Posted 3 years, 1 month ago in the early morning by moreno
One thing I realized in a late night discussion with Rajeev is how great it is to still be able to get excited about new music. Its much much too easy to say to yourself in your disillusioned mid-20’s “All new music sucks. Nothing is as good as the stuff I used to listen to back in the day, like Pearl Jam. These new bands they all rip off Nirvana.” As Randy Rajeev said, it’s easy to think that the bands you listened to in your teens was better because it was the music you were listening to while you were coming of age and you were able to identify with it on an intense level during those formative years. And now you look back on those days with great fondness as well as the music that provided the soundtrack to it. Sure, I can listen to Dance Hall Crashers nowadays and remember the nights driving around our dead suburb in my car filled with my teenage friends, and to this day i still say Dance Hall Crashers rock even though we all know they do not.
Especially around musicians i’ve noticed an annoying “thats not so great, I can do that” attitude towards music, an attitude I used to have as a disgruntled teen watching Blink-182 videos on MTv. Luckily I have been able to get over that mentality and appreciate things for what they are. Who cares if the song has 3 chords? Dylan made a career off 3 chord songs.
So for all you ignorant elitists out there who love to tell yourself how music has been going downhill ever since you stopped listening to new music, I present with you the most recent new music that excites the hell out of me and makes me grateful to live in the times I do:
Wolf Parade - Apologies to Queen Mary ( I already mentioned this in a previous post. I’m too lazy to link it, you can find it. Best album since I can’t remember when.)
My Morning Jacket - Z
Why? - Elephant Eyelash
Scout Niblett - Kidnapped by Neptune
Sigur Ros - Takk
Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene (these guys might be the greatest band ever. Might)
Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Amadou and Mariam - dimanche a bamako
Feist - Let it Die
Gorillaz - Demon Days
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
The Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike (okay I know this came out last year but it was only released in the USA this month)
and of course The Arcade Fire - Funeral (again came out in 2004)
If you can listen to all of these albums and tell me that there is no hope for the future of music, then you my friend are an idiot.
Yeah, I agree, Jay-Z has some really good music!!!
moreno i agree with
bloc party
arcade fire
gorillaz
i would add the mars volta.
i just recently heard the whole bloc party album and despite the fact that i didn’t want to like it, i really did.
i also like the new green day album so take that for what it’s worth.
hp - jay-z, eh? i see you’ve been combing those underground hip-hop stations again.
bobbo - yea I was trying to keep it just bands with albums that came out this year, but obviously the volta are the future, or maybe from the future.
- Moreno
Without new music, I’d just get bored.
My amigo Moreno, I’m totally down with you. Somewhere between the last three years I fell into that mentality–music out there sucks–but you know, there’s some great shit being churned out all over the fucking world, one just’s gots to keep their ears peeled to hear el sonido. I just got me the new Soulwax record, Nite Versions, and it’s fucking tight. I’m working on my own list for my blog so hope to see you there, see what you think, ‘cos you got more to put on here.
I could only recognize one name of your list. I’m a loser
LOL
Right on brown brotha. There’s too much great stuff out there…if people don’t think so, they ain’t looking hard enough. Here’s the plethora of stuff I’m still trying to diagnose, disect, and digest this year.
Broken Social Scene - BSS
Stars - Set Yourself on Fire
Atmosphere- YCBHMFWH
Brian Eno - Another Day on Earth
Ulrich Schnauss - A strangely isolated place
Sigur Ros - Takk
Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
Decemberists - “5 songs EP”, “Castaways and cutouts”, “Picaresque”.
Clap your hands say i’m not so sure i can handle that voice much more
And now I have some more. Cheers.
Well, now that Revazito is throwing us his list. I”ll share what’s been blisterin’ the ears of Mr. EMC in the Oh Five.
Soulwax - Any Minute Now / Night Versions (two record one-two knock out)
Stars - Set Yourself on Fire
M.I.A. - Arular
Clap Your Hands and Say I Sound Like David Byrne -CYHSY
Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash
Eels - Blinking Lights & Other Revelations
Las Puertas - We Are Las Puertas
Say Hi To Your Mom - Ferocious Mopes
Ryan Adams - Cold Roses / Jacksonville Nights
The Cardigans - Super Extra Gravity
Magnolia Electric Company - What Comes After the Blues
Jens Lekman - Maple Leaves
Of Montreal - Suntanic Panic in the Attic /Sunlandic Twins
That’s off the top of the cabeza–shit, I just realized I ain’t got no new Latin alternative music. Either way, I got the Decemberist, Blackalicious, and the new Dios Malos record coming my way. Haber que. Busy music year.
Thank you Revaz for adding Sufjan to the mix. I just learned (thank you wikipedia) that it is pronounced Soof-yon and not Soof-jon.
Oso hates M.I.A.’s music, but after reading wikipedia, becomes mildly enchanted.
That’s pretty badass. I’m gonna start saying, “trust me, you’ve been looking for me” to girls at bars and see what happens.
I wonder if you’d land a record deal first before you’d get laid?
M.I.A.’s music is reminiscent of Basement Jaxx, a lot actually, and some aspects of Dizzie Rascal mirror the Jaxx, and thus he landed on their last record. I still have this thing against that new grime music in Britain. Thinking as a music geek, I find it interesting, but thinking as a music business marketing tactic–I hate it.
But I’d take the Daewelle Brothers over both of them anyday. Os, I recommend Night Versions–a total electronic remix record that’s supposed to be played all the way–no singles, no short tunes, just long ass, git down with yer bad self electro. Anyone that name checks The Clash and has the pelotas to do a cover of a Daft Punk tune (off of the classic Homework, mind you.) gotta be doin’ something right.
Uh, by the way, when we doin’ a podcast fool?
Well fuck, HP can’t be left out, since were all throwing out lists of music were listening to, I’ll throw out my list as well,
HP’s Music List
The Game
He just came out with some really good songs (bootleg).
DANCE HALL!
DANCW HALL CRASHERS TONIGHT!
i’m leaving to see clap your hands… in about five minutes. you might want to check out the new matt pond pa cd, which is really good in my opinion. i also like sons and daughters.
what are these two like?:
Why? - Elephant Eyelash
Amadou and Mariam - dimanche a bamako
are most of us blog readers indie music snobs?
thanks everyone for pitching in with more great new music. lets see if i can address everyone:
“Why?” is a side project with one of the guys from CLOUDDEAD, an indie hiphop band…you should check that out, HP, altho you might not like it cause theres no bling-bling video on mtv and you wont see them on the cover of Source Magazine talking about “feuds” fabricated to push their album sales from double gold to platinum. anyway WHY? is less hiphop but its definitely genre-crossing. as my friend who introduced me to them said ” the song Gemini sounds like a Ben Folds Five song gone horribly right”.
Amadou and Miriam are a blind couple from Mali. They both sing, Amadou plays guitar. This album was produced by Manu Chao and its definitely got his fingerprints all over it. great stuff.
Oso hates MIA because, as hes proven time and time again, he hates brown people. ESPECIALLY brown women. just cant stand them.
EMC - ill check out that Soulwax album.
Thanks again for everyones recommendations, i’ve decided to keep it positive and i’m not going to critique. aint gonna say what i hate, just what i love. and i love DANCE HALL
gonna dance all dance hall every day, gonna dance all dancehall everyday. damn, this comment was long, i’m like HP now, but without the self-loathing.
ahh HP, the eternal whipping boy on this site. pobre.
No you aren’t like HP your comment was interesting, informative and of course as you mention lacking in self-loathing. keep giving me the music. As that dead white man theif (you know the one) said “If music be the food of love, play on”
hey moreno i bought the apologies to the queen mary album and it’s pretty sweet so thanks for the recommendation. i think i’m gonna listen to it again right now, and repeat im not in love with the modern world a few times.
check out Architecture in Helsinki, especially if you’re into the Arcade Fire - their album will knock you down. They played in San Diego a few nights ago at the Casbah, I was out of town or I’d have gone. I heard that it was a great show though - probably one of those ‘You and 3 of your closest friends at the Casbah seeing an awesome new band that hasn’t made enough wave to draw a crowd yet’ kind of experiences that happens sometimes.
Architecture in Helsinki … yet another band I was introduced to by my 15-year-old sister. So embarrassing. I wanted to be at that Casbah show … I wish that event planning part of the brain wasn’t missing in my own.
yea that is embarassing, Oso, youre an embarassment to this blog.
Jon - yea i didnt forget about Architecture, i just don’t think theyre gonna save the world with their music the way Wolf PArade has and will. theyre actually a really big band with a huge draw, id be surprised if that casbah show wasnt sold out. rajeev loves those guys in an unhealthy wealthy way. ITS FIVE!!!! IT….IS…..FIVE!!
I’m terrible too, upcoming.org always bails me out -
http://upcoming.org/metro/us/ca/sandiego/
There’s an RSS feed that I shove into my Exchange calendar with a bit of .NET glue, that way I have everything in front of me and on my cell phone etc - you know like at 1AM when you’re piss drunk and really need to tell this girl when that show is. Not that this ever happens…
Moreno - I definitely agree with the subject of your post - this is a great time for new music. One of the guys here at work has been going on and on about Wolf Parade, I think it’s time to go borrow that album from him… you’re probably right about that show considering that it was a Saturday night. Between that and missing Gang of Four last night, I’m almost bummed about being on vacation this week. Almost.
does anyone know where to find Zack de la Rocha?
i heard Zack played his first show in over 5 years in LA a couple weeks ago…that’s what I heard.
I’m bummed I missed those Helsinski guys from OZ too, only it was a tuesday night in San Francisco. But Stars/Death Cab on the 13th and BSS/Feist on the 9th of Nov should help me recover.
Architecture in Helsinki, I know those guys, I didn’t know that they had made it to America. One year ago (last time I saw them), they told me that they had just comeback from Seattle where they had had meetings with Sub pop people. I wonder if they are helping them with their tours over in the sates.