The ALL NEW "what are you listening to?" thread!

[Vitalstatistix]

I've been rabbiting on about my current obsessions with latest albums from The National and Animal Collective (both of whom I'm seeing at ATP!) far too much lately, so here's an old fave which I've been re-enjoying muchly the last few days.



Bjork - Post (1995)

I've always been a Homogenic man, and I'm thinking now I never gave this album much of a good listen. Well, it's a stone-cold classic ain't it?

I'm actually astonished at how brilliant and ahead of its time this album was. It's danceable, funky, emotional, innovative. So, everyone dig it out and give it a blast.

Here's "Army of Me"

[youtube=425,350]http://youtube.com/watch?v=9gysfbT2MjY[/youtube]

What are you listening to Verbwhores?

[Cack Hen]

Belle & Sebastian right this moment. But then at given hour, you could probably safely bet I'll be listening to B&S. I'm currently going through my "The Boy with the Arab Strap is actually better than Tigermilk!" phase, but that comes and goes rapidly.

[purlieu]

I find Tigermilk is the most consistent, but Arab Strap has the best standout moments (Sleep The Clock Around and Dirty Dream #2 being my two favourite B&S songs) along with some of their most dull material, and Sinister fits somewhere in between in terms of consistency.

Just listened to all four Thursday albums in a row and put my iPod on random in a hope to come across something a little more cheery.  First two tracks were Thursday, and Muse.  Happy days.

[mister_enmity]

XTC's Black Sea. It's all cheery and encompassing, and yet cynical, which is why I'm loving it at the moment. Admittedly, Radiohead playing "Sgt Rock" when they took over Zane Lowe's slot on R1 led me to the album, convincing me to give the band another chance, shunning them after hearing "Making Plans for Nigel".

[olafr]

Bascom Lamar Lunsford - Smoky Mountain Ballads

[purlieu]

Oh, Wire came on.  That's it.  I'll be listening to them until I go to sleep now.  Eardrum Buzz is such a lovely song, with such ridiculous lyrics.

[alan nagsworth]

I thought this sort of thread was generally frowned upon around here. That's why we have Song Du Jour, etc. isn't it?

Correct me if I'm wrong like, obviously.

[no_offenc]

Far too much Klaus Nomi at the moment.  A lot of Simple Man is catchy as fuck, though, so it's ok.

[Spiteface]

Aside from Smashing Pumpkins B-sides and Demos, I'm digging Asobi Seksu right now, in particular their first album:



One of the better "Nu-Gaze" bands I've heard, and not quite as derivative as Fleeting Joys, who as much as I like them, seem at times to be an MBV pastiche.

Here's a song off the aforementioned album, "Walk on the Moon"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbyI3Z5Voms

[Cack Hen]

They used to be Sportfuck or something, and I heard an EP from that time...goodness me, it was terrible.

Citrus is an amazing album, though.

[Ginyard]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYbGooihn2U&feature=related[/youtube]

You want to know what a virtuoso is?. No, it aint some fuckin hippie in leathers and a designer Les Paul sounding superficially cool because of all the shit delay and cabinet FX shrouding the fact that its a fuck of a lot easier to play than it sounds. Its this balding speckie fuck, Marc-Andre Hamelin, playing some kick-arse Kapustin on a piano using just ten fingers.

[Artemis]

How does this differ from Song Du Jour?

Right now I'm listening to Connie Francis' version of 'How Did He Look?', which is just lovely.

Lyrics:

So you ran into my former fiancée,
You saw him dancing last night,
In some cafe
Gee I haven't seen him,
Since a year ago,
And there are so many things,
I'm dying to know

How did he look?
Did he seem happy?
While they were dancing,
Did he whisper things in her ear?
And did he light her cigarette?
Was he attentive?
The way he used to be,
With me?

What was she like?
Was she attractive?
Was there a smile upon his face?
Or did he look bored?
Not that I really care,
I know our love affair,
Can never be,
But how did he look?
And did he ask, about me?

Not that I really care,
I know our love affair,
Can never be.
But how did he look?
And did he ask, about me?

[buttgammon]

Today, I got 'Illmatic' by Nas after a long time of pondering over whether to get it or not. I'm only onto the second track but it's really fantastic, I'm glad I got it. I can already envision myself listening to this a lot in the near future, this album is fantastic.

Thankfully, this thread has just come about for me to drone on about how wonderful Illmatic is. I seem to discover a really good album every late Saturday night now, so I will hopefully be back in a week to praise something else!

[CaledonianGonzo]

How does this differ from Song Du Jour?

SDJ is (usually) a .mp3 download.

[Vitalstatistix]

I thought this sort of thread was generally frowned upon around here. That's why we have Song Du Jour, etc. isn't it?

Correct me if I'm wrong like, obviously.

I don't see why it should be. Oscillations is fucking dead, this is my inevitably doomed attempt to get ongoing musical discussion back going. Talk about what you're digging at the moment. Argue with each other and so forth..

How does this differ from Song Du Jour?

Again, talk about what you're listening to lately, don't have to be a particular song, sell it to others who might'nt have heard it - seems clearly different to Song Du Jour, maybe just cas I ain't slept in a long while..

[Don_Preston]

Elvis Costello's My Aim Is True. Still my favourite of his. Prompted after the shit DJ, in amidst of the latest 'hip hop' nonsense and cheap Dance, played my request of "Pump It Up," as well as "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" by the Blockheads in succession at a party I was at last night.

[trotsky assortment]

XTC's Black Sea. It's all cheery and encompassing, and yet cynical, which is why I'm loving it at the moment. Admittedly, Radiohead playing "Sgt Rock" when they took over Zane Lowe's slot on R1 led me to the album, convincing me to give the band another chance, shunning them after hearing "Making Plans for Nigel".

I'm not that fond of 'Sgt Rock'. Great tune, terrible words - even if Partridge meant them as tongue in cheek.  I know he's not keen on it either these days. Still, if it convinced you to try XTC again and you're enjoying them, some good came of it.  If you like 'Black Sea' then 'English Settlement', although not quite as focused, should offer plenty to enjoy.

[alan nagsworth]

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing...

The perfect cure for a hangover. The raging ocean of rides and crashes wash over my mind and slowly erode the rough edges away. There's something about the instrumentation sampled here that just takes me off my feet, it's so ethereal and distant, yet it's insistent in its repetitions just enough to keep you on this planet for the duration.

Mutual Slump makes my brain melt, it's so dark and those booming drums need little in the way of assistance in order to fill the track out. It's nothing short of sheer perfection.

[Neville Chamberlain]

Far too much Klaus Nomi at the moment.  A lot of Simple Man is catchy as fuck, though, so it's ok.

Havs you seen this fantastic documentary about Klaus Nomi?



http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/nomisong.php

[Vitalstatistix]

DJ Shadow - Endtroducing...

The perfect cure for a hangover. The raging ocean of rides and crashes wash over my mind and slowly erode the rough edges away. There's something about the instrumentation sampled here that just takes me off my feet, it's so ethereal and distant, yet it's insistent in its repetitions just enough to keep you on this planet for the duration.

Mutual Slump makes my brain melt, it's so dark and those booming drums need little in the way of assistance in order to fill the track out. It's nothing short of sheer perfection.

Nice. I've yet to meet anyone who doesn't get on with this album. Speaking of Shadow, I've yet to meet anyone who actually likes that new one he did, The Outsider or something. So, can anyone try and explain why it sounds like a big bag of balls?

[NattyDread]

Currently having my melon twisted by the 'Psychedelic Aliens' amongst others, featured on this mix:
http://voodoofunk.blogspot.com/2007/12/big-beats-sweet-talks-psychedelic.html

Loads of amazing mixes on that guy's blog. He's traveling around Africa digging for old records, cleaning them up and chucking them online. There's over a dozen and they're all fantastic. Amazing infectious grooves that have me shuffling my feet and grinning like a bampot.

[LeboviciAB84]

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYbGooihn2U&feature=related[/youtube]

You want to know what a virtuoso is?. No, it aint some fuckin hippie in leathers and a designer Les Paul sounding superficially cool because of all the shit delay and cabinet FX shrouding the fact that its a fuck of a lot easier to play than it sounds. Its this balding speckie fuck, Marc-Andre Hamelin, playing some kick-arse Kapustin on a piano using just ten fingers.

To quote one of the YouTube comments, his handwriting is awesome.

[Captain Crunch]

Right now I'm listening to 'Green Onions' by Booker T & the MGs, excellent tune.  I was sniffing around for it only yesterday and in a bizarre thought-transference cosmic wacky twisty turn of fate my sister brought it round today.  I've also now got a folder of Dad Reggae to amuse myself with on the train tomorrow.  Yay.

[buttgammon]

Currently having my melon twisted by the 'Psychedelic Aliens' amongst others, featured on this mix:
http://voodoofunk.blogspot.com/2007/12/big-beats-sweet-talks-psychedelic.html

Loads of amazing mixes on that guy's blog. He's traveling around Africa digging for old records, cleaning them up and chucking them online. There's over a dozen and they're all fantastic. Amazing infectious grooves that have me shuffling my feet and grinning like a bampot.

Thanks for that. That guy's blog is amazing and so are lots of similar sites I've discovered through the links and the links sections of sites that were in his links.

[Don_Preston]

Currently the new Big Stiff Boxset, containing highlights of the legendary independent label's repetoire. I'm sure diehards would find flaws, such as only one song each by Elvis Costello and Madness - both very popular artists and big earners for the label - but for £14 for 4 cds, and a great book with artist profiles, I recommend it. Plus it has 3 songs by the lovelly Tracy Ullman

[Joy Nktonga]

I've also now got a folder of Dad Reggae to amuse myself with on the train tomorrow.  Yay.

Please expand on this. Pretty please?

I'm listening to one of Mick Sleeper's many regular reggae podcasts - in this case it's his most recent addition to his stable of 'casts "Bass Culture".

Sleeper is somewhat of a Lee "Scratch" Perry aficionado, and his excellent Upsetter.net website is a good source of "Scratch" info including a terrific (but unexpectedly incomplete) discography. Also found here, under the "Sounds" link at the top of each page, is yet another of his great shows "Radio Scratch". I'm sure you can guess what this one usually focusses on.

Anyway, back to the one I'm listening to. Dated 21st January, this is a dancehall show, and so far is tops. It has featured a load of stuff I've never heard before. In fact, I find his collection of shows (as I've also always found with Mark Lamarr's unfortunately infrequent reggae series' on Radio 2) a great source of reggae material that is new to me and has caused me to go on and spend a lot of my disposable income on new reggae tunes and artists that I would probably have missed out on otherwise.

[Anon]

Nice. I've yet to meet anyone who doesn't get on with this album. Speaking of Shadow, I've yet to meet anyone who actually likes that new one he did, The Outsider or something. So, can anyone try and explain why it sounds like a big bag of balls?

Probably because it's an attempt at breaking into several sounds, in particular the especially abominable hyphy style, that a lot of people on nodding terms with Shadow's previous works can't stand.  That and I suspect his attempts at such sounds arn't even that good within the sub-genre.

Anyways, I've been listening to the debut (and so far only) album by Veldt, The Cause: The Effect.  One of the few genuinly brilliant bands that I heard on the now-rotting MySpace, the album's stuffed full of smart, atmospheric pop that could be filed quite nicely between Portishead and early Scott Walker but manages to craft an individual identity of its own even with such recognisable and dominating influences.  It's a shame that the abum's still so comically obscure, because I really can't understand how someone could dislike them - if not exactly a lost masterpiece, then it's certainly an album that deserved a much wider audience.  I have a feeling I may have poted this video here before, but sod it, it's a bloody great track, Walking In Silence by Veldt:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrszM-fEtWU[/youtube]

[Captain Crunch]

Please expand on this. Pretty please?

I doubt it would be anything new to you - albums by Bob Marley, The Specials and UB40 and odd tracks from the likes of Tenor Saw, Terror Fabulous (love that name), In Crowd, One Blood, Kofi, Toby Tribe, Gregory Isaacs etc.  I'll stick up any stand-out tracks but shout if you're after anything.

[Captain Crunch]

Tony Tribe - Red Red Wine

[rudi]

Tony Tribe - Red Red Wine

By far the best version, mm hmm.