EWB's Top 100 Artists of 2012

[Hobo]

Next time around, we gotta get Talking Heads in the Top 5 and Johnny Cash to #1.

I agree with this.

Johnny Cash

Talking Heads

The Mountain Goat

Andrew Jackson Jihad

They should be EWB's top 4 in any order!

Eh, I've felt more drawn to Nirvana in the last few years (after many years of just dismissing them as over-hyped like that time I gave Jeff Buckley a go - and found out his version of Hallelujah is still not as good as John Cale's but he did write some pretty songs) but I haven't sat down and gone "OK I'm gonna listen to a Nirvana album". Nor do I think I'd ever listen to a Foo Fighters album because I've never heard a Foo Fighters song that I thought was worth listening to.

To jump back to Johnny Cash, I was a massive Cash fan in my teens. I have all but the last of the American Recordings, spent €100 on the Unearthed Box Set (4 Disc American Recordings outtakes) and even went to see his brother Tommy Cash's tribute show (and met Tommy Cash, which is exciting isn't it? Although I actually am acquainted with a Country and Irish musician who did meet Johnny Cash once in the US).

I feel like The American Recordings is probably the greatest album he ever recorded (and the outtakes are amazing too a Old Chunk of Coal, Flesh and Blood, If I Give My Soul, Banks of the Ohio, Waiting for A Train and there is a fucking awesome version of Kris Kristofferson's Casey's Last Ride and Just The Otherside of Nowhere). Cash also recorded a lot of shit like this:

And a lot of religious material I find kinda boring (Not being religious out and out hymns and spirituals I find somewhat boring, although the Mountain Goat's Life of the World To Come is one of my favorite albums and each song is based on a bible verse) , and a lot of his early Sun stuff is pretty samey to me as well.

I'm not a huge fan of the final two American Recordings either, mostly Ain't No Grave, it probably is hurt by the fact there might not be that much left from those final recordings.

I actually think the third American album Solitary Man would have been the better album for Cash to end his career with (during the recordings of that album in 1999 it was thought he might actually die). It has the beautiful cover of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's I See A Darkness (with Will Oldham himself doing backing) as well as the cover U2's 'One', Tom Petty's 'I Won't Back Down' (with Tom Petty, who along with The Heartbreakers were the house band for those albums, along with some of RHCP, there is actually a cover of Heart of Gold on Unearthed that is basically Johnny Cash with RHCP as his backing band) and Neil Diamond's 'Solitary Man'. The more I think about Solitary Man and American Recordings the more those two albums feed into the development of my taste in music. They feature covers of Tom Waits, Loudon Wainwright III (Cash's Man Who Couldn't Cry is a lot better than LWIII's but I like the original 'the feces hit the fan' line better than Cash's 'it all hit the fan'), Will Oldham and Leonard Cohen who all now rank among my favorite artists of all time.

In short, Hobo does like Johnny Cash quite a bit and his last few albums shaped the kind of music I listen to now but I have to admit I hardly ever listen to Johnny Cash anymore now.

[METALMAN]

One thing I don't understand about Foo Fighters is why they have three guitarists. I mean, they're hardly Lynyrd Skynyrd in their approach, are they?

[Matt]

One thing I don't understand about Foo Fighters is why they have three guitarists. I mean, they're hardly Lynyrd Skynyrd in their approach, are they?

This I cannot answer. I think Dave wanted to let Pat Smear rejoin the band but was too nice to tell Chris Shiflett to leave.

[SRN]

All songs ever sound the same always.

[Colly]

I was going to stay out of this argument, but Big Me is dull? Hang your head in shame Matt.

[New Damage]

The only song I actively listen to from the first album is Good Grief. Big Me is dull to me also.

[Sousa]

You know what's really dull? Each and every one of You People.

[Matt]

Good grief, Alone + Easy Target, I'll Stick Around, This Is A Call, Weenie Beanie, Wattershed and For All The Cows are all better songs from the debut album.

[Sousa]

Each and every one of You People.

[GA!]

One thing I don't understand about Foo Fighters is why they have three guitarists. I mean, they're hardly Lynyrd Skynyrd in their approach, are they?

On their last album, Chris Shiflett played lead guitar, Dave Grohl played rhythm, and Pat Smear played the noisy distorted stuff. Mostly because Grohl is too nice to ask Shiflett to leave.

The best version of Foo Fighters was when there were just the three of them on There Is Nothing Left To Lose. One guitar, people, ONE!

[IDOL]

No Katy Perry? FUCK THIS LIST

[ROC]

No Katy Perry? FUCK THIS LIST

we get it you like her bouncing breasts jesus fuck dude.

[Sousa]

Idol's avatar is the second I've had to explain to my wife (the other was Sarah Silverman's ass, looking at you Lint6. ).

[METALMAN]

How did you explain it?

[Sousa]

"That guy really likes Katy Perry's tits."

[IDOL]

No Katy Perry? FUCK THIS LIST

we get it you like her bouncing breasts jesus fuck dude.

No, I like her music too. Sue me Plus she did sort of light the pop charts on fire in 2012.

Idol's avatar is the second I've had to explain to my wife (the other was Sarah Silverman's ass, looking at you Lint6. ).

You would have really had to explain the Major Gunns avatars I used to use...

[New Damage]

I can't recall hearing a single Katy Perry song in 2012 :/

[apsham]

The only two singles in 2012 were Part Of Me and Wide Awake, which were both shit-tastic.

[Benjamin]

Didn't she have like 4 singles that reached number one? Or was that last year?

[apsham]

The only two singles in 2012 were Part Of Me and Wide Awake.