Topic: Your LAST.FM Weekly Top Three

[alan nagsworth]

Yes, Oneida are ace, and Happy New Year is great!  Up With People is hard to beat.

It is! It's even better since I worked out the lyrics the other day:

Sunlight shines on the top of the trees,
The highest hills feel the sweetest breeze.
You've got to get up to get free.

Open your eyes, the things you see
Are determined by the height of the ground you seize.
You've got to get up to get free!

Fucking top notch by all standards, the lyricism on that album is awesome but that one song blows it all out of the water. FANTASTIC.

I'll check out that vid later, just about to get ready for work.

[Artemis]

Wow, those lyrics are great. Never heard of them. Am about to change that.

[Neil]

ORSM.  Tell us how you get on.  The Wedding is a great record too.

ALAN: I only just noticed you had Boredoms at #3.  Yes, Vision Creation Newsun is AWESOME.  Nice one Alan!

[The Plaque Goblin]

Oneida - $50 Tea (from Secret Wars)

[alan nagsworth]

ORSM.  Tell us how you get on.  The Wedding is a great record too.

ALAN: I only just noticed you had Boredoms at #3.  Yes, Vision Creation Newsun is AWESOME.  Nice one Alan!

Cheers. It is a wonderful record, nice for headphones and spacing out.

Expect an Oneida binge fairly soon, I've got 2 weeks off work as of Tuesday and the other day I downloaded another four of their records. On quick listen the other day, turns out they're all pretty fucking amazing. One of the best songs I heard was...

Oneida - $50 Tea (from Secret Wars)

...this song, funnily enough! Good on ya for making that publicly accessible Plaque Goblin, it's grrrreat.

[ziggy starbucks]

1) Shirley Collins/with Dolly Collins and Davy Graham (37+31+30) 98   
2) Sandy Denny 91    
3) Wire 30

Lots of Shirley Collins this week. Her stuff with sister Dolly is great especially Anthems in Eden, the 'A side' of the record is a 30 minute song cycle about England before the first word war and its perhaps my favourite 30 minutes of music. Its a joy. I also recommend the folk/jazz album she did with davy graham Folk Roots, New Routes

Delete Delete Delete pointed me in the direction of the Sandy Denny box set A Boxful of Treasures. The first 3 cd's are ace, her Fairport/Fotheringay/early solo work is all brilliant. Her solo work became a bit middle-of-the-road towards the end.

I like Wire, the band. The tv program, The Wire, is something that's passed me by. I have a best of with 31 tracks on it, one of which strangely didn't make it to last.fm. Outdoor Miner gets 10/10.

[alan nagsworth]

1. Oneida (52)
Hooray! Got most of their back catalogue, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Oneida binge ahoy!

2. Oceansize (21)
Whenever Oceansize peaks high in my charts it's usually down to their debut album Effloresce. It's kinda post-hardcore meets gorgeously textured prog. A band unshy of drifting away from the vocals into beautiful intrumental sections, thundering into some raw, meaty heaviness and back to lush ambience. Most of the tracks range from 7-9 minutes in length but it is by no means wasted time, the last song 'Long Forgotten' is fucking beautiful. One for the 'I Got Chills' thread methinks.

3. Deltron 3030 (19)
The best hip hop album I've ever heard BAR NONE. Seriously incredible record about life in the year 3030. Dan The Automator's (inter)stellar production never fails to hit the spot with me, the man's a goddamned hip hop titan. It's one of those records that begs to be played all the way through with no interruption.
"Be there for the rap battle! It'll blow your socks off. It's one of those things where man versus machine! Machine versus woman! Woman versus your mother! Be there... it's... instupicuousss!


So is Last.fm back on the air now? The error banner has gone from the top of the page but on profiles the 'Tracks Scrobbled' statistic has disappeared... so who knows..?

[buttgammon]

3. Deltron 3030 (19)
The best hip hop album I've ever heard BAR NONE. Seriously incredible record about life in the year 3030. Dan The Automator's (inter)stellar production never fails to hit the spot with me, the man's a goddamned hip hop titan. It's one of those records that begs to be played all the way through with no interruption.
"Be there for the rap battle! It'll blow your socks off. It's one of those things where man versus machine! Machine versus woman! Woman versus your mother! Be there... it's... instupicuousss!

Absolutely! I got that album the other day, played it on Sunday and I've concluded it is one of the best hip hop releases I've ever heard. But Deltron 3030 is fourth on my chart this week so, here is my top three:

1. The Apples in Stereo (32)

They've been here before and they'll be here again because they are a fantastic, fun band. New Magnetic Wonder and A Discovery of a World Inside the Moone are both particular favourites of mine.

2. Delta 5 (29)

A fantastic Feminist post-punk band who came from the same Leeds scene as Gang of Four and shared a scratchy guitar sound and very investigative and ever-so-slightly cynical political sensibilities.

3. The Long Blondes (22)

I got their new album, "Couples" recently and gave it a few plays to see what I made of it. It's by and large pretty good I think.

[boki]

Oceansize

Good, good lad.  Agree about 'Effloresce', although I think I'll really love 'Everyone Into Position' when I give it some quality time too.  Can I join your gang?  I may be the same age as a certain infamous banned curmudgeon, but I do own more hoodies than guitars.

Anyway...

1. i broke my robot  (20)

I had their album recommended to me by former CaB staffer Dave The Griff - kinda Snaes-y breakcore but a bit less hard work.  Think I'll stick it on again later.


2. Apparat (13)

My big discovery from last year's Glade festival, as I knew nothing about him at the time and just happened to wander into the Overkill tent part-way through his set.  I'd recommend his 'Walls' album to anyone looking for good bit o' melodic dance music for sure. Here he is  being Berlin's answer to Prince with 'Holdon':

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VXw0eO3k8g[/youtube]

3. Dif Juz (11)

I've got No Sleep to thank for this one, as I went over to EMusic and grabbed one of their albums right after he's played 'Hu' on CaB Radio.  Very much ahead of their time, this lot, and would fit right in with the post-rock crowd today.  Here's a live version of 'Hu' because you know you want it:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chp9otyHAfc[/youtube]

[Paaaaul]

1) Jim Noir - 401 - Saw him last week and his new album is fucking amazing. This doesn't take into consideration my mp3 player and CD player in my car where it is currently welded (already 3rd on my all time plays list after 1 week)
2) Weezer - 11 - I really like the new single, but not as much as Jim Noir.
3) Ultramagnetic MCs - 10 - I dug out Critical Beatdown after Neil mentioned it. I haven't listened to it for a while, but halfway through the album, I wanted to listen to Jim Noir again.

[Little Hoover]

1) Beulah 77

Well I'd already picked up one of their albums sort of by chance a couple of months ago, but only listened to it a couple of times, but then Marvin played a couple of their songs on the radio and so I made the effort to seek out more and him or neil pointed me to a peel session, and I've been loving them, Emma Blowguns last stand has also shot up to being my most played song.

2) Deftones 27

I got a bit nostalgic and listened to what used to be one of my favourite bands and listened to white pony, and I tracked down their most recent album, and they still hold up pretty well, I don't particulary like their type of music anymore, but they clearly have a good attitude.

3) Jeniferever 25

Saw them a couple of years ago at the peel in Kingston, my brothers band were a supporting act, and now I finally got round to listening to them, a group of ridculously young good looking swedes, doing quite emotive post rock songs a little bit like Sigur Ros in some ways but not really

Also worth giving a mention to Les Rallizes Denudes, only 9 plays, but that's because their songs are all over 10 minutes, someone else marvin introduced me too.

[Artemis]

1. Klashnekoff (29). Almost exclusively the 'DJ Skully Presents... Focus Mode' mixtape. I do like a good mixtape, and never thought I'd hear one from the UK but this particular one is excellent. It won't appear much next week though, as I've been playing it to death.

2. Viktor Vaughan (15). AKA MF Doom. This is my second favourite Doom album after DangerDoom. 'Lactose and Lecithin' is just a great tune, as is 'Let Me Watch' and 'Saliva'.

3. Leona Lewis (14). Since Spirit is now an international smash hit, I thought I'd give it a listen. It's easy to sneer because of the reality aspect of Leona's success, but there's no disputing the girl can sing. I enjoyed the album more then I thought I would.

[Hank_Kingsley]

All rather 'big' names last week and quite a lot of plays, spending all day in front of the computer essay writing innit' :

Jesus & Mary Chain (100)- Absolutely love JAMC and had one of my periodic binges. Though that is mainly 'Barbed Wire Kisses' I was geeking on.

Devo (88)- I do like Devo, but I just happened to leave the first album on repeat by accident when I went out the other day. I wouldn't tend to listen to it roughly 8 times in a row. No offence to Devo or owt but that would probably send me mad.

Autechre (84)- I'm not a big fan of glitch or electronica or whatever you want to call it really. Except for Autechre, strangely enough. It's going to sound very boooring but they're great to have on in the background when you're trying to get some work done. workworkworkworkwork

[alan nagsworth]

1. Klashnekoff (29). Almost exclusively the 'DJ Skully Presents... Focus Mode' mixtape. I do like a good mixtape, and never thought I'd hear one from the UK but this particular one is excellent. It won't appear much next week though, as I've been playing it to death.

K! Lash! Ya-rasclat Nekoff! That is indeed a brilliant mixtape. I bought his official debut a while back (Lionheart: Tussle With The Beast) and it is very good, but my mate kept going on about how much better the Focus Mode CD was, and he wasn't wrong!

If you're into smart, conscious UK hip hop and also mixtapes, I'd highly recommend Virus Syndicate's Contagious: Volume 1 mixtape. And their own debut The Work Related Illness is the finest piece of grime I've ever encountered. Those boys are big tings, yo.

[Hank_Kingsley]

Ah, Klashnekoff...I saw him live quite a few times back in the day when Rawganics was still going strong. Not heard any new stuff for a while but he has a track called 'mad runnings' (I think...) which I remember being excellent.
'Murder' is a great song as well, nice dub/reggae element to his work. I shall have to dig out some of his stuff and give it a re-listen.

[Mindbear]

My top three this week is thus

1. Hank (39) - A total favorite of mine, Hank, and The Hank Collective should be fucking huge, but I spose such a small label, Weeping Truckers, isn't going to reach the world very easily. I'm listening to the new album that I'm not that in love with sadly, but it's been given to me in a rough version so perhaps it'll be wonderful when its been mastered.

2. Islands (36) - The new islands album took a little while to grow, but I love it! A bit more conventional in content, but it can't be denied that it's fucking brilliant. I shall always morn the Unicorns, which to my mind have made one of the best albums this decade, but I Feel Evil Creeping In comes close to being a replacement.

3. Why? (25) - I didn't know much about Why? so this is the most recent album Alopecia The Demos! and it's good..but I'd rather spend my time listening to Islands, or A Place To Bury Strangers.

[Vitalstatistix]

3. Why? (25) - I didn't know much about Why? so this is the most recent album Alopecia The Demos! and it's good..but I'd rather spend my time listening to Islands, or A Place To Bury Strangers.

So is this just literally demo versions of all the tunes from Alopecia? How does it compare to the proper album, worth checkin out?

[Mindbear]

So is this just literally demo versions of all the tunes from Alopecia? How does it compare to the proper album, worth checkin out?

I would say so, if you're a fan of Why? that is! Then again, I've barely heard the proper version so I can't really judge. I am a Why? idiot I'm afraid.

[The Argus]

I would say so, if you're a fan of Why? that is! Then again, I've barely heard the proper version so I can't really judge. I am a Why? idiot I'm afraid.

I'd definitely recommend checking out the proper album rather than just the demos.  Not heard the demos myself but I've read that they don't quite cut it in the way that the album does. 

My Last.fm (though I'm sure it's inaccurate this week):

XTC (22)
Got into them this year and they've gone straight to no.2 in my artists list.  What a band!  I just delved into their back catalogue headfirst and there's so much great stuff.  All of it brilliant.  I absolutely adore Skylarking and Black Sea but my favourite album at the moment has to be English Settlement - it's pretty much perfect, despite the fact I didn't enjoy it much on my first couple of listens (as is often the way with great albums, yet I never learn).  They're everything I like in music - passionate, unpretentious, and incredibly varied.  They've become one of my favourite bands now which caught me off guard because it's been awhile since anyone's come near my top five for a few years.

Why? (12)
I've already waxed lyrical about Alopecia previously in this thread.  It's brilliant and is my album of the year so far.

Shearwater/The Fall/Melvins (11)
Shearwater released a nice little murky rock album called Palo Santo a few years ago which still gets the occasional spin from me.  Don't need to say much about The Fall as it's all already been said in CaB - I only know a few of their "essential" albums but I think they're bloody excellent.  I listened to Melvins' Stoner Witch this week after reading recommendations here and on the Ween forum and enjoyed most of it though it was a bit of a headfuck. Probably need to give it another few listens.

[The Plaque Goblin]

1  Lost Sounds  90
2  Earl Brutus  25
3  The Flaming Stars  16

Even though the second two got played in the early evening of Sun. 13/4.

The Lost Sounds were the greatest band of the 21st century. That is all.

Download- I Think I'm Dead (2m:42s / 2.48Mb)
Track 6 on Rat's Brains & Microchips (2002, Empty)

Download- Radon Flows (3m:06s / 2.85Mb)
Track 11 on Rat's Brains & Microchips (2002, Empty)
Source page.

Download- Destructo Comet (2m:09s / 2.47Mb)
Track 2 on Lost Sounds (2004, In The Red)
Source page.

[Artemis]

K! Lash! Ya-rasclat Nekoff! That is indeed a brilliant mixtape. I bought his official debut a while back (Lionheart: Tussle With The Beast) and it is very good, but my mate kept going on about how much better the Focus Mode CD was, and he wasn't wrong!

If you're into smart, conscious UK hip hop and also mixtapes, I'd highly recommend Virus Syndicate's Contagious: Volume 1 mixtape. And their own debut The Work Related Illness is the finest piece of grime I've ever encountered. Those boys are big tings, yo.

Word. Thanks for the tip. I haven't heard 'Tussle' but do have 'Sagas' and it isn't a patch on the mixtape. I like the use of popular beats, the shortness of the songs and the way that the limited length means that great rap verses aren't padded out with sub-standard rhymes just to get to three and a half minutes and stop it being an 'interlude'. I particularly liked 'Black Rose Revisited' and what he did the Damian Marley's beat from Jamrock.

Currently being played to death is 'American Terrorist' by Lupe Fiasco. I find 'Food and Liquor' a bit patchy if I'm honest, but when it's good it's bloody good. 'American Terrorist' is a belter of a track, and so is 'The Instrumental'.

[Artemis]

Another update, and it's been a shitty week for music, I've not listened to much at all. My top three are:

1. Braintax (14). Major props to JPA for putting me onto this guy. Like most UK hip hop, the production values are crap but lyrically it's very good stuff. I like the political depth on several tunes of his from 'Panorama'. 'Syrianna Style' has been played a lot.

1. Lupe Fiasco (14). I said it before and I'll say it again: 'The Instrumental' and 'American Terrorist' are outstanding rap tunes. "don't give the black man food, give red man liquor / red man fool, black man nigga / give black man crack, glocks and tings / give red man craps, slot machines"

3. The Roots (9). 'Game Theory' was a largely superb album with a flow rarely heard on hip hop albums these days. 'Rising Down' is what I'm playing now, and although I've yet to form a proper opinion on it, I'm liking what I'm hearing so far.

[Mindbear]

Another week, another lovely chart

1. No Age (14)

That new album is fucking brilliant. I love No Age.

2. Tokyo Police Club (10)

I love that album too

3. Frightened Rabbit (8)

I didn't like them at first, but once they grow on you, they grab you by the throat. Huge songs. Huge!

[Hank_Kingsley]

1. Sly & The Family Stone (170)- I went on a bit of a binge with these chaps last week. They provide a nice 'ambience' when you're with a lady. That's all I'm saying.

2. Nick Drake (102)- That's mainly listening to the 'Time Has Told Me' compilation and then going back to the albums for some more. 'Time Has Told Me' isn't great, truth be told. Interesting, but not great. He really wasn't very good at interpreting other peoples music was he? The covers are rather dull. Oh well, his studio albums are ace.

3. Ryan Adams (79)- I'm so familiar with the songs they don't distract me when I'm working. God, that's a rubbish explanation for why my artist is in my top 3.

The rest of my top 10 are a bit more interesting but the statistics don't lie. That's what I had mostly been listening to last week.

[ziggy starbucks]

1)  The Zombies  88
2)  West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band 64
3)  Summer at Shatter Creek 48

a totally verbwhore inspired top 3. I listened to the zombies and west coast pop art because Hank Kingsley ^^ was listening to them and I'm a sheep. I'd heard of the zombies but nothing by them before, so Odessey & Oracle was a bit of a revelation. I'd never heard of WCPAEB and they're ace, especially A Child's Guide To Good & Evil.

Ages ago, a verbwhore (I can't remember who, sorry) send me an excellent compilation in a cd tree with My Neighbour's Having A Seizure by Summer At Shatter Creek. Its a brilliant brilliant song and I've been listening to a couple of their albums, which are both great. I recommend them.

[Hank_Kingsley]

Woo yeah! WCPAEB are awesome.

That is all.

[trotsky assortment]

My top 3 this week:

1.  Candy Butchers
Brilliant power pop band fronted by Mike Viola (who has since put out a couple of decent solo efforts).  If anyone here likes good power pop or singer songwriter stuff, check them out if you've not already done so.  'Hang On Mike' is a good a place as any to start.  I still want their self titled unreleased debut...

2.  Billy Bragg
Sir Billy needs no introduction from me.  I love most of his work, except perhaps 'The Internationale', but I'm hardly alone in that.

3.  Beastie Boys
I've played them a fair bit over the past year (on and off), but have got back into them recently after acquiring a bootleg recording of their Roskilde 98 show and buying 'The Mix Up' on a lovely bit of vinyl.

[alan nagsworth]

1. Sly & The Family Stone (170)- I went on a bit of a binge with these chaps last week. They provide a nice 'ambience' when you're with a lady. That's all I'm saying.

Do they make you Stand! (to attention)?

My top three's pretty weak as far as listens go, as I've been at Bang Face all weekend. Soon put that right though, gonna be all over the acid music this week.

1. MF Doom (12)
Decided I'm gonna buy a cd! The first cd I've bought since I got the internet back! (shame on me etc) The cd is Doom's Mm.. Food? album, as it's recently been reissued in shrink-wrap packaging with a sticker, a poster and an hour-long live DVD. Oh and of course the fucking seminal record itself! FOR A TENNER! AWESOME!

2. Cassetteboy (11)
Quick giggle at some tracks from The Parker Tapes before heading off to Bang Face. Did I mention I was at Bang Face? I don't think I did.

2. Luke Vibert (11)
Quick boogie to some tracks from Lovers Acid before heading off to Bang Face. Did I mention I was at Bang Face? I don't think I did.

3. The Smiths (10)
There's not much you can say about The Smiths other than they're a great band. Plus I didn't have any reason in particular for listening to them last week, just "hey, I fancy singing This Charming Man really loud."

[CaledonianGonzo]

1    Silver Sun  (57)

Prompted by them being mentioned in a thread on here a few days back and by a few PMs with that man Kingsley (again).  There are so many amazing b-sides from the singles off the first album (Gossip, Changing, Trickle Down, Streets Are Paved With Tarmac, Captain, Top Trumps) - certainly enough to secure their place in the upper-echelons of UK power-pop bands.  Ironically, the songs they're best known for - Golden Skin, Julia, (esp) that horrible covers EP - are among their worst.
 
2    AC/DC  (31)

Kind of falls into the 'no explanations necessary' category, but stirred up by an overwhelming feeling of Angus and Malcolm Young love after the recent announcement that they're back, back, back.  For preference, I favour the Powerage album and other tunes of that period - but I rate their last comeback single 'Stiff Upper Lip' as one of their finest singles.  One of the best rock intros ever, I'm saying.
 
3    The Last Shadow Puppets  (24)

A couple of runs through to see if it lives up to the hype.  It sort of doesn't, but it's by no means bad, either, so I'm sure I'll put it on again in the future.  Maybe one for the 'feeling guilty' thread, but I like a surprisingly high number of Alex Turner's compositions (Fake Tales Of San Francisco, Bigger Boys & Stolen Sweethearts, Riot Van, Mardy Bum, A Certain Romance, Flourescent Adolescent, 505, to be precise) and get the feeling that he's so far ahead of his contemporaries and immediate forebears that it's not even funny.  I like him more than Jarvis Cocker.
 

[alan nagsworth]

1. Aphex Twin (35)
The Daddy is back in my favourites. Been mostly listening to Melodies From Mars as it's such a gorgeous little record. Really sounds like it was made by aliens on some wasteland of a planet, from inside a large cave. Also been checking out the Ventolin record and the Girl/Boy EP. When I first discovered "IDM" it quickly turned into a raging breakcore obsession, so as quick as I was into Aphex, I was soon put off by his more simplistic music anhave gone a long time without listening to him. I feel so much more open-minded since coming back from Bang Face, I've been checking out loads of more minimal electronica like AFX and Kraftwerk... and am very much loving it!

2. Venetian Snares (26)
There's the raging breakcore obsession. Coming back from BF, the first thing I was craving was breakcore. So I dug through the extensive back catalogue of Mr Snares and found a couple of records I've not heard before, namely printf<"shiver in eternal darkness/n">; and Find Candace. They're both EXCELLENT.

3. The Young Knives (18)
Their first album is fucking brilliant. Sharp humour, tight instrumentation, great vocal harmonies... everyone thinks they're clean-cut nerds but really they're quite manic. A bit like The Beatles were really. They remind oe of Mclusky driven insane by office life and busting out to make music.