What albums did you listen to today?...continued

Prog Sothoth wrote: Late for the condolences, but sorry about your cat Steve. My cat is turning 21 years old soon. Blind in one eye and arthritic hind legs, but still healthy and alert otherwise. Never thought he'd live this long...and I'm scared that the day will finally come soon... Went on one of my binges. The backstory...growing up my knowledge of Alice Cooper was limited to the odd live album The Alice Cooper Show my friend sold me for a couple of bucks, and the 1974 greatest hits my best bud had. All of these albums are first listens believe it or not! Pretties for You: You know I'm a fan of psychedelic rock, so yeah, don't care about the general consensus, I DIG THIS! "Living" and "Fields of Regret" are so dope, and all these tripped out fuzzbox solos and weird Zappa-isms tossed in. Vincent may not have developed the "sneer" yet, but he had the acid-rock voice down with those harmonies, man. A righteous freakout with some groovy song titles. Easy Action: Not as fun overall, but it gets way out there with "Lay Down and Die, Goodbye", which is total experimental madness. "Shoe Salesman" was a really cool song. This is probably one I'll have to check out again because outside of those two exceptions and that refrigerator tune's lyrics, I honestly don't remember much. The guitars were getting a bit louder though. Love it to Death: Now we have the sneer, the Alice as villain role, and damn is this album awesome. As of now, it's my fav, bringing total sleaziness to their sound and rockin' loud guitars. Glammy, mad and rad, I can't believe I don't own this yet. How many rockers must this thing have inspired? How many scumbag singers did this voice predate? I can't even choose a favorite song, but "Black Juju" is so nuts. Killer: I knew about half of these tunes. The nasty rock gets more theatrical and loony at times, with stuff like "Dead Babies" giving moms that "worried look" face back in the day. Arguably one of his best to start out with due to it's popularity, but it actually didn't exceed expectations for me. Good stuff for sure, and the title track is a total winner. Love the ending! School's Out: Yeah, we all know the title track, but screw that, "Blue Turk" is this jazz-rock flamboyant supreme piece of platter damnit! The man sings so slick and cool during that sly thing. So he's not technically adroit, versatility goes a long way for me. "My Stars" is another one that surprised me with its gloriousness. Not everything is great, but a lot of it is, not just the opener (which I'm a bit too familiar with anyway). Billion Dollar Babies: This is kind of the mother-lode. Great rock tunes mixed in with some creepy numbers that borderline on "evil" territory at times. Lots of embellishments adds to the theatrics that bring the show to life. Nice to hear the original "Sick Things" and I Love the Dead" instead of the abbreviated live versions I grew up with. Gotta give a nod to "Unfinished Sweet"...real tricky instrumental break there, that's musicianship! Muscle of Love: Remember the album cardboard package? As a kid I always wondered if there was some horrible thing inside...a "muscle of love". I knew squat about innuendo, so my imagination concerning that image was probably weirder than the intentions of the band. Not great, but "Hard Hearted Alice" is outstanding, a new favorite! Always liked the title track too. Welcome to my Nightmare: Different band, and more showman-like. That's fine, cause "The Black Widow" totally ROCKS! Great guitar riffs abound. Still, those lyrics, isn't a black widow supposed to be female? What's the deal man? That "Years Ago" number is creepy cool too, writhing with atmosphere that goes beyond campy into genuinely unnerving in a way. Nice work. Alice Cooper Goes to Hell: Hell must be a disco, because oh yeah, he goes there. I can't say "You Gotta Dance" is bad though, guess I'm feelin' that glitter-ball groove as I get older. I'm kind of freakin' out thinking about gray hairs doing John Travolta moves at 45 year high school reunions. Damn. I don't mind the ballad stuff like "I Never Cry" either, music to croon at the piano in the after-hours golf club party. Feeling old now...need to stop. Maybe in a few weeks I'll check out his 80's hair stuff.

Dude. Amazed you are so new to this stuff. Some quick comments:

Thanks for the condolences about my kitty. She was totally family, and I’m really feeling the void she left. Can’t believe yours is 21! Must have had a happy life to live so long.

Re: Pretties for You. You HAVE to check out the live version of the album performed in NYC recently by Nick Didkovsky (Doctor Nerve) and a great band of likeminded fanboys. I bought it on DVD when Nick released it and it’s probably sold out but lots of it is on Youtube. Fields of Regret: https://youtu.be/jZsrDkvLCK8

Re: Killer. The ending scared the absolute sh*t out of me both times I’ve heard it. Been too chicken to listen again. I always shut it off. I’m such a wuss.

I would encourage you to continue onward - with special attention paid to “Lace & Whiskey”, “DaDa”, and (much later) “The Eyes of Alice Cooper”.
As a brutal metal fan, you should also dig “Brutal Planet”.

Edited by HolyMoly - April 25 2019 at 20:13

This week:
Carlos Paredes - Movimento Perpétuo
Steve Hillage - Green
Susanne Sundfør - Susanne Sundfør
Ozric Tentacles - Erpland

HolyMoly wrote: Re: Pretties for You. You HAVE to check out the live version of the album performed in NYC recently by Nick Didkovsky (Doctor Nerve) and a great band of likeminded fanboys. I bought it on DVD when Nick released it and it’s probably sold out but lots of it is on Youtube. Fields of Regret: https://youtu.be/jZsrDkvLCK8

Edited by Prog Sothoth - April 27 2019 at 09:32

^ absolutely Steve! 1991-1992 was an incredible time for music. The budding of new and creative genres were on the loose! Fear Factory are huge innovators of the rough and melodic vocals bound together. FF will go down in history as one of my most beloved bands. The bad thing I can say is that they’ve never released a credible live album on disc. :( You also couldn’t be more right about Brighter than 1000 suns. MTV with an edge! The accessibility of ‘Adorations and Sanity’ are fantastic and videos were cool too!

Saturday. Round 2.

Fates Warning— Live over Europe. ( had to have another go at this one. It truly is an awesome listen. FW are a true live act and my god Ray Alder can sing. He hasn’t lost any edge. His voice is not auto tuned on this record either. He really has it. )

Killing Joke— S/T. ( Dave grohl drums. Strictly badass. The whole record is cutting edge. )

Dead Can Dance— Dionysus ( short but powerful. Love it .)

APP— Pyramid (getting geared up for AP’ s ‘The Secret’ which arrives Monday for me. )

Animal Collective | Campfire Songs
Boris | Attention Please
Fairport Convention | s/t
Jean-Michel Jarre | Oxygene

Edited by HolyMoly - April 27 2019 at 23:23

^^ I’ve been debating whether to get that Stampede album. The Captain & Me is a winner. I’ll be sure to pick that one up!

Todayish:

Last night I saw a great, intimate blues show from a total pro, Bob Margolin, a veteran of Muddy Waters’ band (appearing in The Last Waltz). My neighborhood friend’s been asking me for months to check out live blues at this cool venue, and I’m glad I finally did.

Sloan | 12 — Canadian power pop band, around since the early 90s. Can’t say enough good things about this band. Each of the 4 members writes and sings lead - in this case, they all did 3 songs apiece and most of them are fantastic. One of their strongest, most consistent albums, and quite far into their career.

David Bowie | Heathen — first time all the way thru this one, and it’s definitely in the running for best album post-1983, so far anyway.

Graham Central Station| s/t — Larry Graham of Sly & the Family Stone. A classy, sophisticated soul/funk album.

Guapo | History of the Visitation — watch out for that tree!

Little Feat | Waiting for Columbus — superlative live album. Expanded 2 disc version

Plan 9 | Sea Hunt — 80s psych garage band I liked in college. Still sounds groovy today

Jade Warrior | Last Autumn’s Dream — Unique band. I think I’ll be binging on this band this week.

The Doors | The Soft Parade — in spots it sounds like they’re channeling Tom Jones, which isn’t a bad thing. Strange album, which is good news with The Doors. Shaman’s Blues and Wild Child seem to be the only tunes that sound like them. The title track could pass for a Mothers of Invention tune.

Edited by HolyMoly - April 28 2019 at 20:26

Frank zappa | 200 Motels — yes, AGAIN...

Frank Zappa | Civilization Phaze III — sublime

Frank Zappa | Freak Out — Suzy??

The Kinks | Are the Village Green Preservation Society — got the 3 disc deluxe version

Phish | Vegas 1996 (4 CD + DVD) — this was close to Phish’s peak in my experience. I was so into them at the time, really fun to revisit them with a show I’m not familiar with. Really high energy and creative deviances from the source material.

Thurston Moore & Loren Connors | The Only Way is Straight Through. RSD release from a couple of years ago. Improvisational guitar noisescapes from a couple of pros. Very nice.

Edited by HolyMoly - April 30 2019 at 20:38

Blood Sweat & Tears | Child is Father to the Man — first album, and only one with Al Kooper. Arguably the birth of jazz-rock, and certainly the primary inspiration for Chicago

Cromagnon | Orgasm — I have David-bamsen to thank for this one. Come out, wherever you are!

Jandek | Raining Down Diamonds — the most despondent, depressed album from the most depressing artist. Yep, I was in a funk today.

Wolf Eyes | Human Animal — one of their better efforts. doesn’t seem to do them justice to call them a “noise band”, there’s a method to the chaos

Xeerox | 1979-1981 Recuerdo Espectral de un Viejo Decorado Electrico — obscure thing I found on a music blog years ago. Faint, formless, and lo-fi. Again, I was in a mood.

Al Kooper | New York City (You’re a Woman) — Koop pulled me out of my misery. He’s the man. This s is his 4th solo album, circa 1971.

Al Kooper | You Never Know Who Your Friends Are — Al continues to elevate my mood. This is his 2nd, from 1969. He can do it all when it comes to bluesy/jazzy/R&B’y pop music too cool for the radio.

Ty Segall | Sleeper — eh, not one of my favorites from him. Probably why I don’t play it a lot. He’s a noisy garage rock renaissance man, don’t really need confessional acoustic albums from him.

Mink Deville - Cabretta
Andy Williams - Wonderful World
Ferrante and Teicher - Concert for Lovers


That Mink album is pretty cool late 70s "first spin" for me. A little bit Lou Reed, a little Keith Richard, with just a touch of new wave cool.