underrated albums

[Buftex]

You just lost a Man Card

 

Two great albums...Blondie was a terrific band, and Liz Phair, was a great songwriter, up to a point...she completely lost me on her last album...sorry, I love good music...you can keep your stinking man card, if it means I have to listen to Fountains of Wayne or John Mayer

 

[Pete]

Two great albums...Blondie was a terrific band, and Liz Phair, was a great songwriter, up to a point...she completely lost me on her last album...sorry, I love good music...you can keep your stinking man card, if it means I have to listen to Fountains of Wayne or John Mayer

 

I love Liz Phair, especially her earlier stuff

[BillsFanNC]

Snatches of Pink - Stag

Snatches of Pink - Love Is Dead

Black Skies - Hexagon

Willie Nile - Beautiful Wreck Of The World

Sloan - Never Hear The End Of It

Porcupine Tree - Signify

Porcupine Tree - Deadwing

Lowest Of The Low - Shakespeare My Butt

Big Head Todd & The Monsters - Strategem

Wilco - Being There

Uncle Tupelo - No Depression

The Jayhawks - Tomorrow The Green Grass

Southern Culture On The Skids - Plastic Seat Sweat

The Woggles - Ragged But Right

[Peevo]

The Get Up Kids-On a Wire

Recover-This May Be The Year I Disappear

Foo Fighters-There Is Nothing Left To Lose (HUGE band, but I feel this record slipped through the cracks)

Hum-Downward is Heavenward, You'd Prefer an Astronaut

[GOBILLS78]

The Get Up Kids-On a Wire

Recover-This May Be The Year I Disappear

Foo Fighters-There Is Nothing Left To Lose (HUGE band, but I feel this record slipped through the cracks)

Hum-Downward is Heavenward, You'd Prefer an Astronaut

 

How could I forget that album? Amazing. Still though, "Four Minute Mile" is their masterpiece.

[Peevo]

How could I forget that album? Amazing. Still though, "Four Minute Mile" is their masterpiece.

 

 

Four Minute Mile is really good. Too raw for me though. They did the whole thing in literally 2 days. It has some good songs on it, for sure. But I've been really feeling their older, more mature stuff. I didn't "get" On A Wire for a looong time. It seemed too wannabe Wilco or something to me. But lately I can't stop spinning it. Especially, since I turned 22, the "went on a limb for you, capsized when I turned 22." It makes more sense at an older age.

 

Still though, their BEST work is 1999's Something To Write Home About. That, along with Saves They Day's-Through Being Cool and the eponymous Jimmy Eat World-Clarity DEFINED emo for a new generation. Too bad that now has such a negative connotation. Its so processed and constructed now. But quite literally, no bands out there were doing what these bands were doing at the time. It's pretty crazy those records are now all 10 years old. That's crazy. I was in middle school. Depressing.

[GOBILLS78]

Four Minute Mile is really good. Too raw for me though. They did the whole thing in literally 2 days. It has some good songs on it, for sure. But I've been really feeling their older, more mature stuff. I didn't "get" On A Wire for a looong time. It seemed too wannabe Wilco or something to me. But lately I can't stop spinning it. Especially, since I turned 22, the "went on a limb for you, capsized when I turned 22." It makes more sense at an older age.

 

Still though, their BEST work is 1999's Something To Write Home About. That, along with Saves They Day's-Through Being Cool and the eponymous Jimmy Eat World-Clarity DEFINED emo for a new generation. Too bad that now has such a negative connotation. Its so processed and constructed now. But quite literally, no bands out there were doing what these bands were doing at the time. It's pretty crazy those records are now all 10 years old. That's crazy. I was in middle school. Depressing.

 

I prefer the more raw stuff. And "Through Being Cool" -- although great -- isn't even in my top three as far as Saves the Day albums go. "Can't Slow Down" is possibly my favorite album. Ever. I was a senior in high school when that came out and completely defined that summer. "Stay What You Are" and -- believe it or not -- "In Reverie" are my others for them. "Something to Write Home About" is great, but a bit too plodding for me at times.

[Peevo]

Stay What You Are is fantastic, no doubt. Its probly my favorite record of theirs. I can't stand In Reverie, Chris Conley changed his voice wayyy too much for me. I actually will spin their 2006 release on Vagrant. I can't think of the name as it stands, but its got a kick to it. But even so, I don't really listen to too much Saves The Day. In terms of Vagrant bands, I was always more of a fan of TGUK, The Anniversary, Hot Rod Circuit, Hey Mercedes.

 

Even so, its sad that Vagrant, Victory (once a REALLY relavent hardcore label) Drive-Thru, Epitaph are all so unimportant. Music is unimportant really.

 

As a musician, this point really hits home. But quite literally, no one cares about honest, critical, intelligent songwriting anymore. Why think when you can vegetate? Not every song has to be some complex concept on a theme, but good lord, I can't stand the bumping, terrible Hip Hop nowadays. Sorry this is tangential, but seriously, even Hip Hop had something to say 15 years ago. Does no one want to learn anything from art anymore?

 

Andy Jackson from Hot Rod Circuit will never write a song longer than 4 minutes, and they're all fantastic. Just because its pop music, though, doesn't make it any less intelligent. That's the difference. On the latest record, (2007), there's the simplest line about a truth about life Ive found in a long time. "We're all searching for something, that you're never gonna find if you live in America, we're all looking for nothing, eventually you're gonna die and you'll find out what you're worth" Right? I wish all songwriters were that truthful. Sadly, no one is buying music anymore so you have to just pound the "hook" for 2:30, no longer, no shorter, or the "kids" won't care. I hate this. I'm sorry for length.

[Mark from Albany]

"The Right to be Italian" by Holly and the Italians.

 

No really. I'm not kidding.

[Delete This Account]

allow me to continue to flogging a dead horse -- the replacements. this is a band that just about defines under-rated. and yet at the same time, and as i've noted several times on howard simon's show, this just might one of the most influential bands (note, i wrote band, not performer/artist/singer) to have come out of the united states, especially post ramones.

 

nirvana's nevermind was titled after a 'mats song ,and as robert plant was once quoted saying in regards to his thoughts to "grunge," plant said: "nirvana? sh*t, the replacements were doing that 10 years ago."

 

if you don't know who they are, look them up. if you want to question their rep, note that they've played with tom waits, joan jett, johnette napolitano. they've been covered by everyone from billy joe armstrong to glen campbell. the goo goo dolls owe their left nut to the 'mats sound. "i will dare," is listed in the rock and roll hall of fame as one of the influential songs of the 1980s. "can't hardly wait," "bastards of young," "left of the dial," "valentine" ... and i could go on would've been "hits" had anyone not been stuck on playing top-40 crap on the radio.

 

petty stole the line "rebel without a clue" from a mats song.

 

the two main men, paul westerberg and tommy stinson, to a lesser degree, are still putting out relevant music (though stinson's work with chinese democracy could be regarded as a sellout, at least he's finally making money).

 

and yet no one in the mainstream idiocy seems to have heard of them.

 

most underrated albums? every replacements album that's ever come out, and the same just about counts for westerberg's solo projects.

 

i said, good day, sir.

 

jw

[justnzane]

How could I forget that album? Amazing. Still though, "Four Minute Mile" is their masterpiece.

agreed.

Don't hate me was one of those songs that helped get through freshman year of college

[Buftex]

allow me to continue to flogging a dead horse -- the replacements. this is a band that just about defines under-rated. and yet at the same time, and as i've noted several times on howard simon's show, this just might one of the most influential bands (note, i wrote band, not performer/artist/singer) to have come out of the united states, especially post ramones.

 

nirvana's nevermind was titled after a 'mats song ,and as robert plant was once quoted saying in regards to his thoughts to "grunge," plant said: "nirvana? sh*t, the replacements were doing that 10 years ago."

 

if you don't know who they are, look them up. if you want to question their rep, note that they've played with tom waits, joan jett, johnette napolitano. they've been covered by everyone from billy joe armstrong to glen campbell. the goo goo dolls owe their left nut to the 'mats sound. "i will dare," is listed in the rock and roll hall of fame as one of the influential songs of the 1980s. "can't hardly wait," "bastards of young," "left of the dial," "valentine" ... and i could go on would've been "hits" had anyone not been stuck on playing top-40 crap on the radio.

 

petty stole the line "rebel without a clue" from a mats song.

 

the two main men, paul westerberg and tommy stinson, to a lesser degree, are still putting out relevant music (though stinson's work with chinese democracy could be regarded as a sellout, at least he's finally making money).

 

and yet no one in the mainstream idiocy seems to have heard of them.

 

most underrated albums? every replacements album that's ever come out, and the same just about counts for westerberg's solo projects.

 

i said, good day, sir.

 

jw

 

The last rock-n-roll band that I ever loved! Remember seeing them at Septembers (is that still there, in the Buff State area?), just on a whim. The song "Color Me Impressed" blew me away. I went to see them about a dozen more times, from a church in Rochester, to opening up, a few years later, for Keith Richards, at the Brendan Byrne arena in NJ.

 

I agree, on of my "top 5" rock bands of all time. After they split, I have been a little underwhelmed by Westerbergs solo stuff. Not awful mind you, he just never reached the heights I thought he was going to. Oh well, still time. Nick Lowe (another favorite) is putting out some of his best stuff ever, now in his 60's.

[bills44]

and yet no one in the mainstream idiocy seems to have heard of them.

 

I certainly don't think that The Replacements were a popular band, but at the same time, I definitely don't consider them to be some sort of unheard-of, underground band

[GOBILLS78]

I certainly don't think that The Replacements were a popular band, but at the same time, I definitely don't consider them to be some sort of unheard-of, underground band

 

But would you consider yourself mainstream?

[bills44]

But would you consider yourself mainstream?

 

I don't know....my musical tastes are all over the place - some of them are very well-known, and others, not so much.

 

I can say that I've seen countless Replacements mentions (and even articles on Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson) in Rolling Stone, which I consider pretty mainstream.

[Buftex]

The Replacements are not really all that mainstream, directly. People who are really into music know them, and other musicians know about them, but, I would hazard to guess, most couldn't name a song by them, let alone one of the members of the band. I would compare the Replacements to the Velvet Underground. Extremely influential in their time, had a lot of influence on other musicians, but never really had the financial success that their inferior peers had.

[Pete]

Bubble and Scrape - Sebadoh

 

And I am a big Replacements fan. They were one of the bands that I considered for this thread

[Mr Info]

Some newer, some older but though the artists may be known, these albums are not mainstream:

 

All Rebel Rockers - Michael Franti

River of Time - Jorma Kaukonen

VIII - Stone Coyotes

A Wizard, A True Star - Todd Rundgren

Sleepless - Peter Wolf

[1billsfan]

I've always considered New Order's "Regret" as being one of the most underrated albums of all time. The rock/dance fusion album is chock full of great songs but garnered little to no recognition. Though the album did come out right as the explosion of the grunge/alternative sound. New Order couldn't have been more different that that sound.

[Delete This Account]

I certainly don't think that The Replacements were a popular band, but at the same time, I definitely don't consider them to be some sort of unheard-of, underground band

let me climb on my high horse and explain, and expose myself as a music snob (as my wife likes to refer to me) and step on numerous toes and musical affections. by mainstream idiocy, i can't understand how The Clash made it big on the radio with Rock the Casbah and were relatively, but not completely, overlooked for London Calling.

i don't understand how Soul Asylum and Social Distortion, though two good bands, earned more airplay than the 'Mats.

i don't understand how REM finally made it big with One I Love, and not with many of the superior songs and albums that preceded it.

i do understand but fail to entirely comprehend how cookie-cutter bands such as creed and nickleback made it big and The 'Mats did not.

 

it wasn't altogether marketing and it wasn't altogether the devil (aka, clearchannel) and the greedhead suits in some offices in arizona formatting safe and easy playlists for the masses to consume.

 

the 'Mats had their faults of their own, and they were noble ones. they were oft-times fall-down-drunks, had a remarkable knack for making fools of themselves when they had opportunities to make it big, and particularly rebelled against the corporate gurus when they were forced to tour with petty in an attempt by the record company to show The Replacements how professionals tour.

the response, the 'Mats spent most of the tour drunk.

 

though there are those that would knock the band for failure, i go the other direction. they, in many, embodied the true spirit of rock and roll, rebelling for no reason except for the fact to rebel, and sticking their finger in the air no matter who was looking.

they were, i've written before, beautiful losers.

 

and i'd challenge anyone to pick up Let it Be, Tim or Please to Meet Me and not find most of the songs still relevant today, and capable of blowing away any of the dave matthews band baloney that's been played for most of this past decade.

 

jw