General Music Discussion Thread (a.k.a. indie lovefest)

[MEbenhoe]

The first song off of The New Pornographers new album "Challengers" is now up on their myspace. It is called "My Rights Versus Yours".

If this is indicative of the rest of the album, this is a very interesting direction they took.

http://www.myspace.com/thenewpornographers

[Fedfan691]

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Voxtrot recently came out with a S/T album that is really good. It was in the OOT "Best so far of 2007", but I didn't see it mentioned here, so PSA for those who avoid OOT. Standout singles in my mind are Firecrack, the best by far IMO, and Steven. You can check it out at their myspace here

The Klaxons and Dr. Dog are two other bands worth checking out. I'll try to write a better review on them when I get back from work

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I was actually pretty disappointed with voxtrot's album, which sucked because I was really looking forward to it based on the fact that they've put out a bunch of really great EP's. There just really aren't that many great songs besides firecracker and steven, especially compared to their previously released material. I'm seeing them in june in a month, hopefully they'll be playing alot of their EP stuff in addition to the better songs from their LP.

[pryor15]

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Pitchfork gave Wilco's new album the thumbs-down, but I think it's very good. Nothing groundbreaking like YHF, but an easy listen and a lot of fun at times - some nice solos. Good driving music.

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I agree with all of this. It's never gonna be my favorite Wilco album, but it's definitely good. Maybe they just set the bar so high with YHF that it's hard for them to get good reviews, I dunno.

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i really like it. it's not the sort of stunning tour-de-force you expect, but it's a great record for chilling in the backyard on a lazy Saturday

[Jack of Arcades]

Which was exactly what Wilco was trying to do. Obviously, they succeeded fantastically, but it makes you wonder why they set their sights so low.

[private joker]

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The first song off of The New Pornographers new album "Challengers" is now up on their myspace. It is called "My Rights Versus Yours".

If this is indicative of the rest of the album, this is a very interesting direction they took.

http://www.myspace.com/thenewpornographers

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I like it. Pretty restrained -- almost sounds like New Pornos covering Belle & Sebastian, doesn't it?

[Wilco23]

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Which was exactly what Wilco was trying to do. Obviously, they succeeded fantastically, but it makes you wonder why they set their sights so low.

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I hate to admit it - since Wilco is my favorite band - but I tend to agree with this assessment.

On another topic, I've gone back into my archives and rediscovered the Minutemen. Pretty amazing stuff. Very indie.

[turnipmonster]

I've been digging andrew bird (can't remember album name, has the song "fiery crash") a lot recently. also enjoying the national's "alligator" and the essex green. I think "sin city" might be my favorite pop song of the year.

[MEbenhoe]

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The first song off of The New Pornographers new album "Challengers" is now up on their myspace. It is called "My Rights Versus Yours".

If this is indicative of the rest of the album, this is a very interesting direction they took.

http://www.myspace.com/thenewpornographers

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I like it. Pretty restrained -- almost sounds like New Pornos covering Belle & Sebastian, doesn't it?

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I'm not exactly excited by it. Restrained is not a word I would expect to be used to describe an NPs song.

I mean the song is decent, what worries me is if this is supposed to be like the standout song of the album. If its just a random song off of it and just happened to be one of the first songs completely finished then fine. I'll admit it is growing on me a little, but we'll see.

[Dale]

I've been rediscovering Soft Machine and some of the other "Canterbury" scene bands I first heard in the late '70s doing college radio.

Soft Machine were contemporaries of Pink Floyd and were in a similar psychedelic vein at first. The first lineup was a trio. Robert Wyatt, who later made my favorite version of Peter Gabriel's "Biko," was singing and playing drums. Kevin Ayers played bass, guitar, and sang, and Mike Ratledge played keyboards. Then Hugh Hopper on bass replaced Ayers, saxophonist Elton Dean joined, and they morphed into an electric improv fusion band, more like Miles Davis or Sun Ra, a path they continued after Wyatt left. The best known album has always been _Third_, just reissued with a bonus live disc. There's lots of new material, too. _Middle Earth Masters_ has live performances of the first psychedelic lineup. Grides_, is a CD and DVD of the quartet lineup. There are also numerous BBC sessions that cover a wide range, and all of the major label records are coming out with bonus material.

[pryor15]

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Which was exactly what Wilco was trying to do. Obviously, they succeeded fantastically, but it makes you wonder why they set their sights so low.

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i think it has a lot to do with Tweedy getting out of rehab. i always thought of "a ghost is born" as an album made by someone battling an addiction (especially the song "Less Than You Think") and if you play that and "Sky Blue Sky" back-to-back, there's a lot of peace and tranquility and whatnot

hell, even the title: Sky Blue Sky, the clouds have parted, the storm is over, all that jazz.