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Random Music Thoughts


VerbalPuke

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Does anyone else ever get excited over album covers? I mean, you find an album by an artist you don't know, you have no idea what the music inside sounds like but judging just by the cover, you get excited or anxious? Or even a bit disappointed already because it is either a bad album cover or a cover you just don't like? I am asking because, while I was researching some Jelly Roll Morton history and releases, I came across this and this. And immediately decided I need to listen to both because of this unexplainable joy about album covers.

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Sometimes yeah, I mean if it's a genre of music I already know I wont like, it doesn't do much for me. But there are some album covers for bands I like, and I look at it and feel underwhelmed. Of course, spinning it changes that, but still. Sometimes simple is a good approach with album covers, and sometimes stuff that is trying to be weird but just looks stupid isn't so cool.

I really like the over the top heavy metal covers, the shit with flying dragons and some nuclear bomb going off with a damn half naked chick flying on another dragon holding a sword over head. And then I also like covers that just show the band on the front chilling in front of a brick wall.

Some of them older albums covers were cool because they weren't going too nutty. The cover of Elvis Presley's first album is pretty great for example.

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  • 5 weeks later...

So I've only had a chance to listen to an album or two so far but The Chop Tops are such a fun band, they're rockabilly with punk inferences mixed in or "Revved-Up Rockabilly" as they call it, think I found myself some new drinking music.

I've also come to the conclusion that Nirvana aren't overrated, Nevermind is.. if that makes sense, I just listened to both Bleach and In Utero again recently and holy shit I forgot how good those guys could be.

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100% agreed on Nirvana. It's been a weird journey for me and listening to Nirvana. As a little kid I thought they were stupid, then as less of a little kid, I thought they rocked. Then I got into punk and thought they weren't as cool. Then I got older and less stupid and realize they are excellent. They just do what they do very well, hard rocking, cool stuff. Bleach is a classic, a very good album.

I feel the same about the Beatles lately. I'm still not a huge fan, but I appreciate them more nowadays. Rather than take the opposing stand point of them being overrated, they weren't. They deserve their ranking as one of the greatest bands ever. Mother fuckers that don't even like the Beatles can probably sing along to atleast a handful of their songs. They evolved their sound, it wasn't just the same shit album after album, they went from fun poppy British invasion stuff to cool psychedelic bearded drug stuff. I think the Beatles fall into the tolerable at worst, and enjoyable at best category for me.

Speaking of the 60s, and this sort of sounds weird for me, but I liked how bands in the 60s wore suits and ties. I don't know, much as I love the outlaw bullshit of rock and roll, there is something charming about four smiling dudes wearing really smart suits playing a good song and singing together.

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I think the problem with Nirvana's legacy is this - basically, after Nirvana ended, I think rockism basically died. Rockism being the bias by audiences, critics and the media to have a preference towards rock music due to it being authentic. That isn't to say that Nirvana sucks or that rock music sucks, but Nirvana was the last band that existed in a world where rock music was worshiped and heralded as the best music genre in the world. I think the reason this happened was twofold:

  • First, fake grunge happened between 1994 and 2000 (and there was also rap-metal around this time). The influx of terrible imitators really diluted Nirvana's legacy - rock music took a huge thrashing in North America post-Nirvana and it never really recovered. Even when the 2000 garage rock movement took off, there was still lots of people being skeptical of the whole movement and it was never a real cultural moment like Nirvana. Nirvana blew up the music world, got the world into a frenzy, died and they left a whole bunch of crappy knockoff bands in their absence. think the knockoff bands were inevitable, but what never happened was that Nirvana never really got the chance to have their legacy upheld because rock music took the backseat...
  • Technology came and blew up the music industry. The internet altered the music business in so many ways - downloading was just one way. Previously, music was filtered to people through controlled channels - radio, MTV, print media like Rolling Stone, etc. Even people who consumed through irregular channels, like indie record stores or the earlier days of the internet, still were limited to how information about music was conveyed to them. Once the internet blew up, I could literally listen and discover any type of music I wanted. This meant that I could find out about Aphex Twin or Boards of Canada way easier than I could before. Also, technology made it easier for three music genres to be made - pop, electronic and hip hop. An electronic album was difficult to make in 1991. Using samples and new software, it was way easier for one guy to sit in his parent's basement and make an ambient album. Lily Allen was able to become a pop star when she would have never been a pop star 20 years ago. To make a rock record 20 years ago, you needed band members and a recording space. Now, a guy can make an entire electronic album in his basement, release it onto the internet for free and can still find ways to be a financially viable act (like touring or selling music to advertisers, etc). I think these two factors together have led to the proliferation of the attention of these genres and rock music has been neglected since. Indie rock was a nice little fad for a bit, but it never amounted to the same cultural moment that Nirvana had. Radiohead is "the best band in the world", but it hasn't amounted to very much.
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Queen is dead. Queen was the unit of Freddie Mercury, John Deacon, Brian May and Roger Taylor. No one else. When Freddy Mercury died in 1992 Queen died. The only Queen release not involving Mercury I'll accpet as Queen is "No-One but You (Only the Good Die Young)". Everything else isn't Queen. May and Taylor together aren't Queen. May and Taylor trying to milk the cow with whomever they get isn't fucking Queen. Their stupid album with Paul Rodger's isn't a Queen album. And Taylor + May going on tour with a casting show hack sure as hell isn't Queen. I wish that they would just drop the damn name already. I know they probably have the right to the name and are legally in the clear as well as that Freddie Mercury himself probably wouldn't have a problem with it but I hate it.

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Rockism is a load of rubbish

So I did this in the wrestling forum, why not the music forum? I love music, it's my favorite thing ever. I think we could use one of these for our random music thoughts ya know? This is good for just encompassing some of them thoughts we have regarding music. Ya know, you got a lot on your mind regarding music. It's like you want to talk about heavy metal, but you also thought about some cool outlaw country, but at the same you are digging Muddy Waters.

Anyway...

I think Tom Petty was a great song writer. He might be the ugliest man in all of rock and roll, but that guy could write a good fucking song. He's never going to be one of my all-time favorites, but as far as "Dude who is on the radio that I don't mind hearing, and might even turn the song up", he's up there for me. I think he wrote some pretty good stuff. I mean yeah, he did have some cheesy 70s poop rock like Don't Do me Like that, but Running Down a Dream and Mary Jane are really cool songs, and I think he deserves some credit. I'm not sure where I rank him at all, as a guitar player or song writer. I know that he writes catchy tunes, and I think he does very good with what he does. Does that make sense? Probably not. Go Tom Petty.

ZZ Top is an amazing rock band. I love ZZ Top, another band that I don't cite as an all-time favorite, but those cats could fucking rock. They were my first concert, and remain as one of the best live performances I have ever seen. They got pretty stupid in the 80s with shit like Legs, but I mean Tres Hombres is a fucking rocking album man.

Prog rock is so hit and miss. I love Gentle Giant, they are great. But sometimes prog rock is so fucking boring. It's like, Prog Rock when it's fast and upbeat is really killer, but when it's slow and experimental, it sucks. It's like my old man says, Jethro Tull had some great tunes, but there is a reason people called them Jethro Dull.

Punk rock. You guys already know what I think, it's my favorite. I see it for more than fast, three chord rock. I'll elaborate on this another day, because I've done it before, but it's my shit.

I love Don't Do Me Like That :(

Probably emphasises my Rockism is a load of rubbish point :/

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I wish I could embrace music like I did as a teen. As I get older I'm starting to realise it's not that older generations think their music was better than the next generation, but just that the emotions and hormones firing back and forth as a teen get you far more easily invested into the music.

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I wish I could embrace music like I did as a teen. As I get older I'm starting to realise it's not that older generations think their music was better than the next generation, but just that the emotions and hormones firing back and forth as a teen get you far more easily invested into the music.

I hear that. But these kids today don't know what real music is >_>

My guilty pleasure is The Bloodhound Gang. Especially Along Comes Mary, I know its a cover but its a bloody good cover. And Screwing You on the Beach at Night still makes me giggle, especially the remix of it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Matt Skiba joining Blink-182 could be either fantastic or terrible. He has a spoty record. I liked some Alkaline Trio, but the rest is rather ugh...

and, I HATE Spotifys new app. The lyric button doesn't always work, and when it does, 9 times out of 10 it shows the lyrics in time with the song, which is what I don't like, For the Bad Religion song American Jesus, it shows a part of the lyrics at the end when their actually sung in time with another part of the song

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a hard time discovering new music nowadays. I've seriously turned into a guy who listens to nothing but country mainly because there are very few bands still around now that I actually enjoy. What's the best way of opening yourself to new music?

I was always into bands like Our Lady Peace, Nirvana, Manson, Korn, Godsmack, Smile Empty Soul, Chevelle, Deathcab For Cutie and various other bands but I find that either these guys aren't making great music these days, or aren't making music at all. I need to find some new music in this vein but haven't really found anything that I like.

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Honestly, I've been doing my 365 thing partly to find new artists, but out of 211 albums listened to so far, I'd be surprised if the new artists who have genuinely stood out reaches double digits. I think it's just a thing as you get older, the adrenaline and hormones aren't flaring like they are as a teen and it makes it harder to get into music on the emotional level you do in those years, and the musicians you do love won't ever really stray far from their formula because it's what worked.

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