The Music thread

[jakonovski]

Yeah, euro and premium.

[HaemishM]

American and premium - it ain't available over here. I have heard the single High Road and dig it.

[jakonovski]

How odd, usually it seems to be Europe that gets the short end.

[Cadaverine]

Bah.   I want the new Mastadon album.   

I wonder if their newfound European favoritism is why a couple of VNV Nation's albums vanished a while back.

[Sky]

Is it more Crack the Skye or The Hunter?

I was a little meh over the Hunter, but can listen to Crack the Skye forever.

[jakonovski]

I have only listened to it a couple of times so the album hasn't fully clicked yet, but it's definitely a departure from Hunter. I feel they're channeling the 80s a bit on this one.

But I don't think anything can ever beat Crack the Skye. 

[Sky]

Teh feels:

Clapton's tribute to JJ Cale

[calapine]

Tove Lo - Habits (Stay High)

[apocrypha]

Wondering if anyone could offer some suggestions here.

I've never listened to much classical music in my life. It's never really said anything to me. However, someone played me Chopin's Nocturnes a few months ago and I liked it. It is very good at a specific role - pleasant background music when my wife and I are in the kitchen. We have very different musical tastes and anything with lyrics tends to intrude too much when we're cooking, eating, talking, etc. Our kitchen is the social hub of our house, everything happens there.

Can anyone recommend some other music that might work in the same role? I've tried some Debussy (too twiddly and wanky sounding), some Beethoven (too rah rah pow clang) and some Brahms (I liked it, but it demanded too much attention).

This feels like I'm asking for elevator music, which I kind of am to some extent, but the Chopin really *works* - it's good to listen too with my full attention as well as being excellent background music and I'm struggling to find anything else that works as well.

[Nebu]

Liszt's Consolations
Fauré's Romances sans Paroles
Debussy's Suite Bergamasque
Satie's Gymnopédies
Glass's opening from Glassworks
Arvo Pärt's Spiegel Im Spiegel, Für Alina, Fratres, Cantus In Memory of Benjamin Britten etc.
Also try the Nocturnes by John Field.

It's odd that you like Chopin and not Beethoven.  Most people that like Chopin also like Beethoven's Appassionata's second movement and the third movement of the Archduke Trio.

Hope that gets you started.

[apocrypha]

Cheers for the suggestions, I'll dig some of them out :)

All I've tried was an old CD of Beethoven Symphonies, I'll give those things you suggest a try too.

[Sky]

Bach's Brandenburg Concertos are my favorite.
Segovia - Art of Segovia
Pepe Romero - Eloquence
Pepe Romero - Flamenco
Bach - Violin Concertos and Double Concertos
Cantiga - A Village in Motion
Cantiga - Martha's Dragon
Christopher Wilson, Shirley Rumsey - Early Venetian Lute Music

[HaemishM]

Is it more Crack the Skye or The Hunter?

I was a little meh over the Hunter, but can listen to Crack the Skye forever.

Having now listened to Mastodon's new album, no it isn't Crack the Skye but it is definitely better than the Hunter.

[Ingmar]

Wondering if anyone could offer some suggestions here.

I've never listened to much classical music in my life. It's never really said anything to me. However, someone played me Chopin's Nocturnes a few months ago and I liked it. It is very good at a specific role - pleasant background music when my wife and I are in the kitchen. We have very different musical tastes and anything with lyrics tends to intrude too much when we're cooking, eating, talking, etc. Our kitchen is the social hub of our house, everything happens there.

Can anyone recommend some other music that might work in the same role? I've tried some Debussy (too twiddly and wanky sounding), some Beethoven (too rah rah pow clang) and some Brahms (I liked it, but it demanded too much attention).

This feels like I'm asking for elevator music, which I kind of am to some extent, but the Chopin really *works* - it's good to listen too with my full attention as well as being excellent background music and I'm struggling to find anything else that works as well.

To semi-quote one of my professors, background music is failed music. Good music demands your attention.

Anyway that out of the way, Vivaldi is mostly pretty inoffensive stay-out-of-your-way sort of stuff. Since you like Chopin so far, I'd suggest grabbing the Horowitz "Favorite Chopin" album, it's a very good introduction to his solo piano highlights. Pretty much any Mozart chamber music would probably serve your purposes as well. Haydn is similar.

Do you have a Spotify subscription? I could provide links to albums directly. Here's the Horowitz:

http://open.spotify.com/album/1qNSzPbbDoqbCz2PmyE0Lr

Mozart Violin Sonatas (Itzhak Perlman version, 4 hours worth):

http://open.spotify.com/album/2BNl1Z20i7UxDwneYXhbhu

Haydn String Quartets Op. 76, Nos. 1-3:

http://open.spotify.com/album/1jEDDJA3uyuZjyRc692Jap

Vivaldi Four Seasons (i.e. the thing he wrote that everyone's heard, Joshua Bell version):

http://open.spotify.com/album/5VPLJcOLkBvRBoxZUcdJ01

For your homework, since you like Chopin piano stuff, look into other early Romantic era piano guys: Lizst, Mendelssohn, Schumann

[apocrypha]

To semi-quote one of my professors, background music is failed music. Good music demands your attention.

I agree entirely, this is a situation-specific request :)

Thank you for all the suggestions, I've got a lot to listen to now!

[Engels]

Teh feels:

Clapton's tribute to JJ Cale

Listening to this was fantastic. Brought back my memories of listening to Slowhand in the 80s. I also discovered this full album recorded by JJ Cale and Clapton. Might be your bag if the previous vid was.

[Sky]

Mastodon show 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR7icis_13M

[Hawkbit]

I'm going to preface this question by saying upfront:  I'm not trying to be a dick.  Seriously.  I really try to go out of my not to offend people about their musical choices.  But...

Why do you folks like Mastodon?  I know a lot of folks into them; I've tried and I just don't 'get' them.  I feel the same way about Baroness. 

What about their music or culture sets them apart to be so well loved by fans?

[Sky]

I just speaks to me. I love the rhythms and melodies, especially as they've grown and progressed as a band.

Brann Dailor is also one of my favorite drummers.

This vein of metal makes me want to put together a metal band again.

[Engels]

I normally don't like death/sludge/walrus metal, but I listed to Mastodon for the first time today and I have to say they aren't half bad. Mostly because they don't do stupid growly shit. They are a bit sludgy, but I like that they have 3 singers that they use to different effects, and I love their motifs.

[HaemishM]

I used to hate Mastodon's early music because it was growly. When Crack the Skye came out, it all clicked. I got what they were doing. It's like they are channeling Rush mixed with Tool for sludge and Slayer for beat. It took me a bit to get into them, but once I did, I was hooked.

[Signe]

Video to make you happy.

[Engels]

Very fabuloso.

[Signe]

Oh, good.  Here's another one to make you feel even better.

[Evildrider]

What?  No love for new Weird Al?

[Phildo]

Or the new Weird Al?

[Hawkbit]

Lazer/Wulf: http://retrofuturist.bandcamp.com/album/the-beast-of-left-and-right

I dig.  Mostly instrumental metal.

[Sky]

Yeah, that's pretty good stuff. A little cerebral and awkward for me, but still listenable.

This has been my go-to instrumental metal album lately:

Earthless - From the Ages

[Fraeg]

I just speaks to me. I love the rhythms and melodies, especially as they've grown and progressed as a band.

Brann Dailor is also one of my favorite drummers.

This vein of metal makes me want to put together a metal band again.

Brann is such a joy to watch

my instru metal contribution: explosions in the sky meets metal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhnkD7YxJ1s 

[Hawkbit]

Just got back from seeing Wolfmother.  Even with an almost full new lineup they still put a good show together.  Especially for $20. 

Feel like playing some D&D now. ;)

[Cyrrex]

Going to try a little Mastodon based on this thread.  Probably not my thing, but worth a shot.

I am still quite a bit into this nu-metal and metalcore thing (maybe that isn't what it is...I find it hard to classify much of this music).  It is a strange area in that so much of it to me seems like samey, repetitive, growling nonsense with little actual musical value...and then you stumble across a band or an album that just seems BRILLIANT.  A good example of this for me is As I Lay Dying.  In general, I find it totally unlikable and can't figure out why anyone would want to listen to any of it for any reason at all.  Except that they have one album, Awakened, which for me just absolutely melts face from top to bottom.  I pretty much love every song on that album, and universally dislike everything else they have made.  I find this area of music is filled with this sort of thing...95% of it is just terrible, but the remaining 5% makes it totally worth it to me.  Bands I currently have on rotation:

As I Lay Dying - just the one album, thank you
Atreyu - They have two fantastic albums, and then couple good songs hidden among the rest of their work
Bullet For My Valentine - it took me a while to recognize it, but they are actually quite good.  I like almost all of their stuff.
Avenged Sevenfold - another pretty hit-and-miss.  Two really good albums for me, the rest is pretty meh.
The Agonist - I find it very samey.  Trying to like it, but I can't quite get into it.
Killswitch Engage - I like Alive or Just Breathing.  The rest is a bit meh.
Trivium - Okay for the occasional change of pace, but meh.  They sound too much like a suped up Metallica.  That said, my favorite track is the remake they did of Master of Puppets, which is great.
Asking Alexandria - Hands down my favorite.  I can listen to this shit all day long, and I like all of it.  It didn't resonate with me initially, but once I gave it a chance I was blown away.
Volbeat - this doesn't fit into the same class of music in my opinion, but I find them to be great.  I basically enjoy everything they make.

Looking for suggestions for stuff in similar veins to some of the above.  I need to switch out a couple of these underperformers. 

[Lakov_Sanite]

Soooooo, Primus is releasing a cover album of the Gene Wilder Willy Wonka songs.....

Here's the first track  https://soundcloud.com/ato_records/primus-pure-imagination

[Sky]

Going to see Primus in October. Always a good show, though I'm a bit less excited about this Wonka stuff. I think it because I do not use drugs. Honestly I wish I had heard this track before I bought the tickets.

Cyrrex, for your first dip into Mastodon I'd recommend Crack the Skye. But if you like the more yelly/growly stuff their older stuff is more like that.

Asking Alexandria was really good live. I was quite happy with the lineup when I hit the Mayhem fest a couple years ago.

[Sky]

What the fuck?

Limp Bizkit has a new song out. Predictably, it's...special.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yQC-wil8hg

I actually dig the band itself (Wes Borland and the rhythm section, I mean) and their first couple albums were pretty good. But this? I mean...huh?

[HaemishM]

Oh look, Fred Durst wants to be Suicidal Tendencies without any of the lyrical or vocal talent whatsoever. Fuck that twat.