Music Recommendations

Found that on Spotify. It does, a bit. Thinking also stuff in the vein of "Till It Happens To You", musically speaking - I just learned about that yesterday. More like that?

Basically, my benchmark for "pop music I like" is late 80s to early-mid-90s, with occasional jaunts into the 70s. The hip-hop and electronica flavored stuff mostly coming out now mostly sounds ugly to me with Gaga's Top 40 stuff mostly edging out as "at least better than most of it". Adelle is closer to the sort of thing I like and I respect her for being an actual singer-songwriter but even her stuff, I haven't really had anything truly impress me yet.

edited 15th Feb '16 11:11:37 AM by Elle

So lately I've been less and less of a fan of clean production and high fidelity recordings, and I've been listening to a bunch of Neutral Milk Hotel, Andrew Jackson Jihad, and early Beck. Is there anything else similar to these acts that might interest me?

Guided by Voices.

Also, the whole shoegazer genre uses distortion but takes it in a rather different direction. (I particularly like Silver and Gold by Starflyer 59.)

edited 20th Feb '16 10:30:19 PM by MetaFour

Does anyone know any good, sexy jazz?

That's all it has to be. I want smooth jazz that oozes sexuality from the speakers.

Sexy, you say? Well the intersection of jazz and dark cabaret is pretty much as sexy as you can possibly get. You have many of the musical elements of jazz, with a dark vaudeville vibe.

Some here

And also here

You might be interested in this. Or this. You might also like jazz-influenced vaporwave. It's like smooth jazz, but slower. And arguably even sexier.

Ugh. Fixed.

edited 9th Mar '16 11:54:48 AM by PhysicalStamina

You linked the same song twice.

Stan Getz's samba and bossa nova-inspired albums (e.g. Getz/Gilberto), Duke Ellington's Prelude to A Kiss, some of Django Reinhardt's stuff, Jimmy Smith's compilation Walk on the Wild Side (of his years at the Verve label), or Nina Simone's tune "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl".

edited 9th Mar '16 6:54:20 AM by Quag15

@golgothaArisen: You brought this on yourself.

*deep breath*

The Olivia Tremor Control, The Mountain Goats, Pink Reason, Frog Eyes, R. Stevie Moore, early Of Montreal (Cherry Peel, etc.), Elf Power, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The Clean, Beat Happening, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, The Gerbils, Ariel Pink, The Beta Band (especially on The Three E.P.s), Akron/Family, Dirty Beaches, "Messthetics"-era Scritti Politti, and Home (look into the I-IX the box set); if you're really adventurous, also try out Crawling Chaos, Jordaan Mason and the Horse Museum, The Mekons' early recordings, Caroliner, The Savage Young Taterbug, The Dead C's Trapdoor Fucking Exit, The Fall circa Hex Enduction Hour, The Shadow Ring, Viscera, The Androids of Mu, The Residents' Meet the Residents, The Fugs, and Half-Japanese's legendary début 1/2 Gentlemen, Not Beasts.

Oh, and of course: Bügsküll. Because a JHM list of lo-fi/no-fi bands without Bügsküll and the mandatory, "GO GET YOUR SOUND SPONGES ON SOME Snakland, BITCH," is no list at all. (Gargamelodies is probably more your speed, though; I also highly recommend Distracted Snowflake Volume One, though it really is all good stuff.)

edited 15th Mar '16 11:33:47 PM by JHM

Well that's certainly a lot to look into. Thanks a lot! :)

(also, I had no idea Meet the Residents was lo-fi)

Meet The Residents is kind of a precursor of the lo-fi aesthetic.

I'm more of a fan of Songs to Remember (which has a bit of overlap with the "Messthetics" phase) and Cupid & Psyche-era (which, as we know, it's the opposite of lo-fi) Scritti, but since I like all phases of their career, props for that mention ("Skank Bloc Bologna, "Is And Ought The Western World" and "Doubt Beat" all the way).

I would, however, argue about The Fall's Hex Enduction Hour is not quite lo-fi. I find that record is actually fairly clear, in terms of sound and instrumental stuff (especially in the first songs of that album).

edited 16th Mar '16 10:24:42 AM by Quag15

I have a feeling that I might be butting in, but does anybody know of bands with sounds that are similar to Of Montreal's Skeletal Lamping album or Primus? I've been really running out of listening material as of late.

It's very DIY and quirky and seems like a thing that you would dig and could turn you on to some really great music. That, and the production aesthetics have a lot in common with those you mentioned despite the difference in musical style.

The heterogeneous mixture of sound qualities and sources and the overall mussed psychedelic approach to production and song construction on that one and the influence music from that period had on the New Zealand lo-fi sound especially makes it a key document, although perhaps Live In A Hole is a better fit.

Already mentioned The Residents, who were a huge influence on Primus, but I think you might be looking for something a bit more rockish, in which case I'd point you towards the following: Roxy Music, Fiery Furnaces, Ludus, Secret Machines, Thighpaulsandra, The Work, Tera Melos, Faust, BEAK>>, Robert Wyatt, Don Caballero, Faith No More, Melt Yourself Down, The Soft Machine's early work, Battles, Frank Zappa, These Are Weapons, Art Bears, Talking Heads' albums with Brian Eno, Trumans Water, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 (what is with these guys showing up on both lists...?), Guerilla Toss, Black Dice, Queen (yes, really), and King Crimson during Adrian Belew's tenure.

None of these groups sound much alike, but they share certain key qualities with the bands that you mention that I feel you would appreciate.

Do you know of any bands similar to Nickelback that are well liked, so that I don't have to feel guilty about liking them?

I discovered Aurora Aksnes (indie dark-folk pop) several weeks ago, through the Equals trailer, and I was in awe. I've heard just about every one of her songs. She's very good. Started playing the piano at around age 6, started writing lyrics at around age 9. She's 19 now, and has her own band. There's so much more to say, but anyway, I came to tvtropes looking for an article on her (not that I haven't researched enough already), and there was only a brief mention on the Music/Better Than It Sounds page. MEDIOCRE!!

I was hoping that someone would help me create Music/AURORA. I don't have internet on my computer right now, so I'm on mobile. And I don't think you can create pages on mobile. (Note: I put Aurora in all caps, not just because she's that cool, but because that's actually what her stage name is.)

Okay, so I'm supposed to DJ for an event at a library, but they want me to play current/popular music, which I don't really pay attention to. I don't suppose can tell me what people are listening to?

edited 12th May '16 1:52:18 PM by PhysicalStamina

Just type in "shitty music" into Google and you'll find it second result after "Friday" by Rebecca Black

in all seriousness tho check the billboard hot 100 out

edited 12th May '16 2:16:13 PM by golgothasArisen

You might wanna check out Cold. Not too similar, but they're also post-grunge, and are generally considered pretty good. But if I were you, I'd just listen to whatever I found pleasing to the ear, and if someone doesn't like it, they can shove it. Your musical taste is your business.

edited 13th May '16 2:02:49 PM by Small_Mess

Folk-ish groups with a penchant for creative lyrics? In the vein of Sun Kil Moon or The Indelicates?

Neutral Milk Hotel is pretty obvious, as is The Microphones (although indie folk is mainly on The Glow, Pt. 2 than any other album by them). Personally, I love Andrew Jackson Jihad's earlier works that have more folk punk influence, so you might like that. Modest Mouse has done folk-like material, and their lyrics are excellent in my opinion. Finally, there is Father John Misty (aka J. Tillman) and Sufjan Stevens, two artists who combine indie rock, indie pop, and folk rock to showcase their poetic writing.

Oh, and there's the Mountain Goats.

edited 30th May '16 3:52:41 PM by golgothasArisen

Thanks!

I'd go older and say The Incredible String Band and Richard Thompson. Not quite so quirky as Kozelek, and way more English, but his house is built on their foundations. If that's not strange enough for you, Jandek's early records like Six and Six and Chair Beside a Window might be just what you need in your life. Pure alien folk-blues with some wonderfully poetic lyrics from a true enigma. Should you make it out of that snake-pit, Jordaan Mason and the Horse Museum is pretty wild. His stuff sounds like what people who have never heard Neutral Milk Hotel think Neutral Milk Hotel sounds like. I can confirm this.

Outside of folk but very much in the singer-songwriter tradition: Car Seat Headrest has been getting quite a bit of buzz lately, but I've been following him for years, so my recommendation here comes with real legs. The self-referential dream-logic ouroboros that is Twin Fantasy should provide you at least a few good evenings of furious dissection.

Any songs about being confused about your gender or being transgender?I honestly don't care what genre,I just want relatable lyrics.

Here's an entire album about gender dysphoria. There's also the genre Queercore which is all about discontempt with society's stance on being LGBT and stuff like that. Some of the stuff is about gender dysphoria, so that might be a good place to start.

Thanks Golgo.I'll be sure to check those out.I was utterly unaware of that genre.