Person after my own heart. Music is indeed about mood. Nice to see another person with an appreciation of metal.
life without music would be no life at all. It has the power to help us contain and work through the most difficult of things. To change emotion and to make a place to be with emotion. It is a conversation starter and also a way to communicate without words. I spent an evening last weekend with a couple dispossessed from Ukraine. Our conversation was mainly via Google translate but we bonded over a co created playlist.
In my entire life I think I have only met one person who said "I don't like music" (woodwork teacher at school, for what it's worth). As @Manboobs says, it really is a universal language.
Yeh, there’s a whole tranche of Americana/folk and country rock adjacent music that hasn’t crossed the Atlantic. so much if that genre is rooted in an experience of the American south perhaps it’s not a surprise.
Jason Isbell doesn’t have a bad record so you can start wherever you’d like!
Great call with Jason Isbell floyd. I saw him at Hammersmith Apollo last November and he was great. I’m very partial to his former band Drive by Truckers. ‘The Dirty South’ and ‘Southern Rock Opera’ are both excellent. I would imagine Pete Couhig might like Jason Isbell and DBT.
Thanks to all of you for your contributions so far, very interesting indeed.
This may rank as one of the hardest set of choices I have had to make in an awfully long time
First up, is the jazz standard & classic - Take Five - I absolutely love Paul Desmond's composition with its unforgettable quintuple time signature coupled with some exquisite saxophone & a great drum solo (for jazz at least). It is a tune that always chills me out & gives me a dose of bliss. This was a tough choice & pipped Brubeck's Blue Rondo a la Turk & Miles Davis's Freddie Freeloader, but it was oh so close.
Next we have what I personally think is the best ska track ever - Wood & Water by the Skatalites One that shows all the jazz influence the Skatalites were exposed to in school in Jamaica. This track just makes me smile like a Cheshire Cat & want to dance, let's hope you enjoy it in the same way. This was an equally tough choice as there are so many great ska tracks that make you just want to dance - Phoenix City, Double Barrel, Long Stop Kick da Bucket, El Pussycat, Guns of Navaronne, 007, 54-46 Was My Number, Pressure Drop, Country Roads, Sweet & Dandy and so many more; not forgetting all the second & third wave stuff that is worth a listen, along with a cornucopia of reggae genres.
Finally, for now I guess, my last choice. I was stuck for a long while. There was an enormous amount of umming & ahhing between the likes of Kraftwerk, VNV Nation, Yello or perhaps classic Zeppelin, Deep Purple, King Crimson, Yes or maybe Korpiklani or AC/DC or Enter Shikari or Metallica or RHCP, or electro folk by PJ Harvey or Jethro Tull, or maybe Southern Rock (Lynyrd Skynyrd, 38 Special, The Allman Brothers, Blackfoot, Black Oak Arkansas), these only skimmed the surface. The choices oh the multitude of choices.
In the end I settled for Fake Empire by The National - another banging tune with complex rythym, counterpoint drumming & piano & some frankly initially indecipherable lyrics, but I love it for its complexity & the brass towards the end.
I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed your selections
I would like to nominate one of our younger gassroomers in young Tom - @ReturnToSenda
Interesting National choice @Erroll_Sims, I've got the 33 1/3 book on Boxer which I need to read. Very much looking forward to seeing them in September.
In agreement there, definitely been enjoying all the different choices. Being 30 myself I'm probably with you on the younger side of the Gasroom. However I'm sure some on the terrace might view me as 'old' !
I must say great idea for a thread @drcongo I've been really enjoying it.
Also a big fan of country myself, so must say like others i enjoyed @floyd pick of Cover Me Up.
I find picking a top 10 albums of all time quite easy – songs less so, but Love Will Tear Us Apart is one of the few that I'd have as a nailed-on inclusion. Its impact will always be inextricably linked to the fact it was released the month after Ian Curtis' death, but it's as close to an objective hit as you'll ever get, in my opinion. I think the frankness of Curtis' delivery is what draws me to Joy Division above all else. Plenty of others have sung about similar themes, but I'm not sure any have had the bleakness of their lyrics so powerfully amplified simply through the very nature of the voice. LWTUA is also a fine example of how pretty much any song from any genre can become a football chant!
I could have picked a Phoebe Bridgers original – she's my favourite 'current' artist, which all started with me getting heavily into her Punisher album at the height of lockdown – but the the lyrics of this cover do a brilliant job of summing up the state of the world/society (even though there's a distinctly American focus) in recent years. It does that in a very raw, almost deadpan way – although there are one or two lines which I find quite funny, despite that probably not being the intention! That said, I appreciate a lot of the references might go right over the heads of anyone older than about 30.
3.Game of Pricks (Tigerbomb EP version) Guided by Voices
My first two picks came to me pretty instantly; the third took me forever, but I settled on this by a band in my regular rotation. Guided by Voices' whole 'thing' is short, lo-fi tracks, but this is a re-recording of the original from the Alien Lanes album (one of my top 10 of all time – until I inevitably change my mind again) and I prefer the energy of it. The title is hardly the deepest metaphor, but I like how it's kind of straight to the point. I find Robert Pollard quite an interesting character: he went from school teacher to fronting a pretty iconic cult band.
I nominate @OxfordBlue for having by far the greatest flag the world has ever seen as their profile pic.
Damn. Disappointed that I know all three of the artists that one of our young people picked. However, bang on the money with Love Will Tear Us Apart, though the Joy Division song that really gets me is She’s Lost Control for the story behind the lyrics.
Love Will Tear Us Apart was 14 years before I was born and Game of Pricks a year after, That Funny Feeling 2021 – I think it's from Bo Burnham's film Inside from during the pandemic, which I still need to watch.
To be fair, I think that many of us find ourselves in a similar position Tom; a lot of the jazz (hard-bop in paticular) I like is from the 10 years before I was born (i.e. the 50's).
Just listened to both Phoebe Bridgers’ and Bo Burnham’s versions of That Funny Feeling. The former has a timeless ethereal quality, very easy on the ear, but I preferred the latter, not least because YouTube Music has the lyrics. All the references went over the head of this octogenarian recluse!
Another real old favourite of mine popped up after the Burnham track finished. I can’t resist posting a link below.
I was lucky enough to see them at the Marquee Club, around 76/77. All I can remember is Johnny Thunders wonderful guitar playing. Pirate Love is my favourite song.
I'm exceedingly jealous. I'm lucky to be old enough to have seen a lot of my old punk favourites at the tail ends of their careers, but never saw New York Dolls or The Heartbreakers. Johnny Thunders was a virtuoso.
Did anyone see the Clash? Everything I've ever read suggests they were far more of a shambles than the image they might have put about but some solid bangers nevertheless.
Comments
Person after my own heart. Music is indeed about mood. Nice to see another person with an appreciation of metal.
life without music would be no life at all. It has the power to help us contain and work through the most difficult of things. To change emotion and to make a place to be with emotion. It is a conversation starter and also a way to communicate without words. I spent an evening last weekend with a couple dispossessed from Ukraine. Our conversation was mainly via Google translate but we bonded over a co created playlist.
As a lover of Americana and outlaw country the Jason Isbell hit the spot.
In my entire life I think I have only met one person who said "I don't like music" (woodwork teacher at school, for what it's worth). As @Manboobs says, it really is a universal language.
Really interested to see what spread of music eras this produces. I know the Gasroom is generally 'of a certain age'!
Yeh, there’s a whole tranche of Americana/folk and country rock adjacent music that hasn’t crossed the Atlantic. so much if that genre is rooted in an experience of the American south perhaps it’s not a surprise.
Jason Isbell doesn’t have a bad record so you can start wherever you’d like!
Isbell is a good follow on Twitter too.
Great call with Jason Isbell floyd. I saw him at Hammersmith Apollo last November and he was great. I’m very partial to his former band Drive by Truckers. ‘The Dirty South’ and ‘Southern Rock Opera’ are both excellent. I would imagine Pete Couhig might like Jason Isbell and DBT.
Thanks to all of you for your contributions so far, very interesting indeed.
This may rank as one of the hardest set of choices I have had to make in an awfully long time
First up, is the jazz standard & classic - Take Five - I absolutely love Paul Desmond's composition with its unforgettable quintuple time signature coupled with some exquisite saxophone & a great drum solo (for jazz at least). It is a tune that always chills me out & gives me a dose of bliss. This was a tough choice & pipped Brubeck's Blue Rondo a la Turk & Miles Davis's Freddie Freeloader, but it was oh so close.
Next we have what I personally think is the best ska track ever - Wood & Water by the Skatalites One that shows all the jazz influence the Skatalites were exposed to in school in Jamaica. This track just makes me smile like a Cheshire Cat & want to dance, let's hope you enjoy it in the same way. This was an equally tough choice as there are so many great ska tracks that make you just want to dance - Phoenix City, Double Barrel, Long Stop Kick da Bucket, El Pussycat, Guns of Navaronne, 007, 54-46 Was My Number, Pressure Drop, Country Roads, Sweet & Dandy and so many more; not forgetting all the second & third wave stuff that is worth a listen, along with a cornucopia of reggae genres.
Finally, for now I guess, my last choice. I was stuck for a long while. There was an enormous amount of umming & ahhing between the likes of Kraftwerk, VNV Nation, Yello or perhaps classic Zeppelin, Deep Purple, King Crimson, Yes or maybe Korpiklani or AC/DC or Enter Shikari or Metallica or RHCP, or electro folk by PJ Harvey or Jethro Tull, or maybe Southern Rock (Lynyrd Skynyrd, 38 Special, The Allman Brothers, Blackfoot, Black Oak Arkansas), these only skimmed the surface. The choices oh the multitude of choices.
In the end I settled for Fake Empire by The National - another banging tune with complex rythym, counterpoint drumming & piano & some frankly initially indecipherable lyrics, but I love it for its complexity & the brass towards the end.
I hope you enjoy these as much as I enjoyed your selections
I would like to nominate one of our younger gassroomers in young Tom - @ReturnToSenda
Here’s a Spotify playlist of all the songs picked (with the exception of Shev’s song which isn’t on the platform)
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6H3W6bd7hEX2VgXIrElB0O?si=d06JI70USFWd6sQIu51o8A
Interesting National choice @Erroll_Sims, I've got the 33 1/3 book on Boxer which I need to read. Very much looking forward to seeing them in September.
I will have a think about my picks...
In agreement there, definitely been enjoying all the different choices. Being 30 myself I'm probably with you on the younger side of the Gasroom. However I'm sure some on the terrace might view me as 'old' !
I must say great idea for a thread @drcongo I've been really enjoying it.
Also a big fan of country myself, so must say like others i enjoyed @floyd pick of Cover Me Up.
This thread is even better than I'd hoped.
Brilliant idea!
Perhaps there are more of us in our 30's than we thought ;)
Ok, here we go...
1. Love Will Tear Us Apart Joy Division
I find picking a top 10 albums of all time quite easy – songs less so, but Love Will Tear Us Apart is one of the few that I'd have as a nailed-on inclusion. Its impact will always be inextricably linked to the fact it was released the month after Ian Curtis' death, but it's as close to an objective hit as you'll ever get, in my opinion. I think the frankness of Curtis' delivery is what draws me to Joy Division above all else. Plenty of others have sung about similar themes, but I'm not sure any have had the bleakness of their lyrics so powerfully amplified simply through the very nature of the voice. LWTUA is also a fine example of how pretty much any song from any genre can become a football chant!
2. That Funny Feeling Phoebe Bridgers (Bo Burnham cover)
I could have picked a Phoebe Bridgers original – she's my favourite 'current' artist, which all started with me getting heavily into her Punisher album at the height of lockdown – but the the lyrics of this cover do a brilliant job of summing up the state of the world/society (even though there's a distinctly American focus) in recent years. It does that in a very raw, almost deadpan way – although there are one or two lines which I find quite funny, despite that probably not being the intention! That said, I appreciate a lot of the references might go right over the heads of anyone older than about 30.
3. Game of Pricks (Tigerbomb EP version) Guided by Voices
My first two picks came to me pretty instantly; the third took me forever, but I settled on this by a band in my regular rotation. Guided by Voices' whole 'thing' is short, lo-fi tracks, but this is a re-recording of the original from the Alien Lanes album (one of my top 10 of all time – until I inevitably change my mind again) and I prefer the energy of it. The title is hardly the deepest metaphor, but I like how it's kind of straight to the point. I find Robert Pollard quite an interesting character: he went from school teacher to fronting a pretty iconic cult band.
I nominate @OxfordBlue for having by far the greatest flag the world has ever seen as their profile pic.
Damn. Disappointed that I know all three of the artists that one of our young people picked. However, bang on the money with Love Will Tear Us Apart, though the Joy Division song that really gets me is She’s Lost Control for the story behind the lyrics.
I would have picked Incubation if I wanted to be a bit #edgy, but sometimes (a lot of the time) obvious is best.
I too really enjoy Joy Division & appreciate the choice of track from Tom.
Even as an old bugger in his 60's I get pretty much all the social references in the other two songs, my preference was for the Phoebe Bridger song.
Perhaps its running a business with a bunch of teen to 30 something year old skate boarders that does it?
Love Will Tear Us Apart was 14 years before I was born and Game of Pricks a year after, That Funny Feeling 2021 – I think it's from Bo Burnham's film Inside from during the pandemic, which I still need to watch.
To be fair, I think that many of us find ourselves in a similar position Tom; a lot of the jazz (hard-bop in paticular) I like is from the 10 years before I was born (i.e. the 50's).
Definitely. I like a good chunk of stuff from 70s, mostly punk I guess.
Oooh I could do a whole thread on punk, especially early / proto New York stuff.
I'd probably have the Stooges' Raw Power in my top 10 as well, although I've not explored the US side nearly enough.
If there is one band I could go back in time to see, it would be New York Dolls.
Just listened to both Phoebe Bridgers’ and Bo Burnham’s versions of That Funny Feeling. The former has a timeless ethereal quality, very easy on the ear, but I preferred the latter, not least because YouTube Music has the lyrics. All the references went over the head of this octogenarian recluse!
Another real old favourite of mine popped up after the Burnham track finished. I can’t resist posting a link below.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=mOCTQKW7CwE&feature=share
@Erroll_Sims: Dire Straits Sultans of Swing. Another of my all time favourites.
Heartbreakers for me.
I was lucky enough to see them at the Marquee Club, around 76/77. All I can remember is Johnny Thunders wonderful guitar playing. Pirate Love is my favourite song.
I'm exceedingly jealous. I'm lucky to be old enough to have seen a lot of my old punk favourites at the tail ends of their careers, but never saw New York Dolls or The Heartbreakers. Johnny Thunders was a virtuoso.
Did anyone see the Clash? Everything I've ever read suggests they were far more of a shambles than the image they might have put about but some solid bangers nevertheless.