=
×

Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

Head To Head
Log In
Register
Unsung Forum »
Soundtracks Of Our Lives w/e 25 April 2010 CE
Log In to post a reply
64 messages
Topic View: Flat | Threaded
Doody
33 posts

Re: Soundtracks Of Our Lives w/e 25 April 2010 CE
Apr 25, 2010, 16:31
I've been working through the small pile of records I bought in Europe over the past couple of weeks, and haven't done a very good job of it. And then when I got home, someone had brought in a pretty good collection to the local record store, so I had to pick that over. Doesn't help that I also uploaded a bunch of stuff I didn't already have to my iPod, so ... anyway:

LPs:

-The Housemartins, London 0 Hull 4: pretty fun listening. People have described them to me as a Marxist Smiths, but to me, the Housemartins sound much more traditionally poppy. Their singer also reminds me alternately of George Michael and that guy from Bronski Beat. In any event, I like it.

-Sonic Youth, EVOL: I had this on CD in high school after buying Sister and Daydream Nation and really didn't care for it. It wasn't song-oriented enough, I guess. The other day, though, I found an SST pressing of it in nice shape at the local record store, so I figured, Ah, what the hell. I like it much more now, though I still don't think it's quite as good as the other two albums I mentioned.

-Ultravox, Ha!-Ha!-Ha!: love this album. I can't believe my friends who claim to like early punk don't like this album. Probably they're put off by the association with Vienna. Their loss.

-Julian Cope, Skellington: not one I'll be putting on super-often, but still very good. I was psyched to find this one, too, as I'll buy pretty much any Cope vinyl I'll come across and this one at least seems hard to find.

-The Police, Ghost in the Machine: only listened to side A of this. I rarely listen to my Police albums, and then rarely the whole way through. I do love "Invisible Sun."

-The Jam, Setting Sons: this is my favorite Jam album, and another record that I'm amazed my punker friends don't like, especially because it's really no departure for them at all. I guess I've just never understood the phenomenon of "I only like their first record (or demo!), and then they just got too far out for me." It's endemic among people who came up in the American hardcore scene within the past 15 years. (Wow, that got off-topic).

-Portraits of Past, self-titled: mid-Nineties California emo-hardcore. Very epic in scope, with extremely tinny guitar tones (almost in a Fall or Swell Maps way). I was play-testing it before selling it and realized that I just needed to hang onto it.

-Dramamine, self-titled: the first current record I've gotten in a while. Dramamine are a German band (I think from Münster, specifically) that my band played with on tour a couple of weeks ago. On record, they sound like they've listened to a lot of Wipers, Joy Division, and Fugazi, but not like they're trying to sound like a combination of those bands. Those are just the substrata for their sound. It's very good in any event.

MP3s:

-Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Rattlesnakes: my new favorite album. Like a better-arranged, smarter, more literate version of the Smiths. It got me to check out America Day by Day by Simone de Beauvoir from the library, which I'm now finding to be very engaging. It screams "New England college town," too. Since that's where I went to college, it's sort of nostalgic for me as well.

-Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation: as a download, this makes really good background music. Of their Eighties works, I like Sister the most. This one's a bit too long for me. Still good, though.

-Belle and Sebastian, Push Barman to Open Old Wounds: I guess some people on here really hate this band. Me, I find it cute, and a nice contrast to American indie rock of the same period, which was often concerned with being punkish and abrasive.

Tracks:

-Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "Avalanche" and "Cabin Fever": I meant to listen to the whole LP, but got interrupted during the second song. I wasn't expecting something so minimal, but what I heard was definitely cool.

-Swans, "New Mind": found the 12" at the same time as EVOL and the first Public Image Ltd. LP. Great track, as if they decided to rewrite Filth with actual melodies. Unfortunately, the record's got a slight kink in it that my turntable can't really handle, so add this one to my growing impetus to spring for a new player.

-Siouxsie and the Banshees, "Happy House" and "Christine": great songs, but from a copy of Kaleidoscope that really needs to be cleaned before I put it on again.

-The Jam, "Art School": I put on In the City, listened to this song, and realized that I really wanted to listen to Setting Sons instead. I love playing along with this on bass, though.

-The Replacements, "Bastards of Young" and "Left of the Dial": this band's hangdog image strikes me as false and somewhat obnoxious, but they still put out a couple of really pleasant albums. Didn't feel like listening to the whole album, though, especially not through computer speakers.

On deck:

-Kraftwerk, Die Mensch-Maschine LP
-Public Image Ltd., self-titled LP
-Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Rust Never Sleeps LP
-Wilco, Sky Blue Sky double LP
In reply to:
Soundtracks Of Our Lives w/e 25 April 2010 CE (1001realapes)
Topic Outline:
Unsung Forum Index