50 Rock Songs I Want Everyone To Hear

This is way more articulate than I would be capable of, esp. this morning. Thank you.
And yep, still killing it current day. 2wice is another great Conley song which needs to be heard at full volume.

 

Big Black – Bad Penny (1987)

“Racer X”, “Bad Penny”, their cover of Kraftwerk’s “The Model” or Wire’s “Heartbeat”, a Shellac or Rapeman song? All I know is (<---damn, that’s a sly Albini reference) that I absolutely had to include Steve Albini one way or the other. “Things To Do Today” was also on the short list.

I love just about anything he appears on. I like his stance on many (but not all) things. I love his recording techniques and I guess I’m somewhat of a fanboy. One of my most memorable musician meetings was when we chatted for a few minutes after a Shellac show 8 years ago. I bought a shirt from him and he handed it directly to me. To me, this is the equivalent of a classic rock fan going to the Led Zeppelin booth at a concert and Robert Plant or Jimmy Page is manning the booth handing off shirts to fans. I’ll stop gushing.

 

Yeah, Albini. One of those guys who I appreciate, but don't listen to much anymore. Love his production values, and his screeds in Forced Exposure were always worth reading. His tour diary of the last Big Black shows in same was brilliant in a geek musician way, plus he's never been afraid to make himself look bad and I find that admirable. I guess it's impossible to discuss his music without discussing him as he really does cast a wide shadow. Big Black were pure icy power drive, and while this is a good song, my favorite by them has always been "Kerosene" from the Atomizer album. That bass riff is just pure oomph.
Italians rule.

 

yeah, for some reason, although on paper his style of music should sit right in my wheelhouse, I don't find myself listening to his bands all that much. I was a bit out of the loop in the '80s, and didn't get my hands on a copy of a Big Black album until the early '90s, maybe that's why... am grateful to him, though.

it's funny, I don't hear much talk about Big Black anymore -- it's as if the success of Shellac has eclipsed Albini's own recorded legacy. I'm not one to use the "u" word ("Big Black underrated?"), but I'd say they're due for a wider rediscovery. Maybe if Albini ever let "Kerosene" be used in a film... but I'll be happier if he won't :--).

 

I heard the albums as they came out and Big Black kicked up a ruckus, and not just musically. A lot of people did not take to Albini's no holds barred approach to everything in general, and his abrasiveness turned off a lot of people, especially women. But he was just so undeniably intelligent and able to articulate what he was on about in his writing, interviews and music reviews that it was easy to admire him for sticking to his guns and having a rationale for doing so. If you're gonna be a pain in the ass it pays to have a philosphy behind it.
I think I have to re-visit these guys, its been over 20 years.

 

think I might spin The Rich Man's 8-Track this afternoon...

 

What, you're at all concerned that the ruthlessly ethical Steve Albini would even entertain the idea of a Big Black song being used in a film, and not just hang up on the producers like he did with major label A&R weasels?

Anyway: Big Black, great band. I picked up on them about the time Headache came out, and accordingly I've always had a particular shine for "My Disco" especially given its brutal and pummeling...well, I suppose it's technically the chorus part, but that term doesn't seem appropriate. They certainly demonstrated that drum machines weren't just for wimpy English synthpop bands.

 

well, even he's mellowed slightly with age, and I wouldn't begrudge him some additional security at this point. On that note, in my post, I didn't mean to suggest that Shellac has had runaway financial success, just critical and fanwise -- I imagine it's still a labor of love and the members make the donuts by other means (though they're all smart guys and I wouldn't surprised if they make the band work, budgetwise).

 

That combination of huge drum machine and buzzsaw guitar made Songs About ****ing the first Albini band album I purchased.

(That purchase was after reading that he was the producer/engineer behind Surfer Rosa and Rid Of Me in an old issue of Musician magazine)

 

The Pandoras - It's About Time (1984)

Yes, I'm back! Been a little sidetracked for the past 2 or 3 weeks with our trip to Canada and all. Hopefully I'll stay on through and wrap this thread up in the next few weeks.

If you don't dig this singalong then you probably don't have a pulse. I first heard this when the Children Of Nuggets boxset was released about 10 years ago. I was familiar with much of the set but somehow this little gem slipped through the cracks in all my years of devouring music. The very first album I bought as a result of Children Of Nuggets was their full length. I should snag another of their albums at some point.

The were very much contemporaries of The Bangles in the early 80s and the similarities are apparent. Tragedy struck in '91 when Paula Pierce died in the shower from a brain aneurysm. Just before this happened her recently-departed bandmates had formed The Muffs.

 

Their first two albums are both good, the one on Voxx and the one on Rhino.

Kim Shattuck and Melanie Vammen were both Pandoras and Muffs. Kim is still leading the Muffs, who just released a new album about a month ago.

 

Faust - Krautrock (1973)

I am no expert in this genre and I really only own the essential albums. This is most certainly one of them. To show you how little I know, I didn't even realize that this opening track was only included at the last minute and was previously recorded for a John Peel radio special. It wasn't even intended to be on IV.

Even though many would consider this to be pretty jarring, noisy and chaotic, I find it rather soothing and comforting…much like Metal Machine Music. I'd be willing to bet that Jason Pierce from Spiritualized has this one in his collection. That droning guitar wall wouldn't be out of place on one of his albums.

 

Matt Sweeney & Bonnie "Prince" Billy - My Home Is The Sea (2005)

I own about a dozen Will Oldham albums and this is the one that I return to most often. I don't think very many rank Superwolf as high as I. I don't really know too much about Sweeney although that I believe he was a member of that Billy Corgan Zwan project.

They really mesh well on this one. I'm assuming it's Sweeney minimal, electric guitar front and center. I like when Oldham collaborates because if left alone he has a tendency to create some utterly depressing music. This album might have some dark lyrical content but for the most part the arrangements counteract that for a nice balance. I just wish they'd make another album together.

 

UK Decay - Battle Of The Elements (1981)

Great band that never really got the respect they deserved. They formed at almost exactly the same time as Bauhaus and have a strikingly similar sound. They were also only about 20 miles apart from each other…something was in the water. While Bauhaus is a household name in the death-rock/goth scene, UK Decay is rarely mentioned. @Jim B. is one of the few who have posted about them on the forum.

Their debut album For Madmen Only and the previous EPs are all really great if you're into this tune. Their last EP before their initial breakup (they've recently reunited) was released on the Crass offshoot label, Corpus Christi.

 

Wow, that vocalist really sounds like Pete Murphy doesn't he? Although I remember these guys from back in the day this is the first time I've actually heard them. I wonder if their name and punk affiliations did them any damage - the name UK Decay slots in perfectly with the wave of UK82 punk bands, and I wonder if they got unwittingly slotted in with that lot but then dismissed by the punks when their sound didn't conform to the Exploited/Discharge template?

 

That's why I like to point out to people when they first hear them that they are not at all Bauhaus clones, but peers. I think some people associate them with the crust-punk/anarcho scene more than the goth scene when in reality, they are much closer in sound to Bauhaus than they are to Conflict, Crass and Rudimentary Peni. The black and white artwork even adds to that preconception.

 

Thanks to Synthfreek for mentioning them. One of my favourite bands.

It's kind of weird as they were kinda proto-goth (but far too great to ever be called a goth band, think of the better parts of the Banshees, Bauhaus, Killing Joke) but for some reason got put on that 'Punk and Disorderly' compilation alongside those hardcore new punk bands, which was kind of weird. They also got signed by Crass, so in a way covered those three different scenes, and never fit into one exactly.

Too punky for the goth fans, too goth for the punk fans

I would desribe them as dark post-punk if I had to.

The best thing they did, IMO, was the For My Country/Unwind 7", one of the best singles of the era. Really powerful and unique. But all their stuff is great IMO.

 

Crap. Not on Spotify.

 

And: I just remembered there was the documentary/widely circulated soundtrack album covering the UK82 bands called UK/DK, which likely solidified the punk connection.

Anyway, methinks I'm going to have to make up for lost time, as the above song is pretty cool.

 

Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home a Heartache (1973)

I think this is as great a song as any from Roxy's entire output. It was a tossup between this and "Ladytron" but Phil's smokin' outro solo cemented its appearance on my list.

This song is a mind-blowing showcase for everything that was great about those early albums. Bryan Ferry's amazing songwriting, lyrics and delivery, Phil Manzanera's already-mentioned solo, that creepy underlying organ, the studio trickery…it all gels perfectly to create one of their finest moments.

 

That's the most interesting Roxy Music I've ever heard. I don't think I've listened to that album. I've tried getting through a couple other albums that are highly rated, like Country Life, and I've never been able to get all the way through.

 

Thanks Synthfreek.
At this point Roxy where giants walking this planet, blazing paths of wonder and magic!

 

dang -- almost makes a guy want to start a "Roxy Music underrated???" thread around here...

 

Push comes to shove that's my favorite Roxy Music album. It has a dark sexiness to it, a true feeling of menace and humor that was some kind of balancing act. The snaky guitars, the thick sounding rhythm section, the synth textures that Eno conjured, the Ferry croon, it was a damned heady brew for 1973. Great stuff, and ...Dream home... sounded like a soundtrack to something that would usually be left unmentioned.

 

Dim the lights, you can guess the rest. . .