Phantom's Music, Musings, and Musical Musings

music_phantom13 · 07-11-2009, 08:45 PM

Pretty much, I've been interested in starting a thread here for a while. Just a place to write about new music I discover, review what's coming out of my headphones, talk about hunting vinyl (which I doubt anyone will be interested in), and whatever else may come up that I want to write about. So that's about it. More coming if I get around to it. Hope everyone enjoys

.

EDIT: I got depressed looking at the number of recent posts in the new release thread. So, I decided that's what this is going to be - I'll wade through the piles of **** that come out every week and pick the ones that I think are the best, and write about them here. Also, I'll try to find out how to embed lala here because it lets you listen to songs once for free. Hopefully someone will find this interesting, even though you'll probably just get pissed at me for trying to tell you what to listen to. Whatever, I'll have fun.

NEW EDIT: I don't care anymore, there's too much bad music I don't feel like dealing with it all. So **** it, this is going back to a place to post when I'm bored about whatever.

music_phantom13 · 08-26-2009, 08:43 PM

Well, I suppose it's time to resurrect this failure of a thread. Lets start things off with some youtube.

Mogwai - Tracy

To be honest, I just recently started listening to Mogwai. I had heard of them years ago, and they've been on my list to listen to for a long time, but for some reason I just never got around to it. I figured I'd give Young Team a try, and immediately regretted not doing so much earlier. I've really been missing out not listening to them. Their songs start out deceptively quiet and calm, with flowing atmospheric post rock goodness, only to surprise listeners with a quick flip of the overdrive switch for a sudden assault of distortion and noise. All in all, it makes for a marvelous album that was overlooked far too long by me.

music_phantom13 · 08-27-2009, 07:21 PM

Before I start posting new music, I was curious: anyone on here know what lala is? A friend at work showed it to me, and it's basically a really cool way to listen to music online. You can sign up and listen to any of the songs in their library, which is quite a lot of music, for free once. After that, you can buy web versions to listen to it through their streaming system as many times as you want for 10 cents or buy mp3 albums for $7.49 usually. The web songs are useless unless like me you're around a computer all the time, but it's a great way to find new music because you can listen to a whole album before deciding to download it and waste computer space and time. I'm afraid I'm not sure where it's available outside of the US, but I would highly recommend it for checking out new music if you have access to it. I was going to try to embed albums in my posts, but apparently that doesn't work. Just thought I'd share that with everyone.

music_phantom13 · 08-28-2009, 11:09 AM

I'll try to stick with albums that were released during the summer, but since I'm just starting I may go back a bit closer to the beginning of the year. But, I doubt anyone cares anyway so I should be good.

Timber Timbre - Timber Timbre

The song is Lay Down in the Tall Grass; it's only a minute and a half of it and I have no idea what the video is but it's all i could find. Timber Timbre is a pretty unique blues band, with Taylor Kirk's warbly voice creating a strange mix of a haunting but warm sound. I usually don't like blues, but really enjoyed this album; it's pretty unique. The songs are relatively simple but strangely enthralling. Better than their first album. Highly recommended.

Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem

The song here is Between Two Mysteries. Wind's Poem is a strange combination of folk, noise, and perhaps a little bit of black metal or dark ambient thrown in. It makes for a very interesting combination; obviously not all of the songs are noise/drone heavy as the one I posted isn't. I guess I'd recommend it if you can stand noise and like folk or vice versa. I don't really know how else to describe this, just listen to it.

Netherfriends - Calling You Out EP

The song is Friends with Lofts. If I have to tell you who their main influence is you probably won't like them anyway. That said, the band does deviate a bit from AC, focusing more on singing and creating melodic songs than a lot of the latters psychedelic heavy songs. They sound like they have some influences of Portugal. the Man mixed in there too. Worth watching; if they can just go a little further in the creative process to develop a bit more of their own sound they'll probably be a fantastic band.

Fruit Bats - The Ruminant Band

The song is The Ruminant Band. The Fruit Bats are fun, enjoyable poppy indie folk band with, some country influences. This is my only problem with it, some of the songs get a little to into the steel guitar and deviate a bit far from the folk/rock sound for me. But overall, The Ruminant Band is great, and borrows heavily from the 70's (definite Neil Young, Three Dog Night, and the like influences). The lyrics are pretty good too, creating characters and telling stories through them.

And much more soon to come!

Gavin B. · 08-28-2009, 11:32 AM

Good luck with your new journal/thread phantom. The new release thread is a hit and miss affair for discovering new music and releases. I've found the indivdual member journals and blogs provide more leads to good music. Mowgai is a fantastic choice. They've been around for over a decade now and few folks are really familiar with this band's work.

music_phantom13 · 08-28-2009, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gavin B.

Mowgai is a fantastic choice. They've been around for over a decade now and few folks are really familiar with this band's work.

Yeah, I wanted to kick myself as soon as I started listening to Young Team for not checking them out earlier. Post rock is really hit or miss with me, I don't have too much of it simply because I'm not in the mood for it a lot of the time, but this album is probably the one I'll be turning to most often.

Thanks for the good luck wishes, though I'm not sure anyone will really be interested here. I know a lot of members aren't too into new music. I'll try to keep it as diverse as I can, hopefully I'll be able to steer some people towards some good stuff.

music_phantom13 · 08-28-2009, 10:06 PM

Time for two of my favorite albums so far this year, and something you may be expecting if you know my taste in music:

Sonic Youth - Eternal

That's a little preview of a bunch of songs from the album; to be perfectly honest I didn't even listen to the whole thing so I'm not sure what songs are in it. But, this is a great album. It's like a culmination of everything Sonic Youth has done so far, combining the poppy more accessible Rather Ripped with the experimental rock sound fans loved from Daydream Nation. SY is one of the few bands I can think of that can release an album 25, 30 years after forming that is actually better than a large part of their discography. They continue evolving their sound as they grow, and I'd have to say I think the departure from Geffen and signing to Matador was a great thing for them, if that's what this album is a sign of. Not to say I didn't enjoy Rather Ripped, but it wasn't really a Sonic Youth album.

Dinosaur Jr. - Farm

The song is Pieces, the first track from the album. Farm is just what I'd expect to here from Dinosaur Jr these days - good, earnest, loud rock. The album's a lot like previous releases post Bug, aka their more polished major label sound (after their departure from their first 2(or 3) noise heavy records). While it can't combat You're Living All Over Me or Bug, it's definitely a continuance of the sound many of us love, and I'd be happy if they continued without change as long as they can make music. Especially with Lou Barlow back. And... I get to see them 2 weeks after I get my brace off!

music_phantom13 · 08-29-2009, 10:03 AM

I think it's time for some of that hip hop today. Got two more for you people:

Doom - Born Like This

The song is Gazillion Ear. All I really have to say about this is that it was a huge disappointment to me. DOOM is still better than a lot of the rappers out there, as far as I'm concerned, but this album can't hope to stand up with anything else he's made. Is this the next Mm..Food or Operation: Doomsday? Hardly. In fact, I think it may be possible that he dropped the MF and the caps to ditch the comic moniker and get a little bit more serious. But, if you're a fan of MF DOOM, you'll probably want to pay it some attention. It's worth a shot, you might like it more than me.

Dalek - Gutter Tactics

The song is 2012 (The Pillage). This is almost certainly my favorite hip hop album so far this year, and I have jackhammer to thank for introducing me to this band

. Gutter Tactics takes the abrasive, noisy sound of Absence with the ambient hip hop of Abandoned Language to create a dark, gloomy, loud but more accessible hip hop gem. If you like underground hip hop at all, check this out. It's fantastic.

Engine · 08-29-2009, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by music_phantom13

Doom - Born Like This

The song is Gazillion Ear. All I really have to say about this is that it was a huge disappointment to me. DOOM is still better than a lot of the rappers out there, as far as I'm concerned, but this album can't hope to stand up with anything else he's made. Is this the next Mm..Food or Operation: Doomsday? Hardly. In fact, I think it may be possible that he dropped the MF and the caps to ditch the comic moniker and get a little bit more serious. But, if you're a fan of MF DOOM, you'll probably want to pay it some attention. It's worth a shot, you might like it more than me.

Yeah, I definitely like it more than you do. I think the new album beats the hell out of Mm..Food and Gazillion Ear is a particularly good song. I think if you listen to the whole album through a few times you might see that Doom is still improving and growing. That's how I feel anyway.

music_phantom13 · 08-30-2009, 10:37 AM

I get where you're coming from, but I enjoy the ridiculous, funny, nonsense DOOM that I found in Mm..Food and I originally fell in love with the jazz beats I found in Operation: Doomsday. That said, I still owe it a few more listens (I listened to it the whole way through only once). Gazillion Ear is a great songs though, I'll give you that. Maybe I'll give it another shot today and post later if I feel different about it at all.

07-11-2009, 08:45 PM	#1 (permalink)
music_phantom13 Music Addict Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 942	Phantom's Music, Musings, and Musical Musings Pretty much, I've been interested in starting a thread here for a while. Just a place to write about new music I discover, review what's coming out of my headphones, talk about hunting vinyl (which I doubt anyone will be interested in), and whatever else may come up that I want to write about. So that's about it. More coming if I get around to it. Hope everyone enjoys . EDIT: I got depressed looking at the number of recent posts in the new release thread. So, I decided that's what this is going to be - I'll wade through the piles of ** that come out every week and pick the ones that I think are the best, and write about them here. Also, I'll try to find out how to embed lala here because it lets you listen to songs once for free. Hopefully someone will find this interesting, even though you'll probably just get pissed at me for trying to tell you what to listen to. Whatever, I'll have fun. NEW EDIT: I don't care anymore, there's too much bad music I don't feel like dealing with it all. So ** it, this is going back to a place to post when I'm bored about whatever. Last edited by music_phantom13; 09-01-2009 at 12:07 PM.

08-26-2009, 08:43 PM	#2 (permalink)
music_phantom13 Music Addict Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 942	Well, I suppose it's time to resurrect this failure of a thread. Lets start things off with some youtube. Mogwai - Tracy To be honest, I just recently started listening to Mogwai. I had heard of them years ago, and they've been on my list to listen to for a long time, but for some reason I just never got around to it. I figured I'd give Young Team a try, and immediately regretted not doing so much earlier. I've really been missing out not listening to them. Their songs start out deceptively quiet and calm, with flowing atmospheric post rock goodness, only to surprise listeners with a quick flip of the overdrive switch for a sudden assault of distortion and noise. All in all, it makes for a marvelous album that was overlooked far too long by me. Last edited by music_phantom13; 08-27-2009 at 07:31 AM.

08-27-2009, 07:21 PM	#3 (permalink)
music_phantom13 Music Addict Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 942	Before I start posting new music, I was curious: anyone on here know what lala is? A friend at work showed it to me, and it's basically a really cool way to listen to music online. You can sign up and listen to any of the songs in their library, which is quite a lot of music, for free once. After that, you can buy web versions to listen to it through their streaming system as many times as you want for 10 cents or buy mp3 albums for $7.49 usually. The web songs are useless unless like me you're around a computer all the time, but it's a great way to find new music because you can listen to a whole album before deciding to download it and waste computer space and time. I'm afraid I'm not sure where it's available outside of the US, but I would highly recommend it for checking out new music if you have access to it. I was going to try to embed albums in my posts, but apparently that doesn't work. Just thought I'd share that with everyone.

08-28-2009, 11:09 AM	#4 (permalink)
music_phantom13 Music Addict Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 942	I'll try to stick with albums that were released during the summer, but since I'm just starting I may go back a bit closer to the beginning of the year. But, I doubt anyone cares anyway so I should be good. Timber Timbre - Timber Timbre The song is Lay Down in the Tall Grass; it's only a minute and a half of it and I have no idea what the video is but it's all i could find. Timber Timbre is a pretty unique blues band, with Taylor Kirk's warbly voice creating a strange mix of a haunting but warm sound. I usually don't like blues, but really enjoyed this album; it's pretty unique. The songs are relatively simple but strangely enthralling. Better than their first album. Highly recommended. Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem The song here is Between Two Mysteries. Wind's Poem is a strange combination of folk, noise, and perhaps a little bit of black metal or dark ambient thrown in. It makes for a very interesting combination; obviously not all of the songs are noise/drone heavy as the one I posted isn't. I guess I'd recommend it if you can stand noise and like folk or vice versa. I don't really know how else to describe this, just listen to it. Netherfriends - Calling You Out EP The song is Friends with Lofts. If I have to tell you who their main influence is you probably won't like them anyway. That said, the band does deviate a bit from AC, focusing more on singing and creating melodic songs than a lot of the latters psychedelic heavy songs. They sound like they have some influences of Portugal. the Man mixed in there too. Worth watching; if they can just go a little further in the creative process to develop a bit more of their own sound they'll probably be a fantastic band. Fruit Bats - The Ruminant Band The song is The Ruminant Band. The Fruit Bats are fun, enjoyable poppy indie folk band with, some country influences. This is my only problem with it, some of the songs get a little to into the steel guitar and deviate a bit far from the folk/rock sound for me. But overall, The Ruminant Band is great, and borrows heavily from the 70's (definite Neil Young, Three Dog Night, and the like influences). The lyrics are pretty good too, creating characters and telling stories through them. And much more soon to come!

08-28-2009, 11:32 AM	#5 (permalink)
Gavin B. Model Worker Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 1,248	Good luck with your new journal/thread phantom. The new release thread is a hit and miss affair for discovering new music and releases. I've found the indivdual member journals and blogs provide more leads to good music. Mowgai is a fantastic choice. They've been around for over a decade now and few folks are really familiar with this band's work.

08-28-2009, 10:06 PM	#7 (permalink)
music_phantom13 Music Addict Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 942	Time for two of my favorite albums so far this year, and something you may be expecting if you know my taste in music: Sonic Youth - Eternal That's a little preview of a bunch of songs from the album; to be perfectly honest I didn't even listen to the whole thing so I'm not sure what songs are in it. But, this is a great album. It's like a culmination of everything Sonic Youth has done so far, combining the poppy more accessible Rather Ripped with the experimental rock sound fans loved from Daydream Nation. SY is one of the few bands I can think of that can release an album 25, 30 years after forming that is actually better than a large part of their discography. They continue evolving their sound as they grow, and I'd have to say I think the departure from Geffen and signing to Matador was a great thing for them, if that's what this album is a sign of. Not to say I didn't enjoy Rather Ripped, but it wasn't really a Sonic Youth album. Dinosaur Jr. - Farm The song is Pieces, the first track from the album. Farm is just what I'd expect to here from Dinosaur Jr these days - good, earnest, loud rock. The album's a lot like previous releases post Bug, aka their more polished major label sound (after their departure from their first 2(or 3) noise heavy records). While it can't combat You're Living All Over Me or Bug, it's definitely a continuance of the sound many of us love, and I'd be happy if they continued without change as long as they can make music. Especially with Lou Barlow back. And... I get to see them 2 weeks after I get my brace off!

08-29-2009, 10:03 AM	#8 (permalink)
music_phantom13 Music Addict Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 942	I think it's time for some of that hip hop today. Got two more for you people: Doom - Born Like This The song is Gazillion Ear. All I really have to say about this is that it was a huge disappointment to me. DOOM is still better than a lot of the rappers out there, as far as I'm concerned, but this album can't hope to stand up with anything else he's made. Is this the next Mm..Food or Operation: Doomsday? Hardly. In fact, I think it may be possible that he dropped the MF and the caps to ditch the comic moniker and get a little bit more serious. But, if you're a fan of MF DOOM, you'll probably want to pay it some attention. It's worth a shot, you might like it more than me. Dalek - Gutter Tactics The song is 2012 (The Pillage). This is almost certainly my favorite hip hop album so far this year, and I have jackhammer to thank for introducing me to this band . Gutter Tactics takes the abrasive, noisy sound of Absence with the ambient hip hop of Abandoned Language to create a dark, gloomy, loud but more accessible hip hop gem. If you like underground hip hop at all, check this out. It's fantastic.

08-30-2009, 10:37 AM	#10 (permalink)
music_phantom13 Music Addict Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 942	I get where you're coming from, but I enjoy the ridiculous, funny, nonsense DOOM that I found in Mm..Food and I originally fell in love with the jazz beats I found in Operation: Doomsday. That said, I still owe it a few more listens (I listened to it the whole way through only once). Gazillion Ear is a great songs though, I'll give you that. Maybe I'll give it another shot today and post later if I feel different about it at all.