{"id":3903,"date":"2021-01-31T11:11:58","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T11:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agraham.org\/blog\/?p=3903"},"modified":"2024-06-26T18:02:22","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T18:02:22","slug":"cprw-vinyl-challenge-january-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/agraham.org\/blog\/2021\/01\/31\/cprw-vinyl-challenge-january-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"CPRW Vinyl Challenge January 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

I tend to avoid these thing a day events as I usually am not motivated by them. I’m conscious though that I spam pictures of records but generally before I’ve heard them so can’t really say much yet. Something to motivate me to look back at some music and write about it is probably good, as I normally just do 1 line at the end of the year if it fits. So, here’s a rundown of what I picked for the #cprwvinylchallenge2021 organised by Colin on Instagram<\/a> who runs a great blog<\/a> as well as other online stuff.<\/p>\n

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So I tried to set some groundrules for myself:
\n1. Try to stick to the letter of the rules as much as possible
\n2. Try to stick to the spirit of the rules as much as possible
\n3. Each artist once only
\n4. Well actually real punk is
\n5. Vinyl Only
\n6. Try to avoid records I have gushed about a lot (I break this once I think)<\/p>\n

Ok, number 4 is a joke, based on gate-keeping arseholes. I would argue my pick for day 2 is very punk. I’m sure others would insist it has to be a band of musicians who conveniently look like them and play music they like. And music they dislike is what makes the not-punk list. But no-one cares about those losers opinions.<\/p>\n

I listen to lot’s of types of music, it just so happens it’s mainly punk acts who I go to see live, and the challenge is run by a punk blog so that’s what’s gonna dominate but not be exclusive in the list.<\/p>\n

The method of picking artists was steered by my discogs catalogue though, which forced me in some picks. I am trying to go through and re-listen to everything I own and grade it so I can then decide what to keep etc. They store an integer 1-5 rating so I use these as:
\n5: could listen to this any time
\n4: really good
\n3: ok and listenable
\n2: poor, unlikely to re-listen
\n1: garbage<\/p>\n

So when a day asks for “best album of x year” I sort by rating and look for 5-star in that year etc. There are some complications though. I have a huge chunk of music on CD and not Vinyl including things I would have picked in this list. As I am re-listening there are things I haven’t got to yet. And worst of all, I have a bunch of re-issues and discogs is poor at showing you “your record is from 2020 but the original was 1991” etc. As my backlog is so large I also have music which came out last year which I haven’t listened to yet which then skips the yearly round-up post etc too.<\/p>\n

Jan 1: Debut Album<\/h2>\n

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Luniz – Operation Stackola. <\/p>\n

So I decided to just completely break the rules on day 1. First the justification, and then the explanation.
\nThe alternatives I had were chosen for days 8, 9 and one I posted about a lot very recently. I include I think 4 rap records and this is the first of them.<\/p>\n

As a kid I didn’t really listen to music. The first stuff we listened to I think were a Best of Rap compilation, Snoop Dogg Doggystyle and then this. Next up was Method Man – Tical which was mind-blowing and if I had on vinyl would have immediately grabbed this spot. So I have always had a soft spot for this album.<\/p>\n

On a re-listen there are parts which definitely have not aged well. Particularly Pimps, Playas & Hustlas<\/cite>, She’s Just A Freak<\/cite> etc. But when you listen to 900 Blame A N****<\/cite> about harassment for racist cops in league with white supremicist. Fuck sake. After the 2020 we just had and this was 1995 and it could have just been written last year.<\/p>\n