Lately I've listened to a mind-spinningly wide variety of music genres, and I love every one of them. There are a couple of genres I definitely don't like (and don't believe I will anytime soon), but I feel like my tastes could stretch endlessly.... It might be because I have so little choice in my life right now, about what to do or think, that it's a way for me to compensate for my frustration -- sailing on the vast ocean seas of musical exploration.I have only recently discovered the band "Godspeed You! Black Emperor", which apparently is Canadian. It is some sort of ambient post-rock, with sounds that sometimes remind me of Pink Floyd, and sometimes of Archive, among others. The tracks are very long (often over 15 minutes) and create an enthralling atmosphere.
When I ask my friends if they know Godspeed, I'm sure they'll look at me like I'm nuts and say "you didn't???" -- which is usually what happens when I think I've discovered something. Imagine how Columbus or Vespucci would have felt if they had come back to Europe and everyone had said "what, you mean you didn't know???"
-- at least Don Cristobal wouldn't look so offended for nothing...
When I ask my friends if they know Godspeed, I'm sure they'll look at me like I'm nuts and say "you didn't???" -- which is usually what happens when I think I've discovered something. Imagine how Columbus or Vespucci would have felt if they had come back to Europe and everyone had said "what, you mean you didn't know???"
-- at least Don Cristobal wouldn't look so offended for nothing...
3 comments:
I love Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I do find it funny how you can discover a band that all of your friends new without realising that they new them. The same thing recently happened to me with the much-lauded Sufjan Stephens. I tried to convince my friends to listen to him at which point they informed me that most of them already owned a CD or two of his. Oops! I've also just started listening to Sarah Slean this week (her CD Orphan Music is amazing) and feel silly for not checking her out in all of these years that I've known of her but not what she sounds like.
Just out of curiosity, what genres/bands have you been listening to lately?
Oh my, I've listened to tons of things lately. The only really new thing is I'm learning to enjoy opera, which I didn't before.
Other than that, I have mostly been re-exploring pre-80s bands (like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash, Patti Smith, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Rory Gallagher) -- but also more recent music like Queen, Dire Straits, Chris Rea, U2, Police -- and even more recent music like David Gray, The Tindersticks, Robert Plant, David Gilmour, Godspeed You! (obviously), Paul McCartney, Terry Callier.
I have also been re-listening to jazz from the 30s and 40s, as well as vocal jazz (great singers: from Sinatra, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, to Diana Krall, Stacey Kent, Madeleine Peyroux).
To add to that, I like fusions between different genres, like Robert Plant has done recently, or groups like Tortoise, St Germain, Télépopmusik, Air, Archive.
Oh and I didn't mention I love film soundtracks in general, religious chants (Gregorian and Orthodox), and Yiddish and gypsy music.
How about you?
I haven't really started listening to any new genres lately, but here's some of the things I've been listening to as of late: Sarah Slean, Cat Power, Sufjan Stevens, Barenaked Ladies, PJ Harvey, Tori Amos, The Flaming Lips, Björk, Einstürzende Neubauten, The New Pornographers, Seu Jorge (Portuguese covers of early David Bowie), Jeremy Nischuk (local artist you probably won't find anywhere other than Edmonton), a compilation of electro-jazz covers of Radiohead songs, 2raumwohnung, Sigur Ros, Amon Tobin, Leonard Cohen, Badly Drawn Boy, and COIL. Kind of all over the place between electronic, indie rock, and folk.
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