Best Ever Albums

Re: American, Underground

Johnnyo — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 12:48:52 GMT

Author: Johnnyo

Posted: 08/14/2026 16:48

Just pulled this out

A Different Sort... (1987) by The Windbreakers

And I think that The Windbreakers qualify for this thread.

Excellent album BTW

Re: American, Underground

dihansse — Sat, 2 May 2026 10:54:21 GMT

Author: dihansse

Posted: 05/02/2026 14:54

Johnnyo wrote:

I recently introduced a friend of mine to The Dream Syndicate and he loves them. We were in the pub on Tuedsay discussing the RSL26 releases and he got

Sketches For Medicine Show (2026) by The Dream Syndicate

As did I and he was saying how he can't believe that Dream Syndiacte never became as big as say R.E.M.

I have to agree with him on that but I guess it's about luck, timing and having the right contacts (I have my own theories on this but won't bore you with them right now). Who knows but I'd always wondered this myself and interesting to hear someone new to the band say a similar thing

I couldn’t agree more; there’s other live albums I cherish but this is one of the greatest!

Re: American, Underground

Johnnyo — Sat, 2 May 2026 08:56:36 GMT

Author: Johnnyo

Posted: 05/02/2026 12:56

The Complete Live At Raji’s – Dream Syndicate

It’s not one of the greatest live albums of all time. It IS THE GREATEST LIVE ALBUM OF ALL TIME! I love this album for so many reasons.

The Dream Syndicate's Live at Raji's was recorded on January 31, 1988 at Raji's nightclub in Los Angeles around the time of the recording of their Ghost Stories (which is a rather underappreciated album IMO but that’s for another day)
I’ve seen Dream Syndicate live so many times that I’ve lost count (including a great gig January this year) and this album captures the bands first three albums and on the way to ending their stint together at this time and was the last album released before the band broke up

This album captures one of the greatest live bands at their peak. Raw, powerful, energetic and simply enjoying what they do best, entertaining their fans. I guess I love this album so much because I've seen the syndicate play live for the last 40 years and it's one of my greatest musical experiences.
The album itself has everything you wanted from Dream Syndicate at the time, including the quintessential live version of John Coltrane Stereo Blues. The whole alum is glorious from start to finish. A wonderful thing

Link

Re: American, Underground

Johnnyo — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 04:47:03 GMT

Author: Johnnyo

Posted: 04/24/2026 08:47

I recently introduced a friend of mine to The Dream Syndicate and he loves them. We were in the pub on Tuedsay discussing the RSL26 releases and he got

Sketches For Medicine Show (2026) by The Dream Syndicate

As did I and he was saying how he can't believe that Dream Syndiacte never became as big as say R.E.M.

I have to agree with him on that but I guess it's about luck, timing and having the right contacts (I have my own theories on this but won't bore you with them right now). Who knows but I'd always wondered this myself and interesting to hear someone new to the band say a similar thing

Re: American, Underground

Johnnyo — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 04:41:44 GMT

Author: Johnnyo

Posted: 04/24/2026 08:41

MadhattanJack wrote:

When you first posted this, I thought "naah, this was just typical early-80s lo-fi post-punk with guitars over a drum machine, nothing especially Joy Division-ish about that," other than the recording techniques (if any) they were using.

But if you dig a little deeper, it turns out there is a connection. Apparently, 15 Minutes wasn't a real band — it was actually just Steve Wynn and two members of a SoCal new wave band called Alternate Learning, aka ALRN, who got together just to record that one single, probably to use as a demo. One of those ALRN members was the bass player, Carolyn O'Rourke, who also did the cover art for ALRN's only album, Painted Windows (1981):

The similarity to Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures (1979) cover is pretty obvious:

Carolyn O'Rourke ended up leaving ALRN and the music biz in general soon after, and never designed another album cover. But three other ALRN members (one of whom was their lead singer, the late Scott Miller), went on to form Game Theory, and later on, The Loud Family.

Great piece and amazing how everything seems to flow together. The ALRN cover is really good and there's a huge similarity with Unknown Pleasures. Carolyn should have stuck with the sleeve designs. I think that she had a flair for it.

Game Theory & The Loud Family! Two more great bands who never quite made it.

Re: American, Underground

MadhattanJack — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 18:28:40 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 04/23/2026 22:28

Repo wrote:

Holy shit! Does anyone else hear the MASSIVE Closer-era Joy Division influence on this very first slab of sonic goodness from Steve Wynn?!?! This is pre-Dream Syndicate when I guess the band was going by the name 15 Minutes.

Re: American, Underground

Johnnyo — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 12:04:08 GMT

Author: Johnnyo

Posted: 04/23/2026 16:04

Repo wrote:

Link

• 1981
• Down There Records ( DT-1) ( Down There's first release)
• Written-By, Producer, Performer, Guitar [Uncredited], Vocals [Uncredited] – Steve Wynn
====================================================

Holy shit! Does anyone else hear the MASSIVE Closer-era Joy Division influence on this very first slab of sonic goodness from Steve Wynn?!?! This is pre-Dream Syndicate when I guess the band was going by the name 15 Minutes.

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

I knew of 15 Minutes but had never heard anything by them. That's What You Always Say has become a firm favourite when Steve plays live. The track still has that Wynn sound even at this early stage in his career. Great to hear this track

Always love Steve and seen him many, many times live solo, with The Miracle Three and of course with Dream Syndicate

Re: American, Underground

Repo — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 22:54:09 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 04/23/2026 02:54

dihansse wrote:

Repo wrote:

Link

• First release from Down There Records ( DT-1)
• 1981

Holy shit! Does anyone else hear the MASSIVE Closer-era Joy Division influence on this very first slab of sonic goodness from Steve Wynn?!?! This is pre-Dream Syndicate when I guess the band was going by the name 15 Minutes.

Great find Repo from one of my musical heroes. It's indeed clear that he's still trying to find his own voice on a track that will become one of his best songs in the Dream Syndicate period.

The flipside of this 7" is in the same vein with a heavy Goth/Post-Punk vibe especially, once again, in the vocals...

Link

Re: American, Underground

dihansse — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:45:23 GMT

Author: dihansse

Posted: 04/22/2026 18:45

Repo wrote:

Great find Repo from one of my musical heroes. It's indeed clear that he's still trying to find his own voice on a track that will become one of his best songs in the Dream Syndicate period.

Re: American, Underground

Repo — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 12:48:12 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 04/22/2026 16:48

Link

• 1981
• Down There Records ( DT-1) ( Down There's first release)
• Written-By, Producer, Performer, Guitar [Uncredited], Vocals [Uncredited] – Steve Wynn
====================================================

Holy shit! Does anyone else hear the MASSIVE Closer-era Joy Division influence on this very first slab of sonic goodness from Steve Wynn?!?! This is pre-Dream Syndicate when I guess the band was going by the name 15 Minutes.

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Re: American, Underground

Repo — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 19:36:28 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 04/18/2026 23:36

Sneakers (Power Pop) (1976) by Sneakers

1976
Chapel Hill, NC (by way of Winston-Salem)
Car Records/ Cs-1 (Founded by Chris Stamey soley to put this out thus beating Gregg Ginn & SST to the DIY game by a good two years!
Rating: 🌻🌻🌻🌻 ( A Power Pop hidden gem!!! (that really shouldn't be considering how recognized The dB's are.))

• One of those super-groups before they even knew it, Sneakers in part consisted of Winston-Salem boys & massive Big Star fans Chris Stamey on guitar & vocals, Will Rigby on drums, & Mitch Easter contributing when & where where necessary. As Mitch himself explains, "... Sneakers is Chris’ baby. He wrote this batch of songs … great songs. He was playing an acoustic guitar and singing a lot, but the neck of the acoustic guitar was broken...so I played acoustic guitar on the session. One figures that somebody had to, what with Stamey’s guitar being broken and all. I’ve known Chris for a really long time, and whenever he asked me to get involved in things, I would do it."
• Released in 1976 on Stamey’s own label, Carnivorous Records, as a 7” vinyl EP
• Priced at a reasonable $1.98, the six-song EP sold about 3,500 copies.
• After seeing Television live (at Max's Kansas City I believe), Chris Stamey promptly dropped everything (including his studies at UNC) to move to NYC. In time he formed The dB's with former Sneakers band mate Will Rigby.

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

(... being called to watch Kick Ass by my youngest. feel free to let me know how to improve this post in the meantime. I welcome editors... & creators! )

Re: American, Underground

Johnnyo — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 01:38:34 GMT

Author: Johnnyo

Posted: 04/12/2026 05:38

Repo wrote:

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

- https://blackflagnervousbreakdown.blogspot.com/2014/05/black-flag-nervous-breakdown-early.html

Release Date: January 1979
Label: SST / SST-001 (1st release on SST records)
Vocals: Keith Morris (Black Flag's 1st Vocalist)
Rating: 🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻 (Essential; A Landmark in Punk History)

The first two songs - "Nervous Breakdown" & "Fix Me" - are two of Black Flag's best songs. "Fix Me" in particular shows that Black Flag's signature sound was already in place. "Wasted" was the perfect parting shot from vocalist Keith Morris who was notorious for his substance use & abuse which contributed to him leaving Black Flag shortly after the release of this EP. Aptly, he would take "Wasted" with him to his new band Circle Jerks. On a humorous note, and this could just be idle gossip mind you, Keith Morris is the person of interest on the Flag's upcoming track "Six Pack", one of my faves by them.

Link

Black Flag!!!!!! Wow! That takes be back. I'd totally forgotten about Nervous Breakdown. Definitely takes me back to my teens. Great pick

Re: American, Underground

Repo — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 20:28:47 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 04/11/2026 00:28

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Re: American, Underground

dihansse — Mon, 6 Apr 2026 13:19:05 GMT

Author: dihansse

Posted: 04/06/2026 17:19

Johnnyo wrote:

Strungout On Jargon (1986) by Death Of Samantha

I hadn't heard of this band until I saw this post. Just listed to this album. Love it!

Thanks for sharing dihansse

Just part of a focus on John Petkovic/Doug Gillard who were also part of a few other bands in my own blog Johnnyo

Re: American, Underground

Johnnyo — Mon, 6 Apr 2026 11:14:35 GMT

Author: Johnnyo

Posted: 04/06/2026 15:14

dihansse wrote:

Does Death Of Samantha count as well? Just listening to Where The Women Wear The Glory and the Men Wear The Pants.

Strungout On Jargon (1986) by Death Of Samantha

I hadn't heard of this band until I saw this post. Just listed to this album. Love it!

Thanks for sharing dihansse

Re: American, Underground

Repo — Sun, 5 Apr 2026 10:10:17 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 04/05/2026 14:10

MadhattanJack wrote:

I was actually hoping this thread would be about US local-scene indie/punk/wave compilations from the 1980s! I'd suggest starting a separate thread to focus on them, but I can't imagine enough people would be interested to sustain it for long. (Probably half the people who bought them at the time are dead now, after all.)

I will say though (at the risk of being overly contrarian) that there wasn't one "American scene" back in those days, there were actually a bunch of local scenes and they each rose and fell over time. Also, they weren't really "driven" by venues and labels — if anything, the venues and labels were gatekeepers, and it was actually college radio and mom-'n'-pop/indie record stores that were acting as tastemakers. To have a really thriving scene you needed all four of those things, but there were plenty of second-tier cities that had practically no venues or labels at all and still produced pretty good bands, at least in retrospect.

The problem was that the USA is too big and spread-out. It's always been too affluent, too (though now, of course, that's about to change)... Local scenes could sustain themselves without too much trouble because the kids all had money, but local indie labels could rarely afford to put on national marketing campaigns because half of them were run by record-store owners who had no money at all. I actually saw very little cross-pollination between local scenes in the USA back in those days, and that would probably still be true now if not for the internet. The "hot" 80s punk/new-wave scenes, more or less, were NYC, Boston, Los Angeles, Athens GA, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and maybe Chicago and Washington DC. ([b]Sorry, Akron, we all loved you guys, but no.) Few of them (if any) really interacted with each other to a meaningful extent — I remember when Twin/Tone (a Minneapolis indie label) signed the Slickee Boys (a DC psych-punk band) — the fans in DC were practically flabbergasted, it was such a rare occurrence for that to happen.

Love it! Keep sharing your knowledge drops!!! 😊

Interestingly re: Akron I was just trying to find a way to listen to this ....

... a couple of days ago. The cover alone is AWESOME!!! 🤓

Re: American, Underground

Repo — Sun, 5 Apr 2026 10:05:08 GMT

Author: Repo

Posted: 04/05/2026 14:05

dihansse wrote:

Does Death Of Samantha count as well? Just listening to Where The Women Wear The Glory and the Men Wear The Pants.

Death of Samantha is a GREAT example!!! So good! \m/

Re: American, Underground

MadhattanJack — Sat, 4 Apr 2026 21:49:58 GMT

Author: MadhattanJack

Posted: 04/05/2026 01:49

I was actually hoping this thread would be about US local-scene indie/punk/wave compilations from the 1980s! I'd suggest starting a separate thread to focus on them, but I can't imagine enough people would be interested to sustain it for long. (Probably half the people who bought them at the time are dead now, after all.)

I will say though (at the risk of being overly contrarian) that there wasn't one "American scene" back in those days, there were actually a bunch of local scenes and they each rose and fell over time. Also, they weren't really "driven" by venues and labels — if anything, the venues and labels were gatekeepers, and it was actually college radio and mom-'n'-pop/indie record stores that were acting as tastemakers. To have a really thriving scene you needed all four of those things, but there were plenty of second-tier cities that had practically no venues or labels at all and still produced pretty good bands, at least in retrospect.

The problem was that the USA is too big and spread-out. It's always been too affluent, too (though now, of course, that's about to change)... Local scenes could sustain themselves without too much trouble because the kids all had money, but local indie labels could rarely afford to put on national marketing campaigns because half of them were run by record-store owners who had no money at all. I actually saw very little cross-pollination between local scenes in the USA back in those days, and that would probably still be true now if not for the internet. The "hot" 80s punk/new-wave scenes, more or less, were NYC, Boston, Los Angeles, Athens GA, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and maybe Chicago and Washington DC. (Sorry, Akron, we all loved you guys, but no.) Few of them (if any) really interacted with each other to a meaningful extent — I remember when Twin/Tone (a Minneapolis indie label) signed the Slickee Boys (a DC psych-punk band) — the fans in DC were practically flabbergasted, it was such a rare occurrence for that to happen.

Re: American, Underground

dihansse — Sat, 4 Apr 2026 15:20:31 GMT

Author: dihansse

Posted: 04/04/2026 19:20

Does Death Of Samantha count as well? Just listening to Where The Women Wear The Glory and the Men Wear The Pants.

Re: American, Underground

dihansse — Sat, 4 Apr 2026 15:18:35 GMT

Author: dihansse

Posted: 04/04/2026 19:18

Great initiative Repo, I'll be following it closely as well...