God, this thread is finally on fire, again.

I didn't love Caribou, but I do remember really liking that Justice album.

A friend of mine turned me on to Soko. I don't really dig her music like most everyone else, but she's really weird and adorable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25AsfkriHQc

I'd never even heard of Dilated Peoples before. Apparently they're incredible.

De La Soul?

Yeah, I couldn't believe J-5 made the list, and De La Soul didn't.

I've never liked them, I don't think they crack my top 20. Three feet high and rising always seemed way overrated to me.

Honorable mention, for sure. I did love The Grind Date, and obviously 3 Feet High and Rising.




Yeah, it's obviously a 'personal favorites' list, and not an objective 'best of' list. J5 has been one of my favorite groups forever, though I've liked each new album less than the previous. Quality Control is one of my all-time favorite summer records.

Last summer, when I was first really getting into hip-hop, I was spinning Feedback relentlessly, but I got really, really sick of it and haven't put it on in probably a year. I didn't really get that into the other alums, but I liked QC a lot.

I've been listening to the new Animal Collective the last few days.

If you like Animal Collective at all, I insist you download Strawberry Jam.


Wang

also, Public Enemy?

going to see them in 2 weeks. sick.

Oohh, yeah. Good call. I knew I was forgetting someone.

Going to see Okkervil River tonight. Pretty excited. The Stage Names is easily in my top 3 favorite albums of the year so far.

It's my number two, I think. I just started listening to Black Sheep Boy, which is easily better. I'm flipping out over it. I think it's really starting to piss people off.

I think it might be my number one, but I'm unsure. Bayani by Blue Scholars, Desire by Pharoahe Monch, and Emerald City by John Vanderslice are all up there too.

The show was pretty excellent last night. They've been touring with a Seattle singer-songwriter that I've been a fan of for a minute, Damien Jurado, so it was good to see him again. Okkervil River is an excellent live band. Lots of energy, not too wanky or self-indulging. I dug the show.

Gogol Bordello. Gyspy punk is where it's at.

And I hate Okkervil.

Kayne outsells 50 day 1

Wonder if 50 will retire now like he said

Since I can't download any new music, I've gone back to listening to other music from this year that I never really gave a proper listen.

The National- Boxer

Such a sweet record. I assume you've heard Alligator, as well?

I can't believe you of all people aren't going nuts over the new Animal Collective. Unless you downloaded it a while back, when it leaked or something.


Wang

I can't download any new music (see last page), I'll probably end up buying it off iTunes or something just because I love Animal Collective so much.

no one has it yet on my goto downloading service. ive heard good things though.

I really didn't like this album as much as everybody seems to think I should.

Portishead - Sour Times

http://www.kanyewest.com/?content=video_cant_tell_alt

New Kanye album out. I haven't listened to it very much, but I love this video. And the song.


Wang

Graduation: Reviews

I've been listening to this and Ear Drum a lot over the last week. Though I still say it is his weakest overall effort I am beginning to appreciate the diversity in the album and some of his production creativity. Just makes it feel less consistent than his other efforts I guess.

That's weird, because the two reviews I've read have both cited this as his "most consistent effort yet." I don't know how I feel about the album yet as a whole, but I've already found a few tracks I really lock. His work is just so tightly produced, it's tough NOT to appreciate.

Wang

I thought College Dropout had a great overall flow and direction, a theme the album followed. Late Registration had one also, but not quite as tight as CD. This album just seems to jump all over and doesn't focus on a theme as much.

I don't know if you read this or what it means to you, but I was going all gay over that record (Ear Drum) for like two weeks on here. It's so long and "diverse" and catchy and great. I like it almost as much as Quality.



Man, I'm so temped to buy a 160GB iPod. I've only got 50GBs of music, max., but I'm expecting to get hip any day now, and then where will I be? Trying to decide which subgenre of world music I can't make it to the store without, no doubt.

Wang, regarding the new Animal Collective. "For Reverend Green" is probably my favorite track on that album as of now, it's not a type of song I was expecting at all. I think I like this album more than Feels, and maybe even more than Sung Tongs,but I'll give it some more time. It is pretty incredible the amount of solid work they have put out over the last few years, I was thinking the exact same thing before you brought it up.

I don't know if I'll ever like an Animal Collective album more than I enjoy Sung Tongs, but that's probably just an issue of sentimentality. I definitely like Strawberry Jam more than Feels, and I liked Feels quite a bit. It's really hard for a band that's had so much critical success not to disappoint people, especially when the expectations stay so unrealistically high from album to album, but Animal Collective has done an amazing job of remaining distinctive yet progressive, all while still sounding really... well, like Animal Collective. I was perfectly ready for a solid-but-not-great release, and I wouldn't even have been all that disappointed. No band can remain consistently awesome, and sometimes you have to appreciate that they didn't totally bomb with their newest release.

But, wow. So good. I can't get over how awesome the vocals are on Strawberry Jam. I've always appreciated Avey Tare's yelping and shit, but he really takes it to another level on this disc. Like, on "For Reverend Green," his delivery of the chorus is really awesome. He goes from singing the first verse to screaming "NOOOOOOWWWW" and right back to singing, before getting a few emphatic, yelpy "that's" in there. Then when they get to the bridge (or alternate chorus or whatever it is) he's screaming the first few words of every line.


Wang

I haven't listened to Eardrum yet, but if it's even remotely as solid as Quality was, then I'll have to give it a listen. Kanye is on pace to go down as one of the most legendary -- I dunno what I'm looking to say here -- "players" in the history of the rap game. His production abilities seems like they're nearly unparalleled. Look at his production discography sometime. If Jay-Z let's you produce three of his albums in three years, you know you're probably pretty much a stone baller. I can't believe it took him so long to get his own deal, especially after "The Blueprint" "Quality" and "The Black Album."


Get the huge iPod, and then put pornos on it.


Wang

Yeah, anyone who gets pissed about Kanye's antics probably fails to understand tha Kanye really is getting jipped. Not only is he one of the best five producers around, without question, but he also sells records. Who's better by mainstream standards? He's not the most unreal lyricist around, but he's aeons beyond the people beating him. It's not like he's up against Del and Lif.

(While we're naming great records he's made, let's not leave out Be.)

I'm currently listening to Molly Beanland's myspace page quite a lot, she's got a great voice and it's really chilled - great for a long session at the computer. Anyone heard her before?

www.myspace.com/mollybeanland

Today I purchased:

Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam
Young Marble Giants: Collosal Youth and Collected Works
Liars: Liars
Decemberists: Castaways and Cutouts


Any opinions?

That particular Decemberists disc is probably my 3rd favorite, behind Her Majesty... and Picaresque. Assuming you already have both of those, solid purchase. Hell, even if you don't, it's a solid purchase.

I've heard nothing but good things about that Animal Collective disc, but I have yet to check it out. I just found out they're playing at one of my favorite venues tonight, but I don't think I'll be able to go.

Yeah, it was the last one that I didn't have. I obviously love the others, you know, because they're so frickin good.

Let me know what you think about the new Liars, I haven't had a chance to listen to it and I really like their previous work.

Wang, I think "Fireworks" is my favorite track now, however, this is likely to change within a day or two.

I check this thread on occasion and I usually have no idea who anybody is talking about. The only person on this page I recognized is Kanye West. Doesn't anyone just listen to 2pac anymore??

How many times can you listen to the same three Tupac records before you want something new? I used to listen to nothing Classic Rock, like what they play on CR stations. But I got tired of the same songs over and over. Why don't you give some of this stuff a try; you have no idea how great it is to go from maybe one record comes out every year that you want to getting records you love twice a week. I'm sure there're a lot of people here willing to recommend long lists of newbie-friendly stuff that will rock your vag, like they've done (do) for me.

yea this thread has made me a better person

It's funny: ever forum has a thread just like this. They start by all the hipsters proving they're faithful to Radiohead, as literally everyone of them just happens to be listening to them that day. By page three there's a huge debate about weather or not Kid A is better than OK Computer, and by page five they've settled down into the routine of someone occasionally dropping in to mention that they love Maroon 5 or Zappa or something, but all the key posters ignore them and talk about whatever Pfork talks about and pretend they don't even read Pitchfork.

But this one is by far the best.

We used to get people dropping in and trying to convince us how DMB is good, those were always fun times. There really aren't anymore of those types of posts now, I kind of miss them.

It was just an example, but seriosuly is any of this on the radio, MTV, BET? It all sounds like underground punk music or something.

Its funny about 10 years ago a buddy of mine and me would go to Tower records every tuesday and buy one or two of the new release hip hop cd's, some R&B, a small portion of rock/alternative. At one point i had like 500 CD's and made the mistake of having the majority of them in my truck at school. Gone. I think the last CD I bought was Luda, Chicken and Beer. Now I just listen to Old School rap on XM, some new stuff, and that is about it. Back when we had the ability to steal download music from Morpheus and Kaza, I downloaded everything from Poison to Kanye West to Frank Sinatra and have over 2000 songs on my hard drive, pretty much anything I am in the mood for. I am just rambling now and really have no idea where I am going with this so I am just going to stop here

A whole two-thousand, eh? When I had to reformat my computer, I think I downloaded 2000 songs the first 2 days I had the bitch back up and running. I think right now I've got about 5500 on my computer, and another 3 or 4K hanging out on other storage devices around my apartment.


Today's Lineup:

Wolf Parade- Apologies to the Queen Mary

The Wrens- Meadowlands (I can't emphasize enough how much I like this album)

Yo La Tengo- I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One and I Am Not Afraid of You And I Will Beat Your Ass

Bonnie "Prince" Billy- I See A Darkness and Superwolf

The Clientele- Strange Geometry

Fennesz- Endless Summer

The Streets- A Grand Don't Come for Free

The Unicorns- Who Will Cut our Hair When We're Gone (I can't emphasize enough how much I like this album)


Should be a fun day of boring, low-limit Omaha8



Wang

Good call on The Wrens, I might have to listen to that sometime today.

Yo La Tengo is coming down to IU October 10th, definately going to see them.

Today:

Islands- Return to Sea
Brian Eno- Another Green World
Massive Attack- Blue Lines
RJD2- Deadringer

Kind of all over the place

Since I'm listening to The Unicorns, I'm going to add that album, too. I really liked it. I don't think I ever read any reviews or anything, and I'm sure critics were luke-warm on it, but I love the Unicorns, so I was going to appreciate that album no matter what.


Wang

The reason this stuff isn't on the radio isn't that all of it isn't fun or poppy or it's all art rock that "regular" people wouldn't like. The origin of the "indie" I'm guessing more than anything has to do with the fact that they're mostly all still on independent labels. Without big-label push to play your political games for you, it's hard to get air play, and nowadays these bands kinda' think it's cool not to get promotion. But there are bands like The New Pornographers who put out stuff that's not only great but is seemingly the epitome of "radio friendly."

And it's not like we're not looking at the mainstream, it's just that a few hip-hop albums every year are basically all that comes out of it that's of any interest.

If you really dig oldschool like maybe Wu-Tang, check out Cannibal Ox. I think J-5 is pretty mainstream so I assume you've heard of them, but if you're looking for something lighter and less intense, my first instinct is to recommend Jurassic-5.

Wang:

Somehow I still haven't given The Wrens a proper listen. I'll try that soon.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy is one of my favorites (thanks for the upload; I really need to make a torrent or something, because I've had to AIM it or host it for like 15 people), but no one else I talk to ever seems to like it. One ******* told me it was "too emo" for him.

And that Wolf Parade is one of my 10 all-time favorites for sure.

Loved Wu-Tangs first album, tried to listen to the second recently and couldn't. I have a bunhc J5 songs downlaoded. As for all those other indie bands, never heard of any of them. Maybe I am just getting old but I do not like much of what is being put out these days in any genre. On saturday my son and I hang out while my wife is at work, he is 2 and loves to dance around to anything upbeat, usually it is hip hop, so I cannot put in my cd's or mp3's because they are dirty, so we either end up listening to the mainstream XM stations, which get old after about 10 minutes, or I put on BET's top 25. Somehting I have noticed, this show is hosted by a popular new artist usually, and when the pick their favorite songs, most of them are from 1992-1998. Tribe, 2 Pac, Biggie, PE, Jay Z, Jodeci, etc. etc. Nobody picks the Ying Yang twins as there favorite songs. Now in a club I guess shake it like a salt shaker gets the girls bouncin, but just to listen to on a daily basis, meh.