Music Thread

[Leonard Zelig]

Anybody have any strategies for finding bands that you like that youve never heard? After going through every avenue to download songs from the bands Ive heard of and becoming curious to find more Ive been trying some new tactics to find new bands I like but have never heard of. Things like looking up the music in tv shows or movies I like, going to billboard.com and so on.

 

Become friends with somebody who works at a good record store, preferably an independant one. One of the guys from Plaza Records turned me on to countless bands when I lived in Carbondale.

[The Critic]

I guess this technically counts as music - Scarlett Johannson released a CD of Tom Waits covers.

 

http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/29800018

 

She should concentrate on being good-looking and an okay actress.

Pretty lifeless voice. Muddy production, most likely to mask the lifeless voice.

[BigSqwert]

Going to the Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour tonight at the UC. Should be fun.

[MHizzle85]

Going to the Kanye West's Glow in the Dark Tour tonight at the UC. Should be fun.

As am I, i've heard nothing but GREAT things from people who've been to see it.

[BigSqwert]

As am I, i've heard nothing but GREAT things from people who've been to see it.

Damn that was amazing! Even Rihanna's set was good.

Edited May 24, 2008 by BigSqwert

[MHizzle85]

Damn that was amazing! Even Rihanna's set was good.

I was blown away, visually that was the coolest show i've EVER been to. Disappointed Lupe didn't do "The Coolest" but that would be my only complaint of the night.

[BigSqwert]

I was blown away, visually that was the coolest show i've EVER been to. Disappointed Lupe didn't do "The Coolest" but that would be my only complaint of the night.

I was also hoping for them to do 'Us Placers' but whatever. Hard to complain after seeing that show.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2008 by BigSqwert

[BigSqwert]

I was also hoping for them to do 'Us Placers' but whatever. Hard to complain after seeing that show.

Guess I wasn't the only one...

 

Kanye West takes a one-man trip to dark side of the moon

 

Even as concertgoers exited the first of two shows Friday at the United Center, Kanye West still wasn’t through with them. Ushers handed out a booklet of self-help West-isms, just in case the fans didn’t get enough Kanye in the first 90 minutes.

 

That would’ve been hard to fathom.

 

The “Glow in the Dark” tour was all Kanye all the time: a man on stage, alone with his fabricated spaceship and the disembodied voice of “Jane,” his co-pilot. His band was tucked in the shadows of the orchestra pit below the stage, while West embarked on a lost-in-space journey that suggested a one-man play as much as it did a concert. It retooled songs from West’s three multimillion-selling albums, which trace a young man’s path to adulthood, and turned them into dramatic opportunities.

 

West rapped, sang and danced himself into a sweat-soaked frenzy, the veins popping from his neck, his arms flailing. He even did a few push-ups. The songwriter-producer portrayed himself as hip-hop’s answer to Jean-Paul Sartre: an existentialist whose narrative was abetted by cosmic video and smoke machines, and salted with references to Samuel Beckett, Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” and David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.”

 

It certainly was like no hip-hop show ever staged. Instead of roaming posses of guest MCs and hangers-on, and wave-your-hands-in-the-air audience participation gambits, West opted for stylized solo theatricality and an almost eerie intensity. He never cracked a smile, but there was no questioning his commitment to the material. His voice was by turns defiant (“Can’t Tell Me Nothin’ ”), resilient (“Through the Wire”), prayerful (“Jesus Walks”), consumed by unrequited lust (“Gold Digger”) and celebratory (“Touch the Sky”).

 

Out in space, boys really miss their mothers, and West was no exception. “Hey Mama,” in tribute to educator Donda West, who died last year, was re-energized with fresh verses, and was unquestionably the emotional centerpiece of the concert. But the rapper didn’t take any moment for granted, as demonstrated by the agile dance steps that topped off “Flashing Lights” or the defiant screams that punctuated “Stronger.”

 

The only letdown was the tepid “Homecoming” as the first encore, an anticlimax after the emotional potency of “Jesus Walks,” “Hey Mama” and “Stronger.” Otherwise, this was first-tier arena-rap. If West’s self-help booklet was more evidence of an ego run amok, the concert was egomania reconfigured as a flawed but fascinating psychodrama.

 

West’s opening acts also brought not just music, but personality -- an essential ingredient when serenading a sold-out basketball stadium.

 

Rihanna didn’t play the R&B diva so much as a new-wave siren; with her thigh-high boots and a red vinyl jacket, she could’ve passed for Prince. Her hits, particularly “SOS” and “Don’t Stop the Music,” delivered sleek electro-groove thrills.

 

Lupe Fiasco’s cerebral, rapid-fire rhymes dovetailed with a series of engaging sing-along hooks proferred by vocalists Nikki Jean, Sarah Green and Matthew Santos. N.E.R.D. placed mega-producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo in a world rife with heavy-metal riffs and dueling drum solos, and turned it into a rap-rock celebration, with a bevy of dancers from the audience joining the band on stage.

 

One disappointment: With Fiasco, Williams and West in the house, a reprise of their brilliant 2007 Internet collaboration “Us Placers” would’ve seemed tailor-made. No such luck. It wasn’t a night for collaborations, but solo flights into inner space.

 

LINK

Edited May 25, 2008 by BigSqwert

[bmags]

I was there too. Fantastic, like you said, I even enjoyed Rihanna.

 

Disappointed though, with Common there, that we didn't get an encore of anything with him, maybe southside.

 

BUt obviously with a performance this orchestrated and lights this set up, it's understandable it's hard to go off.

[Princess Dye]

 

Now, were you at Slint playing pitchfork fest last yr?

 

That is the question. i was

[BigSqwert]

I was there too. Fantastic, like you said, I even enjoyed Rihanna.

 

Disappointed though, with Common there, that we didn't get an encore of anything with him, maybe southside.

 

BUt obviously with a performance this orchestrated and lights this set up, it's understandable it's hard to go off.

Did you see Common there? How do you know he was there?

 

Also, The Cool Kids were standing about 5 feet from us most of the show.

[MHizzle85]

Also, The Cool Kids were standing about 5 feet from us most of the show.

Did they have a little bit of gold and a pager?

[Brian]

I have that new Weezer single, "Pork and Beans", stuck in my head after watching the video on Youtube.

[BigSqwert]

Did they have a little bit of gold and a pager?

But of course. Motorola pagers to be exact.

[farmteam]

I have that new Weezer single, "Pork and Beans", stuck in my head after watching the video on Youtube.

 

It's catchy. I like it because it's a lot closer to Blue Album/Pinkerton stuff than Make Believe, which is a good thing. I didn't hate Make Believe as much as some people, but their early stuff is clearly the best.

[bmags]

Now, were you at Slint playing pitchfork fest last yr?

 

That is the question. i was

 

No, I was stuck in Missouri. I'm hoping to get up this year though for Les Savy Fav.

[bmags]

oh, and I knew common was there because he was on stage during N.E.R.D., the crowd gave big cheers for Common and Chris Brown.

[Princess Dye]

No, I was stuck in Missouri. I'm hoping to get up this year though for Les Savy Fav.

I like them too, although if I go to any day of it, it'll be Saturday for Jarvis Cocker/Animal Collective.

 

 

Even though the latter live is a little more disappointing than I thought theyd be.

[bmags]

I disagree. I think they are better live, but I'm a sucker for deconstructing and constructing their songs live.

[Heads22]

I can't get the song Hash Pipe out of my head.

[MHizzle85]

I can't get the song Hash Pipe out of my head.

Speaking of Weezer, anyone listen to the Red Album yet?

[bmags]

yeah I heard it. It was deleted from my library soon after. I'll just stick with pink and blue and act like the rest never happened. A different band, since it kind of was.

[MHizzle85]

The new albums by Lil' Wayne and N.E.R.D. leaked last night, very solid albums IMO.

[bmags]

man I was just really disappointed with a lot of wayne's songs. I wish he would've released the first set of songs.

[farmteam]

Speaking of Weezer, anyone listen to the Red Album yet?

 

Yes. First half was decent, but by the end of the night I was listening to the Blue Album.