This Time It's Personal: The November 2023 Record Challenge Thread

[LeeVing]

November 3
“Hey, this is our song! Remember?”
“No.”

What record will forever remind you of that special someone, a relative, or a good friend and why? What does it remind you of doing with them? (ahem, keep it clean)

My first apartment roommate - we both liked Elvis Costello - he got me listening to Steely Dan occasionally and I think the Greatest Hits (1972-1978) I have was from him buying it.

He had an official CD release of this, while I had this counterfeit. We would listen to both, as they sound very similar.

I only lived there less than a year - as it was the first time I flunked out of college (there was a 2nd time, too, but I eventually finished once I changed majors) - This would have been around 1996/97.

I got this record from that antique mall mentioned previously - but unlike all the other good stuff, this is a bootleg. As this was still early internet, there wasn't really a great source to find this out. It was years later that I found out this record was heavily counterfeited. It sounds fine, though. Not a great recording...even the official CD release didn't sound great.

Elvis Costello – Live At The El Mocambo
CBS – CDN 10, 1978

Counterfeit

 

[hatfieldpdx]

November 1

Guest comes to your home for the first time: “You seem to like music a lot- holy smokes that’s a LOT of vinyls!” (Guest runs their hand -too aggressively, you determine- across the spines of the records)

What was the first album you remember having? Did you get it as a kid or did you more recently get into this silly hobby? Can you still smell the liner notes when you hear these songs?

Wilco - Schmilco

I had a vinyl collection when I was a teenager, but abandoned the format when CDs became the norm. In a random twist, this was the album that pulled me back in. I had been a Wilco fan since day one, and wanted to hear this upcoming release...so, I went to an advance listening party for Schmilco. I didn't have a turntable, but picked up the vinyl on the spot just to have a physical copy. It would have been September 6, 2016 – 3 days before the actual release. Picked up a turntable shortly after, and the rest is history...809 records and counting...

Here is Wilco's posting for the events: I Heard Schmilco Listening Parties - Wilco

I still think it's an underrated Wilco album. My daughters love it too. They were 7 and 9 when it came out.

 

[LeSamourai]

November 2
“Yeah the record’s great, but you’ve GOT to see them live!”

What was one of your all-time favorite concerts that you’ve been to, who went with you, and where was it? If you’ve never been to a show, who would you love to see (or love to have seen) live? Digital high-fives will be given if you include photos from the show.

St. Vincent - Actor

In 2007, my fiance and I went to a tiny venue in Salt Lake City to see John Vanderslice play. Opening was an unknown solo artist who called herself St. Vincent, doing crazy things with her guitar and leaving us very impressed. I grabbed the "Paris is Burning" single at that show, because she didn't have an album out yet, and then watched, unsurprised, as she went on to become quite popular. I don't have photos of my own, but there is a grainy video from that night I found on YouTube!

 

[hatfieldpdx]

November 2

“Yeah the record’s great, but you’ve GOT to see them live!”

What was one of your all-time favorite concerts that you’ve been to, who went with you, and where was it? If you’ve never been to a show, who would you love to see (or love to have seen) live? Digital high-fives will be given if you include photos from the show.

The Meters - Uptown Rulers! (Live on the Queen Mary)

I have always loved live music, and still go to a ton of shows. I started cataloguing shows I've been to on Concert Archives a few years back, including past shows, though I'm sure it's still missing a couple hundred performances (maybe more) from earlier years.

In any case, in the spring of 1996 I had just returned from 2 months of solo travel in Patagonian Chile and Argentina. I flew home through San Francisco, and stayed with my friend Chris Howard. We had made plans to travel from SF to New Orleans for Jazz Fest that year, and a couple of his friends joined. It was my first time going to Jazz Fest – I had a blast and discovered so much new music. But the real highlight? The Funky Meters had scheduled a late night show at Tipitina's, and we somehow managed to score tickets. Just an incredible, mind-melding show. No photos, sadly – smartphones didn't really exist back then, so I have only memories – which is more than enough in this case.

 

[LeSamourai]

November 3
“Hey, this is our song! Remember?”
“No.”

What record will forever remind you of that special someone, a relative, or a good friend and why? What does it remind you of doing with them? (ahem, keep it clean)

Death Cab for Cutie - Plans

Another memory of a concert with my wife, this time one of our first dates, to see Death Cab on their tour for this album. Mates of State opened, making for some peak mid-2000s concert-going.

 

[avecigrec]

November 3
“Hey, this is our song! Remember?”
“No.”

Traveling Wilburys – Volume One


I have vague childhood memories of my mom getting her cassette copy of this and being pretty thrilled about it, but I don't recall any lasting imprint made while she was listening to it. Fast forward to my early twenties when I was staying with her and my stepdad for a few months between a roadtrip and my fateful move to Vancouver Island... being much more musically seasoned by this point, I realized the Wilburys featured a bunch of musicians I'd come to like and I should probably give it a go, and give it a go I did - I damn near wore out my mom's cassette while I was staying with them. That Christmas (or the next - I can't fully recall), I opened one of my last presents from her and it was a CD copy of the album when used CD copies typically hit a three-figure price tag before the album was finally reissued a few years later. Knowing how much this would have cost, in a moment of purely unfiltered shock and joy I disbelievingly responded with, "Fuck OFF!" - which she took in great stride and mentioned she'd probably reword a bit when talking to my grandmother later.

This particular copy further reminds me of my mom, as I inherited it from her neighbour's collection when he passed (on Boxing Day) a few years back. I took a week off work to help her and my stepdad take care of packing and clearing up the house and she mentioned he'd said my stepdad and I could have all of his music - my stepdad opted for the CDs and let me take what I wanted of the records and trade in whatever was left. There were a couple of other great albums in his collection, but this was the absolute gem for sure - and in nearly-pristine condition!

 

[hatfieldpdx]

November 3

“Hey, this is our song! Remember?”
“No.”

What record will forever remind you of that special someone, a relative, or a good friend and why? What does it remind you of doing with them? (ahem, keep it clean)

Grateful Dead – Portland Memorial Coliseum 5/19/1974

This one goes out to my wife. While she loves many different kinds of music, she doesn't necessarily have the same thirst for discovery. She likes to joke that without me in her life, she would still be listening to her collection of greatest hits CDs that she owned in college.

In any case, she loves the Grateful Dead, who were of course masters of discovery. As such, there is some nice overlap for us. I can always spin a Grateful Dead record with confidence that it will be well received...which I cannot say of my entire collection (*glances at his growing free jazz collection*). Best memories are of streaming Dead shows on any number of epic road trips we took before we had kids...and even with younger kids, now that I think about it. Alas, our daughters are now teenagers, and their tolerance for listening to the Dead has waned.

This one was an easy choice, as my wife loves live Dead and we have lived together in Portland for nearly 20 years.

 

[avecigrec]

I started cataloguing shows I've been to on Concert Archives a few years back

Ooooooh.... this is gonna be a fun rabbit hole!

 

[hatfieldpdx]

November 4
You: “If you like _____, then you’ll DEFINITELY love _______. This is THE BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR!!”
Them: :::crickets:::

What is one of your favorite artists/records that you feel is criminally underrated or ignored and makes you question your taste in music because no one else is raving about it? Now is the time to sell us on it!

Anna Tivel – Outsiders

While it doesn't necessarily make me question my taste in music, I am baffled at the general lack of recognition that Anna has found – at least thus far. It is certainly quiet, thoughtful and introspective music – which rarely if ever translates to commercial success. At the same time, it seems clear that those who have discovered Anna treasure her as one of the best songwriters working today. I certainly count myself among them. I will say that it was seeing Anna perform live with her amazing band that really pulled me in. Her Tiny Desk concert (linked below) is a good place to start.

 

[avecigrec]

November 4
You: “If you like _____, then you’ll DEFINITELY love _______. This is THE BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR!!”
Them: :::crickets:::

What is one of your favorite artists/records that you feel is criminally underrated or ignored and makes you question your taste in music because no one else is raving about it? Now is the time to sell us on it!

Anna Tivel – Outsiders

While it doesn't necessarily make me question my taste in music, I am baffled at the general lack of recognition that Anna has found – at least thus far. It is certainly quiet, thoughtful and introspective music – which rarely if ever translates to commercial success. At the same time, it seems clear that those who have discovered Anna treasure her as one of the best songwriters working today. I certainly count myself among them. I will say that it was seeing Anna perform live with her amazing band that really pulled me in. Her Tiny Desk concert (linked below) is a good place to start.

View attachment 186471

"Heroes" is one of my favourite songs of last year. But I need to revisit the entire album for sure.

 

[hatfieldpdx]

"Heroes" is one of my favourite songs of last year. But I need to revisit the entire album for sure.

That is the song I cued up in the Tiny Desk link.

 

[Wicked Dreamer]

Day 4: You: “If you like _____, then you’ll DEFINITELY love _______. This is THE BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR!!” Them:

NAO - For All We Know



A wonky mix of R&B, funk & EDM, it’s one of my favourite albums of the late 2010s but those I’ve introduced this album to don’t seem to love it nearly as much, sadly. I’ll admit, this album was a bit of a grower, as there were a few songs on here(DYWM, Blue Wine) I didn’t truly get into until years after they came out.

 

[LeeVing]

November 4
You: “If you like _____, then you’ll DEFINITELY love _______. This is THE BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR!!”
Them: :::crickets:::

What is one of your favorite artists/records that you feel is criminally underrated or ignored and makes you question your taste in music because no one else is raving about it? Now is the time to sell us on it!

I rarely compare artists/bands to other artists - and I do my best not to recommend artists/bands to people unless I know them well, so this doesn't happen all too often, as I don't frequently meet new people that are into music. My daughter is pretty much it at this point and the way 17 year olds listen to music these days seems very schizophrenic to me. I also don't listen to a lot of "new" music - so most people already like or don't like the stuff I listen to.

This is last artist I remember playing in my car for my daughter who has gotten to be a fan of XTC because I play them often enough. She's also been really into high school choir these last 4 years, so she can pick up on various singing techniques and things that I am oblivious on. She really liked this and Spilt Milk.

I'm looking forward to the new reissue of this one, as the gimmick cover has created some warp/skip damage in the first track on each side. I'm glad to see they aren't recreating this sleeve for the reissue. (we're under 2 weeks until their release date so I'll be playing this one again soon.)

It's also hard to say "no one else is raving about it" in a music forum where we all rave about all music...in this space Jellyfish is fairly well known and appreciated....not so much out there in the real world.


Jellyfish – Bellybutton
Charisma – 1-91400, 1990

US Promo

DMM cut
Pressed at Specialty Records Corporation

 

[LeeVing]

November 5
You: “Excuse me, but could you special order two records for me?”
Record store clerk: “Sure thing! Which ones?”
You: “um, Chicago’s 19 and also their fourth Christmas album”
Record store clerk: “Uhh…”
You: “I made the mistake of buying their first record and now I have to own them all.”

Which band/musician made you “go down the rabbit hole,” making you feel the need to buy everything they ever put out? What? You never did that? You have incredible will-power, you say? Ohhh well good for you! Play whatever you want then, I don’t care.

When searching "XTC" in my Discogs collection it comes up with 142 results. There are some false positives - like Green Jellÿ's Trippin' On XTC. But there are a lot of related releases that don't appear - like Andy Partridge solo/duo/written stuff - Colin Moulding stuff, etc.

While I consider myself a completist - there is still more I need...like I don't have an original UK 7" of Dear God. That's one I could easily order, but I like finding XTC in the wild, there's few had to go to the internet for (with exception of recent releases), and those were very early in my record buying life.

But there's also those random label compilation releases that have one XTC track, and that's what I bought it for - even though there's nothing special about the track - it's the studio version I have many other copies of.

It's probably at a number around 150 - but probably more than that.


I could make a fancy picture by laying out all the releases I own down the stairs or around my room, but I'm too lazy to get them all out and have to put them away - so you get a screenshot of Discogs.


I blanked out the false positives...
There's exact doubles of some, but most "doubles" are different pressings.



Before I get to the Album - one pet peeve of mine is that "XTC" is unsearchable here...



XTC – Drums And Wires
Virgin – VA 13134, 1979

Limited to 15,000 with 7" EP/Single "Limelight" b/w "Day In Day Out" and "Chain Of Command"

Cut by George Piros at Atlantic
Pressed at Monarch

I'll end with a link to the documentary from 6 years ago - it's a good quick watch at just over an hour.

 

[jamieanderson1968]

November 5
You: “Excuse me, but could you special order two records for me?”
Record store clerk: “Sure thing! Which ones?”
You: “um, Chicago’s 19 and also their fourth Christmas album”
Record store clerk: “Uhh…”
You: “I made the mistake of buying their first record and now I have to own them all.”

Which band/musician made you “go down the rabbit hole,” making you feel the need to buy everything they ever put out? What? You never did that? You have incredible will-power, you say? Ohhh well good for you! Play whatever you want then, I don’t care.

When searching "XTC" in my Discogs collection it comes up with 142 results. There are some false positives - like Green Jellÿ's Trippin' On XTC. But there are a lot of related releases that don't appear - like Andy Partridge solo/duo/written stuff - Colin Moulding stuff, etc.

While I consider myself a completist - there is still more I need...like I don't have an original UK 7" of Dear God. That's one I could easily order, but I like finding XTC in the wild, there's few had to go to the internet for (with exception of recent releases), and those were very early in my record buying life.

But there's also those random label compilation releases that have one XTC track, and that's what I bought it for - even though there's nothing special about the track - it's the studio version I have many other copies of.

It's probably at a number around 150 - but probably more than that.


I could make a fancy picture by laying out all the releases I own down the stairs or around my room, but I'm too lazy to get them all out and have to put them away - so you get a screenshot of Discogs.


I blanked out the false positives...
There's exact doubles of some, but most "doubles" are different pressings.

View attachment 186505

Before I get to the Album - one pet peeve of mine is that "XTC" is unsearchable here...

View attachment 186506

XTC – Drums And Wires
Virgin – VA 13134, 1979

Limited to 15,000 with 7" EP/Single "Limelight" b/w "Day In Day Out" and "Chain Of Command"

Cut by George Piros at Atlantic
Pressed at Monarch

I'll end with a link to the documentary from 6 years ago - it's a good quick watch at just over an hour.

Bloody impressive

 

[jamieanderson1968]

November 5
Which band/musician made you “go down the rabbit hole,” making you feel the need to buy everything they ever put out?

Mogwai - Les Revenants

Bowie was too obvious, and I have been buying his records for 40 years. While I now consider myself a big Post-Rock fan, I pretty much ignored Mogwai until the mid 2010s. We started to watch the French ghost/zombie tv series Les Revenants which Mogwai scored. I really loved it and bought the soundtrack and their new album Rave Tapes at the same time. Thankfully they have embarked on a slow reissue campaign and I now have all 10 of their studio albums plus 5 of their 8 soundtracks. I also have 3 albums of compilations, 2 eps and numerous live recordings.

 

[imtheocean]

November 4
You: “If you like _____, then you’ll DEFINITELY love _______. This is THE BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR!!”
Them: :::crickets:::

What is one of your favorite artists/records that you feel is criminally underrated or ignored and makes you question your taste in music because no one else is raving about it? Now is the time to sell us on it!

Going with a non-vinyl choice, since this was only released digitally / CD. Petra Hadens voice and Bill Frisells guitar get equal prominence in this release, wrapping delicately around each other throughout it. Includes reworked covers of the Foo Fighters, Coldplay, and a lovely version of Tom Waits "I Don't Want to Grow Up" among others. An excellent Sunday morning listen that's easy to get lost in.

Petra Haden & Bill Frisell ~ Self Titled

 

[Wes C. Attle]

November 4
You: “If you like _____, then you’ll DEFINITELY love _______. This is THE BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR!!”
Them: :::crickets:::

What is one of your favorite artists/records that you feel is criminally underrated or ignored and makes you question your taste in music because no one else is raving about it? Now is the time to sell us on it!

Going with a non-vinyl choice, since this was only released digitally / CD. Petra Hadens voice and Bill Frisells guitar get equal prominence in this release, wrapping delicately around each other throughout it. Includes reworked covers of the Foo Fighters, Coldplay, and a lovely version of Tom Waits "I Don't Want to Grow Up" among others. An excellent Sunday morning listen that's easy to get lost in.

Petra Haden & Bill Frisell ~ Self Titled

Their cover of Elliott Smith’s “Satellite” is just perfect

 

[Turbo]

November 3
“Hey, this is our song! Remember?”
“No.”
What record will forever remind you of that special someone, a relative, or a good friend and why? What does it remind you of doing with them? (ahem, keep it clean)

Dua Lipa "Future Nostalgia" (2020 Warner)
This one is for my daughter. She's become a pretty solid music fan in her own rights - likes a lot of the music I introduce her to. She loves rocking to the Clash or The White Stripes. We sing Weeknd tracks together in the car. She constantly surprises me like when she started singing the lyrics to a Mitski track or a Breakbot track. She had a blast with me at Depeche Mode on Friday, where she told me her favorite record of theirs was Black Celebration and was super happy when Martin Gore sung A Question Of Lust (I didn't even know she played through their discography before the show). This Dua Lipa record she introduced to me during the pandemic. The first of many I'm sure. Anyway, I ended up liking it well enough to get a copy.

 

[LeSamourai]

November 4
You: “If you like _____, then you’ll DEFINITELY love _______. This is THE BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR!!”
Them: :::crickets:::

What is one of your favorite artists/records that you feel is criminally underrated or ignored and makes you question your taste in music because no one else is raving about it? Now is the time to sell us on it!

Mirah - Advisory Committee

The prompt reminded me of a friend from high school that I would chat music with online when we were in college (on AOL instant messenger because we're old millennials) and we would share stuff we were in to. Well, I got really into this album, and opening track "Cold, Cold Water," but when I shared the song with her she didn't just not care for it, she hated, hated, hated it.