1. U2 - This could be the week...
2. Massive Attack
3. Joy Division - I like one of their songs, but don't love it. Not enough joy.
4. Bjork
5. Aretha Franklin - I like her sixties stuff pretty well, but she overdoes it most of the time. Sorry.
Schleuse - I speak for Cohen. Three songs: The Future (great song), Bird On A Wire (classic melody), Hallelujah (I agree the cover was an improvement, but the basic material is supplied here).
1. Talking Heads 5 pts : although I think they will remain in light for some time (I know it's easy). And although my apreciation of them increases slowly
2. PJ Harvey 4 pts
3. NEW : Flaming Lips 3 pts. One excellent song (Race For The Prize), a good concept album (Yoshimi) original lyrics, but to me a bit complicated and caricatural sometimes. they're good, but they are the archetypal indie US band, and you know I'm not fond of this style
4.Joy Division 2pts
5. Pixies 1 pt
1. Outkast
2. Pulp
3. Public Enemy
4. Sex Pistols
5. Parliament/Funkadelic - I'm voting for them because I'm not familiar with their music. That's also the reason I hadn't voted for them earlier. I was hoping to see them voted off earlier so I wouldn't have to vote for them myself. Anyway, the time has come.
Nicolas, I don't think its fair to call the Flaming Lips the "archetypal indie US band." I mean, how many other US indie bands have released a four CD set intended for simultaneous play on four separate CD players. That alone merits a pass to the next round.
Well, I'm not totally versed in Nick Cave, but I know that I'm a bigger fan of his music when it's more lush or when he just rocks the hell out. A lot of his stuff is a little too sparse for me, which means I really just can't get into his 80s stuff that much.
Good rock songs are "Thirsty Dog," and especially "No Pussy Blues" or "Love Bomb" as Grinderman.
My absolute favorite song of his is "Supernaturally" off the Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus collection. Also good off that set is "Breathless," "There She Goes, My Beautiful World" and "Nature Boy."
Coming to you from a blustering -32C Edmonton morning...
1. PULP
2. JOY DIVISION
3. SEX PISTOLS
4. PRINCE
And now, news at 5:
5. PARLIAMENT/FUNKADELIC
I’ve never been much of a funk fan; in fact, the closest thing you’ll find in my iTunes is Prince and the occasional hip-hop song featuring a heavily-borrowed sample. I attribute my funk-less palette to the emphasis on rhythm rather than melody (and oft hidden guitar); I can also do without the vamping and token horn blasts. With that said though, I appreciate its place, the musicianship involved (in this case, Bootsy and Eddie Hazel), and this group’s influence on modern music.
(Just an aside on U2 – is anyone not basing their vote primarily on Bono?)
Hey guys have you listened to Maggot Brain? There's tons of love for Jimi Hendrix on this site so you should all get a hold of Maggot Brain and decide it Funkadelic really belongs on your list right now.
Hard to argue with those 3. I'll take a moment to plug "Right on for the Darkness", which isn't on a famous album but is an absolutely unbelievable track.
Curtis is one of my Top 5 artists -- I really hope he doesn't get kicked off anytime soon.
1. Wilco
2. The Byrds
3. Parliament/Funkadelic
4. The Who
5. The Clash - Yep, another of the untouchable in my list. The Clash made a first half of a 2LP that is so good that the entire album almost made my top 100 list (voting for only the first LP was not allowed, I think). But, well, I love the other artists more!!!
Henrik, I have to find a way to indoctrinate you into the wonders of P-Funk. Have you tried Funkadelic (as opposed to Parliament)? There's some great, wild, more rock-oriented stuff from their earlier years.
Looks like I blew it last week. Anyway, here's my list this go-round...
1. U2 (repeat)
2. Lou Reed (repeat)
3. Wilco (repeat)
4. The Sex Pistols (repeat)
5. Nick Cave - I very much respect the man, and love a good number of his songs, but at this point he just doesn't belong in the upper echelon.
sonofsamiam, here's my comment to Parliament/Funkadelic:
"I know that this is serious stuff that shouldn't be taken too seriously. I do dig them, but they haven't made any albums that I love from start to end. But "Maggot Brain" is the best air guitar song ever!"
Maggot Brain is the only early Funkadelic album I've got though.
(I know I'm going to be pilloried for at least one of these; Moonbeam, if I never post again on this site, I'm counting on you to call the police - sorry I helped vote Blondie off, but I didn't touch The Cure - Disintegration's my #1 album)
4. The Beatles - I know I know. I'm sorry, honestly. Obviously I'm an idiot. It's just been at least a year that a Beatles song has come on my ipod and I haven't skipped it, and not on principle. I'm also probably the only person on the planet who prefers early Beatles to later - I'd rather listen to "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" ten times than any of their pseudo-psychedelic hippie music.
5. Pixies - Possibly the best pop band to incorporate odd time signatures into their songs on a regular basis (except for Soundgarden - just kidding). "No. 13 Baby" is downright brilliant. But again, I wouldn't need any extra hands to tell you how many times I've listened to any of their albums in toto since high school. I know, they're influential, etc. - every one of the 100 original artists is influential, and I'm not altogether concerned w/ influence. This is the part of the game when it's gonna come down to very particular personal tastes - and I'm very much looking forward to it.
1. (5p) Chuck Berry - Good night, sweetheart, you got to go now. Time won't permit you to play no more now.
2. (4p) Bob Marley and the Wailers - When I listen to Bob Marley, I can't help thinking about the people I went to school with, who always were surrounded by fog. I didn't like their looks, their smell or the sounds their stereos were making.
3. (3p) Massive Attack - Because it's my first vote to Massive Attack, I should have written something very smart, but they said it best first: And now's about the time you gotta leave all these good people. Dream on.
4. (2p) Marvin Gaye - I just can't believe I'm the only one disliking him. What's going on?
5. (1p) James Brown - It's a wasted vote, I know, and I probably should have help The Byrds order their ticket to the mainland instead, but I just can't help it. It's too funky in here, open up the window, man!
Then I would like to apologize for helping Joni Mitchell off the island. I thought she had a dreadful voice, but then my girlfriend decided to put on my Ladies of the Canyon LP, and all of a sudden I remembered why I bought it. It's actually pretty nice, and her voice isn't half bad. So sorry, Joni, and Joni fans. To make it good again I'll consider listening to her new album some day.
Of course I like something. Didn't you see me admitting to like Joni Mitchell?
Anyway, I've taken a look at my top 100 album list, and the following artists were represented. The number is their place in the AM artists list.
1 Beatles - 6 Bruce Springsteen - 8 The Who - 11 Beach Boys - 12 Velvet Underground - 16 The Clash - 18 Nirvana - 19 Radiohead - 27 The Smiths - 37 Sex Pistols - 43 Johnny Cash - 52 Oasis - 57 Kraftwerk - 61 PJ Harvey - 68 Björk - 71 The White Stripes - 82 Patti Smith - 87 Leonard Cohen
So yes, I do like some music. The list continues: 112 Franz Ferdinand - 122 The Strokes - 127 Jefferson Airplane - 132 Television - 150 Love - 177 Belle and Sebastian - 181 Suede - 194 Elliott Smith - 222 Richard and Linda Thompson - 228 Gang of Four - 248 The Libertines - 252 Bonnie "Prince" Billy - 256 Jeff Buckley - 281 - Interpol - 298 Violent Femmes - 311 Antony & The Johnsons - 323 Ryan Adams - 330 Loretta Lynn - 334 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - 347 Joanna Newsom - 379 The Shins - 428 Magnetic Fields - 455 Bright Eyes - 463 Manu Chao - 497 Godspeed You Black Emperor - 512 Garth Brooks - 531 Rufus Wainwright - 604 The Knife - 617 Neutral Milk Hotel - 650 They Might Be Giants - 681 Grandaddy - 835 The Coral - 893 Os Mutantes - 1111 Beirut - 1155 Phil Ochs - 1343 The Von Bondies - 1402 CocoRosie - 1424 Cody Chesnutt - 1898 Adam Green.
And then I even like some artists who aren't listed: 22 Pistepirkko, Babylon Zoo, Dimmu Borgir, The Faint, Diamanda Galas, Bruce Haack, Herman Düne, Daniel Johnston, Khanate, Langley Schools Music Project, Mansun, Moneybrother, Mountain Goats, New Race, Lucia Pamela, Poor Rich Ones, Satyricon, Soledad Brothers, Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, Voltaire, Warlocks and Xiu Xiu.
1. Blur - extremly overated brittish crap!
2. Pulp - Very overated brittish crap.
3. Sex Pistols - Third straight brittish band I realy do not want to see among the survivors.
4. Talking Heads - Please vote them off.
5. Tom Waits - Not for me.
Dr.Dré is in the house again, bringing you his fine (s)hitparade. What more can one wish than a newcomer at #5:
1 pt for Pulp - The 90's were quite pulpy, with Pulp Fiction, Jerry Springer (how pulp can you go?) and this britsy poppy Pulp. Different Class is really something different, with its brilliant voted-#1-in-the-AM-forum-90s-poll Common People.
Nothing new, but still climbing one spot:
2 pts - Al Green
3 pts - Parliament/Funkadelic
4 pts - Leonard Cohen
And steady at #1 is still good old ... Nick Cave, well worth 5 points.
Well, mesa go down under and have some nice holiday in New Zealand. Mesa lika dis a lot!
5 points. Nick Cave- Bump these two up for a week
4 points. Joy Division
3 points. Tom Waits- Why won't you go away!
2 points. Blur
1 point. Johnny Cash
I'm not sure why you said goodbye with a Chico Marx impression, but...
Bon voyage, Dre.
(And since we're talking about Terminator for some reason--speaking of apocalyptic movies, I saw Cloverfield last night. It was pretty clever, but the shaky handheld camera left me feeling like I was gonna throw up for several hours afterwards. And I was raised on MTV.)
With Schwah's ballot, we're now down to a mere 15 artists who have received no votes yet.
I'm stunned (but happy) that nobody's voted for the Stooges before this. They're 26 places lower than the next-lowest artist with no votes, and their small, unpolished, obscure catalog seems to fit the profile of an early victim--the Survivor artists most similar to them are, I think, T. Rex and the Ramones, both long gone.
And speaking of Iggy's boys, and since I seem to be in movie mode this week, it's nice to see the Stooges get a prominent name check in the film Juno. Which, apart from being a brilliant movie, is worth it for the soundtrack, dominated by Moldy Peaches/Kimya Dawson, but (he checks Amazon) also features VU, Cat Power, Sonic Youth, Belle & Sebastian, Buddy Holly, Mott, AND my favorite Kinks song.
I agree, very nicely compiled soundtrack on Juno. If it wasn't for that fact that some bands disbanded and some artists died, you'd almost say they made the album together.
Oh, and a great movie too. By the way, did anyone see "There Will Be Blood" yet? It's probably the only movie from 2007 that has a chance of dropping Juno out of the top 5, but it doesn't come out until late February here.
3:10 To Yuma and Eastern Promises were great. I haven't seen anything still in theaters but I'm sure There Will Be Blood, American Gangster and No Country will all be great.
Oh, I'll do a movie list just to spread some love for a movie nobody is spreading love for:
1. There Will Be Blood (by a hair over #2)
2. No Country for Old Men
3. The Simpsons Movie
4. Juno
5. Hot Fuzz
However, I haven't seen Persepolis, 4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, Into the Wild, Atonement, Michael Clayton, Sicko, Sweeny Todd, Control, Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, No End in Sight, Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Across the Universe, etc.
Phew, the Cure are finally gone. Now we can just drink all the coconut milk on the island instead of having to donate it so that Robert Smith can use it to maintain his goofy hairstyle.
1) Nick Cave - I don't mind the gloomy Aussie, but not minding someone doesn't keep them on the island. Is he really one of the top 60 artists of all time?
2) Ray Charles - He's OK.
3) Leonard Cohen - I couldn't be more neutral on this guy if I was from Switzerland.
4) Nick Drake - He's back on the list, because now we're starting to get down to great artists, and he's not one of them.
5) Curtis Mayfield - He might be "super," and he's certainly "fly," but I don't think he's "Superfly."
On deck (in alphabetical order) are the likes of Blur, Joy Division, Massive Attack, Lou Reed, the Stooges and Hank Williams
"The Stooges aren't dreamy, beautifully orchestrated or epic so they have no place on the AM forums.."
Considering we just got rid of the Police, The Cure and John Coltrane while the Stooges and (...sigh...) Pulp are still around, I think you're a bit off base.
Maybe then, it's because it rebelled against the music that is cherished here? I was just kidding. I said kind of, but I was for the most part. There is a certain type of music that tends to have mass appeal here, but I'm not trying to lump everyone into some kind of group thought.
I love the Beatles and Beach Boys too but when you consider the music that was being made when "The Stooges" and "Fun House" came out you have to give it credit. Then, when you consider that the music stands the test of time you have to consider it classic. In my opinion The Stooges have been just as influential on modern rock as The Beatles. I'm going to get some crap for that but it's totally true. What would punk have been without them and where would rock be today without punk? You could make a case that The Stooges were more influential than the Beatles really but I won't go there.
1 U2
2 The Clash
3 Blur
4 Pink Floyd
5 Van Morrison:this one pains me a bit.I love Them, I love 'Moondance', and 'Astral Weeks' is one of the greatest, most timeless albums ever released. Sadly, the flipside involves an obnoxious egomaniac coasting through three decades plus worth of anaemic MOR bullshit.
I can't believe anyone saying that Mothership Connection is a good album. It only has 2 good songs & there's nothing going on with the rest. Funkentelechy vs The Placebo Syndrome is clearly better. I don't see P-Funk being good with albums, but they kept putting out a few decent ones per year.
They came out with over 20 albums in the 70's, and a juicy box set can be made out of it.
No...in fact I've never ever heard another funk album in my entire life. I live behind a funk protection shield that filters groovy basslines, horn sections and gospel choirs before their sound hits my ears. I think broadening my horizons would result in cranium overload and my skull would explode into confetti. Then maggots would eat my brain.
Actually I used to co-host a funk show on campus radio and over the summer I played in a funk cover band. I'm a big funk fan.
"I can't believe anyone saying that Mothership Connection is a good album."
Really? In a world populated by 6 billion people you can't believe anyone would like that album? It would be a pretty boring forum if we all thought the same thing.
If that's a good album, then why is soul/jazz/funk so ignored overall? Of course there's gonna be people who like it, but when I hear one person say it, it makes me wonder how they would react to greater albums that they seem to not care for. They should be aware that the majority of this album sounds awful within it's genre, or else it's easy to assume that they aren't that familiar with it to begin with.
To start off, I think it's the worst & most inconsistent album from Parliament-Funkadelic (Give Up The Funk & Starchild are great though) from 1970 up to around '78. Rock critics that dominate as list makers end up picking albums that contain famous songs from artists they feel should be represented so their lists wouldn't cause negative reactions, and that's probably why this album is more popular than it should, also it's their first album where Parliament's trademark style was introduced and that always seems to get points from critics. Most straight-ahead funk albums are likely to contain a lot of filler, so I won't be refering to that. Anyone who likes Parliament-Funkadelic should be interested in the huge & neglected world of Soul/Jazz/Funk, and that's why I'm seriously puzzled why it's so rare on this website. Right now I'll just say to everyone here to explore Dustygroove.com, and I'll recommend The J.B.'s "Hustle With Speed" from 1975 because it has virtually the same band as Mothership Connection and it's more consistent. Good that you like funk jonmarck, hopefully you also like Soul Jazz, and it could be talked about on this forum.
in case you're still confused, your instructions are
1) run to the nearest record store
2) buy the entire Soul/Jazz/Funk section of the store
3) learn to like it
4) burn copies of all these albums and send one to each AM member
5) then we can finally discuss Soul/Jazz/Funk on the forum
That actually won't be too tough since the funk/soul/jazz sections of the stores in my area are really limited. I usually have to dig through pawn shops to find good stuff.
5 points: Chuck Berry - Repeat. Still here, still remaining here I imagine.
4 points: Ray Charles - Repeat.
3 points: Parliament/Funkadelic - Bumped up to three points with Jacko out of the running.
2 points: Pink Floyd - Well, as it stands now, Pink Floyd is tied with Leonard Cohen on my list and I'm inclined to give the extra point to Floyd since I've known about them longer. I used to like them, but then I also used to smoke pot. I always thought it was odd that most of the group weren't drug users, but you had to be one yourself to truly love them (as far as I'm concerned).
1 point: Leonard Cohen - Great songwriter, but I'm not a fan of his voice.
1. Bob Marley and the Wailers
2. The Who
3. Simon and Garfunkel
4. Aretha Franklin
5. The Beatles
As for the funk debate, I quite like funk myself (in fact it vies for the title of my favorite genre), and I love Mothership Connection. Mind you, I love Maggot Brain, Chocolate City, Up For the Downstroke, Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome and One Nation Under a Groove too.
Nicolas, I think "Are You the One That I've Been Waiting For" from The Boatman's Call is for you. Also, I adore "Where the Wild Roses Grow", but that one you probably know already. But my biggest favorite is "Red Right Hand" from Let Love In, which is in my top 100 songs list.
I've listened at random to some stuff on deezer.com and I really like it. All these piano ballads are really great. And I like "No pussy blues" (dark side of NC)
nicolas, for three very different sides of Cave, try
1. Stagger Lee - from Murder Ballads, completely over-the-top, very vulgar and very funny
2. Slowly Goes the Night - from Tender Prey - loungey and darkly romantic, I suspect you'll like this one
3. People Ain't No Good - from The Boatman's Call, one of my favorite albums, a beautiful misanthropic ballad, very honest and knowingly paradoxical - you can't genuinely hate humanity and write songs this tender
has seen The Proposition? fantastic movie, i think