So I did...
And to this day I still do not see any connection between SDRE and Trans Am. But I am thankful for that recommendation.
Most Trans Am albums have some amazing songs- driving bass, pounding drums, and a rhythmic hypnotic pulse that is great. Their instrumentation changes. It typically involves drums, synthesizers, bass, with guitars, electric percussion, and samples filling the void. For as many great songs on a Trans Am album, there are usually as many filler songs. Maybe I just don't appreciate the noise/electronic/sample ridden songs as much as others, but it is the harder songs that brought me to appreciate Trans Am in the first place. I saw them once at CMU probably back in 2000. It was a great show. So here are a bunch of albums that I have from them. They have a couple newer albums; TA- an album with an 80's glam cover, and an album where Trans Am combines with The F-ing Champs. Both of these albums I listed to while I was a DJ at WPTS, but never really got too psyched (in all honestly I never listened to each album in its entirety).
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This was their first full length release on the Thrill Jockey label (as all of their following releases are). It has their drum/bass pulses with some righteous lead melodies reminiscent of 70's rock.
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The Surveillance (1998)
This was actually the first Trans Am album I heard. There are some great tracks on this album. I believe it may be a concept album, but I never really got the concept...
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This album has some fantastic songs- super driving, rhythmic, and with the addition of vocoder/synth vocals. This may be my favorite Trans Am album... "No future here in the future"
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This is a pretty diverse album. A mix of loud rhythms and soft quiet ambient instrumentals. I haven't listened to this album in a while, but thought I would put it up with the rest of my records.
2 comments:
i remember seeing them with mouse on mars (believe it or not, i think maybe tristeza might've been there but now i think i'm confusing shows) at the ol' 4040, and they were amazing. the keyboardist insisted on saying all that trite stage banter through the vocoder and i couldn't help but laugh everytime. still, they ripped into Television Eyes, my all time favorite
links are broken bro!
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