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Rutlefan

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Everything posted by Rutlefan

  1. I listened to Red Barchetta off MP. It's my favorite Rush song lyrically. "My uncle owns a country place that no one knows about... race back to the farm, to dream with my uncle at the fireside." Magical. I think Limelight is Neil's "best" effort but Red Barchetta will always be my favorite.
  2. Wind In my hair Shifting and drifting Mechanical music Adrenaline surge... Well-weathered leather Hot metal and oil The scented country air Sunlight on chrome The blur of the landscape Every nerve aware
  3. Wire: 154 Change Becomes Us Send (incl Read & Burn 1 & 2 tracks) Chairs Missing The Ideal Copy (incl Snakedrill EP) A Bell is a Cup Until it is Struck Red Barked Tree Pink Flag Wire Nocturnal Koreans Silver/Lead Object 47 The First Letter... not horrible but not good, and didn't include drummer Robert Grey (aka Gotobed); the final act of their somewhat forgettable middle phase. Manscape... almost unlistenable, the lowpoint of their somewhat forgettable middle phase, not counting IBTABA and The Drill, which are not real albums, just some remixes and a single
  4. How dare you!!!... not like Greta? Actually, I can't listen to three seconds of them. Wish them the best but their plans don't include me.
  5. I'll be seeing them March 9 in DC. Excited!
  6. Another from their upcoming album... Released earlier, both sound great...
  7. You know how somebody says a person has "it". Well, the Beatles were four individuals who had "it" and that combination spawned something very special. Rock as a musical genre was still very new at the time and there was a lot of ground to break in it with both song compositions and production. They were the first band to say "why the hell not?" when it came to doing so many new things people hadn't heard before. Talent makes up a lot of it for sure but coming along at the right time when a genre was so new and fresh really allowed them to flourish with all sorts of different ideas. All true, and they had what seems to have been the perfect producer for them in George Martin. He seems to have brought out their best and maybe took them in directions that other producers might not have. At any rate, it seems to have been the ideal match.
  8. Three years ago: My top three are easy: Dear Prudence, Across the Universe, and Tomorrow Never Knows Rounding out the top ten: I Feel Fine I've Just Seen a Face Norwegian Wood Paperback Writer I'm Only Sleeping It's All Too Much Because Today, everything stays the same except for the final two tracks. Not that I love It's All Too Much and Because less, but because I love Long Long Long and Cry Baby Cry even more: Dear Prudence Across the Universe Tomorrow Never Knows I Feel Fine I've Just Seen a Face Norwegian Wood Paperback Writer I'm Only Sleeping Long Long Long Cry Baby Cry
  9. Another vote for incomparable The The. Matt Johnson... Super Genius! http://youtu.be/TntIX_wfXUk
  10. "Sometimes I think they defined the 80's." While I was never a huge fan of the band (though no hater either) it was when I saw the video for Hungry Like the Wolf that I realized music would never be the same again. Before that, I thought that radio still made a band, but no more. Who needs radio for exposure when you can put a cool video together. The other video that opened my eyes was Ultravox's Vienna. Those two videos seemed to turn very good songs into epic greatness.
  11. Going obscure (being second to last doesn't mean I don't LZ I isn't fantastic; I basically love them all): Physical Graffiti - Kashmir IV - Levee III - That's the Way Houses of the Holy - Over the Hills II - Ramble On In Through the Out Door - Fool in the Rain Presence - Achilles I - How Many More Times Coda - Poor Tom
  12. Never heard of this band! Amazing to me, but not a criticism of you but of the collective taste of the music world .Obviously with well over sixteen releases, including the outtakes and b-sides, there's a ton of material. Here's just a couple samples going from their biggest hit from '88's Starfish to their most recent, thirty years on: http://youtu.be/pWxJEIz7sSA http://youtu.be/eYd6OcfDvh4
  13. I'll try The Church, a largely overlooked band these days (at least outside of Australia) but top five band for me. They have a several odd releases of b-sides, outtakes, remixes which I'm not addressing, though a few, like the fantastic Back with Two Beasts (Uninvited Like the Clouds outtakes), are indispensable for Church fans. 1. Further/Deeper (2014) ... Layored and complex, they hit a grand slam late in career with the debut of new guitarist after the exit of founding member Marty Willson-Piper; Marty is amazing but band needed a reboot. 2. Priest=Aura (1992) ... Heavy and epic, was the end of the The Church's original arc; they appeared to have run their course but ended it with an album the band feels is their best. 3. After Everything Now This (2002) ... Moody and atmospheric, their Darkside of the Moon. Following the excellent Hologram of Baal, The Church was making great albums again. 4. Hologram of Baal (1998) ... The band's first reboot (of two, ultimately) after a couple meandering albums featuring incomplete versions of the original lineup. First album self-produced by The Church and featuring mixing and recording of recently-added drummer Tim Powles. A winning formula going forward. 5. Starfish (1988) ... Their commercial peak, and generally considered their artistic peak of their early period (through Priest=Aura) if not of their career. "Under the Milky Way" can still be heard on Sirius XM and in Bed, Bath & Beyond. 6. Heyday (1985) ... A masterpiece featuring the distinctive (sometimes orchestral) jangle rock of their early sound front and center. Making them a darling of the college rock crowd, it announced them as a band to be taken very seriously. 7. Man Woman Life Death Infinity (2017) ... A very solid effort which at times lives up to the excellence of Further/Deeper but lacks its predecessor's consistency. 8. Forget Yourself (2003) ... The much more elemental follow-up to the complexly-produced After Everything..., was recorded live in the studio. 9. Seance (1983) ... A band evolving but maybe fast enough. Much like The Blurred Crusade but with a little more pop punch. The follow-up Heyday would see them leap from indie/new wave alternative to high vis college rock. 10. The Blurred Crusade (1982) ... A departure from the new wave rock of their debut; possessed a textured and catchy surrealism which would largely define the band's style through through the '80s. 11. Of Skins and Heart (1981) ... A fantastic debut. New Wave guitar rock/power pop. 12. Untitled #23 (2009) ... It has its moments and is overall pretty solid with a darkly minimalistic feel but is showing the weariness of a band that seems to have run its course. The next album, Further/Deeper, my #1, is a needed reboot. 13. Uninvited, Like the Clouds (2006) ... A professional but largely uninspired product; not bad but like Forget Yourself with more polish and less originality. 14. Sometime Anywhere (1994) ... The best of their bad albums. Maybe this isn't bad but is just too quizzical by half. To the uninitiated would provide a very misleading first impression of the band. With the departure of guitarist Peter Koppes and still missing their original drummer they were down to bassist/singer Steve Kilbey and guitarist Marty Willson-Piper. For whatever reason they decided to lean towards a more electronica feel than their traditional guitar-centered sound, an odd choice in the mid-'90s. Nevertheless, the album was critically well-received though another commercial failure (like the fantastic Priest=Aura which preceded it). Was eventually re-released with a second disc of extra material which rounds things out well, making the longer release well worth having despite the overall feel of being not quite up to standards. 15. Gold Afternoon Fix (1990) .... Their follow-up to 1988's critical and commercial success Starfish. The studio leaned on them hard to give them another Starfish; recording in LA (which they didn't like, the studio wanted them close) they felt the pressure, took a lot of drugs, and produced a weak gruel that superficially sounded like Starfish but lacked almost all of its artistic merit and freshness. At least it's stronger, darker moments would inspire the approach for the night and day better follow-up, Priest=Aura. If Gold Afternoon Fix is an example of how drugs can depress artistic achievement, Priest=Aura might be the opposite. The mesmerizing "Paradox" is a sort of tortured love song to heroine. 16. Magician Among the Spirits (1996) ... Still basically the two-member lineup of Sometime Anywhere but at least Koppes guested on a few tracks. Still, the album is completely uninspired with the exception of "Comedown." Even the band mostly disowns the album. Edit: Moved Man Woman... from 11 to 7. Albums from The Church usually have to grow on me to fully appreciate and I'm sure this will continue to improve with age.
  14. Excuse me if this has been done before. No rules but I included the first four live albums. Before and After In the End Lakeside Park 2112 By-Tor & the Snow Dog (ATWAS) Xanadu The Trees Jacob's Ladder Red Barchetta La Villa Strangiato (ESL) The Analog Kid Between the Wheels Mystic Rhythms High Water Closer to the Heart (ASoH) The Pass Bravado Leave that Thing Alone Resist Natural Science (DS) Secret Touch The Larger Bowl The Anarchist
  15. Wire's too easy, The Beatles too hard, so I'll go with Radiohead: OK Computer Amnesiac Hail to the Thief Kid A The Bends In Rainbows A Moon Shaped Pool King of Limbs Pablo Honey
  16. Pink Floyd Animals Beatles Abbey Road Cheap Trick In Color Van Halen Fair Warning Aerosmith Toys in the Attic Zeppelin In Through the Out Door Roger Taylor Fun in Space Joy Division Unknown Pleasures Rush Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures Shellac Terraform
  17. Sticking to one LP an artist: The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar (2011) ... Toss up with Wire's Change Becomes Us for "album of the decade" Grimes - Visions (2012) Wire - Change Becomes Us (2013) My Bloody Valentine - M B V (2013) Underground Lovers - Weekend (2013) The Church - Further/Deeper (2014) Robert Plant - Lullaby and the Ceaseless Roar (2014) Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell (2015) Fat White Family - Serfs Up! (2019) I'm sure I'm leaving something out.
  18. I can't keep track of them though I admit I don't try at all. A friend is trying to convince me to watch all the Marvel (Universe?) movies in some sort of sequence but it's too steep a hill to climb for me. I'm not into comics but to the extent I am I'm kind of a DC guy; Miller's Batman and Moore's Swamp Thing (and to a lesser extent Watchmen) are the only comics that really really grabbed me. I did watch and really enjoy the Guardians of the Galaxy movies though, but those didn't feature costumed superheroes that I recall.
  19. I'm with treeduck; from the first I heard it in 1980 I thought it "disparate sections mashed together with some odd melodic content" and still kind of do, though I like it more than I used to. It was a little bit of a disappointment that first listen, as I thought it "no La Villa Strangiato" just as PeW was no Hemispheres (I came to appreciate PeW on its own terms of course; how could one not). I do love and have always loved the "wheels within wheels" refrain. I remember being disappointed that they move on from it so soon on the PeW version, and I'm not a huge fan of what they move on to ("A quantum leap forward..." and "Art as expression...")... "odd melodic content". That all said, with the later/longer live versions with the extended/repeated "wheels within wheels" section it's become a song I look forward to hearing. That extended refrain alone would make the song worthwhile, but regardless I've come to like the song a lot more with the live versions. It seems a song really well suited to live performances.
  20. Same order, same reason, except I don't really know NitR or PV. I guess I have to give them a closer listen. Rocks Toys in the Attic Get Your Wings Draw the Line
  21. I would vote for either Skynyrd or Allman Bros but as the vote is close between them, and I'm far from an expert on either, I'll stay out of it. Clearly though, it seems to me, it's one of those two.
  22. Since no one's offered this... different, and just beautiful.
  23. I'll list just this one (for now) though there are at least a couple others I love, and many more besides those. Surprisingly many really.
  24. But it suits their humour perfectly. I've always thought The Butthole Surfers one of the best names ever. It's hilarious, especially the story of how they got it. Oh it's brilliant, love it! But some of the others here are awesome as well; DKs obviously suits their political edge, Five Finger Death Punch and You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead get my votes as well. One current name I like is Eagles of Death Metal. I've read forum comments like "But they don't sound anything like Death Metal!" Trolling very dense, literal types is always fun. Fat White Family is also good. I love the name of their most recent album, Serfs Up!, with a bucolic Bavarian backdrop for a cover. There seemed to be more humor, dark or otherwise, in the wake of punk back in the early '80s than today, but maybe I'm just not that clued in (well, I'm sure I'm not, actually).
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