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Fun Stuff => BAND => Topic started by: jus on 20 Apr 2005, 00:56
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I've been listening to slightly less presumptuous music lately: featuring less posturing by the vocalist, a little more sensitive and hopefully real, neat musicianship etc.
So what I want from y'all: recommendations of course!
Of the sometimes emotional, stripped down to basics variety, and also hopefully not overbearingly whiny. I guess what I'm trying to say is I want to find bands that are less ego, more sincerity and class. Artists unafraid to bare their souls.
I can't seem to find enough realness out there... and I'm frustrated.
I suppose classifying artists as insufferable welps or sincere artists is a subjective practice. I for one, love Death Cab for Cutie. I haven't heard much of Iron & Wine but I've been told by friends to check them out, though I'm not sure which album to buy. Any other recommendations?
So I'm not posting empty handed, I recommend Travis's The Man Who and the first Shins album Oh, Inverted World to anyone who doesn't already own them.
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The only Bright Eyes album I've heard is Lifted..., but that seems very real and open to me. Especially 'Bowl of Oranges', it contains the essence hope, much purified.
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Get any iron and wine. If you like that music then just get them all though the ep Woman King is more...forceful, loud...eh something...more instruments? Someone else will know better but I enjoy them all.
Damien Jurado is very...real I guess you can say. His 2 best cds are Waters Ave. S and rehearsals for departure. Though he just came out with a new cd so can't give opinion on that one yet.
Sufjan Stevens if you have not heard of them...greetings from michigan and seven swans the ones you are probably looking for the most.
Well there's a couple.
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Awesome, thanks for the recs guys. I'll fire off the CD order tomorrow, after I get a few other albums on my list. I'll definitely sneak some Iron & Wine in there, Woman King seems like a good place to start. I know a little about Bright Eyes, I've heard mixed reviews mostly.
I hate not being able to download music through my crappy university network. Songs just don't sound right through that crappy Amazon.com streaming media player.
Anywho, thanks again: time to hit the sack.
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hope you check them out before you order :P never trust strangers, even well intentioned ones ;)
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Bright Eyes seconded, the new one's well worth investigating, but the first band your post made me think of was Azure Ray- get your little mits on a copy of Hold on Love, it's a beautiful album...
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From what I have heard of bright eyes I was not into, but people have different tastes.
Just to be clear though on Woman King I meant musically "louder" or more forceful or whatever it is....hmm dang...still now I have to check if vocals differ at all, but no time...sleep needed...
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I've been listening to slightly less presumptuous music lately: featuring less posturing by the vocalist, a little more sensitive and hopefully real, neat musicianship etc.
Of the sometimes emotional, stripped down to basics variety, and also hopefully not overbearingly whiny.
What do you consider less presumptuous music because to me it sounds like you're looking for something that isn't hair metal. o_0
Are you looking for just acoustic stuff?
Cat Power. She fits into the mold of what has been suggested so far, and Joseph Aurthur.
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Leonard Cohen, yo.
I recommend starting at the beginning (Songs of Leonard Cohen) and working forwards from there.
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Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street.
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Though he's a bit glum, try :Of the Wand and the Moon:, very nice guitar-and-voice driven neo-folk. Recommended albums "Emptiness:Emptiness:Emtpiness" or "Night-time Nightrhymes" Also, Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus, who are a finnish folk rock band with tinges of mainstream Finnish symphonic metal a la Sonata Arctica, though as all their lyrics are in Finnish you might not be able to appreciate them so much. Recommended album 'Lopunajan Merkit'.
Those are two more offbeat artists I can pick from my collection that seem to pretty much fit what you're looking for
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Also, Opeth - Damnation.
Not death metal, just awesome.
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What do you consider less presumptuous music because to me it sounds like you're looking for something that isn't hair metal. o_0
Are you looking for just acoustic stuff?
Cat Power. She fits into the mold of what has been suggested so far, and Joseph Aurthur.
I haven't checked out all the bands in this thread yet, but the one's I have so far more or less fit the mold (once again, damn you low quality Amazon streaming audio). I really like Iron & Wine, before this, all I'd heard from them was their cover of "Such Great Heights."
I suppose the more you say the less clear what you're saying becomes. To sum it up briefly, I'm not necessarily looking for acoustic tracks. I'm on a quest for honest music of the somewhat sentimental variety.
I'm going to try to find Khar's recommendations somewhere when I get out of class (in my uni's computer lab right now). I love music in languages I don't understand (no sarcasm intended).
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You might also like Ulver's Kveldssanger album as well. Just all acoustic Norwegian Folk music.
I'm pimp Damnation, but it's so Porcupine Tree like it might make his head explode from being to busy. As everything else here seems to be stripped down acoustic music.
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I really love The Microphones' It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water because it is really intimate and "honest" and still really sonically interesting and, at times, grandiose.
I also think Xiu Xiu is one of the most direct and emotional bands in the world, but I recognize that most people probably won't agree with me on that.
As a rule, I have a ton of respect for artists who try to make "intimate" music that isn't just dude/lady-with-acoustic-guitar.
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Also, Okay just put out two amazing albums on Absolutely Kosher. Back story and MP3's at http://www.absolutelykosher.com
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Bonnie "Prince" Billy is incredible, and very "real". I'd start with either I See A Darkness or Greatest Palace Music. Also, the Decemberists are wonderful, though they're more likely to be tongue-in-cheek than sentimental. When they are, though, they're damn good at it. Nick Drake is amazing, and Okkervil River is great, too.
And it probably goes without saying at this point, but if you don't have The Postal Service's "Give Up", you probably should.
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Oh man, I See a Darkness. The thing that intrigues me so much about Will Oldham is that I feel like he isn't being "real" in a personal sense, but tapping into a broader sense of the "real" in terms of broad themes like love and death.
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And it probably goes without saying at this point, but if you don't have The Postal Service's "Give Up", you probably should.
You know, that might actually be the CD that spawned my current hunger for this type of music. I found them a week before traveling to the Philippines to visit old friends, was already a bit emotional, then I heard one song and fell in love, heard it again by chance in this girl I know's bedroom, fell even more in love with that CD.
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David Gray - White Ladder. Muchly good.
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The Bright Eyes recommendation is very tripled. I also suggest the Weakerthans, in their more mellow moments.
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I definately second both leonard cohen (songs of leonard cohen; songs of love and hate) and david gray (white ladder; century ends) - hell - any album from these two. hard to go wrong...
Tori Amos (Little Earthquakes; Scarlet Walk)
I'd also suggest Adem and Andrew Bird.
yeah, that's about it for now
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XTC's Apple Venus will crush you. Some days, this is my favorite album ever.
Pretaluz, by Waldemar Bastos is another great one, if you don't mind the lyrics being in Portuguese. The emotion definitely shines through. Gorgeous songs about the decades-long Angolan civil war.
The Dismemberment Plan—Emergency & I. Sincere indie rock at its best.
If you wanna try something a little more...um, deranged, I recommend Van Der Graaf Generator's Pawn Hearts.
Also the very obvious (but maybe so obvious that you've overlooked them!) ones:
Any classic Dylan or Nick Drake album.
Van Morrison's Astral Weeks.
The Velvet Underground's self-titled album.
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I agree on xiu xiu, seen live recently...great new stuff coming.
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The Dismemberment Plan—Emergency & I. Sincere indie rock at its best.
Not exactly the most intimate album in the world, but it is pretty fantastic.
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i always turn to mark lanegan, pre-bubblegum that is. whisky for the holy ghost or methamphetamine blues.
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Weakerthans can be great. Reconstruction Site made me very happy.