Otter Limits

1. Roger – Dag Nasty (from 1992s Four on the Floor)
2. Stick – All (1993s Breaking Things)
3. Shine on You Crazy Diamond – Pink Floyd (1975s Wish You Were Here)
4. Romantic Junkie – All (1998s Mass Nerder)
5. No Other Me – Weezer (1996s Pinkerton)
6. Love Rescue Me – U2 (1988s Rattle and Hum)
7. Carry the Wounded – Tourniquet (1995s Carry the Wounded)
8. Up Against – Taking Back Sunday (2006s Louder Now)
9. Haunting – Haste the Day (2008s Dreamer)
10. Reclusion – Anberlin (2007s Cities)
11. So Long Self – MercyMe (2006s Coming Up To Breathe)
12. Prison – All (1990s Allroy Saves)

1. Harmless – Helmet (from Aftertaste)
2. Where Moth and Rust Destroy – Tourniquet (Where Moth and Rust Destroy)
3. The Perfect Night – Haste the Day (When Everything Falls)
4. Get On Your Boots – U2 (No Line on the Horizon)
5. When I Grow Up – Garbage (Version 2.0)
6. Lifesong – Casting Crowns (Lifesong)
7. Dreams – Descendents (Cool to be You)
8. Drug Train – Social Distortion (Social Distortion)
9. Minority – Green Day (Warning)
10. Peace – Weezer (Make Believe)
11. Mediate – INXS (Kick)
12. Girlfriend – Matthew Sweet (Girlfriend)

I did this one at Dave’s suggestion.

The name “post-punk” was first used by Greil Marcus in a July 1980 issues of Rolling Stone when referring to bands like The Raincoats and Gang of Four.

This genre is rooted in punk rock but progressed into something more complex as time went by. It is for all intents and purposes the precursor to the alternative rock genre (and you know how much i love that genre). It also led to genres such as gothic rock and industrial rock.

The genre got its start after 1977 after many bands who wanted the capture the spirit and rawness of punk rock but wanted to experiment a bit more and explore. So post-punk was formed which is basically a more arty version of punk rock.

Bands such as the Psychedelic Furs, Devo, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Joy Division, Killing Joke, The Cure, etc…kind of fell along the lines of post punk in its early forms.

It has seen a bit of a revival lately in the form of bands such as The Killers, The Strokes, and the Libertines.

Here is a list of some other fairly well-known post-punk bands:

Adam and the Ants
The Alarm
Bauhaus
Big Black hey wait! they were math rock last time!!
Christian Death
The Cult
Dead or Alive
Echo & the Bunnymen
Eurythmics
The Human League
Public Image Ltd
Sisters of Mercy
Sonic Youth
Talking Heads
U2 I’m not really sure if I would lump them in this genre but I can see why someone else would.
XTC

Here is a list of my source material (also at Dave’s suggestion):
Wiki article on Post-punk.
The Allmusic article on post punk.
Wiki list of post punk bands.

I got the idea for this post from a recent one by Dave over at Oklahoma Lefty.

This one is a list of my Top 14 Favorite bands and listed next to each is the title of one of their albums. The album listed is the one that I feel if you only listen to one of their albums this is the one it should be.
U2 – The Joshua Tree

1. Descendents – Everything Sucks
2. Weezer – Weezer (blue)
3. The Beatles – 1 (One)
4. Emery – I’m Only a Man
5. Stavesacre – How to Live With a Curse
6. Smoking Popes/Duvall – Destination Failure
7. MxPx – Panic or Before Everything & After *
8. Bad Religion – Stranger Than Fiction
9. Acceptance – Phantoms
10. Living Sacrifice – In Memorium
11. Screeching Weasel – Bark Like a Dog or My Brain Hurts *
12. Pink Floyd – The Wall
13. Green Day – Warning

*yeah I know there are 2, i couldn’t make up my mind with these.

14. All – Pummel (forgot to add this one, originally had Descendents/All combined but I decided I would separate them for this post).

Yeah, couldn’t come up with a better title.

Dave and I were discussing the fact that neither one of us have ever been to a U2 concert and an interesting question was brought up. If you could hear them play live all the songs that you would want to hear played live, what would they be.

So at the request of our pal Lefty, here is my list (with the album that the song comes from in parentheses).

40 (War)
All Because of You (How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb)
All I Want Is You (Rattle and Hum)
Beautiful Day (All That You Can’t Leave Behind)
Breathe (No Line on the Horizon)
Bullet the Blue Sky (Joshua Tree)
Cedars of Lebanon (No Line on the Horizon)
Desire (Rattle and Hum)
Even Better Than the Real Thing (Achtung Baby)
Gloria (October)
I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight (No Line on the Horizon)
In a Little While (All That You Can’t Leave Behind)
In God’s Country (Joshua Tree)
Magnificent (No Line on the Horizon)
Mysterious Ways (Achtung Baby)
New Year’s Day (War)
One (Achtung Baby)
Pride (Unforgettable Fire)
Saints Are Coming (?)
Two Hearts Beat As One (War)
Walk On (All That You Can’t Leave Behind)
Where the Streets Have No Name (Joshua Tree)
With or Without You (Joshua Tree)
Yahweh (How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb)

Here is a list of U2’s studio albums by order of preference. That is favorite to least favorite.

1. The Joshua Tree
1. All That You Can’t Leave Behind*
2. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
3. No Line on the Horizon
4. Achtung Baby
5. Rattle and Hum
6. War
7. Unforgettable Fire
8. October
9. Zooropa
10. Boy
11. Pop

I was watching Letterman tonight, waiting for U2 to play (like I have the last two nights) when low and behold they come on earlier in the show to do the Top 10 List!

Here is the list:

Top 10 Things U2 Has Learned Over the Years

10. A lot of people think I am the guy that sang with Cher — Bono
9. I suck at Guitar Hero — The Edge
8. Dumb people think we are You Tube — Adam
7. Even my family asks, are you Adam or Larry? — Larry
6. There is always quite a stir at Applebee’s when they say ‘U2-party of four!” — Bono
5. Cool name: The Edge, Uncool name: The Itch — The Edge
4. Melted cheese tastes good on everything — Adam
3. Sometimes when we shout ‘are you ready to rock!’ we don’t really care if you are ready to rock. — Larry
2. It’s never too soon to start working on a phony Irish accent — U2 collectively
1. Up close you can totally see Letterman’s hairpiece — Bono

I don’t usually do CD reviews. In fact, I can’t even think of the last one I have done. However, in my opinion, a new U2 album is an event that would rightly warrant doing one. So here is my review of their new album No Line on the Horizon.

First things first, I have to say that if you go into this album expecting the next Joshua Tree or the next All That You Can’t Leave Behind, you are going to be disappointed. My advise would be to listen to it without any preconceived notions about what you think it should sound like.

That being said, I think it is a very good album. Very good. However, I am not saying that if I put it up against all of their albums it would end up in my Top 3. But it is good.

It was not as immediate as some of their other albums were to me. That is, upon the first listen to it, I was not terribly impressed. However, I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I was expecting something I should not have been expecting. By the time I listened to it the 2nd time, all of those preconceived notions were gone and I was able to enjoy it for what it was. A new U2 album and not another ATYCLB.

I remember that How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb was the same way. When I first listened to it. I did not like it one bit and was severely disappointed. However, I also remember that I first listened to it during an intense U2 listening phase and right after having listened to ATYCLB several times. Now, I really do like that album a lot.

The next question is would I recommend this album to someone else. That is not as easy a question to answer. Let me put it this way though. If I were talking to a person that had never heard any of their stuff (is there anybody out there that hasn’t?) but wanted to start, I would recommend they begin their U2 adventure somewhere else and come back to this one at a later time. If I were talking to someone that was a fan, I would definitely recommend it to them with the aforementioned disclaimer: Do not expect something that this album is not!

For me, the highlights on this album are the songs “Magnificent” “Moment of Surrender” “Breathe” and “Cedars of Lebanon.”

New release means the DOTM is outdated. 

U2’s newest album No Line on the Horizon was released today so I thought by marking the occasion I would do another U2 post.

This post will be a listing of all of the Grammy Awards they have won over the years.

1988 – Album of the Year (The Joshua Tree)
1988 – Best Rock Duo or Group with Vocal
1989 – Best Rock Duo or Group with Vocal
1989 – Best Performance Music Video (Where the Streets Have No Name)
1993 – Best Rock Duo or Group with Vocal
1994 – Best Alternative Music Album (Zooropa)
1995 – Best Long Form Music Video (Zoo TV: Live from Sydney)
2001 – Best Rock Duo or Group with Vocal
2001 – Song of the Year (Beautiful Day)
2001 – Record of the Year (Beautiful Day)
2002 – Best Rock Album (All That You Can’t Leave Behind)
2002 – Best Rock Duo or Group with Vocal
2002 – Best Pop duo or Group with Vocal
2002 – Record of the Year (Walk On)
2005 – Best Short Form Music Video (Vertigo)
2005 – Best Rock Duo or Group with Vocal
2006 – Album of the Year (How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb)
2006 – Song of the Year (Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own)
2006 – Best Rock Duo or Group with Vocal
2006 – Best Rock Song (City of Blinding Lights)
2006 – Best Rock Album (How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb)

Having compiled this list I was wondering what some of these categories actually meant. And here is what I found out.

Album of the Year is an award given for an entire album.

Record of the Year is awarded for a single or one track on an album.

Song of the Year is also for a single track on an album but is different from the Record of the Year in that the Record of the Year is presented to the artist of the song while Song of the Year is presented to the composer of the song.

The rest were fairly self-explanatory to me.

So anyway, there they are. All of the Grammys that have been awarded to U2.