The show must goooo onnnn.... Music thread

[Reply #560 on:]

Also, I am quite fond of a lot of video game soundtracks.

Have you been following Localjerseyan's efforts along that line?  She has put together a gaming symphony orchestra(!) and is its lead conductor.   They did a live netcast a month or two ago.  Unfortunately I managed to catch only the tail end of it.  And I'm pretty sure she's released some covers of game tunes.  She's also active in video game music composition and design, though I confess I'm not certain of the distinctions between the two.

Those aside, however, the majority of the music I like appears to be classifiable as "new wave."

I distinctly recall my first encounter with New Wave, around 1985.  I was terribly ignorant and close-minded back then, when my wife brought home a new album (vinyl LP) and cranked up the first song she played from it, "Saved by Zero" by The Fixx.  My first exclamation (accompanied by a pained and puzzled expression) was "What the fuck is this shit?!".

* Tachy sighs *

I of course adore a number of their songs now, and own a couple of albums, including Reach the Beach.

Lol, you and your wife must have been great good friends.

We were.  And still are.  We listened to an amazing amount of music together, right from the very first date where she force-fed me sloe gin fizzes, Aerosmith, and Queen

Thinking about it, I really have no idea how much music I have from the 1980s, especially New-Wavey stuff.  e.g. I would buy Ah-Ha and Melissa Etheridge and she'd buy Fine Young Cannibals and the Hooters.  This is back when CDs were ludicrously priced.  In today's dollars, for typical CD releases I was paying $40-$55, even with the significant discounts in the PX.  And iirc I was earning something like $10/hour at my part-time job.

Looking on my phone, I see that I never bothered using a New Wave tag for my albums.  But the vast bulk of my music is from 1985 to the early 2000s.

On Thursdays my favourite (and only) radio station hosts their hour-long "Save the Wave" program where they play lots of music from that era.  What surprises me, and I may have mentioned it, is that some of the young people I encounter at work are into some '70s bands, which is wild.

[Reply #561 on:]

That's because the 60s and 70's were, at least in my opinion, the most revolutionary periods in recent popular music history. Mainstream artists en masse started incorporating instrumentation not typical to their genres and avant garde elements considered not suitable for wide audiences before that point at a much faster pace than ever before. Obviously musical experimentation has continued and evolved to this day, but that era in particular is probably the best example of it, and while this isn't a comment on the actual of quality of music from that decade, the 80s were probably the most stagnant in that specific respect. There's tons of great music from the 80s, but experimentation was definitely at a low compared to the surrounding decades (which isn't to say there wasn't any).

But yeah, I wouldn't consider it that wild that young people recognize the brilliance of artists from the 60s and 70s, like The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Frank Zappa, King Crimson...although that's obviously me listing off some of my favorites.

[Reply #562 on:]

I thought everybody loved King Crimson.

[Reply #563 on:]

So, my all-time favourite band, Gorillaz, have their fourth album out on the 28th April! It's called Humanz & they dropped four singles from it yesterday. The deluxe version has a whopping total of 26 tracks! I & many other fans have been waiting 5 years to hear new material from the band, it feels so good to know we have all this new music coming just over a month away.

Anyway, the four singles, one of which has its own music video with the band members fully animated & speaking, which is a much welcome sight/sound since it was pretty rare when their last LP came out:

Saturnz Barz (feat. Popcaan)

We Got The Power (feat. Jehnny Beth)

Ascension (feat. Vince Staples)

Andromeda (feat. D.R.A.M.)

Other artists featured on Humanz: Peven Everett, De La Soul, Danny Brown, Kelela, Grace Jones, Anthony Hamilton, Mavis Staples, Pusha T, Jamie Principle, Zebra Katz, Kali Uchis, Benjamin Clementine, Rag'n'Bone Man, Ray BLK, Kilo Kish, Imani Vonshà, Carly Simon & Brandon Markell Holmes. Ben Mendelsohn narrates all the interludes.

[Reply #564 on:]

I'm excited for the album too. Unfortunately none of those tracks really stand out as being that interesting to me, but considering how many tracks are supposed to be on the album (26?) here's hoping they're not totally representative of the full thing.

[Reply #565 on:]

but considering how many tracks are supposed to be on the album (26?)

An intro, 5 interludes & 14 tracks on the standard edition of the LP; the deluxe edition adds an extra interlude & 5 more tracks.

[Reply #566 on:]

Blondie's new album, Pollinator, is due out on 5/5. Based on the three tracks I've encountered so far, I'd say it's okay but not up there with No Exit. That said, some of my favourite tracks from that album weren't widely publicized, so there could be some hidden gems waiting to be discovered. I must admit that my inner Grissom is geeking out over the album's icon, as seen here.

[Reply #567 on:]

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[Reply #568 on:]

So I'm totally into metal now. Tell dad </maeby>

[Reply #569 on:]

Are you my cousin?

Secret. Satanic. Messages.

[Reply #570 on:]

That's pretty cool, winna.  I have Tool, but not that particular song.  Gosh, it's been years and years since I remember hearing about various subliminal messages in music and on TV.

[Reply #571 on:]

I've recently started listening to music through Amazon Prime, mostly because I like the background noise when I'm writing, and their free-to-Prime-members library is pretty extensive. It's one of those premium services I tend to forget about, but if you're a Prime customer I highly recommend it.

Anyway, I'm on a bit of a Rilo Kiley kick of late, and this particular song has gotten many a replay these past few days:

[Reply #572 on:]

Thanks for the tip, Gorkster.  A number of people I know are Amazon Prime members.  And I order from Amazon all the time, but am not a Prime member.  What does Prime do for you that makes it worth the annual cost?

The title of your selection is interesting, considering all of the activity in the relationship thread recently

[Reply #573 on:]

Ha, I had indeed considered that connection, though I assure you it is entirely coincidental.

As for the benefits of Prime: to be honest, I just mooch off my dad's account, but in addition to free two-day shipping on every order (the best perk, hands down) you also have access to a decent number of TV shows and movies for instant streaming. I think there's some other stuff, too, but that's the extent of what I use Prime for. If you're someone who routinely orders stuff on Amazon anyway then the Prime membership ought to pay for itself after the first month or two with how much you'll be saving on shipping costs.[/sponsored content]

[Reply #574 on:]

What's a frug?

Nah, j/k.  Thanks for the link.  I really like, It Just Is.  I can play a small portion on my guitar. :3

You might like Neko Case also.  I bought Fox Confessor randomly a long time ago... it's like, fleeting, odd, and.... that one emotion I like, soft depressed, I guess?  I dunno, maybe mellow is the word.  Maybe you won't like it... nvm.

[Reply #575 on:]

When I go cycling on a trail, my tunes span a number of genres.  But I have two Tom Petty songs, my faves from him: Love is a Long Road, and Zombie Zoo.

It is still not entirely clear whether he has passed, or has been simply disconnected from life support, and dying.  He touched millions of people, including me.

* Tachy  cues up Love is a Long Road and Zombie Zoo on his stereo *

[Reply #576 on:]

Awww, Tom Petty... My mom was (and still is) a huge fan of Tom Petty when we were little and I'll never forget my sister belting out "Free Fallin'!" from her carseat when that song came up on the cassette. With David Bowie and Prince gone as well, my mom is running out of living musical icons.

Into the Great Wide Open was my favorite of his albums. We had that tape so we could play it in my mom's minivan and the artwork used to make me imagine riding away from everything I knew on the farm.

[Reply #577 on:]

You might like Neko Case also.  I bought Fox Confessor randomly a long time ago... it's like, fleeting, odd, and.... that one emotion I like, soft depressed, I guess?  I dunno, maybe mellow is the word.  Maybe you won't like it... nvm.

While I love The New Pornographers, of which Neko Case is a more or less permanent member (at least on their albums--my understanding is that she does not always tour with them), I've never been able to get into her solo work. I have been listening to some Waxahatchee lately (Cerulean Salt, in particular), which is similarly moody/atmospheric in a way that I find more compelling.

[Reply #578 on:]

I didn't know any of the things I said meant anything.

I think Fox Confessor was the only album I've ever listened to... I guess That Teenage Feeling is the best example on that... but the album as a whole was alright..  I forced my friends to listen to it a lot, because I hate people.  I think she recorded it in a haunted house, it sounds like anyways, and also I think Satan and John the Baptist make some cameos on the album.

I also like to force people to listen to alanis morissette.  That doesn't have anything to do with anything.

Maybe I'll check out some of those words you used.  I like music sometimes.

[Reply #579 on:]

I have been introduced to a local-ish (Cincinnati-based) band that for some reason calls itself by the ridiculous name of Foxy Shazam--and, dubious nomenclature aside, I have deemed their music quite good. Here is my favorite of the songs I've heard so far, for your listening pleasure:

[Reply #580 on:]

Nothing ridiculous about that band name--excellent choice.  Foxy Shazam rolls off the tongue so well.  I'll check it later, thanks for this recommend, and the book recommend!

[Reply #581 on:]

Hah Gorks, I had a friend in college who was obsessed with Fozy Shazam! That just hit me with a fistful of nostalgia. ( Even though college really wasn't that long ago...)

[Reply #582 on:]

Shazam hates it when Hermes sings.

Hey winna, can you tell me how to enter into any alternate timeline(s) wherein I don't have to hear Adele constantly?
I'd be okay with any severe unintended consequences, just so long as I don't have to hear her all the frickin' time anymore.

[Reply #583 on:]

Turn the radio dial to a hard rock station.  Don't supermarkets play 90s stuff now, anyways?  Could've sworn I heard KoRn's single Y'all Want a Single, Say Fuck That as I investigated the lovely roma tomatoes in the produce aisle just the other day.

Other than that, be the alternate dimension you wish to reside in.  I definitely do not hear Adele all of the time, but sometimes I can vaguely hear "We're so 2008, you're so 2000 and late" echoing softly somewhere deep in my ear canal.  I'm not even really sure what year it is to be entirely honest.  Probably close to 2007 in this timeline.  Perhaps that's even before Adele started her career.  

[Reply #584 on:]

You just made me realize that I can't recall any specific music I've heard in grocery stores lately. Probably because I'm mostly going to the co-op now, and they don't play background music. Can't recall whether I've heard Korn in a grocery store, but pretty sure I've heard Evanescence, so there's hope that someday I'll be able to cruise through a grocery store jamming to Tegan and Sara or Morgan Page

...Here is my favorite of the songs I've heard so far, for your listening pleasure:

Interesting band, Gorks. Just looked up the lyrics and saw that I'd misheard "Heal" as "Hit". Makes more sense with "heal"

[Reply #585 on:]

Been listening to Spaceslug lately, especially their Time Travel Dilemma album. Also Elder's Reflections of a Floating World. Some really good gems hidden from the mainstream around.

[Reply #586 on:]

Somebody suggested I check out an Indian band ArtCell last night.

[Reply #587 on:]

Guys, it's Otis! Hi, Otis!

You just made me realize that I can't recall any specific music I've heard in grocery stores lately.

I worked at a grocery store for six years and I cannot for the life of me recall the particular songs we played--although it was a rather predictable mix of easy-listening tunes from the '60s to about 2010, with a definite emphasis on '90s acts of the Dave Matthews/Matchbox Twenty/Train variety.

I do remember that one Saturday we literally played the same nondescript soft rock song all. Day. Long. I'm pretty sure we used some kind of company-wide satellite radio thing to pipe in the muzak, and when it snowed or we experienced otherwise adverse weather conditions the system would just get stuck in a loop.

[Reply #588 on:]

Apparently they're actually record players manufactured by the industrial companies and placed on the roof.  The corporations periodically send out the records on a biweekly or bimonthly basis.  When the weather isn't particularly well, heavy rain, wind, snow, etc, the record player has a difficult time moving the needle onto the next track.  I've never seen the technicians that trade out these records, so I'm unsure whether each store has one on staff, or if the corporations have traveling music technicians that visit each store on rotation.  I am really interested in learning more about this particular career field.

[Reply #589 on:]

Sounds like a lucrative profession, winna.

Guys, it's Otis! Hi, Otis!

I do remember that one Saturday we literally played the same nondescript soft rock song all. Day. Long.

Did the all-day song turn you guys into zombies, or did your mind begin to filter it out after a while?

Also, HI, OTIS!

Mer de Noms has 3 Libras on it.  That's my song, check it out.

Pour Vouz, winna-san, hot off the presses!

(clicky)

[Reply #590 on:]

Did the all-day song turn you guys into zombies, or did your mind begin to filter it out after a while?

No, it was the mindless menial labor that made us zombies. (Well, that, and the fact that we'd occasionally eat customers' brains.) The music was mostly tune-out-able, whether it was the same song on a loop or an actual variety, but sometimes they'd play a song I really liked and it'd be sort of a treat.

[Reply #591 on:]

Hi everyone!

That new A Perfect Circle song is good, I shall await a new album by them (I have the others), and then hopefully a new Tool album next year...

[Reply #592 on:]

Hi, Otis!

I currently work in retail sometimes when I'm offered a shift here and there. They play a lot of the stuff that's popular today, to be all trendy and whatnot. And. It. Drives. Me. Crazy. I genuinely like a few of the songs here and there, but most of it is in my personal opinion hot garbage. And then these songs get stuck in my head for the next few days and as a result I aggrandize, turn to a hue somewhere between blue and yellow, and start flipping cars over.

I much prefer the grocery store variety of music. Especially...

'90s acts of the Dave Matthews/Matchbox Twenty/Train variety.

That's My Jam!

[Reply #593 on:]

Which one is your jam?  Drops of Jupiter?  3am?  Hmmm?  I think I had that Matchbox 20 album at one point actually.

[Reply #594 on:]

My suspicion is that Scrappy means simply that he is a fan of mid-'90s pop-rock, but I would certainly be interested to know which of that particular trio of acts I mentioned is his favorite because their overall aesthetics are certainly different enough from each other. The only band of those three that I actively enjoy (not to say I'm an actual fan, per se, just that their style is most in-keeping with my general musical preferences) is Matchbox Twenty, but honestly I will gladly sing along with any of these bands' songs if I chance upon them on the radio.

[Reply #595 on:]

Which one is your jam?  Drops of Jupiter?  3am?  Hmmm?  I think I had that Matchbox 20 album at one point actually.

I used to listen to that Matchbox 20 album on loop when I was a kid. My mom is obsessed with Rob Thomas; the best gift I've ever gotten her was tickets to his show this past Christmas. (I think it was like, her 3rd time seeing him).

[Reply #596 on:]

Always thought their pop stuff was fine, but... I could put Bent and Stop (From their second studio album, Mad Season) on endless loop for my entire commute, easily!

(and have done so)

[Reply #597 on:]

It's 1056 pm, and I can't sleep, since it's not raining.

[Reply #598 on:]

winna -- https://rain.simplynoise.com

The website is free. It's also available for $1 in the App Store and Google Play. I use its sister site/app https://simplynoise.com constantly. That is without a doubt the single best dollar I have ever spent.

You're welcome.


Gorky's suspicion is correct.

Of the three bands listed, I would say that Dave Matthews Band and Matchbox Twenty are ranked very highly on how much I would enjoy listening to them. I'd probably only prefer one over the other temporarily based on my mood.

Dave Matthews Band has entire albums that are stellar from top to bottom. Seeing Adam Sandler's Mr. Deeds (2002) on TV so many times throughout the years has really deepened my appreciation for the song "Where Are You Going?" from the album Busted Stuff (2002). His solo album Some Devil (released in 2003) is one of the best albums to sulk to if you're feeling depressed, alongside Beck's Sea Change (2002) and pretty much anything from Radiohead (though I am partial to OK Computer [1997]).

Matchbox Twenty has some great tracks as well, though I don't think they're as consistently great. They're more like a typical rock band that has some really good singles and the rest is rather forgettable after a while. Still, some of their songs are fantastic. "Bent" (2000, as mentioned by Tachy) and "Unwell" (2002) are definite favorites of mine.

Train would place lower on my hypothetical list simply because I'm really only familiar with their song "Drops of Jupiter" (2001), though perhaps I've heard a couple other songs from them. But I know for a fact that I have spent hundreds of hours listening to each of the other two bands.

Another great band in this '90s pop/rock mixing pot that I grew up listening to would be Lifehouse, particularly their album No Name Face (2000).

As I compose this post, songs from each of these bands are cycling through my head.

Speaking of late '90s/early 2000s pop/rock songs playing in my head, earlier today in a comments section on Facebook, I nearly responded to a commenter named Adam Levine (no not that Adam Levine). As such, songs from Maroon 5's Songs about Jane (2002) have been popping in my head throughout the day.

I'd post links or embed videos, but then I would end up listening and rocking out to them and I'm not currently in a proper the spacetime to do so.

Seeing all of the dates listed in this post can probably give you a good sense of when I started listening to music, from which you might be able to extrapolate my age with a reasonable degree of accuracy. The fact that the dates listed end around the same time (and that a certain TV show was first cancelled in that same time frame) might also elucidate why my wiki says that I "once believed that pop culture died in 2003."

[Reply #599 on:]

It's almost 3am.