Always wanted to hear that Head album.
― Enemy Insects (NickB), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 12:29 (fifteen years ago) link
At least they mention Yello
― Sacco, Vanzetti, Passantino... (Tom D.), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 12:30 (fifteen years ago) link
Thanks for that, NickB. Lots of pros and cons in that list but focusing on the pros, Neubaten are on it and, of course, the infamous JAMMS album, which I think Sounds covered in depth if my memory serves me correctly (which it very rarely does).
Just noticed another reason for MM winning this - The Pixies are on it (and in Sounds, too).
― Guilty_Boksen, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 12:45 (fifteen years ago) link
I never ever read sounds.
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 17:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Sounds was pretty hard to come by in the U.S., at least in the places I grew up. I think I only ever bought one copy of it.
― Earl of Gothington Manor (Bimble), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 18:24 (fifteen years ago) link
Albums whose placings make me smile on the NME list:
18. Hot, cool & vicious - Salt 'n' pepper (ha)20. Saturday night - Schoolly D21. Hearsay - Alexander O' Neal25. Rhythm killers - Sly & Robbie26. Mother juno - The gun club31. Kool and Deadly - Just Ice33. In all Languages - Ornette Coleman34. Time boom X be devil dead - Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry40. Qareeb - Najma45. Good music - Joan Jett55. Trouble over here, trouble over there - Trouble Funk
Albums whose placings make me smile on the MM list:
1. The young gods - The young gods
Albums I really have no idea what they are (though I could probably guess, in a couple instances):
32. Paul Johnson - Paul Johnson36. Up for a bit - The Pastels37. Tacky souvenirs of pre-Revolutionary America - Culturcide43. Wicked women, Wicked men & wicket keepers - Blyth Power44. An Attitude Hits - Dan47. Crooked Mile - Microdisney50. The girl who runs the beat hotel - Biff bang pow!51. Rooms of the Magnificent - Ed Keupper56. Foxheads stalk this land - Close lobsters26. Heaven's end - Loop27. Calenture - The triffids29. Oh! tears baby - Win
I dont see how MM list is more dull than NME
It just is.
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 18:38 (fifteen years ago) link
Other albums that make me smile on that Sounds list:
* Celtic Frost - Into The Pandemonium* Def Leppard - Hysteria* Einsturzende Neubauten - Five On The Open Ended Richter Scale* Michael Jackson - Bad* The Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu - 1987 What The F***'s Going On?* The Leather Nun - Steel Construction* John Cougar Mellencamp - The Lonesome Jubilee* The Screaming Blue Messiahs - Bikini Red* Yello - One Second
Also curious about these now, neither of which I think I ever heard of before, but which sound highly entertaining judging from their names:
* Head - A Snog On The Rocks* Stupids - Van Stupid
MM also deserves to be penalized for leaving out the Pet Shop Boys. (Was Tennant a former Sounds guy, or what?)
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 19:07 (fifteen years ago) link
Simon Reynolds was pretty big at MM by '87 right? I'm kind of surprised Mirage didn't make this list...I think SR liked the album, and I know that he was a huge Meat Puppets aficionado anyways...
I've been pretty obsessed with the MM EOYs from about 86 to 90 lately (and totally indifferent to NME which is why I'm not voting)...did we poll all of those?
― hard-core Anglophilic ass kisser (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 19:30 (fifteen years ago) link
cant remember
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 19:32 (fifteen years ago) link
feel free to poll them
Simon Reynolds was pretty big at MM by '87 right?
Guess that would explain Young Gods topping the list.
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 19:32 (fifteen years ago) link
here's 88
― hard-core Anglophilic ass kisser (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 19:44 (fifteen years ago) link
just put up 89
― hard-core Anglophilic ass kisser (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 19:48 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, that Head album was something that entirely passed me by at the time as well. I don't even remember reading about that one. There's a review on Allmusic for it that says it had a dude from Pop Group/Rip Rig & Panic, and describes it as "an electrified West-Country translation of the Pogues, shot through with the bluesy eccentricity of Captain Beefheart". I wonder if it's any good.
― Earl of Gothington Manor (Bimble), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 19:50 (fifteen years ago) link
I just looked up the Sect as well, apparently some punk band that to these ears sound exactly like the kind of emo punk stuff kids would like nowadays!
― Earl of Gothington Manor (Bimble), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 19:56 (fifteen years ago) link
it had a dude from Pop Group/Rip Rig & Panic, and describes it as "an electrified West-Country translation of the Pogues, shot through with the bluesy eccentricity of Captain Beefheart".
Ha ha, that sounds really cool! Seems like the kind of thing Bogshed/Membranes/Nightingales fans would like. (Weird to see none of those sort of bands on any of these lists; maybe they were all done by '87?)
― xhuxk, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 20:00 (fifteen years ago) link
hah one for that thread that was started last week really, but I could neer bring myself to listen to a band called Bogshed.
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 20:23 (fifteen years ago) link
LOLOLOL
― Earl of Gothington Manor (Bimble), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 20:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Paul Johnson is another name here that doesn't ring any bells for me. Found this song on You Tube. Probably more Chuck's thing than mine. Discogs says he "has also worked with Bryan Ferry, Stevie Wonder, Bros, Mica Paris, Juliet Roberts, Loose Ends, Al Green, Tom Robinson, Cliff Richard, George Michael, Soul II Soul, Glen Goldsmith, Steven Dante, Bluey Maunick of Incognito and many others." Goodness!
― Earl of Gothington Manor (Bimble), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 20:38 (fifteen years ago) link
Albums on the NME list (top 30) that are not on the MM list 4. Sister - Sonic youth 6. The Joshua tree - U27. Criminal mind - Scott La rock8. Paid in full - Eric B & Rakim9. The people who grinned themselves.. - The housemartins10. Actually - The pet shop boys 14. George best - The wedding present 16. Licensed to ill - Beastie boys 18. Hot, cool & vicious - Salt 'n' pepper19. Children of god - Swans20. Saturday night - Schoolly D21. Hearsay - Alexander O' Neal 23. Soro - Salif Keita24. Babble - That petrol emotion25. Rhythm killers - Sly & Robbie26. Mother juno - The gun club27. Voice of reason - The sect28. Mainstream - Lloyd Cole & the commotions
Albums on the Melody Maker list that are not on the NME list
1. The young gods - The young gods 4. The fat skier - Throwing muses 7. Substance - New order8. Kiss me, kiss me, Kiss me - The cure 11. mind the perpetual intercourse - Skinny puppy 14. Pleased to meet me - The replacements15. Floodland - Sisters of mercy 18. Poetic champions compose - Van Morrison19. Come on pilgrim - The pixies20. Secrets of the beehive - David Sylvian 22. The world of echo - Arther Russell 24. You're living all over me - Dinosaur25. Happy come home - Victoria Williams26. Heaven's end - Loop27. Calenture - The triffids28. Squirrel and g-man... - Happy Mondays29. Oh! tears baby - Win30. At my window - Townes Van Zandt
I would say the NME list has the edge.
― Dan S, Tuesday, 21 April 2009 22:41 (fifteen years ago) link
I would contest the point...
(Licensed to Ill was MM's #1 pick for '86)
― hard-core Anglophilic ass kisser (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 23:42 (fifteen years ago) link
No Perfect Prescription!!?!
fuck em both says I
― shit was shocking as fuck back then (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 21 April 2009 23:43 (fifteen years ago) link
Surprised by this:Albums I really have no idea what they are (though I could probably guess, in a couple instances): 27. Calenture - The triffidsBut would love to hear Xhuck’s guesses at all of those!
Absolutely not, Sounds always had a more male/meathead/aggro noise aspect to it, and Tennant was in the shiny clean, conceptual world of Smash Hits. Garry Bushell was probably home at Sounds during Tennant’s journo days, no? That says a lot.
― Bostin' Legal (sic), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 03:30 (fifteen years ago) link
I was always told I'd love sounds, but i hate bushell and I hate OI. so im not so sure.
― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 14:07 (fifteen years ago) link
I only ever bought Sounds once. I'm pretty sure it was the very last issue.
The NME list is more representitive of *my* 1987.
― DavidM, Wednesday, 22 April 2009 14:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Late 80s, Sounds were really strong on US indie and post punk along with yer standard Anglo-indie. John Robb, Keith Cameron and Ralph Traitor (AKA Jeremy Gluck from the Barracudas IIRC) were the major cheerleaders there and I used to buy it every week pretty much for the info I got out of their articles. Also big on Grebo and metal and the whole grottier end of UK rock, which I wasn't really into so much.
― Enemy Insects (NickB), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 14:22 (fifteen years ago) link
I think if not for Sounds, I would never have known who Expando Brain were, so I have them to thank for that alone.
― Enemy Insects (NickB), Wednesday, 22 April 2009 14:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Okay, another thing here that I don't remember from back in the day is this album on the NME list by someone or some band named Dan called "An Attitude Hits". I looked it up and apparently it's on the same label as Thatcher on Acid, who I read about back in the day but never heard. I've heard a few tracks by Thatcher on Acid on myspace now and I love it. Also seeking out the Dan album. There's not much more I love in this world than picking over the scraps of what I missed from this era because I studied the British indie press pretty extensively back then and bought what records I could get and did the very best I could as an avid British-press-reading American at the time. Nice to know there are some things I missed that are easily available now! :)
Check out the label's roster here. I seem to recall buying a Blyth Power record at some point but it didn't appeal to me. Don't have any special recollection of the other records on that label, except that I think We Are Going To Eat You was a big deal for awhile, according to one of my penpals at the time or whatever. That's the way it was in the old days, I'd get folks from the UK to send me cassettes overseas of stuff.
― Earl of Gothington Manor (Bimble), Saturday, 25 April 2009 06:53 (fifteen years ago) link
This is years before my time but Dan I understand as being sort of from that same quasi-hippy semi-anarcho punk scene as the Subhumans (UK), Culture Shock, maybe Oi Polloi or someone like that - wouldn't have expected them to be on a music paper EOY list but like I say, not my era
― National Lampoon's Minimal House (DJ Mencap), Saturday, 25 April 2009 07:31 (fifteen years ago) link
― Enemy Insects (NickB), Wednesday, April 22, 2009 2:25 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
Sounds had a hand in releasing http://www.discogs.com/release/748151 which I guess is a pretty good snapshot of a time when hardcore was sort of burned out and US punk was quite non-restrictive. I really like the DJ Lebowitz and Stikky songs on this
― National Lampoon's Minimal House (DJ Mencap), Saturday, 25 April 2009 07:34 (fifteen years ago) link
Any list from 1987 that includes David Sylvian's Secrets Of The Beehive gets my vote.
― Earl of Gothington Manor (Bimble), Saturday, 25 April 2009 09:59 (fifteen years ago) link
Couldn't find any Expando Brain on slsk, though, strangely.
― Earl of Gothington Manor (Bimble), Saturday, 25 April 2009 10:00 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Monday, 27 April 2009 23:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, I was pretty surprised to see the Dan album on that list too. Mencap's OTM about where they're coming from. Didn't have that particular album, but I got the one after it (Mother With Child And Bunny) which was fairly decent female-fronted grotbag hippy punk stuff, with a mixture of thee olde shouty buzzsaw post-hardcore punk rock and some strummy acoustic songs too. If it helps to give it a bit more context, that one came out on on Workers Playtime records who put out a lot of the Snuff records, and Anhrefn too IIRC.
http://uk82.150m.com/pics/dan.jpg
― Enemy Insects (NickB), Tuesday, 28 April 2009 08:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah Dan were part of that late 80s post-anarcho scene along with Thatcher On Acid and that kind of thing.
* Stupids - Van StupidThe Stupids were a great US-style HC thrash band (who just reformed).
― I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO (Colonel Poo), Tuesday, 28 April 2009 08:37 (fifteen years ago) link
Think they're touring with the Hard Ons too, just like in the days of yore.
― Enemy Insects (NickB), Tuesday, 28 April 2009 08:42 (fifteen years ago) link
BTW Expando Brain were a Boston band who sounded like this: http://www.myspace.com/expandobrain
Kind of like the Feelies having a funny turn or something. Steve Smith went on to be in Salem 66 who were a bit hit and miss, but the entire Expando Brain discography (okay, just one album and one 7" that I know of) was 100% genius the whole way through. Maybe they were a bit like a noisier and much more ramshackle Big Dipper?
― Enemy Insects (NickB), Tuesday, 28 April 2009 08:49 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 28 April 2009 23:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Terrible innit when you dont even notice results of your own poll years ago
― Cosmic Slop, Friday, 19 August 2016 23:05 (seven years ago) link
All these 2000s polls have ruined my brain. I forgot that NME used to be into good music.
― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, 20 August 2016 00:01 (seven years ago) link