Music Banter - View Single Post - The Urban 100 - 4 Years On (Now With Added Authors Commentary)

Urban Hat€monger ? · 02-11-2006, 07:01 AM

20. SEX PISTOLS - NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS (1977)

Right here we go then , I got into the Pistols pretty early on , when I was about 7 years old in fact.I still remember playing God Save The Queen for the very first time & thinking 'WOAH!!!!!'.I`d never heard anything like it.The irony of it all , the most disgusting foul mouthed yobs ever to grace the music industry and I got into them all because my Dad gave me a bunch of singles he found.After that I was hooked & managed to get hold of the album thanks to this guy Kevin who worked with my mother and I played it so much I practically wore the tape out.Between the ages of 7 & 17 I played this album to death.It was more than an album , it was an event.I still can`t think of one album that changed music as much as this one did.Thats maybe why I dislike punk so much now.Once you`ve heard this there`s not really anywhere you can go from that.It`s like in my opinion this is the greatest punk album ever made so why bother listening to a bunch of second rate bands trying to emulate this album.Strange as it may seem I think John Lydon is one of the most underrated talents in music.Most bands struggle to make one genre breaking album , he made two (See a bit below for the other).Who cares if he`s only doing stuff for money these days , he said he was in it for the money right from the start.It`s a shame there are not more people as honest as him.

"The entire punk movement. The term's been applied to a genre of music and it's been transformed into a uniform and a list of rules, regulations and rigid attitudes. It's humorless, bland outright copying. It's fake, and I don't like it. It's the enemy." - Johnny Rotten

Favourite Songs - Holidays In The Sun , God Save The Queen , Pretty Vacant ,EMI

19. HAWKWIND - SPACE RITUAL(1973)

This album can be summed up in one word ... Headf*ck
As much as I love Hawkwind i`ve always found their studio albums a bit patchy , it was like something was lacking.Thankfully someone somewhere decided they should have a live album out.And luckily that decision was taken when the band were at their peak on their legendary Space Ritual tour.I would have loved to have seen them on this tour.You not only had the band , with Lemmy on bass and the psychopathic Robert Calvert on vocals wearing his world war 2 flying gear.You also had naked dancers , author Micheal Moorcock writing poetic interludes (Sonic Attack being included on the album)You had lightshows , weird effects & sounds and a sh*tload of hallucinogens for good measure.The songs included on this album are just incredible, the heaviness of Motorhead or Sabbath mixed with the psychadelia of early Pink Floyd , with the volume cranked up full.The versions of Masters Of The Universe and Orgone Accumilator on this album would put any modern metal band to shame for sheer heaviness.Brainstorm is just 10 minutes of a loud punishing acid trip.The whole album is just one long brutal assult on your senses , even the poetic interlude Sonic Attack is just that with weird noises , rumbling basslines and howling guitar feedback all going on in the background.It was downhill after this Lemmy was booted out , the band fell apart and it turned into Dave Brock with whichever musicians he could assemble at the time followed by a string of albums that just got more & more mediocre until nobody cared anymore.But no matter how many awful albums Hawkwind put out it would be unfair to use that against this wonderful peice of work.

Favourite Songs - Brainstorm , Master Of The Universe , Seven By Seven , Orgone Accumilator

18. PUBLIC IMAGE LTD - METAL BOX / SECOND EDITION (1979)

Around the time I heard God Save The Queen I also heard Death Disco(Swan Lake)by Public Image LTD.At the time I had no idea this was John Lydons band also but I liked it at the time and the name of the band was kept in the back of my mind.Then I kind of forgot about them until about 7 years ago when I heard the Massive Attack (who I liked a lot at the time)talking about the albums that influenced them on a TV show. They chose this album as number one.They played clips of both Death Disco & Careering and I was transfixed.The very next Saturday I went out & bought this album. I was not dissapointed.John Lydon once called himself a 'noise structualist' rather than a musician and listening to this I can see exactly where he is coming from.I always thought THIS is how the Pistols should have sounded like.As much as I love this Pistols they`re just a trad rock band not really breaking any nwew ground musically , it`s just basically what the New York Dolls did with a cynical British attitude.This album us unlike anything i`ve heard now , I can only image how it sounded to people in 1979 , although I do seem to remember reading it was totally trashed in the press.The influences are wide and varied there`s dub , rock , reggae , krautrock, even folk music gets a look in (The final track Radio 4).From a guy that was branded as nothing more than a foul mouthed yob , this is something pretty special.

Favourite songs - Death Disco(Swan Lake) , Careering , Poptones , Albatross

17. CAN - EGE BAMYASI (1972)

I`ve been told that Can are one of the hardest bands to get into but when you do you are rewarded throughly. I really wanted to get into Can when I first became aware of them. I got into them from people like Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream , Mark E Smith of the Fall and John Lydon constantly singing the praises of this band.Well what do you do when three of your musical heroes are saying how great a band is & how much of an influence they are? You bloody well check them out thats what you do.
The thing I tend to notice about Can albums is they all tend to have a theme.Tago Mago is their 'rock' album , Future Days is their 'chill out' album , Soundtracks is an album of film soundtracks (duh!), but Ege Bamyasi is their 'funk' album. This is why I like Can more than any other 'progressive' band , for a band so serious about music it`s a real fun album to listen to. There are rhythms on this album that would put a soul band to shame , a bunch of white Germans have rhythm , who would have thought it? But they do , and they have them in abundance.In fact the album opener Pinch sounds like it could come off the soundtrack off any blaxploitation movie , And if you want to know where the Stone Roses got the idea for Fools Gold you could do a lot worse than check out I`m So Green off this album.

Favourite Songs - Pinch , Sing Swan Song , Soup , I`m So Green

02-11-2006, 07:01 AM	#163 (permalink)
Urban Hat€monger ? The Sexual Intellectual Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Somewhere cooler than you Posts: 18,605	20. SEX PISTOLS - NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS (1977) Right here we go then , I got into the Pistols pretty early on , when I was about 7 years old in fact.I still remember playing God Save The Queen for the very first time & thinking 'WOAH!!!!!'.I`d never heard anything like it.The irony of it all , the most disgusting foul mouthed yobs ever to grace the music industry and I got into them all because my Dad gave me a bunch of singles he found.After that I was hooked & managed to get hold of the album thanks to this guy Kevin who worked with my mother and I played it so much I practically wore the tape out.Between the ages of 7 & 17 I played this album to death.It was more than an album , it was an event.I still can`t think of one album that changed music as much as this one did.Thats maybe why I dislike punk so much now.Once you`ve heard this there`s not really anywhere you can go from that.It`s like in my opinion this is the greatest punk album ever made so why bother listening to a bunch of second rate bands trying to emulate this album.Strange as it may seem I think John Lydon is one of the most underrated talents in music.Most bands struggle to make one genre breaking album , he made two (See a bit below for the other).Who cares if he`s only doing stuff for money these days , he said he was in it for the money right from the start.It`s a shame there are not more people as honest as him. "The entire punk movement. The term's been applied to a genre of music and it's been transformed into a uniform and a list of rules, regulations and rigid attitudes. It's humorless, bland outright copying. It's fake, and I don't like it. It's the enemy." - Johnny Rotten Favourite Songs - Holidays In The Sun , God Save The Queen , Pretty Vacant ,EMI 19. HAWKWIND - SPACE RITUAL(1973) This album can be summed up in one word ... Headfck As much as I love Hawkwind i`ve always found their studio albums a bit patchy , it was like something was lacking.Thankfully someone somewhere decided they should have a live album out.And luckily that decision was taken when the band were at their peak on their legendary Space Ritual tour.I would have loved to have seen them on this tour.You not only had the band , with Lemmy on bass and the psychopathic Robert Calvert on vocals wearing his world war 2 flying gear.You also had naked dancers , author Micheal Moorcock writing poetic interludes (Sonic Attack being included on the album)You had lightshows , weird effects & sounds and a shtload of hallucinogens for good measure.The songs included on this album are just incredible, the heaviness of Motorhead or Sabbath mixed with the psychadelia of early Pink Floyd , with the volume cranked up full.The versions of Masters Of The Universe and Orgone Accumilator on this album would put any modern metal band to shame for sheer heaviness.Brainstorm is just 10 minutes of a loud punishing acid trip.The whole album is just one long brutal assult on your senses , even the poetic interlude Sonic Attack is just that with weird noises , rumbling basslines and howling guitar feedback all going on in the background.It was downhill after this Lemmy was booted out , the band fell apart and it turned into Dave Brock with whichever musicians he could assemble at the time followed by a string of albums that just got more & more mediocre until nobody cared anymore.But no matter how many awful albums Hawkwind put out it would be unfair to use that against this wonderful peice of work. Favourite Songs - Brainstorm , Master Of The Universe , Seven By Seven , Orgone Accumilator 18. PUBLIC IMAGE LTD - METAL BOX / SECOND EDITION (1979) Around the time I heard God Save The Queen I also heard Death Disco(Swan Lake)by Public Image LTD.At the time I had no idea this was John Lydons band also but I liked it at the time and the name of the band was kept in the back of my mind.Then I kind of forgot about them until about 7 years ago when I heard the Massive Attack (who I liked a lot at the time)talking about the albums that influenced them on a TV show. They chose this album as number one.They played clips of both Death Disco & Careering and I was transfixed.The very next Saturday I went out & bought this album. I was not dissapointed.John Lydon once called himself a 'noise structualist' rather than a musician and listening to this I can see exactly where he is coming from.I always thought THIS is how the Pistols should have sounded like.As much as I love this Pistols they`re just a trad rock band not really breaking any nwew ground musically , it`s just basically what the New York Dolls did with a cynical British attitude.This album us unlike anything i`ve heard now , I can only image how it sounded to people in 1979 , although I do seem to remember reading it was totally trashed in the press.The influences are wide and varied there`s dub , rock , reggae , krautrock, even folk music gets a look in (The final track Radio 4).From a guy that was branded as nothing more than a foul mouthed yob , this is something pretty special. Favourite songs - Death Disco(Swan Lake) , Careering , Poptones , Albatross 17. CAN - EGE BAMYASI (1972) I`ve been told that Can are one of the hardest bands to get into but when you do you are rewarded throughly. I really wanted to get into Can when I first became aware of them. I got into them from people like Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream , Mark E Smith of the Fall and John Lydon constantly singing the praises of this band.Well what do you do when three of your musical heroes are saying how great a band is & how much of an influence they are? You bloody well check them out thats what you do. The thing I tend to notice about Can albums is they all tend to have a theme.Tago Mago is their 'rock' album , Future Days is their 'chill out' album , Soundtracks is an album of film soundtracks (duh!), but Ege Bamyasi is their 'funk' album. This is why I like Can more than any other 'progressive' band , for a band so serious about music it`s a real fun album to listen to. There are rhythms on this album that would put a soul band to shame , a bunch of white Germans have rhythm , who would have thought it? But they do , and they have them in abundance.In fact the album opener Pinch sounds like it could come off the soundtrack off any blaxploitation movie , And if you want to know where the Stone Roses got the idea for Fools Gold you could do a lot worse than check out I`m So Green off this album. Favourite Songs - Pinch , Sing Swan Song , Soup , I`m So Green __________________ Urb's RYM Stuff Most people sell their soul to the devil, but the devil sells his soul to Nick Cave.