Bands/Albums you've been aware of but only just got round to listening to

not_the_dj

boogieman said:

Cheers. I can see a few trawls of Amazon coming up.

No problem @boogieman PT are one of my favorite bands, and there's something great about everything they've done. Steve Wilson is a genius (and I'm sure a workaholic) his solo stuff it also worth checking out, as well as numerious side projects....but start with PT.

The earlier stuff like "The Sky Moves Sideways" is a bit more Floydish, then from "In Absenti" onwards they got a bit heavier (but still with some great melodic songs in there as well). 

Just buy everything really ;-)

joneve

In Absentia is a perfect album from start to finish. 

EdGrip

I was going to say something about Flaming Lips, but @NervousJohn said it better. Live band.

Kyuss.

Suede.

Pink Floyd.

Jeff Buckley.

Sonic Fuckin' Youth.

Every metal band other than Metallica. (I've never been drawn in that direction; I find I'm resistant to it for some reason.)

The Stone Roses.

The Velvet Underground.

David Bowie.

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers (again, there's an unwarranted resistance there.)

Gagaryn

Taj Mahal.

I'd never even heard of him (somehow!!) until a couple of years ago.

ICBM

Gagaryn said:

Taj Mahal.

I'd never even heard of him (somehow!!) until a couple of years ago.

Probably not helped by being easily confused with a large white building in India.

Gagaryn

EdGrip said:

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers (again, there's an unwarranted resistance there.)

It's not unwarranted. 

Octahedron

Arctic Monkeys. I have been aware of them. I've heard songs on the radio, from the unsettlingly trashy "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" to the complicated "Brianstorm" to the more recent stuff like "Do I Wanna Know?" 

Fact: if AM had continued along the path they did with I Bet You Look Good... I would never be interested. 

HOWEVER. Today, I decided to give a listen to one of their more recent albums after hearing songs from AM on the radio a lot lately. Soooo I gave a listen to "Suck it and See" 

Funny title. Some surprisingly good stuff on there. I'm really liking "Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair" (ha! Surprisingly heavy for Arctic Monkeys though)... but I quite like it. Enough to buy an album. Though it'd largely be background music probably, and I'd never deeply invest in it I don't think, I do like it. It's listenable. There's some credible guitar work there. And some decently constructed songs. Now they've lost that trashy thing. 

Oh, and The Temperance Movement. Again heard a couple of songs but only played the album start to end for the first time last night.

And The Fray. I thought ahhh they're not that good. Nah, I'm wrong. They're alright. The new album Helios was on special so I bought it on the cheap.

mudslide73

stickyfiddle;264004" said:

On Ryan Adams, Gold, Heartbreaker,Rock and Roll and Love is Hell are all brilliant.

I'm not so sure on more recent stuff- there are good tracks scattered but the albums don't fit right for me. I'd prefer he released one great record every 4 years than 3 with only a couple of great songs on each.

You're right.. I found a way to get through this is to sync his whole catalogue then play it on shuffle. I wish they'd put out all of the unreleased albums "Demolition" was compiled from - There are some bootlegs (Destroyer is one iirc) from this time and they're v.special. He was at an incredible level of form at the time. He's a big favourite of mine nevertheless.

PolarityMan

IanSavage said:

I wrote off Fall Out Boy for a very long time as I figured I was too old for them - turns out a lot of their stuff is just well-written and played melodic modern rock which I rather enjoy. Who knew?

Their singer really annoys me, especially on the earlier stuff.

boogieman

@not_the_dj.

Coma Divine just ordered. I got really bogged down on Amazon with the sheer amount of albums they've made, so this looked the best candidate to get me into their earlier more proggy material.

I know you said they've got heavier sounding as they've gone along. What sort of bands do their heavier songs sound like?

Deadman

Kate Bush's first 3 albums. They've been in my collection for around 2 years now but it's only now that I'm falling in love with them. The kick inside is beautiful. I'm sitting there wondering why I didn't cotton on back in the day every time I listen. I actually feel like I'm being transported back to 1978 only I didn't have any experience of this album at the time (I was probably listening to The Police and The Smurfs).
Brilliant stuff.

scrumhalf

Deadman said:

The Police and The Smurfs

Didn't the Clash cover that?

Deadman

scrumhalf;272592" said:

Deadman said:

The Police and The Smurfs












Didn't the Clash cover that?

Ha, another fine tune that was only discovered once I'd come of age.

viz

Bought Awake by Dream Theater in 1993 and taped it for the car, and consequently never heard the last 2 songs - in fact I forgot they existed. I was so used to the last song on the tape abruptly ending that I just got used to it. Then I rember hearing the CD in the house for the first time in 2012 or something and getting the shock of my life when the song didn't cut off and there was an extra one at the end.

beed84

viz said:

Bought Awake by Dream Theater in 1993 and taped it for the car, and consequently never heard the last 2 songs - in fact I forgot they existed. I was so used to the last song on the tape abruptly ending that I just got used to it. Then I rember hearing the CD in the house for the first time in 2012 or something and getting the shock of my life when the song didn't cut off and there was an extra one at the end.

Wow.  20 years without hearing Space-Dye Vest!  Good job it wasn't Erotomania you missed out on.

ICBM

Today I listened to Dinosaur Jr. for the first time since the early 90s, when for some reason I didn't really get them. The two albums after they got back together properly - Beyond and Farm. I'd always been quite interested in what I'd heard about their odd combination of 'alternative' and 'conventional' rock, but for some reason never interested enough to go and listen to them. I caught a bit of their set at Glastonbury *last year* and quite liked it, but it's taken me this long to follow up...

F***!!! If this isn't some of the best guitar-based music I have *ever* heard . Both the playing and the sounds.

It's also quite weird and scary how much like J. Mascis I play, although he's clearly never listened to me .

blueskunk

Slightly off topic but ... Arctic Monkeys best song is "thats where your wrong".. Pretty much a perfect pop song that

beed84

After sorting through some stuff over the weekend, I came across Stereophonics Performance & Cocktails and Radiohead's OK Computer.  I bought them a few months back in relation to this thread, put them in a box, and totally forgot about them.

When the albums came out I always remember seeing them on the shelves in Woolies but never really gave them much thought.  The single tracks I heard on the radio I thought were okay but I didn't go out of my way to buy the albums or any of their material, regardless of their popularity and hype that was going around at the time.

Anyway, after listening to Performance & Cocktails I thought it was alright.  The tracks Pick A Part That's New and Just Looking took me back to my teenage years, I like those and might give the album another listen.

OK Computer is a different kettle of fish. It's such a brilliant recorded album and sounds great.  I love the eerie and dreamy feel to it.  I'm familiar with Paranoid Android and Karma Police, however, I was pleasantly surprised to hear No Surprises, pun intended.  I have heard it before, either radio or on some film but didn't realise that it was Radiohead!

It's amazing that 17 years after it's release, a time when it was massive and all the kids in my year were talking about it, I've just got round to listening to it.  I do think though that if I'd have listened to it then I wouldn't have liked it nowhere near as much as I do now, if it all.  Depending what their other stuff is like, I guess I could become a fan.

ICBM

blueskunk said:

Slightly off topic but ... Arctic Monkeys best song is "thats where your wrong".. Pretty much a perfect pop song that

So many to choose from with them - that's a very good one, but I think I'd pick When The Sun Goes Down.

Nunogilberto

Got into Alice In Chains recently, along with Queensryche and Jesus Jones. Three very different bands but all very good.