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

[hrdboild]

I started following this group as a joke, calling their alter-ego, The Clash at Demonhead, (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) my favorite indie band.

Now I've been a fan of the actual band for long enough to comfortably accuse them of selling out.

View attachment 9773

Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? - Metric (2003)

In the years since I began following this band entirely because of Envy Adams' rendition of Black Sheep, I have noticed a shift to a more mainstream accessibility to their sound. Now, I am the last to claim any kind of authority in authentic, underground, indie music, and I still can rock out to their album I picked last time, which I would consider a much more radio-friendly approach. But there's something I enjoy about their rough-around-the-edges, slightly harsh and bratty "debut" album.

There is a psuedo-punky twinge of angst and anger in the production value, songwriting, and Emily Haines' vocals on Old World Underground that has, to my ears, been glossed out as the band found succexy ... er, success.

That's actually a perfect example. Succexy is about wars fought for TV ratings: a college freshman know-it-all simplification of a complex subject with an aggressively awkward title. Yet, I find it charmingly fun in its earnestness.

Also compare the suddenly blonde warbler Haines of today, who's become the focal point of promoting the band, to the raw punky girl rocking with the guys in Dead Disco.

I love Metric and much of their work as a whole, which made this choice a lot tougher than I would have thought. But I really like looking back at where they started*

Tracklist

1."IOU"
2."Hustle Rose"
3."Succexy"
4."Combat Baby"
5."Calculation Theme"
6."Wet Blanket"
7."On a Slow Night"
8."The List"
9."Dead Disco"
10."Love Is a Place"


*This is their second album, but released first. Their first album was released third. Get it?

Metric opened for The Smashing Pumpkins the last time I saw them in concert (2018?) and I enjoyed them quite a bit! Come to find out Emily Haines has also appeared on a k-os album (well two technically, she's a featured vocalist on one of them and gets a shout-out in the lyrics on another one). I've been meaning to dive deeper into their back catalog for awhile. Thanks for reminding me!

 

[Padrino]

Whoa, it's been over two days since I made my last pick! The draft has [mercifully] slowed down a bit. Ha.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Whoa, it's been over two days since I made my last pick! The draft has [mercifully] slowed down a bit. Ha.

VF21 (on the clock) has been MIA since yesterday afternoon. She will time out at 6:04 PM and you would be on the clock next. (Somehow, I'm guessing she won't be stealing your next selection anyway!)

 

[VF21]

Not so fast, Capt! I'm here. Life just got in the way a bit.



Disraeli Gears - Cream - 1967

Cream was called the world's first supergroup and for the short time they were in existence (1966-1968) they more than lived up to that title. Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker. It's hard to explain the influence Cream had on my music tastes. You couldn't put them into just any little slot. They were acid rock; they were blues rock; they were hard rock. They were impossible to ignore. One of the main draws of Cream was their incredible instrumental talent. Each of the three was a virtuoso. I was lucky enough to see Cream in San Francisco, another concept courtesy of Bill Graham Productions. The co-bills were SF bands that actually leaned a bit more towards blues/jazz than rock but I didn't care. Their sound was vibrant and electric - and the experience lingers with me to this day. Deciding to make my picks this time as personal as possible, not including Cream on my island was impossible.

Track list:
1 Strange Brew
2 Sunshine of Your Love
3 World of Pain
4 Dance the Night Away
5 Blue Condition
Side two
1 Tales of Brave Ulysses
2 SWLABR
3 We're Going Wrong
4 Outside Woman Blues
5 Take It Back
6 Mother's Lament

 

[Capt. Factorial]

I love this song so much. Side two opens pretty strong with Ulysses and the bearded rainbow.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Solid pick.

Hope everything is ok VF.

 

[VF21]

Solid pick.

Hope everything is ok VF.

It is now.

 

[Padrino]

M83 - Saturdays = Youth (2008):

01 You, Appearing
02 Kim & Jessie
03 Skin of the Night
04 Graveyard Girl
05 Couleurs
06 Up!
07 We Own the Sky
08 Highway of Endless Dreams
09 Too Late
10 Dark Moves of Love
11 Midnight Souls Still Remain

Genre(s): Dream pop, synth pop, shoegaze, new wave

If the album cover of M83's Saturdays = Youth looks like a still from a long lost John Hughes film, that was surely Anthony Gonzalez's intention. His previous work as M83 was a collaboration with fellow Frenchman Nicolas Fromageau, and those albums were extraordinary exercises in tone and texture, finding the warmth in otherwise cold electronic sounds and synthesizer pads.

Eventually, Gonzalez and Fromageau reached a creative impasse which resulted in Fromageau's departure from the band, and Saturdays = Youth is adequate explanation for their split. Here, Gonzalez has married his widescreen film score sensibility with the pop antics of 80's soundtracks to movies like The Breakfast Club. If you listen to no other song among those linked above, "Kim and Jessie" will surely worm its way into that place in your heart where you remember the doomed grandeur of youth.

What prevents Saturdays = Youth from devolving into tired pastiche is the utter reverence with which Gonzalez treats the 1980's. This isn't novelty. It's not nostalgia. It's not retro tourism. It's a genuine celebration of everything that made the music of the 80's vibrant and dramatic and emotionally resonant. Anthony Gonzalez is among a handful of artists through the first decade of the new millennium who rescued the analog synthesizer from its consignment to kitsch categorization, exploring the strange and beautiful contours of what that particular instrument can accomplish.

 

[whitechocolate]

Escape from Noise - Negativland (1987)



https://www.discogs.com/Negativland-Escape-From-Noise/release/79173
​

Escape from Noise is my favorite record by Negativland, the kings of fair use. Negativland's music is largely composed of serialized sound collages using countless samples from other musicians, TV shows, radio broadcasts, and original creations. As band member Don Joyce stated:

What am I driving at? The undeniable wisdom of letting artists, not business interests, determine what art will consist of. The need for various arts of appropriation should be obvious. Artists have always seen the entire world around them as both inspiration to act and as raw material to mold and remold.

The reuse of culture should be encouraged, not inhibited and litigated.

I'm looking at you Huey. In my opinion, the great records Negativland have produced are all the proof one needs to realize Don Joyce is right. Negativland uses its horde of samples to create music filled with both humor and social commentary. Escape from Noise focuses more on their humorous side. One of the tracks is just a recording of a little girl singing "Over the Rainbow" while she has the hiccups. And it fits right in with the record's vibe, a vibe I would describe as the result of throwing a 1950s PSA, a cartoon from the same era, a '90s soda commercial, and '80s electronic music into a blender. The album does a great job mixing in, and switching between, different elements to create an engaging and fun ride.

Tracklist

01 - Announcement
02 - Quiet Please
03 - Michael Jackson
04 - Escape from Noise
05 - The Playboy Channel
06 - Stress in Marriage
07 - Nesbitt's Lime Soda Song
08 - Over the Hiccups
09 - Sycamore
10 - Car Bomb
11 - Methods of Torture
12 - Yellow Black and Rectangular
13 - Backstage Pass
14 - Christianity is Stupid
15 - Time Zones
16 - You Don't Even Live Here
17 - The Way of It
18 - Endscape

 

[Turgenev]

Hey. Can I clarify a rule? Are cover albums OK? The first post does not exclude them but think there may have been some uncertainty re this?

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Hey. Can I clarify a rule? Are cover albums OK? The first post does not exclude them but think there may have been some uncertainty re this?

I was slightly confused but Warhawk picked one after we had this discussion - it seems like if it's a fully established artist it's ok (Cher doing Abba), but if it's a revolving cast of characters (Post Modern Jukebox, per Slim), no?

 

[VF21]

Hey. Can I clarify a rule? Are cover albums OK? The first post does not exclude them but think there may have been some uncertainty re this?

John Smith sings the best of Fred Jones - okay
The Best of Fred Jones by various artists - not okay

 

[hrdboild]

toe - The Book About My Idle Plot on a Vague Anxiety (2005)

(https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-book-about-my-idle-plot-on-a-vague-anxiety-mw0000357626)​

01. 反逆する風景
02.孤独の発明
03. tremolo + delay
04. むこう岸が視る夢
05. all i understand is that i don't understand
06. c
07. past and language
08. music for you
09. i do still wrong
10. メトロノーム
11. everything means nothing​

Over the last decade a group of musicians from Tokyo who call themselves toe have taken the place of The National as my favorite band. I had to include at least one of their albums in my draft but deciding which one was a challenge. As we get closer to the end of the draft and the amount of remaining slots is rapidly diminishing, I'm finding these decisions a lot harder to make! Their more recent albums are more textural and nuanced with guest vocalists joining them more frequently and an increased prevalence of acoustic guitar and keyboards but this first full-length album is the purest distillation of what toe is about and it's still a thrilling listen start to finish.

Let me see if I can sum this up easily: their songs typically feature two interweaving clean guitar parts, a heavy dose of bass guitar, and virtuoso drumming courtesy of the absolutely badass stick man Kashikura Takashi. Occasionally there's some additional keyboard parts or guest vocalists but that's the basic formula and they manage to craft compelling songs without lead vocals by varying the dynamics and finding melodies that take off into the stratosphere before finding their way back home again for a gentle landing. This is music tailor-made for air drumming and things really come to life in their live show where they often set up in the round and impel the songs with a passion and enthusiasm rarely seen in any genre.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I had sort of settled on taking this in one of the next few rounds and the covers query sealed the deal...
The Dirtbombs - Ultraglide in Black

Aside from the Johnny Thunders kick, I've also been on a bit of a gunk punk kick. Wth is gunk punk? Good question. Seems to have been coined by the singer of a likely future pick of mine. He wrote a book. I made a spotify playlist of all the bands in that book. It's pretty safe to say they are on no-one's list, but out of respect I am not going to post it public. If this is your thing, PM me and I'll share.

Anywho, gunk punk, I guess it's the punk end of the garage revival? From the mid-90s to early-00s and beyond. Mick Collins has been a notable member of the Detroit scene going back to the 80s, and his band the Gories are one of the pioneers of the garage rock revival. The Dirtbombs are another project, notable for using two drummer and a baritone guitar.

This album right here, is primarily motown covers with a single original track (Your Love Belongs Under a Rock).

Aside from that, the big songs here are probably If You Can Want (Smokey), Living for the City (Stevie), and my favorite track on the album Underdog (Sly). A lot of other big names covered here as well.

1. Chains of Love"
2. If You Can Want
3. Underdog
4. Your Love Belongs Under a Rock
5. I'll Wait
6. Living For the City
7. The Thing
8. Kung-Fu
9. Ode to a Black Man
10. Got to Give It Up
11. Livin' For the Weekend
12. I'm Qualified to Satisfy You
13. Do You See My Love (For You Growing)

 

[Warhawk]

John Smith sings the best of Fred Jones - okay
The Best of Fred Jones by various artists - not okay

This was my understanding as well when I made the selection.

 

[Spike]

I need a little turn of the century emo on my island.
Some 1970's inspired glam-rockin' pomp and pop emo.
This will do.



1. "The End."
2. "Dead!"
3. "This Is How I Disappear"
4. "The Sharpest Lives"
5. "Welcome to the Black Parade"
6. "I Don't Love You"
7. "House of Wolves"
8. "Cancer"
9. "Mama" (featuring Liza Minnelli)
10. "Sleep"
11. "Teenagers"
12. "Disenchanted"
13. "Famous Last Words"
14. "Blood"

I'm sure you know "Black Parade" and "Teenagers", but check out "Famous Last Words" if you're feeling up for it.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Jamiroqui - A Funk Odyssey (2001)

Somehow, Jamiroquai's fifth studio album was the first one that I actually had the opportunity to listen to from beginning to end, and only my third-favorite Jamiroquai album, overall. But, with the G³ rule in full effect for my draft board, here we are. I am a fan of how the songs on the album flow into each other, and "Little L" is one of my five favorite Jamiroquai songs; it sounds like something that should be part of the soundtrack for Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3. A Funk Odyssey peaked at #44 on the US Charts, but did hit Number One in Australia, France, Italy, Switzerland and the UK, and was certified platinum in five countries.

Track listing (links provided to songs released as singles):

1. "Feel So Good"
2. "Little L"
3. "You Give Me Something"
4. "Corner of the Earth"
5. "Love Foolosophy"
6. "Stop Don't Panic"
7. "Black Crow"
8. "Main Vein"
9. "Twenty Zero One"
10. "Picture of My Life" (The song "Picture of My Life" ends at 3:45. After 30 seconds of silence (3:45 - 4:15), begins the hidden song "So Good to Feel Real".)
    • Note: On my copy, the hidden song was "Do It Like We Used to Do," not "So Good to Feel Real."

Source: Wikipedia

 

[Capt. Factorial]

With my 15th pick in the Shelter-In-Place Album Draft I select:

III Sides to Every Story - Extreme (1992)

Track Listing:
Yours
1 Warheads
2 Rest in Peace
3 Politicalamity
4 Color Me Blind
5 Cupid's Dead
6 Peacemaker Die

Mine
7 Seven Sundays
8 Tragic Comic
9 Our Father
10 Stop the World
11 God Isn't Dead?
12 Don't Leave Me Alone

The Truth
13 Everything Under the Sun: I. Rise 'N Shine
14 Everything Under the Sun: II. Am I Ever Gonna Change
15 Everything Under the Sun: III. Who Cares?

Somehow, this album didn't make it into my last draft. It was always sitting there, waiting to be picked and after the obvious top albums had come off the board, I found excuse after excuse to put it off until the next round until finally I just didn't take it. It was probably a silly decision, and it was kind of happening again, so I'm just fixing it right now. III Sides to Every Story is one of the first albums I bought when I arrived to college, basically sight unseen on the strength of their prior record. Well, their prior record has a few radio hits, but for me this is by far the better album despite being a commercial failure, having no radio single and being one of the last gasps of '80s rock in the rise of grunge. (It is also, incidentally, the only album I have ever written a term paper about, a record that at this point seems very likely to stand.)

The album is broken into three "sides", labeled "Yours", "Mine", and "The Truth". "Yours" consists of straight, in-your-face hard rock with an ironic and continually undermined warmongering theme throughout. "Rest In Peace" opens with a string motif that gives some hint of things to come, rocks hard, then closes on an acoustic ballad version of itself. "Mine" is a big change of pace, heavy on the acoustic guitars and keyboards and overtly sappy lyrics that would never fit on the first side, before falling into some plaintive spiritual questioning in "God Isn't Dead?" and "Don't Leave Me Alone", setting the stage for side three.

The magnum opus on the album, and ultimately the reason that this rock album out of all the many rock albums in my collection has to make it into my Shelter-In-Place list, is the third "side" of the album, which consists of a single three-part song Everything Under the Sun. I have to admit that I love my 20-minute songs, as can probably be seen by my earlier selections of Pink Floyd and Rush (though neither of those albums have a 20-minute epic), and this one is probably my all-time favorite, alternately combining rock, piano, and a 70-piece orchestra in a song about trying to find spiritual meaning in life that perhaps has as many questions as answers but ultimately feels fulfilling anyway. It begins with the theme of the third part being played on a music box before diving into the song itself, finally rising to a conclusion where all three chorus parts are overlaid before collapsing back into the opening music box.

 

[Cojc]

Well I will try to keep this rolling on a Saturday after someone here took my next choice some picks before me. At least VF21 has some pretty good taste in music.

So my next band has been selected but like a few bands a lot of listeners have different best albums they like.

For my 15th pick I will select the Clash (LONDON CALLING).




London Calling

Brand new Cadillac

Jimmy jazz

Hateful

Rubies can’t fail

Spanish
Bombs

The right profile

Lost in the supermarket

Clampdown

The guns of brixton

Wrong’em boyo

Death or glory

Koka kola

The card cheat

Lovers rock

Four horsemen

I’m not down

Revolution rock

Train in vain

 

[pdxKingsFan]

So my next band has been selected but like a few bands a lot of listeners have different best albums they like.

For my 15th pick I will select the Clash (LONDON CALLING).

I did pick it in the first 2-3 rounds of the first time we did this so I'm not going to dispute the excellence of this pick. That said my 3 favorite songs are probably different: Lost in the Supermarket, Death or Glory and The Card Cheat.

I think there's a valid case for picking any of the first 4 albums even their triple album which was over ambitious and failed has at least one full album's worth of excellent material. The big singles on album 5 are classics but I don't really care for the album. And the 6th one it's best to pretend doesn't exist (even still my Timbers themed band covered This is England as This is Portland).

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

The album is broken into three "sides", labeled "Yours", "Mine", and "The Truth". "

How does an album have three sides? Is it a double LP? And, if so, what's on the second side of the second LP, dead air?

 

[Capt. Factorial]

How does an album have three sides? Is it a double LP? And, if so, what's on the second side of the second LP, dead air?

Not having owned the LP, I had to look it up (even if your question was facetious). It turns out that the double LP is unable to follow the conceptual format of the album, splitting the first two "sides" across sides A, B, and C, and putting the third "side" on D.

For completeness, I should point out that while the entire album fits on one cassette, the first two songs of the second "side" have to be placed on the first side of the cassette, and the remainder is on the second side. And while you might think the album was ideal for the CD format, it was juuuuuust a bit too long for a single CD, so track 12 was not included on the CD.

So in 1992 no existing format adequately captured the essence of this work. Obviously Extreme were thinking solely of the yet-to-come digital revolution in music when they plotted out the concept of the album.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

So just admit that Slim is right.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

So just admit that Slim is right.

If Slim is right that the album has three "sides" I'm not sure we're in disagreement!

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

So in 1992 no existing format adequately captured the essence of this work. Obviously Extreme were thinking solely of the yet-to-come digital revolution in music when they plotted out the concept of the album.

Either that, or the long-since abandoned 8-track format.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Either that, or the long-since abandoned 8-track format.

Ah, yes. Impossible to rewind, and few players could fast-forward, so if you didn't have the same amount of music on each track, you'd have to sit through a bunch of silence to get to the next song. Got a long song, or an album that doesn't break up properly? No problem! We'll just skip to the next track mid-song...it's only a tiny gap in the middle of the music! Cassettes were introduced in the mid '60s. I have no idea how the 8-track held on to a reasonable share of the market until the early '80s.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I have a 2XL in the garage. Just in case I ever get the urge to play an 8-track.

So ummm, that gonna be never?

 

[Capt. Factorial]

I have a 2XL in the garage. Just in case I ever get the urge to play an 8-track.

So ummm, that gonna be never?

The 2XL was pretty easily my favorite "toy" through several years of my childhood, though I'd imagine that mine is now at the bottom of a landfill somewhere. But I'm pretty sure at this point I'd rather play a 2XL tape out of nostalgia's sake than an 8-track.

Shoot, to be honest, when I moved into my current place nearly ten years ago, I hooked my component CD player up to my receiver but put the tape deck into a storage unit in the garage. The other day I accidentally powered on the CD player while dusting - and it might be the first time the CD player has been on since I last hooked it up. I simply AirPlay everything straight to the receiver. I doubt I've owned a CD in the last 15 years that has left its case but once, to be ripped digitally and never used again.

 

[Turgenev]

American Standard. James Taylor. 2020



I only really just learned of James Taylor thanks to a pair of podcast appearances following the release of this album. There's a risk in picking something this new in that I have no idea how it will age. Nonetheless am really enjoying this. His voice. His sweetness.

1. My blue heaven
2. Moon river
3. Teach me tonight
4. As easy as riding off a log
5. Almost like being in love
6. Sit down, you're rockin the boat
7. The nearness of you
8. You've got to be carefully taught
9. God bless the child
10. Pennies from heaven
11. My heart stood still
12. Ol' man river
13. It's only a paper moon
14. The surrey with the fringe on top

 

[Warhawk]

The last of my semi-cheats, as they are the co-headliners (with Def Leppard) of The Stadium Tour I have tickets to see in July.

Mötley Crüe - Dr. Feelgood (1989)



https://www.allmusic.com/album/dr-feelgood-mw0000197858

From allmusic:

A combination of rehab, time off the road, and upgraded pop production from Bob Rock resulted in Dr. Feelgood, the band's fifth, most successful, and arguably best album. The Crüe were no strangers to the charts at this point, with every successive release selling more and charting higher than the last. Dr. Feelgood, however, pushed the band into new territory. Rock's radio-ready production was great on raunchy rock songs like "Sticky Sweet" and "Rattlesnake Shake," but when applied to more accessible songs, the band transcended their party metal niche. The album's singles -- the sinister groove of the title track, the rocking adrenaline anthem "Kickstart My Heart," the by-the-numbers power ballad "Without You," the nostalgic romp "Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)," and the lesser-loved lighthearted singalong "S.O.S. (Same Old Situation)" --- all hit the bullseye of radio-level catchiness, big-budget production, and mass appeal that the band had come so close to with their strongest output prior. Dr. Feelgood wasn't just a collection of great singles padded by filler, though. A renewed, sober Mötley Crüe pulled out all the stops on every song, as did Rock. The meaty drums, evil riffs, and bad-boy posturing were all amplified, and deft touches were hidden a little deeper in the mixes.

Reflective and clear-minded without losing any of the fun of their more reckless days, Dr. Feelgood was the band's finest hour. It also marked the summit from which both Mötley Crüe and metal at large quickly tumbled. The album hit number one on the charts but would be the last with singer Vince Neil until (redacted). By that time, though, alternative rock had usurped the throne from metal, out-weirding and out-doing its glammiest and heaviest hallmarks. Despite the changing tides, Dr. Feelgood produced some of the band's most memorable and long-lasting songs and stands as their most solid front-to-back album.

From Wikipedia:

Dr. Feelgood topped the Billboard 200 chart (which is the band's only album to claim this position as of 2019), and was the first album Mötley Crüe recorded after their quest for sobriety and rehabilitation in 1989. In addition to being Mötley Crüe's best selling album, it is highly regarded by music critics and fans as the band's best studio album. In various interviews, members of Mötley Crüe stated that it was their most solid album from a musical standpoint, due in no small part to their collective push for sobriety.

"Dr. Feelgood" and "Kickstart My Heart" were nominated for Grammy awards for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1990 and 1991.... Mötley Crüe won the best Hard rock/Heavy metal album of the year at the American Music Awards in January 1991 for Dr. Feelgood.

This album was on heavy rotation in my car after it's release. Hopefully the concert goes on as planned (or later in the year if postponed) because this is one band I'd still like to see live. Kickstart My Heart, Dr. Feelgood, and Without You are my favorites off this album.

Track List:
1. T.N.T. (Terror 'N Tinseltown)
2. Dr. Feelgood
3. Slice of Your Pie
4. Rattlesnake Shake
5. Kickstart My Heart
6. Without You
7. Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.)
8. Sticky Sweet
9. She Goes Down
10. Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)
11. Time for Change