To: star-chamber
Subject: This could just work, yo?
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2000 23:25:02 CDT
From: Wbfu Xbegorva 

Greg's request left me feeling strangely impotent - I still don't really
know what to recommend. I could rattle off a string of things I've heard
recently (say past 6 months) that I think he "should" listen to, but I
usually try to tailor my recommendations more carefully than that -
like, I know not to tell my friend Neil to listen to anything excessively
punk-like, or my ex girlfriend to listen to anything skronky like Frank
Zappa. I don't know that much about Greg (except that he's got a speech
impediment, yo) - just "Greg" whose messages strangely appear in my
inbox.

So what I did, just because I was curious how it would come out, is
go back through my albums and pick my current two favorites from each
year. The usual kinds of list problems arose; as you'll notice, many
years I chose nothing. Most this was because I either (a) own nothing,
or (b) own junk. Less often, (c) I have things I like but I couldn't
imagine them as "favorites" if there were more music there from that
time. I.e. I like Rush's _Signals_ alright, it's not my favorite of theirs,
but I still like to have a listen to it now and then. But I can easily
see how, if I actually owned anything else, I'd like it better (because
I would have sought it out recently - duh).

Why this is useless to Greg: golly, Massive Attack huh? Spiritualized?
Miles Davis, eh? I hear he's pretty good, yup. Etc.

Why this is useful to Greg: the weird ones. I have no idea (OK, some)
which those are, but surely at least some of these are things Greg's
not heard of or heard.

Most of the years prior to 1995 or so were very easy to pick, because
I own very little from any one of them. I could pick lots more from
recent years, but I don't feel like being this gruelingly systematic
again at the moment.

These show a decided preference for genres and styles rather than
recordings, despite my tendency to not like lots of genres wholesale.
I.e. lots of indie rock in the 90s, nothing in the 80s, progressive
rock in the 70s, jazz in the 60s and 50s. Interestingly, I only own
one jazz album from 1966 - but I would need much more killer jazz
than Bobby Hutcherson's _Stick-Up!_ to win that year away from Dylan
and the Beatles. Hmmmm.

2000: Sleater-Kinney - All Hands on the Bad One
      Sonic Youth - Goodbye 20th Century
1999: The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
      Mr. Bungle - California
1998: Dirty Three - Ocean Songs
      Hum - Downward is Heavenward
1997: Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
      Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One
1996: Low - The Curtain Hits the Caast
      Dirty Three - Horse Stories
1995: Fugazi - Red Medicine
      Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante
1994: Massive Attack - Protection
      Massive Attack vs Mad Professor - No Protection
1993: Nirvana - In Utero
      Morphine - Cure for Pain
1992: Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies
      Sonic Youth - Dirty
1991: Massive Attack - Blue Lines
      A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
1990: Fugazi - Repeater + 3 Songs
      Bad Religion - Against the Grain
1989: Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
      De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising
1988: Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
      Pixies - Surfer Rosa
1987: Monilal Nag and Mahaprush Misra - Classical Music of North India:
         Sitar and Tabla I

1986: Swans - Public Castration is a Good Idea

1985: Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
      The Doors - The Best of the Doors (except it won't fucking play now)
1984: Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
      Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
1983:

1982: King Crimson - Beat

1981: Rush - Moving Pictures
      King Crimson - Discipline
1980:

1979:

1978: Brian Eno - Ambient 1/Music for Airports

1977: Rush - A Farewell to Kings

1976: Rush - Hemispheres
      Frank Zappa - Zoot Allures
1975: Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert
      Henry Cow (with Slapp Happy) - In Praise of Learning
1974: King Crimson - Red
      Frank Zappa - Apostrophe'/Overnite Sensation (1973/1974)
1973: Herbie Hancock - Sextant
      King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic
1972: Tangerine Dream - Zeit
      Miles Davis - On the Corner
1971:

1970: Miles Davis - A Tribute to Jack Johnson
      Charles Mingus - Live at Antibes
1969: Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
      Miles Davis - In a Silent Way
1968: Miles Davis - Filles de Kilimanjaro
      Miles Davis - Miles in the Sky
1967: Miles Davis - Miles Smiles
      Thelonious Monk - Straight, No Chaser
1966: Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
      The Beatles - Revolver
1965: Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
      John Coltrane - Meditations
1964: John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
      John Coltrane - Crescent
1963: Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
      Bill Evans - Conversations with Myself
1962: Charles Mingus - Oh Yeah
      Thelonious Monk - Live at the It Club
1961: John Coltrane - Live at the Village Vangard: The Master Tapes

1960: Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
      Charles Mingus - Mingus Dynasty
1959: Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
      John Coltrane - Giant Steps
1958:

1957: Charles Mingus - New Tijuana Moods
      John Coltrane - Blue Train
1956: Miles Davis - Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet

And now that that's over, here are some of those oblivious kinds
of recommendations I said I was hesitant to do. Things that I didn't
mention above, and trying to stay away from indie rockish stuff, etc.
Can you tell I'm on a New Jewish Roots kick lately? It is bound to
only get worse. I don't even own any Klezmatics or Hasidic New Wave.

The Uri Caine Ensemble - I Went Out This Morning Over the Countryside:
   Gustav Mahler in Toblach
John Zorn - Circle Maker
Howlin' Wolf - His Best
Masada - Live in Jerusalem
Lamb - Fear of Fours
Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, and Jack DeJohnette - Tokyo '96
Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert
Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage
Labradford - Mi Media Naranja

Ask for descriptions, raves, comparisons, etc., of anything you like.
Er, want. Er. You get what I mean.

Josh

-- 
josh blog: http://www.public.iastate.edu/~kortbein/blog/