Bands that you love.
Tracks from debut singles/EPs/Albums/Downloads
Perhaps they went on to be massive, perhaps that was it?
Fugazi-Waiting Room
Came out in 1988 on the fugazi ep and blew my mind. My 1st girlfriend bought me this ep then and I still consider them to be my favourite ever band.
Dead Kennedys-California Uber Alles
Released in 1979 as a single so a bit before my record buying time but I still love them today.
Massive Attack-Unfinished Sympathy
They kind of formed in 1988 and released a track but this one from their debut album Blue Lines is what woke me up to them. Still a stone cold classic 21 years later 😳
The Pixies – Their post-reform stuff isn’t bad exactly
I refuse to listen to it. I absolutely loved them as a yoot and don’t want to taint that with a middle-aged version 😂
Same reason I haven’t seen the new Trainspotting…
Arctic Monkeys odd number albums are good, even not so. This means next one should be good again.
The worst culprits for me are Kings of Leon. First album best and steadily getting worse across their catalogue, gave up after 5 so not heard recent stuff.
The worst culprits for me are Kings of Leon. First album best and steadily getting worse across their catalogue, gave up after 5 so not heard recent stuff.
Great shout! Youth and Young Manhood is an absolute classic album, still holds up now as one of my top 20 albums. Aha Shake Heartbreak isn’t my cup of tea in the same way but is solid. After that it was a steady slide into stadium c*ck rock and joke tracks tbh.
Mercury Rev’s first two albums are their best for me, was lucky enough to see them touring to support both.
Stereolab’s very early material was amazing.
And has anyone made a better techno album than Orbital’s “brown” one?
Pixies, pre-breakup.
Well obviously, but most of the cool kids will say the first couple of albums were the “real” Pixies and Bossanova and Trompe le Monde weren’t so good.
Don’t tell anyone, but those two are my favourite albums of theirs, overall.
Excellent decision. I tried watching it, gave up after 15 minutes or so. Now I’m too scared to go back and watch the original in case it turns out that it was actually crap and I only liked it because I was young and stupid.
Sonic Youth-Sonic Youth ep
Fairly different to what they later released in some ways, although you can hear it in there.
Brilliant.
Now I’m too scared to go back and watch the original in case it turns out that it was actually crap and I only liked it because I was young and stupid.
😂
I know, it’s terrible getting older 😭
Seen Pete Docherty lately?
Comes to us all… 😐
Bad Brains – Big Takeover
Just an incredible band. Hard-core punk Rastas.
Helped form my massive love for roots reggae now too.
Great choices Kayak23. I saw fugazi a few times when they first came to the UK to promote the first EP. Only about 10 people showed up for the Wigan gig 🙁
For me the debut Instigators LP was mind blowing. All subsequent releases never came close.
DJ Shadow: Endtroducing is an all-time classic album, probably quite influential. The Private Press is pretty good, solid. The Outsider is not so great, although I saw him touring it, and after that I lost touch with his work until about 2019 with Rocket Fuel.
RJD2: Deadringer, absolutely excellent. Since We Last Spoke is decent, but The Third Hand kinda lost me.
Archive stand out to me, but it’s more to do with a complete change of focus and personnel. I love Londinium, it’s a great trip hop album. But then they shifted gears and never really produced anything like it again. Morcheeba similarly shifted away from trip hop more to lounge music, and it’s fine, but not as good as Who Can You Trust.
Seems to happen a lot with me, like the early stuff then lose interest. Good examples are kings of Leon as mentioned, arctic monkeys, courteeners, even stuff like green Day and the offspring.
I think I like the more simplistic, rough around the edges sound. Then when bands become more confident, get more production value, it’s just not the same.
Mt wife will like a band no matter what they do. Arctic monkeys for example can do no wrong for her. I like the first album and the demo tapes, but now they’re a completely different band and I’m not interested any more.
All are commercial sell outs after the first demo comes out…
I have admit liking many bands early efforts, often some feeling of freshness and creativity, wild song ideas and such will be lost as band gets more professional and starts to follow sub-genre conventions and repeating themselves.
Metallica , peaked with master of puppets and nothing since has been as good.
Slayer, reign in blood is one of the best albums ever . The next album , south of heaven, just sounds like a slowed down version of of reign in blood.
Black flag, I prefer the stuff pre Rollins so would have to say “the first four years” is their best work. Rollins brings in a shouty intensiveness that is sometimes too much
You have all your creative impulses from your entire life to draw on for your debut. You then get to hone it for a few years of constant touring / gigging. The wheat gets cut from the chaff over and over again. By the time you hit the studio its the culmination of years of graft and inspiration.
Black flag, I prefer the stuff pre Rollins so would have to say “the first four years” is their best work. Rollins brings in a shouty intensiveness that is sometimes too much
Amen to that. For me Dez was the best vocalist they ever had, followed by Keith, then Ron.
I loved Flaming Lips when they were a mad acid feedback rock band…
Objectively their successful albums were probably more accomplished (and I like them too), but I still prefer their earlier stuff.
And likewise, I love It’s a Shame About Ray, but the early Lemonheads stuff was amazing and got played a lot more on my turntable. Some of you might know if they have much kudos in the punk scene?
For me, it’s probably Mastodon. They were great up to Crack the Skye, then sharply downhill from there. Leviathan is the high mark, but always loved Remission too.
Pixies, yes. I like the later stuff too, and the Frank Black solo stuff that I’ve heard. There’s nothing like Doolittle, though!
Chili Peppers peaked at Blood Sugar Sex Magic for me. I love the in your face exuberance of the first 3 or 4 albums. BSSM is so good, so many really really great tracks. I should give it a full listen next time driving or on the train. I like some of the later stuff, but it doesn’t get me in the same way. On a summer holiday at school, I read a Clive Barker novel straight through over two or three of days, listened to One Hot Minute on repeat. can’t listen to any of it now without thinking of that book!
Are the words that come just before a music bore goes off on one in a smug, self satisfied attempt to demene all before them with their superior taste and knowledge; but in reality just mark themselves out as a true chicken choker to everyone in the room with a life.
Pixies – yes. But go back a couple and stop at Doolittle – I prefer their earlier stuff 😉
Are the words that come just before a music bore goes off on one in a smug, self satisfied attempt to demene all before them with their superior taste and knowledge
Peaked before their first album was released, lead guitarist quit and they rerecorded/reproduced all of their first album, which wasn’t as good as the EPs with the original guitarist.
Are the words that come just before a music bore goes off on one in a smug, self satisfied attempt to demene all before them with their superior taste and knowledge
On topic… nearly every band or artist I’m really into has improved on a strong start. One exception is Pulp, they had lots of weak releases before their material got strong, and stayed strong ’till the end.
Good shout on Mastodon. Leviathan, Blood Mountain, Crack The Skye, bloody amazing. Since then I just struggle. Fair play to them: lots of people love it all, and that’s fair enough, and it’s nice to see a band maturing and developing. It’s just not my cup of tea so much.
That Pixies track is good but is just too long. Both the Doolittle era examples are like 2 minutes long, and excellent. The new one is 4 minutes plus, and for no reason. Hey ho.
Anyway, a few from me.
Weezer Blue Album was part of the soundtrack to secondary school for me, and were a wonderful blend of unabashedly geeky, with fuzzy-as-hell guitars and fantastic melodies. They had a video based on Happy Days which was on the Windows 95 CD for heaven’s sake.
and then fast forward 20 years or so and this happens. It’s just. Well. It’s just plain hard to see how you got here from Buddy Holly. And more generally, being a geeky lovelorn kid when you’re 18 or so is OK, but when you’re playing the same schtick in your 40s it’s a bit creepy to be honest.
And similarly, QOTSA. First record was a fantastic slice of gritty, poppy, punky, trancey stoner rock which sounded like it had been recorded in a garage, and probably had.
Then of course they had Rated R, which kind of pushed into weirdness, successfully for the most part, and Songs For The Deaf, which coalesced the weird and the pop and the rock in a kind of perfect storm.
But now we have:
Which I guess is OK in it’s way, and yes I get they’re playing for laughs to no small extent in the video. But still.
