Wow, that pretty much redefines "raw deal!" How did they manage that? Were they high when they signed their contract? I know that type of thing happens all the time with big record companies, but to receive absolutely NO money?

I don't know how they or their manager managed that. They did, AFAICT, get royalties for vinyl or cassette copies. In 1988, though, even if CDs hadn't yet taken over the world, they were clearly going to. The Stone Roses has by now sold about three million copies on CD.

That's insane!

Yes. Even though the Roses eventually signed to a new label, the insanity of the Silvertone deal was the major force behind their breakup, and even now the resulting sense among the four band members (except perhaps Mani) that the Roses era was a painful time better forgotten, keeps them from contemplating a reunion which, as Mani said, the world is waiting for.

Peter

Did the Stone Roses make it in the US? What about James?

Yes (I think) and yes (I'm sure). James actually got some fairly mainstream airplay with Laid.

Jim

those who have listed them must go back and revise their lists immediately.

Whew! Glad I made the right call!! (I agree re: multi-album sets qualifying so long as they are really a single release...)

- Eyes Open (1992)

This only beat N'Dour's JOKO into the top 10 because of one song I could not live without -- Yo Li Li (Fulani Groove). The newer JOKO is a bit slicker and I might even like it better overall. Not sure.

I was lucky to see N'Dour twice in very pretty small venues when he toured to support Eyes Open. At that time the band was 14 people + N'Dour jammed onto a tiny little stage. It was incomparable. Looks like the "Super Etoile" configuration is now down to 9 members + N'Dour. I am keeping my eye open for West Coast appearances. They may be at WOMAD/US in August and could have some dates along with that trip. I may go to WOMAD, but the sets tend to be shorter, not like this 12-4AM NYC appearance .

The thing that always keeps Gabriel's So on top of my lists is Manu Katche's percussion. Now there's someone I want to see someday.

And it warms the cockles of my heart...

It's my job, man. It's my job.

(Cosmic Thing rules. Fantastic sailing soundtrack for larger crew on sunny days with winds 10-15. I only blame the B-52s CT for forcing me to dance with my favorite niece at a wedding and totally screwing up my back. Small price, I guess).

Jim

Okay, here goes...

1. Face To Face - Don't Turn Away
2. Hot Water Music - Fuel for the Hate Game
3. Alkaline Trio - Goddamnit
4. NOFX - White Trash, Two Heebs, and a Bean
5. Avail - 4am Friday
6. Bad Religion - All Ages (sort of a best of... but it counts!)
7. Crimpshrine - Sound of a New World Being Born
8. Minor Threat - Complete Discography
9. Operation Ivy - Energy
10. Tool - Undertow

Bah, this is impossible to cut to 10... so here's the rest that i just couldn't take off...

Screeching Weasel - Anthem for a New Tomorrow
Small Brown Bike - Collection
U2 - Joshua Tree
NIN - Pretty Hate Machine
Beastie Boys - Pauls Boutique
Metallica - ...And Justice For All
Fugazi - 13 songs

... and i'm sure i'll think of more later that i'd shoot myself for forgetting if i was on the island...

100 tracks.. that's a long list to write.. But I've always wanted to do it...

You guys might find this interesting. Here at MUSICMATCH, we have our internet radio product (Radio MX). Besides the custom radio stations, we have pre-programmed radio stations of all kinds. Everything from Alternative Rock to Big Band to Country.

In order to create a station, the radio team requires a minimum of 500 tracks in the playlist. There's some variation, but most hover around 500 tracks.

Now, think of your favorite genre...I bet you think it would be pretty easy to find the 500 tracks that really define that genre. Let me tell you, it isn't.

I built the Film Scores station (just launched this week). The first 100-200 were easy to get. Star Wars, Superman, Star Trek, anything by Bernard Herrman, lots of Danny Elfman, etc. I even got to 300 with not too much problem. But man, I really started running out of things. That's when I started to do research into the station. I was amazed at how much film music I had never heard but could not be left out. Max Steiner, Elmer Bernstein, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, etc.

Anyways, you should try this sometime. You'll be surprised with what you come up with.

What's the reasoning for the "500" number?

It's an arbitrary number we picked, based on how long a user might listen to a station. We don't want tracks to begin repeating. Also, a user will tend to listen to the same station for multiple days. This, combined with the fact that they can skip songs (up to a point), 500 seemed like a good number.

We have some stations around 300. Specialty stations have as low as 100. But, those are things like Christmas radio, which people won't listen to too much.

The Film Scores station launched with just over 300 tracks. We're still acquiring the rest. But, my list goes to 514 right now.

I have a heap more electronica albums kicking around, which could have made the list, but I wanted a bit of variety!

Almost made the list...
Kraftwerk - The Mix (My first electronic album. I only have it on Tape though)
Juno Reactor - Beyond the Infinite
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman
Underworld - Second Toughest in the Infants
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish
(Bit of a theme there, I cheated in my other list, cause Everything, Everything is a sort of compilation... The DVD is pretty good too)

Orbital - In Sides
Orbital - Snivilisation
Orbital - Satan Live (Only 3 tracks. Recorded at V96 I believe)
The Chemical Brothers - Surrender
LeftField - Leftism
Leftfield - Rhythm and Stealth
And most of the Reactivate Series, especially Reactivate 10

So there's another 12 for the non-rockers to check out, (Not that I have a problem with that Canadian Rock group in a hurry... =)

White trash two heebs and a bean
- truly a great album

I totally forgot to include Punk In Drublic as one of my choice
that album is badass.

Not in order and probably not correct, but I must sleep soon...

1. Pink Floyd - The Wall
The gapless version as played in a repeating loop on the empeg. How it was meant to be heard...

2. Rush - Signals/Grace Under Pressure (I can't--er, won't decide)
Too hard to select though, I suppose if someone absolutely forced me I would choose, eh, both.

3. Beethoven - Pastoral No. 6
So that during my time in the sun on this island, I would have opportunity to make-believe I was off in the most fantastic of rural settings.

4. The Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik
Given a high percentage of these tunes are more explicit than I would prefer, the "repeat playability" of this album is amazingly high.

5. Larry Norman - Only Visiting This Planet
I wish we'd all been ready. Chills.

6. Rogers & Hammerstein - The Sound of Music Soundtrack
A the quintessential album of my youth. I used to beg my mother to play the album again and again for me on our old Phillips player.

7. The Doors - LA Woman
Jim lives here if no where else...

8. 77's - Tom Tom Blues, Drowning With Land in Sight, Pray Naked
Can not choose one. Someone else will have to make that decision for me.

9. Daniel Amos - Shotgun Angel
While some would call this a country album and definitely not typical of their current stuff, I don't have to, but I find this is album to holds up well to over 20 years of listening.

10. Bruce Cockburn - Stealing Fire
So raw and yet lush. Every time I am entranced.

Curses for making us choose.

Backups:
Peter Gabriel - So
Like Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms, So, this is an album that bespeaks fine CD production.

Van Morrison - Hymns To The Silence
I love this collection.

The Police - Ghost In The Machine
One of my first concerts. If it wasn't for the French in GITM, Synchronicity pulls a very close second.

U2 - Achtung Baby/War
How to choose Passion or Artistic Direction?

Depeche Mode - Violator and The Cure - Wish
Should be played back to back. Outstanding.

Natalie Merchant - Tigerlily
Holds together well and captivates me.

Santana - Supernatural
Wow. I mean, really. Wow.

Supertramp - Brother Where You Bound
This album is so good. It is a shame it never made it into broader distribution.

Swirling Eddies - Outdoor Elvis
Almost a best of collection but there aren't really enough albums out for them to have a best of. I find myself listening to this one repeatedly more than any of their others.

Pink Floyd - The Wall
The gapless version as played in a repeating loop

In a repeating loop? That album messes with my head quite enough if I only listen to it once...

Peter

U2

Desert Island 10-

Silverchair - Frogstomp
Metallica & The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra - S&M
Pearl Jam - Ten
Pantera - Cowboys From Hell
Almighty - Powertrippin'
Rush - Moving Pictures
Holst - Planets Suite
Joe Satriani - Surfing With The Alien
Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd - Division Bell

and a further group for the Bomb Shelter

Metallica - The Black Album
Van Halen - Right Here, Right Now (Live)
Dave Lee Roth - anything at all
any early Tesla
Zao - Liberate Ne Te Inferis (to scare off cannibals)
Therapy? - that album with Screamager etc on it

okay, I'm losing it now

Hey, Jazzwire, have you heard of Severed Heads?

I have to say: I love the way everyone says "Yeah, I listen to all sorts of music" and then 90% of them end up talking only about classic rock and metal. And what happened to the 'all sorts of music'? Did we forget ballads? Electro? Baroque? Ska? Hip-hop? Jazz? Drum and Bass? Oh, yeah, those other 'all sorts of music' :-)

Have fun,

Paul

Nope, not heard of them before, I'll have to take a look later... =)

I have at least a few tracks from all those other listed types of music on my empeg, but I had to trim the list somewhere. =)

On a side note, I've got to comment that Way Out West's remix of PVD's For an Angel is -very- dj friendly and that bassline is wicked!

I just discovered it last week..

Something to cover each and all of my Turner-esque mood swings. In no particular order. I could never pick favorites.

#1 Future Sound of London - Accelerator
#2 The Prodigy - Experience
#3 Propagandhi - How to Clean Everything
#4 Underworld - dubnobasswithmyheadman, second toughest in the infants, pearl's girl, ok fine just everything everything (their last live cd)
#5 Fugazi - Repeater
#6 Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary
#7 The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Question The Answers
#8 Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother
#9 The Roots - Come Alive
#10 DJ Shadow - Preemptive Strike

#6 Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary

Word up. What a vastly underrated album. Sadly there's no room for it in my top 10 but I think I could fit it into my bomb shelter 20.

Should I get any of the newer SDRE stuff? I have LP2 but there's only one or two songs worth listening to on there... Haven't ventured into any of their recent material just yet.

ah hah! NOFX! white trash 2 heebs and a bean was a great album, but if i were to pick one NOFX cd for my desert island top 10 it would be punk in drublic. that album was so great.

have you heard the decline? if not, check it out. 18 minutes of punk rock epic.

btw, nice to see someone else out there has the same first name as me pretty uncommon..

> Yeah, I listen to all sorts of music" and then 90% of them end up talking only about classic rock and metal

Well, we do only get to choose 10 albums for this exercise. I have Frank Sinatra, Ice Cube, Enya, and Shostakovich on my Empeg and listen to them, but they don't make my desert island list...

In a repeating loop? That album messes with my head quite enough if I only listen to it once...

There's more to it than that...

The very end of side four has, faintly, if you listen closely, just before it cuts out at the end, a voice saying: "Isn't this where..."

And the very beginning of side one, has the remainder of the sentence: "...we came in?"

Had to think about this one for a while... Anyway, the albums I wouldn't like to be without are (in no particular order, and limiting myself to one per artist):

1) Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
2) John Cale - Fragments Of A Rainy Season
3) Tom Waits - Bone Machine
4) Lou Reed - New York
5) Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue
6) Giant Sand - Selections Circa 1990 - 2000
7) Radiohead - OK Computer
8) Steely Dan - Aja
9) Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks
10) U2 - Joshua Tree

Fighting for space (frequent listens and recent interests) would be:
John Cale - Paris 1919, Fear
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here, Animals
Tom Waits - Raindogs, Closing Time
Laurie Anderson - Bright Red, Strange Angels, Life On A String
Radiohead - The Bends, Amnesiac
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible, Everything Must Go
Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps, Ragged Glory, Zuma
Lou Reed - Transformer, Perfect Night, Berlin
The Band - Music From Big Pink, The Band
Steely Dan - Can't Buy A Thrill, Pretzel Logic
Giant Sand - Centre Of The Universe, Glum, Chore Of Enchantment
Wynton Marsalis Septet - "In This House, On This Morning"
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Miles Davis - Sketches Of Spain

(and probably many, many more...)

I thnk this list probably mirrors the order in which I loaded my empeg...
Bryan.

I have Frank Sinatra, Ice Cube, Enya, and Shostakovich on my Empeg and listen to them, but they don't make my desert island list...

I struggled with this. I mean, you want to have some variety on that island, right? Still, my few bits of classical didn't make it in until the "State Police 30"*

Then I start looking at possible subs like:

Shostakovich 11th Symphony (Stokowski) - if only for the 1st movement.
Cowboy Junkies - 200 More Miles
Lou Reed - Rock N Roll Animal (if for nothing but Intro/Sweet Jane)
Soundtrack - Until The End of The World (are soundtracks legal??)
Golden Palominos - This Is How It Feels
Sibelius - Symphony No. 2

I saw the mention of Cockburn's "Stealing Fire"...I could be tempted.....but I've already inflated (diluted?) the exercise. All I can say is that I have *no* plans, thankfully, to get stuck on a desert island.

Jim

(*State Police 30: this is where the cops show up to warn of approaching flood/hurricane/refinery fire and tell you that you have 30 minutes to grab what you can and go with the National Guard)

Lessee ... this is a first pass, not in any order, and not necessarily my penultimate list IMNSHO:

Radiohead: OK Computer
Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes
Bjork: Post
Tool: Lateralus
Frank Zappa: Lather
Rush: Exit ... Stage Left
Kevin Gilbert: Thud
Mike Keneally: hat.
Solti: The Planets
Chess (London Original Cast Recording)

Soundtrack - Until The End of The World

Ooo, now that's a great soundtrack! I think it definitely deserves a listen. It's got a cool feeling/mood to it. Not a bad mix of artists, either.

See.. i started with all sorts of stuff, drum and bass, classical, hip hop, jazz... etc... Then when i thought about the albums that really meant something to me that will always be classics in my head... those just dissappeared. I listen to every sort of music there is... but i think most people have a core set or type of music they grew up with that really stick with them. So just because our favorites don't encompass the entire music spectrum, doesn't mean we don't listen to all sorts of music.

#3... DOH! There's one i forgot. Definitely has to be on my bomb shelter list. Nice diverse list. All great stuff.

And yeah, the Decline is epic for sure. Nice to meet you Loren. =]

State Police 30?
hahahaha

More and more i'm thinking the regulars on here are quite like the characters from High Fidelity. All unapreciated music scholars

so who has their ass hanging out of their pants like the oh-so-esoteric jack black?

Ooo, now that's a great soundtrack!

I like other Wenders movies and soundtracks (like Wings of Desire), but, curiously, I really didn't like the movie that produced my all-time favorite soundtrack! UTEofW was too damned long and overly ponderous. What a soundtrack, though. Among other things, U2's title cut is their best song since "I Will Follow" IMNSHO.

I suppose I do wonder if I'd love the soundtrack as much if I didn't see the movie, though. Helps to have a little apocalyptic Wenders imagery parked in the recesses of the brain when listening to Nick Cave et al!

Jim

All unapreciated music scholars..... like the oh-so-esoteric jack black?

But the real Jack Black can play! Me, I'm just a groupie. Sniff!

Jim

(Just saw "About a Boy" , BTW. Reasonably faithful to Hornby's book. Liked it.)