Music is my boyfriend

[pope]

Is anyone here into 90s alternative? Stuff like polvo, pavement, throwing muses, velocity girl, superchunk, etc.

[rublev]

I have that how the midwest was won comp thing. I used to pretty much only listen to 80's / 90's emo... Embrace, Shotmaker, Assfactor 4 etc before i got into Saccharine Trust and some more unhappy stuff. I went through a Cap n Jazz phase and came out the other side but i'm sure i'll go back to them soon.

When clearing out i came across this 7" which has a lot of memories for me... dusty railroad dry your eyes where's ya gal type of thing...



I feel in a bit of a rut musically lately... i used to be so into things, hunting stuff down, looking at boomkat / brainwashed new releases, reading wire magazine and stuff. Maybe i've just got old :( something i have rediscovered was the Jefre Cantu Ledesma record. I think this track is one of the most beautiful things:



I get a bit terrified by the power of music and memory. So powerful! A great thing, i guess.

[pope]

[rjbman]

"indie" is the "hipster" of music

[agvs]

I heard November Rain on the radio and I've been on a huge Guns N' Roses kick. I'm probably the only person here who can actually get nostalgic about music from 1992. As an older person I wonder if people today realize how huge Guns N' Roses were because they only released 2 official albums (counting Use Your Illusion I & II as 1 release and not including the Lies EP). They were a monster for a a good 5-6 years. It's really rare today for any act to get nearly as big as they were, especially given the material they were releasing.

In my mind they were a perfect rock band. Raw, crazy good musicians who were extremely volatile, controversial, and bound to implode from day 1. They had the perfect front man and the perfect lead guitarist who were these larger than life figures (well Slash is pretty humble but his image isn't). There's no way you can be the way they were and survive for long.

They were ridiculously good live in the Appetite for Destruction era. but became a bloated mess during the Use Your Illusion tours (although still a great live act). They also looked pretty cool.


I remember when Use Your Illusion came out. It was complete saturation. Everybody listened to them. You couldn't turn on the radio without hearing them. The videos for that record are gloriously over-dramatic. I mean the dude was jumping off an aircraft carrier and swimming with dolphins as slash emerges from the ocean for a guitar solo. It's fucking ridiculous but great in it's own way.

If you can look past the pomposity and misogyny they have some really good music. I can't tell if I'm stating the obvious because I have no idea where they fall on the map with today's youth.

[agvs]

[eufemism]

Growing up in a Christian household I was exposed to Christian Music from a young age. I enjoyed it for a while, but the older I got, the more I realized how simplicstic the majority of music in that genre is. Lyrically/Muscially I find it to be too simple. Because of that I started lookin into hip hop and I've fallen in love with it. The complexity of the rhymes, the process of making a beat, the control the person must have over his voice makes it such an adventure listening to it.

I wish that music with a Christian background was less of a mainstream copy and tried to be complex.

[prawnzee]

[agvs]

Older brothers are great for music exposure. Mine got me into the Beatles.

[germinal]

yeah, i'd have never heard of the beatles if it weren't for my brother

[agvs]

Hey, hey, there's a difference between knowing a few songs and "getting into" a band and knowing everything about them. I was listening to all gangsta rap at the time and couldn't be bothered with anything like that. My bro was learning to play guitar and listening to them constantly. I think it was around the time they released the anthology stuff. Hearing all their stuff and him playing & singing it turned me on to rock/guitar music in general. All you need is love, germinal. All you need is love. And a walrus.

[freddy]

[lostie]

Need help looking for a very specific type of music/song: simple percussion with reverb (?) + slightly ethereal vocals + piano
Only found 3 examples so far:




I pretty much only listen to this to recreate a very specific mood (somewhere between melancholy rainy day and contemplative sunrise), though hearing a song that fits the aesthetic can trigger the mood, which is what happened when I listened to 'Wildest Moments' for the first time today and when I heard 'Bugs Don't Buzz' on the WAYLT thread. I get weird deja vu feelings occasionally but have never been able to pinpoint the cause until now, which is exciting and kind of reminds me of lucid dreaming and/or Proustian flashbacks. (Tangentially related: my AP French teacher brought in tea and madeleines when we studied excerpts from Proust which is one of my favorite memories of her.) It's kind of strange, but I imagine this is a lot healthier than consuming large amount of mind-altering substances to achieve a similar effect.

[purkinje]

I went to the Yeezus tour last night and was on the floor about a row away from the stage. Even if you don't like his music, the show Kanye puts on is really incredible. He did the standard setup where he had a bunch of girls in white robes come out, had the stage lift up and stood on it pride rock-style, and so on. In the second half after he'd taken off his mask he went on a rant about creativity and talked about his time in high school- "In high school I played sports and when I scored everyone would go wild, but in art class you could draw a picture and show it to someone and they'd just be like 'that's cool.' I want people to cheer for that shit! Cheer for your teachers!" paraphrasing obviously. He played pretty much everything you could ask for, all of yeezus, a lot of stuff from MBDTF, through the wire, all the hits, a lot of college dropout.

A little disappointed cause Kendrick was supposed to open but couldn't for some reason, so Kanye opened for Kanye. Kimmy K was watching from a box seat lol

[rublev]

I make music and some of it is here:

https://soundcloud.com/alrdydd

although i've not done anything in over a year

*struggles to keep afloat above a mass of half finished garageband files*

[rublev]

[stappard_]

[stappard_]

[purkinje]

He played School Spirit, Through the Wire, Jesus Walks and a few others from CD. He seemed really into it and at one point was talking about how there were "two types of people, creators and haters" and how everyone in attendance was 'family' and had stuck by him for a decade since college dropout. He looks a lot smaller in person than in pictures.

[hmwut]

sufjan stevens

the man, the mystery

so much to say about this dude. been following him ever since Illinoise first came out back in 2005 (can't believe it's been nearly 10 years). that album (and Michigan to a lesser extent) have been insanely influential, and even about a decade later it still sounds incredible, and better than almost everything that came in it's wake, if not everything. imo one of the defining albums of the 00's, up there with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, College Dropout, Kid A, Is This It, etc.

then came The Avalanche (outtakes of Illinoise,) then a christmas album and the BQE (which is a whole other can of worms), then All Delighted People (my personal favorite of his work,) then Age of Adz. the 50 states project was abandoned (or was it, like Sufjan has said, never really undertaken) and as time progressed Sufjan has shown a clear direction from his orchestral folk-pop roots towards more experimental electronic music.

since then he released another enormous christmas album (christmas songs make up like half of his entire songbook), and has been doing this collaboration with son lux, and rapper serengeti called s/s/s for a couple of years now. their first release beak & claw was pretty shit, but they recently released a new single for an upcoming album:

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/85938454[/vimeo]

what do you think of it? and what do you think of sufjan in general? to me, the man has always been an enigma: constantly changing, dealing with new concepts with every new album, remaining aloof. he's only done a handful of interviews, but the ones that are on youtube have some really great insights into his music





personally i just want him to do another solo non-christmas album. i believe this collab is confining him within the creative limitations of the other two, which is really apparent when listening to the music. but hey what do i know. in the first interview he states that his music is a fusion of high art and low art, and the conflict between the two. if he wants to explore other avenues of either, i'm all for it.

favorite song by him:



2. impossible soul
3. casimir pulaski day
4. 50 States Song
5. the predatory wasps of the palisades are out to get us!

[SteevMike]

[hmwut]

what songs in particular register as bs to you? and in what way, exactly?

if you are of the same mind as the writer, it raises an interesting point of discussion: does it matter? can you separate a person's intentions or their actions or even their personality from the music they make? or even more broadly, from the work they do, whether it be music, art, movies, urban planning, etc.

to me, a work is separate from the author. the author can wield the work with his own intentions, but the work itself must be evaluated by it's own merits, not the author's.

though not a piece of music, the documentary exit through the gift shop is a great example of this. alot of people think banksy and shepard fairey largely falsified the whole story as a big prank, but again: does it matter? can you accept it just for what it is, a story, and an entertaining story at that? when you watch a documentary you're already subjecting yourself to the perspective of the creator, and regardless if it's ken burns or dziga vertov there's gonna be alot of subjectivity and bias that is instilled in the work. so, you have alot of the creator's intentions and direction in the work, but the work is now a separate entity.

getting back to sufjan: thematically and aesthetically, his work is not terribly different from than say, jeff tweedy or connor oberst or elliot smith. delicateness and sensitivty is signature of their music, and there are many other examples of artists like this to be found. maybe they are in fact raging pussy-hounds, and lying and using their act as a way to get women (this is not an uncommon thing), but again, the work is separate from that, imo. and if you approach the work from that perspective, i think it's alot more difficult to evaluate and enjoy it separately, which seems to me a bit unfair.

viewing reality through eyes not your own is a signature aspect of art, and with your own interpretation the process is complete. from author, to work, to audience. if you find the work authentic and meaningful and beautiful, then it is. to you, at least. if you don't, then it's not. to you, at least.

[SteevMike]

[hmwut]

[rublev]

wow i've not really listened to anything 'new' in a while but i was watching some programme on bbc4 last night and that band churches or chvrches or whatever were on and i thought it was quite cool so i found some tracks online and loved them so much i ended up listened to two on repeat until stupid o'clock and then today i got the album! It's been so long since i got excited about pop music instead of just listening to arvo part on my itunes and crying but i like this it makes my heart flutter. I didn't realise how big they are until i googled and then i found out they're from my hometown LOL ...and that one of them is an old bald man that used to play in a band (aereogramme) that i used to listen to / see live when i was in high school. Anyway it feels really genuine and 'full' (i struggle to describe music sometimes). I'm pleased that it takes me somewhere else.

[fountainstairs]

the new the war on drugs album is so good i'm out of words. thank you god

[SCATHINGSOCIALCRITICISM]

paco de lucia died today

i've been listening mostly to just his music today. its really amazing how he was able to push the flamenco guitar and the flamenco genre itself to wider audiences outside of andalucia/jerez. he reinvented himself every album he released and all the others followed and compounded on his innovations. i think flamenco can be split in to two eras; flamenco before paco de lucia and flamenco now.

here's an old recording of him playing in bulerias form with camaron, cepero and turrenero beating palmas




here he is in a more modern compositional style in alegrias form

[hooplah]

i have katy perry "dark horse" stuck in my head

the beat is A++++++ but katy perry absolutely ruins the song. she is, imo, the most useless pop star out there. absolutely no substance to anything she does, all her music videos are disgustingly kitsch and over-the-top; she is a black hole of all things useful and meaningful

dark horse is a song that could've been really great for someone actually suited for it. the music industry is just a machine that recycles the same old people. every hook goes to rihanna. songs that could go to better artists with more interesting voices go to katy perry. it makes me sad because there could be a bevy of diverse and awesome female pop stars, but the same people keep getting all the good shit. don't get me wrong, i love rihanna, but every hip hop hook does not need to go to her.

edit: also, joan didion on 23? could've gotten lil debbie/kreayshawn to do that.

edit edit: i've heard she has complete creative control. which isn't surprising because her performances and videos are stupid as fuck. girl is the queen of cultural appropriation and unnecessary stupidity






in her dark horse video, she literally burns up a dude wearing an 'allah' necklace with lightning

[eufemism]

I'm gonna be honest and say I was sleeping on Because The Internet. I've always been indifferent towards Childish Gambino. When his new album dropped I listened to it because there was some pretty big hype behind it on hhh. It's a pretty long album so I ended up giving it a half-assed listen. I wasn't into it because it seemed really disjointed and hectic. Usually I dig that kind of style, but it just seemed fake and forced coming from Bino like it was a Chance ripoff.

But, a couple of days ago I watched the DEHH video about their albums of the year. Feefo was saying it was his AOTY, so I was like let me give this another listen because I usually fuck with his choice of albums. So I listened to it and I'm really liking it. At times it hard for me to see what point Bino's trying to get across, but it's still enjoyable. There's so much going on during the songs and I love the attention to detail.

Some of my favorite tracks are World Star and Telegraph Ave



This song sounds like something that would be a B-side song for Channel Orange

[hmwut]

BTI is an enormous improvement from camp, and i expect to see bino only continue to improve. BTI drew alot of flak for it's lack of focus, which is also my biggest problem with it. it's messy and wanders offtopic, and i think the whole soundtrack-for-his-screenplay deal hindered it rather than helped. the weakest portion is the middle, from the party interlude to death by numbers. doesn't really contribute in any significant way to the album, and doesn't sound that great either. with that said, as a whole the album is alot better than what most reviewers give it credit for, some of the production on it is phenomenal and i love the variety. my favorite songs are sweatpants and pink toes

it's a good LP. if bino continues on the trajectory he set with camp and BTI, his next album will be great.

making his album cover a gif was a cool touch, both aesthetically and thematically