Follow-ups to minor classics that were a letdown at the time but turned out to be mostly pretty good 1988-91

I didn't realize that 1) Bug is considered a "minor classic" or 2) that people consider Green Mind to be pretty good (outside of "The Wagon", which is still a stone-cold classic.)

I've never even listened to Key Lime Pie even thought CBV were one of my favorite band of the 80s because I was so disappointed by the useless missed opportunity "matchstick" cover.

from the Woodentops' wiki page

Generally well received by critics, the album's sound was characterised by acoustic guitars, but also featured accordion, marimba, strings, and trumpet sounds, showing influences of Suicide.

?!!

Doesn't Paul's Boutique fit this criteria (although it seems more like a late blooming rather than just being let down, I gather).

search the woodentops ep which featured dark and occasionally hyperkinetic percussive stuff. giant was more expansive with kind of a strummy folkpoppy feel at times. i dont remember wooden foot cops at all.

also, ive not heard any woodentops since at least 1990.

If any good comes from this poll, it'll be that someone discovers The Woodentops. I wrote this when I picked up a remaster of their 1986 debut (unknown to some, minor classic to others, stone fucking cold classic for me):

The Woodentops took bits of Suicide, The Talking Heads, XTC, Echo & the Bunnymen and especially the frenetic rhythms of The Feelies, all treated with acoustic folk, twisted with other instrumentation like marimbas, accordian and trumpet. While The Feelies also tackled acoustic guitars on their second album, The Good Earth, The Woodentops still sounded quite different. Their songs had a perfect balance of diverse experimentalism and pop hooks. Morrissey constantly talked them up at the time, which was a brave gesture, considering the strong possibility that Giant more consistently great than The Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead. If it weren’t for Morrissey’s clever lyrics and two untouchable singles from that album, I’d even say Giant crushed it. So why didn’t they become huge? Probably because their magic only lasted through their debut album. They were on Rough Trade, an indie label unable to push a band without help from a string of hit singles like The Smiths had. Columbia did release the album in the U.S., but it didn’t catch on. The 1988 followup, Wooden Foot Cops On The Highway, while actually very good, wasn’t able to measure up to Giant.

“Get It On,” gives a sense of the propulsive energy of much of the album, along with “Love Train,” Hear Me James,” “Shout,” and “Travelling Man.” “Good Thing” is wonderfully original love ballad that made it onto several high school era mix tapes. The album gets better and better, peaking with “Last Time” and “Everything Breaks,” two of their most distinct songs. I desperately don’t want it to end, and the four bonus cuts collected from the Well Well Well EP provides some relief. I also downloaded the out of print singles collection (“Steady Steady” is a heavy dirge about terminal cancer, and one of their most atypical, but powerful songs) and their 1987 live album, Hypno Beat Live (where they play three times as fast! Who needs Slayer?) to extend my buzz.

Turned out they reunited a couple years ago, toured the UK, and are supposedly working on new music.

I got "Giant", never really got into it.

One of those "should have liked them more than I did on paper" things.

I picked it up the cassette while in hs because of a review in Spin or RS and loved it, but had sort of forgotten about it by the end of college, and listened again for the first time while putting together a mix for 20 yr reunion. I feel like I get them more than the first time around.

OK, Fasty, on the strength of your review above (mention the Feelies and I get all hotnbothered) I'm downloading Giant now from eMu.

Neither Fish Nor Flesh owns this thread.

[q] Goo has some of Kim Gordon's best moments, as well as one of Sonic Youth's best songs in "Kool Thing". The furious guitar mantra at the end of that track is astonishing...

― Dan S, Saturday, April 4, 2009 5:19 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

kool thing is not one of sonic youth's best songs...

― jagged-electronically mäandernden underbody (Drugs A. Money), Saturday, April 4, 2009 12:24 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark [q]

Me: Kool Thing is one of Sonic Youth's best songs.

you: Kool Thing is not one of Sonic Youth's best songs.

Probably I'm inviting trouble by even commenting, but I truly love, love, love, these simple assertions of opposing opinions. I don't know why. PS I am old, therefore none of these albums means anything to me in comparison to, say, "White Music," "Soul Mining," oh, never mind (NOT "Nevermind").

Cool poll question; however, one album here sticks out for me and that's Doolittle. I remember the feeling at that time being more along the lines of, "How could they possibly make ANOTHER album this good?" If that album let you down you had some crazy inflated expectations.

Kool Thing might be better than I give it credit, but I usually go under the assumption that in the early 90s the worst SY songs usually got released as singles...clear that b.s. away (along w/ the vox) and Kool Thing actually has a delirial ghoulishness that I find endearing...

Neither Fish Nor Flesh owns this thread.

this is kind of OTM only I really loved Neither Fish Nor Flesh when it came out

It's good ("Billy Don't Fall"), but Symphony or Damn, which can you find cheap in any used record store, is even better.

"I Have Faith In These Desolate Times" A+++++

Wild Card is also fantastic. Poor old arrogant crazy TTD

huh i guess i should give camper van beethovan a chance? dude always kinda bugged me, at least in cracker who was more my era i guess.

I always hated Cracker (who were also more my era) and I just think of CVB being a jokey cover band cause I've only heard their cover of "pictures of matchstick men" and "take the skinheads bowling".

what you haven't heard their jokey cover of Black Flag's "Wasted"? or Ringo's "Photograph"?

Or their hoedown cover of "White Riot?" Or "Interstellar Overdrive?" Or Sonic Youth's "I Love Her All the Time?" Or their track-for-track cover of "Tusk?" Among other awesome CVB covers.

(Well, OK, the reinvented "Tusk" is pretty hit-or-miss, but the other covers the band has done are all awesome).

missed this poll, would've voted for Only Life -- sometimes my fave Feelies record, though they all occasionally hold that title.

Listened to The Woodentops' Giant. First impressions: A little Good Earth-era Feelies, but more Conspiracy-era Jazz Butcher with a bit of Housemartins feel in the vocals. Pretty good; I would probably now have very fond memories of it if I had heard it at the time. Flisten in 2009: only OK, lyrics a bit weak. But def. has the potential to grow on me (or maybe not).

I realized I left out a few more:

Love And Rockets - Earth-Sun-Moon 87
The lack of the heavy buzzsaw sounds of Express lead me to write this album off at the time. Now it sounds pretty inspired compared to their more disappointing self-titled album from '89.

The Church - Starfish 88
Heyday was a big favorite in 1986, but when this came out, it sounded too clean and sterile to me. In retrospect, their singles were some of the prettiest stuff you'd hear on the radio at the time.

Julian Cope - Peggy Suicide 91
I got turned on to 1987's Saint Julian before I even was aware of Teardrop Explodes. Reading his Head-On/Repossessed auto-bio reminded me that he also released the mediocre My Nation Underground in 1988, which I totally was unaware of at the time. I remember checking out bits of Peggy Suicide at the college radio station and being impressed by the concept, but not the songs. Finally got a copy just recently and still growing.

Earth Sun Moon is their best album

Didn't get to vote in this the first time around (I would have gone for Goo, which I actually think is miles better as a brilliant pop album than the unfocused sprawl that was Daydream Nation)...

But Starfish? Come on, most casual listeners would probably say that was the Church's finest hour. And still their biggest commercial success.

Ditto Earth Sun Moon, which was really L&R's breakthrough album. I'm not sure how you're judging this "followups" business here.

Explained upthread, but they were judged at the time with my teenage ears that were expecting something better. And now I'm re-evaluating them a couple decades later.