I went to Next Big Thing in Tampa yesterday. Bands worth remembering are Neon Trees (fantastic sound live), Sick Puppies (holy shit stage presence), and The Black Keys. Cage the Elephant was incredibly disappointing as the lead singer was WASTED out of his MIND. The Dirty Heads were . . . okay. Switchfoot performed early in the day and I'm not really a fan of them, but they performed a killer cover of Sabotage by The Beastie Boys.

All in all, lots of fun and I discovered a few new bands I wouldn't have given a try otherwise.

Metric is actually one of my favorite bands. Really clean sound, great lyrics and come on, Emily Haines has some great vocals.

I love Yeah Yeah Yeahs (I liked them before Rock Band! ), Show Your Bones is such a fantastic CD.

Other favorites include New Pornographers, Florence and the Machine, the Cardigans, City and Colour, Arctic Monkeys, Stars, and Bat for Lashes. F+tM and Bat for Lashes I both found through this forum, while everything else was referred to from other friends.  However, Dragonette I stumbled upon, and holy crap, their stuff with Kaskade and Martin Solveig is just phenomenal.

Then there is deadmau5. HOLY MAN.

Last edited by Syora (12-06-2010 10:04:57 PM)

Persephone wrote:

a certain precociousness in his genre of music that's magentizing.

I hope you'll forgive me, but this is the best typo I've seen in a month.  I wish I knew Photoshop so I could turn Kanye bright purple for you. 

I don't think about music very much -- probably less than anyone else I know.  I've been learning about it more recently because I've been playing Rock Band 3, which has taught me a few basic facts about rock music (e.g. no one wants to play the guitar solo in "Free Bird").  I've enjoyed a lot of those songs, as my iTunes purchasing history will testify, but I mostly listen to singer-songwriter music of the folk-to-folk-rock type that most people want nothing to do with.   Leonard Cohen, Suzanne Vega, the Indigo Girls, and to a lesser extent Paul Simon are the standbys that I'm always happy to see come up on my iTunes random shuffle.  These are people I respect as artists and performers, and their music touches me in a way usually reserved for really good poetry.

I've been broadening my musical horizons, though, mostly thanks to my brother, who's taught me about a few alternative rock bands I enjoy blasting on occasion.  I still haven't reached the point where I can follow any of y'all's name-drops, except for Kanye, who I know because of South Park, and a few of Likey's likeys: Ani diFranco and Tori Amos are artists I remember digging, and I've been meaning to acquaint myself with Amanda Palmer.  I wish someone would release Rock Band Songs You've Been Meaning To Listen To. 

I LOVE music and concerts! It keeps me going, no matter what happens. If you guys happen to have last.fm, feel free to invite me as your friend: http://www.lastfm.pl/user/dlaire. I'm curious how our comparison would look like. Like_Autumn and Persephone, sounds like we have familiar tastes in music!

I've seen some of my favourite artists (such as Björk, Tori Amos, Antony and the Johnsons, CocoRosie, Massive Attack, Little Dragon, Lamb, Kasabian..) but I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing Bat for Lashes, Portishead, Gossip, Under Byen, The Knife, Röyksopp and múm. I hope I'll the opportunity to do that.

When I was 11 my brother discovered the joy of music and I was curious about everything he was into. I was just a kid when I heard for the very first time trip-hop music. Utopia by Goldfrapp, Eple by Röyksopp, Winter by Tori Amos, Bachelorette by Björk..

This Friday I will see Robots in Disguise live and I hope I'll hear DIY and Turn it up there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yedD4JsZyT0 Here's Little Dragon's song called Twice. I hope you'll like it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB6ZUda0Vxs Lovage - Book of the month

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tej_HD8XipA Trentemøller (feat. Ane Trolle) - Moan

Persephone wrote:

Ever heard of Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton? I love "Our hell", the video is pretty damn cool as well.
Youtube: Our Hell

Oh yes, she's wonderful! My favorite song is "Crowd Surf Off A Cliff," but that whole album is a joy to listen to. I love her songwriting and how many different interpretations the songs can have. "Detective Daughter" is a really interesting one. I still have no idea what exactly it means.

dlaire wrote:

I LOVE music and concerts! It keeps me going, no matter what happens. If you guys happen to have last.fm, feel free to invite me as your friend: http://www.lastfm.pl/user/dlaire. I'm curious how our comparison would look like. Like_Autumn and Persephone, sounds like we have familiar tastes in music!

I've seen some of my favourite artists (such as Björk, Tori Amos, Antony and the Johnsons, CocoRosie, Massive Attack, Little Dragon, Lamb, Kasabian..) but I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing Bat for Lashes, Portishead, Gossip, Under Byen, The Knife, Röyksopp and múm. I hope I'll the opportunity to do that.

Wow, we do have similar tastes! I wish I could have a chance to see Tori Amos or Bjork live! Soooo jealous. I like Antony & the Johnsons, and I also love Gossip. I'm not on last.fm. Maybe I should be.

Haha, I love "Likey's likeys." Thanks for that one, satyr! I enjoy some folk rock on occasion. You might like Strand of Oaks, a very indie acoustic folk musician. His album Leave Ruin is simple but gorgeous. I'm especially fond of him because I saw him perform live and he brought me to tears.

Last edited by Like_Autumn (12-07-2010 08:48:43 PM)

MUSIC THREAD HECK YEAH!

Thanks to my dad's influence, I've been a music geek since early childhood.  I grew up on a strict diet of classic rock:  The Beatles, Billy Joel, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, and an assortment of oddities like Genesis and Natalie Merchant.  The first band I can remember getting into by myself was Incubus.  I've been to see them in concert once, and they really are the sort of band that's much, much better live. I can't say I'm too fond of their albums post Morning View, but their older, funkier stuff still gets regular rotation on the old mp3 player.

Recently, when I realized my music collection was a big sausage fest, I started checking out more female artists.  Tori Amos is freaking brilliant (though I seem to be in the minority for thinking Boys for Pele is her weakest album), Amanda Palmer's a lyrical wizard, and Emilie Autumn is deliciously gothic.  I love acoustic guitar, so Tracy Chapman and The Indigo Girls rate high as well.

I've been diving down the rabbit hole of metal too, where there's a wealth of great bands: Death, Opeth, Abigail Williams, Darkthrone, Burzum, and my personal favorite sunn o))), who don't make music so much as horrifying ambient sound.

I've got to say though, my music loving heart is always going to belong to The Magnetic Fields.  My eighth grade history teacher introduced me to them, and I've loved them for nearly ten years.  Stephen Merrit writes such clever, cynical lyrics and although the music he makes is technically pop, it's wonderfully subversive and gloomy.  They use lots of unusual instruments too, from banjos and accordions to xylophones and squeak toys for percussion.

Other favorites, in no particular order: Dream Theater, The National, Alanis Morisette, Tom Waits, Immortal Technique, Voltaire, The Decemberists, Bjork, Kings of Leon, Miles Davis, Neil Young, Jethro Tull, Judy Collins, The Yoshida Brothers...come to think of it, it'd probably be quicker to list the music I don't like.  I'm not a huge fan of techno, current rap or pop, and I HATE HATE HATE autotune.  Singers with too much vibrato annoy me as well, hence my lack of interest in "emo" music.

Relevant Music Links

Opeth: Beneath the Mire Progressive metal at its finest
Dream Theater: Octavarium Yes, this song is 24 minutes long, but it's worth it  The Dance of Eternity Wicked instrumentals
The Magnetic Fields: The Book of Love Guh, the sweetest thing ever Too Drunk to Dream and...not so sweet, but very funny
Immortal Technique: Dance With the Devil Truly disturbing, raw as it gets rap
Sunn o))): Big Church Creepy, creepy, creepy

Imaginary Bad Bug wrote:

ArsenicForBreakfast wrote:

Dream Theater

I've seen them live seven times. They put on a fantastic live show!

Lucky!  They're definitely on my list of bands I want to see in concert before I die

Elmio is an indie Swedish/Japanese DJ with catchy pop/dance songs but his or her lyrics are so meaningful to me they hurt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xc9NLyBM0c

I'm starting to listen to whole albums again, after who knows how long of just letting iTunes randomize, unless I was listening to something for work or critique purposes. 'S'weird. I'd forgotten, basically, that there really was an era where songs were sequenced not necessarily into concept albums but to build up on each other aurally. And, it's like, How did I forget that? Listening to the entirety of Hellbilly Deluxe or Saint Dominic's Preview truly is more than the sum of the parts.

Electric Light Orchestra, Time. It's a sci-fi story in which the protagonist is snatched away to a sterile future and provided with futuristic luxuries, but he finds it all awful and pines for home sweet home.

I'm gonna recommend Operation: Mindcrime, because it's awesome. Take a listen.