Define your taste in music

[WHITAKER]

No, to tell the truth I've not been too interested in his stuff since the early 90s. Though I do regret missing him when he played here recently. There was a good interview with him in The Wire recently.

[Rod_S]

If I had to pick a couple of favourite Tindersticks albums I'd go for the first two, and "Can Our Love...", which I think is just lovely and has a nice classic-soul feel. I haven't hear the new one yet, though. Any good?

Are they actually on tour in October? The only show I can find is in London, and, much as I love them, it's a bit of trek. I'd rather hang on until they're back in my neck of the woods.

The new album is probably one of their strongest. It mixes the soul groove of Simple Pleasure and Can Our love with the classic strings and guitars sound of Curtains, it also has a Definite Lee Hazlewood and Velvet Underground feel on certain tracks. That kind of fragile looseness that they had on Dicks Slow song is back too, something that I thought they'd moved away from. Dickon sings on two of the songs which was a disspaointment for me as Stuarts voice is what really draws me to the band, but apart from that it's kind of the album I was hoping they'd make. Standout tracks are the Velvets sound-alike 4:48 Psychosis and the Curtains-esqe heart-melting My Oblivion.

Oh yeah, there's a duet on there which is easily as good as Travelling Light or Buried Bones. What more could you ask for?

As for the gig, I'm afraid that the Hammersmith Apollo show is the penultimate date of their world tour, I think the last night is in Ireland. I've seen them live around 30 times and they've been better than ever on the recent tour, if you can make it to the gig I guarantee you'll lap them up.

Thanks for the info about Swans Dvorak, I think I'll shut my windows and audition the albums you suggested at Amazon...

[WHITAKER]

Anyway here is my attempt:

Fit and Working Again - The Fall. My favorite band ever, and represntative of my taste for strange but intelligent lyrics, distinctive frontmen and slightly askew rock music. See also Captain Beefheart, The Birthday Party, The Smiths, Happy Mondays, Foetus, many more....

Krautrock - Faust. A song named after the rather derogatory term used for my favorite musical genre. In my opinion the greatest 'rock' music ever made. Many other related bands--Amon Duul II, Can, Kraftwerk, Cluster, Neu!, Ash Ra Tempel, etc.

Super You - Boredoms. The record that changed the way I listen to music. From Japan and the most inventive band of the last twenty years. Introduced me to the many weird sounds coming from Japan, from punk and psychedelia to all-out noise. See also Acid Mothers Temple, Melt Banana, Ground Zero, Merzbow.

Absolute - Scritti Politti. Not especially representative of my overall tastes but my current obsession. Shiny but intelligent and sophisticated pop music, simply brilliant. See also Roxy Music, ABC, Human League.

I couldn't find a song that'd cover the rest (jazz, reggae, country, funk, experimental) so I'll leave it at four.

Respect to the MC5 mention.

[Dvorak]

Michael Gira is a lovely gentle person to talk to though...

I talked to him only once after a gig of their final "Swans are Dead"-Tour here in Germany. He was a very nice and polite guy, but I haven't expected something else. Their dark grimness is something completely different from, say, a sinister death metal band ("Oh, we are so eeeevil").

I was completely pissed that night and spoilt my beer all over their merchandising stuff, all that Jarboe-handcrafted things and CDs and the like. So, I think I can be very glad, that all of them Swans people were actually very friendly people...

[Surfr]

Well 5 just aint gonna do it so here we go:
Oh, I also picked albums rather than individual tracks because all the best albums are naked without all the tracks in the order that the artist chose.


Great Big Sea - Play
Spirit of the West - Save this House
Our Lady Peace - Clumsy
Levellers - Levelling the Land
Levellers - A Weapon called the Word
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation
Faith No More - King For A Day Fool For A Lifetime
Queen - Queen
Pearl Jam - ten
Blink 182 - Dude Ranch
Goldfinger - Goldfinger
Green Day - Dookie
Paul Weller - Stanley Road
Catatonia - International Velvet
Super Furry Animals - Guerilla
Stereophyonics - Word Gets Around
Travis - The Man Who
Mr Bungle - Mr Bungle
Beastie Boys - Ill Communication
Gorkys Zycotic Mynci - Gorky 5


Theres so many I've forgotten that realy define my tastes.. Tom Jones, Frankie!...

[noodles]

Oh, ah, here goes then :

Crosstown Traffic - Jimi Hendrix

The Nile Song - the Floyd (and most of what came out in that time)

Kashmir - Led Zep

Delta loader - Rob Hubbard (you can *see* the spaceship passing
overhead going towards a planet)

Major Tom - Bowie

anything really - Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

Moonraker - Shirley Bassey

first album - Stone Roses

[Mat T]

OK, here's mine in no particular order...

The Clash - White Man In Hammersmith Palais. - Joe Strummer is a God. RIP. Some of their songs are simply sensational, this being one of them. Close second is Straight To Hell but I'll stick with this gem.

Jello Biafra with DOA - Full Metal Jackoff. - Jello on classic form. A 12 minute mental rant about all things fucked up in America. If you ever get sacked or laid off, listen to this and come out fighting.

The Explosion - God Bless The SOS. - New Boston punk band who will go massive soon I reckon. From their debut album. A call to arms as such and enough to get the blood pumping. Superb stuff.

The Slackers - Wasted Days. - The modern day kings of raggae and ska. Check 'em out. Unbelievably talented and really good live. Kind of music that you just can't not like.

Weezer - Sweater Song. - A strange one but a song that has stuck with me for years and is still great to listen to. Not amazingly keen on their new work but the Blue album is tops.

Loads more I could list from various genres but this is "me" today. Hehe...

[strawdonkey]

Heh. I'm not evil!

I said five because that way it's about defining the extremes of your taste, and choosing very, very, wisely.

Except half of you cheated.

Cunts.

Zzap64: Nice choice with "Chasing Rainbows"... one of my favourite songs ever, that. One of the few tracks that could ever bring tears...

Anyway. My five...

At The Drive-In :: 198d

Probably, in my opinion, the best song ever. It's slow, it's powerful, it's subtle, and even though the lyrics struggle to make sense at the best of times it's still very, very powerful as a song. You can have very nice big hugs to this song.

Broadcast :: You Can Fall

Now to the serious electronica...

Com.A :: Radio Squelch Crush Land

And to the silly.

Bis :: Eurodisco

The fun poppy side... Bis were one of the incessantly happy bands that never, ever grated on me. I still have no clue why.

Testament :: DNR (Do Not Resuscitate)

And finally, the insane heavy metal side. It starts gently, and then attacks with some sort of surprise element...

You know, you're all right. Five songs is by no means enough, I could do with a few more to cover the more ambient sides, the industrial sides and the smattering of hiphop that I like, but you can't have everything.

Missing out narrowly:

Vast :: Touched
Sigur Rós :: Ny Batteri
Nine Inch Nails :: The Great Below
The Little Explorer :: Play Softer
Beastie Boys :: Sabotage

*sigh*

[PaulEMoz]

Hmmm....not sure whether it's a case of defining my musical taste (or lack thereof, as most people tend to suggest). I can listen to all kinds of things, if it's on in the background or wherever, but as for what I choose to listen to, well, that's a very narrow choice indeed. I'm strange like that. So, I'll name 5 tracks that I MUST have in my immediate vicinity at all times, and hope that they define my taste in music.

Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Icarus' Dream Suite Op. 4 - this is my favourite track of all time. Yngwie takes a classical theme, makes his variation on it, blends acoustic and electric guitar and makes 8 and a half minutes of instrumental perfection.

Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Valhalla - if anyone's entitled to write a heavy metal/hard rock song about vikings, it's Yngwie. I love this song, that's all there is to it.

Joe Satriani - Flying In A Blue Dream - another instrumental, but Joe's instrumentals are of a totally different style than Yngwie's. This is a very haunting sounding tune.

Dream Theater - Take The Time - I could have picked any of a number of DT songs, but this is one of my favourites, and it showcases their style very well. Besides, the ending is very uplifting to me.

Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One - The Eye Of Ra - Arjen writes rock/metal music based on science fiction, which probably makes him the ultimate nerd. His Star One album is different to his others, in that the songs are based on sci-fi movies (well, one of them is based on Blake's 7). This song is based on Stargate. I love his music, but on this album, the way he has different singers for each different character really works well for me.

Anyway, that's 5. I could have chosen other bands or songs, but I'll leave it at that, and presume most people will never have heard any of those tracks.

[cyric100]

Five won't really give a very good overview, but here goes:

1. "Jungle High". By Juno Reactor I think. I don't really know why, just has a kind of energetic feeling to without being completely off it's head.

2. "Horsell common and the heat ray" off Jeff Wayne's "War of the worlds". Eerie, spooky with lot's of twangy noises and a storyline to boot.

3. "Shut Up" by Madness. Just one of many from that era that would suffice but Madness added an extra nutty dimesion to my mind.

4. "Head like a hole" by Nine Inch Nails. Lots of NIN have been mentioned but this stands out to me as a more rounded product. Lacks dimension in the lyrical department perhaps, but I've chosen now It also has some special memories associated with it...

5. "Mars, bringer of war" composed by Holst, performed by whomever. Again, perhaps I like the kind of eeriness from it and the building up and up as it progresses.

[HGFB]

In my case picking a list of songs doesn't define my tastes. It kinda defines my personality. If I was defining my tastes I can't do it in 5.

I'll try to pick 5 and I don't appologise for anything on here. (Disclaimer. This list changes with my mood)

1. Sailor Moon - My only Love
Odd first choice I hear you say. Well there's a reason. This song is taken from the US dub soundtrack of the Sailor Moon cartoon. It's from an episode midway through the first season. TuxedoMask lies dying. SailorMoon's tears fall and summon the 8 rainbow crystals which fuse together with her tears to form the Silver Imperium crystal. This music plays through that scene and always gets me tearful. Now stop the fucking sniggering at the back and we'll continue. (You could also substitute Rainy Day Man from the same soundtrack here)

2. Gamma Ray - New World Order
It's fast, dramatic and the music just shouts at me to listen. It's to me what uplifting music is all about. I tend not to pay much attention to lyrics a lot of the time. If the music gets me going then they could be singing about cats jumping over the moon for all I care.

3. Britney Spears - I Will Be There.
No. I'm not going to talk about it. Piss off.

4. Heather Nova - Walk this World
I fell totally in love with this song when I heard it for the first time on MTVs Most Wanted years ago. Heather was singing it unplugged. I guess I'm just a sad old romantic at heart.

5. Alternate Reality (ST Version) Waves.
Most people won't have even heard of this. It's one of the songs that plays when you enter a tavern in Alternate Reality. Lyrics scroll at the top of the display kareoke style.

The waves at home are pounding on the shore
The snow here's falling just outside my door
and all I want's to be with you once more
But I'm told
That this is one thing that I best stop hoping for
They tell me to go on
I ask them for how long
They tell me to be strong
To what you can't be wrong
I'm lost without your love
I need you here with me
In this reality

The Reply

They without warning took away from me
The happiness we shared when you were free
I search the sky my love return to me
I am cold and feel alone
Blind silent
This I've come to be
Friends tell me to go on
No one knows where you've gone
They tell me to be strong
Endeavor to live on
I'm lost without your love
I need you here with me
Come to reality
I know that you'll agree
To hurry home to me
As soon as you are free

That was a difficult set of choices to make. It'll change tomorrow so try to keep up.

[Moosely]

[quote]I said five because that way it's about defining the extremes of your taste, and choosing very, very, wisely.

Except half of you cheated.

Cunts. [quote]

Now now NBCL (alias J) - very, very hard task but I was ruthless - here are my 5 which capture the majority:

Sugar Coated - Aimee Mann (never piss off a woman in a relationship guys - men hide when I put this on v loud) - appeals to my slight rock chic side :-)

Drake - Beth Gibbons & Rustin Mann - cross between Nick Drake, trip hop (Beth influence) and Bacharach so that's covered those bits that I love.

Symphony no 1 in E6 Major, 3rd Movement, Andante - Alexander Borodin - beautiful, sweeping and passionate - can't go wrong.

Ice - Camel - am youngest of 8 children and have 3 big brothers who I used to hang around with more than my sisters and who heavily influenced my early musical taste - a bit of prog - forgive me if I omit the air guitar.

7-Rooms of Gloom - Four Tops - I love good, old soul, not this crap, dodgy R&B shite that seems to be everywhere - aaaggghhhh. Motown, Atlantic, Northern - got to be done.

There ye go

[triphed]

do chiptunes count?

broadcast - papercuts
iron butterfly - inna gadda da vida
the knack - my sharona
rob hubbard - i-ball
martin galway - arkanoid
aphex twin - 54 cymru beats
silo - k2
frankie goes to hollywood - two tribes
drop da bomb - itz juzt a game
kraftwerk - pocket calculator
foo fighters - monkey wrench
fear factory - lynch pin
static-x - get to the gun

[ppr]

5+1

Gentle Giant

King Crimson - Larks tongues in aspic (all version over the years)

Kraftwerk - their start (vom himmel hoch, ruck zuck)

Magma - mekanik destruktiw kommandoh

Kyuss - and the circus leaves town

univers zero - heresie

[Guru-Meditation]

Now stop the fucking sniggering at the back and we'll continue.

I didn't until you told me not to I blame the girlfriends summary of all Sailor Moon episodes though for laughing.