"Hey, they're alright"

[Famous Mortimer]

Bands you've never heard, or paid attention to for whatever reason, although you're aware of them. Then you hear something by em one day and you're all "hey, they're alright".

The XX
At a barbeque in someone's back garden. I'd no idea what to really expect with them, but they were quite nice.

MGMT
No excuse with this lot, knowing their love for Spacemen 3. But I just never bothered, until about 30 minutes ago. "Oracular Spectacular" is playing as I write this, and it's rather good. In fact, it's very good.

[Nelson Swillie]

I'm never likely to say "they're alright" about Jandek, that's for fucking sure.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

I resisted The Arctic Monkeys for awhile due to all the hype - but hey, they're alright!

[Subtle Mocking]

Just recently, The Books made me say this. Not sure why I had dismissed them for so long, they're brilliant.

[The Boston Crab]

MGMT
No excuse with this lot, knowing their love for Spacemen 3. But I just never bothered, until about 30 minutes ago. "Oracular Spectacular" is playing as I write this, and it's rather good. In fact, it's very good.

BEE-lieve it or not their follow-up, Congratulations, is BEE-ven BEE-tter.

[rudi]

Yeah, I figured MGMT wouldn't be too hot but I've rather enjoyed both their albums, having only recently acquired them.

The Soft Pack and Paul McCartney also.

[Why I Hate Tables]

Ha, here's one for the "NME approved wank" pile. Recently had this happen with both The Horrors and Manics. Both of them are from tracks I heard drunkenly in my friends living room over the Christmas period post-pub. In a nice piece of serendipity both Sea Within A Sea and Ready For Drowning prompted me to lean forward and shout "This is ace, who's this then?". Investigating both has proved worthwhile.

[PaulTMA]

BEE-lieve it or not their follow-up, Congratulations, is BEE-ven BEE-tter.

I was mocked by someone in another thread for pointing out the unarguable excellence of this album, by someone who kisses pictures of the Future Sound Of London.

[The Boston Crab]

'Someone's Missing' tastebuds :DDD

[Hot Pants]

more than all right...

[Hot Pants]

more than all right...

is Haven's first album, Between The Senses....

[BlodwynPig]

A friend had a free ticket forIron & Wine last week and I went along expecting hirsute and earnest Americana for the slogan T-shirt crowd. I was pleasantly surprised. I won't be buying any album, but the musicians were superb and parts of the show sounded like jazz funk and electronica. Audience were a bunch of rampant nodders though.

[Serge]

That's funny, as a friend of mine who is a big Iron & Wine fan went to see them[nb]him?[/nb] recently and wasn't impressed at all. Then again, in general, he is a big fan of earnest Americana.

As a longtime fan, I did pooh-pooh their[nb]his?[/nb] most recent album on these boards, but having lived with it for a while, I've done a complete volte-face and now love it, even if it will never dislodge 'Our Endless Numbered Days' as my favourite album of theirs[nb]his?[/nb]. That is earnest Americana, though, so if you ever did decide to change your mind and buy anything, I wouldn't start there.

[CaledonianGonzo]

I too went to see Iron & Wine last week, but now I'm worried that my slogan t-shirt and head-nodding approval of the more Americana aspects of the show might have upset any judgmental cuntybaws that might have been in the audience BlodwynPig.

Actually, the Edinburgh gig was packed out with young tweenage girls, presumably enticed there by the prospect of hearing Flightless Bird, American Mouth from the Twilight soundtrack.  Which he[nb]They?[/nb] didn't play.

[Johnny Townmouse]

As I get older I find myself having musical epiphanies more and more often. It is less about finding new music, and more as the thread title suggests, suddenly appreciating music that has been under my nose for years.

I've started listening to Steve Earle, which is quite bizarre to me. In general I have been opening myself up to musical genres such as folk and bluegrass in a way that I never expected, but the Country tinge to Earle's music has always kept me at arm's length. Learning to play the mandolin, as I am, has made me appreciate how wonderful some of his music is - it has a genuinely epic quality, and a strong heart. Obviously Copperhead Road is his seminal album, but the more recent work has shown how he matures.

[Brundle-Fly]

The Bee Gees are my "Hey, they're alright" revelation from recent years. Although, I never loathed them, I only knew their Saturday Night Fever stuff and was sick of hearing Stayin' Alive and seeing their stupid faces.  Heard their first album, liked it, digged deeper and found gold.

[Icehaven]

This happens to me all the time, mainly as a consequence of reading about music more than listening to new stuff. The latest is Orbital. I've half liked them for a while and suddenly found myself listening to them rather a lot lately purely because I found Snivilisation at work and thought I'd give it a proper go, and I've really got into it.
In the past I've H,TA'd, among many, Nirvana (hadn't heard them much, he died, couldn't get away from them, realised they were OK), Muse (wrote them off as Radiohead copyists until the 2nd album, which was terrific), The Smiths (who I loathed as a teen purely because I thought Morrissey was a prat), LCD Soundsystem (hyped too much, but when I finally got around to listening to them Sound of Silver is way better than I thought it'd be), Gorillaz (the whole cartoon band thing seemed very gimmicky and I didn't like much of the early stuff, but I reckon Plastic Beach is absolutely brilliant) and Foals (the gimpyness of that little singer put me off but their first few singles made up for it, and the 2nd album is great).

[Hot Pants]

my first impressions of everything have always stood (in the musical sense...)
what i liked as a child, still sounds good...
What I liked as a teenager still sounds good...
If my first impression wasn't that great, I don't believe I've ever been persuaded otherwise about a band...
Only the odd song...