The difficult stuff - not always immediately apparent

[stuartypoorty]

How often do you play those difficult to listen to albums, you know the dissonant jarring recordings that are almost painful, yet you can't dispose of them ?

Here's a few;

Trout Mask Replica - Captain Beefheart

Wilco - A Ghost Is Born

Can - Tago Mago

My Boody Valentine - Loveless

In the case of Mr Van Vliet once every eight years or so.

Wilco have a great body of work from alt. country to punktry (y'alternative is my favourite discription) but this one evades me.

All the Can albums I have are uncomfortable territory, however, a band that can write a brilliant single like "I Want More" will always deserve a listen even if it's an infrequent one.

When I heard MBV I thought this is a shoegazing shrillstorm. Repeated plays suggest it's an epic and uplifting piece of music.

[clhboa]

An album that comes to mind for me is "Uncle Meat" by the MOTHERS OF INVENTION. When I first bought it about 20 years ago I was familiar with Zappa's more accessible works like "Overnight Sensation" + "Apostrophe'". So I wasn't quite prepared for tunes like "Dogbreath" or "King Kong". There were enough catchy tunes like "Electric Aunt Jemima" or "Sleeping In A Jar" to keep me coming back, until one day the light bulb went off and I totally understood the more challenging passages. It no longer sounds foreign to me me and has become one of my favorite Zappa albums. It also helped me understand the free jazz influence on such albums as "Kick Out The Jams" by the MC5 and "Funhouse" by THE STOOGES.

[stuartypoorty]

An album that comes to mind for me is "Uncle Meat" by the MOTHERS OF INVENTION. When I first bought it about 20 years ago I was familiar with Zappa's more accessible works like "Overnight Sensation" + "Apostrophe'". So I wasn't quite prepared for tunes like "Dogbreath" or "King Kong". There were enough catchy tunes like "Electric Aunt Jemima" or "Sleeping In A Jar" to keep me coming back, until one day the light bulb went off and I totally understood the more challenging passages. It no longer sounds foreign to me me and has become one of my favorite Zappa albums. It also helped me understand the free jazz influence on such albums as "Kick Out The Jams" by the MC5 and "Funhouse" by THE STOOGES.

I love the Detroit bands from that era, The Stooges, MC5, wasn't George Clinton a Motown sogwriter, Alice Cooper and The Amboy Dukes.

Zappa and the Mothers are one of the big gaps in my musical collection/education, only have "Sheik Yerbouti" which always raises a smile.

[clhboa]

Have you heard Frost, The Up, The Rationals, or SRC? Also Mitch Ryder had a band called Detroit that put out one killer album in the early 70's. I also really love Brownsville Station. Before he passed away I wrote their guitarist/singer Cub Koda a couple of times and he always wrote back. His widow eventually sold his legendary record collection on ebay. I was lucky enough to snag a few things from it. I'm still looking for a couple of out of print solo albums of his. They are "It's The Blues" and "Cub Digs Chuck".

[stuartypoorty]

MR And The Detroit Wheels, Frost (have heard of but nothing by - any relation of Frijid Pink) and really only "Smokin' In The Boys Room" by Brownsville Station.

[clhboa]

Detroit was a different MR band than the Detroit Wheels and Frost was Dick Wagner's (future Alice Cooper/ Lou Reed guitarist) band. They were no relation to Frijid Pink. "The Martian Boogie" by Brownsville Station should have been a hit. Most of their albums have been reissued onto cd in recent years.

[todd33rpm]

How often do you play those difficult to listen to albums, you know the dissonant jarring recordings that are almost painful, yet you can't dispose of them ?

Here's a few;

Trout Mask Replica - Captain Beefheart

Wilco - A Ghost Is Born

In the case of Mr Van Vliet once every eight years or so.

Wilco have a great body of work from alt. country to punktry (y'alternative is my favourite discription) but this one evades me.


I think part of the problem with A Ghost Is Born is that the quality of Jeff Tweedy's vocals has changed. Dunno if it's that they're being recorded more intimately or with another microphone or just age, but his voice seems more hoarse, or something, than it did on pretty much everything prior to that one. By the time I'd gotten to Sky Blue Sky, I was able to adjust, somewhat...but it also didn't hurt that it felt more like Being There in terms of how the songs were driven, and so I got into it a little more.

After reading Langdon Winner's essay on Trout Mask Replica in the Stranded anthology, I gave it another try, and periodically revisit it every couple months or so. (As he said, in order to appreciate the album, two things must be overcome: the music and the lyrics... :) )

My difficult listens, the ones sure to end a party if you're ready to go to bed: the Shagg's Philosophy of the World and Throbbing Gristle's Greatest Hits. I can do maybe two minutes of the former once every two years, and maybe a song or two off the latter every two or three years.

[clhboa]

Yeah, The Shaggs!!! "It's Halloween, It's Halloween, It's Halloween!!!!".