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Rip me a mighty new one

Inspired by ol' GKE, I decided to create my OWN list of CDs that you may critique in a brutal fashion. Well, that, and I tried doing it before using something that didn't take to kindly to me, so I deleted the frelling program. Anyways, just click right about.... here.

Also, keep in mind that some of the genres may be off. I'm not all that great at identifying things properly. Well, sometimes. I also did you all a great favor and included all the CDs I could find. I COULD have left out the more embarassing titles, but... I couldn't bring myself to do it. Just keep this in mind: I was VERY confused back in the day when it came to the kinds of music I liked.
 
G Kar, how can we truly critique your list brutally if you left out some of the embarrassing stuff.

Still, let's see what ya got:

- The only AC/DC album you have is Stiff Upper Lip, which I don't have. I've heard it- it's OK, but dude, you know you got to get some (rather ALL of) the Bon Scott albums, right? Highway to Hell, High Voltage, Powerage, Let There Be Rock, Dirty Deads Done Dirt Cheap. And, of course, you need Back in Black. Razor's Edge is a pretty solid Johnson-era album, too.

- And now Aerosmith- Nine Lives? New Aerosmith is weak, bro. Ya gots to get the old stuff, specifically Rocks and Toys in the Attic.

- Bix Beiderbecke is not a name one sees in a lot of collections. Nice!

- I don't think I've ever heard that Counting Crows album you have. August & Everything After is their "classic." Hard Candy is nice, too.

- Though you only have one Iron Maiden CD, it happens to be my favorite.

- Limp Bizkit sucks. Real hard.

- Dude, Mercyful Fate. Nice.
Ever hear King Diamond's solo stuff? Pretty wild.

- I see you're sticking with post-Black Metallica. Interesting.

- More Monk couldn't hurt. I hate compilations.

- You have U2 and Ozzy CDs, but are missing their prime work. Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, Blizzard of Oz, Diary of a Madman.

- Tool rocks. Lateralus is a fucking masterpiece. Get Aenima ASAP.

I was nice enough to avoid hitting the most obvious targets, like WWE music comps. I'm a nice guy. :)


Categorizing is real hard. I keep mine even more broad than you, PillowRock.

1. Jazz
Includes blues.

2. Rock/pop
Includes metal, country, California Guitar Trio, funk, soul, etc.

3. Hip-hop

4. Classical

5. Miscellaneous
Soundtracks and other nonsense. My smallest "category"- 5 CDs: Blues Brothers, two South Parks, Wesley Willis, and a vocal group from college that my friends and ex-girlfriend were in.

6. Non-classical single layer Super Audio CDs
Kept seperately because I have regular CD copies of these.
The classical stuff is all together, because I only listen to that at home.

7. DVD
Anything that gets played on my DVD player instead of my CD player- concert DVDs, DTS CDs, DADs, DVD-As.

And yes, folks, I do use re-organizing my CD collection as a stress releive and insomnia cure, a la High Fidelity.
 
Tori Amos? Aiiii... I don't really dig chicks on pianos, except Joni Mitchell. I have really fallen in love with her voice! This woman knows what mucic is!
 
In a reply to a post I meant to put here, but misplaced, GKE said that he liked period Japanese films, but didn't care for the ones in a modern setting. I am fortunate enough to live where we get to see a free Japanese film series twice a year, showing lots of modern Japanese films, some very good. GKE, I would like to recommend three to you, that I am virtually certain you would like, based on what I see of your taste in film. The first two are by actor/director/musician Takeshi Kitano, aka Beat Takeshi. He has many films, I've only seen a few, but two are masterpieces. They are both gangster films, films that Tarantino would die to make if he could, but he could never measure up. They are: Fireworks (Hana-bi Japanese title)1997, DVD, and Sonatine 1993 VHS.
The other film is The Eel, by Shohei Imamura, 1997 DVD, a story about a man who has just gotten out of prison for killing his wife. Look these up on the IMDb.

There are also some very good Japanese psychological horror films, worthy of Hitchcock, but even better in some ways. My favorite one of these, I can't remember the title right now, but two other very good ones I do remember are Oodishon (Audition) 2000 DVD, and Uzumaki (Spiral). One fascinating, surreal, Japanese film in a contemporary setting, made in 1964 is Woman In The Dunes. It is a must-see, really. I would have thought that Tampopo by Juzo Itami might appeal to you too. It is a classic comedy from 1985, starring a trucker who admires John Wayne, and sets out to help a young widow have the best noodle shop in Tokyo. It has food, sex, violence, social commentary, and laughs. What more could you want?
 
:eek: This list painfully reminded me how few movies I've actually seen. *Feels VERY behind*

I love Monty Python. Great stuff. :D

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a definite classic.

And, of course...Lord of the Rings. ;)
 
Dude, I'm just as surprised as you are that I listen to Tori Amos. To me, she kind of combines two other female artists I like- she has the lyrical skill and emotional resonance of Joni Mitchell and the artsy musical sensiblity and vocal inflection of Kate Bush. I also find her voice very hypnotic- like I can't stop listening to it.

She also has something that most women in her genre lack- humor. Sure, it's buried under cryptic lyrics and darkness, but sometimes she can be like a chick Warren Zevon.

It also doesn't hurt that I find her phenomenally sexy. :eek:


Jade, I'm sure there are lots of great modern Japanese films. For some reason, I can't watch 'em. I even find High and Low boring, and you know how much I love Kurusawa and Mifune.
However, I'll keep your recommendations in mind.

Delenn, if you feel bad about "being behind," you should check out my Netflix queue. Almost 50 titles.
But if IIRC, you're only like 16 or something. I'd never even heard of Lord of the Rings at that age- way "behind" than you are.
 
Delenn, if you feel bad about "being behind," you should check out my Netflix queue. Almost 50 titles.
But if IIRC, you're only like 16 or something. I'd never even heard of Lord of the Rings at that age- way "behind" than you are.
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That's more than I have. The number of DVD's I own: seven. And yes, you're right. I'm only 16. :)
 
Actually, I can understand finding High and Low boring, it is pretty slow paced. Add Fireworks, Woman In The Dunes, and if you haven't seen it, Tampopo, to your Netflix queue. I'd bet you'll love at least one of them, maybe even all of them. Really, start with Fireworks. It is intense.
 
Well, in reply, and in the proper order:

- While I can't say I'm a HUGE AC/DC fan, I really enjoy their music. I just don't feel the need to buy the older stuff... yet.

- I have my single Aerosmith album only because a friend of mine got me to like them. Alas, the same thing as above applies here as well. I like their older stuff, but I just don't feel compelled to go out and buy it.

- What can I say? I got hooked on Singin' the Blues in my Intro to Jazz class, which also truely got me to listen to jazz other than my Cowboy Bebop CDs.

- I can't really say much about my lone CC album, since I haven't listened to it in some time. I just heard one of the songs from it one day and decided that I wanted to pick the album up.

- Thank Grand Theft Auto Vice City for getting me hooked on Iron Maiden. Heard 2 Minutes to Midnight and fell in love with'em.

- And I'll agree with Limp Bizkit sucking... NOW. I used to really like them, and I still enjoy those three albums... well, I REALLY only liked Chocolate Starfish. Plus, Wes was frelling cool. Of course, he's gone now, along with any further interest in the group. They just got... old. And why didn't ye bring up my Korn albums while you were at it? :devil:

- I got into Mercyful Fate all thanks to Metallica. Their Mercyful Fate song from Garage Inc. hooked me, despite the fact that they really don't sound like MF. And I still need to buy the Melissa album. Found it once, and couldn't afford it. Bah.

- Hey. I just like Metallica. I enjoy the old, I enjoy the new.

- I want more EVERYTHING when it comes to any jazz greats. It's just that THAT particular CD was cheap. I'm not looking for superior sound quality and whatever. I just want the music. That's why most of my stuff tends to be greatest hits style stuff. Those're always around $10 or so.

- The U2 and Ozzy situation is the same as AC/DC and Aerosmith. It's not that I don't enjoy the older stuff, it's just that I don't feel all that compelled to buy it yet.

- Tool's okay. I just don't care about them THAT much. Give me time, though. Give me time.

- The WWE stuff... well, I'm not actually ashamed to own that. I'm a fan of pro wrestling, even though the product is pretty bad right now. Anyways, I was HOPING that you'd rip my bad CDs apart. I enjoy a good read, after all.

Little side story: There's only ONE CD that I've purposely mutilated. To me, if I pay anything over $10 for it, I am NOT going to go and smash it (not counting this one PlayStation memory card I had, but that's ANOTHER story). However... this CD deserved. Unfortunately, I once LIKED Hanson. :eek: Liked them enough to buy the single for that song, the name of which I shant say aloud. Anyways, long story short, I hacked away at it with scissors one day, after I realized that they sucked. Hard. The good thing? I think I paid maybe a dollar for it, so no real money lost. :D GOD, I had shitty taste in music back then.

Crap. One more thing. Have you heard anything by Blind Guardian or Symphony X? Good things, they are.
 
Liked them enough to buy the single for that song, the name of which I shant say aloud.
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Was it Mmm-bop? Hah!

My first tapes (I was a teenager during the unfortunate Dark Age after vinyl and before CD became the main format) were Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer.

I've heard of Blind Guardian and listened to one Symphony X album. I didn't like it too much. I like the style, but they were a bit "too much" for me. Maybe I ought to give 'em another chance.

If you're into that kind of stuff, though, you have to get into Dream Theater. They're so great that they burn me from other "prog-metal" acts, because everyone else just pales in comparison. Pain of Salvation is another nice one in this genre. And Fates Warning, who actually came before any of these guys, are very unique and fascinating to listen to.

And then there's Opeth. F***ing brilliant.

I saw Tool live- highly recommended. It's more like an experience than a concert. They are very intense.
 
I hate compilations.
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If you're talking about "Best of" / "Greatest Hits" compilations, I must say that I have a fair number of them. Partially this is a personal history thing. Without going into the details of why, a year ago I probably fewer than a dozen CDs (During my typical earlier music buying period, in HS and college, CDs didn't exist and I haven't had anything to play my old LPs on for years). From last fall up until today I have built that up to 114 so far (I counted last night.) Because I started accumulating CDs so late, there were a fair number of bands that I knew that I liked some of their stuff, but that I also already knew that I no interest in collecting a bunch of their albums (with the attendant cost). For those people, I will pick up "Best of"s. I have been specifically avoiding buying the "Best of"s of the people whose work I fully intend to accumulate more of.

I also periodically pick up a "Best of" when I am experimenting. When I have just heard a tiny bit of an artist, or maybe just heard of them, and want to check it out for more than just the 30 seconds of several tracks that are in the Borders headphone database. That is how I got exposed to Howlin' Wolf. So far all I own of his is the "His Best" collection from Chess 50th anniversary series. I intend to get more at some point.

Then, of course, there is all of the stuff that was recorded before about 1950. Compilations are all there are there. LPs didn't exist yet.


Categorizing is real hard. I keep mine even more broad than you, PillowRock.
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Maybe it's a matter of number of categories. Dispite breaking the categories down just a bit more, I actually have 1 fewer categories than you do.

I don't have anything from your last 2 categories (things that aren't standard CDs). Well, I have that "Dark Side of the Moon" disk; but that's a hybrid SACD that plays on standard CD players. I also don't have any Classical or Hip Hop. I periodically hear things that I like and/or am intrigued by from those categories. I just haven't yet taken the time to dive into those sections to try to figure out what I might want to buy.

The categories that my CDs currently are organized into are, in ascending order by number of albums in the group:

1) Christmas
3 CDs, all Various Artists collections

2) Show tunes
4 discs: A Chorus Line, original Broadway cast; Berlin Caberet Songs, Ute Lemper (all songs originally written for caberet or revue shows during the Weimar Republic period and subsequently supressed when the Nazis came to power); Chicago, movie soundtrack; Rocky Horror Picture Show, movie soundrack

3) Folk/Country

4) Blues/R&B/Soul/Funk

5) Jazz

6) Rock/Pop
Easily the biggest single category, with about half of the total number of packages.


And absolutely no disco is allowed. I was around for the disco period. It was a bad idea the *first* time. I have never understood why anyone would want to bring it back.
 
I have a couple of compilations. And they're good for blues and old jazz, because, like you said, it was a singles-only market back then.

I've found that most compilations of bands I like are weak. Also, IMO, if a band can't release strong albums in an albums market, they're not worth my attention.

Disco is coming back? I haven't noticed. I'll just stick to me pop-culturally deficient cave-dwelling bliss, thank you very much.
 
Inspired by ol' GKE, I decided to create my OWN list of CDs that you may critique in a brutal fashion.
Click to expand...

WWF(E) Aggression
ARGH that sucked. I listened to a friend's copy. I hope they never try that again. :)

You should get the WWE Anthology 3-disc set. There's a disc of themes from the 80s, one from the Attitude era, and one of today's themes. I picked it up when it came out a few months ago. There are some on there that I'd long since forgotten. :)
 
Also, IMO, if a band can't release strong albums in an albums market, they're not worth my attention.
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I can see that, if you are only going to listen to music by artists who really deserve being called "artists". If your whole focus is on the musical artistry then the people who can't maintain consistancy through the length of an album clearly aren't worth serious consideration. And with how broad and eclectic your tastes clearly are, if you took that next step down .... you would just be spending all your money on music. ;) :cool:

However, I am reminded of Richard Dreyfus' speech about "Louie, Louie" in Mr. Holland's Opus .... something like "They can't sing. They can barely play. But I like it. .... Because it's fun." There have been a fair number of bands who aren't great, consistent musical artists and who have produced more than their share of crap, but who still have managed to produce some number of songs that I find to be just fun. Maybe a big part of it, for many of them, is subconscious nostalgic associations to my college years (or high school, or junior high); but I don't care, they're still just fun to hear every so often. That's where most of my more, in some sense, embarassing CDs came from (well, that combined with spotting them dirt cheap in a discount bin); things like "best of" compilations of:

Sweet
("And a man in the back
Said 'Everyone attack'
And it turned into
A ballroom blitz!")

and Adam and the Ants
("So unplug the jukebox
And do us all a favor.
That music's lost its taste
So try another flavor")


On the other hand, sometimes I end up doing a bit of a cost/benefit analysis. I have some compilations by bands for whom I wouldn't mind owning all of the albums, if money (and to a lesser degree, storage space) was absolutely no object. Take, for example, the Doors: they recorded 6 studio albums with a total of 62 tracks on them (I looked that last part up) before Morrison's death. I could buy those 6 CDs for something like $70 or $75 total, or I could pick up a 2 disc compilation (in a standard, single width jewel case) with 36 of those songs (nearly 60% of the tracks) for something like $22 and still have $50 left over to buy other things. For the time being, I am settling for owning that 2 disc compilation.

Of course, sometimes that cost/benefit analysis comes out the other way. I looked at the Who's "30 Years of Maximum R&B" compilation. I decided that, in that case, I would rather delay the gratification and gradually pick up most of the individual albums (or at least the ones before Keith Moon died). So far I only have 2 (Who's Next and Who Are You). There will be more on my shelf.


Of course, everyone should build their own music collection the way that gives them the most pleasure. After all, that is the whole point. Right?
:cool: :D :cool: :D
 
Of course, everyone should build their own music collection the way that gives them the most pleasure. After all, that is the whole point. Right?
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Well, yeah. To take your example of The Doors, I neither have a compilation or all of their albums. I have some of their albums- the ones I like. Their first (self-titled), Strange Days, Morrison Hotel, and LA Woman. The two they did in the middle are too uneven and sometimes even silly for me. I think you have to be much more of a Doors fan to be into Morrison's ramblings and the band's weird orchestration. But the four I have are consistently enjoyable. Songs like Peace Frog and Soul Kitchen don't appear on compilations.

There are very few bands of whom I have all of their albums. Even Dream Theater and Porcupine Tree, two bands that always blow me away, made awful first albums IMO, so I sold those.

Funny thing is, someone picked on Queensryche, but I have all of their albums (including their brand new one I picked up today) and 3 DVDs. :)

I see what you're saying about "artists" vs other music, but I choose not to look at it that way. I do the same thing with film. I do not seperate between art and entertainment. I likes what I like.

AC/DC will never be considered meaningful artists (whatever the fuck that means), but I love 'em, because they're great at what they do.

Speaking of the Who, there's a band I'm starting to stretch into a bit more. I just got Tommy and listened to the whole thing recently for the first time.
 
Speaking of the Who, there's a band I'm starting to stretch into a bit more. I just got Tommy and listened to the whole thing recently for the first time.
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I recommend Quadrophenia next. Disc 2 of that album does it for me.
 
Speaking of stuff I like that would never be considered a musical masterpiece....Try out the latest disc ("Take A Break") by a band called Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. This is a punk supergroup of sorts consisting of members from the Foo Fighters and NOFX to name two. Following the format of their previous albums, the band selects a genre of music and "twists" into something that is akin to a combination of Green Day and The Ramones. On "Take A Break", the genre selected is 70s and 80s songs by black artists. The versions of "Ain't No Sunshine", "I'll Be There", and others are simply fantastic. Just plain old fun stuff. Nothing serious. Check out some of their previous albums too where they took on 50s and 60s music ("Blow In the Wind"), or 70s music ("Have A Ball"), or even Broadway show tunes ("Are A Drag").
 
I generally can't stand punk. Probably the only style of music in the world that I hate. Maybe techno, too.
 
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