Oi! Yeah! Love it. Arthur! Village Green! Lola vs. Powerman! The Kinks are so great. Matched the Beatles and Stones stride for stride back in the late '60s for a bit.

Just "matched"? I'll take The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society over any Beatles album. But that's me — in addition to genuinely love that record, I have an allergy to the school of thought that says The Beatles are the alpha & omega of this whole shit. Not that you necessarily implied that, though...

This is the shit. Too bad I still can't get a bona fide copy of Early Recordings, which goes for $80 online. DEGENERATES. :mad:

yea. I don't know about all that. Village Green is a sweet album though. Stones Beatles Kinks. all different bands.

Eagles (remastered)

so good...

Honestly I go back and forth on it. I just fucking LOVE the Kinks. The Davies brothers made some of the most beautiful and ass-kicking music of that — or any other — era. And if I had to choose between "Victoria" and any Beatles or Stones song ever, I'd choose "Victoria" (studio version) every morherfucking time.

I do — from a kind of pop culture scholar standpoint — tend to view the Beatles as the "alpha and omega" of pop music in general. But from a more personal perspective, I see it a little differently. The Beatles never wrote anything quite like what the Kinks produced during their peak period.

As a whole, yes, the Beatles had a more fruitful and consistent discography, but they also quit at their peak. The Kinks went on to put out so-so records in the '70s and '80s, but also made some great records in those years. I used to just straight up prefer the Kinks. But now I look at it differently. Like, the Beatles were the Beatles. Whether you're a fan or not, it would be silly to argue that anyone has ever had a bigger influence on music. The Kinks were the runt of that particular litter, and as a result made some crazy awesome, weird as fuck, gloriously goofy yet jarringly poignant music that the Beatles were simply too big to make.

So, y'know, I wasn't really implying that the Beatles were the alpha/omega, but the general consensus in pop culture is that they were and are. I still love those late '60s/early '70s Kinks records as much as most of the Beatles' output.

In other words, I'm not one of those "Beatles or bust" nazis. There were times when they were a step behind the Kinks, the Stones, and definitely the Velvets (though that's getting into another topic entirely, one that would require mention of Dylan, and others, so let's steer clear of that for the purposes of this conversation.)

Beatles never wrote anything with the thunderous momentum of "Powerman" (nope... Not even "Helter Skelter." It may have been heavier and more frenetic, but it doesn't have the same energy). Neither did Zeppelin for that matter ( :eek: ... but yeah, it's true).
And they never wrote anything as wonderfully silly as "Apeman." The Beatles never wrote anything quite as emotionally poignant in that achingly beautiful, proto-Replacements, heart-on-sleeve kind of way as "Strangers," which makes me cry on the reg, for realzies.

But catalog vs. catalog, the Beatles do pretty much own everyone, mostly because they didn't keep at it long enough to embarrass the living shit out of themselves, as the Who, Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, the Stones... even Dylan, most certainly did.

Have I answered the question you never asked with my lengthy, completely unprompted, all-over-the-goddamn-place reply? Good. Cheers.

Eek. Yikes. I'm genuinely glad that you find joy in the Eagles' music. Seriously. But... wow... I do not. It's hard to imagine anyone under the age of 50 having a legitimate love for the Eagles (undoubtedly one of the most establishmenty bands of all time, like Fleetwood Mac without any pretense of artistic experimentation, or desire to move beyond the parameters of AM rock radio), but I would be a complete and utter Genteel Death-sized prick if I ever tried to shame or insult you for enjoying their music. Enjoyment of music is a force of good in the world, and I support your enjoyment of whatever you enjoy.

Still, seeing the words "The Eagles" pop up in the middle of a conversation about the Kinks and the Beatles is... ah... jarring. Which is why I feel compelled to make this entirely unsolicited comment right now. :)

 

wow, what a sweet track. just heard track Evencycle by Melissa Guion a.k.a. MJ Guider from her debut album on Kranky label. Evencycle, a song that ties everything to a Roland's R8 4/4 beat which makes everything around it sound small. Guion’s gorgeous vocals shift into a mantra-like repetition of “in control”, until its ending and beginning blur into just another percussive element.

check it out. it is 8th. track. https://kranky.bandcamp.com/album/precious-systems

 

Demdike Stare and Votel's label delivers this incredible, ancient-but-modern sound collage painstakingly constructed over a number of years out of Youtube samples - total mind-bender this one, somewhere between New Age meditation tape and the sound of your nightmares...

Totally stunning record from the elusive Tongues of Light, drawing cosmic, primordial vectors between glossolalia, sound poetry and improvised music via the nebulæ of Youtube for Demdike Stare & Andy Votel’s Pre-Cert Home Entertainment.

Arguably the label’s most striking, even transcendent release, Channelled Messages at the end of History started life as a gift for a friend following long conversations about the nature of improvisation, spontaneity and musical mediumship and subsequently dawned as a remarkable document of occult praxis in the digital age.

Tongues of Light acts as a sort of psychopomp or liminal interpreter for a wide range of belief systems, all rooted in the common conviction that they are channelling sounds from some “other” or “higher” entity or dimension, much in the same way that Sun Ra believed he was channelling celestial bodies thru his music or the Dogon people of subsaharan Africa believed they received alien codes describing humanity’s heritage.

The record unfurls as a seamlessly sequenced compilation of samples - all framed by plasmic drones and synth pads which connect and highlight the links between seemingly disparate elements. By the record’s end the effect is really quite uncanny; compounding disparate new age coordinates on a common plane, and thereby revealing their underlying, subconscious metaphysics.

It’s great to hear Pre-Cert Home Entertainment connecting the dots between generations of new age thought and practice, and we reckon this slab will standout as one of their defining releases for time to come.

Limited Edition Pressing of 500 copies, artwork by Andy Votel.

So in addition to Messrs. Gunn and Vile and Miss Lattimore compositions we get three bitchen covers. What the fuck is not to love!

That's why you gotta love something like this:


—Lester Bangs, from Notes for Review of Peter Guralnick's Lost Highway, 1980. Just a wee bit out of context, since the text is about Elvis... but still. :D

Hah. Well, that's pretty good stuff. Nothing is fun if EVERYBODY loves it. But I still tend to disagree. Strongly.

Brian Case — Tense Nature

The Kinks are wonderful but nothing like the Beatles in my heart. I once would have agreed with you about everything in that post. I listened to so much Kinks one year when I was younger, collecting everything I could get from mid to late 60's up to Arthur but, I started to have massive amounts of mid life crisis-like anxieties and longing way before I was mid-life. Beatles just grow with love over time. The Kinks were making me sad. esp. a song like "This Time Tomorrow". I will say this, like the Stones, the Kinks made me realize 60's music was pretty cool at a young age. yea. nothing like hearing "Under my Thumb" or "Set Me Free" and "You Really Got Me" for the first time. Beatles came later in age.

Face to Face, Something Else, Village Green, Arthur, and all the singles in between have I special place in me too. excellent classic song craft if quite goofy, twee and mocking at times.

Yeah, Beatles are forever. Their music grows with the people who love it. The Beatles will take you from high school to adulthood to middle age to twilight years. Their music doesn't become connected to specific ages or eras. If anything, it seems to offer new and different sounds and feelings as you mature and age and the years pass. Technically it's the same music all along, so what I'm saying it absolute nonsense. But if you love the Beatles, and have lived a bit, I'm guessing you'll know exactly what I'm getting at.

"Fractured Cogs" by Steve MacKay and the Blue Prostitutes

Tommy Guerrero ‎– No Mans Land
 

Tommy Guerrero ‎– No Mans Land

sonic youth - Dirty

who cares!! the Yoof doing some blues licks and boogie. it's one of the best grunge albums.

Nah man, ain't no grunge album. A bit rockist, sure, but artier than its given credit for. I just fucking love "JC" ... and "Theresa's Sound World" ... and "100%" ... last ⅓ of the album is all jam, baby. Yeah, it's "alternafied," but it set them on the path to Experimental Jet Set and Washing Machine (both of which take the best parts of Dirty and break them down into two completely different albums that are essentially perfect), and, later, Rather Ripped, which isn't the best SY album either, but it finally found them doing their weird take on "pop" perfectly.

Ain't no grunge album though dog. What the fuck even is a grunge album? Aside from every Mudhoney album ever, that is. is it Superunknown, In Utero, Vitalogy? Those three completely unrelated and dissimilar records — a metal goes hard rock mainstream record, a noisey punk record and America's U2 —that are for some reason lumped into the same category?

No, it's coming to me now... Grunge is any kind of rock that wasn't explicitly metal that came out in America between 1988 and 1996. So Temple of the Dog AND Built to Spill AND Melvins AND everything in MTV that wasn't British or electronic or black, from basement to stadium. Makes total sense. Dinosaur Jr and Blind Melon and Weezer and fucking Spacehog and every single other thing with guitars.

grunge is a word used to put down bands from Seattle. It never meant SHIT

uh, you guys! I meant it as a joke. though Purr does have some boogie riffs and blues licks. Dirty is just a big power produced SY record. i like it. always have. it was the first i heard. when Thurston sings "and i know" in Sugar Kane, it's one of my favorite SY moments. it pushes the chorus to extra extreme heights. i never fail to get a thrill out of that. pop heaven.

we should list our fav SY song moments. they have awesome build ups and drop outs.

off the top of my head should be the middle part of "Schizophrenia" after Kim's vocal part where it slowly builds and then releases like crazy melodic dual guitar goodness. best exemplified in the Year Punk Broke version. mind gets blown everytime.

Yeah, that's one of my all time fave SY moments too.

Also the breakdown and subsequent coda in "Catholic Block" ... Might be my favorite SY moments of all time.

Too many great transcendent moments to count though. Would be tough.

Ending of "NYC Ghosts & Flowers" is also up there

^ I've always been an advocator of NYCGF! one of the best SY albums. love it and could never think what the assholes critics were thinking. shit is tight! sometimes the production is an issue with me but I've never thought they've released a bad album. Washing Machine is stiff to me. no matter. best band eva of course!

Love love love nycgf

been on a Sebadoh kick too. love this performance and thought I would never see it after watching a glimpse of it on 120 minutes in 96. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqnC9GXTp9M... it really kicks ass!!!!

On Fire - Sebadoh

Bakesale - Sebadoh :). I forgot how badass ill this album is. they kick out the jams without Eric. love Eric's songs too though. Lou is still such a paranoid pussy. Bakesale is a ruthless selfish album. and I love it.

I only really remember the infamous Pitchfork 0.0 review, for which an official apology was later printed in the New York Times. I don't recall reading, like, a bunch of negative reviews, but I know that Pitchfork one was just absurd, and managed to do some damage all by itself. Crock of shit.

It's not my favorite SY album, but it definitely has its place in the mythos. "Free City Rhymes" is one of my all time top ten Sonic Youth songs, and is just plain perfect.

Pussy Galore/Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Extra Width

and still fun kick ass! all around classics now. anything after ACME I don't bother with. Dial M for Motherfucker and Sugar Shit Sharp are favorites too.

age old question: who do you prefer?: Blues Explosion or Royal Trux?

You gotta be joking. That's like asking whether you prefer Pat Boone or Little Richard. ROYAL TRUX all the way.

give me a break. I understand your preference but you didn't have to relate it with such two extremes.

expected from SYG. so who here likes early to mid Blues Explosion? c'mon. Royal Trux is nice. thinking of Twin Infinitives and later, Veterans of Disorder. esp. "Blue is the Frequency".

Blues Explosion was surely the best live. ahummmm, that Royal Trux song "Back to School" gets me everytime. with the Hendrix 'may this be love' guitar leads. that Royal Trux singles album I use to play a lot.

I love both. there.

My gut says JSBX.

I'd have to revisit Royal Trux to really know.


I didn't realize this was an age old question. Dinosaur jr vs. Sebadoh? Yeah, that's epic. Minor Threat vs. Fugazi? Who among us hasn't nearly gone mad over that one?

But hey, if it's age old it's age old, and we NEED to address it.

I just listened to III today and it reminded me of how much I miss good old jangly rock type shit. I think I need a break from the footwork and techno and the hip hop. Gotta get back in touch with my roots, y'knaw?

"Violet Execution" is my favorite Sebadoh song at the moment, for those who are curious.

Royal Trux were always hit or miss. drug intoxicated brilliance to weird boring Beck like blundering without that Pavement vibe. at least the Blues Explosion at one time took it to another high level. Royal Trux just did too much heroin. the Howling Hex albums are neat though.

Scars, four Eyes is much better. III is my least favorite Sebadoh album.

if it's not, it should goddamn it.

Yeah I'm for JSBX on this one. Probably means I'm lame. Don't care.

I listened to the new Twin Peaks album yesterday just because I felt like hearing some rock type stuff. I was thoroughly uninterested in it based on every review I read. Made it sound like a super basic indie rehash of CCR, The Stones, Neil Young. Which it absolutely is. There is a black hole sucking up all the inventiveness in rock these days. But I still enjoyed what I heard. I think I liked the first track best after a cursory breeze though on Apple Music.

Nothing to write home about. Nothing, even, to really write about, period. But it was catchy enough that it might end up being something I return to.

Put on Sebadoh before the album was half over though. That's the problem with rock type stuff that pulls from familiar sources that were already pulling from familiar sources to begin with. You hear it, and you think, "Fine, fine, but if I want to hear this I have about a thousand tried and true albums I could listen to already."

People are saying 2016 is some monumental music year, but aside from a handful of great releases, I've been pretty bored by a majority of the output on all fronts. I haven't purchased so few albums in an 8 month period since... I honestly can't remember when.

I'm frustratingly bored by just about everything around me right now. Music, films, books, it's all just regurgitated crap.

JSBX and Royal Trux are both supremely boring.

Who are "people" and why are they saying this? Because PJ, Cave, the Pixies and other tried-and-trues have/will release something this calendar year? Or am I missing something new and orgasmic?