Granddaddy Eels advice sought

My Eels faves are "Souljacker" and "Freak" and would buy both of these instead of another Grandaddy

I have all of Grandaddys albums but, for me, one is probably enough (Summday would fulfil this)

I think "Under the Western Freeway" is Grandaddy's best. "Sophtware Slump" is ok but significantly less than the other two.

If you like Grandaddy you should also like Pavement -- since they are an obvious and huge influence -- especially their later period stuff and Malkmus's solo work. So if you haven't already Malkmus's "Pig Lib" and Pavement's "Wowee Zowee" would be excellent starting points.

Matthew

Well I think "Sophtware Slump" is by far Grandaddy's best.

Also Agree with Nick about 'Daisies' being the Eeels best.

Get them all! I think Sophtware Slump is the best Grandaddy album (the ep's collection runs it close but I cannot remember what it is called!). I think 'Under the wetstern...' is a bit disjointed. As for Eels, well I find it really difficult to split them but probably play Souljacker the most. Ultimately you will end up with the full set though.

I also think "Under The Western Freeway" is Grandaddy's best, with "Sumday" a close second.

I also agree with the Pavement recommendation. I'd start with two brilliant albums they put out back-to-back: "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain"* and "Wowee Zowee". Their oft-mentioned 1992 classic "Slanted and Enchanted" is a hit or miss for me, depending on my mood, the weather, the moon, my sobriety, etc.

You might also want to try old Wilco- "AM".

Buy it all, do that LAME/EAC thing and enjoy.

Ludwig, feelin' so '94


* CR,CR has my two favorite Pavement tracks in sequence- "Range Life" and "Heaven Is A Truck".

For the record -- S&E is my second favourite Pavement after "Wowee Zowee" but if the starting point is "Sumday" I'd say start with the latter which is generally less abrasive. Similarly with "Pig Lib".

"Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" is the third of the three essential Pavement albums.

A final note on Grandaddy: The EP collections mentioned earlier "Broken Down Comforter Collection" and "Concrete Dunes" (the latter is the former plus a few more tracks so you only need one) are worth tracking down especially as you often (at least in the UK) find them in discount bins. They both contain "For the Dishwasher" (an early example of their obsession with household appliances) and "Kim You Bore Me To Death" which are two of their very best tracks.

Matthew

Just to make sure none of us agree:

"Sophtware Slump" is Grandaddy's best.

"Electro-shock Blues" is the Eels' best.

Pavement is, of course, better than the Pixies. But neither "S&E" nor "Wowee Zowee" sound much like the Eels or Grandaddy, although these are both superb albums. "Brighten the Corners" or "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" would be better entry points to Pavement for someone coming from an Eels/Grandaddy direction.

Think that about settles it.

What about Beck?

Tosser.

We forgot to mention Flaming Lips.

Ludwig,

Don't know why I missed out on Granddaddy and Eels. Think they passed us by in NZ. I DO have all of Beck, Flaming Lips, Wilco etc though.

I have ordered Sophtware Slump, Daisies (which I am quite excited about after listening to the 30secondsoflowquality.mp3s on Amazon) and Souljacker (because it sounds like Shootenanny). I'll come back for another bite when I have had a chance to digest that lot.

Will look into Pavement as well.

Thanks everyone !

Though I don't know all of their material, any suggestion that pavement are better than pixies is of course sacriligious! However if you do follow that particular path and like it I feel I should point out the obvious: namely that all such roads lead eventually to the fall! just tread v. carefully!

roman

Choosing between The Pixies and Pavement is like choosing between one's daughters I reckon. Not that I have dauhgters but its what I imaginine it to be like.

More of a sin is the implicit putting of Grandaddy (or The Eels for that matter) in the same league as Pavement. To be clear Grandaddy were obviously influenced by Pavement (although it was pretty much impossible not to be in 90s US indie) but Pavement area great band and Grandaddy are merely very good.

Matthew

HEY, I am sitting at me 'puter doing an imitation of someone watching paint dry as I wait for EAC/LAME to finish with my new copy of "Souljaker" so I can get it onto me iPod and get going for the day when ..

I absent-mindedly flip over the cover and start reading the blurb and find, to my UTTER AMAZEMENT, that the Eels are ENGLISH ! What the hell is going on here ?

Thanks Patrick. I had a look at their website and yes, you are right. Let this be a lesson to other crap speed-readers out there. Apparently John Parish is English but the Eels is more or less just one man (an American man). Thank god. I can now move their albums out of the "pretentious Englishmen" section and back into "Intelligent trailer trash".

I'll crawl back into me cave now.

P.S. Souljaker is AWESOME. Can't wait for "Daisies" to arrive !

From now on its Nick Eels as far as I'm concerned.

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So this is how you categorise your "Rugby Losers" CD collection?

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Give it up Pat! It's been two weeks already

BTW Minky, you are well behind on the Eels and da Grandaddy, I've been into them for at least a month now!

Jay

Hey Jay,

Souljaker is soo good that I am starting to think that my enthusiasm might survive getting the rest all in one go.

22 miles of hard road
33 years of tough luck
44 skulls buried in the ground
Crawling down through the muck, Oh yeah.

Ye ha !

As for "Woman driving man sleeping" : Perfecto.

Waddayareckon ?

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Waddayareckon ?

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I definitely reckon Just listening to that today at work actually! Bought Shootydoda a while back and SoulJacker recently.

Actually got both SoulJacker and Beautiful Freak from the Real Groovy bargin bins! Someone's just not getting in the groove! Their loss my gain!

Jay

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I think you'll find it's only just a week since ENGLAND'S GREAT TRIUMPH!

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Really? It seems a lot longer

Enjoy! Jay

Just a short note to say that after spending a week listening to Souljaker I now have DOTG and it's just mind-blowing. I'm definitely going to have to get the lot. I also got Granddaddy's "Sophtware slump" but it's not really getting a look in. The competition is far too stiff.

Oh, and today someone gave me a CD copy of a bootleg of Ryan Adams unreleased double album "Suicide handbook" so my cup runneth over.