Primer: 10 Essential Albums

[Donaldj]

Added videos for one track from each album.

[bmack86]

My writeups are complete.

[greghead]

I hope I'm not biting Patrick's First Wave California, but this is more specific

First Wave Los Angeles Punk (I'll finish this up after I relisten to a few of these to have better commentary, so watch this space!)

The Screamers-In A Better World

The Screamers coulda been huge. They wrote great art punk tracks, had a totally wild and charismatic frontman with huge hair, and they replaced guitar and bass with synths, but still made them sound very punk. They were the other side of Suicide: rather than dark and minimal, they played punk on keyboards. They were also very ambitious, which was their downfall. They wanted their first "album" to be a movie, but they ran into so many problems during its creation that they broke up. They never released any recordings, and only had one or two sessions in a studio, but where they apparently were at their best was in their live shows. They were the first unsigned band to ever headline the Roxy, and back when it meant something they sold out multiple nights at the Whiskey. This is a bootleg released by a guy in Seattle containing live recordings of most of their songs. The quality varies pretty widely, but it illustrates what a special, weird band they were.
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I have a live Screamers DVD put together by Target video, the official unofficial videographers of the early Bay Area punk and hardcore scene. I'll dupe it for any interested parties

[bmack86]

I'd love to snag that. I had an old rip, but it died with my old computer.

[liquidsnake28]

I haven't had time to do a full one but here's some for black metal:

De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas - Mayhem

Translvannian Hunger -Darkthrone

Storm of the Light's Bane - Dissection

and anything from Burzum.

[Donaldj]

I added examples of other genres of D&B I didn't include albums for.

[guedita]

Zack, I have heard you talk about the Cocteau Twins before and I'm going to check them out, I don't really know anything about the dark wave genre.

Donald, thank you! I have heard of High Contrast, but never listened. Logistics and Netsky are now on my radar and I'm going to check them out.

[Donaldj]

Donald, thank you! I have heard of High Contrast, but never listened. Logistics and Netsky are now on my radar and I'm going to check them out.

All good choices. You can't go wrong. If you want any other recommendations feel free to ask!

[hawkingvsreeve]

Technically, it's grouped as post-hardcore instead of post-punk. Shiner is a must. No ATDI, as you mentioned, is disagreeable. No Drive Like Jehu? Quicksand?

SORRY GUYS

Edit:

These lists might have personal skews to them, as mine does. While Q and Sunny Day may not technically belong on the same list, I associate them with each other as this was stuff I was into at the same period of time as the other bands on the list.

Drive Like Jehu would definitely make my list of those, as would ATDI. I definitely have to check out about 4 of the albums Brandon lists there, as I love this kind of stuff.

Which four? I can bball those to you.

[bmack86]

Shiner, No Knife, Engine Down and Bluetip. I can almost guarantee that I'll love these, as 5 of the other 6 are amongst my favorite albums (I would have swapped out For Your Own Special Sweetheart, but I still love Jawbox.)

Also, would you include Jawbreaker in this sound, or are they more straight up early emo, back when that wasn't so derogatory and shitty?

[hawkingvsreeve]

Not really sure on Jawbreaker. I was never much into the lyrical content of any of these bands, I just liked how the music sounded. I mean there are bands that I could make an "emo" list out of from the same time period, but I doubt that we could all sit down and agree 100% on a list of bands in such a specific genre. Expect some links in the near future.

[bmack86]

Well Jawbreaker always seemed a little bit more directly melodically focused than these other bands, but I found out about them when tracking down stuff from Jawbox and fell in love then.

This was probably the first type of music I really crate-dug for, metaphorically (since I was just buying CDs) and I still love it.

[dorkfish]

Shiner's The Egg was a staple album for me in college. You'll enjoy it, BryMack.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

I would 100% include Jawbreaker's Bivouac in a list like that. I also think Lifetime's Hello Bastards and Hot Water Music's Fuel For The Hate Game are required listening for this genre as well. Texas Is The Reason's Do You Know Who You Are? and Mineral's EndSeranading are also amazing.

EDIT: Maybe we should just start a post-hardcore thread. i could go on and on about this subject

[weeklymix]

Zack, I have heard you talk about the Cocteau Twins before and I'm going to check them out, I don't really know anything about the dark wave genre.

If you like Treasure head to Heaven or Las Vegas. If you like both of those I would recommend their back catalog compilation, The Pink Opaque. Head over Heels and Victorialand can come at the very end or at your leisure.

[hawkingvsreeve]

See I didn't think that Mineral or TexasITR fit. Sonically anyway. This is where these lists may run into problems.

[SoulDischarge]

I have a live Screamers DVD put together by Target video, the official unofficial videographers of the early Bay Area punk and hardcore scene. I'll dupe it for any interested parties

I have that too. A lot of stuff that's on In A Better World comes from that show (same crowd noise and whatnot).

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

See I didn't think that Mineral or TexasITR fit. Sonically anyway. This is where these lists may run into problems.

Mineral is incredibly meandering, but I think the guitar sounds and the song structures of both bands are very indicative of everything else that was going on.

[SoulDischarge]

See I didn't think that Mineral or TexasITR fit. Sonically anyway. This is where these lists may run into problems.

I don't see it as a problem. It encourages discussion and it's interesting to see other people's opinions on what defines a certain genre. Multiple primers for the same genre aren't discouraged.

[Donaldj]

Added a few more genres.

[SoulDischarge]

1. Cocteau Twins : Treasure (1984) - While it contributed to dream pop later on I think it is probably one of the first great ethereal darkwave albums. The first track is dedicated to Ivo Watts-Russell (titled Ivo), who is the founder of 4AD. The album just has the perfect amount of swirl with Fraser's voice sweeping you up at every turn. It is also the first album to feature the "original" Cocteau Twins crew (Fraser, Guthrie, Raymonde [who now runs the Bella Union label]).
Recommended tracks: "Ivo" and "Persephone"

FUCK YOU. "LORELEI". Seriously though, this is awesome, although poorly timed as I was completely in the mood for this kind of stuff about 2 weeks ago and couldn't come up with exactly what I was looking for outside of Cocteau Twins, but now that mood has passed.

Also, Still-Ill's post-punk list is fantastic and there's actually a few things on Bryan's LA punk list that I'm not all that familiar with (Dils, Black Randy). The reason I was going to do West Coast as opposed to LA was so I could include Flipper and Crime and the Dead Kennedys. There's probably enough material to do an entire Bay Area punk primer, but I don't know if I'm familiar enough to do it. And Donald gets the special achievement prize. Although in the future, if people are including videos in their lists, it would probably be a good idea to just link to the track instead of embedding it so there's not like 50 videos to load per page. Not trying to discourage the inclusion of videos because I think it's awesome, just want to make this as useful and easy as possible.

[Still-ill]

Thanks, Patrick. I think I'll do a Post-Rock one now, although I'm thinking there is probably someone out there better equipped than I to do it.

[TomAz]

My writeups are complete.

The Kinman brothers made both our lists but in different bands. I bet they feel pretty special right now.

[koryp]

Made it through work with my 2 hours of sleep and finally home. I think Donald has inspired another dive into DnB. Thanks for the great links. I hadn't really stayed up to date and this will give me a huge head start in updating my catalog. I was really suprised when I went through my DnB section and found some High Contrast, Klute, and Optical & Ed Rush begging to have a needle placed in their delicate vinyl grooves. Time to scare the nieghbors. Appreciate the inspiration Donald. Major props!

[Donaldj]

And Donald gets the special achievement prize. Although in the future, if people are including videos in their lists, it would probably be a good idea to just link to the track instead of embedding it so there's not like 50 videos to load per page. Not trying to discourage the inclusion of videos because I think it's awesome, just want to make this as useful and easy as possible.

I didn't even think about that, Patrick. If you would like to remove all the embeds and replace with links I can.

[SoulDischarge]

Nah, you've done enough. Just for future consideration.

[koryp]

Donald wins the thread!!!




This guy is keeping really good time to Klute!

[Donaldj]

Haha, I hope I didn't kill it, lol. I just love the drum & bass

[koryp]

Haha, I hope I didn't kill it, lol. I just love the drum & bass

No chance. Every genre is getting it's spotlight. It'll be fun to watch it develop. You just set the bar for a thorough list.

[Donaldj]

I'd like to request someone do tech house.