Re: Pisces Iscariot... My wife doesn't think it rocks enough.

It was always my favorite SPs album. I'm not sure why. That "Landslide" cover is hideous. But somehow, without all the pomp and fluff of Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie, it felt more natural, even if it wasn't a proper "album."
At the time I was comparing everything to Nirvana though. Impossible thing to do, because nothing actually sounds like Nirvana, despite how much and how hard so many bands (the Pumpkins included) tried. But at least Pisces had the raw, jammy thing going for it. "Whir" and "Starla" were my favorite tracks. Still pales in comparison to Nirvana.
Pumpkins were like a weird goulash of stylistic tropes. They wanted to be Jane's Addiction and Nirvana and MBV and Sonic Youth and Boston and glam metal and Nine Inch Nails and Fleetwood Mac and the Beatles and the Cars and the Cure... oh, and later Radiohead... then NIN again. They made a lot of sense to me as a kid, but when I started to listen to some of the bands they were emulating, I was left with no use for them whatsoever.

Nightmare's pretty low on my list. It's a good song, but Wayne's "you are Mrs. Pee-yew" line comes close to ruining it all.

"Amazing" was I think the first Kanye song that made me go, "Wow." Not that I'd listened to him much before that chance encounter, assuming he was just Diddy version 2.0, despite all the evidence to the contrary. But that was the song that planted the seed for the fandom you all have to endure today. :D

It sounded like a chain-gang worksong. It sounded so ... weird. I heard it and who it was on an online forum. The response was basically, "Uuuuhhhh... it's Kanye West you unbelievable moron" about a thousand times over. And I was so shocked that the insults didn't even really register. I could believe that this weird, dark, brilliant, song was buy the most popular figure in music.

It was a while before the full extent of Kanye's unquestionable prowess really hit me, but that was the epiphanic moment where I realized that I had indeed been an unbelievable moron by avoiding music just because it was popular.

"Pinnochio Story" ain't no proper track mang. Don't list it as a proper track. That's just some howl-at-the-moon primal scream shit tacked on because bonus tracks were an expectation.

Oh yah, Kanye West is so booooring and predictable.

Wilco, though, blows minds wide open, right? Yeah. Always zigging and zagging and doing the last thing you'd expect.

:fuckyou:

(And yes I realize I love Wilco so this doesn't really make sense but I wanted to say something in response to your tantiness, and the only other thing I could come up with was "shut up dildo.")

:fuckyou: :D :fuckyou:

The reason this is putting me to sleep is that this thread, the one about new releases and the one about electronic stuff can all basically be merged into one goddamn homogenous thread by now. There are other things going on, dammit...

Mark Lanegan - Gargoyle

Better than Phantom Radio but a couple of notches below Bubblegum and Blues Funeral in my opinion. The electronic influence present on Phantom continues but it is more subtle and part of the great whole of Gargoyle. The album remains too poppy and polished for my tastes - Lanegan's voice seems to lose its gritty punch with such production.

I gave the new JAMC album another listen this weekend...its a grower. Another album that seems stifled by mixing that isn't to my taste. Some really nice guitar is just buried. Songs are strong though.

Ok, cool! Let's talk about those!

I agree about the new Lanegan being lesser than Bubblegum and Blue Funeral. Lanegan's appeal is in his delivery, and I don't feel that the new record really does justice to his vocals and presence as a studio artist.

Lanegan's up there with Jeff Tweedy and Paul Westerberg in terms of having extremely relatable, gritty (or gritty-ish) vocals. Production needs to line up with that as does song structure. "In the Fade" is a nice example of a meeting of the minds between Lanagan and a band in which his style really worked (at the time). God that's a great song. Gonna listen to that now I think.

One Hot Minute is a bit of a sore thumb - or black sheep - in the RHCP's discography. Call it transitional. I don't even think the band likes it all that much. Or at least they seem to sort of disown it now. But back when it came out, I remember being super into it. A lot of my friends were. Feels like part of the soundtrack to that year of high school. Don't get me wrong, it totally pales next to the album that came before it (and the one that came after it). But there's some pretty cool and weird stuff on here. "My Friends" is still gorgeous. And Flea singing "Pea" w/ just his bass? Awesome. "Warped" rocks. "Aeroplane" is actually a lot nicer to my ears now than it was then. I don't know. I think Navarro comes across like a friend helping friends make an album to make an album. And it's an interesting album. Not one of their top tier mind, but a lot better than folks make it out to be.

Interesting album indeed. Transcending is probably the best song on there. I barely listen to the other tracks.

then talk about music that doesn't put you to sleep. "Skronk" or wahtever it is that you like.

...trying to find a pressed silver disc bootleg of SP's Machina II if anyone is able to help me out...

*Shudder*

Vs. sounds like the album between Ten and Vitalogy. It's looser and has a bit more teeth than Ten, but it's also still got solos and some epic stadium leads. But even as a transitional album it's fantastic. Vs. was the favorite Pearl Jam album of my younger self. I vividly remember buying it and In Utero on the same day (on cassette!) and those two albums pretty much lived in my boombox, swapped back forth for months. Actually, quite like Ten and Nevermind did previously. I'm getting sidetracked. Vs. is still awesome. From the up-tempos of "Go," "Animal," "Dissident" to the simmers of "Daughter" and "Elderly Woman..." I still think this is just a fantastic album.

"Go" is good stadium rock for sure.

Microsoft Paint, right? I love that program! :D