What MUSIC are you listening to? ARCHIVE

Merkles wrote:

Wow---I know NOTHING from these lists.

can't speak for the others, but i wouldn't worry about whether you know anything on my list. i only listen to shitty music that about 9 other people are stupid enough to listen to.

Tonight, I'm listening to Clutch. They miss the mark almost as often as they hit it, but when they are firing on all eight cylinders, it's a thing to behold. Greasy, grimy, syncopated blues rock with badass vocals and imaginative lyrics. In fact, the song "The Yeti" from their Elephant Riders album has one of my favorite rock lyrics ever:

"The author looms above his page
and thinks it strange that at his age
he cannot find the proper words
to describe his only world
One would think that in a life
where no two snowflakes are alike
one would have a brilliant rhyme
for each and every bit of time"

EDIT: Oh, and I'm chasing it with a bit of Wesley Willis. I know I'm going to Hell for listening to it, but "Shit and Fuck" is absolutely brilliant in a wierd way.

Another song I encountered again recently...

"Five Days of Tequila" by the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra:



A ragtag band of Japanese big band musicians drunkenly assault the ska genre with interesting results and maybe a touch of taiko influence. They also do ragged covers of movie music, like the theme to Enter the Dragon or the "love" theme from The Godfather. I would be amazed if the trombone player hasn't injured anybody yet. It takes a little time for them to find a groove in each song, but then it all comes together in a beautiful, sloppy mess.

Call me simple: I'm on a Buzzcocks trip lately.

"Singles Going Steady" has to be the greatest singles collection ever released...every song is a classic. I almost think you could just own that and have a pretty great Buzzcocks collection.

Yeah Merkles, don't feel bad about not knowing what some of this stuff is...the bands Malthus and I are talking about are incredibly obscure...as in, they release 100 copies of a record on cassette tape (yes, cassette tape) and have no online presence at all.

Bob Wills? That's some good listening right there. I truly love old time country music. It's what I grew up listening to on my grandma's console record player. She'd put on Porter Wagoner records and shamefully sip on a beer while I built a lego set or colored.

What is it with Clutch? I know people that just freaking love them. I remember when they came out, I instantly wrote them off and assumed I'd never hear from them again. Now I hear people citing them as a major influence. Go figure.

High on Fire also has a song about the Yeti, if you want to do like a Yeti mixtape.

I saw Wesley Willis years ago...it was, of course, hilarious. He signed my friend's record and gave him a headbutt.

As for ska...I'm convinced there hasn't been a good ska record released since 1984.

As for ska...I'm convinced there hasn't been a good ska record released since 1984.

What was released in 1984?
I've heard echoes of ska in other music (Gogol Bordello oddly enough) but yeah no good straight ska in a long time.

I've decided that Aphex Twin is my favorite electronica group. Always playing and experimenting. I only have a couple of their (his?) albums but they're completely different. Good stuff.

My wife and I just spent the better part of an hour listening to Louis Prima - fun, good swing. I didn't know he wrote half the songs he did and I prefer his version to all the others (Jump, Jive and Wail; Sing sing sing; Just a Gigolo, Ain't got nobody). Plus he's hilarious.

And rap-wise I've been enjoying Blackalicious. Not afraid to rap about anything and, again, experiment.

I'll have to check out some of these bands - the Clutch and the SNZ guy's solo stuff in particular. The more I listen to Perennial Favorites by Squirrel Nut Zippers the more I like it.

Ooh...Blackalicious is _good_ stuff...haven't listened to them in awhile.

1984...hmm...not sure why I chose that as an arbitrary cut-off date for ska...seems like around the time all the 2Tone bands petered out. I think that "second wave" was really kind of ska's defining period, even more so than the original Jamaican wave. So many great singles came out..."Ghost Town", "Mirror in the Bathroom", "One Step Beyond", "Two Minute Heroes"...

Desmond Dekker. That's ska.

Speaking of Ska, I've been shredding all those Trojan box sets with pretty much every random record they ever put out on like 500 discs.

Mark Ronson produced Lilly Allen and Amy Winehouse tracks. I love that vibe.

Devotchka (thanks to Thadd)

Tradgedy, Vengeance is easily one of the best hardcore records ever.

Verse - Agression - best hardcore record of the last couple of years

Gorilla Biscuits and Bad Brains - always awesome

Oh, I so hate ska with the exceptions like the old 2tone - The Specials were amazing. But the "all happy" attitude of todays ska drives me mad.

As for the BM records you guys mentioned - you are soo lucky to hav ethose, here in CR it's s o hard to get a good BM stuff, most ppl thing about BM only as of Cradle of Filth I 've been unsuccesfull ytrying to get my hands on some legions noires stuff but without any luck, even the ppl who claim to be hardcore metalists here have never heard of it.

ANyway, my playlist now - White Lies, Strokes, Handsome Furs, John Frusciante, The good the bad and the queen, Depeche Mode, Queens of the Stone Age, ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead, Burzum (as always), The Prostitutes - czech band, kind of Joy Division or Cure rip-off but I still like them, maybe because of this awesome video:

I recently discovered Spotify. I've no idea if this is available in the states yet, but it's a free live streaming music service which pays for itself by insert the occasional advert between songs (you can pay a fee to have the ads excluded). The musical catalogue is extensive and - unlike a lot of similar services - features a lot of extremely cool stuff. It's allowing me to rediscover much of the music of my youth, one track at a time. My top Spotify tracks right now are ...

Beds are Burning by Midnight Oil
All For One by Brand Nubian
The Slide Song by Spiritualized
Carolyn's Fingers by The Cocteau Twins
Voice of Harold by R.E.M.
Songs of Wandering Aongus by Christy Moore

All tracks from albums I no longer own and which I haven't heard in an age. Wonderful! If it's available in your area, download the app and check out the tracks.
www.spotify.com/en/