Random Music Talk LIII: Even more fun than the last thread!

[Danny Boy]

Have you listened to Jane's Addiction, LM? They were one of my favorites back then. I was really into New Order at the time, too. I know you've already listened to albums from Love and Rockets and The Cult. I was really into those.

Surely you've heard Paul's Boutique? If not, you must remedy that omission immediately.

In all honesty, though, U2, R.E.M., and the Cure were my favorites of the late 80's.

 

[corianderstem]

I spent the first few years of that span heavily immersed in The Beatles as well, so that took up a lot of my listening time.

 

[Danny Boy]

Same here, except it was The Velvet Underground.

 

[Danny Boy]

For some reason, Jesus Jones' Doubt is the album that stands out in my mind as "the end of the 80's." I think it was probably the whole Berlin Wall thing.

I don't recommend it.

 

[corianderstem]

Ha! I actually still like about 3 or 4 songs from that album (Right Here, Right Now not being one of them).

 

[iron yuppie]

They drive me nuts as well. They're a pain in the ass any way you look at it, and are self-indulgent.

The worst is when there is something ridiculous like 20 minutes between the final listed track and the hidden track. Or those 25 or so one-second tracks before #34 on Under the Table and Dreaming (random Dave Matthews Band reference).

 

[bono_212]

However, I still haven't found a whole lot from 1985-1990 that I can get into. I'm adamantly against the concept of any period of popular music being significantly weaker than any others, and I want to be proven right. What are some of your favorite albums from this period of music? I need suggestions.

I'm never going to stop thinking comments like this are patently ridiculous.

From my Rate Your Music library, in no real order (except semi-chronological):

Spoiler

New Day Rising
The Head on the DOor
Misplaced Childhood
What Does Anything Mean? Basically
Low-Life
Steve McQueen
Songs from the Big Chair
Fables of the Reconstruction
Brothers in Arms
Scarecrow
The Queen is Dead
Master of Puppets
Graceland
Lifes Rich Pageant
So
BOrn Sandy Devotional
Please (PSB)
Blue Velvet Soundtrack
Sign O The Times
Appetite For Destruction
Within the Realm of a Dying Sun
Joshua Tree
Music for the Masses
The Perfect Prescription
Document
Darklands
Calenture
Diesel and Dust
Daydream Nation
Surfer Rosa
If I Should Fall From Grace With God
16 Lovers Lane
STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON
Today (Galaxie 500)
Viva Hate
The Land Before Time Soundtrack (BITCHES)
Traveling WIlburys Vol.1
Starfish
Tracy Chapman
Doolittle
Disintegration
The Stone Roses
On Fire (Galaxie 500)
Technique
Full Moon Fever
Violator
Twin Peaks Soundtrack
Heaven or Las Vegas
Nowhere
The La's
The House of Love (1988)
HEART by HEART!!!!!!!
Meat is Murder
Labyrinth soundtrack
Invisible Touch reject: )
The Seer (Big Country)
Crowded House
Brotherhood
Captive Soundtrack
New Jersey
The Lonesome Jubilee
Tunnel of Love
Earth * Sun * Moon (Love and Rockets)
The Innocents
Temple of Low Men
Pump
Wild! (Erasure)
Home Alone Soundtrack
The Razors Edge (AC/DC)

 

[cobl04]

Perhaps someone who has an open browser tab with "Watch Pokemon Episode 3" shouldn't be pointing fingers.

Touché... I was reliving my childhood. It was a lot worse than I remember.

Change the run time in iTunes and then click "create AAC version" to make a new track. Easy.

 

[corianderstem]

This is the curse of having greatest hits albums on the iPod instead of the actual albums - you forget Temple of Low Men!

That was one of my favorite albums (I even had it on vinyl) in high school.

 

[LemonMelon]

Surely you've heard Paul's Boutique? If not, you must remedy that omission immediately.

Oh, definitely. One of the best albums of the 80s.

The Sundays- Reading, Writing and Arithmetic

And so is this.

Re: Jane's, I heard Ritual and thought it was just OK for me. I'll listen to Nothing's Shocking at some point and maybe that will change my mind.

 

[Danny Boy]

Nothing's Shocking > Ritual

 

[LemonMelon]

I'm never going to stop thinking comments like this are patently ridiculous.

I'm adamantly against the concept of any period of popular music being significantly weaker than any others

I'm not exactly a huge fan of them either.

You wouldn't have had that reaction if it had been some period you were less favorable to, like 91-96 or something.

 

[djerdap]

Nothing's Shocking > Ritual

Three Days and Then She Did... destroy anything on Nothing's Shocking. Ritual all the way.

 

[corianderstem]

The worst is when there is something ridiculous like 20 minutes between the final listed track and the hidden track. Or those 25 or so one-second tracks before #34 on Under the Table and Dreaming (random Dave Matthews Band reference).

Ha, yes. (I still really like that album.)

Also: when there's a cool different version of a song tacked onto the end, and the only way to put it on your iPod is to have the whole 9 minutes of song, even if you only want the second half.

Sarah McLachlan's solo piano version of Possession tacked onto the last track of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, I'm looking at you!

I know you're supposed to be able to instruct iTunes to start or end a track at a certain point, but it never sticks for me.

 

[bono_212]

I'm not exactly a huge fan of them either.

You wouldn't have had that reaction if it had been some period you were less favorable to, like 91-96 or something.

I stopped making comments like that after I delved more into the period of 91-96 and realized I'm an idiot.

 

[u2popmofo]

While we're speaking of late '80's music, I never mention how much I love Sisters of Mercy's album, Floodland. Yeah, the sound and imagery is super outdated, but I love it. Their pop goth sound is so different than what The Cure was doing, or ever did. The album cover and music videos crack me up for being so cheesy at this point, but I still love it all. I listen to tracks from this album and some of their other singles on an extremely regular basis still.

The Sisters Of Mercy - Lucretia My Reflection [Music Video] - YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWvOHT0zfXY

 

[Danny Boy]

Three Days and Then She Did... destroy anything on Nothing's Shocking. Ritual all the way.

I will agree with you on Three Days, but overall I prefer Nothing's Shocking. Ocean Size gives Three Days a run for it's money, IMHO, but of course suffers from being less than half as long.

 

[bono_212]

I will be listening to that album post-haste, methinks.

 

[LemonMelon]

That Sisters of Mercy album is good. I can't get over the singer's voice though, it's absurdly low and gothy. I laughed the first time I heard him.

 

[u2popmofo]

Not from Floodland, but I love this song / performance too (if you can call Top of the Pops clips from that period "performances"):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPfce9FvjgA

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

However, I still haven't found a whole lot from 1985-1990 that I can get into. I'm adamantly against the concept of any period of popular music being significantly weaker than any others, and I want to be proven right. What are some of your favorite albums from this period of music? I need suggestions.

My two favorite non-U2, non-R.E.M. albums from that period are The Stone Roses and Appetite For Destruction. But you've heard those and so has everybody else in the world, so that probably doesn't help.

 

[bono_212]

By the way:

 

[cobl04]

Five's Invincible had like 70 tracks on it. 12 songs, then like 57 13-second tracks of silence, then Inspector Gadget.

My two favorite non-U2, non-R.E.M. albums from that period are The Stone Roses and Appetite For Destruction. But you've heard those and so has everybody else in the world, so that probably doesn't help.

Does it surprise anyone I've not heard these? I've heard a few tracks from both but never the full albums.

 

[cobl04]

St Vincent fans (me tomorrow night!!):

ST VINCENT STORY

So yesterday evening I went to go see indie rock / prog guitarist and songwriter St. Vincent. For example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc1zsGIQVlU

During the first song of the set, she left her ridiculously big pedal board and came to the lip of the stage to get up close and personal. This was in a very large club / small theatre; maybe 400-500 people? So she walks up and she is literally foot to face with me (as I am sitting in the front row.) She looks down, I give the metal horns, she smiles and the gig goes on.

Then at the end of the set during the last song (Your Lips Are Red, Danny), they go into this extended outro that goes through several different phases; prog, pop, etc etc. One of them is your typical noise rock outro; think Sonic Youth. So she leaves the safety of her microphone again and moves out to the lip of the stage, walks up and down and then ends up in front of me again. (The luck!)

She then starts very violently banging the guitar before dropping down and nearly killing me with it. (Those Harmonys have sharp headstocks, just so you know.) She then starts banging at it and flinging it at my head (I shit you not), while I'm fist pumping away and going "fuck yeah" like an incompetent fool watching a very pretty lady beat a vintage guitar to shit in front of me.

As I'm being enthusiastic, she looks up, and makes eye contact. Seeing this, she sort of motions for me to come forward, however, I am a fool and do not do so. So she instead grabs my hand and smacks it against the strings of the guitar; I finally get the hint and start slamming the damn thing. She smiles, I smile, this continues for a few seconds and then she pulls it out of the audience and goes back to playing it as normally as possible.

So there's your story, guys.

 

[Danny Boy]

If ever there was a band whose discography shouldn't be explored in reverse, it's GNR.

 

[martha]

Train In Vain was not self-indulgent.

No, but hidden tracks on lps are much easier to find. I meant the self-indulgence of the concept.

 

[Imperor]

I need a cigarette after reading that St. Vincent story.

 

[Danny Boy]

More late 80's recommendations. I'm sure you've heard some of these. In fact, we've discussed some of them recently.

10,000 Maniacs - In My Tribe
Camper Van Beethoven - Key Lime Pie
Drivin' N' Cryin' - Mystery Road
The Feelies - The Good Earth
Hoodoo Gurus - Magnum Cum Louder
Peter Murphy - Deep
Midnight Oil - Diesel And Dust
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
Pet Shop Boys - Actually
Soundgarten - Louder Than Love
XTC - Oranges & Lemons

I'd have to go through my collection to help jog my memory. Unfortunately, everything I owned prior to 1988 was on cassette and is probably in my parents' attic.

 

[cobl04]

I kind of hope that doesn't happen to me, as I cannot even remotely play guitar.

 

[u2popmofo]

I saw No Age open for Liars a number of years back. The guitar player handed his guitar to some random guy in the crowd (who I remember had an awesome mustache) while the drummer kept playing. The guy looks at the guitar for a second, and suddenly started wailing some awesome solo on it. Both guys from No Age flipped out and were smiling and laughing along with the entire crowd. It resulted in a great deal of cheering, laughter, and applause for both the band and random mustache guy. It was pretty sweet.