Here's some other "new-ish" stuff I find myself listening to a lot:
Arcade Fire, I have to agree. The Suburbs is one of the best albums in a long time, a "concept album" that has a bunch of great music with recurring themes and threads. Musically brilliant, I wish it was recorded a bit better (I've heard them live, and it was quite an experience). "Neon Bible" was also excellent, also thematically consistent. "Antichrist Television Blues" is a wonderful song.
Wilco. I quite like their album "Sky Blue Sky". A tad twangy for my taste, but good tunes, great lyrics, Jeff Tweedy's impeccable singing, and superb musicianship (Nels Cline's guitar is outstanding, try to find some of Nels Cline Singers on youtube).
Spoon. Their album "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" is very good. They toured with Arcade Fire last year for a few dates. The music is moody, thoughtful, impressionistic, and it rocks. Check out "My Li'l Japanese Cigarette Case".
In a more pop-ish style, I love K T Tunstall. Unfortunately I suspect she is better live than in the studio (I've never seen her live). Her albums are pretty good, but some of her live performances one finds on youtube are terrific (eg., see YouTube - KT Tunstall - I Want You Back (Jackson 5 cover)).
Then there are the albums where I find myself skipping half the tracks, but the other half are so good it was worth buying the CD. Arctic Monkeys come to mind in that category ("A Certain Romance", "Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured"), as do Jane Monheit and Lily Allen.
Then the more obscure ones: Jean-Jacques Milteau's album "Memphis": a French blues harmonica player goes to Memphis and hooks up with a bunch of local studio musicians, and WOW! Or (and this is reaching) "Electric Gypsyland": a bunch of modern, electric, post-psychedelic Roma musicians. Mind boggling.
Oh, and just to prove the Grammy's got it right this year, Esperanza Spalding's "Chamber Music Society". Wow. On the first track, lyrics by William Blake, music by Ms. Spalding.
Arcade Fire, I have to agree. The Suburbs is one of the best albums in a long time, a "concept album" that has a bunch of great music with recurring themes and threads. Musically brilliant, I wish it was recorded a bit better (I've heard them live, and it was quite an experience). "Neon Bible" was also excellent, also thematically consistent. "Antichrist Television Blues" is a wonderful song.
Wilco. I quite like their album "Sky Blue Sky". A tad twangy for my taste, but good tunes, great lyrics, Jeff Tweedy's impeccable singing, and superb musicianship (Nels Cline's guitar is outstanding, try to find some of Nels Cline Singers on youtube).
Spoon. Their album "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" is very good. They toured with Arcade Fire last year for a few dates. The music is moody, thoughtful, impressionistic, and it rocks. Check out "My Li'l Japanese Cigarette Case".
In a more pop-ish style, I love K T Tunstall. Unfortunately I suspect she is better live than in the studio (I've never seen her live). Her albums are pretty good, but some of her live performances one finds on youtube are terrific (eg., see YouTube - KT Tunstall - I Want You Back (Jackson 5 cover)).
Then there are the albums where I find myself skipping half the tracks, but the other half are so good it was worth buying the CD. Arctic Monkeys come to mind in that category ("A Certain Romance", "Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured"), as do Jane Monheit and Lily Allen.
Then the more obscure ones: Jean-Jacques Milteau's album "Memphis": a French blues harmonica player goes to Memphis and hooks up with a bunch of local studio musicians, and WOW! Or (and this is reaching) "Electric Gypsyland": a bunch of modern, electric, post-psychedelic Roma musicians. Mind boggling.
Oh, and just to prove the Grammy's got it right this year, Esperanza Spalding's "Chamber Music Society". Wow. On the first track, lyrics by William Blake, music by Ms. Spalding.
Electric Gipsyland 
It may be the Cd I've bought..some 3 or 4 years ago , for the very first song ,which was some anglo-european I dunno electronic . By the way , I was listening to some Techno on Radio.net yesterday and it was quite the same
(they dunno what to remix and now its the balcanian turn )
It may be the Cd I've bought..some 3 or 4 years ago , for the very first song ,which was some anglo-european
I dunno electronic . By the way , I was listening to some Techno on Radio.net yesterday and it was quite the same(they dunno what to remix and now its the balcanian turn
)I share this view. The only problem is that it is ultimately self defeating. If there's not enough interest in new music, it won't be made, and there won't be a legacy of music for future generations to listen to.
This may be moot soon anyway, unless the current widespread copyright infringement is dealt with, there won't be any money for musicians to live on.
If so, why are bands giving music away? Radiohead for example, and plenty of others. Copyright infringement hasn't killed new music off - the music industry has done that...
Its only been in the last 40 years that musicians made the money from recordings. We are going to revert back to the earlier days when records were produced to support the live act, not the other way around.
Electric Gipsyland
It may be the Cd I've bought..some 3 or 4 years ago , for the very first song ,which was some anglo-european
Hmm, I meant this one: Six Degrees Records - Electric Gypsyland . There's no "Anglo" to it, I don't know if it's Romanian or Roma, but it sure isn't English!
I may have to give Wilco another go...unfortunately I found that album utterly unlistenable, Jim Scott can't mix to save his life (see also: "The Sun Came Up", the second album from Neil Finn's 7 Worlds Collide project). Whole album seems to be under 2 feet of mud.
"The Suburbs" production makes me sad, because some of it is produced brilliantly - tracks 2, 4 and 15 ("Ready to Start", "Rococo" and "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)") were mixed by Nick Launey, and they're wonderful - nice clean mixes with everything in its place. Track 8 (Half Light II) is also excellent - I suspect it was mixed by another uncredited individual, because it sounds completely different to the rest of the album.
The mix on the other songs swings between mediocre and hopeless. Quite a shame really.
Track 3 ("Modern Man") also has a decently clean sound. I like the song "Rococo" but I don't find the mix compelling. Track 5 ("Empty Room") is typical of the worst on that album: muddy, busy, vocals buried under too many layers of noise. Same with "City With No Children", which is a shame because it's an awesome song. Maybe the best-sounding track is 13 ("We Used To Wait"). I could go on, but we are in agreement that an otherwise brilliant album is marred by some production choices.
Interesting that we could have such different reactions: I find the sound on "Sky Blue Sky" lovely, natural, and relaxed. "Hate It Here" has wonderful sound: tuneful bass that doesn't get in your face, tasty electric piano, edgy guitars, crisp cymbals, tight drums, smooth vocals that are up-front enough to be intelligible. The farthest thing from mud.
Anyway, not looking for an argument, I just find it interesting that we can have such different reactions to the same recording.
That has certainly occurred to me! With fuddy-dudies like me, there would never be new music.
I looked thru my collection to see what I have post 1995 (the date in the OP) Yikes! The vast majority is reissues of old stuff. But there is some "new" music in there. Some examples below that someone else might like or find interesting.
Phish
Don Byron
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Afro Cuban All Stars
Taj Mahal
The Red Elvises
Limpopo
Don Tiki (great live show)
Zachary Breaux
Cheery Poppin' Daddies
Paris Combo (Living room is a fav)
Cal Collins
Keb' Mo'
Charlie Musselwhite
Roberta Gambarini
Lyle Lovett
Blue Hawaiians
Barefoot Natives
IZ (Israel Kamakawiwo'ole)
Na Leo
Jake Shiabukuro
Tiki King and the Idol Plesures
Eminem
Walter Becker
Donald Fagen
Porcupine Tree
Holly Cole
Neko Case
Curtis Salgado
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Cubanisimo!
Alison Krause
Frank Goldwasser
Shawn Colvin
Balkan Beat Box
Mahala Rai Banda
Michael Buble
Jim Stubblefield
Johnny A (great guitarist)
Ben Harper
Minnie Driver
Melody Gardot
The Aqua Velvets
Taylor Swift (yes, really)
Shoji Ledward
The Austin Lounge Lizards
'is there any new music' - depends where you look, if you keep looking in the same old places - mainstream record companies/radio, most of what you get is formulaic repetition of stuff that's been done before. The interesting stuff takes a bit more looking for... world music, electronica...
That said, I have a theory that ~80% of any given genre is rubbish, the trick is to find the good stuff without having to dredge through too much dreck...
That said, I have a theory that ~80% of any given genre is rubbish, the trick is to find the good stuff without having to dredge through too much dreck...
Some newer artists of the past 10-15 years that made my "repeated play" list:
Don Ross - Canadian plays great originals with amazing acoustic guitar skills
Erich Avinger - guitarist plays a type of jazz/world music
Edgar Cruz - famous for transcribing classic hits for solo acoustic guitar
Gov't Mule - Warren Haynes, the hardest working man in the business
Freddy Jones Band - broken up, but good while it lasted
Monte Montgomery - yes, another guitarist, but perhaps the world's best unknown guitarist
William Topley - British singer/songwriter with much bigger talent than fanbase
Maura O'Connell - too hip for country, too country for pop mainstream
The "New Country" artists don't really do anything for me, and jazz ensemble cohesiveness is more important to me than the smooth sound that dominates today, so the best stuff I find in these categories is from the reissue list. Classical is, well, classical; whatever looks interesting.
And lots of "old timers" are still making good product.
Don Ross - Canadian plays great originals with amazing acoustic guitar skills
Erich Avinger - guitarist plays a type of jazz/world music
Edgar Cruz - famous for transcribing classic hits for solo acoustic guitar
Gov't Mule - Warren Haynes, the hardest working man in the business
Freddy Jones Band - broken up, but good while it lasted
Monte Montgomery - yes, another guitarist, but perhaps the world's best unknown guitarist
William Topley - British singer/songwriter with much bigger talent than fanbase
Maura O'Connell - too hip for country, too country for pop mainstream
The "New Country" artists don't really do anything for me, and jazz ensemble cohesiveness is more important to me than the smooth sound that dominates today, so the best stuff I find in these categories is from the reissue list. Classical is, well, classical; whatever looks interesting.
And lots of "old timers" are still making good product.
There was a while there I thought music was dead.
It started round about the time computers became a big feature in 'music' creation.
Suddenly it seemed that anyone could make music, which, of course, wasn't true. I mean, I knew it wasn't true, but the buying public didn't seem to have the same discrimination.
Fortunately it turned out that music wasn't dead, and people remembered that they had taste and the market became so huge and diffuse anyway that the hegemony of the ill-informed was subsumed.
Too many good artists out there for me to diminish them by naming just a few.
w
It started round about the time computers became a big feature in 'music' creation.
Suddenly it seemed that anyone could make music, which, of course, wasn't true. I mean, I knew it wasn't true, but the buying public didn't seem to have the same discrimination.
Fortunately it turned out that music wasn't dead, and people remembered that they had taste and the market became so huge and diffuse anyway that the hegemony of the ill-informed was subsumed.
Too many good artists out there for me to diminish them by naming just a few.
w
from Wikipedia:
"According to the Boston Herald, country stars Faith Hill, Shania Twain and Tim McGraw have all confessed to using Auto-Tune in performance, claiming it is a safety net that guarantees a good performance."
It seems anyone can indeed make music.
My favorite music quote is from Ray Price: "There's only 3 kinds of music - good, bad, and indifferent."
"According to the Boston Herald, country stars Faith Hill, Shania Twain and Tim McGraw have all confessed to using Auto-Tune in performance, claiming it is a safety net that guarantees a good performance."
It seems anyone can indeed make music.
My favorite music quote is from Ray Price: "There's only 3 kinds of music - good, bad, and indifferent."
Interesting point - new music I like is nearly always recorded and mixed on 80's era analogue gear.
That's not universal - certainly bands like Evermore have a healthy appreciation of Pro Tools - but it seems that recording in a more traditional way lends the music a particular aesthetic.
But perhaps that's putting it backwards - recording music without the sequencer means you need to be able to play as a band, so maybe it's just that better bands can do it that way, whilst others use the sequencer as a crutch.
Evermore, I suspect, do it to satisfy an obsessive-compulsive desire that production be perfect
Never could stand The Current. I keep my truck radio tuned to 99.5 KSJN. KBEM is ok too. Its important to me that music stands the test of time, at least in comparison. There is rap, the music of gangsters (not really music at all, bad poetry perhaps), country, rednecks singing about rednecks, "smooth jazz," nothing more than mood music, but folk is timeless, as is classical, some rock and blues, and real jazz. I used to belong to the New Folk Collective, wonderful live and contemporary music. In a couple of hundred years it will be seen what music speaks to the soul and what doesn't.
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Personally, I can't seem to find find a good radio station in my area that is not a big corporate entity that all plays the same crap.
I noticed that when the CD became mainsteam and the 45 rpm vinly singe died, there was a corresponding death of new, good artist.
Before, it was much easer for an unknown to release a singe and be heard by the massss.
Now, you need coporate backing to get heard for the most part.
Also, it sems that most newer comercial performers can't perform without a troupe of dancers as it's just cuckie cutter crap that need a distraction to be palatable even to the low expectation masses that are used to no talent wonders.
Personally, I have always hated most all so -called "comercial" music as most "non- comercial" music was always more creative with far less musical cliches. Now, all that seems to be avalible is comercial music for the most part.
I don't want to step on any toes but, is there any hope when "rap" is considered music?
I noticed that when the CD became mainsteam and the 45 rpm vinly singe died, there was a corresponding death of new, good artist.
Before, it was much easer for an unknown to release a singe and be heard by the massss.
Now, you need coporate backing to get heard for the most part.
Also, it sems that most newer comercial performers can't perform without a troupe of dancers as it's just cuckie cutter crap that need a distraction to be palatable even to the low expectation masses that are used to no talent wonders.
Personally, I have always hated most all so -called "comercial" music as most "non- comercial" music was always more creative with far less musical cliches. Now, all that seems to be avalible is comercial music for the most part.
I don't want to step on any toes but, is there any hope when "rap" is considered music?
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More like failure to communicate. You've taken my quote totally out of context. In fact, the next sentence after that quoted was all about discriminating. I don't understand what you're attempting to convey with your post, wakibaki.
This thread is really about change, and though there may or may not be validity to points made, change isn't just a recent phenomena.
This thread is really about change, and though there may or may not be validity to points made, change isn't just a recent phenomena.
Real music (art in general) is the offspring of real life, so never on mainstream TV, nor on the established record labels catalogues. When it makes there, it is already from the past decade and properly dressed-up. Alternative stream labels is an exception.
53, lacking the balls and the stomach, I don’t dare to pay a visit to the dark small venues where fresh and rude music leaves. But they are there and they are doing well. As always.
And I don’t expect them to ask my opinion for what instruments/tools are using for materializing what they have to bring out.
Gifted artists who have something to say, will always protest against our fat bellies.
YouTube - patti smith howl-ginsberg
Regards
George
I thought like this also.. I am 65 so getting on a bit. Last night I went to Dizzy's Jazz Club in Melbourne to help support the son of a friend. He led the band. I went with mixed feelings but had a wonderful night. The group aged from 16 to 20 or so. The leader was the 16 year old- Jack Earle. Not only did the patrons enjoy the sets but the boys obviously had a blast playing it, which was great to see as sometime musicians who play in this gendre can take themselves a bit seriously. Yes, there is hope for the future,
jamikl
jamikl
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