Sat May 23, 2020 10:13 pm
stip wrote:Since I've been away from the board and haven't ranked anything in forever here is Mark's non-screaming trees output
1. Bubblegum - Crown jewel of an amazing and prolific solo career. Wedding Dress and Methamphetamine Blues are maybe my two favorites but there is a lot of gold here.
2. Whisky For the Holy Ghost - His most consistently awesome album from start to finish - just not quite as many highs as Bubblegum and some of it didn't age quite as well. Judas Touch, River Rise, and Carnival are my three favorites.
3. Broken - This is a ridiculously good album. Another flat out masterpiece. Death Bells, You Will Miss Me When I Burn, and All the Way Down are so fucking good, but strong songs top to bottom.
4. Blues Funeral - Third best of the Lanegan solo albums - not quite as consistent as Holy Ghost and not quite as many high spots as Bubblegum, but the best stuff on here is as good as his best stuff anywhere. Gravediggers Song is my favorite on this one, but so many great songs. Really everything is excellent but Tiny Grain of Truth (which has its moments), Riot in my House, and Gray Goes Black. The later two are totally forgettable.
5. Here Comes That Weird Chill - it says something about how incredible the Bubblegum sessiosn are that on top of everything on that record you can add Message to Mine, Lexington Slow Down, Sleep With Me, and Wish You Well (the best song from the sessions)
6. Field Songs - The borderline masterpiece. Every song is good - there just aren't quite enough great ones. One Way Street, No Easy Action, and Don't Forget Me are my three favorites
7. Scraps at Midnight - maybe his most atmospheric record. Hotel is amazing. I find his albums work well if you just want to cherrypick songs - this is one of the only cases where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
8. Phantom Radio -part of a string of albums with a few great songs and a bunch that just go nowhere for me. Death Trip to Tulsa quietly became one of my all time favorite Lanegan songs. Floor of the Ocean, Killing Season, and Seventh Day also really good. Edges out Gargoyle and Somebody's Knocking on the strength of Death Trip
9. It's Not How far You Fall - Revival, Paper Money, and Ghosts of You and Me are incredible, but after that amazing beginging the rest of the album is just pretty good.
10. Somebody's Knocking - this might move up past phantom radio in time. 4 songs I really like (Disbelief Suspension, Stitch it Up, Radio Silence, and Name and Number) but no duds. This is cribbing from influences I don't care about so I can see how some people might really adore this one
11. Gargoyle - . Love Beehive, and Death's Head Tattoo, Nocturne, Blue Blue Sea, and Black Swan are all quite good,. Could take or leave the rest.
12. Has God Seen My Shadow B-sides: This was full of gems - songs that should have been b-sides but I'm so glad were recorded. Big White Cloud and Halcyon Daze were my two favorites
13. Ballad of Broken Seas - The first Isobel Campbell collaberation was the best. Deus Ibi est is super cool, Revolver is great, and almost all of this is pretty solid
14. Houston Publishing Demos - lots of good songs, just not enough great ones. I get why he scrapped this and went in the Bubblegum direction, and thank god he did. I do love the earlier incarnation of Methamphetamine Blues
Straight Songs of Sorrow will probably go here
15. I'll Take Care of You - the better of the two cover albums. I love Shiloh Town so much
16. Hawk -You Won't Let Me Down is great, and I really did Time of the Season and Snake Song
17. No Bells On Sunday - Love Sad Lover. Dry iced and No Bells on Sunday also pretty good, but maybe overlong. Not a fan of the
18. Saturnalia - Don't like the Greg? Dulli stuff, but Idle Hands is an all timer and really dig who will lead us/seven stories underground
19. With Animals - I do dig the title track. One Way Glass is great too. The way he sings 'something lonelier than death' Only he can get away with that shit.
20. The Winding Sheet - feels like a template album for what's to come. Some stuff on here I quite like, but it all feels rough compared to what is to come. Really makes clear the influence Lanegan had on Cobain that never seems to get talked about.
21. Black Pudding - not a huge fan of this one - generally found most of it forgettable but god damn Mescalito is awesome
22. Sunday At Devil Dirt - This is more consistent than Hawk, but there aren't many songs on here I really care much about. Who Built the Road is pretty cool
23. Keep Me In Mind Sweetheart - Fight Fire with Fire is a fun Song. So is Rambling Rose, Clinging Vine
24. Imitations - the only full fledged record that I found almost totally disappointing. Flatlands is beautiful and I do love Mack The Knife
25. A Thousand Miles to Midnight - the remxies all generally suck, except for the Death Trip mix.
26. Downdwelling - persimmon tree was fine
27. Dark Mark Does Christmas - This is a great concept but none of these songs land.
28. Adorata - I can barely remember what's on this so I guess it goes to the bottom
Sat May 23, 2020 10:14 pm
stip wrote:I've got the book but there are two books I need to finish before I get to it
Sun May 24, 2020 10:03 pm
Sun May 24, 2020 10:04 pm
Thu May 28, 2020 2:54 pm
Thu May 28, 2020 5:46 pm
Thu May 28, 2020 6:02 pm
Thu May 28, 2020 6:51 pm
Strat wrote: A few comments about QOTSA,
Thu May 28, 2020 8:48 pm
Thu June 04, 2020 1:25 pm
Thu June 04, 2020 3:50 pm
oasisfan35 wrote:Well the book was quite a ride, the honesty and fly-on-the-wall nature of it all. The narrative did tend to bounce around but I feel that helped the aesthetic of the whole effort.
Of all the name-drops I was glad to see that Mike Ness was exactly as I had read and seen previously. And as far as Liam Gallagher goes... I knew that all as well.
Listening to Live at Leeds now with a pang of regret regarding the show with Isobel Campbell I was supposed to see later that year in the Bowery. One thing this novel has certainly done is gotten me very reflective of my own past.
Thu June 04, 2020 4:34 pm
VinylGuy wrote:oasisfan35 wrote:Well the book was quite a ride, the honesty and fly-on-the-wall nature of it all. The narrative did tend to bounce around but I feel that helped the aesthetic of the whole effort.
Of all the name-drops I was glad to see that Mike Ness was exactly as I had read and seen previously. And as far as Liam Gallagher goes... I knew that all as well.
Listening to Live at Leeds now with a pang of regret regarding the show with Isobel Campbell I was supposed to see later that year in the Bowery. One thing this novel has certainly done is gotten me very reflective of my own past.
I need to get back to the audio book. Interesting that made you reflect on you, how come? Its based on your experience while listening to Mark?
Thu June 04, 2020 5:01 pm
Fri June 05, 2020 1:59 pm
GW: Sounds to me like you’re at a great place right now. I think people will lose their shit when they hear the new album [Somebody's Knocking]. I think it's my favourite since Bubblegum.
ML: What!? You didn’t hear Blues Funeral motherfucker. That’s my best record !” [laughs]
GW: Alright, I’ll give it another go.
ML: If you don’t listen to anything but Blues Funeral I don’t give a shit. [laughs]
GW: It coming eight years after rediscovering your feeling for music, it must have been quite a thrill?
ML: It was. The thing that was not quite a thrill was: every record that I had started before then I had this canvas bag filled with cassette demos of songs. I was always working on bits of pieces of songs, full songs, songs that didn't work for one record and I would use for another one. Every time I would start a record, I would go into that canvas bag and I would listen to these 120 minute long cassette tapes and would find things that didn’t make sense when I first made them but now they did. Some of my best songs came out of that bag. But when I went to make Blues Funeral, I went into that bag and every single one of those tapes had been demagnetised so I spent three days listening to blank tapes. And realising with horror that you know, basically my life's homework didn’t exist anymore. By the way, immediately it freed me to not give a damn and that’s why I love Blues Funeral so much. It was also the first record where I recorded just the number of songs I needed for the record. And to me it is as perfect of a record as I will hope to make.
GW: I will give it another run through.
ML: It’s my favourite record and I suggest it become yours as well.
Fri June 05, 2020 2:08 pm
Fri June 05, 2020 3:18 pm
Tue June 16, 2020 10:10 am
Tue June 16, 2020 3:07 pm
stip wrote:I’ve started this. It’s fascinating, but its somewhat surprisingly clumsy in the actual writing
Tue June 16, 2020 3:16 pm
Tue June 16, 2020 3:21 pm
stip wrote:He is really vicious to Gary Lee Conner in this book. REALLY nasty