ALBUM Fight!!! Tony Toni Tone vs. INXS
The Break It Down Show episode featured in this post is what Jon and I call an Album Fight. The point of an album fight is to explore music. Either discovering new bands that we never got to…or re-exploring musical planets previously visited.
These conversations are often rich with insights, jokes and self-realization that are not possible without the examination of the album’s tracks. These album fights episodes represent our attempt to share the music, the conversations and the fellowship that is borne in these exchanges.
We developed the album fight idea as we tried to find the where true greatness or peak brilliance is achieved in an album format. The rules:
— Rule 1: No greatest hits albums, also covers* are penalized unless the cover is the popular version — Smiths’ Hatful of Hallow is OK, Louder than Bombs is not.
— Rule 2: Reduce personal bias. This means Rush’s 2112 isn’t the greatest album of all time. Whatever level of love and attention you slather on Moving Pictures, do so for the opposing album.
— Rule 3: If you spout off your opinion without going track for track you get #’d #DoTheWork. Don’t deny yourself the pleasure of the time machine ride each song provides — Do The Work
* Rap is at a disadvantage since much of the genre is sampled AKA a cover. Beastie Boys’ License to Ill is an illustrative exception — sort out these exception before beginning.
It’s clear that Guns and Roses, Appetite for Destruction is a masterpiece and would easily hang in the Louvre of great albums. However, U2’s No Line on the Horizon isn’t so obvious a choice.
Pete Note — Initially, album fights were a means of finding the album that guards the entrance to our musical louvre. Incidentally, the gatekeeper to the Louvre albums appears to be Huey Lewis and the News’, “Sports.”
This gatekeeper thought exercise is where the album fight was born. 2 albums enter, each album assessed track for track, one album is the winner; but really everyone wins. Each album fight I’ve been a part of on Twitter (where we’ve had most of these conversations) has enabled me to enjoy both albums again — or for the first time if it’s out of my wheelhouse.
The episode features INXS’ Shabooh Shoobah vs. Tony Toni Tone’s Revival.
Do you think either band ever considered that their work would one day be compared/contrasted to the other? Yet, we did it, and it is fantastic.
The inaugural album fights recorded sets us off on the right track. We’ve crossed genres, yet mixed bands that are strikingly similar. Both INXS and Tony Toni Tone are family bands. Both bands have a funky center. Both bands define a genre, each album was a breakout.
I won’t ruin the episode, but a few things did become obvious between these two albums. When one looks at the catalog of INXS, there’s no doubt that Andrew Farriss and Michael Hutchence created music that took people to a special place; beyond greatness. The duo is as good as any songwriting pair to ever create music.
Also, Foster and McElroy are equally historically great…Their songwriting and production elevates souls, wins GRAMMYs and increases chances with the ladies; trust Ol Pedro dig into anything created by Foster and McElroy.
A group like Tony Toni Tone is why album fights exist. Instead of discussing Led Zeppin IV for the millionth time, we’re talking about a monster group that we all deserve to enjoy more frequently. Thank you, Tony Toni Tone for the wonderful songs, experiences and love…Jon and I really love what you do.
Eventually, we intend to get guests to participate…ideally, in the case of this episode we’d grab Denzil Foster to talk about Revival, which he co-produced along with former show guest Thomas McElroy.
It’d also be interesting to host D’Wayne Wiggins, also a former BIDS guest, of Tony Toni Tone, to either discuss their albums or others they love. I’m also interested in getting a hired gun like Rick Marotta (also a show guest) to album fight two albums that feature his playing.
Music is a rich topic to discuss, we’re proud to present this show as the first of many…and we hope you continue to join us. We want to hear from you on Twitter Pete or Jon. Did we get the fight right? Or Wrong?
A quick note on content creation — this concept is over a year in the making. The idea fought its way through the multitude of other projects we wanted to do as well. When creating content, constantly seek ways to create more quality products — but beware the sirens.
When podcasting…there’s always another show to create or a fascination to explore. Ultimately, instead of developing from the ground up a completely new show, in this case, it made more sense to add content under the Break It Down Show banner.
The more we tried to create a unique show, the more complicated it became, the more unlikely to succeed the idea. Podcasts are fun to think about but challenging to produce reliably.
My advice to those of you in the content creation game, consider creating a tangential episode stream instead of a whole new venture. The audience will sort itself out…the creator’s job is to keep making great shows. — to Mark Schaefer for all of his work, he’s my inspiration.
A final note, Jon and I encourage everyone to buy the music you love. Littered throughout this post are links to buy the music referenced. When possible, we’ve linked directly to the band’s website.
