If you are ever struggling to sleep, put this album on and i guarantee you’ll have the most incredible psychedelic dreams.
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I’ll have a crack
- The Chills - Brave Words, this opened up the whole Flying Nun scene for me but my god what a record this is. I’m a fan of the original murky production actually but for those that aren’t ,Martin Phillips just released a new remastered 2 LP deluxe set which I just received a couple of days ago and is a great vinyl set with extensive liner notes.
- The Wedding Present - Bizarro or Seamonsters. Brash, tuneful jangle pop masters. The represses of these sound fantastic as well
- Yo La Tengo – Fakebook . Actually a covers record and the most tuneful and consistent set they produced to my ears. None of the covers are standards with deep cuts from the Kinks and Modern Lovers amongst others. Again the repressed vinyl sounds fantastic and can be found cheap.
- New Pornographers - Electric Version , really any of the first 4 albums and anything by Destroyer you can’t go wrong. Described as Power Pop but the hooks are never overly obvious. All those albums have the unique characteristic of being catchy on first listen but then revealing even more on subsequent listens. The drummer here is their secret weapon.
- Wurld Series - Giant’s Lawn, I thought I’ll throw in one recent one. Another NZ band and very much in the tradition of The Chills and The Verlaines. This was my favourite release of 2023, bloody brilliant off kilter pop as only the kiwis can do.
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Yeah! I love George Best too. Saw them play in Prague in ‘06, it was a raucous, fun show.
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Nice selection… I should’ve put Submarine Bells in my list. They were a good band early days.
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So many incarnations of the lineup, I think half of Dunedin were at one stage in The Chills. Submarine Bells is my favorite Chills record but I think Brave Words gets unfairly overshadowed by it. Saw them on that tour with The Bats and John Paul Satre Experience. They ended with a thrash metal run through of What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailer until bass player blew out a couple of strings. Great night
Gedge is a bit of a legend, good doco of them up on YouTube as well. I have a rerecorded version of George Best done with Steve Albino which they tossed off in one day a few years ago which I think I like even more than the original album. Cinerama is his other band and are also well worth a listen, very 60s 70s style lounge pop, real departure from his main gig
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Cool, I’ll have to check that doco. I prefer the re-recording of Brassneck they did with Albini too, that 12” single punches hard through the speakers.
I never gave Cinerama much of a listen back in the day, I’ll have to revisit.
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Thanks. 10 seconds into New Pornographers and it is ■■■■■■■ great
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Wait until you get to The New Face of Zero and One… a belter of a track!.. Like Ant Music, Rock N Roll, Dookie-era Green Day and early Kim Wilde rolled up together in the one song. It’s glorious…
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Ok here are a few for me:
Person Pitch by Panda Bear… i dont even know what to call this… headphones in a park, bed, straight, not straight… i have liatened to this so much
Icky Mettle by Archers of Loaf. Grungey / punky… great live at rhe corner… trash at rmit
Light up Gold by Parquet Courts - every single song is awesome. Prolific band… this debut remains the best for me
Big Red Letter Day - Buffalo Tom. The follow up to Let Me Come Over (which had the indie hits taillights fade and velvet roof). This album seemed to sail through to the keeper. Just great, simple guitar driven songs. Sounds a lot heavier live. Jusy listened again now. Some cracking songs
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It’s funny, Big Red Letter Day didn’t age that well for me and I didn’t keep it in my collection, but I really dig Sleepy Eyed still.
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Some strong albums listed there
Person Pitch is a great choice , listened to this a lot a few years ago and now you’ve got me searching it out again. Quite a bit of Brian Wilson filtering through from what I remember.
I missed the Archers of Loaf boat so need to give them another listen as I really like Eric Bachman’s voice. He formed another band after Archers called Crooked Fingers . The vibe is a lot more lowkey, he sounds so much like Neil Diamond on those records that he decided to own it and record a fantastic cover of Solitary Man for an ep of covers called Reservoir Songs which also has covers of Prince, Bruce Springsteen and Nancy Sinatra.
Oh and Light up Gold absolutely rules, what a debut
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A couple more. Townsend and Ronnie Lane combined. Lane was virtually broke and squatting on Pete’s land, and this album got Lane up and about again after his career with The Faces came to an end. Lane has an ear for melody that can be found on various Faces albums, quieter moments in among their more raucous, boozy rockers. Lane’s music is a blend of west county, folk and even country and western at times.
John Cale is an enigmatic performer and composer. This album is as wistful as popular music gets, and for me is his high water mark. It is almost criminal that this album clocks in at a mere 30 mins.
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Love that John Cale pick, Fear is also excellent
Agree about Fear. Those 2 are my picks for anyone wanting to start listening to Cale’s solo material.
Aberdeen City - “The Freezing Atlantic” (for fans of The Bends-era Radiohead)
My favourite Jack Bruce solo album, now nearly 50 years old.
Another collaboration, this time Alvin Lee and Mylon LeFevre, helped out by an all star cast, including Steve Winwood.
Bought this years ago because I loved Last Stop. This Town.
Brilliant from start to finish. It’s like a horoscope, you find personal meaning in everything.
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Two more (related) albums which sprung to mind tonight:
Kakadu Sunrise - Phil Emmanuel (need to find where I put my CD of it, it isn’t on any streaming service)
Terra Firma - Tommy and Phil Emmanuel
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Coincidence. I came home from work yesterday and the missus was listening to the Eels. We both commented how they are such a great band and why we haven’t listened to them in years.
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