Music Questionnaire Everyone Must Answer

sufi

lala
This song actually makes me nostalgic for reals because I was the cliched western 'backpacker' in thailand for a month or so when I was 19 and the world was all before me
but but but that's the tune off the cliched western back packer in thailand movie isn't it? are you sure that you yourself are for reals, leonardo?
 

CORP$EY

no mickey mouse ting
i should have explained, 'the beach' was playing in a cafe on phi phi one time i was in there eating noodles
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Favourite genre?

Reggae

Most listened to genre?

Reggae

Favourite artist?

No

Most listened to artist?

Couldn't say.

Most potently nostalgic music for you?

Anything I had on tape in the mid 80s. John Peel stuff, goth stuff, indie stuff.

Favourite music memory?

GX Jupitter-Larsen destroying a tractor tyre with an angle grinder.
Snow falling outside Cafe OTO whilst Elodie and Jessica Kenney/Eyvind Kang played.
Iration Steppas vs Abashanti in a cold warehouse with yer trousers flapping and rib cage thumping.
Seeing some anarchopunk bands playing a church hall as a teenager and being in awe of all the fully hatched weirdos.

Music you associate with your childhood?
Muppet Show LPs
Star Wars theme.
Hanna and Barbera Jazz.

Music you associate with your mid-late teens?

Synthpop, goth, industrial.


Musical opinion most likely to piss off dissensians?

Techstep, breakcore and gabba are good.

That music is just music and probably not worth getting that het up about.

When was music last great?
Last night

First time your jaw dropped listening to music?

The biggest one was Psychic TV's "Dreams Less Sweet" LP on headphones, under the covers, in the dark. Aged 16/17.

Last time your jaw dropped listening to music?
Pat Thomas and Steve Noble at Cafe OTO, 15th Feb.

Music you associate with your children?
Wu-Tang, Girls Aloud, stuff on cheesy Now compilations, bits of grime and afrobeat. Kehlani.

Music you associate with your parents?
Both: Sgt Peppers, hymns.

Mum: Alan Price, chart reggae and disco.
Dad: Classical, Duane Eddy, Tubular Bells

Music you associate with your partner?
Big Beat, Jungle, Reggae, Johnny Cash. Things being turned down, lol.

When did you first realise you were into music more than others?
Secondary school - like Martin said it was football or music really.

How did you get into the nuum/dancehall/rap side of things?
I heard Tony Blackburn play "The Message" on the radio circa 1980 and loved that, so always kept any eye on hip hop throughout the 80s but was never fully into it.
Acid House through Psychic TV etc stuff in 1988 but didn't have a car or many mates who liked that stuff so was a bit of a bystander. Kept an eye on techno and jungle and the like. Always liked the stuff with breakbeats in.
Reggae just chugged along a bit really with things like Smiley Culture and dub tapes. I basically missed ragga until the big tunes like "Who Am I" and "Heads High" came out in 1997. Then went mad for it all.

Favourite live music experience?
These days a really good gig in a small venue near where I live with good beer.

What music would you like people to associate with you?
Just cool stuff that they haven't heard of, obviously. They actually think "weird stuff which is probably shit" though.

What have you been listening to recently?
The Fall and Black Flag back catalogues in chronological order. Steve Reich. A load of reggae from Woebot. Bokeh Versions gear.

What music have you gone off after loving at some point?
Industrial as documented in the "music for wrong 'uns" thread.

How avant guard can you go and still enjoy it sober?

I did not enjoy a particularly punishing set by Seymour Wright last year, to my surprise. He hurt my ears with a brass instrument and I was still angry about it when I saw him propping up the bar at Cafe OTO last week. Other than that, a fair distance.

Best drug-music combination?
Dub + Weed, I mean come on.

What year does music start to be good?
1742

Most embarrassing musical tastes of your younger self?
Marillion? Howard Jones? It's only embarrassing if you are still hung up on being the coolest kid in the class though. (I wasn't and am not).

Music that everyone’s wrong about?
Everyone is a lot of people.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
Black Flag
save yourself some trouble + skip everything after My War

actually you can skip Damaged too, it's just an inferior version of The First Four Years

btw I'm sure the reality didn't nearly match the legend but I really would've loved to have seen some of those anarchopunk bands play live

extremely familiar with those kindsa fully hatched weirdos too
 

john eden

male pale and stale
save yourself some trouble + skip everything after My War

actually you can skip Damaged too, it's just an inferior version of The First Four Years

btw I'm sure the reality didn't nearly match the legend but I really would've loved to have seen some of those anarchopunk bands play live

extremely familiar with those kindsa fully hatched weirdos too

Yeah I agree with you about Black Flag. I like that Wasted Again comp but the later albums are quite bad.

On the other hand, i’m up to 1995 with The Fall and there is only one terrible album.

The anarchopunk bands I saw were mainly local ones and not big names but the intensity was still great. Still inspiring that there was a group of young people doing all that (and flyposting, Street stalls, fanzines, squatting, graffiti etc) in the town where I grew up.
 

martin

----
save yourself some trouble + skip everything after My War

actually you can skip Damaged too, it's just an inferior version of The First Four Years

Funnily enough, I've always found Black Flag and Bad Brains well disappointing, especially for such revered acts with such fanatical followers. 'Police Story', 'Nervous Breakdown' and 'Pay To Cum' are all great, but never been able to make it through much else without getting bored and wanting to hear the Misfits or Angry Samoans instead.

Also disappointing that Henry "Pain is God" Rollins didn't really break that mirror on the cover and squirted some ketchup on his knuckles for the shoot. Even Sid was more 'ardkore.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
the later albums are quite bad
unfortunately that's the case with SST in general. actually it's the case with U.S. hardcore in general, at least until the 2nd wave kicks in ca. 1988ish.

(if you're interested btw I'm happy to make some U.S. hxc recs, for better or worse I have pretty much encyclopedic canonical knowledge on that front)
 

version

Well-known member
Funnily enough, I've always found Black Flag and Bad Brains well disappointing, especially for such revered acts with such fanatical followers. 'Police Story', 'Nervous Breakdown' and 'Pay To Cum' are all great, but never been able to make it through much else without getting bored and wanting to hear the Misfits or Angry Samoans instead.

Also disappointing that Henry "Pain is God" Rollins didn't really break that mirror on the cover and squirted some ketchup on his knuckles for the shoot. Even Sid was more 'ardkore.

I rarely listen to a Bad Brains album all the way through, basically just go with Sailin' On, Banned in DC, Pay to Cum and Sacred Love. Black Flag I just do Nervous Breakdown, Rise Above and Depression.
 

martin

----
Shift-Work (1991). IMHO, like. Maybe hardcore Fall fans unanimously rate it.

It took me a while to get into Shiftwork - it's pretty polarising (speaking of which, wait til you get to 'Levitate' ;) ) and am pretty sure I thought it was way too mellow/commercial when I first heard it.

I love it now, thought it took quite a lot of listens before it clicked - reminds me of summer '95 and me and my mate going on trips to Edinburgh and Glasgow on our National Express Youth Discount passes, and this was a Walkman fave for travelling back monged. Picks: whole thing, but esp. Idiot Joy Showland (which they used to play twice as fast live), Pitsville Direkt, War Against Intelligence, Book of Lies, Shiftwork, The Mixer.

Had some classic MES diss lines too: "You think your haircut is distinguished / When it's a blot on the English landscape". And slagging off Carl Lewis and Good Morning TV. "The working class has been shafted...so what the fuck are you sneering at?"
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
Funnily enough, I've always found Black Flag and Bad Brains well disappointing
don't super disagree w/this tbh

Black Flag's rep really rests on the all the pre-Rollins singles, which are really good tbf, and also on Greg Ginn/SST's huge role in establishing U.S. diy hxc culture

Bad Brains real problem is they never recorded just a single killer record, besides the Pay to Cum 7", at the height of their formidable powers, and then once they did they were already in decline. Without Bad Brains there probably is no U.S. version of hardcore as we know it tho, they had the musical chops (from their jazz-funk background) to play super fast and still keep it tight, and thus inspired all the DC kids, which became the main hardcore blueprint.
 

john eden

male pale and stale
unfortunately that's the case with SST in general. actually it's the case with U.S. hardcore in general, at least until the 2nd wave kicks in ca. 1988ish.

(if you're interested btw I'm happy to make some U.S. hxc recs, for better or worse I have pretty much encyclopedic canonical knowledge on that front)

I’ve had some fun with Husker Du, Minutemen, Bad Brains, MDC etc through the winter - filling some gaps. So am ok for now, but another thread for another day would be very cool.

It gets quite muso-ey after a certain point?
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
actually IMO Socal hardcore in general is way overrated, don't think any is really crucial beyond early BF, The Minutemen - Paranoid Time + Middle Class - Out of Vogue 7"

also Battalion of Saints but they were from San Diego

for hardcore Boston, NY, DC, SF >>> LA
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
It gets quite muso-ey after a certain point?
you mean temporally, or in retroactive appreciation terms?

the first, yes. p much everyone went metal, goth, or alt-rock by 84. even the people who stayed hardcore got more muso (Minor Threat->Embrace->Fugazi).

the second, also yes. but, there was a lot of great dumb teenager music produced in that initial run. later too, but it's different cos it's self-aware.

the international variation is also cool but v much in Discharge lineage, until some Europeans got sick of it and did bandanna thrash (Larm, Ripchord, Heresy).
 

martin

----
(if you're interested btw I'm happy to make some U.S. hxc recs, for better or worse I have pretty much encyclopedic canonical knowledge on that front)

Would be interested to see what you rate, as you seem to like a lot of similar anarcho/D-beat stuff.

My own extremely limited knowledge (and very possibly misguided opinions):

Angry Samoans - brilliant, though this may be due to overriding punk influence, and I haven't heard much of their later stuff, which might suck

Agnostic Front - great first chaotic 7", then gradually more boring and generic metal-sounding

Cro-Mags - shit

Negative Approach - couple of good shouty songs, and enjoyable 8-second song 'Pressure'. Apparently legends?

SS Decontrol - some OK riffs but hate the vocals

Negative FX - enjoyable, energetic, though not very memorable

Urban Waste - ditto

Heart Attack - pretty cool, I imagine this would be a lot more fun on a late-night train down the Bronx, shitting myself as gangs get on and off

No Thanks - really good with female vox, sounds like the band are genuinely pissed off and up for a fight

Youth of Today - only really know a couple. Remind me of GBH (not a bad thing)

So yeah, any recommendations welcome...
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Bad Brains real problem is they never recorded just a single killer record...

I Against I is pretty great, isn't it? Admittedly it's getting for an almost Faith No More-ish 80s hard-rock sound rather than punk/HC per se, but it's got some fantastic tunes on it. 'Return to Heaven' might be in my top ten rock tunes, come to think of it.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
So yeah, any recommendations welcome...
my personal opinions. give a minute + I'll drop some more/general recs.

Angry Samoans - early stuff OK. tbf LA was actually good for that kinda still punk proto-hardcore, which is actually what the first Black Flag record is.

Agnostic Front - agree first 7" is great. First LP (Victim In Pain) also great. After that, bad. Also inspired generations of shitty tough guy NYHC.

Cro-Mags - The Age of Quarrel is great, maybe the canonical crossover LP. After that, bad.

Negative Approach - "Nothing" is the single greatest hardcore song of all time. The 7" is one of the top 5 hardcore U.S. records. The LP is pretty good.

SSD - LP is good. That part of the Boston scene had irritating tough guy vibes (i.e. Wolfpack), sometimes shitty politics, etc.

Negative FX - LP is great, better than SSD, high-level fast hardcore on the way to thrash

Urban Waste - "Public Opinion" is a personal fave, rest of the EP v good but marred but a couple of dumb sexist songs

Heart Attack - not my thing at all

Youth of Today - undeniably canonical, have a couple jams. Youth crew - the SXE style they inspired - v much not my thing. Also Ray Cappo inseparable from later Krishna incarnation
 

martin

----
my personal opinions. give a minute + I'll drop some more/general recs.

Angry Samoans - early stuff OK. tbf LA was actually good for that kinda still punk proto-hardcore, which is actually what the first Black Flag record is.

Agnostic Front - agree first 7" is great. First LP (Victim In Pain) also great. After that, bad. Also inspired generations of shitty tough guy NYHC.

Cro-Mags - The Age of Quarrel is great, maybe the canonical crossover LP. After that, bad.

Negative Approach - "Nothing" is the single greatest hardcore song of all time. The 7" is one of the top 5 hardcore U.S. records. The LP is pretty good.

SSD - LP is good. That part of the Boston scene had irritating tough guy vibes (i.e. Wolfpack), sometimes shitty politics, etc.

Negative FX - LP is great, better than SSD, high-level fast hardcore on the way to thrash

Urban Waste - "Public Opinion" is a personal fave, rest of the EP v good but marred but a couple of dumb sexist songs

Heart Attack - not my thing at all

Youth of Today - undeniably canonical, have a couple jams. Youth crew - the SXE style they inspired - v much not my thing. Also Ray Cappo inseparable from later Krishna incarnation

Cheers! Apologies, I just re-checked iTunes and I meant Youth Brigade, not Youth of Today.

Yeah, 'Nothing' is superb. Isn't that NA 7" with the Linda Blair pic worth a grand or something totally crazy?
 
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