Most Underrated Rock Albums
Submitted by Feif Umgotnn on Fri, 10/30/2009 - 17:06
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- Charles Brown Superstar: Days of Our Drive/Sweet Piece of Ass (1994)
- a vinyl only release from a long dissolved band=VERY RARE; i was lucky that a very nice Canadian professor found and sold me a copy at cost, a MINT/MINT copy at that. the album is not THEE GREATEST ALBUM OF ALL-TIME but is long and fan-freaking-tastic, and i would love to reissue, or petition for reissue this album on CD or at least another run of vinyl. for those who need a barometer for this album, scaruffi would probably give it at least a 7.5, or i am confident he could easily give it an 8/10, and the album has pop appeal with "Beestung" and a cover of Gary Numan's "Cars", both can be found on their Summertime EP which is available on CD and for purchase used on Amazon.com CLICK HERE to go to the Amazon.com page where you can purchase Summertime EP if you are interested in buying it - DO NOT PAY $60 for this EP, it is only 4 songs, and it is not THEE GREATEST album of all time.
- Ant-Bee: Pure Electric Honey (1990)
- this is #2 for now simply because it is more known than Days of Our Drive/Sweet Piece of Ass (before now i would not have believed that there were 2 AMAZING albums that were this unknown); so this is almost a 1b situation, but it is a solid #2 for now. i have talked to Billy about reissuing his work, and if i can come with the money - many g's more than i have now - i would love to put this masterpiece out! well, i need a label first...but who's counting? i would love to put out Days of Our Drive/Sweet Piece of Ass, but Benett said that Bobby (at least the partial or possibly complete composer of the material) says that he wants to hold onto it for now; i should have more information on these 2 albums in the coming months. you can currently buy this album from Ant-Bee at his site ant-bee.com, but he only have official pressings of the album on vinyl, and CD's are only in the form of CD-r, but i would love to change that....
- The Blue Denim Deals Without the Arms: 'Armed Forces' Day
- another album from the freaks that brought you Ron 'Pates Debonairs: Raudelunas 'Pataphysical Revue, and Fred Lane's solo stuff, and on the same level as the 'Pataphysical Revue; it is waxes and wanes in, up, over, around, through belue, asunder, and with pips and pops of sound thunder: ah! a joyous occasion. do not look for this - then why should i post it? - it is vinyl only, and the only copy i have found is $368 on GEMM, and it is not even MINT...but Craig Nutt (Ron 'Pate) has personal MINT copies he is willing to sell, for A LOT i am sure, so i did not bother asking what the price would be...good luck if you want one. it, and the other lot of albums can be 'FOUND HERE!. i love this stuff. it will stay behind Ant-Bee because i think that is a pure masterpiece, but it is as rare as the Charles Brown Superstar album! like JCOA a couple spots below this is not a "rock" album, but i think this page is still being sourced as positive press by R. Stevie Moore for the reissue of his brilliant album Phonography. (my copy should be arriving any day now, dag-nabbit).
- Fred Lane: From The One That Cut You - only #3 because it has been reissued a couple times.
- Aglaia: Three Organic Experiences (2003)
- Jazz Composer’s Orchestra: Jazz Composer’s Orchestra (1968)
- The Residents: Meet The Residents (1973, edited down to the version most know of in 1974)
- i do not have a preference, but do listen to the edited version because that was the one i fell in love with, and the original does tarry at times, but i love it as well. there is a Japanese reissue of the ORIGINAL 1973 version of the album with bonus Santa Dog material, the EP and the revisions to it over the years..."Santa Dog 78", "Santa Dog 88", and "Where Are Your Dogs? Show Us Your Ugly! (Santa Dog 92)".
- i want this, but i would really have to sell my vinyl copy first: IS THERE ANYONE WHO WANTS TO BUY MY VINYL COPY OF THE ORIGINAL VERSION 1973 REISSUE OF THIS ALBUM - IT IS UNOPENED (never played, duh! M/M)! - $50ish
- Butthole Surfers: Butthole Surfers EP (1983) - a.k.a. A Brown Reason To Live and Pee Pee The Sailor
- if they are the ultimate gods, and god is second to them. then, this is the ultimate bible, the bible is second to this.
- The Fleshtones: Roman Gods (1981)
- why these guys were not gods of the MTV generation is beyond my comprehension. Their songs are accessible, powerful, positively neurotic, simple, driving, and American (the largest market) and drew from the most popular American styles of the past, but all that was probably a negative in the 80’s which was fraught with negative, baroque, “new”, submissive, neurotic, and anything but the past regardless of how good it could be. it is a shame – this is “Super Rock”.
- Lisa Germano: Excerpts From A Love Circus (1996)
- her masterpiece, even a step higher than Geek the Girl, which could easily take this album's place. she is a genius of a songwriter, and a genius of the highest magnitude of melancholy; NO ONE can do it like her. the only drawback is that i am a guy, and cannot fully relate to most of the struggles she writes about. With her songs, it is not just her lyrics; it is not just her sullen vocals; it is the atmospheres created and how everything a song can be she boils into a cauldron and summons the courage to piece them together. One by one, letting even the most innocuous of sounds find their way onto the album, each sound seeming to find a way to dig a bit deeper than the rest of the history of songwriters have done. she is up there with, or very easily surpasses, Dylan, Springsteen, Cohen, Young...Mitchell, Nico...as the greatest all around singer/songwriter, in and out, through and through…! That introspective approach created/popularized by Dylan, reaches its peak on a Germano song/album, take your pick.
- Royal Trux: Twin Infinitives (1990)
- R. Stevie Moore: Phonography (1976)
- the only album i have heard by him, but it was VERY GOOD, so it goes on this list; if you like the Residents, and quirky pop music in general, you will love this album, and probably others by him as well; i will continue searching for others by him.
- Run On: Start Packing (1996)
- some people prefer Alan Licht's avant-garde guitar playing, but i prefer when he took part in, what i will simply call, a pop/rock group; there is not much avant-garde here.
- Pink Floyd: Ummagumma (1969)
- this entry is for the Studio album of the two discs, though “Careful With That Axe Eugene” is a brilliant remake of their earlier single, the other three live remakes are boring compared to their previously studio mastered versions, and should have been left off for originals if they had any worthy of the Studio compositions.
- Tim Buckley: Starsailor (1970)
- The Fugs: The Fugs (1966)
- Mercury Rev: Boces (1993)
- Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes: Paix (1972)
- i don't understand French, but i understand greatness, and Catherine is GREAT!!!!!!! there are a few others that could be tacked on later, this is the best i have heard of her career, of 5 or so.
- Hash Jar Tempo: Well Oiled (1997)
- Game Theory: Lolita Nation - it is probably the best pure Pop album, and gets little attention.
- Tim Buckley: Lorca (1970)
- Cop Shoot Cop: Consumer Revolt (1990)
- Thinking Fellers Union Local 282: Mother of All Saints (1992)
- Nancy Sesay & the Melodaires: C'est Fab 7" (1980) - quirky No Wave-pop
- Fifty Foot Hose: Cauldron (1967) - a mix between avant-garde, pop, psychedelia, freak, and rock.
- Red Krayola: Parable of Arable Land (1967)
- Alexander ‘Skip’ Spence: Oar (1969)
- Hampton Grease Band: Music To Eat (1971)
- Pärson Sound: Pärson Sound (1967-8)
- Peter Walker: Rainy Day Raga (1966)
- Les Rallizes Dénudés: '77 Live
- The Outsiders: CQ (1967)
- Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co.: Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co. (1973)
- reissued with two bonus tracks as 1970-1973, but I do not know the original tracks, though I believe them to be A1. Ceres Motion, A2. Train, B. Easter, and “Music” and “Cloudscape for Peggy” were other compositions from that era. The main composer of the material is David Borden who has other great stuff that I will track down and report on.
- Halfnelson (a.k.a. Sparks): A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing
- i think this is bootleg only; it is not the same album that Sparks, what Halfnelson changed their name to, released 5 years later. this album is a bunch of pop tunes like Syd Barrett's goofy psychedelic pop music, but this is "rare", and i like it, so it goes on this list, but it will fall as i build the list. it is not nearly as good as Barrett or other psychedelic pop from the era, but a bootleg is a bootleg, and it should have been released and forgotten: LOVE THE CONTRADICTION, LOVE IT!
- Pere Ubu: The Modern Dance (1977)
- people do know about this album and this band, but i feel it is THEE MASTERPIECE, so until it gets that recognition that Sgt. Pepper, Pet Sounds, Blonde On Blonde, The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Doors, Astral Weeks...get, it will always be attached to the bottom of this list regardless of how long it gets, or how obscure some of the albums get.
- more to come as i feel they earn a spot on this list. do you know of any really underrated albums that you feel are unfairly treated by the world for the genius they possess, or are too obscure to even be enjoyed by those who would want to enjoy the genius (Days of our drive...)? feel free to discuss.
For R. Stevie, the best ones I've heard so far are:
Games and Groceries (1978)
Teenage Spectacular (1987)
Swing and a Miss (1977)
For compilations, Hobbies Galore is good, but the best one may just be Great Test Hits
cool, i will try to check them out (so many albums, so little time, and literature, and movies...and a life, somewhere)
for the future, i can search your rated albums on RYM to artist specific searches which will bring up R. Stevie Moore and choose to rank them in order of which ones you rated highest and will use that as a guide - i am too busy to do research myself, and you seem to be mainlining that weirdo :^) right now!
RSM is one of my fonder addictions. Start here
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My current addiction: Jandek. His best album is (of what I've heard) Blue Corpse.
Derek Bailey - Aida.
Les Rallizes Dénudés - '77 Live
Gallon Drunk - From The Heart Of Town
David Thomas - Monster Walks the Winter Lake
Yea
cool, Les rallizes was on deck, but i will put it on there now!
Jandek - i have always heard more about the artist than anything from the artist, but i will try to look into it.
Aida is on Wire Magazine's "100 albums that set [should've] set the world on fire", so that is the definition of underrated - but i have not gotten to that album yet....
Gallon drunk - i got a few of their albums somewhere, but i don't think i know that one - i will look for it
David thomas - definitely - i am also compiling my own list of the Most Out There albums of all time and Monster Walks the Winter Lake is the one from his collection that will go on there, as well as the non-existent Winter Comes Home is probably the more out-there album because it is even more minimal, thus weirder at times.
thanks for the suggestions!
Wow, RSM actually posted your list on his news page!
awesome! :^)
How does the Sparks demo compare to the rest of their albums?
I HAVE NO CLUE - give me a few days to track down some Sparks material. i heard a little bit once, and the form of this demo was discarded because they wanted to take it in another direction (Glam Rock i think), they even changed their name from Halfnelson to Sparks in the process. it is probably radically different than their demos, which were British Invasion sounding (Barrett, Kinks type pop music) and similar to the rest of the "psychedelic" movement in the late 60's. i will try to get back to you on this soon.
the demo is on par with early Pink Floyd, especially the first singles, and the pop songs on the first album, and the Kinks pop songs the rest is:
Sparks: Halfnelson (1971) g - the album jumps back and forth between their demo (quirky psych-pop structures) and the 70’s glam & soft pop/rock – not bad pop music, but it does little for me – I gave it the bump to good for now, but it is really a step down; its quirkiness saves it from obscurity.
Sparks: A Woofer in Tweeter’s Clothing (1973) d - this is nothing like the demos, it only shares the name – GLAM ROCK!
Sparks: Propaganda (1974) ee - glammmmy glam rock
Sparks: Kimono My House (1974) ee - glammy glam rock
i do not like the whole glam rock scene: Bowie, Mot the Hoople, Sweet, Kiss, Cockney Rebel, Queen, most of: Alice Cooper, Lou Reed's Glam stuff, T. Rex
though i do like: some Lou Reed songs of that style, Electric Warrior (though not as much as i used to), a few songs by Bowie here and there, and the first two Roxy Music albums, as well as singles off the next couple albums.
Aglaia - Three Organic Experiences?
wow, yeah that would probably be on here if i can find out that no one knows about it, or that it is SOOO Fukcing good that it falls into the argument i made for The Modern Dance. i should just expand it to Most Underrated Albums, and get rid of the "rock" part; then i could add that, and Jazz Composer's Orchestra (1968) or whatever the official title is.
that was one of my favorite non-rock works of sound (classical, jazz, [everything else]).
i have some more work to do here...any more albums?
Can't think of any off the top of my head atm. 3 Organic Experiences is very unknown. On RYM it has 10 ratings and two of them are sljiva and myself. Menindrag is also down as having contributed to the entry. This suggests it is known somewhat by listologists (I believe darktremor was largely responsible for this when he put it first in his ambient list) but otherwise is unknown.
now it is 11. i cannot believe i did not give this album a rating. it will go on in the next update.
I would nominate Hampton Grease Band's "Music to Eat" on the basis of only 424 listeners of the band on last.fm
yeah, i thought of this album just yesterday, though i never got the auto-email for this posting...but it will go on when i update it. i want to give it another listen, it is a pretty funny album as well as being great.