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Bands you think were better before they got big


Barking Spiders

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3 hours ago, Shaggy said:

Japan were utterly dire before "Quiet Life".

Oooh, now you've done it.

I know it's all subjective, but I was lucky enough to see them several times before they became the immaculately groomed and coiffured playthings of Simon Napier-Bell and they were insanely good, brilliant even.  Those first two albums (and the Live In Japan EP) are still in regular rotation in our house.  I may listen to Obscure Alternatives again this evening now...

 

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Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Admittedly the first 2 albums were a little iffy, but the 3rd album "The Uplift Mofo Party Plan" album with the 'original' lineup of Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Hillel Slovak & Jack Irons was quintessential RHCPs - funky, psychedelic mayhem. Then of course Hillel croaked and Jack left and in came John Frusciante. The next album "Mothers Milk" was IMO a bit of a stop-gap and then along came "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" which made them megastars.

And then they were crap.

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8 hours ago, ezbass said:

Simple Minds and U2 spring to mind. The albums from both bands before they started playing stadiums had more urgency and were less overblown to my my ears, New Gold Dream/Sparkle In The Rain and Boy/War were high water marks for me.

Empires and Dance by Simple minds is a great album, I’m not bothered after that really.

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32 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

Oooh, now you've done it.

I know it's all subjective, but I was lucky enough to see them several times before they became the immaculately groomed and coiffured playthings of Simon Napier-Bell and they were insanely good, brilliant even.  Those first two albums (and the Live In Japan EP) are still in regular rotation in our house.  I may listen to Obscure Alternatives again this evening now...

 

Oddly enough, being a huge Japan fan, I’m a huge Polaroids onwards Japan fan, I’m not that fond of Quiet Life and haven’t heard any pre-Quiet Life output.

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29 minutes ago, keeponehandloose said:

Gotta say Elvis... his first 5 Sun Records singles paved the way for modern bands. Then he went global in 56 and influenced everybody but the Sun recordings were never equalled.

Mystery Train with Bills slapping - sublime!

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48 minutes ago, NancyJohnson said:

Oooh, now you've done it.

I know it's all subjective, but I was lucky enough to see them several times before they became the immaculately groomed and coiffured playthings of Simon Napier-Bell and they were insanely good, brilliant even.  Those first two albums (and the Live In Japan EP) are still in regular rotation in our house.  I may listen to Obscure Alternatives again this evening now...

 

Lol ok, I was a bit strong there......;)

I got into them just about the time of "Obscure Alternatives", which was rarely off my turntable, but I still often listen to "Quiet Life" and "Polaroids" (plus a compilation with some of their rarer work)  - they were unfairly categorised as an inferior Roxy Music at the time.  Not so keen on the later Chinese-y stuff. 

You were very lucky to see them live - Mick Karn must have still been using the Travis Bean then

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48 minutes ago, Shaggy said:

Lol ok, I was a bit strong there......;)

I got into them just about the time of "Obscure Alternatives", which was rarely off my turntable, but I still often listen to "Quiet Life" and "Polaroids" (plus a compilation with some of their rarer work)  - they were unfairly categorised as an inferior Roxy Music at the time.  Not so keen on the later Chinese-y stuff. 

You were very lucky to see them live - Mick Karn must have still been using the Travis Bean then

Yep.  The 'Bean.  They were amazingly talented and raw.  I find it a bit disconcerting what they actually turned into, but hey ho.

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7 hours ago, NancyJohnson said:

Big Country were in no way Skids v2; there was certainly provenance through Stuart Adamson, but this was a wholly new band.

The Crossing was a great album, truly wonderful and I'd happily put on record it's a more complete record than anything Skids put out.  Steeltown lacked the consistency of the first album, by the time The Seer came out I'd moved on.

I wonder if that depends on which Skids album is your reference point. I never liked Scared To Dance (too naive & basic-sounding) but got them properly them with Days In Europa & Absolute Game. To my ears The Crossing sounded like the natural follow-up to Absolute Game,  & would suspect a lot of the music was written around the same time.

Kind of agree about BC subsequently to that, Steeltown & The Seer lacked the cohesion & inventiveness of The Crossing, and by the time Peace In Our Time came out they were plainly being pushed to make music aimed squarely at US radio airplay.

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27 minutes ago, Bassassin said:

I wonder if that depends on which Skids album is your reference point. I never liked Scared To Dance (too naive & basic-sounding) but got them properly them with Days In Europa & Absolute Game. To my ears The Crossing sounded like the natural follow-up to Absolute Game,  & would suspect a lot of the music was written around the same time.

Kind of agree about BC subsequently to that, Steeltown & The Seer lacked the cohesion & inventiveness of The Crossing, and by the time Peace In Our Time came out they were plainly being pushed to make music aimed squarely at US radio airplay.

Days In Europa was the first album I bought in the 1980s.

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Guns N Roses. Appetite, which was recorded before they were big was excellent whereas the Illusion albums, done when they were probably the biggest band in the world were alright but nothing special imo. I preferred The Spaghetti Incident to either of the Illusions.

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14 hours ago, matski said:

Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Admittedly the first 2 albums were a little iffy, but the 3rd album "The Uplift Mofo Party Plan" album with the 'original' lineup of Anthony Kiedis, Flea, Hillel Slovak & Jack Irons was quintessential RHCPs - funky, psychedelic mayhem. Then of course Hillel croaked and Jack left and in came John Frusciante. The next album "Mothers Milk" was IMO a bit of a stop-gap and then along came "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" which made them megastars.

And then they were crap.

see, I really like Mother's Milk...possibly because it's the first tour i saw them on (several times - they seemed to tour it forever and kept coming back) and it's by far my favourite.  Like Blood Sugar, but not as much, then pretty much only Californication after that.  I'm with you on the Uplift Mofo Party Plan though - great album

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I agree on Simple Minds and Ultravox...

what about Hole? They are cringeworthy now but I still dig the first album... or maybe it's just the 16 years old girl in flannel shirt in me

 

 

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17 hours ago, matski said:

Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Admittedly the first 2 albums were a little iffy, 

I like the 1st 2 albums... Got into them after I heard "Hollywood" played on John Peel which I bought as an import 12". A friend brought the 1st 2 LPs back for me from the US in late 1985, and I finally got to see them at the Clarendon in Hammersmith in October '87 (their unofficial tour history page says this was cancelled - it wasn't. 5 of us went and paid £3 each to get in and it was much, much emptier than when we'd seen the Guana Batz!). We saw twice in Feb '88 at the Mean Fiddler on successive nights (Hillel Slovak was "indisposed" about halfway through the 2nd one and the other 3 had to continue without him - it was surprisingly awesome!), then again in the Electric Ballroom.

All of those gigs were amazing, despite some of the occasionally very dodgy lyrics - it was like seeing a punk Defunkt, which I guess was their plan. I'd never seen anything like it, with the possible exception of James Chance...

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Black Sabbath.  For me the first 4 albums created and defined the genre of 'Heavy Metal' but, for me, they went a bit off the boil apart from the odd song here and there.  Then Ozzy left and it wasn't BS any more, despite the name.

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