The Medusa Fora

Gang,
I have $10 to burn on iTunes and have decided that the Tossers are worth a go. However, I am way too lazy to listen through the 5 second clips on the four availible albums so I need your help. Which of the following albums is the best ?

-Purgatory
-Communication and Conviction
-The First League out from Land
-Long Dim Road

For what it's worth if you were to ask me the same question of the Pogues I would have to say IISFWGWG. Thanks.

glonn wrote:Gang,
I have $10 to burn on iTunes and have decided that the Tossers are worth a go. However, I am way too lazy to listen through the 5 second clips on the four availible albums so I need your help. Which of the following albums is the best ?

-Purgatory
-Communication and Conviction
-The First League out from Land
-Long Dim Road

For what it's worth if you were to ask me the same question of the Pogues I would have to say IISFWGWG. Thanks.

Communication and Conviction. I have it and like it. I have a few songs here and there from the others. But you are going to find, unless this has changed in the past couple months, we in the USA are not able to buy from most of what is listed above. For some reason they exclude the US market. I guess it has something to do with royalty payments or something. But if I remember correctly, C&C is available. Anyways... if you are looking for their best, you must get the latest -- the Valley of the Shadow of Death. Cheers! Good to see you on.

EV

glonn wrote:Gang,
I have $10 to burn on iTunes and have decided that the Tossers are worth a go. However, I am way too lazy to listen through the 5 second clips on the four availible albums so I need your help. Which of the following albums is the best ?

-Purgatory
-Communication and Conviction
-The First League out from Land
-Long Dim Road

For what it's worth if you were to ask me the same question of the Pogues I would have to say IISFWGWG. Thanks.

don't get first league out from land, it only has 4 songs.

communication and conviction is my suggestion. it's from their younger years so it's more energetic and stuff. purgatory is better produced and more 'sad' i guess you could say. still a great album. long dim road is their first major release. it's very political. i wouldn't recommend it because half the songs are great and the other half suck.

communication and conviction is more of a 'red roses for me' and purgatory is more of a '...grace with god' in a sense.

Bollocks. Long Dim Road is their best. The uptempo songs are probably the best drinking songs ever, and the ballads are just beautiful. C&C is also pretty cool, but I would avoid Purgatory, it's rather boring. Shadow Of The Valley Of Death or something isn't too good either.

But that's my opinion.

Anonymous wrote:Bollocks. Long Dim Road is their best. The uptempo songs are probably the best drinking songs ever, and the ballads are just beautiful. C&C is also pretty cool, but I would avoid Purgatory, it's rather boring. Shadow Of The Valley Of Death or something isn't too good either.

But that's my opinion.

Well your opinion is shite, guest, and that's my opinion

But seriously, what the Tossers do best is more of the folk with an edge kind of music. If I remember, Long Dim Road was an attempt to go down a more edgy path, a harder sound, and though it was ok, it wasn't what they do best. Valley of the Shadow is the crowning jewel on top of 10+ years of good work by these guys (and a girl). I look forward to seeing them on March 15th in Baltimore. Dropkick Murpheys are the headliner, but I'm going for the Tossers.

i agree with eric, your opinion is shite.

Glonn,

I got into The Tossers recently and only have Communication & Conviction and Long Dim Road.

Go for C & C for value for money, mate. From memory there are 21 tracks on that one, and its worth getting for some of them on their own.
Long Dim Road has some superb stuff like Altercations and also Ciara but as Goodbar said earlier there are some shite ones on there as well, but then you can't win them all !

You wont be disappointed, but let us know what you think anyway.

By the way, this is my first post - so hello to all !

Regards

The Tossers don't only deserve a go, they should be considered as the best north-american punk/folk/rock band out there. Far better than Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly.

definitely. and i don't know of any other band from the genre that has been at it as long as they have.

The Mahones do. But they're not as good. Some of their songs kick arse, but overall, they're just an average band if you ask me. But again, nobody asked me.

yeah, there's really nothing special about the mahones.

i honestly don't give all that much of a crap about 'blend' bands anymore. there's a few good ones (the tossers, the real mckenzies, meisce, etc.) but for the most part they all sound the same.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I got Communication and Conviction. I listened all the way through the first time and it has been coming up on shuffle mode for that past couple of weeks. I don't know if I am qualified to make a complete review yet but here goes anyway.

For the most part I like the album. I appreciated the instrumentation and the intensity of the playing. The originals are good and I enjoy the selection of covers. Finnegan's Wake is fantastic. However, there was something that was bugging me about the Tossers. I figured it out a few days ago. Tony Duggins cannot sing. To me Duggins sounds like the guy from New Order. I always thought that he couldn't sing either but I was told that that was the appeal to some people. Whatever. To my ears whenever Becca Manth starts singing it is like a breath of fresh air which leads me to believe that Tony's voice is subtly grating.

The big caveat here is that Tossers are NOT the kind of band that has hooks and other tricks that makes their music easily digestable but ultimately a hollow experince. Rather, their sound is one that might take a while to get used to. When that time comes the listener will understand the depth of the tunes and they will endure. This is how I feel about a very obscure and defunct band called Rites of Spring who were a local DC favorite back in the mid-1980's. Their music was not melodic at all, it was noisy, chaotic, and unfamilliar. It was impossible for me to listen to for an extended lenght of time but after a few months I loved it and their music endures (to my ears) today.

I will keep on listening and will look forward to the day when my ears get used to Duggins voice. Thanks again for the suggestions.

Glonn. I will give you a copy of their newest when I see you at the show. I guarentee this one.

Cool. I've got some stuff to trade you for.

Eric V wrote:Glonn. I will give you a copy of their newest when I see you at the show. I guarentee this one.

glonn wrote:Cool. I've got some stuff to trade you for.

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