Well said. Me too.
That’s a great topic of discussion for a slow day: albums that changed your life/worldview/whatever
Abraxas. It was quite a revelation for someone who had grown ip on AM white bread music. Carlos is still one of my favorite musicians.
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Ray Charles: Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
Public Enemy: It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back (and/or NWA: Straight Outta Compton)
Getz/Gilberto: Live at Carnegie Hall
Metallica: Master of Puppets
New Order: Substance
I was born in '74, for reference. A couple of those I heard from my parents, the others I heard because it was the right time and place.
I’m personally discounting Zeppelin and Hendrix and the Beatles and Stones and such because…yeah
U2: The Joshua Tree
GnR: Appetite for Destruction
Wilco: The Whole Love
Weird Al: Dare to be Stupid
Willie Nelson: The Redheaded Stranger, Willie Nelson Sings Kris Kristofferson
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Beat me to Fresh Fruit. Found it in a flea market on vinyl for $1. Blew my 13 year old mind.
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These were four of the quite a few albums that made me kind of stop and think about music, art and life differently.
The Mothers of Invention - Absolutely Free and We’re Only in it for the Money
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Jeff Beck - Blow by Blow
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
Also the aforementioned Ziggy Stardust and Unknown Pleasures, and The B52’s first album had similar effect. Oh yeah, and The Shags.
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This one was big too. “Gateway drug” for the Industrial movement. It’s worth a listen if you’ve never heard it. One side only, recorded live at a famous venue back in 1979.
Of course, that led to this:
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This came up on YouTube and it brought back a great music memory:
Back when I was young, thin, and interesting my only mode of transportation was my Kawasaki motorcycle. I put some Walkman headphone speakers into my helmet with the wire coming out the back and with fresh batteries I could crank the Walkman up enough to hear over the motor, wind, and road noise.
This song was my favorite for trips between Houston and Aransas Pass when I was between trips on the shrimp boat. Load tape, crank, twist, and go!
Any fans of what is called Classical Crossover (on Apple Music)? Basically pianists and chamber strings type music, although I gather it mostly applies to pianists.
Words cannot describe how much I love Milana Zilnick’s music, it’s so extraordinary. Check out Accidental Etudes for an album of piano music that will blow you away, especially considering it’s all improvised. Beyond Zilnick there’s Otto Totland, Joep Bevins, Eydis Evensen (her discography consists of 1 album so far but I love her album Bylur), Jacob David, Nils Frahm, Hauschka, and oh my god Poppy Ackroyd (no relation). Ackroyd’s compositions seriously remind me of Tchaikovsky and other great masters. She and Zilinski make some of my most faviorite music, both are so hard to turn off and switch to something else. I would also highly recommend the ‘band’ Hugar, another knock your socks off ensemble.
Anyway.
My first week at Rice I walked out and a young gentleman was playing popular music with a violin. It was outstanding.
I know that is not what they are “learning” here but I’m not surprised by the music. it is really cool.
More adventures in outsider music. My good mate Paul Finlay gets a tattoo. Some great Blang music accompanies this clip. They filmed it in Paul’s bizarre “flat”, which is part of an old school that was converted into residential units. It’s bizarre because they divided things vertically, so Paul’s place is on 5 levels and almost impossible to get your head around spatially.
Of the mates with bad tattoos that Paul mentions, one I remember was a bloke who tattooed “Oi” on his forehead (in honor of the punk offshoot). Unfortunately, he did it himself, in the mirror, and was henceforth known affectionally as “Io” (like Jupiter’s moon).
To highlight one of Blang’s artists, here’s a track from Paul Hawkins & the Awkward Silences.
Lastly, while I did post a link to this before, the Blang doc. has now migrated to their YouTube feed which makes it much more accessible.
If you have watched any of the clips, calling Paul the “silent” partner is hilarious because he’s a walking noise machine.
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This is the Beato piece I mentioned in the Texans thread (natch) about The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven”.
To my unsophisticated ear, it seems like a simple song on the surface; Beato points out that there are only 5 chords. But the layering and interlacing of the instruments and vocals is like a 1000 thread count sheet: so cool and smooth.
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I’m a worshipper of Robert Smith. This is my favorite video of theirs:
and the vocals …
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5 chords?! That’s ridiculous!
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All you need is three.
And the TRUTH.
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There some real nice one chord songs.
I like the solo from I wanna be Sedated.
It’s the only one I can play.