stuff that he likes.

ege bamyasi is really easy to love! its so cool. its one of a kind for sure.

Ok I'm moving on to those post-Damo records before going back to Tago Mago.

when i left home as a kid i moved to Philly and got a job at a Saladalley restaurant at the Bourse across from the Liberty Bell. it was a local 80s chain with a big salad bar. i didn't have much money or even a real place to live - this was 1988 - and i would go to 3rd Street Jazz once a week and buy one Can album until i had most of them. it was a better education than college would have been. they had nice new German Spoon reissues on vinyl back then.

when all is said and done, Tago Mago might be my fave Can album. but its hard to pick. i just don't pick usually. its easier that way.

'Soon Over Babaluma' is cool, it sounds amazing. Everything has a nicely restrained dynamic to it, and the grooves and drumming are less traditional (no snares, hardly a backbeat to be found), but some of the tracks have a more conventional 'jamming' arc that I don't love?

Listening to 'Saw Delight' now and I wasn't expecting the reggae/ska/almost highlife vibes on some tracks. Interesting how conventional the drumming is compared to those other records. 'Animal Waves' would be a good one for the weirdo dj night.

maybe it's too obvious as it was actually a hit but I Want More is my favourite post-Damo Can song, but I'm not that keen on Flow Motion as an album so maybe that's why nobody is mentioning it

then we were at a used record store and he asked me if i would buy him a SP best-of cd and i said no. no i wouldn't.

I would like to nominate scott for father of the year. You can make a difference people - start with your own kids!

xp Flow Motion is as good as the other post-Damo records mentioned above.

cosign on Flow Motion, I really like it

Soon Over Babaluma is imho the best Can album-as-album

I only first heard the later Can records thirty years after I heard the 1968 to 1974 run, and I guess my low expectations had been built up so long that I was surprised at how pleasant Flow Motion and Saw Delight were. If I had been a Can fan when they came out, my reactions might have been more critical.

I want more is my fav top of the pops performance ever

I won't go deep on Tago Mago, since it's so long and shaggy (all those cut-up jams). After my day of Can-listening the most inspiring have been Ege Bamyasi and Soon Over Babaluma (which I almost certainly hadn't heard before).

to revisit TM just jam "Halleluwah" real loud

and listen to "full moon on the highway" on Landed for a glimpse of an alternate universe where pop music was future music. or something like that.

one great thing about Can is that yes, they have their peak and their later records aren't as great, but at least those records aren't failed attempts to capture the past or adventures in pop that don't work, they're mostly just fun and groovy, to a fault even. like Saw Delight is a really enjoyable record for a band that's past its prime.

Morton Subotnick - Ascent Into Air/A Fluttering Of Wings

A Fluttering Of Wings as played by the Juilliard String Quartet and an ELECTRONIC GHOST SCORE is brittle and metallic and becomes sickly over time. Grandmother is not well. Ascent Into Air as played by Cal Arts Twentieth Century Players and written for 10 instruments and COMPUTER GENERATED SOUND is more approachable and shows the possibilities of combining computer sound with acoustic instruments. Get this: the possibilities are endless. There is a lot of tension here. And anxiety. Like too much coffee. Like a deadline approaching. But also the space and calm in between those moments of speedy aimlessness when you are trying to do three things at once. Then, finally, the Ambien kicks in. It is quite a ride.

These two pieces are from THE DOUBLE LIFE OF AMPHIBIANS. A staged tone poem with three parts. Amphibians, Beasts, and Angels. All from 1981. This recording is from 1984. On Nonesuch.

Okay, now i'm going to listen to some Motown 45s for an hour or two. Sheesh.

lol

Side 2 of "Soon Over Babaluma" is the best music in the world.

jamming Saw Delight now and yeah its super fun, probably would be considered a classic if by most other bands. but I gotta say what's with Can going from having state-of-the-art production even when we know their equipment wasn't all that advanced to sounding like they were recording in a shoebox

I mean check out the bass/drum interplay in Animal Waves - Holger would never play like that so Jaki almost never plays as frenzied as he does here

Anyone want to recommend me something? Genres I know next-to-nothing about and am intrigued by: country, krautrock, drum and bass, yacht rock

xp pretty sure “Animal Waves” became my go to when I want to a long Can track. Wonderful genre-jumping exercise.

I can recommend plenty of drum & bass but not sure which *album* to start with, you'd be much better off with tracks or mixes

A.R. & Machines - Die Grüne Reise is the krautrock record that got me rolling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb4ERB8SRmM

I would start with the canonical artists - Can, Neu!, Faust, maybe Amon Duul II, for a more rock approach. Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Cluster for the electronic end of things.

Krautrock is such a useless term though, especially these days.

Anyone want to recommend me something? Genres I know next-to-nothing about and am intrigued by: country, krautrock, drum and bass, yacht rock

― a hoy hoy

For Country: Dillard & Clark, Waylon Jennings and Tony Joe White

I’m actually not that well versed in Country music and I don’t pay much attention to lyrics which is one of the main points of Country music. So someone else might recommend you better things. I just really vibe with those three.

For albums

Dillard & Clark - The Fantastic Expedition
Waylon Jennings - Ramblin Man (but he was on a roll in the 70’s, you can easily pick any other)
Tony Joe White - this is a hard one… he doesn’t have a “great album” but there’s a brilliant pair of songs in mostly every album from him… he’s more of a swamp rock/country hybrid so maybe not what you’re looking for.

Krautrock is such a useless term though, especially these days.

yea it's kinda funny none of the big Krautrock groups really sound alike at all, even the ones which share members. I think on one side there's the cosmic freakout/hard rock stuff and on another there's the 'motorik' sound. but Can is sort of a blend of the two, they're like an alien funk band I guess. then you have all the synthesizer stuff by Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. hell I've even heard of Nektar referred to as Krautrock. I guess you can call anything Krautrock so long as it's from Germany.

however there is one album which I think encapsulates all of this - Tarot by Walter Wegmuller. you really wanna go off the deep end, give that a shot.

I would start with Faust IV

Ironically, Nektar were British! Although they were formed in Germany to be fair so maybe it counts...?

outside of the fact that what they do is clearly progressive rock, yeah

I'd never call it the best, but I think of the first Agitation Free record as a basic "starter"-type Krautrock record that touches on a lot of the styles and trends that other groups explored more thoroughly.

I believe the only drum-and-bass album I've heard is Malice in Wonderland by Rufige Kru (Goldie) and it didn't do me any harm.

A.R. & Machines - Die Grüne Reise
Dillard & Clark - The Fantastic Expedition
Waylon Jennings - Ramblin Man
Malice in Wonderland by Rufige Kru
Faust IV

Will give all of these a go over the coming week, cheers.

Also yeah I know drum & bass isn't an album genre but it is one I wanted to dip my toe in the water of, and I was already on the thread.

You see, to me, Agitation Free are very West Coast US jam band influenced - not so much the first album but the second definitely.

one thing I really do want is stuff that sounds like the first track on the debut Ash Ra Tempel album

Can are undoubtedly the band that touch most bases.

A hoy hoy, I recommend Photek's Form & Function, it's a bit of an outlier but that's what blew my head off as a kid.

Think a good starter D&B mix might be Kemistry & Storm - DJ Kicks from 1999 - though plenty has happened in the last quarter century too.

I listened to Powerslave by Iron Maiden. don't think that band is for me tbh. songs were too long, and I was expecting to at least like some riffs or something, but it was mostly pretty plodding and I expected it to rock a lot harder than it did. I thought Aces High was OK but that was about it

if anyone on this board hasn't heard shiina ringo you should listen to her first three albums and report back

Was thinking of trying out something Peter Hammill related since a frieds was going off on IG with Hammill memes. Suggestions on where to start welcome.

don't think that band is for me tbh. songs were too long, and I was expecting to at least like some riffs or something, but it was mostly pretty plodding and I expected it to rock a lot harder than it did.

This is me, except I listened to their first six albums, plus the lyrics are like Peter Hammill for twelve-year-olds.

um I had no idea there were Hammill memes on IG

my starting point was VDGG's H to He Who Am the Only One, which I think is probably their most accessible one (other than the debut which ain't *really* Van der Graaf Generator). from there probably Godbluff or Still Life. Pawn Hearts is often pointed to as their masterpiece but you really gotta be a proghead to appreciate that one.

i found h to he who am the only one to be a good vdgg gateway

Peter Hammill, "The Silent Corner and the Empty Stage".

I actually think "Pawn Hearts" IS the one to start with!

I added the DJ Kicks and the first ringo on spotify (it has a cover that looks like a politician surrounded by press) to my playlist to listen to this week. F&F wasn't on spotify and im too lazy to search for it.

re: dnb mixes, i grabbed speed limit 140 bpm+ three: the joint bc its thread got bumped recently and it is delirium-inducing

I heard Pawn Hearts first and appreciated it but didn't go any further for a long while because its weirdness is extreme. If someone is prejudiced against prog-rock styles then one of the later solo records like Sitting Targets might be a good entree.

someone who hasn't listened to a new hip-hop album this decade should listen to playboi carti's whole lotta red plz

― the defenestration of prog (voodoo chili),

is there any way for me to stream/listen to this aside from Spotify? youtube maybe? ads are fine.

I'm prejudiced against prog rock styles so its weirdness was a positive!

Cool, will go with H to He Who Am the Only One to start with then see from there. Thanks. Honestly don't know much about the artist at all despite having heard there name since I was a kid.

Listened to these two jazz poetry LPs from 1958

https://i.imgur.com/IV4Iu58.png

Kenneth Patchen Reads His Poetry with the Chamber Jazz Sextet

https://i.imgur.com/vcqKD1J.png

The Weary Blues With Langston Hughes

If you like jazz poetry (and it turns out that I do) then both come recommended.

sleeve, you can listen on youtube at this link

So I listened to Porcupine Tree - Stupid Dream

I'm a prog fan from, oh, way back, but I've never properly listened to most of the modern stylists in this seemingly evergreen genre. It seems you have to hear Porcupine Tree to know 21st century prog, and I'm not prepared to listen to Spock's Beard again, so here we are.

I was expecting something like Pink Floyd meets 80s-era Peter Gabriel meets 80s-era Rush. With maybe a dash of Talk Talk/Sylvian/Blue Nile. And...that's what they sound like! So maybe I have heard them? Anyway, sorry but this music is really dull and safe. It's Radiohead prog. It's the over-used yet descriptive 'prog-lite'. I don't like it. It's as if the purpose of this band was to excise all the madness from the 70s version of the genre and replace it with slick, worthy sincerity. Also it all seems to be in 4/4 time, and what kind of prog record is that? And the lyrics are really bad and cheesy, although nowhere near as bad as Marillion's. But at least (early) Marillion were prepared to look stupid if they had to.

In the interests of balance I'll say there were a few moments that were listenable enough. The last track was actually pretty nice. But it all sounds like the prog phase Jeff Buckley never got to have. It's the wild, idiotic creativity of Yes and Genesis ironed out into singer-songwriter conventions dressed up as art-rock. This is not a band that would dare fall flat on their face doing a "Tales from Topographic Oceans" or "Works Vol. 1". I just let the music drift into the background after a while, which is not something anyone's ever said about Van der Graaf Generator.

So that's me ripping Steven Wilson a new one, sorry Steve and ilx PT fans.

I'm prejudiced against prog rock styles so its weirdness was a positive!

― Tom D (the first British Asian ILXor) (Tom D.), Tuesday, March 26, 2024 10:06 AM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the guy in town who normally DJs the prog nights around here talked about this once, when you get random people in who don't know the music they rarely ask about Yes or Genesis or ELP but whenever he plays VdGG that's when people come up and go "what the hell is this??"

I kinda like Porcupine Tree but everything you say is valid. it irons out the kinks in prog in a way that eliminates a lot of what makes it exciting and fun. and imo you've got one of their better records. I'm curious if I should continue on with Wilson's solo career, didn't find much to like in his first one but The Raven That Refused to Sing is pretty good

there are definitely some cool 21st Century prog bands around - Wobbler are pretty amazing if you want stuff that sounds like peak-era Yes, Echolyn are incredible songwriters, Frost* I think are the ones who really do take the King Crimson sound into the modern era, etc.

i listewned to all the Nosound records on Kscope and they are very porcupine tree but they can be very soothing in a contemplative way. there are no memorable songs though. which was always my problem with post-radiohead lite prog bands. pretty music but...that's it.

Anathema - one of my very favorite 90s bands - turned in to one of those Kscope bands and I haven't heard their latest albums but i would love it if someone listened to JUDGEMENT, Anathema's 1999 album. i love it beyond reason but people can be honest here. if you hated it that would be fine as long as i get some good reasons why!
and if you want to go deeper into Pink Floyd territory you could listen to their next album from 2001 A Fine Day To Exit. i love that one as well. but Judgement is really special to me. I've just never known anyone who told me how they felt about it!

https://i.discogs.com/01KEHasy_g-aYLQE6tbytIZLuWJDXkUAPuYHhN2Bm48/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE1NDQ0/NTktMTM4Mjk5MzUx/OS00MDE5LmpwZWc.jpeg

Today by Galaxie 500
Probably not my first attempt, but the singer and guitar have captured my attention this time. I don't know if it is the expression of frailty, the patiently built atmosphere, the floating aerial notes, the distant but unmistakable emanations of punk. What used to be mundane is now an interesting stylistic in-between (indie / shoegaze / soft rock / proto-punk). Don't Let Our Youth Go to Waste is striking.

I didn't much like the Wilson/Porcupine Tree records I heard because they had to overcome his bland, inexpressive voice.

Nabozo, keep going with Galaxie 500 i think they just get stronger as they go.

agree 100%

I've heard VDGG being described before as "progressive prog"

my wife calls VDGG “Dennis Nielsen music”

He was a fan of ABBA I think?

i suggested h to he as a starting point because "killer" is the closest thing they have to something like a "21st century schizoid man," which maybe could've seen play on adventurous fm radio stations

(xp) O Superman was his favourite, I believe.

I have given it a listen, and enjoyed it. Gonna listen on better headphones on my walk home and write my impressions after that. wasn't quite what I expected.

that would make "House With No Door" their "I Talk to the Wind" which checks out I think

Going to share my listening list for 1959 on here and see if anyone else has any suggestions, sorry for slight-offtopicness

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14ipusKOC0qky4lLzYmv8j9MhmGpEd3r-

Ok, try again

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14ipusKOC0qky4lLzYmv8j9MhmGpEd3r-/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=107624448279953434522&rtpof=true&sd=true

Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home

I don't think I've ever listened to a whole Dylan album before. I used to be wholly uninterested because it seemed music for people who really like lyrics, although these days I appreciate him a lot more *in theory* after hearing lots of Dylanheads talk about him on podcasts, and there are a few songs I like.

I absolutely love the stomping, swinging mid-tempo country shuffles with the 2-step basslines on this. Subterranean Homesick Blues, Maggie's Farm (so sick), Outlaw Blues, Bob Dylan's 115th Dream. So funky! I'm going to assume there's nothing this funky in his catalog until Gotta Serve Somebody. So much better than a slow blues shuffle.

Also it's just a really cool sounding record, especially the full band tracks. It's kinda nice to listen to this just as a record, without all the cultural baggage from when people really seemed to care a lot about 'Bob Dylan.'

Visions of Joanna is pretty funky…

(h)

jesus, "Ah Um", "Blues And Roots" and "Dynasty" are ALL from 1959?? damn, Mingus.

(xps)

Tombstone Blues?

xposts

Some more 1959 jazz records --

Thelonious Monk - Alone in San Francisco
Donald Byrd - Byrd in Hand
Bill Evans - Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Paul Chambers - Go!
Johnny Griffin - Way Out!
Milt Jackson & John Coltrane - Bags & Trane

Long Distance Operator and Yazoo Street Scandal off the Basement Tapes are both pretty funky, but that's the Band i guess

…Which brings up Planet Waves… “Tough Mama” (and others) are hella funky

I wouldn't really call John Wesley Harding funky, but a lot of the songs on there have pretty tight grooves for such a stripped down, acoustic-leaning album.

xp here's a few 1959 tracks I like that I didn't see on there

Ronnie Dawson - Rockin' Bones
Jeff Daniels - Switch Blade Sam
Little Richard - She Knows How To Rock
Jackie DeShannon - Trouble
Esquerita - She Left Me Crying

Jordan, would love to read a thread where you listen to Dylan albums. You frequently come at classic albums from interesting angles.

Would love to hear what you think of the next the next record - if you like Maggie's Farm, you probably will also like Tombstone Blues.

Long Distance Operator and Yazoo Street Scandal off the Basement Tapes are both pretty funky, but that's the Band i guess

Yeah those are great, especially the latter. Super New Orleans feel. I guess that's why everyone loves Levon Helm. Never heard them before, the Band are another huge blind spot for me.

xp haha thank you, maybe I will (or I'll just keep going here).

Thanks Jordan/CP! - have added those to the end (except the Little Richard as it's an archive release, he was in one of his evangelical preacher phases in '59 and I'm still trying to go by recording date if possible)

Btw re: Bringing It All Back Home, I meant to add that Mr. Tambourine Man is clearly the worst song on the record. :)

:-0

aww, I love Mr. Tambourine Man

gonna listen to Malesch now, I've heard of Agitation Free but they've always been on the to-do list

jordan, you ever hear the byrds' version?

Sorry! No I haven't, I'll put it on after this 90 minute Charles Lloyd album.

Btw re: Bringing It All Back Home, I meant to add that Mr. Tambourine Man is clearly the worst song on the record. :)

― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Tuesday, March 26, 2024 3:33 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I take it back, no more Dylan takes from Jordan ;)

one thing I really do want is stuff that sounds like the first track on the debut Ash Ra Tempel album

I haven't heard any! I can't even tell how they made it. Let us know if you find anything comparable.

Re drum and bass albums, people in this thread could make a tremendous mistake, OR they could go straight to the best album of all time (Grooverider’s Hardstep Selection Volume II):

https://on.soundcloud.com/Gp3GBuadpiSuQioDA

Nabozo, keep going with Galaxie 500 i think they just get stronger as they go.
― scott seward, Tuesday, March 26, 2024 5:32 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Thanks. I hear slightly different influences on the second album: some jangle, The Cure, twee jams, prettiness alla Durutti Column, a lot of things that the term "slowcore" obfuscates. It's like a time capsule. Snowstorm is a beauty. At times I have to pretend I don't hear the vocals, the melodic lines are not so varied, but overall it works a charm.

I love hearing Jordan enjoying Dylan’s funkiness. I’ve come to realize that that almost everyone influenced by him leaves off that part of his style.

Martina McBride, Wild Angels and Evolution: dull and duller (or maybe it was duller and dull).

Re drum and bass albums, people in this thread could make a tremendous mistake

I had no idea listening to a single album one time was such a fraught experience.

I don't think I've ever listened to that Grooverider record, Tim, will be doing that today ty. :)

i'm listening to nektar's remember the future via randomly skimming this thread. these guys sure did hear the yes album, but no complaints about 35 minutes of totally decent prog.

i love nektar. they could jam up a storm.

over the years i have determined that this is my fave by them. double album where they recorded live in the studio. no overdubs. they shred. engineered by dieter dierks. it sounds so good.

https://www.discogs.com/master/25991-Nektar-Sounds-Like-This

a double live in the studio heavy prog album made in two days. more people should try it.

putting this on now--let's fuckin' rock

I had no idea listening to a single album one time was such a fraught experience

I was kidding of course, but on a slightly serious note I think choice matters a bit more when a single album is likely to act as a stand-in for a person’s initial experience and understanding of a genre.

For instance Kemistry and Storm’s DJ Kicks is a good d&b DJ mix for early 1999 but substantially less good than pretty much every preceding K&S DJ mix (none of which were released commercially, sadly) for the basic reason that the entire scene was busily effacing almost everything good about the music at that point.

OTOH if the objective is to find out what happened to d&b at the end of the nineties then it is the perfect choice.

I’m listening to Orbital for the first time (In Sides) and am both charmed and wondering what the heck took me so long.

yeah i came to orbital late too. i don't know why i thought they were...something else. cheesier? not serious? but i had the wrong idea about them for some reason. better late than never!

In fairness they can be pretty cheesy at times, though not on In Sides.

a double live in the studio heavy prog album made in two days. more people should try it.

― scott seward, Wednesday,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_Worldwide

Is barefoot jerry considered prog?

no. progressive country rock.

Fair enough

That Grooverider mix does indeed rule, ty. Also it's way more syncopated and less 2-steppy that I expected given 'hardstep'.

Maybe I'm confusing hardstep with jump up? I love the energy and basslines on the DJ Aphrodite radio set, I've come back to it a bunch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxWjgEJgd9Q

I listened to the AR & The Machines record recommended. I enjoyed it when it was spacey and droney, but it kept going back to a bit of 70s blues rock guitar and it would take me out of it. I enjoyed it but don’t think I’d go back again.

Totally get that the boogie guitar pushed you out of the space -- that's what pulled me in though, seeing how the German sense of cosmic grew out of the Anglo sense of cosmic at the time.

echo is more solid space. the double album that he put out a year later.

i was thinking about doing the new beyonce but holy hell billionaire statement albums are friggin' looooooong. so long. like as long as texas. as long as peak oil capitalism and as long as it takes to drill all the oil you will need to make all the 200 gram vinyl copies of this thing. jesus. plus, you know, half cornball stump speeches and half okay r&b. its like homework. i think little kids would love the fun stuff on it though. they should make a 30 minute little kids version. for me.

Yeah, it's 78 minutes, like it's still 1996 and they're trying to maximize the amount of music that can fit on a CD (the new Church album is 73 minutes... i thought everyone stopped doing this. are CD's back??)
"Cowboy Carter" wasn't as country as i was expecting, but it went out of it's way to head off any criticism that it wasn't country enough (and that whole digression about "what even is genre?" was a bit hokey). In retrospect, i think it lost me when the second song was a cover of Blackbird, complete with foot-tapping.

Jordan, that DJ Aphrodite mix above was a fun way to start this morning, but i kept wishing he wouldn't get on the mic so often because it kept interrupting the vibe. Will try the Grooverider next.

i was thinking about doing the new beyonce but holy hell billionaire statement albums are friggin' looooooong. so long. like as long as texas. as long as peak oil capitalism and as long as it takes to drill all the oil you will need to make all the 200 gram vinyl copies of this thing. jesus. plus, you know, half cornball stump speeches and half okay r&b. its like homework. i think little kids would love the fun stuff on it though. they should make a 30 minute little kids version. for me.

Never expect somebody to encapsulate my thoughts so perfectly, but... this sounds right. Feels wearying before I even start. And I know some of it will be fine to great, but, hard to work up the gumption to take this kinda thing in sometimes.

I'll just keep playing this new Playboi Carti/Camila Cabello track over and over again. Gives a lot more than it asks. Alphonse Pierre called it "some good ol’ fashioned expensive nonsense" and that sounds about right.

Decided to apply this challenge to 1969, my birth year. I looked at various "albums from 1969" lists until I found one I didn't know: Almendra, the debut album by the Argentine psychedelic band of the same name. It's great! Not a million miles away from other Latin American rock of the same era, but drawing on some Argentine folk and cultural forms. A lot of it is kind of dreamy, but some of it really rocks. Like this track, which is fantastic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg2EdtBguc4

Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead
Honestly I'd never really heard them. They're not so much of a UK thing so they were hardly turning up on the radio. Anyway this was completely tedious, I was skipping through to the next track by side 2. People who haven't heard The Band think they sound like this, and are pleasantly surprised to find they don't. This is why I always avoided drugs. Maybe it's not a good album to start with? Therefore I moved on to...

Aoxomoxoa
Not much better, this band is not for me I now realise. Too much dum-diddle-dum-dum-diddle-dum-dum. And the 8-minute droney vocal thing would have worked better in the hands of Yoko Ono. No doubt I should be listening to Dick's Pick's Vol. 137 or whatever instead, but you know what I think I'll pass.

I tried listening to Aoxomoxoa once and had much the same reaction.

It's not fair to drugs to blame them for Grateful Dead

Everywhere I've lived in the US there has been a weekly Grateful Dead radio show being broadcast -- either the syndicated "Grateful Dead Hour" or something similar but locally-produced. Catching one of these shows is the only time I've ever heard the band and it always seems to me like the worst music. I understand they have a huge cult following but it's mystifying that these radio shows exist, and have done so for decades.

I have literally never heard the Grateful Dead played on the radio. I've also never had a conversation about the Grateful Dead with anyone. Never known anyone to own one of their albums. Yes, US and UK, chalk and cheese basically.

I'll just keep playing this new Playboi Carti/Camila Cabello track over and over again. Gives a lot more than it asks. Alphonse Pierre called it "some good ol’ fashioned expensive nonsense" and that sounds about right.

― mr.raffles, Friday, March 29, 2024 8:03 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

mr raffles listen to whole lotta red challenge

^^ I keep meaning to do that but have been very busy w/other listening/ripping

It's not fair to drugs to blame them for Grateful Dead

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Sunday, 31 March 2024 20:18 bookmarkflaglink

lol I thought the same

I'd never heard the Grateful Dead anywhere before although I knew someone who liked them at uni, but he was also the only British person I've ever met who liked Phish, tbf he was quite into drugs. he did play me some Phish once which I did not enjoy although no memory of what it actually sounded like. I listened to a double CD best of once and I did like a few songs on it but not that many out of 2 CDs worth so never bothered to follow up on them

i like the grateful dead! here is their first trip to England!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3H-CW12fBNA

I'll just keep playing this new Playboi Carti/Camila Cabello track over and over again. Gives a lot more than it asks. Alphonse Pierre called it "some good ol’ fashioned expensive nonsense" and that sounds about right.

― mr.raffles, Friday, March 29, 2024 8:03 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

mr raffles listen to whole lotta red challenge

Been listening to Carti since Magnolia.
WLR was good, as was Die Lit. I kinda never really get the album I'm hoping for from him though. Which is fine.

Thanks for pointing me to this Carti/Cabello new song.

Ahh... enjoy!

El Guincho has really made a lot of nice records at this point. Maybe there should be a thread or something?

there is!

oh nice!

Wild. It's all super old stuff, predating the work w/ Rosalia.
Ok. I'll stop hijacking the thread now.

I’ve been sampling some Django Reinhardt / Stephane Grapelli tunes. Never listened to them before. They cook. What’s the place to start? (I think this fits the thread though any album by them is likely to be an after the fact comp)

All of Reinhard's recordings are from the pre-album era (he died in 1953), and there are a fucking ton of them, so try The Essential Django Reinhardt as an entry point. It's a two-CD set that should cover all the bases.

^hey thanks 2 discs is perfect

yep that one is great

i owe this thread for helping me get over my jane siberry fear. i'm listening to her last album Ulysses' Purse from 2016 and its lovely! not typical. dreamy. in some ways she reminds me of a lost Mcgarrigle sister. my favorite Mcgarrigle Sisters album is Matapedia and i can only imagine that Jane Siberry is a fan of it as well. i like the meandering qualities of these songs. not stream-of-consciousness exactly but conversational while still poetic. she isn't all about rhyme which i appreciate. i think i'm going to go backwards and listen to her Three Queens Trilogy next. Three albums from 2008/2009/2011.

Ulysses' Purse was revamped and re-released as an album called Angels Bend Closer which I only heard last year. My main complaint was that she hires a small army of musicians who she somehow manages to make vanish behind walls of synth pads. I didn't think much of the "conversational" lyrics either.
I would recommend her debut though that might strike some listeners as standard 1981 art-folk.

the walking will change your life scott. or it won't!

someone should listen to one of those 70s Dory Previn records on here. talk about unloved art pop. i can't give those records away and they're cool!

okay i don't know if i can handle the trilogy. its a lot and a lot of spoken word so i am skipping those and the xian song cycle and the xmas stuff and going all the way back to the album Teenager from 1996 which so far seems about right for me.

I thought I would maybe do Astral Weeks for this, since I've never listened to a Van Morrison album and it has Richard Davis and Connie Kay on it. But I bailed halfway into the first song, just wasn't feeling the vibe (despite the great bass playing) but will take a shot some other time.

I have tried and failed with Astral Weeks on a number of occasions now.

yeah you have to sink into it. its a beauty if you are in the right frame of mind.

Moondance is the (mega-normie, I know) Van album I was into as a youth... I never go into any of his others.

i can get not being into his voice though. and it hits you straight out the gate on the title track. i honestly believe - and i know i'm gonna sound like a big chill guy here - that that album is a...work of art. in the same way that What's Going On is a work of art. like, as much as any painting or poem is a work of art. and he was, what, 22 or 23 when he made Astral Weeks? that's insane to me. I could barely get out of bed when I was 22.

Wow, Van Morrison is, and always has been, an insufferable douchebag, but Astral Weeks is, to me, an unquestionable classic. Very interesting.

Honestly I'd never really heard them. They're not so much of a UK thing so they were hardly turning up on the radio. Anyway this was completely tedious, I was skipping through to the next track by side 2. People who haven't heard The Band think they sound like this, and are pleasantly surprised to find they don't. This is why I always avoided drugs. Maybe it's not a good album to start with? Therefore I moved on to...

Aoxomoxoa
Not much better, this band is not for me I now realise. Too much dum-diddle-dum-dum-diddle-dum-dum. And the 8-minute droney vocal thing would have worked better in the hands of Yoko Ono. No doubt I should be listening to Dick's Pick's Vol. 137 or whatever instead, but you know what I think I'll pass.

― continue without dissembling (Matt #2), Sunday, March 31, 2024 12:28 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

If I were going to try to get someone to Give The Dead A Chance with an album, I'd probably give them either American Beauty, Europe 72 (live comp but official album), or maybe Blues for Allah. Or maybe Wake of the Flood. But I get it. I hated the Dead for years and I'm still pretty hot and cold on them.

American Beauty is precisely the one that was "completely tedious" though!

I'm so glad you're digging the Siberry, scott. Debut through Maria is basically unimpeachable, lots of moments of brilliance on subsequent releases.

El Guincho also did a lot of the production work on the imo excellent Sampha album from last year

xp wrong, iirc the post referred to Workingman's Dead, which to be fair is the weaker of the two

i agree that dory previn is due for a critical overhaul. she's as clever lyrically as nilsson or zevon. coldwater canyon is a slam jam.

I've never heard her!

Since live Dead seems a better bet I will possibly flick through Europe 72 (not listening to all 2 hours of it) and report back. Don't expect anything much different though!

I could not get into those Previn records at all, but I definitely know fans

One of Andre Previn's . . . five wives lol

xxp Matt just jam "Truckin" from Europe '72, I played it just the other day and it's really an ur-Dead template imho, if it doesn't work for you then they are prob not for you

American Beauty is precisely the one that was "completely tedious" though!

― The Prime of the Ancient Minister (Tom D.), Thursday, April 4, 2024 3:28 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

no, workingman's

Morning Dew from '72 - I feel like that would move anyone

(xp) Ah, you're right, my mistake.

I have never listened to Grayfolded, despite knowing about it forever, should I?

"I'm so glad you're digging the Siberry, scott"

we put on a vinyl copy of Bound By The Beauty in the store today and it sounded awesome. "Everything Reminds Me Of My Dog"!

i've given up on trying to get people to like the Dead. it will either happen or it won't. i totally get people being turned off though. they can sound lethargic to people in a way that just screams boredom. but if you hear one of those great songs like "stella blue" in the right mood...they can be so lovely to hear. they can sound very unexciting to people who first hear them. its weird. they can not hit you and then...something changes. it happens to diehard haters. my pal ilxor tarfumes is one example.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKsWDyvWaL4

xxp OMG YES

Grayfolded rules, all Oswald rules

https://i0.wp.com/collector.schothans.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/IMG_001-10.jpg?fit=680%2C302&ssl=1

xp I mean I'm a big fan of Plunderphonics, I revisit it pretty frequently, and regularly see the dude around town and with CCMC etc. etc. etc. I feel like I've done the guy a disservice by not listening to it

it's one of his finest works imo, lol local connections noted, I thought abt that after I posted

Xpost I listened to the first disc of the essential Django Reinhardt. Lovely music. The guitar and violin are of course technically masterful, inventive and fun. But it kinda washed over me like it was upbeat ambient. I had hard time hearing them as individual tunes and recalling the melody lines. It is not really a complaint though. I enjoyed the music and will keep listening.

they always pick the same stuff for the reinhardt compilations, I should do a selection with some of the more off-piste stuff for you

i thought about maybe doing this with drake and five seconds later thought: yeah, i'm not listening to a drake album.

Yesterday I got three albums (bought two, downloaded a third from someplace else) by the Leaders, a jazz group from the late 80s with Lester Bowie on trumpet, Arthur Blythe on alto sax, Chico Freeman on tenor sax, Kirk Lightsey on piano, Cecil McBee on bass, and Famoudou Don Moye on drums. I listened to the third album, Unforeseen Blessings, first, and it's great. Much more straightahead than you'd expect from that lineup, though there are some short, somewhat avant-ish interludes (solo pieces by Lightsey and Moye, and a Blythe/Moye duo) punctuating the compositions. Good stuff.

currently spinning The Everly Brothers' Roots LP, it's... OK? I was expecting more overt psych moves.

I quite like some Weather Report but I've studiously avoided solo Jaco for reasons (mostly fretless bass related). Well, I listened to (most of) *Word of Mouth* and it's bonkers. It has an insane line-up (Herbie, Shorter, DeJohnette, Toots Thielemans etc) but I wasn't expecting third-stream big band fusion.

First track is kind of ugly and has lots of Jaco wibble. Track two made me think of Gil Evans in places, which is never a bad thing. It's the closing track that I liked the most. I'm not mad on the soprano sax, but Shorter is fire here. There are lots of steel drums and some quality handclaps towards the end.

I can see why Jim O'Rourke loves it: there are passages that big Jim nods to on Bad Timing and Eureka.

I love his s/t album

Listened to Deacon Blue's Raintown after Trevor Horn included it in an old Baker's Dozen column on Quietus. Surprised that WXRT didn't pick this up at the time. Could see the band playing Park West to a reasonably well-groomed late 80s Lincoln Park crowd. (update: Confirmed before posted) But then again, the songs aren't all that catchy, are they? I see this band inspires a fair amount of hate. Pleasant enough to my ears, though. Doesn't seem worth getting worked up over either way. Makes me want to listen to Prefab Sprout, which is fine.

I listened to Drukqs yesterday. I found it holds together really well for a supposedly overlong sprawling release (even if it is a little long), it has vision and variations, the gymnopédies tracks are genuinely good, there's a techno urge that is more palpable than in say Autechre, and for all its frenzy it coalesces into a placating whole.

Today they were playing pan-genre Latin covers of Kraftwerk while I was eating my lunch. I Shazam'd! It is Señor Coconut, the alias of a German guy who got into cha-cha and cumbia and made... an album of Kraftwerk covers, in 1999. This was the period when I was at my most musically omnivorous, so I'm surprised I hadn't heard it before-- I was listening to Louis Philippe and Darla compilations and shit so this should've been on my radar? I vaguely recall reading an article (prob in Vice magazine) wherein they shit on Señor Coconut and called it corny. It is corny! But hearing unfamiliar versions of Kraftwerk songs realllllly made me appreciate the brilliance of the musical material... usually I'm just lost in the production and the sounds of it. "The Robots" is an amazing song, every component part is so wonderful. Anyway. In 1999 this might've been considered some corny genre experiment but it was super-great to hear it in 2024, just driving home the classic nature of all these Kraftwerk tracks

yeah, i really wish i had picked up that album on cd when i had the chance.
was always in the racks of my local Fopp.
but i could not reconcile the fact that it was by the same fella behind some of my fave FAX releases as Atom Heart.
oh, and it was before i fell hard for library/corny grooves.

I'm going to pull that album out and listen to it right now!

Today I read this interview with drummer/composer Andrya Ambro in my friend's newsletter. I'd never heard of her, so I pulled up her most recent album, No More Blue Skies, released under the name Gold Dime, on Tidal. It's really good! Postpunk-ish arty vocals and angry guitars and synths, some really interesting rhythmic stuff going on, plus a few free jazz sax solos. It's on Bandcamp.

that senor Coconut record is an absolute blast!

His YMO covers album is pretty good too and he did 'Smoke On The Water', 'Riders On The Storm' and some other rock classics at some point. One trick pony but a consistently fun trick.

if you like that you may wanna check out this collection of steel drum Kraftwerk covers, it's really fun as well

https://www.discogs.com/master/1609899-Ebony-Steel-Band-Pan-Machine

lol i bought that Señor Coconut album in 1999 and sometimes i can still hear it in my head even when Kraftwerk is playing

I only got into Senor Coconut when Villalobos released this in 2006, I believe? That was the year I joined ILX, I think that was when this happened?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE_Im78tXH4

(I had this thread bookmarked and then didn't check it for several months until today lol)

Paix by Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes rules hard.

Just now discovered this thread and haven't read nearly all, but for Pavement covers by jazz artists and without many vocals (incl. 0 by Malkmus), try James Carter's Gold Sounds---some people really like it and some really don't---I did, though haven't listened since it first came out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEsf1l4nm1o

"Stereo" – 6:24
"My First Mine" – 6:30
"Cut Your Hair" – 6:30
"Summer Babe" – 4:36
"Blue Hawaiian" – 4:54
"Here" – 5:52
"Platform Blues" – 5:38
"Trigger Cut" – 3:54

James Carter – tenor saxophone soprano saxophone, contrabass sarrusophone
Cyrus Chestnut – piano, electric piano, organ
Reginald Veal – bass, electric bass, vocals
Ali Jackson – drums, vocals

(But really his albums with the most rockoid appeal, at least as launching pads, are Layin' In The Cut, w Ribot, Tacuma etc., also his first James Carter Organ Trio album, Out of Nowhere, with guests incl. Blood Ulmer.)

for Pavement covers by jazz artists

i cannot tell whether you are describing a circle of hell of not.

i might do this with blue nile - hats based on recent excellent revive. no idea what it could possibly sound like

oh it is so good, please listen Budo and report back

Ooh, there's a good one of these over on the ICP thread:
Insane Clown Posse

i did listen to the blue nile record. good night for it too, cool, took a walk by the river. i certainly thought it was beautiful, kind of lush and cinematic maybe, but i can tell i need a few more spins to let it sink in.

maybe after a few more listens i will have something to say. i feel like i almost never have anything interesting to say about music anymore. it's just kind of like, i like this, i don't like this, i'm not sure if i like this

(nb i may never have had anything interesting to say about music)

I don't know how this happened, but I've never listened to Arthur Russell much. I'm sure I listened to World of Echo at least once or twice but never dug deeper, I don't know if I was saving it or feeling resistant to the hipster renaissance and seemingly endless reissues.

Today I listened to Picture of Bunny Rabbit and Calling Out of Context, and of course they're incredible. I don't need to go into it, everybody knows, but Bunny Rabbit in particular has such a consistent and intimate feel. It's so stark and stripped back and yet somehow never feels demo-y or like anything's missing, and sounds like it could have been made yesterday.

I’ve never listened to Bon Iver. I’ve overheard Skinny Love and Re: Stacks and Holocene but I couldn’t name which one was which if you played it for me. I just had to Shazam one of his songs. He’s popular! I should know what his albums sound like

Huh this is so strange. It’s 50% the best thing I’ve ever heard and 50% “I feel embarrassed for all people involved”. Sonically this kinda kicks ass. I’m listening to self-titled, self-tilted

Overwhelmed by the impossible loveliness of the production. These stereoized guitars!

Curious what you think of the production on the next album (which is basically all production iirc)...

Just took my first spin with Sahib Shibab and a couple others I'd never heard before, although did know NHOP from all kinds of places, incl. bluegrass, also familiar Alex Thiel(mainly from his work w The Savage Rose) It's mostly fluid, fluent, fun, w flute of Shibab sometimes making me think of Rashaan, going from shapely to gnarly and back again (also good on sax). Good clear you are there/they are here sound, though they did lose me for a bit during "Not Yet," but it was late and first listen. Teen NHOP a natural leader when Shibab is quite sensibly giving him, but not aggressive about it, just doing what he always does, ditto cool spare otm guitarist. This is from ORG Music for Record Store Day Black Friday, Nov. 29:

Sahib Shihab,

Sahib’s Jazz Party & After Hours

(2LP)

Sahib's Jazz Party is an album by saxophonist/flautist Sahib Shihab, recorded live at the Jazzhus Montmartre in Copenhagen, around the same time that he relocated there in 1963. Shihab is joined by flugelhornist Allan Botchinsky, guitarist Ole Molin, drummer Alex Riel, and 17-year-old bass prodigy Niels Henning Orsted Pederson. The recordings showcase Sahib’s diversity and dexterity as a player, including his openness to the avant-garde style, expanding on the bop era playing he is known for. The album is presented here in a gatefold jacket with a bonus LP, including three tracks not available on previous vinyl releases — what we’re referring to as the “After Hours”. The audio has been remastered by Dave Gardner and pressed on audiophile-grade vinyl at Pallas Group in Germany.
Tracklist:

A1 4070 Blues

A2 Charade

B1 Conversations, Part I

B2 Conversations, Part II

B3 Conversations, Part III

C1 Billy Boy

D1 Not Yet

D2 Someday My Prince Will Come

Teen NHOP a natural leader when Shibab is quite sensibly giving him room

Alex Riel, damn, sorry Alex!

(Flugelhorn gets a little too "charming Billy" at one point in "Billy Boy," but the others actually don't)

I don't know how this happened, but I've never listened to Arthur Russell much. I'm sure I listened to World of Echo at least once or twice but never dug deeper, I don't know if I was saving it or feeling resistant to the hipster renaissance and seemingly endless reissues.

Today I listened to Picture of Bunny Rabbit and Calling Out of Context, and of course they're incredible. I don't need to go into it, everybody knows, but Bunny Rabbit in particular has such a consistent and intimate feel. It's so stark and stripped back and yet somehow never feels demo-y or like anything's missing, and sounds like it could have been made yesterday.

― Jordan s/t (Jordan)

He's amazing and his archival catalogue is a treasure trove. He had a very unique approach to songwriting and the amount of interesting musical ideas he left behind is astounding. It's so sad such a creative mind passed away at its prime. Listen to "another thought" next, it's mostly comprised of cello home recordings but it contains some of my favorite songs by him.

I was having a hard time finding that! Not on the reissue Bandcamp or on streaming (Qobuz), unless I just missed it.

Curious what you think of the production on the next album (which is basically all production iirc)...

I need to listen to it a second time, but on first listen:

- fragments and neologisms creating an unsatisfying cryptic crossword; but perhaps this is part of the appeal, lack of concrete meaning allows for listeners to project and project and project

- amazing sax production, like I could listen to hours of these players getting glitched

- extreme loveliness and unloveliness in the production, very appealing

- lyrics about "a cup of tea" and "the Ace hotel" were charmingly stinky

- fundamentally these songs (as chords and melodies) are really pastel, and at first left me feeling undernourished, but by the end of the album I felt more like I was listening to something sprung from folk/hymnal tradition, and I started to buy it

I listened to 2 more Iron Maiden albums - The Number Of The Beast and Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son. I did at least know a song from each of these (Run To The Hills and Can I Play With Madness obv). I liked both these albums more than Powerslave, which as I posted upthread I didn't like at all, although didn't really love either of them. I suppose I should listen to the pre-Bruce Dickinson ones next. or maybe Maiden Voyage by the other Iron Maiden, I like their song Falling

oh you will very definitely prefer the pre-bruce albums. of this i am almost certain.

Ty fgti (I'm friends with a few of those many sax players, there were some funny stories from those sessions)

On the Belew era Crimson music, if you like the studio albums be sure to check out the live album Absent Lovers. Belew and Levins vocals are very good live on that one, it is very impressive gig.

so I know Gong, but I am listening to Daevid Allen's solo LP Banana Moon for the first time ever, it's quite different!

love that album, never sure who to credit it to but it seems to be thought of as a DA solo LP these days. Just a classic "get a load of friends together and make an LP" thing.

I love *Seven Drones* by Daevid Allen.

I am a little late to this but Jordan, ‘Another Thought’ is my favorite Arthur Russell record, but it is also a record that i can hardly listen to anymore because even *thinking* about certain songs makes me well up. ‘A Little Lost,’ ‘Me for Real,’ and ‘Losing My Taste for the Nightlife,’ and ‘A Sudden Chill’ in particular— transcendent music.

and yeah, listening again, this and ‘All Hail West Texas’ might be my top two ‘i love this but i will weep openly while it plays’ records. (as for the latter, i can’t even listen to ‘Best Ever Death Metal Band’ without breaking into ugly tears).

my husband got me a tape of ‘AHWT’ as a birthday present gift and put it on while I was doing dishes and i had to ask him to turn it off because i couldn’t help but sing along but singing along makes me cry.