Asura - Asura
Prefuse 73 - Everything She Touched Turned Ampexian
Deerhunter - Microcastle
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
albums (what i would have put without looking at last.fm)
The Microphones - The Glow pt 2
Radiohead - Kid A
Shabazz Palaces - Black Up
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
books (judged by my ratings on goodreads)
Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck
Grendel - John Gardner
Ham on Rye - Bukowski
Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
Notes from Underground - Dostoyevski
I think you have to be American to like the Grapes of Wrath the dust bowl had no resonance for me and although the book was well written, I could not empathise with the characters. I did not make it into the last chapter, it seemed too obvious what was going to happen. I think Southpark when they internet goes down, a satire of it spoke to me more, sadly. Steinbeck was a superb author, Of Mice And Men I read in school, and loved it even though I was forced to read it, but this book kinda left me a little nonchalant.
Kudos for the Dostoyevski though, my favourite is Crime and Punishment atm, but then I haven’t got around to reading them all yet. The Devils I didn’t like so much, too many characters, my memory couldn’t cope.
Ooooh and we been getting along fine lately: dub step? Boring, too much sampling, no instruments, talent? Na don’t ge me wrong two step was cool, but dub step is not fly enough, it aint black enough to be cool. Ok now I’m sounding like I is black, not but them guys do know their music. It’s gone off the rails recently, what can I say…
Oh you have to put restrictions on good music, people who just steal other peoples music and have no discernible talent of their own, that’s not good music, that’s regurgitating stuff someone went out of their way to create (remixes piss me off the most, no wonder you’re getting no money for that, you didn’t do jack shit). Don’t be so naïve. We judge music by how long a band lasts, how many people like them, how different it is, how talented the performers are, whether live they don’t just turn up on stage and push a button and walk off, or can’t sing and just mime, all sorts. We don’t judge music by a passing fad that will probably be deader than disco in no time. Not referring to any music genres per se but get real dude.
Seriously spare me the “free form” everything is good crap, some bands are just not going to last. Hell some music forms are just so trite, and so copying other people they didn’t deserve to be there in the first place. Let me tell you what producers look for, they look for the next best thing, not something that is an iteration of someone else’s talent. Get real, you can’t put a label on just damn good, my ass. There are bands I can’t stand that are damned good. There is some objectivity in any art form.
Let me tell you what I value, I value sheer musical talent, and ability to play music in a way that just works, I value someone who doesn’t play to the crowd but develops their own flavour. I value creativity, a muse of fire, that would ascend the very heavens of invention. What I don’t value is some twat singing or using someone else’s song because they don’t have the creativity to make their own songs. It doesn’t have to be all their own work, it doesn’t even have to be any of it, but it has to be composed in such a way that it is not overly derivative. It has to have something of a muse.
Now I am not a big fan of “dance music”, but occasionally someone just does something amazing: it’s not all their own music it’s not therefore original but it is put together in such a away that the talent is obvious:
And what do you have against the 1300’s anyway, a lot of the late middle age music was very original, I wish we had preserved it all. It’s only now in the 21st century where we have so much music at our command, that some artists at least feel no needed to have any talent any more.
If music only sounds good when you’re off your nut on your favourite drug, and not when you’re sitting there listening to it sober and appreciating it as well, it aint good music. Live with it.