Topic: Rediscovering Gold: Oldies but Goodies (Read 16681 times)

Jackie Blue · « **on:** 02 Sep 2008, 22:16 »

Because of the sheer volume of music I've digested since I was 8 or so, there are inevitably a lot of bands that I was once way into but that I will forget about for years at a time. Today I found cheap copies of two such bands:

Belly - Star - Undoubtedly my favourite thing that Tanya Donnely has ever done, this album sounds even more breathtaking to me today than it did around its release. A striking amount of it is far more experimental than it seemed at the time, both thematically and tonally. This is a great album. Will Mediafire it if anyone wants it. Videos:

Feed the Tree

Dusted

Run-DMC - Tougher Than Leather - In 1988, Run-DMC proclaiming themselves "The King of Rock And Roll" and using nothing but heavy rock drums and the occasional guitar stab was a total knockout. It was not only an improvement on their collaboration on "Walk This Way" but also an expansion of that sound, really making it their own. To this day songs like "Run's House" and "Radio Station" make me want to roll the windows down and the system up. Videos:

Run's House

Mary, Mary

(Unfortunately there are no videos of the best songs on the album, will mediafire if do want.)

Katherine · « **Reply #1 on:** 03 Sep 2008, 16:46 »

I love that Belly album. I got to see them live when I was a senior in High School. I think I was the only person there who actually knew who they were and didn't just go because it was a dirt cheap show at a local college.

rynne · « **Reply #2 on:** 03 Sep 2008, 17:42 »

I adore "Dusted." The rest of the album is pretty good, too. Here’s some I’ve forgotten about for a while:

Cibo Matto - VIVA! La Woman. One of those obviously-New York records where two Japanese expatriots throw together hip-hop, jazz, latin, and whatever other genres they can get their hands on. Since the singer wasn't completely comfortable with English, all of the lyrics use food metaphors to get their point across. Unfortunately, their more proficient follow-up didn't have the same magic.

Sugar Water

Birthday Cake

Solex - Solex vs. the Hitmeister. This lives off in its own completely off-kilter corner of the pop spectrum. Supposedly Elisabeth Esselink took the records no one wanted from her Rotterdam record store and re-purposed them as sample sources for her own music. The mish-mash of sounds plus Esselink's unconventional song writing makes for a happy, touching, almost naive record full of unexpected twists.

Solex All Licketysplit

(sorry, only one video from youtube for this one)

gardenhead_ · « **Reply #3 on:** 03 Sep 2008, 19:46 »

wow, that Solex video was really good. would you mind putting it in the mediafire thread, please? I couldn't find it elsewhere.

rynne · « **Reply #4 on:** 03 Sep 2008, 21:22 »

Sure, I'll get it up tomorrow.

rynne · « **Reply #5 on:** 04 Sep 2008, 07:02 »

Done.

*Edit* Oh, I remembered another great one:

Whale - We Care. If this record is remembered nowadays, it's for the "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe" video, where frizzy-haired Cia Berg shows off her braces, flashes her panties, and slaps dudes in tin-foil shorts on the ass with an oversized lollypop. You'd probably expect the album to be novelty-act filler, but it's surprisingly varied and good. Tied together by Berg's wicked sense of humor, the band runs through pop, metal, and trip-hop with assists from Tricky when he was still at his Maxinquaye-era peak. A one-hit-wonder that's not.

Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe

Pay for Me

Young Dumb N' Full of Cum

Great thread idea, BTW. I haven't listened to any of these albums in years; this was the perfect reminder.

blanktom · « **Reply #6 on:** 04 Sep 2008, 08:57 »

The Promise Ring - Wood/Water

The Promise Ring are basically one of my favourite bands ever, and this album contains the songs which capture perfectly Davey von Bohlens changed attitude to life after having a tumor the size of a fist removed from his head. The calmer and slower, almost country stylings of many songs turned some fans off, but some, like me, see it as the natural progression of von Bohlens music as he got older.

Stop Playing Guitar

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #7 on:** 06 Sep 2008, 11:05 »

DEFINITELY agree about Whale. The album after We Care was also very good, and I saw them open for Tricky on his Angels With Dirty Faces tour. They were fantastic live.

MrBlu · « **Reply #8 on:** 07 Sep 2008, 16:39 »

Mediafire. Do Want.

rynne · « **Reply #9 on:** 08 Sep 2008, 05:55 »

Which, Whale? I don't have it on me right now, but can get it up tomorrow.

Calaveth · « **Reply #10 on:** 08 Sep 2008, 06:16 »

Quote from: zerodrone on 06 Sep 2008, 11:05

DEFINITELY agree about Whale. The album after We Care was also very good, and I saw them open for Tricky on his Angels With Dirty Faces tour. They were fantastic live.

All Disco Dance Must End in Broken Bones? I liked Four Big Speakers, and 2 Cord Song, but I don't think I ever listened to the whole album. I had to check that it actually was an album and not an EP or something.

rynne · « **Reply #11 on:** 09 Sep 2008, 06:40 »

We Care is up. Also included is another mid-90s classic: New Kingdom's Paradise Don't Come Cheap, a sorely underrated stoner-rap album. Allmusic describes it as if Tom Waits made a hip-hop record.

So All Disco Dance Ends in Broken Bones is worth checking out too? I caught Tricky on the Angels with Dirty Faces tour as well, but I don't think Whale opened at my show. (Incidentally, AwDF is another record that never got the respect it warranted.)

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #12 on:** 09 Sep 2008, 12:00 »

I think Tricky did two tours for that album, sort of. I remember seeing him right before it came out and he didn't have an opener (well, there was a DJ) and it was in a small club so that I was about 5 feet away from him, close enough to smell how good the weed in his spliff was.

Then I saw him again maybe 6 months later, after the album came out, and it was with Whale and in a bigger, "fancier" venue. So yeah.

Christophe · « **Reply #13 on:** 03 Oct 2008, 14:44 »

So I was just at Wal-Mart, getting the car's oil changed. For some reason, I had the song "Dial Up" by Ted Leo/Pharmacists in my head, so after the mechanics had just finished working on the car, I popped up "The Tyranny of Distance" on my mp3 player as I drove home.

Holy Hell was that album so Goddamn awesome. I must have listened to it a million times in high school, and as I drove home listening to Biomusicology, I thought about the time I had saw TL/RX live about a bunch of years ago at a cramped youth center near a high school, being at the front of the crowd and being in front of the dinky-ass stage with the band rocking right in front of me, and how I got to talk to Ted afterwards and get my photo taken with him (looking like a 16-yr-old nerd, natch).

Those were the fucking days.

Now I'm listening to TTOD, and man, if there's anything Ted Leo and the Pharmacists should be admired for (other than Ted's songwriting prowess), it's their endurance. Ted must have muscles like Michael Phelps to strum his guitar so insanely fast (like in Parallel or Together), and the drummer probably has sizable guns too. Man, this band was something special to me, and even if I stopped listening to them after Shake the Sheets (and I haven't even bothered to give Living With The Living a try based on how bad the one before was), listening to this album made me realize once more how much Ted Leo rocked back in the days.

Now, you talk about your experiences with an album you hadn't listened to in a while, popped in, and re-realized how great it was.

This was the original thread in the second topic, pre-merging. Just in case anyone was wondering. - Inlander.

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #14 on:** 03 Oct 2008, 16:29 »

i listened to Deltron 3030 for the first time in a long long time today and man it was fucking awesome.

i'd totally forgotten about that record.

Thrillho · « **Reply #15 on:** 03 Oct 2008, 16:42 »

I rediscovered Modern Life Is Rubbish by Blur a few weeks ago. I honestly didn't remember anything about it, but once it started I knew almost all of almost every song.

Valrus · « **Reply #16 on:** 03 Oct 2008, 23:12 »

I rediscovered Nellie McKay's "Get Away From Me" a little while ago. Man that album is annoying as hell. I have no idea why I ever liked it.

On a better note, I rediscovered R.E.M.'s "Murmur" and Suzanne Vega's "Solitude Standing" after about 15 years and discovered that I still recognized almost every song from when my dad played them all the time when I was like 4.

billiumbean · « **Reply #17 on:** 04 Oct 2008, 00:24 »

Ten Silver Drops by The Secret Machines. I hadn't listened to it ever since I'd gotten into an argument with the dude from Silversun Pickups over whether it sucked or not. Oh you silly, silly screaming Greek dude. It's great and you know it.

Takk... by Sigur Rós. I thought it was boring when I'd heard it a year ago. Oh how wrong I was. I can't go out in public listening to it. I'm that enraptured.

De_El · « **Reply #18 on:** 04 Oct 2008, 00:39 »

I hadn't listened to Sound of Silver in a while, and I did that yesterday. It's still fucking great.

DarkAvenger · « **Reply #19 on:** 04 Oct 2008, 00:53 »

I've re-found my love for Sloan's "Between the Bridges" which of course led me to revisit the rest. Now I can't leave the house without listening to something by Sloan.

rynne · « **Reply #20 on:** 04 Oct 2008, 05:38 »

I mentioned These Arms Are Snakes' Oxeneers or The Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home in the now-playing thread a few days back. More recently, I put on The Magnetic Fields' Holiday for the first time in a while and remembered that Merritt has always been a great songwriter; see "Deep Sea Diving Suit," "All You Ever Do Is Walk Away."

imapiratearg · « **Reply #21 on:** 04 Oct 2008, 07:54 »

About a week ago I played Bear vs. Shark's Terrorhawk in my car for the first time in months, and I had forgotten how awesome it is.

Albatron · « **Reply #22 on:** 04 Oct 2008, 08:54 »

Skyfire - Timeless Departure. kickass swedish death/symphonic metal. reminds me of highschool.

and DJ Keoki - Egotrip, scary club techno

TheFuriousWombat · « **Reply #23 on:** 04 Oct 2008, 09:59 »

I always go for long, long stretches without listening to any Modest Mouse and whenever I go back to them, I put on "The Lonesome Crowded West" and immediately remember why it's one of the ten best records on the 90s, hands down. Good god, is it brilliant.

Ã¶de · « **Reply #24 on:** 04 Oct 2008, 11:46 »

Quote from: TheFuriousWombat on 04 Oct 2008, 09:59

"The Lonesome Crowded West"

I just decided to queue that up after some Mogwai (Happy Songs For Happy People and live at Gothic Theatre 2006), some albums that have been overdue for listening to.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #25 on:** 04 Oct 2008, 12:02 »

There is already a thread for this, and it was only on the second page.

Obviously now that the two threads have been merged this post is redundant! Keep scrolling down, people, just move on. - Inlander.

TheFuriousWombat · « **Reply #26 on:** 04 Oct 2008, 12:48 »

Heh, sorry your thread was usurped. The title was a little misleading though (oldies having a particular connotation) and it was on the second page of threads already. A search wouldn't have turned up with it. Looks like you might just have to deal.

squawk · « **Reply #27 on:** 04 Oct 2008, 15:45 »

Yes.

I sort of rediscovered the Meadowlands a couple weeks ago

Wooooooooooo

Harun · « **Reply #28 on:** 04 Oct 2008, 20:45 »

Quote from: Scandanavian War Machine on 03 Oct 2008, 16:29

i listened to Deltron 3030 for the first time in a long long time today and man it was fucking awesome.

i'd totally forgotten about that record.

omg me too

we should totally get matching d.t.f.h. shirts

Christophe · « **Reply #29 on:** 05 Oct 2008, 00:36 »

Yeah, I did a search for "Albums you've rediscovered" and I didn't think to check the second page, since inactive threads still linger around on the first page. Sorry about that.

Thrillho · « **Reply #30 on:** 05 Oct 2008, 08:46 »

Quote from: Jeans on 04 Oct 2008, 11:28

The first proper band I listened to was The Hives - the first album I ever bought was Tyrannosaurus Hives. I had only heard Walk Idiot Walk before listening to the CD, so a lot of the songs I thought were downright terrible. I burned a disc with the Tyrannosaurus Hives songs I liked - like, three or four in total - and I would play this CD, along with similar CD's of Franz Ferdinand's s/t and The Door's Morrison Hotel, constantly. I had a playlist of about twelve songs for probably a year or so. Later I bought both Veni Vidi Vicious and Barely Legal by The Hives, figuring "hey maybe it's more like Walk Idiot Walk than the rest of Tyrannosaurus Hives!". They scared the hell out of me.

It's quite surprising how the Hives' albums are only about 30 minutes long, yet still stuffed with filler.

PECOAE · « **Reply #31 on:** 05 Oct 2008, 09:55 »

Gorillaz - Demon Days

such a great album, and i just started listening to it again after getting into some rap.

it's brilliant!

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #32 on:** 05 Oct 2008, 13:28 »

So, I've owned Daydream Nation probably three times in the past 15 years, and I always rated it as Sonic Youth's most boring album. I bought it again to give it another shot, and while my initial criticism remains - that it's an album with almost no textural dynamics, that it sounds like every single song is played with the same guitars, the same amp settings, the same pedals, the same pedal settings, and without actually ever turning any of the pedals on/off - I definitely enjoy it more now. It still ranks near the middle in the SY discog, but it doesn't quite bore me as much any longer.

Professor Snuggles · « **Reply #33 on:** 05 Oct 2008, 15:34 »

Just got back into The Radio Dept. which is great news in terms of my life being better than it was before I got back into The Radio Dept. Their new album needs to leak real soon.

Also had a really good Stars of the Lid session the other day. I had forgotten how completely that band rocks my world.

imapiratearg · « **Reply #34 on:** 05 Oct 2008, 15:54 »

It really bores you? I guess it's not one of their most abrasive albums, but it's got a pretty decent amount of depth to it. "Providence" has a pretty interesting texture to it, for example.

evilCarl · « **Reply #35 on:** 05 Oct 2008, 16:23 »

Henry Rollins came to my college the other day, so that inspired me to listen to Damaged. That was the first time I had listened to that record (I know, I know, horrible), but after getting into an argument with my English teacher over who coined the term "straight edge" (it's Ian McKaye, by the way), I was inspired to listen to the Minor Threat Discography. Goddamn, that album was good. Really brought me back. I also listened to Ruiner a few weeks ago for the first time in about a year, and I went through What Could Possibly Go Right? and Prepare to Be Let Down nearly five times each. All before my first class of the day. I have to be careful when I listen to punk, I get really brief, intense obsession with them. One might say it's...hardcore. Hahaha...ha...ha.... I'm sorry, that was horrible.

Also, Mexican Power Authority are amazing.

Metope · « **Reply #36 on:** 05 Oct 2008, 16:40 »

I don't know what is with me and Seamonsters by The Wedding Present, but I seem to rediscover it every september/october-ish. It just has this "fall"-feel to it that almost makes me feel guilty listening to it the rest of the year. Kind of like listening to Christmas songs in july, if what I'm saying makes any sense at all. Anyway, it's an amazing album, and the first one I ever bought that really blew me away, so it's sorta sacred to me.

Inlander · « **Reply #37 on:** 05 Oct 2008, 17:04 »

Okay, there's really no need to have two active threads on this topic, so I'm going to merge them.

Strap yourselves in, ladies and gentlemen, because I've never tried this before. I apologise in advance if we end up with some Fly-like monstrosity of a thread.

EDIT: Well that seemed to go pretty smoothly. Is everyone all right?

De_El · « **Reply #38 on:** 05 Oct 2008, 17:10 »

I kind of forgot about the Constantines for a year or so, but Shine a Light is a really good album.

Metope · « **Reply #39 on:** 05 Oct 2008, 17:14 »

Oh wow, it's internet magic!

Also, I listened to Let It Come Down by James Iha for the first time in ages today. It's such a sweet CD and I forgot all about it, now I wonder how that happened.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #40 on:** 05 Oct 2008, 22:36 »

Quote from: imapiratearg on 05 Oct 2008, 15:54

It really bores you? I guess it's not one of their most abrasive albums, but it's got a pretty decent amount of depth to it. "Providence" has a pretty interesting texture to it, for example.

It's not the lack of abrasion (and let's face it, "Providence" is a throwaway, albeit an interesting one) so much as the lack of songs which sound... "different". After EVOL and Sister, which had songs like "Marilyn Moore", "Shadow of a Doubt", "Cotton Crown", etc., it disappointed me that they went with what is basically a straight-ahead rock concept album.

On a related note, Tommy and Quadrophenia are not my favourite Who albums, and I don't rate Exile On Main Street or Exil In Guyville as the best albums by those respective artists, either.

Maybe I just have a thing against concept albums.

De_El · « **Reply #41 on:** 05 Oct 2008, 23:16 »

omg omg EVOL is my favorite Sonic Youth album and "Shadow of a Doubt" is one of my favorite songs. But...I dunno. Daydream Nation is good, just not as good as people tell to think it is.

Thrillho · « **Reply #42 on:** 06 Oct 2008, 03:37 »

Daydream Nation has been canonised because it's their breakthrough album. Doesn't mean it's their best.

I love Washing Machine personally. 'The Diamond Sea' is basically a nineteen-minute expression of what I want to do in music.

michaelicious · « **Reply #43 on:** 06 Oct 2008, 09:49 »

Quote from: Jackie Blue on 05 Oct 2008, 22:36

On a related note, Tommy and Quadrophenia are not my favourite Who albums,

Maybe I just have a thing against concept albums.

What about the Who Sell Out?

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #44 on:** 06 Oct 2008, 11:30 »

You've got me there. The Who Sell Out is probably my third favourite of theirs.

But, The Who is one of those bands where I like songs more than albums (see also: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band).

Oh man, I am so tasking tricia with making me a mix of all the best Who songs while I'm at work.

THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Author Topic: Rediscovering Gold: Oldies but Goodies (Read 16681 times)