Decided to put my ear where my mouth was... er... wait a sec... well,
you know.
Anyhow, I guess Allen doesn't want to hear anyone's music -- and, really, that's fair enough -- but I decided to take a few minutes and listen to some of everyone's music who'd put links in this thread.
Now -- let me point out -- I'm doing this
for me, because I meant to listen. So why not post about it, yeah? I'm
not trying to start a big round robbin'
You rock dude-fest, so, you know...
But I guess I do encourage other folks to
listen to some of this entertaining, likable, and sometimes downright charming music below:
Olivia Neutron Bomb -- I'm listening to "Prakiti" -- a nice little slice of updated exotica pop... I feel the enhanced sway of the tiki torches by the rooftop pool high above Dubai. I feel...
sophisticated. Love the vocal. Also the sitar thing works much better than most synthetic/sampled sitars I hear.
You must tell me how you accomplished that sometime, dahling. Very nice.
Mortal Engines -- I listened to "Flying Lotus," a nicely abstract guitar loopy kind of thing, and "Leviathan," which I guess I'd call ambient bliphop, on the darkside, but I lost track of the nomenclature a long time ago. I especially like "Leviathan." The kind of thing that's just
asking for trouble listening to driving through the desert at 3 am...
Seth Brand -- I think I liked "Why Are We Alone Tonight" best. It shows really solid pop sensibilities. It's a catchy, quite engaging song -- what I made of the lyrics worked well for me. I'll admit -- I'm one of those fogies who'll be hoping for a remix down the road with less vocal treatment (I like my vocals on the more natural side) but, hey, I'm not the target audience, I don't think.
A lot of folks are going to like this
. jerry dietzel -- "That Fire" - Ah... we've swung back to the rootsier, rockin' side of things. I like Jerry's voice. It sounds like it's coming right out of a dark night in the middle of America. Love the "Light that fire" refrain... evocative.
BudgetMC -- "There's Gonna Be a Reckonin'" - Swampy garage rock with a great little riffy rhythm guitar and a classic 60s style vocal... the walls are breathing. 15 point bonus for apocalyptic imagery, particularly the warning that the
ocean's gonna boil... Last really discernible line: "... It's only a matter of time... " We've been warned. I'm bathed in apocalyptic nostalgia. My lost youth living as much as I could 'cause the world was gonna end. Maybe it did. The end of the world
should be dangerous fun. Now, how could I resist "The Four Pickups of the Apocalypse" -- and it's
not exactly a funny song, but rather a broke farmer's lament. I love the groove.
Edward Null -- "Old Man" Nice singer/songwriter feel, a la Prine, Guy Clark, Townes and that lot of sharp-eyed, maybe hard livin' writers. A mostly straightforward sound (with a few homey touches of reverb that give it a very classic 50's feel) that serves a classic advice-from-an-old man song well.
Krou -- "Gelatin" - The culture needle swings wildly over to some midtempo downtempo (how
does that work?)... a little dubby, a little blippy with a cool little filtered break to give it nicely syncopated kick in the pants. I had to listen at the CDBaby page 'cause Krou's MySpace player never came up in two tries, so it cut off just when things were
getting good... well, keep 'em wanting more.
This would be a great track to have on the car stereo at the start of a big night on the town.
cjogo -- "Driven Down the Road" - A sweet sound. I like how it builds up, love the "close your eyes" vocal moment -- it's a real nice moment. The strum has a sort of wi****l cheeriness that really helps sell the bittersweet sounding lyrics. Very engaging. I couldn't help like this. "Wouldn't It Be Nice" --
nice! Nate Wood -- "Stand by Your Man" - Wow... if there was more 'modern pop/rock/whatever' like this I think more folks wouldn't kvetch so much. I loved the tempo... it's so hard to get
slow right. This is cool. I love the changes. Some very hip elements here. "Too Much" -- more progressive pop songwriting. I hear a bit of the XTC he cites in his influences, nothing overpower, a lot of other classic
thinking man's pop echoes, too. It wouldn't play all the way through so I jumped to "Little." Very strong writing and musical production. Nate's got a fine sense of what he's doing, I think.
Nathan Schafer (n8tron) -- "A Change of View" - 15+ for banjo.
Very solid, knowing production work, here. The vocals are nicely reserved yet have a muted yearning I find just about right. I
love the "boo hoo / yeah yeah" outro refrain. "A Sacrifice" is more fine craft. Nathan actually manages to use (ahem)
modern vocal fx in a way that not only doesn't really bother me but I find almost kind of... [wait, is this me talking?] I like shift into the little banjo and slide bridge... it's rootsy and disturbingly postmodern all at once. Which is a good thing in my book. A real sense of itself.
Dave Peck -- "Droam" - I'm on the veldt... the grass us waving in the wind. It's big and and open and a little mysterious. "Fluid 1" - how the baby computer feels in the womb... and just like
that I'm pulled out into the harsh daylight of silence by the end of the sample clip
! That's a slap on the... uh... backside.
Dave developed some hypnotic, cool sounds for this work.
ps... if I got the wrong band/name on a song, misspelled anyone's name or skipped anyone who posted a link to his music or had it in his sig and didn't mind being heard, do not be afraid to point that out (PM is fine).