I've just started myself a blog called "The Alternative Audiophile" and fancied coming on here to see if there's any out there, hi-fi fans into alternative music that is! I personally have never met or talked to one myself, of course they exist but where are they! Show yourselves 
I'd love some feedback on the blog, suggestions, things to feature! Anything would be much appreciated to be honest... it's in it's very early stages!
The Alternative Audiophile
Drop by and give me a shout if you have anything nice to say
I'd love some feedback on the blog, suggestions, things to feature! Anything would be much appreciated to be honest... it's in it's very early stages!
The Alternative Audiophile
Drop by and give me a shout if you have anything nice to say
Depends what you call "Alternative" - I don't know about you, but I find it to be a bit of a non-genre, a label slapped on rock bands which are outside the mainstream, but often for very different reasons.
But even that doesn't hold very well - if I walk into my local record store, "Alternative" is made up almost entirely of emo and neo-punk. At the other end of the scale, there's a record store around here which puts R.E.M. and Midnight Oil in the alternative section.
So, I guess I'm an "alternative" audiophile some of the time, an indie audiophile some of the time, a rock audiophile some of the time...
YouTube - Liam Finn - Lead Balloon
YouTube - Midnight Oil - Knife's Edge (Live, 1982)
YouTube - Midnight Oil - Kosciosko (1985)
YouTube - Echo and The Bunnymen - Silver
YouTube - Clarity of Mind
YouTube - AO MOD TV VERS
YouTube - How Soon is Now? - The Smiths
YouTube - Angry Tradesmen - Big Wave (courtesy of Delightful Rain. A Celebration of Australian Surf Music. Filmed and recorded at Freshwater SLSC. May 2006 )
YouTube - DRUG YOU'RE ON - ANGRY TRADESMEN
YouTube - Backsliders - You Three - Womadelaide 2007
Pick a sampling, then tell me what kind of music I like
But even that doesn't hold very well - if I walk into my local record store, "Alternative" is made up almost entirely of emo and neo-punk. At the other end of the scale, there's a record store around here which puts R.E.M. and Midnight Oil in the alternative section.
So, I guess I'm an "alternative" audiophile some of the time, an indie audiophile some of the time, a rock audiophile some of the time...
YouTube - Liam Finn - Lead Balloon
YouTube - Midnight Oil - Knife's Edge (Live, 1982)
YouTube - Midnight Oil - Kosciosko (1985)
YouTube - Echo and The Bunnymen - Silver
YouTube - Clarity of Mind
YouTube - AO MOD TV VERS
YouTube - How Soon is Now? - The Smiths
YouTube - Angry Tradesmen - Big Wave (courtesy of Delightful Rain. A Celebration of Australian Surf Music. Filmed and recorded at Freshwater SLSC. May 2006 )
YouTube - DRUG YOU'RE ON - ANGRY TRADESMEN
YouTube - Backsliders - You Three - Womadelaide 2007
Pick a sampling, then tell me what kind of music I like
Well add me to the list. I enjoy a lot of music from the "grunge" era and earlier. After about 1994 new music stopped appealing to me except for the occasional band here or there. The last Blink 182 album which is self titled is one of the few things I can listen to without skipping any tracks. Here are a few of my favorite bands:
Smashing Pumpkins
The Cure
Nine Inch Nails
New Order
Foo Fighters
Korn
Morrissey
The Chemical Brothers
Armchair Martian
Smashing Pumpkins
The Cure
Nine Inch Nails
New Order
Foo Fighters
Korn
Morrissey
The Chemical Brothers
Armchair Martian
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I listen mostly to soft electronica, along the lines of:
Symbion Project
Universal Hall Pass
The Postal Service
though I have been thrashing Devin Townsend (not soft), and a fair bit of dubstep lately too, right alongside Klima which will send you to sleep.
I bought my first LP a few days ago, it cost me $76NZD. Mogwai's 'Happy Songs for Happy People', and I'm not playing it until I'm confident my turntable can do it justice, and I can't know that until I've listened to more vinyls so I know what I'm looking for ;P
Symbion Project
Universal Hall Pass
The Postal Service
though I have been thrashing Devin Townsend (not soft), and a fair bit of dubstep lately too, right alongside Klima which will send you to sleep.
I bought my first LP a few days ago, it cost me $76NZD. Mogwai's 'Happy Songs for Happy People', and I'm not playing it until I'm confident my turntable can do it justice, and I can't know that until I've listened to more vinyls so I know what I'm looking for ;P
I don't like the term 'alternative' myself, but it's an easy term to use as a starting point to describe NOT chart pop, chart dance, chart R'n'B/Rap etc (the music that has the least appeal to me and which seems to be all 'everyone else' listens to...!)
But please, come in with whatever you might consider as an 'alternative', TheSeekerr, anything you put up could be classed as alternative in someone's mind! It all seemed like an alternative to awful passionless music and that's a good start lol Never heard of Liam Finn... reminds me of Elliott Smith, and that first Midnight Oil track was like early DC punk gone stadium rock... Enjoyed most of your selections! "How Soon Is Now" is of course forever an indie classic!
And welcome to the list astouffer... The 'grunge' era and thereabouts was when I first truly discovered 'alternative' music. I started from Nirvana and worked backwards, forwards and to this day I'm still trying to catch up with all the music there is out there to absorb! To be honest I listen to almost anything, I'm very open minded... I'll listen to Nick Drake next to Massive Attack, Minor Threat next to Tori Amos, Nirvana next to Blondie, Jacqueline Du Pre next to Manic Street Preachers... Diversity is a wonderful thing in my mind!
Newer music takes many years to filter into my listening though... good bands rarely get exposure at their time of existence I find so I tend to catch onto things a bit later, but nevertheless in my own time! It's nice to discover a band without the media hype and fuss going on around them...!
But it's nice to know that some people appreciate some brasher forms of music and like the idea of listening through equipment that is half-decent...!
But please, come in with whatever you might consider as an 'alternative', TheSeekerr, anything you put up could be classed as alternative in someone's mind! It all seemed like an alternative to awful passionless music and that's a good start lol Never heard of Liam Finn... reminds me of Elliott Smith, and that first Midnight Oil track was like early DC punk gone stadium rock... Enjoyed most of your selections! "How Soon Is Now" is of course forever an indie classic!
And welcome to the list astouffer... The 'grunge' era and thereabouts was when I first truly discovered 'alternative' music. I started from Nirvana and worked backwards, forwards and to this day I'm still trying to catch up with all the music there is out there to absorb! To be honest I listen to almost anything, I'm very open minded... I'll listen to Nick Drake next to Massive Attack, Minor Threat next to Tori Amos, Nirvana next to Blondie, Jacqueline Du Pre next to Manic Street Preachers... Diversity is a wonderful thing in my mind!
Newer music takes many years to filter into my listening though... good bands rarely get exposure at their time of existence I find so I tend to catch onto things a bit later, but nevertheless in my own time! It's nice to discover a band without the media hype and fuss going on around them...!
But it's nice to know that some people appreciate some brasher forms of music and like the idea of listening through equipment that is half-decent...!
Charles I totally agree... Like I said 'alternative' is more a means to an end... and there is MANY a self-proclaimed audiophile that would look down their noses at my setup and laugh their pants off while turning on their latest £10000 valve pre/power amplifier set up...
'Alternative' is something that can't exist without a subjective point to play it off again... Like I said, everything can be an alternative in terms of something else in someone's mind
'Alternative' is something that can't exist without a subjective point to play it off again... Like I said, everything can be an alternative in terms of something else in someone's mind
"Flux of Pink Indians"
"Crass"
"Sham 69"
"Big Black"
"Throbbling Gristle"
""White House"
"Anti Nowhere League"
"SPK"
"Einsturzende Neubaten"
"Merzbow"
All are represented in my vinyl collection, and more. And frequently the records are pressed at the highest quality like Controlled Bleeding's "Curd"
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Nice to se Big Black get a mention, a band that would drive the average audiophile to tears if you played their music through their systems! LOL
There is some great alternative recordings out there, and thankfully some of them get decently released (be it a well mastered CD or a high quality vinyl)... shame so many of the rest get ignored though!
There is some great alternative recordings out there, and thankfully some of them get decently released (be it a well mastered CD or a high quality vinyl)... shame so many of the rest get ignored though!
I listen to non top 40 stuff, so I guess that makes it alternative. Here's a random sampling:
70's: Iggy and the Stooges, MC5, Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Jam, The Fall, The Ramones, Gang of Four, The Dead Boys, Brian Eno, Devo, David Bowie, Frank Zappa
80's: Ridiculously long, but here's a few: Killing Joke, Foetus, The Replacements, New Order, The Birthday Party, The Wedding Present, Wire, Bauhaus, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Split Enz, The Cramps, Wall of Voodoo, Ministry, Dead Kennedys, The Dead Milkmen... and any album on the 4AD label ever made.
90's: Foo Fighters, NIN, Pavement, Smashing Pumpkins...
00's: Death Cab for Cutie, Porcupine Tree, Halloween Alaska, Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend, The Arctic Monkeys... on and on.
I'm 43 and have been into vaccuum tube electronics and audio in general since '87. Tubes, vinyl and rock music makes for a very satisfying musical experience in my opinion. As a music lover first, my definition of what defines a "good" change in my audio system is something that makes me want to listen to ALL of my record collection MORE OFTEN. If it doesn't, then it's BAD. Others may differ, but I think that's what makes me a music lover more than an audiophile.
If you define alternative as anything that isn't top 40 pop, you have a lot of music to choose from, but I agree that defining it as a "genre" will be difficult at best.
70's: Iggy and the Stooges, MC5, Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Jam, The Fall, The Ramones, Gang of Four, The Dead Boys, Brian Eno, Devo, David Bowie, Frank Zappa
80's: Ridiculously long, but here's a few: Killing Joke, Foetus, The Replacements, New Order, The Birthday Party, The Wedding Present, Wire, Bauhaus, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Split Enz, The Cramps, Wall of Voodoo, Ministry, Dead Kennedys, The Dead Milkmen... and any album on the 4AD label ever made.
90's: Foo Fighters, NIN, Pavement, Smashing Pumpkins...
00's: Death Cab for Cutie, Porcupine Tree, Halloween Alaska, Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend, The Arctic Monkeys... on and on.
I'm 43 and have been into vaccuum tube electronics and audio in general since '87. Tubes, vinyl and rock music makes for a very satisfying musical experience in my opinion. As a music lover first, my definition of what defines a "good" change in my audio system is something that makes me want to listen to ALL of my record collection MORE OFTEN. If it doesn't, then it's BAD. Others may differ, but I think that's what makes me a music lover more than an audiophile.
If you define alternative as anything that isn't top 40 pop, you have a lot of music to choose from, but I agree that defining it as a "genre" will be difficult at best.
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