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

6 Trumans Water - Spasm Smash XXXOXOX Ox and Ass(1993)
150 points
1 vote
1 first-place vote
Contributor: cwkiii

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UkdnMV_9N8Y/R8x0MC8BiyI/AAAAAAAAAgc/wzuPFgXtY38/s320/trumans+water.jpg

I still have yet to hear a band that has excited me as much as Trumans Water did a decade ago.

What they did right, IMHO, was that they took the above influences (Fellers, Girls, SY, etc.) and forced them into a hardcore/punk tradition.. whether Trumans intended that or not.

Sonic Youth, Boredoms, Fellers, etc. all had/have amazing rock moments of course.. but they don't rock all the time, or at least, that doesn't seem to be their "point" -- instead, following more of a tradition for higher art purposes a la Beefheart, Residents, etc. Well, supposedly.. I know I'm at least partially full of shit here... but you know what I mean. The Wire would have never touched Trumans Water... for example. Which is kinda why Trumans excited me. They took all my favorite elements of art rock bands and warped them into this ball of volume for hardcore kids.

― donut bitch (donut), Monday, 14 October 2002 19:03 (7 years ago)

eard "Spasm Smash Whatever" and it sounded exactly like I WISH Pavement had sounded (assuming Pavement ever learned to rock) - truly "angular" shards of lurching riffs that rattled and clattered and made me want to contort my body into weird shapes. Utterly simple guitar parts, yet deliberately sewn together with enough intricacy to sound real complex - a model for even such a crappy guitarist as myself to emulate, theoretically, and maybe even create something worth listening to. Genuinely tight-but-loose. Plus a septuagenarian drummer, no less! how cool is that?

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Sunday, 18 September 2005 20:20 (4 years ago)

i say classic - spasm smash is the SEARCH

― gygax!, Monday, 14 October 2002 20:35 (7 years ago)

http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~tewing/ned/n130.html

!

I knew the top third of this poll was going to be full of weird choices!

I thought that would be in the top five for sure.

L I A R

hahahahahahahahahaha

it's weird to me that truman's water is #6 and there's no us maple anywhere

good album but dear oh dear

no offense to lj but i'm still not convinced of the greatness of the later cardiacs albums. they're really busy both production-wise and composition-wise in a way where it becomes uncomfortable for me to process everything that's going on and i end up just kinda AUGH TURN IT OFF MY EARS ARE BLEEDINg

"a little man and a house and the whole world window" is one of my favorite albums ever though so go figure

Ah, who could forget the lovely 90s combo Trumans Water and the soothing sounds of their classic "Spasm Smash XXXOXOX Ox and Ass"?

dude sarcasm is nagl for you

I actually had to look on Rate Your Music to check that was a real album.

Wow, I just got a huge flashback of Trumans + TFLU282, Six Finger Satellite, Brainiac, Clawhammer, local bands on Skin Graft label (Shorty, U.S. Maple, Dazzling Killmen, Mount Shasta, etc.) I sold almost all that stuff, sigh.

It's 4:49 in Chicago and I gotta leave soon anyway, thanks so much acoleuthic! I don't mind checking in tomorrow. I'll just say what I would have voted for after the fact, ha.

like i said if i had it to do over i woulda done 200 pts for us maple.

ciderpress, I guess I'm a sorta masochist? MAKE MY EARS BLEED, YOU FUCKERS

A Little Man and On Land are among my own favourite albums too, though, so I'm basically like *that* with their every sensibility, no matter how frantically-deployed

anyone who wants their ears to bleed and their brain to race [REST OF POST REDACTED]

Trumans Water sound kinda rad. Most of the unknown stuff sounds kinda rad.

Matt there will be a Special Award for US Maple after the fact

I voted for Dazzling Killmen but I think i was the only one.

I wish I had just given Kyuss 199 points now

I wonder what cwkiii did with his other fifty points?

so do I

xp

I am not saying they are bad! I am saying I didn't think people thought about them in the context of albums; like, I am certain "The Crossroads" and at least one Cypress Hill single would appear on a singles/tracks poll.

― it means "EMOTIONAL"! (HI DERE), Friday, May 7, 2010 12:43 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Heard the first two Bone albums (by which I mean Creepin' and E. 1999, not that Thug World Order shit) so much growing up.

really? where was this? I never got the impression they were even that huge in LA

― the sound of a norwegian guy being wrong (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, May 7, 2010 12:45 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

They aren't an L.A. group.

Real talk, no one I knew listened to Wutang in 96-97, it was all about Pac and Bone.

ha, I nearly voted Spasm Smash etc but on listening to all my Trumans Water albums which I treasured in the 90s to see which was most awesome, I found I COULD NOT STAND any of them any more

anyway, I laugh at everyone who was like "these Cardiacs are trying too hard", not because you are wrong but because that was pretty much my thought when a rabid fan lent me all their stuff... couple of years later I found myself thinking "you know, I'd like to hear that band again", and then, well, I voted for that thing up there, is all

Actually, pfunkboy and ilxor's ballots have added number-of-voters meat to quite a lot of albums here, so I'm thankful for them, mostly

errr, not Thug World Order, I mean Art of War

getting my so-so latter BTNH albums mixed up

lol pity award for my beloved maple

also tuomas wtf is your deal in this thread?

RE: dazzling killmen, a guy from that band is a bro of mine living in ny right now but anyway his post killmen band sicbay is one of my favorites and i kinda wished i would have remembered to vote for their album "the firelit s'coughs" in this poll...the song "who wrote the night" off that is one of my favorite songs ever:

kinda cruddy sounding live clip of that song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gfgg1PUmqk

I like Truman's Water but not sure I know this one. If something has to get so high with only one vote, I'm kind of glad it's something I'm well-disposed towards.

Yeah, shit, if Cardiacs click on the first listen you're doing fucking well.

(They did for me though! It was like the missing piece of the jigsaw)

All 4 people who voted for it put it in their top 5.

Speaking of top 5s, things are about to get CHAOTIC

i listened to the earlier truman's water album that was on here and it sounded kinda like a more lo-fi Unwound, with GBV-caliber song titles

sicbay's myspace..god i loved this band

http://www.myspace.com/sicbay

I debated giving 190 points to a Joe Satriani album (one with him singing, especially), but thought better of it.

This is the only Trumans Water album on the poll!

Pretty interesting: every electronic album that's appeared so far is of the "home listening" variety, except for that Sasha & Digweed comp, and that made it on the strength of one vote. Where were all the dance heads when voting took place? Sure, dance music is singles-oriented, but surely albums like The Secret Tapes of Dr. Eich or Every Man and Woman is a Star, or comps like Platinum Breakz would've deserved a spot here?

― Tuomas,

Tuomas you complained about the lack of hip hop & techno in the poll. Then you complained about the hip-hop choices now youre complaining about the techno. I dont get this.

polls are never going to be in line with most peoples taste.

hey're really busy both production-wise and composition-wise in a way where it becomes uncomfortable for me to process everything that's going on and i end up just kinda AUGH ... MY EARS ARE BLEEDINg

beautiful! that is exactly what I love about them, and why I voted for this album. I live for that discomfort and discombobulation, and they do it soooo spectacularly well. and yeah, I took a long time to become obsessed with them. they're pernicious like that.

super roots 7? really surprised that it wasn't chocolate synthesizer or super AE. of all the boredoms stuff that's probably the one I know/have listened to the least... I have it, but it never struck me as in any way exceptional. probably worth revisiting on the strength of the above advocacy.

good to see truman's water in here too.

super ae placed high in the og poll

chocolate synthesizer would be my pick too but it's not as much of a crowd-pleaser u know

xp ahh, that would be why.

I voted synthesizer. you don't get much more crowd-pleasing than 'acid police'.

m@tt have i ever told you about how i avoided sicbay for their entire career because i thought they were nu-metal because of the misspelled name?

feel stupid about it now that i have actually heard them. oops.

5 Cat Power - Moon Pix (1998)
165 points
2 votes
1 first-place vote
Greatest contributor: Gravel Puzzleworth

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5veTilZgC-4/SaraB-HmckI/AAAAAAAAGdU/mav87m3gavc/s400/Cat+Power-+Moon+Pix+(1998).jpg

moon pix, it's where she reaches the peak of mesmerization.

― alex in mainhattan, Friday, 14 August 2009 22:26 (8 months ago)

Moon Pix is one of my favourite records.

― sean gramophone, Saturday, 15 August 2009 22:29 (8 months ago)

moon pix, its got that dazed metallic sound that none of the others do.

― ❊❁❄❆❇❃✴❈plaxico❈✴❃❇❆❄❁❊ (I know, right?), Saturday, 15 August 2009 22:34 (8 months ago)

Moon Pix is a such a goddamn awesome record. Impossible to follow it up.

― Tourtiere (Owen Pallett), Tuesday, 11 August 2009 23:23 (8 months ago)

I mean, I love all of Moon Pix, it's my favourite album, it's all magical, but C&tK is a spell & a litany - plenty of people have sounded so personal but every time I hear that song it stops being about her halfway through and becomes about me.

― Gravel Puzzleworth, Thursday, 29 April 2010 18:39 (1 week ago)

This was the first Cat Power record I heard. I've really liked everything I've heard since but it'd be lying to myself if I didn't admit is all been a bit of a let down after 'Moon Pix'.

― AnotherDeadHero, Friday, 30 April 2010 17:14 (1 week ago)

Chan Marshall and her
Pubic hair, an indie boy
Dream; heavens above.

- a hoy hoy

I really like OOIOO - Feather Float (1999), but probably like most people didn't discover it until it was reissued a few years back.

Wait, this WASN'T in the original poll? I didn't bother voting for it because I just assumed it had placed. xp

hi emil.y. do you like I'm Being Good? they are kind of Trumans Watery but from Brighton. you are probably aware of these things since their main guy did his rad twee-creepy cartoon stylings for Plan B magazine etc. anyway I nearly voted for "Poisonous Life" but ran out of time and ballot places, sorry I'm Being Good

(xposts)

Old ILX, dude (xp)

If there's not gonna be any Dirty Three, at least there's this.

hell you have probably gigged with them and all, but, just saying in case not! (more xposts)

this top ten is a load of crap

:(

Tuomas you complained about the lack of hip hop & techno in the poll. Then you complained about the hip-hop choices now youre complaining about the techno. I dont get this.

I'm not complaining about the electronic albums that have placed so far (technically none of them are "techno", besides the Sasha & Digweed they're all IDM/ambient/electro), I like most of them. Just saying that I was expecting to see some dance music in this poll, since 90s were such a great decade for dance/house/techno, but so far we've seen only one trance comp.

I love Moon Pix so much - I'm glad it didn't win because it's not very ILX (as these results show!) but I wasn't trying to troll or voting strategically in giving it that many points; I really esteem it over ever other 90s record by a lonely mile.

hi emil.y. do you like I'm Being Good?

Yes! Oddly enough, I just saw them play last night.

Tell you what - I've got ILX's resident art expert Plaxico to interpret the #4 album's cover, just to mix things up a bit.

Tuomas, unfortunately not too many of the big dance experts voted. This polling-method would have been better-served if someone else had run it; I don't think I'm being paranoid when I say that plenty of people didn't contribute because I'm regarded as a bit of a running ILM joke.