Random music discoveries - what have you found that's good?

ICBM

koneguitarist said:

Emily Barker

I saw her supporting someone else some years ago - I can't remember who now, but she was great! Bought her album Photos, Fires, Fables from the foyer.

I'll check out some of those others too.

xSkarloey

Just one from the charity shop for me in the last couple of weeks, which is The Stone Roses' The Second Coming.

I wasn't in the country when it first came out and what I got to hear back then I was never bothered about.

On reflection though it's okay. Normally I hate 'jam' bands who solo on endlessly (normally the US ones). But the Roses do it in the English tradition of Traffic. You find a funky groove and you go with it. It helps if it's John Squire doing the soloing too.

BTW Forever Changes was great as a live performance. I saw that when Arthur Lee toured it with a 4 piece, a very talented guitarist playing all the brass and string parts from the original arrangement on the guitar through a very loud Fender Twin.

ICBM

Skarloey said:

Just one from the charity shop for me in the last couple of weeks, which is The Stone Roses' The Second Coming.

I wasn't in the country when it first came out and what I got to hear back then I was never bothered about.

On reflection though it's okay. Normally I hate 'jam' bands who solo on endlessly (normally the US ones). But the Roses do it in the English tradition of Traffic. You find a funky groove and you go with it. It helps if it's John Squire doing the soloing too.

Interestingly that's how I feel about the Stone Roses too. I never got why they were supposed to be so great at the time, and although I've got both albums I don't really get it now either - I like them, and they're by no means bad, but I don't really get the hype.

xSkarloey

I 'adored' the first album. I was definitely one of those kids who were hooked on it. Not to an obsessive degree like some, but it was the meshing of grooves and guitar that got me.

The bathos for me was the whole protracted legal and recording delays around the second album. Plus the fact that the songs aren't good enough overall and the producer John Leckie realised that and left.

xSkarloey

No charity shop discoveries this week but instead a rare trip to HMV.

I came away with a triple set of original Columbia Duke Ellington recordings for £1:99, the superb first Mahavishnu record for £1:99 and the Best of Ozzy Osbourne for £4.

I know a lot of his stuff but have never really paid much attention. It's good pop-metal and it reminds me what a great player Zakk Wylde is. A but like Gary Moore, he's one of those lucky blighters who has a lovely touch, plays with genuine feel, and who can play the tricky technical stuff when needs be.

ICBM

I did that this week too . They must be having one of their regular clearances - I do go fairly often to keep a look out, they seem to discount different stock at different times so if you're patient you can do very well. I rarely pay more than £3 or £4 for anything, and never more than a fiver per album.

Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
Lou Reed - Transformer (with bonus tracks)
The Stooges - Fun House and Raw Power (remastered - I was a bit nervous about this, but it turns out to be quite faithful to the Iggy mix)

- all £2.99 each - and

Patti Smith - the first five albums in a box for £9.99.

Most of these are replacements for old vinyl copies long gone, but I've never owned the full Patti Smith albums before apart from Horses.

xSkarloey

I've just bought a 2001 album by Tomatito for 50p that was still in the shrink wrap.

Very much in the vein of his mentor Paco de Lucia, but with more mainstream jazzy elements on show and a lovely cameo from George Benson.

Rocker

I had forgotten just how good Don Williams is.  The Best of Don Williams, 20th Century Masters Series was a revelation when I played it recently.  The songs are all oldies and well known but it was the voice, what a voice.  Simply wonderful.  I had not listened to Don Williams for the best part of thirty years.  The phrase 'not listened to' I mean played a CD on my system for more than a song or two at a time.  But I played this disk through from start to finish.

Grunfeld

I heard this on internet radio... been playing it lots.  It's a cover of Prince's "When Doves Cry".  Something about it I love.

You Are Wolf, "Doves"

equalsql

Discovered this chap called John Fullbright due to an Amazon recommendation for his album 'From The Ground Up' after popping Little Hurricane's latest album into my shopping basket. 

Did some searching and found this clip on YT and was blown away. Reminded me of Jackson Brown.

So I bought his album at the same time 

duotone

equalsql said:

Discovered this chap called John Fullbright due to an Amazon recommendation for his album 'From The Ground Up' after popping Little Hurricane's latest album into my shopping basket. 

Did some searching and found this clip on YT and was blown away. Reminded me of Jackson Brown.

So I bought his album at the same time 

Cheers, I enjoyed that! Discovered a band called Joyce Manor after watching an album review on I booked tickets earlier today to see them play in Shepherds Bush next month.

Paul_C

somebody in another thread commented on Chrissie Hynde being briefly in The Damned, which led me in a convoluted fashion to this:

beed84

Went into my local record shop yesterday to have a browse, and I had to ask the owner what music he had on in the background.  How have I never heard of The Sundays before?!  Possibly the sweetest voice I've ever heard.

xSkarloey

/\ Harriet Wheeler! :bz

english_bob

Had a trawl round some charity shops while on holiday last week and came away with some CDs- all artists I'd heard of but not really listened to. First impressions:

Interpol - Antics: As one of the bands that appear to have outlived that whole new-wave-of-new-wave thing from the early '00s I thought they might have something interesting. So far they sound like an American version of Editors with all the memorable bits taken out. First impression: meh.

Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can: Keep hearing good things about her, and I think the singer from my band likes her. I had her down as "stuff that sounds like folk music, but that people who are in to proper folk music would say isn't proper folk music"- you know, like Mumford and Sons (three-quarters of the band play on this album) and all those hipster knobheads who look like Dexy's Midnight Runners and play ukuleles. Only good, apparently. On actually listening to it, it sounds much like I expected- a bit Damien Rice, a bit Mumfords, only better. There's a nice Joni Mitchell tinge to her voice that I like too. First impression: really good.

Merz - Moi Et Mon Camion: I have his first album already- electronicky, folky singer songwriter stuff. This album is gentler, more melancholy and less electronic sounding. First impression: A cool "Sunday morning" record.

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular: I could remember hearing one of their songs on the radio non-stop a few years back, but I couldn't remember the actual song. When I heard it it didn't sound quite how I remembered it. Cool dancey, synthy pop music with a fun but slightly repetitive line in crunchy 80s synth sounds. First impression: Loud, brash, fun, but could start to grate I reckon.

The National - High Velvet: Don't know why I know about these guys, just aware that they've been around a while and seem to be well regarded. I was expecting something a bit more rockin' than I got- I think I might have been thinking of the Hold Steady. They souind sort of like the cowboy version of Interpol, or maybe a less interesting TV on the Radio. Didn't help that my laptop didn't want to rip the CD properly so a couple of tracks are glitching and skipping. First impression: hmm...

The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth: OK, another band I already knew pretty well. I've got their first two albums and like the first one better. Was a little surprised that this one appeared to open with Cheap Trick covering "I Want To Break Free", but I quite like it. Julian Casablancas' voice is fantastic as ever and I've always liked Nick Valensi's solos. You can see them pushing a little at the boundaries of what they'd done previously but it's nothing revolutionary for them. At 14 tracks it overstays its welcome a little. First impression: Fun, but doesn't exactly set my world on fire.

Also finally got round to ripping my old Page & Plant No Quarter / Unledded CD, so will have a listen to that again for the first time in forever today...

ICBM

english_bob said:

Interpol - Antics: As one of the bands that appear to have outlived that whole new-wave-of-new-wave thing from the early '00s I thought they might have something interesting. So far they sound like an American version of Editors with all the memorable bits taken out. First impression: meh.

I could not agree more, and yet almost everyone I know who has listened to both bands seems to think Interpol are the good one and Editors are meh - I have no idea why. Someone else said Interpol were much better live, but I saw them at Glastonbury (on TV admittedly, not actually live) and they were even more meh.

english_bob said:

Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can: Keep hearing good things about her, and I think the singer from my band likes her. I had her down as "stuff that sounds like folk music, but that people who are in to proper folk music would say isn't proper folk music"- you know, like Mumford and Sons (three-quarters of the band play on this album) and all those hipster knobheads who look like Dexy's Midnight Runners and play ukuleles. Only good, apparently. On actually listening to it, it sounds much like I expected- a bit Damien Rice, a bit Mumfords, only better. There's a nice Joni Mitchell tinge to her voice that I like too. First impression: really good.

I quite liked her at first, I've got both that album and the previous one, and went to see her live - she has a remarkably powerful, 'old-sounding' voice for a small young woman - but the overall Mumford factor starts to grate too much after a while.

english_bob said:

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular: I could remember hearing one of their songs on the radio non-stop a few years back, but I couldn't remember the actual song. When I heard it it didn't sound quite how I remembered it. Cool dancey, synthy pop music with a fun but slightly repetitive line in crunchy 80s synth sounds. First impression: Loud, brash, fun, but could start to grate I reckon.

I really like this album - a few of the tunes are ones where you think "how could anyone not have written that before?" - but it is a *bit* too samey throughout.

english_bob said:

The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth: OK, another band I already knew pretty well. I've got their first two albums and like the first one better. Was a little surprised that this one appeared to open with Cheap Trick covering "I Want To Break Free", but I quite like it. Julian Casablancas' voice is fantastic as ever and I've always liked Nick Valensi's solos. You can see them pushing a little at the boundaries of what they'd done previously but it's nothing revolutionary for them. At 14 tracks it overstays its welcome a little. First impression: Fun, but doesn't exactly set my world on fire.

I've really tried with them. I had all the first three albums, but I just didn't 'get it' despite repeated listening. So they have gone to the charity shop for someone else to find...

stickyfiddle

Interpol are great live but the atmosphere needs to be right. A dark, smoky club is MUCH better than a damp somerset field.

And as far as I can tell each album is slightly less good than the previous, except the new one which is a little bit better than the last but still a bit dull.

Agreed on First Impressions of Earth though. I love You Only Live Once - probably my favourite Strokes song - but I'd have taken off 15 Minutes and killed the album after Ize of the World. That said, everything they've done since is pony, so it's all a bit irrelevant.

I can't help feeling you could get one really good best of from the Strokes' first 3 LPs and you wouldn't miss whatever wasn't there.

IanSavage

Three that I've been sent / requested on a whim for review / been given having done sound for the guy over the years and that regularly get played chez Savage:

Galactic (particularly the 'From The Corner To The Block' album):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCHBWHp1j2I&list=PLHsF9lxfZNPY7iS4FdArTXYY5ad30O8jX&index=3

Dave McPherson (of InMe fame, who incidentally turned out to be one of the nicest men I've ever met):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgDJlKZYJJc

And Dabi Balde - I'm not the biggest fan of world music, but this guy is great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSvJSiksbMs

Megii

beed84 said:

Went into my local record shop yesterday to have a browse, and I had to ask the owner what music he had on in the background.  How have I never heard of The Sundays before?!  Possibly the sweetest voice I've ever heard.

This makes me nostalgic, I remember discovering them in the mid 90s, love the music anyway, a great duo, cheers for the reminder, sigh...

not_the_dj

That baby thing on the cover of the Sundays "Blind" LP creeps me out.