Music

[torontoduke]

80s

recommended late 70s punk bands: Ramones,The Clash & Buzzcocks.

Punk

- X (roots-influenced punk from LA. Their first 4 records are brilliant)
- Husker Du (psych-garage-punk; listen to New Day Rising; Flip Your Wig; Candy Apple Grey; Zen Arcade)
- Teenage Head (one of Canada's best ever rock 'n roll bands)
- Descendents (one of the early skate punk bands. Beach Boys influenced hardcore)
- Dead Kennedys (surf/noise guitar with sarcastic/political lyrics)
- Operation Ivy (ska/punk)
- Go-Gos ('Beauty & the Beat')
- Pretenders (self-titled record kicks ass)

Garage Rock

- Mudhoney ('Superfuzz Bigmuff')
- Replacements (classic rock with a punk edge)
- Pursuit of Happiness (power pop - listen to 'Love Junk')
- Jonny Thunders ('Hurt Me' & 'In Cold Blood')
- Pandoras (rockin' LA band)

More to come.

 

[rhfarmer]

Just to add to @torontoduke

Can't have an 80's list without:
The Police. Zenyatta Mondatta is their best, IMO, but Outlandos D'Amore and Regatta De Blanc are all fun and clever.
U2--I know, I know, but everything up until Zooropa is really good.
The Knack
Flock of Seagulls
Squeeze
Jane's Addiction

Uh, The Cure

 

[sivartrenrag]

- Wire (incredible band. Look up the 1st 3 records - 154, Chairs Missing, Pink Flag. Recent stuff like Nocturnal Koreans is also brilliant)

I'm very happy to see you mention Wire, but come on man! You have to mention A Bell is a Cup and The Ideal Copy.

 

[rome8180]

I know no one asked me, but I made a '90s list. I tried to put things that I thought were both influential and that I would actually listen to.



Nirvana - In Utero, Nevermind, MTV Unplugged
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, Wowee Zowee
Built to Spill - Perfect from Now on, Keep It Like a Secret
Sebadoh - Bakesale
Superchunk - Foolish
Radiohead - OK Computer, The Bends
Portishead - Dummy
Bjork - Homogenic, Post
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane over the Sea
Weezer - Pinkerton, Blue Album
Liz Phair - Exile in Guyville
Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One
The Breeders - Last Splash, Pod
Belle and Sebastian - If You’re Feeling Sinister
Pearl Jam - Ten, Vitalogy, Vs.
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Green Day - Dookie
Helium - The Dirt of Luck
Beck - Odelay
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Silver Jews - American Water
Jawbreaker - Dear You
Jawbox - For Your Own Special Sweetheart
Elliot Smith - XO, Either/Or
Pulp - Different Class
Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup
PJ Harvey - Rid of Me
Air - Moon Safari
Fugazi - End Hits, Red Medicine
Aphex Twin - The Richard D. James Album
Olivia Tremor Control - Dusk at the Cubist Castle, Black Foliage
Teenage Fanclub - Bandwagonesque
Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West, This Is a Long Drive
The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency and I
Bonnie Prince Billy - I See a Darkness
Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Hole - Live Through This
Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies

 

[rome8180]

I left off at least 20 albums. I didn't want it to get too overwhelming. I am sure Farmer and TDuke will fill in the hip hop I left off. I don't listen to a lot of it, so it felt disingenuous to put it on there.

 

[physicsfactor]

Gotta have some early DMB stuff in the 90s list

ETA* I would also add Jeff Buckley - Grace to the 90s list. Fantastic album, good music, and an incredible voice. And I know a lot of you don’t like them but earlier Foo Fighters stuff like The Colour and the Shape definitely belongs in the 90s list.

 

[sivartrenrag]

I would not have expected you to be into Pulp, Rome. Not sure why.

 

[sivartrenrag]

I left off at least 20 albums. I didn't want it to get too overwhelming. I am sure Farmer and TDuke will fill in the hip hop I left off. I don't listen to a lot of it, so it felt disingenuous to put it on there.

There's so much good hip-hop from the 90s that I wouldn't even know where to start.

 

[physicsfactor]

Also, for my man Toronto

Our Lady Peace - Naveed, Clumsy

 

[rome8180]

Gotta have some early DMB stuff in the 90s list

ETA* I would also add Jeff Buckley - Grace to the 90s list. Fantastic album, good music, and an incredible voice. And I know a lot of you don’t like them but earlier Foo Fighters stuff like The Colour and the Shape definitely belongs in the 90s list.

Those are definitely accidental omissions on my part.

 

[rome8180]

With hip hop, you'd probably want to include Outkast, Notorious B.I.G, Public Enemy, De La Soul, Tupac, and Eminem off the top of my head.

 

[physicsfactor]

@rome8180 Great job with the list. I wouldn’t know where to start I loved 90s rock so much.

 

[sivartrenrag]

With hip hop, you'd probably want to include Outkast, Notorious B.I.G, Public Enemy, De La Soul, Tupac, and Eminem off the top of my head.

Nas (GOAT)
Wu-Tang (and most of the marquee solo efforts)
Mobb Deep

 

[torontoduke]

- Wire (incredible band. Look up the 1st 3 records - 154, Chairs Missing, Pink Flag. Recent stuff like Nocturnal Koreans is also brilliant)

I'm very happy to see you mention Wire, but come on man! You have to mention A Bell is a Cup and The Ideal Copy.

I don't have 'A Bell is a Cup'; will seek out.

 

[torontoduke]

@rome8180

Helium and Jawbox were brilliant

 

[rome8180]

I would not have expected you to be into Pulp, Rome. Not sure why.

This Is Hardcore is actually the album I know best by them. I put Different Class on there because it was generally more popular and "important."

 

[sivartrenrag]

I would not have expected you to be into Pulp, Rome. Not sure why.

This Is Hardcore is actually the album I know best by them. I put Different Class on there because it was generally more popular and "important."

Check out His 'n' Hers if you haven't already.

 

[rhfarmer]

With hip hop, you'd probably want to include Outkast, Notorious B.I.G, Public Enemy, De La Soul, Tupac, and Eminem off the top of my head.

Dr Dre

 

[torontoduke]

80s

Pop

- Prince – any 80s album up to ‘Lovesexy’. Prince was the best.
- English Beat (rock/ska band wrote some of the catchiest songs I have ever heard)
- Depeche Mode (‘Music for the Masses’, watch ‘101’)
- Pet Shop Boys (if you like disco. Any ‘singles’ compilation from the 80s is pretty good but their 90s albums are better)
- Blondie (2 good early 80s records, then they tailed off)
- REM (most folks seem to like them up until ‘Document’, but I think the ‘Green’ album holds up alright)
- Split Enz (‘True Colours’ – new wave with a little bit of prog rock in it. Look up Crowded House’s 90s output…an even better band)
- Steve Earle (‘Guitar Town’ roots country…some stuff sounds like Springsteen. Stood out at the time)
- Bruce Springsteen (‘Nebraska’ – basically him and a guitar; ‘The River’ & ‘Born in the USA’)
- Lone Justice (roots rockers…singer sounds like Dolly Parton)
- XTC – fabulous English band. Jittery guitars to Beatle-esque harmonies.
- Altered Images (scottish new wave with the second cutest singer ever)
- Bangles (LA garage band with the cutest singer ever)

 

[rhfarmer]

Add to 80's Pop/New Wave
The Motels
Yaz/Allison Moyet
Elvis fucking Costello
Book of Love
Violent Femmes
Joe Jackson