Music! What are you listening to now?

[hrotha]

I can see how it'd be superhard for Australian bands, singing in the global language and being basically indistinguishable from any other Anglophone bands in the world market.

I would but there arent even 10 songs that ive heard of in 2010. 99% of the music i know is from before i was born.

You're missing out. Tons of great music being played nowadays.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

I see everybody ignored my suggestion of posting our Best of 2010 lists but screw you guys, I'm doing it anyway.

The problem is, 2010 was a very bad year. Suburbs (arcade fire) was very good, Black keys - Brothers also. No others worth mentioning though....

2009 was much better, & so will 2011, i hope.

 

[mortand]

Best of 2010 lists

1. Black Tambourine - Black Tambourine (By Tomorrow)
2. Sharon Van Etten - Epic (Don't Do It)
3. Phosphorescent - Here's to Taking It Easy (It's Hard to be Humble When You're From Alabama)
4. Scout Niblett - The Calcination of Scout Niblett (Cherry Cheek Bomb)
5. John Grant - Queen of Denmark (Queen of Denmark)

These are all great and highly recommended, although Black Tambourine is a compilation, so it's 1991 material rather than 2010. But who cares, it's brilliant.

Other good stuff:
Best Coast - Crazy for You
Justin Townes Earle - Harlem River Blues
Our Broken Garden - Golden Sea
Shearwater - The Golden Archipelago
Teenage Fanclub - Shadows

And just a week or so ago, I found out that the two singer-songwriters Mark Erelli & Jeffrey Foucault teamed up for an album of murder ballads. It's called Seven Curses, and is terrific. They're covering songs by Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Steve Earle, Porter Wagoner, etc.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I don't like either of them! I do like to support Australian music. Australian artists do it a lot harder imo because of the small population therefore less people to but the artists music. Hard to get into the international market as well.

That's why people like Nick Cave and the Birthday Party moved to the UK, to get noticed.

Now, "hard to get into the international market" I disagree with completely. Having English as your first language is always a benefit because it gives you a shot at the American market, and is understood by most. Yes, plenty of bands and artists who don't have English as their first language sing in it, but they have the handicap of finding it harder to write lyrics. You really think an indie band setting up in Melbourne would have a harder job 'making it' than one starting up in Bratislava or Santiago?

Anyway, for my top releases of the year... hmm.

Joanna Newsom "Have One On Me"
Von Spar "Foreigner"

after that it gets tough.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Yes it is a benefit, but quite a lot of acts that sell really well and are popular in Australia don't sell very well in America at all. BUt your example of Nick Cave is different as he is not well known in Australia but obviously as you say is popular overseas.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yes it is a benefit, but quite a lot of acts that sell really well and are popular in Australia don't sell very well in America at all. BUt your example of Nick Cave is different as he is not well known in Australia but obviously as you say is popular overseas.

But the same is popular of many American acts - there are acts that are huge in America that I couldn't name a song by. Before I met some American guys who played covers of their songs in a bar in Frankfurt I'd never even heard of the Dave Matthews Band (I wish I still hadn't). Some people like Pulp are well known in Britain but never travelled across to the US or elsewhere. Matthew Good saturated the Canadian market to the point where people were fed up of him, but people outside Canada didn't know who he was.

But the thing is, while many bands from Australia may not be able to break America, they at least have the opportunity to do so, which most acts who don't use English or have it as their first language don't. Wir Sind Helden sell out arenas in Germany, but I will guarantee you that they have far less chance of breaking America than an Australian band of similar status. A band like Jaime Sin Tierra will never become big because there isn't really a big calling for Argentine indie bands.

Also, Australia is economically relatively affluent, which enables acts to travel overseas in search of fame and fortune more readily than in more economically fragile states.

 

[Cobblestoned]

I am positively surprised by "Beady Eye" so far

Beady Eye - Bring The Light (yeah baby)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brl2C3sbayU

Beady Eye - Four Letter Word (sounds like made for a James Bond track, but nice)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkU_rAzdlKk

Beady Eye - The Roller (very beatle-lish)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJhpiByqIoo

Beady Eye - Sons Of The Stage (hmmm)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0FvPpBFvfI

 

[sublimit]

I havnt heard Beady Eye as of yet, i might have a look at that.

Currently Into Beck quite a lot at the minute. Beck - The New Pollution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxugaMpt1vU

 

[krebs303]

Nostalgia day. SURF MUSIC
The Ventures - Pipeline
The Ventures - Wipeout
The Pyramids - Penetration
The Astronauts - Baja
The Trashmen : Surfin' Bird ( 1963 )
The Beach Boys - Surfin'
Beach Boys - Surfer Girl
Beach Boys - Surfin' USA
jan and dean -surf city
Ride The Wild Surf - Jan and Dean
The Surfaris - Surfer Joe
**** Dale & The Del Tones "Misirlou" 1963

 

[royalpig180]

The PULP FICTION Soundtrack!

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Linkin Park - New divide

alternate site:
New divide

 

[Finbouy]

Anything that Nile Rodgers chucked out..

 

[tifosa]

I dare you NOT to feel better after this:

Stare Into the Sun

Plus the singer is hot as ... and I'm weak that way.

 

[TexPat]

Today I was reminded of how freaking good the Angels of Light are!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_of_Light

 

[krebs303]

Long Line of Cars Part II

 

[hrotha]

Lately I've been listening to Carissa's Wierd a lot . They're one of my favourite bands, but sometimes I go many months and even up to a year without listening to them, because they're so depressing it's actually kind of dangerous if you're feeling a bit down. But they made such beautiful music...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwWigeDGWZU

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Lately I've been listening to Carissa's Wierd a lot . They're one of my favourite bands, but sometimes I go many months and even up to a year without listening to them, because they're so depressing it's actually kind of dangerous if you're feeling a bit down. But they made such beautiful music...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwWigeDGWZU

Well, that was very good instrumental. I could see myself listening to that a lot. The song title (Farewell To All These Rotten Teeth) and lyrics are odd, but the lyrics, what little there is, is so subtle it's not very noticeable.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Thinking of the people in Brisbane, here's a quiet tune from Bernard Fanning, one member of Brisbane's Powderfinger band. I really like this tune.
Bernard Fanning – Watch over me (live)

 

[hrotha]

Well, that was very good instrumental. I could see myself listening to that a lot. The song title (Farewell To All These Rotten Teeth) and lyrics are odd, but the lyrics, what little there is, is so subtle it's not very noticeable.

They often have very creepy and depressing lyrics, the previous example was nothing in that regard. Try this if you can stomach it.
(It's not that their lyrics are graphic or anything, they're just... unsettling)

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

They often have very creepy and depressing lyrics, the previous example was nothing in that regard. Try this if you can stomach it.
(It's not that their lyrics are graphic or anything, they're just... unsettling)

Yeeaaaaaaaaaah. I see why they are unsettling. I looked up the lyrics... don't think I'll be posting them here. They weren't thaaaaat bad, but yeah, I don't have the stomach for that.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Thinking of the people in Brisbane, here's a quiet tune from Bernard Fanning, one member of Brisbane's Powderfinger band. I really like this tune.
Bernard Fanning – Watch over me (live)

That's a beautiful song. I have never heard it. So appropriate at a time of sadness. It is up there with Fanning's acoustic version of These Days. Supposedly Watch Over Me was also about one of his mates girl friends who had MS.

 

[hrotha]

Yeeaaaaaaaaaah. I see why they are unsettling. I looked up the lyrics... don't think I'll be posting them here. They weren't thaaaaat bad, but yeah, I don't have the stomach for that.

Hahaha, now people will think they sing about eating corpses or something.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Creepy and depressing in the Xiu Xiu way, or the Red House Painters way?

 

[tifosa]

Not sure if it was a 2009 or early 2010 release but I adore the xx remix of Florence and the Machine's "You've Got the Love".

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Hahaha, now people will think they sing about eating corpses or something.

Na, not that creepy...

Creepy and depressing in the Xiu Xiu way, or the Red House Painters way?

I don't know much about Red House Painters, but take for instance their song title 'Song for a blue guitar' is nothing like some (not all) of Carissa's Wierd. The song for a blue guitar is just about some heartbroken person. Actually a pretty good song if I was in the right mood, and I like the instrumentals in it. Don't listen to much Xiu Xiu either, but both Xiu and Carissa's have a combination of musical tones and lyrics that to me are not uplifting. So to answer your question, more the Xiu Xiu way.