Today is November 11th 2011, which as well all know is Nigel Tufnel Day, a day to celebrate music that should be played extra loud. Here’s how it’s done:
One of my favorite music podcasts, All Songs Considered, devoted their most recent show to a list of their picks for songs that should be played at 11. For my picks I went with obvious choices. No obscure indie bands or weird crate-digging finds–just solid, hard-hitting classics that that sound great cranked up. Here’s my own hastily-thrown-together-over-morning-coffee list (in no particular order):
1) Bring The Noise – Public Enemy
2) The Phoenix – The Cult
3) Blue Monday – New Order
4) Doing It To Death – James Brown
5) Since I’ve Been Loving You – Led Zeppelin
6) The Power Of Equality – Red Hot Chili Peppers
7) I Want To Take You Higher – Sly And The Family Stone
8) The Four Horsemen – Metallica
9) T.V. Eye – The Stooges
10) Children Of The Grave – Black Sabbath
11) Bad Reputation – Thin Lizzy
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Well my amp goes up to 12.
What is perhaps even more pleasing over here in the UK is that the BBC Iplayer (online player to catch up with shows from the main UK quality broadcaster) has a volume that also goes up to 11.
On a more critical front, I’d give these selections 7/10 but A for effort . (insert charmingly sarcastic but in a nice way and not meaning it emoticon)
The Cult – Love it haven’t listen to that for a whole and cannot go wrong with Lizzy. For me, at the moment I’d want to add
Good Idea by Sugar
Debaser by the Pixies
(or are they the same)
and whilst cheesy and predictably, Shoot to Thrill by AC/DC.
And not for the Iron Man connection.
If you haven’t seen this projection video thing then check it out. They really do rock the castle to the ground. Tres cool
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@James – Yeah, you could probably come up with a list of 111 songs that should be cranked super-loud and still be leaving some obvious choices off the list. The Pixies is a good call for sure. On a related front, at some point I should do a list of loudest live shows I’ve been to; Helmet, The Jesus Lizard, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., and My Bloody Valentine all come to mind off the top of my head.
That’s too funny that the BBC1 app goes to 11–literally. If I’m remembering correctly back from the Dark Ages when I played music, there were for sure some amps that were numbered to 12 and even 15. Maybe Orange amps?
Anyway, thanks for the input!
I think I really regret it now but when Sugar played Cambridge on the Copper Blue tour many years ago it was so loud, to the point of pain and devoid of any sonic pleasure that I left half way through. ;-(
The other two super loud gigs I rememer were Motorhead (exacltly what you want) and, odd, Steve Earle (waaay too loud, sort or like an act of spite on behalf of the sound man).
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/1312/iplayer11.jpg
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@James – Even at the heyday of the bands I mentioned, I was never a big fan of the “see how loud you can get” competition. There’s a volume point after which music just doesn’t sound good–not to mention being detrimental to ones hearing in the long run.