What MUSIC are you listening to?

I think if the only rock albums I had were Who's Next and Quadrophenia, I could still be happy. The Who for me is The Rock Band, the ur example.

Fair, although I'd seriously consider trading Who's Next for the extended Live at Leeds if I only got two.

Live at Leeds might be the hardest rocking live album ever. I wouldn’t fault you at all, though I would have to keep Who’s Next.

I actually really like The Who Sell Out too.

I was a big fan of The Who when I was in high school and college. While in college, I managed to see a midnight screening of The Kids Are Alright, which was an odd mixture of concert footage, interviews, and even comedy sketches. Steve Martin even had a cameo appearance. At the time, I was delighted to see this. Last year, I went through phase where I was watching a lot of music documentaries on Amazon Prime, and this came up in my queue. This time, I was disappointed. The comedy was lame physical gags and half of the musical performances were an unpleasant combination of loud and bad. I still like most of their hits, but don't listen to them often.

The only album from that era that I still listen to regularly is Boston’s first.

Things may be bad out there, but at least there's a new Spoon album out this week.

Out of their 10 albums, I think you could make an argument for maybe 9 of them being their best one. The new one fits right into that motif.

I’m a casual Spoon fan, and I struggle to identify songs to albums unless it’s from Girls Can Tell. I am curious to hear which you consider to be the bad one.

I don’t know anyone who will go to bat for their first album, Telephono. Of the eight albums I’m really familiar with (everything since Girls Can Tell) I think I’ve heard someone make an argument for every one of those albums as their best.

The correct answer is Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.

Sometimes you gotta rock some Dead Infection u know

I doubt it will mean too much to anyone here but I've been thrashing Citizen Fish recently, I have most of their albums on vinyl but stumped up for all of them on bandcamp for ease's sake.

They were essentially my gateway into the punk scene; I was already listening to the usual early-mid 90s suspects, but a mate put me onto them and opened the door to a world of DIY and living room shows and so on. They weren't local at all - and in fact when they came here at that time, captured here in a city alternative record store, it was going to be their only visit:



but it had a huge impact on me and my life, really, looking back. Anyone can do it, you don't need anyone else, that whole ethos. Loved it instantly and still do.

Thing is, even though I've retained my love of citizen fish for 25 or more years, and yeah there is some nostalgia there, but it has really struck me just how immensely talented and interesting they are/were - especially the first four albums (1990-95 or so). They do a ska punk thing, but, it's almost proggish (booooo, devil fingers) in approach. There is basically nobody else like them, before or since - interesting structures, unusual chords, and very often no choruses, because they are essentially really insightful and clever poems set against this backdrop of raggedy punk offbeats. Always so tight, too. It's interesting to me that they could be so innovative with a musical form that is often very limited (think, okay, how do we do this song? I know, horn line, ska verse, punk chorus, reggae break, make it about beer or your girlfriend, wear a hawaian shirt, rake it in!), but be innovative before it really took off in the rest of the 90s, and there is just no comparison to be made almost anywhere in terms of what they did since. Nobody took that mantle at all, really - one or two exceptions of course but they still pale in comparison to what CF did - instead, what followed is largely paint by numbers. And of course, they never sold out, etc etc - it's all been done by themselves with that DIY ethic. So great.

If anyone's checking it out - first 4 albums - Free Souls in a Trapped environment, Wider than a Postcard, Flinch, Millennia Madness. Really good stuff.

I saw them in 1993! It was awesome, I’m a big Subhumans fan (and Culture Shock) so I was pretty stoked…but during the show, I started to notice my chest was really, really itchy. By the time the show ended, I was itching all over. In the car on the way home I noticed I was broken out EVERYWHERE. I was 18…and had fucking chicken pox. That started flaring up at Citizen Fish! LOL

Unreal!

(I also had chicken pox in 1993, but i don't know where i got mine lol ).

I also saw them again in the UK around '01 or so.

My progression in terms of my level of enjoyment with them went - Citizen Fish -> Culture Shock (discovering that was awesome! those 3 albums are great too) -> Subhumans (so great, particularly, again, that kind of later stuff where they were doing some interesting things - far out, that "Worlds Apart" track (not the album, although, hell, 1 track for like 20 minutes, what is this pink floyd?) could be Citizen Fish, easily, love it). But I've come full circle round to the beginning again with Citizen Fish, and, yeah, that block of albums there, I don't think anyone has come anywhere near them in the genre in terms of what they were doing. The later stuff is fine but a bit disappointing and more straight by comparison - I think that old thing of once they started putting horns and stuff in it actually limited things a bit. Anyway.

It kind of summed up a lot for me actually several years later when I was trying to chase down the Culture Shock albums that to get hold of them I just emailed the bluurg site and had a nice exchange with dick lucas the singer, and he ended up burning them onto cds for me as well.

Glad someone knew what I was talking about haha.

Oh yeah man, between Citizen Fish and Operation Ivy that whole genre is pretty much sewn up as far as I’m concerned.

I ALSO had chickenpox 1993. Except I was like 7, and the only CD I "owned" at that time was my dad's copy of Gin Blossoms' 'New Miserable Experience'.

(Still a great album, though.)

Been having a rough couple of days and this helped raise my spirits

The Weight | Featuring Ringo Starr and Robbie Robertson | Playing For Change | Song Around The World