I liked Chris Whitley also, but he sounds slick and Polished compared to this guy here. This guy was the original. These here are Classics of the genre.
Down On The Drag by Joe Ely
]
Honky Tonk Masquerade by Joe Ely
Awesome! Will totally check him out. :D
Yeah, today he's most well-known for originally being in the Flatlanders with Butch Hancock, who himself is probably most well-known today for his songs recorded by Emmylou Harris. And others. And most of his songs on his solo albums were written with Butch Hancock.But in the seventies they originated that Texas Country/Blues/Folk thing that was so influential. And Joe Ely is actually FROM Texas. I think Chris Whitley actually grew up in New Hampshire or Connecticut or something. And he's also well-known for hanging out with the Clash in the 80s. And singing on their record and touring with them. But he's the real deal.
Let’s face it. The Grateful Dead are their own genre. Their own cottage industry. There is nothing like them. I didn’t always know this. I used to lump them in with all these other jam bands my stoner friends and surfing buddies would listen to back in the early 90s when jam bands were having a renaissance. I mean the Spin doctors were popular solely because they were Jam Band lite. A poppified version of the jam bands that were all the rage back then. So funny that jam bands now make almost no appearance on anyone’s list from 1991. And please don’t even mention those goofballs Phish. They suck. lol. No. The Grateful dead exist all alone. And because of all thoseother jam bands my hipppie dippie friends would listen to in the early 90s bands like Big Head Todd, Blues Traveler, moe. and yes Phish. Lots & lots of Phish, I completely wrote off The Grateful Dead for a long, long time. I just assumed they sounded like all those other jam bands all my stoner friends liked.
But, I was wrong. The Dead stand alone.
And this is one of their best live albums. I’m no expert. I’m no Deadhead. I just know that this album rules. And has become one of my favorite live albums over the years. A staple for my camping trips over the last decade.
BUT, Glynspsa does know his Dead. His chart of the 100 best live albums from the Grateful Dead is a gift from the gods for us Dead neophytes. And I’m not surprised at all to find One From the Vaults in his top 6. It’s that good.
Grade A: ESSENTIAL. I used to laugh that so many of one band’s live albums could be considered essential. I thought it was weird and just a bit pathetic. I mean there was sooo much great music out there. How could one just obsess about one band. Surely all these live albums sounded pretty much identical, right? With slight variations that only the total obsessive would notice and the rest of us normals would just scratch our heads and wonder why people would listen to a hundred different versions of the essentially the same album. I’ve never been so happy to be wrong. Long live The Dead!
Taking time to look through this now and I'm definitely adding the Gene Clark record to my to-listen list. Can't wait to see what other discoveries I make. 🧐
Dreamy by Beat Happening Who’s going to love me, who’s going to love me
the way that I am ( I’ve Lost You)
Let’s simplify things. Everything you need to know about Beat Happening can be summed up with two swift, facile comparisons to The Cramps.
Comparison No. 1: They lifted The Cramps’ sound. Stole it. That primal psychobilly howl. Their sound was P-R-I-M-I-T-I-V-E. And then took it a step further. Flaunting that the they didn’t give two shits about musical expertise. About knowing how to play their instruments. Switching musical instruments like some hipsters game of musical chairs after every freakin’ song. All the while Calvin & Heather flip-flopped singing duties like it was some kind of hot potato. This band did not suffer egos gladly. They were the living in-your-face (but in a polite, super PC Evergreen College way) embodiment of the American DIY punk rock spirit.
Observation 2. And then they turned it on its head. They totally upended The Cramp’s image. That of some comical monster-movie ID come to life - hyper-sexual and all unrepressed. Calvin was a spazz. Heather was a wallflower (whose very name I had to look up just to write this post.) Instead of nerds getting to live out their exaggerated, comical over-sexed alter egos as a Lux Interior & Poison Ivy, we got the kids who choose to stay in & hang out in each others dorm rooms while everyone else was going to frat parties and slurping up drinks on ice luges.
I mean just look at them…
And that’s what made them so damn appealing. They were just nerds who really dug music. Just like us. As K records' sister label perfectly summed it all up, Kill Rock Stars. Because let’s face it. They’re mostly assholes.
Grade: A-. Highly Recommended for all. Essential of all you indie kids out there! You know who you are.
baystateoftheartNeil Young as a butternut squashProfile Massachusetts
Dreamy by Beat Happening Who’s going to love me, who’s going to love me
the way that I am ( I’ve Lost You)
Let’s simplify things. Everything you need to know about Beat Happening can be summed up with two swift, facile comparisons to The Cramps.
Comparison No. 1: They lifted The Cramps’ sound. Stole it. That primal psychobilly howl. Their sound was P-R-I-M-I-T-I-V-E. And then took it a step further. Flaunting that the they didn’t give two shits about musical expertise. About knowing how to play their instruments. Switching musical instruments like some hipsters game of musical chairs after every freakin’ song. All the while Calvin & Heather flip-flopped singing duties like it was some kind of hot potato. This band did not suffer egos gladly. They were the living in-your-face (but in a polite, super PC Evergreen College way) embodiment of the American DIY punk rock spirit.
Observation 2. And then they turned it on its head. They totally upended The Cramp’s image. That of some comical monster-movie ID come to life - hyper-sexual and all unrepressed. Calvin was a spazz. Heather was a wallflower (whose very name I had to look up just to write this post.) Instead of nerds getting to live out their exaggerated, comical over-sexed alter egos as a Lux Interior & Poison Ivy, we got the kids who choose to stay in & hang out in each others dorm rooms while everyone else was going to frat parties and slurping up drinks on ice luges.
I mean just look at them…
And that’s what made them so damn appealing. They were just nerds who really dug music. Just like us. As K records' sister label perfectly summed it all up, Kill Rock Stars. Because let’s face it. They’re mostly assholes.
Grade: A-. Highly Recommended for all. Essential of all you indie kids out there! You know who you are.
Good writeup of a good album. This barely missed out on the top 10 I posted, at #11. I owe it another listen at some point for sure. _________________ Join us in the canon game :) / Add me on RYM
Good writeup of a good album. This barely missed out on the top 10 I posted, at #11. I owe it another listen at some point for sure.
29. baystate
1991 is a year for which I've only scratched the surface. But out of what little I have heard, my top 10 would be:
1. The Low End Theory - A Tribe Called Quest
2. Loveless - My Bloody Valentine
3. Heavenly Vs. Satan - Heavenly
4. All Souled Out - Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
5. Still Feel Gone - Uncle Tupelo
6. Breaking Atoms - Main Source
7. Mr. Hood - KMD
8. Step In The Arena - Gang Starr
9. For Keeps - The Field Mice
10. Distant Plastic Trees - The Magnetic Fields
Yeah. Your top ten is pretty solid. And very interesting. I'm loving those Heavenly & Field Mice albums. Lots of great hip hop I've alway wanted to get more into. I never even hear of Main Source until that thread and they were everywhere. What's KMD's Mr. Hood all about? You were the only one to mention them.
And then of Uncle Tupelo. I fucking love that "Gun" track - maybe Uncle Tupelo's best.
How much Beat Happening have you heard? Their debut, Jamboree, and Dreamy are all pretty Essential to me & I can't pick a favorite. A lot of my favorite songs - Hot chocolate Boy, Fortune Cookie Prize, Cry For A Shadow, Nancy Sin, etc... are on Dreamy.
Good writeup of a good album. This barely missed out on the top 10 I posted, at #11. I owe it another listen at some point for sure.
29. baystate
1991 is a year for which I've only scratched the surface. But out of what little I have heard, my top 10 would be:
1. The Low End Theory - A Tribe Called Quest
2. Loveless - My Bloody Valentine
3. Heavenly Vs. Satan - Heavenly
4. All Souled Out - Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
5. Still Feel Gone - Uncle Tupelo
6. Breaking Atoms - Main Source
7. Mr. Hood - KMD
8. Step In The Arena - Gang Starr
9. For Keeps - The Field Mice
10. Distant Plastic Trees - The Magnetic Fields
Yeah. Your top ten is pretty solid. And very interesting. I'm loving those Heavenly & Field Mice albums. Lots of great hip hop I've alway wanted to get more into. I never even hear of Main Source until that thread and they were everywhere. What's KMD's Mr. Hood all about? You were the only one to mention them.
And then of Uncle Tupelo. I fucking love that "Gun" track - maybe Uncle Tupelo's best.
How much Beat Happening have you heard? Their debut, Jamboree, and Dreamy are all pretty Essential to me & I can't pick a favorite. A lot of my favorite songs - Hot chocolate Boy, Fortune Cookie Prize, Cry For A Shadow, Nancy Sin, etc... are on Dreamy.
Ill field the question about KMD since it has yet to be answered. KMD was what MF DOOM was in before anything else. He went by Zev Love X and this group also featured his brother DJ Subroc. Subroc died in 1993 before their controversial "Black Bastards" album was finished. Daniel Dumile (DOOM) kept to himself for awhile after his brother's death, but was eventually reborn as MF DOOM. It's a pretty good album, but I didn't include in my list.
Good writeup of a good album. This barely missed out on the top 10 I posted, at #11. I owe it another listen at some point for sure.
29. baystate
1991 is a year for which I've only scratched the surface. But out of what little I have heard, my top 10 would be:
1. The Low End Theory - A Tribe Called Quest
2. Loveless - My Bloody Valentine
3. Heavenly Vs. Satan - Heavenly
4. All Souled Out - Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth
5. Still Feel Gone - Uncle Tupelo
6. Breaking Atoms - Main Source
7. Mr. Hood - KMD
8. Step In The Arena - Gang Starr
9. For Keeps - The Field Mice
10. Distant Plastic Trees - The Magnetic Fields
Yeah. Your top ten is pretty solid. And very interesting. I'm loving those Heavenly & Field Mice albums. Lots of great hip hop I've alway wanted to get more into. I never even hear of Main Source until that thread and they were everywhere. What's KMD's Mr. Hood all about? You were the only one to mention them.
And then of Uncle Tupelo. I fucking love that "Gun" track - maybe Uncle Tupelo's best.
How much Beat Happening have you heard? Their debut, Jamboree, and Dreamy are all pretty Essential to me & I can't pick a favorite. A lot of my favorite songs - Hot chocolate Boy, Fortune Cookie Prize, Cry For A Shadow, Nancy Sin, etc... are on Dreamy.
I listened to Dreamy as well and Dreamy is only the third album I hear of them.
I was introduced to them only with You Turn Me On in 1992 and that's still my favorite album of them. I recently also listened to Jamboree and I think it's fairly comparable to Dreamy which means not bad and something for my top chart of 1991 but only for the bottom half.
baystateoftheartNeil Young as a butternut squashProfile Massachusetts
Yeah. Your top ten is pretty solid. And very interesting. I'm loving those Heavenly & Field Mice albums. Lots of great hip hop I've alway wanted to get more into. I never even hear of Main Source until that thread and they were everywhere. What's KMD's Mr. Hood all about? You were the only one to mention them.
And then of Uncle Tupelo. I fucking love that "Gun" track - maybe Uncle Tupelo's best.
How much Beat Happening have you heard? Their debut, Jamboree, and Dreamy are all pretty Essential to me & I can't pick a favorite. A lot of my favorite songs - Hot chocolate Boy, Fortune Cookie Prize, Cry For A Shadow, Nancy Sin, etc... are on Dreamy.
Thanks Tha1ChiefRocka. I will add that Mr. Hood is a loose concept album about a fictional character of the same name and KMD's responses to his way of thinking. It's conscious rap that is sometimes preachy but almost always energetic and playful. MF Doom is one of my favorite rappers ever, so for me the main attraction is hearing his craft in its primordial state.
I've heard You Turn Me On, which I think is a wonderful record, Dreamy, which I think is good, and self-titled, which I think is not bad. I've also heard the comp Music To Climb The Apple Tree By, which I think is not bad. I'll have to check out Jamboree and Black Candy at some point. _________________ Join us in the canon game :) / Add me on RYM
Super-psyched that u guys checked out Dreamy . Has always been one of my faves from '91.
However, I don't think Beat Happening played to their strengths on You Turn Me On as much. These songs sound "tamed" in comparison. There's a vast reduction in the feedback & immediacy with an increased focus on polish. Plus the song lengths are stretched out yet they don't really do much with that increased time. I just think a lot of the immediacy and purity of their first four albums is kind of lost. A bit of what made them special. To me there's the first four albums and than You Turn Me On which easily could have been released on a major at the time. That special "geeks in a dorm" feel is dampened somewhat. I know it got great reviews, but I was definitely disappointed when this came out. It kind of felt like Beat Happening by-the-numbers. And listening to it all these years later after binging on Dreamy for the past couple of days, I have the exact same feelings I had back in 1992. It's certainly not bad, and I will keep listening to it. But for me, it's nowhere near as good as Jamboree, Dreamy, and their debut. It's been awhile since I've listened to Black Candy so I'll fix that soon.
I'd love to see how other BEA users rank the Beat Happening albums! I know a lot of people really loved You Turn Me On, but me and my friends were definitely a little bummed when it came out. I'll try to rank them too! Peace!
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