I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
Whatever composition John Lennon was humming to himself and arranging in his head when he was shot?
John peels favorite song Teenage Kicks by the undertones
"Cholesterol" - Vast Aire
"Smoke" - Think Tank
"Weight Of The Ocean", by We're About 9
Lately I've been listening to Eno's mid-70s classic Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy)
If you go beyond the singles in the Warren Zevon & Elvis Costello catalogs, lotsa great tunes.
GNR's "Chinese Democracy." Seriously -- no one's ever heard it (except for a few live cuts) because it's never been made.
Go ahead -- snicker.
"Please Remember Me", by The Swans. I have many more, this is just the first to come to mind...
Les Chansons de Jacques Derrida. And just as well.
"Glow In The Dark" - David Garza
Rockers Hi Fi (Love and Insanity Dub)- Kruder and Dorfmeister Sessions
Kevin Ayers and the Dr. Dream album (forgot the exact name)
I'll play
Affair on 8th Avenue - Gordon Lightfoot
Grand Larceny - John Gorka
One Red Rose - John Prine
Kansas - John Stewart
Winter Song - Harry Chapin
Once I Was - Tim Buckley
Junkie John - Tim Dawe
White Squall - Stan Rogers
Taurus - Spirit
What more can I say, John - Richie Havens (If ANYONE has this one, please let me know. I have been searching for it for years)
I guess that will do for now
I'm particularly fond of classic rock album cuts. That is, albums that have songs that everybody knows well, even though people rarely listen to the entire album. So, lots of people know "Band on the Run" or "Jet" but don't know "Let Me Roll It." Or, say, virtually all of the Rolling Stones Black and Blue album which has been seemingly drowned out by radio cuts from Some Girls. My favorite "unknown" classic rock albume cut is currently the Eagles' "The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks" from their Long Run album.
Pere Ubu - Datapanik in the Year Zero
Lou Reed - Street Hassle
Anything using those giant Japanese drums
The greatest lost track of all time:
The Late Greats' "Turpentine"
"Shivers" by The Boys Next Door.
Shit, what an excellent category. Where to start?
The French-Canadian metal band Voivod did some pretty kick-ass covers of a couple old Pink Floyd songs, Astronomy Domine and The Nile Song.
Red-era King Crimson. Wild Frontier by Gary Moore. All the old Schenker-era UFO. Paul Gilbert's Gilberto Concerto, which is a guitar rendition of J.C. Bach's Harpsichord Concerto in A.
Ulrich Roth-era Scorpions; Roth is maybe the most amazing guitar player around. Roth has a new album out, a guitar version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Really a remarkable player, completely unknown outside of guitar aficionados.
Betcha can't tell I play guitar.
Linda Perry "In Flight"
Linda Perry "After Dark"
4 Non-Blondes "Bigger, Better, Faster, More!"
Concrete Blondes "Mexican Moon"
Concrete Blondes "Group Therapy"
All that music that must have been boiling out of Cat Steven's ears during his voluntary hiatus from music.
"Wrecker Of Engines", by The Jack Rubies.
"Welcome Machine Gun", by Hubert Kah.
"I Wanna Be A Lifeguard", by Blotto.
"Charlotte Anne", by Julian Cope.
Tom Waits - Goin' Out West
Stan Rogers "Home in Halifax" where they sing "Barrett's Privateers!"
And all those songs BW Stevenson never got a chance to sing.
"everyone says"
brian jonestown massacre
The entire The The (yes that is the band's name) Mind Bomb disc is must-have, but even years later "Armageddon Days are Here Again" breaks through the surface of haunting premonition today.
If the real jesus christ were to stand up today
He’d be gunned down by the c.i.a.
Oh, the lights that now burn brightest behind stained glass
Will cast the darkest shadows upon the human heart
But God didn’t build himself that throne
God doesn’t live in israel or rome
God belong to the yankee dollar
God doesn’t plant the bombs for hezbollah
God doesn’t even go to church
And God won’t send us down to allah to burn
No, God will remind us what we already know
That the human race is about to reap what it’s sown
The world is on it’s elbows and knees
It’s forgotten the message and worships the creeds
Armageddon days are here again
Grand Hotel and the rest of the songs on the album "David Blue", by david blue in GV, NYC
1968..."Arcade love machine", beyond the pale...
DWD -- big Oh Yeah on "White Squall". I'll add "The Vacation Of Their Lives" by Christine Lavin, "Men and Women" and "Happy Endings (Romeo and Juliet)" by Andrew Ratshin, and the entire original cast album of Weird Romance.
Well, literally no one has ever heard the Music of the Spheres, the sound the heavens make, which we do not notice because it's always been there, according to the Pythagorean/Platonic tradition.
But if you're talking about obscure pop music, that is something totally other.
Sparta - "Air"
Sparta - "Lines in Sand"
Sparta - "Guns of Memorial Park"
Helmet - "Milquetoast"
Queens of the Stone Age - "The Sky is Fallin'"
And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - "Sources Tags and Codes"
The Clash - "Hateful"
Radiohead - "Let Down"
Alice in Chains - "Nutshell"
System of a Down - "Suite Pee"
All that music that must have been boiling out of Cat Steven's ears during his voluntary hiatus from music.
Or when he was thrown off a flight to the US. Damned "Peace Train"-writing terraist...
the notorious cherry bombs- it's hard to kiss the lips at night that chew your ass out all day long
"Napolean Sheds His Skin" by Red Rider.
The most amazing (rock) pedal steel guitar solo in the history of civilization.
And, in some shameless carryover from the previous thread, in which Ripley reported that someone saw the Holy Trinity in three knotholes... here's a new song for your evening. Think bouncy country-gospel, with as much twang as needed.
JESUS IN MY COFFEE TABLE
Well, the good lord is with me, he's around me every day,
His commandments are pithy, and they help me find my way
And if sometimes I get weak and I start to feel doubt,
I pick up a hunk of teak and he always helps me out.
'Cause I see Jesus in my coffee table, right there in the grain,
Just above the waxy buildup, just below the stain,
Don't you try to dare imply it's something in my brain,
'Cause Jesus in my coffee table, right there in the grain.
Now Jesus is my savior, and he's handy 'round the house,
He cleans up after both my cats and dresses up my spouse,
He never lets stuff hit the carpet, never leaves a smell,
And no cake or souffle I've set upon him ever fell.
I've got Jesus in my coffee table, an inspiring tale,
There's his profile in the knothole, just like Chip 'n' Dale,
Dubious, but I'm not a nut, who knew the Holy Grail
Was destined for my living room when Art Van had a sale.
It all makes perfect sense to me, that this is how he'd show,
His day job was a carpenter, he'd work with what he'd know,
And all the joins are perfect, of a seam there's not a trace...
But I coulda sworn when it was new, the legs were NAILED in place!
I've got Jesus in my coffee table, praise be to the lord,
Don't call me unstable, I can see him, and he's board,
Don't give me the third degree, the only thing I'm sayin',
Is Jesus in my coffee table, right there in the grain.
Yeah, Jesus in my coffee table, right there in the grain.
Oh, man, NYMary is gonna be so pissed she's missing this.
Rhinoceros - Apricot Brandy
Spirit - Mechanical World
Gordita just showed up below. Smug. Sigh. Well, I've gotta get some sleep. Hugs to you all.
Here's a great one: "Dry Cleaner from des Moines" from the fairly unknown Joni Mitchell album Mingus. It's a Charles Mingus composition, with a Jaco Pastorius arrangement--a cool shuffling bass line (played by Jaco, himself), with agit-funk horns. The lyrics are quite cool too, about a schlep who keeps winning at the slots in Vegas while Joni, broke, looks on in disbelief.
Flogging Molly "A Mile from Home"
Oh Lori by The Alessi Brothers
Sunny by Bobby Hebb
When I was in high school drama, I helped direct a play. One of the actors wrote a song based on a dream one of the other actors had had, involving rectal bleeding and Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld. It went:
I've got a tampon up my ass
I've got a tampon up my ass
It was really quite a blast
To have a tampon up my ass
I was paralyzed with fear
To be bleeding from my rear
My girlfriend said "Relax"
And handed me a Tampax
I've got a tampon up my ass
I've got a tampon up my ass
It was really quite a blast
To have a tampon up my ass
I met Cosmo downtown
He was wearing quite a frown
I asked him what was wrong
And he sang me this song
I've got a tampon up my ass
I've got a tampon up my ass
It was really quite a blast
To have a tampon up my ass
Juvenile yes, but it still makes me laugh years later. Wish I could remember the chords...
Beck's Bolero- Jeff Beck
"me fear the saber-tooth tiger", by king kong.
Martha and the Muffins, "echo beach"
Gary Myrick and the Figures, "lost in clubland"
Stone Roses, "I wanna be adored"
Most Siberian throat singing.
"Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream" - Limelighters (Their dream of no more war)
Down With My Face on the Floor-Emmet Rhodes
Look out, there's a Monster Coming- Bonzo Dog Band
I'd say Yoko Kanno's Dance of the Curse, but I know one person heard it: John Williams. Enough to rip it off for Duel of the Fates from Star Wars Phantom Menace.
Anything by Nick Drake, except "Pink Moon", which everybody has heard now since it was used in that VW commercial.
"Guns don't kill people, rappers do" by Goldie Lookin' Chain
Not that I can remember the name of the band, unfortunately..
But it's a local one - the song is called "S & M Cowboy" and the line that almost made me crash my car was:
"I love to be spanked
While I'm listenin' to Hank".
I'll see if anything else pops in my head..
"So Hard to Make Things Out" - Frank Black and the Catholics (Pistolero album)
Most people prefer Pixies songs to Black's solo stuff, most Black solo fans prefer his major label albums (esp. Teenager of the Year), and people who like his indie stuff with the Catholics tend to like the Pistolero album least. But this may be the best song he ever wrote--it's a seamless fusion of heartland rock and punk, the lyrics manage are unqiuely glib and spiritual at the same time, and it's divided into three sections that work both as straight punk and more orchestral structure. And it sounds like Crazy Horse channeling Tom Waits.
Alt. - "Jesus Just Left Chicago" ZZTop. Now gone forever down the memory hole of classic rock radio, some of the most incendiary blues guitar ever crammed into 2:30 & should be about 10 minutes longer. Hendrix said Billy Gibbons was the best guitarist he'd ever heard, and this is probably the best he's ever done it.
Ooh, how about "I wanna be seduced" by (I think) Leon Redbone -- it was in the otherwise completely forgettable movie "Goodbye Girl" with Richard Dreyfuss and (ummmmm) Marsha Mason. A great little tune -- the first eight bars have stuck with me for, oh, I don't know, twenty-five years? And I've never heard it anywhere since.
Eli --
They actually play Julian Cope's 'Charlotte Ann' on VH-1 Classic, when they get into their New Wave/'80s mode. I've seen it several times, along with 'World, Shut Your Mouth.'
'Try, Try, Try' would be the one I vote for, since I don't think crazy Jude ever made a video for it. It's one bitchin' song.
I vote for any cultural commentary by Cincinnati's Raisins or psychodots recorded any time in the '80s. There's one they did called 'Subsistence Dance' that's really killer, though 'Robobo's Beef'
http://morrisxp.cstcis.cti.depau...ics/
wonder.html
(also recorded when the band did a project with Adrian Belew called The Bears, and I wonder where Jeffraham Prestonian might be ...?) called 'Robobo's Beef (You Gotta' Wonder)' -- anyhow, here's a sample:
http://morrisxp.cstcis.cti.depau...s/
sunnyday.html
"Rope's knotted tight
As the Seconal and alcohol are starting to unite
Farewells will always seem lame, it's a shame
To be takin' off forever on a day that's gonna rain
Aw heck, well I guess I'll stay
And check out one more sunny day"
Yep -- a pop song about suicide. It don't get much obscurer than that!
"Home" by Marc Broussard.
Of course, if you listen to non-corporate radio, you _have_ heard it.
Anything by The Refreshments
"We're Not Right" - David Gray ("Betty Ford, oh won't you be my valentine?")
"Hall of the Mountain King" - Savatage (speaking of guitar covers of classical music)
Heywood, I can't believe someone actually mentioned VoiVod and Roth here. Wild stuff...
Here's another: the song "Solfeggio," a Dick Hyman composition, as played by the Nairobi Trio on the old, old Ernie Kovacs show back in the 50s. The band playing it was, in fact, a small jazz combo dressed in Gorilla suits. Gorilla suits make everything better. Listen to it here.
Anything by the Negro Problem. Personally I like "If you would have traveled on the 93 north today"
They actually play Julian Cope's 'Charlotte Ann' on VH-1 Classic, when they get into their New Wave/'80s mode. I've seen it several times, along with 'World, Shut Your Mouth.'
I think that's actually how I discovered it (either that or one of my digital music channels); ditto for "Wrecker Of Engines" - so maybe not *quite* in the no-one's ever heard" category, but still precious damn few.
Best songs never heard? Hmm, I don't know about NEVER heard, but how about some (possibly) obscure stuff:
Borstal Breakout - Sham 69
Rip Off - Sham 69
3 by the Wolfetones:
The Men Behind The Wire
Broad Black Brimmer
The Boys of the Old Brigade
The Order of Death - Public Image LTD
Stupid Girl - The Rolling Stones
Quiet Desperation - Christy Moore
Scorpio - The Detroit Guitar Band
Do The Boomerang - Jr Walker
There's a lot more, but I think that'll do it.
Also, anything at all by Austin's own Daniel Johnston. Especially his very crudely recorded Songs of Pain series, available only on cassette, I think.
Jose's Christmas Trees - Oren Bloedow
(don't know if it will work, but clicking url might get you to the mp3, from salon)
er, clicking Homepage
Heywood, I can't believe someone actually mentioned VoiVod and Roth here. Wild stuff...
Their one video that U68 used to show cracked me the hell up. They'd have the hair flapping back & forth, gutturalling out, "Voivod! Hrnh hrrhrn hrr vod!", or something along those lines...
"Push it"
"Trip My Wire"
"Get Busy with the Fizzy"
"Deadwood"
all by Garbage:
Butch Vig, Steve Marker, Duke Erikson, Shirley Manson. US tour begins April 10.
Heywood, I can't believe someone actually mentioned VoiVod and Roth here. Wild stuff...
I also really like "The Drum", by Bongwater, "This Party Sucks", by The Slickee Boys, and a whole lot of lesser-known Golden Earring, in addition to the two everyone knows.
And a big thank you to whoever it was many moons ago who recommended "Alan Parsons In A Winter Wonderland", by Grandaddy.
Meet Me In The Morning - Bob Dylan
Not sure how "unpopular" it is, but you rarely hear it.
If you happen to be a generation xer, and a music geek, most of these songs will be familiar. Otherwise, I think most of them qualify as never heard.
When the Shit Hits the Fan by the Circle Jerks (the lounge lizard version, from the Repo Man soundtrack)
Uncle June and Aunt Kiyoti by Kristin Hersh
Ghost Ship by Robyn Hitchcock (it was a mini-disc b side to something or other)
The acoustic version of All of his Engines by the lead singer of Happy Going Nowhere (a long defunct San Francisco band from the 1990s)
Sweethearts by Camper Van Beethoven
Chartered Trips by Husker Du
Stretch Out and Wait by the Smiths (the American version, not exactly unheard, but memories of my Brett Easton Ellis-esque adolescence in LA just came rushing back).
Fairy Tale of New York by the Pogues (okay now this is just devolving into my favorite songs from the past 25 years so I'm going to stop here, but somewhere out there in the world is a videotape of an intoxicated and otherwise messed up 16yo me and friends lip synching this song, possibly involving disrobing).
Cool that you mentioned Bongwater, Eli, I'm particularly fond of "Talent Is a Vampire."
"See Who I Am", by Within Temptation.
"Ghost Love Song", by Nightwish.
"Lemuria", by Therion.
Guarantee that 99% of ya'll have never heard them, and should. 
"Twist in my Sobriety" Tanita Takarim
"Certain People I could name" TMBG
"Hand Springs" White Stripes.
I'll stop there because I could go on all night.
"red right hand", by nick cave
Beck's Bolero is groovy.
On a related note, Thumpin' Beat features the vocal stylings (heh) of Screaming Lord Sutch backed up by Jimmy Page, John Bonham, and Noel Redding-from the album Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends. Very cool.
Mott the Hoople's Rock and Roll Queen is another obscure British boogie masterpiece.
"maybe she go", by odetta
Kudos to dcinde for the Rhinoceros and Spirit cuts. And to Guess for the Emmett Rhodes suggestion. Great blasts from the past.
For vintage rock, might I suggest 'Tell Me All the Things You Do' by Fleetwood Mac, off Kiln House. That is a band that has an era for just about anyone.
More recently: Kings Highway by Joe Henry. Not rock exactly, probably contemporary folk, but with the Jayhawks backing you can't go wrong.
"red right hand", by nick cave
Ohh, I got *lots* of Cave. Almost all of Murder Ballads and Let Love In is fantastic, and he has tons of other great songs.
Mexico by Cake
Seek Up by DMB
Most of these artists I've never heard.
I'll throw in a couple, both by two-album-wonder 80s band Novo Combo:
City Bound (E Train)
Up Periscope
Ripley:
Yeah, I'm a huge fan of Roth and Michael Schenker. Most of the newer Eurometal stuff I can take or leave, but those two hit it for me. I still know all the old UFO/Scorps stuff, solos and all.
Roth's Sky Overture makes Yngwie Malmsteen (and me, for that matter) sound like a toddler with a ukulele. That guy is the master.
And Voivod's Nothingface is a tremendously underrated metal album. No effects, no bullshit, very atonal solos, and it's a goofy concept album about a town going senile and dying from aluminum poisoning. It shouldn't work, and yet it does.
Let's see, who else?
Gary Moore -- Corridors of Power
Y&T -- Black Tiger; Mean Streak
Rainbow -- Rising
Roger Waters -- Amused to Death
Jeff Beck -- Guitar Shop
Michael Penn -- MP4
Tesla -- Radio Active (bootleg from first tour -- believe it or not, I got it autographed by the whole band)
Scatterbrain -- Here Comes Trouble
Dread Zeppelin -- Un-Led-Ed
Bruford (w/Allan Holdsworth and Jeff Berlin) -- One of a Kind
And hey, Central Scrutinizer, don't forget the Frank Zappa song for which you were named:
This is the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER...it is my responsibility to enforce all the laws that haven't been passed yet. It is also my responsibility to alert each and every one of you to the potential consequences of various ordinary everyday activities you might be performing which could eventually lead to *The Death Penalty* (or affect your parents' credit rating). Our criminal institutions are full of little creeps like you who do wrong things...and many of them were driven to these crimes by a horrible force called MUSIC!
Our studies have shown that this horrible force is so dangerous to society at large that laws are being drawn up at this very moment to stop it forever! Cruel and inhuman punishments are being carefully described in tiny paragraphs so they won't conflict with the Constitution (which, itself, is being modified in order to accommodate THE FUTURE).
Fairy Tale of New York by the Pogues (okay now this is just devolving into my favorite songs from the past 25 years so I'm going to stop here, but somewhere out there in the world is a videotape of an intoxicated and otherwise messed up 16yo me and friends lip synching this song, possibly involving disrobing).
Not even my favorite Pogues song - it's somewhere behind "Lorelei" and "If I Should Fall From Grace With God", but I can see how it would be a great singalong...
Cool that you mentioned Bongwater, Eli, I'm particularly fond of "Talent Is a Vampire."
That definitely rings a bell, but so far "The Drum" is the only Bongwater song I've really liked.
"I Come from San Francisco"
Gold Chains
The Judy's "Vacation in Teheran" from Wonderful World of Appliances
marc ribot on guitar with cyro baptista playing with the masada string trio on john zorn's the circle maker, especially the song gevurah. incredible, marc ribot is simply incredible. check out
Even though I doubt it would qualify as 'unheard', but a big ditto to the individual above who cited Radiohead's "Let Down" -- to my ears, still the most transcendent thing they've written (with the possible exception of "Pyramid Song").
For me, the one album I always cite as never getting the attention it deserved was Crowded House's final one, "Together Alone". It might be massively uncool of me to be a fan of unabashedly pretty pop music, but I really think this was as good as *any* album released in the '90's, and sadly, next to no one bought it. But there are a half dozen songs on there that are classics -- "Nails in My Feet", "Kare Kare", "Private Universe", "Distant Sun", "Catherine Wheels", "Fingers of Love", etc.... maybe you don't know it, but your life is lacking something if you don't listen to these tunes.
I used to listen to Mean Streak a lot. Scatterbrain's Down With the Ship was hilarious. My sentences are very short.
Hey, Ripley ...
I saw the Refreshments open for Ben Folds in Cincinnati back in '94 or '95. You're right -- they're great. They had the most engaging 'WTF' sound, live. I was sorry they didn't get more airplay, I think there was one song WOXY used to play but I can't remember what it was called. Anyway, yeah -- I'll second on them, too!
Escapism by Keith Murray
[Redman]
Hooo-ahhh!
High as a motherfucker
Zonin on cloud nineteen as the Def Squad takes you
on another eerie place... of a dark side
Yesssss!!!
[Keith Murray]
I escape from the world
To show niggaz that my style is superb
For what it`s worth I`m gettin off planet Earth
but I gotta redefine gravity first
So I figure, I get my guns and I bust the biggest cap
from the demand of the trigger
I`m equipped to dip with a knapsack
and a survival kit, with blunts n shit (word!)
I`m in all black, ?with a face? money
wanna double to NASA, to hijack a space shuttle
More ages than curiosity
I enter the backdoor with animosity ("Yeah, here`s Murray!")
Searchin for the astronauts, checkin my watch
Determined the time I had to be out
I saw my prey without a second delay
Suited up, strapped down, straight and on my way
For five seconds to liftoff I was in the Hell
when I escaped from the world
I escaped from the world (4X)
So far...
I went through a Milky Way of stars
And landed on my destination, which was Mars (whoa, shit!)
This planet was foreign and new
As I`m puffin on a blunt, observin the view
To my surprise, a spaceship arrived
Out came a Martian, with six fingers and three eyes
He spoke a bleeky type of dialect ("Bleek, bleek bleek bleek bleek
bleek")
but understood my form of intellect
I said, "I`m Keith Murray from the planet Earth
Boy I`m psychosomatic and homicidal with a verse"
My hypercritical form of words busts his brains
and then the whole atmosphere changed ("What the fuck?")
rrarahrhagharhar rharhagahgahrahgh
I was surrounded by some Martians in the hut about to front
I used my last resort, and pulled out the Blunts
Lit it, got the whole Martian crew blitted
So now`s my chance to try to get acquitted
I said, "I escaped from the planet Earth
to let my mind untwirl because I`m mad at the world
And the murder wasn`t premeditated
My language was just mis-interpretated"
One acknowledge I`m right and pulled out the peace pipe
Aight? About to set the vibes right
He lit it with his finger, I smelled the Martian buddha linger
I felt good cause I released some anger
No sooner than the cease of the herb ignite
I was headed back to Earth at the speed of light
Upon my return niggaz thought I was in jail
Nah kids... I escaped from the world
[Redman]
As we zone, on the cosmic type of funk
(escapism y`all)
We drop mad flows, for the 1990`s
(escapism y`all, escapism y`all)
The Funk Doctor Spock signin off live
(escapism y`all, escapism y`all, escapism y`all)
This is how we do
(escapism y`all, escapism -- escape from the world)
Flows enough for the nineteen ninties and we OUT!
(escapism y`all)
Ron,
Whoa, that was so damned obvious!
Thanks for pointing it out.
"Broadway the Hard Way" is another excellent album. Zappa saw ALL this shit comin' down.
God, the Judy's were a great band. Why didn't they ever become really well known? Seeing them play at Numbers in Houston during the mid 80s is one of the better concert experiences of my life. I prefer, "Guyana Punch," myself, however.
Todd Rundgren -- Zen Archer
Spirit -- Morning Will Come
Tenacious D -- Lee still cracks me up
Midnight Oil -- The Dead Heart
Megadeth -- Looking Down the Cross
Junkyard -- Hands Off.
I used to to get stoned listening to this song thinking damn mothafucker hijacked the space shuttle and got bunted with martians. You gotta be high to write some shit like that.
Ah, also "White Wall" by The Nails, and at least half of Thomas Dolby's One Of Our Submarines album ("Europa & The Pirate Twins", "Windpower", "Radio Silence", "Cloudburst At Shingle Street").
As long as it's really songs that most have never heard then I recomend:
Let Us Go Into the House of the Lord
From Love Devotion Surrender
John McLaughlin/Carlos Santana
Then again the word 'song' doesn't really apply. Not that symphony or concerto would either. Let's say musical performance. Of course most demand a context so I'll say jazz fusion. Forget context if you can.
"Girl Noise," by the Chubbies
Bless Atrios's heart for giving us two threads, one for us to talk amiably and the other for some strong-stomached souls to keep trolls occupied with flinging their feces at walls.
"Deadfall" - Martha Keller/Juanita Coulson
Also fond of some things by this guy Tom Somethingorother - wanted to play "Rocket Ride" at my mother's wake but couldn't find my sister's copy.
and as long as we're talking Pogues, how about Mojo Nixon's "Shane's Dentist"
Heywood, someone posted a diary at Dkos about Dead Heart last nite. Said the song raised the hairs on his neck.
Here's another: the Revered Horton Heat's "Jezebel."
The Long Walk by Poi Dog Pondering
Hey, Eli, your name came up in conversation at dinner tonight.
Are those really highlights?
Heywood, someone posted a diary at Dkos about Dead Heart last nite. Said the song raised the hairs on his neck.
"The Forgotten Years" is also very good, but yeah, "The Dead Heart" is outstanding.
"Christmas in the Trenches," John McCutcheon
Based on a true story of a peaceful meeting of British and German troops during a Christmas truce in World War I.
The lyrics are here:
http://www.worldwar1.com/sfcitt.htm
Anyone remember Manic Street Preachers? They had two songs I liked but I can't think of, of the top of my head.
Hey, Eli, your name came up in conversation at dinner tonight.
Are those really highlights?
Wow.
Only my barber knows for sure.
Ripley:
Yeah, Down With the Ship is a lot of fun. They do a pretty cool guitar vresion of Mozart's Piano Sonata on that one too.
Good call on the Crowded House, Steve. Unapologetically Beatlesque, very pretty pop. Distant Sun is a terrific song. You could throw a lot of XTC in that pile too, though saying they were unsung is sort of like saying Rush is unsung; they have lots of fans, they just never hit the charts. Thank God.
Maybe it makes me a snob asshole, but I don't want Britney Spears' fans digging Zen Archer or Rush, dammit. That's what fucked up Metallica.
(Well, and me, of course...)
Based on a true story of a peaceful meeting of British and German troops during a Christmas truce in World War I.
Just like in the Paul McCartney video for the super-awful "Pipes of Peace." That's a song that I wish I'd never heard...
La Morena by Los Super Seven. Well, I like it, anyway.
Joe Pernice's "Bum Leg"
I got this lump growing in my neck
That somebody oughtta see
Got a rattle in my chest
the way it sounds
Like a barrel full of empty bottles
Rolling through the night
Hitting every fucking pothole in that town"
Party tune!
"Walking on Air" by OMD.
No footsteps on the stair tonight,
No cigarette for me to light,
No heavy-scented clothes to fall to the floor...
"Call of the West," Wall of Voodoo
and I second "Street Hassle" and "Echo Beach"; thanks for reminding me.
anything by Groove Collective. El Golpe Avisa is one favorite.
"Children of Jack" by Guy Forsyth
Any fans out there?
"I Come from San Francisco"
Gold Chains
Love that song!
I also like me a whole bunch of Big Bad Cherry Poppin' Voodoo Zippers (okay, I admit, I really can't tell them apart, but I dig them all), especially "Drunk Daddy".
califone: "tayzee nubb"
godspeed you! black emperor: "lift your skinny fists like antennae to heaven"
these two bands will change your life and make you happy. well, as happy as you can be with a big ol' piece of dickcheese running the country...
I saw Guy Forsyth play somewhere on 6th street in Austin in the mid 90s. It was a pretty darned good show. He sounds much more bluesy than he looks.
Shit, I can't believe I'm late to the party on this one. Off the top of my head I'll name what I think is one of the great unknown albums, Tsunami's A Brilliant Mistake. I'd have to give it a thought about the best song is; perhaps "Match." Oh yes, and in the Eschaton spirit, there's a song on it called, I kid you not, "David Foster Wallace."
Other great unknowns that spring to mind: Unrest's "Imperial" from the album of the same name. And King Kong, from the same era, "Mama mama" from Old Man on the Bridge.
Shit. End Italics.
Somebody mentioned Cake earlier. Comfort Eagle is a waaay fuckin' cool song.
Also from the Santana/McLaughlin era, Fire-Sky. Can't recall which album offhand, maybe Welcome. Just fucking burning fretwork.
"End Italics." Great song!
Just kidding...
I detect that Ahianne's a fellow alto -- "tu solus altissimus" in any SATB Mass setting means that the altos get two solos. Or it means that only you altos are great. Depends on who's translating the Latin.
(we're working on the Faure requiem so we'll be ready. We're hoping the poor man hangs on until we're well enough rehearsed not to be a travesty.)
"Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd" by Roger Miller. I have it on 45!
oooh, oooh...speaking of bands with "cake" in their name...anything that The Sea and Cake ever recorded to vinyl/tape/disc is a must have.
Oh, and "Big Time Operator", also by swing-y Daddies of some sort.
Good call on the Crowded House, Steve. Unapologetically Beatlesque, very pretty pop. Distant Sun is a terrific song.
Heywood J.
Thanks Heywood - Neil Finn's my favourite songwriter, though I'd say the most Beatlesque song he wrote was "Not the Girl You Think You Are" -- off their greatest hits collection. Several times when I've had it playing, someone's asked me if it was some undiscovered Beatles track. Even the arrangement is very '60's-sounding.
Sound of Mecca - The Blazers
Jack the Ripper - Link Wray
Wheels - The String-A-Longs
Slow Dance with a Fast Girl - The Aqua Velvets
Maximum Radiation Level - Man Or Astro-man?
The Casbah - Los Straitjackets
Brains & Eggs - Los Straitjackets
Welcome To Our Underworld - Twistin' Turantulas
Old South Quartette - Oysters and Wine at @ AM
Bill Fay - Screams In My Ears
The Teardrops - Hey Count De Bok Bok
X-X - You're Full of Shit
Lucie Skeaping - Bird List Song
Corpses As Bedmates - Willow Tree
Ferlin Husky - Undesired
Alec Johnson - The Mysterious Coon
Pinky Pinkston - The Fisherman
Wannabe Texans - Rich Girl
The Mad - Eyeball
Robin Gibb - The Worst Girl In This Town
Hail - Burlesque Egg
Poppy Family - That's Where I Went Wrong
Armand Schauebroeck Steals - Ratfucker
Patience and Prudence - The Money Tree
Jimmie Revard - Holdin' The Sack
That'll do 'til I get my second wind...
"Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin. They were a hard, bluesey English band from the 60's and 70's but broke up after their drummer died.
Great lesser known songs by better known artists -- Lou Reed, "Strawman" from New York; Dramarama's "Where's the Manual" I forget which album but it always hit the groove for me as well as their better known tunes.
And one of the best songs in all of creation for when you are feeling, well, like life hasn't given you all you wanted -- The Replacements' "Unsatisifed" off of Let it Be. Many years ago a friend o' mine played it six times in a row while doing the 3am-6am shift on his college radio station after getting dumped.
I saw Guy Forsyth play somewhere on 6th street in Austin in the mid 90s. It was a pretty darned good show.
Yeah, boy, he can rip it UP. I have all his CDs and just damn near have every song memorized. In fact, I think I may see if he's playing in san antone again soon...love me some Guy. He's the only act that I can drag my husband into a bar to see! We think he's the best musician out of Austin. But then again, there are so many great musicians in Austin.
Oh yeah -- I agree with the people who've mentioned "Echo Beach", by Martha and the Muffins.
That was my favourite song one summer way back when.
Heywood J.
Did you ever hear the story about that song about 'halved a man in Boulder' that goes with "Zen Archer"?
Someone once asked Todd if that was a reference to a real incident.
Todd laughed, then said, "Not that I now of -- I just liked the line 'eyes of the beholder' and had to come up with a line that went with it. 'Halved a man in Boulder' rhymed, so I went with it."
I love that guy.
Gonna see him in the area in a month or so, he's on a VH-1 Classic tour with Joe Jackson. I've seen him several times -- still look forward to it.
"One More Astronaut" - I, Mother Earth.
"Vanishing Cream" - The Hunger
The Residents, "Bach Is Dead". Also "The Laughing Song", "Elvis's Boss", and "Blue Rosebuds".
Almost anything by The Red Elvises.
The Saints: "No, Your Product"
Richard Hell & The Voidoids: "Another World", "I'm Your Man"
or
Jimi Hendrix doing his instrumental version of "Anarchy In The U.K."
Heh.
"The Laws Have Changed", by The New Pornographers. Umpteen hooks, and layers of grooviness. Irresistible.
Debutante by Nash Kato.
Ah, Eli, the Residents! Great choice! I'm pretty fond of their cover of "Land of a Thousand Dances" from the Third Reich and Roll album. It's got a pretty weird video, too.
Also:
Honny and the Bees Band - Psychedelic Woman
Mary Hopkin - Silver Birch and Weeping Willow
Vashti Bunyan - Where I Like to Stand
Maxine Sullivan - If I Had a Ribbon Bow
Della Humphrey - Don't Make the Good Girls Go Bad
Tammi Terrell - A Sinner's Devotion
Cowsills - Prophecy of Daniel and John the Divine
Barbara Morgenstern - Ein Tag Auf Dem Balkon
Facts of Life - Caught In The Act of Gettin' It On
France Gall - Nefertiti
Don't die just yet -- Arab Strap
Drunk with the only saints I know -- Carissa's Weird
Maybelle -- Ida
Shoe-in -- Ida
Boots of Spanish Leather -- Dylan cover by Ida
I prefer, "Guyana Punch," myself, however.
Ron
maybe it's that I just started reading "Reading Lolita in Tehran" and the upcoming invasion brought it to mind
Friends of P by The Rentals.
The Saints: "No, Your Product"
I like "This Perfect Day" and "Orstrylia" best.
Heatmiser, "Rest My Head Against the Wall"
And, whoever said "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave...right on...
"Love You Madly" by Cake
just pure, unadulterated fun.
New artist Rachael Yamagata's 2 songs Worn Me Down & I'll Find A Way
David Gray's - Nightblindness
Mazzy Star's - Blue Light
Anything by Steve Earle but I'll pick - The Revolution Starts Now
Heywood, I posted a couple of days ago that your web site is great. Keep up the good work, buddy.
"The Laws Have Changed", by The New Pornographers. Umpteen hooks, and layers of grooviness. Irresistible.
Oh, fuck yeah. I didn't want to step on NYMary's toes, but they have some great songs. "Mass Romantic" and "It's Only Divine Right" are also awesome.
"Christmas in the Trenches," John McCutcheon"
Damn, I just found that one recently! That is a great song. But if you want to hear another anti-war song that is guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes, give "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" a try. It was originally done by a guy named Eric Bogle, but I've heard it done by others as well.
"Nowhere Is My Home" by the Replacements. One of Paul Westerberg's greatest songs, it only came out on a UK-only compilation, so even a lot of 'Mats fans haven't heard it.
"hatian fight song", by charles mingus.
it doesn't have any words, but it's called a song.
About 2 dozen great Townes Van Zandt songs.
mink deville Cadillac Walk
haitian
doh!
"Nellie The Elephant", by The Toy Dolls.
I didn't want to step on NYMary's toes, but they have some great songs. "Mass Romantic" and "It's Only Divine Right" are also awesome.
Eli
Indeed - can't wait till their next album comes out sometime this year.
And like you, I'm afraid to delve deep into the power pop archives without NYMary here -- f'rinstance, there are piles of Matthew Sweet songs I'd like to add to the list here, but she's the savant in this area. I defer to her authority.
'till i gain control - Rodney Crowell
Naked - Bodeans
Dreanm about me - Linda Ronstadt
Keep me turnin' - Pete Townsend
Ringo Starr's song "Photograph" from the album Ringo.
BTW, a belated happy birthday to Robyn Hitchcock.
and M&tM "One Day in Paris" from This Is The Ice Age is pure sonic beauty
"saturday night", by the bay city rollers.
I'm glad to see Guy Forsyth mentioned. I loved the Asylum Street Spankers.
Speaking of Austin music, FUCKEMOS' "The Screams of the Wild Women" is a favorite I insist on only hearing absolutely pop-skulled.
David Duchovney by Bree Sharp
"da doo ron ron", shawn cassidy version.
"Talk Tonight" Oasis
Wow, this is some crazy shit. I think the only one I've heard is Fairytale of New York.
Anything off of Van Morrison's underappreciated "Veedon Fleece" is worth listening to.
Check out Girlyman:
www.girlyman.com/themusic/soundclips.html
Speaking of Austin bands and obscurity, how about "New York Bitch" by the Real Heroes? This band plays great smart pop, and they tend to get around the country from time to time. Go see them if you get the chance.
I second the "Veedon Fleece" comment..."Streets of Arklow"...etc.
"Martha Falling Down" - Patrick Brickel
John Ilsley - "The World Is Made of Glass"
Who's Behind the Door - Zebra
Tell Me What You Want - Zebra
"Jah Jah City"
Capleton
"Alcoholiday" - Teenage Fanclub
Addendum - "Martha Falling Down" - for those with EMusic accounts, the album is here:
http://www.emusic.com/album/1082...7/
10827967.html
And let's see, also:
Pre Fix - Underneathica
100 Flowers - Poltergeists At Home
Blue Orchids - A Year With No Head
The Passage - Love Song
X (from Australia) - I Don't Wanna Go Out
Murmaids - Wild and Wonderful
The Duchess - The Monkey
Roy Newman and His Boys - Devil With the Devil
Minimal Man - Pull Back The Bolt
Mrs. Jimmie Rodgers - Then The Evening Shadows Fall
God's Gift - Discipline
Lillie Delk Christian - My Blue Heaven
Alternahunk - Green Tara
Chrome - Eyes On Mars
OK, I'll give up now...
Ripley, if I recall correctly, because it's been over twenty years, those two Zebra songs are virtually identical. Don't get me wrong; they're worth a listen, good Rush/Genesis feel and all--they just seem to be more style over substance if you know what I mean. Kind of like Marillion.
We're On Our Way-Chris Hodge
The eponymous album by the Celtic-G.dead coverband Wake the Dead rocks in general; their cover of Sugaree rawks in particular.
Revolution and just about anything else by Toots & the Maytals
Another: X (from Los Angeles) "Doin' the Once Over Twice."
Crash
The Primitives
I like Sage Francis's songs
Sing that song of Beauty - Shawn Smith
"Everything" by Shelby Bryant
"White Lie Black Eye" by The Tearjerkers
"Guitar Shop Asshole" by The Oblivians
"Soda Pop Pop" by The Grifters
AND OF COURSE
"RUSH LIMBAUGH EVIL BLIMP" by Neighborhood Texture Jam
It's either "Do It" or "The Four Horsemen" by Aphrodite's Child (an early Vangelis project).
Show me a Smile- Fleetwood Mac
They don't sound the same, ron, but I agree that they weren't the deepest band around. Those are the only two Zebra songs I remember, to be honest.
WBtD has a nice little philosophy to it, though.
Another: X (from Los Angeles) "Doin' the Once Over Twice."
Ron
Where do you get the "Doin'" part?
Pedantic, I know...but...
Harold Rome wrote this back in 1936 for Pins and Needles -- and it's timelier than ever.
It's darker than the dark bottom
It rumbles more than the Rumba
If you think that the two-steps got 'em
Just take a look at this number
It's got that certain swing
That makes you wanna sing
Don't go left, but be polite
Move to the right
Doing the reactionary
Close your eyes to where you're bound
And you'll be found
Doing the reactionary
All the best dictators do it
Millionaires keep steppin' to it
The Four Hundred love to sing it
Ford and Morgan swing it
Hands up high and shake your head
You'll soon see red
Doing the reactionary
Don't go left, but be polite
Move to the right
Doing the reactionary
Close your eyes to where you're bound
And you'll be found
Doing the reactionary
All the best dictators do it
Millionaires keep steppin' to it
The Four Hundred love to sing it
Ford and Morgan swing it
Hands up high and shake your head
You'll soon see red
Doing the reac-
Doing the reac-
Tionary
So get in it, begin it
It's smart, oh, so very
To do the reactionary!
No, you're no doubt right. I guess that's how I sing the song in my head. With an apostrophe.
Superchunk, "Cast Iron".
Stina Nordenstam
So this is Goodbye
Lee Wiley - Baby's Awake Now
And a "doin."
One of the most underrated albums ever is Wire's Pink Flag. My favorite track off of it is "Mannequin".
Hasil Adkins: "She Said"
Africa Bambaataa & Johnny Lydon as Time Zone: "World Destruction"
or Jimi Hendrix: Acoustic version of the Dead Kennedys "Moon Over Marin"
Heh.
I loved the Asylum Street Spankers.
Yeah, crazy! I loved Stanley the clarinet player. He did this great song on the Spanker Madness CD called "Blade of Grass."
And of course, Wammo on the popular "We're winnin' the war on drugs, we're winnin' the war on drugs, praise the Lord and pass the bong we're winnin' the war on drugs..." and my personal favorite "If you love me, you'll sleep in the wet spot."
I could go on all night!
Click Clack-Cpt Beefheart
The Lion Sleeps Tonight backed w 7 Deadly Finns-Eno
HiHiHi-Wings
Fountains of Wayne - "Troubled Times"
One of the most underrated albums ever is Wire's Pink Flag. My favorite track off of it is "Mannequin".
Toby Petzold
Huh. I don't agree that it's underrated (tons of bands namedrop it and cover songs off it, and besides, "Chairs Missing" is way better), but I do agree that "Mannequin" is the best song on it. What's the world coming to when I agree even partially with Petzold?
Anything by Porcupine Tree. I second Roger Waters "Amused to Death". Also felt I was the luckiest girl in the world to see Luna live last week on their farewell tour, above and beyond!
Guy Forsyth is great, he and his old band were really pro-union, held benefits for a couple of fired shuttle bus drivers a few years back. He's also performed at various anti-war rallies in Austin. Cool guy....
No input on great music no one's heard, unless you count Shiva's Head Band. The bearded one himself plays with the Sawdawgs.
And on the Country side of things
"One Way to Go" by Wynn Stewart
"The Real Mr. Heartache" Johnny Paycheck (back when he was still Donnie Young)
"Taxes, Taxes, Taxes" and "Peroxide Blond," by Hank Penny.
Anything by Gob, particulary Soda & The Marching Song.
There's a fun version of Red Right Hand in Hellboy
wow, turns out that This Is The Ice Age is being re-issued (finally) on CD
My favorite UFO album is Force It. What a clean guitar!
Billy and The Boingers
I'm a Boinger
Riffing on Ehrenstein's blast from the past, I'm fond of the usually missing final two verses of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land."
As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!
And
In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.
One of the most underrated albums ever is Wire's Pink Flag. My favorite track off of it is "Mannequin".
Toby Petzold
"Rueters" and "Fragile" are great on that one. It's a great album.
I'm glad to know that the kids like Wire, Phila. I thought I was being obscure enough.
sympathy for the devil - stones
take the world by storm
"If you don't stop your fighting,
I'm gonna strike you all down with lightniing"
and
Red Sky
by the Big Wu
A couple more:
Ash Wednesday - Love By Numbers
Young Marble Giants - Final Day
And of course, Wammo...
Who was coincidentally also in Richard Linklater's first film Slacker as the anti-artist. He was very amusing.
Of course, the greatest song to ever come out of Austin is the Pocket FishRmen's "Big Ass on Fire."
"It's something I really desire..."
Solid all the way around, Bruce.
Unholy Trinity's version of "Bring the Noise"
Bonny Prince Billy's "Send My Love To You."
Young Marble Giants - Final Day
Wurlitzer Jukebox is better
also check out The Gist "Public Girls"
I'm glad to know that the kids like Wire, Phila. I thought I was being obscure enough.
Toby Petzold
Nah, that album got a fairly big push in the eighties and nineties. REM covered "Strange," and Elastica ripped off "Three Girl Rhumba" for whatever their big hit was (and got sued, I think). And Minor Threat covered "12XU." Lord knows how many people covered "Ex-Lion Tamer."
Nice to agree with you about something, Toby.
Jail Guitar Doors - Clash
"Saint Joe on the Schoolbus" by Marcy Playground is good and dirty.
Meshell Ndegeocello
Anything off the "Bitter" album
Wurlitzer Jukebox is better
Not to me, it isn't! It's a good song too, though. Not really that obscure anymore, but I can never resist giving 'em a plug. Weekend had a couple of good songs, too..."Nostalgia" and "Red Planes."
Christ, I'm old.
REM covered "Strange"
Yeah, that's right. Good cover, too.
So we're agreed.
"Blessed State" - Wire, 154
"Souped Up Ford" - Rory Gallagher, Against the Grain
"Young Girls at Market" - Bizarros, Bizarros
"Love Without Greed" - Graham Parker and the Rumour, The Up Escalator
nah, Toby, best Austin song is "Translate Slowly" by the Reivers
Christ, I'm old.
Phila
beats the hell out of the alternative
Gotta run along (wife's going dancing, I'm gonna sit around in a bar and read).
Hey Toby, let's get together for a beer! I'll burn ya a copy of my 77-78 Wire demos and outtakes.
Don't go making any moves, though...I'm a happily married man!
'Night, all!
Yet another: "Why" by Yoko Ono. I once played it for one of the high school classes I used to teach and the only one who didn't want to string me up for it was the weird exchange student from Germany.
That was one of my better days as a teacher.
Two Headed Boy by Neutral Milk Hotel
ok, anyone out there remember "My Three Suns" by the Individuals?
"Why" by Yoko Ono.
Ha! I love that. I'm not allowed to play it in the house, though.
Nah, that album got a fairly big push in the eighties and nineties.
Yeah, but I had that album in the late 70's. Aint I special (injures arm patting himself on the back)
What 'bout the Shrub's fav: "I don't care if it rains or freezes long as I got my plastic Jesus riding on the dashboard of my car.........."
Absolutely anything by R.E.M.
Phila:
Hey Toby, let's get together for a beer! I'll burn ya a copy of my 77-78 Wire demos and outtakes.
Sure. Say the word.
Don't go making any moves, though...I'm a happily married man!
Don't worry. My celibacy is terminal.
The enitre Lolita Nation disc by Game Theory.
Yeah, but I had that album in the late 70's. Aint I special (injures arm patting himself on the back)
Another Bruce
I bought in, I think, 1981...so I'll pat you on the back, too!
OK, I'm really out of here now. Cheers!
Maybe so, Preznit. The only song of theirs I know is a great all-time favorite of mine, anyway: "In Your Eyes." They even made a video for it back in the day.
ok, anyone out there remember "My Three Suns" by the Individuals?
My Three Sons Revolve Around the Earth...yeeash. That takes me back
Lincoln72 said:
Billy and The Boingers -I'm a Boinger
Cool! Many years ago I played in a cover band -- this was one of our 'signature songs' - I've never heard a band do it since.
The Deadheads got their Jerry
And Mom's got her Barry
And Ronnie listens to guys like
Falwell and Meese
But if you don't know by now
Bill bit the head off a cow
That's no lie
That's no lie, 'cus we're the Boingers
The enitre Lolita Nation disc by Game Theory.
Marsupial
I still prefer Pointed Accounts of People You Know, especially "Metal and Glass Exact"
One last choice: Syd Barrett's album The Madcap Laughs is a true work of genius. If "Golden Hair" doesn't creep up your spine, something's wrong.
veedon fleece is definitely worth a spin. i could have sworn i heard jimi hendrix playing little drummer boy on wpfw one late night in dc some years ago. never been able to find it, so i guess i might have been dreaming
Didn't the Boingers come out of a storyline where Steve Dallas was trying to come up with a new career or something along those lines? If I recall correctly, he looked over and saw Bill the cat making a heavy metal/hook 'em horns sign, and decided right then and there that he would manage a heavy metal group, which ultimately became Billy and the Boingers. I do miss Reagan era Bloom County.
Right... One of the other songs, was Lets Run over Lionel Ritchie w/ a tank..
I miss all that stuff.
This thread is making me dig out my '45 collection, which has some esoteric stuff. I'm looking at an ep called 'Animal Justice' by John Cale with a vicious song called "Chickenshit" in which he slams his drummer for quitting because Cale killed a chicken onstage.
As long as he ate it, y'know.
My Three Sons Revolve Around the Earth...yeeash. That takes me back
Phila
damn, Phila, I thought I was the only one who had that album. How about Beat Rodeo?
The chicken that is, not the drummer.
Mmmm. Chicken drumsticks....
The Dream Academy
Life in a Northern Town
"You're Still On My Mind" by the Byrds
Billy and the Boingers...
I found this link. Apparently the real band behind the music was the The Harry Pitts Band
http://jalandoak.its-official.co.../bb/
index.shtml
Thats great..
I quite like a few songs by Sigur Ros, the titles of which I am unable to spell here because my Icelandic is very poor.
No-one I talk about music with has ever heard of Sigur Ros, so maybe they're obscure enough for a mention.
I've heard of 'em, V, just don't know if I've heard the music.
Sonic Youth cover of the Carpenter's "Superstar"
The Dream Academy
Life in a Northern Town
Lincoln72 |
great song, but they used on the Simpsons once over the end credits, so not too obscure
Most anything by G. Love and Special Sauce
Super Bon-Bon (and many others) by Soul Coughing
Supper's Ready by Genesis (sorry, remnants of 70s prog-rockism - it's as good an album side as side two of Abbey Road)
My Life in th Bush of Ghosts - Eno and Byrne
anything from Midnight Vulture by Beck
genuine obscurity (for the most part):
"devil in the kitchen" - ashley macisaac
"de perros amores" - control machete
*anything* by cordelia's dad, fantastic folk-punk // shape-note
"why i'm so unhappy" - dntel
"puttin' people on the moon" - drive-by truckers
"luna y sol" - manu chao
"roads" - portishead
"how many cans?" - soul coughing
"the bachelor and the bride" - the decemberists
"wayfaring stranger" as performed by the white stripes (live bootleg only, i fear)
& too, too many more to list
There was an entire school of new music in the 1960s that involved dreaming up compositions that were impossible to perform, for physical or legal reasons. (trumpet chords above the human range of hearing, 140dB guitar feedback which would immediately render the audience deaf, etc.) I remember one vietnam-inspired piece which was, quite simply, a diagram instructing a group of performers how to attack the audience with napalm and machine guns. To my knowledge, never been performed...not in a concert hall, anyways.
".3" porcupine tree
"Koscuisko" midnight oil
ibaien: an emphatic ouais/si/yes to manu chaao!
Silver Spoons by Grace Slick from the album, Sunfighter. A wonderful tune about the joy of cannibalism!
"kiko" los lobos
"meaningless" cafe jaques
"Love is Gonna Let Me Down" by Toots and the Maytals
... one of the greatest songs in the history of music.
Anybody else into the Bonzo Dog Band? I've only ever heard them once on the radio and that was sattelite radio. Apparently the band Death Cab for Cutie is, because that's the name of one of the Bonzo's songs.
so many by Radiohead: Fake Plastic Trees, Optimistic, etc.
Dr. Octagon - the King of New York
Manu Dibango
X - I Must not think bad thoughts
Train cover of Zep's Ramble On
"Kid America", written by Steve Snyder, pereformed by Blowin' Rock
"Blackest of Blues" by The Bonzo Dog Band
"Party Lights" by Junior Brown
"2000 Man" by the Rolling Stones
"Viking Stomp" by Marty Arnold
"Elephant Talk" by King Crimson
The never-released Flipper album that would have come out between Generic and Gone Fishin'.
"Elephant Talk" by King Crimson
Or "Thela Hun Jinjeet", or "Tokyo Boom".
"Have Seen the Stars Tonight" Jefferson Starship from "Blows Against the Empire"
"Love is Gonna Let Me Down" by Toots and the Maytals
My very bad, I forgot about Reggae
Police & Thieves- Junior Murvin.
" this is a dangerous place
"
"roads" - portishead
GREAT song.
"devil in the kitchen" - ashley macisaac
Shame he committed career suicide.
Steve:
Neil Finn's my favourite songwriter, though I'd say the most Beatlesque song he wrote was "Not the Girl You Think You Are" -- off their greatest hits collection.
Heh. Neil Finn and I share a birthday (though he's a bit older). Agreed on Not the Girl; very Beatlesque right down to the arrangement.
When I got the songbook for that greatest hits CD, that was probably the deciding track, though there are several that are fun to whip out at family gatherings where you're expected to have a song or two handy.
Speaking of Midnite Vultures, especially love "Broken Train."
Speaking of Beck, his "Seachange" is one of my favs of all time. Must have.
Looking forward to the new album....
Supper's Ready by Genesis (sorry, remnants of 70s prog-rockism - it's as good an album side as side two of Abbey Road)
From Foxtrot which is an excellent album overall. And I agree, "Supper's Ready" is absolutely great, with all that cool Peter Gabriel weirdness coupled with top notch playing (Phil Collins really is at his best behind a drum kit); it really does give side two of Abbey Road a run for its money.
Philostopher:
I've never heard that Todd story about Zen Archer before, but that's exactly the line I really dig about the song:
A man in parts forgotten with an outlook that is rotten
And an attitude to match it, finds relief inside a hatchet
And he halved someone in Boulder
Justifiability is in the hands of the beholder
And you just don't know what people will do next.
Really, that whole album's phenomenal. I love the DIY aspect of it; just a weirdo in his garage with a four-track.
Carter:
Thanks for the props on the site. I really appreciate it. Slow weekend, though; I must not be pimping hard enough....eh, that's the part I could live without anyway. I mostly like the writing process.
But again, thanks.
Not obscure, really, but here goes:
Green Manalishi - Fleetwood Mac
Jolene - White Stripes' cover of Dolly Parton
The Widow - The Mars Volta
Filipino Box Spring Hog - Tom Waits
Dangerbird - Neil Young
and a third for Radiohead's "Let Down."
There was an entire school of new music in the 1960s that involved dreaming up compositions that were impossible to perform
Fabulous! Where can I read more about this?
I guess I really am old.
Let Her Dance - The Bobby Fuller Four
One More Heartache - Marvin Gaye
everything by
THE FALL
dammit
if i must give one example (and i must, no?) i suppose "uncle buck's letter" or the beefheart cover "beatle bones and smokin' stones" or "the N.W.R.A." or "hip priest" or "the classical" or "session musician" or "industrial estate" or "mere pseud mag ed" or "disney's dream debased" or "bombast" etc. ad infinitum.
seriously, anyone who wants to e-mail me off list (and by anyone i mean the first two people) will get a mix CD that will truly change their life.
All Come to Meet Her - Alexander "Skip" Spence (folk-psychodelia masterpiece)
When I got the songbook for that greatest hits CD, that was probably the deciding track, though there are several that are fun to whip out at family gatherings where you're expected to have a song or two handy.
Heywood J.
Man, if you play those tunes at family gatherings, I'm petitioning you to adopt me.
I got to meet Wammo at a poetry reading. He was great, really animated, spinning visions of dirigible condom dispensers slowly tearing across the sky shitting excuses away for anything less than safe sex on rooftops everywhere...
I read too that night. The only poem I still stand by these twelve years or so later was about climbing aboard a tongue that rolled out of a fireplace to transform into a flying carpet for tourtrips to Hell inspired by a Butthole Surfers tribute to Jimi Hendrix from 'Hairway to Steven'. I don't know how obscure that song would be with this crowd though.
OK, here it is: "The March of the Sinister Ducks" by the Sinister Ducks.
Bask in it's obscuriosity...
Really, that whole album's phenomenal. I love the DIY aspect of it; just a weirdo in his garage with a four-track.
Heywood J.
It's actually two albums. He really pushed the limits of how much you could put on a single slab of vinyl.
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion..
Dang
Spiritualized...
Come Together
Wilco..
Handshake Drugs
Grant Lee Phillips..
Mona Lisa
Dusty Springfield..
Tupelo Honey
"Hardest Walk" by Jesus & Mary Chain
The Mercy Seat - Johnny Cash covering Nick Cave
Nature Boy - Nick Cave
Life on Mars - David Bowie
She's a Mystery to Me - Roy Orbison
Little Fury Things - Dinosaur Jr
"Elephant Talk" by King Crimson: wasn't that a Fripp/Eno side project? Great song.
Hey, Ron, glad we concur re Supper's Ready. Then there's Cinema Show and Firth of Fifth from Selling Engoand by the Pound. Any post-Gabriel Genesis is such a let-down. Collins: a much better drummer than singer (Here Comes the Supernatural Anesthetist)....
Speaking of Midnite Vultures, especially love "Broken Train."
David, I'm more partial to "Nicotine and Gravy", "Get real Paid", "Peaches and Cream"...and of course, "Debra", with a couple of zinger lines: baby, step into my Hyundai....I want to get with you, and your sister.
Death, I like the Judas Priest live cover, as well.
Heywood, Choclate Cake and Everywhere You Go just make you feel good, don't they?
There's a strange giddiness and sadness in the Finn brothers music that's hard to describe.
When MTV first started up, they played a few Split Enz videos quite regularly.
I have a copy of Hairway to Steven just ten feet away from me. Speaking of the Buttholes, I'm pretty fond of their cover of "American Woman."
And the Sinister Ducks! Great! Goth comic book writer Alan Moore teams up with David Jay of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets fame. Cool song. Have you ever heard Jay's "This Vicious Cabaret" with lyrics by Moore? The words were used as narrative for an issue of Moore's V for Vendetta series.
"Wait Till The Summer Comes Along" - Kinks, and frankly anything Ray Davies produced after "All Day and All of the Night" and before "Lola."
Petzold:
My favorite UFO album is Force It. What a clean guitar!
That's a great one. The solos on Mother Mary and Dance Your Life Away are pretty excellent.
I always liked Phenomenon and Lights Out better though, as far as UFO goes.
Supper's Ready is pretty amazing. I'd heard the live version (after Gabriel had left, and they had Bill Bruford and Chester Thompson on drums) dozens of times before I'd ever heard the original Gabriel version.
Another great obscure band: 13th Floor Elevators. You're Gonna Miss Me; great, great slab of Texas psychedelia, way before the Butthole Surfers .
Thanks for the heads up about Spanker Madness, san antone rose. I'll look for it. I lost track of what they were up to, but I'll catch up quick.
You Were Right - Built to Spill
Sweet Marie - The Anniversary
Ol' 55 - Tom Waits
Common People - William Shatner et al.
Revolution Blues - Neil Young
Trouble - Lindsay Buckingham
Sam Phillips "All Night
Muy caliente!
Anything by The Wallets out of the Twin Cities
Anything by Brave Combo out of Denton, TX
Anything by Root Boy Slim & the Sex Change Band out of D.C. (particularly from "Boogie 'til you Puke")
Anything off "The Big Heat" by Stan Ridgeway (formerly of Wall of Voodoo)
punaise/berkeley,
It's ALL good.
OOPS. It's "All Night"
Heh. I saw the live version of "Supper's Ready" with Thompson on drums back in 1982 on the abacab tour. Lousy album, great show.
i need to not post when drinking....
"Heatmiser" by House of Large Sizes
"Poor Old Soul" - Orange Juice
"Tick Tock" - Alpha Band
"Theme from Shaft" - Black Randy and the Metrosquad
"Time to Get Alone" - Redwood (proto-Three Dog Night, written and produced by a post-Smile Brian Wilson, later stolen by the Beach Boys)
Western man by Mose Allison
Western man
had a plan
and with his gun
in his hand
free from doubt
went right out
on the world.
Western man
with his cross
meant to prove
who was boss
in his pride
he'll decide
for the world.
Well at first he'll sail right through
seems that nothin that he couldn't do
went right out and laid em low
seemed that nothin that he didn't know.
Came up with crockets
sprockets, rockets and jets
200 million t.v. sets
but when they added up the cost
seems he played his ace
and lost.
Western man
hung his head
could be better off dead
strong men wept
took a new concept
turned around
and got in step
with the world.
Or how about "Heatmiser" by, well, Heatmiser, from whatever that Rankin Bass Christmas special was.
Cool, Mose Allison. I've always liked his cover of "Seventh Son."
Have you ever heard Jay's "This Vicious Cabaret" with lyrics by Moore? The words were used as narrative for an issue of Moore's V for Vendetta series.
Ron
Of course! Got the EP right here staring at me...
(V for Vendetta is my favorite comic.)
When MTV first started up, they played a few Split Enz videos quite regularly.
Ripley
As much as I love Neil Finn, I don't have the same affection for his brother's music. (Not to say I don't like Tim, I just hold Neil in exceedingly high regard.)
Even all my favourie Enz tunes are Neil's - "One Step Ahead", "I Got You", "Message to My Girl"...
Once Upon a Time in the West--Dire Straits
Hypnotized--Fl. Mac
The Coast--Paul Simon
"Wait Till The Summer Comes Along" - Kinks, and frankly anything Ray Davies produced after "All Day and All of the Night" and before "Lola."
I *really* like "Hatred".
When the Tigers Broke Free - Pink Floyd
If You See Her, Say Hello - Bob Dylan
Tear - Smashing Pumpkins
Tom the Model - Beth Gibbons
God-Fearing Man - Ben Harper
Good god! 'Cream Corn from the Socket of Davis'! No wonder those freaks used to give me nightmares... and I kept giving them money. I think that's right for 'American Woman'. I'm out of the fog but the haze is still there, if you know what I mean. Roky Ericson's apparently out of the fog enough to release an anthology, speaking of 13th Floor Elevators.
"Find the Out" by Slobberbone. It just has the perfect guitar sound. I saw them last night on their final tour, and I'm still having trouble hearing certain frequencies. But I attribute that to the opening act, I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In the House. They played a song y'all might dig, "Westboro Baptist Church", which starts with:
"Fuck Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, fuck him long and hard, until his rectum hurts..."
V for Vendetta is my favorite comic.
MisterX
A fine choice, to be sure.
(As a matter of fact, on the rare occasions when I post something over at Daily Kos, my username is V.)
couple more old faves:
Love Tractor "Fun to be Happy" -1st
Neats "Red and Grey" -Monkey's Head in the Corner of the Room
and some new(er):
Heavenly "C is the Heavenly option" -Le Jardin de Heavenly
Fan Modine "Pageantry" (caution, sound)
Colin Clary and the Magogs "I only give you bad advice..." - Her Life of Crime
Architecture in Helsinki "Souvenir"-Fingers Crossed (caution, sound)
Steve:
Man, if you play those tunes at family gatherings, I'm petitioning you to adopt me.
Yeah, I actually have about a half-dozen older cousins that all have been playing for decades, and Thanksgivings are pretty fun. Everything from Beach Boys to a couple of simpler classical pieces I learned long ago. Once I even managed to pull off Steve Howe's The Clap.
I used to go visit those cousins in LA in the '80s, during the summer, and we'd go surf in the afternoon, build a bonfire on the beach and drink beer and play guitars until whenever. It's a great way to meet women. Life is rough.
Ripley:
Yeah, as much as I like the metal, there's something about a good (and I mean good, not the chocolate-covered turds the radio has for you these days) pop song. Split Enz was a lot of fun, like Squeeze. Another Nail In My Heart, what a cool song.
If a song doesn't make you want to fight, fuck, sing along, or think, then what good is it?
Anybody remember Cornershop? How about Us3?
the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan from Pakistan.
The Jam - Music for the last Couple
Anything by Root Boy Slim & the Sex Change Band out of D.C. (particularly from "Boogie 'til you Puke")
Not a Swan
Why isn't "Christmas at K-Mart" played relentlessly on the radio at Christmas? It's a classic!
I actually discovered Root Boy Slim (and Wazmo Nariz!) on a "sampler"-type record I found at a used record store in the late '70s/early '80s that was put out by A&M that also had a song by .38 Special on it... very weird...
I really like The Jam.
If a song doesn't make you want to fight, fuck, sing along, or think, then what good is it?
Heywood J.
And the best ones make you want to do multiple of those concurrently.
Did you ever hear the story about that song about 'halved a man in Boulder' that goes with "Zen Archer"?
Someone once asked Todd if that was a reference to a real incident.
Todd laughed, then said, "Not that I now of -- I just liked the line 'eyes of the beholder' and had to come up with a line that went with it. 'Halved a man in Boulder' rhymed, so I went with it."
He points that out on the lyric sheet that came with the "Wizard / A True Star" original vinyl release - in parenthesis next to the "Boulder" line, he writes "Colorado - it rhymes!"
When the Tigers Broke Free - Pink Floyd
Death of Rats
That song always chokes me the hell up. Every time.
Oh, yeah, let me add:
"Nothing a Little Love Won't Cure" and "Memories" from the Rubinoos, and...
"Secret Meetings" by the Greg Kihn Band
Berserkely - Home of the Hits!!!
Can't remember the title, but it was the first Thompson Twins release - featured a sitar and a chorus that went "I had a dream and the dream was you / I saw a ghost and the ghost was you!"
They were never that good again...
I heard Greg Kihn became a sop right wing rant radio hos tin the Bay Area.
sorry: host in, not hos tin
I Am the Resurrection - The Stone Roses
My Bloody Valentine
The Cocteau Twins
Jane Siberry
He points that out on the lyric sheet that came with the "Wizard / A True Star" original vinyl release - in parenthesis next to the "Boulder" line, he writes "Colorado - it rhymes!"
It's in the CD booklet too, but it's so tiny you can barely read it.
I demand retraction of the blog title.
How can a song never be heard by noone? Then it won't exist. That is like asking if a tree makes a sound when it feels but noone is around. My head hurts.
heh..
but at anyrate.
Here is a super nice site. with tons of nice songs (Is Atrios trying to fill up his iPod?)
http://www.betterpropaganda.com/
...p_downloads.asp
see also
epitonic.com
http://www.insound.com/mp3/
Pere Ubu - Datapanik in the Year Zero
djs | Email | Homepage | 03.05.05 - 11:02 pm | #
somebody around here has a good taste.
Gram Parsons -- $1000 Wedding
I hate to tell you how he acted when the news arrived
he took some friends out drinking and it's lucky they survived
well, he told them everything there was to tell there along the way
and he felt so bad when he saw the traces
of old lies still on their faces
so why don't someone here just spike his drink
why don't you do him in some old way
supposed to be a funeral, it's been a bad, bad day
Iris Dement -- My Life
But I gave joy to my mother.
And I made my lover smile.
And I can give comfort to my friends when they're hurting.
And I can make it seem better for a while.
Iris Dement -- No Time To Cry
Now I sit down on the sofa and I watch the evening news:
There's a half a dozen tragedies from which to pick and choose.
The baby that was missing was found in a ditch today.
And there's bombs a'flying and people dying not so far away.
And I'll take a beer from the 'fridgerator,
And go sit out in the yard and with a cold one in my hand,
I'm gonna bite down and swallow hard.
Because I'm older now: I've got no time to cry
Jolie Holland
http://artist.amazon.com/jolieholland
She is the coolest!
"Driver's Seat" -- Sniff'n'the Tears.
Totally haunting, and after 20 years or so I still don't really get it. But maybe that's just me.
Forgive if this is a dupe -- just found this thread, and went straight to the bottom to send. Now I'll go back and read the rest and see if anybody beat me to it.
Can't wait to see what everyone else will steer me to.
another good one:
Kate & Anna McGarrigle "Matapedia" - Matapedia
and with that I'm out of here
A Perfect Circle's recent cover of Devo's Freedom of Choice is pretty outstanding, and extremely timely.
Double Album set "Todd" was great.-Heavy Metal Kids, Izzat Love, Sidewalk Cafe.
Anything by p i n k m a r t i n i
You can listen to (and purchase) their two albums on-site. The only two albums I've bought in 5 years.
Afterglow-Small Faces
Colum Sands -- Whatever You Say, Say Nothing
He wrote it about Northern Ireland, but it fits the US these days. The chorus goes:
Whatever you say, say nothing
When you speak about You Know What.
For if You Know Who should hear you,
You know what you'll get;
They'll take you off to You Know Where,
For you wouldn't know how long;
So for You Know Who's sake don't let anyone
Hear you singing this song.
"I'm a Hard Retard And I Hardly Work Hard 'Cause It's Hard Work, Babe, Bein' A Hard Retard."
Jeffy G and the Cannons
Alessi Bros. . .Bonzo Dog Band. . .Dramarama. . .sorry, they've all overplayed.
How about "To Sit on a Sandwich" by Brute Force and just about everything here. . .www.otisfodder.com
"Tending the Still" - Poppytrail
A gorgeous song about the act of creativity in our culture.
"Greenman" - XTC
A gorgeous song about a source of creativity.
"Someday My Prince Will Come" - Sinead O'Connor
The Disney Song. One will be thankful he is not the prince.
Swell Maps
Speaking of "When the Tigers Broke Free," how about "Not Now John" from the Final Cut?
"johnsburg, illinois", by tom waits. i think it's on swordfishtrombones. it's like 35 seconds long and it is a whole complete song.
Speaking of DEVO and "retards": "Mongoloid"
MONGOLOID HE WAS A MONGOLOID
HAPPIER THAN YOU AND ME
MONGOLOID HE WAS A MONGOLOID
AND IT DETERMINED WHAT HE COULD SEE
MONGOLOID HE WAS A MONGOLOID
ONE CHROMOSOME TOO MANY
MONGOLOID HE WAS A MONGOLOID
AND IT DETERMINED WHAT HE COULD SEE
AND HE WORE A HAT
AND HE HAD A JOB
AND HE BROUGHT HOME THE BACON
SO THAT NO ONE KNEW
MONGOLOID, MONGOLOID
HIS FRIENDS WERE UNAWARE
MONGOLOID, MONGOLOID
NOBODY EVEN CARED
MONGOLOID HE WAS A MONGOLOID
ONE CHROMOSOME TOO MANY
MONGOLOID HE WAS A MONGOLOID
AND IT DETERMINED WHAT HE COULD SEE
AND HE WORE A HAT
AND HE HAD A JOB
AND HE BROUGHT HOME THE BACON
SO THAT NO ONE KNEW
MONGOLOID HE WAS A MONGOLOID
HAPPIER THAN YOU AND ME
MONGOLOID HE WAS A MONGOLOID
AND IT DETERMINED WHAT HE COULD SEE
MONGOLOID HE WAS A MONGOLOID
ONE CHROMOSOME TOO MANY
MONGOLOID HE WAS A MONGOLOID
AND IT DETERMINED WHAT HE COULD SEE
AND HE WORE A HAT
AND HE HAD A JOB
AND HE BROUGHT HOME THE BACON
SO THAT NO ONE KNEW
MONGOLOID
Sorry.
FREE BIRD
Bad News From Home -- Randy Newman
Midnight oil, of course.
Read about it. take out the part about the hammer and the sickle, and welcome to 2005.
The rich get richer, the poor get the picture
The bombs never hit you when you're down so low
Some got pollution, some revolution
There must be some solution but I just don't know
The bosses want decisions, the workers need ambitions
There won't be no collisions when they move so slow
Nothing ever happens, nothing really matters
No one ever tells me so what am I to know
You wouldn't read about it, read about it
Just another incredible scene, there's no doubt about it
Hammer and the sickle, the news is at a trickle
The commissars are fickle but the stockpile grows
Bombers keep acoming, engines softly humming
The stars and stripes are running for their own big show
Another little flare up, storm brewed in a tea cup
Imagine any mix up and the lot would go
Nothing ever happens...
You wouldn't read about it, read about it
One unjust ridiculous steal, ain't no doubt about it
You wouldn't read about it, read about it
Just another particular deal, there's no doubt about it
she's my only true love
she's all that i think of
look here
in my wallet
that's her
she grew up on a farm there
there's a place on my arm where
i've written
her name
next to mine
see, i just can't live without her
and i'm her only boy
she grew up outside mchenry
in johnsburg, illinois
and that's the whole song. nothing repeated or anything. it is literally about 35 seconds long.
and that's the whole song.
Olaf glad and big
That was pretty cool. Thanks. For 35 seconds, I was there. Seriously.
Root Boy Slim (Foster Mackenzie III)came from a rather blue-blooded background and actually was at Yale with W. In an old interview much before W. even became elected to anything, Root Boy mentioned what an asshole W. was.
Google Root Boy Slim and check out the "Salute to Root" page and the "official" Root Boy page for more background on this late, lamented artist.
Blue Oyster Cult - Astronomy
The best Jazz song no one's ever heard:
Gil Melle -- Ironworks
Which is really a shame, he was quite the visionary.
"Johnsburg, Illinois" is a really beautiful song. Actually that whole album is wonderful. I like "Sixteen Shells from a Thirty Ought Six," myself.
Also.. I should add that Slim's seminal "Boogie Til You Puke" album has been re-issued on CD. Definitely worth having.
ron, swordfishtrombones is a great album. there's another really beautiful short song on it called "a soldier's things". i love that song too.
One more -- I'll have to go dig in my stacks, but I have a one-off that some dude recorded onto vinyl (probably was cut straight, no pressing), I wish for the life of me I could remember the words to the song (something about love being like a rocket). Very Jerry Lee Lewis stylistically, it's just this guy playing the piano and singing, but he was pretty good. Sounds like it might have been made in sixties or even the late fifties. I found it at a thrift store for fifty cents (like the Gil Melle album)... Definitely worth it. I'll see if I can make a decent transfer to mp3...
Kate Bush: "Army Dreamers"
What.
node, do you have, like, stacks and stacks of laughing wax or something?
Yes-"Perpetual Change"
Yes-"Ritual"
And All of the Who's "Quadrophenia."
"and when your soul tells you to hide,
you're very right to die's denied"
it all sounds very "now"
worth a fresh listen.
The Finn Brothers' new album, "Everyone Is Here", especially the single "Won't Give In".
Best Songs That No One Ever Heard
Hell, that's something like 60% of my record collection! In no particular order:
The entire catalog of Be-Bop Deluxe.
And Elliot Murphy.
And Horslips. (Irish trad/rock -- midway between Jethro Tull and The Pogues.)
And The Brains, who provided us with the original version of "Money Changes Everything." (Just to add insult to injury, any attempt to find out anything about this band on the internets returns a gazillion hits for the Bad Brains.)
The first three Ultravox albums.
"The Knife" by Genesis
Most of Graham Parker's stuff.
Holly & The Italians
And I echo all mentions of Warren Zevon and Pere Ubu.
Here in LA we have an alternative station that's really alternative -- Indie 103.1. Lately they've been playing a lot of songs that I could have sworn nobody bought but me. You can listen to them over the internets, as well.
what are the call letters, roddy? 103.1 doesn't mean much on the internets we got out here on the east coast.
"The Knife" by Genesis
An excellent art-rock anti-war song from what I believe to be the most mellow of Genesis albums. Great Anthony Phillips guitar work, too.
Anything by the Flaming Lips
and also "Dark Messiah" by the Dooms U.K.
And, if you've heard of the Dooms U.K., then you rock.
"Talk to Me" by Bonnie Raitt off "Green Light" album. Rowdy, rockin' beer-bar tune.
here're a few choice tunes (disclaimer - I know all these cats):
50 Cent Haircut - "Breathe" (Pink Floyd cover)
http://www.50centhaircut.com/aud...loyd_Cover)
.mp3
The Jane Doe's - Bring The Devil (from the March 15 debut album)
http://www.janedoes.com/media/
Ja...ingTheDevil.mp3
Andy Tubman - I Feel 4 U (Prince/Chaka Kahn cover)
http://www.janedoes.com/media/An...Khan_cover)
.mp3
Here's one you can listen to right here:
http://www.buddhanet.net/r_audio...dio/
metta56.ram
It's The Chant Of Metta by Imee Ooi (lyrics from traditional Buddhist chant).
Imee Ooi:
Malaysia's answer to
Enya.
Olaf, I'm glad you asked that question...
http://www.indie1031.fm/listenlive.html
Ron, I brought up "The Knife" 'cause I was just listening to it. The lyrics are rather... prescient. Gabriel's vocals are awesome, of course. I hadn't heard it in quite awhile, and it struck me as a lot more chilling right now than it did when I listened to that album frequently in the mid-70s.
"Pistolero" is my favorite Frank Black album, even over his Pixies stuff. Featuring guitarist Rich Gilbert, whose band the Zulus had two classic albums mostly only heard by people in Boston. He was also in Human Sexual Response, which had a slew of brilliant songs in addition to "Jackie Onassis," which turns up on the occasional compilation.
Favorite obscure Neil Finn song: "You Better Be Home Soon," off the underrated "Temple of Lo Men."
Best little-heard Beatle-esque masterpiece: NRBQ's "If I Don't Have You." There's more where that came from, and Steve Earle's "More Than I Can Do" off "I Feel Alright" is right up there, too.
Saddest really obscure song ever: "Fade Away," by one-time Earle proteges the V-Roys.
"Nar alla vannerna gatt hem," a ballad from the hugely successul Swedish band Gyllene Tider. There is a 20-second harmonica solo in most live versions of the song that gives you the chills it is so poetic.
(if anyone is looking for some good Beatles-inspired Swedish music at this hour, try dl'ing some of their stuff from whichever p2p you use. "sommartider"; "solsken"; "juni, juli, augusti"; and "billy" are some you might enjoy
I'm going to go out on a limb and bet that absolutely no one commenting on this thread has ever heard this great song BUT I'm also going to bet that absolutely everyone commenting on this thread has heard of the artist who performed it.
Ready? Here goes.
"Autumn Leaves" as performed by Duke Ellington on the Indigos album before it was released on CD. When digitally remastering the album for CD release, Columbia decided to use another version of the song with the first verse sung in French and the second in English. The vinyl version of the song, however, replaces the French verse with a long, ethereal violin solo, which makes the vocals coming in on the second verse something of a weird surprise. In other words, the L.P. version takes the listener to surreal places that the CD version, which is far more conventional in comparison, is incapable of going.
Okay, do I win my bet?
I think I had a couple of them in my last Tuesday Music Challenge™, or more people would have played along!
Next week's will be somewhat easier, if that's any consolation.
.
Pootie Tang - ""
this is gonna be a long list. sorry for that in advance. if some of these songs are too mainstream, well, so be it.
aceyalone-"the thief in the night"
a.f.i.-"this celluloid dream"
air-"la femme d'argent"
aztec camera-"stray"
aimee mann-"ray"
aimee mann-"superball"
aimee mann-"guys like me"
aimee mann-"i could hurt you now"
al stewart-"time passages"
al stewart-"paint by numbers"
al stewart-"nostradomus"
al stewart-"modern times"
arrested development-"united minds"
beck-"asshole"
belle and sebastian-"sleep the clock around"
belle and sebastian-"electronic renaissance"
beth orton-"pass in time"
brian eno-"in dark trees"
brian eno-"here he comes"
brian eno-"baby's on fire"
brian eno-"burning airlines give you so much more"
brian eno & david byrne-"help me somebody"
bright eyes-"june on the west coast"
bright eyes-"let's not shit ourselves (to love and be loved)"
calla-"televised"
can-"thief"
can-"vitamin c"
can-"future days"
can-"augmn"
can-"paperhouse"
cat power-"i don't blame you"
chick corea-"friends"
chick corea-"matrix"
chick corea-"imp's welcome"
cody chesnutt-"my women, my guitars"
curtis mayfield and the impressions-"so in love"
damien rice-"amie"
damien rice-"eskimo"
damien rice-"older chests"
dead can dance-"the spider's stratagem"
dead can dance-"the ubiquitous mr. lovegrove"
drugstore-"el presidente"
drugstore-"baby astrolab"
echo and the bunnymen-"ocean rain"
echo and the bunnymen-"silver"
echo and the bunnymen-"seven seas"
elliott smith-"everything means nothing to me"
elliott smith-"alameda"
elliott smith-"swweet adeline"
elvis costello-"man out of time"
elvis costello-"you little fool"
elvis costello-"town cryer"
frank zappa-"watermelon in easter hay"
freddie hubbard-"straight life"
freddie hubbard-"povo"
freddie hubbard-"first light"
freestyle fellowship-"7th seal"
galactic-"black eyed pea"
galaxy 500-"decomposing trees"
genesis (w/ peter gabriel)-"silent sun"
genesis (w/ peter gabriel)-"where the sour turns sweet"
genesis (w/ peter gabriel)-"the cinema show"
genesis (w/ peter gabriel)-"looking for someone"
genesis (w/ peter gabriel)-"visions of angels"
genesis (w/ peter gabriel)-"the battle of epping forest"
george benson-"the gentle rain"
george benson-"footin' it"
george benson-"ode to a kudu"
gillian welch-"revelator"
godspeed you black emperor-"Sleep: Murray Ostril (They Don't Sleep Anymore on the Beach); Monheim;"
gypsy kings-"montana"
gordon lightfoot-"black day in july"
herbie hancock-"hang up you hangups"
herbie hancock-"fat albert rotunda"
ivy-"undertow"
ivy-"digging your scene"
jackson browne-"the colors of the sun"
jackson browne-"the late show"
jackson browne-"sleep's dark and silent gate"
jackson browne-"late for the sky"
jamiroquai-untitled bonus track on traveling w
jamiroquai-untitled bonus track on traveling without moving, aka track 13
jamiroquai-"blow your mind"
jamiroquai-"if i like it, i do it"
jay farrar-"drain"
jay farrar-"greenwich time"
john coltrane-"central park west"
john coltrane-"welcome"
king crimson-"fallen angel"
leone and talvin singh-"distant god" (from anokha)
mahavishnu orchestra-"open country joy"
mahavishnu orchestra-"can't stand your funk"
medeski martin and wood-"chubb sub"
medeski martin and wood-"bubblehouse"
medeski martin and wood-"the edge of night"
medeski martin and wood-"invocation"
mercury rev-"car wash hair"
mercury rev-"sudden ray of hope"
me'shell ndegeocello-"deuteronomy: niggerman"
me'shell ndegeocello-"ecclesiastes: free my heart"
me'shell ndegeocello-"leviticus: faggot"
miles davis-"yesternow"
mojave 3-"mercy"
mojave 3-"sarah"
mojave 3-"return to sender"
my bloody valentine-"when you sleep"
my morning jacket-"golden"
my morning jacket-"mahgeetah"
my morning jacket-"death is the easy way"
my morning jacket-"o is the one that is real"
my morning jacket-"x-mas curtain"
nick drake-"bryter layter"
nick drake-"time has told me"
nick drake-"northern sky"
nick drake-"saturday sun"
nina simone-"i ain't got no -- i got life"
ornette coleman-"science fiction"
ornette coleman-"the jungle is a skyscraper"
ornette coleman-"lonely woman"
pavement-"range life"
pavement-"zurich is stained"
peter gabriel-"modern love"
peter gabriel-"mother of violence"
peter gabriel-"humdrum"
peter gabriel-"here comes the flood" (the original version from his eponymous 1977 solo debut)
pj harvey-"angelene"
pj harvey-"we float"
radiohead-"palo alto"
radiohead-"melatonin"
radiohead-"polyethylene pt. 1-2"
radiohead-"myxomatosis"
radiohead-"killer cars"
radiohead-"black star"
return to forever-"after the cosmic rain"
return to forever-"spain"
richard and linda thompson-"i want to see the bright lights tonight"
richard and linda thompson-"down where the drunkards roll"
richard and linda thompson-"shoot out the lights"
robert fripp-"breathless"
robert fripp-"disengage"
robert fripp-"north star"
robert fripp-"here comes the flood" (w/ peter gabriel)
roxy music-"the bogus man"
ryan adams-"answering bell"
slowdive-"rutti"
songs:ohia-"just be simple"
songs:ohia-"hold on magnolia"
sonic youth-"schizophrenia"
sonic youth-"teen age riot"
sonny rollins-"asiatic raes"
spacemen 3-"an evening of contemporary sitar music" (warning--there's a reason this 45 minute song is not very popular. it's a great song to fall asleep to, but its repetitiousness might bother some.)
spacemen 3-"honey"
spacemen 3-"come down easy"
spiritualized-"ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space"
steely dan-"brooklyn (owes the charmer under me)"
steely dan-"rose darling"
steely dan-"any world (that i'm welcome t
"I'm Not Sorry" sung by Lori Carson
on the cd: This Is How It Feels (1993) by The Golden Palominos
steely dan-"any world (that i'm welcome to)"
steely dan-"only a fool would say that"
steely dan-"dirty work"
steely dan-"pearl of the quarter"
stereolab-"puncture in the radax permutation"
stereolab-"brakhage"
stereolab-"cybele's reverie"
stereolab-"ping pong"
stereolab-"lo boob oscillator"
stereolab-"john cage bubblegum"
stereolab-"naught more terrific than man"
stereolab-"escape pod (from the world of medical observations"
stereolab-"pack yr romantic mind"
stereolab-"i'm going out of my way"
stereolab-"jenny ondioline"
steve coleman-"seal (elekoto for agayu"
stereolab-"multiplicity of approaches (the african way of knowing"
tangerine dream-"phaedra"
tangerine dream-"mysterious semblance at the strand of nightmares"
tangerine dream-"ricochet part 1"
the high llamas-"nomad"
the high llamas-"banking on karma"
the high llamas-"put yourself down"
the meters-"heartache"
the new york dolls-"frankenstein"
the replacements-"androgynous"
the replacements-"bastards of young"
the replacements-"little mascara"
the replacements-"here comes a regular"
the replacements-"alex chilton"
the roots-"mellow my man"
the roots-"leonard I-V"
the roots-"the session (longest posse cut in history)"
the verve-"history"
the verve-"slide away"
the verve-"one day"
the verve-"the drugs don't work"
the waterboys-"the whole of the moon"
the zombies-"a rose for emily"
the zombies-"this will be our year"
thelonious monk-"in walked bud"
thelonious monk-"monk's dream"
todd rundgren-"just one victory"
tom petty and the heartbreakers-"louisiana rain"
tom waits-"misery is the river of the world"
tom waits-"tom traubert's blues (four sheets to the wind in copenhagen)"
tom waits-"step right up"
tom waits-"please call me baby"
tom waits-"drunk on the moon"
tortoise-"tnt"
tortoise-"magnet pulls through"
uncle tupelo-"anodyne"
violent femmes-"good feeling"
wayne shorter-"night dreamer"
wayne shorter-"virgo"
wayne shorter-"schizophrenia"
wilco-"war on war"
wilco-"when you wake up feeling old"
wilco-"jesus, etc."
wilco-"spiders (kidsmoke)"
wilco-"blue eyed soul"
yo la tengo-"let's save tony orlando's house"
yo la tengo-"cherry chapstick"
yo la tengo-"decora"
yo la tengo-"tom courtenay"
yo la tengo-"speeding motorcycle"
yo la tengo-"evanescent psychic pez drop"
yo la tengo-"damage"
yo la tengo-"big day coming"
yo la tengo-"the cone of silence"
yo la tengo-"the way some people die"
yo la tengo-"little eyes"
and i guess that's about all i can muster.
What a great thread in an unexpected location.
I've been downloading several of the ones I can find from some of services I belong to (e.g. EMusic, et al.)
Oh, I should add: ANYTHING by June Tabor.
"Not many people, unhappily, are aware of June Tabor," Elvis Costello commented in 1996. Costello has written two songs for the UK folk singer ("All This Useless Beauty" and "I Want To Vanish"), and has been a vocal admirer of hers since the early '80s.
...
Anyone willing to buy or dl an album of Tabor's based on this skimpy Eschaton recommendation will be richly rewarded, I promise you.
I can't believe I missed this
thread.
Damn! My favorite songs are more
obscure than yours!!!!!
i'll add my name to the list of those endorsing "the knife" by genesis.
Lee Moses - Bad Girl
Otis Clay - That's How It Is (When You're In Love)
Brute Force - Toys For Tots
Magazine - anything from the first 3 lps
The Mutants - New Drug
the first Caroliner Rainbow album
the Fourth Way - The Dark Side of Your Moon
Commander Cody - Seeds and Stems
Terry Allen - Gimme A Ride To Heaven, Boy
everything by the Shaggs
Shin Jung-Hyun - Beautiful River and Land
and it could go on forever
stereolab-"multiplicity of approaches (the african way of knowing" should read "steve coleman-"multiplicity..."
Dave Benke,
What? No Curved Air???
oh, and check out america's best radio station, WFMU
While people are talking about Midnight Oil, I'll submit "Antarctica", the last song off of Blue Sky Mining. Haunting.
Sleater-Kinney, "Light-Rail Coyote". Best song about Portland I've heard.
Thanks to Gravity - "Slingshot"
The Dismemberment Plan - "The Ice of Boston" and "Time Bomb" and Travis Morrison's "Born in '72".
Pinback - "XIY" and "Shag". Hell, the whole Blue Screen Life CD...
roddy mccorley,
i'm always open to recommendations.
Way late - as I usually am when it comes to music threads, go figure - but I've been to Hot'Lanta to see some buddies of mine play. They're called Supagroup, and you should see them if you dig the AC\DC rock & roll thing. Anyhow...
But it's a local one - the song is called "S & M Cowboy"
That's Jerry Dale McFadden. He plays (or played) with the Mavericks these days, I think.
"The Real Mr. Heartache" Johnny Paycheck (back when he was still Donnie Young)
No, he was Johnny Paycheck by then (I'm pretty sure, anyway). All that Little Darlin' stuff is awesome and it's being re-released. There's a killer comp by that title that has the meanest song I've ever heard: "Pardon Me (I've Got Someone To Kill)". And Johnny just looks like a guy that'd fuck you up six ways from Sunday.
Let Her Dance - The Bobby Fuller Four
Awesome tune by a sadly underrated early rocker. Marshall Crenshaw does a pretty kickin' cover of that song, but I forget the album title. Same record he covers Richard Thompson's "Valerie" if that's any help.
"Find the Out" by Slobberbone. It just has the perfect guitar sound. I saw them last night on their final tour, and I'm still having trouble hearing certain frequencies.
I love that band and it's breakin' my heart they're splitting up, but what are ya gonna do? I was gonna try to make their farewell shows next week in Denton, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to. They're good buddies of mine, too, I'm proud to say, and I dearly love that song.
Let's see, off the top of my head...
"Good Gracious Me" or "Standin' At The Crossroads" by Mickey Jupp
"Tears, Tears And More Tears" by Lee Dorsey
"You Are The Circus" by C & The Shells
Tommy Tucker's cover of Jimmy Reed's "Shame Shame Shame"
"Great Gosh A Mighty" by Little Richard
"Lovers Who Wander" by Dion
"Let's All Help The Cowboy Sing The Blues" by Waylon Jennings and "Wicked California" by Tompall & THe Glaser Brothers, both written by Cowboy Jack Clement
"She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye" by Swamp Dogg
"Nothing But A Heartache" by The Flirtations
"Lonley Street" by Gene Vincent
"Take Me Home, Country Roads" by Jason & The Scorchers
"Hole In My Heart" by Esquerita
"Juan Mendoza" by Doug Sahm (alternately, "Catch A Man On The Rise" by the Sir Douglas Quintet)
"Poison Ivy" by Wilbert Harrison
"God Is Here Tonight" by the Beat Farmers
"Bumfuck, Egypt" by Dash Rip Rock
"I Like My Baby's Puddin'" by Wynonie Harris
"The Great Grandpappy" by Bo Diddley
"Louie To Frisco" by Chuck Berry
"Rock & Roll Is King" by Rose Tattoo
"Early Times" by Dennis Binder (featuring a pre-Tina Ike Turner)
"Little Sister (Bonnie Jean)" By David Lynn Jones
"Belly Of The Whale" by Burning Sensations
"Breathe On Me" by Ronnie Wood
"Beautiful Life" by my brother'
"Beautiful Life" by my brother's band Lona (www.lonarockandroll.com)
"Bumpsie" by Gary "US" Bonds
Hank Williams Jr's cover of his dad's "Move It On Over"
"Popeye" by Huey "Piano" Smith & The Clowns
"Carry Me Home" by AC\DC (Aussie only release)
Tom T. Hall's cover of Billy Joe Shaver's "Willie The Wanderin' Gypsy & Me". My mom rocked a baby Backslider to sleep with that song. I imagine that explains a whole lot some how or another.
you know, roddy, i think i've actually heard of curved air, but i just haven't heard them before. i have heard the soft machine, which is another british band from that era. looking at their allmusic page i see stewart copeland listed as a band member, which makes them sound intriguing.
dave, I just couldn't pass up an opportunity to work "curved air" into a sentence. Honestly, how often does a thing like that come along??
for me they were noteworthy because of Eddie Jobson, who went on to replace Brian Eno in Roxy Music. None of their stuff was released in the US, but I bought one album on import. There was one cut I liked.
I see on their website that album was produced by Martin Rushent, who went on to produce albums by the Stranglers and the Buzzcocks -- two other bands that fit the topic at hand.
I used to pay a lot more attention to stuff like that. Hell, there was one year I bought a whole slew of albums that had been produced by Steve Lilywhite -- because they had been produced by Steve Lilywhite!
Then I met a woman and started having sex.
But I still like those albums...
Sink Hole- Drive by Truckers
Room with a view- Brother Ali
Victory- Brother Ali
River Road- Martin Devaney
California- Mason Jennings
Black Panther- Mason Jennings
I feel home- OAE
Lots of great stuff above, and lots of stuff I don't know that I should check out.
No one's yet mentioned Dexys Midnight Runners. In the US, nothing much other than "Come On Eileen" got any attention, although some tracks from the first album (of three) also did well in the UK. You'd think anything from the last album Don't Stand Me Down ought to qualify as a best song nobody ever heard, 'cause I think there was only about twenty of us that bought it when it first came out. But I think that album is really of a piece, and no one of the songs seems like a "best" on its own.
Kind of in line with what somebody said above about picking "other" songs from albums with big hits, I'd go with one of the tracks from Too-Rye-Ay (the album with COE) as a best unheard song. That album has some really amazing, achingly expressive stuff -- I have always been partial to "Until I believe in my soul", which would probably suck if anyone else tried to do it, but works just because of the glorious train wreck that has been Kevin Rowland's psyche (look for his story online, being sure to include the phrase "My Beauty" in your search) shining through to make you feel like he might just fucking be serious. And I'm sure he was.
"alice"
she reminds me of manhattan
mott the hoople
How sad is it that I don't know anything obscure...?
nothing by nina simone is obscure, sorry...
LJ, I have some fairly obscure music in my CD collection. However, that being said: how sad is it, that theres barely any true roots music in this list?
Except maybe for Gillian Welch, but she's pretty much in the mainstream anymore. She and David Rawlins are an awesome team. Dave plays just an incredible guitar.
Midnight oil, of course.
Read about it. take out the part about the hammer and the sickle, and welcome to 2005.
The rich get richer, the poor get the picture
The bombs never hit you when you're down so low
Some got pollution, some revolution
There must be some solution but I just don't know
The bosses want decisions, the workers need ambitions
There won't be no collisions when they move so slow
Nothing ever happens, nothing really matters
No one ever tells me so what am I to know
You wouldn't read about it, read about it
Just another incredible scene, there's no doubt about it
Hammer and the sickle, the news is at a trickle
The commissars are fickle but the stockpile grows
Bombers keep acoming, engines softly humming
The stars and stripes are running for their own big show
Another little flare up, storm brewed in a tea cup
Imagine any mix up and the lot would go
Nothing ever happens...
You wouldn't read about it, read about it
One unjust ridiculous steal, ain't no doubt about it
You wouldn't read about it, read about it
Just another particular deal, there's no doubt about it
"So Damn Happy" by Loudon Wainwright III
Raiden - Infection (E-Sassin Remix)
From: Dj Dieselboy - The Dungeon Master's Guide
Bobépine, by Plume LaTraverse
Mes Blues Passent Plus Dans Porte, by Offenbach (the Quebecois rock band, not the composer)
Ayoye, also by Offenbach
All are available via most file-swapping programs.
here's a couple:
"jiveass" - larry rasberry and the highsteppers
"who can sing like fat boy do?" - roadmaster
"shove it" - roger taylor (of queen)
"bourgeois tagg" - this entire album is a gem, produced by todd rundgren. i know steve simels has referenced it before. well worth a prowl through the cut-out bin.
"i never loved you anyway" - the corrs
"hit me with your rhythm stick" - ian dury and the blockheads
Another French Canadian classic:
Richard Desjardin's "Tu M'aimes Tu"?
And those Offenbach tunes above feature the vocal stylings of the dearly departed Jerry Boulet, who had the best gravelly blues-rock voice in his or any language. His whisky-soaked pipes could (and did) make Hell's Angels cry. I know because I've seen it with my own two eyes.
"You Walrus Hurt the One You Love" - Nurse With Wound
From the "Sylvie and Babs Hi-Thigh Companion"
Nurse With Wound has been recording since the late seventies creating some of the most original avant-garde - and humorous - music ever.
www.brainwashed.com/nww
deux cents milles a l'heure
par Harmonium
,
Tom Waits - Please Call Me, Baby
Tom Waits - I Can't Wait to Get Off Work (And See My Baby on Montgomery Avenue)
I thought of one of the most amazing songs ever, but you have to love polyphony. And a capella french renaissance folk.
The group is "Malicorne", and the song, "La Mule" is absolutely brilliant. Hunt it down, should be floating around on soulseek, and Malicorne is sometimes posted on the Fold or World-music usenet groups. Then buy the whole album.
Fanfuckingtastic.
I'll second John Pod on Nurse With Wound's Sylvie & Babs - it's actually one of my biggest musical influences
"Changes," sung by Jim & Jean - words & music by Phil Ochs.
"The Flower Lady," ditto all above.
"Reflections," Orange Marmalade
uncle Tupelo - Still Be Around
Son Volt - Windfree
Alejandro Escovedo - Rosalie
X - See How We Are
The Mermen - Ocean Beach -
for anybody in San Fran, the Mermen play at the Beach Chalet every thursday - the best gig in town - right off the beach, home brews, and fantastic surf/instrumental music
Three songs for the young 'uns:
"Show-biz Blues", Fleetwood Mac, Then Play On;
"Upstairs by a Chinese Lamp", Laura Nyro, Christmas and the Beads of Sweat;
"I'd Rather Be the Devil", John Martyn, the version on "So Far, So Good"
Three of my favorite nearly-unknown albums:
1) Josie Cotton, Convertible Music.
I was in Books, Strings, and Things in Blaksburg, VA, one afternoon in early 1983 when they put this album on the sound system, starting off with "Johnny, Are You Queer?" which is a wonderfully catchy, funny song. After listening to another song or two, I bought the album.
2) Si Kahn, Unfinished Portraits.
Si Kahn's a combination folksinger/grassroots organizer, and this is probably his best album. From "Cold Frosty Morning" through "What You Do With What You've Got", its an absolutely terrific record.
3) Blood, Sweat & Tears, Child Is Father To The Man.
This is Al Kooper's BS&T, as opposed to David Clayton-Thomas' BS&T, which is the one that got all the airplay ca. 1969-71. Most of the same musicians, but you'd hardly know they were the same band.
Okay, some of these are VERY obscure and others (come on, "Life in a Northern Town"?) aren't obscure at all.
Mine are more along the line of "why aren't these great singles"?
66 - The Afghan Whigs
Teenage Wristband - The Twilight Singers
Don't Stop Now - Guided By Voices (shit, just listen to everything from 'Bee Thousand' to 'Under The Bushes Under the Stars')
Staring At the Sun - TV On The Radio
The Rat - The Walkmen
Pull A U - The Kills
Monkey - Low
I'm Further North Than You - The Wedding Present
Gasoline - The New Year
O Sombra - Electrelane
Black History Month - Death From Above 1979
Banquet - Bloc Party
Carry Me - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Wake Up - The Arcade Fire (best record of '04)
Best song almost no one has ever heard: "Firebrand", by Red 40 (out of Little Rock, AR in the mid-1990s); their singer Ben Nichols now fronts the alt-country outfit Lucero.
Best album almost no one has ever heard: The Buck Pets "tothequick" (1993). The Buck Pets came out of the Deep Ellum scene in late 1980s Dallas that also spawned Edie Brickell (although they sound nothing like her band). This was their final album; it's a crock that other post-Replacements-esque bands like Soul Asylum broke big but not these guys.
a) Goldie lookin' chain is awsome
b) EVERYONE(every hipster) has heard Banquet by now. If not they've been shunned
c) Arcade fire is way last year. And everyone has heard it by now. And their self titled was better.
How about
time after time - Sewing with nancie.
I can't believe a missed a music thread! RT is right, the first Blood,Sweat & Tears album is the best one. Every song on it is great.
And before Al Kooper was in BB&T, he was in a group called The Blues Project. I've got a couple of their albums, "Live at the Cafe au Go Go"
is the best. I bet if Steve Simels was here he would remember the Cafe au Go Go in the Village.
Freewheeler
The short list:
You Set the Scene - Love
Dope Again - Love
Berlin - Lou Reed
Mamma mamma - Fruit
Cash Down - Richard Thompson
Where Its Grey - Horseflies
Blender - Bonnie Raitt
"Have Mercy" by Til Tuesday (Aimee Mann)
I heard it once on the radio in the late 80's and never forgot it. Great lyrics, tinkling Eighties synthy production.
"London" by the Pet Shop Boys
Surprised no one else has mentioned Townes Van Zandt, our best songwriter since Dylan declined in the late-'60s, and influence on zillions.
Select songs:
"Lungs," "Flyin' Shoes," "High, Low and In-Between," "Nothin'", "For the Sake of the Song," "Rake," "Marie," a dozen other greats.
Sample lyric:
"The gold's no good for spending,
And the poison's hungry, waiting"
The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey Oswald's Grave - Butthole Surfers
"The Battle of Epping Forest" by Genesis - my all-time favorite song
Mojo Nixon - "Tie My Pecker to my Leg"
John Linnell - "Montana"
Cake - "Mr. Mastadon Farm"
Frank Black - "All My Ghosts" - hell, nearly anything he's done is sublime. Better than The Pixies. Yeah, I said it.
The Kings - "It's Okay"
Ween - "Don't Laugh (I Love You)"
"Money for Floods"
By Joan Baez, "Gone From Danger" album.
"The Fallow Way"
Judy Collins
Guitar Vader. Guitar band from Japan, catchy as hell songs. MP3.com hosted their albums for free a long time ago; now you'll have to pay. It's worth it.
Weddings, Parties, Anything - Ship in My Harbour ... I've never heard this (original) version. I've only heard (and loved) Billy Bragg's live cover.
Tom Waits - It's Over ... Used to great effect on the soundtrack to Barry Levinson's "Liberty Heights," the only venue in which I've ever heard it.
I haven't thought about Root Boy Slim and the Sex Change Band in years. Quarter Movies on my Mind
The Negro Problem: Bleed
The Nails: 88 lines about 44 women
Beastie Boys: Cookie Puss
John Prine: Angel from Montgomery
Pete Townshend: A Little is Enough
The Clash: All Lost in the Supermarket
Grand Master Flash: White Lines
Anything by Joan Armatrading and Ricki Lee Jones
Oops
I forgot
Human Sexual Response: Jackie Onassis
Anything by Michael Hurley.
Holding the Hands of Time - by Neal Creque - a beautiful ballad.
I second the Joan Armatrading.
My favorites are "Drop The Pilot", "Love & Affection", "Down to Zero", and "Me,Myself,I". But there are lots of of other great songs she's done.
My candidates for the best records never even made:
Bob Dylan and Lou Reed (or the other way around), Fillmore East 1966.
and
Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix, 1973.
I Love a Man in a Uniform--Gang of Four
Railing against the fascism of the Reagan '80s, well it's back folks.
Balls--Amy Rigby
I know rock is supposed to be about teenage/young adult angst. How about middle-age angst? Gotta love lyrics like:
I've been seeing a couple men/
but they're like me so I don't want them/
they have feelings, a consience, morals and a soul
Biko--Peter Gabriel
Steppin' Razor--Peter Tosh
To vouchsafe the future's contempt for the last hundred years---that is why Last Week's Mayonnaise, funksters out of Nagadoches, Texas, keeping offering their version of "I'm Strolling Down Memory Lane with nothing to Remember."
In the true world (not the Bizarro one we're currently trapped in), Frank Black's "Superabound" would have been a number 1 hit for weeks.
Lynne,
Strange, I was just thinking of "I love it When You Call Me Names" by Joan Armatrading.
Heywood J's list made me think of my now obsucre late 80's metal bands like D.A.D. Bang Tango, Helloween, Sea Hags, Savatage, LA Guns (not the power ballad crap that got them on the radio).
The Raisins (god, I miss WOXY)
Find another Fool by Quarterflash
If You All Get To Heaven by Terence Trent D'arby
The Sun Always Shines on Tv by aha
Whatever composition John Lennon was humming to himself and arranging in his head when he was shot?
Apophenia
I knew John and had been with him two days before he was killed. He might have been humming Yoko's song "Walking on Thin Ice" which he had finished mixing minutes before he was shot or he might have been thinking about the song he was in the middle of writing. It was called "Street of Dreams" and it was inspired by a night time walk down 57th street. The song was beautiful and he never recorded any versions of it.
The person that said Belle & Sebastian "Sleep the Clock Around" had a pretty good choice, but it almost has to be "Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying".
How about:
Olivia Tremor Control "Opera House"
the Field Mice "Couldn't Feel Safer"
Brian Eno "St Elmo's Fire" (perhaps too big?)
Yo La Tengo "Sugarcube"
Archers of Loaf "Web in Front"
Destroyer "The Bad Arts"
Magnetic Fields "Born on a Train"
I guess I really am old.
Let Her Dance - The Bobby Fuller Four
Damn. That was the first one to pop into my head. An absolutely great cut.
Now, I guess I'll have to add:
"Two by Two" by Nils Lofgren
"Mari Mac", Carbonleaf
"Cheatin'", Gin Blossoms
"Living", Moby
"how to open my heart in 4 easy steps", erin mckeown
"Sherry Fraser", Marcy Playground
Whatever composition John Lennon was humming to himself and arranging in his head when he was shot?
Apophenia
I knew John and had been with him two days before he was killed. He might have been humming Yoko's song "Walking on Thin Ice" which he had finished mixing minutes before he was shot or he might have been thinking about the song he was in the middle of writing. It was called "Street of Dreams" and it was inspired by a night time walk down 57th street. The song was beautiful and he never recorded any versions of it.
here's one everybody's hearing these days: "I Got Mine, Up Yours" by the Compassionate Conservatives
Sisters of Mercy B-side or live covers
Emma
Jolene
Gimme gimme gimme
Or for that matter, all Sisters 12" singles prior to first album.
Or for that matter, for most people, any Sisters song ever.
Double Album set "Todd" was great.
"The Last Ride" and "Everybody's Going to Heaven/King Kong Reggae" are my two faves...
Lolita Number 18 - "Video Killed the Radio Star" (in Japanese!)
Another Bonzo Dog fan here - and no one's mentioned "Labio-Dental Fricative, " "My Pink Half of the Drain Pipe," or "You Done My Brain In"
Ookla the Mok is a lot of fun, especially "My Secret Origin" and "Das Uber Tuber"
Oingo Boingo had an album come out that no one seems to know exists; their last studio one (Boingo), that has this weird sound that's a mix between their regular stuff and Elfman's film scores; it also has some stuff that seems incredibly appropriate now, especially "War Again" and "Insanity"
And Aimee Allen's never-released album (I'd Start a Revoltion) was surprisingly good
I'd also like to nominate the Glandpuppies' "Flight of the Barking Death Squirrels", just for the hell of it.
Balls--Amy Rigby
I know rock is supposed to be about teenage/young adult angst. How about middle-age angst?
that's called Middlessence ;}
have you heard "Don't Ever Change?"
brings tears to my eyes every time i hear it
hey Phila, another on the obscure list that you've probably heard, (and if not drop me a line) Human Switchboard "Who's Landing in My Hanger"
When folks come by my house for evening cocktails on the patio, I often put on "Sola Sistim" by Underworld. Almost everyone asks me to make them a copy of it...and I do.
Sorry, Underworld.
"I Had a Dream" -- Audience
"Country Girl" -- Brinsley Schwartz
"God Bless the Conspiracy" -- McKendree Spring
"Remember" -- Greg Kihn Band
"Pin a Medal on Mary" -- Rachel Sweet
"Public Image" -- P.I.L.
"I Believe" -- Buzzcocks
"The Sweetest Girl" -- Scritti Politti
"The Devil Rides Out" -- Monochrome Set
"Jesus Was Way Cool" -- King Missile
Also: "I Found That Essence Rare" -- Gang of Four
Anything by the Welsh band "Normil Hawaiians"
I just put their album "More Wealth Than Money" onto CD. I got tired of waiting for someone to release it on disk.
If you're going to pick a Magnetic Fields song how about "How Fucking Romantic" or "Fido Your Leash is too Long" that's Schweet!
Gosh, so many forgotten goodies listed above.
How about
Mermaid by the Flock
The Hobo Blood, Sweat and Tears version
The first side of Steve Miller's 5
Carnivaleto by Joe Zawinul
Please Come Home for Christmas Johnny Winter
North Texas Women Blues Dave Bromberg
Ya'll Come Up Youngblood Brass Band
Yes, my record and CD collection is kind of strange. rojomojo
Hey! This thread's still going! Sweet!
I recognize a lot of the Canadian content mentioned - I hope you've all heard some Tragically Hip at some point in time. Good shit.
Wheat Kings is stuck in my head right now.
Also, went to a concert last night to see some really energetic, talented, & funny guys - The Arrogant Worms. Apparently Dr. Demento plays Carrot Juice is Murder sometimes (one of their classics). My favorites are still "Canada is Really Big", "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate", and "Big Fat Road Manager". I'm a sucker for comedy bands.
Oh yes, and anything done by the Spin Doctors in the late nineties. Yes, they're still around. They're touring in the UK right now & are working on a new album. Yes, I'm a fan
Hey JRS, thanks, that's pretty interesting. Too bad he didn't ever record any of that song.
I stumbled on this on iTunes and thought it was excellent:
"Call 1-800-FEAR," by Lali Puna
Most, though not all, old and/or unchic:
Leonard Cohen: Closing Time. (Apocalypse)
Nick Cave: Darker with the Day. (Who’s gloomier and funnier than Cave? Apocalypse again, I guess.)
Barnes: Do I Get What I Want (Sex, rage, and AIDS)
Tom Waits: Who Are You? (Sex, rage, and jealousy)
Bruce Springsteen: Human Touch (When the great affair is over…)
Alison Moyet: Winter Kills. (“Pain in your eyes makes me cruel, makes me spiteful”)
Mark Lanegan: One Way Street (Great voice. Try if you like Waits)
Cowboy Junkies: Good Friday (Do you run with the hare or the hounds?)
Jefferson Airplane: Comin’ Back to Me (Mighty purty.)
McKinley: Dorothy. (Oregon singer/writer. Great use of Oz material.)
Tom McRae: Sao Paulo Rain
Jackson Browne: Lives in the Balance. (Getting some airplay these days, for obvious reasons.)
Paul Simon: Hearts and Bones. (A reminder he’s a fine lyricist.)
Neil Finn: Last One Standing (When you were very young…)
So much music and so little time...
Some of my faves...
Mean Town Blues...Johnny Winter
Do What You Like...Blind Faith
Marriage Madness...John Mayall
Since I've Been Loving You...Led Zeppelin
Accidental Suicide...John Mayall
Convention Prevention...Ten Years After
Natural Beauty...Neil Young
Peace...(oh yeah, Peace Frog...The Doors)...and I have the CD Phantasmagoria by Curved Air if anyone wants it...
bob dylan: girl from the north country.
Here's a subcategory: Great Ignored Songs By Artists Whose Careers Have Been Forever Tarnished and Dismissed Because They Had One Overwhelmingly Embarrassing Hit Record.
Tops in this category is Loudon Wainwright, whose "Dead Skunk" has made most people ignore his subsequent 30 years' worth of brilliant, insightful songs. My favorites are White Winos, Four Mirrors, Men, OGM, A Year, Hitting You. Many more.
Another victim is Joan Osborne. What If God Was One Of Us has upstaged beautiful songs like St. Theresa and Spider Web.
Latest victim is Fountains of Wayne. Skip past Stacey's Mom and enjoy gems like All Kinds of Time, Halley's Waitress, Bright Future in Sales, many more.
I've changed my mind: number one in this category ... get ready to take out your torches and pitchforks ... is Rupert Holmes. Before he ruined everything with the Pina Colada song, he had produced two wonderful and unnoticed albums with some fantastic songwriting and production: The Place Where Failure Goes, Studio Musician, Second Saxophone, Soap Opera.
Get past these artists' tarnished hits and discover some great stuff. Especially Wainwright.
"Easy Money" by Nick Cave
"Joy" by Harry Nillson
"King's Highway" by Joe Henry (or Joan Baez)
"Milk" by Kings Of Leon"
"Outside Now" by Frank Zappa
"The Monkey Speaks His Mind" by Elvis Costello
"Persuasion" by Patti Smith
Great Philly band Marah:
"Reservation Girl"
and covering "Across 110th Street"
Simply fantastic...
Anything by The Kinks.
also:
"Sweet Surrender" - Tim Buckley
"The Red Telephone" - Love
"Sunflakes Fall, Snowrays Call" - Janis Ian
"Afterglow" - Small Faces
"Desiree" - Left Banke
"Everything That Touches You" - Association
"New Years Day" - U2
"Requiem" - Faure
& the that terrifie Twilight Zone-ish piano/sax theme for Ted Koppel's 'Nightline'
& that terrific.
sorry.
have you heard "Don't Ever Change?"
I was actually going to say anything by Amy Rigby but I decided to pick one. I have been a big fan since Diary of a Mod Housewife, "Beer and Kisses", "20 Questions", "Don't Break the Heart" are my favorites off of that. I like "O'Hare" best off of Til the Wheels Fall Off although "Don't Ever Change" and the title track are close seconds.
Anything off Caetano Veloso's first self-titled album from 1968.
Here's some underheard songs you can hear:
The Microphones "The Moon"
The Aislers Set "California"
Some people had previously mentioned The New Pornographers:
Here's The Laws Have Changed
Oh oh! Another one:
Neutral Milk Hotel Oh Sister
A ton more live NHM available here
I was actually going to say anything by Amy Rigby but I decided to pick one. I have been a big fan since Diary of a Mod Housewife, "Beer and Kisses", "20 Questions", "Don't Break the Heart" are my favorites off of that
yeah, I had some of her Last Roundup stuff and then saw a review for some other album that mentioned the Shams, but I forgot the name and it wasn't until DOAMH came out that I was able to track those down. on a slightly diferent note, you familiar with Syd Straw? she was on a couple of the Golden Palominos albums, has two superb solo albums and lots of guest vocals
these kinks albums: village green preservation society, arthur (or the decline and fall of the british empire), and lola vs powerman and the moneygoround (part one)
these beach boys albums: wild honey, sunflower, love you
and the "ogden's nut gone flake" album by the small faces
these kinks albums: village green preservation society, arthur (or the decline and fall of the british empire), and lola vs powerman and the moneygoround (part one)
these beach boys albums: wild honey, sunflower, love you
and the "ogden's nut gone flake" album by the small faces
oops... sorry for the double-post...i meant to add the beach boys album "friends" as well.
"Fire" - The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
ohhh baby
Goin' Down-Freddy King
Working Harder-Golden Palominos
Tom Courtenay-Yo La Tengo
Crying Game-Brenda Lee
99 Problems-DJ Danger Mouse
Look Back in Anger-David Bowie
Bygones-Nick Lowe
Ceremony-New Order
Hey Joe-Patti Smith
Pleading-Richard LLoyd
Annie's Telling me-Tom Verlaine
Geometry-Holsapple & Stamey
On the Way Out-Freedy Johnston
Let the Good Times Roll-Sam Cooke
Bonnie & Clyde-Serge Gainsbourg
With a Girl Like You-Troggs
I'm Not Like Everybody Else-Kinks
Baby's On Fire-Brian Eno
Where to start.
It's the Little Things by the Skeletons - a pop masterpiece, written by one S. Bono
Lou Reed has an amazing treatment of This Magic Moment on a Doc Pomus tribute album.
And I'm glad someone up-thread mentioned Richard Thompson. I'd include his entire discography.
Buckskin Stallion Blues - Townes Van Zandt
actually get his At My Window and Live at the Old Quarter albums
Bottom Dollar - Billy Joe Shaver
Cry Tough - Nils Lofgrin
Steppin' Out - Paul Revere and the Raiders
I could never figure out why this wasn't a
bigger hit than Kicks. I used to make
party tapes with this song and people
loved it.
The Road Goes On Forever - Joe Ely
The story of a stand up guy
She Never Spoke Spanish to Me - Joe Ely
The Kid From Spavinaw - Tom Russell
The Mickey Mantle story
Bloody Mary Morning - Willie Nelson
Let's Kill Saturday Night - Robbie Fulks
Twisting the Night Away - Rod Stewart
actually the Faces except for the keyboard
player from one of Stewart's solo albums.
Hold Back the Night - Graham Parker
Randall Knife - Guy Clark
300 Pounds of Heavenly Joy - Howlin' Wolf
Fuck Off - Wayne County and the Electric
Chairs
'C' Moon Cry Like a Baby - Simple Minds
BTW, this album (Sparkle in the Rain) also has a cover of Street Hassle
Another great Simple Minds track: Hunter and the Hunted (nice dance groove with Herbie Hancock on keyboard)
in no particular order
The Fall - Iceland
Brian Jonewstown Massacre - Hard on for Jesus
Public Image Ltd - Poptones
Avengers - Car Crash
The Creation - How Does It Feel
Charles Mingus - Moanin'
Joy Division - Here Are the Young Men
Bobby Crown & The Kapers - One Way Ticket
A Certain Ratio - Lucinda
Amboy Dukes - Journey To The Center Of The Mind
Big Star - I'm In Love With A Girl
Birthday Party - Release The Bats
Dandy Warhols - Nietzsche
Fleshtones - Whats so new (about you)
Flaming Sideburns - Loose My Soul
Mission Of Burma - That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate
Misunderstood - Children of the Sun
Patti Smith - Piss Factory
Pop Group - Feed The Hungry
Puffy - Circuit No Musume
Raincoats - Lola
Velvet Underground - Jesus
Elvis Costello - Wave A White Flag
Gang Of Four - Anthrax
Magazine - Shot By Both Sides
Modern Lovers - Pablo Picasso
Radio Birdman - Smith & Wesson Blues
Stereolab - French Disko
Suicide - Frankie Teardrop
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra - Moeyo Dragon
hi. the best song you've never heard is 'tomorrow is a long tine' by elvis. it's a cover of a dylan song. dylan has said it's his fave cover of anything he's written. it was recorfded the year before his comback and presaged was was to come. james burton does the guitar fills it's quite something.
here's an amazon sample:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obido...1799226-
3168809
the second best sog you've never heard may be 'abandoned love' by dylan recorded at teh bitter end in nyc 1976 (?) see google for details. it's also quite something.
everything by mc hawking
olivia tremor control 'i have been floated' is also awesome and pretty much unheard.
Ashley Maher - "Hi" - the entire album
Leopardskin Limousines - from Joe Strummer's first solo album, 'Earthquake Weather'
Favorite line from "Leopardskin Limousines" - It's true I didn't have a part in it... I was working out at Disneyworld, dressing like a duck not giving a fuck..."
Mission Of Burma - That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate
Trem Two is also ace
Geometry-Holsapple & Stamey
Angels is my fave from Fireworks
so is this the longest a thread has run on topic and trool free?
Also, the Buzzcock's "Orgasm Addict"...
"Homicide" by 999
"Means to an End" by Joy Division
"Run Run Run" by the Psychelelic Furs
"Bridge Under the Sky" by The Plastic Cloud. If it got more play, it could have been one of the great psychedelic songs of all time. Email me if you know anyone who can get me a copy of this.
"In Held (Twas) In I" Procol Harum (old prog), or on a cover by Transatlantic (new prog). The most obscure of the great album-side suites. Also, Procol Harum Hendrix-tribute "Song for a Dreamer".
"What" by The Move. ELO/Travelling Wilburys' Jeff Lynne's best..song..ever.
"Bound for Infinity" The Renaissance. Better known for overblown, strung out art-rock (albeit quite enjoyable) that gradually declined into a John Teshian hell on a punk-rock label (!), this is their most succinct masterpiece.
Several songs off "The Juliet Letters" by Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet. This is what classical-rock fusion should look like. Not that symphonic Beatles dung.
While not particularly obscure, I'd reommend, as did someone else above, "Taurus" by Spirit. Appearently, it's obscure enough that nobody's ever noticed that Jimmy Page ripped it off for Stairway. Also, "It Shall Be".
"Untitled Protest" by Country Joe McDonald. You can hear it free at www.countryjoe.com/jukebox
bryan and eric already mention neutral milk hotel, one of the greatest bands ever in the history of mankind, varro mentioned Pinback (who I just got to see at Spreckles here in san diego, home of Pinback), so I'll have to mention Three Mile Pilot, which features the bassist from Pinback (it actually was his first band) and Black Heart Procession, the singer from Three Mile Pilot's side project.
Darryl mentioned Flogging Molly, "What's Left of the Flag" is a great one.
Pinback, "Blood's On Fire" (Summer in Abbadon)
Three Mile Pilot, "Slow Hand" (Na Vucca Do Lupu)
Black Heart Procession, "Square Old Heart" (1)
Pinback, "B", Offcell EP
Any song by Rob Crow, of Pinback, Thingy, Heavy Vegetable, and numerous other bands, will be worthwhile.
for pure enjoyment-
"cocaine cowboy" by terry allen
"who were you thinking of?" the texas tornadoes. also, something ugly
by neil young:
"vampire blues"?
maybe "time fades away"?
My favorite unknown band is the Vulgar Boatmen. From their oeurve (sp?) I'd pick "Mary Jane," "You Don't Love Me Yet," "You and Your Sister," "Margaret Says," "Drive Somewhere," "Decision by the Airport," "Change the World All Around," "Falling Down," "Don't Mention It," "We Can Figure This Out," "There's a Family," "Traveling," "Shake," "Susan Goodnight," "Genie Says," and some others I'm forgetting.
Also: "Pure," The Golden Palominos
"Heartbreak a Stranger," Bob Mould
"Hey Cecilie," E.I.E.I.O.
"Harvest Home," Big Country
"When the Circus Comes to Town," Los Lobos
"I'm Over You," The Silos
Cave In -- Anchor
Socialburn -- Down
Corrosion of Conformity -- Damned For All Time
Prong -- Unconditional
Talas -- Hick Town
"Shepherd Lad" by the Battlefield Band.
Zeni Geva - Dead Sun Rising
"I Know, I Know" by Green, off of the album "Elaine McKenzie."
"Jigsaw Puzzle" - tragically and inexplicably abandoned shortly after birth by the Rolling Stones.
The Escape Engine by Burning Airlines
Negatives by Kerosene 454
New Shoe Premonition by Bluetip
FZ's "Evelyn, the Modified Dog"
(Arf! she said...)
WRT upthread mentions:
Great to see so many 'old' Genesis fans. (I had a suspicion liquidlen got his handle from the lyrics to "Battle of Epping Forest")
Curved Air!?!! Who remembers "Purple Speed Queen"..?
One more known band-unknown chestnut:
Jethro Tull's "Skating Away (on the Thin Ice of the New Day)"
"Sugar, Sugar" (the same bubblegum tune charted by The Archies) sung by the Wilson "Wicked, Wicked" Pickett.
Late to the thread and haven't read comments yet. Cutting to the chase, I'd have to say that Steve Forbert's "You Cannot Win If You Do Not Play" is a pretty good one. It just won me platinum passes to SXSW from an Austin radio station (KGSR). Woo, hoo, I'm in!
Late to the thread and haven't read comments yet. Cutting to the chase, I'd have to say that Steve Forbert's "You Cannot Win If You Do Not Play" is a pretty good one. It just won me platinum passes to SXSW from an Austin radio station (KGSR). Woo, hoo, I'm in!
oops, sorry for the dupes!
another couple of lost gems, Myra Holder Four Mile Road and the Wygals "Eat a Horse" from Honyocks in the Withersoever
Hasn't Hit Me Yet -- Blue Rodeo
"Sisters are Doing It for Themselves" by AC/DC with vocals by Josephine Baker, Boadicia and Cinder Block
cross-cover album, rammstein and tracey chapman ("there's a slimy, blood-encrusted picture IN! THE! LINES! BE! TWEEN!!!!!")
same concept, but: Air (a very smooth, cool, low-down, jazzy French band) and Rammstein (sort of a near-perfect opposite, German metal)
the pipings of the daemon-flautists that forever encircle the idiot god Azathoth at the center of the universe
Natalie Merchant duet with Alyson Goldfrapp (fucking anything)
Frank Sinatra being beaten up by a female Czech cop
Ladytron, "Boys Keep Swinging"
Tilt or Fabulous Disaster, "Sufragette City"
Ray Charles, trying to talk his way into Sophia Anhalt-Zerbst's skirts, put to music by Infected Mushroom
Jeff Buckley's follow up to Grace.
oh, do they have to be real?
oh, do they have to be real?
kei & yuri
nah, just unheard. QED those are fine
pendulum - Loen & Navarro
"Rockabilly Guy (Dennis Bovell Dub Mix)" by the Polecats. Dub rockabilly never seemed to catch on for some reason but this is great. It sounds like Suicide might if they were happy. It appeared on a tape sold mail-order by the New Musical Express in England in 1981 and I don't think it's ever been re-released.
Falco - "The Kiss of Kathleen Turner"
The Who - "Athena"
Genesis - "Dodo/Lurker"
They Might Be Giants - ANYTHING you haven't heard, but I'll throw the "Purple Toupee" gauntlet down
Mono Puff - "Creepy"
Van Halen - "Hear About It Later" - The "Stairway to Heaven" of Van Halen songs, an epic 4:34 in length
The White Stripes - "Astro"
David Lee Roth - "Big Trouble"
Eurythmics - "Conditioned Soul"
Frankie Goes To Hollywood - "Warriors of the Wasteland" - The definitive smackdown to Reagan-Era greed
Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper - "Where The Hell's My Money?"
"Poppies" - Marcy Playground
"Spider" - Imperial Drag
"Messiahs Die Young" - Men Without Hats
"Catch A Star" - Men At Work
I see a few Magnetic Fields refs- I'll add I Don't Believe You and I Don't Really Love You Anymore.
And for pop-hooky-goodness, I'd be surprised if anyone had heard Ignorance and Arrogance by a Melbourne-based pop band called Sarah Sarah.
"Hardnose the Highway" & "Snow in San Anselmo" - Van Morrison
"1983" - Jimi Hendrix
"We Took the Wrong Step Years Ago" - Hawkwind
"Stay With Me Baby" - Terry Reid
"American Metaphysical Circus" - United States of America
"You Can't Ever Come Down" - Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies
"All the Same" & "Dream Within a Dream" - Spirit (a few of their many underappreciated songs)
"I'm the Light" & "Good Times Are So Hard To Find" - Blue Cheer (a few of their many underappreciated songs)
"Happy Being Me" - Manfred Mann Chapter Three
"Fat Angel" - Donovan song done beautifully by Jefferson Airplane
"Baby's Calling Me Home" - Boz Scaggs done most incredibly on "Fillmore the Last Days"
Not never heard, but not heard enough in many years:
"In the Crowd" - the Jam
"I Believe" - Buzzcocks
"Shot On Both Sides" - Magazine
"Making Me Sick" - Bash And Pop
Silkworm "Treat the New Guy Right"
20 years ago, a bunch of guys from the Dream Syndicate, the Long Ryders, and Green on Red, including Steve Wynn and Dan Stuart, got together and recorded one of the greatest albums never heard, The Lost Weekend. Every song on the album is great, but I particularly like King of the Losers and Song for the Dreamers
the prince who was eaten by his panties-mason williams
The Godz's cover of the Beatles "You Won't See Me"
They Might Be Giants - ANYTHING you haven't heard, but I'll throw the "Purple Toupee" gauntlet down
free the Expo '67
"In the Crowd" - the Jam
Ghost is a good one too
Lunasa--the best Celtic band in the world. Anything by them is incredible.
Speaking of Irish bands--how about the great Thin Lizzy? Few people in America have heard anything beyond "The Boys Are Back in Town," but Phil Lynott was a brilliant songwriter. All of Ireland still worships him. Pick up "Live and Dangerous" to find out why.
'The Sinking of the USS Titanic ' by Jamie Brocket is the best pot song ever written. It's the funniest and rocking-est song about how smoked up the captain got and tried to move an iceberg, about 16 minutes long. A true classic I first heard on Beeker Street in 1970.
So it's settled I guess. Rasputin by Boney M.
http://www.ram.org/music/reviews...ws/
boney_m.html
Anything by Emmlylou Harris, Haley Westerna-her cd"pure" and the song"Bridal Ballad" from the movie the merchant of Venice, Sarah Brightman, James Horner's music from Troy(even if the movie lacked at least the music and closing song by Josh Groban was wonderful)
Jim White - "Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississipi"
Bruce Cockburn - "Pacing the Cage"
Iris Dement - "Our Town"
Ollabelle -- "Soul of a Man" or "John the Revelator"
Another vote for the "Great Unwashed Conspiracy" by McKendree Spring. Also
"Cowboy Song" - Thin Lizzy
"Warrior" & "King Will Come" - Wishbone Ash
"Fine Lines" - John Martyn
"Great Deceiver" & "Night Watch" - King Crimson
"Sunday Morning" - Velvet Underground
"Tired Eyes" & "Pardon My Heart" & "Roll Another Number" - Neil Young
"Chloe and the Pirates" - Soft Machine
"Firth of Fifth" - Genesis
OK that's enough...no more flashbacks tonight.
"Big Electric Cat" by Adrian Belew.
"Have You Ever Had it Blue" by Style Council.
"Tiger Woods" by Dan Bern.
"Mea Culpe" by Eno and Byrne.
And about 30 other songs by Eno.
Olaf glad and big said:
'node, do you have, like, stacks and stacks of laughing wax or something?'
Small stacks (around 4000 vinyl, a couple hundred cds, and about thirty cassettes), but they feel like stacks when you try to move them. It's mostly rock, hip-hop, funk and jazz, with some very random things thrown in (I'll buy stuff just because it has a cool cover) like japanese pop music from the eighties or hawaiian music on 78's. Some other things I really like right now (some obscure, some not):
A Group Called Smith -- their cover of "I Just Wanna Make Love To You" (one CD copy available on Amazon.com, listed at $124... I have it on vinyl, I think I paid fifty cents...)
Ultramagnetic MC's -- "Chorus Line (pt. 2)" (from "Funk Your Head Up", available on CD.)
Notorious B.I.G. -- "Party and BullS&*%" (Puffy's Dirty mix, vinyl-only I think.)
George Soule -- "Talking 'Bout Love" (from the Malaco box set "The Last Soul Company", disc one.)
Ark -- "Le magicien d'os" (house music, I think it's only available on vinyl and random DJ mixes on mp3/CD.)
Eric Johnson -- "East Wes" (last track on Ah Via Musicom.)
AFX (Aphex Twin/Richard James) -- "Flow Coma (Remix by AFX)" (off of "26 Mixes for Cash", disc two, on CD.)
Vienna by Ultravox
I Need You by Paul Carrack
(if it's not too late to play)
Moxy Fruvous - The Greatest Man in America
Black 47 - Fire of Freedom
A good song from a teen pop star.
She's A Dancer" by Crack the Sky
OOOH I forgot about Moxy Fruvous! I'm gonna go with "Horseshoes" and "The Drinking Song". I love drinking songs, but I never drink. Discuss.
Townes van Zandt -- "Ballad of Ira Hayes". As far as I know it was never recorded. Should be the theme song of our glorious overseas adventure. Also a rarity in that it was a cover.
"Beat the Clock" - The McCoys (yes, of "Hang, on Sloopy" fame)
"The People in Me" - The Music Machine
"Don't Talk to Strangers" - The Beau Brummels
"Where Have All the Good Times Gone" - The Kinks
"She's a Heartbreaker" - Gene Pitney
"I'm Not Your Stepping Stone" - Paul Revere and the Raiders
"The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota" - Wierd Al Yankovich
"Poison Ivy" - The Coasters
"Zig Zag Wanderer" - Captain Beefheart
"Black Sheep of the Family" - Rainbow
"Let my love open up your door" Richard & the Young Lions
"Loves Gone Bad" - Underdogs
"Your Love Belongs Under a rock" - Dirtbombs
"Romeo & Juliet" - Michael & the Messengers
hoo-kay, my turn:
Tony Conrad, "From the Side of Man and Womankind " from Outside the Dream Syndicate.
UI, "Sexy Photograph ", from Sidelong.
ProjeKct Two, "21st Century Schizoid Man", from Live Groove
The Golden Palominos, "Ambitions Are", from Dead Inside
H.P.Lovecraft, "Wayfaring Stranger", from Live, May 11, 1968.
And, sniff, nobody ever plays John Cage's " 4'33" " on the radio.
A few more:
"The Magic Touch" -Bobby Fuller Four
"Stranger in Town" and "Little Town Flirt" - Del Shannon
"Grizzly Bear" - The Youngblooods
"Susannah's Still Alive" - Dave Davies
"Intergalactic Laxative" - Donovan
"From a Window" - Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas
One more:
"Daddy Don't Mind" - The Hollies
Beth Wood, "My Miles Davis Kind of Blue."
And, sniff, nobody ever plays John Cage's " 4'33" " on the radio.
bartkid
nah, I hear remixes of that all the time on the local college station
I've been talking about to anyone who will listen about a collection of 'lost' R&B classics called "Dave Godin's Deep Soul Treasures".
Acts like Eddie & Ernie, The Enchanters, Irma Thomas, The Knight Brothers, Ray Gant & Arabian Knights, and Zerben R Hicks. Freakin' fantastic, and some of these songs haven't been reissued since their original release 40 years ago.
To start with, I recommend Volume I especially to anyone who loves Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, etc but is looking for other acts.
I don't care how late this, and I'm sorry if these have been mentioned already (didn't read all of the posts).
Savage Rose - Refugee
Tonio K - I Handle Snakes
John Hurley - The Family
Tindersticks - Tiny Tears
Rolling Stones - Winter
Sir Douglas Quintet -At The Crossroads
Spooky Tooth - I Am The Walrus
Mary Gauthier - I Drink
The Band - It Makes No Difference
Savage Rose - Wild Child
I could go on and on.
grrr! That Lee Greenwood song is the best! and anyone who doesnt think so is a Commie who loves Saddam!!!!
Back Already. Finished the thread and thought of these great albums that slipped by almost unnoticed. By the way, kudos to whoever mentioned Larry Raspberry & The High-Steppers.
Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Do It Yourself
John Hurley - Sings One More Hallelujah
Duke Williams & The Extremes - A Monkey In A Silk Suit Is Still A Monkey
Elliott Murphy - Milwaukee
Mary Gauthier - Filth & Fire
Maggie Bell - Queen Of The Night
Tracy Nelson - Tracy Nelson
Sir Doug (Sahm) - Groover's Paradise
Dr. John - Gumbo
Ed Kuepper - Charactor Assassination
Tonio K - Romeo Unchained
Flat Hand - Freakwater. Pretty much anything by Freakwater, actually.
I mentioned this song before but it's on the internet (legally, with permission of the record label):
Silkworm-Treat the New Guy Right
bootdw --
Kudos for mentioning Tonio K.'s "Romeo Unchained." His "Life in the Foodchain" is also a masterpiece of sorts. "H-A-T-R-E-D" is delightfully cathartic.
"Sproston Green" by the Charlatans U.K.
Tonio K! "The Night the Lights Went Out ..."
Also, Rob M. far up above has it right: The Brains (particularly "Money Changes Everything" and "Heart in the Street")) and Graham Parker and the Rumour's "Discovering Japan" and "You Can't Be Too Strong," both from "Squeezing Out Sparks," possibly the greatest rock 'n' roll album recorded in the 1970s.
Oh, and Rob, thanks for mentioning Indie 103.1. I'm listening now (in North Carolina). Good stuff ....
The Beat Farmers -- Make it Last (Off their album "The Pursuit of Happiness, which also has an awesome/hilarious cover of Johnny Cash's Big River)
Also by the Beat Farmers, Riverside and Blue Chevrolet, both from their Album Van Go are fun.
(The BEat Farmers came with the first wave of roots rock (eg Los Lobos Will the Wolf Survive), but with a sense of humor and some ventures into what you might call cowpunk (hence the Johnny Cash covers)
"Squeezing Out Sparks," possibly the greatest rock 'n' roll album recorded in the 1970s.
Lex
actually, the (unfortunately promo/radio only) Live Sparks version was even better
Johnny Cash - The Big Battle
one that has to be relearned with each generation.
I think sir the battle is over, and the young soldier lay down his gun.
I’m tired of running for cover, I’m certain the battle is done.
For see over there where we fought them, it’s quite for they’ve all gone away.
All left is the dead and the dying, the blue lying long side the grave.
So you think the battle is over, and you even lay down your gun.
You carelessly rise from your cover, for you think the battle is done.
Now boy hit the dirt, listen to me, for I’m still the one in command.
Get flat on the ground here beside me, and lay your heart to the sand.
Can you hear the deafening rumble, can you feel the trembling ground.
It’s not just the horses and wagons that make such a deafening sound.
For every shot fired had an echo and every man killed wanted life.
There lies your friend Jim McKinney, can you take the news to his wife?
No son the battle’s not over, the battle has only begun.
The rest of the battle will cover the part that has blackened the sun.
The fight yet to come is not with cannon, nor will the fight be hand-to-hand
No one will regroup the forces, no charge will a general command.
The battle will rage in the bosom of mother and sweetheart and wife.
Brother and sister and daughter will grieve for the rest of their lives.
Now go ahead, rise from your cover, be thankful that God let you live.
Go fight the rest of the battle for those who gave all they could give.
I have compiled the 1,291
individual song names that were suggested in this thread and created CSV data file at:
http://nemec.com/mb/
BestSongsNob...NobodyHeard.txt
Great thread. Nice break from more serious matters.
Anyway, some notes on the database:
1. I did not include "Anything by" or "Entire 1st Album" type suggestions.
Only specific song suggestions were included. I'm not making any
judgements here - but I had to draw a line someplace.
2. I'm sure there are mistakes. I haven't heard of most of these (I guess
that was the point). I may have confused band names with song names.
I am will to correct any mistakes that anyone cares to tell me about.
3. This data base file may be freely distributed. I compiled it for my
own benefit and thought others might like it.
4. For those who wan't the data already formatted, I have created a 30-page
PDF (200 KB) at:
http://nemec.com/mb/
BestSongsNob...NobodyHeard.pdf
Regards and thanks,
Tim Nemec
Thanks, TimN, for putting that great list together.
Atrios, if you're listening, you ought to post a link!
I guess my liking for Dave Alvin's music is a bit more out there than I thought. From the Blasters day to this, he's written some of the best ignored music in roots rock. I saw his liver show recently and he can still rock.
Thanks to those guys who mentioned the Finns, the Brains (Charles Gray), Freedy Johnston, and Graham Parker (in his Squeezin' Out Sparks days). And Be Bop Deluxe!!
A couple of random aditions:
Terje Rypdal--Scandinavian guitar god
Bill Nelson--apparently bored by guitar, making highly listenable, but hopelessly un-pop music.
Doug Wamble--you LIKE jazz,don't ya?
Hollywood Fats--and Blues, too?
Paul Butterfield--It would be the same even if he had never sung a note.
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