The return of a list!

Many moons ago I posted my list of my 50 favorite UK post-punk albums.

[www.trouserpress.com]

Looking at it again, I still think it's a dandy list, although there are a few changes in positioning, etc., I might make.

Anyhow, I now attempt the same list for the US. As before, my definition of post-punk is entirely arbitrary - i.e., I know it when I hear it - even more so for the US, since US punk is a much harder beast to pin down than UK punk, so it's much harder to figure out what is post. and no, I have no real criteria for why I consider one thing Post-punk and another New Wave, thus the Bangles are here but not the Go-Gos, but don't ask me why. And the timeline is somewhat broader than the UK one, which I cut off around 84. The US one extends further into the mid-80s ('86, more or less).

And so!

1. Mission of Burma - VS.
2. REM - MURMUR
3. Talking Heads - REMAIN IN LIGHT
4. Husker Du - ZEN ARCADE
5. X - LOS ANGELES
6. Replacements - LET IT BE
7. Minutemen - DOUBLE NICKELS ON THE DIME
8. Devo - Q. ARE WE NOT MEN?
9. Neil Young - RUST NEVER SLEEPS
10. Violent Femmes - VIOLENT FEMMES
11. Dream Syndicate - DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES
12. The B-52s - The B-52s
13. Wall of Voodoo - DARK CONTINENT
14. The Rain Parade - EMERGENCY THIRD RAIL POWER TRIP
15. Feelies - CRAZY RHYTHMS
16. dBs - REPERCUSSION
17. Polyrock - POLYROCK
18. Romeo Void - UNDERCOVER
19. Let's Active - CYPRESS
20. Laurie Anderson - BIG SCIENCE
21. Glenn Branca - THE ASCENSION
22. Prince - PURPLE RAIN
23. Sonic Youth - EVOL
24. Los Lobos - HOW WILL THE WOLF SURVIVE?
25. The 3 O'Clock - ARRIVE WITHOUT TRAVELING
26. Rank and File - SUNDOWN
27. The Residents - COMMERCIAL ALBUM
28. Pylon - CHOMP
29. REM - RECKONING
30. Husker Du - FLIP YOUR WIG
31. Black Flag - DAMAGED
32. Love Tractor - THIS AIN'T NO OUTERSPACE SHIP
33. The Suburbs - LOVE IS THE LAW
34. Robin Lane and the Chartbusters - SELF TITLED
35. Green on Red - GAS FOOD LODGING
36. The Bangles - ALL OVER THE PLACE
37. Lou Reed - THE BLUE MASK
38. Dead Kennedys - FRESH FRUIT FOR ROTTING VEGETABLES
39. Yo La Tengo - RIDE THE TIGER
40. Replacements - TIM
41. The Effigies - FLY ON A WIRE
42. Bad Brains - I AGAINST I
43. Dumptruck - POSITIVELY DUMPTRUCK
44. TSOL - BENEATH THE SHADOWS
45. The Cars - PANORAMA
46. The Blasters - NON FICTION
47. Neil Young - TRANS
48. 10,000 Maniacs - SECRETS OF THE I-CHING
49. Charlie Pickett - ROUTE 33
50. Holly and the Italians - THE RIGHT TO BE ITALIAN
50a. Fleetwood Mac - TUSK (ha! Weren't expecting that one!!!)



Post Edited (07-25-07 07:58)

Toppermost of the poppermost! Great list. Props for remembering the likes of Polyrock, Wall of Voodoo, "Trans," TSOL, and the Paisley Underground crowd.

I'd substitute "Wild Gift" or "Under the Big Black Sun" for "Los Angeles" tho. And speaking of Big Black, no "Atomizer"? I think we could lose Robin Lane for something like that, or the Gun Club's "Fire of Love" - Jeffrey Lee & Co.'s influence looms increasing large as the White Stripes cite them as their main inspiration.

The "Tusk" 45 was the only Fleetwood Mac record I ever bought - FACT. ("The future of music is New Wave and I love Gang of Four!" - Lindsey Buckingham)

Argh! The Gun Club! Completely forgot them. Also left off NEW VALUES by Iggy Pop!!!! Will need to revise...

Also had the wrong Romeo Void title - got confused. Wanted UNDERCOVER on there, although BENEFACTOR is a fine album.

Pogues "Rum Sodomy & The Lash"?

Kate Bush?

Great list/minor kvetching :

LET IT BE and TIM are both in my top 10 of all time, so TIM at #40 hurts me on a profound emotional level.

FLIP YOUR WIG is my fave Husker Du Record. WILD GIFT for X.

On certain days I could make an argument for SIGNALS, CALLS......over VS. (although I think I make that argument more for the cd reissue with Academy Fight Song/Max Ernst included)....but .....then again there are those other days when I wouldn't.

I'd cast a vote for that first Squirrel Bait record too and Soul Asylum's MADE TO BE BROKEN.

TIM should have been much higher, I agree. Just stuck it in at 40 as a placeholder and forgot to move it higher. Squirrel Bait was a near miss. Soul Asylum never did really hit me the way they did others, such as my brother, who can still almost get misty eyed talking about seeing Soul Asylum & Husker Du on the same bill back in the 80s, and Chuck Berry showed up at the club in a huge white fur coat and spent the whole night looking completely bewildered.

Did he have a shit eating grin on his face?

> Chuck Berry showed up at the club in a huge white fur coat and spent
> the whole night looking completely bewildered.

I bet everyone who saw him there did too.

I've long heard that Soul Asylum was a stunning live act in its '80s prime, and that the band's stage show went downhill in the wake of Grave Dancers Union. Well, my sister and I saw SA in a small town in South Dakota in 1999 (we were lucky to find anything worth doing that weekend). Judging from that late-'90s show, if what I've heard is true, then SA onstage in the '80s must have been nothing short of a religious experience.

I saw Hüsker Dü on the Warehouse Tour, and that show was utterly devastating. Drove all the way back home from Denver speechless. (Ask anyone who knows me: it's rare for me to be speechless for an hour-long drive, even if I'm the only one in the car.)

I can confirm late '80s Soul Asylum as blistering. Saw them circa Hang Time.

> that late-'90s show, if what I've heard is true, then SA
> onstage in the '80s must have been nothing short of a religious
> experience.
>


possibly the best live band i've ever seen!

shame about their records...



Post Edited (07-26-07 20:38)

Ira shrugged it off in style. Stuff like that happens to him all the time.


i told him i loved him and he took a swing at me;

that kind of stuff has been happening a lot to me lately.

michael baker wrote:

> Ira shrugged it off in style. Stuff like that happens to him
> all the time.
>
>
> i told him i loved him and he took a swing at me;
>
> that kind of stuff has been happening a lot to me lately.

You forgot to get him drunk first! ^_^
And while their later antics make me reluctant to mention them, I think Flipper's "Album" would rate a place on this list, as well as Flesheaters' "A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die" and the aforementioned Gun Club and Big Black waxings (one of the first few Naked Raygun albums could probably replace the Effigies as well).
But otherwise some good calls there!
p.s. was the lack of compilations on the list intentional? (I could think of quite a few that could make it on there).

Way back when I was an editorial peon (copy chief) working in radio for Ira, I recall a phoner with Pirner by a great journalist and friend, Steve, who (post-interview) relayed to Ira that Pirner wanted to make sure that Steve sent his love along to the great Ira Robbins. Ira shrugged it off in style. Stuff like that happens to him all the time.

Yikes. I just realized I also forgot the Meat Puppets on that list.

Erik - I fear your story paints me in an unwelcome light - I think the world of Dave Pirner, and would have been very pleased that he would send his regards. maybe i didn't convey that, but that's my instinct.

and, yes, Soul Asylum in their long-haired prime - with Grant Young on drums - were riveting and joyous. Listen to the song "Woah" and imagine it at ear-splitting volume with all the stage energy implied. that was SA. first saw them valentine's day '87 at Maxwell's and it definitely changed my life.

I certainly didn't mean it in that way Ira. . . I was trying to paint you in a "cool" not "unwelcome" light. And sometimes my ironical nature on this forum distorts things. I meant that you acted normal; if it were me, I would have puked, fainted, or freaked out.

> if it were me, I would have puked, fainted, or
> freaked out.


ah, so you've experienced pirner's overwhelming body odor, too?

Kudos on the list.

Nicely done. VS. is US post-punk (all it was, all it would be).

I do so enjoy Holly & the Italians at 49 & Fleetwood Mac at 50- which reminds me that Lindsey Buckingham's GO INSANE was so post-punk it was almost Transvision Vamp (or at least the Wendy James solo album where EC wrote all the tunes)...



Post Edited (07-27-07 21:56)

I blame Winona Ryder. When he started marinating his nether rod in her squish mitten the band went downhill.