Music!

[nick nurse]

Okay, so here's something that hasn't yet been discussed in the forums, and this seems like the place to do it . . .

What sort of music do you Awesomedude fans like to listen to? Seeing as there is a wide variety of people who visit this site, I imagine everybody's into different things musically. Here's the place to tell us all what and why!

[Guest]

(WBMS Here -- I don't register for boards, so I'm glad I can post here. Pecman had a great post in another area I wanted to reply to but I couldn't.)

I like rock. That's my main thing. None of this modern fake rock either (though some of it is damned good). I like Metallica, Creed, in the heavier side. If you want the pop-side, I like Elton John, Beatles, John Cougar Mellencamp, and so forth. Stuff like Queen (heh) rocks my boat.

I like the Who, Led Zepplin, and so forth.

Happy Now? :)

wbms

[Guest]

i like classic rock too. My favorite is queen but i also really like the stones, led zepelin, pink floyd, elton john, the who, the eagles, the doors, hendrix,and the beatles. but queen rocks my world.

[Guest]

what do you mean rocks my boat wbms? is that a good or bad thing. DONT TELL ME YOUR HATEN ON QUEEN

[blue]

Trent, LOL, wbms is not hatin' on Queen. I think you were teasing, but if you don't know, "that rocks my boat" means he really likes it. Think of it as a gentle rocking motion, like the motion of the ocean....

OK, this is a dfferent, non-gentle rocking the boat, but I can't help it, gotta quote: "Rock the boat / Don't rock the boat, baby / Tip the boat / Don't tip the boat over!"

-----

My musical tastes are pretty varied. I like classic rock and 80's music of all kinds most. I also listen to newer rock groups. It seems like now there's a blending of styles going on which I really like. Everything from Jimi Hendrix to R.E.M. to Counting Crows to Evanescence, they all are on the shelf.

So rock of most kinds -- but rap and metal don't usually do it for me. A little classical, a little country, synthesizers, movie scores (esp. sci-fi and fantasy) -- basically, I'll give any music a listen at least once.

I've heard of Sigur Ros, but never heard their stuff before. I'll have to check them out. If Nick and Dude both like it, it's worth a try; besides, I like international things.

I agree, if I didn't have music to listen to most of the time, I wouldn't be a happy guy. -- Gotta get up and dance around, dance and sing and play imaginary instruments occasionally, even if I do need dance lessons.

[Guest]

i f you dig movie scores give queen soundtrack to flash godon a spin blue i think youd like it. you may also like a kind of magic

[Guest]

yeah im defintly hearing the hate for contemporay country.but id like to ad brainless metal and rap and contemporary pop to the hate list. in fact id like to add contemporary music as a whole to the hate list

if you like old country i highly reccomend the eagle country material it gives me "a peaceful easy feeling" and prevents "the sound of my own wheels from driving me crazy" lol

[nick nurse]

Well, since I'm the one who started this thread, I guess I should put down a few of my favorites here too.

I'm a really big categorizer. I have clearly-delineated favorites, so this sort of thing is easy for me. For instance, my favorite band is, in fact, Sigur Ros. Check them out, Blue. They're an Icelandic ambient rock band--really brilliant and very creative. The lead singer, Jonsi, is gay and blind in one eye, and his voice is otherworldly, it's so high-pitched. He also has a habit of playing his guitar with a cello bow on certain songs. You absolutely must get the two albums that are widely available: Agaetis Byrjun and ( ).

I listen to several different types of rock: indie rock, post-rock and classic rock. While Sigur Ros is post-rock, my second favorite band is indie: Death Cab For Cutie. Their albums Transatlanticism and Something About Airplanes are phenomenal. Also in the indie rock vein, which is really where all the good music is being made, I like The Postal Service (same lead singer as DCFC), the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Snow Patrol, Franz Ferdinand, The Darkness, Muse, Interpol, Rilo Kiley and Radiohead.

As far as post-rock is concerned, I like Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You Black Emperor, A Silver Mount Zion and From Monument to Masses. Classic rock: Led Zeppelin all the way, followed by Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles.

My favorite singer is Sarah Brightman (classical and pop-ish music), and I also really like Tori Amos, Kate Bush, Enya, Bjork and Sarah McLachlan.

For all you downloaders out there who might be interested in any of this stuff, I'll list one good song from some of the groups/singers I mentioned.

Sigur Ros - Untitled 8 and Vidrar Vel Til Loftarasa (the video for this song is about two gay boys falling in love)

Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism

Postal Service - Such Great Heights and Brand New Colony

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps and Y Control

Snow Patrol - Run

Franz Ferdinand - Michael and Take Me Out

The Darkness - Love is Only a Feeling

Muse - Time is Running Out

Interpol - Obstacle 1

Rilo Kiley - Pictures of Success

Radiohead - Let Down

Explosions in the Sky - Six Days at the Bottom of the Ocean

Godspeed You Black Emperor - East Hastings

Led Zeppelin - Achilles's Last Stand

Sarah Brightman - Eden

Tori Amos - Taxi Ride

Kate Bush - This Woman's Work and Hello Earth

Enya - Carribean Blue

Happy downloading!

NN

[dude]

Trent wrote

if you like old country i highly reccomend the eagle country material it gives me "a peaceful easy feeling" and prevents "the sound of my own wheels from driving me crazy" lol

You mean "THE Eagles"? I sing The Girl From Yesterday every morning in the shower...

Well.... my cats like it!

[blue]

Well, I watched Flash Gordon in the theater, so yeah, I know the soundtrack. -- Did anybody catch the gay subtext to the scene on Arborea, the grunting in the woods? Maybe just me, but all I could think of when I heard that was, "sounds like a circle jerk."

Nick, I've never even heard of most of the artists you mentioned. I must need to find an indie radio station. Of course, I know the classic rock groups (like those) and the singers you said (like them, esp. Sarah McLachlan).

Isn't the Darkness the group that has that funny glam-rock retro sci-fi video, with the crab and the shag carpet? -- So zany I can't figure out if I love it or can't stand it.

Radiohead -- heard of them, haven't heard their stuff.

Wow, now I'll definitely listen to Sigur Ros. I'll try to find the video. I'm visually impaired too, btw.

[Guest]

THE CELLO BOW THING IS A TOTAL RIP OFF OF JIMMY PAGE

[dude]

THE CELLO BOW THING IS A TOTAL RIP OFF OF JIMMY PAGE

Come on Trent.... rip off means to steal something. If you have ever heard Sigur Ros, Jonsi's bowing his guitar is just another way of playing a string instrument and the perfect complement to his voice and music, which is something totally original.

The entire Sigur Ros sound is totally original. Take a listen! But make sure your mom isn't in the room. You may find it hard to explain the wet spot in the front of your jeans!

Now if the Icelandic guys had named their band Red Jeppelin... THAT might be a rip off!

[nick nurse]

While Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page often played his Gibson with a cello bow, probably most notably on Communication Breakdown--who's heard the really long and amazing version of it on their new compilation of live material, How the West Was Won?--that doesn't make Jonsi any less original. The style and intent behind Sigur Ros's use of the cello bow is far different than Page's. Point is, it's still uncommon, no matter who did it first--I'd be willing to bet that Page wasn't the first either--and it sounds beautifully atmospheric when Sigur Ros does it.

NN

[jimyvr]

mine would be mostly top 40s:

Kylie Minogue

Will Young

George Michael

and few Britney Spears :oops: and Christina Aguilera's.

Generally, the darker the better. probably includes trance/dance/techno.

[Guest]

NICK YOU HAD ME REALLY CONFUSED

FIRST I WAS THINKING COMUNICATION BREAKDOWN ISNT ON HOW THE WEST WAS ONE. THEN I THOUGHT HE DIDNT USE THE CELLO BOW IN THAT SONG ANYWAY. THEN I THOUGHT THAT IS A SHORT SONG AND IT PRETTY MUCH HAS TO BE SHORT.THEN I REALIZED YOU MEANT DAZED AND CONFUSED WHAERE EVERYTHING YOU SAID WOULD THEN BE ACCURATE

[Guest]

I ALSO THINK IT IS PRETTY LIKELY THATJIMMY DIDNT DO IT FIRST CUZ LED ZEPELIN SEEMS TO HAVE A PROBLEM BEING ORIGINAL. THEY OURIGHT PLAGERISED A GOOD DEAL OF THERE MATERIAL

[blue]

Haha, a little Tears For Fears, there, if anyone noticed.

Trent, bud, please turn off that CAPS LOCK key, wouldja? My ears are fine. I'm just sayin'. :p

Oh, what the hay, use caps lock if you wanna. Anyway, it's nice to hear another take on things.

Maybe underthehoodster or someone else knows other examples of unusual instrument techniques, like using a bow on a guitar.

...Extra points if you know what a dulcimer or hammer-dulcimer is...

[The Pecman]

Maybe underthehoodster or someone else knows other examples of unusual instrument techniques, like using a bow on a guitar.

I'm a walking-talking expert on the music of the 1960s and 1970s, since I worked in radio for part of my life, and have been an enormous fan of rock & pop music for the past 40+ years. Last time I counted them, I believe I had about 11,000 CDs in the main music room of my house, along with about 6000 albums, and I-don't-know-how-many 45's. (Remember records?)

Note that the first time Jimmy Page got the idea to use a bow on the electric guitar was after he had dinner with fan (and actor) David McCallum, who at the time was the star of NBC-TV's Man From UNCLE series. McCallum introduced Page to McCallum's father, who was one of the principal violinists with the London Philharmonic. The older gent gave Page one of his old bows, and Page used it during a session for "Dazed and Confused"... and rock history was made.

And I'm Casey Kasem... and that's what happened, back in late 1968.

--Pecman

[blue]

Edited by Blue to correct URL

The Sigur Ros CDs and DVD that I ordered arrived yesterday. Naturally, the first thing I had to do was watch the videos. Then I listened to Agaetis Byrjun. I haven't listened to ( ) yet.

First impressions: Category? What category could you put that in? At times, it's ambient; other times, it's psychedelic like the music in 2001 after Dave Bowman enters/joins the Monolith. Then it turns around with electronic synths like Vangelis or Tangerine Dream or Kraftwerks, and I'd swear there was a passage like the synths in the movie Forbidden Planet at one point. Then it takes a classical music bent. Then it goes for rock or punk. Add to that, natural sounds and then the chameleon voice of the lead singer. There are times the group sounds completely alien, musical but not human. Then there are times when the vocals sound like a choirboy. Occasionally, there is a purposeful dissonance, a cacophony.

I don't know quite what to make of it, but I watched all the vids, then the video for Vidhrar Vel Til Loftarasa, with the two boys about three times and listened to the Agaetis Byrjun CD twice through. I looked at the CDs, a bit baffled, and looked online for lyrics and translations, and came across review articles, as well as the group's website at http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/ -- and it's clear they have a few odd avant gard ideas. A CD with no titles, almost no text, and an insert of watered vellum sheets? It's a statement of something, but I'm not sure what.

It's one of the weirdest, most unclassifiable things I've ever heard.

Underthehoodster might think it's brilliant or might think it's too experimental and strange.

I think it's going to take me a while to wrap my brain around this. But I like it. It speaks to my inner liberal arts major.

Hmm. You know what's really weird? Two things. One, the music was trippy enough in places as to be almost, uh, orgasmic. That's a word I don't use much for anything other than a real orgasm. But, well, it fits here and there.

The other oddity is that I can more or less comfortably reach the lead singer's vocal range, I think, whether in his high range or in his falsetto range. That is a little surprising to me, but in some ways not. My singing voice has a higher register, somewhere in tenor, and a lower one in a high bass or baritone. I've never figured that out, because the transition between them is not comfortable at all for me, and I tend to move in between them. It's annoying, because I know better, I have a good ear, and when I was a kid and sang soprano, I could be dead on. (I still get genuine compliments, I'm only an amateur, but I find my voice's range personally aggravating due to the two registers.) So it was surprising a little to realize that there's someone else out there with a similar vocal range, from the highs and lows he uses. And shoot, his voice is different but very nice.

Well, I'm going to listen to the instrumental ( ) CD today. (That CD title must give the database people fits!) I'm sure I'll watch the one video again too. Mmm. Nice.

So -- Many thanks, Nick, for the recommendation. I probably wouldn't have tried them otherwise, and I think I'll be stuck on them for a while.

And Hoodster -- You probably can't make heads or tails of my review; this may not be your cup of tea for musical style, but since you love music, you might find the experimentation and unusualness of it interesting or inspirational in some way. I'd recommend you give it a try.

I'd definitely recommend seeing each of the videos on the DVD. There's more going on under the surface of them. I'd definitely recommend the second video, for Vidhrar Vel Til Loftarasa. Two gangly teen boys discover feelings for each other, despite others' reactions. Very nice video, tastefully done, with some indirect meanings. Thoughtful. The scenery's not bad, either.

( Not quite a balanced review, but hey, I like the music and just found it. )

Thanks again to Nick and Dude for the recommendations. Glad I picked them up.

Edited by Blue to correct URL

[Guest]

has anyone heard the queen symphony? it was composed by tolga kashif ou of diffrent rythyms and melodies pulled out of queen songs. it blew me away. especially the second movment

[Guest]

Hey, Blue. I did check our sigur ros. I liked the video of the two boys. I understand there are three minutes that are cut out of the internet version. Anyone know what we're missing?

I only listened to two pieces, including the one that accompanies the video (There is an eventual backbeat). The origins of this seems to be rock/pop based music. But it seems like the group is trying to expand the genre with atmospheric colors and ambient gestures. It sounds like an interesting alternative to the standard song forms that dominate this form of music.

[blue]

I guess I'll have to download the internet version to compare the two. But maybe what you're referring to is this: The piece, Vidhrar Vel Til Loftarasa, used for the video is shorter than the piece on the original album; the album name is Agaetis Byrjun. The video leaves out about three minutes of music at the front of the piece.

I personally can't think of anything in the video itself that would be too shocking for the public. Well, aside from the whole premise, that two boys could become not just friends, but show sexual feelings, from an act of kindness, all to the great consternation of the adults.

A bit of trivia on the group's site says the song that originally would've been used for the boys was Staralfur. Another site gives English translations of the lyrics (thank goodness).

http://www.alwaysontherun.net/sigur.htm#a7

Another video on the DVD show an interpretive dance troupe dressed as angels, with another two dancers doing other parts. The unusual thing is that the dancers have Downs Syndrome. It's actually quite sweet, especially the ending where two dancers smile, laugh, and then share a kiss.

The last video on the DVD is an odd post-apocalyptic thing with kids in gas masks playing against a backdrop of black snow and a red sky. I notice, though, that except for the ending, they still play like little kids.

-----

I do wish they'd include easier to read titles on the cases, and English and Icelandic printed lyrics. (I get the point of the ( ) disc, though, and it's very gutsy, artsy, and a little crazy to try it.)

The band uses every kind of sound, including the human voice as an instrument, with nonsense syllables in some songs, similar to doo-wop or scat or freestyle use of human vocal sounds at play.

The singer, Jonsi's, voice -- I don't know how he does that, exactly. He clearly can sing in a tenor register, but he can also sing a falsetto, and his voice very often has a unique *other* quality to it, child-like, almost alien or elf-like, but not a forced affectation. Except he's an adult. It's something you have to hear to understand, and throughout the songs, he has lots of variations. It isn't an unnatural or annoying tone at all.

The quality of the Icelandic words adds to the otherworldly feel. Shades of Middle-Earth.

All in all, very interesting listening.

[dude]

Wow... Blue

You sure have a way with words. All I know about this group is that I like what they do. They make me feel good and I can close my eyes and escape.

It is good.

[blue]

:oops: Thanks, Dude. I'm going to spend some time this evening trying to kick-start those words on at least one story idea; not sure which one. I have several things, a chapter here or some ideas there, I say I'm working on. Yes, there's a couple that may make it to this site, if I can get 'em going. Each of the other stories/ideas are mainstream science fiction, but the ideas for stories here are current or recent past times, not science fictional.

[dude]

OK Blue,

Go for it man!