★★★
- All Around You (Intro): 🤷♂️
- Who?: 👍🏻
- When Jokers Attack: 👍🏻
- Servo: 👍🏻
- Open Heart Surgery: 👎🏻
- If Love is the Drug: 🤷♂️
- IT Girl: 🤷♂️
- Sailor: 🤷♂️
- Straight Up and Down: 👍🏻
- Anenome: 👍🏻
- Wisdom: 👍🏻
- Just For Today: 🤷♂️
- Stars: 🤷♂️
- Vacuum Boots: 👍🏻
- Prozac vs. Heroin: 🤷♂️
- She’s Gone: 🤷♂️
- Nailing Honey to the Bee: 🤷♂️
- That Girl Suicide: 👍🏻
- Nevertheless: 👍🏻
- Evergreen: 🤷♂️
- Starcleaner: 👍🏻
- Let Me Stand Next to Your Flower: 👍🏻
- Hide and Seek: 👍🏻
- In My Life: 🤷♂️
- Mary Please: 👍🏻
- Talk – Action = Shit: 👍🏻
- Oh Lord: 🤷♂️
- This Is Why You Love Me: 👍🏻
- Not If You Were the Last Dandy on Earth: 🤷♂️
- Swallowtail Live: 👍🏻
- Feel So Good: 👍🏻
- Fucker: 🤷♂️
- #1 Hit Jam: 👍🏻
- Ballad of Jim Jones: 👍🏻
- Free and Easy, Take 2: 👍🏻
- Stolen: 🤷♂️
- Mansion in the Sky: 👍🏻
- Sue: 🤷♂️
- Time Is Honey (So Cut The Shit) – Bonus Track: 🤷♂️
- Teleflows vs. Amplification – Bonus Track: 👎🏻
- God Is My Girlfriend – Bonus Track: 👎🏻
I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to listen to today, and then I saw that Dustin had made another recommendation. It wasn’t for this. I think there are at least two more albums that he’s recommended that I haven’t listened to yet not including this one and the one he suggested today. I decided I’d better start listening to his recommendations since he’s making them faster than I’m listening to them. I was hesitant to listen to Tepid Peppermint Wonderland for a couple of reasons: 1) it’s almost two and a half hours long and 2) it’s a compilation album.
I’ve been trying to avoid “greatest hits” albums for this project, because it’s too easy. A big part of this is finding new music, and if I’m listening to greatest hits albums the likelihood of finding something new drops if I know the band and I’m listening only to their hits. I probably know their hits. But I’d never even heard of The Brian Jonestown Massacre before it was suggested. Also, I scanned the Wikipedia page and after re-reading it now I realize I misunderstood what’s on this record. When I first skimmed it, I got the impression that this was all their songs from all their records except Strung Out In Heaven. But it’s just the greatest hits from all of their albums except Strung Out In Heaven. Oh well.
All in all, I enjoyed the record. One thing that bothered me was that it seemed like the songs were kind of all over the map. Because it’s a compilation I don’t know if that’s because that’s just kind of their style or if it’s because their style evolved and the tracks aren’t in chronological order.
I was surprised and impressed by the amount of influences they seemed to have. One song in particular, Servo, I thought started out sounding a little like Nirvana and ended up sounding a little like Jethro Tull. Never in my wildest dreams would I have expected to hear something like that. And I liked the song! I also caught hints of The Yardbirds, The Smiths, The Beatles, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, Oasis, David Bowie, The Beta Band and Stereolab. That’s a hell of a lot of disparate music for one record, even if it is 41 tracks long. I don’t know that I’d listen to this album again, but I might seek out their individual records.
cha.rlesthom.as 