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What's in your CDP tonight? the minority report

I enjoy vinyl and digital (lately, with recent changes, vinyl actually sounds better than digital to me), BUT given what seems an overall preference for analog/vinyl on A'gon, I'm curious what the non-vinyl "1/2" is listening to. I tried to see if this was a previously posted question. Did not seem so.

This evening for me, it's Genesis (definitive edition remaster) "A Trick of the Tail".

128x128ghosthouse
ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse OP
4,319 posts
 
@bdp24 
@pokey77 
bdp - You are like a like a walking music encyclopedia!...guess they call them "musicologists"!  

I have to give credit to pokey77 for turning me onto The Grays and Jason Faulkner.  From those I found out about JellyFish.  For some reason tho' I found JellyFish's stuff inconsistent and occasionally annoying.  By contrast (IMO) Ro Sham Bo is a strong album all the way through.  JF's Author Unknown (not quite as consistent but still very good) could have been on the playlist last night but I ran out of time.  Apart from Pokey's recommendations, I'm pretty ignorant about that whole (SoCal?) late 80s/90s pop music scene.  Don't think those bands were getting much airplay on the east coast back then...leastways not the station I was mostly listening to then (WXPN out of Phila).  

Anyway - NO.  I don't know Great Buildings.  Did find Apart From the Crowd on the Spot and will listen more later today.  Brief sampling I did sounds promising.  Funny, heard of The Rembrandts but I couldn't name you a tune by them, so something else to explore.  

FWIW, much of my taste in pop music can be explained by this hit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypv1lZlW1WY
"Formative" as they say.




  
loomisjohnson
1,961 posts
 
as much as i respected the cratsmanship, i never really embraced that grays/jellyfish genre, mainly because it's more pop than power. i did like jon brion's solo record, meaningless (you can find it on youtube), which is looser; you might also dig redd kross, who are tons of fun.
dpatterson
105 posts
 
Thomas Newman - American Beauty Soundtrack
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,953 posts
 
The Rembrandts did the theme song for the TV show Friends, and had another hit single, I believe (but can’t for the life of me recall the song). They kinda seem to me like an American version of Squeeze. For anyone trying to follow the musical thread, Jon Brion and Jason Faulkner were in The Grays together, Jon then going on to become an in-demand producer and Jason a member of Jellyfish (at the time they made their debut album). Jellyfish were a quite unusual group, the lead singer of which was also the drummer. He did live shows playing a very small drumset (bass drum, snare drum, one cymbal) standing up, like the guy in The Stray Cats. Jellyfish did an instore at the Tower Records in Hollywood to promote the release of their second album (post-Jason Faulkner), and the little sound system they were going to use as their P.A. went down. So they did their set acoustically, almost a cappella. Great harmony singing, often compared to Queen but sounding more Brian Wilson-esque to me.
pokey77
1,269 posts
 

Thanks for the kind words Ghosthouse.

The Grays. What a great supergroup. Ro Sham Bo is an amazing compilation of songs by some of LAs great songwriters; a very solid record front to back. I had the opportunity to see them while I was in college and thought "I'll see them the next time the come around". Except they never did.

Jason Falkner is another LA-area musician that is at the forefront of his trade. Author Unknown, for me, is his best effort and he just hits the nail on the head. I tried to like the Jellyfish, but Jason or no Jason, couldn't really warm up to the band.

Another great LA band from that time period if Toy Matinee. They did a single record and the main guy, Kevin Gilbert, went on to do a number of albums. I never had the opportunity to see The Toy Matinee, but did see Kevin several times. He could sing and play beautifully. Unfortunately, he is no longer with us.

The Grays and Toy Matinee got lots of local airplay on KLOS.  But I don't think they every broke nation wide and none of these bands really made it. I'm glad that Jason Falkner has continued to release albums because I like the power pop beatlesque type of music for sure.

The Rembrandts made several albums plus they have a couple of best of albums. They made it huge here in SoCal with "Just the way it is, Baby". They also had another hit, "New King". I find them a bit more art rock than power pop but I do see that they fit in with the other bands above. The hit from friends is "I'll be there for you". Apparently they charted a number of times according to Wikipedia.

Jon Brion is a great musician and can really put on a show. His only album, Meaningless, is very good IMO. I've seen him at Largo in LA and the show was amazing. He is now very in demand as a producer.

Another SoCal band not mentioned here is Matthew Sweet. His record "Girlfriend" is for me by far the best. He had several hits on that one and I'm not sure he made it nation wide but was very popular here and in Japan. Give this one a look. It is very good.

I took a listen to Great Buildings. So it is apparent that the lead singer is from the Rembrandts. A little more poppy than artsy; certainly less refined than the Rembrandts.

Glad this topic came up. Nice stroll down Memory Lane.

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