NSW

What happened here? I've been waiting for more albums...are you slacking or what?????

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Hi.

NSW

But you can't do that! You're not Urban, it's just all wrong I tell you!

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Hi.

sweet_nothing

It's anrachy! Chaos! Societys will crumble because of this madness!!!!!

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Urban Hat€monger ?

Computer died on me and I had to buy a new one. Once i've got this one all sorted out i'll start again.

Not in my thread you ain't
Allow me to start one for you

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NSW

Yeah, think I read that somewhere already and forgot. Bummer about your computer, but YAY for getting a new one! Now post some more albums dammit!

Look, I was really scared there for a minute...

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Hi.

ashtray

This is a great thread. Can't wait to see more albums Urban.

Urban Hat€monger ?

I'm not going to go into too much detail with compilations & bootlegs unless I really need to.


13th Floor Elevators - Live , San Francisco 1966 - 1980

A semi offical / bootleg which has been released a countless number of times of the band playing at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco on September 30th 1966 . Two months before the release of their debut album.
The sound quality is excellent to say this a soundboard recording from 1966 in fact i'd say it's better than that of their debut album. Splash 1 sounds much more beefed up & clearer than it's studio counterpart. There are seven songs on my issue of the album (some issues of it have 9). Four songs from the debut album , sadly not You're Gonna Miss Me which had already been a modest size hit for the band at this stage of their career and it's lack of inclusion is a minus point here.
There are also three covers on the album. The first being a cover of Buddy Holly's I'm Gonna Love You Too , with Erikson copying Holly's vocal mannerisms brilliantly but with the band still giving the song their trademark dirty garage fuzz. Following that is a cover of the Kinks You Really Got Me. Which is a pretty straight forward cover for the first couple of minutes. Then the bands electric jug comes into play and there seems to be extended jam sessions happening between each verse making the song almost 7 minutes long altogether. The final cover is of The Beatles song The Word of their Rubber Soul album, which to be honest I don't think i've ever heard before. So I can't comment on how it compares to the original. Only to say if I wasn't aware of it being a cover by the way it's played I would think it was one of their own songs.
On the whole not a bad recording thats only really soured by a couple of my favourites from the debut album not being included.

6/10



13th Floor Elevators - Up on the 13th Floor - 2000

A 17 track compilation album released in 2000 which was my first introduction to the band.
This is a pretty good comp to get started on the band although if I had known at the time that the band only had three albums out and that virtually all the best stuff was on the first two I doubt I would have bought this.
The first and second albums are pretty much split down the middle and take up 15 of the 17 songs available here , only two songs from the bands final album Bull Of The Woods are here but one of them is the best song on that album , May The Circle Remain Unbroken.
The song choice is pretty good too. I can't really think of any songs not on here that should be and I can't see any that shouldn't be on here either. This is a decent representation of the bands career. Although whether you need a compilation made up of essentially two albums is a different matter.

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Urban Hat€monger ?

13th Floor Elevators - Live - 1968

Not really a live album but a bunch of studio out-takes with crowd noises dubbed over them put out by the record company while they waited for the band to get their shit together for what would eventually become Bull In The Woods. Although a pointless exercise the quality of the music cannot be faulted. There's a great cover of 'Before You Accuse Me' which they often played in their live show but is only available on this album , a blues song performed by a countless number of bands , I've never heard these versions but the Elevators make it sound nice & dirty. The rest of the album just sounds like what it is , a bunch of songs off the first 2 albums with obvious crowd noise dubbed. Without the crowd noise this might make an interesting bootleg hearing alternate versions of songs , but that's all this album can aspire to being .. a curiosity for fans. And on that level it still fails due to being a mock live album.

2/10




The 1900s - Plume Delivery E.P. - 2006

The 1900s are a 7 piece band from Chicago who shouldn't be confused with the piss poor British guitar band 1990s.
The band have duel folky male/female vocals much like Belle & Sebastian and a couple of the songs on this EP sound a lot like them 'A Coming Age' and 'Whole Of The Law' in particular with their lavish strings and layered vocals. It's not all like that though. The 1900s share the same 60s influences not just with Belle & Sebastian but also the likes of Stereolab too so you also get some keyboard driven lounge pop too especially with the opener 'Bring The Good Boys Home'.
The 7 minute long 'Patron Saint Of The Mediocre' is another highlight having a sound that is almost shoegazish , imagine early Blur with a female vocalist. This isn't a band just throwing out any influence they can either. All of the songs sound like natural progressions, the EP flows along effortlessly and nothing seems out of place. The EP finishes with summery 60s pop of 'Heart Props' all one minute & 18 seconds of it.
They released a full album last year called 'Cold & Kind' but i've not heard it yet. If it's half as good as this i'll be in for a treat. My opinion when I bought this 2 years ago was it's the best debut EP i've heard by a band in years. Listening to it again I still think that.

8/10
Favourite Songs - Bring The Good Boys Home (Available as a free download on Last FM) , A Coming Age , Patron Saint Of The Mediocre ,

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Urban Hat€monger ?

1 Speed Bike - Droopy Butt Begone - 2000

1 Speed Bike is a solo project from Godspeed You! Black Emperor drummer Aiden Girt. And yes it does sound like a drummers solo album too as the drums dominate the album. Given that it's a solo project of a guy from a band that I really do not have much love for and that the entire album sounds like a big drum solo you'd think I'd hate this album, yet I don't.
It's a bit like a mixture of DJ Shadow's Endtroducing & Eno & Bryne's Bush of Ghosts as seen from a drummers point of view.

The songs follow a typical pattern - show chill out bit , followed by sample , followed by another slow chill out bit , and then the drums come crashing in. It does get a bit predictable after a while. The song titles are ridiculously long and stupid but you come to expect that with certain post rock bands. And it's not as if they are needed really the songs just kind of merge into this single entity it's hard to know when one finishes and the next starts.

An OK record , but one that doesn't really stand up well to repeated plays. It has it's moments but on the whole it brings nothing particularly new or interesting. Other than the beats there's nothing really here.

4/10

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Piss Me Off

I downloaded the 1990's song, 'cos i could, very nice. This may be because i'm in a bit of a Stereolab phase at the moment, nether the less its a nice little pop song, sounding a teeny bit scandinavian.

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