Comp. albums

[Eleven O'Clock]

Recomend me some good compilation albums, everyone. Genre doesn't really matter.

I already own What's Up Matador, so don't bother.

-Matt

[Paul]

Dr. Marten's/4AD compilation, Shoe Pie
Morr Music compilation, Putting the Morr in Morrissey (not Smiths-related)
Yellow Pills vols 1-4, power pop compilations
Any number of label samplers from Kill Rock Stars, K, Merge, Sub Pop, Polyvinyl, etc...

[Miss Tasty Princess]

these are some of my favorites, mostly from the early 80s: Warfrat Tales - LA Paisley underground
Life Is Ugly So Why Not Kill Yourself - mostly LA hardcore, there are two other volumes with similar names but this is the best of the three
Keats Rides a Harley - LA hardcore and psyche with a great early Meat Puppets screamer and my favorite 100 Flowers track which, oddly enough, did not make it onto their 100 Years of Pulchritude CD collection (BTW, LIBSWNKY contains the only other 100 Flowers non-CD track)
Let them Eat Jellybeans - one side of hardcore, one side of weirdness
This Is Boston, Not LA - early Boston hardcore
Flex Your Head - early DC hardcore
NG - Japanese avant rock with very early tracks from Boredoms and Ruins
Tuatara - excellent early Flying Nun (New Zealand) label sampler
High Lonesome - soundtrack to a movie I need to see about bluegrass
Shock City Shockers - compilation put together by Eye of Boredoms
Human Music - great compilation on Homestead Records (the label Gerard ran prior to Matador)
Nuggets - four CD box of US garage/psyche gems from the 60s (there's a UK one, too, but I don't have it yet)
Metal Age - well put together compilation of 70s metal that I picked up for $3 a few years agoThat's off the top of my head. I'll go look at my collection later.

[jt. r]

Nuggets - four CD box of US garage/psyche gems from the 60s (there's a UK one, too, but I don't have it yet)

i do and it's worth getting. you should be able to find it used for about half of its listed price on ebay, etc. the packaging is really excellent too.

[Squall91]

Punk-o-rama

(That was sarcasm, for those with a weak detector.)

[vesper]

This is a wee-bit predictable, but...

No New York - no wave compilation put together by Brian Eno, features Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, DNA, Contortions and Mars. Great, great, great.

I also vouch for the Nuggets box sets. They are real gems.

[Funk]

Originally posted by Mr.HCI

Nuggets - four CD box of US garage/psyche gems from the 60s (there's a UK one, too, but I don't have it yet)

I don't have the first box, but I have the original 2LP plus records with most of the tracks, and I can say the UK one is better.

[jef]

If your interested in old R&B, Blues, Soul,etc. there are a ton of good comps out there pretty much anything on the Ace, Chess, Sun, Charly, ABKCO, Kent labels(Probably missed a ton).

[lester1/2jr]

One of the best compilations I have is Love Peace and Poetry- Latin American psychedelic music. Lots of Beatles meets Latin rock. It's an amazing album. I also like Heartbeat ska/rocksteady/ reggae reissues. the remastering is excellent. It sounds better than alot of the Trojan stuff which can be muddy. Any one want to risk a joke about Trojan and mud?

[tinobeat]

I have the Brazilian and Japanese Love Peace & Poetry collections, both of them are amazing, despite the godawful cover art.

another favorite comp of mine is the Tell-Tale Signs of Earworm comp on (duh) Earworm from a few years back. Novak, Screen Prints, Avrocar, Magnetophone, ISAN, The Orange Alabaster Mushroom, Matthew Ward (M. Ward, I guess?), Fridge.. a whole pile of british lo-fi droneyness plus some american stuff mixed in. One of those comps I barely know who the bands are even after listening to it for years, but as a 2CD mix, its unbeatable.

[Eleven O'Clock]

Originally posted by jef
If your interested in old R&B, Blues, Soul,etc. there are a ton of good comps out there pretty much anything on the Ace, Chess, Sun, Charly, ABKCO, Kent labels(Probably missed a ton).

Can you recommend any specific one? I'd like to check these out.

I've taken all your recommendations down, I am defaintely gonna pick up the Nuggets box, it's one of those things I have been meaning to buy for years, but just never got around to.

[lester1/2jr]

tino- do you have the vinyl versions. the vinyl itself has this mindbending spirally coloring. The Germans are very in to packaging. I don't have the Japanese one yet, but I have the Bwitish, American, and South American. The store I go to, Twisted Village in Boston, traffics heavily in that stuff, particularly the south american.

[tinobeat]

unfortunately I only have the CDs on those two, but I've seen the records, and yeah, they are quite beautiful...

Twisted Village is a great store.. I haven't been in a few weeks, but that's where I usually buy most of my music these days. Except for the unabashedly "indie rock" stuff which seems a bit below their snuff. Then its off to the ol' standby, Newbury...

Last time I was at Twisted they had a copy of a record by Justin Heathcliff, my favorite artist off the Japanese comp. Except its an old 60's Japanese vinyl pressing (I don't think there was any other pressing..) and it was $50. alas..

[lester1/2jr]

Are you on their email list? If not you should. All the used stuff they get is offered on that list before it goes on the shelves. I was so happy when Other Music shut down. They had no business being there.

[tinobeat]

really? Other Music was heaven for me, because the staff there was superlatively friendly, and so heplful, and the selection was, IMO, more consistent. Twisted Village is friendly, but not as helpful as the OM folks. I had visits to OM that comfortabel lasted an hour or so, but at TW once I'm there looking around for more than a half-hour, I feel the tentacles of impatience reaching at me from the staff.

I do think OM shouldn't have opened in Harvard Sq. they were counting on walk-in traffic, and the store's a bit too weird for the average Harvard Sq. pedestrian, so business couldn't match the astronomical rent they were paying for that prime spot. They could have opened somewhere like Union Sq. and fared better with the same amount of business (ie- record geeks who would have sought it out no matter where it was located) had the rent been lower.

but hey, different strokes for different folks...

[lester1/2jr]

Twisted Village have raised unfriendliness to an art form. But they are usually cheaper , lots of used stuff , plus they have such a clear (avante garde) identity. When I go there I feel sort of like San Te in "The Master Killer" when he walks into the 36th (last) chamber and the old monks just look at him and he goes flying out the door like "maybe I'll start at the first chamber"

[pony]

i have to say that the royal tenenbaums soundtrack is surprisingly good. although it is a soundtrack, so you have to sit through some scoring. some of which mind you isn't half bad...

[bitterfruit]

"StarTime International Presents Super-Cuts" by Startime International is a great listen. The Joggers are my favorite on there so far.

[spurious_dander]

dead tech sampler : YB02, High Rise, Boredoms, Null, Melt Banana, Ruins, Chrome, Elliott Sharp

genius of rap : furious 5, sequence, funky4 plus 1, spoonie gee, whodini, electric boogiemen

munsterama : ultra V, bored!, kid pharaon, sinners, infidels, fuzz godz, celibate rifles(!)

e-pop essential : kraftwerk, yello, wire, japan, heaven17, wall of voodoo, visage, talk talk, magazine, bronski beat

go gear! : jigsaw, chords five, the carnaby, rupert's people, hopscotch, the meddyevils, the richard kent style, st. louis union

[Miss Tasty Princess]

Originally posted by spurious_dander
dead tech sampler : YB02, High Rise, Boredoms, Null, Melt Banana, Ruins, Chrome, Elliott SharpAre you listing all three Dead Techs collectively? I've only got the first and there's no Chrome or Elliot Sharp or any other non-Japanese artists, for that matter. I've never heard the other two, though.

Speaking of Japanese comps, the NG and NG Live compilations on Trans (later reissued on CD by SSE) are very good. I've been searching unsuccessfully for more ZOA and Ill Bone ever since picking them up.

[spurious_dander]

arigato, MCI. my apologies, everyone. along with controlled bleeding & ce'v, sharp & chrome can be seen on the 'Dossiers' comp, NOT DTS. next time, references will be properly cited...I flit through the brain files like a cheetah on the savannah. tough crowd.

what acts on the NG LIve comp? shite? champagne?

[Miss Tasty Princess]

Originally posted by spurious_dander
what acts on the NG LIve comp? shite? champagne? NG ZOA "Cry the War" Ruins "Ideology" Ruins "Sanctuary" Zeitlich Vergelter "The Third System of Transit" Asylum "Mu En" YBO² "Trash! Crash! Y.B.O." Sodom "Banshee" Sodom "Cry" Boredoms "Ground Burn Out" Libido "Kiss My Area" A.N.P. "Disembody" Ill Bone "Numberless Land"NG Live ZOA "All Disease Human" ZOA "99" Joy "Gork II-Beauvoir" Asylum "Ain't No Crime" Asylum (Japanese title) Genkaku Mime "Done Dance" Kokushoku Elegy (Japanese title) YBO² "Kingdom of Familydream"There's also NG II but I've never seen a copy.

[TheSadDebaser]

If the Twenty-First Century Didn't Exist, It Would Be Necessary to Invent It

[pony]

if you like world or folk music rough guide has a few good comp albums.. not for stuff you'd never find elsewhere but for a good mix and good flow to the whole album etc...