Premier Rock Forum

Frankie99 wrote: Thu Dec 18, 2025 10:57 am Bowie albums are still a mystery to me. I've tried several times, and I just think he was a singles MACHINE and that's just where it ends.

The song Heroes has always fascinated me though - the sounds, the quivering, the vocals. It's a masterpiece on its own.

OK I'll listen to Heroes today.

Basically, if you choose anything from the 70s, you can't really go wrong, but it'll swing between glam and prog/krautrock. The 80s is a mind field, but you can't go wrong with Young Americans. 90s is dismal, with some singles that are outstanding. After that, I don't know, but Black Star, he's swan song, is amazing and he embraces everything that he loved about Scott Walker.

His first album feels like a joke. The story goes that he was a pretty boy in London and saw Marc Bolan playing and tossed his previous work in the trash bin.

The thing about Bowie isn't that he's a musical genius. He's an amazing artist, who can effortlessly create art in whatever form. He also had an incredible bench of musicians that elevated him. So, his music isn't ground breaking, but it's some of the best of the genres he's doing as an artist.

Wood Goblin wrote: Mon Dec 08, 2025 12:02 pm Kate Bush. In the 80s and 90s, her music struck me as cloying, and it irritated me to no end.

But something changed. I finally “got” it.

Always loved Hounds but now I have everything, like I bought the box sets.
I draw the line at picture discs. There were some record store troggs that ordered one of everything she put out back in the day that...yeah. Do not aspire to such status.

Joni Mitchell--similar, always liked first couple records, now I think she's basically in league with the very greats in her field and if I prefer Neil or Dylan, that's just due to particular buttons being pushed.

Largely missed Come back in the day, due to touring a lot and having my head up my ass the way you do when that is your life. Very excellent band.

I've become borderline obsessed with Pentangle, Trees, Incredible String Band. Had spots of those in the collection before but not like now.

Joe Henderson, across the board. Bobby Hutcherson.

I didn't really get into Sabbath until about 20yrs ago, which...I was actually pretty old even then. For just getting into Sabbath.

eephus wrote: Thu Dec 18, 2025 1:24 pm

Wood Goblin wrote: Mon Dec 08, 2025 12:02 pm Kate Bush. In the 80s and 90s, her music struck me as cloying, and it irritated me to no end.

But something changed. I finally “got” it.

Always loved Hounds but now I have everything, like I bought the box sets.
I draw the line at picture discs. There were some record store troggs that ordered one of everything she put out back in the day that...yeah. Do not aspire to such status.

I’ve recently learned that the creepy picture disc guy in High Fidelity represents a very real kind of Kate Bush fan. I mean, the dudes who refer to her as “Kate” . . .

It is delightful, though, that Big Boi and Johnny Rotten are ridiculous Kate Bush fan-dorks.

Whoever suggested Fela above: excellent answer. That’s one major artist who totally escaped my attention until I was in my 40s, and I likely would not have appreciated him when I was younger.

I remember always seeing the Leaving Trains stuff on SST's website when I was a teenager and thinking it was hilarious they had an album called Fuck.

It took me two decades to finally give them a listen, but better late than never I guess. I'm loving Kill Tunes and what I've heard of The Illusion, Pt. 0 so far.

mrcancelled wrote: Fri Jan 02, 2026 10:49 am I remember always seeing the Leaving Trains stuff on SST's website when I was a teenager and thinking it was hilarious they had an album called Fuck.

It took me two decades to finally give them a listen, but better late than never I guess. I'm loving Kill Tunes and what I've heard of The Illusion, Pt. 0 so far.

Kill Tunes is great, but Well Down Blue Highway is the killer. Shame the production is so thin, but those songs don't need much else anyways. The band gets madly spotty on later albums, especially as Falling James' sense of humor goes berzerk and the music suffers accordingly, but there's usually a few great songs per album.

Next ya gotta try Angst!

I know SST is still a dark horse for their mismanagement and failing to pay artists (and for inventing bad punk-metal) but doing a deep dive of the label in my teen years was foundational. Welcome to the club!

For me, I'm only now discovering that Soda Stereo is nearly as great as Caifanes. Maybe I just didn't wanna give Argentines their due? Dunno, but the sheer amount of times I'll hear a great rock-en-español song in public, assume it's Caifanes, but then find out it's Soda Stereo? Blindly liking something is my favorite way to discover it.

eephus wrote: Thu Dec 18, 2025 1:24 pm
Joni Mitchell--similar, always liked first couple records, now I think she's basically in league with the very greats in her field and if I prefer Neil or Dylan, that's just due to particular buttons being pushed.

You could be sitting in the room with my dad and I, "arguing" whether Bob or Neil is the best North American song-writer of that generation. (who picks who depends on mood). After numerous back and forth citing albums and songs as proof, one of us always says "But we forgot Joni"

I kind of liked punk and metal as a teenager and thought I knew something about them. Now I'm 40 and finally decided to join a hardcore punk band and realized I didn't know anything. The bands didn't stop playing after 2004 and there is tons and tons to discover. I've been plugging holes in my music knowledge ever since.

I also discovered I love crust punk. Disrupt FTW.

hyljetronic wrote: Fri Jan 02, 2026 4:51 pm I kind of liked punk and metal as a teenager and thought I knew something about them. Now I'm 40 and finally decided to join a hardcore punk band and realized I didn't know anything. The bands didn't stop playing after 2004 and there is tons and tons to discover. I've been plugging holes in my music knowledge ever since.

I also discovered I love crust punk. Disrupt FTW.

Nice! If you like Disrupt you may enjoy Capitol Punishment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSfl4aI9RXI

eephus wrote: Thu Dec 18, 2025 1:24 pm I've become borderline obsessed with Pentangle, Trees, Incredible String Band. Had spots of those in the collection before but not like now.

Same - I’ve been listening to Cale, Drake, Fairport and associated projects for as long as I’ve been buying records, but getting into Joe Boyd’s White Bicycles and realizing all that stuff had close links through Joe, John Wood, and the Sound Techniques studio had me obsessed. I’m surprised I didn't dig into it sooner, but I followed the solo RT and Cale stuff into other areas. Especially Jansch since I just listened to the one with Needle of Death all the time - didn’t even know he was in Pentagle until fairly recently.

Aspects of the Incredible String Band’s music kind of relegates their records to period pieces, which might limit them in some ways, but definitely doesn’t kill them and even adds to their alien strangeness (see what I did there?). I only wish I had heard Incredible String Band when I was a kid trying to make sense of the new weird america thing.

Also, exploring english folk makes me appreciate Led Zeppelin even more. They are fantastic interpreters of that stuff.

Darkside… if I’m not on record of being very tired of jazz-adjacent session guys with huge pedalboards then I will correct that here, however Dave Harrington is really doing something special. I prefer watching them on youtube because the sound of sub bass on their records evokes some sort of fight or flight sense in me, but I can’t deny how good they are.

I think I was suspicious before because sounding like they’ve been to college, evoking elements of cgi kinda sound design in music, AND being an indie festival band are three very big strikes for me, but Darkside kind of reminds me how exciting that Battles single w/ Ty Braxton’s robot vocals was when it came out. And Darkside has been doing this for over 10 years now.

Plus, funky clavinet - I don’t know if that was a sample or what but you can tell they’ve definitely had sex before:

https://youtu.be/fKiS9DPARDg?si=ik1ampIvk3VtGPHT