probably not really the 125 best albums of 1986

All of the above still stand proud to me. OK, the Slayer lyrics are way sus. but the music....

The Rhythm Pigs were a great band and I pick on them because I'm sure they haven't had any praise on here before? They could play. I loved that heavily chorused Boss CE2 sound that the guitarist had. Did a mix for a friend recently that had 'arkansas' on it which was from their second LP. They were from El Paso Texas. I am from Hull , England and I love music.

10 most conspicuous absences, in retrospect:
1. teena marie - emerald city
2. john mellencamp - scarecrow
3, schoolly d - saturday night
4, pet shop boys - please
5, poison - look what the cat dragged in
6. salt n pepa - hot cool and vicious
7. bon jovi - slippery when wet
8. oran 'juice" jones - juice
9. peter and the test tube babies
10. slade - you boyz make big noize

(and in general, LADIES. Except for Shonen Knife. And Esther Phillips??)

a singles list from the same year was in the same folder; so what the heck:

1. necros - tangled up
2. ac/dc - who made who
3. leather nun - desolation ave.
4. dinosaur - repulsion
5. cheetah chrome motherfuckers - easy target/furous party/frustration
6. electric light orchestra - calling america
7. last sacrifice - suspended/acid rain dance
8. age of chance - bible of the beats
9. sonic youth - starpower/bubblegum/expressway to yr skull
10. tackhead - mind at the end of the tether
11. (from this point on only titles are listed) - ain't nothin to do (green river?)
12. membranes - spike milligan's tape recorder (version)
13. wiseblood - motorslug
14. big black - il duce
15, pet shop boys - west end girls
16. swans - time is money (bastard)
17. janitors - good to be the king
18. antietam (i think) - until now
19. celtic frost - return to the eve (party mix)
20. run-dmc feat. steve tyler and joe perry - walk this way
21. ciccone youth - into the groovy (hey, why no "tuff titty rap"??)
22. three johns - brainbox
23. eastern dark ( i think) - johnny and dee dee
24. ???? - dwight frye/low rider
25. ???? - funny $/last friend's gone
26. ll cool j - rock the bells
27. the nomads (i think, or maybe their alter ego the screaming dizbusters?) - summer of love/out of the frying pan
28. red lorry yellow lorry - cut down
29. billy squier - shot o'love
30. ???? - plug
31. public image ltd - rise
32. leather nun - 506
33. ???? - walking on my hands (maybe red lorry yellow lorry again?)
34. larry wallis (i think) - leather forever
35. ???? - morning sir
36. ???? - stormy weather (i think this is another adrian sherwood production -- called fats comet or something like that, maybe?)
37. couch flambeu (i think) - we're not so smart/mississippi queen
38. world domination enterprises (i think) - cartalogue clothes
39. ???? - in these times
40. halo of flies (i think) - rubber room
41. white zombie (i think) - slaughter the grey/pig heaven
42. madonna - live to tell
43. dobie grey (i think, but i may be way off on this one) - dark side of town
44. run-dmc - my adidas
45. the fall - mr. pharmacist/lucifer over lancashire
46. nick cave (i think) - running scared/black betty
47, halo of flies (again, i think) - ddt fin 13 (pcp)
48. crime and city solution (i think) - the kentucky click
49. ???? - the word/sardines
50. ???? - marketplace/death of a hedon
51. butthole surfers (i think) - american woman
52. the cramps - can your pussy do the dog
53. big black - rema rema
54. van halen - why can't this be love
55. journey - only the young/be good to yourself
56. big flame (i think) - why pop stars can't dance
57. ???? - box of dirt
58. squirrel bait - kid dynamite
59. ???? - baby's on fire
60. .38 special (i think) - somebody like you
61. ???? - piles
62. falco - rock me amadeus
63. ???? - long way/tied (MAYBE soul asylum, and i meant "tied to the tracks," but I may be way off on that one, too)
64. age of chance - kiss
65. prince - kiss

and "in these times" might have been yet another sherwood 12-inch, maybe.

Yes, Rifle Sport did "Dirt box, box of dirt, dirt box, box of dirt"

"Smash the Marketplace" maybe? Screaming Blue Messiahs?

And 'Scarecrow' came out in '85, so you're covered there . . .

No long EP list in the folder, but here's what I voted for in spazz and jop:

1. the ex - 1936: the spanish revolution
2. uzi - sleep asylum
3. greenhouse of terror
4. laughing hyenes (demo tape)
5. head of david - dogbreath

Why did the pazz and jop poll stop rating music videos?

6. killdozer
7. plan 9
8. janitors
9. drunk injuns
10. big flame
11. the left
12. young gods
13. angry samoans
14. wire
15, pigbros (who the hell were these guys? name sounds KINDA familar)
16. sonics (did they have a comeback EP? or maybe this was a live thing?)
17. kreator
18. will to live
19. kmartians
20, pussy galore
21. phantom tollbooth
22. mekons - crime and punishment
23. bogshed
24. stevie stilleto
25. death of samantha
26. meat puppets
27. mekons - slightly south of the border
28. tools you can trust (drawing a blank on these guys too --though the biggest blank is still greenhouse of terror, who made my top 5 above!)
29. urge overkill
30. math bats
31. shrubs
32. frank chickens
33. das damen
34. big stick
35. slaughter joe (more british people, right?)
36. tar babies
37. sister ray
38. split (??? have no fucking idea what this could be)
39. minuteflag
40. angry red planet
41. pogues
42. fuzzbox
43. sleep (?? way too early for the stoner rockers by that name, right?)
44. defcon (demo tape my midwestern proto-death-metal band i think)
45. blatant dissent (??)

he even kind of looks like Chuck

also i looked up "long way home"/"tied to the tracks," and it is indeed soul asylum.

and til now i hadn't noticed "the bottle caps" written in the margin of the EP ledger page. (i think they were swedish garage-rockers, doing instrumental link wray-type stuff.)

xhuxk is this your first reference to dan fogelberg and tim weisberg on ILX? O HAPPY DAYS

is that a erasure/depeche mode compilation from mute records ?

*mute beat* was, i think, a japanese dub reggae band with a cassete on r.o.i.r.

Also: no Jandek.

But yeah, the only Feelies album I ever liked was their debut, and I kinda lost interest in REM after their 2nd LP w/ "Don't Go Back to Rockville," whatever it was called (though I did like an occasional single or three by them later on. )

24. DREAM SYNDICATE - ballad of dwight frye/low rider
25. THE WORKDOGS (who???) - funny $/last friend's gone

is the workdogs the scott jarvis/rob kennedy-led blues rockers? i think that might've been their first single (w/rudi protrudi!?). way b4 spencer or teel met up with them, closer to when jarvis had produced the pollywog stew ep for beasties.

hmm.

boney m - eye dance
lime - the greatest hits
(various) - the best of italo disco vol. III
(various) - dance traxx

This single was by Slovenly, I just suddenly remembered off the top of my head.

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-SDSWyN41erCbQ5NZk26gOTPpZo_Tig--?cq=1

Then again, Miami was just on fire that year anyway with Expose`, Company B, Will to Power, etc.

Is that the Pittsburgh hardcore band Half Life at #48?

110. butthole surfers - rembrandt pussyhorse

One of my favorite albums of the 80s

buttholes were untouchable in the 80's

teehee

Nah, Half Life was a later-day MX-80 Sound spinoff, as were O-Type and the Gizzards. Cassette-only albums, at least at the time.

buttholes were untouchable in the 80's

Yet, there was also something about them that made them hard to penetrate.

ba dum dum ok

After doing a piece (http://www.fastnbulbous.com/1986.htm) about 1986 and listening to my mix from the past week, I'm wondering if there's any other goodies I totally missed out on. I know I've heard Public Image Ltd. - Album/Compact Disc, but haven't ever owned it. I wonder if there's a remaster slated. Gonna buy Mantronix - Music Madness this week.

I wrote about the ones that I heard fairly close to when they came out, in order of release date:

David & David - Boomtown (January 1986)
The Church - Heyday (January)
Violent Femmes - The Blind Leading The Naked (March 1)
Metallica - Master of Puppets (March 3)
Prince - Parade (March 31)
Hüsker Dü - Candy Apple Grey (March)
Hunters & Collectors - Human Frailty (April 7)
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Tinderbox (April 21)
Electric Light Orchestra - Balance Of Power (April)
Screaming Blue Messiahs - Gun Shy (April)
Peter Gabriel - So (May 19)
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead (June 16)
Crowded House (June)
The Woodentops - Giant (June)
Run D.M.C. - Raising Hell (July 18)
R.E.M. - Lifes Rich Pageant (July 28)
The Smithereens - Especially For You (July)
Paul Simon - Graceland (August 12)
The The - Infected (August)
Love And Rockets - Express (September 15)
Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time (September 29)
New Order - Brotherhood (September 29)
XTC - Skylarking (October 27)
The Call - Reconciled (October)
The Housemartins - London 0 Hull 4 (October)
The Beastie Boys - Licensed To Ill (November 15)
Bad Brains - I Against I (November)
Megadeth - Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? (November)

Here's other notable ones I heard later.

Afrika Bambaataa - Beware (The Funk Is Everywhere)
Big Audio Dynamite - No. 10, Upping St.
Big Black - Atomizer
The Blue Aeroplanes - Tolerance
Butthole Surfers - Rembrandt Pussyhorse
Camper Van Beethoven
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Your Funeral . . . My Trial
The Chameleons - Strange Times
The Chills - Kaleidoscope World
Elvis Costello - Blood & Chocolate
Dead Milkmen - Eat Your Paisley
Depeche Mode - Black Celebration
The Feelies - The Good Earth
Died Pretty - Free Dirt
The Fall - Bend Sinister
Felt - Forever Breathes The Lonely Word
Firehose - Ragin' Full-On
Game Theory - Big Shot Chronicles
The Go-Betweens - Liberty Belle & The Black Diamond Express
Guadalcanal Diary - Jamboree
Head Of David - CD
Robyn Hitchcock - Element Of Light
Kool Moe Dee
Kukl - Holidays In Europe (The Naughty Nought)
Let's Active - Big Plans For Everybody
The Lucy Show - Mania
Manilla Road - The Deluge
Mantronix - Music Madness
The Mighty Lemon Drops - Happy Head
Ministry - Twitch
Motorhead - Orgasmatron
Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper - Frenzy!
Public Image Ltd. - Album
Stan Ridgway - The Big Heat
Saint Vitus - Born Too Late
Samhain III - November Coming-Fire
Shop Assistants - Will Anything Happen
Shriekback - Big Night Music
Slayer - Reign In Blood
Sonic Youth - EVOL
Soul Asylum - Made To Be Broken
Soul Asylum - While You Were Out
Stetsasonic - On Fire
Swans - Greed EP
Swans - Holy Money EP
Talk Talk - The Colour Of Spring
That Petrol Emotion - Manic Pop Thrill
Throwing Muses
The Triffids - Born Sandy Devotional
The Triffids - In The Pines
Yo La Tengo - Ride The Tiger

i really like 31 out of 125 on chuck's original list. there is a lot on there i have never heard! i'll get to them all eventually.

Definitely: Slovenly - Thinking of Empire
Possibly: Live Skull - Don't Get Any On You

Just had a flashback and remembered a few more I hadn't thought about let alone heard in over 20 years. I guess I blocked out all that roots rock.

The Beat Farmers - Van Go
The BoDeans - Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams
Drivin' n' Cryin' - Scarred But Smarter
Georgia Satellites
Jason & The Scorchers - Still Standing
Lone Justice - Shelter
The Rainmakers
Timbuk 3 - Greetings From Timbuk 3

I really want to hear the Ut and Strungout on Jargon on xhuxk's list...

Both totally different, but both great!

this thread makes me wish it was 1986

Ones I've definitely listened to in the past year or so:

3. die kreuzen - october file
37. died pretty - free dirt (CD reissue)
46. screaming blue messiahs - gun shy
76. nightingales - inthe good old counry way (CD reissue)
95. frank kogan - stars vomit coffee shop (Didn't play this one all the way through though)
97. mantronix - the album
104. death of samantha - strungout on jargon
106. mofungo - messenger dogs of the gods

Maybe a couple others, too. (Of the ones above, I liked Mantronix, Screaming Blue Messiahs, and Death Of Samantha best.) Also pretty sure I've played different '80s LPs by the Pontiac Brothers, DC3, Celibate Rifles, The Scene Is Now, Virgin Prunes, the Rhythm Pigs, Naked Raygun, Plan 9, and Red Lorry Yellow Lorry (plus a few of the more famous bands), but not the specific albums listed above.

Still, that's way more than I would have guessed!

Oh yeah, I've listened to different '80s Three Johns, Zarkons, Flipper, Fall, and Leather Nun albums, too. And Paul's Boutique, which I bought a CD of at a garage sale. And a CD reissue by This Heat (who are sort of Camberwell Now under a different name more or less, right?)(Plus the Faust album from last year, but that doesn't count as "80s.")

Actually though, re Death Of Samantha, I liked Strungout On Jargon less than their '87 Laughing In The Face Of A Dead Man EP (the one where they cover "Werewolves Of London"), which surprised me. And have always thought '88's Where The Women Wear The Glory And The Men Wear The Pants was their best album -- they definitely improved, got better as players and songwriters, as they went on, up to that point anyway. (Haven't heard their later stuff in years; thought at the time it wasn't so good.) So come to think of it, I'd probably rate the '86 Mofungo LP higher than the '86 Death Of Samantha one.

And have always thought '88's Where The Women Wear The Glory And The Men Wear The Pants was their best album

^ agree with this, but this next one ('Come All Ye Faithless') was alright too!

Billy Bragg, Talking With The Taxman About Poetry
Steve Earle, Guitar Town
The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto

xp Yeah, I definitely plan to pick up Come All Ye Faithless if I ever see it for $1 somewhere. I kind of panned it in print at the time, though. So maybe I shouldn't ask Petkovic if he has an extra copy.

Anyway, some other '86 LPs I've bought for $1 or less and liked in the past year or so:

T Graham Brown - I Tell It Like It Used To Be
Bruce Cockburn - World Of Wonders
Dobie Gray - From Where I Stand
Randy Travis - Storms Of Life
Peter Gordon - Innocent
Georgia Satellites - Georgia Satellites
David + David - Boomtown
Feederz - Teachers In Space
Timex Social Club - Vicious Rumors...The Album
ET - Best Friends
The Forester Sisters - Perfume, Ribbons & Pearls
Little Milton - Annie Mae's Cafe
O.B. McClinton - Album No. 2
R.J.'s Latest Arrival - Hold On
Steve Arrington - The Jammin' National Anthem
Stan Ridgway - The Big Heat
Gregory Abbott - Shake You Down
Robert Cray - Strong Persuader
John Conlee - Harmony
Amy Grant - The Collection

Little Milton would probably be my favorite of those; runnerups would be (in some order or other) RJ's Latest Arrival, Timex Social Club, Steve Arrington, Robert Cray (which I always figured I would hate), and Georgia Satellites. (Guess I should have been listening to more music by black people that year.)

Didn't really like the Golden Earring, World Saxophone Quartet, Jesse Johnson, or Live Skull LPs I bought. (Not enough to want to keep them, anyway.)

Bought, but still haven't played yet:

Mel McDaniel - Just Can't Sit Down Music

Also passable (came in the mail free from Metal Mike a month or two ago):

(Various) - Echo Park soundtrack (A&M), which I wrote about here:

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2010

Also, what I wrote about a 1986 EP by the Janitors last year:

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2009

And a discussion (featuring Scott, George, Phil, etc.) of what other 1986 albums Georgia Satellites fans might have bought:

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2009

That thread also indicates that I found the 1986 Del-Lords album (which got reissued last year) mediocre at best.

Listened to these last weekend for the first time in 20+ years:

Afrika Bambaataa - Beware (The Funk Is Everywhere)
Public Image Ltd. - Album
Billy Bragg - Talking With The Taxman About Poetry
The Mekons - The Edge Of The World
Meat Puppets - Out My Way
Ramones - Animal Boy

Also realized Cramps - A Date With Elvis was '86, not '85, so I added "Can Your Pussy Do The Dog" to my mix, along with Weird Al's "Polka Party," heh. Still haven't gotten a hold of the Mantronix yet. The first four hold up, Meat Puppets is okay, Ramones not so much, though I liked "Bonzo Goes To Bitburg."

It's fascinating that many say it's the worst year ever for music. That could be true, but yet there's still gems worth discovering or re-discovering. I first heard the lead cut of Beware (The Funk Is Everywhere) on KUNI. The album was nearly impossible to find for a long time, and I just heard the whole thing for the first time. Well worth hearing, it also has a crazy cover of MC5's "Kick Out The Jams." The album didn't stick partly because electro was already considered passe. Now it sounds less dated to me than Run-D.M.C.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXReE3uXehc

I liked Out My Way A whole lot...esp. the title track, Other Kinds of Love, & Not Swimming Ground

A few remastered reissues this year for 1986 albums:

Game Theory - Real Nighttime (Omnivore)
Comsat Angels - Chasing Shadows (Island/Edsel)
Close Lobsters - Forever, Until Victory Singles (Fire)
GTR - GTR

I'm also listening a lot to That Petrol Emotion - Manic Pop Thrill.

Oops, Game Theory album is '85. Oddly, Omnivore seems to be skipping Big Shot Chronicles for now and going straight to Lolita Nation in Feb - http://omnivorerecordings.com/music/lolita-nation/

The Close Lobsters singles were part of the Firestation Towers 1986-1989 set.