Pick One

[Guest (Loggins Name)]

Gene's sticking his boot up your ass for that one.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

Wait, what?

 

I don't like U2.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

In high school, I would have said Achtung Baby, because U2 was my favorite band ever and that was my legit favorite album for about 5 years. In college, I might have considered War since I was pushing that early 80s post-punk martial drums thing pretty hard. But now, I'd probably say The Joshua Tree. It's pretty tough to beat that opening trio, and after 20 years the whole album still has a pretty unique sound. Not sure anyone else has made an album that sounds that consistently epic and swirling and blah blah blah that I actually like.

[Annabelle 0]

I like Coltrane over Miles, but that's really hard considering how well the two worked together. I guess I like Coltrane's relentless exploration of his instrument and his ability to purely express himself completely uncut with any filler whatsoever. Plus, he never laid any eggs like Miles in the 80's. An early death was kind to Coltrane, I think.

 

no. first. anything jazz in the past 60 years outside of the fringe european and west coast stuff branches out from miles. it begins and ends with him. create a jazz tree. write down every sideman that has ever worked with miles. then find those artists albums. and the sidemen who played on their albums. its the degrees of miles davis. he had a better ear for musicians than anyone. plus, he was not the stubborn band leader who played whatever he wanted. he allowed his sidemen to guide where his music went. he was ever evolving. but the 80's miles was physically and mentally sick. you can't fault him for his crap since he didn't really put that much effort into it. he liked his art shit more.

 

coltrane, on the other hand, definately explored to greater depths than miles. but in all honesty, had he not died, i shudder to think what he would do next. he had played out the free jazz bit. he wouldn't want to be like ornette coleman and just play noise for 50 years, would he?

 

miles contained the madness to a point. coltrane went a little too far.

 

miles from 63-68 is the best. unbelievable. i almost like it more than dylan in that period. maybe. the sidemen were unbelievable.

 

hey gene, ever get into any tony williams lifetime? i was listening to turn it over and thought of you. i don't think there's anything about that album you wouldn't like. and its part of the miles family. the band he wanted to back him up in the early 70's. truly great. probably the best fusion band ever.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

Never even heard of it, actually. I'm admittedly a jazz rube. Turn it over is the name of the record?

[Annabelle 0]

Never even heard of it, actually. I'm admittedly a jazz rube. Turn it over is the name of the record?

 

ya.

 

there are two great tony lifetime albums

 

emergency

turn it over

 

its a trio. jazz, organ, drums. some odd vocal chanting. jack bruce from cream gets in a little bit on turn it over. i think msot consider emergency to be better, but i like turn it over. its a rock n roll album with jazz chops. its minimalistic. noodling but not too much. its the rock band miles wanted. its a rock band everyone wanted.

 

i'll give jazz suggestions as they are requested

[Annabelle 0]

Never even heard of it, actually. I'm admittedly a jazz rube. Turn it over is the name of the record?

 

ya.

 

there are two great tony lifetime albums

 

emergency

turn it over

 

its a trio. jazz, organ, drums. some odd vocal chanting. jack bruce from cream gets in a little bit on turn it over. i think msot consider emergency to be better, but i like turn it over. its a rock n roll album with jazz chops. its minimalistic. noodling but not too much. its the rock band miles wanted. its a rock band everyone wanted.

 

i'll give more jazz suggestions if they are requested

[Guest (Loggins Name)]

I've been listening to Terumasa Hino lately. There's a whole world of Japan-based (I wouldn't call it Japanese) jazz for me to mine. May Dance is pretty good, but tends to get that sound that I've always associated with grad students in spots.

 

Gene, you might like Carla Bley's Escalator Over the Hill, or you'll find it to be trippy '60s rubbish, I dunno, but I think it's great if you ever want to exacerbate a stressful situation, for whatever reason.

[Annabelle 0]

no idea who sthat is

 

everyone should get as much bud powell as they can, though.

 

i wont talk anymore jazz here.

[PLAGIARISM! 0]

Point well taken.

 

Anyway, uh...let's try The Replacements OR Husker Du. The latter has never been able to move beyond "Band I Don't Get" status for me, while the former is a sentimental favorite.

 

'Mats. Husker Du at full pelt were something obscene, but I think the Replacements can claim better albums overall.

[Guest (Loggins Name)]

I never really got Husker Du either. I think I sort of warmed up to Zen Arcade a little and acknowledged that it was a seminal album (I genuinely like "Something I Learned Today" a lot), but Let It Be and Pleased to Meet Me are just irresistably great albums.

[Annabelle 0]

i never got any 80's indie rock

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

Dan, your idea of galvanizing aggression and mine are probably very different.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Allow me to blacken things up: OutKast or Wu-Tang Clan?

 

Although Ghostface is my favorite rapper and RZA is one of my favorite producers, I give the nod to the two dope boys in a Cadillac. Their catalog has the stronger, more consistent content (mind you, I'm not taking the solo Wu efforts into consideration). For as entertaining as they were, the boys from Shaolin only had one great album and a couple pretty good outings. Very little outside of 36 Chambers, though, is really essential. Most of their follow-up albums are too bloated and bogged down with filler.

 

OutKast, meanwhile, have only one real misstep to their credit (Idlewild). Stankonia and Aquemini are classics, ATLiens is damn near close to that status (as an aside, that's probably my favorite OutKast album), the double-disc effort for all its faults is one of the better double rap albums, and their debut is overlooked, likely because of the superb follow-ups.

[Guest Teal-y Dan]

Allow me to blacken things up

No.

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

Wu-Tang Clan, by a thousand miles, especially their work from 93-96.