FREEFORM 1990's ALTERNATIVE ALBUM POLL - THE RECKONING (TOP TEN COUNTING DOWN NOW)

Wow, totally forgot to put that P5 on my ballot. So glad it placed. Love it to death.

oh whoa i would not have remembered to vote for that but i am now thinking about it fondly

(1997 btw)

btw nakhchivan hate to say it but one bungle song is not really going to make it stick i think, not really a singles band

yeah, nakhchivan, also think you'd be better off starting with the later stuff, it's less cartoony, more slyly psychotic

I know the opening track of the Pizzicato Five album very well coz it's on Blue Jam (Chris Morris' radio show)...very good song, if the rest of the album is as good then yeah I all for this sort of thing

I can pretty safely say that I haven't thought of Pizzicato 5 in about a decade. A friend of mine who worked in a sushi restaurant introduced me to it so I thought I was partaking in some deeply scrounged out Japanese culture like those videotapes of Japanese game shows he used to bring over. Anyway, the next week I found the promo in a little white sleeve a little while later at my job at Sam Goody. It brought me a lot of pleasurable listening for a few years. I guess I lost the CD though.

sounds like a fair description of Built to Spill. Is the record in that kind of territory?

― huh! tikuuta. (kingkongvsgodzilla)

i could easily see magic hour appealing to BTS fans, but they're way more outsider-y. the songwriting is rooted in the soft 60s & 70s pop/folk, and the guitar freakouts are epic, sometimes overwhelming, not terribly melodious.

good music for staring at walls for long stretches of time

so... the common reference point for BTS and Magic Hour is... Neil Young?

I did a choir trip to Japan in the summer of 1993 and happened across a Pizzicato 5 concert broadcast on TV one night flipping channels in one of the hotels. It was mesmerizing, particularly when it segued into the video for "Twiggy Twiggy" immediately afterward. I skipped 3 meals so that I could buy one of their CDs while on that tour since I figured I would never, ever see hide nor hair of them in the US.

I still have that import (another live concert) and it's fucking great.

50= Nomeansno - Live And Cuddly (1991)
50 points
1 vote
1 first-place vote
Contributor: kingkongvsgodzilla

http://en.academic.ru/pictures/enwiki/78/Nomeansno_Live_and_Cuddly.jpg

The rendition of "Body Bag" on Live & Cuddly is amazing.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 9 April 2005 00:20 (5 years ago)

Yeah, to say Live and Cuddly is a secondary purchase just seems wrong to me (no pun intended.) I'd say it's one of the best live rock records ever made.

― donut debonair (donut), Saturday, 9 April 2005 01:43 (5 years ago)

Yeah, I see what you're saying about "Live and Cuddly", having given it another listen and realizing that it is a great live record. If I had been in less of a hurry, I would have specified that it isn't a good starting point due to the fact that the almost sterile studio precision of the other nomeansno releases is part of what gives them their charm. This is not to say that they aren't a formidable live show...just that the starkness you get from an album like "Wrong" can't be captured in a live setting, I guess.

― John Justen (johnjusten), Saturday, 9 April 2005 06:26 (5 years ago)

ultimate bro music.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Sunday, 23 April 2006 04:50 (4 years ago)

i'm really drunk.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Sunday, 23 April 2006 05:03 (4 years ago)

hahaha FUCKING AWESOME

That HI DERE anecdote makes me wonder whether the material rarity and value of records enhanced appreciation for them in the 90s. Like if someone discovered a record in that context today they'd probably just d/l the rar within 50 seconds. Wouldn't be the same and all that.

lololol

Ned's AMG write-up is a doozy as well: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:a9fpxqe5ldje

See, there it is. Glad to see that there were enough good quotes to back it up. Disappointed that it came in ahead of California and a lot of other extremely worthy records. Interesting though that they have definitley opened for Mr. Bungle in recent history.

Gave it 50 points because it's the record from the 1990s that I most consistently listen to and love.

ultimate bro music.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Sunday, 23 April 2006 04:50 (4 years ago)

i'm really drunk.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Sunday, 23 April 2006 05:03 (4 years ago)

^^^^^ applies to at least 25% of all ILM thread revivals.

It took me 13 years after purchasing that record to finally be in the same city at the same time to see these guys live. They are still very very loud and have a ton of heart.

That HI DERE anecdote makes me wonder whether the material rarity and value of records enhanced appreciation for them in the 90s. Like if someone discovered a record in that context today they'd probably just d/l the rar within 50 seconds. Wouldn't be the same and all that.

― nakhchivan, Thursday, April 29, 2010 2:21 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

This got discussed not long ago in the holy grails thread, I think!

Dude, this is your nomeansno floortime! SELL THIS BAND TO US before I post the next one

I thought about the Pizzicato Five a long during the nineties but never actually heard any of their records - we went on a ski trip to America - I can't even remember where? - and I ended up buying the Trouser Press to Nineties Rock which became a talisman for me later on, I read it and read it - anyway I opened it at random and read them raving about this band called the Pixies so I bought Debaser.

Over the next year I read that Pizzicato Five guide maybe 20 times, just as follow-on from that entry... I thought they sounded amazing but the idea of importing a record was 100% alien to me.

THAT IS MY PIZZICATO FIVE STORY

nomeansno is the closest the world will ever get to perfectly executed prog-punk, and lj if you have not heard them holy shit dude are you in for a treat.

stick w/my not the entry point comment up there though. 0+2=1 is my personal suggestion, then wrong. after that just listen to everything else theyve done.

xxp

I was just reading Ned's AMG review and I could not sell it better than that. I rarely come across anyone else familiar with this record, but when I do they always say something like "The Best Live Punk Album Ever!" - which I totally agree with.

Nomeansno are great but I never actually bought any of their albums, largely because I intended on moving back to MN and taping them off John.

oops

this is a pretty good starting point, sorta greatest 'hits' but incl. live stuff too

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/fa/Nomeansno_Peoples_Choice.jpg/200px-Nomeansno_Peoples_Choice.jpg

Prog-punk is a good way to describe it. You can hear a lot of similarities to Nomeansno in the first Tool ep. Obviously, comparing something to Tool is not going to win over the hearts of a lot of ILMers, but the first ep was a little different than everything that came afterward.

^^^this is on Spotify and I've been meaning to hear it. Now I will. Pretty certain I'll dig this band.

xpost

even tho i have no real interest in most of the stuff listed l8ly im p tickled by the randomness

excited 4 my own obsessive personal fave to show up!!!

Yeah, also one of the best things about NMN obviously is that they are total geezers:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/64/225007839_e183778657.jpg

nomeansno are great. I forgot to vote for them. 0+2=1 is the one.

OH SHIT

THAT BIT WHERE IT ALL KICKS IN ABOUT A MINUTE INTO 'NOW'

nomeansno is the biggest bunch of "sst type" dudes that weren't actually on sst

I'd say maybe second biggest after the Melvins, maybe.

50= Kristin Hersh - Hips And Makers (1994)
50 points
1 vote
1 first-place vote
Contributor: anatol_merklich

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/2c8463b2bf4a2fcdbf5d72916451133f/8923.jpg

Hips and Makers still does it for me. I don't know whether it captures a period or a time or whatever for me but I still think it's the best thing she's ever done in or out of the Muses.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 00:24 (7 years ago)

i just love her so much. i'm sorry i'm getting all emotional.

― Surmounter (rra123), Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:33 (3 years ago)

i had a dream last night that kristin was in my town, somehow passing through on a train, and she wrote me a note and left it on a telephone pole near the station. and then i lost the note, and i was looking for it all over town, shit scared. then i woke up and put Learn TO Sing Like A STar on, and now i'm listening to surf guitar.

― Surmounter, Tuesday, 22 May 2007 13:05 (2 years ago)

I've unexpectedly found myself back into Hips & Makers after all these years. I revisited with it around 2001 but couldn't really bring it into a present context at that time, it was more about memories for me. This time it's resonating with me in the present moment. It's funny that I always tend to think of it as an good album with a few really standout tracks, but in reality it all hangs together very well and feels very complete, like taking a journey through different parts of a forest or something.

I was so disappointed in Strange Angels that I quit paying attention to her work at all after that. The way I remember it, the songs that appear on Hips & Makers are ones she'd been saving up for years.

Haven't heard this Strings EP mentioned upthread...will have to track it down.

Also this line especially gets me - "I've been on the other side of the Blue Ridge, seen the Shenandoah rolling there" because I grew up in Virginia and it makes me remember the mountains there.

― I wonder who his history bitches are and if they approve (Bimble), Wednesday, 1 July 2009 16:18 (9 months ago)

jesus i wonder how many albums tied at 100 or 200 points

not saying anything except that 50 and 38 are by far the biggest tied-point scores in this poll

Oh, I love her, but I've never heard this!

well not by far. there were 5 on 36 too.

50= Ground Zero - Revolutionary Pekinese Opera Ver.1.28
50 points
1 vote
1 first-place vote
Contributor: Moka

http://www.squidco.com/miva/graphics/products/ReR/albums/ground.zero.revolutionary.jpg

All of Ground Zero's albums sound amazing -- but all of them have at least moments (some a great many) of complete nuclear meltdown chaos too. Thing is, to me, those are usually the best parts.

― dleone (dleone), Monday, 8 September 2003 16:52 (6 years ago)

'revolutionary pekanese opera' is one of my favorite albums of the previous decade. Frequent listening, can't even discuss.

― jl (Jon L), Monday, 8 September 2003 18:12 (6 years ago)

I was listening to RPO last night. I don't know their other records but I love that one. Things I like include: just the sharp bright colourful timbres (that makes it sound like Avril or something but it's not obv) they use even when doing noise, the sense of pacing and dynamics, of tension and intensity, the cartoon-like quality of bits of it, yes, the guitar noise solo, the way the whole thing kind of feels like some kind of sci-fi anime epic.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 01:57 (6 years ago)

Ground-zero's "Revolutionary Pekinese Opera" is ass-beating in the best possible way. Where to next?

― t, Friday, 10 May 2002 00:00 (7 years ago)

really REALLY fucken intrigued by this one

(1996)

Man, I forgot to vote for Red Heaven.

A pal of mine's brother (not a big music fan so far as I know) unaccountably bought Hips and Makers and must've been hugely disappointed, because a decade later that whole family was still using it as a byword for any bad purchase.

Belated woo yay Autoditacker. I agonised long and hard about which 90s Mouse on Mars album to vote for and could have talked myself into any of them, but in the end went for the first one I heard. Glad I wasn't alone in that choice!

I have never heard of Magic Hour and should change that, seeing as I dig Galaxie 500 and really enjoyed seeing Damon + Naomi live on the Playback Singers tour.

To me, Pizzicato 5 always sounded great as single tracks on compilations or on John Peel, but my attention wanders during the full albums I have. Don't have this one, though, so will give it a go.

Right, carry on...

Haha, fucking aces, good call Moka!

feisty, Spanish, into turntable Japanoise fuckchaos

ground zero! fucking hell! yet another incredible record (though second to 'plays standards', imo) that I totally forgot to vote for.

I perhaps should have spent more than 45 seconds on my ballot.

I perhaps should have spent more than 45 seconds on my ballot.

Likewise.