Topic: Testing the water with both feet. (Read 21616 times)

LittleKey · « **on:** 20 Jul 2008, 03:02 »

After having indie recommendations pounded into my head day after day in qc, i decided to try some out. I didn't even know what it meant (I thought it mean Indian at first

) but I finally tried some, and i like it a lot. But I have no idea where to start!! I wouldn't consider this just another music recommendation thread (although I guess it technically is). Because I have NO IDEA where to start. I like pretty much anything. Mostly rock and pop i guess? and technoish stuff. So far, I've tried Oh No! Oh My! and Godspeed You! Black Emporer, and I like them both, just to give you an example of what I like. So basically what I'm asking is what Indie bands of any genre are widely considered to be very very good? Thank you very much for the help, I'm looking forward to the new recommendations!! (And thanks for initiatiating me, Jeph).

Tom · « **Reply #1 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 03:44 »

First things first, loose the image sig it's considered obnoxious. High, welcome to the "whatever we call it now" boards/forums.

Second, try the New Pornographers, Sloan, Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Pixies, Okkervil River, Crystal Stilts, Spoon and Pavement. Get yourself a last.fm or pandora account and have fun figuring things out on your own.

T.J.

Thrillho · « **Reply #2 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 06:00 »

Recommendation threads on here are mostly pointless because there's a tendency towards deliberate and/or ironic assholery in the recommendations, and people often just stick their favourite bands in your direction.

Since you like Godspeed, if you don't listen to them already then try Sigur Ros, but also I'd say have a look at Mansun and Hope of the States, becuase they've both got prog/post-rock influences, I'd say.

parm · « **Reply #3 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 06:46 »

MOGWAI, damnit.

If you get a chance to see them live, do so. But, uh, take earplugs.

jeph · « **Reply #4 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 07:19 »

Quote from: DynamiteKid on 20 Jul 2008, 06:00

Recommendation threads on here are mostly pointless because there's a tendency towards deliberate and/or ironic assholery in the recommendations, and people often just stick their favourite bands in your direction.

Really? I thought the one we did for Yelley was actually really useful and on-target for the most part.

est · « **Reply #5 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 07:31 »

Yeah, but that is because Everybody Loves Yelley.

Other recommendation threads tend to be just rehashings of people coming in, not reading what the OP wrote, shouting out their favourite band of the moment & leaving.

Caspian · « **Reply #6 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 09:09 »

To be honest I'm kind of curious as to why people post such these kind of threads. When I was a wee lad (

), I heard a Metallica song and liked it. However, instead of going "dudes spoonfeed some music that sounds like Master of Puppets" like the way that many people seem to these days I looked around at my own pace and found some rather excellent (and some really shitty) music; some of it sounding like early Metallica and some of it (stumbling upon Neurosis' Through Silver in Blood for example) sounding completely different. It was a very exciting time, and I can't help but think that people posting such threads are really losing out- there's just no thrill to it these days. There's no risk. Bring back the "old" days when all we had was Napster and a group of confused year 8's recording really bad quality tape dubs of songs both good and bad.

Essentially, LittleKey, I am saying: don't ask us; you're missing out on a lot of fun if you do things this way. I'm not saying you shouldn't ever ask people for bands at all, but just keep it to a mininum. Put a bit of effort into looking for bands yourself, especcially at this early stage.

imapiratearg · « **Reply #7 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 09:21 »

Quote from: LittleKey on 20 Jul 2008, 03:02

I like pretty much anything. Mostly rock and pop i guess? and technoish stuff. So far, I've tried Oh No! Oh My! and Godspeed You! Black Emporer, and I like them both, just to give you an example of what I like.

ON!OM! sound a lot like Modest Mouse to me, so you might enjoy their music. There's a fairly good chance you've already heard them, but start with their new stuff and work your way back, I'd say. If that sounds like a lot of work, you could go right to the middle and try either The Moon & Antarctica or Build Nothing Out of Something.

Other than that n0t_r0bert_b0yle basically beat everybody to the punch.

LittleKey · « **Reply #8 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 10:33 »

Wow, you guys are fast. 8 replies and i only posted this like, 2:00 AM. anyway, thank youuuuuuuuu for all the recommendations. And Caspian, i do like looking for my own music, but i figured it would be good to learn about some good stuff first and move on from there. and i like last.fm, i'll get an account there. like i said, thanks a lot, and i can't wait to try out all this new music.

(And yeah, I'l lose the sig, even though it's totally awesome.

)

E. Spaceman · « **Reply #9 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 11:01 »

Quote from: n0t_r0bert_b0yle!! on 20 Jul 2008, 03:44

Second, try the New Pornographers, Sloan, Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Pixies, Okkervil River, Crystal Stilts, Spoon and Pavement.

This is a pretty dang good starter package.The only thing missing there is music with bloopy electronic sounds, for which I reccomend Hot Chip, they started as sort of a folky singer songwriter thing, but decided to becom an electronic project. Their songs are filled with vocal harmonies and hooks backed by bloopy sounds that range from the just bouncy fun to darker nostalgic ones. You may want to start with their latest one, Made In The Dark which has the excellent Ready For The Floor (you may open youtube for the rather amusing video) and move backwards, The Warning is my favourite one.

Depending on what you may like, you may want to look for similar bands, the best way for this would be if you followed up telling us what did you like.

Thrillho · « **Reply #10 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 11:07 »

Quote from: jeph on 20 Jul 2008, 07:19

Quote from: DynamiteKid on 20 Jul 2008, 06:00
Recommendation threads on here are mostly pointless because there's a tendency towards deliberate and/or ironic assholery in the recommendations, and people often just stick their favourite bands in your direction.

Really? I thought the one we did for Yelley was actually really useful and on-target for the most part.

Make note of the quantifier 'mostly.' I always try to be useful as well, and I get the impression tommy does too (and I don't mean just from his posts in here, I mean he seems to do what I do and try and recommend based on previous artists). But a lot of the replies to threads like these seem to end up just recommending the general forum bands or basically saying 'fuck what you listen to, this is better.'

imagist42 · « **Reply #11 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 12:07 »

fuck what you listen to, lcd soundsystem is better

MrBlu · « **Reply #12 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 13:05 »

Quote from: n0t_r0bert_b0yle!! on 20 Jul 2008, 03:44

First things first, loose the image sig it's considered obnoxious. High, welcome to the "whatever we call it now" boards/forums.

Second, try the New Pornographers, Sloan, Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Pixies, Okkervil River, Crystal Stilts, Spoon and Pavement. Get yourself a last.fm or pandora account and have fun figuring things out on your own.

T.J.

Boom. Headshot.

Er, lemme add The Shins, 1986, The Whitest Boy Alive, Thievery Corporation, Tilly and The Wall, and TV on the Radio.

A few handy websites would be Kinky Origami, Last.FM and the Music section of Download.com

Note: Kinky Origami hasn't updated in months. I'm not too sure what's up there, but there's still a year's worth of music.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #13 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 13:06 »

Quote from: LittleKey on 20 Jul 2008, 03:02

(And thanks for initiatiating me, Jeph).

parm · « **Reply #14 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 13:08 »

I hear Brokencyde and Millionaires are popular.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #15 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 13:20 »

Maybe I'm missing something but I haven't seen more than a couple references to any music in QC in like 2 years.

Tom · « **Reply #16 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 15:10 »

Quote from: parm on 20 Jul 2008, 13:08

I hear Brokencyde and Millionaires are popular.

Dude, what did I tell you.

sean · « **Reply #17 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 15:22 »

Quote from: LittleKey on 20 Jul 2008, 03:02

Godspeed You! Black Emporer

Have you listened to any other post-rock? Or maybe if you could give us a little more on your musical background, like Tommy stated, I could steer you in the direction of a few good post-rock bands, if you are interested.

pamplemousse · « **Reply #18 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 16:19 »

Since you like Oh No! Oh My!, you may enjoy other bands in the pop vein.

Try I'm From Barcelona, The Boy Least Likely To, or even of Montreal.

And like someone else said: MOGWAI.

Caspian · « **Reply #19 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 18:31 »

Quote from: pamplemousse on 20 Jul 2008, 16:19

Try I'm From Barcelona,

One thing I will recommend: Avoid this band like you would avoid AIDS.

Brokencyde >>> I'm from Barcelona

Tom · « **Reply #20 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 18:48 »

Caspian, for once I agree with you.

pamplemousse · « **Reply #21 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 19:04 »

They're good in that "let's all sing along in a carefree manner!" way.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #22 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 22:12 »

I hear this band Pavement is kinda rad.

JediBendu · « **Reply #23 on:** 20 Jul 2008, 23:59 »

Tortoise. Do it now.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #24 on:** 21 Jul 2008, 00:12 »

Tortoise are great and all but hardly what I'd consider an entry-level band. When I first got into "college rock" as we called it back in the Stone Age, it was all about exciting shit like Sonic Youth, Skinny Puppy, REM, the Pixies, the Smiths... stuff that you could listen to and be all like "OH FUCK YEAH DUDE" whereas Tortoise is, you know, jazzy and at times quite slow and quiet and could be considered "boring".

What I'm saying is like, you know, Labradford released three albums I would consider to be literally perfect (and three others that were good) but I would absolutely not recommend them to the OP, with the possible exception of saying "Get the White Album (the self-titled one) by Labradford" because that one has the most vocals and the most conventional, if sad and slow, music.

JediBendu · « **Reply #25 on:** 21 Jul 2008, 00:36 »

Tortoise is one of the first post-rock bands I ever really listened to, and I wouldn't say Godspeed is any less challenging than Tortoise. I mean, the OP already said that they enjoyed that, and in a way it seems like going back towards something like Sonic Youth or REM or The Pixies would be moving in a completely different direction.

If they're listening to Godspeed, I just assume they're already somewhat accustomed to the post-rock structure and songs that can kind of try an uninitiated listener's patience.

That being said, TNT, as great as it is, is probably not the album to start with. But Standards, Millions Now Living Will Never Die, or It's All Around You would, I think be good albums to start with when it comes to Tortoise, despite not being on the same level as TNT. In my view it's a natural progression, at least it was with me, though I was personally never a big Godspeed fan. Hell, I'd recommend Tortoise before I recommended the early Mogwai albums, as much as I love them.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #26 on:** 21 Jul 2008, 02:38 »

I honestly see very little similarity between GY!BE and Tortoise. GY!BE is pretty conventional, musically - based on classical structure, and building to great, simple moments. Tortoise, again, is more like jazz - more complex, more subtle, and with less "WHOAH" moments.

Basically what I'm saying is like you could headbang to "Moya" but "Djed" is 20 minutes of chin-stroking.

JediBendu · « **Reply #27 on:** 21 Jul 2008, 03:08 »

I didn't necessarily compare Godspeed to Tortoise. I simply said that Godspeed isn't any less challenging than most Tortoise. And I maintain. My recommendation is my recommendation, you don't have to agree with it. But a lot of Tortoise material is not very inaccessible at all. "Djed" is a pretty big exception.

I mean, if anybody thinks Tortoise is particularly inaccessible than I would honestly be considerably surprised.

öde · « **Reply #28 on:** 21 Jul 2008, 04:27 »

Quote from: pamplemousse on 20 Jul 2008, 16:19

I'm From Barcelona

They're only good live because they bring balloons and confetti and you can sing along with lots of other people. Otherwise, there's no point to them.

I will recommend to you Tokyo Police Club and Born Ruffians.

Tom · « **Reply #29 on:** 21 Jul 2008, 04:57 »

^^^This as well

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #30 on:** 21 Jul 2008, 13:20 »

Quote from: JediBendu on 21 Jul 2008, 03:08

"Djed" is a pretty big exception.

But it's their best song, so...

JediBendu · « **Reply #31 on:** 21 Jul 2008, 15:01 »

I really have no idea what you're driving at here. Even if "Djed" is their best song, it's a unique piece of music in the Tortoise catalog, and I don't see how you can use "Djed" as a sweeping example of the "difficulty" of Tortoise music when it's one song over 4 albums. The last 2 of which, and even most of the album that "Djed" is on, is very accessible by comparison.

I mean, I'm not even sure what you're talking about anymore. Is "Djed" suitable for your example because it's their best song? So only the "best" song counts when making a generalization about a band's music?

MrBlu · « **Reply #32 on:** 21 Jul 2008, 19:39 »

Quote from: zerodrone on 20 Jul 2008, 22:12

I hear this band Pavement is kinda rad.

"Rattled, by the rush, rattled by the rush"...

imapiratearg · « **Reply #33 on:** 21 Jul 2008, 20:37 »

Cut your hair.

Also, this:

Quote from: öde on 21 Jul 2008, 04:27

Tokyo Police Club

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #34 on:** 21 Jul 2008, 23:31 »

What I'm getting at is that GY!BE is very accessible to anyone who has ever heard classical music or watched a movie that has a moody soundtrack.

Tortoise rarely have hooks and are working in a far more textural and less immediate musical vein entirely.

That is why I think GY!BE is way more accessible than Tortoise.

sean · « **Reply #35 on:** 22 Jul 2008, 09:12 »

Please, if we want accessible post-rock, everyone knows to listen to Explosions in the Sky.

Also, I will vouch for Jackie. When I was first getting into post-rock, I had a much easier time getting into Godspeed than into Tortoise. In fact, to this day, I really only have a passing familiarity with Tortoise, while I adore Godspeed to pieces. But to be fair, both bands are not exactly accessible, at least in the normal sense.

Christophe · « **Reply #36 on:** 22 Jul 2008, 12:13 »

For some reason, I've been on a huge Pavement kick as of writing. Due to a busted mp3 player and a computer currently being held ransom by Gateway, I've resorted to making tapes of CDs I already have or buying old ones from the used music shop or Goodwill.

Recently, I've been rocking a Wowee Zowee tape in my car as of recent. When I make my way back down to the used music shop I'm getting Slanted and Enchanted.

MrBlu · « **Reply #37 on:** 22 Jul 2008, 15:22 »

Oh! This is a Post-Rock thing??

You've heard Mogwai and Sigur Ros.

Soo...

Broken Social Scene (that can't be suggested enough really.)
This Will Destroy You
Mae (not Enemble Mae, or the shitty American Punk band, check it out here: http://www.mae.mymusic.dk/ )
Bedhead (I hate them, but you might not)
Battles

MrBlu · « **Reply #38 on:** 22 Jul 2008, 17:58 »

Quote from: Anyways on 22 Jul 2008, 16:19

Seriously - how can anyone not love Bedhead?

I think maybe I am tipping over the "fanboy" line here but it's fucking Bedhead, man.

First link: BORING. If you're going to make Post-Rock, don't make it put me to sleep.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #39 on:** 22 Jul 2008, 23:39 »

I can understand why people wouldn't like Bedhead. I loved them, but I can see how it's not for everyone.

I mean, there are people who don't like Yo La Tengo, for fuck's sake.

Tom · « **Reply #40 on:** 22 Jul 2008, 23:48 »

I still haven't quite got into Bedhead but it is growing on me. Yo La Tengo on the other hand I've just gotten in to. The other day when first listened to them 'cause I'd just got their latest, I was pretty much sold as soon as I heard Pass The Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind and Mr.Tough.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #41 on:** 23 Jul 2008, 00:04 »

That latest one is solid as fuck but dude, just wait til you hear Painful, Electr-O-Pura and I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One. That right there is a perfect indie rock trifecta of consecutive awesomeness.

parm · « **Reply #42 on:** 23 Jul 2008, 01:43 »

Quote from: MrBlu on 22 Jul 2008, 15:22

Battles

Christ, they annoy me. They start out interesting and you think "Oh, this is quite good". And then the stupid novelty monkey-on-helium vocals start and you have to go and look for a lead pipe or something to smash your stereo with. Why did they do that? WHY?

Tom · « **Reply #43 on:** 23 Jul 2008, 02:06 »

Things to do: listen to Battles

Triple J never played 'em and I've only just switched to FBi when there aren't any set programs on Triple J

Thrillho · « **Reply #44 on:** 23 Jul 2008, 05:53 »

I think a mistake a lot of us are making in these recommendation threads is recommending bands that need some time to get into, because I think most of the people asking are looking for quick thrills, or at least something new to grab onto, and a band that takes time probably isn't what they're looking for.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #45 on:** 23 Jul 2008, 09:08 »

^^^^^^^^^^^^ FINALLY SOMEONE GETS IT

That's why I suggested Pavement. They immediately grab you and make you go "Oh." You may or may not like them, but it's a reasonably safe bet you'll know pretty quickly whether they're your "thing" or not.

ENTRY LEVEL BANDS, PEOPLE.

imapiratearg · « **Reply #46 on:** 23 Jul 2008, 09:14 »

The Apples in Stereo.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #47 on:** 23 Jul 2008, 09:18 »

more like the Crapples in Stereo amirite

Nah they're good, just stay very far away from Of Montreal.

The first Olivia Tremor Control album should be a pretty great kick in the pants for anyone wanting to know what this whole "indie rock" business is all about.

Also, the Flaming Lips' Hit To Death in the Future Head.

LittleKey · « **Reply #48 on:** 24 Jul 2008, 01:33 »

Thank you guys very much

. I think I'm set on music for the next few decades. I haven't tried too much of it yet, but I'm seeing some really promising stuff. How you remember all that music is beyond me.

parm · « **Reply #49 on:** 24 Jul 2008, 01:47 »

Quote from: LittleKey on 24 Jul 2008, 01:33

Thank you guys very much . I think I'm set on music for the next few decades. I haven't tried too much of it yet, but I'm seeing some really promising stuff. How you remember all that music is beyond me.

We carry around little notebooks with us with names of bands in so that we can sound superior and cooler than anybody in any situation. And if we forget our notebooks, we just make shit up.

THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Author Topic: Testing the water with both feet. (Read 21616 times)