I am becoming a fan of Tortoise

[Ernest]

This is a good thing, right?  Of course it is.

[Johnny C]

It's a great thing.

I don't know how much you've heard but their recent rarities comp, A Lazarus Taxon, is possibly one of the best box sets I've ever heard.

[Kai]

I really don't think Tortoise have ever put out a sub par album. I love all their stuff.

Going to see them in June!

[greenMonkey]

Me too!  June 16th, I am pumped.

I got into Tortoise completely by accident by picking up TNT on a whim because I thought I had herd the name somewhere.  Best impulse purchase I ever made.

[McTaggart]

Even It's All Around You? I just listened to that through and it seemed really bland. Is this just a weaker album or is there some other Tortoise that is actually really good?

[Kai]

It's All Around You is okay

get TNT though. It's easily their best, I think.


And their album with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy is so good

[KharBevNor]

?

[ScrambledGregs]

It's All Around You is their weakest album, if only because all the others are so great and distinctive.

I picked up Standards on a whim because I always saw their albums in my local record store and thought the covers were fascinating. I rarely buy music based on the cover art nowadays, but it was certainly more exciting to listen to that album with a strange preconceived notion of what the music would be like. Anymore I read up so obsessively on albums before I even listen to them that I'm not as surprised by music as much as I used to be.

[Ishotdanieljohnston]

The album with Bonnie Prince Billy is so great

Yes it is. That album got me into Tortoise. Their cover of the Bosses Thunder Road is a particular highlight.

[fish across face]

If anyone likes early Tortoise (so far all the stuff mentioned is the post-Pro Tools-using stuff) I'd thoroughly recommend the self-titled album by Directions In Music that contains various members, including one of the founders who has left, Bundy K. Brown.  He has a good touch for the psychedelic which I've found a bit lacking in Tortoise of late.  I do love 'TNT' though.  I sold 'Standards' within a year of buying it, just never found any of it very enjoyable.  Plus it was mastered horribly loud for my tastes.

My favourite single Tortoise track is Goriri off the first 'Macro Dub Infection' compilation.  Dunno if you can pick it up or if it's compiled anywhere, so I'll upload it if anyone's interested.  Really different from other things of theirs, the whole structure keeps falling away... super duper stripped back bass wobble and awkward looping shit.

I love that the album with Bonnie Prince Billy is so distinctive.  I don't like the results, but it's cool that it sounds different from expectations.

I saw Tortoise live a couple of years back but unfortunately it was just as good as I'd hoped for... I was bored for almost the whole thing...