The Return of the Challenge Thread - March 2020

DAY 20 – Speaker Hugger

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This album is always there when you need it. I’ve been needing it lately. I am perpetually afraid to leave my house, rightfully, at this point because I am worried that I would get sick or be a carrier and make someone else in my house ill. This album is all of the friends that I am not going to see for a long time, and I am grateful that it is here with me.

But if I am being brutally honest, I have hugged the speaker listening to this album before.

This particular copy I bought in 2000, the first Elliott Smith vinyl I ever purchased. He was just one of those musicians that… Well, hugging the speaker would not be an irrational thing to do. The thing is, you wouldn’t know if you were hugging the speaker to get closer to the music or if it was because it felt like he needed you to reach out to him. Although, in hindsight I’m not sure if I came to that realization before he died.

The day after I found out he died, this is the record I put on. I will never forget sitting with my head against the speaker while “say yes“ was playing, then trying desperately to listen to the sound of the room he recorded the song in come through the speakers and hold onto it before it could fade away. And then the feeling of not wanting to get up and lift the needle off of the record for minutes because, the moment I did, then he truly would be gone.

I think I need a hug.
 
DAY 13 – I Hate It... But I Love It.

I had a bit of a hard time with this one.
I definitely don't think of it as a guilty pleasure but, it's a record I don't spin when I have friends over. They think it's too weird.

Harry Hosono and The Yellow Magic Band - Paraiso

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DAY 21 – We're Gonna Have Words

Play any album where the words/lyrics are a focal point

Nathaniel Rateliff - And It's Still Alright

Instead of going with one of my long time favorites like Waits or Dylan, I decided to go with Nate today. While the song SOB brought me in, it was the album Tearing at the Seams that solidified him as a favorite artist of mine. The music and lyrics on that album both really work for me, just fantastic. Then came this new one. Mostly written about his divorce and the death of his close friend and collaborator, and without The Night Sweats behind him, he really pours out his soul here. It's a beautiful and sad record. I saw him at Ann Arbor Folk Fest just a few weeks ago, no backing band, just him and his guitar and it was a stunning performance.

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DAY 21: We're Gonna Have Words

It may not be a great time in the world to take a trip...could be a bad one.

Turn off your mind, relax, and float down stream...

Timothy Leary, Ph.D., Ralph Metzner, Ph.D. and Richard Alpert, Ph.D. ‎– The Psychedelic Experience
Real Gone Music/Broadside/Folkways Records ‎– FL 9701, 1966/2016

#BFRSD16 - limited to 1750 on Psychedelic Magenta Splatter

Pressed at GZ/Pirates Press

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Day 21 - We’re Gonna Have Words

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Once upon a time, it was a man named Mark. Mark evolved into a complete and utter asshole in his later years, going after other bands confrontationally both on stage and in song, and saying remarkably mean spirited and sexist things to media people.

The tragedy of this is that he evolved into that. When he started, here’s where he was. A man who was too shy for interviews that lasted very long, speaking in sentences that were as brief. His confidence so low that his voice was drenched and reverb. His lyrics so painful and brutally honest that a generation of men who heard them found the courage to be as honest.

Sample stanza:

I can almost hear roller coasters
See sailboats in the sea
Hear noise and screaming weaving in and out of happier music box sounds
But here on the ground, we are so far away from that
Time turned older now
We walk down the hill
I feel the coming on of the fading sun
And I know for sure you will never be the one
It’s the forbidden moment that we live in that fires our sad escape
And holds passion more than words can say
Tell me, why are you like this?
Are you the same with anyone?
Save me from my sickness

I really miss that guy.
 
DAY 22 – Keep It Like A Secret [album reference: Built To Spill]

Play an amazing “underground” album that influenced others but stayed underground. Or, just spin a great “underground” album.

Masters of Reality - S/T (aka The Blue Garden)

Underground? Check
Influential? Also check

I probably work this record into every challenge, but it's one of my favorites so I can't help to give it love any chance I can.
And Chris Goss is the grandfather of desert rock, so the influence is strong.
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Day 22 - Keep It Like a Secret

Roy Harper might not really be “underground” (he was a major label artist), but he’s extremely underrated. He’s undeniably influential though, with Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, Kate Bush, and Joanna Newsom (among others) listing him as an influence.

He’s one of the best musicians of all time in my mind. Here’s his best record (Jimmy Page plays on a track, credited as S. Flavius Mercurius 😂)

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