What the hell are you listening to...2006 Edition
 

And if you have last.fm, here's my profile./

Well...

A comprehensive music thread of just good stuff, rather than posting buried bands would be good. Because I am always looking for new stuff and I'm into pretty much every genre.

Lately, I've been listening to a lot of Death Cab for Cutie, old stuff...and a bunch of indie bands (as well as a variety of hip-hop mixtapes)

Specifically..

Appleseed Cast - Peregrine
Margot & The Nuclear So and So's - The Dust of Retreat
Pretty Girls Make Graves - Elan Vital
Sondre Lerche - Duper Sessions

Pharrell Williams of Neptunes fame, put out a mixtape because he's rapping now, rather than doing the whole falsetto thing. It's called "In My Mind"...it's on mixtapetorrent.com and it's pretty darn good.

Lupe Fiasco, who was featured on Kanye West's track "Touch The Sky" has put out two mixtapes, most recently of them "Revenge of the Nerd" and...it's really stellar. He'll do really big things, because he's really really good.


Anyway, there is other stuff. More eventually.

But what are you all playing?

The Flaming Lips - At War with the Mystics

Picked this up 2 hours ago and have listened to it twice through. It's closer to Soft Bulletin than Yoshimi, and my initial impressions are favorable. Will have a better idea when I can listen to it at home on proper speakers, rather than sitting behind my desk at work with only one headphone on.

I saw them live about 3 years ago. Pretty nice sound they have.

Yeah, some girl at work liked them and I checked them out and was blown away. Their new CD is great.

None Other. Found them on Pandora and ordered two CDs from them.

www.noneother.com

Ive been listening to this a lot too, i think its great; but ive yet not liked a Flaming Lips record. I dont compare it too Soft Buletin at all though, id say its more like Purple Rain than anything ;)

ooh and the new Mike Patton project, Peeping Tom. Im trying to like it, but im not warming up to it as much as i thought I would.

I recently got another Patton project that he had released a year or so ago, General Patton vs. the X-ecutioners. Pretty disappointing, way too much noise with few actual songs.

Just got the new Rob Zombie and Lacuna Coil cds and I'm enjoying both of them a lot. The Zombie cd is probably my favorite of all he has put out. Not as heavy as his previous albums, almost more funky. And Lacuna Coil I can listen to all day without getting sick of the band.

Glad someone else has heard that Lacuna Coil, I've wanted to check it out because I really enjoy their old stuff. Have to check it out for sure.

I've been so busy I haven't picked up much lately. But that new Sondre Lerche is excellent, despite the fact that I generally don't like jazz. I still prefer 2-Way Monologue, but DUper Sessions has exceeded my expectations.

I've got a list of 15-20 CDs I'll be ordering from CD Baby when I get a chance one of these months.

Someone agrees. Stellar. SPIN gave it a horrible review and I want to cut someone.

I also prefer 2-way monologue. But musically, that Duper Sessions is pretty good. And given his voice isn't really meant for that genre, it makes it all the more impressive that musically they made the whole thing work pretty well.

Built To Spill-You In Reverse

AMAZING.

On further review: Track 1 wouldn't have sounded too out of place on Clouds Taste Metallic and is very catchy. I still say it's similar in mood to The Soft Bulletin for a lot of the album, but none of the songs sound like The Soft Bulletin songs, if you get what I mean. Very mellow and beautiful for the most part. 5 listens now and I'm loving it at least as much as I loved their last two at this point, which is high praise to say the least.

Nothing groundbreaking, but I have really been enjoying "Under the Covers, Vol. 1" by "Sid and Susie." Basically, Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs got together and recorded 15 songs from the 60s, from Neil Young to The Beatles to the Beach Boys (as well as a number of lesser-known artists). As you might suspect if you are a Sweet fan, it's excellent power pop, and Hoffs is in excellent form, her voice as sexy as it ever was.

I'll second the Rob Zombie sentiments.. A lot more variation in styles than I last heard on his first solo effort. Theres even some (sort of) singing on some songs, and some way out there stuff, sounds like vintage White Zombie from the "La Sexorcisto" days, with some 80's hair metal thrown in.

I REALLY want to get my hands on the new Chili Peppers double album. Dani California is an excellent single, IMO, and if "By The Way" was any indication of their future direction, I really want to hear how much they have expanded.

Also listening a lot to Looptroop, Aesop Rock's latest, Paulson, Coheed and Cambria, and Placebo, with a little Bob Schneider and John Butler Trio thrown in.

Tomorrow, I'll probably be going in an entirely new direction though, with Norah Jones and Erykah Badu, supplemented by Damian Marley and Chamillionaire. Or maybe even some Benny Benassi or DJ Mark Farina.

I have it around, haven't listened to it a ton yet though. It sounded like it had potential.

Thats great to hear, I havent listened to them since Keep it like a Secret. I used to be a huge fan, but like Modest Mouse, the shows started getting overrun with frat kids. I hate it when bands i like get popular. im such a dick.

I mentioned this band in the Coheed and Cambria thread...Protest the Hero. Holy fucking shit is this album off the charts bad-ass. It's like thrash hardcore emo. Time changes all over the place, mostly clean vocals, and thrashy syncopated rhythms. I can't believe how good this band is. Yet another great Canadian import.

Saw Coheed & Cambria last night (with Head Automatica) and Avenged Sevenfold. C&C rocked my face off, but the Denver crowd was largely an Avenged Sevenfold crowd and because they are co-headlining, Coheed went first before Avenged Sevenfold and well, they rocked out the whole time except at the end when Claudio decided to go on a 12 minute guitar solo at the very end, just to irritate the fans who weren't theres, I think.

We left before Avenged Sevenfold, because we got word that The Roots were gonna be played in Fort Collins (they're in Boulder tonight, grr..) and so, we went there and apparently, we were wrong. But it was cool. A lil' Waffle House and not being in Wyoming is never a bad Friday night.

The new Liars album, Drum's Not Dead is a corker. If you like experimental krautrock a la Faust and Neu it'll be right up your alley. Other similarities include a Radiohead a la 'There There' from Hail to the Theif and The Velvet Underground's classic 'Heroin'.

As for the new Flaming Lips, I'm not sure yet. I certainly wouldn't rank it with Soft Bulletin or Yoshimi at this point, but I think it's better than the lukewarm reception it's recieved so far from the crtics.

a few of my recent purchases:

The Magic Numbers- I don't even know how to classify this band. Some of it is very very power poppy, some of it borders on alt-country, and some of it reminds me of an updated version of The Beautiful South.

Angels and Airwaves- wasn't a big fan of Blink 182, but this is a little more up my alley. Flock of Seagulls meets "Wish You Were Here" era Pink Floyd.

Shooter Jennings- "Electric Rodeo" is one of three country albums I own. I don't regret it. It's great.

also bought the new Flaming Lips and am liking it, but that's been covered elsewhere.

The more I listen to it, the more I like it. I'd easily rank it with Soft Bulletin at this point (which I rank above Yoshimi).

What do you reckon to their cover of The Smith's 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out'? There's something inherently wrong about reworking it into such a poppy, happy song - it kinda works for me, but not 100%

FWIW I've just listened to Ten Silver Drops by Secret Machines for the 1st time, and it's freakin' awesome! Grandiose, sweeping, melodic - can't say enough about it: I only bought it because it was being played in HMV, and I had to ask who it was - highly recommended

I'll be getting the Chili's & Snow Patrol next week: looking forward to both.

Fresh FM

I agree with this. I thought Yoshimi was kind of overrated, perhaps as a reaction to them not getting the credit they really deserved for Soft Bulletin. I've been listening to the new album (At War With The Mystics) a lot lately, and I think I'd put it up there with Soft Bulletin. A very solid album.

Rebel Meets Rebel

Yesterday I bought:

Grandaddy-Just Like The Fambly Cat

Gnarls Barkley-St. Elsewhere

Red Hot Chili Peppers-Stadium Arcadium

Last CD I got was Panic! At the Disco and I am really enjoying it. I heard this song "Goods" by Mates of State and have been thinking about getting that album.

I, too, and looking forward to Lupe Fiasco's debut album.

If you get a chance, one of my brother's good friends is working on a CD and she has an amazing voice. Check her out here, especially the Unsafe song - http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...endid=37890341

I can't get away from Les Dudek or Dungen. But have been listening to add n to x a bunch as of late. Their song Party Bag is great. But damn, Dungen is the best band I can't understand at all.

Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers. I've been listening to that stuff pretty much constantly for the past couple of months.

I also saw a band called Tilly and the Wall last week. They were excellent, and I'm going to try and get a-hold of their first album soon ...

Recent pickups:

Wolfmother: Its decent. I've always enjoyed "classic" rock. Singer kind of has a Jack White voice, I could envision this as a concept white stripes album (keeping in mind I haven't heard his latest side project, which is supposed to be real rock.
Snow Patrol: Listened to half
Gnarls Barkley: An ok album. Not really my cup of tea though.
The Zutons: Not nearly as good as their first album. I've only somewhat listened to it, but not a fan right now.
Bloc Party: Picked up as many of their songs as I could. Silent Alarm is great, the Remix is not too good, a few solid tracks. The Streets Remix is great and Hero is a solid track.
Drive-by-Truckers: Haven't given it a listen yet.
My Morning Jacket: I've had Z for a while, so I picked up the previous album. Its a little different, not as funky as Z.
Panic! at the Disco: Hate it.
She Wants Revenge: Greatly dislike it.
The Streets: The latest disc sounds more like Original Pirate Material. Wasn't as big a fan of that one, I preferred the storytelling of the second disc. The third one isn't very good.
The Walkmen: Not enough listens.
Danger Doom: Pretty interesting CD, but not my favorite.

Been listening to some of Queensryche's Operation Mindcrime 2. Unusual, but I've been a Queensryche fan for forever.

Also have an indie band called Egypt Central in my CD player. Good stuff, especially for an unsigned band.

That is actually off an EP (All Day) that came out in 2004. If you're going to pick up an album by them, I'd probably suggest Team Boo.

Yeah... I was eagerly anticipating this one and I don't really like it at the moment. I've fallen into a routine of listening to some of my new stuff over and over. The fact that this one quickly found it's way out of rotation was not a good sign. I'll give it another chance soon, but my first impression is that it is a serious let down.

Picked up The Dresdon Dolls new one, Yes Virginia. Much more polished than their first album.

their last album was leaps and bounds better than this new one.

the new embrace album pushed snow patrol's latest completely out of my rotation, as i can only seem to like 1 of them at a time.

Dresden Dolls -- sort of a cross between Caberet and Punk. Best new band I've heard in a long time.
Flaming Lips -- their new album "At War With the Mystics" is a throwback to their early psychedelic days, but a little more mello. Quite good.
Iggy Pop and the Stooges -- I've been listening to the remastered albums, and wow, do they rock or what.
Laurie Andererson Live at Town Hall, New York city, September 19-20, 2001


still listening to
Rasputina -- female goth/punk cello trio who rock like its 1856.
Arvo Part -- modern classical composer, mostly liturgical music.

i bought the Dresden Dolls song "sing" off of iTunes. What a dopey song. I love the music, but the lyrics are just nonsensical.

- New Pearl Jam Album, i'm going to watch them live in September in Madrid, just bought the tickets.
- Disturbed "Ten Thousand Fists"
- Nonpoint - "To The Pain"
- Ill niño - "One Nation Underground"

Also lots of old metal like Pantera, Metallica, etc.

Okay.....some elaboration on my recent purchases:

Gnarls Barkley St. Elsewhere-Pretty good stuff here. It's funky, and it makes me turn up the bass level in my car stereo. Now I see why people like to bump.

Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium I really like some of the songs off of the first CD. Dani California is still a great song to drive around to and sing at the top of your lungs, She's Only 18 has a bad beginning, but it gets better as the song goes on. Especially In Michigan, C'mon Girl, and Wet Sand are my other faves on that side. The second disc I haven't listened to much, but Desecration Smile and Turn It Again seem quality.

Wolfmother S/T: I really am liking this one. I think Apple Tree nearly ruins it by being one of the most idiotic songs ever put down on cd, but most of the songs are just awesome, catchy dino-rock.

Grandaddy Just Like The Fambly Cat After listening to 2 minutes of a girl saying "What happened to the family cat?" over and over, the record blows up with the rocking Jeez Louise. The best song on this album for me is Elevate Myself. If that song doesn't get any radio play, it will be a shame.

Yeah, that one is just silly. You might check in on their website, www.dresdendolls.com http://www.dresdendolls.com -- they have some of their videos and, IIRC, a couple of live songs. Both the video and song for "Coin Operated Boy" are pretty fun.

I also think "Good Day" from their first album is a helluva song. There's something I really like about this group but they're also very hit or miss for me.

cool, I'll check those out! Thanks.

Yeah, it's catchy. I like it too.

I've been so freaking busy with life that I'm seriously falling behind on new music. I've got a list of about 2 dozen CDs to buy that I probably won't get to until August. The last thing I bought was Protest the Hero, which is an amazing album, and Tool, which I'm less than thrilled with (about 4 songs are good, the rest is atmospheric, boring filler).

Having said that, I have found 3 artists that I'm enjoying quite a bit (although I haven't bought anything from any of them yet, but that will be changing):

Chris Brown
This guy writes beautifully crafted orchestrated pop. Check out the free MP3 of the song All My Rivals here. I'm in love with this song.


To-Mera
Can't really buy anything from this band because they haven't even recorded their first album yet. But based on the two downloadable songs from their myspace site, I'll be first in line for this. It hits pretty much every genre of metal I like - gothic, symphonic, thrash, progressive (both Dream Theater and Opeth styles, in the same song), and the singer is a hot female. What more could you want or ask for? I mean, really!


Tally Hall
This album I'm actually buying this weekend, since I ordered it at the local CD shop. A strange bled of overt Beatlesque pop, Weezer/Fountains of Wayne power pop, and oh yeah, hip hop. Check them out at myspace. Brilliant, quirky stuff.

I think David Mead and Glen Phillips have new albums out, and I haven't even had the time to confirm that, much less track them down.

In the spirit of the thread, my tuppence worth on Snow Patrol: All I Have is twice as good as every other song on the album, then there's 3-4 other good songs, and the last half of the album is pure filler.

If I was cynical, I'd say they were playing to the iTunes crowd: play 30secs of the single, then put the next strongest 2-5 and hope people will be convinced before they get to the latter songs...

RHCP 'Stadium Arcadium' - better than By The Way, not as good as Californication or Blood Sugar Sex Magik... Will it in time knock off Uplift Mofo Party Plan or Mother's Milk from 3/4 repsectivelly in my RHCP rankings - probably not, but a decent effort.

Arctic Monkeys - Who The Fuck Are The Arctic Monkeys? - avoid. But buy the full album: it is quality. If their future releases are to the standard of this EP, people will indeed be asking this question. Irony only works so far...

on your recommendation I picked up Tally Hall from iTunes, Ksyrup. Great find!

I'm so disappointed to hear about the new Snow Patrol cd. I'm going to pick it up tomorrow, but I really wanted this album to be as great as the first one.

Schmidty, I know you're a fellow Grandaddy fan, so if you haven't picked up their last album, I implore you to.

After listening to it today during pizza deliveries, I have found it to be outstanding. There's a song with a chorus of meows....it has to be heard to be believed...

Maylene and the Sons of Disaster.

That's all I'm listening to lately.