Best Giant Sand album?

A lot to chose from but which is best?

Chore for me, with Centre Of The Universe not far behind.

I think Chore is one of the most interesting records to come out of the whole alt. country, Americana thing. It's lightyears away from The Jayhawks or Ryan Adams. Some of Gelb's best songwriting, as well as his most inventive arrangements. It was written after the death of his friend and mentor Rainer Ptatek and has an elegiac feel. There are snippets of Rainer's steel guitar, as well as drop ins of his favourite opera aria. There are some heartbreaking piano ballads where the Burns-Convertino rhythm section do wonderful, sensitive work, really charming folk-pop numbers like Shiver, funky 'lil tunes like Temptation Of Egg, and some seriously rockin' shit like Satellite and Wolfy. A stunning achievement.

Centre Of The Universe is great: bubble gum desert grunge with airy, cooing harmonies from Howe's missus and a Bangle. The title song is really weird, like there's two songs going on at once, one delicate and spacey, the other clanging and dissonant. It's brilliant.

Not big on sophistication me, gonna vote for Thin Line Man cos out of the 4 or 5 I've heard, it's the one that rocks the most. Guess Chore will win by a mile though.

Long Stem Rant for me, though I haven't heard almost anything after it. I saw Gelb do a fantastic off-kilter solo piano & vocals set at Mama Kin in the mid-90s, are any of these like that?

I think Chore is one of the most interesting records to come out of the whole alt. country, Americana thing. It's lightyears away from The Jayhawks or Ryan Adams. Some of Gelb's best songwriting, as well as his most inventive arrangements. It was written after the death of his friend and mentor Rainer Ptatek and has an elegiac feel. There are snippets of Rainer's steel guitar, as well as drop ins of his favourite opera aria. There are some heartbreaking piano ballads where the Burns-Convertino rhythm section do wonderful, sensitive work, really charming folk-pop numbers like Shiver, funky 'lil tunes like Temptation Of Egg, and some seriously rockin' shit like Satellite and Wolfy. A stunning achievement.

OTMFM, except I'm not sure how much I even want to tie it to alt country/americana. It has some of the trappings, but unlike the other stuff it doesn't take some kind of idealized heartland authenticity as a starting point.

I mean not that all alt-country actually idealizes heartland authenticity -- some of it obviously tries to subvert that. But I think Gelb is coming from a different placce altogether.

answer is Arizona Amp ALternator

Arizona Amp and Alternator is indeed a fine album. However it is not listed as a Giant Sand album. I could have included it and also Howe's solo albums, Slush and all the other authorized bootlegs but it would taken forever.

Oh and I forgot The Band of Blacky Ranchette which also have 4 albums.

I voted for Ramp, with Chore, Center of the Universe and the Love Songs very close behind. His most underrated release if probably Storm.

glum

For some reason I forgot about Glum. So many good albums.

yeah, i like songs off of every Giant Sand/Gleb record (that I've heard anyway) but Glum is the one that I like all the way through ...

Gleb = Gelb, obv.

Glum's the first GS album I heard and it's still my favorite. Strong songs & the guitars are amazing. The way the electric ones jump out at you at exactly the right time during some of the songs remind me a bit of the Stooges' "Search and Destroy".

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Long Stem Rant was my first, and I've played it more than the 3-4 others I have (put together, probably), so it gets my vote. It really struck me as kind of amazing back then - that loose, comfortable-with-each-other vibe, like "wow, this really is a bunch of guys getting together in somebody's garage" type thing. But I haven't played it in a while, and never gave the others I have the proper attention, so maybe it was just the novelty of it that I liked.

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Kinda surprised that Center of The Universe received no votes. Also surprising not to see Chore as the runaway winner.

Conclusive results as ever

there were probably too few voters, "center" should be in the top three, i guess. "provisions" would have deserved a vote too. was "long stem rant" the one just with convertino in the barn? if yes, that one is different from the others.

Yeah Alex Long Stem Rant was primarily just Gelb and Convertino. I never would have guessed it would get more votes Center of The Universe.

how'd i miss that they're reissuing all of the giant sand records? http://www.firerecords.com/site/index.php?page=artists&artistid=00000000307

has anyone heard the new howe gelb & a band of gypsies album alegrias? apparently some kind of flamenco. the german critics didn't like it after what i read.

Meantime, great story on Rainer Ptacek:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/observations-a-tribute-to-rainer-ptacek--the-lost-genius-of-slide-guitar-8113278.html

the new giant giant sand album, a country rock opera, is pretty good too actually. sound-wise leans more towards calexico but it is quite varied (country plus mexican plus the usual dry desert rock). the band is quite huge, i think more than ten people. nice booklet with drawings, lyrics and some kind of explanation of the storyline. which is pretty surreal, of course.

the love songs is a fantastic album, by far my favorite among the band's early recordings, way better than the scattershot follow-up, long stem rant (which certainly has moments). can't believe it only got one vote here.

Like in his final interview, someone asked why we are here, and he said: 'To love away the pain.'” (from that article on the tribute album to Rainer)