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KD: they were a mover and shaker at mp3.com back at the same time I was (well, okay, I just made a ripple or two in the great lake), and got that track included on the mp3c promo CD "The 103 Best Songs You've Never Heard of." I need to find more of their stuff.Vicki: my playlist for our Halloween parties usually encompasses 400-450 songs (we tend to have parties break up when, you know, the sun rises). But I'll try and put the first hundred or so from last year in a list later today.
As for the stuff that's there:
Francisco Lopez: really, really minimal ambient. He wanders around and makes field recordings (which is basically taking a tape player and recording, say, the sounds you would hear in a wheat field or on a street in whatever city he's playing in that night-- I think that recording's from Barcelona, Spain), and then performs by playing the tape through a bunch of effects pedals and stuff. Very quiet.
The The: You've never heard The The? Granted, they only had one American hit, but it was HUGE in the eighties (and that's it). Electropop. Very dancy.
Death in June, Current93, and Sol Invictus are the "big three" from the eighties British Dark Folk renaissance (and all three are still active today). As the genre signifies, it's a mix of traditional folk music and eighties goth-y synthpop, though all three have moved toward more traditional folk as time has gone on.
Redneck Girlfriend: alt-country madness with a metal tinge (a more popular band in that very specific genre would be Alabama Thunderpussy).
Lucas & Friends: from the Outsider Christmas comp I downloaded (erm, BOUGHT, yeah that's it) for my mother-in-law. Everything on it is hysterical.
Nurse with Wound: associated with the British Dark Folk movement, but much more informed/influenced by 20th century classical composers (Luigi Russolo especially, but Ligeti, Saint-Saens, Cage etc. as well). The new stuff, of which that's a piece, is very trip-hop oriented.
Diamanda Galas: THE premier opera singer of our age. Channels all her energies into AIDS activism. Her albums are frightening and beautiful. And defeinitely not for everyone, but you have to admire someone with a 7 1/2 octave range. Mariah Carey has nightmares about her (Carey has a 3.5 octave range).
Jesus Lizard: the last great punk band. ever. Three chords and a really, really snotty attitude, at least until 1993. After that, they became a weird cross between a punk band and a free jazz ensemble.
Band of Pain: side project of Slugbait's Steve Pittis (who also runs the Dirter Promotions record label). Ambient with sexually explicit overtones. BoP did the soundtrack for the nunsploitation movie Sacred Flesh (and the soundtrack is the only good thing about it).
Sofia Karlsson: really really traditional Swedish folk.
Morbosidad: LA death metal outfit who does all their stuff in Spanish.
Moth Masque: very new Appalachian folk band, very traditional as well. I don't know much about them, but I love their first album.
Death Ambient: a jazz supergroup (Fred Frith, Ikue Mori, a few other guys).
The Torpedoes: from one of my friend Glenn's Growin' Up Too Fast comps of sixties and seventies garage rock. Another band I know nothing about.
Macronympha: really balls-to-the-wall powerelectronic nastiness. Will likely cause inner ear damage to those not familiar with it. High-register squealing that, from what I could tell from seeing them live a few years ago, is produced with a steel vibrator and the metal bits on his girlfriend's rubber fetish suit. :P
Edgard Varese: one of the great 20th c. avatgarde classical composers I spoke of earlier ("Ionisation" is a track everyone who's taken drum lessons is very familiar with).
Jill Tracy: spearheading the Dark Cabaret movement that's having its heyday right now (biggest name: the Dresden Dolls). Rollicking ragtime piano and really, REALLY evil lyrics. "Evil Night Together" is based on a lot of the seamier stuff from Jean-Luc Sante's Low-Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York (which is one of my all-time favorite history books, by the way, and if any of you haven't read it, you should).
Someone else here has heard of "Morbosidad"? Hmm, one of us may have to leave...;-)
Okay KD and company: the band that started the prog rock thing in England, still somewhat active, mainly the arranger, huge sounds, semi orchestral. Dammit! Just heard a story about them on NPR a couple days ago and can't remember the name. Haven't heard them in a while and wanted to look up some of their stuff.I know sombody here will know who I'm talking about.
Oh, and Robert, recomend me a "Dresden Dolls" cut. A crazed lesbian showgirl buddy of mine never shuts up about them (I picture Moulan Rouge with an edge, am I close?)
Oh, and Robert, recomend me a "Dresden Dolls" cut. A crazed lesbian showgirl buddy of mine never shuts up about them (I picture Moulan Rouge with an edge, am I close?)Yeah, pretty much. The song I'd recommend to anyone to start out with is "Sing", from Yes, Virginia, but it's slow and doesn't give you that Moulin Rouge kinda feel that really defines their sound... "Mandy Goes to Med School" is a better overall idea of their sound. And, no doubt, easily findable with your favorite p2p program, since the album's gone platinum umpty-nine times over (and deservedly so, it's brilliant).
the band that started the prog rock thing in England, still somewhat active, mainly the arranger, huge sounds, semi orchestral. Dammit! Just heard a story about them on NPR a couple days ago and can't remember the name. Haven't heard them in a while and wanted to look up some of their stuff.
Every band I can think of that was around in the early, early days of prog is ded ded ded ded-- Yes, Genesis (though they did tour a couple of years ago), blah blah blah. I'd be surprised if half of them are ALIVE, much less still making music. I mean, jeez, it's been forty years.
Oh, by the way-- me old pal Gary Robert Kelly, the leader and douenne of avantgarde act Bess Keloid, turned me on to Morbosidad three of four years ago. Trust a Brit to find me a juicy new American band I'd never heard of...
Damn, I was sure you'd know. Ah well, time to comb the NPR archives. Talk about never throw anthing away....
Yah, me neither, but I have my odd moods. Searched NPR, no luck yet. Ah well. Back to showtunes!*Walks away down the shoulder of the thread with his thumb out ala David Banner in the Hulk show while humming the theme 'No One Mourns the Wicked'.*
Bill Maher podcasts are playing today but over the last several days it's been:
Brian Wilson LOS live shows,
Beach Boys Best Unsurpassed Masters,
The Wondermints,
Experience Detroit live in Detroit '08,
The Beatles Chronology 1962-70,
The Get Back Chronicles,
Robin Williamson live at Hazelwood
The vid of Bob Dylan's first electric tour in England.
It's all so good I'm ODing
The The, "Infected (12" Mix)"
Death in June, "Punishment Initiation"
Redneck Girlfriend, "Hang 'em High" (...what??)
Lucas & Friends, "Jingle Bells" (...yeah, that too)
Current93, "Oh Coal Black Smith" (at least the third time during the parts of the last 24 hours I've been at my desk)
Nurse with Wound, "Black Teeth"
Diamanda Galas, "I Wake Up and I See the Face of the Devil"
Steely Dan, "Here at the Western World"
Jesus Lizard, "Mistletoe"
Band of Pain, "Still Sulking"
Sol Invictus, "The Hill of Crosses"
Sofia Karlsson, "Till myn syster"
Morbosidad, "Dios de la Eterna Obscuridad"
Moth Masque, "Beneath Wing Shadows" (trivia from last.fm: "All of the music on Moth Masque's debut is played on a Joseph Rickett banjo from 1880.")
Death Ambient, "Loquat Tree"
The Torpedoes, "Big Blue"
Macronympha, "Fifty Years Ahead Is Fifty Years Behind" (FINALLY, some honest-to-god NOISE)
Edgard Varese, "Tuning Up"
Jill Tracy, "Evil Night Together"
As usual, I think there are two songs at most that share a genre anywhere in there...