Music collection stale-- recommend some new stuff?

[SteveO]

Kind of tough, but I'd err on the side of conservatism on the P2P stuff. My thought is just because you may have had a copy on vinyl or cassette or even CD doesn't justify it...it's tough, though, b/c many times I just buy used CD's on Amazon or Half.com and I think to myself, well, the artist isn't making anything off this anyway, so why not P2P it? But I have abstained from that.

I was looking for a single from an established band a while back but couldn't find it anywhere -- it was in a film but not on the soundtrack, and not on any of their albums. Someone suggested to me to P2P it and then buy some other song from them that I already had purchased, and call it even. I thought that sounded like a fair compromise.

Most of these are pretty new artists. You might give a listen to:

A Fine Frenzy
Alexi Murdoch
Augustana
Blue October (History for Sale is my favorite album of theirs)
Borne
Cake (these guys are a lot of fun)
Cameron McGill
The Church (yeah, they are still kickin' it; see: Uninvited, Like the Clouds)
Corinne Bailey Rae
Damien Rice
Dar Williams
Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode singer's first solo effort, Paper Monsters is enjoyable)
Detroit Cobras
E Double
Eddie Vedder (Into the Wild soundtrack)
Eliot Yamin
Format
The Fray
Garden State Soundtrack
Gary Richard (one of our own, give him a listen, nice rock/country fusion)
Gin Blossoms (great band that has evolved; their latest, Major Lodge Victory, is very solid)
Graham Colton
Guggenheim Grotto
India Arie
Kate Bush / Tori Amos (Tori kind of ripped Kate's sound, but it's good; Beekeeper is one of my faves)
Kathleen Edwards
K's Choice
The Last Goodnight (more pop-oriented but still somewhat alt)
Matt Nathanson (Some Mad Hope and Beneath These Fireworks are both excellent albums)
Mike Ness / Social Distortion
Jon McLaughlin
New Order (recent album, Waiting for the Sirens' Call)
Pete Yorn (I have all of his stuff, one of my favorite artists)
Rock Kills Kid
Snow Patrol (you're probably familiar with them; all their stuff is solid, esp. the latest)
Vega4

[SteveO]

>one of the music industry people said they think ripping your own cd's to your itunes library is copyright infringement.

Statements from execs like that one are why the record industry as we've known it is going down the tubes and quickly. Everything I've read of the copyright law says you can rip your music into whatever format you want as long as you're not giving away or selling the content.

Even so, I'm glad the industry is going away. They have saddled artists with completely unfair contracts for decades. Thank God for the internets!

Ditto the Interpol recommendation.

[viking507]

1990s
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSto...=260070946&s=143441

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSto...=252436550&s=143441




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[ka jowct]

Lifehouse, Ringside, Sugarcult…

[Jimmypoo]

try Pandora.com

It could change everything you listen to.

Also -- try an afternoon listening to BBC1 on itunes or going there directly (bbc.com)

What we have on the radio here is such absolute crap. Pandora was surprisingly good at finding the KIND of things I like, then throwing in bands that use the elements I enjoy but do things differently.

I was really amazed. I have last Sunday's Doonesbury to thank for that.

[Fritz]

or WFUV.org

Augie March
Brandi Carlisle
Amy Winehouse
Lily Allen
Joan Osbourne
My Morning Jacket
Chuck Prophet
Lucinda Williams
John Fogarty new CD just out
Josh Ritter
KT Tunstall
Badly Drawn Boy
Beck
Citizen Cope
Gary Richard
Decemberists
Frank Black ex of Pixes
Peter Wolf ex of J Geils
Gomez
Neko Case
Ollabelle
Ozomatli
Rilo Kilo
Runrig
Ryan Adams
Ryan Shaw
Scott Miller
Shannon McNally
Shelby Lynn
Shivaree
Steve Earle
Tift Merrit
Wilco
Sharon Jones
Mary Gauthier
Richard Hawley

[Anonymous User]

Zen for Primates
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSto...=211731560&s=143441&i=211731583

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSto...=211731560&s=143441&i=211731599

[ho'ard]

Thanks, everyone, keep 'em coming. If you can pare those megalists down to 3-5 top picks it would help me find a place to start. A lot of this stuff seems old to me, but there are some good reminders of things I liked that I never got my own copies of, and a few old bands I like that might have something new worth a listen.
I do have the new Radiohead . . . mick e gave it an absolutely perfect review on another forum-- at the risk of misquoting, I think it went like this:

"it sounds like a Radiohead album."

Glad to have it but I tend to not want anything less than 320k, 192 at the very least in my collection. I think . . oh, what's it called . . . King something blah blah, the one that goes "there there", on their (last?) album, is one of the best songs ever made.

I do like Pete Yorn an awful lot; I can listen to his studio stuff again and again, although I saw him live maybe 4 years ago and there was like no charisma or presence whatsoever . . . it was like the "Strange Condition" video where he turns invisible whenever he's not wearing his guitar-- but for the whole concert, in spite of his guitar ;-)
Guster and the Wallflowers were on the same bill, with someone named Shemkia Copeland opening. It was a free outdoor concert . . . the producers seemed to think Pete Yorn was the big draw, followed by the Wallflowers, but it was very clear that most had come primarily to see Guster . . .

I did try Pandora when it was new, but it kept giving me the same song over and over again, or things that were totally not my taste . . . I may have given up rather quickly. I was also slightly turned off by the feeling that it favored "big label" bands; call me a spoiled urban snob, but I can't shake the feeling that the best stuff is going to be indie . . .

Some other stuff I like-
Dandies (a little sick of 'em already)
Stereolab (the stuff that has a little more personality)

I'm completely leaving out about 300 70s, 80s, and 90s bands I like because that's not the direction I'm looking for at the moment.

[SteveO]

Agreed, Yorn doesn't exactly engage the audience in a live show, although I've seen him 2 or 3 times now. Surprised the Wallflowers were not top on that bill, though.

If I had to pick the top five from the list I gave, with emphasis on alt rock, they would probably be:

Borne
Matt Nathanson
E Double
Format
Graham Colton / Graham Colton Band

[mrbigstuff]

My Morning Jacket
The Decemberists
Ween