Listen to an album you've never heard by an artist you never listen to and then tell us about it!

Moon Pix became a landmark album for me, I always want drums and guitar to sound like that.

imho Jim White is the greatest living drummer working within the rock and rock-adjacent field

trying to think abt what I should start with here and those Jane Siberry albums are tempting, otoh I already know I would prob like them

i think (GI) is as good as...hmm...name some art that came out in 1979. The Black Stallion? Apocalypse Now? a Cindy Sherman untitled film still? in that realm.

when Jim White came in my store the day after a Xylouris White show around the corner all i did was grill him about Nina Nastasia. he was cool with it. he loves her too.

I made it all the way through the Pavement album. There was some actual singing on it. Some of it was even OK. I understand why people thought he was imitating Mark E. Smith, but that was only one song out of 14 or 15 so I don't know why people fixate on it. The particular type of distortion on the guitars occasionally reminded me of the first Stooges album, which was a good choice, and as I said before the drummer was better than I expected him to be. I think ultimately metal has ruined this kind of music for me, because I just don't understand why anyone would write and perform songs that feel so...uncommitted, would be the best word. Like, Rob Halford and Ronnie James Dio and Bruce Dickinson (and their respective bands) gave fully committed performances at all times. And that kind of boneheaded theatricality is the minimum acceptable standard for rock performance, in my opinion. You don't even have to look to metal for comparisons, either. Think of Bad Brains. H.R. was fully committed, 100% from start to stop. This "indie" "rock" idea of acting cooler than the thing you're doing (singing a song), of mumbling and strumming and swaying slowly back and forth (whether they are or not, they sound like they are) is abhorrent to me. It sounded unprofessional in a deliberate way — like, it was sometimes mixed so that the vocals were buried, but not on every track, so the ones where they were seemed like mistakes that they didn't care enough to fix. I will never listen to Pavement again; they are Not For Me.

― Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Thursday, 7 March 2024 19:14 (seven minutes ago) link

I feel like a lot of these reflections on indie rock as a whole are 80% an uncharitable caricature and 20% true, but I'm not going to be the guy to drag you kicking and screaming through indie recommendations. Also there are so many sounds underneath the vague "indie rock" umbrella that it's easy to make it mean whatever you want it to.

I've never listened to Moon Pix or a Cat Power album so maybe I will do that next.

xp Yeah I feel like unperson is taking “indie rock sucks” as a starting point, and then trying to retrofit based on that (which is part of what my earlier comment was getting at).

I used to hate Pavement but I came around on them a while ago. You have to let go of what you want them to be and let them be what they are. They don't "groove hard." That's not what they're about. Their rhythmic approach is more like a piece of driftwood on a creek, just lazing along.

unperson – what do you think of the Germs, or Circle Jerks, or various other punk bands not fronted by H.R., which take some approach to performance (maybe involving a certain detachment, or irony) other than "fully committed" "theatricality"?

I hate the Germs. I love the Circle Jerks (saw them on their 10th anniversary tour, which I feel like was billed as a farewell, ha ha). I have also seen Keith Morris with OFF! and would never describe him as uncommitted or ironically detached/distanced from what he's doing. He's a flamethrower.

Do the Pavement dudes come from money? Because I feel like there's a class-based element to my hatred of "indie" "rock", like the music lacks energy because the musicians can just go get jobs at their dads' investment banks if it doesn't take off. Whereas metal bands mostly come from nothing (yes, Lars Ulrich was a rich kid, but James Hetfield absolutely was not) and need the band to succeed if they're going to eat that month. And that tension is audible in the music.

i don't know if i'll talk about it here but i definitely want to listen to more 20th century classical that i haven't heard. i think i appreciate it more now. i used to think a lot of it was too tedious but now that i am old and tedious its just right for me. i've been listening to Elliott Carter all day. i just got some great stuff in. your berg and your webern and your wolpe. tons of those cats.

but i'll totally talk about taylor swift here. maybe.

I think Malkmus was pretty much ordinary middle class. Not sure about the other guys.

one of them was a bartender after pavement.

re Neutral Milk Hotel

I guess I can’t blame this band for the future inane campfire indie to come.

ha tbh I have only listened to that album once, hated it, and I did think "so it's all this guy's fault"

xxxp I mean, what do you think of Bo Diddley? He's pretty slack & relaxed sounding... (and he rules)

I guess if you're using metal as your gold standard of what rock music should sound like, then you're not gonna like a lot of it... but I think you're pointing to qualities in "indie rock" that are present in tons of rock music generally.

by coincidence I listened to a Genesis album (Selling England By The Pound) the other day. the only Genesis I've ever heard before are a couple of the 80s hits and I Can't Dance was all over MTV when I actually watched MTV with any regularity. it was ok! might try a few more

this probably doesn't count because I love Art Bears but I have never listened to Slapp Happy for some reason. I will get on that

i don't think i've ever listened to a Kansas album.

I think you're pointing to qualities in "indie rock" that are present in tons of rock music generally

True. I feel very strongly that rock music should actually rock. When it doesn't, I get upset.

i don't think i've ever listened to a Kansas album.

The first five Kansas albums are all great. They rock. Plus violin solos.

lol what, that would not be my characterization of Bo Diddley.

xo

What's the best Paramore album? I don't think I have ever deliberately listened to Paramore, and they seem like a part of a whole style that is just a blank space for me.

xp How would you characterize him? He's loose! I'm listening to him right now, after S&E – I think they're aesthetically complementary.

Like tell me this isn't in the same musical universe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kMX9TGiQb0

the indie slacker aesthetic probably owes something to the original "hipsters" who were mostly white middle-class kids trying to act like black bluesmen and rock and rollers, so there is sort of a throughline there.

I would just be very bored with rock 'n roll if it all tried to "rock hard" like Judas Priest or something... but at least unperson is consistent I guess (and to be clear, I don't think it's a crime to be turned off by Pavement).

What's the best Paramore album? I don't think I have ever deliberately listened to Paramore, and they seem like a part of a whole style that is just a blank space for me.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, March 7, 2024 3:01 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i am having such a difficult time answering this question. anyway it's not their best imo but if you want the core, the heart sound of paramore, before they started changing things up a lot, brand new eyes

i listened to a bunch of paramore during the pandemic.

I've never listened to Moon Pix or a Cat Power album so maybe I will do that next.

I am very partial to Cat Power's The Greatest, although it was departure from her earlier work.

that live video where she sings that song that she's never done live omg what is that song? its nuts. i guess it fit my mood at the time.

Morrisp -- tight, syncopated, uptempo, and high energy! It rips.

There’s something smarmy about SM’s songwriting voice that keeps me from loving them, but I like them, I like him.

otfm

would amend to "i like them more or less, i appreciate him"

i've never listened to a cat power album but i think i'm good there for awhile. i think i do want to try some current pop people i've never listened to. there are only all of them as far as whole albums go.

I watched that recent Joan Baez doc despite never having listened to one of her albums and it made a pretty big to-do about Diamonds and Rust as a career high point for her. Which turned out to be an excellent suggestion because that album is tremendously lovely.

I really like What Would The Community Think by Cat Power but her other stuff I'm not really into, like Moon Pix is OK but I wouldn't actually put it on ever

I've been a longtime lover of Joni and obviously she's leaps and bounds ahead of Joan from a musical standpoint but in both cases the crystalline singing goes down very nice.

Cat Power's album from last year covering Dylan at Royal Albert Hall is outstanding. I didn't discover it until the very end of 2023 or it probably would have made my lists.

I feel allergic to Joan Baez's voice. I've never been able to get through an album.

"and it made a pretty big to-do about Diamonds and Rust as a career high point for her."

Unperson is totally going to tell you that Judas Priest rocked "Diamonds and Rust" way harder than Joan Baez...

which, you know, they did...

The Thievery Corporation - Sounds From The Thievery Hi Fi

This starts with some nice spacy dub crackles.. the beat then kicks in and it tastes fresh, pour some vodka in your Jamba Juice. Really really well engineered, the spacy keyboards coexist peacefully with the drums.

The random reggae DJ/rapper vocal samples aren’t too obtrusive but they just seem kind of random, like not a lot of thought was put into picking them and they don’t make the tracks sound “cool” or “street”, it’s just the audio equivalent of a shitty looking titles/credits on an otherwise high production tv show opening.

The repetitive beats are slicing and dicing nicely here, I must say, they have great texture. And the space is impressive. This completely shits on DJ Cam, no offense, DJ Cam

There are no surprises here, everything is integrated seamlessly but it’s produced so well that the sounds don’t mush together into a sludge, there’s a big space here that doesn’t get squashed by the beats.

It’s interesting thinking about this stuff in relation to smooth jazz stuff that was more in the air earlier in the decade. I can see how TC may been hostile to smooth jazz as a desecration of whatever Giles Peterson type eclectica they were going for but come on this is smooth af. You could have soprano saxes all over this album and it would sound great!

One thing I still can’t get used to is that sound effect that’s like a cymbal fading in “ssssssSSSSSHHHH”, it always breaks the… organic effect.

“Universal highness” should have just been the 30 second + intro. The rest is boring, not an interesting chord change and no neat sound effects.

This album is almost 80 minutes long.

Ok “scene at the open air market” incorporates some backwards cymbals that sound nice. Nice smooth chipper vibe, they do mix up the hip hop with the latin rhythms really seamlessly. So much space.

I could see myself throwing this on again when I have a bad headache or something. There’s not a lot I can do that with, tbh

“38.45” does some cool chill drum and bass thing, stuff like this that makes me think of the intertwining histories of electro and breaks, it used to confuse me

“Sleeper car” has nice echoing castanets but just a flimsy unconvincing noir mood.

I don’t know, this was pretty fine I guess. Nothing that made me want to turn it off. Production is nice, would like to hear them talk about their process I guess. How they get everything to sound all spacious yet crisp…

love it, nice work

I feel allergic to Joan Baez's voice. I've never been able to get through an album.

I can barely get through a song.

God I love Moon Pix. The sudden delay on the vocal when she sings “American Flag…” and then her guitar slips out of time from the drum loop. Magical.

Community is nice but I don’t love the guitar sound. You Are Free suffers from not-great recording to my ears. She’s great tho, love her to bits

Can’t listen to anything new today but I will do so tomorrow. Great thread. Thanks for that Leckey tip Nick!

Interesting to me ITT how the "slackness" of indie for some signifies privilege, whereas for me it always seemed to read as an expression of a everyperson's rejection of the ideals of mainstream pop music. Slackness as the opposite of slickness. To some folks this sounds like not trying or not caring, but to me it sounds like an evolutionary variant of punk. In the case of Pavement, AFAIK those guys were into hardcore punk early on and that lineage is spiritually there even if they don't sound anything like Bad Brains. I feel like in the 00s "indie" strayed from its punk roots and became more professional, more middle-class, and that stuff (Death Cab, later period Modest Mouse, Vampire Weekend) does bore me to tears.

anyway, carry on, this is a cool thread, fgti please listen to Midnight Marauders

nice thievery corp. rundown! i have the 2xlp here at the store maybe i'll put it on. i know i've never heard it. the orig. vinyl is pricey. though nobody has bought it yet...

xxp fabulous post, 100% cosign

"I feel allergic to Joan Baez's voice. I've never been able to get through an album."

"I can barely get through a song."

i don't listen to any of those trad folk revival people. bob gibson? glenn yarbrough? cisco houston? i don't even listen to odetta and she was rad.

i will listen to judy collins cuz her choice in covers was amazing and ivo taught me to love "my father" and she does a version of my fave alice cooper song.

Does Sandy Denny count as one of those? Cuz Sandy Denny rules and no one should sleep on her

xp Same, Scott, and I kind of wish it weren't so because that music runs in my family and I inherited records of it. I can't even really listen to Pete Seeger.

xp she does not count <3