Blue Moon Playlist Review Club - Season 2 - Episode 32 - threespires - Could have been a Contender (pg 472)

Out on blue 6 said:
So I went backwards and forwards on this one and could have opted for an easier option but figured it's at the end so no one needs to listen.

Before Stormzy headlined Glastonbury, Wiley had top 10 hits and Dizzee went Bonkers there was a South Londoner called Rodney Smith who in my opinion is the best UK rapper and they all owe some debt to him.
Critically acclaimed but with little chart success.

Roots Manuva - Dreamy Days

On a side note any one who like to watch even just once one of the greatest videos of all time for Witness 1 Hope should check it out.
Roots goes back to his old primary school to give a talk. It starts with his name being spelt Manoeuvre on the blackboard and then when invited to judge the sports day he proceeds to enter all the events,cheat and walk of with the trophy to the boos of the kids
Click to expand...

Great shout. I would have said Roots Manuva was pretty well known; however, I've just conducted a straw poll and little recognition which to your point is a bit of an outrage.
 
I was waiting for someone to give it a go yesterday so I wouldn't have all mine stacked in order at the end. Thanks OOB6 for that.

I was all set on an artist I found associated with one I currently also view as underrated, but the more I listened, the more I think I may save them for the Album thread. And yes, while that may be crazy, I've really enjoyed their material. I need more time than a day to mull it over, so it's a "wait and see there", but they'll be coming somewhere soon to BlueMoon.

Instead, I went back to my college/university days in the late 80's to pick out a band I discovered on college radio early on, and was making a decent rise in popularity until they ran into all kinds of problems in the late 1990's with manager issues, artistic and musical changes, and for one member, in recent years, charges of abuse the band hasn't recovered from.

When you think back to the mid 80's after their second album where they were a vocal guest on two tracks of Robbie Robertson's self titled album smash and opened for U2 on their Joshua Tree tour, and the feeling then was that the skies were the limit.

Founding member and lead singer Kurt Neumann is still touring under the band name, but these are small clubs in recent years and its mostly a nostalgia for that time before the turn of the century when the band was fresh with an alternative, roots, and heartland rock sound that was mostly unlike most groups at the time.

I'm going back to their first album and song I first heard on the radio on Rock 105.1 as a freshman to when it all began and there was so much promise. Present irony in the title, yes.

"Fadeaway" - BoDeans
 
Coatigan said:
I had one or two to pick from for what would have been my last pick, but feel I have inadvertently overwhelmed this a bit, so will leave it there.

What I will say is this has, for me at least, probably been the most thought provoking theme in a while.

We can for example find and list songs that rely on the bass, or songs that mention this or artists that do that etc, but can do that without necessarily being drawn into thinking deeper about it or asking why.

Whereas with this, I felt I was analysing most of the ones that crossed my mind, or that others put forward. Why weren't they bigger, what would have needed to happen for it, who else was doing similar and making it, and why. Did they lack consolidating - or maybe opposing - forces, did they need something to be seen to react against. Was it simply a matter of the quality not quite being there, or accessibility etc. Would Oasis have been as big, without Blur? Would the Delgados have been bigger without Oasis (and as such Blur). Did U2 stunt a whole bunch of Irish bands with their go to popularity. Would adding a banjo have made any difference. Etc etc etc.

Great theme. And a week still to mull such thoughts over!
Click to expand...

All good thoughts and I think complicated even more by the fact that 'making it' these days can probably take a wider variety of forms than it did traditionally.

Another thought that always occurs to me is this question of how driven you are. I don't want to be as crass or reductive as calling a band a startup business but there are some parallels in terms of having a good 'product' is often insufficient, you need resilience and persistence not to mention some breaks around timing etc.

If anyone's read Tracey Thorn's excellent memoir Bedsit Disco Queen I think one of the fascinating aspects of it is she paints herself as a somewhat reluctant/accidental popstar. However, whilst relative to their peers that might have been the case, reading it through you are left in no doubt that she was very much up for wanting to be a successful musician (until the point she no longer wanted to). I'm not suggesting a lack of self-awareness on her part but more that someone who would probably be viewed as fairly ambivalent about what they did compared to other bands did in fact show quite a lot of steeliness relative to the average Joe who might dream of making it in a band.

At the soundchecks for a battle of the bands my eldest did last year it was fascinating to see the way all the different youngsters went about it. There was a bit of handbags as there was a band that rubbed up all the others by projecting themselves as being in a different class. Whilst they weren't (and didn't win) you could see that the lad who was fronting them (and his parents) were hell bent on having a career in music. I suspect he'd ultimately more likely end up on the stage rather than in a band but he was talented, well organised and I wouldn't be at all surprised if he did make it in some capacity, albeit more Buble than Biafra.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
I know i'm not on here often but Rory Gallagher is not underrated. Anybody that knows just a little about Rock music knows and has listened to Rory. He is recognised as one of if not the greatest rock/blues guitarist to have drawn breath. Global sales of his albums top 30million.
Click to expand...
Rory was a champion, not a contender.
 
Bands that I thought should have been huge but were only modest successes in the U.S. back in the 70’s:

Angel: Got Love if You Want it - Progers who turned pop rock
Starz: Boys in Action - mix of Kiss & Aeromith
Dectective: Grim Reaper - mini supergroup on Led Zep's SwanSong label
Lone Star: She Said, She Said. Their first Roy Thomas Baker produced album opened with this epic Beatles cover. They only made two albums, both with diferent lead singers. Guitarist Paul "Tonka" Chapman ended up replacing Michael Schenker in UFO.
 
Last edited:
OB1 said:
Bands that I thought should have been huge but were only modest successes in the U.S. back in the 70’s:

Angel: Got Love if You Want it - Progers who turned pop rock
Starz: Boys in Action - mix of Kiss & Aeromith
Dectective: Grim Reaper - mini supergroup on Led Zep's SwanSong label
Lone Star: She Said, She Said. Their first Roy Thomas Baker produced album opened with this epic Beatles cover. They only made two albums, both with diferent lead singers. Guitarist Paul "Tonka" Chapman ended up replacing Michael Schenker in UFO.
Click to expand...

A very rocky end to what has ended up a fairly varied set of songs.

Had a quick read about Detective, quite interesting. I feel sure we've discussed Lone Star at some points in these threads but maybe I've imagined it?
 
threespires said:
Didn't nominate here as we've had them on the album thread but Tindersticks could easily have qualified. I noticed this morning that last years Soft Tissue didn't make any dent at all in the top 100 of the album charts and they've only ever had one album break the top 30. Mad world.
Click to expand...
Criminal. Soft Tissue another great album in a long line of them.
I think they do well on the live scene and think they do well in Europe
 
Could have been a Contender

I have given this playlist a few more listens, and it has been quite rewarding. Kudos to @threespires for a great concept, and for a strong first 5 songs. The standout track to me on those 5 was clearly "Angels Rioting Against The Nothing" by Contrived, which started out strong with some great guitars, solid vocals, and a fast pulsing beat that built up even stronger at the end, if that were possible. It makes me want to hear more off their blank, blank, blank album.

The Big Winner
I've already spoiled this, but I'll repeat...

"A Life Worth Living" - Aereogramme was simply fantastic. Both this and the Contrived song have been added to my Tailgate playlist. As my wife will confirm, "that's high praise".

It should be no surprise that most songs on this list were ones I had not heard, and that was a good thing.

In that theme, here were the other top 5 other songs I really enjoyed that I had not heard:
  • "The Last Bright Light" - Mostly Autumn, any band that can bridge prog rock and Celtic themes into a late 1990s timeline with Genesis, Floyd, and Tull influences gets top marks in my book. I really enjoyed the vocals on this song's buildup, and then those guitars. Wow, and more, please! Not heard much in the US, to our loss (until now)!
  • "This Is" - Aslan, interesting history on their mid-80s origins as "U2 potential" until they imploded later that decade, only to later to reform, not to make it on this side of the Atlantic. Reminded me a bit of The Waterboys, Oasis (song beginning on this track), and a bit of The Verve, and this song was very good.
  • "The Guesser" - Temples, something that would be a guilty pleasure 1960s psychedelic flashback and enjoyment of a song.
  • "Broken Parts" - Raining Jane, a nice pause in that group of songs. Enjoyed reading their history and social involvement too. Amazing vocals and harmonies on this folk rock gem.
  • "Remembrance Day" - B-Movie, nice 1980s synths and post-punk sound with a distinctive voice and strong bass presence courtesy of Steve Hovington.
One song I knew from a prior playlist and enjoyed the most again:
  • “Fairlies" – Grian Chatten, I remembered this track from the Associated playlist in this thread, and I enjoyed it here. Now that I have the Fontaines D.C. association down from 2024's album of the year thread, I really enjoyed hearing it again.
I plan to explore as many of these as I can more over our recent Album Review break.
 
Last edited:
I’ve stuck this on shuffle quite a few times now. Usually while I’m pottering around in the garden getting a bit of work done.
I have to admit though, there is very few that have really stuck with me.

The Living Colour song is decent. They were a band I found interesting back in the day.

One I never heard of, Mostly Autumn, is one I would have been really into, once upon a time. That was the kind of music I was into in the late seventies. That prog sound.
It’s later I know, but the changes within the song and the epic guitar at the end, is, well, epic.

But for me my initial impression still holds.
The best of the stuff I didn’t know, is The Temples. Very interesting. Great song.
 
Black&White&BlueMoon Town said:
Could have been a Contender



  • "This Is" - Aslan, interesting history on their mid-80s origins as "U2 potential" until they imploded later that decade, only to later to reform, not to make it on this side of the Atlantic. Reminded me a bit of The Waterboys, Oasis (song beginning on this track), and a bit of The Verve, and this song was very good.
Click to expand...
Aslan are from pretty much the same neck of the woods as U2.
Well Bono lived just down the road from Alan Downey, the drummer with Aslan, who incidentally lived across the road from my missus.
Totally different types though.
Bono would be the type to call it Glasnevin North rather than call it Finglas.

Aslan stuck by their lead singer who was the charismatic front to the band and he wrote some great songs, but they suffered as a result. I like a lot of others here grew sick of hearing the same two or three songs on the radio for years. They still play them now after Christie’s death. They became an institution here but didn’t really expand beyond these shores and also padded a lot of their sets with covers of other artists like The Stones.
Pity really. There were a lot of bands around at the time a lot more talented than U2, but hadn’t the same management or desire to do what it takes.
 
RobMCFC said:
As I said originally, the album it comes from, Sun Structures, is great.

Then drop the needle on any of their other stuff and weep at what could have been.
Click to expand...
I listened to Sun Structures and Volcano this afternoon while pottering about in the garden.
Very easy listening but think I prefer Volcano. Thought that was much more polished and more diverse than Sun Structures. Structures suffered a bit in production I thought. The echoey vocals got a bit lost at times and The Guesser is probably still the best thing on it.

All very listenable and totally new to me.

Nice recommendation.
 
mancity2012_eamo said:
I listened to Sun Structures and Volcano this afternoon while pottering about in the garden.
Very easy listening but think I prefer Volcano. Thought that was much more polished and more diverse than Sun Structures. Structures suffered a bit in production I thought. The echoey vocals got a bit lost at times and The Guesser is probably still the best thing on it.

All very listenable and totally new to me.

Nice recommendation.
Click to expand...
Fair enough. Volcano sounded a bit too slick and lacking in proper instruments to me, but good that you enjoyed it.
 
RobMCFC said:
Fair enough. Volcano sounded a bit too slick and lacking in proper instruments to me, but good that you enjoyed it.
Click to expand...
At the end of each album Apple Music went into random similar stuff.
One band that cropped up a few times was Moses Gunn Collective. Never heard of them before but were similar and quite interesting.
 
Black&White&BlueMoon Town said:
Blue Moon – (Pre-and Post Match) Tailgating Music
... As I noted during @mancity2012_eamo ’s Live performances playlist, “Enter Sandman” has been a key part of my undergrad college team’s intro into the stadium, and ALWAYS gets played at our tailgates to encourage everyone to “start jumping!”
Click to expand...
Bump to the thread and to share the "it's never gonna happen, they're not showing up" Metallica Live performance last night that was alluded to prior.

When one looks at the usual large US cities that the band plays, you soon realize one location sticks out like a sore thumb, but last night it was quite a show:

Metallica’s 2025 Tour Dates:
04/19 – Syracuse, NY @ JMA Wireless Dome
04/24 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre
04/26 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre
05/01 – Nashville, TN @ Nissan Stadium
05/03 – Nashville, TN @ Nissan Stadium
05/07 – Blacksburg, VA @ Lane Stadium
05/09 – Columbus, OH @ Sonic Temple Music Festival
05/11 – Columbus, OH @ Sonic Temple Music Festival
05/23 – Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field
05/25 – Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field
05/28 – Landover, MD @ Northwest Stadium
05/31 – Charlotte, NC @ Bank of America Stadium
06/03 – Atlanta, GA @ Mercedes-Benz Stadium
...

 
Coatigan said:
Greenleaf - The Sirens' Sound
Click to expand...

Black&White&BlueMoon Town said:
Bluemoon - Justice, Judgement and the Law

...

My top 8 other new tracks (not yet heard in some or no particular order):
  1. “The Sirens Sound” – Greenleaf, nice heavy new rock, very enjoyable song
Click to expand...

Where in the hell is this thread when you need it? Too damn narrow in my searches, that'll teach me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top