post E.P's that stands as equal (or even better) to the act's best L.P's

2.The Fall - Slates

3. Two Lone Swordsmen: A Bag of Blue Sparks

4. Motorpsycho - Starmelt EP

5-9. Ride - Ride, Play, Fall, Today Forever, Leave them All Behind (which i count as an EP, even if it's officially a single)

10-12 The Beta Band: The Three EPs

there will be more british bands on this thread,i guess.
the tradition of an e.p releases there is more popular than in america isn't it..

Cocteau Twins - "Echoes in a Shallow Bay" and "Tiny Dynamine"

(which stand as some of their finest work IMNSHO)

Listmania: Best EPs ever

Taking Sides: EPs vs LPs

101 Great EPs and mini-albums...

U2--Wide Awake In America for the live versions of Bad & A Sort Of Homecoming.

And Under A Blood Red Sky.

xhuxk: technically this is a different question...

Yeah, but the question was dealt with on one of those threads:

>>Can anyone name an EP that could be considered a band's best work?
Well, can ya?<<

Jesus, just off the top of my head, let's see: Scratch Acid, Butthole Surfers (their first 2), Flaming Lips (their debut -- considered by me if by nobody else), Meat Puppets (debut "album," not so much In a Car), White Zombie, Mission of Burma (yep), Minor Threat (first THREE EPs - -hey, so they're really another EP only band, right?), Circle Jerks, Anthrax (*I'm the Man,* still not very good). Big Black (Racer X, but the two before were pretty good too), Leather Nun (a couple), the Fiends, Phuture, Green River, Halo of Flies (a few none of which I've heard for years), Laughing Hyenas, the Puddle, Rudimentary Peni (though admittedly I knew them mainly from the *EPs of RP* album), Scientists (Blood Red River), DNA, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks (who had two), maybe Three Johns (I forget how long *Atom Drum Bop* was but I bet under 25 minutes), maybe Nerf Herder (ditto for their first two albums), Vox Pop, probably Pussy Galore (a couple), U2 (*Under a Blood Red Sky* -- also one of the only bands ever whose best record is a live record!), the Specials (*Ghosttown*), Red Cross aka Redd Kross (debut and *Teen Babes from Monsanto*), possibly the Nomads, possibly Young Gods, Pere Fucking Ubu (*Datapanik in Year Zero*).

If I really put some time into this, the list would be a lot longer.

And by the way, with Angry Samoans, one of their two very short "albums" (*Inside My Brain*) was originally an even shorter EP; only seven or so years after its original release were more tracks added.

-- chuck, Tuesday, November 18, 2003 6:03 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Link

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And now, with lots of good bands self-"releasing" demo EPs then never following up with anything more substantial on a real label, that list is gonna start to get a LOT longer.
-- chuck, Tuesday, November 18, 2003 6:09 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Link

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Can anyone name an EP that could be considered a band's best work?
Well, can ya?
-- Eponymous (eepp...), November 18th, 2003.
Well, sure. Some of the ones I mentioned could be considered as such, subjectively speaking.

I also hear some people praise, as an example, Chronic Town as REM's best, which I don't agree with at all, but HEY, whatever floats yr boat!

-- Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Tuesday, November 18, 2003 6:18 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Link

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And Pavement's three most interesting records are their first three EPs, too.
-- chuck, Tuesday, November 18, 2003 6:48 PM (3 years ago) Bookmark Link

13-16. My Bloody Valentine - You Make Me Realize, Feed Me with Your Kiss, Glider, Tremolo.

A lot of the shoegaze bands had better EP's than albums. This is true for the early Flying Nun bands too. Sometimes I wish the EP became the standard format instead of the LP because most albums are frankly just filler. It's gotten even worse with the advent of the CD. I think the French had it right in the late fifties and early sixties where albums were the exception and not the rule. Also, those early French Ep's are beautiful to look at.

17. Spoon- Soft Effects
but really any of Spoon's albums could be great EPs.

Echo & The Bunnymen
Romeo Void
REM

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Two People...Probably Looking At Me

Birthday Party- Mutiny and Bad Seed are contain their best moments. Add the Door Door EP, Drunk on the Popes Blood, and the EP comp built around Release the Bats, and you've got the whole gist of the band.

And as Xhuxk points out, a lot of the post-B Party Scuzz/Trash/Pig bands did their best work on EP- Scratch Acid, Laughing Heyena, Buttholes (...the Cream Corn one is great too) Killdozer, etc. I'm seems possible that the debut EPs of Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Pissed Jeans will go down as their best moments. With all of these acts, I think 4-6 songs is about as long as you can sustain the intensity they were going for.

These all come immediately to mind:

The Afghan Whigs - Uptown Avondale
Codeine - Barely Real
Low - Songs for a Dead Pilot
Pixies - Come On Pilgrim
The Replacements - Stink
Sugar - Beaster

A few more:

Boards of Canada - In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country
Les Savy Fav - Rome (written upside down)
Mogwai - 4 Satin/Plus 2/My Father My King

I second In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country.

Polvo - Celebrate The New Dark Age, This Eclipse

the first Pelican EP is better than any of their full-length albums

sheila e - the glamorous life

The lesson here: Indie rockers should only make EPs

Safari - The Breeders

The Verve E.P., if you prefer that period of their music to the later stuff. Which I do.

Mark Lanegan Band - Here Comes That Weird Chill

les savy fav is a fine example

though i think maybe 'the cat and the cobra' has the edge as a slightly better release

Mizzell OTM

The Real Elvis: Hound Dog/I Want You, I Need You, I Love You/Don't Be Cruel/My Baby Left Me.

Don't know whether this counts, but Morrissey's finest solo work is surely the 12 inch of "Everyday is like Sunday", feat. "Sister I'm a Poet", "Disappointed" & the full length "Will Never Marry"

My Bloody Valentine will always be my default for this category.

Digital underground 'this is an ep release'

rem "chronic town"
tv on the radio "young liars"
girls against boys "sexy sam"
luna "luna ep"

Seriously? No one mentioned Big Black? Bulldozer is my favorite studio material by them (I won't include Pigpile in the rankings). Rapeman's Budd trumps Two Nuns, too.

The Bangles - self-titled EP
The Chills - The Lost EP

Bark Psychosis - "Scum"

Belle and Sebastian have a bunch of decent EPs

ok i don't agree that chronic town is as good as murmur or reckoning...

Metal Circus

Soul Asylum - Clam Dip & Other Delights

Ice Cube - Kill at Will

LUSH's first 2 ep's SCAR and MAD LOVE famously knocked the debut album released 18 months later into a cocked hat.

Archers of Loaf - vs. The Greatest of All Time

xpost, too true about Lush...they never did recover...

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s61439.jpg

Aphex Twin - Come To Daddy
Boo Radleys - Wake Up Boo!
Boards of Canada - In A Beautiful Place (seconded)