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

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Pretenders - The Pretenders - 1979

This album is way outside my usual comfort zone. For some reason, however, it hit a chord with me the first time I heard "Brass in Pocket" and I went down to Tower Records (God, I cannot even begin to count the number of trips I made there over the years - often stopping next door for a pastrami sandwich while I was in the neighborhood) and found the album. New wave? Punk rock? I don't know about that. All I know for sure is that Chrissie Hynde's voice is vastly underrated. I'll tell you all a secret - it was years before I knew the real lyrics to Brass in Pocket. ;)

I hadn't listened to any Pretenders in a long time. When making my list for this draft, however, I ended up spending a lot of time on YouTube. It brought back some good memories, which has happened with every music draft I've participated in. I know it may sound corny, but music really does tell the story of our lives.

Side one
"Precious" – 3:36
"The Phone Call" – 2:29
"Up the Neck" – 4:27
"Tattooed Love Boys" – 2:59
"Space Invader" (Pete Farndon, James Honeyman-Scott) – 3:26
"The Wait" (Hynde, Farndon) – 3:35
"Stop Your Sobbing" (Ray Davies) – 2:38
Side two
"Kid" – 3:06
"Private Life" – 6:25
"Brass in Pocket" (Honeyman-Scott, Hynde) – 3:04
"Lovers of Today" – 5:51
"Mystery Achievement" – 5:23






Mmmmm excellent pick. One of the records that really ushered in the new wave sound.
 
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (2008):



01 Untrust Us
02 Alice Practice
03 Crimewave (Crystal Castles vs. HEALTH)
04 Magic Spells
05 Xxzxcuzx Me
06 Air War
07 Courtship Dating
08 Good Time
09 1991
10 Vanished
11 Knights
12 Love and Caring
13 Through the Hosiery
14 Reckless
15 Black Panther
16 Tell Me What to Swallow

Genre(s): Electroclash, dance-punk, electronica, noise

If there is anything close to a sonic progenitor for my previous pick, it would be Crystal Castles' self-titled debut. They are yet another duo. Ethan Kath on instrumental and production duties. And Alice Glass on vox--though Glass exited the band in 2014 under contentious circumstances. Prior to Glass' departure, however, this band was a revelation, delivering three stellar records in six years' time.

Crystal Castles is the sound of unhinged youth, a creatively restless album that flits between electro-punk freakouts and schizophrenic synth pop and nu-rave ecstasy. It's an electronic cornucopia. Imagine a bomb detonating inside an arcade. Imagine setting an Atari 2600 on fire. That's Crystal Castles, equally influenced by a 80's post-punk and 90's video game scores.

Though Kath and Glass had a relationship fraught with abuse, their creative partnership yielded some extraordinarily vibrant and noisy music. For whatever reason, I want quite a bit of chaos on my desert island. I want a bit of alcohol-soaked electronic bacchanalia. Though their following two records were hailed as being a more "mature" step forward for the band, there's something about the ramshackle mayhem of Crystal Castles' debut that I just find irresistible.
 
This record is an almost haunting sounding combination of beauty and sorrow. Robert Wyatt wrote Rock Bottom after being paralyzed as a result of an accident caused by alcoholism. However, between the accident and writing the record he moved to Venice and fell in love. The result is a record filled with both sorrow and hope on one side, and on the other side, a spiritual journey that feels like it exists between the two. The lyrics are deeply personal and quite poetic, and Robert Wyatt's voice is like none other.

Tracklist

01 - Sea Song
02 - A Last Straw
03 - Little Red Riding Hood Hit the Road
04 - Alifib
05 - Alifie
06 - Little Red Robin Hood Hit the Road

 

hrdboild

Hall of Famer
TV on the Radio - Dear Science (2008)


(https://www.allmusic.com/album/dear-science-mw0000796760)​

01. Halfway Home
02. Crying
03. Dancing Choose
04. Stork & Owl
05. Golden Age
06. Family Tree
07. Red Dress
08. Love Dog
09. Shout Me Out
10. DLZ
11. Lover's Day

My introduction to TV on the Radio was their second album Return to Cookie Mountain which was selected by Löwenherz back in the 9th round but I didn't come across it until some time in 2013. It wasn't long before I decided that I needed to explore their other albums and this is the one that really launched my devotion to that band. It's still densely layered with ambient textures and multi-part harmonies but the rhythms are punched up and dare I say it, dance-able! It's a collision of art rock and feel-good boogie and it's a heck of a lot of fun.

Tunde Adepimbe's vocals are still the star of the show but this is the album where Kyp Malone really came into his own as a songwriter of equal stature in the band. 5 of the 11 songs are his work and the way they're sequenced you can feel them egging each other on to reach ever higher heights like a modern Lennon and McCartney. "Halfway Home" sets an impossibly high standard right out of the blocks with an insistent tom-heavy beat that carries throughout the song and lyrics that read equally well on the page. A minute into "Crying" when Kyp launches into a soaring falsetto for the chorus it's already clear that this album is going to be a departure from their previous work. The rhythm section has stepped into the foreground and tasteful keyboards burble along off in the distance somewhere before grabbing the mic for the synth heavy outro.

I could keep going track by track but I think you get the idea. It's all really really good! The first time I heard "Family Tree" I actually started crying -- not just watery eyes, full tears. It's one of the saddest songs I've ever heard but it's also so impossibly beautiful.The only flaw with this album is that it eventually has to come to an end. I highly recommend all of their albums but if I had to pick just one, it's got to be this one. It also has one of the best lyric inserts I've ever seen -- the lyrics are formatted as a coffee-stained letter addressed to Science and signed by TV on the Radio. Just brilliant!




 
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Even though I don't think this on any one else's list, once I went with the Dolls this was a twofer...
The Heartbreakers - L.A.M.F.


Following the demise of the New York Dolls after Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan essentially chose shooting junk over touring and recording, they linked up with Richard Hell to form the Heartbreakers (the story here, is that they had once toured Florida, saw a bill for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and decided cool name, they'll never make it, and nicked it for themselves edit: supposedly untrue and they got the name first? there's also a story where a big band booked the Heartbreakers to open and got to the gig and did a "WTH is Tom Petty?"). It didn't take too long for Hell to be on the outs and Walter Lure to be recruited as second guitarist and co-lead vocalist. Walter was largely the glue that held the Heartbreakers and some of the post-Heartbreakers reunions together as Johnny sunk further and further into the throes of heroin addiction.

Production of the album was a mess, marred by Nolan departing during the mixing stages and what we received would only fully be realized in later reissues of the album. But what a glorious mess it is.

Fueled by the opening Born to Lose, you've got 34 minutes of rip roaring stripped down rock n roll that influenced everything between punk and sleaze with subjects largely revolving around the band's favorite past time. The other big track here, Chinese Rocks has been credited to Hell and Dee Dee Ramone but was initially recorded 3 years before the Ramones would offer there take on this album (and frankly, with all due respect to the Ramones, this one is better).

Other stand out tracks for me are Get Off the Phone, One Track Mind and my personal fave from the side two opening trio Pirate Love.

There's nothing particularly elegant about any of this. 3/4 of the band wasted their lives, but in my own journey Thunders really just hits for me, maybe it's the wasted potential of what could have been. How someone could play so non-chalantly not giving a F and yet clearly be such a tortured soul. There's just something about how he could coax so much out of a simple Les Paul Jr. and an amp dimed across the controls, at least when he was coherent. Every single piece of footage I see live is a sad desperate mess and yet this album is strangely brilliant in it's own way.

I believe this is the proper original release format, I only own a vinyl re-release and it exists in many non-original alternative formats on spotify.
Side One
1. Born to Lose
2. Baby Talk
3. All by Myself
4. I Wanna Be Loved
5. It's Not Enough
6. Chinese Rocks

Side Two
7. Get Off the Phone
8. Pirate Love
9. One Track Mind
10. I Love You
11. Goin' Steady
12. Let Go

Original tracks are linked above where appropriate. While Johnny and Jerry would succumb to their lifestyles in the early 90s and bassist Billy Rath would pass in 2014, thankfully Walter managed to clean up his act in the 80s, became a stock broker of all things and still occasionally writes and tours today carrying on the legacy. A few years back he joined many legends of the NY scene at the Bowery along with others from LA in west coast shows to play the album in its entirety for the 40th anniversary of it's release.

 
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Van_Halen_album.jpg

Van Halen - Van Halen

At this point, I just kept coming back to this album. I know all of the songs, front to back. They're as much fun now as they were when I first heard them.

1. "Runnin' with the Devil"
2. "Eruption" (instrumental)
3. "You Really Got Me"
4. "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love"
5. "I'm the One"
6. "Jamie's Cryin'"
7. "Atomic Punk"
8. "Feel Your Love Tonight"
9. "Little Dreamer"
10. "Ice Cream Man"
11. "On Fire"

It's about as classic a rock album as there is out there.
 
Lately everything keeps coming back to Feel Your Love Tonight. Someone posted a vid on my facebook playing the riff and then I saw it like 4 other times in the last 3 weeks. For my money though, Ain't Talkin' Bout Love is where it's at. I think my second favorite Van Halen number.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
Speaking of hidden tracks...

As I was reviewing the albums I selected from my previous occasions, to ensure compliance with my self-imposed G³ rule, I was alarmed to discover that I had somehow competed in this twice, and not selected a single Janet Jackson album either time. And I decided that that was an oversight that I needed to correct, right ****ing now.









Janet Jackson - The Velvet Rope (1997)


This is an album that actually imprinted on me in stages: I mentioned in a previous album draft that an album I'd selected at that time was the soundtrack to a choice I had to make. For a long time, I liked to imagine that The Velvet Rope might have been the soundtrack of a different choice. It wasn't until years later, having heard Janet talk about her process for writing the album, and then re-listening several times, with that new context, that I realized that the themes of many of the songs on the album had gone completely over my head, and I had simply been too self-absorbed and self-involved to notice: I had just thought it was really sexy, and it tended to put me in a state of mind that made me wish I'd made different choices in life. As a dude in my early twenties, a lot of the subjects that inspired Janet to write this album were subjects that I'd never even really had to think about.

After multiple re-listens over the course of a decade led to my re-evaluating its content, this album played a role in my reconsidering some things that I had believed for most of my life, and ultimately contributed to the evolution of many of my values and principles. Commercially, The Velvet Rope was a success for Janet, debuting at Number One on the US Charts, and being certified platinum in thirteen different countries.


Track listing (links provided to songs released as singles):
  1. "Interlude: Twisted Elegance"
  2. "Velvet Rope" (featuring Vanessa-Mae)
  3. "You"
  4. "Got 'til It's Gone" (featuring Q-Tip and Joni Mitchell)
  5. "Interlude: Speaker Phone"
  6. "My Need"
  7. "Interlude: Fasten Your Seatbelts"
  8. "Go Deep"
  9. "Free Xone"
  10. "Interlude: Memory"
  11. "Together Again"
  12. "Interlude: Online"
  13. "Empty"
  14. "Interlude: Full"
  15. "What About"
  16. "Every Time"
  17. "Tonight's the Night"
  18. "I Get Lonely"
  19. "Rope Burn"
  20. "Anything"
  21. "Interlude: Sad"
  22. "Special" (Hidden track "Can't Be Stopped" starts at 3:42)
I made a personal decision, after my first pick in this draft, not to embed any more videos in my posts, but I would like to add another link to my favorite song on the album, that wasn't released as a single: Rope Burn.

Source: Wikipedia
 

Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
With my 13th pick in the Shelter-In-Place Album Draft I select:



Costello Music - The Fratellis (2006)

Track Listing:
1 Henrietta
2 Flathead
3 Whistle for the Choir
4 Chelsea Dagger
5 The Gutterati?
6 For the Girl
7 Doginabag
8 Creepin' Up the Backstairs
9 Vince the Lovable Stoner
10 Everybody Knows You Cried Last Night
11 Baby Fratelli
12 Got Ma Nuts from a Hippie
13 Ole Black 'n' Blue Eyes
14 Cuntry Boys & City Girls

I stumbled onto the Fratellis sometime after their first album because of an infectious track that was playing in a TV commercial ("Flathead") and decided to check them out. They bring neither musical nor literary genius to the table, but something about the relentless, frenetic beat and the Scottish-accent singing struck a chord with me. I suppose that an actual aficionado of the genre would scoff, but when I'm in the mood for something that feels a little bit "punk", for something that feels like it's being played on a small, badly-lit stage by three guys who have all the heart in the world but whose grandest hope is a gig in the bigger club down the street, this is the record I reach for.

I suspect "Henrietta" is the best-known song here, and with a chorus that asks the title girl to "Clean out the bank and-uh bump off your Daddy/You can come live with us amongst the has-beens and the addicts" why shouldn't it be? "Ole Black 'n' Blue Eyes" is about as close as they get to a ballad, seeing as they aren't pounding it out at 120+ bpm and there are a few seconds in there where it's just the singer and an acoustic guitar.

Another song that seems to capture the feel of the record is "For the Girl", short (every song on the album has played itself out before the four-minute point), maybe not that sweet, but it sure makes me bounce my head. (Oh, and the band is named after the bad guys in The Goonies, so there's that too.)

(PM sent)
 
This was one of my favorite singers from the bands he was part of to my pick today.
I have had this album in some format since it came out. Still have the record and cd.

One of my top 5 or 6 favorite songs is on the album.
So for my Lucky 13th pick (my dad was born on a Friday the 13th)
The song and album from Neil young (AFTER The GOLD RUSH)

1586884677309.jpg

Tell me why

After the gold rush

Only love can break your heart

Southern man

Till the morning comes

Oh, lonesome me

Don’t let it bring you down

Birds

When you dance I can really love

I believe in you

Cripple creek ferry






I can list several more songs to play but I’ll only do those three.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
Since I couldn't post this earlier, since I'd had my 12th pick waiting in drafts since around noon eastern yesterday, shout-out to @whitechocolate. It only took them twelve picks to break the record for most consecutive picks by artists I've never heard of, prior to this draft, with ten. The previous record of 9 was held by @Turgenev, from the 2013 draft. And, with eight picks to go, they've still got a shot at breaking Turgenev's total record of 18 picks.

Of course, that was 18 out of 25. If you go 19 out of 20 on artists/groups I've never heard of, that'll be quite the impressive feat, indeed.
 
Since I couldn't post this earlier, since I'd had my 12th pick waiting in drafts since around noon eastern yesterday, shout-out to @whitechocolate. It only took them twelve picks to break the record for most consecutive picks by artists I've never heard of, prior to this draft, with ten. The previous record of 9 was held by @Turgenev, from the 2013 draft. And, with eight picks to go, they've still got a shot at breaking Turgenev's total record of 18 picks.

Of course, that was 18 out of 25. If you go 19 out of 20 on artists/groups I've never heard of, that'll be quite the impressive feat, indeed.

I can say there are like 5 picks for people that I know every pick and can remember them.
Then with like 4 of them I recognize about half and I’am with you the last two I know only 2 or 3 of the performers.

Its fun going to the album and listened to something new.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
I can say there are like 5 picks for people that I know every pick and can remember them.
Then with like 4 of them I recognize about half and I’am with you the last two I know only 2 or 3 of the performers.

Its fun going to the album and listened to something new.
The only participant in this draft who's 12-for-12 on artists/groups I've heard of, prior to the start of the draft is @Warhawk... and we don't like the same kind of music, at all.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
6 or 7 not including my own where I know em all. But the ones I don't know are mostly all stuff outside of my normal listening preferences. I suppose the old joke about "I like both kinds of music, country and western" applies to me with rock and roll.
That hasn't quite been my experience, outside of @whitechocolate... the participants with the highest percentages of artists/groups that I've heard of are all picking stuff outside of my normal listening preferences, but which have been largely ubiquitous, at least, within their respective genres. Like, I've heard of 92 percent of @Spike's picks; I couldn't be said to be a fan of nine percent of them. The participant whose selections most closely line up with my tastes in music would be @Turgenev, and I've only actually heard of half of their picks, because they appear to be into artists who are more "underground" than the stuff I prefer.
 
That hasn't quite been my experience, outside of @whitechocolate... the participants with the highest percentages of artists/groups that I've heard of are all picking stuff outside of my normal listening preferences, but which have been largely ubiquitous, at least, within their respective genres. Like, I've heard of 92 percent of @Spike's picks; I couldn't be said to be a fan of nine percent of them. The participant whose selections most closely line up with my tastes in music would be @Turgenev, and I've only actually heard of half of their picks, because they appear to be into artists who are more "underground" than the stuff I prefer.
I would not necessarily pick the stuff myself, I just am familiar with most everything that got mass radio play through 2000 and then a lot of current pop music from the last 12 years. Even @Spike who I have a lot of crossover with we probably compete for 5 picks a draft tops? I did actually make an effort at least in my top 10 to pick albums with more mainstream appeal and more influences of my influences route, given the social isolation theme of this draft, I've decided to make it more "current listening and inspiration" than the 2008 draft where I went with a "music that shaped me" theme. and yet I don't think I've had anything I had to have snatched from my clutches at all. Probably because I picked before Spike.
 

Warhawk

The cake is a lie.
Staff member
This is not me being cheeky though I think it will come off this way: My mom would vote for your list.
No worries. I'll take any vote I can get. ;) I know my tastes generally run more mainstream than most. And I suppose this draft in particular, as I am going by bands I've seen in concert.

I like some of the music itself from some of the "harder" rock/metal bands, but so many of them are screaming their lyrics which I can't stand. I generally like my rock and roll a little closer to the "older" style of rock or pop side of things, personally. And a little pop/country never hurt anyone, either.

I'm listening to many of the linked songs in these selections and I'm realizing there is a lot of stuff out there I had no idea people recorded/listened to. Not quite my cup of tea, to a large extent. But interesting to at least be aware of and exposed to. But the "noise" stuff, etc., just holds no appeal to me as "music" at all. If you like it, great, but it's just not my thing.

The only participant in this draft who's 12-for-12 on artists/groups I've heard of, prior to the start of the draft is @Warhawk... and we don't like the same kind of music, at all.
I went and checked - yours and @Cojc are the only two lists that I can also say that about.
 
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Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
I would not necessarily pick the stuff myself, I just am familiar with most everything that got mass radio play through 2000 and then a lot of current pop music from the last 12 years.
Same, except that ends around 1995, for me. Couldn't get much American radio, while I was stationed in Italy and, when I got back stateside in '98, until around 2002-3, sports radio was much more relevant to my interests: like I said in a previous draft, I consider 1998-ish to around 2002 as the Golden Age of sports radio, because back then, football was "merely" popular, and not the unkillable, inevitable juggernaut it has become. Back then, I only really had to suffer through football talk on Mondays, the rest of the week, there was much more coverage of other sports than there is now and, of even greater interest to me, more discussion of things that are not sports, but as seen through the prism of sports. That's the stuff that really gets my engine going, and there was so much more of that through the very early part of the millennium, so I wasn't listening to much new music, back then.

Didn't really get back into listening to music until the legal streaming services started popping up and, even then, I mostly listen to stuff I've already heard, unless a playlist includes a recommendation, based on previous likes.
 
No worries. I'll take any vote I can get. ;) I know my tastes generally run more mainstream than most. And I suppose this draft in particular, as I am going by bands I've seen in concert.
I am slightly surprised that someone in roughly the same age bracket hasn't picked anything edgier than Joan Jett but there's nothing wrong with that :) I like in your face guitars in general. Realize that is not everybody's cup of tea.
 
Same, except that ends around 1995, for me. Couldn't get much American radio, while I was stationed in Italy and, when I got back stateside in '98, until around 2002-3, sports radio was much more relevant to my interests: like I said in a previous draft, I consider 1998-ish to around 2002 as the Golden Age of sports radio, because back then, football was "merely" popular, and not the unkillable, inevitable juggernaut it has become. Back then, I only really had to suffer through football talk on Mondays, the rest of the week, there was much more coverage of other sports than there is now and, of even greater interest to me, more discussion of things that are not sports, but as seen through the prism of sports. That's the stuff that really gets my engine going, and there was so much more of that through the very early part of the millennium, so I wasn't listening to much new music, back then.

Didn't really get back into listening to music until the legal streaming services started popping up and, even then, I mostly listen to stuff I've already heard, unless a playlist includes a recommendation, based on previous likes.
I think this is why the biggest revelation has been @Löwenherz's admission he didn't get into all the great 90s albums until the 2010s, which is when for me streaming took over everything and the odds of me listening to albums start to finish really took a big hit.
 

Warhawk

The cake is a lie.
Staff member
I am slightly surprised that someone in roughly the same age bracket hasn't picked anything edgier than Joan Jett but there's nothing wrong with that :) I like in your face guitars in general. Realize that is not everybody's cup of tea.
I find that a lot of the edgier stuff just isn't either "musical" or appealing to me. I don't ENJOY it. I can appreciate the creativity and talent, but if it doesn't resonate with me internally, why bother?

Growing up, I lived in the country outside a small town and never had cable, MTV, etc. I generally listened to what my folks played/listened to. Most of my friends either listened to country or mainstream rock/pop. Some of them liked a few of the popular metal bands of the time, too, but I never heard much of it myself. In high school/college I got a little more exposed to rap/hip-hop stuff (I like some of it, but a lot of it isn't really my thing). That was the first time I ever had cable, but didn't have much time to watch it with my engineering classes and labs and outside activities. My wife is a country fan, so the harder rock, etc., just doesn't appeal to her either. Heck, she gets tired of listening to my "mellow" rock music at times because it is a little harder than she likes.

I'm also the kind who can put an album or playlist in the car stereo and listen to it for a long time (some say forever) without getting bored of it. My wife and friends poke fun at that sometimes, but hey, I like what I like and it doesn't get old for me. So why fix what isn't broken? ;) I guess I just generally cruise along in my own little music "bubble". And I'm perfectly happy with that.
 
The Warning. Hot Chip. 2006

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When this came out I was working in a bar that played 'over and over' literally over and over. It was my favourite non-career job that I am still quite fond of, so I like the sentiment. I was a little surprised when I first saw them - the guys all look pretty nerdy - but I think that adds to the appeal.

 

hrdboild

Hall of Famer
The Warning. Hot Chip. 2006

View attachment 9758

When this came out I was working in a bar that played 'over and over' literally over and over. It was my favourite non-career job that I am still quite fond of, so I like the sentiment. I was a little surprised when I first saw them - the guys all look pretty nerdy - but I think that adds to the appeal.

I'm not familiar with this song or video, but this style of video certainly takes me back! There was that period of time in the early days of Youtube when every indie band under the sun had to have a clever video. :) I think a number of these bands even built their fanbase off the strength of their clever videos. It all seems a little quaint now that that 10 year olds have their own Youtube channels and thousands of subscribers.