Albums you've been listening to lately

[zuludelta]

Right now...

Cibo Matto - Stereo Type A: the second and final album from the New York-based duo of Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori, released in 1999. On this record, they're joined by Sean Lennon on bass and guitar (yes, THE Lennon's second son... he was dating Honda during the time of the album's production), Timo Ellis, and Duma Love. It's a nice quirky record that veers off into experimental territory quite often (not a surprise, since Hatori and Honda were active in the noise scene in a prior band) but has enough pop sensibility to be eminently listenable. I remember listening to Sci-Fi Wasabi a lot when I was attending classes in the University of the Philippines, where it got a surprising amount of exposure on the local alternative music radio station.

Buck 65 - Secret House Against The World: it's hard to describe Buck 65's music... he's rooted in underground hip-hop but his latest work can only be described as an oddly appealing mix of hip-hop and roots/folk music with some country(!) thrown in. He's also a polarizing talent in the alternative hip-hop commmunity (most people either really really like his work or really really hate it). Secret House isn't as strong a record as 2003's Talkin' Honky Blues but it continues his tradition for being a great storyteller. If you want to check out his fairly unique work, you can download his 2006 EP Dirty Work for free at his site.

[zuludelta]

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra - Skapara Tojou: Excellent traditional ska with jazz and R&B influences, especially considering that this is one of TSPO's earliest albums and they were pretty much still learning on the fly.

Funkadelic - Maggot Brain: I discovered Funkadelic pretty late... I think I was 18 or 19 when I first listened to this album, the guy who used to manage my brother's band wanted me to get a copy for his band to listen to (I lived close to a Tower Records) but I ended up keeping the album for myself  :lol:

[ow_tiobe_sb]

In no particular order:

Raw Power - Iggy and The Stooges
Transformer - Lou Reed
Greatest Love Songs, Vol. 666 - H.I.M.
Meat Is Murder - The Smiths
Moving Pictures - Rush
Hunky Dory & Scary Monsters - David Bowie
Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge - My Chemical Romance
Sweet Oblivion - Screaming Trees

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and The Prat in the Hat

[Spam]

Alkaline Trio, Remains - An album for true Trio fans (like me.) It's got a bunch of B-sides and un-released stuff, and a few live songs. Also contains a DVD full of goodies. If you don't know Alkaline Trio, then shame on you. I would suggest their album, Crimson, and their earlier album, Goshdannit! (it's actually, you know... said differently, but that's how I call it. =p) These guys are a punk rock / punk revival band. Sorta like blink-182, except already mature like. Their just great. If you want to check out some of their work, listen to their song, Time to Waste, one of their greatest songs, ever...

Gosh I love these guys...

FORIAMSPAM!

[zuludelta]

Puffy Ami Yumi - An Illustrated History: A sort of "Greatest Hits" collection of the Japanese pop duo (perhaps best known in North America for the Teen Titans Go! theme song and their licensed "Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi" animated series). Puffy, as they are known in Japan, are huge in their native country, they've sold over 15 million copies of their albums domestically and they're something of a cross between the UK's Spice Girls and America's Tenacious D. It's no secret that they're a manufactured pop music act (both Ami and Yumi were discovered in a talent search during the mid-1990s) but take away all the extraneous stuff surrounding them (the fashion, the kawaii appeal, the merchandise and TV shows) and what you have is solid and catchy pop songwriting. They unabashedly mine Western influences, from the Electric Light Orchestra-inspired Asia No Junshin (True Asia) to the Motown/Supremes sounding Tomodachi (Friends) to Kore Ga Watashi No Ikirumichi (That's The Way It Is), which wouldn't be that out of place in an early 1960s Beatles record. In fact, it's probably easiest to describe their music as a Japanese tribute to Western pop music of the last 4 decades. A nice collection, and proof positive that good pop songwriting transcends language barriers.       

Some video links:

Kore Ga Watashi No Ikirumichi

Asia No Junshin

Electric Beach Fever

[vortex]

Architecture in Helsinki - In Case We Die

It's very pop-like alternative, and very catchy!

My favorite songs off the album are:  'Maybe You Can Owe me', 'It' 5', and 'Do the Whirlwind'. 

[zuludelta]

Joe Hisaishi - Spirited Away OST: An excellent soundtrack to go with one of the best animated films I've seen. I was babysitting my kindergarten-age cousins a few days ago and I put on the movie to calm them down. I'd forgotten how powerful that film is, my cousins were pretty much mesmerized, even though none of them spoke Japanese and I had to explain the scenes to them (their parents tell me that they're still talking about it). I even got a little choked up during that scene where Chihiro tries to eat her rice cakes even as she's crying over her parents being turned into pigs. 

[Midnight]

The Cliks - Snakehouse: The Cliks are a sort of alternative rock quartet with a bit of hard edge. Formerly all female (the lead singer is now classed as 'transgendered') they are apparently all 'out' and performed as openers on the True Colors Tour with Cyndi Lauper, among others. I saw this band live on a lark about a month ago, playing in a small Portland, Maine venue. My friend Sarah more or less dragged me there and they were very very good. Despite playing in a... well, let's be honest: they were playing in a tiny art gallery, and they put on an A-show, so I picked their album up at the local Bull Moose Music. Good stuff.

[The Pwime]

The Beatles - White Album
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III
Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero

[zuludelta]

Akira Yamaoka - Silent Hill 3 OST: The soundtrack for the third Silent Hill game reuses a lot of the same themes from the first two game soundtracks, but what sets it apart is the involvement of "Melissa Williamson" on vocals for a number of tracks. "Williamson" is actually an alias for voice actor and ADR director Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, who is probably most recognized for her role as Major Motoko Kusanagi in the Ghost In The Shell: Stand-Alone Complex series and as Julia in Cowboy Bebop. McGlynn sings on three tracks and does narrations for a few more. Moody music for sure, but eminently listenable.

Here's a link to an excellent fan-mixed video of "You're Not Here"

[Blkcasanova247]

At war with the mystics - The Flaming Lips
All 5 Police albums
The coast is clear - I Flight Safety. 

[The Hitman]

Say Anything, ... Is A Real Boy

The Beatles, 1 (Greatest Hits)

Jimmy Eat World, Futures

3 Doors Down, Away From The Sun

Reel Big Fish, Monkeys for Nothing... And the Chimps for Free

[zuludelta]

Shonen Knife - Rock Animals and Let's Knife: One of the first Japanese bands to gain relatively widespread exposure in North America. The best description I can come up for their music is The Ramones meet the Go-Go's. They had a profound influence on Asian pop and rock, noticeable in current J-pop darlings Puffy AmiYumi and on the Philippine alternative music scene renaissance of the 1990s.

Morcheeba - Big Calm: Morcheeba was just one of those inescapable musical acts of the late 1990s. Big Calm is definitely embedded in the soundtrack of my life at the time, even though I didn't particularly care for their music then (and I still consider them as more of a "sounds good in the background" type of deal, instead of something that I actively listen to).   

[zuludelta]

Various Artists - If I Were a Carpenter: This compilation from 1994 offers various bands' covers of some of The Carpenters most popular songs. They range from the bland and unimaginative (Dishwalla's tepid "It's Going To Take Sometime" and Sheryl Crow's adult-contemporary "Solitaire") to the competent (The Cranberries' "They Long To Be) Close to You" and Matthew Sweet's "Let Me Be The One") to the fun and quirky (Shonen Knife's "Top of the World" and Babes in Toyland's "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft") to reinterpretations that stand up well, and sometimes even exceed the originals (Sonic Youth's "Superstar" and Bettie Seveert's "For All We Know").

Besides being a good tribute/covers album, it also offers a snapshot of the state of contemporary alternative music of 1994.

Media links:

Video of "Superstar" by Sonic Youth

Amazon page for the CD, with listenable samples of all the tracks

[afterburn]

Okkervil River - The Stage Names (if anyone could tell me where the first song of this album came from, it sounds familiar, like from a movie, commercial, or tv show)
White Rabbits - Fort Knightly
Circulatory System - Circulatory System
Mirah - C'mon Miracle
Feist - The Reminder
Archie Bronson Outfit - Derdang, Derdang

[TheMarvell]

Pete Yorn - Musicforthemorningafter

Collective Soul - Afterwards

[zuludelta]

Shonen Knife - Minna Tanoshiku: This is one of those albums whose rarity borders on mythical proportions. Only 70 cassettes of Shonen Knife's 1982 debut album were ever produced and they all sold out in Tokyo days after going on sale (Shonen Knife asked the record company to stop making copies, allegedly because they weren't happy with how they sounded on it and wanted a do-over) and the masters have since been lost. Most fans of the proto-pop/punk/lo-fi group have since given up on ever hearing it (a copy surfaced on eBay a few years ago, selling for $600) and it was only last year, after almost 25 years, that a digital copy of the album starting making the rounds of music trading networks (I'll give you one guess how I finally got a copy of the out-of-print album). The music on the album itself is pretty raw, and contains early versions of many of the songs that would appear on later albums like Burning Farm, Yama No-Attchan, and Rock Animals. It's an interesting look at Shonen Knife's origins, for sure but of only real interest to the completist and the pop music archaelogist.   

[Spam]

Brand New - Deja Entendu,

This album in emo/indie/rock GOLD! This is Brand New's second album. Rather then their first one which was punk-pop purity, and spawned the semi-hit "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad", this album feels more matured. It starts off with Tatou, starting off with a bit of emotion, and then kicks into "Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades", and gets a bit screamy into the chorus. But don't worry, this isn't screamo...

This album also ends on a lighter note with "Play Crack The Sky". An acoustic ballad about a ship that's falling apart in a gigantic storm... but yet Brand New makes it sorta depressing to listen too. Still an amazing song, though.

All in all, this album is just amazing. I highly recommend this album to anyone... even if you don't like emo music, get this CD. It's worth it.

[detourne_me]

yeah sic transit gloria has been a favourite for a while.  always a good song to rock out too.

i've been listening to shonen knife thanks to Zulu's reviews.  Z i think you'd be interested to listen to Shorty Cat, an all-girl korean punk band.  I'm not sure how you'd be able to find their album,  but i know theyve posted songs on a myspace page.

also yesterday i went to the SPRIS Let's Rock festival...  kind of a Korean answer to the Van's Warped Tour.  27 bands throughout the day,  pretty awesome, a few of my fave korean bands were there (Rux, No Brain, Johnny Royal, and Lazybone) and even some surprising metal acts (metals not very popular here)

[zuludelta]

i've been listening to shonen knife thanks to Zulu's reviews.

Glad somebody's getting something out of my mini-reviews besides myself and my need to run my mouth off about music  :lol:

The thing about Shonen Knife is that their work loses a lot of its rawness towards the latter part of their discography (post-1992 or so). Shonen Knife's best music, to me, at least, sounds like the end-result of giving three, creatively-inclined and terminally cheerful young Japanese women an 8-track recorder, a Japanese-English dictionary, a bass, a guitar (with an inadequately overdriven amp), a mini-drum kit, and a bunch of early Ramones, Buzzcocks, and Peter, Paul & Mary records.

At the risk of sounding like an indie music snob (man I hate those types!), it's their early work that stands up best. I think the albums Burning Farm, Yama-no Attchan and Let's Knife are the essential early Shonen Knife works, showcasing a wide-eyed, almost childlike exploration of the medium both in their lyrics and their music. Of their post-1992 output, the ones I can recommend with no reservation are 1993's Rock Animals (in my mind their most solid English-language release and one of their best albums overall) and 1998's Happy Hour. A lot of the newer stuff has lost the naive appeal of their music and lyrics (which i guess is a side-effect of having bigger budgets and better production values), and sometimes sounds like they're simply parodying themselves, although 2006's Genki Shock comes close to recapturing their early vibe.

Z i think you'd be interested to listen to Shorty Cat, an all-girl korean punk band.  I'm not sure how you'd be able to find their album,  but i know theyve posted songs on a myspace page.

I'll have to check them out. I have to admit I'm pretty ignorant of Korean popular music (outside of >gasp!< BOA). The only reason I even got interested in Japanese music was because they were the most dominant acts being played during the early days of MTV Asia/Channel [V] during the early/mid-1990s (back when they actually played metal/alternative/experimental/indigenous music), along with a smattering of Hong-Kong/Taiwan/mainland China musicians (the most memorable of which were Beijing's Tang Dynasty) and the awesome Philippine alternative acts such as the Eraserheads, Put3ska, Yano, and Rivermaya.

[Outcast]

Just some classical music on the radio. It helps me relax. ^_^

[zuludelta]

Not exactly an album but I've been extracting/recording the audio from some of my favourite Youtube guitar players and exporting them into MP3s. I'm basically compiling guitar versions of certain video game-based songs.

Some links to the stuff I've re-encoded so far:

Anonymous Korean guitar player playing an awesome arrangement of "Guile's Theme" (Streetfighter II) - anybody know who she is? I've got a bunch of extracted audio tracks of her playing guitar arrangements for anime and video game themes and it drives me nuts to see the incomplete ID3 tags. Anybody? detourne_me?

Lee Kwung Yon playing "M. Bison's Theme" (Streetfighter II)

an older Lee Kwung Yon (with much longer hair) playing the Tekken 2 theme

Some user called "metalbums" doing an excellent take on "Ken's Theme" (Streetfigher II)

Chris "vertexguy" Kline and his famous "Contra Jungle Jam"

I've been looking for a decent Double Dragon opening intro theme but so far, no luck. Of course, the other  option is to do it myself but like many amateur/hobbyist musicians, I can't really stand to hear myself play, because all I hear are my mistakes.

[lugaru]

I've been listening to almost nothing but podcasts and recorded college courses I download (hungry brain these days) but here's some stuff I've been rotating a lot:

EMPEROR: Discipline of fire and demise. Some bands have the ability to slow time by playing super fast, almost altering your preceptions. I highly suggest checking out these two tracks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t0GRH3yoiI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWdCm-Acjig

Stratovarious: I've been nostalgic for their good old fasioned power metal, especially since they dont sing about dragons and steel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeTEr8xVS0U

Faith No More: I just cant quit them...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmkMRUNK8Q4

[zuludelta]

Joe Hisaishi - My Neighbor Totoro (Orchestra Stories): excellent adaptation of Hisaishi's orchestral score for the "Tonari no Totoro" (My Neighbor Totoro) animated film. The format of this album can be compared to Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf", where a narrator introduces the music and verbally sets up scenes from a script (or in Hisaishi's case, a movie screenplay). There are 16 tracks in all, the first 8 tracks are the music accompanied by the narration while tracks 9-16 are the same tracks without the narration. Heavily recommended for fans of the animated film and for those who appreciate current classical music.

[Spring Heeled Jack]

I've been preoccupied with the Alternate series of Beatles albums, a collection of studio outtakes, demos and alternate mono and stereo mixes.

[Spam]

Let's see... I just got Every Time I Die, and HORSE the Band new albums. I haven't really checked them out yet, but hopefully I will soon.

I do know that I liked Every Time I Die's first album, and HORSE's second. Great stuff.

Oh yeah, and Against Me!'s new album... gotta love Thrash Unreal. =)

FORIAMSPAM!

[detourne_me]

NICE!  Another HORSE the band fan!
you might wanna check out Blood Brothers if you don't already know them too.

[Spam]

Yes... I love HORSE. =)

And yeah, I'll have to check Blood Brothers out. I've heard they were good. Thanks for the suggestion.

[zuludelta]

Steve Vai - Passion & Warfare: Oh boy, where do I start... probably my favourite guitar album of all time. Although not as influential or accessible to the non-guitar player as Joe Satriani's Surfing With The Alien, to me, this album represents the best of the rock guitar instrumentalist genre that just exploded during the late 1980s/early 1990s. Every note serves a purpose in the context of the song, and not only to display Vai's proficiency. The other thing that differentiates Vai from other "speed merchants" (as Pink Floyd's David Gilmour likes to call them) such as Yngwie Malmsteen or Gary Hoey is that he plays with the kind of raw emotion and passion you expect to find in traditional blues or even rumba flamenca guitarists, but with a virtuosity you find in classically trained musicians. I still get chills up my spine when I listen to "Tender Surrender" or "For The Love of God".

Media links:

Steve Vai playing "Tender Surrender" live

Vai playing "For The Love of God" live

[lugaru]

While I dig lot's of stuff you've posted I've got a special spot for Steve Vai. I'm not sure if it's because he's really good or if it's because he's a frequent target of the ire of lazy alternative critics but one way or another he's blown my mind countless times.

Here's what's currently rocking my MP3 player (besides a copy of William Gibsons Virtual light):

Arch Enemy Yeah I have mentioned them before but they have a new album out and let me testify it's faster, more brutal and better polished than ever before. The guitar solos are a bit cheesy but part of me screams "yeah!" when they come on. 
http://www.myspace.com/archenemy

Diablo Swing Orchestra I have been holding out on you guy's. This is the most amazing band I've heard this year but I never posted them since I couldent get my hands on a video. Hmm.. I forgot that myspace is a great source of audio clips. Think a versatile and humorous band with every instrument and a soprano vocalist a la Tarja of nightwish.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=86177545

Rodrigo y Daniela It is really hard to start up a metal band in Mexico despite how many metal fans there are out there. These two decided to use their strong metal influence to break into the 'world music' scene with amazing flamenco and traditional compositions with a metal backbone. And a cover of Orion, one of my favorite obscure metallica songs.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=44592846