August 2020 Challenge Thread - The Dog Days of Vinyl Playing
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tvham
Well-Known Member
Day 19: World Humanitarian Day - Play an album by a socially conscious artist.
Glen Phillips - Swallowed by the New
Some of you probably know that I’m a huge Toad the Wet Sprocket fan. This is the most recent album from their lead singer Glen Phillips - since the shelter in place started he has been doing free shows on Facebook every Monday, Wednesday, Friday to raise money for charity. I don’t know the exact amount but based on how much is donated each show I’d say he’s raised over $100,000 for many worthy charities.
Glen is a good guy and deserves a lot more credit for what he’s been doing!
Glen Phillips - Swallowed by the New
Some of you probably know that I’m a huge Toad the Wet Sprocket fan. This is the most recent album from their lead singer Glen Phillips - since the shelter in place started he has been doing free shows on Facebook every Monday, Wednesday, Friday to raise money for charity. I don’t know the exact amount but based on how much is donated each show I’d say he’s raised over $100,000 for many worthy charities.
Glen is a good guy and deserves a lot more credit for what he’s been doing!
Wicked Dreamer
Well-Known Member
Day 19: World Humanitarian Day
Halsey - Badlands
Throughout her career she’s been an activist for mental health awareness and just a couple months ago she created a fund to amplify Black creators and volunteered as a medic in the L.A. protests against police violence.
Halsey - Badlands
Throughout her career she’s been an activist for mental health awareness and just a couple months ago she created a fund to amplify Black creators and volunteered as a medic in the L.A. protests against police violence.
imtheocean
Well-Known Member
Day 18 - Terrible Lyrics
Eddie has written some amazing, thought provoking lyrics over the years. The lyrics to Johnny Guitar is not included in this list. They only played this 17 times for reason. And researching it I realized I was at one of the shows where they did, but blocked it out of my memory.
"Johnny Guitar Watson staring at me
Riding on three wheels, a woman on his knee
With a leg under a red dress I wish I could see
Further North a warmth alive & lingering
Now Johnny he be having lots of women
Oh The reason he be smiling known to him"
Pearl Jam ~ Backspacer
Eddie has written some amazing, thought provoking lyrics over the years. The lyrics to Johnny Guitar is not included in this list. They only played this 17 times for reason. And researching it I realized I was at one of the shows where they did, but blocked it out of my memory.
"Johnny Guitar Watson staring at me
Riding on three wheels, a woman on his knee
With a leg under a red dress I wish I could see
Further North a warmth alive & lingering
Now Johnny he be having lots of women
Oh The reason he be smiling known to him"
Pearl Jam ~ Backspacer
imtheocean
Well-Known Member
Day 19: Humanitarian
Going with Neil as well. This album and Re*Act*or were direct outcomes of Neil trying to communicate with his son Ben, who has Cerebral Palsy. This in turn led to the creation of the Bridge School for kids like Ben, and lots of funding / research done to assist kids like Ben with communicating & socializing. Being able to attend a few of the Bridge School Concerts and see the results of this passion is definitely a live music highlight for me.
Neil Young ~ Trans
dhodo
Well-Known Member
This might be the best example of an album that I love everything I read about it but as much as I want to love it, it just doesn't click. I'll keep trying. Maybe someday. Super cool concept nonetheless and great choice.
imtheocean
Well-Known Member
Yep, I get that. I think what got me was the version of Transformer Man on unplugged, and realizing it was about Ben not being able to verbally communicate and having to communicate through other methods. That brought me back to listening to this album more.
"Transformer man, transformer man
You run the show
Remote control
Direct the action
with the push of a button
You're a transformer man
Power in your hand
Transformer man, transformer man."
i love johnny guitar and think it is the most musically interesting thing on backspacer, and wish it got played more, not less. and on this record at least i think ed pulled back a little bit from what he's used to doing lyrically. for johnny guitar, the words came to ed while staring at this album cover above one of the urinals he was using in their studio space:
"In the toilet, the wooden paneling next to the urinals is completely plastered with the cover artwork of old albums," reports Vedder with a grin. “There's a guy named Johnny Guitar Watson on the cover at about eye level. You have to put him somewhere between Barry White and Buddy Guy, and he always had slippery record covers on which the women are not necessarily lightly dressed, but let's say they look pretty interesting ... I then imagined introduce a guy who is drawn to the girl on the cover and wonders why she is messing with Johnny Guitar, when he obviously has ten girls on each finger. Why would anyone want to be one of Johnny Guitar's lovers, one of hundreds, when you could be the only one for me?"
imtheocean
Well-Known Member
i love johnny guitar and think it is the most musically interesting thing on backspacer, and wish it got played more, not less. and on this record at least i think ed pulled back a little bit from what he's used to doing lyrically. for johnny guitar, the words came to ed while staring at this album cover above one of the urinals he was using in their studio space:
"In the toilet, the wooden paneling next to the urinals is completely plastered with the cover artwork of old albums," reports Vedder with a grin. “There's a guy named Johnny Guitar Watson on the cover at about eye level. You have to put him somewhere between Barry White and Buddy Guy, and he always had slippery record covers on which the women are not necessarily lightly dressed, but let's say they look pretty interesting ... I then imagined introduce a guy who is drawn to the girl on the cover and wonders why she is messing with Johnny Guitar, when he obviously has ten girls on each finger. Why would anyone want to be one of Johnny Guitar's lovers, one of hundreds, when you could be the only one for me?"
I'll listen to it with fresh ears - but it's always seemed so clunky to me. This did make me look up Johnny "Guitar" Watson on Spotify though. Enjoying what I'm hearing on that.
Piratenovelist
Well-Known Member
Day 19
World Humanitarian Day
Coming In Hot ~ Diamante
World Humanitarian Day
Coming In Hot ~ Diamante
LeeVing
Well-Known Member
Day 15: Water
I was thinking about going with Jaws...but I wanted to hear this one.
While most people criticized the cover art because it's not from the movie (it didn't rain once Myers got the mask), I actually think it's a pretty cool image and don't think that it not being from a scene in the movie is that big of a deal.
I also think it's the best use of spot varnish on a sleeve.
John Carpenter – Halloween (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Death Waltz Recording Company – DW135, 1979/2018
Mono
Pressed at GZ
I was thinking about going with Jaws...but I wanted to hear this one.
While most people criticized the cover art because it's not from the movie (it didn't rain once Myers got the mask), I actually think it's a pretty cool image and don't think that it not being from a scene in the movie is that big of a deal.
I also think it's the best use of spot varnish on a sleeve.
John Carpenter – Halloween (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Death Waltz Recording Company – DW135, 1979/2018
Mono
Pressed at GZ
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Poly-Rythmo
Well-Known Member
Day 20 - radio
Hanne Kolstø - Flashblack
Unnecessarily gruesome cover, but this is one of the few Norwegian albums I own having heard her on the radio.
Hanne Kolstø - Flashblack
Unnecessarily gruesome cover, but this is one of the few Norwegian albums I own having heard her on the radio.
gaporter
Well-Known Member
I actually saw this album cover in a meme the other day and was slightly curious about its origins lol. Now I know! (The meme was something like "me when I wave to the person who was waving at someone behind me" or something like that)
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Bluecloud777
Well-Known Member
August 20 - Radio Day - Play an album that you discovered because of radio.
I actually very rarely listen to radio anymore. (I used to listen each week to the UK Top 40 and Billboard charts though from about 1989 to 1993 when I was a kid, then music tv started which I preferred).
Mostly nowadays I discover new records by checking out albums I'm reading about on music magazines/websites, by looking through new store releases or by browsing this wonderful forum. Also I discover new artists by listening to them in Spotify playlists, on YouTube and by seeing them perform at festivals or concerts I watch online.
Mondo Cozmo is a band I've seen play live at a streamed festival. I think it was the Austin City Limits Festival in 2017. Great band, great album.
Mondo Cozmo "Plastic soul"
I actually very rarely listen to radio anymore. (I used to listen each week to the UK Top 40 and Billboard charts though from about 1989 to 1993 when I was a kid, then music tv started which I preferred).
Mostly nowadays I discover new records by checking out albums I'm reading about on music magazines/websites, by looking through new store releases or by browsing this wonderful forum. Also I discover new artists by listening to them in Spotify playlists, on YouTube and by seeing them perform at festivals or concerts I watch online.
Mondo Cozmo is a band I've seen play live at a streamed festival. I think it was the Austin City Limits Festival in 2017. Great band, great album.
Mondo Cozmo "Plastic soul"
Skeletonframes
Active Member
August 18 - Bad Poetry Day - Play an album with terrible lyrics. Bonus points for posting your favorite cringe-worthy lyric.
Can - Tago Mago
This one was really tough for me. No one sets out with the intention of writing "bad" lyrics. And bad is so so subjective. It's hard for me to look at something and think 'man, this is bad' since maybe it's just not for me. For instance I think the line "I spread like strawberries, I climb like pees and beans" is stupid as fuck. But, I love it. I could call it bad, but I don't know. I think it's kind of charming in it's stupidity.
So I copped-out and chose an album where the words really don't mean anything, and if they do they're so vague and/or random that it doesn't really matter if they actually mean anything or not. They're there just to sound a certain way.
For example, the "worst" lyrics can be found in the song Peking O. They are transcribed verbatim here:
ahkjsdglkjnb sdkjgvbnaihjvbqiubn4ewiuofnaskejhngf
alksjdfhiunbrgpangbk
dlakjfgkjahnsegkjashdngsdnfvlkansdlgkasdg
dlskjgkjlsdfahj;gjadsflgjsdljkfg
jgdsafnm
blag
I present to you.....high art.
when i saw mushroomhead i was born and i was dead
![IMG_0587[2166].JPG](https://s3needlesandgrooves.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/data/attachments/62/62417-9041f119dfa0328f2fd1f96e4593af3f.jpg?hash=kEHxGd-gMo "IMG_0587[2166].JPG")
August 19 - World Humanitarian Day - Play an album by a socially conscious artist.
Chvrches - Every Open Eye
Where do I start with this? What an absolute fucking shame it is that if you are female and outspoken in today's online world then it opens the door for all manner of mouth-breathing, cro-magnon idiots to verbally attack and/or physically threaten you. I love that this band does not back down and stands true to their societal beliefs even in the face of abuse. They had to scale up their security after the band called out Marshmello for working with woman-abuser and all around terrible human Chris Brown. After that, the Chris Brown (and domestic abuse) supporters sent death and various physical/sexual abuse threats toward the band, mostly aimed at the singer, Lauren Mayberry.
There are many instances of Mayberry being outspoken and standing up for herself, her band, and other women. A select few here:
“Although we get the cyber-misogyny on a certain level because of visibility, this happens to women all the time anyway,” said Mayberry. “I hate the idea that young girls who follow our band who deal with stuff like that—I don’t want them to feel isolated, I don’t want them to feel like it’s just happening to them. Because it happens everywhere.”
and
"My band is lucky enough to have some of the most awesome, supportive and respectful fans in the world and we are so excited to be in the studio making an album to share with them. Yet, on a daily basis, we still receive communications like this. These people never learn that violence against women is unacceptable. But they also never learn that women will not be shamed and silenced and made to disappear. I am not going anywhere. So bring it on, motherfuckers. Let’s see who blinks first."
and
“I do not accept…that it is all right for people to make comments ranging from ‘a bit sexist but generally harmless’ to openly sexually aggressive,” Mayberry wrote in The Guardian. “Objectification, whatever its form, is not something anyone should have to ‘just deal with.”
I am catching on and I am seeing red. How 'bout I prove I'm right and raise it overhead.
![IMG_0588[2168].JPG](https://s3needlesandgrooves.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/data/attachments/62/62423-2eec1387d9d4588315d69a002745e65c.jpg?hash=LuwTh9nUWI "IMG_0588[2168].JPG")
Can - Tago Mago
This one was really tough for me. No one sets out with the intention of writing "bad" lyrics. And bad is so so subjective. It's hard for me to look at something and think 'man, this is bad' since maybe it's just not for me. For instance I think the line "I spread like strawberries, I climb like pees and beans" is stupid as fuck. But, I love it. I could call it bad, but I don't know. I think it's kind of charming in it's stupidity.
So I copped-out and chose an album where the words really don't mean anything, and if they do they're so vague and/or random that it doesn't really matter if they actually mean anything or not. They're there just to sound a certain way.
For example, the "worst" lyrics can be found in the song Peking O. They are transcribed verbatim here:
ahkjsdglkjnb sdkjgvbnaihjvbqiubn4ewiuofnaskejhngf
alksjdfhiunbrgpangbk
dlakjfgkjahnsegkjashdngsdnfvlkansdlgkasdg
dlskjgkjlsdfahj;gjadsflgjsdljkfg
jgdsafnm
blag
I present to you.....high art.
when i saw mushroomhead i was born and i was dead
August 19 - World Humanitarian Day - Play an album by a socially conscious artist.
Chvrches - Every Open Eye
Where do I start with this? What an absolute fucking shame it is that if you are female and outspoken in today's online world then it opens the door for all manner of mouth-breathing, cro-magnon idiots to verbally attack and/or physically threaten you. I love that this band does not back down and stands true to their societal beliefs even in the face of abuse. They had to scale up their security after the band called out Marshmello for working with woman-abuser and all around terrible human Chris Brown. After that, the Chris Brown (and domestic abuse) supporters sent death and various physical/sexual abuse threats toward the band, mostly aimed at the singer, Lauren Mayberry.
There are many instances of Mayberry being outspoken and standing up for herself, her band, and other women. A select few here:
“Although we get the cyber-misogyny on a certain level because of visibility, this happens to women all the time anyway,” said Mayberry. “I hate the idea that young girls who follow our band who deal with stuff like that—I don’t want them to feel isolated, I don’t want them to feel like it’s just happening to them. Because it happens everywhere.”
and
"My band is lucky enough to have some of the most awesome, supportive and respectful fans in the world and we are so excited to be in the studio making an album to share with them. Yet, on a daily basis, we still receive communications like this. These people never learn that violence against women is unacceptable. But they also never learn that women will not be shamed and silenced and made to disappear. I am not going anywhere. So bring it on, motherfuckers. Let’s see who blinks first."
and
“I do not accept…that it is all right for people to make comments ranging from ‘a bit sexist but generally harmless’ to openly sexually aggressive,” Mayberry wrote in The Guardian. “Objectification, whatever its form, is not something anyone should have to ‘just deal with.”
I am catching on and I am seeing red. How 'bout I prove I'm right and raise it overhead.
Selaws
Well-Known Member
August 20 - Radio Day - Play an album that you discovered because of radio.
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (DJM Records, 1973 First Pressing)
I didn't discover the album on the radio, but the first time I heard 'Bennie And The Jets' was on the radio in the car. Just a killer jam and my favourite from Elton John.
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (DJM Records, 1973 First Pressing)
I didn't discover the album on the radio, but the first time I heard 'Bennie And The Jets' was on the radio in the car. Just a killer jam and my favourite from Elton John.