vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 20, 2014 9:06:10 GMT 1
OK. Everyone else's seems to have stalled, so I'll sneak in while I work on the next project. The idea for this one is that I don't have the patience to work out a top 1,000 of any era, and it would probably be rather same-y anyway, so I have let the Great British Public sort out an order. Essentially, I've tried to look at where acts peaked in the charts, and find an act I like for every number. Originally I went from 1 to 75, but in passing noted that 76 to 100 had many extremely interesting acts than for some of the chart number peaks (probably not much of a spoiler, but 33 for instance is rather a dull number), and then I tried to see how low I could go. Which wasn't much further. Rather annoyingly, one of my favourite acts ever peaked at 103, and another at 101, but I'd never even heard of any of the acts who peaked at 102, so, rather than leave a gap, I'll get going at Orwell's room and carry on from there... Under normal circumstances I'd say this was a work in progress, with expectations that new acts would occasionally provide a new peak, but that seems to have ground to an absolute halt, as, in the words of Eddie Argos, popular culture no longer applies to me. Can't OTTOMH think of a single charting cut this year that I like. So eff it. I cannot guarantee 100% accuracy incidentally, I have no databases so most of it has been a manual search... 1 Wizzard 2 Altered Images 3 Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark 4 The Ronettes 5 Jasper Carrott 6 They Might Be Giants 7 Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine 8 The Jesus & Mary Chain 9 The Associates 10 The Wedding Present 11 We've Got A Fuzzbox & We're Gonna Use It 12 Buzzcocks 13 Talk Talk 14 PP Arnold 15 Voice Of The Beehive 16 Yeah Yeah Yeahs 17 The Sugarcubes 18 British Sea Power 19 M.I.A. 20 Brian Wilson 21 JJ72 22 Curve 23 Pixies 24 Sigur Rós 25 bis 26 The Pipettes 27 The Darling Buds 28 The Long Blondes 29 My Bloody Valentine 30 The Fall 31 Darlene Love 32 Mull Historical Society 33 Bobby Fuller Four 34 M83 35 Beavis & Butthead 36 Be Your Own Pet 37 Honey Bane 38 Tindersticks 39 The Rutles 40 Mazzy Star 41 Art Brut 42 Ladytron 43 The Professionals 44 The Farmer's Boys 45 The Waitresses 46 Front 242 47 Ian McCulloch 48 Pale Fountains 49 Our Daughter's Wedding 50 Terry Hall 51 Wire 52 Slowdive 53 Marvin 54 Symarip 55 Paris Angels 56 Half Man Half Biscuit 57 The Only Ones 58 Martin Stephenson & The Daintees 59 60 Chapterhouse 61 Annabella Lwin 62 These Animal Men 63 Win 64 Blood Red Shoes 65 Psychic TV 66 This Mortal Coil 67 Dot Allison 68 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah 69 The Ex Pistols 70 Spectrum 71 The Velvet Underground 72 Stump 73 The Triffids 74 Liars 75 The Like 76 The Bodines 77 The Shop Assistants 78 múm 79 fields. 80 Cardiacs 81 Electrelane 82 Blonde Redhead 83 The Telescopes 84 Broadcast 85 Spacemen 3 86 Frank Zappa 87 Cowboy Junkies 88 The Pooh Sticks 89 New Fast Automatic Daffodils 90 BMX Bandits 91 Vincent Vincent & The Villains 92 XMal Deutschland 93 The Popinjays 94 Momus 95 Atari Teenage Riot 96 Hüsker Dü 97 Ultra Vivid Scene 98 The Dylans 99 See See Rider 100 Angelica 101 Camera Obscura
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 20, 2014 9:18:44 GMT 1
101. Camera Obscura
Why are Camera Obscura not one of the biggest things ever? I've played people " Eighties Fan" - which I reckon is their best single - and everyone who has heard it has fallen in love with it. And with Tracyanne. The video for "French Navy" has 3m+ views on youtube. They are an impeccable act live. They have even soundtracked adverts for supermarkets (thanks to "Razzle Dazzle Rose"). It's all set up for megastardom. Yet they've never breached the top 100 singles. Perhaps they don't want it. They were originally on the Elefant label - a small Spanish imprint with a high-quality roster - and now 4AD, which is one of the top labels that has ever existed, but has been relentlessly indie for most of its run. Or maybe the world isn't good enough for them. Seeing the complete total and utter wallpaper paste that currently sells in the millions, that's probably the case. Strangely enough, Camera Obscura are not the only act I've seen live who have peaked at 101. The other is Howling Bells. If only a couple fewer people had bought " Wishing Stone", I would have had my 102 act done and dusted...
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Dec 20, 2014 9:57:58 GMT 1
Quite like Camera Obscura but never been mad about them and their biggest 'hit' is far from their best song, bare in mind this was 2005 so it probably sold about 500 copies to make 101 if that, these days it would struggle to make top 1000 with those sales. Bands like this will never get close to the charts again especially as they survive on streams and YouTube views now.
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Post by raliverpool on Dec 20, 2014 11:56:30 GMT 1
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Post by raliverpool on Dec 20, 2014 11:58:34 GMT 1
PS. Thorney, how do you manage to do the Embed Spotify playlist in your signature on the ProBoards?
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 20, 2014 12:01:47 GMT 1
100. Angelica
Seems to be a lot easier to hit no. 75 than no. 100. Not much competition for this slot. Was tempted to include The Bolshoi, because "A Way" turned them into the only group that peaked at 100 in both singles and album charts, but I'm not keen on most of their output. The main other considerations were hardcore punks Conflict and indiefolkers The Mountain Goats, but I've gone with the riotgrrrlish sub-Kenickie punkers, one of many with the same name, mostly because lead singer and songwriter Holly Ross is now a Lovely Egg.
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Dec 20, 2014 12:45:03 GMT 1
PS. Thorney, how do you manage to do the Embed Spotify playlist in your signature on the ProBoards? Well it just started working I didn't do anything it's been there for months just today it went like that
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Post by raliverpool on Dec 20, 2014 13:00:21 GMT 1
PS. Thorney, how do you manage to do the Embed Spotify playlist in your signature on the ProBoards? Well it just started working I didn't do anything it's been there for months just today it went like that I guess the ProBoards have just updated their abilities. Result!
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 20, 2014 14:18:10 GMT 1
99. See See Rider
Wow, this is an accidental indie supergroup. Named after a blues song (covered by Elvis, inter alios), See See Rider's debut EP - and their biggest hit - featured a Primitives drummer and Jesus & Mary Chain guitarist. After a motorcycle accident rendered May Rock Marshall hors de combat for a while, they found themselves with ex-Felt guitarist Phil King in their number, and after their on-stage implosion a few months later King joined Lush.
Perhaps slight overkill to include in the list a band which produced a grand total of 2 singles in their career, but they were two outrageously fantastic singles. A sign of what if.
I'll cover one of the other acts that pushed for the 99 slot - Indians In Moscow - in my next topic. Was also strongly tempted to put in The Flirtations, an unjustly overlooked late 60s girl group, here, but their only chart presence came when someone hi-NRG'd a load of rubbish on top of what might have been a decent cut.
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Dec 20, 2014 14:44:36 GMT 1
got one of their songs in a bargain bin 'Stolen Heart' I think it was sure it only cost me 10p
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vya
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Post by vya on Dec 20, 2014 17:04:38 GMT 1
Love See See Rider, and found an MP3 online somewhere of their unreleased album - which is certainly up to the same high standard as the singles. With the Prims (oh, OK, they were on RCA by then, so: no), they could have been at the core of a legendary Lazy Records scene, had they only kept at it a little longer...
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 20, 2014 21:57:32 GMT 1
98. The DylansFletcher: Hello Dylan, talk of the devil.
Dylan: Hey listen man, my name's Melvin, what's all this "Dylan" scene?
Fletcher: Oh well we don't call you it out of malice you see, we just call it out of affection really 'cause you see, you do remind us of Dylan.
Dylan [pleased]: Hey, Bob Dylan?
Fletcher: No the hippy rabbit on the Magic Roundabout.
When I was at univ I picked up a cassette for 50p in the bargain bin. Probably the best ten bob of music ever. It was (is) a compilation tape of a number of indie bands that were roughly contemporary. 12 tracks from 12 acts. Half of them make this list and others were close. This Sheffield-based band - who were indeed named for the hippy rabbit rather than Mr Zimmerman - are the first. "Godlike" is their best record and biggest hit, although they may be better known for " Mary Quant In Blue". The early 90s was a wonderful time for a number of dreampop and shoegaze bands, alas swept away by Britpop - which, although it had some very high highs, also had some very low lows... Not much else peaking at 98 worthy of note; The Bridewell Taxis had a bit of momentum for a while, and Gallon Drunk have made a recent comeback, but otherwise Colin Gregory et al had a clear run.
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vya
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Post by vya on Dec 20, 2014 23:02:07 GMT 1
Not disputing that "Godlike" is superior (well, perhaps), but this is the singalong-a-Dylans track I recall from Gary Crowley GLR shows in the early 90s...
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Dec 21, 2014 9:55:26 GMT 1
Godlike was a tune, This was just my favourite era for music, it was Mark Goodier on the Evening Session who introduced me to this as he made it a record of the week. Just one of the best baggy bandwagon songs. I never actually bought it though settled for a radio copy as I had limited funds for what I could buy
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 21, 2014 10:08:58 GMT 1
97: The Snub TV number
Ultra Vivid SceneSome numbers act as magnets. They attract acts of a similar ethos or background to them. 4 and 35 for instance. 97 is the first of these; a number of acts whom I first heard on BBC2's Def II teen strand music programme, Snub TV, settled around here. In roughly ascending order of genius, Adorable, The Poppyheads, Galaxie 500, The Chills and UVS. I was seriously tempted to put in The Chills, the prime exponents of the Dunedin sound (a sort of New Zealand analogue to tweepop that was centred around the city of Dunedin, whose name is Celtic for Edinburgh), Their biggest hit, a no. 2 in their homeland, was the sublime " Heavenly Pop Hit", a song that seems to start in the middle and is almost all bridge, and certainly the best single to peak at 97. But instead I went for Kurt Ralske's group, whose debut single " The Mercy Seat" is one of the all-time great debut singles, and perhaps got a bit lost in the shuffle with Nick Cave's different, but identically-titled, single pre-empting it. It did however have a Snub TV-created video, like another act who will come later in this list. It also features a pre-Moby Moby. And they were on 4AD. Perhaps the 4AD art aspects rubbed off on Ralske; he is now a professor of fine art and design studies. Incidentally, how much do we need a Snub TV now? Not just the above acts, but the likes of The Fatima Mansions, Band Of Holy Joy, Barry Adamson, Swans and dozens of others got mainstream television exposure - and it helped break the likes of 808 State and Throwing Muses. Its Scots counterpart FSd did the same with the likes of The Soup Dragons. What are the chances of, say, Sunn O))) or Johnny Foreigner getting on BBC2 at teatime nowadays?
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Dec 21, 2014 10:24:29 GMT 1
Yes a tough choice I'm afraid I would have gone for Adorable or The Chills personally. 'Sunshine Smile' is one of my favourite ever songs and so is 'Heavenly Pop Hit'. I first heard Ultra Vivid Scene on Snub as well think it was 'Special One' which is my favourite of theirs.
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vya
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Post by vya on Dec 21, 2014 10:34:19 GMT 1
"Special One" is great. Indeed "Joy 1967-90" has a few other guitar pop delights among its tracks, not least "It Happens Every Time"...
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 21, 2014 10:48:34 GMT 1
96. Hüsker Dü
Before hitting commercial success with Sugar, Bob Mould was one-third of Hüsker Dü, an increasingly-influential new wave band who were probably a decade before their time; in 1987, just as the world was getting ready for their sound, they split up amidst a wave of drug abuse and 'creative differences'. Basically they bridged the gap Stateside between punk and grunge, and were a formative influence on Pixies and Nirvana - to the extent that Black Francis recruited Kim Deal via an ad asking for a bassist who liked Hüsker Dü. (And Peter Paul & Mary.)
Their odd name comes from one of those matching-pair boardgames; the American version was one first released in Denmark under the Danish for "do you remember?" For some reason the Americans left its title in Danish.
Nobody else peaking at 96 caught the eye, although by an odd coincidence three songwriters who were the creative influences in their much-more successful groups all had solo efforts that stopped here: Mark King, Gary Kemp and Natalie Merchant. At least Merchant would have top ten success back home.
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TheThorne
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Post by TheThorne on Dec 21, 2014 13:13:49 GMT 1
yep great band but loved Sugar even more
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vastar iner
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Post by vastar iner on Dec 21, 2014 20:15:40 GMT 1
95. Atari Teenage Riot
Was tempted to call this the Shouty Eurotechno Number, on the basis that the only other act for which I have regard to peak here was Mano Negra, but two is not exactly a trend. The Macc Lads also peaked at 95, so this is not the subtlest of chart positions. As did half of The Ants; Chris Hughes and Gary Tibbs had a one-off single under the name Merrick & Tibbs, which showed that Mr Goddard was indeed quite the creative.
Anyway, ATR are the only Germano-Syrian act in the list, and Alec Empire still uses the name. Hanin Elias does her own solo material and MC Carl Crack died of a drug and alcohol overdose a decade ago. Rather smartly they used their major label advance to build a studio rather than make an album, which has allowed Empire and Elias to continue recording even without any commercial benefit. Says a lot for German mores that they created controversy for their aggressively anti-Nazi stance...
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