I like this thread.
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I like this thread.
Why are y'alls trying to tell Bmack how to do this thing? Given that a) he will deliver a fantastic week guaranteed and b) he is punk rock, your instructions are sort of pointless.
Lack of regard for the law is where it's at.
Sounds cool. Except this:
is a little heavy. Isn't the purpose predetermined in that it's for people to share music that is personally important to them? I think restricting the experiment by any further rules such as a mandatory "thesis" and positioning of albums within a "canon" is going to produce pretty dry results. But maybe that's what you're going for. I'm less interested in the academic side and more interested in the personal, emotional side.Quote:
Originally Posted by wmgaretjax
To round out my opinion on the idea, which is a nice idea Andrew, I'd encourage the participants to know their audience for this thread to stay afloat.
Checking out the blogspot now.
V, just to be clear, Jared's idea isn't a rule. The rules are pretty much made by the BMOTW in terms of what they post, why they are posting it, etc.
Well yes, I'm just giving feedback about his idea.
So I came up with a little survey, expanding on my previous post. I'll leave it all up to the discretion of Andrew if there's any questions that should be added or dropped or if the whole survey thing should be abandoned altogether. It could work as an optional thing, if the BMOTW just wants to share music. But it would give the rest of us some idea where each person is coming from and what we can expect from their daily selections. There's a good number of people on here we know their tastes pretty well, but there's bound to be participants we don't know all that much about musically.
What are ten of your favorite albums?
What was the first show you went to voluntarily? Best? Worst?
If you could shoot one band/artist and a couple hundred of their most die hard fans into space, who would it be?
Favorite instrument?
Instrument you can't stand?
Do you now or have you ever played any instruments?
If you could see any band/artist live, living or dead, from any era, who would it be?
Most embarrassing band/album/song that you genuinely like?
Band/artist/album/genre that you just can't get into no matter how much you try?
How do you get your music? Preferred format?
Favorite music websites/periodicals?
Last album you heard that really struck a chord with you?
Most unusual album in your collection?
I have a question for Bmack.
Let's say that you are being given the opportunity to teach a class, ranging anywhere from 30-100 students, for the duration of a semester/quarter on one aspect of your musical knowledge, with you determining the curriculum and the structure of the class. With those as your guidelines, what is the class called, what will it cover, and who would you invite to be a guest lecturer?
EDIT: I also highly approve of this thread. Good going, Andrew.
1. A Few Favorite albums/some comments about them
I'm going to cover the musical phases question within this one. The first album I can think of as being my "favorite" was Out of Time by R.E.M. We used to listen to it in the car quite a bit, and I, in particular, remember driving through the deserts of Arizona and California while it played and thinking it was just perfect. I was about 5 then, and i prefer Automatic to the People now, but that was my first favorite. As a kid I also listened to lots of alternative radio because that's what was always on, so I feel pretty goddamn blessed to have gotten to hear Nirvana, The Smiths, REM, Pearl Jam and oodles of other bands on a daily basis. The first album I bought on my own, and my favorite album during middle school, was Sublime's self-titled. I grew up in Southern California and vividly remembered the riots, so their song about that seemed pretty cool, and they were just offensive enough to feel like I was listening to something that my parents wouldn't approve of. However, i've gotta say that, because of them, i had a period where I listened to all the KROQ shit (nu metal mostly). That happened in large part because we moved up to Bishop, which is a very small redneck town, and I wasn't too happy about it at first. I listened to angry music to compensate (and, fuck it, i was a teenage boy. That's what we do.) While that period's embarrassing, it did lead me to discovering Metallica. After hearing Ride the Lightning, Slipknot and Korn and Limp Bizkit seemed pathetically tame. While I loved the first two albums I mentioned, Ride the Lightning is the first album I obsessed over. I would draw the Metallica M all over my notebooks, i listened to them constantly and I learned all the lyrics. Also, I read interviews with them and bought albums that they recommended. I remembered loving their cover of Green Hell by the Misfits, so i picked up Misfits Collection 1. It wasn't quite ground zero for punk in my world, but it was damn close. Bullet, in particular, just floored me. It was like Metallica in that it was fast and loud, but the lyrics were just so full of violent and disturbing imagery while still sounding fun. Danzig pulled that off so well with that band, and he's never done it since. Anyway, from then on it was all punk, which, living in a small town with K-Mart as the only place to buy music, meant I had lots of Blink 182 and Green Day. in 2001, I read a review for The Argument by Fugazi in Rolling Stone, and they called them the last real punk band. i ordered the album and listened to it, and was confused. It didn't sound hard and fast and angry, and it was damn near pop music. I left it for 6 months or so, but after reading Our Band Could Be Your Life (I credit that more than anything else with bringing me into the cult of music. That book is essential.) I picked it back up, along with records by Black Flag, Husker Du, Mission of Burma, Minor Threat and Big Black (as well as all the other bands in there.) I realized that there was all this amazing music out there that I'd never heard of, and from then on I've been digging and digging. I've certainly had phases (Can and NEU! introduced me to Krautrock and I dug for everything I could from that movement. I had a big soul phase where I would listen to Otis Blue every day.) but at this point I just love music wherever and whenever I can get it.
Just to make an arbitrary list of my current 10 favorite albums:
Can-Tago Mago (Where psychedelic rock meets tribal jams and musique concrete and they all realize that they just love to party. Also, listen to the song Oh Yeah and hear the whole reason why this band was so perfect)
Boredoms-Vision Creation Newsun (On Super AE, they shot for the sun. On VCN, they get there)
Fugazi-The Argument
Yo La Tengo-Painful (The best American shoegaze album of the 90s and their most consistent album)
A Tribe Called Quest-The Low End Theory (It's the album that made me "get" hip-hop)
Joanna Newsom-Ys
The Beatles-White Album
Otis Redding-Otis Blue
The Stooges-Raw Power
Nirvana-In Utero
2. What bands do you hate?
For the most part, there's too much music for me to actively hate. However, Bon Jovi. I fucking detest them. They have a good song in my mind, but even then I can't listen to it because of how much fucking studio sheen they put over everything, and what they represent for rock and roll is extraordinarily pathetic. Plus, fuck Jon Bongiovi with a metal rod.
3. Where do you get your music?
I download most of the stuff I get at this point. There's too much music out there for me to hear and I don't have enough money to buy everything. But, whenever I can, I go record shopping. An Amoeba trip usually happens once a month. I also like Counterpoint Books in Los Feliz. They get some awesome used records (I found a first print copy of Zen Arcade) and have really good prices. I also went to Origami in Echo Park recently and was impressed. They're brand new, and they only sell new records, but they had a really fantastic selection. I've made a vow with myself that I'm no longer buying CDs. They're so disposable , and it's more fun to listen to records anyway.
4. What is your favorite music website or periodical?
Oh what a hipster. Pitchfork is the home page on my laptop. They just get more news on bands I like than most other sites. I also use Stereogum and Gorilla Vs. Bear quite a bit, and I'll read Coke Machine Glow because one of my friends started it. As far as magazines, I love Wire when I can afford it because they turn me on to so many things I'd never hear otherwise, and Arthur used to be amazing (and free!) I have a collection of Arthurs somewhere. Lament the loss of that great magazine.
5. Have you ever played an instrument?
I am a sub-par guitar player, a passable bassist and an absolutely horrible mandolin player. In addition to those, I also own an aborigine-made Didgeridoo, an african thumb piano, a few native american bone flutes and random other bric-a-brac that I can make noises with but can't really play.
Awesome Bmack!
1.The first show I went to voluntarily was System of a Down at the Joint in Vegas in 2002. The venue was tiny for them, considering they had the number one album in the nation, and it was a fantastic show. My mom took my brother and I for my birthday. Someone threw up on her shoes and an older lady repeatedly grabbed my ass. We all had a blast. The best show I've seen was Boredoms at the Henry Fonda in LA last year. The crowd went nuts, eYe broke his ankle, they did the whole cosmic thing. People left speechless. The worst I've seen is either Weezer in 2005 or Mindless Self Indulgence opening for SOAD at the aforementioned show. Weezer was a bigger disappointment, but MSI was far worse.Quote:
Originally Posted by SoulDischarge
2.At this point I'm inclined to say Radiohead. I love them and all, but damn if they don't have one of the most overbearing fanbases I've ever witnessed. Although it would be really satisfying to go with Boredoms into space. They'd somehow make sure we all survived.
3.A tie between the Banjo and the Marimba. They both have great unique sounds.
4.I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but it's tough for someone to make the harpsichord sound good to me. It sounds like kid's music.
5.It'd have to be Otis Redding. I come to tears almost every time that I hear a live recording of him. I also would have killed to have gone to one of the early cutting sessions that Dizzy Gillespie and Bird played. Those two pushing eachother to the edges of speed.
6.Sheena Easton's song that goes "My baby takes the morning train/She works from 9-5 and then..." Love it, but it's absolute crap.
7.I really want to get into Pulp/Jarvis Cocker, but every time I listen to anything, I just get bored. Even live, Jarvis seemed exciting, but his music was so boring to me.
8.Veckatimest. Hearing that felt like hearing the Beatles for me. Hyperbole? Maybe, but give it a few years.
The class is called Our Band Could be your life. It covers the American punk movement from 1974 (we wanna be able to get Rocket from the Tombs and Electric Eels) to 1991. I would probably start with an overview, then take 2-3 year periods and do a class apiece for the west coast, the east coast and everywhere else. So, for example, in 77-80, you'd get LA punk with the Germs, the Weirdos, the Screamers, the Dils, X, as well as SF Punk with DK, The Avengers and Flipper, and then all the CBGB bands for NY. The midwest and elsewhere gave you Pylon, Pere Ubu, the Dead Boys (sure they moved to New York, but fuck off) and others. I'd want to have either Ian MacKaye or Bob Mould as my speaker; both of them are perfect representations of the ethos of that era, and they're both still going strong.Quote:
Originally Posted by PassiveTheory
Yeah. New York gets everything cool. All we have are these asshole punk bands, and we will fight you to the death over them. We're claiming the Cramps too.Quote:
Originally Posted by bmack86
I'm just curious, bmack, do you like Against Me!?
I mean pre new-wave against me!
I like New-Wave even, for what it is. My problem with Against Me! is Tom Gabel's voice has a little too much of the emocore sound at times, but the first record is really fantastic.
I tend to like my punk bands with more crust and/or psychedelics.
This right here is so very, very cool.Quote:
Originally Posted by bmack86
bmack, while you're at it:
You're going to be stranded on a desert island. You can pick five discs worth of music to accompany you but, in a fit of cruelty, they cannot be your five ideal ones. Your five runner-up desert island discs, please.
And hey, which musician do you pretend you are when nobody's around?
I'm not that huge on the punk scene, more or less the folk punk music genre is what I prefer, but AM! Blows me away.and by first record, which do you mean?Quote:
Originally Posted by bmack86
You have about 3 choices
I think he means Reinventing.Quote:
Originally Posted by seandlr
1.Aphex Twin-The Richard D. James album (I wouldn't lean towards electronica as my music of choice, but this'd definitely be a good companion, especially at night when the sun's going down and I contemplate how long I'll be stuck on this godforsaken island.)Quote:
Originally Posted by MissingPerson
2.Steve Reich-Music for 18 Musicians (Minimalism wouldn't be something I'd think to bring with me anywhere, but I bet the trance-inducing sound of this album would lead me to get tons of work done without even noticing it. It lulls me out and lets me just work.)
3.Sugar-Copper Blue (I'll never like Sugar as much as Husker Du, but for good loud pop music, stuff to pick me up when I'm getting down, this'd do the trick.)
4.The Jesus Lizard-Goat (Neither my favorite Touch and Go noise band (Big Black) or my favorite Jesus Lizard album (Liar) this'd nevertheless be my hunting music. THe animals would be so terrified that they'd just come out of their hovels and sacrifice themselves to my hand made rock knife.)
5.Sly and the Family Stone Greatest Hits (So I can blast Thank You when someone comes to save me.)
I actually grew my mustache after seeing a picture of Greg Norton from Husker Du. I think I'd like to say I pretend to be Thurston Moore, but even moreso when people are around: spouting non-sequiturs, talking about obscure music and being goofily weird.
Indeed I do.Quote:
Originally Posted by wmgaretjax
Anybody listen to the Horseflies yet?
I know. I was just making sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by real talk
Respect.Quote:
Originally Posted by bmack86
Whoa nice!!Quote:
Originally Posted by bmack86
Yeah its really good... it blows away the 4-5 albums I had in mind when it came to "Ignored" albums.Quote:
Originally Posted by bmack86
I've been listening to it, and I've been liking it.Quote:
Originally Posted by bmack86
Bryan, was that SOAD show in Vegas the one where The Mars Volta were suppoosed to be the opener, but then they had to cancel their tour? If it was, I almost went to that, but didn't because TMV pulled out.
Also, who is in your fantasy band?
Don't you mean CVMAFMBNCDMLBMOTW?Quote:
Originally Posted by bballarl
explain.
Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival Message Board - Non-Coachella Discussion - Music Lounge - Board Member Of The Week.
Ha! Quite good! Quite good!