"What are you listening to" 2015 thread

[stevew]

Another new Beach House album?

[nol]

All the indie/alternative pop people in the thread should give the new Grimes album a listen.

[Butter]

New Deerhunter album is pretty good.

Also, the latest Chairlift single I am playing like 4x a day. In addition to the ridiculous rotation on SiriusXMU.

[britrock88]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

the ridiculous rotation on SiriusXMU

Sigh @ this. Sometimes it feels like an indie Top 20 station. I guess they feel like Blog Radio covers the variety component?

[timmae]

The Struts "Could have been me" has been on altnation quite a bit lately and is a great tune. Saw them in concert last night... Holy shitballs. I thought it was the second coming of Mick Jagger with equal parts Black Sabbath Ozzy leading the group. Amazing live show. Just amazing. If you like fun rock and roll check them out.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by timmae

The Struts "Could have been me" has been on altnation quite a bit lately and is a great tune. Saw them in concert last night... Holy shitballs. I thought it was the second coming of Mick Jagger with equal parts Black Sabbath Ozzy leading the group. Amazing live show. Just amazing. If you like fun rock and roll check them out.

You have GOT to be kidding, right?

That's the single most offensively "whatever it is it is NOT active rock" song I've heard in a very long time. Literally, that a station would play that song & claim to be a rock station offends me to my core.

Note: I'm not dissing you for liking it, not giving anybody shit for enjoying them. I'm simply insisting that the word "rock" not be applied to whatever the fuck they're doing.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Incidentally, as of the end of the month, Mediabase (charts based on actual radio airplay) will no longer track "Rock" as a format.

That's the name that was given to what was generally referred to as the (Mainstream) Rock chart.

The few stations remaining will be folded into the Active Rock format chart.
Things had gotten so lean for mainstream that it literally took as few as 2 spins anywhere in the country to crack the top
50.


edit to add: The impact? Remains to be seen honestly. Active has taken a horrific turn toward being all over the place formatically over the past year or so particularly. A better option IMO would have been to move stations off the Active panel into the Mainstream panel, reflecting the airplay of both formats more accurately. Instead, honestly, current rock is so dead at radio that they punted & just trimmed it back to one chart. The biggest impact initially appears likely to be that a format that has already become stale & staying on the same singles far too long will become even moreso. The stations being shifted in tend to be incredibly slow to move on anything, that's an extra 100-200 spin count for songs that are frequently six months (or more) old. Means everything likely becomes even more stale.

[timmae]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

You have GOT to be kidding, right?

That's the single most offensively "whatever it is it is NOT active rock" song I've heard in a very long time. Literally, that a station would play that song & claim to be a rock station offends me to my core.

Note: I'm not dissing you for liking it, not giving anybody shit for enjoying them. I'm simply insisting that the word "rock" not be applied to whatever the fuck they're doing.

I can certainly see why you'd say that... no doubt. I'd like to see what kind of genre you'd place them in. Especially if you haven't listened to their full release yet.

[timmae]

dola: I did say "rock and roll" Jon... you may have thought I was referring to something other than what I was.

[johnnyshaka]

One-man band, Steve Hill...saw him live at a small venue a few months ago and he was phenomenal.

[corbes]

José González performing "Let It Carry You" Live on KCRW - YouTube

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by timmae

I can certainly see why you'd say that... no doubt. I'd like to see what kind of genre you'd place them in. Especially if you haven't listened to their full release yet.

I'd have to shoot myself before getting through an entire album, based on the three songs I've heard.

I do apologize, however, for reacting to the post about "Could Have Been Me" with the venom earned by their current single "Kiss This". The newer track being played on anyone claiming a rock monicker sends me into such a blind rage that I can't quite focus properly.

They're somewhere between alternative & a throwback style that would fit better with AC if they backed off a few decibels. Despite the hype machine they have going, they truly stand out to me as one of the least deserving of airplay bands I've heard in all the years since I returned from a largely music-free decade or so.

"Hate" might be too strong a word ... but not by much.

[cartman]

Never have been a big fan of Disturbed, but I really like this cover they did of "The Sound of Silence".

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by cartman

Never have been a big fan of Disturbed, but I really like this cover they did of "The Sound of Silence".

Bobaflex did a better cover, just fwiw.

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by stevew

Another new Beach House album?

I tweeted last night that I didn't like Depression Cherry at first. Then I came back to it later this year and I like it a lot more. Thank Your Lucky Stars sounds more "Beach House" to me, but I don't know that I've gotten into it yet. It might be too melancholy.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Working through my year-end top album list and am struck by a general thought (which I may have had last year as well)

I think too many artists are weakening their album by going to 10 songs when they only had 6-8 good ones, or to 12 when they had 8.

It diminishes my impression of the overall product when they water the album down that way, I'd prefer fewer tracks of higher quality.

[Julio Riddols]

I remember when 13-15 tracks seemed commonplace.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

I remember when 13-15 tracks seemed commonplace.

To be clear, I don't have a problem with it if a band can pull it off. I just find it rare to the point of being extremely notable that anyone can.

I honestly don't think I recall an era like that.

Back In Black? 10 tracks.
Powerslave? 8 tracks.
Screaming For Vengeance or Point of Entry? 10 tracks.
Tooth & Nail? 10 tracks

Alter Bridge Fortress is probably THE best album I've heard in at least 20 years and it pushed the edge of the envelope with 12 songs.

[Julio Riddols]

I'm thinking of stuff from the mid 90's mostly.. Pantera/Fear Factory/Korn/Marilyn Manson etc.. Bands back then seemed to pack close to an hour on every disc. Sometimes it was only 10-12 tracks, but it was always at least 10.

I've been kinda disappointed with the change back to 8-10 track records, which often barely scrape a half hour and change.. Feels like less for the money, and it doesn't seem like turnaround times have gotten a lot faster (2 years or so seems normal).

Its a different era now for sure, I think the move to heavy digital distribution and the renaissance of sorts that vinyl has seen is why we have gone back to shorter releases/fewer tracks. I guess it doesn't bother me either way if the quality is where it should be.

EDIT - I just found out that listing Pantera up there was a mistake, as their longest release seems to be 12 songs. Part of me wants to think I imagined this time of copious tracks, but I have too many discs in my collection from that time frame to let that part of me be right.

[QuikSand]

I'm stretching my imagination to think how talentless, or more likely "way off the mark," you'd need to be to do a version of Sound of Silence that's no good. The base material is so damned strong, it's a can't miss. That vid above is fine, but it's hard to identify what they are adding to an already brilliant song.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

Its a different era now for sure, I think the move to heavy digital distribution and the renaissance of sorts that vinyl has seen is why we have gone back to shorter releases/fewer tracks. I guess it doesn't bother me either way if the quality is where it should be.

I'm not seeing any shortening though, at least not across the hard rock spectrum.

So far (with a few still to go) I've gone through 106 albums for my year-end process. Avg number of tracks is 11.06, easily 80% or more are at least double-digits in tracks and that's with intro tracks/segues/etc not being counted in those figures.

The lack of quality tracks was/is my gripe. Time and time again I have albums start out making a strong impression only to destroy that completely the deeper into the album I go.

edit to add: And I have the EPs in a separate category so they aren't included in that one way or another, but there are actually fewer of those this year than last for me (about 20 instead of 25), so full length outnumbered those shorter ones at least 4:1. Unaccounted for are true "singles only" projects but there's less than a dozen of those that aren't associated with a forthcoming album/ep.

[JonInMiddleGA]

My annual Albums of the Year list is FINALLY complete.


2015 Albums of the Year | Jon's Three Cents