I think that back in the days before downloading/album blogs/Spotify I had probably only heard a handful of these acts. I didn't know what a NWW list was back then either. It would have been cruel to know such a thing.
― Yo Gotti Nutter Ting Hummin' (President Keyes), Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:13 (nine years ago) link
lol
― C21H23NO5 (nakhchivan), Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:17 (nine years ago) link
exackly, its fkn sadistic
― Ƹ༑Ʒ (imago), Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:20 (nine years ago) link
I've never even seen this list
― please delete outrageous tanuki crappyposter (wins), Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:22 (nine years ago) link
I feel like I must've seen this list before. If not, then I'm still in the dark as to how I stumbled upon that Anal Magic album.
― Portly Backgammon (Old Lunch), Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:23 (nine years ago) link
I don't think it's inherently cruel or sadistic -- I think that says more about your approach(es)
― sarahell, Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:25 (nine years ago) link
oh no, I think the list is great. But if I had come across it in 1999 I would have spent a fortune tracking down oop albums that would be widely available by 2005 or so.
― Yo Gotti Nutter Ting Hummin' (President Keyes), Thursday, 2 October 2014 19:33 (nine years ago) link
Napster started in 1999!
― sink floyd (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Thursday, 2 October 2014 20:00 (nine years ago) link
I remember spending hours waiting to download Moving Gelatine Plates or whatever from dudes in Europe on dialup.
― sink floyd (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Thursday, 2 October 2014 20:01 (nine years ago) link
I spent years in the mid-90s looking for a bunch of obscure-at-the-time records I'd made a list of from the 2nd edition of the Trouser Press Guide with no illusions or need to be a completist
― sarahell, Thursday, 2 October 2014 20:03 (nine years ago) link
Heard: 56Seen live: 6Stayed at their house: 1Actually a really big fan of: approx 15
― everything, Thursday, 2 October 2014 20:12 (nine years ago) link
oh yeah, possibly that's why there are 5 cop cars across from my house right now
― Yo Gotti Nutter Ting Hummin' (President Keyes), Thursday, 2 October 2014 20:18 (nine years ago) link
oh no, I think the list is great. But if I had come across it in 1999
Probably came across it in 2000 or so and I love a lot of the music but I wasn't that into tracking everything down. Also as I said I really think there is a sense of black humour to the thing. What would people in 1980 have felt? At least we had a search engine etc. and some mailing lists to ask about. I used to be a member of an old S3 list and the guys there were knowledgeable as hell.
Not that this list is that diff when looking through a record guide or reading a book on music and coming up with a list of tens of records to investigate. sarah otm.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 2 October 2014 23:01 (nine years ago) link
dude i spent like three years on napster trying to find the (then) long-out-of-print "faust so far" and all i ever found was a crappy xing-encoded mp3 of "it's a rainy day sunshine girl" with diginoise everywhere. finding sphinx tush on napster? forget it!
― rushomancy, Thursday, 2 October 2014 23:48 (nine years ago) link
how did u know it was xing encoded
― C21H23NO5 (nakhchivan), Thursday, 2 October 2014 23:51 (nine years ago) link
krautrock was all labeled "Weird Al"
― Yo Gotti Nutter Ting Hummin' (President Keyes), Friday, 3 October 2014 00:23 (nine years ago) link
is it ok to like most of what i've heard (a bit more now than my number above) of this list but not NWW? despite the efforts of some i still don't get it at all
― outback bumfuc (electricsound), Friday, 3 October 2014 00:25 (nine years ago) link
hell yes! and I say that as a big NWW fan
― sleeve, Friday, 3 October 2014 00:28 (nine years ago) link
OK I dug up this ancient interview, partial transcription:
"As Steve puts on a cassette of the second NWW album, a list is produced from somewhere. This is, I'm told, a provisional tally of what the Nurses consider to be the thirty most original records. The bulk are already chosen, all that remains is to debate over a few of the more contentious ones. I scan the list, and though I pride myself on my ability to stay reasonably abreast of what's going down (I'm not the world's greatest collector but I'm an inveterate fax'n'info gatherer), I've only heard of half a dozen or so of the names, and probably only two or three of the actual records. Most of them are before my time - long lost obscurities from all over the place. There is very little I can offer in the way of mediation - but, and it's a big but, this list is of great significance because it's already becoming clear to me that NWW's music has arisen precisely for the reason that these records no longer circulate (or records like them), and the key to understanding the motivation behind NWW is to probe a bit deeper into the mentality of the collector, as represented by these three particular specimens."
(the article later notes that, since the interview, "there has been much more activity from the group")
Face Out magazine, March 1981
― sleeve, Friday, 3 October 2014 01:19 (nine years ago) link
I'm surprised nobody's put out a book based on the list. Would expect something detailing who the band was, where from, discography and review of essential works. May be something similar is online but I don't remember seeing much detail. & I for one would like a physical copy to peruse.
I think I came across the list around the time I was first using the internet back around the milenium. I think there were already soundfiles posted for a lot of the music. Seemed to be a number of sites with the list decoded at least.I'd come across some of the list contents earlier through other sources independent of the list. There are some not so obscure bands listed. Surprised how early they'd heard of a couple though. DAF for one.
― Stevolende, Friday, 3 October 2014 07:55 (nine years ago) link
I want to hunt down some magma on youtube but all I did was go down memory lane with the Dead C. what are you going to do!
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 3 October 2014 08:02 (nine years ago) link
I've heard around 100 of these and they're among my favorite artists/records of all time. I should really check out the rest.
Nurse With Wound is one of those artists I like more for the idea behind instead of the music. I think I'd enjoy more talking and geeking out to this albums with him instead of listening to his music. Also the name of the band is top 10 band names of all time for me.
Reminds me of a famous mexican poem (cant remember the poet) about a drunk neurosurgeon with a blade in his hand.
― Moka, Friday, 3 October 2014 08:38 (nine years ago) link
Hadn't counted the number of artists I've definitely listened to on there before and I think it's 175 and I have soundfiles and cds by a load of those..
I'm not that familiar with Stapleton's work and should have caught up with that much better than I have. I met him at an art college exhibition here in Galway back around 11 years ago. He lives in the Burren down in the next county down the Irish coast, or certainly did for years.
I liked the 2cd sampler that Sanctuary put out of his work with a lot of edited tracks on, Living Fear of James Last. I don't know how good an intro to his work it makes though
― Stevolende, Friday, 3 October 2014 09:19 (nine years ago) link
I was listening to Magma's "Udu Wudu" album on Youtube a few days ago. Surprisingly funky!
― Yo Gotti Nutter Ting Hummin' (President Keyes), Friday, 3 October 2014 13:49 (nine years ago) link
attahk is even funkier than udu wudu!
there used to be a super-great clip of the '75 band rehearsing theusz hamtaahk that i was going to link to but it looks like it's gone now. :( so here, take this classic appearance from a 1972 french comedy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK0qpTqfqC0
― rushomancy, Friday, 3 October 2014 21:54 (nine years ago) link
https://www.finderskeepersrecords.com/shop/strain-crack-break-nurse-with-wound/
― van dyke parks generator (anagram), Monday, 29 July 2019 09:23 (four years ago) link
I think I'm on 54 now, which is 11 more than last time, 11 years ago. so by the time I'm 280 years old I'll have heard the whole list!
― Colonel Poo, Monday, 29 July 2019 09:49 (four years ago) link
57. Can't say I'm curious enough to check all of them out though.
― pomenitul, Monday, 29 July 2019 10:00 (four years ago) link
How many of them are actually any good is the real question.
― Arthur Lowe & Love (Tom D.), Monday, 29 July 2019 10:01 (four years ago) link
Just checked, and I'd heard 99 eleven years ago LOL. Not sure I've added much beyond that.
― Arthur Lowe & Love (Tom D.), Monday, 29 July 2019 10:03 (four years ago) link
Depends on your tolerance to practical jokes.
xp
― pomenitul, Monday, 29 July 2019 10:04 (four years ago) link
just going through the list, hurrah I've finally found a use for that click counter I bought for no good reason. Never listened to Dubuffet, have seen his work tho.
― calzino, Monday, 29 July 2019 10:59 (four years ago) link
60
― calzino, Monday, 29 July 2019 11:02 (four years ago) link
oops 61, thought I hadn't heard any of the D's despite owning a DAF album or 2 in the 80's.
― calzino, Monday, 29 July 2019 11:09 (four years ago) link
About 50 I think, and about 10 new to me in the last 10 years. One of them being Catherine Ribiero + Alpes, who've moved near the top of my alltime favorites, so I should keep digging.
― bendy, Monday, 29 July 2019 18:31 (four years ago) link
― Arthur Lowe & Love (Tom D.), Monday, 29 July 2019 10:03 (eight hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
Just checked, I'm up to 176. I need to get out more.
― Arthur Lowe & Love (Tom D.), Monday, 29 July 2019 18:38 (four years ago) link
wow I counted exactly 100
― brimstead, Monday, 29 July 2019 21:55 (four years ago) link
Conservatively, 59
― dan selzer, Monday, 29 July 2019 22:01 (four years ago) link
38 that i can definitively say i have heard and know what they sound like
― bookmarkflaglink (jim in vancouver), Monday, 29 July 2019 22:04 (four years ago) link
The List goes mainstream:https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/24/got-any-horrific-child-discover-the-list-of-the-worlds-291-weirdest-bands
― funnel spider ESA (Matt #2), Tuesday, 24 September 2019 10:59 (four years ago) link
It is about beginnings for Stapleton in another way, too – he has inadvertently played a long game in record collecting, and is now using the proceeds from selling his rare vinyl to build a house in Clare, Ireland, “near the Father Ted house”.“I have maybe 1,000 albums left, but most of the rare ones are gone,” he says. “I could not believe the prices of some of them.”
“I have maybe 1,000 albums left, but most of the rare ones are gone,” he says. “I could not believe the prices of some of them.”
Didn't know he really sold off most of his records!
― Le Bateau Ivre, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 11:41 (four years ago) link
How many Chilean avant-garde noseflute LPs does one man need?
― funnel spider ESA (Matt #2), Tuesday, 24 September 2019 13:23 (four years ago) link
At least five tbh.
― pomenitul, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 13:31 (four years ago) link
Good article! The band that only recorded one song was Sphinx Tush (though there are two different versions of that song). I also appreciated Allan acknowledging that the list is not some comprehensive chronicle of the underground but is honestly fairly limited in scope.
My main hope is that Finders Keepers will somehow finagle the rights for a legit reissue of the Don Bradshaw-Leather LP. I love that record, but the pressing was apparently not very good, and all the online copies floating about sound extremely bad.
― Poody Mae Bubblebutt, Miss Kumquat of 1947 (rushomancy), Tuesday, 24 September 2019 13:49 (four years ago) link
NWW That's What I Call Music! If only
― bendy, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 16:35 (four years ago) link
"the Don Bradshaw-Leather LP"
The back cover of the album looks like a low-budget community theatre reworking of Zardoz - if only it had been the front cover. But the music is better than I expected, like early Tangerine Dream. And now Youtube's sidebar has me.
― Ashley Pomeroy, Tuesday, 24 September 2019 22:37 (four years ago) link
enjoy your Joe Rogan videos
― Poody Mae Bubblebutt, Miss Kumquat of 1947 (rushomancy), Tuesday, 24 September 2019 23:36 (four years ago) link