In which our heroes talk nonsense about some of the records, bands and artists they've been listening to recently
Remember to checkout the show over on MIXCLOUD where we can play a few songs from the albums we talk about.
In today's show Sam from Alvin and the Angry Barrels (and my baby brother) joins me for a bit of a catch up about some of the things we've been enjoying recently as well as some of the records, CDs and cassettes I've added to my collection over the last few months.
So while Sam and I chatted about some of the things we’ve been listening to recently, below is an overview of a few of the things I brought to the conversation…
On REM’s Monster which is suddenly 30 years old….
I picked up REMs Automatic For The People on tape off eBay last week for £3 but an album I've had on quite a bit recently is Monster and I think because Out of Time and Automatic for the People were so big and the singles from those records are just played on the radio all the time I realised that I may have slept on this a bit.
It's big and brash and a bit silly compared to their other stuff. I love the guitar tone on it and it's pretty similar all the way through, kicking off with What's The Frequency Kenneth. And when you stand it against the jangly guitars of the pre Out of Time albums its quite a tonal shift but i really like it...Crush with Eyeliner is a cool track, so is Bang and Blame, Strange Currencies is like a cooler Everybody Hurts, its just a really good album.
Here's a question though...REM right, they start off as this kind of post punk arty college radio band, have a couple of break out singles, a couple of massively commercially successful albums that propel them to being the biggest band in the world, then they just kind of make what they want to make for a bit and then they just went away? So why don't we hate them like we do U2? Is it the going away? Or is it Michael Stipe retained some humility while Bono turned into Bono?
On The Great American Bar Scene
There were a few interesting things came out over the summer, just kind of snuck out quietly so there was a new Zach Bryan album The Great American Bar Scene which is like his 4th in 3 years or something....it's maybe not grabbed me quite as much as the previous one but there's still 4 or 5 really good tracks, Pink Skies is epic, 28 is really good as is Sandpaper which is a duet with Bruce Springsteen, Boons is great but I think that some of it feels like it was leftovers from the previous album and maybe it needed more than 9 months between records.
On Manic Street Preachers new single “Decline and Fall”
I guess there's a new album in the works, like all of a sudden it's 3 years since The Ultra Vivid Lament which has flown by but I did grab a few Manic Street Preachers tapes a little while ago....so I got Resistance is Futile, Generation Terrorists and Everything Must Go and I've had that on repeat a fair bit actually....Its one of those that you forget how good it is or maybe take it for granted a bit
On my growing cassette collection…
Speaking of tapes I also picked up Paranoid and Sunburnt by Skunk Anansie for £4 which is a great album and don't tell my wife but I spent £12 on Half Nelson by Groop Dogdrill on cassette....I figured it wouldn't come around very often and I already have on CD and vinyl, although I think the CD is in a box in Mums loft that she says definitely isn't there but I'm welcome to have a look but it definitely isn't there....but thats another great record that more people should check out...the second one Every Six Seconds is good too but Half Nelson is really good.
On Rancid’s Indestructible
And the last thing I want to talk about is this wonderful 20th Anniversary edition of Rancids Indestructible so it's the album busted across 6 7inch records and remastered for 45rpm but rather than it being 6 records in a box they're presented like 7 inch singles with their own artwork and it just looks ridiculously cool...there is a 46 disc box set of all the albums in this format but the cheapest I've seen that is £275 on discogs so I'll just pick up these as I see them...this one was £23 but yeah...it's a really good record and like after Life Won't Wait and the 2000 self titled record this was a bit of a return to a more "commercial" or maybe mainstream punk sound
Fall Back Down is a great tune, I love Born Frustrated, Ghost Band, Tropical London, Memphis which might be my favourite or Travis Bickle
Let The Records Play...