Musical gemstones thread

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Zolar X. If they had followed the advice of people back in the 70's, they could very well have given Kiss some pretty stiff competition in their heyday. Jello Biafra released a compendium of nearly all of their studio work from '76 to '80 as the 'Timeless' CD on his Alternative Tentacles label ( http://www.alternativetentacles.com )

You can also check out more stuff at this fan page:

http://www.geocities.com/zolarx1/

Jello Biafra says that they sound like the musical missing link between Chrome and The Stooges, however, if you overlook some decidedly Hawkwind influences I think that they sound somewhat like a glammier and trashier version of early Rush, crossed with some upbeat proto-New Wave flourishes, and perhaps some Ted Nugent guitar licks thrown in over some ELP synthesiser noodling, but without the ELP/ProgRock Pretension. Lyics are pretty much Sci- Fi oriented. This band certainly didn't lack talent and musicianship.

Here are a few bands that popped to the top of my head, with songs I particularly enjoy where I could think of the names.

The Mountain Goats - No Children, Old College Try, This Year (Probably the most amazing artist I've come across recently, it's John Darnielle occasionally playing with a few other people. The songs are pretty simple, mostly acoustic guitar, but the lyrical content is just...mindblowing. He used to record on a cassette deck, but his recent studio-produced albums are lacking none of that which made the older music great. I highly recommend all of his stuff.)

Leonard Cohen - Hallelujah, Everybody Knows (A great older folk artist, his last few albums have been pretty disappointing. If you get only one album, make it the live one.)

Venetian Snares - SIKERTELENSÉG (I like to think of this song as the culmination of everything I ever wanted classical music to be that it never was. Most of his other music is harder breakcore, but still highly recommended if you enjoy intense, fast, grating electronica. For some reason music like this at loud volumes produces a soothing effects in me...)

The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Cabin Fever (There's a guitar sound on this song nearly incapacitates me with pleasure.)

The Unicorns - Emasculate the Masculine (Always makes me want to get off my ass. All their music is good, too bad they won't be making any more.)

Antony and the Jonstons - For Today I Am a Boy (It took me a while to appreciate this, but I really like it now.)

Brer Brian - Harlem '99 (From the antifolk compilation vol 1, a great song.)

Barry Bliss - All I Really Want (Another great one from antifolk vol 1. Includes one of my favorite metaphors ever: "like a 6 ft. snake once it's mind is blown")

Spoon - The Way We Get By, I Turn My Camera On (One of the best current rock bands, almost all their music is amazing.)

Devendra Banhart - Devendra Banhart - The Daughter of a Man Was Mammalian and Oh So Well Brested (Good, weird folk, reminiscent of Marc Bolan from T Rex. I think that song is the one I'm thinking of, can't verify ATM.)

Cocorosie - Beatiful Boyz (Ethereal, darker folky music done by two Native American sisters. Beatiful Boyz features Antony from Antony and the Jonstons.)

Xiu Xiu - Dr. Troll, Saturn (Really odd but interesting. Also something that took some time to fully appreciate.)

Tyrannosaurus Rex (The earlier stuff is really awesome. Later they changed their name to T Rex and became more popular.)

Modul - Isol http://www.discogs.com/release/234081

Modul is an alias of Donnacha Costello.

This cd sends me into a trance everytime. It is definately made using psychoacoustical production techniques and the constant extremely high-frequency clicks and beeps being used throughout to keep rhythm are delightful. Truly electronic music. There's nice low-fequency hums/drones to keep the tracks warm and nice melodies throughout. A very enjoyable mix. Probably the closest cd I've heard that properly emulates birdsong without sampling birds. This guy doesn't stick to outdated technology - he is all about progression and he's done it very well here and very musically also. My favourite track is "Kkun II".

A true mixture of technology and art

Cyclo. - Untitled (CD / LP, 2001)

Cyclo. is a collaboration between Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto) & Ryoji Ikeda. This is what I've been looking for for a while. Glitch music so clean & pure. In fact I've been only impressed with the label it's on, Raster-Noton. These guys have totally inspired me.

Phenominal album
it didnt start shoegaze but was certianly the peak of it

my Sujestions
Talk Talk - The Spirit of Eden
Talk Talk had one of the strangest carer arcs of any band
first record was a poor mans Duran Duran
secon and third album were vastly improved synth-pop
the 4th album Spirit of Eden was the Kid A esque carear suicide of its time
it was jazz influenced post-rock before the term post rock existed
its a truely stunning album it follow up Laughin Stock was just as good

Fatima Mansions-Viva Dead Ponies
formed by former microdisney frontman Cathal Coughlan
the band mixed the balladry of Scott Walker with the power of ministry and numouroes other influnces inbetween
haunting one moment and snarling the next lyricly and vocaly this is probably the best performance on an album
by an Irishman. Blues for Ceausescu a single taken from the album about the romainian dictor is such a brilliantly bile filled song
its one of my all time favorites.

i know i've already put a Donnacha Costello album here (Modul - Isol) but I must put this:

Donnacha Costello - Together Is The New Alone (2001).

I've played this so many times and can't get sick of any of it.

It reminds me of the best tracks from Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works Vol. II" (mystical, timeless, sometimes melancholic ambient music) and something out of the "Clicks & Cuts" series' (i guess you would classify it into glitch-ambient or similar - the "glitch" production keeps my intellect stimulated).

My favourite tracks are "Your New God" which I'd call a glitch-ambient anthem (if that's possible?) and "Dry Retch" which I can really feel deep in my heart I play it.

Truly an album worthy of heaven.

I can only name bands because I like all their songs so much...

The Naked and the Dead, Sarcophony, Concrete Witchdoctors, and Of A Mesh, for the first one you can download it on Soulseek which has most bands that put out an Album, but the other three are alot harder, so you have to get it from their MySpace Profiles.

I'd like to name more but eh.

Suicide is a great band by the way.

awesome! i would have gone with cure for pain, myself...but overall, morphine was an amazing combo and did an amazing job of combining very basic, very visceral and groove oriented bass lines with amazing jams on sax.


the thing i loved about them was how they described themselves "we're a low band...i sing in a baritone voice, i play bass, we have a baritone sax" well...paraphrasing...but that was the general gist of it.


i've been enjoying the residents lately...particularly the album duck stab. the residents are very much their own weird world....without them primus's weird sense of tonality and sense of surrealism wouldn't exist.



also:


battles - mirrored .....this one is hard to describe.....check out their video for atlas on youtube....it's impossible to describe these guys...they're good, though.

talib kweli & madlib - liberation .......i must admit i'm not hugely into hip hop so i can't go full 1337 on this like i will with other stuff...but it's still a damned good album with lyrics about more than just b*****s and drugs.

fishbone - chim chim's badass revenge .....i know fishbone is a pretty common name band but you'd be surprised how few people actually really try to take in their music....most of it is too diverse and all over the board for anyone to really catch on...but i'd say it's probably some of the easier hard to digest music.


weapon of choice - color me funky ....this band is a straight spiritual descendent of p-funk. black rock band full expressed and realized. if you don't get this and get why this is awesome, you're musically impotent.


old crow medicine show - old crow medicine show .....this is more of a moutain music band....very appalachian and very old school with a new school attitude. most people would describe this as country music...but is more follows the roots of appalachia than modern country.

pain - full speed ahead ......these guys are like if they might be giants but more punk and more than just 2 members.


polysics - NEU! ......this is basically if devo was japanese and modern punk rock existed and was an influence. great stuff....techno influences, punk influences, and a devo sense of attitude and tonality. overall: greatness.

heh....i liked his stuff....but not in a musical sense but more as a novelty. kind of an "oh...how neat, he did these songs just playing an acoustic guitar into a boombox." never really looked much beyond that.




that would be true if pavement didn't exist and did everything spoon did first and better.....but that being said, i love kill the moonlight.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu ... =120251620
< Concrete Witchdoctors

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< Of A Mesh

Labradford - Fixed::Context LP/CD - 2000 - Blast First Records

http://www.discogs.com/release/80274

I guess you'd class it under "post-rock" but i think that makes this look worse than it is. It's slow, almost beatless - the first track has a deep bass note used for a kick drum effect but i can't notice any other drums type effects in the album. Very warm & musical most of all. Perfect for relaxing after stress.

At first I thought I would have nothing to add here, but then I realized some of my favorite stuff was thoroughly obscure. I haven't even been able to find this stuff in stores. Fortunately we subscribe to Rhapsody (plug) which is how I found the things in the first place.

The first is Gary Stadler. I guess his stuff would be considered new age, certainly his web site has links to occult stuff. He seems to like writing music about fairies, although one of my favorite songs called "the Lake Isle of Innisfree" is in fact by Yeats, I guess? Here's some samples on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Within-Faerie-For ... 969&sr=8-1

I recommend "Dance of the Wild Faeries" "Are You Coming with Us?" "The Infinite Shore" and "Deep Within the Forest." His other albums are also good but this is one of my favorites. He's had three different women sing on his albums, each of them with lovely voices, but the first I think was the nicest. She died of cancer, however.

The other may be played on the radio, I really don't know. It's French, so who knows... Hugo. I don't know whether he has more than one album, I don't know if it's a "he" or a "they"... But here's one of my favorite songs in a perfectly lovely video.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... 1497891787

Weird, that's the only Labradford album I don't have. I'm gonna check it out. My favorite of theirs is A Stable Reference, btw.

Edit: No, wait, I do have that one. E Luxo So is the one I don't have.

Wow, I didn't think I'd have anything to contribute either, but once I dug around in my collection I have a good bit of obscure music!

Home Video - great electronic band but not very well known at all, I can't even find their lyrics online, which is a pain because their lyrics are difficult to understand. Fans of Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, or Thom Yorke's solo work will probably enjoy them.
http://www.homevideooffice.com/index.html

The Whitlams - I think they've had a couple hit singles in Australia, but do not have a large fan base and are pretty much unheard of outside Australia. Anyway they're a fantastic band with a wide variety of song styles. They're unique, but if pressed for a comparison I'd compare them with maybe Queen, Elton John, or Billy Joel, since they have a definite piano rock feel. They also have very witty lyrics. My favorite song of theirs, if you can find it, is called "You Sound Like Louis Burdett".
http://www.thewhitlams.com/NEWS/

Heavenly Noise - This is a local band to the Jacksonville, FL area. It's made up of a couple: Daisey (the lead singer) and Batsauce (the multi-instrumentalist). Their music is very artistic, they use a wide variety of instruments, and it has a somewhat "hippie" theme to it (many of their lyrics are about love, peace, etc.) Musically they are unique, but they're something of a mix of funk and cool jazz. Daisey's voice is absolutely phenomenal, though I've found their album work disappointing in comparison with their live performances, as Daisey's singing is much more subdued on the album.
http://www.myspace.com/aheavenlynoise

Fad Gadget - one of the earliest musicians on Mute Records, a formerly independent label best known for Depeche Mode, Erasure, and Moby. He made industrial/noise music and was an early pioneer of the new wave and post-punk sounds of the 80s. Later in his career he recorded under his real name of Frank Tovey. His music is very dark and experimental.
http://www.fadgadget.co.uk/

Einsturzende Neubauten (sorry I don't know how to do the umlauts) - Another Mute band. They're industrial but they change so much with every album it's impossible to describe them. I've heard songs by them with lyrics in German, English, and French. I used to own their album "Silence is Sexy", which was a more toned-down, artsy album, but they've got quite a bit of noise rock too.
http://www.neubauten.org/

Failure - A now-defunct alternative rock band with grunge influences. They had a sound similar to Nirvana but more upbeat. Their guitarist later worked with A Perfect Circle and is now a member of Queens of the Stone Age. They are best known for having one of their songs, "The Nurse Who Loved Me", covered by A Perfect Circle.

There is also quite a bit of music I like that is semi-obscure, by bands that are not, for example:

-The first two Queen albums, which are a bit heavier in sound and have more fantasy-based lyrics (they frequently referred to kings, queens, fairies, etc) than their later work
-Later Erasure (1995 onward), which is more ambient and introspective than the bright pop they are mostly known for
-Boy George's solo work, which has a very different feel to it from Culture Club, it's sort of exotic
-The earliest work of Scissor Sisters, which was later released mainly as B-sides, which has a more electroclash feel to it than their album tracks

Ayin Aleph - My Bloody Marriage. You can also find them on MySpace. I have no idea how to buy their music, unfortunately. Sort of gothic, sort of classical, sort of rock, sort of metal. The video is rather weird, though.

Sophya. I recommend "More," in particular. It's odd gothic indie ambient, or something.

Narsilion. This is beautiful music--especially the song "Enmig Del Silenci." It sounds like what elf music would sound like.

Autumn Tears. Samples from their latest album are here. If you like music like Dark Sanctuary, Elend, Dead Can Dance, Enya, etc. you might like this. They're dark, depressing neo-classical with gothic undertones.

Draven. Not GREAT, but good. "Insight" is worth a listen.

Fluffy Starr. She seems like a bit of a bimbo at first, but the samples from this up-and-coming Industrial artist are very nice.

Porcelain and the Tramps. Another female Industrial artist. She's quite promising, and describes her music as sounding like someone vomiting into a bucket made of porcelain after a long night of drinking Jack Daniels.

Stolen Babies. Think Jack Off Jill meets Oingo Boingo meets Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. They're very good, and have a very cool video here.

Artrosis. Think foreign-language gothic metal.

More...

Charlie Drown. Gothic/Industrial Metal.

Marazene. Just really kickass Industrial Metal.

The Delta Fiasco. Dunno how unknown they are, but I'd never heard of them until I saw them on somebody's friend list. They're kinda weird dark indie-pop.

Lesbian Bed Death. I'm not crazy about them but "Goth Girls Are Easy" is a good song.

Psyclon Nine. Again, dunno how well known they are, but they're a very interesting Industrial/Black Metal band.

Tapping the Vein. They're basically gothic dreampop. They're not as good as Collide, but they've got some good songs..."Again" is my favorite.

P.M.T. A decent Industrial/Metal band.

Sulpher. A good Industrial band. Not great, but effective.