Johnatone

Bucket said:

Oh fuck, close your thread before Dan stinks it up with Pixies and Boards of Canada twangfests.

WTF?

1) I really dislike the Pixies. Granted, there are a couple songs of theirs I like, but people give them way too much credit for stuff they didn't do. Someone once told me they invented grunge which is like those people who say the Velvet Underground invented punk. I could go on and on about that argument but I'd rather not.

2) I don't really know who Boards of Canada are. I'm guessing some experimental prog rock band. If so, your compass is sending you way off course.

ANYWAY let's get back to the thread in progress.

I don't know if you're purposefully making a compilation of all singles and stuff or if you just happen to like those songs. First of all, I reccomend not repeating artists, or at least no more than once per disc. One of the things I hate the most when listening to old compilations I've made is that I used the same artist 2-3 times. Even worse, just about every compilation I made in my senior year of high school contained KMFDM - Megalomaniac.

The second point I have is more of a personal thing. I love David Bowie but the songs you picked of his are kind of so-so. Ziggy Stardust is a pretty good song, but I can think of plenty better, 2-3 on the same album. Personally, I'd put something from Aladdin Sane, Hunky Dory, Space Oddity, or The Man Who Sold the World on there.

I've got a similar issue with your Beatles selection. For one, all three of the tracks you picked are from the white album which doesn't show much diversity (though that was their most eclectic album). I'd prefer something from Abbey Road (I Want You or Here Comes the Sun) or Revolver (Tomorrow Never Knows!), but again that's just me talking. Happiness is a Warm Gun really doesn't make much sense to me, though Helter Skelter is a good song to include since it's one of the first metal songs ever made (or hard rock at least), and While My Guitar Gently Weeps is also a pretty good choice due to it being a classic George Harrison/Eric Clapton creation, but still, I'd say Tomorrow Never Knows trumps both for not only throwing psychadelia into the mainstream but also throwing musique concrete into the mainstream, thus influencing a lot of the progenitors of electronic music.

You have to have Sex Pistols too (you already have The Clash a couple times, might as well diversify your punk selection). Either Anarchy in the UK or God Save the Queen. If you want to further diversify your punk go with Holiday in Cambodia by the Dead Kennedys.

I also notice you have a distinct lack of psychadelic rock of any kind on there. Jimi Hendrix would be good (my personal favorite song of his is Angel), or The Doors (The End, Light My Fire, Break on Through). Something by King Crimson, The Moody Blues, or Iron Butterfly might work too. Not sure if any of that counts as alternative to you, but you also included The Beatles and David Bowie, so who knows?

You should include something by The Velvet Underground in there too. I'd recomend All Tomorrow's Parties, Pale Blue Eyes or Stephanie Says. If you dare to tread into the relm of goth music, I'd reccomend something by Bauhaus. Hell, if you want to diverge enough, I could reccomend a bunch of industrail too, but I think that's a little TOO alternative and it isn't very much rock by that point.

That was long-winded but I hope I gave you some ideas.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and Frank Zappa. Anything not from Joe's Garage.

Heh, cool, lots of good feedback. A lot of songs and/or artists you've suggested I've already put thought to, such as

Joy Division, The Sex Pistols, Velvet Underground, Billy Joel, Heart, Blondie, et cetera. Yeah, I'm not even going to try to list 'em all.

Good point about the singles thing, I hadn't even thought about that, although a lot of these artists I haven't explored much past the singles (such as the Human League and Animotion) since I only have the 45 singles of some of them.

I like the idea of exploring more psychedellic(s/p) and punk songs, now that I think of it, the Doors, the Happy Mondays, Hendrix and the Cure have some good songs that would work well. I'm going to do some work with this tonight.

I really don't know why BoC has been brought into discussion.

See?