TDDS - 2020 Shelter-in-Place on a Desert Island Music Draft - BONUS 5

[Löwenherz]

I've referenced this soundtrack a number of times as having introduced me to one of my favorite real life bands with a song by them that only appears here.

Fortunately that song is merely a single fabric woven into the majestic tapestry that is this indie rock masterpiece.


Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Various Artists (2010)

Interestingly enough, there is both a Soundtrack and a Score released separately for Pilgrim. The latter is mainly ambient music for the fight scenes and whatnot, more closer to what one might expect from a video game soundtrack.

This one however seems to capture the zeitgeist found in the other half of the film: an exploration of the late aughts underground indie rock culture for 20-somethings. A directionless time of menial jobs, coffee houses, goodwill shopping, stumbling through a lifestyle of rotating roommates, couch surfing and outright squatting in a series of hovel apartments and affordable housing projects.

When the greatest joys were house parties, hot hook-ups, and scoring tickets to the secret show of that totally killer band most people haven't heard of, but if they ever made it big, you'd stop listening to them for the unforgivable sin of selling-out.

If that doesn't sound all that appealing, you're not alone. It didn't appeal to me either. But the film, combined with its music selection, perfectly encapsulates why someone might build a nostalgic sense for a time in a lot of people's 20s that would otherwise be oppressively grueling or even frightening.

Ride that sonic wave around the undercurrents of angst and envy.

Oh wait ...

Did I really just say Envy?

As much as I love Metric / Clash at Demonhead and Black Sheep, the real standout here is Beck, taking over songwriting and music direction for main "fictional" band Sex Bob-Omb. It's the beating heart at the center of this beautifully curated 00s contemporary indie rock gem.*

Tracklist
1."We Are Sex Bob-Omb" - Sex Bob-Omb (Michael Cera, Alison Pill, Mark Webber, Beck Hanson and Brian LeBarton)
2."Scott Pilgrim" - Plumtree
3."I Heard Ramona Sing"- Frank Black
4."By Your Side" - Beachwood Sparks
5."O Katrina!" - Black Lips
6."I'm So Sad, So Very, Very Sad" - Crash and the Boys (Broken Social Scene and Erik Knudsen)
7."We Hate You Please Die" - Crash and the Boys (Broken Social Scene and Erik Knudsen)
8."Garbage Truck" - Sex Bob-Omb
9."Teenage Dream" - T. Rex
10."Sleazy Bed Track" - The Bluetones
11."It's Getting Boring by the Sea" - Blood Red Shoes
12."Black Sheep" - Metric (Clash at Demonhead)
13."Threshold" - Sex Bob-Omb
14."Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl" - Broken Social Scene
15."Under My Thumb" - The Rolling Stones
16."Ramona" (acoustic version) - Beck Hansen
17."Ramona" - Beck Hansen
18."Summertime" - Sex Bob-Omb
19."Threshold" - (8-bit version)

* Yes, I know The Rolling Stones and T. Rex are not 00s contemporary indie rock gems, but you know whatever,

 

[Löwenherz]

Agreed. But, in general, most people I've talked to who saw Arrival thought it was a very good movie, and this is from a "cross-section" of movie-goers. As someone who generally enjoys something more fast-paced and "entertaining" (sci-fi, action, thrillers, well done dramas/comedies), I thought it was excellent. My wife, who doesn't care for most "sci-fi" fare, also enjoyed it. Others as well.

I know we disagree on this, but I didn't care much for Annihilation. I liked what I thought they were trying to do but it just didn't grab me the way Arrival did.

Sorry, we are getting off-topic. Hopefully VF21 picks soon.

I apologize for butting in and drudging up an already put to bed convo, but I thought Arrival was overall an above average film, glad I saw it, but not something I generally needed to own.

But the ending with General Shang and Louise meeting, combined with the flash back and forth is one of my very favorite scenes ever. Incredibly memorable and powerful payoff to the whole of the film.

 

[Warhawk]

Once we got into the bonus rounds I lifted my limitation on groups I've seen in concert. As Beastie Boys - License to Ill was already taken, I figured I would grab the other rap/hop-hop album that I enjoyed during my high school years. We're going old school, folks. And we are taking one of the best rap-rock albums ever made.

Run DMC - Raising Hell (1986)



https://www.allmusic.com/album/raising-hell-mw0000191574

From allmusic:

By their third album, Run-D.M.C. were primed for a breakthrough into the mainstream, but nobody was prepared for a blockbuster on the level of Raising Hell. (redacted) had established the crew's fusion of hip-hop and hard rock, but that sound didn't blossom until Raising Hell, partially due to the presence of Rick Rubin as producer. Rubin loved metal and rap in equal measures and he knew how to play to the strengths of both, while slipping in commercial concessions that seemed sly even when they borrowed from songs as familiar as "My Sharona" (heard on "It's Tricky"). Along with longtime Run-D.M.C. producer Russell Simmons, Rubin blew down the doors of what hip-hop could do with Raising Hell because it reached beyond rap-rock and found all sorts of sounds outside of it. Sonically, there is simply more going on in this album than any previous rap record -- more hooks, more drum loops (courtesy of ace drum programmer Sam Sever), more scratching, more riffs, more of everything. Where other rap records, including Run-D.M.C.'s, were all about the rhythm, this is layered with sounds and ideas, giving the music a tangible flow. But the brilliance of this record is that even with this increased musical depth, it still rocks as hard as hell, and in a manner that brought in a new audience. Of course, the cover of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way," complete with that band's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, helped matters considerably, since it gave an audience unfamiliar with rap an entry point, but if it were just a novelty record, a one-shot fusion of rap and rock, Raising Hell would never have sold three million copies. No, the music was fully realized and thoroughly invigorating, rocking harder and better than any of its rock or rap peers in 1986, and years later, that sense of excitement is still palpable on this towering success story for rap in general and Run-D.M.C. in specific.

From wikipedia:

Raising Hell became the first Platinum and multi-Platinum hip hop record. The album was first certified as Platinum on July 15, 1986, before it was certified as 3x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on April 24, 1987.

Raising Hell peaked at number three on the Billboard 200, and number one on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums chart making it the first hip hop record reach atop the latter. The album features four hit singles: "My Adidas", "Walk This Way", "You Be Illin'" and "It's Tricky". "Walk This Way" is the group's most famous single, being a groundbreaking rap rock version of Aerosmith's 1975 song "Walk This Way". It is considered to be the first rap rock collaboration that also brought hip-hop into the mainstream and was the first song by a hip hop act song to reach the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100.

Raising Hell has been ranked as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 1987, it was nominated for a Grammy Award. In the same year for this album Run-D.M.C. was nominated for Album of the Year and won Best Rap Album at the 1987 Soul Train Music Awards. In 2018, it was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant".

Track List:
1. Peter Piper
2. It's Tricky
3. My Adidas
4. Walk This Way
5. Is It Live
6. Perfection
7. Hit It Run
8. Raising Hell
9. You Be Illin
10. Dumb Girl
11. Son of Byford
12. Proud to Be Black

 

[pdxKingsFan]

That just bumped you up a peg or two.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

@Spike's First Five report card. So, Spike told me that I could switch out one of his First Five with A Dramatic Turn of Events, but he never told me which one, so I didn't. Anyway, here we go:

• Superunknown: Of the fifty-five albums that I've listened to as part of this project, this is one of only two that I own personally. Ironically, both of them were picked by the two participants whose overall lists I have the least regard for (no offense). "Fell on Black Days" bangs, "Superunknown" bangs, and the back-to-back-to-back of "Black Hole Sun," "Spoonman" and "Limo Wreck" goes harder than a mother****er. Huge fan of this album.
• Master of Puppets: This album, not so much. There's a handful of Metallica songs that I enjoy, but none of them can be found here. This album sort of blended together for me, and not in a good way.
• Are You Experienced?: Fascinating. I don't particularly consider myself a Hendrix fan, but it helps that every Hendrix song that I actually like (aside from two) are on this album. So, that's cool.
• Dirt: Jumps out of the gate hard as ****, with "Them Bones," the one Alice in Chains song I actually recognize, and I was looking forward to that setting the pace for a great album... except it didn't. Kind of peters out from there.
• Blizzard of Oz: In hindsight, I probably would have liked to have switched this one out for A Dramatic Turn of Events. Ozzy's voice doesn't work for me, outside of "Crazy Train." I don't appear to be much of a fan of British rock and/or metal, in general.

 

[Turgenev]

Solesides Greatest Bumps. Quannum Projects. 2000



Taking advantage of the looser selection rules - this release from the solesides collective is my 24th (??) choice. A few quick points:
- Lyrics Born (Asia Born) was my first live show. Still one of my faves.
- For a short period of time I was on the Quannum street team and spread a bunch of stickers & posters across Sydney's northern suburbs
- I've said before my mothers taste in music influenced my own. This is the first example of my music taste influencing her - as she went out and bought a bunch of albums from this collective for herself. At the time (as a teenager), I hated this, as this music was a part of my attempts at forging my own identity, but looking back now it was actually pretty cool.

 

[Turgenev]

For those interested/ paying attention - I've added some brief content to my Tom Waits and J Dilla selections.

 

[Warhawk]

Hamilton - Original Broadway Cast (2015)

Just in case anyone is interested, Hamilton will be on Disney+ on July 3rd. Very cool! Going to make sure to watch that one!

The filmed version of Hamilton isn’t a big-budget film adaptation like the movie versions of Les Misérables, Cats, or the upcoming In the Heights. It’s exactly what it says on the can: a professionally filmed version of the Broadway show that was edited together using recordings shot over three live performances back in 2016 before the original cast members left the production.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/12/...early-release-date-streaming-broadway-miranda

 

[Capt. Factorial]

With my fourth bonus pick in the Shelter-In-Place Album Draft I select:

Chichester Psalms - Leonard Bernstein (1965)
Agnus Dei - Samuel Barber (1936/1967)
In the Beginning - Aaron Copland (1947)

As recorded for Hyperion by Matthew Best and the Corydon Singers (Dominic Martelli, boy soprano), 1986

Track Listing
Chichester Psalms (Bernstein)
1 Psalm 108, verse 2 - Psalm 100
2 Psalm 23, verses 1-4 - Psalm 2, verses 1-4 - Psalm 23, verses 5-6
3 Psalm 131 - Psalm 133, verse 1

4 Agnus Dei (Barber)

5 In the Beginning (Copland)

Three Motets (Copland)
6 Help us, O Lord
7 Have mercy on us, O my Lord
8 Sing ye praises to our King

This particular album is quite fortuitous. Back in the early-mid '90s a friend of mine was performing with the UC Davis chorus, and I attended a performance where she sang in "In the Beginning". I was impressed enough with the performance that I went to some length to find a copy of the work on CD, only to find that it was packaged with two choral works that turned out...better. Not that I have a ton of complaints about "In the Beginning", which is somewhat unusual in choral works in that it has a long text (taken from the first chapters of Genesis) with little repetition. The soloist on my recording has a tendency to go a bit "operatic", so I might actually prefer the linked version here, but it's nothing to sneeze at.

Barber's "Agnus Dei" is a different story. Whereas you've almost certainly not heard the Copland (or, frankly, the Bernstein) work on this album, you've heard this one, albeit in a different format. The piece was originally written for string orchestra, and by the name "Adagio for Strings" has appeared in at least 51 movies and TV shows, most notably Platoon, but has also been oversampled by television, with Seinfeld, ER, Red Dwarf, South Park, How I Met Your Mother (2x) and The Simpsons (5x!) getting in on the act. In 1967, Barber decided to set the text of the Agnus Dei to his Adagio, producing the lesser-known but just as incredibly lovely work found here.

Still, the absolute gem here is Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms", a choral setting of several Psalms to, variably, either an orchestra or organ/harp/percussion. Since the version I have is of the organ/harp/percussion style, I've linked the best version of that I was able to scrounge up on YouTube. The short first movement is somewhat discordant and martial at times, but the work really picks up for the second and third movements. The second movement is dominated by a stunning solo by boy soprano starting about the 4-minute mark - the one in the below video is pretty good, but not as good as the one on the Hyperion album. (If you want to see a solo that is probably even better, and conducted by Bernstein himself, check out this video from about 4:00-9:30.) And if that's not enough, after a bit of organ work the chorus comes in with a beautiful flowing melody in the third movement at about 12:30 that takes us to the end of the work.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

For my last pick, I wavered between whether I wanted to go with an album of music from my favorite classical composer, or whether I wanted to jump on this soundtrack bandwagon. A coin flip said soundtrack, it is, which still left me to choose between three options. After much deliberation, I decided to remain true to the theme that has defined most of my draft. So, with that said, with my final pick, here is your winnah:

Various Artists - Above the Rim Soundtrack (1994)


Can I let you guys in on a little secret? I've never seen this movie. Not even one minute of it. But I bought this album on cassette the week after it was released. This album is a near-perfect cross section of mid-90s hip-hop and R&B; the only thing it's missing is some contributions from the then still-nascent (relatively speaking) Southern rap game. But what's on there hits all the right notes, and led to what became a commercially successful soundtrack for what was a generally panned movie. Indeed, it kicked off a trend of jamming soundtracks that accompanied wack movies, that lasted for close to a decade. Above the Rim peaked at Number Two on the US charts, and was certified double-platinum by the RIAA.

I opted for the cassette version, which includes three songs that had to be cut from the CD, due to time/space constraints.


Track listing (no links, due to NSFW. Songs released as singles in bold):

1. "Anything (Allstar Remix)" (SWV)
2. "Old Time's Sake" (Sweet Sable)
3. "Part Time Lover" (H-Town)
4. "Big Pimpin'" (Tha Dogg Pound)
5. "Didn't Mean to Turn You On" (2nd II None)
6. "Doggie Style" (D.J. Rogers)
7. "Regulate" (Nate Dogg & Warren G)
8. "Pour Out a Little Liquor" (2Pac & Thug Life)
9. "Gonna Give It to Ya" (Jewell featuring Aaron Hall)
10. "Afro Puffs" (The Lady of Rage featuring Snoop Doggy Dogg)
11. "Jus So Ya No" (CPO Boss Hogg)
12. "Hoochies Need Love Too" (Paradise)
13. "I'm Still In Love With You" (Al B. Sure!)
14. "Crack 'Em" (O.F.T.B.)
15. "U Bring da Dog Out" (Rhythm & Knowledge)
16. "Blowed Away" (B-Rezell)
17. "It's Not Deep Enough" (Jewell)
18. "Dogg Pound 4 Life" (Tha Dogg Pound)
19. "Pain" (2Pac & Stretch)
    • cassette version only
20. "Mi Monie Rite!" (Lord G)
    • cassette version only
21. "Loyal to the Game" (2Pac, Treach & Riddler)
    • cassette version only

Source: Wikipedia

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Well, now that I've listened to the First Five albums on everyone's playlists, and because I like lists so much, I decided to make a First Five Top Ten:

1. Cake - Fashion Nugget
2. Soundgarden - Superunknown
3. Nirvana - Nevermind
4. Stevie Wonder- Fulfillingness' First Finale
5. Queen - A Night at the Opera
6. El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead
7. The Dirtbombs - Ultraglide in Black
8. Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
9. Depeche Mode - Violator
10. Kendrick Lamar - Good kid, m.A.A.d city

 

[Spike]

My introduction into this band was a "crossover hit" from a 1991 album of an artist not picked.

Chuck D is not without controversy, but as I age I find myself more aware of the truth he spoke to back in 1988. I definitely appreciate it more now than when I was 10 and in the throes of hair metal.

Thus, with my last pic in this draft:



Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back

1. "Countdown to Armageddon"
2. "Bring the Noise"
3. "Don't Believe the Hype"
4. "Cold Lampin' with Flavor"
5. "Terminator X to the Edge of Panic"
6. "Mind Terrorist"
7. "Louder Than a Bomb"
8. "Caught, Can We Get a Witness?"
9. "Show 'Em Whatcha Got"
10. "She Watch Channel Zero?!"
11. "Night of the Living Baseheads"
12. "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos"
13. "Security of the First World"
14. "Rebel Without a Pause"
15. "Prophets of Rage"
16. "Party for Your Right to Fight"

 

[Löwenherz]

My introduction into this band was a "crossover hit" from a 1991 album of an artist not picked.

Chuck D is not without controversy, but as I age I find myself more aware of the truth he spoke to back in 1988. I definitely appreciate it more now than when I was 10 and in the throes of hair metal.

Thus, with my last pic in this draft:

View attachment 9859

Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back

1. "Countdown to Armageddon"
2. "Bring the Noise"
3. "Don't Believe the Hype"
4. "Cold Lampin' with Flavor"
5. "Terminator X to the Edge of Panic"
6. "Mind Terrorist"
7. "Louder Than a Bomb"
8. "Caught, Can We Get a Witness?"
9. "Show 'Em Whatcha Got"
10. "She Watch Channel Zero?!"
11. "Night of the Living Baseheads"
12. "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos"
13. "Security of the First World"
14. "Rebel Without a Pause"
15. "Prophets of Rage"
16. "Party for Your Right to Fight"

This would have been my 21st pick had I not decided to go down the movie soundtrack gimmick path.

P.E. is on my personal Mount Rushmore for anthems of rebellion groups that includes Rage, Algiers, and an undrafted 70s/80s San Francisco punk band.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Question for @Mr. S£im Citrus - which Metallica songs do you enjoy?

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Question for @Mr. S£im Citrus - which Metallica songs do you enjoy?

"Enter Sandman," "St. Anger," "Some Kind of Monster"

 

[Padrino]

Well, now that I've listened to the First Five albums on everyone's playlists, and because I like lists so much, I decided to make a First Five Top Ten:

1. Cake - Fashion Nugget
2. Soundgarden - Superunknown
3. Nirvana - Nevermind
4. Stevie Wonder- Fulfillingness' First Finale
5. Queen - A Night at the Opera
6. El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead
7. The Dirtbombs - Ultraglide in Black
8. Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
9. Depeche Mode - Violator
10. Kendrick Lamar - Good kid, m.A.A.d city

In case you're interested, today happens to mark the 18th anniversary of El-P's first album, 2002's Fantastic Damage. It was just released this morning to streaming services for the very first time.

My favorite track from that record is "Stepfather Factory," a slice of sci-fi dystopia that folds in El's relationship to his abusive stepfather. It's incredible.

Upon the release of this song, El-P described the deeply personal motivation behind its creation (WARNING: Graphic descriptions of domestic violence follow):

Spoiler

When I was twelve, my stepfather (Scott Bivans) beat my mother to near death. He liked to drink. Mom stood her ground at first, desperately holding a butcher knife to the canvas of one of his paintings hoping to turn the night's events in her favor by creating a hostage situation. One more step and your precious picture gets the jux. Scott took it as a cue to experiment with a new medium, and soon the bricks on the bathroom wall dripped sticky red with a Jackson Pollock effect… wild style, baby.

I heard the whole sh*t go down from my room, where my sister and I sat silently and alert. That was the routine. We didn't realize yet that the ritual we had slowly become accustomed to had officially shed its amateur standing, trading in the shrill but withstandable exchange of insults, tears, and screams for something much more brutal… something much more honest. So we sat there, listening and holding each other as this Trojan horse of a man dropped all pretenses and gave my mother a true taste of her new and literally nuclear family. What else could I do? Of course, the many answers to that question would fester in my head for years to come.

Early morning now - calmer. Time to punch the clock. No more noise, no more screaming. Time to sleep… and what a beautiful sleep it was. I melted into unconsciousness effortlessly, just as the light started to leak through my window. Perfect sleep. Dreamless and fluid. Sleep as it is advertised. It was to be ten years till I'd sleep like that again.

The next day mom came back from work a half an hour after leaving. Two cops accompanied her and they stood guard as the locks were changed. When I saw her face I knew why. She was mangled. Scott had slammed her head against bricks till it split, ripping her bloody nightgown to shreds while screaming, "Why are you making me do this?! I love you!" Later, as her son blissfully dreamt of nothing, Mom lay bloody under the arm of her attacker, wide awake and in the same shredded clothing that Scott, in what would be his last gesture of dominance towards her, refused to let her change out of.

I never saw Scott again, but the realization that I had stood by, oblivious to the reality of what was happening and let this intruder do what he did had a clear and resonant effect on me. When the locks in our apartment were changed my sister and I engaged in a silent agreement with our mother: Everything on the other side of that door would remain there. In fact, it was to never have existed. So instead of talking - instead of counseling - I dreamt. Every night till I was 21.

Hard dreams. Dreams of vengeance and power. Of creeping down the stairs with a bow and arrow in my hands, silently aimed at Scott's neck. Swithp—Take that, motherf***er. During the day I would see him on the edge of crowds or getting on the subway at the other end of the platform. I even went so far as to chase him once, only to realize that he simply wasn’t there. The rage that I felt towards him quickly transformed into guilt. I should have done something. I could have stopped him. If I had only known.

In '97, ten years and 30 drafts later, I wrote a song about it [titled "Last Good Sleep."] It was the last song I wrote for my debut full-length with Company Flow, and it saved me. When I played it for my mother, she wept violently. She had no idea how affected I was. I held her closely as she sobbed and told her it was all over now.

The strange thing is, as the words came out of my mouth, I knew for the first time myself that it truly was over. Somehow, through this song, I had cleansed myself of this nocturnally invading bastard. That night, I had my last visit from the brute apparition. He was sitting in our kitchen listening to "Last Good Sleep" on the boom box I used to play it for my mom. Just sitting there.

From that point on, this music that I loved making, and had been making for years, took on an entirely new meaning for me. I could do more than just talk sh*t. I could do more than just have fun and be more than just clever. If I really let myself go, if I put everything I had into it, I could heal myself, and simultaneously take revenge, in the name of my family and all the other kids and single parents who have been where I have, on all these sad abusive f***s who scam there way into needy homes only to rip them apart further. Now self-aggrandizing losers like Scott Bivans can be sure that at least one kid who survived his sorry ass will use fame and music to expose him and his kind.

Now it's 2002. I got a new one for you Scott. It’s called "Stepfather Factory." I hope you like it… wherever you are.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

X- Alphabetland

The bonus rounds afford me the luxury of picking this one.

You might think a surprise release that popped up on Bandcamp in the middle of a pandemic would be a novelty. If I told you the band hadn't released a studio album in 27 years and hadn't recorded an album of original material with the original lineup of the band in 35 you would be sure of it. But holy f-balls, this album is legit. Like really, legit.

X has long been one of my favorite bands, their place in my all-time top 5 is fairly secure along with The Beach Boys, The Clash and Iron Maiden. Where this album will fall in their legacy is anybody's guess. It's not Los Angeles or Wild Gift - the Ray Manzarek produced debut and follow up albums that exploded the LA band's mix of SoCal punk and hardcore with the roots/Americana music that was happening over in Downey. But it certainly feels right at home with the albums that followed. Delta 88 Nightmare has that driving rockabilly/punk hybrid that largely defined those first two albums and launched a thousand imitators. Exene and John Doe trade leads and exchange their trademark slightly not quite perfect harmonies and Billy Zoom's guitar playing is as great as ever while Bonebreak's drumming holds it all together.

This album was an unexpected treat when it showed up and a perfect cap to my list.

Track List

1. Alphabetland
2. Free
3. Water & Wine
4. Strange Life
5. I Gotta Fever
6. Delta 88 Nightmare
7. Star Chambered
8. Angel on the Road
9. Cyrano DeBerger’s Back
10. Goodbye Year, Goodbye
11. All the Time in the World

The final two track titles just about sum it all up, don't they?

 

[Capt. Factorial]

X- Alphabetland

Congratulations to the album that finally broke the per-post 20,000 character limit on the summary thread. Only one more album to fit in the post, too!

 

[Löwenherz]

X- Alphabetland

The bonus rounds afford me the luxury of picking this one.

You might think a surprise release that popped up on Bandcamp in the middle of a pandemic would be a novelty. If I told you the band hadn't released a studio album in 27 years and hadn't recorded an album of original material with the original lineup of the band in 35 you would be sure of it. But holy f-balls, this album is legit. Like really, legit.

X has long been one of my favorite bands, their place in my all-time top 5 is fairly secure along with The Beach Boys, The Clash and Iron Maiden. Where this album will fall in their legacy is anybody's guess. It's not Los Angeles or Wild Gift - the Ray Manzarek produced debut and follow up albums that exploded the LA band's mix of SoCal punk and hardcore with the roots/Americana music that was happening over in Downey. But it certainly feels right at home with the albums that followed. Delta 88 Nightmare has that driving rockabilly/punk hybrid that largely defined those first two albums and launched a thousand imitators. Exene and John Doe trade leads and exchange their trademark slightly not quite perfect harmonies and Billy Zoom's guitar playing is as great as ever while Bonebreak's drumming holds it all together.

This album was an unexpected treat when it showed up and a perfect cap to my list.

Track List

1. Alphabetland
2. Free
3. Water & Wine
4. Strange Life
5. I Gotta Fever
6. Delta 88 Nightmare
7. Star Chambered
8. Angel on the Road
9. Cyrano DeBerger’s Back
10. Goodbye Year, Goodbye
11. All the Time in the World

The final two track titles just about sum it all up, don't they?

Oh wow, THAT “X” !? I had no idea.

I loved their famous debut album from 40(!) years ago.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Oh wow, THAT “X” !? I had no idea.

I loved their famous debut album from 40(!) years ago.

That album was magic. Picked it in my first draft. Have it on my ten albums list. Billy Zoom really influenced a lot of my journey musically and stylistically.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Mod note:

For those who may be relying on email notifications (e.g. notifications when a PM is sent to you) for keeping up with this thread, there is reason to suspect that the KF.com email notifications have broken. We know nothing, so there is no timetable for a fix. If you were expecting email notifications about your turn, please manually check the thread a few times a day. Thanks!

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Not sure if @ notification is working, but @hrdboild is on the clock with about 2 and a half hours to go...

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I did send a PM but I did not even get a PM from Spike - although I was on the board when he made his pick and got mine up soon after, but given your message about notifications not working I assumed that perhaps Spike sent the PM and it got eaten as his messages fell off my active conversations even.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

OK, it looks like @hrdboild has timed out. hrdboild can make up their final pick at any time. It is now @whitechocolate up to bat. Sending PM...

 

[Warhawk]

I did send a PM but I did not even get a PM from Spike - although I was on the board when he made his pick and got mine up soon after, but given your message about notifications not working I assumed that perhaps Spike sent the PM and it got eaten as his messages fell off my active conversations even.

I'm getting the PMs when it is my turn and I'm sending them. Not getting any emails though.

 

[whitechocolate]

Rackabones - Biota (1985)



https://www.discogs.com/Biota-Rackabones/release/538846
​

This may be the hardest record for me to describe. In the last movie draft I picked a film by Stan Brakhage, a director who would often try to create films that captured what he called the untutored eye would see. How one would see without any preconceived notions of how to make sense of things. Rackabones is the musical equivalent of that. And listening to this double LP is a wonderful, dreamlike experience. Unfortunately the only example from the record I can find on YouTube sounds very muffled and like it's being filtered through an EQ with the the settings all the way down.

Tracklist

01 - A
02 - B
03 - A
04 - B

 

[Löwenherz]

This may be the hardest record for me to describe.

Dude, seriously, I love you man. You're just the best.

I mean that in all sincerity. It's supremely cool that having progressed through your picks, Trout Mask Replica has now been completely normalized for me.

 

[Padrino]

Mica Levi - Under the Skin [Original Film Score] (2014):

01 Creation
02 Lipstick to Void
03 Andrew Void
04 Meat to Maths
05 Drift
06 Lonely Void
07 Mirror to Vortex
08 Bedroom
09 Love
10 Bothy
11 Death
12 Alien Loop

Genre(s): Film score, ambient, noise, drone

This was a tough one. Last pick of the bonus round. A self-imposed post-millennium film score restriction. And a desire to include a female composer. But then... an "a-ha" moment!

Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin is one of the most underrated and underseen films of the 2010's. It contains Scarlett Johansson's single best performance, in my opinion, as an extraterrestrial disguising itself as a human female to lure unsuspecting human males into an alternate dimension where she ultimately consumes them. It is a strange and unnerving film with a strange and unnerving score. First-time composer Mica Levi created the score for Under the Skin primarily using a viola, pitch-shifting and tempo-shifting many of the resulting recordings to strip them of their familiar humanity on the way to a musical realm as alien as the liquid black abyss in which Scarlett Johansson's character submerges her victims.

On the subject of her approach to the score, and the viola in particular, Levi has said:

It’s a lot of harmonics, and distortions of speed–which is a distortion I’m really interested in, anyway–and then just doing impressions of that. But it depends on what it needed. A lot of the sound is a mixture of bad recording technique, on my part, and not-fine playing. Violas are so harmonic because they contain a lot of air. A viola is not solid, the sound it produces is like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy of something, because you get an airiness, and creepiness, and there’s a struggle in that. The vibrato doesn’t ring out. It’s dead. A lot of the score uses microphones, and any sort of difference of expression there is created by the clashing of microphones. I find that I love that. Those are the things that ended up happening. I couldn’t come up with a plan. I wish I could’ve. But that’s what we ended up with.

Levi's score for Under the Skin and Salisbury's/Barrow's score for Annihilation share a bit of sonic DNA. They are both minimalist works that rely on defamiliarization and dehumanization to aurally transmit the central alienness of their respective films. For example, Levi returns to a very three-note theme throughout the score that suggests something sultry and seductive, like the introduction of a femme fatale from a 1940's film noir. But as the score progresses, that theme is distorted and decayed until it becomes unrecognizable and foreboding. There is a hunger at the core of Under the Skin, a craving to understand the contours of human emotion and experience. This is certainly reflected in its score, which, while deeply wedded to the images of the film, stands on its own as a fine reckoning with the vagaries of human behavior.

 

[Spike]

I did send a PM but I did not even get a PM from Spike - although I was on the board when he made his pick and got mine up soon after, but given your message about notifications not working I assumed that perhaps Spike sent the PM and it got eaten as his messages fell off my active conversations even.

Odd.

 

[VF21]

For my final selection, I decided I definitely needed some comedy on my island, so who better than Robin Williams?

I almost saw Robin Williams live back in the day in San Francisco at (I believe) the Purple Onion. Our little group from Sacramento decided at the last minute to go to Winterland instead that weekend, something I have truly regretted over the years. I don't remember who we saw but I've never forgotten who we didn't see.

Whether it was on the Johnny Carson Show or Mork and Mindy or even just a quick interview with Mark S. Allen, there was something special about Robin Williams that lit up whatever stage he was on. After his death, I went on a search to find more of his stand-up comedy stuff to fit into my library and this CD set fit quite nicely. I used to own a laser disc of a live performance of his but it disappeared years ago. (Laser discs - another form of entertainment I invested quite a bit of money in only to see it go by the wayside much like Betamax which I luckily DIDN'T invest a lot of money in.)

As the label says, this album has explicit content. I searched YouTube, and the whole album is available there, curse words and all. The funny thing about Robin Williams cursing is it seems just a little more naughty because he delivers the words with the face of a cherub. Do yourself a favor and check it out for yourself. His bit on "Golf" is there if you don't want to listen to the whole album, which runs 1:55:21.

From YouTube:

The complete live double album "Live 2002" by Robin Williams. Disc 1 features excerpts from Williams' 2002 tour, while Disc 2 primarily focuses on observations of cities with some material on technology and a soundbite remix ("The Grim Rapper")

Tracklist
1-1 Hot Enough For You? 3:13
1-2 Watching A Lot Of The World Cup 1:07
1-3 Olympics 1:10
1-4 Texas 0:51
1-5 But In The Olympics 4:03
1-6 Tour De Lance 0:27
1-7 Utah 1:33
1-8 Something Awful Is Going To Happen 2:38
1-9 The Cure 0:41
1-10 These Are Troubled Times My Friend 3:20
1-11 Now You Get On The Plane 0:55
1-12 Not Just A Sin 1:03
1-13 Back To Our In-Flight Movie 1:11
1-14 Homeland Security 1:00
1-15 Blair, Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, A Dead Man And Lassie 4:03
1-16 Crusade 2:03
1-17 Trying To Win The Hearts And Minds 2:01
1-18 71 Virgins 1:52
1-19 I'm An Episcopal 2:03
1-20 I Do Believe There's Miracles 2:07
1-21 Joe, I'm Pregnant 3:01
1-22 My One Question 2:27
1-23 I Could Turn This Place Into Chicken Tikka 4:09
1-24 Pot Doesn't Affect You Like Alcohol 3:27
1-25 Golf 4:11
1-26 And Then There's Boxing 0:40
1-27 Drugs To Make You Feel Better 1:37
1-28 I've Gone To The Zoo 3:18
1-29 Maybe It's Because I'm Fifty 3:39
1-30 'Cause What Can They Do For You? 3:59
1-31 Father, You Have To Set Limits 3:12
1-32 Payback's A ***** 1:10
2-1 The Grim Rapper 4:42
2-2 Chicago 3:15
2-3 Milwaukee 2:41
2-4 Boston 2:32
2-5 Philadelphia 1:44
2-6 Atlanta 1:30
2-7 Washington, DC 3:06
2-8 Cleveland 0:55
2-9 Austin 2:18
2-10 Houston 1:37
2-11 New Orleans 1:46
2-12 Minneapolis 1:32
2-13 Seattle 2:01
2-14 Portland 1:23
2-15 Las Vegas 0:49
2-16 Toronto 2:47
2-17 Baltimore 0:21
2-18 Memphis 1:23
2-19 Nashville 2:10
2-20 Technology 4:31

Here's a broken link. Just take out the spaces. https: //www.you tube.com/watch?v= FS376sohiXc

I want to thank Capt. Factorial for doing the heavy lifting in keeping all the listings up to date on this draft. And, of course, I want to thank everyone for participating. Once again I am blown away by the diversity of music tastes and, once again, I have learned about a number of musicians I had never previously heard of. You guys rock.