does anyone have opinions on these tapes i just bought 3 for a buck?

some good stuff in there.

the anita baker, right?

Lords of the Underground--Here Come the Lords

Does that have the "Like a Virgin" cover on it? I thought that kicked a lot of ass when I was 12, 13.

hells yes, anita rulez.

no, but it does have "What's Goin' On" and "the Lord's Prayer," which i'll assume is a Sister Janet Mead cover until I finally listen to it and am disappointed

xp

stampfel, shepp and palace -- that's a great buck spent right there!

when/ where do you listen to cassettes, anyway? in your car? just curious.

Apart from that Beserkley one, forget it.

that chagall guevara i'm curious about cos i like steve taylor plenty, though i'm sorry to see you say "squeeze"

like early squeeze or paul carrack squeeze?

xp

yeah, cassettes in the car, which I wouldn't trade for anything cos it's such a buyer's market

i suppose i could be listening to one right now, actually...

xp

(not that i'm in the car--that was a very "Stan" moment)

The Chartbusters Beserkley thing has some really fun powerpop stuff, like "Rock & Roll is Dead (and We Don't Care!)" by the Rhinos (I think it's the Rhinos, at least). And a lot of okay Kihn.

Is the Chesney Hawkes a 'cassingle' or an album? Did he have any other hits? Or just the one and only?

Tapes rule. I just ordered a Steel Dan cassette on ebay for 25 cents.

Hawkes is the full album, baby! And that is the only hit, far as i know. It might be amusing to think of that song as singing to itself. It sounds kind of defensive.

John Anderson--Wild and Blue (his fourth album, i think; real good, better than his third one, though not quite as good as his first two - doesn't this one have "Swingin'" on it, though? that may have actually been the biggest country hit of the '80s, saleswise - real close, either way, and it's great, though not nearly his greatest song. i used to own this on cassette, too! but not any more.)
Flirts--Questions of the Heart (i have like 3 albums by them on vinyl, all really great in a post new wave flimsy disco way, but i totally forget the names)
Gathering--Mandylion (very cool. this is when they were totally on the cusp between their death metal past & their dark metal future; maybe the most *dense* music they ever made; after this, they really opened up spaces in the sound to make room for anneke's lovely voice. my stairway to hell review of it is around here somewhere, i think)
Ronald Shannon Jackson--Texas (i think i owned this once; i usually like him - when's this one from, the late '80s? i'm drawing a blank)
Graham Parker--The Mona Lisa’s Smile (uggggh - though, does this have "wake up," his only good song of the '80s or '90s, on it?) (or at least the only one i ever heard) (okay, i admit it, i stopped listening, he may have had LOTS of good songs then. but i doubt it.)
Suede (better than the london suede, or maybe not. anyway, i think i liked their third album more, but this one is still on my shelf. what was the hit called, "the drowners" or something? what was that about? anyway, one of the best brit-pop bands, because the singer knew how to swish. if indeed they count as brit-pop. their third album was glammier, though. their second album, the dog star one, was artier and a lot more boring, though i guess that's some people's favorite.)
Sylvester--Immortal (what's on this?) (i have a poster on my wall from his pre-disco daze, from inside one of his blue thumb albums, maybe the one where he covered "whiter shade of pale"; used to own both of those albums, but for some reason i got rid of them.)
Chartbusters: The Best of Beserkley 1975-1978 (Rhino) (lotta Jonathan Richman) (with who else - earthquake? greg kihn? not sure if i ever actually owned this, but i'd definitely pick it up if i saw it cheap....oop, wait, i'm confusing it with *berserkely chartbusters*, which is the definitive one. though i assume there's plenty of overlap between the two, given those years.)
Sound of Chicago--House Music Vol. 2 (DJ International) (includes Frankie Knuckles and Loleatta Holloway--I’m not always sure who’s doing which song) (probably great, though i don't know this specific compilation) (i never was a loleatta holler-her-way fan, though.)
West Coast Rap--The First Dynasty, Vol. 2 (Excello/Rhino) (includes the “West Coast Poplock” and Bobby Jimmy’s “Roaches”) (again, on the mere basis of those two titles, esp the jimmy song, which is a hilarious parody of the timex social club, probably worth the investment. but i don't know this comp. who does "west coast poplock"? no song with that title could be bad.)
Wild Pitch Classics (i do know this one, though, and it's great. my 14-year-old kid borrowed my copy of the CD a couple months ago; i hope he's taking good care of it. he says gang starr are his favorite rap group ever after the wu tang clan.)

this Sylvester is apparently from his "house" phase...

remix of "Do You Wanna Funk" is the only thing i'm familiar with, but I'm currently on "I'm Not Ready" which is listed as a "new release" but sounds like a remix--it's deep and throbbing

I love All I Want/Do You Wanna Funk (depending which edition you see)--it's got some mighty beautiful electro stuff on it, like "Don't Stop" and "Be With You".

and if there are any factual errors in what i just wrote (like, i forgot some suede ep or something, or had the albums out of order) forgive me, it was all off the top of my head.

my own cassetes are all in storage now, as of this summer, finally. i will pull them out in ten years and either have a blast listening to them or wonder why i kept them so long in the first place, only time will tell which.

"West Coast Poplock" is by Ronnie Hudson and the basis for the Tupac song "California"...um..."Love"? (eek, sorry) (his big Dre hit)

Anderson does have "Swingin'"
I don't think Parker has that song
Texas is from '88
I thought Suede were the "London Suede"! I'm glad that's cleared up. Yeah, I've got this one and #3, which is good, and I'm tempted to get Dog Star Man just cos I got the Stan Brakhage movie of the same name last xmas and maybe they sync up or something.

Sylvester is currently singing the great funeral hymn "How Great Thou Art," but it'd be very hard for a congregation to follow his arrangement.

at least a Lutheran congregation!

That Screaming Trees album is very underrated. Some great songs on it.

suede ARE the london suede, i was just making a dumb (and probably innacurate, since i totally contradicted myself) joke.

>"West Coast Poplock" is by Ronnie Hudson and the basis for the Tupac song "California"...um..."Love"? (eek, sorry) (his big Dre hit)<

I always thought "California Love" was based on a Zapp sample! (Or were there two differnt samples in there?) (Or was I just wrong?)

Nobody's mentioned Wrong Way Up yet, I really like about half of that album.

the main sample is joe cocker, the caaaaaalifornia stuff is zapp, but yeah i think the city of compton thing is west coast poplock

Everclear World of Noise: Made when they were still somewhat hardcore, and not nearly as good as what they did immediately after they stopped being hardcore (though maybe better than what they're doing now, and their incipient tunefulness is evident amidst the Noise) (actually, I haven't listened to this in a while and I ought to, in case it now strikes me in another way) (and one of the things Alexakis is doing now is working with tweenpopper Marion Raven, which is potentially better than anything he's done, though I don't know which track(s) he did with her, or if I've heard it).

I'll buy the West Coast Rap--The First Dynasty, Vol. 2 off ya for $2.50

Wow, that was a good investment! Do I hear $3?

"Not since the Clash has a group so effectively turned militant discontent into passionate rock & roll..."

There's a loaded phrase from the Chagall Guevara review in RS! They used that in a promotional video at the time, and who wouldn't?

People's Republic: that's where Stampfel got all commie (in practice, not ideology,I think) and let the other musos contribute and/or pick (some, not all)songs, and it wasn't as good as the first Bottlecaps. So maybe don't listen to that first, nor to The Screaming Trees, if it's one with that guy with the deep voice, and I think he's on all of 'em. Archie Shepp and Horace Parlan had previously made a couple of really good duet albums, sax and piano, and that's all they needed: Going Home (gospel and spirituals) and Trouble In Mind (more secular, duh). Avantwise but also blues/r&bwise jazz, so their reunion should be worth checking out.

Bruce Cockburn--Big Circumstance
The album title says it all. Pompous, absolutely no regard for how the lyrics scan (always a weakness in his songs). Ick.

Bruce Cockburn--Nothing But a Burning Light
Blah, but a couple beautiful ballads that almost recapture him at his best days (Humans, Inner City Front, The Trouble With Normal).

Of course, if you're just into guitar, I have to admit he's an insane guitar player. completely underrated. But again, you get even better guitar chops from Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws, Inner City Front, or Stealing Fire.

Keep trying not to ask, but have to. Why do you need our opinions anyway? Just listen to the tapes and make up your own mind.