US vs. UK Friday Night Smackdown!

[Lancashire Fusileer]

funnily enough I was going to rant on and say music is far better/more interesting/more creative/daring your side of the pond at the moment. I also think whats happening in Canada has finally settled down and is interesting (I always thought it was all a bit forced/government sponsored before, but if Mahogany is owt to go by, oh wait, they might be Yanks)

But;
UK/Eire: BSP/Brakes. 65daysfstatic, SFA/Guff Rhys, Julian Cope/Thighpaulsandra, Robyn Hitchcock, Vashti Bunyan/James Yorkston..

US/Colonies: Animal Collective, CoCoRosie, White Hills, Joanna Newsome/all the nu-alt folk LPs I have, Comets on Fire/Howlin Rain/Akron-Family, Secretly Canadian label (all artists), Isota Records (all artists) Kelley Stoltz, Mahogany, Lansing Dreiden.

Oldies UK/Eire: Bunnymen, New Order, The Fall, John Cale, Eno/Roxy, all that late 70s art school stuff; XTC/Wire/Doctors of Madness-Richard Strange/MagazineI Ludus/Maximum Joy. And Basil Kirchin.
Oldies US/Colonies: GBV, Velvets, Garage, Jerry Lee, Chuck Berry, Talking Heads, Funkaldelic/Clinton, Beefheart, Jonathan Richman, Steve Reich.

AND (Northern) Europe is kick-ass (pardon my Americanism) right now...
Appie Kim, Hospital Bombers, Anssi 8000, Harmwierda, Adept, About, The Morr Music Label, The Nasoni Records Label, Vox Von Braun, THe Sugarettes, Jackson and his Computer Band, the Wot Nxt Label, Jason Roberts, Daniel Agust.

Europa oldies: All of Krautrock, Magma, Abba, German porn soundtracks, East German pop

i think the idea is to cut it down
anyhow jonathan richman is neither split up or dead

neither are the Fall I suppose, but I couldn't dispense with any of it- ah

[sinned]

A public service announcement for Manplow (and others), don't bother with that Leonard Cohen album.

[BuffaloChunk]

US (present) - Cursive, Buffalo Tom, Superchunk, Goo Goo Dolls, Patty Hurst Shifter

UK (present) - British Sea Power, the Cribs, U2, Elvis Costello, Teenage Fanclub

US (past) - The Replacements, Minutemen, Husker Du, Paranoid Lovesick, Nirvana (4 of the 5 bands had a member die)

UK (past) - Queen, ELO, Kinks, Kate Bush*, the Who

* No idea, is she still performing?

[m1573r_g4v]

us history is tricky, but here are my selections. will think of uk ones later.



spike jones and his city slickers. the story i got is that he followed his dad to work one day and started playing the railway tracks there. mastered a spazzmodic sound which would resonate through the work of hanatarash, kletka red, etc. also soundtracked donald duck's nazi episode.



the legendary stardust cowboy. man behind paralysed - two harrowing minutes of demented hollering and bugle action with detuned geetar and free drumming. makes sex pistols et al sound like sting's lute project and could be mankind's finest musical achievement to date.



gg allin and the scumfucs. don't care so much for murder junkies et al as none of them captured much of that gg 'if you try to leave, i'll get to the door before you' spirit. scumfucs stuff sounds as if it was recorded on selotape from a studio across the road - when a shit guitar bit rattles out of the mix the hairs on my neck go "whooo!". you just know that spelling mistake in the title was a genuine mistake too.



the shangri-las. pop group i'm pretty attached to - they were produced by shadow morton who picked them up on the way to a business meeting. sounds like your sister and her mates singing into a hairbrush in front of the mirror. they did leader of the pack, a brilliant track with motorbike noises all over it which eventually ended up on a brill series of lurpack ads.



ultramagnetic mcs. they were responsible for the grittiest beats of their era and kool keith's wonderful stuttery flow which took us away from tedious "ho-tel, mo-tel" type stuff.

[Lancashire Fusileer]

argh! Kool Keith & Stardust Cowboy! class!

[Manplow]

GG Allin was so gross. I had a friend in high school who was obsessed with him... Sometimes you just have to see a video of a grown man taking a shit on stage to really believe that someone somewhere is actually doing it.

[m1573r_g4v]

then penetrate his brother with it.

[waterpistol]

Neil Young (OK, Canadian, but still)

US Now: Rufus Wainwright, Hidden Cameras (yeah yeah, I know they're Canadian)

What if the question had been, US vs. European bands, and I named British Sea Power under European and put, yeah yeah I know, they're English. Lame.

It does matter. Make the effort and distinguish us please.

Whoops, I forgot Leonard is Canadian. Well, for purposes of discussion we'll count Canada as part of North America and The Republic of Ireland as part of the British Isles.

And along the same lines, U2 is not a UK band. Not even for purposes of discussion. They're an Irish band.

[dan]

UK now: BSP, Mojave 3, Primal Scream, Spiritualized, Teenage Fanclub

US now: Dinosaur Jr, Flaming Lips, Lemonheads, Wilco, Yo La Tengo

UK past: Biff Bang Pow, Jesus & Mary Chain (dont count the reunion), My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive

US past: Big Star (same for J&MC), Byrds, Dream Syndicate, Galaxie 500, Red House Painters

[keithfleming01]

I'm glad The Byrds finally got a mention though I'm not wanting to tell other people what to choose,its just that nobody's mentioned The Pixies or The Ramones yet.I thought long and hard about this one and found it too hard,the quaulity/qauntity of output average (or ratio).Some bands made one or two brilliant albums but others have made five or six pretty bloody good ones.Its got me beaten.

[Manplow]

Honorable mentions:

The Americas (now) - Stephin Merritt, Black Moth Super Rainbow, of Montreal, Yo La Tengo, The Mummies, Flaming Lips (I almost hate to give them props but they do put on a really good show)

The Americas (then) - Mama Cass, Love, Talking Heads, Olivia Tremor Control (but I guess they're touring again?), Iggy

Britain and related colonies (then)- Split Enz, Buzzcocks, T. Rex, Adam & the Ants

I haven't been keeping up with that many modern British bands to be honest. I'd say Radiohead is probably the most popular English band in America (maybe a close second to Coldplay) with my age group at least. Personally I think they're alright but my tolerance usually doesn't last for a whole album. Especially the records much past Ok Computer.