The National Trust

July 12, 2002 1:01 PM

The National Trust I just cant stop listening to this. I first heard it this morning on a mix disc my friend made me and now it's just on repeat all day at work. I'm buying the album after payday. What albums have you recently heard that stick in your head and your CD/MD/MP3 player? Do you get as obsessed with new bands like I do? Does hearing good new music become as addictive as any drug?
posted by Dantien (39 comments total)

Not for a long time, I'm afraid. Enjoy it while it lasts.
posted by timeistight at 1:05 PM on July 12, 2002

Why? What happens? I've had this addiction for 20 years now....
posted by Dantien at 1:23 PM on July 12, 2002

freezepop much more insidious than most.

dubstar was also amazing while it lasted. (sorry for fansite, official site seems to have been shut down and sold off, bleh)
posted by dorian at 1:30 PM on July 12, 2002

Art Tatum, "Complete Decca Recordings". Once you start listening to Art Tatum, you can't stop. Those long piano runs keep playing in your head. (Tatum was a nearly blind jazz pianist from the early part of the century, who remains universally recognized as the greatest virtuoso on any jazz instrument.) Irving Berlin's Annie Get Your Gun film soundtrack (on Rhino) with Betty Hutton (yum), especially the song "My Defenses are Down" sung by Howard Keel (on horseback in the film), which won't leave my head. Also Richard X. Heyman, "Basic Glee" (a new album by a guy whom every Byrds fan must check out immediately. That twelve string chimes in my head all night), and the Brian Setzer song "Every Tear that Falls" from His "Live Nude Guitars" album.
posted by Faze at 1:40 PM on July 12, 2002

Music is my one major addiction, right next to buying books and DVDs. I have a list of excellent stuff stuck in my head every week. This week, it includes...

1. The Decemberists - Castaways And Cutouts (Hush Records) - Excellent, intelligent chamber pop music. Go buy now.

2. Tim Hecker - My Love Is Rotten To The Core (Alien8 Recordings) - Like Fennesz did with 60's pop music, Hecker does to cock rock, and he takes the pure testosterone and boils it down to cerebral, sometimes disturbing electronic music. Quite stirring.

3. Manual - Ascend (Morr Music) - Electronic music for between midnight and dawn. Mix it with the chirping of crickets and a warm blanket.

I could go on and on...
posted by almostcool at 1:41 PM on July 12, 2002

almostcool: Please do! I love to find out what other Mefites are listening to these days. In fact, MeFi happens to be one of my primary sources for new music. Now, off to explore Hush Records...
posted by monju_bosatsu at 1:54 PM on July 12, 2002

I've had "Forest Flower" by Chico Hamilton, just the "Sunset" section going in my head all summer.
posted by modofo at 1:57 PM on July 12, 2002

I went to Milwaukee's Summerfest a couple weeks ago to see the Anniversary and Guided By Voices. Between their sets was a band called OK Go that I'd never heard but apparently has a major label record coming this fall. I was really impressed by their show, enough so that I had to buy their two self-released EP's.

The GbV came out and kicked everyone's ass.
posted by aaronetc at 2:07 PM on July 12, 2002

I love music. And am totally 100% behind the addiction / rush / euphoria of good new music.

For me lately, though, the quest has been to find good old music, to rediscover classics that have slipped through my catalog and would never be played on the radio (which with the state of radio at this point is just about all of them).

Right now the album I keep coming back to is Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. It's just so layered, mystic, and unreal-- it's like it was made by someone from another world.
posted by nath at 2:20 PM on July 12, 2002

Do you get as obsessed with new bands like I do? Does hearing good new music become as addictive as any drug?

Oh, good lord yes. I would probaly have a pretty stately retirement fund (or maybe not, after today ;-)...) if it didn't.

For example: The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I initially dismissed their stuff as more Strokes nonsense, but for some reason, this article made me want to check them out, so yesterday I stopped by Tunes in Hoboken before I went home, & got a copy of their EP.

About 30 seconds into it, my spirits lifted. To paraphrase from Hate (P. Bagge ): Karen O. is the new Iggy.

oh, and GBV RULES, baby...
posted by lilboo at 2:22 PM on July 12, 2002

aaronetc -- you beat me to the Ok Go punch. They're a Chicago band, so if you're in the area, you can catch them quite a bit.

Wish every day at Summerfest was as good as that Sunday night was. Sigh.

My other obsession as of late is Gomez. Picked up their latest a couple weeks ago. Spending part of today's paycheck on their earlier stuff.
posted by aine42 at 2:26 PM on July 12, 2002

A friend of mine recently turned me on to Carbon Leaf and I've been really hooked since. Fresh and catchy. I've described them as sort of Phish crossed with the Chieftains, with perhaps a dash of Dave Matthews.
posted by dnash at 2:34 PM on July 12, 2002

Me: Not for a long time, I'm afraid. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Dantien: Why? What happens? I've had this addiction for 20 years now....

This is what happened to me: First, I stopped getting excited about newness itself. It started to seem like a fashion business. I stopped seeing music as progressing from good to better and started seeing it as more of a constant mutation and re-synthesis. Plus, around the same time I started getting into music that had been made before I was born.

Second, as I built up a memory log of music that I loved, it seemed to get hard and harder to push new stuff into the vault.

Third, around twenty-five years ago, Rock music veered off away from the black roots I loved and toward aesthetic, political and social statements I thought were silly.

Fourth, and probably most importantly, I stopped being young. Music in general, and Rock in particular often seems to be mostly made by and for young people. Listening to young people's music from when I was young at least reminds me how I used to feel. Listening to young people's music music from today just makes me feel old.

Fifth, and related to the last point, I stopped spending so much time in places where music was constantly happening. It's hard to get down when you go to bed at 9:30.

I've tried for years to keep up with music, and I still find lots of things I like, but I've given waiting for anything to grab me the way Albert King, Muddy Waters, Hendrix, Dylan and the Stones or even Elvis Costello and The Talking Heads did.

Another odd thing is that even when I do get into something that's new to me, it usually isn't new. A few years ago I discovered George Clinton and his various bands and spin-off projects. I love that stuff, but the best of it was made in the seventies. Likewise with Prince (who I just saw give one of the best concerts of my life): he reminds me of older stuff.

Hope I haven't spoiled your party, but you *did* ask.
posted by timeistight at 2:40 PM on July 12, 2002

lately? doves. definitely.
posted by grabbingsand at 2:47 PM on July 12, 2002

Yes, I have played the debut Vanessa Carlton CD about 2000 times in the last week.
posted by wackybrit at 2:57 PM on July 12, 2002

aine42 - older gomez is sublime. much moreso than the new, methinks.

almostcool, i saw tim hecker in concert. ho hum. such music is not meant to be performed live.

astral weeks is absolutely amazing. it's soo much better than anything else van morrison has released, and must be heard, regardless of if you like the man's other work (I don't).

lately i've been listening to a lot of norah jones (folky, jazzy chanteuse), and songs:ohia (so-melancholy-it-hurts folk).
posted by Marquis at 3:22 PM on July 12, 2002

Cornelius - Point.

It's been almost 3 weeks now, and I'm still listening to it constantly.
posted by sauril at 3:31 PM on July 12, 2002

the matt haughey pancake explosion's watershed album 'i like this kind of music. what kind of music do you like?' is utterly unstoppable once it starts playing in my head.
posted by mlang at 3:38 PM on July 12, 2002

Pancakes in a music thread? Have you no morals. Have you no decency? Have you no shame?
posted by timeistight at 3:55 PM on July 12, 2002

Starling, The Dears, Beulah, Hayden.

And I'm looking forward to the By Divine Right concert next week. Any band that can drink that much and still put on an amazing concert is fine by me.

Funny, I've never heard any of these bands on the radio. You'd almost think radio sucked these days.
posted by krunk at 4:12 PM on July 12, 2002

interpol. Saw them at a show here in DC a week or two ago, where I had gone to see the other 2 bands and wasn't expecting much from the band in between, and left actually thinking the other two bands were terrible in comparison. Can't wait for their album in August.
posted by moth at 4:18 PM on July 12, 2002

The Cornelius album is good. I listened to it a few times through when I got it several months ago, but I felt it lacked the repeat value. I still listen to it from time to time, but mostly only the choice tracks.
posted by wackybrit at 4:20 PM on July 12, 2002

sorry; my comment was inappropriate here. but not in metatalk.
posted by mlang at 4:25 PM on July 12, 2002

The Showcase Showdown has always been one of my personal favourites. Nothing like some good ol' Norway-hating, snowman-f*cking Boston Pogo to liven up the day.
posted by fnord_prefect at 4:40 PM on July 12, 2002

Beulah is, as krunk pointed out, absolutely freaking fantastic. On their last tour, they played near me - a mere two days before I discovered them :(
posted by GriffX at 4:47 PM on July 12, 2002

Two words: Hopeful Monster
posted by boost ventilator at 5:30 PM on July 12, 2002

Does anyone else suffer from multiple-cd syndrome? You know, when you buy a few cd's at once, but only really get into (at most) one of them? I think if I spaced out my purchases a bit, some of my cd's would be more appreciated.

That said, there's no excuse for that Cornelius album. Compared to Fantasma, it left much to be desired.
posted by krunk at 5:58 PM on July 12, 2002

Hey timeistight -- I'm close to being in agreement with you on it being harder and harder to displace the tunes of my yoot with some of today's music, but every once in a while something like Radiohead comes along that awakens the dormat Pink Floyder in me, or even the occasional hip-hop/rap gets this old white man noddin' his head.

The "new stuff" on my iPod is a bit divergent. I recently learned how to transform my LPs to MP3s (who says a 51-year-old dog can't learn new tricks?) and the first thing that was digitized was my collection of 1970's John Hartford, Steam-Powered AereoPlain, Morning Bugle, and Mark Twang. Amazing how this "newgrass" from back then holds up. It may not technically be new, but it's renewed for me. (I was surprised to find out, in checking out the link above, that these three are on CD, but the familiar pops and scratches from my old LPs are like old friends.)

At the other end of the spectrum, which is definitely more in the "new" realm, for me at least (maybe for some of you, it's been around a bit), I've got one that was inspired by a feature on NPR a month or two ago. I've never really been anything near a head-banger (more of a laid-back stoner back in the day), but Andrew W.K. has me cranking the volume to a dangerous level for these old ears. When I got the CD from Amazon (used), the cover picture made me think I might have made a mistake (it's the picture at the link above), but after a few listens, I find his stuff strikes me as surprisingly "melodic" for the genre. Nice 2-3 minute turbo-powered pop ditties with excess energy, for when my wife isn't in the car with her Sarah Brightman CDs.

I guess these two have more in common than I thought. Put AWK's Party Til' You Puke, and Hartford's Up on the Hill Where They Do Do the Boogie next to each other, and . . .

Well, maybe not. You don't really want to do that.

Let's just chalk this up to eclectic taste.

(Speaking of eclectic, #3 on my current old/new/recent list is Leonard Cohen's latest, Boogie Street, and #4 is a retrospective of Laurie Anderson.)

O Superman, am I weird or what?
posted by fpatrick at 6:24 PM on July 12, 2002

Hey timeistight -- I'm close to being in agreement with you on it being harder and harder to displace the tunes of my yoot with some of today's music, but every once in a while something like Radiohead comes along that awakens the dormat Pink Floyder in me, or even the occasional hip-hop/rap gets this old white man noddin' his head.

The "new stuff" on my iPod is a bit divergent. I recently learned how to transform my LPs to MP3s (who says a 51-year-old dog can't learn new tricks?) and the first thing that was digitized was my collection of 1970's John Hartford, Steam-Powered AereoPlain, Morning Bugle, and Mark Twang. Amazing how this "newgrass" from back then holds up. It may not technically be new, but it's renewed for me. (I was surprised to find out, in checking out the link above, that these three are on CD, but the familiar pops and scratches from my old LPs are like old friends.)

At the other end of the spectrum, which is definitely more in the "new" realm, for me at least (maybe for some of you, it's been around a bit), I've got one that was inspired by a feature on NPR a month or two ago. I've never really been anything near a head-banger (more of a laid-back stoner back in the day), but Andrew W.K. has me cranking the volume to a dangerous level for these old ears. When I got the CD from Amazon (used), the cover picture made me think I might have made a mistake (it's the picture at the link above), but after a few listens, I find his stuff strikes me as surprisingly "melodic" for the genre. Nice 2-3 minute turbo-powered pop ditties with excess energy, for when my wife isn't in the car with her Sarah Brightman CDs.

I guess these two have more in common than I thought. Put AWK's Party Til' You Puke, and Hartford's Up on the Hill Where They Do Do the Boogie next to each other, and . . .

Well, maybe not. You don't really want to do that.

Let's just chalk this up to eclectic taste.

(Speaking of eclectic, #3 on my current old/new/recent list is Leonard Cohen's latest, Boogie Street, and #4 is a retrospective of Laurie Anderson.)

O Superman, am I weird or what?
posted by fpatrick at 6:26 PM on July 12, 2002

whoops -- I guess just because the connection times out doesn't mean the post didn't go through. Sorry 'bout that.
posted by fpatrick at 6:27 PM on July 12, 2002

It's rare that I hear anything recent that really grabs my ears. Although they do it in completely different ways, Ben Folds and Aimee Mann both have that ability. But my real drug of choice is Coltrane, Monk, Tatum, Flanagan-- many others in the jazz pantheon.
posted by fncll at 6:35 PM on July 12, 2002

dnash - thanks for the tip on Carbon Leaf! :-) They are much like Great Big Sea, another terrific group.
posted by thunder at 8:49 PM on July 12, 2002

thunder - thanks for the tip on Great Big Sea. :)

Actually I note that both bands have recorded versions of an old folk tune called "Mary Mac." So yeah, they're very similar.
posted by dnash at 9:00 PM on July 12, 2002

Red Shift Mantra is a great band out of Orlando if you are into worldy-ambient type music, or even if you arent.
posted by ejoey at 10:46 PM on July 12, 2002

I've been in an Over the Rhine mood lately. They have an MP3archive and, even better, some more obscure tracks like this great instrumental version of Toledo.

eMusic is great for finding obscure bands - they have fast servers and a ton of great older music as well as an odd mix of modern stuff with a few big names and quite a few obscure ones.

posted by adamsc at 11:09 PM on July 12, 2002

Epitonic is also terrific. It's where I discovered a lot of bands I now count among my favorites.
posted by toddshot at 11:24 PM on July 12, 2002

malinky, shooglenifty and Peatbog Faeries.

I'm no folk person, but this music (which I bought by mistake, thinking it something else entirely) is fantasic. Celtic folk meets traditional jigs and reels meets jazz, hip hop and reggae. Pipes and whistles, bodhrans, fiddles. Bass guitars. Eldritch vocals. Acid croft. You just have to dance. Radiohead, it is not. I'm not obsessed by it, exactly, but I am singing loudly in the shower (a sort of Pagan noise at the best of times and for which this material is ideally suited).
posted by RichLyon at 11:28 AM on July 13, 2002

Sorry to repeat myself (I said the same thing in a different thread yesterday), but my recent obsession has been Cardiacs. I even bought the 2CD version of Sing To God and gave the separate CDs to a friend (who may have caught the bug from me). I actually thought my obsessing days were over - the last time it hit me this hard was when OK Computer came out, but here I have a whole back catalogue to accumalate. Hurrah!

Sort of like Genesis, Gentle Giant, XTC, The Pixies, Robyn Hitchcock, Frank Zappa and a soupçon of John Otway in a blender.

MP3s here.
posted by Grangousier at 3:36 PM on July 13, 2002

I recently resurrected some late 70's stereo components
(Marantz,AR,Nakamichi).
Like Timeistight had some trouble getting enthusiastic my tastes have mellowed but some of the so called Down-Tempo still gets me.
Currently Zero 7 gets spun & spun.
posted by johnny7 at 1:51 AM on July 14, 2002