Desert Island VIII Master List, Part Two

[phanan]

Started joey's list tonight. Listened to the first portion titled Kids, and while there were a couple of songs that I didn't care for (yeah, still don't like Peter Bjorn & John or Wilco), I must say that whole section was very well done. Probably the only song that I didn't think fit was, funnily enough, Ready To Start - even though it's obviously a fantastic song. It just didn't seem to go with the rest. But I loved how everything else sounded as a complete set.

And is it just me, or does the opening drums of Boyfriend sound like Badlands?

 

[IWasBored]

And is it just me, or does the opening drums of Boyfriend sound like Badlands?

i'm going to have to go check now, but there's a fair chance my subconscious kicked in with that and that's why i liked it.


edit: oh ya, it does.

 

[ultraviolet92]

thanks so much guys sorry i have been away for 2 weeks camping with no internet which was bad timing for this.

 

[ultraviolet92]

I had more free time this weekend than I thought! With that comes the second half of Ultraviolet92's playlist.

- To me, MGMT has always been a three-hit wonder, with their second album being an epic disaster. But “Weekend Wars” was surprisingly catchy and awesome. I made need to dig into their debut more.
- On the other hand, I never liked the Cold War Kids and sadly this song didn’t change my mind.
- The straight-up rock segment from “PDA” to “The Modern Age” worked really well. I like how Interpol and The Strokes had that sort of classic feel that fit alongside Zeppelin and Hendrix. Plus, the four songs choices from those groups were just wonderful. Only snag was the transition from Hendrix to Strokes, which felt a little awkward.
- The Nick Cave song didn’t do much for me but you could not have picked a better way to move into “Bad.” Absolutely perfect.
- “On Melancholy Hill” worked far better than I thought it would as a follow-up to “Bad.” One of the best Gorillaz tracks out there.
- Sorry, but I absolutely can’t stand Vampire Weekend. Listened to their album and saw them at a festival. Didn’t like them in either scenario.
- On the other hand, I really need to get into The Cure because I really like everything I hear by them (especially since they’re in like 90% of the playlists here lol).
- Thought the segment from The Cure through Bowie was done pretty well.
- Couldn’t really get into the last two songs either. I’m pretty indifferent to Sigur Ros but I definitely can’t stand Bob Dylan’s voice.

I'd say both halves were very strong for the most part with a couple segments that didn't work for me. I'm a fan of many of the bands you get big thumbs up for that. There were quite a few beautiful transitions too. All in all, I really dug this list. Awesome work!

thanks joey liked your feedback and fair enough for not standing bob dylan's voice or vampire weekend (a lot of my mates hate both)
next time need to listen to my transitions more i think

 

[ultraviolet92]

finished uv92's list (where he at?). enjoyed it!

- opening 2/ worked really well, yes. Everlasting Light is my favourite Black Keys song.
- i liked the Arcade Fire song! so a good achievement for you there, i'm reasonably indifferent to Arcade Fire.
- blink182's self-titled was a really good album i thought. it will be interesting to see what Ashley thinks of that track, i'm not a big fan of it.
- i also liked the Muse song. that's probably the best Muse song i've heard. in fact Muse through YYYs was a brilliant stretch of songs, major props for using How To Make Gravy, my favourite Paul Kelly song (i used it in my last DI). it's a really touching song.
- i'd never heard Gagging Order; it was quite pretty! certainly an atypical Radiohead song, there's not many acoustic RH songs. it also worked really well into Weekend Wars, though i see that wasn't the intention.
- Weekend Wars would be the best song by fucking miles on Congratulations. that's about the only good thing i've got to say about it.
- i enjoyed part two much more than part one. i really liked pretty much every song on part two, and as someone said, Into My Arms into Bad was inspired. how good was it when they played Bad at the first Melbourne gig man??!
- of the songs i'd not heard, Cold War Kids, The Strokes and Modest Mouse stood out.

there were certainly some rough transitions, but if i was stuck on a desert island i'd prefer good songs over good flow. nice job!

thanks man haha yeah i lost my shit when bad synth came on

 

[ultraviolet92]

Just getting the chance to post about the second part of uv's playlist.

I'd have to say that I liked Disc 1 more than Disc 2. While the latter certainly had some great stuff included, it didn't seem to mesh together as well, at least to my ears. It was kind of all over the place. However, I thought it started out great with the first three tracks...

Overall though, this was a pretty good listen, and definitely a most respectable showing for your first time.

thankyou phanan!
once i get my proper internet back (on a friends wireless)
i will start to listen to the playlists

 

[Reggo]

IWB - On paper, I loved your list. About 20% of the way through listening, and I fucking love this! Will issue a full review when it's finished.

 

[cobl04]

Phanan it appears quite a few people are a bit behind in their listening, myself included, I assume the next batch is due out in a day or two? Perhaps we could set it back a few days?

 

[phanan]

Yeah, I was gonna wait until later in the week now. There's no rush anyway.

 

[IWasBored]

IWB - On paper, I loved your list. About 20% of the way through listening, and I fucking love this! Will issue a full review when it's finished.

awesome, i can't wait to hear the full review. i'm really psyched your digging it.

 

[IWasBored]

Phanan it appears quite a few people are a bit behind in their listening, myself included, I assume the next batch is due out in a day or two? Perhaps we could set it back a few days?

yeah, i still got uv and phanan's lists. i need to re-download phanan's or something, because for some reason i only ended up with half of it, or lost tracks somewhere...i don't know what happened, but i need to fix it, load it into the ipod (as well as i need to load uv's in there too).


it's taking nearly an hour to re-download.
sendspace

 

[phanan]

Just an FYI on Joey's list - it appears that Stupid Girl is a protected file.

I already have it, so I'm good, but we may need a new link for that one song for those who don't have it already.

 

[Joey788]

Wow, really? I'm very sorry about that guys. Let me find another file that I can send to phanan of just that song.

 

[Screwtape2]

Joey788
Highlight: Just The Same But Brand New and All I Want Is You were not just the best pair of songs in the competition so far but it was among the most beautiful 12 minutes of music in the game as well. I never thought of the combination but it is brilliant.

Favorite Aspect: This playlist is loaded with artists that I love. The songs you picked by those artists are some of my favorites. Twilight Galaxy, Siren Song, The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning, Cosmic Love, Just The Same But Brand New and All I Want Is You would all be in or just outside my top ten favorite songs for those respective artists.

Other things I liked:
1. The Ra Ra Riot song was a pleasant surprise.
2. The Best Coast song was also a good tune.
3. When I first saw the playlist I was pretty sure I was going to like it and it did not disappoint.

 

[Joey788]

Thanks man! That ending combo is one of my favorites too.

 

[cobl04]

awesome, i can't wait to hear the full review. i'm really psyched your digging it.

 

[IWasBored]

you know, i looked at that post for about 5 minutes knowing something was wrong. i couldn't figure out what it was.

 

[Reggo]

IWasBored's [No Artwork, No Title]

You hacked into my iTunes, didn't you? No, I have to take into account you included The Shat... You hacked into my brain! *dons tinfoil hat* I'm watching you.

I hoped listening to it a second time would prevent me from fangirling. Yeah, didn't work.

All kidding aside, I love your list. Agnostic Front, Tiger Army, Social D, Rancid, Bouncing Souls (!), and one of my favourite Clash songs...oh my god, "love" isn't even a sufficient word. It's punk without being cliche, not every song is three minutes and three chords, but it still has the edge and the snarl. And yet not everything's technically "punk rock". It's got everything I love about music and never hits a sour note or a dull point. A tiny, baby part of me was all "needz moar east bay" but I beat it to death with a distortion pedal. There is nothing wrong and everything right with this list. I've run out of ways to say that you did a fucking amazing job putting this one together

I'll stop fangirling now.

 

[bono_212]

Time to get back on this.

ultraviolet92

Your time is now.

 

[bono_212]

Just finishing up disc one, I was very impressed. A lot of songs by bands on there I don't like, but it all worked together very well and actually ended up being quite enjoyable for me on the whole. There were a few transitional issues near the middle of the list, but the overall flow was fairly natural.

 

[IWasBored]

IWasBored's [No Artwork, No Title]

You hacked into my iTunes, didn't you? No, I have to take into account you included The Shat... You hacked into my brain! *dons tinfoil hat* I'm watching you.

I hoped listening to it a second time would prevent me from fangirling. Yeah, didn't work.

All kidding aside, I love your list. Agnostic Front, Tiger Army, Social D, Rancid, Bouncing Souls (!), and one of my favourite Clash songs...oh my god, "love" isn't even a sufficient word. It's punk without being cliche, not every song is three minutes and three chords, but it still has the edge and the snarl. And yet not everything's technically "punk rock". It's got everything I love about music and never hits a sour note or a dull point. A tiny, baby part of me was all "needz moar east bay" but I beat it to death with a distortion pedal. There is nothing wrong and everything right with this list. I've run out of ways to say that you did a fucking amazing job putting this one together

I'll stop fangirling now.

this pretty much makes my shitty night at work all better. i am beyond happy that you enjoyed it that much. i could keep rephrasing how psyched i am, but it's still not going to match up to how thrilled i actually am to read that. and i'm glad i pulled off the punk rock but not punk rock thing. you pretty much said it exaclty as i was trying to go for, so i'm glad you got it and i didn't fail miserably like i kind of expected i would.

yeah, a lot of it is still very east coast. tried to branch out a bit, but it's not very east bay at all.


"death or glory" makes my top 3 favorite clash songs, which is an amazingly set in stone list for me. i can't keep any single "favorite" anything music-related for more than a few minutes it seems, other than the sinners & saints album, where "marquee lights" comes from (well, the only sinners & saints album, actually...but still) being my all-time favorite album, and white man in hammersmith palais/death or glory/straight to hell being my all-time favorite clash songs.

seriously, i'm so glad you liked it. i didn't expect anyone to really be too into the bulk of it, which is probably why the first part of part 2 is what it is. while i absolutely love that stuff, i kind of picked something that might appeal a bit here to use to eventually switch back to the punk rock stuff. but the whole "punk rock" thing, whether it's something people classify as a punk rock song/band, or something that just feels punk rock to me for some reason, is pretty much the center of my taste in music.

 

[bono_212]

As for disc two, I was a little worried I wouldn't find it as interesting because I knew most of the songs, but that was silly of me because they were all songs I love, and I had an incredibly fun time listening to it.

Overall the list had a nice feel, and really I'm not even sure it was necessary to break it into two discs. The start of the second was more abrupt as a result of that cut if nothing else, though that could have something to do with the couple of tracks you had to remove, come to think of it.

Anyways, glad to have heard your list, it was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

 

[bono_212]

I've been in the habit of not reading other posts on the lists until after I've heard the list myself, so I guess I actually have more to say about Ultraviolet's list after all:

- I wasn’t a fan of the Blink-182 track but I thought Arctic Monkeys was a nice recovery.

I'm surprised to see you say this, given you mention in your next post how much you're enjoying the songs by The Cure you've heard. Robert is quite a dominating presence on this track, clearly Blink is a fan, their cover of A Letter For Elise is also fairly acceptable.

- “Hysteria” is one of my favorite Muse songs. I thought it fit really well after Artic Monkeys but created way too much of a mood and tempo change with Ben Folds Five. Plus, the bit of dialogue at the end of “Brick” didn’t go well into the Rolling Stones song.

I've been listening to the lists on Grooveshark for the most part, so sometimes I end up selecting the wrong version of a song, but here it was a good thing it seems. When I used "Brick" on my last DI list, I also ran into that version of the song with the speaking at the end. I have no idea wtf is up with it, but the regular version of the song does not have that.

- blink182's self-titled was a really good album i thought. it will be interesting to see what Ashley thinks of that track, i'm not a big fan of it.

major props for using How To Make Gravy, my favourite Paul Kelly song (i used it in my last DI). it's a really touching song.

- i'd never heard Gagging Order; it was quite pretty! certainly an atypical Radiohead song, there's not many acoustic RH songs. it also worked really well into Weekend Wars, though i see that wasn't the intention.

, because of Robert or am I apparently a Blink-182 fan (not that I hate them)? I loved the song, actually, I really had a good time with it mostly because, as I said above, Robert's pretty dominating.

I was trying to remember where I'd heard that song before, thought it was you, but wasn't sure.

I had never heard it either, but holy shit did that come out of nowhere. Loved it. And I agree about it working as a transition, though I listened to the lists with a sizable gap between them.

 

[phanan]

Finished Joey's playlist today.

This was a pretty good entry overall. I think I liked Part 1 more than the others, but all were quite solid. Part 3 also had several standout moments, particularly the beginning and ending. Slug into Bullet Proof was fantastic, and I agree with Screw about the last two songs fitting well together.

I think I enjoyed this one more than any of your other entries so far.

Another note, however. The Bones Of You was also a protected file. I assume most have this one, but you should probably send me another link just in case.

 

[Joey788]

Wow. Really? Again, my sincere apologies. Sending the link right away.

 

[Joey788]

Also, here's my thoughts on IWB's playlist:

Part 1:
- I liked the opening musically but I couldn’t stand the singer’s voice. Plus, the transition into Steve Earle didn’t really work. Too big of a drop in tempo and style for me.
- “Atlantic City” was an excellent choice from Springsteen’s catalogue but following it with angry punk was a tough sell. Thematically, “Better Days” fit but combined with the two opening songs, it made “Atlantic City” the odd song out in the opening.
- Sorry to say that the rest of this part didn’t really work for me at all. I’m not a fan of 95% of punk music and this just got to be a long stretch of songs that sounded nearly identical to me. The exception was the far more melodic Tiger Army, which I really enjoyed. Plus, all the tracks did work together as one playlist. This list would definitely work for someone into that style of music.

Part 2:
- Brian Jonestown Massacre followed by Glasvegas made for an awesome opening duo. I loved the fuzzed-out feel both of them had. Only complaint is that the end of “Flowers and Football Tops” made for a poor segue into “April Skies.”
- Two of my favorite songs by two of my favorite bands (The National and Arcade Fire)? I don’t even need to say anything. Add in awesome Magnetic Fields and Xiu Xiu songs and it’s the best part of the playlist for me.
- How the holy hell is William Shatner’s cover of “Common People” so damn good? I was absolutely shocked that I liked it this much.
- Again, I wasn’t a fan of the punk music, but there were more exceptions this time. I’m into Against Me! and I liked the Saves the Day track as well.
- The Undertones through The Kinks was a pretty tight segment, fitting really well musically. In the midst of all this punk music, it was cool to see the original punks in there showing how their sound had evolved.
- I’m a huge fan of The ’59 Sound so that was an excellent choice for Gaslight.
- The last two songs didn’t really work for me as a closer.

In all, I really didn't enjoy the first half but I felt the second part worked much better. Again, I'm not into hardcore punk so the songs that skewed away from that genre was what I was into. Still, there were a few good segments here and I can see this list being popular with those who like the genre.

 

[Reggo]

this pretty much makes my shitty night at work all better. i am beyond happy that you enjoyed it that much. i could keep rephrasing how psyched i am, but it's still not going to match up to how thrilled i actually am to read that. and i'm glad i pulled off the punk rock but not punk rock thing. you pretty much said it exaclty as i was trying to go for, so i'm glad you got it and i didn't fail miserably like i kind of expected i would.

yeah, a lot of it is still very east coast. tried to branch out a bit, but it's not very east bay at all.


"death or glory" makes my top 3 favorite clash songs, which is an amazingly set in stone list for me. i can't keep any single "favorite" anything music-related for more than a few minutes it seems, other than the sinners & saints album, where "marquee lights" comes from (well, the only sinners & saints album, actually...but still) being my all-time favorite album, and white man in hammersmith palais/death or glory/straight to hell being my all-time favorite clash songs.

seriously, i'm so glad you liked it. i didn't expect anyone to really be too into the bulk of it, which is probably why the first part of part 2 is what it is. while i absolutely love that stuff, i kind of picked something that might appeal a bit here to use to eventually switch back to the punk rock stuff. but the whole "punk rock" thing, whether it's something people classify as a punk rock song/band, or something that just feels punk rock to me for some reason, is pretty much the center of my taste in music.

Glad I made your day.

I honestly didn't think it needed more west coast at all. I'm a west-coaster, so the loyalty's there, but your song choices were spot-on, no matter their place of origin.

As for The Clash, well, I call the whole album of London Calling one of my favourite Clash songs, simply because I cannot pick a song to be a favourite. They all have their little nuances and things that I adore. So if it comes from LC, it's one of my favourite Clash songs. I also have their UK debut and Combat Rock, both of which are just right there with London Calling in quality. I have Sandinista!, and I'm not sure if it's just an album that I need to give another chance, but is it supposed to sound like they recorded it while tripping balls?

I'm exactly the same way. I have so many sub-genres and side-steps of punk in my iTunes, it takes up about half my library. I probably wouldn't have gotten into U2 without The Saints Are Coming, since Green Day has been my favourite band for 14 years now. I wouldn't know about Agnostic Front or The Bouncing Souls or Nomeansno or even, I hate to say it, The Misfits (Danzig-only [I've become kind of a purist snob about certain bands, My copy of American Psycho, post-Danzig, notwithstanding]) if I hadn't discovered Green Day and their side projects and influences. I saw Mike wear a DKs shirt one day, so I checked them out. Now I love the DKs and I checked out Jello Biafra's record label. Now I'm listening to Free Beer and The Fleshies and Turn Me On Dead Man, which broadened my punk horizons to Jawbreaker and Missions of Burma and The Germs. I think punk is a lot broader than most people realize and a lot of your bands on your list I'm going to go research which will probably lead me to more bands to get to know and love.

I got rambly there, but it's a topic I'm kind of passionate about. Again, loved your list, and ranking is going to be next to impossible when the time comes!

 

[IWasBored]

- Brian Jonestown Massacre followed by Glasvegas made for an awesome opening duo. I loved the fuzzed-out feel both of them had. Only complaint is that the end of “Flowers and Football Tops” made for a poor segue into “April Skies.”

really? i thought the other way around, that glasvegas and the jesus & mary chain songs fit together nicely, and was considering even putting "wisdom" in there to be a mistake. i just didn't want to leave the song out, but i really didn't think it belonged anywhere at all. hence it being numbered with a 0.

thanks for giving it a shot.

and no, i have no idea why that cover of "common people" is that good. it shouldn't be. no fucking way. maybe joe jackson made it awesome, but i don't think that's the only reason. i do love that thing, though. guess that's why it would be coming with me to my island exile/ship-wrecked paradise.

 

[IWasBored]

Glad I made your day.

I honestly didn't think it needed more west coast at all. I'm a west-coaster, so the loyalty's there, but your song choices were spot-on, no matter their place of origin.

As for The Clash, well, I call the whole album of London Calling one of my favourite Clash songs, simply because I cannot pick a song to be a favourite. They all have their little nuances and things that I adore. So if it comes from LC, it's one of my favourite Clash songs. I also have their UK debut and Combat Rock, both of which are just right there with London Calling in quality. I have Sandinista!, and I'm not sure if it's just an album that I need to give another chance, but is it supposed to sound like they recorded it while tripping balls?

I'm exactly the same way. I have so many sub-genres and side-steps of punk in my iTunes, it takes up about half my library. I probably wouldn't have gotten into U2 without The Saints Are Coming, since Green Day has been my favourite band for 14 years now. I wouldn't know about Agnostic Front or The Bouncing Souls or Nomeansno or even, I hate to say it, The Misfits (Danzig-only [I've become kind of a purist snob about certain bands, My copy of American Psycho, post-Danzig, notwithstanding]) if I hadn't discovered Green Day and their side projects and influences. I saw Mike wear a DKs shirt one day, so I checked them out. Now I love the DKs and I checked out Jello Biafra's record label. Now I'm listening to Free Beer and The Fleshies and Turn Me On Dead Man, which broadened my punk horizons to Jawbreaker and Missions of Burma and The Germs. I think punk is a lot broader than most people realize and a lot of your bands on your list I'm going to go research which will probably lead me to more bands to get to know and love.

I got rambly there, but it's a topic I'm kind of passionate about. Again, loved your list, and ranking is going to be next to impossible when the time comes!

laz said somewhere recently something about sandinista that i completely agree with in a more conscise manner than i'm capable of. not sure if i'm going to be able to find it though.

see, that's really what i love about punk rock. i came at if from a rancid/everything epitaph records prior to y2k angle, and from there all you really need to do is track down bands on people's t-shirts to wind your way through a labyrinth of sub-genres. hell, the only reason i picked up the clash's self-titled album was because i was at the record store and there were these old people in my way. there was some local band's cd i was there to get, but the old people were in my way, so instead of politely asking them to move so i could go grab it, i walked around the store a bit looking at other cds. knowing i was supposed to know, if not love, the clash based on some academic-type idea i had at the time in regards to listening to music/music history dictating that rancid, the dropkick murphys, bad religion, bouncing souls, all that stuff i loved claim to owe a big part of what their music is to the clash. i ended up picking that up instead of that local band's album, and well, guess you can figure out the rest. from there you can take a punk rock history approach in your further listening, or you can go off on dub, ska, reggae...punk rock is such a big deal to me because it's always been the one genre i can use as a starting point to go in pretty much any other direction. sure, i'm a little less than thrilled with the bands that went all ape-shit over johnny cash when he died, because i think a lot of bands over-did it, though, rather than i think it's a valid musical connection. truth is, there are a number of bands that have owed something to the man in black long before his death. it may seem like a stretch at times, as joey thought when he listened to my mix. but then again, it's not his kind of music, whereas it's found its way into being the core of my music-listening self. to each their own.

how's that for rambling? ok, i'll stop now because i'd prefer not to derail this thread anymore than i already have been doing. but reggo, where have you been all my posting time on this board? first you surprise everyone with the scary-ass mix that i'm totally keeping for halloween purposes. now you're geeking out with me over punk rock stuff? i probably made some sarcastic, snide remarks in the green day thread at one point... that's all i'm going to say about that now.

yeah, ranking everyone's lists is going to be a bitch. and it's just going to get even worse, because there's more to hear. hell, i've liked even the stuff that i haven't liked. if that made any sense. context is everything, or something. ok, off to have a smoke, then listen to phanan's.

 

[bono_212]

Finishing up disc 1 of Joey's list, and I have to say, while the flow was tight and the mood he was going for is definitely there, this isn't one of my favorite batches of songs in general, though I'm glad I've finally heard something by Best Coast. And I'm not sure why I feel that way, because on an individual level, I like most of these songs. Just something about them all together didn't do anything for me.

Moving on to disc 2.