Moderately Acclaimed 3 (MA3) - Round 1.5

[Brad]

Round 1.5
Vote for your favorite in each matchup.
Remember, anyone can vote as long as they've heard both albums!
Deadline = April 9th 10am EST

1. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours vs. Count Basie - Basie
2. Muddy Waters - Folk Singer vs. Neu! - Neu! 75
3. Saint Etienne - Foxbase Alpha vs. Serge Gainsbourg - Aux armes et caetera
4. Superchunk - No Pocky for Kitty vs. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank

Get Up and Boogie!

[Stephan]

The Best Album Trophy I'm handing out this week will remain in possession of that album for the remainder of round 1. Also, there's not gonna be a bigger quality difference in any bracket in competition; a full 4 point difference between Jackson C. Frank and Superchunk.

1. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank (Best Album Trophy)
2. Muddy Waters - Folk Singer
3. Count Basie - Basie
4. Neu! - Neu! 75
5. Serge Gainsbourg - Aux armes et caetera
6. Saint Etienne - Foxbase Alpha
7. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
8. Superchunk - No Pocky for Kitty

[Greg]

1. Count Basie - Basie
2. Muddy Waters - Folk Singer
3. Serge Gainsbourg - Aux armes et caetera
4. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank

[Romain]

1. Count Basie - Basie
2. Neu! - Neu! 75
3. Serge Gainsbourg - Aux armes et caetera
4. I have to listen both.

[Gillingham]

2. Muddy Waters - Folk Singer vs. Neu! - Neu! 75

I really like both, so it was a hard choice.

[VanillaFire1000]

1. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
2. Muddy Waters - Folk Singer

I'll try to the next 4 albums this week.

[Jirin]

5-1

Cut Copy - In Ghost Colors 6/10
Count Basie - Basie 8/10

5-2

Muddy Waters - Folk Singer 7/10
Neu - Neu! 75 7/10

Muddy Waters edges it out. I have trouble gettig into Neu, there's just not enough punch to their good ideas.

5/3

Saint Etienne - Foxbase Alpha 8/10
Serge Gainsbourg - Aux amres et cetera 6/10

I'm a fan of Serge but I feel this particular album of his clashes with itself.

5/4

Superchunk - No Pocky For Kitty 7/10
Jackson C Frank - Jackson C Frank 9/10

No Pocky For Kitty - Best album name ever. The music is okay, but it's also firmly in the category of 'Noisy 90's lofi sadness'. Jackson C Frank on the other hand lives completely up to the Stephanian hype.

[Honorio]

Damn, I'm going on holidays till Monday and probably without Internet connection so probably I won't be able to listen the three albums I haven't listened yet (Neu, Gainsbourg and Superchunk). But I'll try. My vote for the first bracket goes to Basie.

[Evan]

What Count Basie album are we supposed to be listening to? I'm going through his discography and there is an absurd number of different albums he has released. Based on the matchup, I'm assuming it's one of the more acclaimed albums in the tournament, so is it the one listed as Basie/The Atomic Mr. Basie/The Complete Atomic Mr. Basie on Acclaimed Music?

Basically, where do I find this?

[Henrik]

What Count Basie album are we supposed to be listening to? I'm going through his discography and there is an absurd number of different albums he has released. Based on the matchup, I'm assuming it's one of the more acclaimed albums in the tournament, so is it the one listed as Basie/The Atomic Mr. Basie/The Complete Atomic Mr. Basie on Acclaimed Music?

Basically, where do I find this?

That's the one. Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/10l9GvNgkuRCNstbOgz2mG

[Evan]

^Thanks Henrik

[Stephan]

Jackson C Frank on the other hand lives completely up to the Stephanian hype.

Hyping? Moi?!

[Brad]

1. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours over Count Basie - Basie
Very close - "In Ghost Colours" was a definite grower.
2. Muddy Waters - Folk Singer over Neu! - Neu! 75
Neu certainly wasn't what I was expecting - it picked up over the second half, but no comparison to Muddy.
3. Saint Etienne - Foxbase Alpha over Serge Gainsbourg - Aux armes et caetera
"Foxbase Alpha" is overlong and sometimes inconsistent as a result, but I have a special fondness for the highs ("She's The One", "People Get Real", "Only Love...") that push this past the Serge album, much of which reminds me (production-wise) of the filler material on "Sandanista" - which is a good thing.
4. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank over Superchunk - No Pocky for Kitty
I really like Superchunk (despite the Stephanian anti-hype!), but they are pretty much one-dimensional and best taken in small "chunks". If the whole album was as good as "Skip Steps 1&3" it may have had a shot. But then, "Jackson C. Frank" would still be a tough one to beat.

Thanks!

[Henrik]

1. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours vs. Count Basie - Basie
In Ghost Colours is one of my favourite albums of the '00s, but it still has no chance against Basie, which is well within my all-time top 100 and is my second favourite jazz album (behind you know which).

2. Muddy Waters - Folk Singer vs. Neu! - Neu! 75
I had not picked up Folk Singer before, and it was really good. Amazing production and Muddy in great laidback form. The Neu! album is good, but I agree with Jirin's comment.

3. Saint Etienne - Foxbase Alpha vs. Serge Gainsbourg - Aux armes et caetera
I struggle with this one. It bothers me that Foxbase Alpha is ranked higher than the much more mature and complete So Tough on AM. But this Serge album has never got me interested either. I suggest that these are two overrated albums by two underrated artists.

4. Superchunk - No Pocky for Kitty vs. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank
Wow, No Pocky for Kitty is shock-full of heavy riffs. I liked it much more than I thought I would. But no chance against Jackson C. Frank. Stephan should not get all credit for this album, I nominated it too! The string of songs from "Milk and Honey" to "I Want to Be Alone (Dialogue)" is unbeatable melancholy.

[Henrik]

And if the music of "Jackson C. Frank" isn't sad enough, check out his unfortunate history at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_C._Frank.

When Jackson Frank was 11, a furnace exploded at his school, sending a ball of flames down corridors until it ended up in Frank's music classroom in the Cleveland Hill Elementary School in Cheektowaga, New York.[1] The fire killed fifteen of his fellow students and burned Frank over more than half his body.[1] It was during his time in the hospital that he was first introduced to playing music, when a teacher, Charlie Castelli, brought in an acoustic guitar to keep Frank occupied during his recovery. When he was 21, he was awarded an insurance check of $110,500 for his injuries, giving him enough to "catch a boat to England."[1]

His eponymous 1965 album, Jackson C. Frank, was produced by Paul Simon while the two of them were also playing folk clubs in England. Frank was so shy during the recording that he asked to be shielded by screens so that Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, and Al Stewart (who also attended the recording) could not see him, claiming 'I can't play. You're looking at me.'

...

In 1984, Frank took a trip to New York City in a desperate bid to locate Paul Simon, but he ended up sleeping on the sidewalk.

...

Soon after this, Frank was sitting on a bench in Queens, New York while awaiting a move to Woodstock, when someone shot him in his left eye and consequently blinded him. At first no details were known, but it was later determined that children from the neighborhood were firing a pellet gun indiscriminately at people and Frank happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

...

[Brad]

About 23 hours left to vote!

[Stephan]

Yeah, Jackson C. Frank's story is truly one of the saddest stories in music. Another one of my favorite albums, which will show up in two weeks, is Judee Sil's Heart Food and Judee Sil's history is also tragic. From RYM:

Born in 1944, Judith Lynn Sill grew up in California with her older brother and parents. Her father was a cameraman, and Sill was devastated by his death when she was eight. Her mother turned to alcohol and "downers," and re-married. Sill detested her stepfather, Ken Muse (an award-winning "Tom and Jerry" animator), and claimed he abused her both sexually and physically.

Sill's brother left home and married, becoming an importer of exotic animals for film companies. Sill, left at home with an alcoholic mother and abusive stepfather, became the quintessential "wild child" and went on a criminal spree in her teens. She took part in armed robberies with a boyfriend and was busted and sent to reformatory school, where she learned to play the piano and organ.

On her release, she turned to LSD and other drugs and was busted again for drugs possession and for forging cheques. After a spell in jail in the mid-1960s, during which time she wrote her first songs, she married her first husband and began a costly heroin habit, which also drove her to prostitution.

[...]

Sill toured in 1971 and 1972 as an opening act for other artists, which she did not like. Her second album, Heart Food, was released on Asylum in 1973 but few critics reviewed it, it didn't have a hit single, and it sold abysmally. Today, it is considered by some to be her artistic peak and a 'lost gem'. Subsequently, Sill made a derogatory comment about Geffen on the radio, which severed her ties with Asylum.

She then suffered a car accident (the other car was reportedly being driven by Danny Kaye) and was forced out of the studio to recuperate. During this time, she wrote new songs while suffering from the effects of a series of botched back surgeries to correct ailments sustained from the accident. [...]

After 1975, Sill's life is something of a mystery. There are rumours of another car accident and Sill turned to heroin again to ease her pain. She also turned to cocaine, dabbled with the occult and spent her final years living in relative obscurity and poverty. She died from a cocaine overdose at Thanksgiving 1979 at the age of 35. The coroner ruled suicide, although it was never proven.

[Honorio]

Finally there was Internet connection at my rural hotel so I listened to the three remaining albums. I find it very good (especially Neu's) but not better than the ones I already knew. So my votes go to:
1. Basie
2. Folk Singer
3. Foxbase Alpha
4. Jackson C Frank

On a side note, I took for my trip to Babia (on the North of Spain) only 10 CDs, all of them from 2011, the best 6 CDs according to AM main list plus "The King of Limbs" and 3 Rockdelux compilation with the best songs of the year. And the ones from Bon Iver, James Blake and Fleet Foxes proved to be the perfect soundtrack for the frozen landscapes of Babia.

[nicolas]

Basie
Folk singer
Aux armes
Jackson C Frank

The latest is my favorite of the lot

[antonius]

Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours vs. Count Basie - Basie
Cut Copy is a more than ok record, but no match for the one and only classic Basie album. The cut copy record reminds me of 1981, production and voice.

Muddy Waters - Folk Singer vs. Neu! - Neu! 75
I hate to do this, because I love both records, but the Muddy Waters record has grown on me for the last weeks. I didn't know this record before the competition, and I knew Muddy only as an electric blues player, but this stuff matches his best electric stuff.

Saint Etienne - Foxbase Alpha vs. Serge Gainsbourg - Aux armes et caetera
Surprised by the Saint Etienne record, I only knew the Neil Young cover, but the rest works out pretty well. No match for Gainsbarre though.

Superchunk - No Pocky for Kitty vs. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank

All in all throughout this competition, all the albums that are presented have a lot of qualities in them, and deserved to be listened to. I'm glad that I'm participating in this game.

[Evan]

1. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
2. Muddy Waters - Folk Singer
3. Saint Etienne - Foxbase Alpha
4. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank


No Pocky for Kitty was my nomination, but...wow. I can't believe Jackson C. Frank is bubbling under. I really just nominated No Pocky for Kitty to remind people of an album that has a lot of fun, high-energy songs that seem to have been mostly forgotten, but it's no match.

[Henry]

4. Superchunk - No Pocky for Kitty vs. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank

Jackson Frank wins.

I enjoyed the unvarnished songs from Jackson Frank and found many of the songs on No Pocky for Kitty to be pretty good. But, my present view is that the Frank songs will grow on me much more than the Superchunk songs. I enjoyed No Pocky more than either the 1990 Superchunk album or the 2010 Majesty Shredding album and wonder if and Superchunk fans have any favorites on any of these three albums. I am also interested in understanding which of Frank's songs are favorites of those participating in this poll.

[Stephan]

Blues Don't Run The Game is probably considered his best song, but my personal favorite is My Name is Carnival.

[Brad]

13 voters in Round 1.5:
antonius
Brad
Evan
Gillingham
Greg
Henrik
Henry
Honorio
Jirin
Nicolas
Romain
Stephan
VanillaFire1000

1. Count Basie - Basie over Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours 8-3
2. Muddy Waters - Folk Singer over Neu! - Neu! 75 11-1
3. Serge Gainsbourg - Aux armes et caetera over Saint Etienne - Foxbase Alpha 5-4
4. Jackson C. Frank - Jackson C. Frank over Superchunk - No Pocky for Kitty 10-0

Round 1.6 up soon!