Word of Mouth Music!

sorlok_reaves · Post by **sorlok_reaves** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 5:42 pm

The Decemberists are pretty good, but it's highly likely you won't enjoy them the first time.

Good Decemberist songs:
Oceanside
We Both Go Down Together
Shiny
Legionaire's Lament
Mariner's Revenge Song

On a related note, if you like Reel Big Fish maybe you like Matchbox 20? Yes? No?

rubberbandiv · Post by **rubberbandiv** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 1:09 am

I dunno, I loved the Decemberists from the first chord.

Really, really digging Killing Joke right now.

Also, don't know why I didn't mention this before, but Lush were an excellent shoegazing/dreampop/ethereal/pop rock band, and The sliming Champs are the sliming Champs.

Saw Dethklok live when they stopped by UCLA. sliming' awesome. One of the best concerts I have ever been to.

On a completely unrelated note, Queen's Don't Stop Me Now is currently one of my favorite songs of all time. Seriously.

Uncommon · Post by **Uncommon** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 10:53 pm

Aw man, Killing Joke. Being they've been around almost thirty years, I feel like I should ask you what Killing Joke you're even listening to, 'cos it's their earliest stuff I like. Have you ever stopped and just listened to the drums? Man, it's some stuff. "Pssyche" is pretty much one of my favorite songs ever. They were also one of the first discographies I ever tried to torrent, but one of the very last to actually finish.

But if post-punk's gettin' your interest, I would definitely recommend Bauhaus. They are fierce, dancey and atmospheric in a way that no other band quite matched. If you get the chance to pick up In The Flat Fields or Mask, don't even hesitate.

JSH357 · Post by **JSH357** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 8:37 pm

Oh God... Metal Machine Music. This is THE most horrifyingly, wonderfully chaotic thing I've ever heard. Listen to this, then listen to Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians... what an incredible comparison! I hate MMM with the deepest passion; its great.

Uncommon · Post by **Uncommon** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 1:22 am

Metal Machine Music is like the musical equivalent to Jackson Pollock. I can't explain just why I like it, but there's something subconscious in the creative disorder that appeals to me. The way it's made to never develop into a melody, but always toes the line of the almost-maybe. It's crazy.

Now the question becomes, if noise is abstract, what would be surreal? Neutral Milk Hotel does it lyrically, but maybe something like Sigur Ros and even Mars Volta would be closer. I'm not sure which one it is exactly, but I heard some Godspeed You! Black Emperor album that should've been the soundtrack to a David Lynch movie. But not listening to a lot of post-rock myself, would it really be fair to compare that genre to something as bizarre and fun as surrealism?

JSH357 · Post by **JSH357** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 1:47 am

Post-rock doesn't really apply to that comparison, I don't think. It can, if forced, but I think shoegazing is a lot more surreal. Loveless is probably one of the most surreal albums I've heard (and it uses 'noise' to get its point across too).

... Yeah, after thinking about it a few minutes, I think the shoegazers were the closest to approaching surrealism in the the 90s. But if we go back further, I'd say that psychedelic rock is the obvious possibility. I hate using The Beatles as an example, but Sgt. Pepper is pretty damn surreal. Frank Zappa also had a gift for creating images with guitar sounds (See Joe's Garage, Part II, Hot Rats, We're Only in It for the Money).

Of course, I'm probably thinking of surrealism in different terms than you are, Uncs.

Some interesting reading here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism_%28music%29

rubberbandiv · Post by **rubberbandiv** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 9:00 am

My Killing Joke exposure so far has been a bootleg of some concert they did in 1986. It is incredible.

I will point out that archive.org's live music archive is pretty damn fantastic. There's a ton and a half of bands which I have never, ever heard of, of course, but there's several notable acts: I've found several full concerts by Tenacious D, the Ditty Bops, and the Gin Blossoms so far.

Another site I watch is Captain's Dead. He frequently posts full concerts by excellent acts - most recently I found a Tool concert! Awesome! That's where I got the Killing Joke bootleg I mentioned, as well as excellent Flaming Lips and Pearl Jam shows. Also picked up a U2 concert, thinking that maybe a live recording would make me appreciate them more (they usually do that for me). Nope! I now hate Bono even more! The dude won't shut up about how socially aware he is!

Did I forget to mention them before? I freaking love the Ditty Bops.

Iron & Wine are most excellent. Actually, I should say Iron & Wine IS most excellent, because it's just the stage name of a single guy, name of Sam Beam. He's amazing. Of course, all I have of his is yet another bootleg of a show he did in some tiny club in the frigid northeast somewhere . . . it's a really, really good listen, gets all of the banter and mistakes as well as the music, feels incredibly real.

I've really liked Husker Du for quite a while now. This one, "Celebrated Summer," is one of my personal favorites of theirs.

Newbie Newtype · Post by **Newbie Newtype** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 6:55 am

*singlehandedly makes the everyone on this forum happy*

Post by **Mogri** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 6:22 pm

KittenMaster wrote:*singlehandedly makes the everyone on this forum happy*

This is completely awesome, a new art form. Visual music! There are others on YouTube, but that one's the best. I also recommend the FFIV one for the scene that shows Zeromus using Big Bang and then the party dying.

This is the only one that manages to make its pictures really sound good.

Uncommon · Post by **Uncommon** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:20 am

My brother did that once, just using letters. We used it as Willy's theme in <i>Magnus 17</i>.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 3:49 am

Uncommon wrote:My brother did that once, just using letters. We used it as Willy's theme in <i>Magnus 17</i>.

What'd the letters spell out?

Uncommon · Post by **Uncommon** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:39 am

It was kind've embarrassingly personal to him, honestly, and even though I'm the only living person who knows, I don't really feel comfortable sharing.

Post by **Mogri** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:10 pm

Has anyone here heard of Pandora or the Music Genome Project? I stumbled across it looking for a Christmas station to listen to at work and it sounds pretty awesome.

rubberbandiv · Post by **rubberbandiv** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 9:30 pm

Pandora is awesome. It's one of our go-to sources for music at parties these days. Haven't fully explored the extent of its libraries since I haven't been using it personally, but it does have a nice selection of Stephen Lynch and Tenacious D.

JSH357 · Post by **JSH357** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:40 am

Pandora is decent for recommendations, but way too random sometimes. A fun gimmick, mainly.