the best of THE BIRTHDAY PARTY records

JunkYard>mutiny>prayers on fire>hee haw>almost all the rest of post punk

Extremely difficult, but I'm going to go with Junkyard for all the wrong reasons (it's the first one I heard)

also very recommended: It's Still Living + Live 1981-1982

the die haut+nick cave 1982 record "burnin' the ice" is also quite ok

Prayers > Mutiny > Junkyyard > Hee-Haw thing.

This is insanely hard, but I'm going to go with "Prayers on Fire," which I don't think a lot of people will agree with. They fexperimented more with the instrumentation on this one, and I think it's Cave's most insane performance.

It only has a slight edge on the others, though, and I have to give 'Mutiny' credit for being one of the most intensely brilliant songs of all time.

bbc sessions > everything else they did. their version of the stooges 'loose' is completely unhinged. scared me in a way that iggy could never do

...and i STUICK ITTTT...

"I'm going to go with "Prayers on Fire," which I don't think a lot of people will agree "

at least most voters for rateyourmusic and allmusic are with you

the "funhouse" cover on the live record is also making iggy pop look like frank sinatra

I've got _Hits_, the BBC comp and the Live 81-82 thing, do I really need the proper albums? Is there anything crucial NOT on those 3?

Haha I've got the albums, but I don't have the BBC comp and the Live 81-82 thing! Do I really need them?!?!

Junkyard > Mutiny (mutiny+the bad seed e.p's) > Hee Haw (debut+singles)
= Prayers on Fire

I'm going for Junkyard, but there's no wrong answer as far as I'm concerned. I was just listening to the Mutiny EP the other day and I'd forgotten how much I liked it.

The older I get I admit to wondering if the "old" stuff really is better or whether I just can't hear certain things anymore. I know most average people all like music they heard between something like 14-24 or whatever, but it's not like I've stopped checking stuff out or even being curious. But so many times when I put things on these days I think it sounds pretty good, but when am I ever going to realistically put it on again? Especially when the option is there to put on something I haven't heard in a long time that still sends chills through me.

Was BP so great because they didn't seem to give a shit? They just followed the muse? Or were they more calculated than they appear? I dunno what it is, but every note just rings true. And was there ever a band with LESS of a functioning rhythm section that rocked this hard? I mean, they sound like they're forever collapsing and incapable of locking into a groove and yet it moves...

check out "Drunk on the Pope's Blood" too, y'all.

I already loved this band based on their immortal vinyl, but seeing the You Tube clips of them doing "Nick the Stripper" on German TV you just kind of feel *staggered* at how righteous they were at their peak.

Mutiny > Junkyard > Prayers On Fire > Hee Haw

what a great band.

I had all these at one point or other but found it difficult to appreciate them over an album's length. Hee Haw was a bit more palatable, I think. They certainly had their moments. I would love to hear their cover of the Stooges "Loose"!

I was youtoobin' last night and contemplating how sub-Ferry pop kids...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=toFF3OvBR94

turned into this...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=l5I2vEcVC_I

...in a matter of months. The Roxy Music horns have gone horribly wrong, and they've aged about 3 undead centuries. I love all the records, and each is different enough that it is hard to choose. But for unadulterated intensity, it's got to be the last EPs, especially Mutiny. The first hard stop in "Mutiny in Heaven" gave me a cold chill on the first (and many subsequent) listens. Very few bands have ever figured out how to twist their influences into such an individual statement. Of all the white kids who picked a fight with the blues, they're the only ones who got it to at least a stalemate. Hearing the Birthday Party, I think I've got a sense of the unnerved fascination W.C. Handy felt, waking up on that train platform.

junkyard, then mutiny (this was very close, i'm still not sure but the song 'junkyard' itself plus 'big jesus trash can' = winnar) then prayers and hee haw. it's still living is great as well. the birthday party were my favorite band for most of college but i haven't listened to them in a couple years now i think.

"Was BP so great because they didn't seem to give a shit? They just followed the muse? Or were they more calculated than they appear"

try this:
the combination between post punk,blues,rock,rockabilly,african music,industrial,metal,cave's vocals, harvey's songwriting,howard's guitars,the horns,the dirty sound of the production,putting together captain beefheatrt,the fall,pere ubu,stooges,velvet underground,roxy music,new york dolls,the cramps etc.. as an influence on one band.

and their best song,in my mind, will always be "big-jesus-traaaash-can"...it's everything they are in one song, i think.

I love it all but Prayers on Fire wins by a nose. It's just got that eclectic perfection that makes it sort like the noisy intermediate step between Revolver and Doolittle.

The only thing they did wrong was break up.

Phil Calvert is a personal drum hero of mine. If I hadn't gotten obsessed with his understated creativity while I was in high school, I'd probably be a much more technical player now.

Prayers on Fire

Haha I've got the albums, but I don't have the BBC comp and the Live 81-82 thing! Do I really need them?!?!

-- Alex in SF

the cool thing about the BBC sessions (to me) is the production/recording of the songs - the instruments/voice sound louder, clearer, tougher, and more upfront. it's like someone lifted up that (arguably pretty cool) murky cloud of reverb off their songs and let you hear them like they sounded before they were 'produced'. (coated w/ verb) i imagine that most of the songs were also recorded live so the energy of the group seems more focused. they seem positively dangerous in a way that i never quite got from their studio records. their is also a really great song on there called 'roland around in that stuff' that isn't on any album of theirs that i know of. drum beat on that song seems absolutely bonkers to me - it's this rolling military march-type drum part that doesn't seem to necessarily be in any sort of time signature and is constantly threatening to just fall apart completely. very cool. if anyone ever had any doubts about the incredible chug'n'groove that the rhythm section can get into, this would be the album to make you a believer. what a band

I think Junkyard is my favorite album ever.

the die haut+nick cave 1982 record "burnin' the ice" is also quite ok

This one's up there too.

prayers > mutiny > junkyard > hee haw
prayers was the first one i heard, and i've been listening to that record for years now and i still find new things to appreciate about it. junkyard, i wish had more sleaze-ballads.

have we don a nick cave/bad seeds poll yet?

Junkyard, though 6335 absolutely OTM about the BBC sessions. There's some great footage from an early C4 series called 'Whatever you want', featuring Cave in a 'Jesus' t-shirt being mauled by a London audience, which captures that same raw edge.

The BP certainly didn't seem to give a shit about the alternative/popist conventions of the time, and I loved 'em for that.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I choose Hits.

I'll go with Mutiny just for "Jennifer's Veil".

Weird to me that Mutiny and the Bad Seed EPs are now read as being part of the same thing - having bought them on vinyl as they came out (and,sorry, it's just because I really am that old) they seemed a long, long way apart in the development of the band. Or in Nick Cave's career, as it turns out. Incomparable artefacts, incredible sounds, anyway you hold 'em up.

Weirder still, the Libertines mean the just same or more, to many now. But I suppose that's show business.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

<3

the girlfriend for whom I was most gaga in high school saw them live when they played at fucking Danceteria

I still resent her for that

∧What a bitch!

I've listened to Hits more than any of the actual albums, as The Birthday Party albums were kind of hard to find for quite a few years.

I didn't vote because I couldn't decide. They're all pretty good, but none are outstanding.

yeah HITS

even the rare tracks are gold - every inch a winning thing, this band.

They're all pretty good, but none are outstanding.

wrong! i couldn't vote 'cos i love them all. they are all outstanding.

the girlfriend for whom I was most gaga in high school saw them live when they played at fucking Danceteria

my old flatmate used to torture me about seeing them with the pop group on the same bill.

I can't think if a Birthday Party song I don't love.

Never was a Phill Calvert fan, I thought that Mick Harvey's approach was much more visceral and gave a big boost to their drive (which is why The Bad Seed made such a big impression on me).

Saw em @ the legendary I-Beam (upstairs and across the street from the former bowling alley now known widely as the Amoeba store on Haight) right after The Bad Seed EP came out. Absolutely ripping, complete with some cute girl climbing up on stage and clinging to Nick's leg as he sang and them him detaching himself and diving headfirst into the crowd; Tracey Pew in a cowboy hat, unmoving, rock-solid; Rowland Howard as the poster boy for heroin chic; Mick Harvey driving the band with a stripped down THWACK.

I couldn't vote because I liked Bad Seed and Mutiny the best, but they aren't really albums but two EPs and if you are going to count them then you should do Drunk on the popes blood too, ven if half it is by Severin Lunch but then that only leaves Junkyard and Prayers, now prayers is slightly better then Junkyard, but not by much and anyway thats voting against Bad Seed/Mutiny and its not as good as that... well, you can see why I became unable to vote...

Stir, they really were something live, at The Nite Club (upstairs at the Playhouse) they were astonishing, but they were even better at Coasters in Tollcross the year after circa bad seed when they were so astonishing I was seriously worried that I'd had my drink spiked. I know that sounds like exaggeration, but the music was filled with such sudden chaotic lurches (think of the 'love is for fools' bit in deep in the woods) that were exactly like an acid rush.

Man...I saw some great shows in my youth but the Birthday Party is the band that, if I could go back in time I would love to see. I am jealous of you people.

" am jealous of you people"

big OTM!