Sorted some old vinyl, found some neat stuff

[VerbalPuke]

I sorted through some old vinyl that my dad gave me, I've had it for years and kind of knew what was in there, but maybe hadn't developed appreciation for everything in there at my younger age. Now that I'm a bit older and my interest in music has expanded, I'd like to know what people think of some of the following groups. I've heard some of this stuff years ago but don't quite remember it, I just want to see if any or all of it is worth giving a listen on the turntable. It all appears to be prog-rock from the 70s, I guess my dad loved that shit.

Peter Gabriel - Some of his solo work, it appears to be Peter Gabriel 1, 2, and 3 as well as a live album of his. I know my dad was a fan, so I'm wondering how much I'll enjoy this stuff, it seems it's critically acclaimed but that might not mean shit.

Sparks - Kimono My House. These guys I do know a bit about, read a lot about them in We Got The Neutron Bomb, they were apparently a fairly big influence on the glam rock phase prior to punk (around the time of Zolar X and The New York Dolls).

Uriah Heep - I forgot the album, but for some reason remember hearing the name thrown around before.

Mott the Hoople - Mott. I've heard about them in the same respect as Sparks, and have been told I might enjoy this.

Gentle Giant - Free Hand, and another album I forget. I do like the beginning of Free Hand but haven't had the chance to actually sit back and listen to it all the way through. I think I'll enjoy this, but wondering if anybody else has any take on it.

[METALMAN]

I don't know much about Peter Gabriel.

Sparks are pretty cool- They're one of those bands that seem to try a new thing with each album. Some of it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's usually always entertaining. Skummy would be able to tell you more.

Uriah Heep. Do they still get kicked around as an influence by metal bands these days? They're pretty cool, and were metal trailblazers I suppose, though they've been forgotten a bit compared to their contemporaries Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin.

Mott the Hoople are great fun, and Mott is a real good album. Pretty much yer seminal glam rock band. You'll at the very least know All The Young Dudes. They also did a really good cover of Sweet Jane. Ian Hunter, their lead singer, is in his seventies now but still churning out some pretty good albums.

My dad likes Gentle Giant. I've never really listened to them, but he says they are way better than other prog rock bands like Yes, King Crimson and so on. And allegedly more experimental too. I like what I've heard.

Oh and while you're here, VP, tell me some good surf rock albums to get! Been meaning to ask for a while, seeing as you seem to be the man for that sort of thing.

[SRN]

I am big Peter Gabriel fan, have listened to his self-titled albums quite a few times and even have his "So" album on vinyl.

I've been listening to a lot of Gentle Giant as well, but mostly their earlier albums like Acquiring The Taste although I do have The Power and the Glory stored away somewhere. Not big on the other bands, although I do know about Uriah Heep. Cool stuff, VP.

[VerbalPuke]

Thanks so far gentleman, funny that the more I sort through that pile over the years, the more I add to my collection.

And metalman, I'd be happy to help. The first two and obvious suggestions I can make are Dick Dale and the Deltones and the Ventures. Realistically, anything you can find from these two groups is going to be good, for our purposes I'd suggest just finding Best Of's or Greatest Hits compilations of either, those should have all of their best work and should be pretty extensive.

My personal favorite surf band is the Trashmen, the same guys who do Surfin' Bird (the bird bird bird, the bird is the word..). That song is fun, but their other work is much better than that, especially if you're looking for straight up surf.

See if you can find a copy of the Pyramids "Penetration! The Best of the Pyramids", it's a must have for any surf fan.

Two good modern surf groups are the Phantom Surfers and Los Straitjackets. The Phantom Surfers are quite good, probably go with Skaterhater (with Davie Allan, who I will cover in a moment), the Exciting Sounds of Model Car Racing, or The Great Surf Crash of 97. XXX Party is a great album for the humor involved, but you might want to look into that after you've established that you enjoy the Phantom Surfers.

Los Straitjackets are pretty straight forward surf, but they play their shows in Luchadore masks which gives them a fun novelty.

As for Davie Allan, he's an underrated relic from the 60s, best known for doing some soundtracks for B Grade biker flicks (Wild Angels starring Peter Honda being the best known). While his music isn't specifically regarded as surf, a lot of his work closely relates to it with his fuzzed out, twangy guitar instrumentals. That said, his influence on certain surf acts (the Phantom Surfers as mentioned above) is undeniable, look for his Devil's Rumble anthology. Look specifically for the song Blues Theme, it's a fucking classic.

Actually fuck it, here it is...

Anyway, another thing I can suggest is to look for surf compilations. There are tons of them out there, and feature a lot of singles from groups that never quite made it. The thing with some of these niche rock genres like surf and garage is that you have a ton of groups from the 60s that released maybe one or two singles, but never had any real mainstream exposure. With that happening a lot of these singles end up on compilation albums, think about the hundreds of different 60s garage and psychedelic compilations out there with bands that nobody has heard of. The same thing can be found for surf.

[Hobo]

The Gabriel albums are pretty good. Although I just noticed when checking I only have 3 in German (he released 3 and 2 I think in German as well as English). Which has some of my favorite songs I Don't Remember, Games Without Frontiers, No Self Control, Family Snapshot. So, 3 would probably be my favorite of those.

[Skummy]

I absolutely adore Sparks - as far as I'm aware, they never really made it big in America, but they had a few brief runs in the charts in the UK as possibly the most unlikely pop act imaginable. There's a great story of John Lennon seeing them on Top Of The Pops and shouting "bloody hell, Hitler's on the telly!".

Kimono My House is probably their most famous album - This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us is an absolute classic, but pretty much the whole album is great, and really them finding "their sound".

Like metalman said, they do a lot of experimenting with different sounds, and I think they've actually found their place now after over 20 albums. They kind of lost their way doing weird electro disco stuff for a while, but now they've got a sound that's entirely their own, I can't think of another band that sounds anything like them.

If you like Kimono My House, get hold of the song "Dick Around". Even moreso than "This Town...", it's just the Sparks sound perfectly summed up in one amazing song.

I don't really know enough of Peter Gabriel, Uriah Heep or Gentle Giant - just odd songs here and there. Not really my thing these days, though I'm warming to Gabriel.

Mott The Hoople are great - though fall into the same trap as many glam rock bands of the time, and make a lot of sub-Bowie faux intellectual pap, though they were generally pretty good. I don't actually own Mott, but my favourite songs from them are "All The Young Dudes" (obviously) and "Sea Diver", which is an absolute masterpiece.

Speaking of surf and instrumentals and whatnot, VP, have you heard the album Duane Eddy put out this year? It's awesome stuff, and actually really fucking heavy in places.

[VerbalPuke]

Thanks again for the insight, I'm looking forward to getting a chance to play these (having a baby complicates my jamming these days). I've been fortunate to receive a lot of good vinyl hand me downs from my dad and uncle. My uncle sent me a few packages of vinyl which included stuff like Black Sabbath, Iggy Pop, Velvet Underground, and Frank Zappa.

Skummy I have not heard the new Duane Eddy album, but I am so fucking out of touch with current music. I will check it out, what is the album title?

And since we have had a bit of a vin discussion, I have a story I'd like to share. When my uncle passed away this year he left some stuff behind that I inherited. Namely some cool old stereo equipment from the 70s, and this very old record box. This thing is from the 40s or 50s I'm guessing, though I want to look up the model and serial number to get a definitive date. Anyway, I tested it out with an Eddie Cochran album, seemed to be the best idea from what I had in my collection. The sound was like stepping into a time machine, it cracked and popped, the sound quality was raw, the whole thing was fucking glorious. I can't say music would ever move me to tears, but this was definitely close, just to experience sound as our grandparents would have.

[SRN]

The first thing my dad did when I told him I had bought a record player was lend me all of his Pink Floyd vinyls. All of them. And a Kraftwerk vinyl.

[METALMAN]

Cheers VP, gonna check these out tonight!

Oh and yeah Skummy, new Duane Eddy album's real good fun. I've had it on at work quite a lot actually, and it's went down surprisingly well with the customers!