General Music thread - quite a few, numerically

[JoshL]

Digging through my archives, came across some live recordings that might be of interest to the ambient/drone fans around here. From 2009, it was a three hour set, which I've edited down to reasonable album length (mostly because I wasn't happy with the full length recordings).
http://soundcloud.com/pancreatic-aar...st-live-draft/
I'm going to be adding to these, changing things around and probably release it in a couple months under my own name, but if anyone is looking for sleepy depressing music, you might enjoy it as-is.

And for a little perspective, here's another 3-hour live set that I was (and still am) very happy with: http://pancreaticaardvarks.bandcamp....leepcycle-live. Free download, and work I've always been pretty proud of.

[Feytalist]

And for a little perspective, here's another 3-hour live set that I was (and still am) very happy with: http://pancreaticaardvarks.bandcamp....leepcycle-live. Free download, and work I've always been pretty proud of.

Ok so this is going to be my new sleep music.

Yeah, this is... really good, man. So cathartic.

[JoshL]

Thanks for listening! I thought you might dig that one!

[JoshL]

I'm sure there are some other mc chris fans floating around here, so thought I'd mention the new album is available for pre-order http://www.indiemerch.com/mcchris/item/25159 Finally. The preview song released last summer ended with a "coming fall 2013" shoutout and has now become a song of lies. But it's one of my favorite things he's done, and the new album is Ghostbusters themed. I am excited

[Feytalist]

Discovered something new: German neofolk band Nebelung.

Been listening to their Bandcamp a couple of days now. Atmospheric and calming and awesome.

[Jimorian]

London Grammar. Trio out of London. Totally obsessed with them right now. A bit reminiscent of Massive Attack, female vocals on the operatic side of pop and a touch of smokiness. Just bought the album after listening to the above on constant repeat, and the rest of the songs are just as strong.

Here they are live in studio at KEXP (btw, well worth subscribing to the station's YouTube channel because they film guests all the time who are artists to pay attention to).

[Feytalist]

Oh hey, Rodrigo y Gabriela is releasing a new album next month. Totally missed that at first.

Listening to their stuff is always simultaneously awesome and depressing, because I wish I could play guitar half as well as they do :/

[Tebryn]

A local band, Andrew Jackson Jihad. They're not safe for work but they're wonderful. Wildly manic and wildly dark with some wonderful up tempo music. Love it.

[Avilan the Grey]

After subscribing to Spotify about six months ago, I have been mainly creating decade playlists (I also have a lot of albums and a few subscibed lists for Big Band Jazz and game soundtracks and whatnot):

"Age of Rock'n Roll" - 1950-65, classic Rock'n Roll

"Before My Time" - 1960 -1979, good songs other than classic Rock'n Roll from when I really was too young to really remember (born 1972)

"My 80's" - over 300 songs from 1980 - 1989
"My 90's" - about 200 songs from 1990 - 1999
"My 00's" - about 80 songs from 2000 - 2009

"Now and New" - 2010 - ?

My own observation here is that yes, I have a huge nostalgia for the 80's, but I also realized I "should" have more songs in my 90's playlist but I honestly quite disliked the popular sound of the decade. In fact, when I started assembling the list I found I had a "black hole" between 1995 and 1998 when I had barely listened to music at all.

I also realized that basically stopped listening to radio at all after 2000; I really have a hard time finding music I like from that decade. I know part of it is age, but I spent the weekend digging through other people's playlists and official charts and "Meh" was my main reaction.

At least all this has gotten me back to listening to radio, I am now trying to find, and add, new songs I like to the "ongoing" playlist.

I don't WANT to be an "old fart", but I am getting there, I'm sure. Very very often I find myself, when listening to new music, having one of two reactions:
"Zzz" (boooooring) and "Oh come on, this music sucked 20 years ago!" ("party" music)*

*I have found that a lot of the "lighter" dance music now sounds very very much like the dance music of say 1993, but with higher quality samplings. It was kind of hillarious when I started listening to music on the radio again and often couldn't tell if I was in 1993 or 2013.

Anyway, just felt like ranting a bit, and trying to deny my own age.

Edit: Listened to the Warsaw village band above and although i don't dislike it, it sounds exactly like traditional Swedish music.

[JoshL]

New Swans album is available for pre-order! They're touring again; should be hitting here around July. And $22 for 2cd and a DVD is pretty reasonable!

I also didn't know that Childish Gambino put out a new album in December, so I'll be picking that up this week. (hip-hop from Donald Glover of Community fame) Something to give me a break from the mc chris record, though he just released his April Fool's song, "Part 6", in a series of Batman songs, this one about the Joker. I assume part of the upcoming "Foes" ep (parts 2-4 were released as "Friends")

[AtlanteanTroll]

A local band, Andrew Jackson Jihad. They're not safe for work but they're wonderful. Wildly manic and wildly dark with some wonderful up tempo music. Love it.

Andrew Jackson Jihad is the bomb diggity and has transcended the local band stage, if you mean they just play local gigs and things--if you mean that they're based locally, that's really cool!

[Feytalist]

Got Lethe's first album recently.

Sort of spacy experimental electro goth rock type thing. Works surprisingly well. Anna Murphy's has an extremely versatile voice. Surprising power as well.

Only problem is, they bury everything under movie samples and news clips. Isn't that just the worst. Sometimes it can work well (think Diary of Dreams; but that's only because Adrian Hates has great taste in movies...) but really. Sometimes less is more.

[JoshL]

Only problem is, they bury everything under movie samples and news clips. Isn't that just the worst.

...uh...ummm...I don't know anyone who is often guilty of that *whistles innocently and walks away*

Seriously though, that sounds like my cup of tea, so I'll have to check it out!

And, man, if you have any taste for rap/hip-hop, the Childish Gambino record is astounding. It's a pretty complex electronica record. The only downside is he does some of the new disco/soul stuff that everyone else is doing, but unlike others in the genre, he does twist it into something new, rather than a throwback/rehash sort of thing (I don't have enough words for how much Daft Punk annoy me these days). Overall, I think I like the new mc chris record better, but that's an issue of taste rather than quality.

[OhJohnNo]

I keep debating giving the CG album a try, but I find it very hard to forgive him for naming it Because The Internet.

I mean... that freaking title, man. Can you get any more teenage nerd-pandering? How are the lyrics - are there lots of cringeworthy internet references in there?

[JoshL]

If the title bothers you, the rest of the record probably will too. He's always been pretty nerdy! But the album is less about how awesome whatever funny meme is going on, and more about alienation and social anxiety in internet culture. At least, that's how it seems to me on the first couple listens. But, hey, don't take my word for it, that's what youtube is for these days! "Crawl", "Flight of the Navigator" and "Zealots of Stockholm (Free Information)" are the tracks that struck me immediately as pretty awesome.

But, again, I listen to mc chris, so I like me some straight-up nerdcore!

[Feytalist]

...uh...ummm...I don't know anyone who is often guilty of that *whistles innocently and walks away*

Seriously though, that sounds like my cup of tea, so I'll have to check it out!

Heh. Well, like I said, it could work, just as long as it's not over-done. And well-chosen. (I mean, really. The "I see dead people" line from Sixth Sense? Come now.)


Yeah, check it out. It apparently falls under "experimental metal", but really, there's nothing metal about Lethe. Except that the two artists are better known for their metal bands.

That's not an uncommon occurrence, actually; metal musicians starting decidedly non-metal side projects.

[JoshL]

Two weeks until the new Swans album is out! And two days before, Leæther Strip are playing here (at a pretty small punk bar). Swans will be here again in July, and if it wasn't for those two shows (and the Smitherenes playing a free show at the local Arts Fest, but that's free so it doesn't really count) I'd be more excited about Death In June playing at the end of next month. Limited concert budget against a great year for shows!

And, in true self-promote-y fashion, I've submitted a mix for the mc chris remix contest for the new album:
http://soundcloud.com/joshloughrey/f...orchestral-mix
Lyrically it's one of my favorite thing's he's done (I'm a sucker for ghost love stories) and I now know what it would sound like if I produced a rap album. The answer is: kinda weird!

[OhJohnNo]

I've been really getting into Grime and UK Bass lately. Visionist is pretty good.

[Feytalist]

Got the new Rodrigo y Gabriela. Just listened to it for the first time. Less frenetic than their previous albums, but still ridiculously stylish and slick. Amazing what just two guitars can do.

[Avilan the Grey]

I have been on a bend this week; I have found myself listening to party, sun and dance, namely Reggae, Soca, Zouk and Soukous.

My problem is that I would like to dive deeper in African pop music. Soukous is the only genre that is easy to find, it seems. (Would also like some Zouk and other carribean tips).

[JoshL]

Looks like I have some self-education I need to do...I only really know reggae (and mostly just like dub and dancehall. Ska too, but that's a different story).

I just found out Erasure are coming to Pittsburgh...first time ever! Tickets are not cheap though...small venue and nearly sold out! I saw them in 2003 and they were awesome (Vince Clarke is a huge inspiration). Too many shows!

Also, Camper Van Beethoven have a new album, currently streaming here: http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/0...l-camino-real/

[Kindablue]

Chance the Rapper performing the Arthur theme at Sasquatch

[Jimorian]

Another local video. Once again featuring Madi Sipes with a 45-minute full set video filmed 2 days after her high school graduation. Solid, mature performance top to bottom, some with a backing band, some solo. One of the best things in the world is watching somebody with limitless potential living in that moment where they are exactly where they're supposed to be.

[DJ Yung Crunk]

Okay, so it's over three hours long, but listening to every album in The-Dream's "Love Trilogy" back to back is an amazing experience.

[Feytalist]

Same with Elend's Winds Cycle.

Well, more "harrowing" than amazing, but still.

[DJ Yung Crunk]

Same with Elend's Winds Cycle.

Well, more "harrowing" than amazing, but still.

We should listen to each other's trilogies and compare. What albums are in your trilogy?

[Avilan the Grey]

Sidenote:
Auto-generated recommendations probably work for people with limited musical taste.

Personally I feel like I'm deliberately trolling Last.fm and Spotify with my playlists... At this point my Spotify Discovery page is summarized with "You listened to some random music. Here is some other random music".

[Corlindale]

My auto-generated recommendations on Spotify are also wonky at best.

My new go-to trick for discovering music is simply to google "What's your favourite album?" (inspired by a thread on this forum with that exact premise). This turns up a huge number of forum threads about this topic. That way I get to check out a lot of music that someone, somewhere in the world considers the best music ever. It's not always to my taste, but it's usually interesting and I have discovered a lot of new music this way.

[DJ Yung Crunk]

(inspired by a thread on this forum with that exact premise)

You're welcome.

[Avilan the Grey]

My auto-generated recommendations on Spotify are also wonky at best.

My new go-to trick for discovering music is simply to google "What's your favourite album?" (inspired by a thread on this forum with that exact premise). This turns up a huge number of forum threads about this topic. That way I get to check out a lot of music that someone, somewhere in the world consider the best music ever. It's not always to my taste, but it's usually interesting and I have discovered a lot of new music this way.

That works. I find just browsing New Releases on Spotify works too. I am kind of picky, despite my post above, several artists in the same genre as one I like might not at all be to my taste. I also sometimes has to seriously question (both autogenerated and manual) recommendations along the lines of "This group is JUST LIKE the group you like".
One example is The Strypes, where I got the recommendation for Deap Valley, which to me sounds completely different...