dear god - help me.

RE*AC*TOR

I'm am in complete musical crisis. I have an mp3 player with 5,000 songs on it and i just can't find anything i really want to listen to. Its eclectic ot say the least - but I don't want to listen to anymore generic "The _____" bands - that somebody thinks is the next new thing. Nor do I care enough to listen to some crazy swedish band produce 70 mins of noise that someone thinks is art.

Its complete crap. Where has all the music gone??!?

Do your worst (best)...

spooydermot

I'm the same way with my MP3 player, I generally end up listening to the same 3 or 4 albums out of thousands of songs. I think the best thing to do it delete the stuff that your familiar with and start again. (btw I completely agree with the comment on alll of the "The ________" being pushed at the moment)

in fact, you could do worse than to head over to CPU.ie and download some stuff there, they are a pertty good source for new legal music.

What I'm doing at the moment is just heading in a different direction from what I usually listen to, and re-stocking my collection based on that decision......

L1011

Listen to something you assume* you utterly hate due to them either being media whored to a specific sector of the market you hate, or that seems overly mainstream to be good, or that you hated on seeing just one of their videos once in the days MTV showed music... usually works for me, theres a few bands I've even gone to see in concert after trying that.

*doesn't work if you actually -do- hate their music, it has to be an assumed hate.

RE*AC*TOR

MYOB - i've tried it. I even listened to a Missy Elliot album a few times. Complete diarrhea-inducing twaddle. I've found good albums thin on the ground this year, and my hit to miss ratio on random exploration is becoming a very very small fraction, soon my calculator will start giving me error messages.

I might listen to some classical music perhaps...........

spooydermot - i've done the whole restocking every now and again (all the while keeping the essentials).

Perhaps there comes a time where you listen to too much music and you cannot get stimulated by it anymore. I may have some sort of musical impotence....

Karl Hungus

Indeed, there's a huge problem with a lot of so-called 'Alternative' music today in the sense that there's a lot of bands coming out (Indeed, so many "The" bands are a good example) that are nothing more than pop dressed up with guitars to appeal to a different market than the likes of Britney and Christina would, hailed by the likes of NME and other such rags as the next big thing, the saviours of rock (honestly, how many times have we heard that before, and when have any of them ever actually saved it?) and then swiftly forgotten the second their single drops out of the chart.

Not suprising that anyone could get fed up of that kind of pap. So, here's what to do! Get away from 'Alternative' music entirely, and listen to something that's genuinely alternative, not just pop under a different label. If you're listening to songs that all follow the same pop song structure that would generally go start/verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/verse/chorus/end, you are practically listening to the exact same songs over and over again, even though the band might change, it's all practically identical. Simple structured pop designed for mass consumption that you get bored of easily so you have to move onto the next thing.

Try and listen to some Jazz. The use of interesting composition, unique scrutures, timings and originality should be a breath of fresh air. I cannot recommend The Mahavishnu Orchestra enough, especially the album "The Inner Mounting Flame", an absolute masterpeice of Jazz Fusion! I also recommend Pat Metheny, who is an absolutely fantastic artist altogether. Try for some recommendations on the Jazz board.

Listen to some Classical music aswell, aswell as some Film Scores, as it's all classical composition, it doesn't confine itself to the tedious pop song structure. Listen to Mozart, Bach, Greig, or Phillip Glass, James Horner, Basil Poledouris, or whatever classical/modern composer might take your fancy. Got a favourite film? Go listen to the score, get the soundtrack.

Hope that helps.

RE*AC*TOR

That's not a bad idea - although I did go through a world/new-age music faze recently - which left a slightly sickening feeling in my stomach. Adiemus, Enya etc. That was kinda brought on by listeing to Graceland (Paul Simon) - and I decided I wanted to hear some Ladysmith Blackmambazo - but couldn't find any of their stuff - so I tried to find equivalents....

Yeah like I have listened to plenty of jazz (Coltrane mostly) and classical (Bach, Strauss etc) - but I find it lackign something to really capture me. The closest I have really appreciated would be Verdi - The Anvil Song, Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves etc. Great stuff.

I guess I'll keep trying - eventually something will stick...

Karl Hungus

Ah, but have you actually heard The Mahavishnu Orchestra? If not, get yourself a copy of The Inner Mounting Flame right now.

RE*AC*TOR

i haven't - i'll see if i can track down a copy... somewhere...

L1011

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

MYOB - i've tried it. I even listened to a Missy Elliot album a few times. Complete diarrhea-inducing twaddle. I've found good albums thin on the ground this year, and my hit to miss ratio on random exploration is becoming a very very small fraction, soon my calculator will start giving me error messages.

I might listen to some classical music perhaps...........

I forgot to add "don't even try Urban".

Got any friends you can raid the hard disks of? Grab a huge amount of stuff off them, and put them on a Winamp randomiser playlist. If you've got Sky, try watching, without prejudice (being drunk helps), your way through the music channels from 441 up (MTV doesn't count as "music"). You'll find -something-.

And ignore NME, for the love of god... fecking Kerrap! is more good these days.

Mr E

Re*ac*tor -- Name your 5 favourite bands, and we'll see if we can make some recommendations based on those.

RE*AC*TOR

Bands/Artists who I like or have liked at some stage or other:

Neil Young (obviously)
At The Drive-In
Gomez
Various permutations of CSN(Y) [some good - some bad]
Bob Dylan (Highway 61/Blood on the Tracks/Desire era)
Bruce Springsteen
Loudon Wainwright III
Early Rolling Stones (Beggars Banquet/Exile on Mainstreet etc)
Pixies
Violent Femmes
Husker Du
Early REM (Murmur)
Gram Parsons
Ryan Adams
Green Day
Andrew WK
Joni Mitchell
Kraftwerk
The Smiths

That'll do for now - its impossible to name just 5 though.

shuushh

yeh this tends to happen with a mp3 player you have so much choice you get a bit overwhelmed

a good way to enjoy music once more is listen to singles for awhile youd be suprised how much enjoyment you might get from listening to so called ****ty pop music every once in awhile

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/top/2000-04/singles/

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/top/2004/singles/

http://stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=1419

in terms of new albums try these for something different

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Antony and The Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now
LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem

PiE

Get Menomena's album "I am the Fun Blame Monster" if you can. You'll spend the first few listens scratching your head, after which you'll love it.

Mr E

Husker Du - Look for some Sugar and Bob Mould.

Green Day/ATDI/Andrew WK - Look for Bowling For Soup, The Donnas, Sekiden, Fallout Boy, Something Corporate, Third Eye Blind, Weezer, Wilt, Kerbdog

Pixies - Look for Breeders, Frank Black/Black Francis, Sonic Youth, Veruca Salt

Kraftwerk - Daft Punk, DJ Shadow, Royskopp

Early REM - Try Guided By Voices, Idlewild, Kasabian, Matthew Sweet, Joy Zipper, Matthew Good Band, Porcupine Tree, Maximo, 3lb Thrill, The Byrds, Modest Mouse, Paloalto, The Shore, The Posies, Nada Surf, Remy Zero

Ryan Adams/Neil Young - Try Pete Murray, Brendan Benson, Jack Johnson, Pete Yorn, Joe Chester, Rufus Wainwright, Deadstring Brothers, Scott Maher, Bright Eyes, Calexico, Jesse Malin, My Morning Jacket, Josh Ritter

(I know there are a few 'the' bands, but my ones don't suck!)

Rockiemalt

theres a good website called audiojunkies.net about music and stuff. introduced me to lots of really good bands.

John

I really recommend the Angels of Light. Their new album "Angels of Light Sing Other People" is a good place to start. Michael Gira has a great voice but its not everyone's cup of tea. The music is a rock/country kind of thing but sounds really unique.

Another band I think everyone should listen to is Low. Anything by them is excellent. They do a great cover with the Diry 3 of "Down by the River" by Mr. Young.

DerekD Goldfish

RE*AC*TOR

Try these bands
Gang of Four
Post-Punk/Art rock band from the late 70's early 80s
REM used to suport them back when they were wee ones
Think funky basslines with chainsaw guitars and dark political vocals
get the albums Entertainment! or Solid Gold

The Chameleons
Atmospheric pop band from the early 80's some cracking tunes
their debut "script of the bridge" is my favorite

Fatima Mansions
one of the best and weirdest bands this country has produced scott walker mixed with heasvy industrial music you never know what to ecpect with the next track fantastic lyrics as well
get Viva Dead Ponies


Gil Scott Herron
The "relolution will not be telivised" guy as I concidered him until recently but everything ive heard so far of his jazzy r&b is great
get peices of a man


Killing Joke
known by many only as the band nirvana stole the riff for come as you are from. Their first 2 albums were astonising the next few were pretty good as well. Try thier self titled dubut(altough note their recent comback album is also self titled the old one is in white) or their second album whats this for?

Martin Grech
The best by far or the current singer songwriter crop has been compared to radiohead but he isnt just a copycat. New album unholy is great

McLusky
Recently split band that sound like the pixies would if they were a punk band from wales. Get McLusky do Dallas

Teenage Fanclub
The finest power pop band ever. Perfect melodys and harmonys get Songs from northern britain

That Petrol Emotion
The O'neill brothers other band far superior musicly,lyricly and vocaly than the undertones. Get Babble

65 Days of Static
Post Rock band but not as pertentious as this great genre can cometimes be.
get The Fall of Math

Karlusss

Given that list, I can't recommend Wolf Parade enough. Devendra's better than Michael Gira, in the same vein as well ^^ and if you like Loudon, why not try Rufus and Martha?

John

Karlusss wrote:

Devendra's better than Michael Gira, in the same vein as well

As much as I love Devendra he's not fit to tie Mike's boots. I've over twenty CDs of his (solo/Angels of Light/Swans) and not once has he disappointed.

PiE

DerekD Goldfish wrote:

65 Days of Static

Seconding this suggestion too.

John

Actually Re*Ac*Tor, get the book "Rip it up and Start Again" by Simon Reynolds . It's a history of Post Punk music, not just the weird bands but basically anything that took up from where punk died. Covers everything from obscure arty bands like Wire (who are excellent) to trashy electropop like the Human League. A very enjoyable book. It should reignite some interest in the bands you know and give you a rake of suggestions for your "To buy" list.

HarryHoudini

Go out and listen to some Brittney, Mariah, J-Lo, Christina etc. and then you'll be gagging for your mp3 player music.

Failing that I've been listening to Lou Barlow a lot recently, Emoh has grown and grown on me, the song 'Mary' is just perfect.

parasite

you'd surely find something to like on john kelly's or donal dineen's radio shows
obvious but true
*shrug*

RE*AC*TOR

ok here's what i'll do - i'll keep a diary of what i listen to over the next few days. Let you know what i think. I've already obtained some stuff and have other stuff that i haven't really ever listened to (Gang Of Four).

Jesus Trash Can

Sounds like you may need to wind down a bit. Maybe some alt. country would do the trick. Try Mazzie Star's So Tonight That I Might See. A sort of wierd cross between the Velvet Underground, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Emy Lou Harris. If it's a short sunny break you need, try Rodrigo y Gabriella's Live in Manchester. Super charged Spanish guitar, it'll soon recharge your batteries. On my CD player at the moment though is The Lemon Head's debut album The Lemon Heads and The Wannadies album Bagsy Me.

RE*AC*TOR

1. Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Inner Mounting Flame.

At times brilliant - at times not so brilliant. Esp. liked violin/fiddle part in track 2 (Dawn) and track 6 (Dance Of Maya) which very much reminded me of a live Neil Young jam. Anyway I'm not completely sold - at time it was a bit prog-rocky for me. I will give it another turn round the mp3 player though...


Next up LCD Soundsystem....

Jesus Trash Can

Well said Karl.

trishw78

if all else fails rip it up and start again go back in time to the first album/single you bought and back to the first time you realised music was good and wished you could have been there to see it the first time....

RE*AC*TOR

losing my edge - great song, album as a whole though? I'm not sure. Its good - maybe a little "nowtro". Actually as I'm writing this I'm listening to Yeah (Crass Version) - tis very good really.

trishw78 - the first single I bought was something really awful that I'd rather not go into. I guess Nirvana maybe were one of the first bands that really got me into music.

jesus trash can - I've been around the alt.country block a few times, and find it promises more than it delivers. The likes of Uncle Tupelo and Wilcon et al. I find them quite dull actually - unlike say Gram Parsons who would be more to the country side than rock, who sings really passionately or Ryan Adams who can at times have really explosive music - or even Willis Alan Ramsey who's album is just plain beautiful. By the way - great book to read on the whole emergence of country rock/alt.country is "Are You Ready For The Country".

Next up - Guided By Voices - Half Smiles Of The Decomposed

spooydermot

a pretty cool album is Jim White's "Drill a hole (in that substrate and tell me what you see)" , especially the opening track ("Static on the radio") which features a duet with Aimee Mann

MrJoeSoap

Rival Schools

dalk

There is so much music these days....

Well your tastes are varied like mine, so heres some old favorites and some newer stuff i've been listening to recently...

Have you explored Grams work in other bands? Love these albums:

The International Submarine Band - Safe At home
The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo
The Flying Burrito Brothers - Burrito Deluxe
The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace of Sin

Been listening to this a lot recently. Ethiopean funk from the 70's. Sounds like a terrible idea, but has this great dark dirty groove. Sounds more indian than north african. And i'm not a huge world music fan so...

Mahmoud Ahmed - Erè Mèla Mèla (Can be found on compilation - Éthiopiques, Vol. 7)

Off he top of my head ,albums from this year i've found myself listening to a lot (warning- '"the"'s following):

The Russian Futurists - Our Thickness
The Books - Lost & Safe
M83 - Before The Dawn Heals Us
Vitalic - OK Cowboy
Mu - Out Of The Breach (Manchesters Revenge)
Queens Of The Stoneage - Lullabies To Paralyze
Beck - Guero
Kraftwerk - Minimum-Maximum
Doves - Some Cities

Would second the recommendation of anything by Low & Sufjan Stevens...

...and the thing is, i just know there is loads more music out their that i will love when i hear it... so much music not enough time

RE*AC*TOR

Guided By Voices was good - not great. That's all i have to say on that. Doesn't really grab me by the balls.

On the other hand i'm 7 out of 22 songs through Sufjan Stevens - and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

RE*AC*TOR

dalk - yeah I've been through Gram's other work (except ISB) - while it is good - GP and Grievous Angel are a step above. Superb stuff.

Jesus Trash Can

RE*AC*TOR
Yeh, fair point. I usually use it as a bridge to other stuff. Have you tried Brendan Benson's Lapalco?

Mutant_Fruit

Of course you could always try out live plasma. Its a damn good site for music (films were a bit crap last time i checked). I found a lot of artists i like by using that.

cowswitguns

you should listen to pete murray's album feeler, he's got some great songs, upbeat and easy going. he's a small australien artist

Gross Halfwit

Off the top of my head I would reccommend that you check out;

Brendan Benson - Lapalco (Dont bother with Alternative to love or One Mississippi yet, Lapalco is his best IMO)

The Flamin' Groovies - Teenage Head (Great Album with a lot of cracking Tunes. Good 'ol Rock n' Roll in the vein of The Rolling Stones.)

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's self title debut. Cracking Punk/indie/rock offerings.

I know it aint the Metal board but If you havnt already, then get some Motorhead into your life.
Get Motorhead - Ace Of Spades. There are a few different versions but get the one with them dressed as cowboys on the cover. Classic Album.

Screaming Jay Hawkins - Alligator Wine (Great Rock n'Roll from the 50's. Upbeat, fun but with a lot of snorts and growls.

Elvis Presley - Rockabilly or A Country Side Of Elvis or From Elvis In Memphis. (The king. You cant be without The King)

Probot. Dave Grohl's collaborative project with various metal Gods!

Danzig II - Lucifuge ( Im a big Misfits fan and have only been listening to Danzig solo for about 3 months now but I cant stop! Ths is a great album)

Or just switch MP3 players with a friend who has different taste to you for about a week.

DerekD Goldfish

John2 wrote:

Actually Re*Ac*Tor, get the book "Rip it up and Start Again" by Simon Reynolds . It's a history of Post Punk music, not just the weird bands but basically anything that took up from where punk died. Covers everything from obscure arty bands like Wire (who are excellent) to trashy electropop like the Human League. A very enjoyable book. It should reignite some interest in the bands you know and give you a rake of suggestions for your "To buy" list.

Great Book
Im reading it at the moment

Creamy Goodness

Gross Halfwit wrote:

Off the top of my head I would reccommend that you check out;

Brendan Benson - Lapalco (Dont bother with Alternative to love or One Mississippi yet, Lapalco is his best IMO)

i'll agree to that.

other than that here's what i'm listening to over the last few days,

bright eyes - I'm wide awake it's morning
elliot smith - X/O
ben folds - songs for silverman

all great bands/songwriters.

Karl Hungus

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

1. Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Inner Mounting Flame.

At times brilliant - at times not so brilliant. Esp. liked violin/fiddle part in track 2 (Dawn) and track 6 (Dance Of Maya) which very much reminded me of a live Neil Young jam. Anyway I'm not completely sold - at time it was a bit prog-rocky for me. I will give it another turn round the mp3 player though...

Ah man, you have to love the prog vibe!
Glad you enjoyed some of it at least.

Now, although you seem to be not into the whole prog thing, I'm going to go and recommend you listen to Arcturus anyway. They're more progressive than most progressive bands would ever even dare to imagine. I think everyone should have a copy of La Masqeruade Infernale, simply because it's one of the most downright challenging, original, starkly beautiful in it's lunacy, and just so far removed from everything else that's going on in music today.

You should definetly give a listen to the song "The Chaos Path" at the very least, but be prepared, it utterly trounces any and all musical boundaries. The vocals alone have to be heard to be believed, half-way between some of the most staggeringly talented Operatic vocals and the fevered rants, wails and cries of a madman. Utterly unbelievable stuff.

RE*AC*TOR

The whole prog rock thing is way too self-indulgent for my liking. I still feel ill when i think back to listening to The Alan Parson's Project. If prog rock were porn, it would be a fat middle aged man **** on his own.

RE*AC*TOR

if anyone's interested the contents of my mp3 player...

gary the great

try out some placebo, maybe Without You Im Nothing or Sleeping with Ghosts?

Worth a try.

DerekD Goldfish

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

if anyone's interested the contents of my mp3 player...

Not a bad collection I would but up mine but I dont know how/couldnt be arsed

PiE

DerekD Goldfish wrote:

Not a bad collection I would but up mine but I dont know how/couldnt be arsed

Dunno what program he used, but Oidua is very good. It's command-line though, so you'll need to open a DOS window and navigate to the folder you extracted the files to and use this command:

oidua.exe -H --ignore-bad -f list.htm -S "E:\Mp3"

Where E:\Mp3 is your Mp3 directory.

It'll give a list like this. Doesn't show every MP3, just the average bitrate of each album/folder.

SteM

RE*AC*TOR, I've found the exact same thing happened with me and my mp3 player.

Maybe you could try signing up to Emusic? $14.99 a month for 65 tracks (I think). I've found that there are some real gems there - Spoon, all the Clem Snide albums, Brendan Benson, Frank Black, Pixies, loads of 4ad stuff etc - and once I downloaded all the stuff I wanted I started experimenting with other types of music. Sometimes I'll download sh1te but if I do then at least I won't have paid through the nose for it and you can listen to snippets of songs before downloading.

Deadwing

Year of the rabbit - hunted.
problem solved.

RE*AC*TOR

PiE wrote:

Dunno what program he used, but..

notmad explorer - red chair software - great piece of kit.

Today I listened to Devendra Banhart - Nino Rojo - which I thought was decent and someone else who was recommended earlier - who I thought sounded a lot like Nick Cave. (the ole memory is failing me) - anyway I've picked up a few more of the recommendations - will give em a turn soon.

John

Try Rejoicing in the Hands by Banhart, that's probably a bit better than Nino Rojo. His first album isn't great, you really have to be in the mood for it but Rejoicing/Nino are both fantastic.

cowswitguns

if your looking for a lively nonr it band try turn...good craic and never an it band... the're too pale...