MOJO's 50 Greatest Indie Records!

[Penk!]

The actual list on the web site link provided says "UK indie."

There are a handful of songs I still like--Ambition is one of the great songs of the past 35 years, Outdoor Miner is great, Elastic Man, of course. Alot of the other ones are collecting dust on my record shelves. i definitely prefer the US music from this era.

Yeah, as far as "indie" is concerned, the UK side of it is far less interesting than the US. If they included post-punk - as their inclusion of Wire, The Fall and so on would suggest - then the UK would perhaps snatch it but the indie records in my own collection are weighed far more towards the other side of the Atlantic. A few undeniable outfits like Stereolab aside, I've never been particularly enamoured of British indie in the post-Smiths era - too much of it fits the 'bed-wetters' stereotype for my liking.
I appreciate that there may be a few things I don't know - and as I said, a lot of the British post-punk stuff is fantastic, so if there'd been a 'Party Fears Two' or 'Song from under the Floorboards' alongside 'Outdoor Miner' and You Can't Hide Your Love Forever it might have been an easier choice - but I'm actually struggling to come up with ten from the list I really like all that much.

[Penk!]

I'll have to give that Minutemen album another spin soon. I think I might like it a bit more these days.

No, it's rubbish. Try Mission of Burma instead.

[Bungo the Mungo]

I'll have to give that Minutemen album another spin soon. I think I might like it a bit more these days.

No, it's rubbish. Try Mission of Burma instead.

I already did. I quite like it, altho' it's a bit like musical medicine.

[toomanyhatz]

I'll have to give that Minutemen album another spin soon. I think I might like it a bit more these days.

No, it's rubbish. Try Mission of Burma instead.

Wow, I always knew you had cloth ears, but I didn't know your case was this bad!!

I like MoB OK- but just take all the humor and chumminess of the Minutemen away and add detached artiness and snarkiness, and there you have 'em.

[Penk!]

I'll have to give that Minutemen album another spin soon. I think I might like it a bit more these days.

No, it's rubbish. Try Mission of Burma instead.

Wow, I always knew you had cloth ears, but I didn't know your case was this bad!!

I like MoB OK- but just take all the humor and chumminess of the Minutemen away and add detached artiness and snarkiness, and there you have 'em.

Fortunately, interesting music is one thing that MoB do have over the Minutemen, though, so it's OK.

Well, unless the second half of Double Nickels... is really, really good, of course. I don't think I ever made it that far.

[Jeff K]

Wow, hatz. You are really selling Mission of Burma short. I like both bands but MoB is better overall.

[toomanyhatz]

Wow, hatz. You are really selling Mission of Burma short. I like both bands but MoB is better overall.

East coast/West coast, baybee!!

Funny you should say they're better- I can't think of a single thing they do better, other than maybe they make more of a racket. Perhaps you value that more than I do. What's next- Flipper's better too?

No, I like MoB fine. But anyone's gonna suffer by comparison to the Minutemen. It frankly amazes me that anyone- anyone not limited to the mainstream, anyway- can't hear it.

[Jeff K]

Wow, hatz. You are really selling Mission of Burma short. I like both bands but MoB is better overall.

East coast/West coast, baybee!!

Funny you should say they're better- I can't think of a single thing they do better, other than maybe they make more of a racket. Perhaps you value that more than I do. What's next- Flipper's better too?

No, I like MoB fine. But anyone's gonna suffer by comparison to the Minutemen. It frankly amazes me that anyone- anyone not limited to the mainstream, anyway- can't hear it.

The fact that you were buddies with the guys in the Minutemen doesn't in any way influence your preference?

[Beno]

I'll have to give that Minutemen album another spin soon. I think I might like it a bit more these days.

No, it's rubbish. Try Mission of Burma instead.

I'm a pro-US indie person but I've always struggled with it. I have got to the end but it's always felt like a chore. 5 star reviews galore for it too, I just can't see it.

MoB are much better. Nothing I've heard by The Minutemen comes close to 'That's When I Reach For My Revolver'. Although, thinking about it, I could say that about most bands.

[toomanyhatz]

The fact that you were buddies with the guys in the Minutemen doesn't in any way influence your preference?

Nice try, Jeff.

I wasn't. I barely knew them. For a while in the 80s they might have recognized me as "that guy who comes to all the gigs." But to say I was buddies would be a huge stretch. That's why I've never said it.

[Jeff K]

The fact that you were buddies with the guys in the Minutemen doesn't in any way influence your preference?

Nice try, Jeff.

I wasn't. I barely knew them. For a while in the 80s they might have recognized me as "that guy who comes to all the gigs." But to say I was buddies would be a huge stretch. That's why I've never said it.

Okay, we'll call it a draw on this one. We should be thankful we had bands like Burma and the Minutemen over here instead of the Smiths.

[Insouciant Western People]

What I miss about that time is how obscure and exciting so many of these records seemed at the time, whether it was UK indie like The Wedding present and McCarthy, or US stuff like The Pixies' first mini-album, Fugazi, or Big Black's Atomizer. All those really blew my mind. It was music you had to go out and discover for yourself.

My unbelievably hip friend Debbie loaned me Come On Pilgrim and Atomizer when were were still at school in 1989, and quite frankly, I'd never heard the like. At the time I though Metallica and Slayer had the last word in edginess, but hearing Black Francis screaming on Nimrod's Son and I've Been Tired and the vroom and skinng guitars of Steve Albini and Santiago Durango was like hearing music from another planet. I'm not sure anything since has come quite so close to the sense of wonder that those two albums opened up for me.

By the way - The Pixies never really bettered the songs on that first lp, did they ? I mean they did lots of other great stuff afterwards, but still today, given the choice, I'd whack COP on in preference to any of their later albums. It doesn't have the occasionally ponderous lumber of Surfer Rosa, and it's not as obviously poppy as they sometimes got on Doolittle and Bossanova (great as all those albums are). They captured something truly magical on that first record. I love it to death as much as ever 20 years on.

[Bungo the Mungo]

By the way - The Pixies never really bettered the songs on that first lp, did they ? I mean they did lots of other great stuff afterwards, but still today, given the choice, I'd whack COP on in preference to any of their later albums. It doesn't have the occasionally ponderous lumber of Surfer Rosa, and it's not as obviously poppy as they sometimes got on Doolittle and Bossanova (great as all those albums are). They captured something truly magical on that first record. I love it to death as much as ever 20 years on.

I think you're probably right, but increasingly I have a hard time with his yelping.

There really are some amazing moments on that disc - 'Ed Is Dead', 'Levitate Me', 'I've Been Tired', 'Caribou'....something very special.

[Bungo the Mungo]

Not too much love for 'Destroy The Heart', I see. Have any of you actually listened to it lately? It's one of those songs that doesn't sound as good in your head (you feel the student-ness of it above all else, perhaps) as it does in reality. It's a real classic, their finest moment, seriously big and bold and exciting.

[Penk!]

By the way - The Pixies never really bettered the songs on that first lp, did they ? I mean they did lots of other great stuff afterwards, but still today, given the choice, I'd whack COP on in preference to any of their later albums. It doesn't have the occasionally ponderous lumber of Surfer Rosa, and it's not as obviously poppy as they sometimes got on Doolittle and Bossanova (great as all those albums are). They captured something truly magical on that first record. I love it to death as much as ever 20 years on.

I think you're probably right, but increasingly I have a hard time with his yelping.

There really are some amazing moments on that disc - 'Ed Is Dead', 'Levitate Me', 'I've Been Tired', 'Caribou'....something very special.

There's some stuff - songs like 'Hey', for example - that do overdo it, but they capture something very special, especially on those first couple of records. They really create their own little world of sound. And yeah, Come on Pilgrim is their best overall: 'Levitate Me' makes gibberish sound transcendent!

[toomanyhatz]

We should be thankful we had bands like Burma and the Minutemen over here instead of the Smiths.

And the Replacements and X, and all the wonderful bands that the UKers don't seem to get...

[Jeff K]

We should be thankful we had bands like Burma and the Minutemen over here instead of the Smiths.

And the Replacements and X, and all the wonderful bands that the UKers don't seem to get...

In all fairness, we didn't get Bronski Beat so it evens out.

[Insouciant Western People]

There really are some amazing moments on that disc - 'Ed Is Dead', 'Levitate Me', 'I've Been Tired', 'Caribou'....something very special.

Mm, not a duff song on it I reckon. Vamos, Nimrod's Son, Holiday Song and Isla De Encanta, all fucking great. Nimrod's Son and (especially) I've Been Tired are the standouts though. The lyrics on those songs ! Off the top of my head...

''One-two-three
She's real left-winger cos she's been down south and held peasants in her arms
She said I could tell you stories that would make you cry
What, about you ?
I said, me too
I could tell you a story that would make you cry
And she sighed, ah
I said I wanna be a singer like Lou Reed
I like Lou Reed ! she said sticking her tongue in my ear
Let's go, let's sit, let's talk, politics goes so well with beer
And while we're at it baby, why don't you tell me one of your greatest fears ?
I said, losing my penis to a whore with disease,
Just kidding I said
Losing my life to a whore with disease
She said, excuse me please ?
I said, please
I'm a humble guy, with healthy desires
But don't gimme no shit because...
I'VE BEEN TIRED !''

Now are those not fuckin brilliant ?

[Bungo the Mungo]

I tried with X last night. They were supposed to sound tough and rebellious, right?

[toomanyhatz]

I tried with X last night. They were supposed to sound tough and rebellious, right?

Yeah, just like Suicide is supposed to sound dark and scary.

Nah, I'm hit and miss with X myself- their first two records are pretty great, though.