I used to have Together Forever Greatest Hits on cassette which I wore out. Not sure if thats still in print but it had a few "live" tracks on it if I remember. For straight out pure attitude rapping and DJing these dudes blew everyone out of the water...at least until the next wave of rap came along...
Ppl crapped on this record at the time for a few reasons. They felt a bit like dinosaurs trying to fit in next to PE and NWA and the like. The choice of new jack swing on some tracks didnt help. Pretty sure "P Upon A Tree" is a direct reference to DMC's booze habit. But it's a good record! Maybe not up to earlier standards but when it's on it's on (title track is the best IMHO)
Interesting...Run-DMC records are a crapshoot post-88 to begin with, but I wanted to hear this one for a few reasons. He duets with Sarah McLauchlan, and was inspired to record it after he found out he was adopted. But, judging from your review and others, it sounds like the general progression from Crown Royal which was also disappointing. Amirite?
Leave the existential stuff to The Doors and those fey prog rock groups. Steppenwolf arrived just a touch later at their breakthrough than many other bands from the L.A. psychedelic rock scene, so why now are they regarded as a dusty old relic with a couple of memorable hits? They actually existed in one form or another up until 2018, but their heyday can be neatly compressed into a three-year stretch in the public eye as America's no-nonsense biker/rock rebels during a time when it was actually radical to play the role - at least in the mainstream. Of course it followed that three-fifths of the group hailed from Canada or Germany, in the case of front man John Kay. All of their records are recommended listening, although the closest the band got to a cohesive record - for me, anyway - was Steppenwolf 7, where Kay really got some deep authentic statements on record. They were always at their best when they mined clear, keyboard-driven, street-style pop songs, and deserve more credit for this.
If there was a band I kicked myself for missing out on when they were active, it's Bongwater. But I'm not sure you could call them a band in the traditional sense. Sometimes the best music makes you laugh out loud or just say to yourself "WTF" and on a consistent basis, that is what Bongwater's music does. Mark Kramer's winding layers of psychedelic-soaked sounds provided a shifting yet reliable base for bandmate Ann Magnuson's diverse, rather odd and poetic rants on a wide range of topics. Another notable feature were their covers, which were often radicalized takes on the originals. Even if it flopped, it was an interesting flop ("Bedazzled" from The Power of Pussy is a great example). I find it counterproductive to review each one of their albums, because they all follow the same general format, even though from album to album the tone does slightly change. All of their albums are recommended listening.
