Nice, @Hammer. Mainly classics or newer material? Did George sing much or was he mainly orchestrating/chilling?
I ended up selling my tickets because the person I was going with couldn't go in the end, and I'm in need of money. Counting on George touring next year (I think he might until he's 95 or something).
They seemed to play a mixture of classic stuff I knew and stuff that I didn't. I was surprised that 2-3 of the songs were pretty heavy and were basically metal. I had no idea what songs they were but they were great and a nice surprise. Any ideas what they might have been?
George was singing a bit but passed it on to the young'uns quite a bit more. He had a chair and would sit on that for a lot of the time and then get up to sing for a bit.
Mental, interesting. Maggot Brain could have sounded pretty metal-y depending on the solo and how much other instrumentation there was? Possibly some other Funkadelic stuff too but difficult to guess when they leave so much room for improvising. Could be teasing stuff from new albums (think there's a George solo one and a Parliament one coming this year.)Originally Posted by Hammer
The dude with the grey dreadlocks did a fucking awesome guitar solo for about 5 minutes towards the end too. It was the absolute bollocks.
I say 'metal'; there was a definite funk vibe to it, but it was a lot heavier than anything I've heard by them. That said I've only heard about half of their stuff overall so didn't really know what was going on - whether it was a standard song, an improv session, a cover, a new song or what. Fucking good though.
That'll be Blackbyrd McKnight, I think.
Yeah, their improvisation is amazing. One of their best thing about their gigs is how they manage to make it almost one long jam.
Here you go, from 14:30 or so onwards. The sound on that video doesn't do justice to it. Sounds alight on there, but was a lot better live obvs.
Cheers, @Hammer. I've no idea what that song is.
The new Slowdive album is lovely, a very impressive comeback after a 20 odd year lay off. Not that I expected it to be bad or anything. It always makes me happy when good, old bands return and make very worthwhile, new music though.
Phoenix Nights-esque.
Been loving Blawan recently. One of the acts I'm most looking forward to at Glastonbury.
Uh oh, I've fallen down the whatever was on Kerrang in the early 00s hole.
etc.
ah yes, the last hurrah of "alternative rock".
Couldn't even tell you the name of one band that's popular now
"Whatever was on Kerrang in the early 00s" is "whatever is on Kerrang right now". If you watch for an hour you get Sum 41 - Fat Lip seven times.
Peasant by Richard Dawson is a fantastic album. Weirdo folk stuff, I think it would be popular with a few in here.
I remember owning Mansun's Attack of the Grey Lantern. My mum threw all my stuff out when I moved in with my dad age 14 so I'm happy to have rediscovered it by chance on Spotify.
Mansun.
Being A Girl
Really good live, as well. Opened for R.M. Hubbert a few years back. All acapella whilst apologising he had a cold. Proper, proper voice on him.
Got tickets for Ed Sheeran next year.
I got Arcade Fire and The Fall's new albums on Friday, so I've been spending some time with them this weekend.
The Arcade Fire one, I don't know. It seems to be getting a less than favourable reception from the critics, which I kind of agree with. It's by no means a bad album, but it's not particularly good one either. I'm all for them pursuing this more synthy, disco-orientated sound if that's what they want to do, but the songwriting leaves a lot to be desired in places. Peter Pan-Chemisty-Infinite Content is a genuinely quite bad run of songs. There is also some lovely stuff on there though. We Don't Deserve Love is my favourite at the minute. But still, definitely they're least impressive work so far.
I like the new Fall album quite a bit more. They've binned off the keyboard player (who was also his wife, I'm not sure whether she's left him or what) and it seems to have lead a somewhat leaner, tougher, rockier sound. Not that it wasn't already a pretty monumental racket before. I always need to listen to a new album by them a lot before I can make head or tail of it though, but I would say it's about on par with the previous one, which I also enjoyed. Middle-of-the-road Fall I guess, which is better than most things.
I'm aware how outwardly ridiculous it looks to criticise Arcade Fire for a lack of quality songwriting whilst simultaneously praising an record made up of Mark. E Smith's largely incomprehensible ramblings, by the way. I'm fairly certain he's not even forming actual words more than half the time now. I saw a recent picture of him performing and he looked shocking. Not that he ever looks particularly well, but this was much worse than usual. He's fucking sixty now too. I hope he doesn't die. But I suppose it could be considered a minor medical miracle he's made it this far.
I liked a couple of bits on the new Arcade Fire one but it's not great. Then again I hated Reflektor when it came out too and now like it a lot.
I've just discovered Arcade Fire. Love them.
New Manchester Orchestra is out. It's more like Manchester Orchestra Lite.
On first impression, the new LCD Soundsystem is very good. "How Do You Sleep?" is an absolute fucking monster of a tune.
Colin Stetson's side project have just put out a black metal jazz fusion album and it fucking rules.
https://exeyeband.bandcamp.com/
New National album out today, and a bit of Neil Young. Iron & Wine and QOTSA recently too. All good stuff.
Huge September for me.
The National
The Killers
Noah Gundersen
Torres
For any James Blake-fans, Corbin - Mourn is a ridiculously good album. Not quite there with the vocal quality, but the emotion he puts in to some of these tracks is amazing.
I've been streaming for years now, but where do you go about getting full quality songs or albums these days, short of buying the CD?
Like if I've Google Play Music, you can also buy albums as well as stream them if you've the monthly subscription. Will the one I buy separately be better than the streaming version? Same thing for Apple Music, etc. Don't say iTunes as I have no device that has access to it.
Edit - Does Tidal have the same library as Spotify, etc?
Spotify do the full streaming quality if you've got premium. Only notice the diff if you've got audiophile equipment between that and a CD/Vinyl.
I've just gave Tidal a go there and there's a noticeable difference between their HiFi mode and Extreme quality on Spotify. Double the price, though it's not something I'd probably do long term as it's just to test a phone out.
This is a very strange and interesting album, which I finally got around to recently. Good call.
On an unrelated note, Wild Beasts announced that they were splitting up today, which obviously is a bad thing. They were a good band who seemed pretty much still at the peak of their powers, and if anything they seemed like they were pushing on to plough new territory. I'm surprised they've called it quits.
Nick Cave tonight. Really not sure I'm prepared for the emotional onslaught. Shame it's at the fucking Hydro.
Oh wow. The one in Manchester was charged as fuck apparently.
That's FLAC which is higher quality than mp3 which is what you'd be getting on a CD. If you want to be a laymen about it think of Spotify like CD and Tidal like Vinyl.
Is vinyl not crackly and shite? Surely a CD is better quality.
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/question487.htm
If your turntable is crap or your record is fucked, then it'll have sound artifacts, but theoretically vinyl should always sound better.
Nick Cave was good. The new stuff that's fairly stripped back was the best stuff, sounded really good in a massive arena. He's a hell of a performer, though the extent of the crowd interaction ended ip making it pretty self-indulgent.
Vinyl quality is dependent on both the record and the instruments used to play it (needle, head, plate balance etc.)
What was the name of that site we used to go on an play music that was kind of like a chatroom too?
Dubtrack. That's the one, cheers.
https://youtu.be/fJjGZkPl9Tw
Wow this is really bad lol. The first album is still a huge favourite, wasn't really expecting anything new from her and definitely wasn't expecting it to suck.
I watched all of that. Somebody should've stopped me. I've got some iTunes vouchers so I've splurged it on Lifeblood which, 15 years later, I've decided is a good Manics album. If this trend continues, I'll be looking at Generation Terrorists as "the shit one." Also picked up The National's latest. They're fine. Still.
Anyone like Moses Sumney? Heard him on 6 music being interviewed and live, was pretty epic. He sounded like a total weirdo I was thinking white hippy but I've just seen him on Later and he's a trendy black so lol at that.
Does anyone watch What's In My Bag? It's a series where musicians visit Amoeba, the record store, and talk about why they've chosen certain albums and DVDs etc.
I enjoyed the Thundercat episode.
Absolutely LOVE Concrete by Shame. It's bloody tremendous.
Also I've just found out what King Krule looks like.
The new Vulfpeck is good. The albums never do them justice compared to live tough.
My Spotify 'your year' thing has appeared today, and the most recent song in the first five (i.e. most listened to this year) is from 1967. Fucking tragic stuff from me.
Also two John Denver numbers in the full list, wtf is happening to me.
Mine's slightly more recent, apparently I was big into Billy Ocean this year.
I had The The, The Smiths, The Teardrop Explodes, The Shins and fucking WWE. Wussy white indie, wussy white indie, wussy white indie, wrestling. Pretty accurate insight.
As a total non sequitur, and in no way to pretend to have diverse interests, this is my absolute favourite musical discovery of 2017:
Never heard any Youssou N'Dour except 7 seconds, but this song is fucking brilliant. Great album too.
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