The "Where the **** Do I Start?" Thread
 

Sometimes we can be late to the game when it comes to an artist and decide to check it out after all the hype. With some artists this can be kind of difficult because they have massive discographies (classical artists and jazz musicians come to mind) and it's difficult to know where to start. So the purpose of this thread is for people to ask for recommendations on where to begin with any artist that they've been ignoring or have been unaware of. It may help to say what type of music gets you off in your post if the artist has a lot of variety in their discography.

Zappa

I'm only familiar with Apostrophe and his Mothers of Invention album Freak Out! Everything else is too daunting to tackle. I'd like five albums besides the two I mentioned please.

Overnite Sensation
Hot Rats
Absolutely Free
Lather
The Perfect Stranger

Everyone loves Joe's Garage and I don't get the hype, but I guess that's worth checking out too.

Drudkh. Been very impressed by them, but should I start at the beginning or which are their best albums/ones to avoid? Also, for the crack, gimme a Zorn album I might actually enjoy, o font of avant-gardeness. I'm serious.

Help me crack into Zorn's discog so far I've only heard the Naked City debut.

Could you explain what you mean by this? I'll give you a couple of good starter albums when I understand what you'd like. I only know a little Drudkh, sorry.

I think you would really like his album with Bill Laswell called The Dream Membrane.

Spy vs. Spy: The Music of Ornette Coleman
Elegy
Masada - Alef
IAO
Moonchild: Songs Without Words
Marc Ribot - Boof of Angels: Asmodeus
On the Torment of Saints, the Casting of Spells and the Evocation of Spirits

I love Zorn's work on Masada. Every time I hear those albums I feel like I'm walking down a alley in Istanbul or any other Eurasia city.

You ought to watch this, Trollheart. You already heard one song from it, but the whole performance is great.

The Rolling stones.

I never got into them even though ive heard their mainstream hits.

The Song Project might be Zorn at his most accessible, at least most of the songs are.

You really don't need me to explain that, do you? :yikes:
You know what I like. Something a little accessible to me. No mad jumping start/stops, crazy horns, nothing too experimental or that will damage my ears or brain.

Oh and while we're here, **** you and Naked City! :finger: It'll take a while to recover from that ****.

Someone throw me a Throbbing Gristle album.

The Seconnd Annual Report is the usual go-to album.

Which have you heard?

My favorite is Autumn Aurora (obviously) and i think it's also the easiest one to get into as it's fairly "nice" sounding for lack of a better term - ie not too harsh. Blood in our Wells is maybe their most famous or critically acclaimed so also wouldnt be a bad place to start.

Other favorites: Forgotten Legends and Microcosmos

I've heard BIOW, and I'll be hearing AA obviously soon, as that's on your list. I've also heard Songs of Grief and Solitude. I'll look into those other two once I get a break from MMIIII. Thanks.

I've just never heard that phrase before mate. Here are a few recs.

Bill Laswell, Dave Smith, John Zonr - The Dream Membrane
Masada String Trio - Bar Khoba
On Leaves of Grass
Psychomagia
The Gift

He's got sooo much stuff that I haven't heard it all, I'm only a quasi expert at this point.

Oh.I thought it was one of your deadpan jokes. Maybe it is. Well anyway, it comes from "font of all wisdom", as in, the oracle? Font I think being short for fountain. So what I'm basically saying is you're the oracle of all things regarding avant-garde music. Make sense now? Same as I might be seen as "font of all things prog" or Batty as "font of all things metal"...

If you knew that, and were just trying to get me to write a long-winded explanation, and are now laughing, well played, sir.

I'll check out those Zorn albums you recced, thanks.

There's a German science fiction pulp series called Perry Rhodan, published continuously since the early 1960's and still going. The number of novels, spin-offs and background material is in the tens of thousands, it would take the average person several lifetimes to catch up.
It totally dwarfs Star Wars and Star Trek put together.
Surely listening to a few dozen albums isn't that bad.....

*Ahem*

Any takers? no? i can still go on thinking they suck? k then..

Beggars Banquet (1968)
Let it Bleed (1969)
Sticky Fingers (1971)
Exile on Main Street (1972)

Any of the above would be a good starting point. You could work your way backwards and/or forwards through their catalog after listening to those 4.

I'll start with Beggars Banquet, thnx man.

I'm kinda surprised. Virtual Insanity was everywhere. Although they might be less popular outside of Europe or you might be talking about younger people.

I like Shut Up and Play the Guitar personally. I don't like a lot of his vocals but he was a great musician.

Hot Rats is also awesome under those parameters.

Anyone want to point me towards some good Grateful Dead albums? I checked out Aoxamaxamoxaiooexameroxa and wasn't too into it, but I thought that Dead Set and Grayfolded were pretty good.

Never start with anybody's first album o so,most artist say lol

bob dylan
ween

These are my favorites of the official albums they released before the death of Jerry Garcia.

Workingman's Dead (1970)
American Beauty (1970)
Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses) (1971)
Europe '72 (1972)
Wake of the Flood (1973)
Blues for Allah (1975)
Dick's Picks Vol. 2 (1995)

I prefer their early to mid 70's material to their 60's work, but I prefer their 60's albums to anything they did after the mid 70's.
There have also been a lot of good officially released live albums over the past 20 years (Dick's Picks, Road Trips, View from the Vault, Dave's Picks, Download Series) too many to get into here without overwhelming you, though.

You might also consider checking out some of the music Jerry Garcia did with Howard Wales in the early 70's. Two officially released albums (Hooteroll (1971) and Side Trips Vol. 1 (1998)
as well as some live bootlegs which are on YouTube. Much more jazz oriented than most of the music he did with the Grateful Dead.

Can I do a genre instead? I love all the hits from artists like Sam Cooke and Bill Withers, but never really explored soul as a genre or listened to an entire album.

What are some of the quintessential albums to get started?

The best place to start out with Bill Withers is "Live At Carnegie Hall".

I'd say Dylan's discography has so much worth checking out, but here are some essentials:

Everything up to and including Blonde on Blonde (the first 7).
From there, Nashville Skyline, New Morning (a personal fave), Planet Waves, The Basement Tapes, Blood on the Tracks, Desire, Oh Mercy, Modern Times.

I mean, it's still pretty daunting, but yeah I'd advise just to work through chronologically up to Blonde on Blonde and then skip along the less interesting/plain bad stuff.

Yesterday i heard Pere ubu for the first time and really liked it. What's the best album to get into his music?

Dub Housing is my favourite, but Modern Dance is also a good place to start.

Wow, that sure took you a while.
The Modern Dance and Dub Housing are probably the best albums to start out with. But since their style somewhat changed over the decades you should eventually check out the newer albums as well.

Oh yes, im listening to dubhousing right now and i can totally get into this.

Not my fault, i blame you Pere ubu fans who constantly praise them but hardly ever post their songs.

Pere Ubu is a band.

lol i honestly thought Pere ubu was the name of their singer. :p:

Someone hasn't been paying attention. :rolleyes:

From a recent thread you started, no less...

http://www.musicbanter.com/1638725-post38.html

You might also want to check into David Thomas and Two Pale Boys and/or Rocket From the Tombs.


David Thomas and Two Pale Boys - live MTV
https://youtu.be/KhCCVKW2kjk


Rocket From the Tombs - Live 23.05.2012 Club Schocken Stuttgart D
https://youtu.be/3zN2Sj39_jE

I said hardly!

K', maybe it's a bit my fault, to be honest, i wasn't interested in Pere ubu until yesterday so i might have overlooked some post about them..