A thread about bands that you love

This deserved it's own thread.  I am working on my list now…

bearman wrote:
I'm sorta curious…how many of us can say we are "experts" on an artist's catalog? Some bands I own every single LP, have every single…I know their discography backwards and forwards. I've delved into the deep cuts, perhaps I've seen them in concert, etc. For example, I love Depeche Mode but have never bought stuff like "Delta Machine" or "A Broken Frame". So I wouldn't consider myself to know them as well as other bands. I love the Buzzcocks, but I don't own their last 2 LPs. So I wouldn't include them in my list. I wouldn't put the Velvet Underground in there either because I don't have any of the live LPs.

Here's a list of bands I can safely say I'm fully schooled in:

AIR
Air Miami
Arctic Monkeys
Belle and Sebastian
Best Coast
Big Black
Blur
Bob Mould
The Boo Ridleys
The Breeders
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine
Catherine Wheel (I think there's only 2 b-sides I don't own of theirs)
The Charlatans UK
The Cure (aside from recent b-sides)
Death Cab for Cutie
Descendents
Dinosaur Jr
Eagles of Death Metal
Elliott Smith (I'm pretty obsessive when it comes to Elliott)
The Evens
Face to Face
The Feelies
Fischerspooner
The Germs
Heatmiser
Husker Du
Inspiral Carpets
Interpol
Jawbreaker
Jesus and Mary Chain
Joy Division
Kristin Hersh (all except the last LP)
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
Luna
Lush
Material Issue
Minor Threat (that one's fairly easy)
My Bloody Valentine
Ned's Atomic Dustbin
Peaches
Pixies
The Prodigy
Pylon
Queens of the Stone Age
Red House Painters
Ride
Shellac (includes early singles, some of their best stuff)
The Smiths
Social Distortion
The Stone Roses
Sugar
Supergrass
Throwing Muses

Julian, wrote:
^^ this is an interesting topic. I cannot comment on this on a drunken Michigan football Saturday but I will loop back around to this.

first of all we should establish what a "Master of Discographies" is… listening to all the albums by an artist one time does not a master of a discography make….

Read Bearman's OP if you do not understand what to post in this thread.  You should not get hung up on my clever thread title, nor should anybody post a band that they listened to ONCE.  Why would they?  How would that make someone a master?  Come on now. 

My list is made of bands that have been my favorites over the years, and that I have their complete discographies (mostly physical but some are a combination digital and physical releases) and have listened to and loved them several times over many years.  I did NOT include bands like Duran Duran, who I got into earlier this year and listened to their whole run once.  My iTunes library has over 4,300 artists in it, tons of artists did not make the cut when I compiled my list.

But there are no rules, post whatever you want!  Does that help clear things up?   ;D

Acid bath
Adventure
Aphex Twin
Alice in Chains
Asobi Seksu
Astronautalis
Atari Teenage Riot
the Beastie Boys
Bloody Knives
BLVCK CEILING
Celebration
Ceremony (shoegaze band not the other one)
Cloud Cult
Death Cab for Cutie
Death Grips
Deerhunter
Dope Body
Fixmer/McCarthy
Future Islands
Horse Lords
Interpol
Jamiroquai
Keoki
Lagwagon
Mates of State
mc chris
Modest Mouse
nine inch nails
Nirvana
NoFX
Pantera
Pink Floyd
Placebo
the Polyphonic Spree
Quicksand
Radiohead
RiFF RAFF
Screen Vinyl Image
Seal
Sebadoh
She Wants Revenge
The Smashing Pumpkins
So Solid Crew
Sonic Youth
Spank Rock
SPC ECO
Swans
Ultraklystron
Voxtrot
Weekends
Wildhoney
Wing Dam

well but you got to tell us something about them? for example how is asobi seksu? i heard they are a lot like MBV but you say you hate MBV and think they are crap so whatsup with that?

,

First off, this thread is for fun.  Secondly, you do not care about my opinion, so why are you asking me for it?  Thirdly, that is NOT what I said at ALL about MBV.  But thanks.  I said I did not LOVE them, but that I LIKED their music enough to have seen them live and even bought a t shirt (and that I even love a handful of songs).  I never said HATE or CRAP. 

My Bloody Valentine - I know I should love them; so many bands I love are influenced by them, but i do not.  I tried.  I have listened to everything they released but outside of a handful of songs (like "Glider") I do not love their music.  I like it enough to see them live (though the volume of the show at Electric Factory was disappointing) and to buy a shirt.

My point was if you were quizzed on a band, could you name a great live album or bootleg you own? Your favorite b-sides? We all have our favorite LPs. I can't tell you the last time I listened to The Cure's self-titled LP from start to finish (or "Wild Mood Swings" for that matter) but I can tell you I've listened to the outtakes for "Pornography" and I'm familiar with more than 90% of their output and can give you my thoughts on what merits closer examination. I think that's all I was trying to say. None of it is based on anything other than obsessive following and listening. If you want my opinion about why I think AIR's live music is better than their studio stuff, I'll bore you to tears with my thoughts. But I know them well enough and have seen enough tours to tell you that you can't fully appreciate that band until you've seen Nicolas Godin rock the bass on "La Femme D'argent" in concert. It's one of those sublime moments that makes them one of my favorite bands.

I own complete lp catalogs of many bands but I cant think of one that isn't missing singles, live lps or whatnot. I'll almost certainly own a few bootlegs, but I can't be bothered to obsess over every official release.  Equally hilarious: owning multiple versions of the same album. Why retain inferior product? Life's too short to sweat those details.

StoneTheCrow wrote:
I own complete lp catalogs of many bands but I cant think of one that isn't missing singles, live lps or whatnot. I'll almost certainly own a few bootlegs, but I can't be bothered to obsess over every official release.  Equally hilarious: owning multiple versions of the same album. Why retain inferior product? Life's too short to sweat those details.

I'm sure that not every person is a 100% completist. I'm about as close to a completist gets with Catherine Wheel, but there are like 10 copies of the destroyed promo "Judy Staring at the Sun" single with "Capacity to Change" as the b-side….and some French cardboard CD single with another tune I don't own. But really, that's being nit-picky. The point is that I am familiar with their material to a pretty significant degree. Nobody is THAT good. This ain't Roadies and we aren't the dude who is the Staton House band's archivist with trashed master tapes sitting around.

Grateful Dead. I own all studio albums and the 50,832 shows they played (including spinoff projects/solo acts) and I've spent my entire life listening to them.. .its all I listen to.

bearman wrote:Nobody is THAT good.

Plenty of folks on the Hoffman forum would disagree!  :D

A off the cuff, partial list of near-complete-plus-bootlegs, then:

Beatles, Zeppelin, Killing Joke, The Verve, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, MBV,  Kyuss/QOTSA, Radiohead, Type O Negative, The Replacements,  Bad Brains, Ozzy-period Black Sabbath, Tool, The Clash, Fields of the Nephilim, NIN, Faith No More…..

No worries… I personally was mainly counting LPs, EPs, official live releass and singles/B sides collections in my post…

I have never been one to buy singles from bands, and do not think they matter as much when the B sides are collected elsewhere.  Also, I would not count bootlegs. 

I changed the thread title.  Post about whatever you want.  Share your love.  It does not matter if you do not have every pressing of every release. 

For me the only bands that would really qualify would be:

The Grateful Dead
R.E.M.
The Psychedelic Furs

with the disclaimer that I never bought the last Furs album.  I should probably fix that.

Bands that I really loved and tried to track down everything:

16 Horsepower (Woven Hand)
Algiers (Partisan/Lyonnais)
Bob Dylan (I'm missing a couple of the new ones but I easily have over 100 Dylan discs)
Fishbone
Fugazi
Leonard Cohen
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Birthday Party/Grinderman/Einstürzende Neubauten…)
Morphine
Portishead
Tom Waits

gavroche wrote:
Bands that I really loved and tried to track down everything:

16 Horsepower (Woven Hand)
Algiers (Partisan/Lyonnais)
Bob Dylan (I'm missing a couple of the new ones but I easily have over 100 Dylan discs)
Fishbone
Fugazi
Leonard Cohen
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Birthday Party/Grinderman/Einstürzende Neubauten…)
Morphine
Portishead
Tom Waits

interesting.. I definitely think Dylan/Cave/Cohen/Waits are very related…love them all … all amazing in so many ways…today I tried to get the new Nick Cave at the record store and then target.. no dice….yet

missing that cohen show at MPP was one of the more stupid things i've done and i've done some really stupid things..

Deadhead wrote:

gavroche wrote:
Bands that I really loved and tried to track down everything:

16 Horsepower (Woven Hand)
Algiers (Partisan/Lyonnais)
Bob Dylan (I'm missing a couple of the new ones but I easily have over 100 Dylan discs)
Fishbone
Fugazi
Leonard Cohen
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (Birthday Party/Grinderman/Einstürzende Neubauten…)
Morphine
Portishead
Tom Waits

interesting.. I definitely think Dylan/Cave/Cohen/Waits are very related…love them all … all amazing in so many ways…today I tried to get the new Nick Cave at the record store and then target.. no dice….yet

missing that cohen show at MPP was one of the more stupid things i've done and i've done some really stupid things..

I think Nick Cave and later Tom Waits has a gospel thing which 16 HP and Algiers both have.  They fill a similar space for me. 

I'm kicking myself for the Cohen MPP show as well.  I had gone up to NYC to see him at the Beacon and got snobby about the venue and the price.  Now though, I'd be thrilled to go out there to see him.

I loved Fugazi middle school to high school.  I like a lot of punk, but just haven't ever felt the need to be a completest about most of it.

I'm not loving the new Nick Cave.  Along with Boatman's it is one of my two least favorite NC albums.

Spacemen 3
Spiritualized
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Misfits
13th Floor Elevators
Velvet Underground
Love

Grateful Dead….

There are other bands?

So if I "love" a band, but I don't own every single legal/illegal recording that means I don't really love them?

The thread title and purpose was edited.  Post whatever you want…