#237: The Fall - Live at the Witch Trials (1979)

Emily: Live at the Witch Trials is an early post-punk album. To me, it was so early that it still sounded like punk. The lead singer sounds a lot like the lead singer of the Dead Kennedys (perhaps it's the accent), so the whole time I listened I kept comparing the two. The Fall has a bit more range than the Dead Kennedys, branching out into the fuzzy rock sounds of post-punk, and their lyrics aren't as harsh. However, I have to give this one to the Dead Kennedys, whose explosive punk sounds capture the anarchist spirit of punk rock perfectly. The Fall don't come close to achieving that punk attitude, probably because they arrived on the scene a few years later when it was transitioning towards post-punk and other sounds. I'm curious to see where they go on later albums, as they get further removed from the punk scene and become more and more prolific. Guess I'll find out in a few hundred albums or so.
Favorite Tracks: Mother Sister!; Industrial Estate; No Xmas for John Quays

Zack: Wikipedia felt comfortable describing The Fall as a band with little populist success but an impressive cult following, so I feel comfortable saying it too. Wikipedia also felt comfortable noting that the band has seen high amounts of turnover at pretty much every instrument and that The Fall's incredibly prolific catalog features some wildly different styles. I gathered as much when I started listening to this album, considering I’d read just a few days prior about how they were a major influence in the Madchester scene, much like Happy Mondays. This worries me, sine we usually like to switch it up between albums instead of lingering in one particular genre or era. But, lo and behold, this album sounded nothing like Happy Mondays, but instead much like all of those typical post punk albums we’ve heard and I tend to have difficulty distinguishing. Admittedly, this one was a bit difference, since it didn’t appear to be too far post the punk. There was still a lot of aggressive energy palpable. But it certainly was no Madchester or even alternative album. Perhaps the other The Fall albums on the list (three albums, three separate decades) will gear more that way. But Live at the Witch Trials certainly wasn’t, but would be a great listen for any Talking Heads, Joy Division, or The The fans out there.

Favorite Tracks: Frightened; Two Steps Back; Underground Medecin 

#236: Steely Dan - Aja (1977)

Zack: Last summer, a friend strongly hyped Aja to me, but I kind of shrugged it off because something in my brain registered Steely Dan as being lame. Now I don’t want to say that I was wrong, so I’ll just say that I definitely wasn’t right. Holy shit. This was a smooth, flawless merging of rock, pop and jazz. We saw other bands like Spirit try the formula, and I vaguely liked it then. No more. Why settle for a cheap substitute when you can get that raw, uncut shit like Aja? If you don’t believe me, then just read what Ian Dury said about it. “It's a record that sends my spirits up, and really when I listen to music, really that's what I want.” Yeah. It’s just so good that it makes you happy to be listening to it. I don’t necessarily agree with Mr. Dury on the last sentence (sometimes I don’t want my spirits lifted, and then I listen to Nick Drake or The Cure), but if you want your spirits up on the fucking roof, Aja is for you.

Favorite Tracks: Josie; Peg; Deacon Blues

Emily: I like jazz, and I like rock, but jazz rock just doesn't seem like it would be my thing. I thought it would be boring or trying too hard to be cool when it just ends up sounding like what your dad (okay, my dad) wants to blast during his evening commute. After listening to Steely Dan's Aja, however, I have to admit that my preconceptions were wrong. This album takes the edge of rock and smooths it out with jazz and pop undertones. It's smooth without leaning towards the extremes of boring or sleazy. And many of the tracks are just fun and upbeat. Though I wouldn't say I loved Aja (and definitely not as much as Zack did), I can't deny my ears' enjoyment.

Favorite Tracks: Peg; Home at Last; Black Cow

#235: David Bowie - "Heroes" (1977)

Zack: For our second Bowie foray, we jumped entirely over the Thin White Duke phase and landed squarely in mid-Berlin. This incarnation of Bowie features some Krautrock flair and a dash or minimalism, both of which really shine through on the second half of the album. Honestly, I wasn’t too impressed with that part, but I quite enjoyed the first half. That said, I do distinctly remember being a bit unappreciative towards Ziggy Stardust when I first heard it, but subsequent listens have made it one of my favorites. I really hope that also happens here, because I want to trust Bowie and not just think that this was merely an okay effort from him. Especially when this same era spawned Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life, which I love so dearly.

Favorite Tracks: “Heroes”; Beauty and the Beast; The Secret of Arabia

Emily: Must be tough to be a Bowie fan. One album you're grooving to space rock on Mars with Ziggy Stardust, and just a few years later you're...cruising down the Autobahn? "Heroes" is part of David Bowie's Berlin period, heavily influenced by German Krautrock and experimental ambient music. Honestly, I wasn't really a fan. I really enjoy Bowie when he sounds like, well Bowie. Without the vocals, without the pop flair, without the storytelling, it just sounds like another synth-driven album of background noise. I did enjoy a few tracks though, and they were the ones where he takes the minimalist influence and turns it on its head through rock and pop. But overall, I'll take Ziggy Stardust any day.
Favorite Tracks: "Heroes"; The Secret of Arabia; Blackout

#234: Happy Mondays - Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches (1990)

Emily: As a big fan of my writing escapades, my dad tries to keep up with this blog (when he remembers, at least). Around when we first started, he shared it with a few of his coworkers. This was mostly because he's proud of me and whatnot, but also because one guy is really into music - I'm talking 50,000 songs in his iTunes library into music. I went to my dad's office one day to give him something, and he took me around to meet some of his coworkers, and the music guy mentioned my blog when we were introduced. He mentioned a few of the bands he was a big fan of - mostly punk and underground that I had a passing familiarity with - and when I told him about my interests in alternative and punk, he recommended that I give the Happy Mondays a listen. Well, it's taken a while, but I finally listened to the Happy Mondays! It's upbeat alternative music with hints of world music influence and more than a hint of scandal and sexiness. My dad's musically inclined coworker was right - I thoroughly enjoyed Pills 'n' Thrills and Bellyaches, and I'll be sure to listen to it again.
Favorite Tracks: Bob's Yer Uncle; Loose Fit; God's Cop

Zack: This is our latest foray into the mysterious world of Madchester, a super-specific subgenre of music that involves blending the then-emerging sounds of alternative with some psychedelicness for good measure. Oh, and the band has to originate in the Manchester region of the UK. I’m not sure why that is, but my only guess, which is informed by my admittedly limited knowledge about soccer abroad, is that Manchester is an area unsatisfied unless it is laying claim to everything and anything that other people may want. It’s like the younger sibling of the world. Anyway, the last trip was when we listened to The Stone Roses, which you may remember me liking but still be underwhelmed due to the album’s tremendous amount of hype. Well, this album didn’t really have all the hype to me, and I think it was better for it. I really liked this blending of music, which occasionally incorporated an organ right out of an Iron Butterfly jam. I’ve been meaning to go back and relisten to The Stone Roses but have had trouble convincing myself to do so. I don’t foresee any such problem with Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches.

Favorite Tracks: Loose Fit; Bob’s Yer Uncle; Grandbag’s Funeral 

#233: Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction (1987)

Zack: Like most adolescent males, I went through a Guns N’ Roses phase sometime that coincided with puberty. My dad had their greatest hits and, as seems to be a running theme to this blog, I raided his CD collection one day and found it. As such, I’m pretty familiar with all the major GNR songs. Tragically, my favorite GNR song isn’t on this album. Which is a shame since anytime is November Rain time. Neither is my second favorite GNR tune, Civil War. But Appetite for Destruction does have Welcome to the Jungle, Sweet Child O’ Mine and Paradise City, so it’s not all bad. Those three songs are basically pillars in the temple of hard rock, and they’re spaced pretty far apart in the album. Which is great, since they all rock you like an air-guitar inducing hurricane and you need a few songs in between to help recover. The other songs ranged from pretty good to meh, but none of them really stood out to me. Although I’m sure they sound great in  head-to-head comparison against Chinese Democracy.

Favorite Tracks: Welcome to the Jungle; Sweet Child O’ Mine; Paradise City

Emily: I listened to this album last night and didn't have much to say. So I decided to sleep on it, maybe give it another spin, and see if the thoughts came pouring out. Surprise: that didn't happen. This album just didn't make much of an impression on me. The two main singles, Welcome to the Jungle and Sweet Child O' Mine (of course), are great examples of '80s hair metal done right. The rest of it, however, is pretty forgettable. Not bad, but just not that exciting. Guns N' Roses are definitely on the better end of hard rock bands from this era, but to me it wasn't worth it to look past the singles.
Favorite Tracks: Welcome to the Jungle; Sweet Child O’ Mine; Paradise City

#232: Duke Ellington - Ellington at Newport (1956)

Zack: Apparently, the original version of this iconic live jazz album was only about 40 percent derived from the live performance it supposedly documents. Duke Ellington, worried that the band was too rushed in preparation for the show, dragged everyone to the studio immediately afterwards to rerecord parts, which were then dubbed over with prerecorded applause to cover it up. It wasn’t until 1996 that an additional tape was discovered and the real, original show could be pieced together. For us, this raises a dilemma. Do we listen to the original version, the one that built up such a tremendous audience over more than 40 years while it existed as the “true” version, or do we listen to the reissue that captures the actual Duke Ellington live atmosphere? Oh, and as a further complication, the reissue is about three times longer. Normally in reissue situations, we just listen to the original version or the CD version when there are differences in track listings between formats or the version released in the native country of the band (UK recordings for the Beatles, for example). But this one is just more complicated. Anyway, we ultimately decided to listen to the reissue, but eschew the last 10 tracks on disc 2 since they weren’t part of the original performance anyway. Essentially, we decided to try and listen to the album as if we were actually there seeing this performance and chose the path that ran closest to that. I like our decision, but I have to say that the reissue basically has an intro track before every single song and it is really frustrating. There’s like no momentum since every song is followed by a minute of Duke Ellington or Father Norman O’Connor introducing someone or something. But then again, my favorite track on the entire album, by far, was Skin Deep and that didn’t even appear on the original release. That, by itself, justifies the call.
Favorite Tracks: Skin Deep; Newport Up; Diminuendo In Blue and Crescendo In Blue

Emily: As a genre, I strongly believe that jazz is meant to be heard live. Sure, a song is meticulously thought out in the studio, with take after take recorded until it sounds exactly how the artist envisions perfection. However, jazz thrives on improvisation. A perfect studio track is one thing, but an imperfect yet completely improvised 5-minute solo riff on the saxophone is jazz incarnate. Duke Ellington and his band are meant to be heard in this live format. Although Zack rightly points out that the intros for each musician on each track get tiresome and distracting after the first few, it's worth it to sit through them to get to the music. You can feel the energy of the crowd and the band on each live track, as if you're back in 1956 Newport with a beer in hand watching and listening to a legend at work.
Favorite Tracks: Skin Deep; Diminuendo In Blue and Crescendo In Blue; Tea for Two

#231: Flamin' Groovies - Teenage Head (1971)

Zack: Besides for having a title that might get you arrested for statutory, Flamin’ Groovies created an album that Mick Jagger himself said was superior to the similarly influence Sticky Fingers. As such a big Rolling Stones fan, I can honestly say that that isn’t remotely true. Sticky Fingers is the more blues rock album and just the plain superior product. But Teenage Head is still a damn fine album. The last track, Whiskey Woman, is ridiculously good and not just because I have a history of enjoying songs concerning themselves with the firewater. I’ve already listened to it five times and I’d never heard it before today. Teenage Head has a few other good tracks and is a good balance of blues and more era-traditional rock and roll. But Whiskey Woman is a song that needs to make it onto a “Put ur Liters Up” playlist on everyone’s iPod.

Favorite Tracks: Whiskey Woman; Yesterday’s Numbers; Have You Seen My Baby?

Emily: I'm not sure whether the Flamin' Groovies were courting controversy with their album title, or if its a more clever '70s innuendo that I just don't get. Wikipedia is inconclusive, so I'll just chalk the choice of title up to teenage bravado and/or stupidity. The music itself surpasses the title as an American blues-rock band that's reminiscent of the Rolling Stones (though, as Zack mentioned, the Stones are clearly superior). They take classic blues music and put a '70s rock spin on them, especially succeeding with a cover of Randy Newman's Have You Seen My Baby? Other cover tracks are hit-or-miss, a bit too old-fashioned to fit with the overall updated feel of the original tracks. Teenage Head is worth a listen or two, but others albums and musicians of the era are really what make blues-rock the classic it is today.

Favorite Tracks: Have You Seen My Baby?; Whiskey Woman; Teenage Head