OT - Music Genre

[8893]

Ever hear Capeman? Simon's short-lived Broadway musical. Another of my favorites.

I bought Capeman when it came out and I tried to like it but it never grabbed me. Maybe I should give it another spin--I don't think I've listened to it in more than a decade.

 

[superjohn]

Love the atmosphere these bands create.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Beatles, Stones, Van, Dylan and the Grateful Dead would probably be my Mount Rushmore. I have more music from those five than all my other music combined--and I have a lot of music.

Love Traffic and the Who, too.

I'm in a major Van Morrison phase right now with a minor of Ray Charles classics and duets. A Van Morrison radio on Pandora goes off in lots of strange/varied but usually great directions.

 

[Dove]

Growing up I loved almost everything. But reggae was always the consistent #1 joy. British band Steel Pulse is my all time fave band.

There is a reggae band out of Hawaii who I think should be grammy worthy. amazing. If you ever get a chance to see The Green please do.



Definitely a lovers vibe throughout their songs.

 

[Dove]

I'm an old school hip hop/rap guy. Came of age in the 80's.

You're blind. And you can't see...

You need to wear some glasses like DMC!

 

[HobokenHusky]

What type of music does everyone listen to? Like most people, I like a wide variety. But I love the "modern" alternative rock that has come out in the last 5-6 years. Here's an Arcade Fire song I really like. YouTube Video I'm frequently looking for music that I can listen to at work. Mellow stuff with a good beat. Something that's not too distracting. Any suggestions? Bands that I really like (not necessarily great for work listening): - The Nationals - Arcade Fire - Fleet Foxes - The Killers - etc.. Most of the alternative music I listen to is about 3-5 years old. I'm always looking for newer stuff.

Based on your list would check out Tame Impala, their newest album "currents" is my favorite of the year and I listen to a ton of music.

Also, I've seen the national 6 or 7 times, they put on an amazing show if you haven't seen them, and usually have good openers.

 

[Mano]

If we're talking Rushmore's mine would probably be Zeppelin, Daft Punk, Radiohead and... geez, the first 3 were easy, the next one could be a revolving door of bands and groups. Gorillaz? M83? Arcade Fire? Pink Floyd? Interpol? Jay-Z? Arctic Monkeys?

If we're talking genres, I'll readily listen to just about anything from rap to classical, but my favorites are probably:

Classic rock (Beatles, Pink Floyd, Bowie, E.L.O., Stones, Queen, Led Zep!)

'80's rock (The Clash, Tears for Fears, The Smiths, Stone Roses, G 'n R, Echo and the Bunnymen)

'90's alternative (Nirvana, Rage, Weezer, Pumpkins, Radiohead!)

Techno/electronica/edm whatever you want to call it through the years (Fatboy, Chemical Bros, Prodigy, Underworld, M83, Justice, DAFT PUNK!, Disclosure, LCD Soundsystem, Zhu, Flume, Bassnectar, Gorillaz, Empire of the Sun, Grimes)

Older rap (Big L, Biggie, NaS, Jay-Z, Eminem, Wu-Tang, Canibus, Danger Doom, OutKast, Tribe, Jada, Beasties)

And over the past 10-15 years, music that would fall into the indie rock genre and sounds that blur those lines (Broken Social Scene, Metric, Vampire Weekend, Phantogram, MGMT, Edward Sharpe, Foster the People, Awolnation, Naked and Famous, Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, Interpol, The National, Doves, Editors, Alabama Shakes, Shins, Arcade Fire, Fleet Foxes, Dr. Dog, Grouplove, Muse, Delta Spirit, Local Natives, The Dig)

I just wish I had more time for finding and listening to new music these days, so keep the suggestions coming.

 

[Devland]

Is it bad that I haven't heard of 99% of the musicians in this thread? Louis Armstrong and although I know a lot of people like him, I was never much of a Sinatra fan. Taste I guess or maybe because he was so overplayed and I got sick of him.

 

[8893]

I'm in a major Van Morrison phase right now with a minor of Ray Charles classics and duets. A Van Morrison radio on Pandora goes off in lots of strange/varied but usually great directions.

I've been in a major Van phase since college. IMO he is the second best songwriter of my lifetime (Dylan being the first), and the best singer. Also a helluva musician and band leader. One of many things that he and Ray have in common is how incredible their ears are and how fierce and demanding they are as band leaders. I have seen both stop a live performance in the middle of a song to chew out a musician who was off, and then start again from the top. You can see the fear in some of their musicians' eyes if you are close enough. I imagine it's a bit like playing for JC.

Since you mentioned duets, I am hoping you know that they each have an album of duets, and that Ray's has one with Van ("Crazy Love"). Van's is more recent, so unfortunately it doesn't include Ray, nor John Lee Hooker, with whom I think he worked best (check out their work on "I Cover the Waterfront" and "Never Get Out of these Blues Alive").

Too bad Van's live U.S. performances are getting fewer and farther between all the time. I just saw him at Forest Hills a couple months ago and he was great, but I made the effort because it's getting so rare for him to be here at all.

ETA: Van fans, check out James Maddock. I think you'll like him.

 

[Doginaus]

Good thread theme. I also work on my computer a lot and listen to a lot of music while I work. My taste of music runs from one end of the spectrum to the other and it really depends on my frame of mind as to who I want to listen to at any given time.

I've been listening to music for over 50 years and as I said, I like all kinds. Some I would recommend you try are;

Bag Raiders INXS
Empire of the Sun Little Feat
The Allman Brothers (Live at the Fillmore) Michael McDonald
Atlanta Rhythm Section Midnight Oil
Beatles (of course) Steve Miller
Dire Straits Mr.Mister
ELO Alan Parsons Project
Genesis Pink Floyd (of course)
Jerry Garcia Band Chris Rea (this guy is great!)
Fleetwood Mac Steely Dan
Paul Simon Simply Red
Sting Toto
The Tubes Stevie Ray Vaughn
Steve Winwood Traveling Willburys
Yes ZZ Top

If you want to listen to some smooth jazz type, you may try;

Acoustic Alchemy Shahin & Sepehr
Peter White Al DiMeola
Burt Bacharach Frank Sinatra
Natalie Cole Govi
Ottmar Liebart Tommy Emmanuel
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass The Piano Guys

Just a few of the artist I like to listen to while I work, give some of them a try and see what you think.

 

[Doginaus]

Oops. The format changed and it put 2 artist on each line, sorry about that.

 

[TRest]

Love the atmosphere these bands create.

Saw the Bunnymen at the Agora Ballroom in West Hartford.

for the OP, if you like modern alternative rock, you might want to look at the Britpop bands of the 90's. I only discovered Blur a couple of years ago, when they've been around for 20 years.

 

[TasteofUConn]

. . . Sum 41 and Blink 182 . . . The Offspring would be my favorite punk and/or pop punk band.

Throw in Weezer and you'd have about 5-8 hours of music I could listen to.
I call these bands "lifting bands," because - ehem - in my heyday - I always had the best workouts with songs blasting from these bands. I think Dexter Holland, Rivers Cuomo, Tom DeLonge, Doug Hopkins, and Cobain are/were incredibly gifted songwriters. Would loved to have heard what Hopkins and Cobain could have done with a few more years.

 

[Phorcys]

Thankfully, the off-season will soon end.

Until then: “Yalla, Yalla.”

(I have no idea what that means.)

 

[junglehusky]

Back in the day (late 80's / early 90's) you could (maybe) impress people by saying "Yeah I have varied musical tastes - I listen to Slayer AND Toad the Wet Sprocket AND EPMD AND Dizzy Gillespie" or something along those lines. But for the past decade, everybody is an omnivore, you could get into a micro-genre like South African electro and the person you're talking to has already checked it out.

And maybe it's a bummer, or maybe it's cool that music coming out now doesn't have an immediately identifiable era to it. You hear a song from the 90's, 80's, 70's... going all the way back to the 20's, and you associate that song with the time it came out in like, 3 seconds. I think it's kind of cool that there are bands reviving a sound like late 80's thrash-hardore punk-metal crossover, and breathing new life into it:

 

[UconnFanNVa]

Really into Neo Soul, but Musiq Soulchild fan, Dwele, Bilal. 90's R&B, Dru Hill, Black Street..... (yup stuck in the past). Still like 90's - early 2000's rap. Big into old school Jazz, Coltrane, C Parker, Paul Desmond, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, Dave Drubeck (Quartet), Stan Getz, Monk, ect.... Thats about it for me, i'm pretty limited and selective. Been listening to so older reaggae lately Toots, Marley, and been listening to some fela kuti (partial to yellow fever and Zombie). Other than that i'll hear other stuff when people play it and i'm there.... I hear Sesames streets nice selection of songs more than i'd like, Zouk music, and old school R&B (marvin gaye type stuff).

 

[Kembacity]

Growing up I loved almost everything. But reggae was always the consistent #1 joy. British band Steel Pulse is my all time fave band.

There is a reggae band out of Hawaii who I think should be grammy worthy. amazing. If you ever get a chance to see The Green please do.



Definitely a lovers vibe throughout their songs.

I too love the reggae, one of the genres that sometimes while listening I think "I don't understand how anyone couldn't love listening to this song", so I will be perusing the Green's catalog while I work today. It sounds like you're far more well-versed in the reggae genre, so you're probably well aware, but if you haven't heard of Gentleman, a German reggae artist, you should check him out. Some of my faves are "Rumors" and "Superior"

 

[JimHurley]

I did. Great trip. Free Springsteen concert + UConn winning the national championship

I was there too. That was an unforgettable weekend.

 

[8893]

Thread convergence: Yogi Berra explains Jazz:

Interviewer: What do you expect is in store for the future of jazz trumpet?

Yogi: I'm thinkin' there'll be a group of guys who've never met talkin' about it all the time...

Interviewer: Can you explain jazz?

Yogi: I can't, but I will. 90% of all jazz is half improvisation. The other half is the part people play while others are playing something they never played with anyone who played that part. So if you play the wrong part, its right. If you play the right part, it might be right if you play it wrong enough. But if you play it too right, it's wrong.

Interviewer: I don't understand.

Yogi: Anyone who understands jazz knows that you can't understand it. It's too complicated. That's whats so simple about it.

Interviewer: Do you understand it?

Yogi: No. That's why I can explain it. If I understood it, I wouldn't know anything about it.

Interviewer: Are there any great jazz players alive today?

Yogi: No. All the great jazz players alive today are dead. Except for the ones that are still alive. But so many of them are dead, that the ones that are still alive are dying to be like the ones that are dead. Some would kill for it.

Interviewer: What is syncopation?

Yogi: That's when the note that you should hear now happens either before or after you hear it. In jazz, you don't hear notes when they happen because that would be some other type of music. Other types of music can be jazz, but only if they're the same as something different from those other kinds.

Interviewer: Now I really don't understand.

Yogi: I haven't taught you enough for you to not understand jazz that well.

 

[storrsroars]

I go to maybe one show a year these days. The last three have been Slim Cessna's Auto Club, Black 47's farewell tour, and just last week, Of Monsters and Men. The only major tour I've paid top dollar to see this century was Prince's "Musicology", and it was well worth the price.

Always been a fan of good power pop, melodies and harmonies. Despite that, the CDs in my car changer right now include Physical Graffiti and Yo-Yo Ma doing Ennio Morricone. Probably 15% of my CD/vinyl repository is classical, 10% jazz, 2% hip-hop, 1% C&W and of the remainder, the largest representation is from the Kinks, REM, Blur, Replacements, Waterboys, World Party, Springsteen, Be-Bop Deluxe/Bill Nelson and Beatles. My favorite album/CD of the past 20 years is Black Grape's "It's Great to Be Straight" and I like "The Bends" more than any other Radiohead. And I think Lyle Lovett has the best live band in the world

Make of that what you will.

 

[Waquoit]

A genre previously new to me that I've been enjoying lately is Afrobeat, for lack of a better term. It sounds like a mix of reggae, funk, jazz. I've seen a few shows at Infinity with Seun Kuti and also the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars that were really good. There are some nice albums from 70's Nigeria that are worth a listen. I also stumbled across an album called "Who is William Onyeabor?" that is just plain cool. Sometimes I need a break from classic rock.

Although I must admit I have rediscoved Jethro Tull lately, listening to entire albums instead of just the radio hits. I missed a lot when I was a kid.

 

[junglehusky]

Really into Neo Soul, but Musiq Soulchild fan, Dwele, Bilal. 90's R&B, Dru Hill, Black Street..... (yup stuck in the past). Still like 90's - early 2000's rap. Big into old school Jazz, Coltrane, C Parker, Paul Desmond, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, Dave Drubeck (Quartet), Stan Getz, Monk, ect.... Thats about it for me, i'm pretty limited and selective. Been listening to so older reaggae lately Toots, Marley, and been listening to some fela kuti (partial to yellow fever and Zombie). Other than that i'll hear other stuff when people play it and i'm there.... I hear Sesames streets nice selection of songs more than i'd like, Zouk music, and old school R&B (marvin gaye type stuff).

You should check out Hiatus Kaiyote then.

 

[David 76]

Outstanding Concert experiences anyone?

I guess I'd have to start with the free ticket to Springsteen at MSG, lost my wallet and got it back (minus the cash) and none of that took anything away from the amazing performance.

Sneaking in to the New Haven Arena to see James Brown was a musical and cultural experience for our little band of white boys.

Elton John at the final concert at the NH Arena, when he was still, for me, at his best

And my first concert ever was at Yale Bowl (yes, that used to happen) was Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Co. with Gordon Lightfoot as the warm-up

 

[Revrat]

Saw the Bunnymen at the Agora Ballroom in West Hartford.

for the OP, if you like modern alternative rock, you might want to look at the Britpop bands of the 90's. I only discovered Blur a couple of years ago, when they've been around for 20 years.

Big Bunneymen fan myself and saw them at least once at the old Agora as well. I remember seeing nothing but his lit cigarette for much of the show because of the massive smoke machines.

These days it's drone, experimental, psyche and recently getting into the whole Krautrock thing as I rebuild my LP collection. Really looking forward to the Kraftwerk show here in a couple weeks.

Best show ever? Inspiral Carpets at Toads. I don't dance much but they got me moving. And the recent Bob Mould show at the tiny 7th street club here in Minneapolis when he broke out all the Husker Du Stuff was amazing.

As a side note I just picked up a NewJohnny5 LP that was still sealed. the first band I ever snuck into a bar to see in downtown Hartford at 36 Lewis street I think it was called.

 

[UconnFanNVa]

You should check out Hiatus Kaiyote then.

That is smooth man, flows well with the stuff I like listening to. I'll have to listen some more and add some songs to my list. Good lookin out.

Also like Trumbone shorty type of stuff. Open to suggestions for anything like that that anyone might have to suggest.