Random Music Thoughts

[VerbalPuke]

Ah so you already knew Holy Fuck, well thats cool good then  . Yes, I will definitely look into that. 

Also looked into vinyl....not cheap at all. My best bet if I want one someday if probably importing from Europe or something because that would actually be cheaper than the 100 dollars the Americans are charging for it. 

But I'll definitely be jamming that. 

That's a really fun group of artists they sampled, very eclectic (I mean ok Stooges and Velvets aren't that wild for a punk/obscure rock fan but then adding Peaches, Salt N Peppa? Nice!!!). 

[RPS]

35 minutes ago, VerbalPuke said:

Ah so you already knew Holy Fuck, well thats cool good then  . Yes, I will definitely look into that.  

Holy Fuck are great. I admittedly only listened to the album you sent me. My older brother was obsessed with Holy Fuck. What a great name for a band. 

Did you ever check out Death From Above 1979? 

[VerbalPuke]

1 minute ago, RPS said:

Holy Fuck are great. I admittedly only listened to the album you sent me. My older brother was obsessed with Holy Fuck. What a great name for a band. 

Did you ever check out Death From Above 1979? 

They are. And....I wont lie I'm in the same boat only hearing that album (lol). They came up on my Spotify Discover weekly once (Super Inuit) and I was fucking blown away. I remember telling my wife "Sometimes you hear a band and realize it's what you were looking for your whole life" (and yeah that's true for a lot of music. But honestly, there are just bands that have a sound or style that makes you think "where have you been all my life?").

And I really haven't checked out Death From Above 1979. I've heard the name here and there but that is about it. Pretty sure most of my "hearing of them" was here on EWB. 

Side note, I love your taste in music and always have. 

[Malenko]

15 hours ago, RPS said:

Holy Fuck are great. I admittedly only listened to the album you sent me. My older brother was obsessed with Holy Fuck. What a great name for a band. 

Did you ever check out Death From Above 1979? 

They're releasing a new album this month.

[RPS]

16 hours ago, VerbalPuke said:

They are. And....I wont lie I'm in the same boat only hearing that album (lol). They came up on my Spotify Discover weekly once (Super Inuit) and I was fucking blown away. I remember telling my wife "Sometimes you hear a band and realize it's what you were looking for your whole life" (and yeah that's true for a lot of music. But honestly, there are just bands that have a sound or style that makes you think "where have you been all my life?").

And I really haven't checked out Death From Above 1979. I've heard the name here and there but that is about it. Pretty sure most of my "hearing of them" was here on EWB. 

Side note, I love your taste in music and always have. 

Aw thanks. I generally love coming on here and posting about music and seeing what others are saying. If someone recommends me something, I almost always listen to it at some point. 

Does your wife like music as much as you do? I am obsessed with music and am constantly listening to music. I am constantly making playlists, changing them up, deleting them. Obsessively. I have a playlist of my favorite 100 songs and I update it all the time - maybe like every two months or so. Swap out the songs I am no longer feeling, add things in that I am really enjoying.

My partner just smiles and nods when I play music most of the time. He grew up listening to salsa, bachata, merengue, etc. so he has very little exposure to rock, pop, indie, electronic, hip hop.

[VerbalPuke]

1 hour ago, RPS said:

Aw thanks. I generally love coming on here and posting about music and seeing what others are saying. If someone recommends me something, I almost always listen to it at some point. 

Does your wife like music as much as you do? I am obsessed with music and am constantly listening to music. I am constantly making playlists, changing them up, deleting them. Obsessively. I have a playlist of my favorite 100 songs and I update it all the time - maybe like every two months or so. Swap out the songs I am no longer feeling, add things in that I am really enjoying.

My partner just smiles and nods when I play music most of the time. He grew up listening to salsa, bachata, merengue, etc. so he has very little exposure to rock, pop, indie, electronic, hip hop.

This is about to be a long winded response....

My wife enjoys music very much, much like me she is the type of person to listen while cooking/cleaning/doing her nails (in her case). We actually kind of had similar tastes even before meeting, just sort of different sides of the coin ya know? She was more in the industrial, gothic, industrial gothic, etc. where as I obviously fell more on the punk side (and of course we love a variety of genres, she had her electronic stuff like Orbital and Lords of Acid where I'd be more in tune with The Prodigy and Underworld for example). So we kind of met in the middle, introduced each other to stuff we hadn't previously given a chance (I love Bauhaus now, and she loves the Gun Club). And yeah I'm the way, any opportunity to listen to something is good. 

With that said, I don't think she's obsessed. She enjoys it, but for me it's almost like a psychotic need in my life. I don't know that I make playlists as often as you, definitely have quite a few (I like making genre specific stuff). I have a playlist for all the old punk stuff that really shaped my music taste from being 15-17 years old or so. I have one called "New Stuff to Check Out" that I update sort of frequently, like if I hear a cool new song and don't want to forget it, I add it to that playlist. 

But really, my wife thinks I'm crazy for this, but I listen to my own music a lot. I am very very obsessed with music to the point of wanting to create my own. So I started doing that. Without being weird or self important about it, I'm not the type of musician with a guitar and an amp and is content being a good guitar player. I have about 10 guitars or so, and they all sort of serve different purposes. I have a few I use for clean jangly/surf tunes, I have a few for heavier stuff, etc etc. It's also an aesthetic thing, I think guitars (and instruments in general) are tools but also beautiful pieces of craftsmanship. 

But yeah, I even went beyond just guitar and I have two bass guitars, two drum sets, two banjos (no real reason for the twos....basically a good one and a cheap lol), a baritone guitar, hell I've got a fucking harmonica, tambourine, and will probably get some shakers before long. I have a synthesizer because I love electronic music, and I don't just record using a simple set up, I have a high powered computer with an interface that handles four microphones, on top of good headphones and studio monitors. I'm utterly obsessed with it, and it 

 So the point of that is I am very obsessed with music to the point that I want to make as much of my own as I possibly can. It's not even like I want to be rich or famous or anything, I'm content being a one man band dork that uploads shit to soundcloud and the only people that know are my friends, family, and Kaney (lol). Every aspect of it really. The different sounds, styles, recording processes, etc.

[METALMAN]

sorry to cut off this interesting discussion but OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL IS THIS

 

[VerbalPuke]

I fucking adore the Wipers.

This one is a few years after the iconic early years but this might be their best thing ever. Its like lofi surfy punk but totally Greg Sage and moody but catchy.

[METALMAN]

I really liked that!.I like punk tunes with the big reverb and the crunchy lower end. Reminds me of the Cramps a little bit.

[VerbalPuke]

37 minutes ago, metalman said:

I really liked that!.I like punk tunes with the big reverb and the crunchy lower end. Reminds me of the Cramps a little bit.

Totally agree, never really made the Cramps connection but upon a second listen, yeah, I can see that in this one.

[MalaCloudy Black]

On 13/03/2021 at 11:27, VerbalPuke said:

This is about to be a long winded response....

<SNIP>

You're a one man band! You should do something like Author & Punisher, only punk instead of drone/doom/industrial stuff.

[RPS]

I have been thinking a lot recently about how songs and certain genres can be really important to certain communities. I was thinking this because I was zooming with my sister in law and my niece is getting to the age where she getting into make-up and she bought CoverGirl make-up. When she told me that, I sung the RuPaul song "CoverGirl, put that bass in your walk" and my sister-in-law had no idea what song I was referencing. For lots of queer people and people who watch RuPaul's Drag Race, they would know that song and they could probably recite the entirety of the lyrics to the song. I think being familiar with the song (and RuPaul's catalogue in general) is a shorthand for being cool with drag, being progressive, being a member of the queer community, etc. 

I also was thinking of it in the context of Canadian artists who never broke outside of Canada and who are national gems. People may be aware of the Tragically Hip outside of Canada, but they are an institution in Canada. For lots of people (and more specifically those over the age of 30), if you played Ahead by a Century by the Tragically Hip, they would be able to sing all the lyrics and know the song front to back. In the same way of RuPaul being shorthand for those things above, the Tragically Hip are a shorthand for the shared common experience of growing up with MuchMusic and CanContent. 

I was reflecting on all of this because my partner's family is Guatemalan and we have two sounds going on in our house - my music (which is an amalgamation of electronic, indie, punk, hip hop and pop) and my partner's family music, which is all bachata, salsa, reggaetón,  and other genres. I gave my mother-in-law a copy of Spotify and showed her a bunch of salsa and bachata playlists, but she scoffed at it. She listens to the same YouTube videos that compile songs and listens to those. I was trying to show her "oh, look there is a Marc Anthony playlist" but it was not the same as the YouTube video that curated the Marc Anthony songs in the exact same order and how she refused to migrate. My kids have even picked up on it. When I am turning YouTube on they say "it is Grandma's music!" When I am turning Spotify on, it is "we are listening to Dad's music!" 

[VerbalPuke]

On 25/03/2021 at 09:43, RPS said:

I have been thinking a lot recently about how songs and certain genres can be really important to certain communities. I was thinking this because I was zooming with my sister in law and my niece is getting to the age where she getting into make-up and she bought CoverGirl make-up. When she told me that, I sung the RuPaul song "CoverGirl, put that bass in your walk" and my sister-in-law had no idea what song I was referencing. For lots of queer people and people who watch RuPaul's Drag Race, they would know that song and they could probably recite the entirety of the lyrics to the song. I think being familiar with the song (and RuPaul's catalogue in general) is a shorthand for being cool with drag, being progressive, being a member of the queer community, etc. 

I also was thinking of it in the context of Canadian artists who never broke outside of Canada and who are national gems. People may be aware of the Tragically Hip outside of Canada, but they are an institution in Canada. For lots of people (and more specifically those over the age of 30), if you played Ahead by a Century by the Tragically Hip, they would be able to sing all the lyrics and know the song front to back. In the same way of RuPaul being shorthand for those things above, the Tragically Hip are a shorthand for the shared common experience of growing up with MuchMusic and CanContent. 

I was reflecting on all of this because my partner's family is Guatemalan and we have two sounds going on in our house - my music (which is an amalgamation of electronic, indie, punk, hip hop and pop) and my partner's family music, which is all bachata, salsa, reggaetón,  and other genres. I gave my mother-in-law a copy of Spotify and showed her a bunch of salsa and bachata playlists, but she scoffed at it. She listens to the same YouTube videos that compile songs and listens to those. I was trying to show her "oh, look there is a Marc Anthony playlist" but it was not the same as the YouTube video that curated the Marc Anthony songs in the exact same order and how she refused to migrate. My kids have even picked up on it. When I am turning YouTube on they say "it is Grandma's music!" When I am turning Spotify on, it is "we are listening to Dad's music!" 

This is interesting, and I wish I had more to contribute, but off the top of my head I can probably just use Detroit as my example. I know it's not the greatest thing because I think most cities feel the same about the music in their community, but ya know Detroit does have some good roots. We're Motown, I know Motown music is a big deal, but it feels like a bigger deal here since it's ours. Probably one of the most important genres of music that you can literally say is specific to this city. Like hip hop, rock, and techno are all huge here and have deep roots, with highly influential performers, but those three genres are not exclusive to Detroit in the way Motown is ya know? 

[VerbalPuke]

So after RPS showed us that Soulwax, I've been digging more into techno type stuff. A lot of it is revisiting stuff I already like (specifically Underground Resistance). Reason being is that I'm looking at that as my next bit of experimenting with music. I have this cool little gadget made by Behringer that is based off of this old Roland synth/sound generator that was used quite a bit in the Acid House scene in the 80s (and I think even groups like Daft Punk used it). So anyway, next step is a drum machine. But I'm listening because this stuff is different than playing instruments, it seems like more repetition, where one beat kind of stays consistent then some basic bleeps and bloops that change here and there. I don't know, I have a synth and the Behringer thing to work with for now, and I can play drums but regular drums would be hard as hell to sync up with this type of music. 

Anyway, yeah I've been really jamming a lot of electronic lately, it's just such great shit. 

And just for example, this is probably my favorite bit of work by UG, though Acid Rain is fucking fantastic also. 

 

 

[RPS]

16 hours ago, VerbalPuke said:

So after RPS showed us that Soulwax, I've been digging more into techno type stuff. A lot of it is revisiting stuff I already like (specifically Underground Resistance). Reason being is that I'm looking at that as my next bit of experimenting with music. I have this cool little gadget made by Behringer that is based off of this old Roland synth/sound generator that was used quite a bit in the Acid House scene in the 80s (and I think even groups like Daft Punk used it). So anyway, next step is a drum machine. But I'm listening because this stuff is different than playing instruments, it seems like more repetition, where one beat kind of stays consistent then some basic bleeps and bloops that change here and there. I don't know, I have a synth and the Behringer thing to work with for now, and I can play drums but regular drums would be hard as hell to sync up with this type of music. 

Anyway, yeah I've been really jamming a lot of electronic lately, it's just such great shit. 

And just for example, this is probably my favorite bit of work by UG, though Acid Rain is fucking fantastic also. 

 

 

I used to have a drum machine and used to have a bunch of software on my old computer where I would make electronic music and mash ups and things like that. It is really fun. What I really enjoy about electronic music is that it is pretty freeing in terms of what you create. There is certainly experimental rock music out there, but experimental electronic music is so freeing because the conventions of what "electronic" music is so less strict than what rock music is. I also really enjoy about experimental and ambient music that often times the focus can still be to create melodic music, whereas I find that rock music that is experimental often tends to avoid being melodic. I think this is because rock music was conceived with the notion of having a vocalist, guitar, and drums create a melody, which is so often why rock music is fixated on the 4/4 time signature. On the flipside, electronic music is much more focused on the technology used to create the sounds. So a lot of experimental electronic music can be really catchy. 

A great example of this is the band Matmos or Herbert. Matmos are a couple who release albums that have some unifying theme. In 2001, they created an album called a Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure which was made entirely with items or sounds from medical procedures. It is at times an experimental record, but a track like spondee borders on being a house song. Their album Ultimate Care II is an album entirely made from the sounds of a washing machine. Again, you would think the conceit is to make a drone or ambient or purely experimental record. But Matmos is fascinating to me because they still want to find the melody underneath it all. 

Herbert is similar in releasing his album Scale in 2006, except the goal is expressly to be very melodic throughout the whole album, but it is sampled from 635 sounds and items. Some are really standard - there is horn sections and traditional vocals. But all of the sudden something will bubble up and you will be scratching your head about what the sound is. It is really cool.

As an aside on Matmos, they also have a side project called the Soft Pink Truth. Two of their albums are cover albums where they cover punk songs ("Do You Want New Wave or Do You Want the Soft Pink Truth") and black metal ("Why Do the Heathen Rage"). Their punk covers range from Nervous Gender to Crass to Minor Threat and they turn them into techno tracks. The highlight is their cover of the homophobic Angry Samoans song "Homo-Sexual". It turns it into the most bizarre club song you will probably ever hear. Do not listen when others are around... 

Here is their cover of Out of Step: 

 

[Skummy]

On 25/03/2021 at 13:43, RPS said:

I have been thinking a lot recently about how songs and certain genres can be really important to certain communities. I was thinking this because I was zooming with my sister in law and my niece is getting to the age where she getting into make-up and she bought CoverGirl make-up. When she told me that, I sung the RuPaul song "CoverGirl, put that bass in your walk" and my sister-in-law had no idea what song I was referencing. For lots of queer people and people who watch RuPaul's Drag Race, they would know that song and they could probably recite the entirety of the lyrics to the song. I think being familiar with the song (and RuPaul's catalogue in general) is a shorthand for being cool with drag, being progressive, being a member of the queer community, etc. 

I also was thinking of it in the context of Canadian artists who never broke outside of Canada and who are national gems. People may be aware of the Tragically Hip outside of Canada, but they are an institution in Canada. For lots of people (and more specifically those over the age of 30), if you played Ahead by a Century by the Tragically Hip, they would be able to sing all the lyrics and know the song front to back. In the same way of RuPaul being shorthand for those things above, the Tragically Hip are a shorthand for the shared common experience of growing up with MuchMusic and CanContent. 

I was reflecting on all of this because my partner's family is Guatemalan and we have two sounds going on in our house - my music (which is an amalgamation of electronic, indie, punk, hip hop and pop) and my partner's family music, which is all bachata, salsa, reggaetón,  and other genres. I gave my mother-in-law a copy of Spotify and showed her a bunch of salsa and bachata playlists, but she scoffed at it. She listens to the same YouTube videos that compile songs and listens to those. I was trying to show her "oh, look there is a Marc Anthony playlist" but it was not the same as the YouTube video that curated the Marc Anthony songs in the exact same order and how she refused to migrate. My kids have even picked up on it. When I am turning YouTube on they say "it is Grandma's music!" When I am turning Spotify on, it is "we are listening to Dad's music!" 

I have a Puerto Rican friend, through wrestling, who grew up in a family that pretty much only knew Puerto Rican music and hip-hop, and it wasn't until he was a teenager that he started discovering other music, and getting into punk and hard rock. 

His partner told me a story about he had been really blown away that he had been in a car journey somewhere in Europe, and the other wrestlers there played "Turn The Page" by Bob Seger, and he was amazed that they knew it because he thought it was just some obscure track that another friend had always played when they were driving. His partner just told him, "honey, that's just white people music". 

 

I definitely think about this a lot, though - we're seeing it in WWE now, with so much of their fanbase complaining about Bad Bunny being there because they've never heard of them, and if they've never heard of them then he must be a nobody, even though he's a huge star by absolutely any metric, he just doesn't cross their radar.

Similarly, if you find yourself deeply involved in one scene and then move outside of it to another, it's easy to find yourself thrown off by how many things you thought were common knowledge, or easy cultural touchstones, don't translate.

[RPS]

57 minutes ago, Skummy said:

I have a Puerto Rican friend, through wrestling, who grew up in a family that pretty much only knew Puerto Rican music and hip-hop, and it wasn't until he was a teenager that he started discovering other music, and getting into punk and hard rock. 

His partner told me a story about he had been really blown away that he had been in a car journey somewhere in Europe, and the other wrestlers there played "Turn The Page" by Bob Seger, and he was amazed that they knew it because he thought it was just some obscure track that another friend had always played when they were driving. His partner just told him, "honey, that's just white people music". 

 

I definitely think about this a lot, though - we're seeing it in WWE now, with so much of their fanbase complaining about Bad Bunny being there because they've never heard of them, and if they've never heard of them then he must be a nobody, even though he's a huge star by absolutely any metric, he just doesn't cross their radar.

Similarly, if you find yourself deeply involved in one scene and then move outside of it to another, it's easy to find yourself thrown off by how many things you thought were common knowledge, or easy cultural touchstones, don't translate.

My husband has very little interaction with American or British popular music. My husband definitely could not name a single Beatles, Rolling Stone, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, etc. song. Like and not an issue with the not knowing the song titles. He flat out probably could not recollect ever listening to their music. He liked maybe a handful of American pop singers like Whitney Houston and the usual gay classics, but for the most part all he listened to was Aventura (and Romeo Santos), Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, Selena, etc. And for the most part, he never owned any CDs, they were just burnt CDs that family and friends freely exchanged. He probably wouldn't know half of the people who sung most of his favorite Spanish songs. I love hundreds of Spanish language songs that I have zero idea who sings the song or what the song is called. 

My husband watched Bohemian Rhapsody a while back. I have no idea how, but a month or so ago he just stumbled upon the Wembley Stadium concert. He literally watches the concert every few days and is just mesmerized by Freddie. He is 44 and basically had no idea who Queen was and is now obsessed with Freddy Mercury's stage persona and voice. For the most part, the stuff that catches him is really obvious. His preference is that I play David Bowie, or Queen, or the White Stripes.  As somebody hyper obsessed with music, I envy that. You can only hear Space Oddity once and marvel in how amazing it is. You can still be "wowed" by music. I still remember in 2016 hearing Blonde by Frank Ocean for the first time on a walk with my dog that would normally take 20 minutes but that spanned the entire walk as I needed to listen to the whole thing. But as you get older, it is hard to really have those experiences again. 

I am always interested in what my partner gravitates towards. I can tell he does really gravitate towards more effeminate and flamboyant lead singers (he loves David Bowie, Queen and Scissor Sisters), but he really likes very unusual acts. For example, there was like a six month period where he was obsessed with Simian Mobile Disco's album Temporary Pleasure. There was another time all he wanted to listen to was of Montreal. His go to "what song do you want in the car" right now is the White Stripes, but in particular Elephant. The first time he ever saw the video for Seven Nation Army he was like "can you replay that entire video again?" As I said, I am envious because my mind was blown when I was 17 when that album came out and my mind was already blown. 

[METALMAN]

Well you people are all very lucky. My Brazilian flatmate likes all the Latin music from her home country but she also has a great deal of interaction with American and British popular music. And she likes Radiohead. And Oasis. 

Not ideal.

[RPS]

6 minutes ago, metalman said:

Well you people are all very lucky. My Brazilian flatmate likes all the Latin music from her home country but she also has a great deal of interaction with American and British popular music. And she likes Radiohead. And Oasis. 

Not ideal.

What about blur? They are fine, right? 

[METALMAN]

Yes she likes them. She actually has very good music taste, my Brazilian flatmate, apart from the Radiohead and the Oasis. Although she has banned me from listening to opera which is a bit unreasonable. And her Brazilian hip-hip music is pretty dire. It's all In Brazilian, I don't know what they're saying. But apart from that she’s fine.