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Your favorite band's peak

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by bigpern23, Apr 2, 2014.

  1. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Drugs were a major factor in the 1960s and early 70s for many of the top bands being unable to sustain a creative peak of more than a year or so -- the Doors and the Airplane being two prime examples.

    Both dropped bombshell all-time classic debut albums and hit high points a few years later, as cited, but in between they dumped a few turds.

    Only titans like the Beatles, Stones and Hendrix seemed to be able to continually issue masterpieces even while fucked up to the gills.
     
  2. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    I like Summerteeth so much more than everything else Wilco has done. Summerteeth is one of my favorite albums.

    I've been trying to get into alt country with mixed results.
     
  3. Quiet Man

    Quiet Man Active Member

    Since nobody else has mentioned them:

    Something Else by the Kinks (1967)
    The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968)
    Arthur (or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (1969)
    Lola vs. Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One (1970)

    ...was a hell of a nice run of albums.
     
  4. godshammgod

    godshammgod Member

    Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Summerteeth are almost a 1a and 1b for me, even though they are very different albums. Summerteeth is much more accessible in my opinion, and is really closer to just straight indie rock than alt-country. Alt-country in general is a weird genre, and hard to define. What have you listened to so far?

    I'd argue that Wilco's peak began with Being There (which is pretty pure alt-country) and ended with A Ghost is Born. That album has misses, but it's highs are incredibly high and those songs are amazing live.

    My favorite band is either Radiohead or Modest Mouse. I'd say Radiohead's true peak ran from The Bends through Amnesiac. While I think In Rainbows is one of their best albums, Hail to the Thief, while good, was too inconsistent to be considered part of their peak. King of Limbs falls into that category too, inconsistent, but quite good.

    I love Modest Mouse's debut album, and to a lesser extent their last two albums, but objectively they had a two album peak: The Lonesome Crowded West and Moon and Antarctica.
     
  5. Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell

    Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell Active Member

    Don't forget Face to Face (1966) or Muswell Hillbillies (1971).
     
  6. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    That would have been a hell of a show.

    http://www.spin.com/articles/nirvana-secret-show-st-vitus-joan-jett-rock-hall-video/
     
  7. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    My thing with Uncle Tupelo/Son Volt/early Wilco and Drive By Truckers is that the lyrics carry me through the more country-leaning songs but aside from Summerteeth and the Jason Isbell-led DBT songs, I can't say I really am into it. But the band I found my strongest connection with was the Old 97s. Their sound appeals to me more.
     
  8. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    Love the Old 97's, have to see them live one of these days.
     
  9. Spartan Squad

    Spartan Squad Well-Known Member

    Giving Jethro Tull the Grammy was one of the greatest screw jobs.

    The Black Album creatively was better than And Justice For All because Metallica spent a little more time polishing the songs. AJFA was great and has the sound the fans loved, with the heavy solos, but there's a reason why it's dubbed "the imperfect masterpiece." The bass gets lost and the songs are way too long—which is partly why Metallica doesn't feature much from that album apart from One. The Black Album is more condensed and has a more mature sound overall. Yes, it doesn't have an instrumental which turned off some fans, but between Enter Sandman, The Unforgiven and Nothing Else Matters, there's a lot of good stuff on that album. It for sure is a bridge between the early favorites and the shift in the 90s, but I'd argue it is the peak for the band.
     
  10. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    "Creatively" and "spent a little more time polishing" are pretty much opposites.
     
  11. godshammgod

    godshammgod Member

    I always hear Old 97s on SiriusXM and I mean to listen to more of their stuff. They sound similar to Lucero, who I saw open for Drive by Truckers once. I didn't love them, but they are a hell of a live band. Very much in the vein of early Uncle Tupelo, which was pretty punkish. You might like Centro-Matic too.

    Like I said, I think alt-country is kind of a wacky genre. A lot of DBT is just straight ahead southern rock with the benefit of great lyrics, although lately they've been slipping in that regard. And looking at Wilco, YHF/A Ghost is Born are much closer to straight indie rock than country.
     
  12. Spartan Squad

    Spartan Squad Well-Known Member

    I see your point, but I disagree only in that I don't think something creative is what you put out in your first effort. I think it's a refining process until you have exactly what you want. Only when the finished product is out can it be judged on its creative merits.
     
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