Non-Classical Music Listening Thread!

[mn dave]

[mn dave]

[karlhenning]

A peculiarly good photo for a pop album.

[mn dave]

A peculiarly good photo for a pop album.

You can see the whole thing unfolded if you google. (If you haven't seen it already.)

[SonicMan46]

Early Delta Blues - what to read & what to listen to? 

At the moment, I'm about half way through a new book on the Delta Blues by Ted Gioia - this is a longer commentary w/ updated research and new insights; complements & expands on the Palmer book - both are great reads if you want to know about this music;.....

 

Continuing to explore the 'early' Delta Blues - from the abbreviated thread a few pages back, I can now more strongly recommend the Gioia book - really a well researched production on the subject (of course, plenty of unknowns still exit, esp. about Robert Johnson); listening to some 'new' additions:

Charlie Patton, The Best of on the Yazoo label, 1929-30s recordings - apparently the 'newest' remastering of these works in miserable condition; now I've own a half dozen or more Patton CDs over the years (including previous Yazoo releases, which were TERRIBLE for surface noise!) - these are the best that I've heard to date - you can finally concentrate on his voice & guitar playing; includes 23 selections (enough for me, although multi-disc sets are available).  Interestingly, Yazoo uses the spelling of Charlie for his first name - others including myself tend to pick Charley - hmm, will the mystery of this period & place of music ever end?

Son House & the Great Delta Blues Singers, 1928-30 on Document (my cover art is different, but same recordings) - stimulated to buy this CD because many House discs are from his re-discovery years, i.e. 1960s - this CD includes 7 recordings, 6 from his Grafton, WI 1930 session (which I did not own); but 'what' interested me on this offering (and stimulated by the Gioia book above) was the other completely forgotten blues men discussed in the book, e.g. Willie Brown, Kid Bailey, Garfield Akers, Joe Calicott, Blind Joe Reynolds, & Rube Lacy; some of the recordings, esp. those by Son House, have a lot of surface noise, but many are quite good - big surprise to me regarding the quality of these performers - of much 'historic' interest if you're into this period & music - 

 

[ezodisy]

saw Gotan Project tonight. Decent concert, not the most engaging group, and they hardly improvised at all which was very disappointing. Music remains outstanding though. If they play in Belgrade, I'll be there.

[Lethevich]

Reverend Bizarre - So Long Suckers


I used to dislike this band a lot, their idea of traditional doom (like Black Sabbath) I found ridiculous when the music was taken to drone-like lengths. But this album clicked quite well for me. After the intro where as usual my mind began to wander, the (30 minute) opening song then moved into a neat groove which sounds almost like Cathedral on valium - there is a little of the stoner fun to it, but it's entirely more measured and deliberate, bordering on funereal.

Edit: once it gets going, some really neat vocals towards the end of track 1 as well.

[Drasko]

saw Gotan Project tonight. Decent concert, not the most engaging group, and they hardly improvised at all which was very disappointing. Music remains outstanding though. If they play in Belgrade, I'll be there.

They played here both after Revancha and after Lunatico (2002 & 2006), but not on this current tour. Maybe after next album.

[Renfield]

Exquisite as always; though rather hard on the ear, of course. One of my non-classical treasures (especially their previous album to this one), through the recommendation of a good Norwegian friend. I counter-recommended Bruckner, and he's still "hooked".

[Subotnick]

I only just found out that Brett Anderson released his second solo lp back in September! I don't read about music much. I'd rather spend my time and money on listening to it. I am now the proud owner of this. It's a sombre, downbeat affair (it was hardly going to be disco!  ) infused with Brett's usual lyrical fayre. My favourite tracks so far are Clowns, The Empress and Funeral Mantra.



TTFN.
Me.

[ezodisy]

They played here both after Revancha and after Lunatico (2002 & 2006), but not on this current tour. Maybe after next album.

They are not the most entertaining group of musicians. Very static, no movement on stage whatsoever, they used some video projections and on-stage dancers to liven things up. If you didn't like the music or didn't go for the music you would have been bored stiff. I don't think the order of the songs worked well either with too many strong ones towards the beginning--anti-climactic--and no or very little improvisation during the songs, which is questionable, as I would expect any good musicians to relax and play around during their music. So while the music was great to hear, the concert wasn't all that good. It resembles what appears on these 2CDs--which I only heard afterwards.

[Solitary Wanderer]

Before they went 'rock'.

[Daverz]

[Subotnick]

Morning!





TTFN.
Me.

[SonicMan46]

Morning!

Love Ray Charles and have been collecting CDs of him for years, but reminds me that since his death, I'm sure some 'newer' sets have appeared - may need to look at my collection & do some updating! 

BTW - wife & I love his 'country western' recordings (have 2 discs on Dunhill from WAY back!) - 

[Brian]

total time: 40'58
personnel: ornette (tenor sax) / ed blackwell (drums) / don cherry (trumpet) / jimmy garrison (bass)

Surely not this Don Cherry!

[Subotnick]

Love Ray Charles and have been collecting CDs of him for years, but reminds me that since his death, I'm sure some 'newer' sets have appeared - may need to look at my collection & do some updating! 

BTW - wife & I love his 'country western' recordings (have 2 discs on Dunhill from WAY back!) - 

The country and western recordings are wonderful. I was dubious at first but soon kicked myself for doubting him...

TTFN.
Me.

[Kullervo]

[Lethevich]

Catching up with whatever full tracks Last.fm has by Manic Street Preachers, which is fortunately quite a lot. They have held up pretty well, and could perhaps still rank as one of my favourites. They were one of the most ambitious, interesting and downright catchy British rock bands from the 90s, although they had plenty of misses as well as hits, and can sometimes be obnoxious. The political thing especially damaged their markektability in the US, so they are not very well known there.

One of those time-defining bands that if you find somebody else listened to when they were younger, you could generally find a lot more that you have in common as well. This is presumably because due to getting some quite prolonged commercial success/attention, they managed to suck quite a lot of impressionable people into quite a diverse range of subcultures in the way a band like Oasis was uninterested in doing. In particular they attracted females in droves, as there was little appeal to them in more straightforward styles of rock. Due to this cult appeal they were able to get away with quite a lot of stuff with people still liking even their dodgier songs, but even those tend to be good if you are sympathetic to what they are aiming for.

I especially like the quite distinctive guitar tone of their lead player - often you can detect quite obvious rolemodels in guitar playing, but James Bradfield has a pretty unique tone and style, far thicker and heavier than related bands. His vocals are also among the best I have heard in rock, where it is a huge plus to be distinctive rather than technically great. The albums running the gamut from punk, glam, stadium rock, alt rock, soft rock, metallic edged riffs, guitar-hero style soloing, etc, is bizarrely logical in their progress.

Pretentious/catchy The Verve-isms, Escapist, happy, Punkish, classic, Populist, Self-consciously retro and "in touch", Total classic, Almost a self-parody with the intentionally bs lyrics, catchy as hell, Delightfully on edge, perhaps my favourite, Regressive, but still annoyingly catchy, Obnoxious, wonderful shit from their lowfi first album, A superior "who cares" song... I am probably listening to them too much, they have historically affected my moods quite badly.

[Subotnick]

Ah! Manic Street Preachers. It was Roses In The Hospital which attracted my attention. The earlier their music, the better I think. The last few albums saw a bit of a decline. Though I must say, their off days are a cut above some others best. Not heard them for a long time. I have lots of their singles with exclusive tracks which I might have to dig out later. Oh... And vivre last.fm! 

http://www.last.fm/user/fergusmcphail