John B

are you on emusic? they have all of their albums up for download. I started with I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One and was sold. Most people seem to recommend Painful or Electr-O-Pura as the best albums to start with. You really can't go wrong with any of those albums. To start, I would avoid Ride that Tiger, President YLT/New Wave Hot Dogs, Genius + Love and Nothing Turned Itself Inside out, although you will probably want to grab all of them, eventually. As far as Spacemen 3 goes I enjoy listening to Spiritualized (who still do "Walking with Jesus" live) but Sonic Boom lost me a while back with his Spectrum and E.A.R albums. I would love to hear more live recordings from the Playing With Fire tour.

Playing with fire would get the nod from me, if only for the live version of "Suicide."

Do you have any idea who is playing the horns on track 12? I got this off of emusic and don't have any liner notes to refer to.

Definitely! I have been mountain biking for a few years now. Nothing too technical, but enough to keep things interesting. When I got married part of my bachelor party was spent at Killington, in Vermont, taking the ski lift up and riding our bikes down the mountain all day. It was a blast!

Definitely, but I Can Hear the Heart Beating is still my sentimental favorite.

I enjoy the late night vibe, but really dig it when Ira goes absolutely apeshit with feedback and pure guitar skronk. My wife *hates* those moments and much prefers the more sedate YLT releases.

Is anyone else here a fan of this band? Their new disc, Summer Sun, has just been released and I gave it a first spin last night. First impression was that it is a nice disc. It is more of a mellow "late night vibe" disc than anything else. It is nowhere near "I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One" or "Painful" in my book, but a nice album nonetheless. I think my expectations may have been too high for Summer Sun to not be set up to disappoint me, to some degree.

ghost - It was recorded on April 10, 2001 in Montreal. You will not regret grabbing this one!

I've never heard Elliot Smith but, based on the recommendations above, I am going to give his self-titled disc and X/O a spin when I have a chance in the next week or so. Thanks for all of the reviews!

flip the above quote and you have my vote.

This is a tough one. Every disc in the Mosaic set is killer. That being said, I am split between Smokestack and Compulsion.

I missed out on the Mosaic and have never heard any of those sessions, so my vote has to go to Lawrence of Newark. The OJCs are still too under the spell of Jimmy Smith to get my vote. Perhaps when Mother Ship is finally released on cd I will change my vote.

Gotta go with Ju Ju. It was the first disc of Wayne's that I heard and still my sentimental favorite. I must have spun that disc five times in a row when I first got it.

David - you will enjoy Bob's Pink Cadillac. I just pulled this disc out again recently. I'd forgotten how much I dig this session. This is my only jazz clarinet recording, as well as my favorite "non-Hamid" Parker disc.

just out on Eremite, a two disc set recorded live April 10th, 2001. I am just finishing up the second disc and I am extremely impressed by this release. I really wasn't in the mood for Brotzmann when I threw this one on, but it had been a week since I picked this up and I still hadn't given it a good listen. This disc smokes! This might be the most "swinging" I have heard Brotz be, which probably has a lot do do with the killer groove Drake and Parker are laying down throughout this set. It has almost become a cliche to rave about the team of Drake and Parker but, again, they have exceeded my expectations. anyone else pick this one up yet?

It's an unusual session for Carter, as he sticks to Alto. I really dig it, but agree that it could take some time to grow on you. It is not as "in your face" as most of the discs I have heard him on. You might want to check out his discs with Test to hear something that would more closely mirror his live performances.

There was also George Howard's cover of Sly Stone's There's a Riot Going On.