Random Music Thoughts

[RPS]

Yeah, she is really good. STFU is an excellent song as well. 

I have been on a music listening binge. Pitchfork put out two good pieces for their 25th anniversary: the 200 most essential artists of the last 25 years (https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/most-important-artists/) and the list of the future of music (https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/pitchforks-25-next-list/) 

So I have listened to a whole lot of music the last two weeks: 

• DJ Rashad - Double Cup (2013): Man, so much of pop and hip hop sounds inspired by DJ Rashad. What a great album. 
• D'Angelo- Black Messiah (2014): I really dug this album. I listened to D'Angelo's older albums back at the early turn of the century, but never listened to this album. Really loved it. I don't know if I will listen to it a whole lot, but still interesting. 
• LCD Soundsystem - American Dream (2017): Why would you come out of retirement to make such an average record? 
• 100 gecs - 1000 gecs (2019): Taking the hyper pop framework of A.G Cook and SOPHIE and taking it to 100. If you are looking for a song to give you a sense of what you are listening to is Stupid Horse. It is a pop / electronic / ska about a stupid horse. This album both makes me feel old, but in a good way. 
• Rina Sawayama - SAWAYAMA (2020): As stated above, it is a combination of 90s R&B, 00s pop music and nu metal. It somehow works really well. 
• Yaeji - What We Drew (2020): Really good electronic album. A cool mix of ambient and house. Good chill out album. 
• Bartees Strange - Live Forever (2020): I feel like this guy is going to blow up in the next 5 years and be the biggest thing in music. You can tell the ambition and scope is there. Not my cup of tea, because it sounds like TV On the Radio but for a sold out stadium. 
• Spirit of the Beehive - Entertainment, Death (2021): I actually listened to this album a while back, got into and fell off my radar. It is a lot of psychadelic lofi rock vibes over some simple pop melodies. Spooky. 
•  Kacey Musgraves - star crossed (2021): Really good. I don't like country music, but I love Kacey Musgraves. 

[METALMAN]

 

22 hours ago, RPS said:

How am I just hearing Rina Sawayama now? She is great. Her debut album sounds like Mariah Carey meets Korn with little flourishes of present day electronic music. 

I would have told you before! She is just so much your kind of thing that I assumed you already knew … : /

[MalaCloudy Black]

STFU! also rules, I really liked "Bad Friend" as well. I think these songs are gonna wind up in rotation on my playlists pretty soon.

[Gorka]

Pitchfork readers were polled on their favourite albums from 1996 to 2021 to celebrate 25 years of the website.

They did 200 albums, here's the top 20 and you should look away if you don't like Radiohead:

Spoiler

1. Radiohead - Kid A
2. Radiohead - OK Computer
3. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
4. Radiohead - In Rainbows
5. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
6. Frank Ocean - Blonde
7. Arcade Fire - Funeral
8. The Strokes - Is This It?
9. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d City
10. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
11. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
12. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
13. Kanye West - Yeezus
14. Frank Ocean - Channel Ocean
15. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver 
16. Madvillain - Madvillainy 
17. Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell!
18. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
19. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion 
20. Lorde - Melodrama 

 

[MalaCloudy Black]

The view never changes, eh.

EDIT: Totally unrelated, but TIL that there's ... theories that AFI's lead singer has been reincarnated multiple times and Davey Havok is his "final" reincarnation and that's what the album Sing the Sorrow is about. 

[RPS]

4 hours ago, Gorka said:

Pitchfork readers were polled on their favourite albums from 1996 to 2021 to celebrate 25 years of the website.

They did 200 albums, here's the top 20 and you should look away if you don't like Radiohead:

  Hide contents

1. Radiohead - Kid A
2. Radiohead - OK Computer
3. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
4. Radiohead - In Rainbows
5. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
6. Frank Ocean - Blonde
7. Arcade Fire - Funeral
8. The Strokes - Is This It?
9. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d City
10. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
11. Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
12. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
13. Kanye West - Yeezus
14. Frank Ocean - Channel Ocean
15. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver 
16. Madvillain - Madvillainy 
17. Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell!
18. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
19. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion 
20. Lorde - Melodrama 

 

I'm surprised to see Wilco and Neutral Milk Hotel there. Pitchfork has definitely gravitated away from the indie rock focus and I'm shocked there is a contingent of the audience that would pick Wilco as their favorite album. 

I am shocked how little female representation in the top 20 there is and what albums are. Lorde's Melodrama is not what I would have expected. Definitely thought Fiona or Beyonce would have been in the top 10-20. I know they popped up later (20-40 if I remember).

Its also surprising that Frank, Kanye, Radiohead and Sufjan have multiple entries in the top 20, but also not because the album's are all very different. Blonde and Channel Orange exist in almost different universes.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Just looking at the Top 20 this is gonna be one of those lists I probably know none of the albums on.

[MalaCloudy Black]

I don't get Radiohead. There. I said it. I mean, the radio singles and stuff are fine, I listened to OK Computer, I listened to part of In Rainbows. I don't know. Not for me I guess. 

MERGER/FAKE EDIT: I think I've said this before already. Almost positive.  All that's changed is I listened to some of the more critically acclaimed albums to see if I could figure out if there was something else.

[METALMAN]

Radiohead are shit and so is Pitchfork.

[Hobo]

Ive never felt compelled to actually listen to Radiohead or LCD Soundsystem. No matter how many people talk about how great they are.

[RPS]

Radiohead are good, in my books. I think they are overrated but I understand why. They are the Tarantino, Nolan, etc of the music world. It is great for the industry to have an artist or act you can uphold as the pinnacle. It makes them boring to me because the edges that would make them more challenging aren't there.

I like Pitchfork, but I don't understand it's purpose anymore. Pitchfork became popular for focusing on indie rock, less popular acts and biting criticism of boring major label acts. There were times that I would be angry about a review - the Mars Volta getting a 4 or something for Frances the Mute - but at least it elicited a response. Now it is part of the institution and boring. 

[MalaCloudy Black]

Nothing gold can stay when you're owned by Conde Nast, I guess. 

[METALMAN]

I found Pitchfork's snark and 0.5 reviews amusing but it was far too limited in its focus and knowledge to ever be particularly useful as a guide to music for me.

[RPS]

5 hours ago, METALMAN said:

I found Pitchfork's snark and 0.5 reviews amusing but it was far too limited in its focus and knowledge to ever be particularly useful as a guide to music for me.

The best music criticism website is Resident Advisor. They cover exclusively electronic and dance music and the odd crossover. 

I think if Pitchfork had focused on indie rock and never expanded, it would absolutely still be culturally relevant. I love their long form reads and their lists are fun to scroll. But I cannot recall the last review I read. 

6 hours ago, The Redeemer CLDY said:

Nothing gold can stay when you're owned by Conde Nast, I guess. 

Fucking sell outs. 

[VerbalPuke]

So...concert tickets are suddenly outrageous. Like more than usual. 

Bikini Kill was looking at 68 dollars each? 75 for Circle Jerks? 125 for Gang of Four (sold out anyway). What the fuck is going on here? 

Edit - Oh nice, I found a website with Gang of Four tickets, and they weren't marked way up. I'm not trying to be a cheap skate, but seriously I feel like those prices above are getting into stadium rock territory (of course I then noticed Rage Against the Machine was like 175). 

Edit 2 - Ok, so apparently I just found some shady ass ticket website because I'm now seeing Circle Jerks are like 30 bucks a piece, which works for me. So I ended up buying Gang of Fours, and will probably get Circle Jerks and Bikini Kill tickets eventually. 

Man, I got a really nice lineup of shows now. So far it'll be Murder by Death, Human Impact (with Child Bite!), William Elliot Whitmore, Gang of Four, Henry Rollins (spoken word thing), and likely Circle Jerks and Bikini Kill. 

[RPS]

Kraftwerk are just now getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

🤣

[Malenko]

6 hours ago, VerbalPuke said:

So...concert tickets are suddenly outrageous. Like more than usual. 

Bikini Kill was looking at 68 dollars each? 75 for Circle Jerks? 125 for Gang of Four (sold out anyway). What the fuck is going on here? 

Edit - Oh nice, I found a website with Gang of Four tickets, and they weren't marked way up. I'm not trying to be a cheap skate, but seriously I feel like those prices above are getting into stadium rock territory (of course I then noticed Rage Against the Machine was like 175). 

Edit 2 - Ok, so apparently I just found some shady ass ticket website because I'm now seeing Circle Jerks are like 30 bucks a piece, which works for me. So I ended up buying Gang of Fours, and will probably get Circle Jerks and Bikini Kill tickets eventually. 

Man, I got a really nice lineup of shows now. So far it'll be Murder by Death, Human Impact (with Child Bite!), William Elliot Whitmore, Gang of Four, Henry Rollins (spoken word thing), and likely Circle Jerks and Bikini Kill. 

I like how it went from highly unlikely to definitely going in a matter of minutes. 

[VerbalPuke]

32 minutes ago, Malenko said:

I like how it went from highly unlikely to definitely going in a matter of minutes. 

Heh, well my wife got this insanely good sale price for the Murder By Death show and told me to look for other shows. We were hoping to get the Circle Jerks for the same sale price but they weren't available. When I saw Gang of Four tickets that was one show I had to absolutely have tickets for, so I kept looking. 

[Gorka]

"DON'T TELL ME HOW TO DO MY JOB" is the most cathartic lyric of the decade maybe

[RPS]

 

100 Gecs are really good.