Aqua!
It’s no secret that here in the far-future world of 2014 we’re drowning in music; the internet firehose recently even blasted too-cheap-to-meter U2 into people’s smartphones, and people complained about it. (Cui bono, Bono?)
The dedicated seeker of new music has two related-yet-somewhat-opposed needs: a filter, some sort of barrier to prevent being overwhelmed; and a recommendation source, an engine to reliably feed interesting new musical information to them.
Something that performs a preliminary first-pass winnowing function against information overload.
Get the signal, lose the noise (or the other way around, depending on your preferences).
In the bad old days, this was accomplished via word-of-mouth; chats with likeminded individuals at all-ages basement shows; record stores smelling of mildewed LP jackets and incense; older siblings’ clandestine handoffs of non-parentally-approved records, passed furtively from one generation’s grubby fist to the next like well-worn Playboys; tattered, badly-photocopied ‘zines.
Human contact.
Now, of course, we let algorithms do most of the work for us. Pandora, iTunes Genius, Amazon recommendations – all automated methods of saying, “you liked THAT, so how about THIS [somewhat-similar thing]”.
My perhaps-unfounded worry is that the automated, unthinking continuous programmatic iteration of matching like-with-like carries the risk of sterility; an inevitable dead end of stunted, twisted, impotent scions.
So how to reintroduce the all-too-human element of randomness: tuning into the “wrong” station that turns out to be oh-so-right?
How do we get back some ill-advised musical one-night-stands, and surprises like the time you found that one life-changing unlabeled cassette under the front seat?
Well, we still gotta do that work ourselves.
Perversely, one way to do that is…to match like-with-like.
But don’t go matching on obvious musical or thematic qualities that make meaningful sense.
You want a theme that results in randomness being pulled in.
Go make a playlist of songs culled from albums with mountains on the cover.
Or ones featuring one or more players named “Walter”.
Or ones featuring the word “Charybdis” (that was a short playlist, let me tell you).
Just grab a random theme, and run with it. See what you get.
Hey, look at that.
Up top, a song I am always disappointed to find they don’t have at karaoke. I would KILL that one. One of his most fun to sing, maxing out his deep (geddit?) Bowie/Pop fixation.
Don’t watch this next one if you are prone to migraines or epilepsy, or have an aversion to noisy low-budget late-night trashy psychedelia:
Surf rockers who didn’t filter out the last 4 decades of noisy guitar music:
There’s a bit of Nirvana haunting this one:
Are we gonna get the Led out?
Yes…yes, we are:
Speaking of the U2 PR debacle:
This one’s for dhex:
As is this one:
Always dug this atmospheric song:
Flowing from band name to song title:
Those guys ^^^^ took their name from an early iteration of these guys:
It took me YEARS to realize this bandname was a pun:
I was bummed this Portland band split after becoming a three-piece, Sarah Dougher’s organ really added a lot:
An aquatic one-hit wonder:
I think this footage has been looped at a certain point, but WOW. Snow-skiing has its risks, but at least the mountain isn’t chasing you and attempting to fall on you:
All hands on deck at dawn:
How amazing is it that this band has not ONE, but TWO pretty-great songs about mantas?
Or at least…they’re all right:
I can’t hear this one without imagining the bald, rotund and kind of intimidating Black Francis flapping his arms like a loon:
They should have used this version on Doolittle. Would have added some variety:
For Cartman:
Is that particular guitar really necessary, Mr. Cross?:
I almost disqualified the Beach Boys (too obvious), but I just love this song too much:
Drink up dreamers, you’re running dry:
the sea and cake is a pun?
http://youtu.be/oyIjyVVjIoc
http://youtu.be/HNqQAz3srDgReport
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyIjyVVjIocReport
the sea and cake is a pun?
Well, sort of. It’s a play on this:
Report
I’m not mad at Apple for putting that U2 record on my computing device. I’m mad at U2 for making that record, which I loyally listened to and don’t remember a thing about, except for cringing a little at some of the lyrics (which always happens with those guys).
I went back and listened to Unforgettable Fire, which is way down on my list of favorite U2 records, and was amazed at how effortlessly it kicks the new album’s ass up and down the street.Report
I downloaded it in the brief interval between its announcement and the complaining (it didn’t seem to just show up for me, so I didn’t realize it had for others) but still haven’t listened to it. The song *titles* do not inspire confidence, they look awful.
Their lyrics never bothered me (nothing special, but not really noticeable either) until Achtung – great album, but some of the worst lyrics I’d ever heard*. It’s been downhill from there, in more ways than one.
*”There is a silence that comes to a house, when no one can sleep” – OK, yeah, that paints a picture, let’s see where we’re going with this…
“I guess it’s the price of love / I know it’s not cheap” – NGAAAAAHHHH!
I listened to a few eps of the Adam Scott/Scott Aukerman podcast “U Talkin’ U2 To Me?”
It’s pretty good. It’s ostensibly an in-depth examination of all things U2, but really it’s just an excuse for two pretty funny guys to screw around.Report
What’s weird is that high-minded sloganeering is something he actually does well. The big U2 songs are kind of eloquent at times, or at least didn’t leave the clunker lines high and dry.Report
Also, I see you have sadly neglected to give The Fucking Ocean their due as the band with the best name in the world, even when the opportunity practically sits in your lap.Report
The Gathering – Great Ocean Road
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoR_i7XAh9kReport
Aaaaand… now Rock Lobster will be in my head all day.Report
(I’ve listened to almost everything here now, so that song’s earworm mojo is particularly strong.)Report
PASS THE TANNING BUTTERReport
sadness.Report
Oh, and working Pixies and Christopher Cross into the same post probably earns you points in the afterlife.
(And that The Sea and Cake song is nice.)Report
@dhex – You’re right, I also feel sadness for anyone who cannot recognize the innate perfection and towering achievement that is “Rock Lobster”. 😉
You’ve obviously never been in a basement full of sweaty dancing people losing their s**t to that one. I’m starting to form a picture though. Let me ask:
“Go!” by Tones on Tail
“Temptation” by New Order
“Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads
For/against?
And, if my recollections/suspicions are correct: why do you hate joy so much?
Or, to put it another way: ain’t nothin’ wrong with (IDM minus the I).Report
@chris – yeah, I think The Fawn may be my favorite S&C.
Black Francis always struck me as looking like some sort of demented cult leader, so picturing him flapping his arms up and down while exhorting his followers to ‘DO…the MANta RAY!” in increasingly hysterical tones is both hilarious and unsettling.
RE: The Christopher Cross:
1.) I just don’t understand why he needs that guitar, for that song.
2.) Story Time: Someone Who Isn’t Me once listened, many years ago and over and over, to the self-titled Christopher Cross record (which contains both “Sailing”, and “Ride Like the Wind”), while on mescaline.
After going to the art museum and walking around the lovely college campus for a while, the trip started to become too intense*, so the two friends returned to the apartment and put on the LP for a laugh.
And ended up listening to it for HOURS.
Each time a side would end, one friend or the other would get up and flip the record.
Periodically, one or the other would say, “This is TERRIBLE…but I can’t stop listening to it.”
So, being aware of my friend’s story, I found this news item amusing:
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/christopher_cross_acid_freak
*it was the only time the moderately-psychedelically-experienced SWIM came close to total ego dissolution, his mind’s eye perspective/sensory ‘circle of awareness/locus’ zooming out past the room/street/block/city/state/nation and heading out to orbit, before he – not ready for a godlike perspective, and afraid he might never make it back to consensus reality – chickened out, and put the psychic brakes on.Report
So, the person who was not you psychically caught himself between the moon and New York City?Report
Aaand I see your link already made that joke. Damn…. it.Report
i’ve always assumed 70s soft yacht stuff was largely, if not entirely, based on mescaline and pubic lice.
“Go!” by Tones on Tail – never heard of it
“Temptation” by New Order – ugh, new order
“Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads – ugh, talking heads
now, i mean i love dancing. i love the hardest of zee hardfloor. hell, i even saw (by accident) hardfloor (i was there to see friends open up for baby ford, who was great). that was good. i like zee dance, and accept the hilariousness of my self moving through space.
i love speedy j (one of the best live sets i ever saw, albeit in a really weird environment). silent servant (who i recommend wholeheartedly) is the jam. rrose. regis. sandwell district. all them guys. etc.
dancehall (of the messed up digital kind, not the roots stuff)? reggaeton? hell yes. i luv reggaeton.
i just hate the b52s a lot.
surely you, or your friend trippin’ the light rock fantastic, have come across artists who are strictly a “make it stop!” experience?Report
@dhex – I know you like dance music, so I am trying to figure out the common thread between these artists that to me have made unquestionably-classic dance tracks, that you can’t stand.
The vocals, perhaps (I recall that was a sticking point on Pixies, though they aren’t exactly “dance”)?
But why would a black metal aficionado be turned off by affected or unusual vocal stylings?
Or, I looked up Silent Servant’s Negative Fascination on Spotify and am listening now (very enjoyable for home listening so far, though I am still waiting for dancefloor-appropriate BPMs and hooks/energy to kick in).
My immediate reaction, on seeing just his handle and the song titles, is “Depeche Mode/New Order fan”.
So I look him up on Wikipedia, and yep.
I guess my question is, I know you love, say, Interpol…but how does that even happen, if you don’t give the time of day to, say, Smiths (“Say Hello to the Angels” is, musically, basically a “Charming Man” rewrite) or atmospheric, dramatic postpunk like Bunnymen/Chameleons? (IIRC you at least have some respect for Joy Division).
Is it the theatrical/camp elements (but again: black metal)?
I have a metalhead friend that can’t stand New Order, and it’s specifically the falsetto in “Temptation” that really sets his teeth on edge.
I’m not trying to hassle you, just genuinely curious (if it’s even possible to articulate what elements make these tracks or artists so “make it stop” to you. It may not be any more explicable than “No sir, I don’t like it!”)Report
Reggaeton = pure awesomeness.Report
Oh, we’re seeing Interpol and Temples on Sunday.Report
@glyph
“I’m not trying to hassle you, just genuinely curious (if it’s even possible to articulate what elements make these tracks or artists so “make it stop” to you.”
tl;dr – dunno?
a lot of that post punk stuff doesn’t move me in the slightest. wire…all the other bands i can’t think of right now, etc. i don’t hate it per se, but the drums generally sound bad.
but i do actively dislike the guy from talking heads. his voice is very punchable. and the songs are so uh jangly? quirky? they feel forced. and the drum sounds are ugly.
i will rep turn on the bright lights very hard, but the rest of their albums don’t work very well as albums, and become progressively hit or miss until the new one.
and for more confusion – i do like savages, because her vocals are awesome and their bass player is amazing. i should pick that up on vinyl at some point. and i realize this is confusing from inside the post punk matrix, but as an outsider, it’s all just thing thing that happened and then no wave happened and i kinda begin caring again, but mostly about swans and teenage jesus.
the b52s are a camp thing that i simply don’t understand. their vocals are annoying. their songs are annoying. everything about them is american in the worst possible sense. they are what they mock. a plastic screaming blank thing.
when i do hatesong deconstructions i try to concentrate on creating harm to the actual music, and by extension, its creators. i don’t believe in non-local action, but for the course of composition i act like i do. in part because these songs do cause me some kind of harm, though it small and petty and minimal.
so basically yeah i dunno. i have no framework when it comes to music. i have no “critical distance”. i know some history, but outside of small periods or specific artists i am not particularly well-versed. i am not smart enough to be one of those guys that new yorker mag types would call a “real intellectual” to do those deep dives into xyz.
i just have a heart and a gut and two feet with ears on ’em.
re: silent servant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZKFN9jK2uU
there are no hooks per se. just a slow burn.Report