The UNKNOWN Albums of the 90s (#4)

4. Brad - Shame (1993)

In 1993, if you didn't live in breathe Seattle grunge, you were either living in Antartica or you were dead. Today, Nirvana is credited for revolutionizing music. But any of us who lived through the early 90s...especially in college...it was Pearl jam that everyone was obsessed with. It was Eddie Vedder who was on the cover of Time magazine. It was Eddie Vedder who was the teen heartthrob. It was Eddie Vedder who sang lead vocals for the Doors. Pearl Jam ruled all. And the members of the band realized this might be short-lived and quickly tried to capitalize on their new found fame.

I was a sophomore when I heard the Stone Gossard was forming his own band. But in the days before the internet, finding out any information was like unearthing buried treasure. You had to rely on friends...who mostly lied, radio DJs...who mostly lied, and CD store owners...who mostly lied. I kept a list of hard to find CDs on yellow legal paper, and kept it folded in my wallet for any random stop at a music store. I was on the way to a Cure concert when we stopped to get a quick bite at a sandwich shop next door to a used CD store. I ran in and did a quick canvas of the store. In my rushed state...I only got to the Bs...but Brad was there and waiting.

All I remember is listening to the CD in the car all the way to the concert, thinking about the CD all through the concert, and listening all the way home. It was mesmerizing. Shawn Smith's vocals were such a drastic constrast to Vedder's...but at the same time...somehow similar. The band put out 2 more albums with Stone...and 3 without him. But this first release, 15 years later is as magnetic as anything PJ ever did.

Good News

Buy Shame here.

The UNKNOWN Albums of the 90s (#5)

5. Swell - Too Many Days Without Thinking (1997)

There was a lost genre in the 90s...it was called post-grunge. When post-grunge came out, it was embraced by the flannel-loving, knit-cap wearing kids who refused to give up their goatees and embrace the coming digital revolution. They were the loners and losers...kind of like the grunge crowd prior to Nirvana. But this genre wanted to take wallowing to the next level. I first heard David Freel's band Swell late at night while working my college radio gig. It was dark and creepy, like the mood in the DJ booth. That at any moment...someone would appear out of the darkness and slit my throat. It was quite the juxtaposition from Celine Dion's sonic assualt on the radio waves. Though Dion's music made you want to commit suicide...Swell sounded like they already had. Maybe this is the reason that the band never found an audience. But years later, listening to the album...it sounds fresher than Celine's swill. Imagine that.

Going Up To Portland

Buy Too Many Days Without Thinking...here.

The UNKNOWN Albums of the 90s (#6)

6. Jellyfish - Spilt Milk (1993)

The first time I heard Jellyfish, it was in high school. A loner kid swore to me they were the best band he'd ever heard. This same loner kid had recommended other best bands he'd ever heard in the form of Aztec Camera, This Petrol Emotion, and Wall of Voodoo...so, I was skeptical. But this time...he happened to be right. You know what they say about a broken clock... Anyway, the album was JF's first release Bellybutton, which has since taken on legendary status. I liked the album...but didn't truly appreciate how talented the band was until their sophomore and final release, Spilt Milk. The record industry is a fickle one. Sophomore albums are more times curses than blessings. If a band tries to sound exactly like their debut...they're panned for being limited in range. But when a band takes chances and new directions with their music, they're panned for not sounding like their debut. JF fell into the second category. Their second album, though shared many stylisitc simularities with the debut, it had more range, more emotion, less constrictions, and was less polished. The band sounded more alive and more free with the music...unfortunately...that doesn't make for pop radio nuggets. Shortly after, the band broke up and the members found themselves sprinkled all over the music industry...and still are out their making great music to this day.

The Ghost of Number One

Buy the Spilt Milk here.

THe UNKNOWN Albums of the 90s (#7)

7. Quicksand - Manic Compression (1995)

They were metal after the death rattle of the 80s Aquanet kings ruled the airwaves. And they were metal years before the knit-cap wearing white thugs brought it back. They were too metal to be grunge. They were too grunge to be metal. Without having a true landing pad to crash on, the band slipped through the cracks. Their first album received minor recognition from Rikki Rachtmen on Headbanger's Ball...but that was a bigger curse than a benefit. By the way, what the hell is going on with Rikki Rachtman? NASCAR, seriously? Anway, when the second album came out...it was praised by the college crowd and ignored by the mainstream media. It was 1995. Cobain was dead...and teens were bouncing to the pop punk choruses of Green Day and Offspring. Grunge metal was a passing fad that had long passed. It's too bad. The album could have been...and should have been...huge.

Thorn in My Pride

Buy Manic Compression here.

The 111 Best Albums of 2008

The votes are in and counted...and recounted. Below you will find the 100 Best Albums of 2008...as voted on by you my friends. Congrats to Bon Iver!

I'm trying something new this year. I have started an Amazon store for my blog and have set up a section for the albums on the list. So if you're curious about any of the albums, go to my store and check them out. Currently, there are a bunch of albums available for download only $5, including Bon Iver, Metallica, Beck, Death Cab For Cutie, TV on the Radio, Kanye West, Coldplay, Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes, Lil Wayne, The Walkmen, Q-Tip, Ra Ra Riot, Portishead, Santogold, The Verve, and Flight of the Conchords.

http://astore.amazon.com/goodbadunknown-20

Hope everyone has a great holiday.

2008 Album Tally

1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (only $5.00)
2. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive (only $5.00)
3. TV on the Radio - Dear Science (only $5.00)
4. Kings of Leon - Only By The Night
5. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes (only $5.00)
6. Coldplay - Viva La Vida
7. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
8. The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
9. Beck - Modern Guilt
10. Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs (only $5.00)
11. Girl Talk - Feed The Animals (only $5.00)
12. Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
13. Guns N Roses - Chinese Democracy
14. Drive By Trucker's - Brighter Than Creation's Dark
15. Santogold - Santogold (only $5.00)
16. Portishead - Third (only $5.00)
17. Nada Surf - Lucky
18. The Mars Volta - Bedlam in Goliath
19. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (only $5.00)
20. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
21. Ryan Adams - Cardinology
22. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III (only $5.00)
23. Cold War Kids - Loyalty To Loyalty
24. The Gaslight Anthem – The 59 Sound
25. Metallica - Death Magnetic (only $5.00)
26. Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
27. She and Him - Volume One (only $5.00)
28. Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line
29. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours (only $5.00)
30. Hot Chip – Made in the Dark
31. Little Joy - Little Joy
32. The Walkmen - You & Me
33. Centro Matic - Dual Hawks
34. Aimee Mann – @#%&*! Smilers
35. Frightened Rabbit - Midnight Organ Fight
36. The Verve - Forth
37. Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
38. Deerhunter - Microcastle
39. The Kills - Midnight Boom
40. Q-Tip - The Renaissance
41. Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer (only $5.00)
42. Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul
43. Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak (only $3.99)
44. Flight of the Conchords - Soundtrack (only $5.00)
45. Two Cow Garage – Speaking in Cursive
46. Ray LaMontagne - Gossip in the Garden
47. Minus the Bear - Acoustics
48. No Age - Nouns
49. The Ting Tings – We Started Nothing
50. Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life
51. The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement
52. Beach House - Devotion
53. The Kooks – Konk
54. Weezer - The Red Album
55. Air Traffic – Fractured Life
56. The Roots- The Rising Down
57. Snow Patrol - A Hundred Million Suns (only $5.00)
58. High Places - High Places
59. Jacob Dylan - Seeing Things
60. The Stills – Oceans will Rise
61, Old 97s – Blame it on Gravity
62. Ladytron - Velocifero
63. David Vandervelde - Waiting For The Sunrise
64. Delta Spirit - Ode To Sunshine
65. Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel
66. Colin Meloy – Sings Live
67. Crooked Fingers - Forfeit/Fortune
68. Neal Halstead - Oh! Might Engine
69. Britney Spears - Circus
70. Rodrigo y Gabriela – Live
71. The Morning Benders – Talking through Tin Cans
72. The Faint - Fasciination
73. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
74. Neon Neon - Stainless Style
75. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!
76. Plants and Animals - Parc Avenue
77. Jamie Lidell - JIM
78. Rise Against – Appeal to Reason
79. Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
80. Local H - 12 Angry Months
81. The Killers - Day and Age
82. Adele - 19
83. M83 - Saturdays=Youth
84. REM - Accelerate (only $5.00)
85. Calexico - Carried To Dust
86. Nana Grizol - Love it, love it
87. Bloc Party - Intimacy
88. Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
89. The Whigs - Mission Control
90. The Black Crowes - Warpaint
91. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Lie Down The Light
92. Eagles of Death Metal - Heart On
93. Duffy - Rockfairy (only $5.00)
94. Cloud Cult – Feel Good Ghosts
95. Okkervil River - The Stand-Ins
96. Nas - The N*gger Mixtape
97. Amos Lee - Last Days of the Lodge
98. The Dodos - Visiter
99. Islands - Arm's Way
100. We Are Scientists - Brain Trust Majesty
101. The Airborne Toxic Event - The Airborne Toxic Event
102. Jack's Mannequin - The Glass Passenger
103. Crystal Stilts - Alight Of Night
104. Mason Proper - Olly Oxen Free
105. Toadies - No Deliverance
106. The Great Northwest - The Widepsread Regin
107. Tapes N Tapes - Walk It Off
108. The Streets - Everything is Borrowed
109. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Real Emotion Trash
110. Dead Confederate - Wrecking Ball
111. Travis - Ode to J. Smith

The 11 (I mean 8) Best Hanukkah Songs:

Happy Hanukkah!

Here are the 11...I mean 8...Best Hanukkah Songs:

1. The Chanukah Song (Part 1/Part 2/Part 3) - Adam Sandler
2. Rock of Ages - Ben Kweller
3. Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah - Barenaked Ladies
4. Swingin' Dreidel - Kenny Ellis
5. Christmas Wrapping - Save Ferris
6. Hanukkah Girl - Metronome
7. Hanukkah Dance - Woody Guthrie
8. Hanukkah and Christmas Hand in Hand - Huffamoose

THe UNKNOWN Albums of the 90s (#8)

It was still a year away from Tool's epic offering Aenima. It was a year before Failure's fantastic Fantastic Planet. During the Tool's recording process, Paul D'Amour left the band and joined Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards from Failure, along unknown keyboardist Chris Pittman (who would go on to join GNR). The foursome went on to form the first grunge cover band (unless you you count Pearl Jam's live act). The murky covers of Neil Young, Pink Floyd, The Cars, and David Bowie are propelled by Andrews' signature style, sounding more like Failure than Tool. Even when Maynard steps into lend some vocal screaming to McCartney's Silly Love Songs it adds atmosphere more than direction. The album has fallen into obscurity, being nothing more than a Wikipedia entry. The label no longer produces the album, so to find it, you'll have to scour your local used CD store (or ebay) and keep your fingers crossed.

8. Replicants - Replicants (1995)

The Belway Brothers

The album has been discontinued...but worth seeking out. Check it out for only $5.99 used at BullMoose.

THe UNKNOWN Albums of the 90s (#9)

She had a cute and innocent voice with just enough scruff to let you know that she wasn't cute and innocent. She was one of Elliot Smith's good friends, hence much of her music reflected that. They had a similar damaged goods appeal, giving her the nickname "The Female Elliott Smith." Though most of her music was filled with emotional hope, there was a fragile feeling when she sang that her voices could shatter at any second destroying any hope left.

Her first explosion onto the indie scene was with the song "His Indie Scene" - a snapshot list of the hot indie rocks bands of the moment...most of which no longer exist. Sony picked her up in hopes that she would turn into the next Jewel. She wasn't. She was an indie rocker in major label clothing. The relationship was a one night stand...but a great one.

9. Mary Lou Lord - Got No Shadow (1998)



Western Union Desperate

Pick up the album (Got No Shadow) at my Amazon Store.

THe UNKNOWN Albums of the 90s (#10)

10. The Clouds - Thunderhead (1995 US)

In 1995 Elektra tried to jump on the bandwagon of the popular Riot Grrl movement being propelled by Sleater-Kinney on the indie scene and exploited by Cunty Love & Hole on the mainstream. What they found was an Australian band that didn't really fit the mold they were looking for...but at then end of the day...was a great band. Imagine combining Miki Berenyi's lush with Emma Anderson's lush - that would be The Clouds. Unfortunately for Elektra, they band had more in common with My Bloody Valentine than Veruca salt, which left the label unable to payola them onto the radio. So, after one album, the Clouds were sent back down under and fizzled away releasing only one more album, primarily for Australia. They are definitely worth a listen...and hopefully won't be forgotten.

Blade
Motherson

Buy the album (Thunderhead) at my Amazon Store.

THe UNKNOWN Albums of the 90s (#11)

Over the next couple of weeks...I'm going to take a look back at one of my favorite decades: The 90s. My friend E has been urging me to pull some of my unknown wonders out of the closet and give them some attention. So to start things off here's...

Crust Brothers - Marquee Mark #11

The band had one album. It was a live show. The only show that the band every played. Featuring Stephen Malkmus of Pavement and 3 members of Silkworm, the band tore through a series of covers ranging from Bob Dylan to The Funk Brothers to Lynyrd Skynyrd. Though most of the songs sound like live demos...there is an electrifying energy to the songs. And being covers...they are easy to sing along to. SM adds his own flair to the songs, making them his own.

Crust Brothers - Feel A Whole Lot Better

Check out my Amazon Store to purchase this album...along with other Unknown Greats.