| Author | Message | ||
     skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 1527 Registered: 10-2008 |
Borrowed this topic from the Wilco messageboard, makes for a bit of festive fun! "Tell me your top 10 favorite bands/artists and also what percentage of their musical output you like" Here's mine REM - 1983-1986 = 100% The joint best best band of all time The Fall - 1979-1987 =100% The joint best best band of all time (in the 90's = 50%, and from 2000- till present = 85%) Radiohead - From Kid A till present = 90% (before that = 25%) The Clash - 1977 - 1979 = 100%, from Sandanista onwards = 40% The Go-Betweens - 1984-1987 = 98% The Smiths all output = 99% (just slightly behind REM and The Fall) Drive By Truckers - from Decoration Day till Brighter Than Creations Dark = 98%, all other output = 75% David Bowie - From Hunky Dory to Scary Monsters = 99% Bob Dylan - From Bringing It All Back Home to Blood On The Tracks - 98%, the rest is the biggest hit or miss catalogue ever. Joy Division - All output = 98% (The biggest problem with things like this is I just know I'm going to have missed somebody really obvious off my list) | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 882 Registered: 04-2006 |
John Fahey - 1959-1973 = 100% the best guitarist (not in the manner of technique or such bullshit) of all time The Beach Boys - 1962-1973 = 98% terrific harmonies The Byrds - 1965-1968 = 100% they stole from others and invented folk and coutry rock. great! Neil Young - 1968 - 1979 = 100% still buy all his stuff Robert Wyatt 1967 - 2011 (incl. soft machine and matching mole) = 90% hero, god or just a man making good music with a touching voice Van Dyke Parks - 1966 - 2011 = 100% another hero Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band - 1967 - 1972 and 1976 - 1982 = 100% genius! Joy Division - 1977 - 1985 (incl. Warsaw and New Order) = 100% GREAT! The Fall - 1979 - 1988 = 100% Classical! The Go-Betweens - 1981 -1986 and 2000 - 2006 = 100% not much to say... and like kevin said: ''The biggest problem with things like this is I just know I'm going to have missed somebody really obvious off my list'' :-) maybe an idea for another list like the missed greastest bands/artists | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 2303 Registered: 01-2005 |
Robyn Hitchcock - 1981-2011 = 100% My favorite since R.E.M. released Green. I could back this up to 1980 to include the Soft Boys Underwater Moonlight. The Go-Betweens - 1981-1989 and 2000-2006 = 99% I've got not much to add what Andreas mentioned above... R.E.M. 1982-1987 = 98% Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush - 1977-1986 = 98% Maybe I'm cheating linking these two together, but then again I'm not the first to have done so. Talking Heads - 1977-1985 = 97% Gram Parsons - 1967-74 = 97% (including postumus Grievous Angel in 1974) The Allman Brothers Band - 1969-1975 = 96% Gang of Four - 1978-1983 = 95% Echo and The Bunneymen - 1980-1984 = 95% Wire - 1977-1981 and 1987-89 = 95% Next 10: Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac, Stereolab, Neu!, My Bloody Valentine, The Replacements, Emmylou Harris, The Byrds, Aimee Mann 1988-2000, Throwing Muses & The Pixies. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 883 Registered: 04-2006 |
after a fantastic holy evening with the family, some liquids, excellent food, some surprises and curtis mayfield on my local radio station i have to extend my fave ten to my fave 11. this is necessary because i admire curtis mayfiled so much. maybe you ask yourself why i don't put him in my top ten list when i like his music so much. shame on me. i just forgot him while i am thought about my favourites. and when i reached the tenth i just stopped thinking. so here it is, my favourite eleven-list will be completed with the one and only curtis mayfield - 1963 (including The Impressions) - 1975 and 1996 = 100% always deeply moving!!! | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 884 Registered: 04-2006 |
one more specification: the byrds: i really like them, but i have to mention that i most like the songs of the gene clarke era. maybe i like gene clarke more then (or than?) the byrds. and the first flying burrito brothers album is also an album that has to do with the byrds (and is one of my favourite all time albums!). therefore my decision to name the byrds is absolutely correct, but i thought i should precise myself. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 885 Registered: 04-2006 |
missed ones. jefferson airplane - 1966 - 1972 = 100% jefferson airplane is the band that i always forgot to mention p.j. harvey - 1992 - 2011 =100% hats off for that lady! bob dylan - 1963 - 19809 100% from blowin' in the wind from his second album till saved (no joke!) and 1997 with time out of mind. a living legend! gang of four - 1979 - 1983 = 100% powerful. cluster - 1972 - 1977 (including the two harmonia albums) =100% my favourite krautrock/electronic music band of all times. the allman brothers -1969 - 1974 = 100% duane and dickey!!! the pentangle 1968 -1970 = 100% extraordinary! jonathan richman - 1972 - 2011 = 90% the most sympathic guy from the next door talk talk - 1984 - 1991 (plus mark hollis 1998) = 98% i liked 'such a shame', forgot them and gladly rediscovered them. spirit of eden, laughing stock and the mark hollis solo album are outstanding. ton steine scherben -1971 - 1983 = 100% a german band (political), from rough and direct to a more poetic expression. relevant in the seventies, relevant when i am old enough to understand them and still relevant after all this years! the ramones - 1976 - 1984 = 95% 1,2 3, 4! yes - 1971 - 1974 = 100% when i listening to 'yessongs' i always think i listen to a speed metal band fairport convention - 1969 - 1970 = 100% two years , four glorious albums motorpsycho - 1993 - 2011 = 100% from demon box on they are the most fantastic band in the world (oh my god, the yare on the wrong list) specials/specials a.k.a./fun boy three/colourfield /terry hall 1979 - 1997 = 100% i am a terry hall fan (despite the fact that i didn't bought the hall/mushtaq album, maybe i should think about that) crosby/nash/stills/young - from the beginning till today = %? formative in my youth (in all their combinations) | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 2304 Registered: 01-2005 |
Andreas, This ones for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPb2_REhv 3E | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 889 Registered: 04-2006 |
Michael, thanks a lot for this ''christmas gift''. it is always a thrill listening to the ABB. this version of 'blue sky' is great. unbelievable. thanks. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 2305 Registered: 01-2005 |
Andreas, The CD of this concert is available again as of this mnonth. I'm not sure if this has a cleaned up sound from the orignal version I bought a few years back, but even if it's not it's still a must have for any ABB fan. http://www.amazon.com/S-U-N-Y-Stonybrook -Live-19-71/dp/B000HTY2GC/ref=sr_1_1?s=m usic&ie=UTF8&qid=1324835995&sr=1-1 | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 890 Registered: 04-2006 |
Michael, i thought about buying this and the other archival releases years ago. but i didn't. can't remeber why not. after listening to blue sky i ordered the cd immediately without any further thinking about the sound (read about the ''sound problems''). once agian i just can say thanks a lot for your reminder! | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 891 Registered: 04-2006 |
more missed ones ( it seems this is my favourite topic :-) ): the sea and cake - 1994 - 2011 (including some solo works like archer prewitt's 'wilderness album and sam prekop's solowork) = 100% can't resist this special the sea and cake sound jorge ben - 1963 - 1976 = 100% i love him, my favourite brazilian musician, the version of his song 'taj mahal' together with gilberto gil is incredible grateful dead - 1969 - 1972 = 100% from live dead via one of my favourite albums (working man's dead) to live in europe, marvellous caravan - 1970 - 1972 = 100% a short period, but not because of inthe land of grey and pink i count them to my favourites joni mitchell - 1968 - 1977 = 100% ''the lady of the canyon'' from folk to jazz a progress you can follow from album to album | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 796 Registered: 05-2005 |
You're getting greedy now Andreas! No surprises what is to follow although the percentages might. All of these are TOTAL output over their careers. The Beatles - 97% Yes, even I admit there were some clunkers, but not many! This of course does NOT include solo stuff which would considerably lower the percentage. The Byrds - 90% The Church - 90% Ride - 85% Ups and Downs - 60% Echo and the Bunnymen - 50% R.E.M. - 50% The Smiths - 50% Crowded House - 90% The Go Betweens - 85% I guess this, for me, makes the Church and Crowded House the most consistently good bands over the longest periods of time. Did I tell you I was from the Antipodes? | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 363 Registered: 02-2007 |
The following are the artists I always "go back to" if I'm bored of listening to the latest stuff. Nick Cave (& Bad Seeds) 95% Elliott Smnith 95% Dylan (over 5 decades!!) 90% Neil Young (5 decades) 90% This would be 95% if you ignored 80's up to Freedom Beatles 85% (95% if u ignore early crap) Richard Thompson 80% Tom Waits 80% Lucinda Williams 80% The Band 80% Go-Betweens 75% Triffids 75% Patti Smith 70% XTC 70% Talking Heads 70% Rolling Stones 65% (90% for years 69 till 74 say Let it Bleed till only Rock n roll) Teenage Fanclub 60% Paul Weller 60% Steve Earle 60% Warren Zevon 60% Wilco 60% REM 50% | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2811 Registered: 03-2005 |
I've been avoiding this thread. It's hard to choose. Some of the newer discoveries (such as Alain Bashung) have to live longer in my collection before I can decide where they fall. There are some who did not make enough records to qualify, such as McCarthy whose records I love start to finish. There are the one-time super prolific acts like the Cannanes who certainly rate high but I'm not prepared to say they make it to my top 10. There are the folks who could alternate between absolutely great and numbingly dull, like Jackie DeShannon was wont to do. But some are easy: Hollies 1963 - 1972 85% It's all about their albums, not their hits, especially the first album, the third one (called "Hollies"), "For Certain Because," "Evolution," "Butterfly," "Confessions of a Mind" and "Distant Light". Though there are clunkers too. 1969's "Hollies Sing Hollies" is 50% a dud. Gene Clark 85% Only "Two Sides to Every Story" and "Firebyrd" drag him down a bit. Go Betweens 85% While their '80s records must necessarily rate as the best I find the Mk II albums and the solo albums mostly pretty wonderful. They never lost their feel for coupling the Monkees and Dylan. Fall 1979 - 1991 85% Until my recent purchase of some of the earlyish albums that fill gaps in my collection I would have probably chosen the time range of '85 - 91. It turns out the missing albums were monsters, especially "Dragnet," "Slates" and "Hex Enduction Hour." I also like "Room to Live" better than most people seem to. And as Kevin says, they continued to make some pretty fine records after '91 even if I don't have as high an opinion of "Ersatz GB" as he does. "Levitate" is still the big dud in my book, probably followed by "Reformation Post". Scott Walker -- 1965 (w/Walker Bros) - 1983 90% Only those crappy mid-70s pop country records disappoint in this stretch and there are some good moments on them too. Everything else is unbelievable. Beau Brummels 85% They're dragged down a bit by that album of covers Warner Bros made them do when they didn't buy their publishing rights ("Beau Brummels '66") but the rest of the albums are great and they recorded an amazing number of great songs that never saw the light of day until the CD era. Triffids -- 1980 - 1987. 85% I've come a very long way from not being able to get this band to totally loving them. Their lengthy string of pre-professional tapes fleshes out a relatively modest album count. But they mostly lost the plot with "Black Swan" and the overproduced "Calenture" took away from what was undoubtedly their most mighty individual collection of songs. Magazine 85%. They didn't last very long or produce the huge body of work that my other entries did, but they still amaze me to this day. The new album perhaps scores 75% but I agree with Kevin: it's much better than any of us had a right to ask and there are moments when it's incredible. So I guess right now I've only managed to come up with 8. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 2306 Registered: 01-2005 |
If it's total output over their careers, then R.E.M., Echo and the Bunnymen, Wire, and the Allman Brothers Band all take serious hits and would probably drop off my list. I'll have to rethink this! | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 895 Registered: 04-2006 |
michael, i don't think you have to rethink your list. i don't understand the question not as a total output question, but rather as the question of your fave band/artist and what output you like most. and as ''greedy'' as i am i have to mention a few more: mccoy tyner 1967 - ? - 2011 = 100% o.k., john coltrane is god. africa/brass, live at the village vanguard and for sure a love supreme and ascension are brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! but i felt in love with coltranes piano player: mycoy tyner. his modal playing hits a string within me and -as one of his albums is titled - his music is an enlightenment (for me). pharoah sanders - 1966 - 1974 = 100% the releases of that time span makes him to a musician i prefer to a lot of others. it's just the same as said about mccoy tyner: his kind of jazz (something between free and wild and spiritual) hits me. alice coltrane - 1969 - 1978 = 100% some say that she is the yoko ono of jazz. when coltrane brought his new wife into his group there was no space left for mccoy tyner. but this brought us fantastic solo albums of mccoy tyner, some free jazz of john coltrane - and at last she was a really great musician on piano and on harp. emotional, spirtiual and free, too. sun ra - without any time limits, and percentages - just from outta space. steely dan - 1972 - 2003(latest release, as far as i know) = 100% i have to admit that some of my friends in our backwood were outside that ''hippie-shit'' and played brass in the local church - and liked steely dan. i listened to them too, but they went out of my focus and just find the way to my ear somewhere in the nineties again. luckily. frank zappa/mothers/grandmothers - 1976 - 1979 = nearly 100% the only album i still don't like is 200 motels. zappa opened my ears for more than westcoast and progrock, initialized my love for the music of beefheart and his magic band, but inhibited my way to punk/post punk. listening to him now, can still be a treat, but sometimes his music feels kinda ''old''. btw: the zappa trust i.e. his wife gail finally will release the original bat chain puller album/sessions of beefheart and the magic band. it shall be released in january. that's for sure one of the album we have to put into 'the past..'' thread for 2012. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 4202 Registered: 05-2005 |
Interesting topic! (As soon as I click 'post' I will remember all the others I should have included of course). The Jam / Paul Weller: My first musical love. 90% The Who: I got into The Who through The Jam, rather than the other way round. 85% Yes: My second musical love. 80% R.E.M.: 100% up to 1986. 98% from then till 1992. Considerably less from then on, though the final two albums are both very good. The Go-Betweens: 95% The Triffids: 90% The Replacements: 90% The Beatles: 80% Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: 75% The Waterboys: 85% | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1628 Registered: 08-2006 |
God, favorite bands are so hard. This is just a mish-mash of bands I love who had some good runs. The Velvet Underground: 1965 - 1970 100% Sleater-Kinney: 1995 - 2005 98% Pavement: 1992 - 1999 100% The Rolling Stones: 1964 - 1972 98% Wussy: 2005 - 2011 100% Bob Dylan: 1964-1968 100% The Ramones: 1976 - 1984 88% Kate and Anna McGarrigle: 1976 - 1998 92% | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 2307 Registered: 01-2005 |
Pádraig, I've starting exploring some of the Yes albums I didn't buy back in the day beyond their Big 3 (Close To The Edge, Fragile and The Yes Album, all of which I've had since the 70's). I bought Relayer a couple of months ago, and Tales will probably be the next one. Same goes for King Crimson. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2280 Registered: 10-2004 |
This is a tough one. So, take the Go-Betweens. Looking at the the original, pre-1990 break-up output, I'd say I probably like about 95% of it. But if you include the three 00s albums, that would drop to maybe 75%, or thereabouts. More if you include solo stuff. Here are some easier ones: Smiths - 99% REM - 1982-1984 - 98% Microdisney - 95% Associates - 99% Style Council - 1983-1985 - 95% Black Sabbath - 1971-1976 - 95% Japan - 1979-1981 - 100% Cocteau Twins - 1982 - 1987 - 99% The Fall - 1980-1986 - 95% Wayne Shorter - 1964-1965 - 99% Felt - 1981-1986 - 95% | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 509 Registered: 10-2006 |
Yes's 2001 Magnification is a good listen too, Michael - epic orchestral arrangements and a lot of highly melodic songs. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 4205 Registered: 05-2005 |
I'm listening to Magnification right now! | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 2310 Registered: 01-2005 |
I'm not up on Magnification at all, as I don't own anything they released beyond the Buggles/Yes album Drama from 1980. A lot of Yes fans slog Drama, but I like it a lot. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 4213 Registered: 05-2005 |
Don't be frightened of the Trevor Rabin-era albums Michael! Some of Yes' greatest songs lie there. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 2312 Registered: 01-2005 |
I'll give them a shot. I'm going back and forth between Yes and King Crimson filling in my collection of albums that I've missed out on. Larks's was the last one I bought, so Yes is up to bat! |