SOUL ASYLUM (ABO #346)

SOUL ASYLUM
RUNAWAY SONGS: THE BEST OF

Mostly known for his worldwide hit Runaway Train, Minneapolis band Soul Asylum startet as a postpunk band bearing the influence of Hüsker Dü while they were produced by Dü's leader Bob Mould. They slowly evolved into some sort of an hybrid of alternative rock and folk slowly gaining big audiences. It's with the Grave Dancers Union album that they reached their peak in popularity before slowly falling into oblivion to finally split after their 1998 album (Candy from a Stranger). Dave Pirner got the band back together for 2006's The Silver Ling which is a fine album but shows close to no influences from their early years.
This 23 tracks compilations is not about the hits but about telling the history of a band that, however they never quite became a major attraction, knew (and knows) how to craft entertaining rock songs. Enjoy.

My SOUL ASYLUM Top Three
1 - And the Horse They Rode On in (1990)
2 - Grave Dancers Union (1992)
3 - Hang Time (1988)

My SOUL ASYLUM Bottom Three
1 - Candy from a Stranger (1998)
2 - Let Your Dim Light Shine (1995)
3 - While You Were Out (1986)

RIYL:
R.E.M., Hüsker Dü, The Replacements

CHRISTOPHE (ABO#345)

CHRISTOPHE

... ET TANT PIS SI J'EN OUBLIE

(1964-2008)

Christophe has hardly won his reputation of "serious singer". Songs like Aline, Les Marionnettes or Succès Fou made him look like he'd always been a variety singer. But it's all false. Christophe is some kind of a tortured singer. Most of his songs are in a typical melancholic spirit. But don't believe he only made sad and slow songs: he's also a great Rock performer and an astonishing great composer. His first top discography lives between 1973 and 1978. On LES PARADIS PERDUS album, lyrics are writen by Jean-Michel Jarre which make me think he should have stayed in the seat of writing lyrics. The music is composed by Christophe, which definitely confirm us that JM Jarre should have stayed on that seat...

After a harde passage in the 80s Christophe was back in the mid-90s with an unwaited technoid album that caught everyone wrongfooted. his following album the 2001 COMM'SI LA TERRE PENCHAIT is an outstanding come back in the classical Christophe melodic songs. This album definitely took him to the highest steps of respctablity. Christophe is now untouchable.

NB : Listen to Red Mountain, it's closely the same song as Pink Floyd's Careful With That Axe, Eugene

My Christophe TOP3 :

1. Les Paradis Perdus (1973)

2. Les Mots Bleus (1974)

3. Comm'Si La Terre Penchait (2001)

My Christophe BOTTOM3 :

1. CLichés D'Amour (1983)

2. Bevilacqua (1996)

3. Aline (1965)

THE TOY DOLLS (ABO #344)

THE TOY DOLLS
PUNK'N'FUN, THE STORY OF THE TOY DOLLS

Haaaa! The Toy Dolls! Seldom has a band been that silly! Lead by helium-voiced and guitar virtuoso Michael "Olga" Elgar (the sole survivor of the power trio beginnings) and formed in Sunderland in 1979, The Toy Dolls have never produced anything but fun melodic punk. Ok, their wacky sense of humour is very often below the belt but their ability to produce great singalongs in the 3 minutes format is something you don't meet everyday, it's fast-paced fun for all the family and a good way to pogo with a big smile on your face!
Not all of the Toy Dolls albums are memorable and the band has been repeating itself quite a lot in its 30 years in business but when a tune is good, it's so damn good it makes you wanna jump, freneticallt shake your booty and disturb the neighbors by playing it louder than you ought to. Just for that reason, and because I feel too few people know how delightful Olga & Co can be, this compilation was an absolute necessity and, so, here it is: punk'n'fun, the story of the Toy Dolls. Enjoy!

My TOY DOLLS Top Three
1 - Orcastrated (1995)
2 - Fat Bob's Feet (1990)
2 - Dig That Groove Baby (1982)

My TOY DOLLS Bottom Three
1 - Anniversary Anthems (2000)
2 - Bare Faced Cheek (1987)
3 - A Far Out Disc (1985)

RIYL:
The Dickies, The Adicts, The Adolescents, Peter and the Test Tube Babies

UNMANKIND (VAC#036)

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UNMANKIND

(a selection from outer space)

Here's another themed Baistophe. This theme has been chosen for me by SFP and it was 'extraterrestrial'. I thought it would have been an easy work as it must be a well represented theme, but it wasn't really. Finding good songs about extraterrestrials is not particularly an easy job to do, especially if you don't want to drop into to much conventional tracks, including space rock, metal or psychedelic. Some technoid songs are also well represented in this outer-spaced theme. I had to put all together as much different genres as possible. And then the most difficult was to make them work together. And that's what I took. This is surely not what anyone expected for such a theme, even for me, but it's a good thing this compilation finally is.

I had made a mistake on the back cover in the file I sent you, I've corrected it on this post.

Just click on the picture to find the right one.

BOB DYLAN (ABO#343)

BOB DYLAN

AN AMERICAN HISTORY

(1962-2009)

I won't present Bob Dylan as anyone knows him very well. Even his music is quite well known, especially the hits. Making a Baistophe of Bob Dylan could have been a useless work as many other best ofs have already been done officially. his 3 volumed 'Greatest Hits' can then be considered as a good best of. Also his latest 'Dylan' best of is one other of those really great compilations. The fact that making a best of Bob Dylan would have made nothing really different than a Greatest Hits (understand 'his most popular songs') has made our dear contributor Burns consider this work in a different perspective. This Baistophe is then not a real best of. You should consider it like a 'best of his obscur songs'. This Bob Dylan compilation is then a real good complement to any official compilation. So, if you only know his best work and want to discover more from that genius, listen to this. If you only want his hits, I just can advise you to go and look here.

Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead Highway 61 Revisited

agratefulmule | MySpace Vidéo

Bob Dylan - Sara
envoyé par sadeyes67. - Regardez la dernière sélection musicale.

BEN FOLDS (ABO #342)

BEN FOLDS
A FRIENDY FACE IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Often compared to Billy Joel, Joe Jackson or even Elton John, Ben Folds is a beast of its own kind. Sure, his efficient pop songwriting can make some people dismiss him as a major artist but didn't Burt Bacharach, Cole Porter or Lennon & McCartney got praises exactly because they were able to make songs with melodies simple enough that you can sing them in your bathtub?
It seems to me that, nowadays, that pseudo-complexity and weirdness are too often regarded as qualities while, and people who've ever tried to write songs know what I'm talking about, writing pop songs is not as easy as it seems and, adding it a grain of salt as Ben does, deserves more praise than most weirdo-artists do.
So, on "a friendly face in the neighborhood", Baistophe's compilation covering Folds' whole career, you should not expect anything but top notch songwriting and arrangements and great singalongs. I dare you not to smile a dozen times listening to this double set, I dare you!

My BEN FOLDS (FIVE) Top Three
1 - The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner (1999)
2 - Rockin' the Suburbs (2001)
3 - Whatever and Ever Amen (1997)

RIYL:
Joe Jackson, The Beatles, Billy Joel and good pop music in general.

NILS PETTER MOLVAER (ABO#341)

NILS PETTER MOLVAER

WINDOWED

(1997-2009)

Jazz has nowadays become a much more underground music than ever before. So often considered unfairly as an elitist music, it has prove to show how it has evoluate. This evolution has been the hardest to get because of conservative purists. Not as hard as for classical music but much harder than for pop/rock music.

Nils Petter Molvaer is one of those talented Jazz musicians who managed to cross the forbiden limits of pure Jazz. The union of his beloved traditional Jazz with the most modern electronic music is one of the greatest enlightenments of this new century.

I'm sure that Miles Davis wouldn't have deny this filiation and I hope you won't either!

With only 5 "real" albums (plus 1 live, 3 remixes and one OST), NP Molvaer has enhanced Jazz like so few others did.

My NP Molvaer TOP :

1. Solid Ether (2000)

2. Hamada (2009)

3. Khmer (1997)

4. ER (2005)

5. NP3 (2002)

THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES (ABO #340)

THE MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES
WHO'S YOUR DADDY?

I really tried to keep this Mighty Mighty Bosstones' compilation a single disc but, listening to all those albums I let collect dust on the shelf for years (shame on me!) I soon realized that would be an near impossibility. I managed it anyway making what I feel is a highly entertaining and instructive introduction to this awesome band.
For those wondering who these chaps are, they're one of the most influencial bands of the early 90's punk/core/ska scene, a band which helped establish a genre (skacore) other formations such as Murphy's Law or Fishbone had created.
Formed in 1983 but only releasing their debut album (Devil Night's Out) on the indie label Taang! records in 1990, the Bostonians cooked a tasteful mix of hardcore punk, ska and metal which slowly evolved into something mellower as shown on their major hit album "Let's Face It" (1997) and its follower "Pay Attention" (2000).
Benefiting from the success of acts such as Sublime or No Doubt, the Bosstones suffered from the dead of the ska hype returning to a relative anonimity with their 2002 release (A Jacknife to a Swan) which displayed a return to a more muscular sound and finally calling it quits at the end of 2003. But the story wasn't over yet since the band reunited in 2007 releasing a rare tracks compilation and, finally, a new album Pin Points and Gin Joints (2009).
I hope you'll enjoy this 2 CDs set and that it'll make you want to hear more of this entertaining and unique band.

My MIGHTY MIGHTY BOSSTONES List
1 - More Noise and Other Disturbances (1992)
2 - Let's Face It (1997)
3- Question the Answers (1994)
4 - Devil's Night Out (1990)
5 - Pay Attention (2000)
6 - Pin Points and Gin Joints (2009)
7 - Don't Know How to Party (1993)
8 - A Jacknife to a Swan (2002)

RIYL:
Fishbone, Reel Big Fish, Murphy's Law, Madness

LADIES : B (VAC#035)

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LADIES : B

Second of my Ladies serie, the letter B was much harder for me. I first find it hard to have songs which only contain a first name. This was so often Oh Barbara or For Brenda, etc... This wasn't in my first contract so I had to dig deeper. Fortunately, B songs are not rare, but I think this will be much harder for some other letters like Q or X... I'm quite happy of what this compilation sounds like because it is not particularly the same profile as its predecessor. This one contains some folkier, jazzier songs. But you'll also find lots of rocking songs too.

AN PIERLÉ (ABO #338)

AN PIERLÉ
ANYTIME YOU LEAVE

Perhaps best likened to a Belgian Tori Amos, An Pierlé created a similarly theatrical and operatic brand of piano-based art-pop. Born in 1974, Pierlé embraced music, acting, and dance as a toddler and briefly studied classical piano before enrolling at Antwerp's Studio Herman Teirlinck Art School at age 17. During her third year she headlined her first solo program of original material, an event further distinguished by the transparent ergonomic ball she sat upon instead of a traditional piano stool, a component of her live performances from that point forward. In 1996 Pierlé entered her demo tape in the annual Humo's Rock Rally competition, ascending to the final round on the strength of her jury-favorite rendition of Gary Numan and Tubeway Army's synth pop classic "Are Friends Electric?" The song also emerged as a Belgian radio hit, but Pierlé shied away from the attendant hype, instead spending close to two years as a member of the touring company behind the theatrical production Bernadetje. A handful of solo concerts nevertheless kept her on the radar of pop music executives and fans, and in early 1998 Pierlé finally signed to Warner Music Benelux to begin sessions for her debut LP, Mud Stories, issued the following year. Composer and arranger Koen Gisen emerged as Pierlé's collaborator for her sophomore release, 2002's Brian Eno-influenced Helium Sunset. A subsequent tour featured a full backing band and orchestra, additions that also shaped 2006's White Velvet.

RIYL:
CocoRosie, Regina Spektor, Tori Amos

STATUS QUO (ABO#337)

STATUS QUO

FREEDOM

(1967-2007)

Making the Quo's Baistophe is not necessary a walkover. Status Quo's music does not particularly includes too many diversification. As a boogie band, Status Quo almost never went off their beaten tracks. But in a way some of their songs kept the audience attention and even typical boogie songs were worth the interest. With 28 albums, it would have been a surprise not to finish a good Quo compilation. To my big surprise, even 2 CDs were hardly wide enough to keep all the best songs I had chosen, and I think/hope that even this almost 160 minute Baistophe won't bore too many people.

My Status Quo TOP3 :

1. Dog Of Two Head (1971)

2. Quo (1974)

3. Heavy Traffic (2002)

My Status Quo BOTTOM3 :

1. Thirsty Works (1994)

2. In The Army Now (1986)

3. In Search Of The Fourth Chord (2007)