There is no band, however GOOD, which has never had at least one horrifying, pulstulent, irritating flaw

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And this thread is here for you you vent your spleen (and any other organs) at a band who comes close to perfection only to snatch defeat from the jaw of victory via some hopelessly human blunder.

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 01:40 (twenty-three years ago)

I can't think of any bands with perfect records - or even near-perfect. Subway Sect maybe? not that I've heard everything they did...

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 01:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Maxwell's Silver Hammer

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 01:46 (twenty-three years ago)

The Cure - perfect til, er, everything after 1992.

― Charlie (Charlie), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 01:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Sonic Youth.

They could've found more ways to use that neat guitar noise than to put it into the center of EVERY FUCKING SONG. It just gets boring. (note that this changed eventually, and they're still not perfect, but I see that as their major flaw.)

― Ian Johnson, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 01:54 (twenty-three years ago)

bark psychosis' cover of 'three girl rhumba' is a blemish on an otherwise near-perfect record.

― keith (keithmcl), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 02:02 (twenty-three years ago)

THEE FALL!!! (oh wait, the nineties happened)

― tyler (tyler), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 03:04 (twenty-three years ago)

the NINETIES FALL is my favourite, mainly. Yargh.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 03:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Dexys' Midnight Runners never released a bad record. For a while I thought the theme from Brush Strokes was pretty awful but I was won over. They did have a few horrifying flaws though, but thats what made them interesting.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 06:35 (twenty-three years ago)

dexy's is a very good call, except that "too rye aye" has some of the most grating production i know. sounds really hollow and empty. but blame langer and winstanley not the band

― commonswings, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 06:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh really? I like it a lot - but I like Langer/Winstanley productions in general. Pop classicism with oomph.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 07:09 (twenty-three years ago)

oh no i mean usually i love langer and winstanley, but compared to "searching for the young soul rebels" and "don't stand me down" it sounds a bit like it was recorded in a damp box

― commonswings, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 07:13 (twenty-three years ago)

The Monkees

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 07:58 (twenty-three years ago)

kraftwerk -

just about perfect all the way, for nearly 30 years, and then....expo 2000 (the fact that i like it doesn't mean that i don't recognize how conceptually bankrupt it is)

still, it is pretty funny - "planet, of visions"

― noel immitz, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 08:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Hendrix, while he was alive anyway.
Just those 3 albums.
None of the shit that was released after though.

Oh how about the eels?

― Monket, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 08:31 (twenty-three years ago)

i thought Expo 2000 was wicked...who cares if it was just for some technology exhibition in their homeland...just glad they actually felt motivated enough for once to release something - great remixes from DJ Rolando, Orbital and Francois K too

― blueski, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 10:45 (twenty-three years ago)

expo 2000 doesnt seem anymore 'conceptually bankrupt' than other kraftwerk songs...given their ludicrous simplicity, in fact the whole 'man, nature, technology' thing is a tad more substantial than 'ooh, ahh, tour de france tour de france!' or 'i'm the operator with my pocket calculator!' - as much as i like those tracks too

― blueski, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 11:12 (twenty-three years ago)

I agree about Dexys, although people are in too much awe of DSMD. Could the Pixies be another unspoilt band? They seemed to effortlessly churn out brilliant albums one after the other and never make dicks of themselves.

― Dr. David Jackson, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 12:03 (twenty-three years ago)

The Avalanches.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 12:07 (twenty-three years ago)

in awe of "don't stand me down"? only because it is one of the few records i know which blossoms in beauty every time i hear it. so many of my favourite albums i've done all that can be discovered in it, with "don't stand me down" i'm always discovering new things. and it's hilariously funny as well!

― commonswings, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 12:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Neu

― kinski (kinski), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 12:14 (twenty-three years ago)

Pulp.

― edward o (edwardo), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 12:48 (twenty-three years ago)

sure, tour de france is probably a simple paen to the joys of cycling (and heavy panting...) but pocket calculator and the whole computer world thing was a very prescient appraisal of the whole information revolution (it was 1981 after all) and what seems ludicrously simple and deliberately dumb from one angle can also be the result of conceptual economy. ha, maybe i'm reading too much into that - don't get me wrong - i love the dumbness. kraftwerk's motifs have mostly been to do with technology and travel metaphors so why on earth haven't they done their 'internet' album, shit they could even get away with calling the album 'internet', or 'infobahn'. or 'genetic engineering' -

oh, i do like expo, and i'm getting close to forgivness for that. does that mean that kraftwerk are actually perfect? :) (now i've got to go away and think about electric cafe...)

as for neu! - well discounting side 2 of neu! 2, it did all go quite wrong with a lot those captain trip cds - although i suppose the fact that they were released at all was down to klaus dinger and not 'neu!' - again forgivness may be possible - he's klaus dinger after all.

mbv? is not releasing another record a flaw? (kevin shields remixing other bands is not mbv is it) releasing prograssivly better records is surely a good thing.

taj mahal travellers? - just two and a half albums released and all sheer bliss. and of course they probably understood the japanese aesthetic of 'wabi-sabi' - the beauty of things that are 'imperfect, impermanent, incomplete' according to some website.

'There is no thread, however GOOD, which has never had at least one horrifying, pulstulent, irritating flaw'

what is pulstulent?

― noel immitz, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 13:45 (twenty-three years ago)

filled with oozing, disease-laden pus. Essentially I mean to say: what is the zit that bleminshes the bands perfection?

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 13:48 (twenty-three years ago)

have boards of canada fucked up yet? yes it's a formula but it's a good formula and one that can take the weight of a couple of lps and a few eps.

― michael wells (michael w.), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 14:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Young Marble Giants - flawless career, or as close as you're gonna get. I suppose the Salad Days demo compilation is unnecessary, but certainly not bad.

― Ernest P., Tuesday, 24 September 2002 14:31 (twenty-three years ago)

The Cure analysis is completely wrong, you know. Before 1992 they had released several unforgivable songs ("A Thousand Hours", "Push", "So What", "Closedown") and not everything they did after 1992 can be called bad by any stretch of the imagination ("Want", "The 13th", "Treasure", "Trap", "Bare", "Numb", "Jupiter Crash", "Adonis", "Ocean", "It Used To Be Me", "Gone!", "Wrong Number", "Home", "Out Of This World", "Watching Me Fall", "The Last Day Of Summer", "The Loudest Sound", "39", "There Is No If", "Bloodflowers", "Spilt Milk", "Maybe Someday", "Cut Here", "Just Say Yes").

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 14:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Ned must FITE!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 15:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Why would I fight Dan? He's right you know. Except about "Push" and "Closedown." ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 15:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Lifter Puller, Outkast (well maybe being associated with that Scooby Doo movie), De La Soul (they've gone kind of enh but not horrifying or pustulent), Amon Tobin, Tom Waits, Basement Jaxx, Wire and the Chemical Brothers.

― Nate Patrin, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 19:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Daft Punk.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 19:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Jeans Team's only album so far is the best I've ever heard, so all round perfect and...complete and experimental but cute. Yet their failure is their ability to go completely unnoticed and making me feel oh so alone. I mean, how much more alone can you feel than being totally alone in a gig until their hit (which became hit through a remix) is played?Damn Jeans Team, make more fans!

― mario 3 (mario), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 19:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Avalanches - 'Rap Fever'. Nah.

― Mr Swygart (mrswygart), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 20:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I was going to say Young Marble Giants, too, although each of their post-projects has specific off-moments. Colossal Youth, the Final Day 7" and Testcard EP form a concise, airtight, perfect career trajectory...and the Salad Days EP provided important detail about their earliest days.

― Mike Appelstein (mike a), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 20:55 (twenty-three years ago)

with you on the jeans team mario - worst thing about that album is that the preceding singles were even better.

― noel immitz, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 21:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Jason Pierce has yet to do wrong by me. I like every single thing he's released that I've heard (and I've hunted down most of it), and he's yet to embarass himself musically or lyrically. I was annoyed by his selling his songs to Nestle, VW, etc., but that's a minor quibble (seeing as how I've never seen the actual commercials) and doesn't impact my appreciation of his music at all.

And yes, I like the last Spiritualized album, quite a bit actually.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 22:48 (twenty-three years ago)

I would have expected someone to namecheck New Order by now, at least up to Republic (but not the guitar riff in "Regret"). Guess I just did.

And yeah, even my beloved Spiritualized (and I do have everything Jason Pierce has released) jumped the shark with the last album. Gotta disagree with Mo here, in that LICD has some of the most trite lyrics he's ever written.

Actually I did think of a band that has a 99.9% perfect record in my book: The Church. Hell, I even like Sometime Anywhere

― Chris Barrus (xibalba), Wednesday, 25 September 2002 00:25 (twenty-three years ago)

I could do without goodly portions of Zappa's Eighties catalogue -- basically, ditch most everything between You Are What You Is and Broadway the Hard Way. Especially dump Thing Fish.

― Tad (llamasfur), Wednesday, 25 September 2002 00:55 (twenty-three years ago)

eight ugly words: I just called to say I love you
three more words: in square circle.

nuff said.

― robert lashley (brotherman), Wednesday, 25 September 2002 00:58 (twenty-three years ago)

Sonic Youth.

They could've found more ways to use that neat guitar noise than to put it into the center of EVERY FUCKING
SONG. It just gets boring. (note that this changed eventually, and they're still not perfect, but I see that as their
major flaw.)

This somehow seems wrong to me. First of all, I'd have to assume it is only meant to apply to the four Geffen albums from Sister or Dirty because they hardly ever use this approach in earlier or later material. But even then, it still doesn't really make sense to me. A lot of songs are totally different from this structurally - "Dirty Boots" (discrete instrumental sections, never really noisy per se, after the vocal parts), "Mote" (noise over a droning bass part at the end of the song), "Schizophrenia". And the noise break in, say, "Silver Rocket" where it comes more as a break out of the song, is not like the one in "White Kross" where it's more like a climactic build coming from the song. I guess for me I see a lot more variety in the mid-song breaks than I see in the guitar solos most classic rock bands throw in the middle of every song, which is obviously what SY are referencing when they do is.

― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 25 September 2002 14:35 (twenty-three years ago)

"do this"

― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 25 September 2002 14:36 (twenty-three years ago)

there's a few that appear to remain zit-free but all the ones that i didn't mention i'm knocking on the grounds that i didn't mention them. i thus declare boards of canada the winners.

― michael wells (michael w.), Wednesday, 25 September 2002 14:41 (twenty-three years ago)

slowdive.....my bloody valentine

― kephm, Wednesday, 25 September 2002 19:46 (twenty-three years ago)

five months pass...

Casting *RESURRECT THREAD*

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 18:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Magazine!

Unless you count the keyboards being a bit too high in the mix sometimes.

― Ferg (Ferg), Tuesday, 18 March 2003 21:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Gryphon's
_Red Queen To Gryphon Three_
and
_Midnight Mushrumps_

It took me a long time to think of a perfect album,
but these fit the bill.
They go a long way towards correcting the ills of prog
(they're 100% instrumental, for one thing)
- and restoring my faith in humanity, as well.
These are albums that will literally make your brain
explode with their perfection.
They are so perfect they make every other prog band sound
like BTO or ICP or some other acronym.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 08:11 (twenty-two years ago)

royal trux

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 08:39 (twenty-two years ago)

billy childish has never had at least one horrifying, pulstulent, irritating flaw

apart from when he played a gig in tower records to promote the buff medways album FUCKING SELL OUT

― schnell schnell, Wednesday, 19 March 2003 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Andrew Thames, I see your "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and raise you an "Oh Bla Di".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 16:26 (twenty-two years ago)

bbbb--ut they're both ace! I vote for Good Morning Good Morning.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 19 March 2003 21:14 (twenty-two years ago)

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