Your favorite SOUNDING cd

[kjohnsonhp]

From Mobile's list I love the following bands:

Naked Raygun--Just bought a DJ-only career highlights--guitarist was in Big Black w/Steve Albini

Volcano Suns--Peter Prescott of Mission of Burma--raw outbursts of energy! I have three lps and one 45 sitting next to my turntable as I write.

Big Black--Albini's band. Included in "our band could be your life". Looking for "Atomizer" on vinyl. Would enjoy a CDR of the others...especially "Songs about __" which is a cover and title my collection doesn't need.

Mission of Burma--also in "our band"...legendary band from Boston (drummer is Peter Prescott of V.Suns see above). Rhino has one CD with all their studio tunes except the B-side to "Academy Fight Song" single ("Academy" was covered by REM). Sing along now "my--insert 'Klipsch' A-ca-de-my" I think they are doing reunion concerts now. I also just bought Miller's post Burma "Birdsongs..." Sonic Geology CD on Rhino. I could use the Academy single.

Richard Hell and the Voidoids -- classic early NY Punk. "I Belong to the BLANK Generation"

Minutemen -- "Our Band Could Be Your Life", "We learned Punk Rock in Hollywood, drove up from Pedro, we were F...ing Corndogs". REM used to call them Corndogs when they were touring. I always liked the line "Maybe Partying Would Help". Cool covers of "Ain't Talking about love" and "Green River"

The Dead Boys -- Sonic Reducer -Awesome energy with just enough pop catchiness to make any young boy scream and play the air guitar. I need their classic 1st lp..."Young, Loud, Snotty" or something like that.

I'm also looking for these:

Tuff Darts

Young Snakes (Aimee Mann's pre 'til Tuesday band)

Husker Du - Zen Arcade DJ promo single disk w/etchings

Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime promo as above

Stiff Little Fingers

Jam -vinyl--I've got the complete recordings box set

Cramps' first two--I love "Bad Music for Bad People"

plus any 70's power pop by bands like THE: Pezband, Diodes, A's, etc.

Many of the early 4AD albums by Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil, Throwing Muses, etc.

I highly recommend the RHINO DIY compilations. A great summary of power pop, punk, post punk, etc. Excellent liner notes.

[kjohnsonhp]

Where many of these fast and noisey bands can simply be turned down, I've found Nick Cave's "From Her to Eternity" to be a load on the speakers and the ears. I turn it up to hear the quiet passages of droning death marching babble but then get blasted by whip sounds and deep building drum pounding ending in a scream.

This is a critically aclaimed lp that I never really got more out of than simply saying it was "interesting". Anyone a big fan of this lp? I'd like to read more interpretations. The Elvis cover "in the guetto" was interesting but I really didn't find it that necessary.

I apologize for going off on this college radio stuff. When I was on the NPR affiliate the classical DJs and even the country and Albanian folk music specialist hosts found my team's tastes to be horrible. When I transitioned from the classic country hour directly into an country influenced Meat Puppets track from Meat Puppets II the DJ actually called me to tell me how horrible the song was. I think it was acutally one of the songs later done by Nirvana on their live album.

I used to think that Klipsch and punk were opposites. Klipsch was for Alan Parsons, Pink Floyd, Toto and the like. Punk was distortion play back with more distortion on whatever. Now I see that Henry Rollins of Black Flag is the judge on the Story Teller contest. Who would have guessed it. Of course I never thought his tattoos would be a fashion trend either.

[BryanJ]

Andy, yeah, I like the old Phil. His music just seemed to come more from the soul.

[mobile homeless]

kjohnsonhp, I have to flee for a bit but rest assured I want to answer this post of yours. It's literally the first time I have seen anyone familiar with these bands (besides a guy that works at Matador on the Asylum that used to have CW).

College Radio from the early 80s till the mid 90s was about the only thing that kept the horror of Top 40 commercial radio at bay, providing some outlet for something real; along came Reagan and along came mediocrity over the mainstream airwaves and record stores. Unlike the 60s where great material was making commercial radio, the 80s was a sonic void, much like the Britney Spears-New Kids minefield you see today, or the imitation "alternative" that has now been marketed up one side and down the other via MTV and "The Real World" mentality.

You listed some of my all-time favorites with Mission of Burma and Volcano Suns. I saw Volcano Suns no less than 8 times and got a chance to play with them at the Cat's Cradle in Chapel Hill in a rousing noise-fest version of "Testify" where we all traded instruments, as I went from Bob Weston's bass to Peter's drums, sending Peter on a second guitar. Peter Prescott wrote some of the wittiest lyrics of anyone and Bright Orange Years and All Night Lotus Party are classics. The V suns were an absurdist lope of wit-packed, power noise with bursts of piano and howls thrown in... I have every recording they made from "Tree Stomp" via the Boston LP compilation "Claws" to the compilation with MC5's "Kick out the Jams" cover.

What else can be said about Mission of Burma? They are one of the all-time greats.... MOB is indeed back together again for this summer with Roger Miller, airport ear protection and all. Bob Weston is doing the tape loops. I think they are done but heard the shows were insane.

I have to flee...but I want to talk to you. I have many of the LPs you are after as well as I got a ton of station promo material to review - the great perk. I got to see almost all those guys live over the years along with many more.

kh

This message has been edited by mobile homeless on 09-18-2002 at 07:49 AM

[kjohnsonhp]

kjMobile, you have raised your legendary status to another level on this board. Your knowledge of indie seems to be as amazing as your knowledge of tubes.

I never thought I'd be having a chat on the Klipsch board about the three THROBBING LOBSTER compilations from Boston. I noticed I'm missing "Claws". I have "Nobody Gets on the Guest List", and "Let's Breed". This reminds me I'm looking for some OUTLETS and DOGMATICS vinyl...I've got some of each but not all.

I've got "Bright Orange Years", "Bumper Crop" and "Thing of Beauty". Love the cover of on Bright. "Testify" is my favorite tune... " ...flowers in my gun". I also have the "BLVE RIB" 45.

When I was at George Gimarc's house picking up my Cornwalls I got a tour of his 65,000 lps including a great shelf of the stuff we are discussing. His book "Post Punk Diary" lists a lot of rare items I'd like to have....just what I need ...a bigger shopping list. He played me a great 'before they were famous' CD he made with songs from bands like the Cars sounding like CSN&Y and Tears For Fears sounding like a radio jingle. Songs from early DIY cassettes,etc.

Better get to work....later

--KJ "kick out the jams brothers and sisters!"

[kjohnsonhp]

I'm creating a new thread under movies,music,etc. for these rants of mine. We return you to your normal scheduled programming...

KJ

"I came home the other day and said, Hey! is anybody home? No one answered. But that's not strange, because I live here all alone!"

--Laurie Anderson

[PhilH]

I love it when someone starts a thread like this because it gives me some great stuff to demo Klipsch with when I do my training thing. I just found a great Telarc disc- Kevin Mahogany, "Pride and Joy". He does some 70's R & B stuff and such...every track is a great sounding demo and great stuff to kick back and listen to in 2 channel.

PhilH

[whell]

Mobile:

The rise of "popular" music (i.e. the death of "quality music") was in the works long before Reagan took office, IMHO.

When I first started buying music in the early 1970's, the best place to find what you were looking for was at the local record shop....and these type of shops were plentiful. I sure most remember how these stores were merchandised: records in bins in the center of the store, 8 tracks on the walls, and "head shop" paraphernalia either across the back of the store, or in the glass case up front near the cash register. The music playing in the store was usually so loud you might not be able to hear yourself think. If the store was truly on the cutting edge, they might accept "Master Charge" or "Bank Americard".

But the employees and the owners of these stores were true music fans who lived and breathed their passion.

But the advent of the large national and regional record retailers was gearing up by 1974 or '75. Retailers in our area (specialty retailers like "Peaches" who mis-managed themselves out of business, and Harmony House, who recently has filed for chapter 11 because they were eventually beaten at their own game) were starting to flourish, at the expense of the locally owned record shops. Eventually in the early to mid '80's, Musicland and similar retailers were becoming commonplace in malls, where the mom and pop record stores could not begin to afford the leases, and certainly could not match the buying power of the chains. Given what was then perceived as the budding demand for hifi recordings, even many department stores were expanding their record departments. The now defunct local department store E.J Korvettes had a thriving music department, though not nearly the selection of some of the smaller mom and pop stores.

Most importantly, though, the retail chains and large department stores (K-Mart, etc.) started to change the terms under which record companies distributed music. Prior to the advent of the large music retailing chains, recording companies dictated the terms under which their product could be sold. After (I'm guessing) 1978 or so, the retailers were largely in control, and the terms for distribution of music in my opinion, favored quick turnover of inventory, larger pressing runs (many times resulting in inferior quality of the pressing) for vinyl, shorter production runs for music that did not meet the retailer's standards for sales volume, regardless of the quality of the music, etc. These changes created an incentive for recording companies to emphasize music by artists that would result in high sales, and quick inventory turnover...reinforcing demand and sales for what used to be called "bubble gum" artists and music.

This was supported by changes in the FM world, and the way consumers were first exposed to music. The "corporatization" of radio lead to shrinking play lists and reductions in the number of radio formats. In Detroit alone, the number of Album-Oreinted Rock (or AOR) stations dwindled from 4 to 1 by 1984 (Folks with "Detroit memories": correct me if I'm wrong, but the 4 AOR stations used to be WABX, WLLZ, WRIF, and WCSX. Now, all but WRIF are gone, and WCSX has changed to a "classic rock" format). Radio became the medium for car stereos rather than home stereos, and radio formats changed in hopes that that the "push button happy" car stereo listener would stay put for longer than one song, and the belief that hgih rotations of music targetted at the largest possible audience within a particlar demographic would be the key.

Of course, by then, MTV was the rage and became a much bigger influence on how consumers first "experienced" new music. Remember the Buggles tune: "Video Killed the Radio Star"?

That's my $0.02 anyway.

------------------

Mike - Livonia, MI

Klipsch RF-3 L/R

Klipsch RC-3 Center

Klipsch RB-5 rears

HSU Research VF-2 Sub

Marantz SR-19EX receiver

Marantz MM-9000 Amp

NAD T550 DVD

Adcom GCD 700 CD

This message has been edited by whell on 09-18-2002 at 04:52 PM

[mobile homeless]

Well, you are very right... it was on a dying vine but at least the 70s still held forth better than the 80s, where all hope was lost. The chicken vs egg aspect of the music scene with the retail vs record companies in an interesting quandary. On the whole, I agree with you. One thing great about the 70s and the punk movement was the realization from the average freak that he or she could form a band and make just as much racket as the huge stadium larger-than-life bands that we all grew up with, and sometimes with a lot more feelng and sincerity. Virtuosity with the instrument did take a back seat, however, and perhaps that is a good thing in some ways. Christ, this is the beginning of one of those multi-paragraph posts that go on and on that no one reads.... I'll stop it short.

kh

[Mighty Favog]

Anyone know where I could find a some old M-Frog vinyl?? The track I'm looking for is "Takatikitikite". We used to play that with Bonzo Dog Band's "Hello Mable". Silly but fun.

One of my earliest recolections of a fun album was New Colony Six's "Colonization" with "Ballad of the Wingbat Marmaduke". I still can't believe they released that on cd!

------------------

Tom's Money Pit

[kjohnsonhp]

I enjoyed the 80's music scene despite what was going on in the commercial world. There was a complete alternative ecosystem of local scenes forming a national fabric. Local indie record stores were the only source for what I wanted so chains were a non-issue and the local stores were operated by music nuts spreading the alternative word--especially the local scene. Add fanzines and college radio along with the network of live clubs and an entire ecosystem existed outside of the big corporate stadium rock environment.

What was so great was that I enjoyed the local bands like the Neighborhoods at that time more than any band...Rolling Stones, Rush, Journey, etc. and I could see my favorite band live every couples weeks, dancing and right near the stage. The acts would get up from their seat at the bar and hop on stage. The same was true for national acts like HuskerDu.

As Mobile stated the inspirational thing was knowing that you, too, could start a band, tour and make music history. Just as obscure (to most white America) ***** baseball players before Jackie Robinson have emerged to be immortal, select indie bands have emerged from relative obsurity during their playing time to immortal status in the history of rock and roll. Immortality was truely in the reach of the average Joe! "Our Band Could Be Your Life".

Sorry I'm verbose...

kj

"Rise above! We're gonna rise above!"

Black Flag

[mike stehr]

Fantomas

[mobile homeless]

I posted this before you came in here showing someone colored vinyl after they said it was almost non-existant. I have a ton of it, although the sound is usually a bit less quality than virgin black.

Thought you might appreciate the selection.

kh

[kjohnsonhp]

Love those albums...never dreamed of them in colored vinyl. Thanks for sharing. I have very few... Big Star sampler from some German label on white vinyl, Lyres 45 on yellow, Rolling STones "let it bleed" on red vinyl, some red flexi disks, and there are a few more that I can't remember. I just filed them with all the black wax. I think one of the Simple Minds lps is marble looking dark purple. I think one of my Dickies lps might be on white vinyl.

[mobile homeless]

Yeah, the German indie pressings were really high quality. Even though that dB's is white vinyl, it is a German release and sounds VERY liquid, especially for that recording, which is a bit forward to begin with. That Mission of Burma on Ryko sounds pretty good as well. I have all sorts of pressings I got reviewing records that were colored vinyl. You dont see it too often these days.

kh

This message has been edited by mobile homeless on 09-19-2002 at 06:28 AM