The Church - Forget Yourself

One of my favorite bands. Hailing from Bondi, Australia.
Psychadelic & euphonious; this is their best album of this decade.
Make sure to catch them on their US tour that starts this week.

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Chris Whitley - Reiter In

Experimental steel guitar blues.
Recorded this album as he was dying from cancer. Some of spookiest songs i have ever heard considering the circumstance.
His albums vary greatly from one to the other. I hope you check some more of his stuff out.


Mediafire

The Dead Milkmen - Big Lizard In My Backyard

when i was in junior high i started a band with a friend. I listened to The Cure & Pixies. He listened to KISS and 80s hair metal. The one band we loved together were The Dead Milkmen.
Our sound took many cues from them. You can hear the influence in our big hits "egg nog" and " shit...dog shit".
I think people try to easily dismiss the Dead Milkmen, but guitarist Jack Talcum & bassist Dave Blood crafted beautiful melodies.
If you aren't lovin this album halfway thru track 2 "Beach Song" then i hate your stupid face, stupidface.

Mediafire

Best of Cui Jian: 1986-1996

Best of Cui Jian: 1986-1996

Cui Jian is the king of rock in China. His songs are either about heartbreak or politics. Saying “politics” gives off the impression that there is some discussion of policy involved, but since there is only one political party in China you either agree with them or you are punished. So really his songs are either about heartbreak or oppression. He participated in the Tiananmen protests and afterwards would wear a red cloth over his eyes as protest. In most cases the government would have just jailed or killed a dissident like him but he was too high profile. So he spent a good 15 years being prevented from playing. When they did allow him to play he was censored (he wasn’t allowed to play his politically charged songs or wear the red bandana over his eyes). I was able to attend a stadium concert of his in the factory town of Shijiazhuang. There was a heavy police presence and they didn’t allow people on the field, only in the stands on the sides. As the show went on there were protests and large fires started. The way the Chinese people identify their struggles with his music has no equal in the Western world.

His most famous song is 1)I Have Nothing, a heartbreak song. His most famous political song is 12) Piece of Red Cloth, about the Tiananmen Square massacres. My favorite track is 11) Tolerate. It is about loving someone who will never love you back. It is an emotion we can all identify with and makes this song one of most beautiful songs I have ever heard.

So if you are an artist what I hope you learn from Cui Jian is that he was a man who sacrificed his career in order to say things others were being suppressed from saying. His art was real struggle. And what power art has.

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Roky Erickson - You're Gonna Miss Me (Original Soundtrack)

Roky Erickson is credited by some with founding the first psychedelic rock band ever, the 13th Floor Elevators, and is said to have been a big influence on Janis Joplin's singing style. Roky's story is a pretty sad one though -- a frail psyche and drug issues led to his being committed to an isolated state psychiatric hospital in rural East Texas, where he underwent electroshock 'therapy' in questionable circumstances. The story is told in the documentary film You're Gonna Miss Me, of which this album is the soundtrack, sort of a 'greatest hits' from Roky's career. Seeing him at the polo grounds in 2007 remains one of my Coachella highlights.

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Billy Bragg - Talking With the Taxman About Poetry

Billy Bragg was an English folkie, but claims that when he heard The Clash, he put away his acoustic guitar for an electric one. His songs fall into three categories: (1) lefty railings praising the workers and condemning the capitalists; (2) proclamations that he loves women and will never be tied down to just one; and (3) anything else that might catch his eye that he wants to share his opinion with us on. People either love Bragg or hate him. Talking With the Taxman About Poetry is his third album, from 1986, and in my opinion his best.

PS. Smiths fans: Johnny Marr plays on this album.

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The Waco Brothers - Cowboy In Flames

You're a legendary UK punk rock icon with several classic (if unknown to the mainstream) albums behind you. You fall in love with an American woman, marry her, and move with her to her hometown of Chicago. Separated from your band mates, what do you do?

You start a country band. Of course.

The Waco Brothers started as Mekons co-founder Jon Langford's side project, but soon grew into a second full-time band. The goal was to be "the hardest country band in the world". Essentially picking up where the Mekons left off with their alt-country albums (Fear and Whisky etc.), the Wacos make rollicking, policitally-charged country punk. Cowboy In Flames, their second album, is probably their best (along with the followup, Do You Think About Me?)

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