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

[giuseppe_fl]

I'm new here, so this may have been covered before but if it was I couldn't find it.

Sometimes -- especially in classic, punk or underground rock -- when you scrutinize your favorite LPs you come to discover that they're recorded really, really poorly. Sometimes great material transcends an awful presentation but just as often the heart or charm of a recording seems to grow out of the mistakes or limitations involved in its creation.

So I'm wonderin': folks around here, what's your favorite "bad" recording?

[dirtdog]

Dead Boys- Young, Loud, & Snotty

[kdarr]

I'm new here, so this may have been covered before but if it was I couldn't find it.

Sometimes -- especially in classic, punk or underground rock -- when you scrutinize your favorite LPs you come to discover that they're recorded really, really poorly. Sometimes great material transcends an awful presentation but just as often the heart or charm of a recording seems to grow out of the mistakes or limitations involved in its creation.

So I'm wonderin': folks around here, what's your favorite "bad" recording?

I would have to go with the entire Danzig-era Misfits catalog. Every single one of those recordings is a complete disaster from an engineering standpoint, but I love those songs so much.

I like Daniel Johnston's early bedroom tape recorder stuff too. Simultaneously whimsical and creepy.

[<|>]

[mjau]

The early Bad Religion and Black Flag stuff is pretty thin in terms of sonics, but more than makes up for it in terms of performance.

[kayagum]

Husker Du - Land Speed Record

A band I knew in college covered "Data Control" from that record, and at the time I was amazed they could pick out the lyrics.

[arbitropia]

Guided by Voices' pre-Alien Lanes output (that record is still lo-fi but a little less rough than the earlier ones). Propeller and Bee Thousand in particular are excellent records that overcome (or perhaps benefit from) some real amateur sonics. Vampire on Titus is near-unlistenable. The mid-90s-era live band (with Mitch Mitchell and Tobin Sprout) sounded huge and blew those records away. I had always hoped for an official live recording from that era, but no dice.

I guess Pavement's Slanted and Enchanted falls into this category as well. Very thin, but a great great record.

[Jeff White]

My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless".

[kdarr]

My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless".

Ooooh hot-button issue!

Here comes the controversy in 5... 4... 3...

[<|>]

[;ivlunsdystf]

That's funny, I was just about to start a thread like this last week but I restrained myself because I've started so many threads lately (MN winter being so grim this year)

Zen Arcade is, of course, the old standby in this category, but of course it's hard to pin down whether it's just the standard dreadful SST mastering or the actual recording - the same sound afflicts the early Black Flag catalog of course

Also from SST, and from the early 1980s, but with a different 'bad' quality, is Meat Puppets II. I have been running the Rhino reissue in heavy rotation these past two weeks and I think the whole thing sounds like it was recorded in a hurry by an engineer who didn't really know the band (I don't know the actual history; this is just a guess). The snare drum sound is really sanitized a la 1983, and everything is really clean, which isn't quite what (IMO) those stripped-down songs need.

Loveless, IMO, is more of a "poorly recorded well" thing than some of these others.

Finally, has anybody tried to seriously listen to Jesus and Mary Chain lately? The songs are really cool, and well mixed (except the earliest stuff which sounds like it was recorded live to stereo mics inside a cement parking ramp) but the GODDAM drum machine pretty much ruins the fuzzed-out proto-goth vibe they otherwise achieve.

There's my list.

[ledogboy]

Agreed on Guided By Voices "Bee Thousand". What a record.

Crimpshrine - Anything they put out sounded terrible, and awesome.

Really, most of the punk rock stuff I like sounds, technically, bad. The slick sounding stuff generally makes me very unhappy.

[apropos of nothing]

Any number of early field recordings of blues and jazz musicians released on Smithsonian Folkways. Friend of mine just got the sweet gig of being the capture guy at UNC's Southern Folklife Collection. Color me jealous.

[;ivlunsdystf]

Really, most of the punk rock stuff I like sounds, technically, bad. The slick sounding stuff generally makes me very unhappy.

Yeah, there's nothing worse than sonically pristine punk rock. Ish.

[mjau]

Dinosaur jr.'s Bug.

[swelle]

MC5's Back in the USA, and the Stooges' Raw Power come to mind. Bad Brains' Black Dots.

I thought Bug sounded pretty good!

[MoreSpaceEcho]

Zen Arcade is, of course, the old standby in this category, but of course it's hard to pin down whether it's just the standard dreadful SST mastering or the actual recording

it's gotta be the recording, no? that's one of those records where you can technically hear everything no problem, but it all just sounds SO WRONG. and yet your toes are tapping from the first note.

the can records don't really sound good compared to Good Sounding records, but i wouldn't have them any other way.

and as i've said on here before, 'nevermind' is borderline unlistenable to me, but there's no arguing with those songs.