THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)

Fun Stuff => BAND => Topic started by: jimbunny on 28 Dec 2007, 21:18

Title: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: jimbunny on 28 Dec 2007, 21:18
Is there any music out there that you put on primarily just to 'dull the pain'?

I mean, 'art for art's sake' is all well and good. But the fact remains that listening to music can very well affect your emotional (as well as physical) state. Sometimes, if you're like me, you just want to think or feel less, and that Fiery Furnaces album just doesn't seem to be helping. Or maybe it will. What's it for you? Or is music above that? Are you above that?
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Hat on 28 Dec 2007, 21:22
Basically every Beatles song Paul McCartney wrote.  Also a lot of the time when I want background music or I'm just feeling really down I put on stuff I am just ridiculously familiar with due to previous floggings to death. So a lot of time I put on a Radiohead album.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: The Viz on 28 Dec 2007, 21:46
R.E.M.'s "Automatic for the People" is a really good therapeutic album, for me at least, as is Elliott Smith's "Figure 8."  Both of those have gotten me through some weird nights.  Anything by the Flaming Lips works pretty well, too.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: IronOxide on 28 Dec 2007, 21:53
It depends on how you want to 'dull the pain' as you say. I generally find that Owen Pallett/Final Fantasy does a good job, but because it is so full of emotion, but ends up as such a cathartic experience. On the other hand though, it can also work to put on some simple, quiet stuff like Air, or I Am Robot and Proud that I can just zone out to.

Or I can just listen to "Sex Bomb" on repeat until my iPod runs out of batteries.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: pentaen on 28 Dec 2007, 22:20
i've listened to it more times than i have fingers and toes but Pet Sounds really takes the edge off, i can always physicaly feel the stress going away by the time Caroline, No, starts.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Jackie Blue on 28 Dec 2007, 22:46
Labradford
Windy & Carl
Amp
Loscil
Matt Elliott
Mojave 3
A Silver Mt. Zion
Tarentel
Pall Mall
Bedhead
Low
Lush
Tortoise
M83
Fly Pan Am
Frankie Sparo
Him (NOT THE SHITTY RECENT METAL BAND H.I.M., the Him that started in the mid-90s and continues to this day)
Underworld
The Doldrums
This Will Destroy You
Mono
etc....
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: E. Spaceman on 28 Dec 2007, 22:59
Why dull the pain when the pain feels so good?


(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/08/Jawbreaker_-_Dear_You.jpg)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bb/Pulp-This_Is_Hardcore.jpg)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ZJQSJKXNL._SS500_.jpg)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/84/Pinkerton.jpg)
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Jackie Blue on 28 Dec 2007, 23:13
Spiritualized is my favorite band of all time but seriously there are times when if I listened to them I would most definitely blow my fucking brains out from sheer sadness.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: pentaen on 28 Dec 2007, 23:19
If your feeling pain i would probably recomend some CODEINE



Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: amok on 29 Dec 2007, 01:04
If your feeling pain i would probably recomend some CODEINE

Damn, good call.

If I'm in a wallowing mood I tend to either queue up a shitload of Low or just listen to 'How to disappear completely' on repeat over and over. Anathema's 'A Fine Day To Exit' works too.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Ocarina654 on 29 Dec 2007, 01:06
Spiritualized is my favorite band of all time but seriously there are times when if I listened to them I would most definitely blow my fucking brains out from sheer sadness.
Oh jeez I want to listen to them.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Johnny C on 29 Dec 2007, 01:08
(http://cdn.last.fm/coverart/300x300/2024258.jpg)

(http://cdn.last.fm/coverart/300x300/2024258.jpg)

(http://cdn.last.fm/coverart/300x300/2024258.jpg)






















(http://cdn.last.fm/coverart/300x300/2024258.jpg)
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: amok on 29 Dec 2007, 01:20
I've been meaning to listen to those guys for awhile and if it's good enough to get posted 4 times (interesting cover too) I guess I'll start with that 'un!
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Scandanavian War Machine on 29 Dec 2007, 02:43
i see your Low and raise you Morphine.

those are the only two i can think of.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: amok on 29 Dec 2007, 06:29
I really enjoyed that Okkervil River album. :-D
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: valley_parade on 29 Dec 2007, 07:09
Last night I fell asleep with some valium and a GYBE album (can't remember which one). Worked pretty well.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Jackie Blue on 29 Dec 2007, 08:32
Drink a beer, take a Valium, and put on some Windy & Carl.

The weight of the world will be lifted.

Benzos are wonderful things.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: KharBevNor on 29 Dec 2007, 09:54
This seems to be a post the album covers in a pretentious fashion thread, so here we go!

(http://www.someplaceelse.net/shop/images/coil_musick1.jpg)

(http://www.someplaceelse.net/shop/images/coil_musick2.jpg)

(http://static.boomkat.com/images/72674/333.jpg)

(http://thesentinelsoftime.club.fr/Images/Burzum%20Daudi%20Baldrs.jpg)

(http://www.transcendentalcreations.com/admin/affiches/f381d872dd97581ade384e6e82473ba9hardanger.jpg)

(http://userpages.umbc.edu/~vijay/TG/pics/lps/front/20_jazz_funk_greats.jpg)

(http://www.douban.com/lpic/s1430825.jpg)

(http://www.geometrikrecords.com/bol135/covers/lustmord.jpg)

Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Johnny C on 29 Dec 2007, 10:50
You could not be more right on that third record, though the second-last one is a good call too.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: amok on 29 Dec 2007, 11:13
You could not be more right on that third record

Mind identifying it for me? The pretentious cover-only approach works as long as the cover has... any information whatsoever on it.

Lustmord is always good.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Jackie Blue on 29 Dec 2007, 11:33
Mind identifying it for me?

Considering your taste in music (according to your last.fm profile) it's kind of mind-boggling that you don't recognize it.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Johnny C on 29 Dec 2007, 11:48
To be fair the vinyl has three different covers I think? I was in the record store yesterday and the copy they had for sale looked nothing like that but it was the real deal.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: amok on 29 Dec 2007, 13:31
Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Ah, thanks. Absolutely hate them and reached this conclusion from copies a friend burnt me, hence never really seen any of the covers :)
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Jackie Blue on 29 Dec 2007, 13:39
You like Explosions in the Sky but "absolutely hate" GY!BE?

 :?
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: amok on 29 Dec 2007, 13:49
I just found them extremely tedious; failed to engage me on any level. Not offensively bad, but not worth the time spent listening to them either.

So... yes. Although I'm not so big on EITS recently but a few of the other post-rock bands I genuinely enjoy seem to get filed under 'Godspeed clone' so your point stands I spose.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Scandanavian War Machine on 29 Dec 2007, 16:26
it's not so crazy.

i love EitS but hate GY!BE. you are not alone.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Jackie Blue on 29 Dec 2007, 16:34
I really think you guys are using the word "hate" in a pretty reckless fashion.  I mean, amok, you basically just said you're indifferent to them.  If I "absolutely hated" everything I'm indifferent to, I'd expode in a cloud of fury.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Inlander on 29 Dec 2007, 19:40
This question makes absolutely no sense to me. Perhaps I've misunderstood the intent of the original post, but music to me always, always has some kind of emotionally enhancing effect - even if it's just "holy shit this is the worst musical atrocity I've ever heard". The idea of music that might make me a person feel less emotional absolutely boggles my mind. Might I suggest simply not listening to music at all if you want your emotions dulled for a bit?
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: E. Spaceman on 29 Dec 2007, 19:52
actually, a lot of music has no emotional effect on me, and on some occasions it helps to distract me. Tommy's suggestion of Chris Herbert's Mezzotint is an excellent example of this, fantastic album too.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Spinless on 29 Dec 2007, 19:55
Inlander, I took the original post to be asking about which albums are good for catharsis after a breakup or something. Several times, I drafted my list, but it required far too much thought and the list changes all too often. The mainstays have been albums written by Tim Kasher, Greg Dulli and Blake Schwarzenbach. I decided this thread is basically about making a mixtape to help you through a breakup or something.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Jackie Blue on 29 Dec 2007, 20:20
Possible side-effects of listening to Greg Dulli after a breakup include:

Development of overbearing male-ego.
Excessive drinking.
Uncontrolled assholery.
Delusions of grandeur.

Use care when operating a rebound while under the influence of Greg Dulli.

Consult your Superego before taking Greg Dulli with alcochol.

Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Spinless on 29 Dec 2007, 20:23
Exactly. Step 3.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Jackie Blue on 29 Dec 2007, 20:30
I just want to say, I'm glad that so many of you are with me on the Afghan Whigs bandwagon, because I seriously only know one person in real life who both has great taste in music and appreciates just how fucking amazing that band was.

Come to think of it, I don't even know any people with bad taste in music who remember/appreciate the Whigs.

WHO COULD GET MORE GIRL'S PHONE NUMBERS IN A NIGHT: GREG DULLI OR JARVIS COCKER?

Posting drunk is fun.  Now I see why Khar does it.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: KvP on 29 Dec 2007, 20:33
(http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000024C6W.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Spinless on 29 Dec 2007, 20:41
Greg Fucking Dulli.
Jarvis Cocker talks too much. He'd still be chatting up the first girl while Greg Fucking Dulli is singing "LET'S GET IT OOOON" to his 6th.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Jackie Blue on 29 Dec 2007, 21:43
(http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000024C6W.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)

I think you just won the thread.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Johnny C on 29 Dec 2007, 22:47
Possible side-effects of listening to Greg Dulli after a breakup include:

Development of overbearing male-ego.
Excessive drinking.
Uncontrolled assholery.
Delusions of grandeur.

Use care when operating a rebound while under the influence of Greg Dulli.

Consult your Superego before taking Greg Dulli with alcochol.


I really want to fire up Photoshop and turn this into an actual warning sign. Fantastically put.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Spinless on 29 Dec 2007, 22:56
Made all the more impressive because it was a drunk post, likely made while under the influence of Greg Dulli.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Shadows Collide on 29 Dec 2007, 23:39
1 million points to zerodrone for mentioning Labradford. Mi Media Naranja will save you from despair definitely.

If not pop on This Mortal Coil or Cocteau Twins and chill I say. While wearing a comic afro wig like so:  :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Johnny C on 30 Dec 2007, 01:20
Patton Oswalt has other ideas (http://youtube.com/watch?v=tfan5MacmsI).

Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Thrillho on 30 Dec 2007, 01:55
It's not dulling that I listen to music for, so much as exorcism. More of a cathartic experience than an anaesthetic.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Shadows Collide on 30 Dec 2007, 04:10
"Listening to Pink Floyd's Great Gig in the Sky at 2am with the lights off" - sounds like me! But seriously This Mortal Coil kinda allows you to drift off and bask in the beauty of Liz Frazer's voice
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Jackie Blue on 30 Dec 2007, 08:44
Patton Oswalt has other ideas (http://youtube.com/watch?v=tfan5MacmsI).

I prefer his take on hipsters (http://youtube.com/watch?v=vnKU-lWFNoo&feature=related).
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Johnny C on 30 Dec 2007, 08:51
Finger on the pulse, I tell ya.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: sandman263 on 30 Dec 2007, 15:05
It's not dulling that I listen to music for, so much as exorcism. More of a cathartic experience than an anaesthetic.

Can you expand more on this? I tend to put on the saddest music I know when I want catharticism. If this sounds like you, check out Tom McRae (self-titled debut).
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: a pack of wolves on 30 Dec 2007, 15:13
Catharsis (http://www.myspace.com/catharsiscrimethinc)
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Nodaisho on 30 Dec 2007, 23:32
R.E.M.'s "Automatic for the People" is a really good therapeutic album
Hadn't thought of that one, but The Viz is right, at least for a certain kind of anesthetic, the sit drooling in a chair kind, where as Exodus, Overkill, and Down would be the kind of music to listen to that can keep you working at whatever you need to do, while still not feeling whatever it is you need to feel. Anything I have heard from the Beatles would slingshot someone all the way from depression to happy-hippie-druggie-land though, I don't know how they did it.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Thrillho on 31 Dec 2007, 03:33
It's not dulling that I listen to music for, so much as exorcism. More of a cathartic experience than an anaesthetic.

Can you expand more on this? I tend to put on the saddest music I know when I want catharticism. If this sounds like you, check out Tom McRae (self-titled debut).

It's mostly music from my childhood, music that I identify with, music that's miserable as fuck, or some combination of them all.

The music from my childhood consists of the albums we used ot listen to as a family when driving to holiday destinations. This entailed about five or six tapes, most of which I have on CD now - the first Seal album, Parklife by Blur (one song of which comes under 'identify with.' 'Tracy Jacks,' because of the line 'I'd love to stay here and be normal/but it's just so overrated'), Made In Heaven by Queen...the other ones I don't have yet. Linkin Park also come under this category because they were the first band I liked of my own accord, and they write good pop songs even if they do actually suck.

The music that identify with is predominantly Weezer because Rivers Cuomo seems autistic as a frontman even if he isn't. The first album in particular I got into when it came out and has been my longest serving favourite record. This also includes music that identifies to specific situations, such as after a breakup you have the obvious stuff like Blood On The Tracks, 'Idiot Wind' in particular, and the less obvious like 'Far From Me' by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds ('It's good to hear you're doing so well/but really can't you find somebody else/that you can ring and tell?').

As for music that's miserable as fuck...Joy Division. Closer. Probably the saddest album in my collection, yet the one I found the most uplifting. An album that got me through the grieving after my grandmother's death.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: pentaen on 31 Dec 2007, 03:51
i really dont get burzum

Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: oneesmotryet on 31 Dec 2007, 06:53
any postrock really - mogwai, sigur ros, eits, gy!be... nice and wordless, so there's nothing to focus on. i've listened to pyramid song so many times as well that it acts as background noise when i'm feeling down.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: KharBevNor on 31 Dec 2007, 12:06
i really dont get burzum

Now you've upset Varg.

(http://www4.kotka.fi/koulut/lyla/oppilastoita/jarvisalo_jere/kuvat/Varg2006.jpg)
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Jackie Blue on 31 Dec 2007, 12:08
any postrock really - mogwai, sigur ros, eits, gy!be... nice and wordless

Sigur Ros have lyrics.   :?  And Mogwai do sometimes.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Scarychips on 31 Dec 2007, 13:16
yes but, in Sigur Ros case, they sing in either Icelandic or Hopelandic and I think (sorry if I'm wrong) oneesmotryet doesn't understand Icelandic and no one can't understand Hopelandic, it's only gibberish
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Johnny C on 31 Dec 2007, 13:28
Now you've upset Varg.

He is all, "Why you gotta front?"
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Patrick on 31 Dec 2007, 13:35
When I need it it's usually 'cause I'm down with lady troubles. The best part about that, though, is that with my most recent installment (read: this morning), the lady liked all the same music as I do. It was only then that I realized what an awesome help country music can be. "Playin' Possum" by Alan Jackson, anyone?

Just playing possum and laying low
I got a hundred watts of hurtin' coming through the speakers of my stereo
Don't wanna see nobody, nowhere I want to go
Just playing possum and laying low


For the record, I've been known to listen to Sigur Rós while getting 4 immunizations (including the lovely tetanus jab) in one sitting. You'd be surprised how often that's had to happen, and as a result I know all the words to "Hoppípolla" -perfectly-
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Thrillho on 31 Dec 2007, 16:14
any postrock really - mogwai, sigur ros, eits, gy!be... nice and wordless

Sigur Ros have lyrics.   :?  And Mogwai do sometimes.


And in Mogwai's case, most of the songs with words are shit.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Jackie Blue on 01 Jan 2008, 13:40
I like the Mogwai songs with words.  "cody", "Take Me Somewhere Nice", and "Acid Food" are some of my favorites of theirs.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: BrittanyMarie on 01 Jan 2008, 18:07
After I got my heart stomped on real good, I listened to The Velocity of Saul at the Time of his Conversion (an Okkervil River song, but from Down the River of Golden Dreams, which came before Black Sheep Boy, and is better) seventy-two times in a row. That is the exact opposite of making your emotions go away for a little bit-it seems that that song in particular always amplifies whatever emotion I'm already feeling.

If I do want emotional anaesthetic music, I will usually throw on the opposite emotion music, and then it balances out. If I'm all wahsadwah I will listen to All Girl Summer Fun Band or ZibraZibra or Man Man or something like that.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: Johnny C on 01 Jan 2008, 20:55
Down the River of Golden Dreams, which came before Black Sheep Boy, and is better

Oh you had me til about the last three words.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: BrittanyMarie on 01 Jan 2008, 23:31
While Black Sheep Boy does indeed rule, and is admittedly probably a better album as a whole (in cohesiveness, creating a mood, etc), I just still prefer to listen to Down the River, because I generally like the songs on it best- specifically the one I mentioned and The War Criminal Rises and Speaks. And... all the rest of them too.
Title: Re: Music as anaesthetic
Post by: pilsner on 07 Jan 2008, 10:28
I love all the Okkervil love.  I remember a time when entire months could go by with these fellows meriting nary a mention.

If the topic of music literally acting as an anesthetic interests you then I strongly recommend  Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks (http://www.amazon.com/Musicophilia-Tales-Music-Oliver-Sacks/dp/1400040817). Learn about people who got hit by lightning or had strokes and came down with obsessive intersts in classical music or top 40s pop.  This may be the explanation for the Rihanna's Umbrella phenomenon I've been looking for.