1986

Killing Joke
Brighter Than A Thousand Suns
(EG)

1986 pretty much sucked shit for music. There were really only a few decent albums released — The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead, Killing Joke’s Brighter Than a Thousand Suns, Hüsker Dü’s Candy Apple Grey and Sonic Youth’s EVOL, none of which are particularly amazing.

Brighter Than a Thousand Suns is probably my favorite Killing Joke record, (though most fans probably disagree with that sentiment, I actually prefer Jaz’s melodic side), even though there aren’t really any standout tracks as there are on other their albums. And I do like EVOL, as it marks a significant turn toward Sonic Youth’s more pop-oriented, structured records, but it’s pretty inconsistent. I can’t say I really listen to either Candy Apple Grey or The Queen is Dead that often (though Mould’s acoustic prowess on “Too Far Down” and “Hardly Getting Over It” is quite apparent, and Morrissey’s songwriting is sharp as ever).

The inconsistency of EVOL ultimately led me to lean more towards Killing Joke.

as you are i am sure aware, i ttly love making lists. after reading sebastian’s list of albums for each year since he has been alive, i decided to traverse back in time and point out my favorite albums of the past few decades-worth of years.

here is the 1980s addition:

1985

The Jesus and Mary Chain
Psychocandy
(Blanco Y Negro)

This was a really, really hard choice. The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy, Killing Joke’s Night Time, New Order’s Low-Life, The Replacements’ Tim, The Smiths’ Meat is Murder and The Cure’s Head on the Door were ALL released in ‘85, and every one of them is one of if not the best record(s) by each band.

For me it came down to JMC, The Cure and The Replacements (and probably Killing Joke too). Though I actually prefer the stripped-down sound of JMC’s later work, I still love Psychocandy for all its fuzzed-drenched power. And The Replacements’ Tim is easily my favorite of theirs (and includes the essential bar song “Here Comes a Regular”). The Cure’s Head on the Door, too, is their best in my opinion. Night Time contains Killing Joke’s two best songs (“Darkness Before Dawn” and “Love Like Blood”). And let’s not forget the closing track “Eighties”, from which Kurt Cobain aped the riff for “Come As You Are”.

Shit man, it was hard, but I decided to go with Psychocandy just barely over Tim. The Reid brothers are just too intoxicating. Also, it’s probably one of my top 5 album covers of all time.

1984

Echo & the Bunnymen
Ocean Rain
(Neutral)

Though there were some classics released in 1984 (including Meat Puppets’ II, Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense, The Smiths’ self-titled debut, Hüsker Dü’s Zen Arcade, The Replacements’ Let It Be)… nothing even comes close to the awesomeness that is Echo & the Bunnymen’s Ocean Rain (which includes “The Killing Moon” and “Seven Seas”). It’s a masterpiece and as perfect an album as they were capable of making.

1983

Sonic Youth
Confusion is Sex
(Neutral)

‘83 was a pretty damn amazing year for music. Including Husker Dü’s official debut, great albums by Nico , The Replacements, The Misfits, Social Distortion, Killing Joke, New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen and others.

Most people would probably pick R.E.M.’s Murmur, but I’ve never really been able to get into early R.E.M. Cocteau Twins’ Head Over Heels is another classic, but it’s just not as good as the year’s best two albums — The Stranglers‘ Feline (which I almost chose.. and includes the amazing “Midnight Summer Dream” and “All Roads Lead to Rome”), and Sonic Youth’s debut. Though Confusion is Sex is hardly comparable to the band’s apex, it sews the seeds of their future and still provides some jaw-dropping moments — “(She’s in a) Bad Mood” is still one of my favorite Sonic Youth songs of all-time.

1982

Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes
(Slash/Rhino)

There aren’t a lot of albums from 1982 that I really like. Some decent albums by Killing Joke and The Clash, and debuts from Cocteau Twins, Bad Religion, The Misfits and Mission of Burma. The Cure’s Pornography is close, but let’s be honest here, Thriller is fuckin’ awesome, and it’s the best record from ‘82.

UPDATE. Somehow I missed Violent Femmes’ debut, if I had realized that had been released in ‘82, there would have been no debate. Far and away the best album of the year, and includes “Blister in the Sun” and (my personal favorite) “Kiss Off”.

1981

The Sound
From the Lion’s Mouth
(Korova)

A few pretty awesome albums in ‘81, including albums by Nico, Killing Joke, The Cure, The Ramones, and outstanding debuts by Husker Du, New Order and The Replacements. But this decision was easy. From the Lion’s Mouth is one of my favorite albums of all time, and as I’ve written before, deserves way more respect and recognition than it receives (which is virtually none).

1980

Joy Division
Closer
(Factory)

This was essentially a decision between 5 albums. Killing Joke’s self-titled debut is great but I prefer Coleman’s melodic mid-to-late-80s records.

Echo & the Bunnymen’s Crocodiles is another good choice, but again, I prefer their Killing Moon era (also, I like the 2003 rerelease of this album with the live version of “Zimbo”, which reminds me: is there ANY studio version of that song in existence? Because I surely haven’t been able to find one.

I have never really gotten into Talking Heads’ Remain In Light as much as I probably should, though this is probably what most people would pick.

And then there’s The Cure’s Boys Don’t Cry, which came VERY close to being my choice (“Boys Don’t Cry”, “Jumping Someone Else’s Train”, “10:15 Saturday Night” — all such amazing songs).

But ultimately, I have to go with Joy Division, if not for “Decades” alone. I don’t listen to this album in its entirety that often, but when it fits the mood, it’s pretty damn amazing.

so, i have compiled a gigantic playlist of songs that would
be amazing to listen to on the jukebox in a shitty dive bar, while drinking pitchers of shitty beer. nevermind that most of these songs aren’t even available on most jukeboxes; i think you get the idea of the vibe i’m going for. think acousticy/ballad type stuff that makes everyone else want to kill themselves that sounds so so so amazing at 1 a.m.

i know i am missing a bunch, so if you can think of any amazing stuff that fits the vibe here, let me know. notably, neil young (i can never remember the names of the songs by him i like). i also need more guided by voices (also always forget the names of my favorite pollard songs (there’s so damn many)). and bright eyes. as much as i have tried to hate them over the years, i still admit that there are some bright eyes songs i really like. there’s an amazing fugazi (“epic problem” maybe? i think it was off the argument, but i have no fugazi albums here at work to check) and possibly some les savy fav songs that would also fit in well here, but i absolutely cannot remember the names of them. some older beck, rocky votalato, chuck ragan, jim white, the mountain goats, m. ward (shit, i really need to start remembering song names), etc. etc…. and, any oldies i don’t have listed?

add to the list, dear readers! here are several hundred (i will try to upload some of the lesser known tracks for you to enjoy and drink beer to):

against me! - violence

the zombies - leave me be
the zombies - tell her no
the zombies - the way i feel inside

heyyyyyyy dude(tte)s,
some recent music stuff to check out are these:

• FINALLY ra ra riot’s first LP (rhumb line) is out. i have been waiting for this since their amazing EP came out last year. I am listening to it for the very first time right now, and so far it is damn good. 4 out of the 10 songs are originally from the EP (but sound much better here). “ghost under rocks” really is such an incredible song. highly recommend this album and/or band if you haven’t checked them out before.

• i just recently saw that a new mercury rev album had leaked, which made me realize i have for some inexplicable reason not listened to mercury rev for what, like, 2 years or something? wtf. deserter’s songs and all is dream are such amazing records, i have no idea how i could have forgotten about them for this long. that said though, this recent effort, snowflake midnight just doesn’t seem that great to me so far. i’ll probably give it a couple more listens but at the moment i can’t say i’m a fan.

• speaking of bands i haven’t listened to in quite awhile, man… or astroman? has recently popped up on my playlist. damn, every time i listen to destroy all astromen i am re-amazed all over again at just how fucking awesomely original and fucking awesome that band was.

• how are the diamondbacks in 1st place with a losing record?

• why is tony pena jr still allowed to play shortstop on the royals? he pitched such an awesome inning the other night. he needs to be made a pitcher or released from the team.

• watch this amazing movie trailer. it is so beautiful:

• oh. there is a new okkervil river album out as well. i haven’t really listened to it much so far, but i must admit it was kind of underwhelming at the time.

• lastly, i watched bloodsport again for the first time in like fifteen or twenty years last night, and HOLY SHIT that movie is still one of the greatest movies ever. i am going to watch it again tonight absolutely

my beloved dudes and dudettes: i am so sorry for failing to update this blog for like the past forever of time. i have been so busy drinking booze and hanging out with my babe i have ttly not even had time to write anything, ever.

also, i just bought rock band and omfg if i have not been playing that game and drinking tons of booze like non-stop for the past 3 days.

so here are some newsworthy things:

item #1: alan made me listen to the new beck album, modern guilt, and even though i don’t ever really listen to beck (like, ever), and have never really listened to beck, and never really got into any of his seminal work (even though i don’t hate him), this is a pretty good damn record i’m not going to lie. you should probably listen to it. thanks, alan. i love you (but you already know that)

item #2: the new albert hammond, jr. record is so atrociously fucking bad i am not even going to write more than this single sentence about it.

item #3: finally! new cansei de ser sexy (css). omfg i have been waiting for so long. unfortunately, the new album (called donkey aka a giant wtf @ that for a record title) is like 10x more boring than their last, but still it’s pretty good and i can’t say i’m not going to be listening to it a bunch.

item #4: new fucking walkmen, bitches. O.M.F.G. yes. it’s called you & me and it’s ttly good, and also, it gets better with each listen (it was like 100000million times better today than it was yesterday, which was still good). track #3, “on the water” is pretty much completely amazing.

item #5: fantasy baseball, i hate you. i hate you. why is my team so amazing when it doesn’t have to be, but when i just need like basically nothing to beat the worst team in the whole fucking league i can’t even manage 1 hr and 3 rbi’s for the entire week.

item #6: i can’t believe i just recently discovered tourette’s guy on youtube. best videos i have ever seen, ever. why has no one showed me these like 4 years ago!!! where are you people !??!

item #7: oh yeah. i made this new mix, for my new babe, which is pretty cool. you ttly might like it if you like chillaxed kite-flying sunday-afternoon type mixes with acoustic guitars and shit like that. you can download them, if you want.

1. this will destroy you - leather wings
2. mazarin - another one goes by
3. why? - the hollows
4. islands - creeper
5. yeasayer - wait for the summer
6. portugal. the man - shade
7. margot & the nuclear so-so’s - quiet as a mouse
8. voxtrot - kid gloves
9. murder by death - ash
10. meredith bragg - turns out you won
11. sparklehorse - hundreds of sparrows
12. okay - natural
13. beach house - d.a.r.l.i.n.g.
14. folksongs for the afterlife - dark room
15. mazzy star - halah
16. rocky votolato - silver trees
17. n.lannon - spy
18. wilco - impossible germany
19. modest mouse - willful suspension of disbelief
20. band of horses - lamb on the lam (in the city)

[download (73.7mb)] single file mp3
[download (73.6mb)] .zip with individual tracks

item #8: re-reading that tracklist, i realized i have never written about how AMAAZINGFLY AWESOME that new murder by death album (red of tooth and claw) is. so so good. go listen to it right now.

——i promise i will try to update you, dear readers, more often than this. i am a bastard. i am a douche.

<3