In this new section we present classic albums that you should listen to, albums that too often don't make the usual lists.
The Elephant 6 Recording Company
The Elephant 6 Recording Company was a loose musical collective that formed in the early 90's in Denver Colorado. The collective was principally headed up by Apples In Stereo front man Robert Schneider. Wikipedia has a good potted history of the collective.
The Apples in Stereo - The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone
Robert Schneider's The Apples In Stereo are the best place to start when listening to the Elephant 6 and The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone is their finest hour. From horn blasting opener 'Go!' to the acoustic whimsy of 'The Afternoon' it never puts a foot wrong.
The album manages to be a great retro homage without ever falling into the trap of being a pointless exercise in nostalgia. Vocal harmony, handclaps and a genius command of melody runs throughout the album. Classic pop, psyche, garage and even white funk ('The Bird That You Can't See') make for a really enjoyable set.
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
This is probably the most influential album in the list, and the only Elephant 6 album that regularly appears in "Greatest Album" lists. Jeff Mangum's band are not always an easy proposition managing to be primarily acoustic but also incredibly noisy and abrasive at times.
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is influenced by 60s psychedelia but also has a strong folk sound in terms of vocals and instrumentation. 'The king Of Carrot Flowers, Pt.1' is a genius off key pop song and sets the tone for the album perfectly.
The band has a slightly sinister sound and songs like 'Two Headed Boy' are fairly warped stories. 'Holland, 1945' is a great noisy pop piece filled with nonsense poetry and inventive instrumentation.
It isn't the kind of record that people immediately click with but it rewards persistence and is the kind of album that you come back to again and again.
Dressy Bessy - Little Music
This choice is a bit of a cheat, being a collection of singles rather than an album proper. However, it is probably the best collection of their music and perfectly demonstrates all that is great about this band. Lead by Tammy Ealom the band stands out from the predominantly male collective.
The band, also featuring Apples In Stereo guitarist John Hill, has an aesthetic is rooted in 60s beat pop but also the slightly bored and detached vocal sound of some of the 60s girl groups.
It is a singles collection and as such it is a very poppy, ranging from cute 'Lipstick' to whimsical 'Gloria Days' to punkey 'All The Right Reasons' but Ealom manages to keep things the right side of cloying at all times.
Recent Dressy Bessy releases have adopted a drab heavier sound, but this is a great place to discover a much underrated act.
Beulah - When Your Heartstrings Break
Beulah are a real loss to the music world, releasing four excellent albums before giving in to the public's indifference and calling it a day in 2004. Their second album, When Your Heartstrings Break, is probably their finest moment.
Despite a clear 60s influence, some eccentric production and great use of pop horns and strings, they are probably the most conventional Elephant 6 band. With a bit more luck they could have been the first Elephant 6 act to break through into the mainstream.
Songs like 'Sunday Under Glass' and the excellent 'Emma Blowgun's Last Stand' are simple pop classics and closer 'If We Can Land A Man On The Moon, Surely I Can Win Your Heart' has brilliant, if slightly off key orchestration and sounds like a snotty disaffected Beach Boys.
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer?
Of Montreal had released several whimsical and fey albums before front man Kevin Barnes went through a transformation over the course of the Satanic Panic In the Attic and The Sunlandic Twins albums.
By the time he recorded Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer? he was operating solo, with the concept of the band existing live only, and the sound was much darker. Imagine Prince as a cross dresser who grew up listening to Kinks records and you are some way to understanding the Of Montreal sound at this time.
He is the master of the quirky retro pop song as opener 'Suffer For Fashion' shows, but the album is much more than just 60s influenced pop music. Elements of electronica, krautrock, garage and even Prince style funk ('Labyrinthine Pomp') permeate the album.Some of the songs would almost fit onto earlier releases by the band but tracks like the epic repetitive 'The Past Is A Grotesque Animal' mark a real departure. Lyrically it is dark and bitter, none more so than the excellent 'She's A Rejecter'. This is probably the best Elephant 6 related release of the 21st century.
Elf Power - Walking With The Beggar Boys
For their 6th album, Walking With The Beggar Boys, Elf Power dropped most of their psychedelic tendencies in favour of a more conventional alternative pop/rock sound. They sound all the better for it, the quality of the songs shining through.
Opener 'Never Believe', the title track and 'Hole In My Shoe' are pretty straightforward pop songs, but they are as good as that kind of song gets, direct and full of fizzing energy.
It isn't an entire change of style for the band. The lyrics are still littered with obscure references and a psychedelic sensibility. There are also still several examples of their quirky instrumentation and production sounds, particularly 'The Cracks' but these songs sound better in the context of this album.
If you are interested in finding out more about the Elephant 6 then the following sites are good places to start:
- The Elephant 6 Townhall - A discussion forum on the Elephant 6, the bands and related labels.
- Optical Atlas - A blog devoted to all things Elephant 6
The Monks were among the most curious of bands. Formed in the mid 1960s they were completely out of their time, had haircuts of actual monks, dressed like The Beatles, sang like Iggy and the Stooges and punk bands of the late 1970s, dabbled in feedback and influenced a diverse group of artists from Jimi Hendrix to Henry Rollins.
Created in 1964 by five American Gis stationed in Germany they were originally called the Torquays before being taken under the wing of two aspiring music managers, design students Walther Niemann and Karl-H.-Remy.
Remy and Niemann spotted a difference in the band to other so called beat combos of the time. Put simply it was an edge, which they drew out with marked effect.
Musically it was punk before its time all wrapped up with tribal drumming and screaming vocals. Melody went out the window. Feedback, meandering organ solos, distorted bass and even an electric banjo. It was the most unusual of sounds.
As if that wasn't enough to mark out The Monks Remy and Niemann's bizarre sense of design saw the band ruthlessly remodelled. Ordered to dress entirely in black on and off stage at all times, they also convinced the band to even shave the tops of their heads into real monk cuts.
After leaving the army the band stayed and played relentlessly around Germany and picked up enough of a following to interest Polydor, who signed them up.
Within three years of touring and beset with in-fighting they were left exhausted and called it quits. What they left behind was some early demos, some average later singles and just the one album, the fantastic Black Monk Time, the only time the sheer insanity and trail blazing qualities of the band were captured on disc.
Recorded in the early hours after they had played in venues in Germany Black Monk Time successfully recreates the energy of their live shows.
It can sound niaive in places lyrically and now almost 50 years on a little old fashioned, but remember this was 1966. What is perhaps most striking is how basic it is. The break up song 'I Hate You 'offers no thoughts of melancholy and confused angst just in your face lyrics such as "I hate you baby with a passion."
Check out the lyrics to 'Complication', "people cry, complication, people die for you, complication, people kill, complication." This was pure punk, 10 years before the Ramones, Pistols and others.
Black Monk Time is one of the oddest record you will here. Of its time, with its Vietnam lyrics and 60s sound, yet so ahead of its time with its do-it yourself garage band punk ethos. The album was re-released in 2009 on Light in the Attic Records in a pretty good package that features a booklet about the band and a bunch of extra tracks that show the toned down direction Polydor wanted them to take through the singles 'Cuckoo' and the lame 'Love Can Tame The Wild'.
Perhaps Black Monk Time was the best the band could ever manage. It's hard to tell, as the band were left shattered by touring leaving little energy for further creativity. The Monks singer and guitarist Gary Burger said of the break up. "All of us were skin and bones. Worn out physically and mentally, It was hard business and The Monks really took everything that we had." They certainly gave it all on Black Monk Time, one we recommend for the most bizarre slice of medieval 60s punk you will ever hear.
By Joe Lepper
For more information about The Monks visit here.
They Might Be Giants - Lincoln
They Might Be Giants (TMBG) are unlikely to ever escape their reputation as over-clever novelty hit makers. And given their primary career these days is writing music for children, I doubt they care too much what the mainstream musical audience thinks of them.
I first became aware of them when I saw the video to 'Don't Let's Start' on the Chart Show back in 1987. To me they were a revelation, guitar pop played, with a sense of humour, by a pair of New York geeks. This was exactly the music that a indie guitar pop obsessed geek was looking for.
My first TMBG purchase was their second album, Lincoln, in 1988. It is a record that stands as the greatest artefact of a truly unique band.
The opening track, 'Ana Ng', is worth the price alone. Jerky, stomping and melodic, it is a brilliant 3 and a half minute pop song, and the first single released from the album. The basic elements of the TMBG sound are all there, fuzzy guitar, accordion, drum machine and the New York geek vocals of the two John's (Flansburgh and Linnel).
The albums other single, 'They'll Need A Crane' is another near perfect pop gem, and showcases the sweeter less flippant side to the band's song writing. Whilst most of the songs on the album are more lyrically playful this song deals with the painful collapsed of a relationship, all set to an infectious bouncy melody.
There are plenty of more superficially throwaway tracks on the album, 'Santas Beard' and 'Piece of Dirt' are unlikely to win the band any new fans, but the songs have humour, sophistication and inventiveness. Any music fan who comes to this album with an open mind will soon find plenty to love. Style-wise alone it covers an impressive breadth, from pop to jazz to rock to music hall.
In many ways the perfection the album is the way it balances quirky instrumentation and nonsensical lyrics with an expert command of melody and an understanding of pathos and wordplay. To the listeners who could see nothing more than a wacky novelty act these characteristics were lost, and the Dave Lee Travis endorsed smash hit 'Birdhouse In Your Soul' would pretty well cement the reputation.
Looking at the band as a pop act is a mistake. They started off as a performance art act, and in many ways that is the best way to approach them. They Might Be Giants are witty, inventive, masters of melody and truly unique; never more so than on Lincoln.
By Dorian Rogers
Mission of Burma - The Obliterati
Among the best US punk bands to emerge in the late 1970s and 1980s was Boston's Mission of Burma.
Just a look at their first 1979 line up shows they were no mere spirit-of-1977 wannabes, Roger Miller (guitar), Clint Conley (bass), Peter Prescott (drums) and Martin Swope (tape manipulator). How many bands of that era could boast a manipulator of tapes among their ranks?
After 1981's seminal debut EP Signals, Calls and Marches, 1982's debut album Vs and some spell binding live performances they split in 1983, in part due to Miller's increasing problems with tinitus caused by the band's notoriously loud gigs.
A bunch of solo and side projects, such as Prescott's band Volcano Suns, followed and then in 2002 Mission of Burma reformed, some twenty years after splitting. But this was no ordinary reunion offering a bunch of forty-somethings the chance to rake over past glories and earn fat pensions. The reformed Mission of Burma, which included Bob Weston from Shellac replacing Swope as manipulator of tapes and producer, emerged as fresh as a bunch of teenagers playing together for the first time, bustling with creativity.
OnOffOn, their first album since Vs, came out in 2004, but it is the band's third album The Obliterati, which came out two years later, that we are focusing on here. The Obliterati is a mini-history in punk and its influences, showing the band clearly revitalised as individuals by being back together. Across the album Mission of Burma's past present and future are laid out. Their own UK punk influences, in particularly Wire, are there, as is the music of their 1980s contemporaries such as Husker Du. They've also taken on board the music of the bands that they influenced throughout the rest of the 80s and 1990s, such as Pavement, Sonic Youth and Guided By Voices.
The opening three tracks are three of the best openers around. '2wice', 'Spider's Web' and 'Donna Sumeria', across all Miller sounds like Husker Du-era Grant Hart at his best. Donna Sumeria is wonderful stuff, slower pace with a great guitar hook that merges into the oddest version of Donna Summer's disco classic 'I Feel Love' you may ever hear.
Across all of The Obliterati's 14 tracks there something of interest. Take track '13' for example, with its violins at the beginning it sounds more like folkster Richard Thompson, before the bass and drums pile in. Another standout is '1001 Pleasant Dreams', the most Husker Du sounding on the album.
The Obliterati is also highly political, recorded in the midst of one of the US's most absurd ever governments, led by clown-in-chief George W Bush. 'Man in Decline' for example offers superb mock Bushisms such as, "continentalistical prophilaxis." The track 'Nancy Reagan's Head' leaves the listener in no doubt as to Mission of Burma's stance on US politics under Bush.
Feedback, violins, cellos, loops, pounding drums and melodic bass - The Obliterati manages to sound like classic punk but something entirely new altogether. With such energy it's hard to fathom that this is a bunch of middle aged men that have been playing music for more than two decades and had only been back together for two years. As an introduction to Mission of Burma The Obliterati is a good place to start, merging the band's original punk zest with a contemporary feel that gives the great bands they ended up influencing a few more lessons.
by Joe Lepper
For more information visit Mission of Burma's homepage.
When considering the legacy of legendary Washington DC punk act Minor Threat, it is Fugazi, the subsequent band of its lead singer Ian Mackaye, which tends to get the critical plaudits. Less known but no less deserving of praise is Dag Nasty, another band to rise from the ashes of Minor Threat.
Formed in 1985 by among others former Minor Threat guitarist Brian Baker; the band's original line-up also featured bassist Roger Marbury, drummer Colin Sears and singer Shawn Brown.
While the band have been together on and off since the 1980s it was their first two albums Can I Say and Wig Out At Denkos that showcased their best work. Debut Can I Say, which features Dave Smalley (pictured) who replaced Brown on vocals, rarely gets the praise it deserves but for our money it is up there with the greatest punk albums of all time.
'Melodic hardcore,' is how their Wikipedia entry describes Dag Nasty's sound. That is a convenient description but masks the power of Can I Say, which offers up ten perfect songs about teenage confusion, peer pressure and fear of the future that are as relevant today as they were in the mid 1980s.
"I followed blindly, part of the lot, I never gave a second thought…how can I say I'm really free?" sings Smalley on Can I Say's title track.
The teenage angst theme continues on 'Thin Line', with, "I never realized you were running in circles…you were blind, I trusted you." Is the "you" a lover, a parent, a close friend, the government? It could apply to any of them, which is one of the joys of Can I Say the way the lyrics value friendship and an ability to question the status quo as highly as the staple topic of choice for most bands - love.
Despite encapsulating teenage angst perfectly Can I Say is more than that. The music is among the most uplifting around. No one can play a riff or a squealing solo like Baker, who later joined Bad Religion and over the years has reportedly turned down chances to play with REM and Guns n Roses. The vocal harmonies as well are wonderful.
Many have pointed out that Dag Nasty was among the earliest influences on emo. Few respectable punk bands will happily admit to have spawned the likes Fall Out Boy and we hope that Dag Nasty is honoured for more than this. In particular we hope that as the sands of musical time pass Dag Nasty is remembered for offering a unique, fast paced slice of teenage life, that spoke to a disaffected youth.
So where are the Can I Say Dag Nasty line-up now? They remain a band of sorts, but more of an occasional side project for Marbury, Sears, Baker and Smalley.
Most of Sears's time now is taken up being a city planner in Portland, Baker continues to play guitar with Bad Religion, Marbury lives in Boston and works as a lighting engineer for film projects and Smalley is a newspaper journalist in Virginia.
The band's most recent album was in 2002, Minority of One, a more patchy release than the fantastic Can I Say, but still with some moments of brilliance amid its more grown up brand of punk.
by Joe Lepper
For more information about Dag Nasty visit Daghouse.
The Dukes of Stratosphear - Psonic Psunspot
As a callow teenager, XTC's Andy Partridge dreamed of one day being in a band that sounded 'just like what I could hear coming out of the radio' - which, at that time, meant the most unapologetically out-there material of Pink Floyd, the Small Faces, the Byrds and the Beatles, as well as a veritable slew of now-forgotten or barely-remembered one-hit psychedelic chancers like Zager and Evans and The Moles.
Even after growing up and scoring a string of new-wavey hits with XTC he still dreamed of making a record 'like all those records I loved as a schoolboy' - and in 1985 the band was finally given the chance to record their very own psychedelic mini-album under the pseudonym The Dukes of Stratosphear. Called '25 O'Clock' it sold so well (embarrassingly, rather better than XTC's last 'proper' album) that a full-length follow-up was commissioned two years later, and unleashed upon an unwary universe as 'Psonic Psunspot'.
Although its reference points are generally less esoteric than those of its predecessor, Psunspot still has enough trippy oomph to bring a twinkle to the dilated eye of any psych enthusiast. But there's also a lot of stuff that even normal people can 'get': the Syd Barrettesque 'Have You Seen Jackie', the none-more-McCartneyfied 'Brainiac's Daughter' and the dazzling 'Good Vibrations'-era Beach Boys pastiche 'Pale and Precious' - which noted Brian Wilson überfan Dominic Priore pronounced as 'the most exact replica of the California sound'.
For me, though, part of what makes the album such a pleasure is the fact that the replicas aren't always exact; that, as well as sounding like Pink Floyd or the Beatles, the Dukes can also sound quite a lot like XTC, and I LOVE XTC! From this perspective, listening to psongs like 'You're My Drug' or 'The Affiliated' feels a little like poking at the beard of a pstrangely pswirling Psanta and catching sight of your dad's face underneath: faintly alarming for a moment or two, perhaps, but ultimately something of a freaky relief - and funny, too!
The album's 1987 release date proved fortuitous. Acid house was just getting started and the baggies were just around the corner - miraculously, 'hippy shit' seemed to be coming back in. The Dukes soon developed a cult following and, fittingly enough for a band whose primary raison d'être was to evoke their own influences, ended up influencing many younger bands (The Stone Roses reportedly chose John Leckie to produce their debut album as a direct result of his work with the Dukes).
Psonic Psunspot and 25 O'Clock were both recently remastered, repackaged and reissued. If you've never heard them you need, I say NEED to get them; even if you already own Chips from the Chocolate Fireball (the earlier CD which collected both releases) you should probably still get them, just to taste the glory of the remastering. Either way, buy NOW - while pstocks last!
by Daniel Raven
For more information about The Dukes of Stratosphear and all things XTC visit Chalkhills.org
The Fatima Mansions - Viva Dead Ponies
The Fatima Mansions were formed by Cathal Coughlan in 1988 after the demise of his first band Microdisney. They were named after a Dublin council estate. The band was known for Coughlan's vitriolic lyrics, aggressive stage persona and eclectic musical style. The band sums themselves up best with their t-shirt slogan "Keep Music Evil".
Viva Dead Ponies was the bands second album, originally intended to be called Bugs Fucking Bunny, and was released in 1990. It is an album like no other mixing synth pop, electronic cacophony and blasting guitar in equal measure.
'Angel's Delight' kicks things off, and neatly sets the tone for the album. It starts off all soft vocals and tinkling bell synths, with Coughlan sounding pretty sinister as you pick up on the lyrics. You are only just over a minute in when he softly intones "Kill a cop. Why the hell not?" before breaking into a roared "Burn motherfucker burn!" to a screaming guitar backing.
This uncomfortable pairing of bouncy pop synths and screaming guitar is the most consistent sound of the album, and works brilliantly. The album does have a surprising musical depth though as it showcases a range of styles from power ballad, 'You're A Rose' to industrial rap, 'Chemical Cosh'.
The major target for Coughlan's bile is religion. Even on the album's most obviously "poppy" moment, 'Mr.Baby' religion is aggressively attacked. "God is an arms dealer" being the most obviously antagonistic lyric.
The album flows brilliantly from ballad to pop song to industrial noise (Ministry were a clear influence and they had already covered a Ministry song 'Stigmata') and only stalls once with the song 'Thursday'. It is the song that takes the misanthropic lyrics attached to bland pop idea to its conclusion, and fails. On the US release of the album this song was dropped in favour of the epic single 'Blues For Ceaucescu'.
The albums two best moments come in the second half. The first is the noise attack 'Look What I stole For Us Darling' and the second the Scott Walker influenced ballad title track. In this epic and dramatic song Jesus has risen again and is working as a shopkeeper in Crouch End selling papers, beer and turning the fridges off so he can get drunk and break every little Islamical [sic] law.
The album is a must for anyone who appreciates the few truly authentic voices that came out of the 80s and into the early 90s. Fans of Julian Cope, Nick Cave and any interesting alternative music from the era will find much to enjoy.
YouTube proved to have very little to offer, with no videos or live performances of songs from this album available. The best available (and shown here) is an out of synch video for 'Blues For Ceaucescu', which was included on the American release of the album.
Coughlan is criminally overlooked despite being in two great bands and releasing some accomplished solo albums. His uncompromising stance makes him a difficult figure, and he was never going to be part of the mainstream, but his legacy deserves better treatment.
The album isn't available from iTunes but can be purchased on Amazon and other music outlets. If you decide to buy the CD then look out for the 2007 2 disc reissue. The 2nd disc is an excellent 16 track best of collection from the bands other four albums.
Any of the bands albums are worth a listen, they are all out of print but not that hard to buy second hand. Coughlan's solo albums are also worth checking out, consistently interesting lyriucally whilst focusing mainly on the Scott Walkeresque crooner side of his personality. All the Microdisney albums are also currently unavailable but a couple of cheap anthologies can be picked up online, Daunt Square To Elsewhere is the most comprehensive.
The Fatima Mansions on MySpace