ALBUMS OF THE YEAR: 2001

[jupitercrash]

i've had this promo copy of the new no doubt on my desk for weeks, and i just finally listened to it. <P>ungodly awful.

[DreamSerpent_v2.0]

i think its funny that someone earlier up (i believe the same person who declared that staind (gak) tool (mmm-yum) and system of a down (1 hit wonder imho) need to be on the list)... anyways as i was saying... this person complained about not recognizing most of the albums on the list...<P>i hate to get the indie argument started up again so i'll just point out that theres alot of good music that (gasp!) doesn't make it onto your radio... at least if your not listening to public radio or a college radio. or... oh my god... MTV... they're not on mtv they don't exist right?<P>blah.<P>viva Pedro the Lion

[The Moose King]

To paraphrase (this is slowly becoming not a paraphrase, but a sort of running joke, only not funny or something), "Who cares about them? They're named after a lion! ...and a popular Spanish name."<P>Hm, odd here... odd here... I'm looking at the 2001 list, and of the 20 bands, I've heard of only 3 beyond mere name recognition (and by name recognition, I mean "They're a band or something, right?"): Weezer (of course), Bjork (whose music I've never actually heard), and Ryan Adams (whose music I've also never actually heard, and who I only know of because he's a character in Bobbins sort of). It would probably be a good idea to track down some of these other personages' music... laziness makes that unlikely, though.

[U2QueenBee]

Didn't anyone besides Her Rabidfangirlness (me) like All That You Can't Leave Behind? I mean it's not my favourite album but it's still quite good, Wild Honey is awfully fun, and a lot of the B-sides were excellent. Or are my Boys too mainstream for everyone's taste?<P>Queen Bee <- had a rockin time at the concert, anyway

[jawwa]

I disliked the whole principle of the new U2 album - a return to the mainstream - good singles though!<P>Same as the new REM album - "ooh, this is poppy! Listen! Buy our records in bulk again!!!!" AWFUL.<P>Whether one likes the mainstream or not is dependent on what the taste makers of the day play on radio and MTV. When Britpop was at its height and great singles were coming out all the time, the mainstream was great. Since horribly watered down versions of, alternately, 'Ten' by Pearl Jam and 'Angel Dust' by Faith No More became the mainstream for rock, it is therefore BAD. <P>BUT:
Great singles will always come out, like Get UR Freak On and that, and so much indie rock is utter crap - no one is right.<P>For me, 2002 spells Trad Jazz, bebop and scat. I'm retiring from rock.<P>
<P>------------------
"I think it's the worst, stupidest, dumbest idea I ever heard in my life."

[Gottverlassen]

2001's best? Rammstein. Mutter. Tanzmetall meets Richard Wagner. Strings, fire, a thunderous, God-like voice. It has everything.

[kitkat]

<H1>HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA</H1><P>you're funny.

[U2QueenBee]

Actually while we're on the subject of good music, what are some good radio stations in SE England? I've been disillusioned with radio since The End (which used to play alt rock and Britrock and Belly and the Psychedelic Furs and vintage..oh just all kinds of things) left Cleveland to be replaced by heinous rap type stuff. Blargh.<P>I used to be so up on music, my friends called my the music encyclopedia, I could name a song, artist, album, etc. from the first few notes I heard. And now I'm so out of the loop, and every time I turn on the radio all I hear is some crap like Kylie or Steps. Curses.

[gwalla]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jawwa:
<B>For me, 2002 spells Trad Jazz, bebop and scat. I'm retiring from rock.</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>That's kind of what I did a couple of years ago. Bubblegum, rap-rock, and post-grunge whine-rock bands (you know, all those bands with a number in the name for no reason) were on the rise, so I skipped on over to jazz (Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane), modern classical (Bartok, Ives, Dallapiccola), and underground hip-hop (Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Kool Keith, DJ Shadow).<P>The latter is just good fun. The former two are great because there's just ao much more to know about the music. With jazz and classical, you can talk about how certain passages work and how someone was influenced by someone else, and there's detail. But when everybody uses the same three goddamn chords, "influence" seems to be limited to choice of distortion pedals, and beyond that is generic celebrity trivia: what cars they drive, what their favorite flavor of toothpaste is, who's boinking who, etc. Bo-ring.<P>Thanks to some folks I met through the Newshounds and Avalon forums, I've started to get into prog rock, now that I know that it isn't all aimless pseudo-Elizabethan Jethro Tull meandering.<P>------------------
"My work here is done...
I go now, to mess with the Watchmen..."<P> - Darryl a.k.a. the Kingdom Come Baby, "Age of Crisis on Infinite Clones Saga - Chapter One Million: Onslaught of the Secret Genesis Wars Agenda", <I>Plastic Man Special '99</I>

[asterphage]

On 2001-12-18 03:40:00, gwalla wrote:
<P>System of a Down: Rage Against the Machine minus the politics and the lyrical skill.

I'm sorry, I'm dragging up an old post, but due to forum craziness this thread was brought near the top for some reason, and I ended up reading it, and the above comparison incensed me as a fan of both groups.

For one thing, the first and most obvious difference between Rage Against the Machine and System of a Down is that RATM's vocals are rap and SOAD's vocals are not. Serj Tankian's singing may be strange and erratic, but it is not rap and not meant to be. While Zack de la Rocha aims for a harsh, punchy sound with his vocals (which makes their cover songs take quite some getting used to), Tankian can actually sing pleasantly when he wants to, which is not so rare.

Also, System of a Down isn't experimental in their instrumentation. While nearly every RATM track features some kind of sound that most artists wouldn't even <i>try</i> to coax out of a guitar, SOAD's music is based more around the tunes, and sometimes good ol' heavy-metal loudness.

Moreover, SOAD <i>is</i> political in their lyrics, just not so often. They did a couple of pretty basic, generic antiwar songs on their first album (one about the historical genocide of the Armenian people by the Turkish government and its legacy of hatred), and had a few odd, seemingly political rants in the liner. On their new album, they open with Prison Song, which somehow turns "Research on successful drug policy shows that treatment should be increased..." into something that I can sing along with. Yes, it's silly, but my point is that they have some political themes.

And as great as RATM's lyrics were back in the day (especially when they'd joke around with rap conventions, like rhyming "stick and move like I was Cassius" with "bomb a left upon the fascists" in Wake Up), I don't think they "had it" anymore after Evil Empire. Battle Of Los Angeles' lyrics felt repetitive to me, like they were just trying very, very hard to be the way they'd been before, but couldn't find much more to say about issues that haven't seen much progress since the last time they sang about them. And RATM went out with a cover album, a sure sign to me that in the end they didn't have anything new to write. Hopefully they'll find some new creative endeavours that will prove good. (Or did they get back together and I missed it? Wouldn't surprise me.)

Anyway, RATM and SOAD aren't that similar, and I wouldn't instantly dismiss one as inferior to the other for any reason.

[asterphage]

And a sequel to that freakin' essay I just wrote for no reason...

On 2001-12-18 03:40:00, gwalla wrote:
Staind: aside from that acoustic song (where did <I>that</i> come from?) they sound exactly like every other rap-metal band currently assaulting the charts. Look ma, I know two chords!

Came from a Family Values Tour album, IIRC. According to a radio interview, Aaron Lewis (singer-guitarist) hadn't really finished writing the song ("Outside") but went out and played it anyway, making up part of the verses as he went along.

I was kind of liking them when that came out (at the time I was enjoyed the mopey sadness of their song "Home" for some reason), but then they released a studio version of Outside and a bunch of other singles from a new album and it was all just very boring.

Tool: did they come out with a new album? I thought they broke up or something, and their lead singer had formed some other group. The problem with Tool is that all of their songs tend to sound pretty much the same. Fortunately they're pretty decent, but they're entirely interchangeable, and a little goes a long way. One Tool song every once in a while is good, but a whole album is overkill.

Maynard James Keenan released an album with A Perfect Circle and they toured for a while, but that was just a side project. It yielded one great song ("Three Libras") and an album that makes good background music.

The new Tool is really best as background music, actually. They eschew the grindy heavy stuff in favor of all these long songs of epic buildup, but none of them are quite as good as their original of such, "Push It" (which I think they write as one word, but screw that).

[ButtOfMalmsey]

Hmm. 2001 was loaded with pop-py goodness (and for some, no doubt, poppy goodness, but that's a diff thread).

Bright spots in pop:

CAKE, Comfort Eagle
U2, All That You Can't Leave Behind
Gorillaz
Josh Clayton-Felt (is he pop or not?)
BB King, Making Love is Good For You (blues-pop)

Gotta dig that pop. I mean, it's not as cool as when popular song meant Porter, Gershwin, Ellington, Arlen, Mercer, Hart, etc., but it's a damn sight better than 1998-2000, the boy-band/Spears vacuum that nearly destroyed music.

Why is it that I'm listening more and more to Miles Davis and Al DiMeola and the Beatles and the blues? Because today's music sucks more wind than a four-hundred pound marathoner.

[soupcore]

jeff london - col summers park
kind of like spitting - s/t
the new damien jurado cd w/ a full band.

[carlco]

john: how is Hefner treated over there? I hear so little about them but I have to assume they are like, Top of the Pops in London? Favorite band ever!

p.s. everybody check this out

http://www.musicseer.com -- click on the 'erdos game mode'

takes the top 40 and plays this kevin bacon game with it-- how can you get from britney spears to Wham, etc in < 6 steps (going across similar artists.)

[soupcore]

i was recently at a show, and inbetween the bands, they were playing music, like they always do, but this music was good, so i asked the sound guy who it was, he said "mogwai" i've heard lots of good things about them, but never bothered listening to them. So i go to the record store, and they want like $17 for every cd, but i dunno which one is good.. can anyone give me a out right, "if you're going to get a first mogwai cd, get this one" so i don't go spending $17 on something when i could have gotten a better one.

Thanks.

[carlco]

mogwai-- you should get "Come on Die Young."

[gwalla]

I've lately gotten into some really obscure and/or old stuff, like Gentle Giant, '70s Canterbury stuff, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, etc.

And right now I'm listening to "Dr. Who and the Tardis" by The Timelords (which is Gary Glitter's "Rock & Roll part 1" but with the lyrics "Dr. Who-oo-oo, Dr. Who! Dr. Who-oo-oo, the Tardis!", bits of Ron Grainger's Tardis theme, and Dalek samples thrown in) which my boss at work was kind enough to burn for me on CD from his vinyl single.

[ollie]

can anyone give me a out right, "if you're going to get a first mogwai cd, get this one" so i don't go spending $17 on something when i could have gotten a better one.

not the first(2) album(s) then? (the first is a collection of EPs/singles etc, not a real album for purists)

I recomend teh first (non)album 'Ten Rapid' (white cover, small pic) quite different to much of their later, more longwinded melodic stuff, back when they were still kids on estates

oh, *and* the first real album, 'Young Team' to get the more album orientated later sounds, plus longer tracks 'Like Herod' and of course 'Mogwai Fear Satan'

and for the Aiden Moffat (Arab Strap) vocals on 'R U Still Into It?'

some of teh later stuff is (very) good, but as an entry level album, i think the first two are as good as each other, get them both

Glastonbury '99, they haven't been as good previously of since for me, I've activly avoided seeing them live incase they're not as good or better, yes I'm stupid

And right now I'm listening to "Dr. Who and the Tardis" by The Timelords (which is Gary Glitter's "Rock & Roll part 1" but with the lyrics "Dr. Who-oo-oo, Dr. Who! Dr. Who-oo-oo, the Tardis!", bits of Ron Grainger's Tardis theme, and Dalek samples thrown in)

That's the wacky world of the

[kingrollo]

a. "Margaret Thatcher sex golem" is a hilarious collection of words
b. I also have the Dr. Who single. I fell into the KLF trap and I loved every minute of it..

[gwalla]

I found a really cool online music store, where I've been buying a whole lot of stuff. It's full of weird and/or obscure bands, with an emphasis on progressive, experimental, and avant rock-based music (although it also has some jazz and a little bit of 20th-century classical). Currently they've got a bunch of CDs by The Residents (who I hope everyone here has heard of) priced at about $6 US or so. It's called Wayside Music and it's here. I've generally been happy with their service, although it seems to take them a while to ship.

I'm currently listening to a Japanese jazz-rock fusion group called Il Berlione. It ranges from off-kilter hard bop to Satriani-esque screaming guitar passages, and integrates them very well. And how can you not love a band with song titles like "Continuing. The Engei: Tin-Peewee", "Battle Royal Hostess" and "Make You Die, Your Brain"?