Mosher

I love Face Up. I didn't know that was the contrarian route until I joined this forum. Apparently I am on the unusual side of several songs, one way or the other.

The fact that Lifeson is currently respected is a reflection of many things, among them the simple fact that Rush is now respected and that those voting have actually listened to Rush. I think the reason Lifeson was historically the also-ran in Rush is also a function of numbers. The media hails guitarists far more than drummers or bass players, so the pool of known-names is far greater for guitarists. With Peart and Lee having the attention of the media as supreme artists in less attended crafts, Lifeson is hit with two problems. A much much much larger pool of competitors, and the fact that people are loathe to over credit a single band with having all the talent. Lifeson is actually hurt by the attention afforded Lee and Peart. I'm quite sure that musicians have always hailed Lifeson.

It's nice to see that the conventional wisdom which states a Rush fan and a fan of straight-forward rock, punk, or hip hop cannot be the same person is debunked in this thread. I've always suspected that music addicts tend to cross all manner of boundaries.

Take the "s" after the http out of the link. Thank you!

I clearly have no idea how to make these open here. This probably qualifies me as mature.

I've yet to reach an age where I no longer am interested in new music. What has happened is that the older I get the more music I realize I missed the first time around. The newest artists I really like are probably: (I'll only include artists under 30) Obviously I like a ton of other new things, but these are artists I've been 'hooked' on. Courtney Barnett -- Australia. Clever lyricist, witty, and understated delivery. Mirel Wagner -- Finland. Very very dark lyrics, just her and her guitar, played quietly. But somehow incredibly powerful. My youngest finds her music frightening Tengger Cavalry -- China. Mongolian style folk metal, and astounding. The founder of the band may be 30 now, as he was 29 in 2015. Depends on what month he was born. I'm allowing it anyway. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mA_Fh8vuIM

I'm brand new here, and perhaps not cognizant of the atmosphere yet, but I have to think racist commentary should not be welcome. This is not my free speech response, as I believe restricting free speech is abhorrent. But there is also a right held by the creators of this site to hold a forum wherein people of every race/gender/religion/etc would feel comfortable. It is their right to protect this forum as an inclusive domain, which necessitates restricting people from driving people away. So to that end, let those who feel some odd need to express their base natures to the world find a forum that operates from that vantage. Stormfront is probably still taking calls. I don't particularly like ad hominem attacks of any kind, they generally contribute nothing to a discussion and only serve to derail discussions. That being said, people ought to be able to joke with each other or even disagree to a strong extent. If someone is particularly crass, in my view that's part of life and we'll all survive. If they are intentionally expressing racist or sexist thoughts then follow the exit strategy that must be in place for trolls. Obviously people might get caught in this net despite intending sarcasm, irony, or sardonic wit. They may get caught in another contextual net. Most of us can appreciate these distinctions, and if something gets flagged and the person pleads on these grounds, hear them out. Until I finally pass the conditions for joining the political forum (I hope you have an active one) I probably won't see much of what is being discussed here. Most people know better, and hopefully most people here aren't clamoring to throw sticks and stones at people anyway.

1. Urn With Dead Flowers in a Dead Pool -- John Parish and PJ Harvey 2. Why Must I Cry -- Peter Tosh 3. Rockaway Beach -- Shonen Knife (Ramones cover) 4. Hermaphroditis -- Alchemist 5. Ex-TC -- Death Angel 6. Sometimes -- Pearl Jam (live) 7. Vampire Lady -- Entropy 8. Gutspawn -- Timeghoul 9. An Ocean -- Illogic 10. So Much Trouble in the World -- Bob Marley 11. It's a Shame About Ray -- Lemonheads 12. The Northern Lights -- Tyr 13. Valentine Boyfirend -- Damien Youth 14. The Hardest Button to Button -- White Stripes 15. Read About It -- Midnight Oil I noticed a caveat from Super25Smasher that I must also make. This was from digital library rather than my iPod.

I see most of us party-goers have decided to play what they want rather than just shuffle their player. No one follows the rules here? Okay then, I'll play "Hymn 1- Wolf and Fear" by Ulver. Since BlueFox went to the weird, I'll go to the abrasive.

I have always hated parties, but should I go, here's the song: A Cry For Help in a World Gone Mad---Agent Orange The reception? If I was went to this party willingly then the kids at the party are probably open-minded. So any song that came up would be received openly. Some will like it, some will hate it, most will be indifferent. When I was 18-24 I happily listened to anything, so that's my target 18-24 year old group. Now, if it's a group of 18-24 who only like what's currently popular, I imagine they'd find it grating and undancable.

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This is a double post because I accidentally quoted myself and have nothing new to say. :)

A lot of great choices in here. Did not notice the Residents? From 1972, and they are still weird today.

Impossible task, but these 20 certainly are all in my permanent top 50 no matter the day: In absolutely no possible order: Rush Slim Cessna's Auto Club Iron maiden The Clash Bad Religion Midnight Oil The Coup Admiral James T. Drive By Truckers PJ Harvey Madness REM Alchemist (The Australian metal band, not the hip hop artist) United Steel Workers of Montreal S.O.A.D. Tengger Cavalry Courtney Barnett They Might Be Giants Siouxsie and the Banshees Split Enz (before the New Wave.) Some new, some old, across several genre, and definitely in a shuffle with many other possible entrants.)

Special to me? My transformations from child through adolescence, fatherhood, and middle-aged have ushered many into my life. The most impactful: (With apologies, a lot of bands took me into new corners of the music world and there are definitely more. I think I broadened the term special too much) Stanley Brothers (and many other Blue Grass greats. The music of my heritage) Loretta Lynn (More heritage music) Men At Work (The first band that I liked independent of anyone else's opinion. I got into them on my own. For those who are interested, Colin Hay's solo work is stellar, far better than Men At Work) The Clash (My introduction to punk) Rush (My adolescent favorites hands down) Midnight Oil (A stellar back catalog that supported my interest in them when they broke in the US.) Bad Religion (Lyrical and learned, my favorite band to emerge from the original hardcore scene.) Bolt Thrower (The band that granted me access to the harshest metal) The Coup (Along with Sage, my favorite hip hop) Cro-Mags (The band that got me into hardcore, because a girl sat next to me in Linguistics class) Butthole Surfers (The band that got me into anything and everything weird. Captain Beefheart, The Residents, etc.) Admiral James T. (The first band I discovered by just randomly exploring music across the internet. Myspace used to have a GREAT feature. You could click on a genre, click on a country, and every band that described themselves as being in that genre and from that country would come up. The Admiral is from Switzerland and plays in different styles, best categorized as simply rock-n-roll. Slim Cessna's Auto Club (Along with the United Steel Workers of Montreal, bands that allowed me to listen to country stylings again as I really REALLY hate modern country radio. There are a lot of bands that will never be on country radio. Throw the Drive By Truckers in there as well) Fishbone (The band that introduced me to the ska/punk realm) Natalie Merchant (From her punkish early Maniacs to the later soft Maniacs to her solo career, she first showed me that I can like soft music, too.)

Presto has some songs I really love: Chain Lightning And some I don't care for much: Presto Available Light I really like some that apparently are unpopular: Hand Over First Anagram And I don't really care much for some most like best: Show Don't Tell The Pass And the rest I like fine. Most importantly, anyone who disagrees is mean.

If someone (like me) does not like Edwin's voice on Victor, and than another persons asks what the people reading think about Victor, should I not answer- "I don't like Edwin's voice on Victor"? I also said that I liked Alex tinkering around and trying new things. I won't say he shouldn't have released it because like you he probably liked it. That's fine by me. I love things others don't and they love things I don't. I think most of his tinkering didn't work. But some of it did. I think I'd like the album if it had been instrumental. At least I'd think it was okay. These are not personal points of contention, they are subjective issues that matter nothing at all. I imagine Alex wanted people to like the album, and I suppose it's sad if people don't. But it isn't personal and it doesn't actually hurt anything.

Based on what I've seen around I love a lot of unpopular songs. Anagram has always been a favorite. I hate Stick it Out. I love Countdown. I really like Dog Years despite the obvious lyrics. Fountain of Lamneth is brilliant. I am a lyrics first guy, always have been. And yet I actually like Need Some Love. I never cared much for Mission. I love High Water. Tai Shan's...okay. Test For Echo is a Very Good album. You Bet Your Life is one of my favorite songs of RTB. So is The Big Wheel. So is Face Up. In fact, RTB is better than Presto. By a lot. I probably have other unpopular opinions that I don't know are unpopular yet. In fact, my love for CA is emboldened by the fact that Seven Cities of Gold is in my top 2 songs on that album, and I love BU2B, which to my surprise are frequently considered the weakest of the bunch.

Hemispheres is often my favorite album by them, but like many of us that changes occasionally. 2112 is probably their most important album, so in that sense it's their best. It's possibly why they had a career, after all. Hemispheres is the overall better album compared to 2112, but like others I have to defend 2112 side 2. Twilight Zone is a terrific song, Passage to Bangkok is very good, and Something for Nothing is usually my favorite. When I was young Tears bored me, but I like it a lot now. I've always liked the simplicity of Lessons, a nice reminder that they are the same band that released Fly By Night even as they venture forward. I'm not sure the discussion was initially intended to be 2112 vs. Hemispheres, though. I took that as an example of why Hemispheres was better (a reason I don't necessarily agree with). So looking at the entire catalog you can use so many criteria to make the determination. I hesitate to put my stamp on it, but since I often do see Hemispheres as best I guess it certainly is always top 3. The criticism of some silly overwrought passages in Book II can apply just as soundly to 2112. They were young and ridiculously ambitious and it definitely shows. I understand it was hard to make, but I've never seen one of the band members cite that as a note of derision. I always though they felt they had reached their potential with Hemispheres and therefore began to alter course and find other challenges. Then again, Natural Science comes along one album later and tops everything they had done to that point. So already I'm making a case for PeW, and I could probably make a case for several other albums just as readily. It really does depend on what you're listening for at the time.

That's impossible for me, I think. Obviously I'm tied to the era I first connected to them, so rock radio circa 1981-82 would have to qualify. But more accurately I truly understood that the same band wrote all those songs I loved a bit later, closer to 1984-85. So in that sense I would have to say Grace Under Pressure or Power Windows. But since I started buying their albums a few decades back I've grown to see each time period as essential. So if I had to pick one as quintessential, I'll go with Permanent Waves. It has the long pieces, a few flirtations with mainstream viability, and the barest hints of their future synth period. But because of my own personal 'where & when', I have to say Power Windows. It is their first album that was released that I actually anticipated rather than looking back on. And I had yet to fully realize that they had ever wrote any single-side epics. I'll add that Hemispheres is now my favorite album, New World Man is the first song I owned (compilation vinyl) and Caress was the first album I actually owned. So as you can see, quintessential is tough. So instead of a proper short answer I wrote you a book about it. No, I'm not bored- why do you ask? :)

That was just a joke, being rude is boring and predictable. I enjoy discussions where people respect each other and don't feel hurt because they don't like the same things. There's almost nothing I like more in a music forum then to discover something about a song I'd never considered. Sometimes you can suddenly love a song that never connected with you before, or you can understand finally what someone meant when they didn't like a song. I am already very happy with this forum. :)

I'll never be rude, that I can promise. We don't have to worry about the strength of my convictions as I'm sure we'll all readily discover that mine are the only ones worth considering. :)

I had found the thread where the decade status of Permanent Waves was discussed, and found it fascinating in that it mattered so much to so many, but sadly I can't seem to find it again. It's tempting to go into diplomatic mode and side with both camps. Certainly the fact that every single thing on PeW was already finalized before the 80's makes it a seventies album. And there can be no question that the fact it was released in the eighties makes it an 80's album. So we're really only determining which undeniable fact is the more pertinent to the question. The painting example from that thread was intriguing. I painted something in 1979. I put it up for sale in 1980. When did I paint that picture? By that test, PeW is unquestionably a seventies album. Why does the time PeW was put on sale make the rules different for music? It comes down to fairness. When determining sales, awards, or anything else for a given year they have to have a standard rule to determine what is legally considered. That is usually the release date. This makes it an 80's album. (I'm beginning to feel like Vizzini determining which goblet is poisoned) :) So now we ask ourselves if the release date matters for our purposes? We have to decide which matters more, when the work was done or when the work was presented. I've made up my mind, I clearly can't choose the wine in front of you because... Permanent Waves is a seventies album. That's when it was created, and for me the creative part is everything. But I will also add, I've never cared about this before and I only learned in this forum that this was a thing for anyone. I don't know whether I am in the minority or majority, I'll find out when the masses gather with torches or roses. This is the sort of critical content I'm here for! :)

My list, good as of this hour and this hour only because change is permanent. 1: Before and After 2: Beneath, Between and Behind 3: Fountain of Lamneth 4: Something for Nothing 5: Xanadu 6: Cygnus x-1 Book II 7: Natural Science 8: Tom Sawyer 9: Analog Kid 10: Kid Gloves 11: Manhattan Project 12: Prime Mover 13: Chain Lighting 14: Dreamline 15: Between the Sun and Moon 16: Driven 17: How It Is 18: Malignant Narcissism 19: Anarchist Some of these are changing even as I type- this really could be an hourly thing for some albums.

Apologies for ranking something last, but something had to be. :) I don't skip Chemistry, it's a fine song and I really like the idea of writing each verse separately.