What the hell are you listening to...2009 Edition

[Schmidty]

Well.......I can't believe I'm admitting this, but I really like this cheesy black metal band called "Summoning". The genre is normally repugnant to me, but this group does all Tolkien themed songs. It's lame but epic in a sense. Totally not my type, but I really like it.

[Lathum]

been listening to a lot of Bouncing Souls

[cartman]

The Oak Ridge Boys covering Seven Nation Army. No, really.

[Ramzavail]

The Bouncing Souls are great. I've seen them live about 20 times.

[whomario]

Wow, those Bouncing Souls guys are great, never heard of them before. Thanks

I´ve been listening to a lot of Kings of Leon recently, the last album is pretty damn good.



that bass line is wicked

and i´ve been catching up on TV on the Radio, totally overlooked them before but those guys are great.

[Ksyrup]

Here's a Monty Python-esque, pretty entertaining video from Red Fang, a metal band in the vein of The Sword, Clutch, Baroness, Taint, etc. It appears that they enjoy beer a little bit...

[chinaski]

Been listening to a lot of Band of Horses...


some National:


and been getting my metal on as well.... Big Business, imo is one of the best in the world (members of Tight Bros, Karp and Murder City Devils)


and more kick ass metal, The Sword:

[hawk4669]

Originally Posted by Lathum

been listening to a lot of Bouncing Souls

Love the Souls. Going to see them at Warped this year. As a side note, for me at least, there is a terrific lineup this year of a lot of bands I listen to there. Will be my first time seeing the Bouncing Souls live.

Cheers!

[terpkristin]

Saw recommendations here for Kenna, along with reading about him in Blink. Listening to his "Make Sure They See My Face" album, really liking it.

Also came across Metric the other day thanks to something I read on Twitter. I'm on my first listen-through of the "Fantasies" album but it's quite solid. Also, it's a $5.00 Amazon mp3 download.

/tk

[path12]

The new Metric is growing on me, there's some really strong songs on there.

[whomario]

Yeah, i agree about Metric, definitely a good record with lots of lasting apeal.


Just currently listening to the brand new Maximo Park CD called Quicken The Heart.
Are they known in the US at all ? (no sign of it on wikipedia at least)
Their first 2 Albums where brilliant imo, really fresh and energetic sound with great rythm changes and featuring a great voice to boot.
Only new song with decent quality on youtube : The Kids are sick again
there´s better songs on it though.
2 from their previous albums :
Apply some pressure
Books from Boxes
The Coast is allways changing


Other than that in the last days i´ve listened to a lot of Death Cab for Cutie, basically a best of from the debut up onto the recent Open Doors EP.
Marching Bands of Manhattan (propably my most favourite song ever)

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by path12

The new Metric is growing on me, there's some really strong songs on there.

I haven't found a song I really like yet, but...I don't hate it.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by cartman

The Oak Ridge Boys covering Seven Nation Army. No, really.

how...interesting.

[Young Drachma]

Here's a song from a Nite Jewel called "What Did He Say?"

I won't bother to review it, I'll copy what a blog said about it:

will be taken aback by the groovy, slow-ish jams of Nite Jewel, the project of LA's Ramona Gonzalez and Emily Jane. A few singles have been floating around for a while, but now they're debut full-length, Good Evening, is finally out. The album is packed full of bedroom disco tracks that sound like they were recorded on a 4-track. Fairly mellow structures and stripped down drum machines back Gonzalez's airy, sweeping vocals. You won't be breaking out in the Hustle on the dance floor or anything, but you will surely be slowly bobbing your head from side to side.

Here's the track: Nite Jewel - What Did He Say

[Marc Vaughan]

Everclear - Wonderful

[Mac Howard]

On another thread I added a bit of levity into a religious debate with a link to a youtube song "Have a drink on me" after Marc suggested the English pub served the same social purpose as the American church. While I was looking for it I came across this Aussie version:



Not quite right for the religious debate, I thought

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

The Bird & The Bee - Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future came out in January and it's probably my favorite album of the year. It's got way more of a downtempo feel to it (think Sia & Zero 7) than their last LP, so I like it more. But it's really just absurd pop lyrics that they make work pretty well.

My two favorite tracks are the title track

Ray Gun - the bird and the bee

and Polite Dance Song

Wow. I'd listened to both their albums a couple times while doing other stuff, and thought they were both pretty good, but today I listened to both while driving today, and the new one is much better. I love Polite Dance Song and Love Letter to Japan.

[Cringer]

Never been a fan really of either of these, but I am kind of digging this song...

[whomario]

olafur arnalds - 3055

brilliant video to the song.

the guy is a flat out awesome musical mind, very likeable character as well. If you know/like Sigur Ros, check him out.

Performs a great cover of Detah Cab´s Marching Bands of Manhattan :




free brand new tracks (7 days, 7 songs project by him) : Ólafur Arnalds - 'Found Songs' (Erased Tapes) - follow to download each day's mp3 for FREE

[Lathum]

anyone get the new Green Day yet?

[whomario]

@ lathum : had it borrowed and i truly can´t say much positive about it. Yeah, some songs aren´t bad but overall it´s just boring. And i loved their american idiot album and a lot of their other stuff as well. But this one just feels "forced", like they sat down and said to themselves "you know, i think we should continue just ranting about sth and pretend like we are really angry" . I don´t buy their message on this album, not even a little. And musically it´s straight forward and has some good moments but overall it really is average in that regard as well.
It´s like a very "light" version of american idiot and basically an unnescessary album.
IMO

anyone of you heard of or listened to Bat For Lashes ? She (Natasha Khan, basically a singer/songwriter with a live band and on the album some help from drum magicians yeasayer )was on Letterman recently i saw on youtube.
Her single "Daniel" got mentioned before, but the whole album (Two Suns) is just great. Great voice like Bjork without the "artiness" (that "going over the top and refusing to just sing beautifull" thing she does) but much catchier melodies without being cheesy or dull. There´s some great drum and bass work in it, great lyrics as well.



aforementioned single live, what a great voice. Great pop song



great drums and bass here, awesome opener.



here the Bjork comparisons get really valid.

Plus, the cover of the single totally kicks ass :





yeah, that daniel

[Young Drachma]

The reviews are lifted directly from the corresponding blog post. Hence the length.

Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
I didn’t really spend a lot of time with her debut album, but it seems that Two Suns veers in a completely different direction. To me, it just sounds like a Tori Amos album with better production. I find it a lot more listenable, as a result. No standout singles to mention yet, but I think it’ll hold up pretty well.

Malajube - Labyrinthes
These guys hail from Quebec. They rock entirely in French and I like them, because they’re pretty solid. One of the problems I had on the first album, is they play almost so loud that it can be very hard to hear the lead singer. That hasn’t really improved on the second album, either. But the melodies are tight and variates well from start to finish. My favorite track on the album is probably the lead track, Ursuline.

Zee Avi
An YouTube sensation, Zee Avi parlayed her online success into a record deal. (There’s an article about her that’ll give you more context)

Her eponymous debut was released today. And it’ll put you in mind of a minimalist version of Norah Jones and I mean that in the most flattering way possible. Her music is just really clean, not overproduced in any way and stripped down to the elements and it’s melodic and almost effortless in how great how voice resonates.

It’s worth a listen, for sure. Here’s a cover of Interpol’s Slow Hands that she did, which shows you how good (and distinct, despite my earlier comparison) her music is.


Chrisette Michele - Epiphany

Her first album didn’t hold up for me, but I like her voice a lot and she stepped up her game on this release. Another One would work really well if someone reworked it as a country song. Blame It On Me works, too. What You Do is a Ne-Yo song, so it’s inevitably the best song on the album. Epiphany is the right mix of chill and stuff you can play as the sun sets and I credit that to Chrisette Michele’s voice. It’s not full of distracting cameos and it’s not overproduced. She did a great job on Letterman a few weeks ago, too.


Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
I don’t know the last time I reviewed a Green Day album. Because I don’t know if I ever have. As a teenager in the 90s, Dookie was memorable for me, but I haven’t really paid much attention to them save for the warranted praise heaped on them for American Idiot, which honestly wasn’t an LP I spent a lot of time with. Not because it was bad, I was just a bit tired of their sound.

Well, 21st Century Breakdown is just really good. It’s got the cohesiveness of a regular album, with the creativity of a concept album. I don’t really have a lot of use for Billy Joe’s voice, yet it’s distinctive and memorable in that way that Darius Rucker will always take us back to Cracked Rear View and when Hold My Hand dominated the airwaves.

The praise heaped on this album isn’t hype. It’s good all the way through and should hold up as one of the best albums of the year, easily.

Corneille - The Birth of Corneilus
He doesn’t really have the Motown pedigree, despite being on the label now. A French-based R&B singer, I’m not sure what to make of him, except he reminds me Tunde Baiyewu from Lighthouse Family and so, maybe that’s why I’m still trying to figure out whether I like the album or not. I don’t think it’ll really resonate in the US, but it’s worth checking out to see what you think. It could be a decent easy listening alternative to other fare.

It does not, however, sound like his last album, with the standout track “Too Much of Everything” and I can’t figure out if I like it or not. I think the hook is too repetitive.


I haven’t listened to the new Tori Amos (Abnormally Attracted To Sin) in depth yet and I didn't like the new Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band album (Outer South) much at all.

--------------------------------
I also just loaded The Dears latest album (Missiles) and the debut releases from some bands playing at Sasquatch festival soon: Other Lives (Other Lives), School of Seven Bells (Alpinisms) and Vince Mira (Cash Cabin Sessions)

The latter of those three, Vince Mira, is a country singer from California who recorded at Johnny Cash's studio and his album was produced by the Man In Black's son.


I think that about covers it for now.

[samifan24]

I'm currently listening to the new Great Lake Swimmers and Mat Kearney albums.

[Karlifornia]

I haven't listened to Outer South all that much, but the song "Roosevelt Room" is killer.

[Young Drachma]

I just ran into this song. I dig it. It's the band Ghostland Observatory and the track is Robotique Majestique

[Easy Mac]

Just pimping my friends band. They have their full length coming out at the end of summer and they're plaing bonaroo this year. They're called "hockey" just google hockey band and they pop right up. They're a little cut copy or MGMT if Julian casablancas fronted them.

The only 09 albums I've got recently are tiny animals, passion pit and great lake swimmers, since they were on sale. If the thermals ever go on sale, that's my next likely purchase

[Easy Mac]

Indie music fans, Amie Street has 50% off all music through the end of the day. They also offer credits (gift cards) that are also 50% off.

Also, the new Au Revoir Simone album comes with their 3 prior albums free, and it's 50% off. So you get 4 albums for $4.

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

Indie music fans, Amie Street has 50% off all music through the end of the day. They also offer credits (gift cards) that are also 50% off.

Also, the new Au Revoir Simone album comes with their 3 prior albums free, and it's 50% off. So you get 4 albums for $4.

3 prior albums?

EDIT: Ah, it looks like one is a remix album. I was hoping for some kind of double-whammy, but that's still cool.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud

I just ran into this song. I dig it. It's the band Ghostland Observatory and the track is Robotique Majestique

I saw them on Austin City Limits a few months back... thanks for reminding me that I want to go get some of their stuff. A very interesting looking and sounding band.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by Lathum

anyone get the new Green Day yet?

It's brilliant stuff. There is some real gems on this album. It doesn't hit you at first as much as "American Idiot" does (especially with that album's "Jesus of Suburbia" epic), but I just find myself unable to tear myself away from "21st Century Breakdown". It's quite good and Green Day seems to be trying a few new tricks. I think the trio in a row of "Horseshows & Handgrenads", "The Static Age", and "21 Guns" is some of their best work ever.

[MikeVic]

I've been listening to Death From Above 1979... I heard a song in a Diesel store in Vegas that I really liked the sound of, so I asked the people working there what it was. After I got home I tried their other stuff (really only one album??), and like it quite a bit... is there any story to this band? Or something else that sounds like them?

edit: Saw their website... guess they've been done for three years. Looked at their list of concerts performed, and they were in my city three times, the last being in 2005 with Nine Inch Nails and Queens of the Stone Age! Oh man if that was right now I'd buy those tickets so fast. Boo.

[path12]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

I saw them on Austin City Limits a few months back... thanks for reminding me that I want to go get some of their stuff. A very interesting looking and sounding band.

Saw them live at the ACL festival a couple years back and really liked them, then saw them at a club in Seattle last year and HATED them. Weird.

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

I've been listening to Death From Above 1979... I heard a song in a Diesel store in Vegas that I really liked the sound of, so I asked the people working there what it was. After I got home I tried their other stuff (really only one album??), and like it quite a bit... is there any story to this band? Or something else that sounds like them?

edit: Saw their website... guess they've been done for three years. Looked at their list of concerts performed, and they were in my city three times, the last being in 2005 with Nine Inch Nails and Queens of the Stone Age! Oh man if that was right now I'd buy those tickets so fast. Boo.

Blah, you had me excited for a while there. I'm not sure who else I would say sounds like them. I want to say The Klaxons, but that could be just because I got albums by both of them around the same time. Css has a song called "Let's Make Love and Death From Above" which is a reference to them, so it's at least an influence there.

[path12]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

Css has a song called "Let's Make Love and Death From Above" which is a reference to them, so it's at least an influence there.

That was the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw his post.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

I've been listening to Death From Above 1979... I heard a song in a Diesel store in Vegas that I really liked the sound of, so I asked the people working there what it was. After I got home I tried their other stuff (really only one album??), and like it quite a bit... is there any story to this band? Or something else that sounds like them?

Godheadsilo was doing the bass/drum thing in the early '90s, but they have a lot less-polished sound than DFA. Big Business is also perhaps a more apt and modern comparison.

[MikeVic]

Thanks guys, I'll try to listen to some of those.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I figured I'd just put this bit of news in this thread since it seems to catch some of the folks more into the music scene (and it didn't seem worth its own thread here).

An Athens music scene landmark was heavily damaged & likely destroyed by an early morning fire, as The Georgia Theatre went up in flames between 6 & 7 am. Originally the first YMCA in the south built in the late 1890's & later a movie theatre, the building was turned into a music venue in the late 70's and has played host to countless acts large & small including REM, B-52s, Widespread Panic, Pylon, B.B. King, The Police, Ice-T, Muddy Waters, Jerry Jeff Walker, Sea Level, Steve Morris, Chuck Leavell, Randall Bramblett, David Allen Coe, Davis Causey, John Prine. Basically it was the preferred venue in town for any non-country touring act that came through for the past 20 years and was a fixture for acts trying to get their break as well.

blogger emotional impact version
Goodbye to the Georgia Theatre | Blogs.OnlineAthens.com
Straighter drier newsy version
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/...52521217.shtml
More thorough coverage from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Roof collapses as Georgia Theatre burns in Athens | ajc.com
(in fairness, the fire knocked out power in downtown Athens, including the Athens Banner-Herald office )

[miked]

I have seen Perpetual Groove too many times. I did not think they were still alive.

[Young Drachma]

Here are the albums I've been catching up on lately.

Mos Def - The Ecstatic (really good!)
The Antlers – Hospice
Grizzly Bear - Veckimist
Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels (yay)
Dierks Bentley – Feel That Fire
Laura Gibson – Beasts of Seasons
Jason Lytle – Yours Truly, The Commuter
The Soundtrack of Our Lives – Communion (good)
Swan Lake – Enemy Mine
Röyksopp – Junior (woo!)
Papercuts – You Can Have What You Want
Isis – Wavering Radiant
Handsome Furs – Face Control
White Lies – To Lose My Life
Passion Pit – Manners (Woo!)
Paolo Nutini – Sunny Side Up
Crocodiles – Summer of Hate (Rockin!)

[Easy Mac]

I have to say, I'm really enjoying the new Grizzly Bear. Its odd, because I really did not like Yellow House in the slightest. It sounds like there is music this time and not just sound.

Great Lake Swimmers was just meh for me.

I'm kind of enjoying Other Girls - Perfect Cities. Its like if Band of Horses played Strokes music. It works well, but the lyrics are just too bland and misplaced, and while the music sounds good, it a bit too jittery and not skilled enough. If the band takes their time (they talk about this being the last chance they take), they could grow into a pretty good band.

Also not really digging the new "Beirut" album. The Passion Pit album, kind of sounds like a poor man's Cut Copy, which has turned into one of my favorite albums from 2008.

Howling Bells - Radio Wars, I'm liking it more than I thought I would, although the singer sounds a bit too much like Jenny Lewis, who I saw in Chicago two weeks ago (so hot).

I really like Japandroids - Post Nothing, its scuzzy and lo-fi like early At the Drive-In. Also liking Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There are Mountains.

Art Brut - Art Brut vs. Satan - Definitely a return to form after the so-so last album. but The Thermals - Now We Can See, definitely feels like a step down from their brilliant last album.

Finally, it came out last year, but Johnny Foreigner's new album is fun as hell. Its like if the singer from Bloc Party (who's name I won't spell), did punkier music, but then spliced it with a little Los Campesinos.

[samifan24]

If you like folk, see if you can find a copy of the new, as-yet-unreleased Alexi Murdoch EP. It's great.

[Easy Mac]

Just started listening to the Discovery album. It's the singer from Ra Ra Riot and keyboardist from Vampire Weekend. It's an electronic r&b album that makes heavy auto-tune use. It is damn catchy. If this doesn't unseat T-Pain, something is wrong with America.

Forgot I can finally copy and paste links on my iPod.

Discovery - http://hypem.com/artist/discovery

and my friends band Hockey - http://hypem.com/artist/hockey

[BigDawg]

Joe Satrinia+Chad Smith+Michael Anthony+Sammy Hagar=



http://www.chickenfoot.us/

[Pyser]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

and my friends band Hockey - Hockey / MP3 & Music Blog Songs / The Hype Machine

they got a cool writeup in Q...been meaning to check them out. thanks.

[Easy Mac]

107 free songs, courtesy of urban outfitters. I assume there will be more mixtapes, so I guess watch the URL. Only the 5th set requires Itunes, the others are zip files. Its all indie music, but a few songs are by bigger indie names (Grizzly Bear, Phoenix...).

Urban Outfitters LSTN

[AlexB]

Just been watching the Doves set at Glastonbury - awesome stuff.

[Ksyrup]

New Alice In Chains album will be coming out at the end of September, and they are offering the new single for free at their website. They've replaced Layne with Will from Comes With the Fall, and he's great. But AiC has always been about Jerry Cantrell first and foremost, and his voice was an integral part of the old AiC sound, so not having Layne isn't as big an issue as it miht seem (IMO).

The first single, A Looking In View, is heavy as fuck. Very impressed. They were always my favorite grunge band. Probably because they have so much in common with King's X. And I've "known" Will for years - at least a decade ago I started corresponding with him when he was with his old band and a nobody. Now he's in a great place. I have high hopes for this album.

[Young Drachma]

This song is wow.

[Passacaglia]

I don't think I ever got around to posting my Top 5 from 2008, but Lykke Li's "Youth Novels" was going to be #3. Whole album is very good.

[Matthean]

Originally Posted by BigDawg

Joe Satrinia+Chad Smith+Michael Anthony+Sammy Hagar

Was thinking I had no idea who that guitarist was, but if they had Joe Satriani that would be pretty amazing. Oh, that is who the guitarist is. I liked the vast majority of the samples. Nothing amazing, but maybe only one real filler level song. If I wasn't so past hard rock music as a genre, I would probably make this an instant buy.

Still waiting for some releases to come out, but the end of the online viral campaign by Derek Webb led to people being able to literally piece together small sound files to hear the song that got him in hot water with his label. He is a "Christian artist" so they weren't too happy with him swearing on it. Really like the song, and it's been stuck in my head since I've heard it. Probably the first song that really stuck with me from the songs that have been posted so far. Probably ends up being one of this hallmark songs like "Wedding Dress."