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As you guys have probably noticed, I listen to a lot of music.

However, to to the disappointment of many (Tanner, my sister, and several others), a lot of this music is either so old that I can't say when it was composed even when I count with my shoes off - virtually doubling the amount of years I can choose from - or so blindingly new that scores haven't actually been produced (or if they have, they are produced by Disney or some other gigantic company).

So, I thought that every day I'd listen to one trendy/entertaining/ambient/new-age/head-bangin'/awesome song within the last 10 years or so. BUT I'm going to need some help selecting the best of the best.
What I'd like, if people have the time, if just for a quick YouTube link or similar - one per user (at least for a little while). And, every day, I will listen to one more of these pieces (chronologically), comment a bit, and enhance my musical diversity.

That's it. Thanks, if you contribute - and thanks even more to those of you who feel like joining in and listening as well.

... go!

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Now playing: Leonard Bernstein: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra - Beethoven: Symphony #7 In A, Op. 92 - 3. Scherzo
via FoxyTunes

Oh, I don't know what to recommend. Um.

Death Rides A Horse. That'll do.

Or 遠くまで.

I believe Two Weeks bridges the gap between indie rock and your type nicely.

Mew.

Anything from their album And The Glass Handed Kites.

The music video is a bit...strange, but I would suggest "Skyscrapers" by Fred.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC5vmnnj8l4

Cloud Cult - Take Your Medicine

No one here listens to Cloud Cult and makes me disappoint. :(

I'm a Pilot, by Fanfarlo.
And Chicago, by Sufjan Stevens.

bok_choy wrote:Death Rides A Horse. That'll do.
Or 遠くまで.

I liked the fact that Death Rides A Horse doesn't have a vocal part. I found the underlying rhythm and chords to be kind of repetitive, but also very nice, and a vocal part would have completely ruined them. Awesome bass part during the middle, and the following guitar solo sounds really good. What I admire most about this piece is that although it's loud, and there's often a fair bit of stuff happening all at once, it doesn't turn into plain noise - plus, it's not loud throughout the entire thing. And as a total muso thing to say... I'm actually very curious to know what the chords are in the headbangin' bit.

Hmm, Japanese Pop. My problem with anything sung in another language is that I don't understand it, so it largely becomes an instrumental part - this is great for Opera, because I can tell what's being said by the emotion and what's going on around the singer, but with pop it just becomes like noise to me, a little bit. That being said, I actually liked the melody, and especially the chorus. The change at 3:08 is really weird. I liked the new section, but I think the transition could have been a lot better. The last 40 seconds or so I found to be very strange. The clip and sounds seemed like something out of a dodgy FPS, which really threw me because the rest of the song wasn't like that at all.

So, strangely, I think I actually liked the first more, sort of. But both were very interesting to listen to.
And given the 15 minutes I actually had to solidly dedicate this, and my need to do a little bit of my assignment which I plan to hand in next week, I'll continue with my one-per-day idea from now on; tomorrow is Slappy, which I eagerly await.

I've tried before to recommend some things that would make it easier for you to bridge the gap between your conventional classical and orchestral music into more modern acts, but I don't think you were fully engaged in doing so. I'm excited to hear you're now wanting to change your ways, so I'll give you a quick guide into making the transition. Sorry if I sound as though I'm talking to an uncultured dope who has never ventured into modern music before, even though that's pretty much what you tend to be.


How To Turn An Uncultured Dope Who Has Never Ventured Into Modern Music Into A Hipster by Yahoozy G. Bisoncat

Start off with Rachel's, who are a minimalist, neo-classical post-rock group. I recommend this. Next, move on to Godspeed You! Black Emperor, who are, incidentally, my favorite group ever. They're still classified as minimalist, but this is only compositionally; they're regarded for heavy and complex layers of sound. Absolutely beautiful and emotional and intense. Listen to this.

Next, check out some other, less orchestral, more rock-oriented post-rock bands; Mogwai, Tortoise, Do Make Say Think.

We still haven't really touched singing yet. If you want some really great voices that have more of a baroque sound behind them, I'll say Andrew Bird and Owen Pallett.

The next step is to check out bands that are less "baroque" and have really different styles than what I've previously listed. I've picked out some of the more easy-listening and amiable ones for you: Bon Iver, Deerhunter, The Microphones, The National, Pavement, Real Estate, Yo La Tengo.

I'm done for now. No more posts in this thread for two weeks.

He said one song, pathetic loser.

Here you go lenny, I fished out one of my favourites from the ablum I mentioned above. Let me know what you think: Special

Theres so much it's hard to say but seeing the above thought I'd go in a different direction.

Höwl wrote:I've tried before to recommend some things that would make it easier for you to bridge the gap between your conventional classical and orchestral music into more modern acts, but I don't think you were fully engaged in doing so. I'm excited to hear you're now wanting to change your ways, so I'll give you a quick guide into making the transition. Sorry if I sound as though I'm talking to an uncultured dope who has never ventured into modern music before, even though that's pretty much what you tend to be.


How To Turn An Uncultured Dope Who Has Never Ventured Into Modern Music Into A Hipster by Yahoozy G. Bisoncat

Start off with Rachel's, who are a minimalist, neo-classical post-rock group. I recommend this. Next, move on to Godspeed You! Black Emperor, who are, incidentally, my favorite group ever. They're still classified as minimalist, but this is only compositionally; they're regarded for heavy and complex layers of sound. Absolutely beautiful and emotional and intense. Listen to this.

Next, check out some other, less orchestral, more rock-oriented post-rock bands; Mogwai, Tortoise, Do Make Say Think.

We still haven't really touched singing yet. If you want some really great voices that have more of a baroque sound behind them, I'll say Andrew Bird and Owen Pallett.

The next step is to check out bands that are less "baroque" and have really different styles than what I've previously listed. I've picked out some of the more easy-listening and amiable ones for you: Bon Iver, Deerhunter, The Microphones, The National, Pavement, Real Estate, Yo La Tengo.

I'm done for now. No more posts in this thread for two weeks.

I thought of this later.

You've given a laundry list of your favorite bands, which is cool, but do you think that your taste is so amateur that it appeals to people entering into the field? I think that some of these bands, especially Godspeed, are not particularly accesible nor do they meet his requirements of modern music. If anything, I think a lot of this music will alienate him.

But maybe you have a skewed form of aesthetics that finds more mainstream shoegaze or post-rock more challenging than Yo La Tengo.

SlappyMcGee wrote:I believe Two Weeks bridges the gap between indie rock and your type nicely.

Weird music video. All four guys look kind of like puppets... it's almost like watching the very first Thunderbird episodes. And I didn't get the whole need for lit-up faces, but... eh. Maybe they're just the Illuminati, in the traditional sense of the word. Who knows? Either way, the explosions are cool.
As to the music itself, you're exactly right; it's the sort of laid-back pop which I enjoy, and it has great vocal and instrumental parts. Repetitive somewhat (drums and piano especially), yes, but a good song none the less.
It is, again, probably not what I'd listen to when I kick back and relax, but that's the whole point of this experience. And, as such, I supremely enjoyed it.

I love this video, though the musical style (vocals especially) won't be to everyone's taste.

Also try Grammatics. Here's a link to one of my favourite tracks: Time Capsules And The Greater Truth

Hope you enjoy!

a happy song wrote:Here you go lenny, I fished out one of my favourites from the ablum I mentioned above. Let me know what you think: Special

It may seem like I'm not going in order, but in fact you mentioned the album before this post, so I thought I may as well listen to this now.

I found this song to be odd. I thought it would originally be much like a generic pop song with a constant 4/4 beat, a repetitive melody, and so forth. And in many ways it was, but there were also some strange syncopated sections (even only for a few beats) which I wasn't quite expecting, and musically they kind of threw me. It was similar with the ending. I was expecting it to fade out, or just have one or two notes, but I wasn't expecting the guitar to hold the end chord.
Oh, and there's one shot of his guitar; that thing's got one seriously long neck.

As a whole... I still think odd. Not bad, just different to what I thought it would be, and I quite enjoyed that.

I don't know, listen to this or this. Tell me what you think. I think they are good, overall.

Mute Monk wrote:The music video is a bit...strange, but I would suggest "Skyscrapers" by Fred.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC5vmnnj8l4

Indeed, it is. I didn't really get the whole jumping-while-filling-in-for-the-instrumental-bridge bit, but I suppose it kind of worked. Some of the shots are quite clever, but others also seem too long and clumsy... it's an interesting mix. Also, the silhouettes are done really well.

The song is fairly repetitive, though not annoying. I actually got to like it, and welcomed the seemingly warm embrace of the chorus and funky syncopation. To be honest, this is quite possibly one of the most suited-to-me Pop songs that I've listened to in the last while, so thanks.

And irrelevantly, awesome signature. Portal, woo.

EDIT: Apologies in advance, but I've got a school mini-camp for the next 24 hours and won't be able to post something tonight. I'll probably do two tomorrow to make up for this.

Come to think of it, Lenny, did you mean in your first post that you've only ever listened to classical music? I skipped to newer stuff with The Felice Brothers, but it occurred to me that you really should start with Chuck Berry, Hendrix, etc., and then move on into the GY!BE realm.

Instrumentation you're used to, used in a slightly different way.

Lenny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNAkbbKycCM

flagmyidol wrote:Come to think of it, Lenny, did you mean in your first post that you've only ever listened to classical music?

No, no, not at all. It's just that a large portion of my musical knowledge (+ enjoyment and experience) comes largely from Classical and Romantic music (with Baroque, Medieval, small bits of Renaissance and 20thC, and a whole lot of soundtracks).

Techno wrote:Cloud Cult - Take Your Medicine

Cool logo, I've got to say. And the starting beat (plus chords) is actually really funky. Interesting use of Piano and strings in the non-singing sections. The singing itself seems a little... odd. It wasn't bad, but the tone was different to what I expected. The doubled octave could have something to do with this - I'm not sure. But it was actually kind of good. The few sections with only one or two instruments (usually glockenspiel) were unusual too, mostly because they made the parts seem quite exposed, but they actually worked really well.
Overall, you know, this is actually a good song. Well, you already knew that. But I actually liked it. Quite a lot - it's not quite something I'd stick on my "awesome music" playlist, but it's definitely a song which I'd listen to when I felt like a bit of this kind of music. Do their other songs live up the same standard? Because, if so, I may actually investigate getting them.

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Now playing: Danny Elfman - Victor's Piano Solo
via FoxyTunes

As I Lay Dying - Nothing Left

she - supersonic

There's a couple.