What would an insufferable music snob's 12 CDs be?

you're right about:

1. Trans-Europe Express 2. White Light White Heat

the dub one is:

3. King Tubby Meet Rockers Uptown

and then I'll go with: 4. White Album 5. Pet Sounds 6. The Chronic 7. Selected Ambient Works 85-92 8. One Japanese noise cd 9. One Brazilian psychedelic record 10. One NEU! record ("Stereolab ripped them off you know" ;) 11. Tago Mago (absolute must you can't be a snob without it) 12. Trout M**k R*****a (yes, i'm a cheeky bastard here, because this disqualifies me :)

You've gotta add My Bloody Valentine's Loveless to the list, and at least one ultra-rare collectible, like Negativland's "U2", or the Justified Ancients' 1987:WTFIGO? album.

You need a token pop music CD - last year it was Daphne And Celeste. This year maybe the Sugababes but too many people are getting into them now so quite possibly Dream. Pop wrong-foots people occasionally as this forum amply proves.

Thread of the day BTW ;)

I recommend Miles Davis -'Amandla' and the SPAWN soundtrack, with a dash of Sally Oldfield.

_marquee moon_

_remain in light_

_it takes a nation of millions to hold us back_

_second edition_

_69 love songs_

_in a silent way_

_tago mago_

a neu album

_trout mask replica_

_pet sounds_

the vintage dub record

Millions Now Living Will Never Die - Tortoise

Moon Safari - Air

Vanishing Point - Primal Scream

prog might just be creeping back in. the Radiophonic Workshop is a long shot for about 2005.

Ah nothing better than a slagging of your own collection.

2. Crass ‘Best before 1984’ (because the idea of a Crass Greatest Hits package is cool)

3. Kid606 ‘down with the scene’ (the essential unlistenable album)

4. Residents’ ‘Duck Stab/Buster & Glen’ (because you’d need to have something you liked)

5. Vic Godard & Subway Sect ’20 Odd years’ (because they are the current critically over-rated new wave act)

6. Charles Mansun & The Family The White Album (so much better than the other white album)

7. Boyd Rice & Friends ‘I’d rather be your enemy’ (we’d need a satanist singalong)

8. ESG – A South Bronx Story (why? Another critically overvalued act)

9. All Tomorrow's Parties 1.0 (useful compilation of names to drop)

10. Streetsounds ‘Electro 9’ (or 8, 6, 11, 12 – any which came to hand really)

11. Panasonic ‘Osasto’ EP (to remind yourself of Kid606’s roots)

12. Baha Men ‘Who let the dogs out’ (because 100% good taste would be vulgar)

1. Porter Ricks - Biokinetics ("I think when they left Basic Channel they left their talent in one of those metal boxes")

2. V/A - Compost Communities ("I've heard people describe this stuff as like bossa nova. Bossa nova my ass.")

3. that gigantic dub Trojan box set ("I spent my entire last pay packet on this, but that's cool because I otherwise I would have spent it on a shirt, and I'm glad I didn't buy that shirt because after Saturday night it would only make me think of Trey eating spaghetti. Sorry, it was rigatoni, actually.")

4. a Harmonia album ("I remember hanging around the local seconds store at dawn on the day this was rereleased on an indie label, waiting for some idiot journalist to sell their copy so I could update my scratched vinyl")

5. the Amores Perros soundtrack ("Dirty South? Only if you mean latin America, 'cause that's the only place the hip hop I listen to these days comes from".) (Tim says: "actually the Amores Perros soundtrack is excellent, but that's only because I'm an insufferable hipster")

6. The Au Pairs' first album ("I never got into punk, except for the lady bands. They rocked my boat, in a gently back and forth sorta way.")

7. Stereolab and Nurse With Wound - Crumb Duck ("yeah, I guess you could sorta say that I like both those bands.")

8. Janet Jackson - All 4 U ("I bought it so I could learn the words. My slowcore band are covering it on our next ep")

9. Tim Buckley - Starsailor ("I pity all those guys who listen to "Postcards From L.A.")

... and that's all I can come up with.

the music snob would probably own a fela kuti compilation, or anything on luaka bop, such as the new reissue of shuggie otis's inspiration information ("he's much better than stevie wonder, and he prefigured prince, but he never gets his proper due.")

Again, we seem to have differing ideas of 'music snobs'. No way would 'Pet Sounds' or 'Moon Safari' be in the 12 - far too obvious.

n.

1) wild style soundtrack

2) public enemy - yo! bum rush the show ('it was all downhill after that, i think')

3) kmd - mr.hood

4) akinyele - vagina diner ('oh you've only heard 'breaking atoms'?'

5) tribe called quest - bonita applebaum 12"

6) ll cool j - mama said knock you out

7) gza - liquid swords

8) ice cube - the predator

9) common - can i borrow a dollar?

10) mystikal - unpredictable

11) nas - illmatic ('sure, everyone has it for a REASON')

12) jean jacques perry - moog indigo

2. Guy: 'the essential unlistenable album'? ALL those albums sound unlistenable to me.

It depends what type of snob you are, no? A real punk snob would also own No New York.

1/2: The Beatles Red and Blue Albums

3: Velvet Underground GH (the HORROR!)

4: The Who GH (not the My generation comp, but one of the older ones)

5: David Bowie GH

6: Dirty Dancing

7: James Brown: GH

8: Grease

9: The Eagles GH

10: Michael Jackson: HIStory Vol 1

11: Saturday Night Fever

12: Journey GH

So there.

Are Daft Punk too pop to be snob? Is such a factor pertinent? Prince sold a lot of records, the Talking Heads sold a surprising amount for being complete art students. Both were, to say the least, critical favorites in the 80s. Even Elvis Costello sold millions...

My only argument with saying Coltrane is snob music is that some of his records are so goddamn beautiful...not in theory, but in actual practice. Stuff like Meditations, though, is, errr, ART.

Whoever said Belle and Sebastian on vinyl, that's a damn good point. Vinyl is a huge, huge snob indicator. The only reason I buy vinyl nowadays is when it's cheaper, and something I probably can't trade in to a used CD store. Real snobs, of course own vinyl-- NUMBERED, LIMITED-EDITION vinyl, mind you, not the commoners' stuff.

What about-- bootlegs? Stooges and MC5 bootlegs with terrible sound quality? The Monks, Black Monk Time? Blue Cheer? Compilations of garage hits (I have to wonder how many of those garage singles were actually made in the 60s...but then, they usually put the singles' labels in the artwork to prove they existed...)??

But what should I keep....this is the question. I suppose I should select the highest-selling CDs in my collection.

i'd go with your 12 faves and see if they can hold up over a month. i assume you'll buy no new albums during that time, right?

I don't feel like going up to 12.

*--It doesn't matter if you've never heard of it. Just a local hip reference.

1. The Merzbox definitely. Half the reason I bought it was to brag about buying it, having only purchased one Merzbow CD before I got it.

2. Can: Tago-Mago. I bought it becuase Merzbow said he liked Can.

3. Peter Gabriel's soundtrack for The Last Temptaion of Christ. In fact, any "world music" (whatever that means) CD would fit the bill.

4. Metallica's Ride the Lightning. Everybody likes Master of Puppets, snobs know better. In fact, Megadeth's Killing is My Business...and Business is Good! would work even better.

5. Any Cowboy Junkies album except the Trinity Sessions.

6. 10,000 Maniacs In My Tribe.

7. R.E.M. Chronic Town E.P. (if you have the original)

8. Anything by Philip Glass. I dearly love the Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack, but most of the rest of his work is just dense and dreary (and hence perfect for saying to your friends that say they don't like Philip Glass, "You just don't understand it"...the ultimate record snob dissmissive.

9. Lou Reed Metal Machine Music. I am a huge fan of Japanese Noise music and I don't even own it.

10. Jewel's Night Without Armor. Any Jewel fan's response to the statement, "I just don't find Jewel's music interesting" is invariably, "Well, anyone that lives in a car for a year with her mom..." and then some snobby followup. The same goes for Tori Amos' Little Earthquakes, a fair album that gets too much attention because Amos sings about getting raped.

11. Any Eric Clapton album. I think it was o.k. for the girls to swoon over cute white boys playing the blues in the late 60's/early seventies, but only snobbery keeps people buying Clapton records. Same goes for the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Eagles, ad nauseum.

12. Zappa and Beefheart records. I love them both, but it is impossible to talk about them with feeling like (and sounding like) a snob.

Love, Jeff

The Philip Glass would have to be the complete 'Music In 12 Parts'
There would need to be one 'girl group' CD in there, perhaps a Shirelles compilation. "They were the first and best, you know..."

Oh yeah, or modern avant garde like Stockhausen, Riley, Glass etc.

XP: Checking out 90s Radiohead is well worth, but Muse is still an excellent band, and from 2000 onwards have been much better than Radiohead.

― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro)

I don't hate on Muse fans and I dont mind different opinions. As long as you've checked what Radiohead offer if you still prefer Muse I'm fine with it. I'd check what they are doing right now but I think I'm way past my angst ridden years and I haven't been really interested into straight 'classic' british rock in years. It doesn't seem exciting to me anymore.

imo our straw-snob would have 12 albums all on the same label - huge straw-coup to be able to say "the only label that ever really got it right was" followed by some appropriately you've-heard-of-it-but-not-often name

Van Dyke Parks-Song Cycle
TV On the Radio-Young Liars EP
Boys Next Door-Door, Door
Flaming Lips-Zaireeka
Daft Punk-Alive 1997
Velvet Underground-V.U
Schoolly D-Schoolly D
Tim Buckley-Starsailor
Blade Runner Soundtrack
Beach Boys-Smiley Smile
Joanna Newsom-Have One On Me

00s music snobs don't buy CDs

It would have to be all vinyl cassette.

minidisc u noobs

Results 1 - 10 of about 357 for "contemporary christian music" minidisc with Safesearch on. (0.32 seconds)

i honestly believe sheet music is the only pure music media you vile pabulum lusting worms.

Luckily for me I hang out with people with little to none interest in music so I very rarely get the chance of being a music snob. Most of the time I'm just telling pubescent Muse fans they should stop listening to that crap and check out Radiohead instead.

Radiohead?!?

Luckily for me I hang out with people with little to none interest in music so I very rarely get the chance of being a music snob. Most of the time I'm just telling pubescent Muse fans they should stop listening to that crap and check out Radiohead instead.

Radiohead?!?

― Nathalie (stevienixed)

They are (or were) one of the few bands most music snobs can agree on... right?

not me

MOST music snobs. I think they've experienced some backlash with the passing of time but I remember music snobs around me sort of thought they were ok, not perfect but passable. Their constant worshiping of music genres like serialism, krautrock, idm and free jazz sort of gained them some respect with music snobs (others just thought they were talentless hacks ripping kraut bands off for lack of ideas, and others never cared about them at all).

gotta say I haven't heard a persuasive case against radiohead -- obv. "it doesn't work for me" is as persuasive a case as anyone ever needs to make, but if we're going past that into discussion/debate, I'm unaware of any case to be made that they're unoriginal/dull/less-than-interesting

their palette of moods and lyrical ideas is pretty limited imo, i like some of their stuff but they feel like a one trick pony to me in a lot of ways

that's true but it's a pretty good trick & I think most everybody will cop to that

ehhh...they're definitely the closest thing to a consensus act you can get these days, but i'd still say they're far from airtight or immune to non-challopy criticism

nobody's really airtight though - even approaching anything like consensus = there'll be ppl staking out space on the "I never liked them!" margins for when the artist in question jumps the shark

Oh they certainly aren't airtight or immune to criticism in the least, but I don't really hear them as "one-trick" either. Think they've got more than just one their bag.

I don't really have any criticism of Radiohead I just don't care about them and have never heard anything from them that made me want to listen to an entire album.... it's like their whole critical-consensus building period passed me by entirely. My introduction to them was via Pablo Honey (which my now deceased and incredibly obnoxious freshman-year roommate was very into. oh the times I had to sit through "Creep" being blasted at full volume) and then the Bends came out and I kinda liked that "High and Dry" song. By the time they put out OK Computer I was put off by the Floyd/Dark Side of the Moon comparisons and I just never gave them a second chance. I've heard stuff intermittently since then that was okay, but nothing that really piqued my interest. The set of ideas and references they were working from just seemed kinda moribund and needlessly depressive to me.

like oh you are sad about the modern world and have discovered Can, good for you. I'm not really interested in how rich and depressed and alienated you are, Thom.

Seems like Thom is a music snob himself.

smc I would say if you engaged with the work you'd find more there than you're allowing - along darker axes, ok, but "needlessly depressive"? are ppl supposed to start makin' happy music as soon as they get a label advance? hope not, a lot of my favorite depressed records were made by rich fuxxors like Bowie

or the Kinks

etc

there's also a playful/loony factor in RH's work from Kid A onward that i think gets overshadowed by the whole miserablism stereotype (the latter is totally reasonable, i conceed)

i think i'm with Shakey (i think) in that early Radiohead turned me off so completley that I'd find it nearly impossible to have something in common with even their later, more experimental output. file under: "earlyembarrassingcareerphobia"

file under: "earlyembarrassingcareerphobia"

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/20961d585f3326da5d9f7d23068e4ae2/71944.jpg

haha, but seriously "Creep" is their biggest charting hit (fact check pls?) whereas nobody heard TLG until Bowie was already big.

oh I admit I have not "engaged with the work" and there's two things at play there: one is def "earlyembarrassingcareerphobia" (ie I heard their early stuff and mostly hated it) and the other is that given my "earlyembarrassingcareerphobia" experience I was just kinda more irritated than encouraged by the sheer VOLUME of people rhapsodizing about Radiohead. Now that they are no longer a zeitgeist band this doesn't happen so much but I will need to shed some cultural baggage and find some other angle to approach them from before I can really engage with it. right now I can't say I give a shit.

like too busy listening to Porter Wagoner and Richard Hawley and Little Richard y'know

I keep reading "earlyembarrassingcareerphobia" as an albumj title along the lines of "Cooleyhighharmony" or "Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik."

dude Radiohead is way better than Richard Hawley

just sayin

but I can be safe in my assumption that Radiohead is not better than Little Richard or Porter Wagoner eh

imo our straw-snob would have 12 albums all on the same label

AYE j0hn, and that label is WERGO, which I always imagigoogle for Alex's connection threads, without ever hitting anything properly usable ;_;

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/b3f0fc5412dc48a4b9b6b090d07d67e3/537954.jpg
http://prod-assets.mog.com/amg/pop/cov200/drf600/f615/f61508utdmf.jpg
http://www.herbert-henck.de/Diskographie/Cage__Music_of_Changes__neues_Wergo-Cover.jpg

are you serious? is 'e fookin' serious? John Cage? fuckin' chance music motherfuck i wouldn't pay 'alf a gallon of piss to listen to that shite and i like David Tudor!

geezus christ give a gorilla a taxicab and next thing you know, corbin bernsen becomes mayor...

are you the moustache guy from trainspotting?

...you're funny. you're a funny man. is that bein' nice? do i come up to you and say 'eh i'm M@tt h3lg35on the hard-on?'.

Jesus criminy i'm in a warehouse of gay lunacy and i've misplaced my fiddle

He's got a point, though. Clearly, a sexplosion doesn't gladly suffer the insufferable (refer to thread title etc).

A few years ago, I counted the pages of an issue of Wire with a) text > 50 words and b) Cage references. The former number was not very much larger than the latter.

(hey sexplosion i was just joshing, no harm meant)

oi it's alright, all water under the bridge mate. for the record i do 'ave a mustache.

So don't I. Wergo though. They rule anyway.

Okay, I was wrong to be surprised by the Radiohead suggestion. It just seemed they were (or are) pretty wellknown, certainly not something a music snob would recommend as they are pretty wellknown. A snob would go for the "real deal" (krautrock,...). In fact I would think that a Muse fan had heard of Radiohead. But I guess I could be wrong. I personally detested them beyond sanity but, again, that's just me. (As a band they evoke the same hatred as Greil Marcus.)

For the music snobs as RYM, Radiohead is actually the one band they namecheck when they want to examplify "indie" (which they mistake for "mainstream") at its worst and most typical. Perhaps because "Kid A" is the best ranking album at RYM of all time.

Otherwise, I am sure G*nd*la B*b's record collection is as good a reference as anything else.

as in inveterate music snob here are the first 12 i can find here:
Heroes & Villains: Powerpuff Girls soundtrack
Django Reinhart: Complete Early Recordings
El Club de los Poetas Violentas: Madrid Zona Bruta
Syd Straw: War and Peace
Cathy Dennis: Move to This
Adrian Belew: Desire of the Rhino King
Carlinhos Brown: Omelete Man
Mariah Carey: Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel
Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner: 2000 Year Old Man
David S. Ware Quartet: Dzo
not bad on the snob tip if i do say so myself

worst ILM thread ever

I was SUPER CURIOUS about your opinion. Thanks for blessing us with it.

lol Mr. Snrub is pointing out what an insufferable music snob would say, Matt

and i was responding in the manner of an insufferable mus...oh forget it. LOVE YA MR SNRUB, RADIOHEAD 4EVAH