What's your favorite "poorly"-recorded LP or track

[crow]

I realize that Zen Arcade sounds totally fucked up (in a cool way), but I don't think of it as a case of "good album survives shitty production". All of the crazy sounds on it work aesthetically so well that nothing strikes me as accidental or undesirable: those insane (seemingly solid-state) distorted guitars, the distorted vocals, etc. all sound like they were chosen to be such, whereas the drums and bass are pretty tightly recorded, but not as retardedly dry and gated as on later husker records. it's after zen arcade that the sonics start distracting me from the music.

on a side note, my current favorite album whose sound i don't care for is Teenager of the Year by Frank Black. The drum and keyboard sounds make me think of ADATs (I don't know how they recorded that album), but all the parts and performances are cool, and what a freaking awesome bunch of songs!

back to the great white north, i'll close by saying that many of my favorite albums are from the 80's minneapolis scene (excluding prince), and most of them fall into the category of this thread. it led to my reassuring/self-deprecating engineer's motto, which I mutter to myself whenever unsure of how good a job I'm doing: "There are better albums that sound worse." [winks at the Replacements' Tim]

[arbitropia]

on a side note, my current favorite album whose sound i don't care for is Teenager of the Year by Frank Black. The drum and keyboard sounds make me think of ADATs (I don't know how they recorded that album), but all the parts and performances are cool, and what a freaking awesome bunch of songs!

One of my favorite records for sure. I remember reading that he recorded much or all of the first solo album (<i>Frank Black</i>) on a Mac (the article made much of how progressive that was at the time), but I don't know anything about the recording of <i>Teenager of the Year</i> (I wish I did). Even though it's clearly not as "organic" as, say, <I>Dog in the Sand</i>, that record does have some awesome sounds.....the synth that enters on the chorus of "Speedy Marie," the piano and slide guitar on "Calistan," the huge guitar on the chorus of "White Noise Maker," the vocal on "Sir Rockaby"....I could go on and on. One of the most imaginative, creative, and diverse albums ever recorded IMO.

[;ivlunsdystf]

This talk about the Replacements reminds me of two things: 1st, the legend of Westerberg and bandmates raiding Twin/Tone and stealing their master tapes and then tossing them off a bridge into the Mississippi River (can anybody verify this legend? It certainly explains, at least partly, why there aren't good CD versions of those earlier records)

2nd, the apocryphal Westerberg quote which goes (paraphrased) "When I listen to any random song on the radio I can tell within two seconds whether the singer really means it"

And the mention of Skip Spence's "Oar" got my attention - My understanding of that record is that it was made in a very old-school dignified studio with bona fide career engineers trying to catch the sounds; the fact that he was bat shit crazy led to all the out-of-time playing and whatnot; that is definitely one of the finest records of the century IMO (but certainly not well-made in a traditional sense)

[NarxistDan]

I realize Bruce Springsteen's not exactly the hippest guy at the average TapeOper's dream party , but Nebraska's pretty damn good. Better than any of the big money E Street stuff at capturing his raw emotional power in spite of the awful room sound, wonder if there's a connection....

[creature.of.habit]

I realize Bruce Springsteen's not exactly the hippest guy at the average TapeOper's dream party , but Nebraska's pretty damn good. Better than any of the big money E Street stuff at capturing his raw emotional power in spite of the awful room sound, wonder if there's a connection....

one of my favourite records...and recordings.

[cgarges]

Are You Experienced, Hendrix. Sounds like crap. Terrible fades and edits and panning. But is oh so good.

Yeah, I was gonna say just about any studio recordings that Eddie Kramer did.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[cgarges]

This talk about the Replacements reminds me of two things: 1st, the legend of Westerberg and bandmates raiding Twin/Tone and stealing their master tapes and then tossing them off a bridge into the Mississippi River (can anybody verify this legend? It certainly explains, at least partly, why there aren't good CD versions of those earlier records)

It was reported in Musician magazine when they were still together. I remember reading it then. That doesn't really verify it, but it is one more source.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[giuseppe_fl]

The tapes-in-the-river thing might just be folklore.... Either that, or the tapes were duped before they got pitched, because reissues of the Twin Tone stuff are about to hit and they're loaded rarities. The list of rare stuff seems pretty complete:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/n ... d-expanded

[Rob Christensen]

Can't give a source for this, but I seem to remember reading an interview with someone at Twin Tone saying that the 'Mats got the wrong tapes; they only got the safety copies.

[Brett Siler]

Shit this would fall under half my record collection. I agree a lot of early punk stuff. I think stuff recorded by Spot for SST and the stuff Don Zientara did on early Discord records sounds awesome, in a lo fi way.

What about EvlLive? I think that recording is so shitty it is hard to get through that album.

I have been listen to a lot of old school death and black metal lately. Most of those have pretty "lo fi" recordings. Just popped in Immortal's Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism, it has tooons of reverb on the vocals, weak ass drum sounds, overly distorted washed out guitars. That is part of the charm of it to me. I love it because it is so grimy, gross, and trashy sounding.

Here is a video from that album, it is worth your time to check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VBdAY8e ... re=related

[centurymantra]

There's some good ones brought up in this thread. +1 on the mention of the early Moby Grape stuff. I wouldn't have thought of that one off the top of my head, but the only thing I can think when I hear that is "what a great band...too bad I can't hear the songs". In spite of the "a great song will trump sonics" mantra, there is a certain point where production or poor sound quality simply obscures and blockades the good music behind it. It's like, "there's a great song there and I can just tell it is awesome, but someone needs to let it out - and I bet it would just blow me away". I know there's a lot of records where the sound of the record is just distracting or distancing or, in the case of bad or thin digital translation, it's just plain emotionally distancing. I don't mind shit that sounds bad (and, in fact, love it much of the time), but I do get bugged when production or sonics emotionally distance me from the music. There's quite a few discs in my collection that I fully think are really good records, but I also think to myself that I really SHOULD be getting into this more, but for some reason I"m just not.

Lo-fi stuff is talked about a bit on this thread and I'll have to say that I definitely don't think lo-fi is necessarily poorly recorded. I love lo-fi stuff...especially when it serves the song and the aesthetics of the proceedings so well. Neutral Milk Hotel, GBV and The Grifters are all great examples of this, as well as all that great stuff coming out of the underground New Zealand scene in the '90s. I have this Flying Saucer Attack disc of brutally distorted recordings of live performances collaged together that is a bonafide sonic atrocity...but the vibe and murky feel is like a million miles deeeep and totally beautiful. Anyone ever listen to Les Rallizes Denudes? Or Mainliner? OK...Mainliner is the worst recording I have ever heard, now that I think about it. I can't say I love the disc, but it is oh, so funny to play that for people. It never fails to elicit slack jawed disbelief followed by laughter...kinda like the laughter that comes from simply having no other response that is possible. The sound of your speakers imploding upon themselves. Oh my god....Mainliner!!!!

Husker Du of course were brought up real quick and, though it's been awhile since I've listened to those records, I remember hearing Zen Arcade and thinking WTF?! I have to agree that maybe that is EXACTLY the response they wanted though. Spot's stuff is kinda thin an nasty, but I personally think the Meat Puppets 'II' and 'Up on the Sun' records actually sound great.

Of course, there's all the great garage rock from the '60s that would simply be terrible if they actually sounded good. Anyone ever heard the garage rock revivalists, The Mummies? Now, there's a band that realizes this as well as anyone. Man, those guys were great!

[Brett Siler]

Anyone ever heard the garage rock revivalists, The Mummies? Now, there's a band that realizes this as well as anyone. Man, those guys were great!

I bought a record of those guys about ten years ago because I liked the album cover.

[centurymantra]

Anyone ever heard the garage rock revivalists, The Mummies? Now, there's a band that realizes this as well as anyone. Man, those guys were great!

I bought a record of those guys about ten years ago because I liked the album cover.

I was living in San Francisco (where these guys were based) during their heyday and got to seem them live a good five or six times. AMAZING live shows...some of the greatest rock and roll performances I've ever seen. Seriously. These guys were the real, high-octane deal. Those dudes just hit the stage running, decked out in complete mummy costumes no less. So great - and not just a novelty act.

[;ivlunsdystf]

This just in: Sly Stone's "There's A Riot Goin' On" album. All the rhythm section stuff is totally muffled. A lot of the vocals are too (note the first couple of lines in "Family Affair"). There is just enough clarity in the clavinets and spare percussion bits to suggest that the general muffling is all part of the master plan.

EDIT: Ah. The wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_ ... Goin%27_On describes how many of the vocals were recorded by Sly over a wireless microphone while he lay in bed. Also, the muffling seems to be a consequence of excessive overdubbing/beating up on the tape perhaps? Anyway, cool album.

[thieves]

i just had a really good example on last night:

the amps - pacer

i was just reading up on it, and i know that albini had a lot to do with several of the breeders' recordings, but i was surprised that he hands in this (as far as i can tell, to a limited extent). this is probably the most lo-fi 'modern' album i've heard released on a major label, but the super-fuzzy everything just works. my only gripe with the album is the uber-shaky drums in 'hoverin'.