Monday, October 6, 2008

'SPILL OVERview

"We should do an ask the experts post, pick a band with a large collection of songs and narrow them down to a cd-r sized 'best of'
Most people on here would want the lot if they liked them... but finances limit that".

This came up over the weekend in a chat with Shoey... So I thought why not...I'm going to limit it to Two bands per post and just because I'M interested in your opinions on these.. we start with:

THE WHITE STRIPES
a good few albums and a recent discussion about b-sides.. we need about 20 cracking tracks to fill the 'SPILL OVERview.
Then BRIGHT EYES
Conor Oberst is an acquired taste.. can we change the doubters minds with the best of 'Spill?
Again about 20 please.


Now if people have an artist they'd like 'SPILLED OVER.. suggest away and I'll try and come up with a cover!

31 comments:

ejaydee said...

Damn, I'm going to miss a great series.
From the WS I'd go for these:

Seven Nation Army
The Hardest Button To Button
My Doorbell
Jolene
Black Math
Hand Springs
Hotel Yorba
Fell In Love With A Girl

Blimpy said...

flip me, i just started waching a film!! but i can't miss this one!!!

the number one bright eyes ever is

"lover i dont have to love" -

more to come!

Anonymous said...

Why are you going to miss it Ed?

And I'm very interested in the results of this one. I've got a couple of Bright Eyes albums but blow very hot&cold re Mr Oberst, so I'll listen to the recommendations anew. Really can't be doing with The White Stripes, so they'll be trying to buy me a drink in their Last Chance Saloon.
That's already a better sleeve than they've managed in their whole career, imo!!

maddy costa said...

just finished going through this week's rr noms which means... i stupidly play something else when i should be going to bed. my bright eyes track: a perfect sonnet, from the every day and every night ep. was the song that TOTALLY switched me on to them, before that i'd found his voice unbearable. this one slays me every, every time...

saneshane said...

.. good calls already
Bright Eyes I think will be an interesting one and will be very helpful in sifting out tracks with that over the top wobble!

And now I have to track down a perfect sonnet!

cheers Dsd for the cover complement.

Blimpy said...

white stripes:

early:

let's shake hands
hand springs
you're pretty good lookin (for a girl)
hello operator
jolene

mid:

fell in love with a girl
we're going to be friends
there's no home for you here
i just don;t know what to do with myself


late:

forever for her (is over for me)
icky thump
you don't know what love is (you just do as you're told)

maddy costa said...

and since i'm milling about, there's a few things i've been thinking over the weekend but didn't get round to saying on the big blog, and one of them is to
steenbeck: your post about instant nostalgia was unspeakably moving, and i know exactly what you mean. shouldn't say this as i haven't put the list together yet but i'm very much thinking you have argued our way to fall's place on it. oh, and also i always love your spill playlists. and everyone else's. i feel a bit like a stalker, i'm always skulking in the shadows on the spill and hardly ever taking part. i'm so glad it exists. oh and while i remember: blimpy, that codeine powerhouse gig. i don't remember! i do remember seeing the flaming lips there at the time she don't use jelly came out. and i think i saw codeine, but there? who knows, it's all a bit blurry. too many guitars, fuzzing the brain...
btw, a perfect sonnet is on youtube - i warn you, it's definitely one of the wobbly ones

Blimpy said...

"easy lucky free" from Bright Eyes is lovely and quite restrained.

and "from a balance beam" is my second favourite song from mr oberst.

Blimpy said...

hi maddy, it wasn't codeine and the flaming lips together at the powerhaus, but i think the two have toured together in the past. then again my memory is more blurry than most. just listening to ' a perfect sonnet" - i always preferred "a line..." off that EP. i think you can tell from my recommendations that i've only really ever listened to "lifted" in any depth. i do remember feeling really let down by the somerset house gig. that practically killed it all for me. has anyone heard his new stuff?
also maddy, don't feel bad about "lurking" it's just nice to know you're reading!

ejaydee said...

I like that you pop up from time to time Maddy. It lets us know you're interested, and while I'm at it, I like the way you've applied your own approach to the mothership, and successfully.

If I quite like Lua and First Day Of My Life, does that make me sad?
Rich, I'm going away on Wednesday for 2 weeks, and I very much doubt I'll have internet access.

Blimpy said...

"at the bottom of everything" is a good place to start a bright eyes mix cd, what with the story telling afore the burst into song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qikRcAiCtKM&feature=related

Blimpy said...

( i also think Rufus would be a good candidate for the Spill Overview treatment, by the way)

ejaydee said...

Oh I'd like to know more about Little Feat. How about Belle & Sebastian too?

saneshane said...

Now I put everything I own on the computer for both bands over the weekend so I could listen as they came in..
I'm already going I've got that somewhere.. grrrr..
it's going to be an interesting listen.

Thanks Maddy.. I've found it already, it is wobbly indeed, but not that larry the lamb that sometimes over takes.

(Our Way to Fall is the song that got me chatting to steen and swapping songs.. so it has to go in by the way.. I've since found I have 3 versions of it.. but it was her description of it that made me take notice.. and now do double takes with my other half when it comes on)

Rufus could be a good one blimpy.

I've got newer recommendations but I'm waiting for different time keepers to have a go first.

Blimpy said...

from a personal point i'd like a Spill Overview best Jonathan Richman songs (inc modern lovers) and also possibly some others, must have a ponder.

off topic late night chills:

http://www.delia-derbyshire.org/recordings.php

have a listen to the third track "dreams (edit)"and try to get some sleep now wontcha.....

Shoegazer said...

Not mentioned yet (i think)

White Stripes

The Air Near My Fingers
Dead Leaves & The Dirty Ground
Ball & Biscuit
One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)
Little Room
Little Ghost
Bring the Seven Nation Army - (Public Enemy Mash-up)

Bright Eyes

Four Winds
Take it Easy (Love Nothing)
Let The Distance (Bring Us Together) w/Britt Daniel & Spoon
Spent On Rainy Days w/Britt Daniel & Spoon
Black Comedy w/Neva Dinova
Light Pollution
Gold Mine Gutted (James Figurine remix)
Trees Get Wheeled away
Amy In The White Coat
Bowl Of Oranges
First Day Of My Life
Devil Town

@Shane, Told you this would be huge, thanks for the awesome cover art.

snadfrod said...

Oh Shane, with this gift you are really spoiling me. I get broadband sorted finally, and look what you leave me...

So, after much re-doing, my specialist subject - Bright Eyes in 20 tracks. Yikes. Leaving aside Conor's side projects (as the band Bright Eyes is an awful lot more than just Mr Oberst) I have something, not especially chronological, that looks like this...

1. The Invisible Gardener
2. The City Has Sex
3. Lua
4. When the President Talks To God
5. Classic Cars
6. Arc of Time (Time Code)
7. The Calendar Hung Itself
8. You Will. You? Will. You? Will. You? Will.
9. If the Brakeman Turns My Way
10. Oh, You are the Roots That Sleep Beneath My Feet and Hold the Earth in Place
11. Let's Not Shit Ourselves (To love and be loved)
12. Padraic My Prince
13. On My Way To Work
14. True Blue
15. Drunk Kid Catholic
16. I Believe In Symmetry
17. Don't Know When But A Day Is Gonna Come
18. Something Vague
19. From a Balance Beam
20. Road to Joy

Oh God, that was hard. I don't even want to think about what I've left out (Four Winds, Perfect Sonnet, Bowl of Oranges, Touch, The Curious Girl..., Lover..., Land Locked Blues, see? I'm thinking...), but I will say that I agree with Maddy - it takes one song to get past the warble and then to be hooked. For me it was Something Vague, one of my top songs of all time by a mile.

Haven't got a clue about the White Stripes. Sorry. Well, I only meant to go to bed about an hour and a half ago...

steenbeck said...

Wow, thanks, Maddy. That song always gets me. And we're all ecstatic that you visit here at all, and we all understand why you can't participate more. We keep you too busy on the mothership!!

Good post, Saneshane. First of all, I have to admit to never have knowingly heard a bright eyes track. Secondly, at the risk of sounding like an absolute idiot, all of my WS albums were burned for me by friends, so I'm never sure of the exact titles of tracks. Heh heh.
BUt, definitely...
Hand Springs
Jolene
Hotel Yorba
Astro
Uh...
I'll do a bit of research to come up with the real names. And I just downloaded a big double album full of b-sides (and this was, weirdly, right before the big white stripes b-sides discussion started!). So far I'm loving black jack davey.
I also think conquest is hilarious.

goneforeign said...

Please can we have BMW and maybe bend the rules and have 'The Best Reggae Compilation Ever!'
And Maddy, keep lurking.

Luke-sensei said...

Oh...you've chosen 2 of my all-time favourite bands there Shane...this is hard, gonna restrict myself to 10 each to keep it sensible...

Bright Eyes

- "The Calender Hung Itself"
this was my introduction to Bright Eyes, it was one side of a split 7" with Her Space Holiday on Wichita records, can't remember why, but I wanted the HSH track, so I bought it.The HSH track was mediocre but this one was incredible and is still my favourite of theirs. Also found on "Fevers and Mirrors" LP.

- "At the Bottom of Everything"
that line "into the caverns of tomorrow with just our flashlights and our love, we must plunge, we must plunge, we must plunge" gets me everytime

- "First Day of my Life"
- "Landlocked Blues"
- "From a Balance Beam"
- "The Big Picture"
- "I Believe in Symmetry"
- "Easy/Lucky/Free"
- "When the Brakeman Turns My Way"
- "I Must Belong Somewhere"

..what? 10 already? too many missed...sorry Conor.
BTW, I saw Bright Eyes supporting Arab Strap shortly after the aforementioned split 7" came out, I had largely lost interest in the Scottish mumblers by then, but really wanted to see my new discovery, they were incredible, although no-one took much notice of them...

Right, better check the WS collection...

Luke-sensei said...

As i've mentioned before, I like my White Stripes raw and ragged, but going through my records it's surprising the sheer diversity they wring out of just a guitar and a drunkit.

Ok, top 10:

- "The Big 3 Killed My Baby"
early single, raw and wild.

- "Red Death at 6:14"
off of the Jack White curated "Stmpathetic Sounds of Detriot" LP, a great snapshot of an exciting time in music for Detroit garage and some amazing songs, many of which have made their way into past RR nominations. This WS tune is still the best on it though!

- "Hello Operator"

- "Suzy Lee"

- "The Union Forever"
always reminds me of an episode of The A-Team!!

- "Fell In Love With a Girl"
seemed to speak directly to me when my long-term girlfriend at the time decided to pack up and move to Italy. "..she's in love with the world" (rather than me!)

- "In the Cold Cold Night"
Meg's turn at the mic was a definite highlight when I saw them a few years ago in Tokyo

- "It's True That We Love One Another"
Introduced the wider world to the specifically British style of garage rock that Toe Rag had been patiently churning out for years and just worked so well.

- "Rag and Bone"
I prefer the free with NME 7" version than the album version - much more rollicking

phew...I might add a few more sneaky ones later, I thought that by restricting to 10 I would get only the cream of the crop, but there's so much that I love that have been missed out.

Future suggestions: Smog or Bonnie 'Prince' Billy ???

Luke-sensei said...

after posting I realised I didn't have much from De Stijl, so I chucked it on the turntable, can't believe I forgot:

"Apple Blossoms" - beautifully innocent and just the right side of twee.

"I'm Bound to Pack It Up"

You know, I don't think White Stripes (or Bright Eyes for that matter) have even ONE song that I don't like!!

Anonymous said...

Does it have to be restricted to WS tracks only? Cos Portland, Oregon with Loretta Lynne is a stunning tune.

treefrogdemon said...

@japanther: i like 'drunkit'...

I don't know any WS or BE, am looking forward to learning!

Anonymous said...

Can the final tracks be sequenced in order of goodness? Or will it be dynamic?

barbryn said...

Just a heart-felt plea for "Land-Locked Blues", which for me is on a different plane from anything else Conor (and most other songwriters, come to that) has recorded.

Would be keen to offer contributions to: Rufus, Belle & Sebastian, REM, Tindersticks, Go-Betweens, St Etienne, Damon Albarn.

Would be keen to discover: Elvis Costello, Jonathan Richman, Tom Waites, Stevie Wonder.

ToffeeBoy said...

Bright Eyes keep coming up on the RR list and over here on T'Spill but I haven't got around to investigating them properly - looking forward to listening to the recommendations.

The White Stripes tend to induce what nilpferd might call a 'meh' reaction in me. I like some of the singles I've heard but not enough to inspire me to buy an album. So again I'm looking forward to hearing more.

Other artists I'd like to know more about include:

Tindersticks
iLIKETRAiNS
Mogwai
The Decemberists

Artists I could make a passionate and informed contribution to:

Jonathan Richman
Prefab Sprout
The Go-Betweens
Belle & Sebastian
Shack
Ben Folds
10,000 Maniacs
Everything But The Girl

Enjoying all the comments so far. Keep 'em coming....

Mnemonic said...

iLiKETRAiNS have only made two albums and one's a mini album, so it's a little early for a compilation.

I've always felt "meh" about Bright Eyes/Conor Oberst myself. Look forward to being converted.

Ejaydee, you asked for Little Feat. I can do one but this is one of the rare cases where the record company made a pretty good stab at it themselves. The compliation "As Time Goes By" has most of the good stuff on it. If I do a separate list, I might add a couple of personal favourites, though.

treefrogdemon said...

As Time Goes By has 20 tracks, too!

Carole said...

I am going to think about a King Crimson "Best Of" list.

I'll create a separate post for it.

I'd love to do a Dead one too but it is so difficult. The range is too wide.

I am going to have to chip in some reggae stuff too.

Thinking cap on.

TracyK said...

I might have a bash at The Decemberists and B&S, should my bloke get off Football Manager for a decent length of time....