albums of note that I'm hearing for the first time

Somehow still haven't heard anything other than Something/Anything, which I love dearly, so I suppose we can trade recs on this one.

edit: wait, you mentioned the opening track from that album, and maybe you're saying it's not what you're looking for? S/A certainly doesn't sound much like the second side of Abbey Road so I suppose I'm all out of recommendations

Todd lives!

Stick tap to Miguel K for this incredible recommendation:


Can - Monster Movie

BGwaves wrote:
I’m listening to Todd Rundgren - A Wizard/A True Star and I can’t believe I’ve never heard this album. I think Soma mentioned something about him in a different thread and this morning it was on my Spotify recommends so I dove in. This is some crazy Olivia Tremor Control style psych! I was expecting saw the light in your eyes and instead got side two of Abbey Road! Where should I go next? Does the rest of the catalog match this or was this a one off? Great stuff.

Great record. I loved the A-side in college but could never get into the B-side (with the soul/R&B covers)... listening to it years later, I realized the B-side is equally good and an essential complement. I don't find anything else in his catalog to be on the same level; many great moments but very inconsistent.

Raj is back! Hurray!

Man... took me this long to hear this album. I like this version Strawberry Letter #23 more then the brothers Johnson one. The album cover itself reminds me of the second album from Prince, I think... didn’t look it up before posting. The music is equally purple. Heavy phaser and flanger effects on the guitar give it a swirl throughout the album. I’m glad I gave it a shot!

The first Sonic Youth EP and Evol were just the filthiest things I'd ever heard, but this album seemed to be where they were coming from or something... who knows!

This was hard to get for a long time, I wanted to buy it and not get it off Soulseek. Why? Because I loved buying music, I really felt a connection to the artists or that the act of giving up my rare cash forced me to listen to it in a way that... resulted in me paying it more attention and responding it to with greater emotion. This pattern would go on for some time!

Did this reflect my connection to the music and how whole it made me feel? Or did I just love all that green $$$ stuff all that much... what truly makes me feel brave and secure in the end, oh it's all a game but maybe I'd never truly wake from that spell again, who knew?

I'm streaming it on Amazon, I never wanted this to happen but it's a big part of my life now. This habit is hard to kick, I luv 2 shop (shop 2 live).

There's a lot more guitar slashing on this album than I was expecting. These are just big mazes of riffs that start going all over the place--this is great but also I thought this was going to be like big caverns of guitar feedback, like with twenty cuifaes or something? So far this could still be a chopped and screwed Harshest Realm album... think about it.

This gets weird fast, now it's like a Nisennenmondai song or something, this was here the whole time? I was 1 when this came out.

I thought this was going to sound like people shaking giant sheets of sheet metal. Okay maybe it makes sense that I never listened to this until now.

I begin to wonder if this is supposed to fill you with a terror that people feel as they're being viciously attacked with thugs with sports-bats. It's never happened to me and I pray it never does.

Never heard a record by Notorious BIG, and honestly I've been sitting on this a while, as I find it daunting to tackle a double LP. But I had some major cleaning to do yesterday and here we are.

One thing that struck me, given how short his career was and the tragic cloud that's hung over it for the last 25 some years, is how goofy he gets on this. And I guess part of that is you have two discs to fill up, so obvious hidden track material like "Playa Hater" gets thrown on the tracklist at #6. But it's jarring given the reverence we're accustomed to showing this dude.

But one thing I never experienced was the story-telling aspect to his work. More than a few times I'm reminded of Ghost and Rae on this (including an interlude featuring a "Mad Rapper" who sounds suspiciously like Ghostface but I guess that's not what we're talking about). It's something that isn't on display on "Mo Money Mo Problems" or "Big Poppa" and it's given me a deeper appreciation for why he's held in such high regard.

Anyway, this would be better if it were one kinda long album and I guess Ready to Die is probably the more essential record but I'm glad I got into this.

Listened to the first half of this the other night and I was really intrigued and entertained. This sound was NOT a formula when this album came out. How did they write these songs with all these overlapping vocal tracks and fragile little piano melodies and orchestral sweeps on the first try? You don't get to master this stuff all on your own without a huge budget thrown at you, and I don't see how adding the guitarist from Cold turns you into a band that's somehow better equipped to strike such a huge emotional chord with such a big audience right out the gate like this. Throw actual rapping into several of the songs (maybe this was the easy part, Korn had prepared everyone for this well in advance) and this is just hitting on so many levels that the masses were ready for but never knew to ask for.

I listened to the first half of this the other night. I was drunk and I kind of enjoyed it.

Listened to the second half yesterday during the afternoon in the car and it just felt like such a depressing slog. Like Tori Amos except there's no sense of specifics to the song, to need for the listener to lean in and open themselves up to such a raw and disarming voice. Everything is turned up to 11, it's exhausting. There's no subtlety or a single moment of emotional or musical ambiguity. I think there's still a song or two at the end of this I haven't heard but I just don't know if I can do it.

Some patient at the hospital kept playing Evanescence songs over and over the other day. "Play My Immortal by Evanescence," he'd say into his phone. YouTube would then play some other Evanescence song and he'd try again thirty seconds later. This went on for a half hour and then later resumed once he'd had a chance to be alone with his phone again. I wanted to understand what he was feeling. But I just don't know if I can.

Been into Common for almost 20 years. Part of the attraction was civic pride, part of it was he was always doing his own thing, and I know for a while now he's gotten this reputation as being one of the corniest guys, but he used to be thought of a lot as the greatest rapper alive, and I was just genuinely into his work. Hell, I still defend Electric Circus.

But nah, this. This is the Common I've been looking for. He's not off on his Soulquarian nonsense yet, just some smart blue collar dude seeing what the world is missing and filling that void. He's super sharp on the mic over jazzy NoID beats and this really is just hitting right where I need it to.

I’ve never given much time to Yo La Tengo. Today I listened to Painful for the first time and loved it. I was painting a room while listening and a couple songs I just stopped completely and sat down until the song finished.

(James Chance and the) Contortions | Buy

I don't know if this is an album of notoriety, but it's really fucking doing it for me today.
It sounds like something Paves would have been into like 15 years ago and that I would be into like now.

Gunn - Truscinski Duo

I wouldn’t call this a major release that everyone’s heard. I imagine only 4 people who post here have heard it. That said, this is right up my alley! This ‘band’ is fantastic, the playing is incredible and flows through movements rather then just playing a hypnotic riff. Sometimes the blues derived riffing or heavy usage of drones can get a little boring but these guys change keys a fair amount and the movements feel organic/improvised, not written. Plus it’s well produced! As much as I liked that new weird America era I always wanted those bands to get better recordings. Good album if you like stuff like no neck blues band or Jackie-o motherfucker.

Ned Braden wrote:

(James Chance and the) Contortions | Buy

I don't know if this is an album of notoriety, but it's really fucking doing it for me today.
It sounds like something Paves would have been into like 15 years ago and that I would be into like now.

Paves was definitely into James Chance/White IIRC. I have a distinct memory of listening to "Contort Yourself" in my gf's mom's minivan back in, iunno, 2004 or something. Check this one out when you have a chance:



It's been awhile, but I recall liking that version of "Contort Yourself" even more.

BGwaves wrote:Gunn - Truscinski Duo

I wouldn’t call this a major release that everyone’s heard. I imagine only 4 people who post here have heard it. That said, this is right up my alley! This ‘band’ is fantastic, the playing is incredible and flows through movements rather then just playing a hypnotic riff. Sometimes the blues derived riffing or heavy usage of drones can get a little boring but these guys change keys a fair amount and the movements feel organic/improvised, not written. Plus it’s well produced! As much as I liked that new weird America era I always wanted those bands to get better recordings. Good album if you like stuff like no neck blues band or Jackie-o motherfucker.

I don't really know much about Truscinski, but Steve Gunn has become a top ten current singer/songwriter guy in my book. Love his sort of Dead/Jazz inspired noodling. Way Out Weather is a perfect record. Are you talking about the new G-T Duo record? The double thing? Completely agree with your take but am all at the Jackie-O Motherfucker reference. I just always assumed, given the name, that they were some kind of RiotGrrl band.

Nah bro, JOMF were like the masters of the NWA era. Check out Fig 5 or liberation, those are my favorites from their early period. I haven’t listened to much of the later stuff, tbh.

Just noticed I didn’t say the album title regarding the Gunn truscnski album, it’s the first one from 2010

Lately I've been watching loads of Zappa videos and documentaries, and before that I was doing the rounds with Beefheart. Yesterday heard this gem for the first time. Really love it.

Michael K. wrote:Check this one out when you have a chance:

Darn tootin.
The live recordings that round out the extended version of this album fucking groooove.

It's been a downtempo November and these cats are at the heart of it.

Before this morning, I'm not entirely certain I'd ever deliberately listened to a Yo La Tengo song except for the odd KEXP or Current one-off. Certainly not a whole album.

Critical consensus seemed to be that this 1997 effort is their high water mark, so I queued it up earlier this AM and gave it a full listen, more or less attentively.

It's a decent indie album and sounds like about 500 other bands from this era, but I'm not sure I really get all the fuss. It's certainly eclectic, ranging from spare alt-country to motorik/ Krautrock/ Stereolab/noise rock to pretty ballads and bossnova. "Moby Octopad" sounds like Can or Neu through an indie lens. In fact, a lot of it sounds like cut rate Stereolab without an editor. "Spec Bebop," for example, noodles away for almost exactly 7 minutes too long. The prettier songs have a winsome melancholy and a suffused and delicate grace at times, and the guitar lines have a brittle appeal. At times, it sort of reminded me of rocking Hugo Largo. These cats certainly listened to their share of the Velvet Underground too. Pretty fun little Brian Wilson cover. "We're an American Band" is probably supposed to be an exploration of indie ennui and road weary alienation. Or something like that. It sounds a little bit like MBV at times.

Can't say that I've been made into a diehard fan, or that I immediately want to dive headlong into the rest of their catalog, but that was a reasonably pleasant way to program 68 minutes of music at work through Spotify.

I've gotten into ambient works II over the past few years, but this one feels more important and is a better record. Tracks like "Xtal", "Ageispolis" and "Ptolemy" are the blueprint for entire genres. More great stuff from Richard D.

Another algorithm find:



This is incredible stuff. Like if The Field smoked a bunch of weed. It's a much chiller take on German sample electronica. Apparently it's highly regarded: https://ra.co/news/38384

That is a great record.

I go back and forth between that and the album he recorded called Textstar under the name Farben. People don't seem to make music like this anymore.

undo wrote:People don't seem to make music like this anymore.

Subtlety is dead man. I find music that is both emotional and minimal like this to be one of the best antidotes to the drudgery of self-motivated remote work. I suspect a lot of people who used to make music like this would rather try their hand at producing dance music that's more profitable. I also suspect the economics of small labels that used to put out this kind of music aren't as viable in the digital age.

Textstar is cool: