Boards of Canada - Music Videos

November 26, 2007 9:11 AM

"If the emergence of techno and the proliferation of its related genres thrust DJs and producers into the spotlight, it also spawned artists who, like Kraftwerk before them, chose to remain anonymous and distant. The Scottish duo Boards of Canada (Marcus Eoin and Michael Sandison) is a case in point, an even more enigmatic presence on the UK's electronic music landscape than Aphex Twin and Autechre. Eoin and Sandison have consistently minimized their role in the commercial side of music-making and have avoided its attendant lifestyle: They've shunned city life for the rural seclusion of their Hexagon Sun studio and its local collective of artists. They claim to record primarily for themselves and their friends. They have reportedly amassed an enormous archive of unreleased music dating back to the early '80s (numerous apocryphal BoC tracks make the rounds). They seldom give interviews or perform live."

Twoism - 1995

Oirectine
Iced Cooly
Twoism
Melissa Juice
1986 Summer Fire

Boc Maxima - 1996

Chinook
Rodox Video
Boc Maxima
Nova Scotia Robots
Niagara
Skimming Stones
Sixtyniner
Red Moss
Concourse
Carcan
M9
Original Nlogax
Whitewater

Hi Scores - 1996

Hi Scores
Nlogax
June 9th
Seeya Later
Everything You Do Is a Balloon

Music Has the Right to Children - 1998

Wildlife Analysis
An Eagle in Your Mind
The Color of the Fire
Telephasic Workshop
Triangles & Rhombuses
Sixtyten
Turquoise Hexagon Sun
Kaini Industries
Bocuma Roygbiv
Rue the Whirl
Aquarius
Olson
Pete Standing Alone
Smokes Quantity
Open the Light
One Very Important Thought
Happy Cycling

In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country - 2000

Kid for Today
Amo Bishop Roden
In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country
Zoetrope

Geogaddi - 2002

Ready Lets Go
Music Is Math
Beware the Friendly Stranger
Gyroscope
Dandelion
Sunshine Recorder
In the Annexe
Julie and Candy
The Smallest Weird Number
1969
Energy Warning
The Beach at Redpoint
Opening the Mouth
Alpha and Omega
I Saw Drones
The Devil Is in the Details
A Is to B as B Is to C
Over the Horizon Radar
Dawn Chorus
Diving Station
You Could Feel the Sky
Corsair
Magic Window
From One Source All Things Depend

The Campfire Headphase - 2005

Into the Rainbow Vein
Chromakey Dreamcoat
Satellite Anthem Icarus
Peacock Tail
Dayvan Cowboy HQ
A Moment of Clarity
'84 Pontiac Dream
Sherbet Head
Oscar See through Red Eye
Ataronchronon
Hey Saturday Sun
Constants Are Changing
Slow This Bird Down
Tears from the Compound Eye
Farewell Fire
Macquarie Ridge

Trans Canada Highway - 2006

Left Side Drive
Heard from Telegraph Lines
Skyliner
Under the Coke Sign
Dayvan Cowboy (Odd Nosdam remix)


Some reviews:
Twoism. Boc Maxima. Hi Scores. Music Has the Right to Children. In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country. Geogaddi. The Campfire Headphase. Trans Canada Highway.


"Now that the show is over and we have jointly exercised our constitutional rights; we would like to leave you with one very important thought. Some time in the future, you may have the opportunity to serve as a juror in a censorship case or a so-called obscenity case. It would be wise to remember that the same people who would stop you from listening to Boards of Canada may be back next year to complain about a book, or even a TV program. If you can be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you can be told what to say or think. Defend your constitutionally-protected rights. No one else will do it for you. Thank you."


Previously: 1, 2, 3, 4

posted by bigmusic (70 comments total)

I have omitted duplicate songs, favoring the latest released song. This is far from complete, I could find none of BoC's releases prior to Twoism, and there are just a few songs that haven't been made into videos by anyone and some are just clips. Some of these videos might be considered NSFW.
posted by bigmusic at 9:11 AM on November 26, 2007

nice quote marks. ;) thanks for re-posting.
posted by mrgrimm at 9:13 AM on November 26, 2007

BOC - sweet!
posted by kenchie at 9:13 AM on November 26, 2007

Orange.
posted by exogenous at 9:14 AM on November 26, 2007 [4 favorites has favorites]

Nicely repurposed, bm.

(Will still probably generate "yr-favorite-band-sucks" fodder, but that phenomenon's here to stay.)
posted by mykescipark at 9:22 AM on November 26, 2007

Aye, glad to see it back. I have a funny feeling I will return to this post again and again. Thanks BigMusic. It's been worth the effort.
posted by ClanvidHorse at 9:27 AM on November 26, 2007

Yay, I can now favourite this again.

Since when did favourites also get deleted when FPPs get deleted?
posted by randomination at 9:27 AM on November 26, 2007

I didn't like the newest album all that much, but Music Has the Right.. and the others are still among my favorites.

Fans of the vintage television documentary aspect and environmental sounds would do well to check out music on the Ghost Box label.
posted by mikeh at 9:32 AM on November 26, 2007

OK, now someone has to tell me which amateur-produced videos I should watch with my 15 minutes of lunch...
posted by anthill at 9:34 AM on November 26, 2007

It's also worth mentioning that Marcus Eoin and Michael Sandison have been a lot less anonymous lately, having done a number of interviews and admitting that they're actually brothers.
posted by mikeh at 9:35 AM on November 26, 2007

Ohhh, a high quality one of Dayvan Cowboy. Thanks.
posted by patr1ck at 9:39 AM on November 26, 2007

Big fan here. Any recent news on their next release?
posted by davebush at 9:47 AM on November 26, 2007

In a fair world Boards of Canada would get a co-writers credit for Radiohead's Kid A.
posted by foot at 9:52 AM on November 26, 2007

Yellow.
posted by loquacious at 9:52 AM on November 26, 2007

Brilliant (again). Glad to see the repost.
posted by modernnomad at 9:56 AM on November 26, 2007

Wow. Nice post.

Must dig out Music Has The Right to Children (My copy of which which is sitting on a Ye Antiquey CD rather gathering dust rather than ripped and in circulation). Their latest stuff is really cool and interesiting, but for me not nearly as compelling.
posted by Artw at 10:05 AM on November 26, 2007

been meaning to get into BoC ever since I listened to a remix they did of a clouddead song back a few years ago. I think it was Dead Dogs Two. thanks for this.
posted by shmegegge at 10:09 AM on November 26, 2007

TSIA...I'm a huge fan...thanks...
posted by pepcorn at 10:11 AM on November 26, 2007

Thanks, bigmusic. This is awesome.

The only time I've ever seen The Residents in concert, they were playing BoC's Geogaddi over the PA before the show. That, too, was awesome.
posted by BoringPostcards at 10:11 AM on November 26, 2007

Glad this was salvaged.
posted by fleetmouse at 10:24 AM on November 26, 2007

I listened to a few tracks. I still think BÖC is better.
posted by jonmc at 10:39 AM on November 26, 2007

Yeah, that's right
posted by porn in the woods at 10:53 AM on November 26, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Thanks for this post -- I love the music these two do.
posted by RubberHen at 11:03 AM on November 26, 2007

Orange!
posted by freshwater_pr0n at 11:16 AM on November 26, 2007

d'oh, beaten to the punch.
posted by freshwater_pr0n at 11:17 AM on November 26, 2007

When lava pours out near the sea surface, tremendous volcanic explosions sometimes occur.
posted by the painkiller at 11:20 AM on November 26, 2007

the preperation for a dive is always a tense time
posted by porn in the woods at 11:24 AM on November 26, 2007

jonmc wrote: I listened to a few tracks. I still think BÖC is better.

Listening to just a few tracks would be a terrible way to try to get to know Bach or Mahler, too.

But, you know, I was thinking about this the other day.

I think the problem here - beyond the bit about you just generally not liking or understanding electronic music - is that you don't have the experience or musicological language required to appreciate or enjoy this stuff.

And in the light of that retrospection, BoC is probably pretty obtuse, incomprehensible stuff.

On one level, it's all fluffy and spooky-cheerful. Ethereal, I guess. Non-threatening, even. At a casual listen, it's new-age downtempo fluff.

That part is fine and good. The melody structures are solid. The rhythms are unassuming and mostly straightforward.

But it's not nearly so simple.

There's a depth and complexity to the BoC sound that isn't found many other places in all of modern music. Coil and Nurse With Wound would be similarly complex. And spooky, and weird. And possibly unpleasant.

There's all these little sounds layered deep, deep within BoC tracks. Every time I listen to it, I hear something new I haven't heard before. Every time I listen to BoC, I'm reminded of tapestry, of looms and weaving, of finely-wrought textures, of enoptic visions, of the complexity of life itself.

Every time I listen to BoC I hear some nuance I've never noticed, some sound, or some accent to the beat I've never quite properly isolated. There's voices deep within those tracks, sometimes many, many voices. Sometimes they're samples of actual voices, and sometimes those voices are created entirely by synthetic sounds and tones.

I am very serious in suggesting that the full complexity of BoC won't emerge on lesser consumer speakers. They're just not up to the task. I have some decent consumer speakers, and they mostly fail at playing BoC.

Having listened to lots of BoC on various speakers, I can only assume that BoC uses big speakers when they write, because the stuff seems to love being played on big speakers, and only seems to fully develop itself when this is so.

It needs to be loud enough that the quiet bits are audible, and that those big, booming deep bass notes actually rattle your eyeballs and take your breath away.

Yesterday I spent about 5-6 hours in front of about 5000 watts worth of speakers. At least two of those hours were dedicated to tuning the rig for optimal BoC listening. (Crossover points, timing delay, mild EQ issues, etc.)

I've been listening to "electronic music" since, well, since before I was a 10 year old. One of my first experiences with it was circuit-bending one of those old Heathkit microprocessor lab-in-a-box and listening to the tic and chatter of clock cycles through headphones.

Thus, the language comes naturally to me. From filter-sweeps to staged ADSR, to LFO, VCO and VCF. It speaks to me. Rhythm signatures, piano-rolls, loop-based editing, it's all so easy for me. I actively enjoy listening to complicated, math-like music. I enjoy analyzing the flow of rhythm and melody. I enjoy the complexity.

But that isn't rock and roll, is it? It's more like some Blue Note obsessed jazzhead, waxing prophetic about the fiddling details of the offbeat timing of a specific drummer, isn't it? "You just don't get it, man!" Right, then.

So, BoC is not rock and roll. It's not the namesake of rock and roll, either - unbridled sex and fucking. It's not that simple. It's not that raw.

And that's fine by me. I'm no longer a teenager. I don't need to do it in a car. I like foreplay, and lots of it. I like complexity. I like complicated music. I like to hear things that I haven't heard before.

Granted, I listen to a lot of old stuff, too. Rock, even. I even like Blue Oyster Cult. I like Lou Reed, too. I love a lot of that 60s psych/rock stuff. They're not precluded from my listening - it's just that they're not complex or interesting enough for me these days, and listening to them is often a forced exercise in nostalgia, or something to be analyzed clinically, to extract and synthesize new methods from.

Whatever.

Jon, I really wish I could just let you borrow my head for a while, and listen with my ears, so you could feel what this music does for me. I think it'd be the only true way to go about this.

I just want to be able to share, man. Because with my ears? This stuff is incredibly delicious. The bliss and comfort are indescribable, the edification, the mysteriousness. Goddamn, man, it's like some of the best food, ever. Such nuance and flavor! The way the shiny sparkly bits play with the darkly booming bits, and those beat patterns! Those meandering, multi-keyed melodies! Ultra yummy.

I am the smallest weird number.
posted by loquacious at 11:34 AM on November 26, 2007 [25 favorites has favorites]

I love their music. I know nothing about them, which is fine with me. I own pretty much everything they've released and it gets better with age.
posted by cell divide at 11:41 AM on November 26, 2007

In 2001, I was impulsive enough to fly out to London from SF to see them and several other electronic acts at the Warp Lighthouse Party in 2001. Their performance didn't quite live up to my unreasonably high expectations -- that and I couldn't help but compare their's to Plaid's go-round that night, which remains one of the most engrossing live electronic sets I've ever experienced (which they have yet to match among the 5 times I've seen them since).
posted by distant figures at 11:48 AM on November 26, 2007

I just want to be able to share, man. Because with my ears? This stuff is incredibly delicious. The bliss and comfort are indescribable, the edification, the mysteriousness. Goddamn, man, it's like some of the best food, ever. Such nuance and flavor! The way the shiny sparkly bits play with the darkly booming bits, and those beat patterns! Those meandering, multi-keyed melodies! Ultra yummy.

That's great. But to me, it just sounds boring. I bet to a lot of people the Dictators or the Bellrays or Springsteen sound boring or whatever. People have different tastes.


Jon, I really wish I could just let you borrow my head for a while, and listen with my ears,

My head is my head, and my ears are my ears just like yours are yours. This is a good thing.
posted by jonmc at 11:50 AM on November 26, 2007

fwiw, I live and breathe electronic music and I think I'd prefer to listen to Blue Oyster Cult. I've never 'gotten' the Warp records stuff on any level, autechre, aphex twin, any of it. I mean, I understand what it's doing on an intellectual level, but it's far too sterile and abstract for me.
posted by empath at 11:51 AM on November 26, 2007

There's a simple beauty to the best Boards of Canada songs that makes the quality of equipment or the depth of musical knowledge irrelevant. Really, any music gains something from analysis or being played back on amazing gear, but there's also something to be said for the simple pleasure of being able to listen to music, not quite get what the deal is, and then hit the threshold of realizing that there's... something there.

I think the solution here - beyond the eponymous wordslide - is that jonmc will always have his ears - and that his enjoyment is not in any way linked to mine.
posted by mikeh at 11:53 AM on November 26, 2007

I like my EDM more punk rock:
posted by empath at 11:57 AM on November 26, 2007

and FWIW, I actually have heard some electronica I like (Chemical Brothers, Avalnches, the Propellerheads (they do a nice cover of the Dictators 'Master Race Rock' believe it or not), so it's not a genre thing, it's not a 'musical vocabulary' thing and it's not that I'm not smart enough to get it. Taste in music is like taste in food, a visceral thing. There's no more logic to why I prefer loud guitars to drum machines than there is in why I like pecans better than almonds.
posted by jonmc at 11:59 AM on November 26, 2007

Yeah, I'm sure jonmc would feel the same way about slowcore and shoegaze stuff that's all done with guitars.
posted by empath at 12:01 PM on November 26, 2007

i like to think of BoC as a real-world example of the William Gibson variety of MacGuffin, like the punch cards in The Difference Engine or the Cornell-box-maker in Count Zero. it is something not entirely clear how or why it was made, or where it came from, but it's existence is Very Important and it's stuck onto your soul like a fishhook.
posted by the painkiller at 12:05 PM on November 26, 2007

By the way, this orange tastes great, it's so delicious and moist.
posted by anthill at 12:24 PM on November 26, 2007

Purple.
posted by kcds at 12:25 PM on November 26, 2007

jonmc writes "There's no more logic to why I prefer loud guitars to drum machines than there is in why I like pecans better than almonds."

But would you post in a thread about almonds that you never liked almonds and prefer pecans?
posted by krinklyfig at 1:09 PM on November 26, 2007

Thanks for the effort, bigmusic--great post.
posted by retronic at 1:11 PM on November 26, 2007

By the way, the last original link is to the excellent online bOc resource originated by DavidAC and currently maintained by fredd-e.

If you haven't checked it out yet, I highly recommend it.
posted by retronic at 1:15 PM on November 26, 2007

you don't have the experience or musicological language required to appreciate or enjoy this stuff

jonmc may say some pretentious-cloaked-in-folksy stuff but I don't think he's ever come anywhere saying something as awful as this.
posted by xmutex at 1:30 PM on November 26, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

anywhere near saying, that is.
posted by xmutex at 1:33 PM on November 26, 2007

I like my EDM more punk rock:

Then you would probably like Babyland.
posted by oneirodynia at 1:41 PM on November 26, 2007

xmutex: if you're trying to start a feud, go peddle your papers. me and loq differ on things, but I like the guy.
posted by jonmc at 1:41 PM on November 26, 2007

randomination: "Yay, I can now favourite this again.

Since when did favourites also get deleted when FPPs get deleted?"

I'd also like to know this.
posted by aerotive at 1:46 PM on November 26, 2007

Here's the difference between BoC and BÖC:

Late at night, driving on an empty interstate freeway, after you've been driving all day, when you just need something primal to keep you going: BÖC - "Godzilla" or "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" or "Transmaniacon MC."

Dusk, driving on an empty road in the mountains, when you need something deep and ethereal that captures the way the setting sun casts long shadows across the snow: BoC: "Kid for Today" or "Roygbiv" or "Aquarius."
posted by googly at 2:25 PM on November 26, 2007

jonmc, if you like heavy shit, you might wanna give breakcore a try. Venetian Snares, especially.

Imagine a blend of ragga vocals, jungle/drum-n-bass, noise, gabber, hip-hop, heavy metal, symphonic music, jazz...

Others I like are: Bong-Ra, Jah-Ba (who does a pretty sweet "War Pigs" IMO (War Pigz VIP)), Aaron Spectre (he plays his own guitars live along with his electronic work -- Particularly DrumCorps, which is his nom-de-guerre for the more heavy metal version of his work)

That said, BoC is one of my favorite artists, along with Autechre and Squarepusher (and yes, Aphex... jonmc, check out "Come to Daddy" as well, that's a fucking classic!)
posted by symbioid at 2:38 PM on November 26, 2007

can we please stop trying to help jonmc appreciate dj style music? The much larger problem is that he prefers pecans to almonds. That has to be against the law or something.
posted by shmegegge at 2:50 PM on November 26, 2007

Shmegegge, somehow I overlooked that wretched sin. I can handle him listening to shitty 80s metal, but eating pecans? When will the insanity end.

I've already got a call in to my almond police friends, and they've got the tracking signals, they've narrowed him down to a 5 block radius, and soon, he shall pay for his crimes...
posted by symbioid at 3:17 PM on November 26, 2007

Another thumbs up here for Plaid. Back in the day Black Dog Productions were doing some pretty cool stuff as well, and it's all getting re-released at the moment.

I really liked the Texturology album from the slightly similar sounding Beaumont Hannant, who seems to have disapeared without trace since. Anyone know what happened to that one?
posted by Artw at 3:21 PM on November 26, 2007

I also prefer Pelican to the Allmans.
posted by Demogorgon at 3:36 PM on November 26, 2007

I prefer Pantera to the Osmonds.
posted by empath at 3:59 PM on November 26, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]

Wah? Crazy Horses is fucking hardcore!
posted by Artw at 4:02 PM on November 26, 2007

you don't have the experience or musicological language required to appreciate or enjoy this stuff

jonmc may say some pretentious-cloaked-in-folksy stuff but I don't think he's ever come anywhere saying something as awful as this.

Sorry, that was obtuse - it's not a critique of jon's musical knowledge or background. It's a complicated way of saying "We like different things. Therefore, the experiences we have are different. The languages that we listen with are different."

However, I am indeed saying that musical tastes appreciate with experience - particularly down whichever pathways and niches that attract.

I could speak at length on electronic and experimental music and the nuances of performance, creation, editing and various processes.

However, for something like bluegrass I wouldn't be able to do the same. I'm not as informed about it, from everything from the general history to techniques and styles. I don't have the working vocabularly to understand what is happening in a recording - what the finer points of it are. I've never performed it, as a musician.

That being the case, there's details that I will be incapable of understanding until I learn more about it. This doesn't prevent me from simply enjoying it, for sure, but it would prevent me from appreciating the finer points of any particular recording or performance.

Is that more clear?

xmutex: if you're trying to start a feud, go peddle your papers. me and loq differ on things, but I like the guy.

Exactly. Not only is there no animosity from me, nor do I ever feel any from him. I just like sharing, and sometimes I get a little overwrought about it.
posted by loquacious at 4:08 PM on November 26, 2007

Techno is something one needs to learn to enjoy.

When i first started going to EDM clubs, I couldn't even tell the difference between one song and another, because I was so used to the rockist perspective of focusing on singers and lyrics, and many of the songs not only didn't have vocals, but didn't have recognizable lead melodies.

After a while, though, I started focusing on the things that matter in dance music - percussion and groove as well as the texture and timbre of the synths, and I could pick out songs just from hearing the snare and hi-hat patterns, or a few notes of the bassline. I could even tell which artist produced a track I'd never heard before just based on how a synth sounded, not even the melody that was being played.

That's drastically different from the way one typically experiences rock music, which tends to be 'about' something. Most people tend to like rock songs with lyrics they identify with.

What ended up happening is that I became almost blind to lyrics and choruses and started judging songs only based on the production quality -- even songs that I'd have detested before, like Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears and hip-hop tracks, all of a sudden became interesting to me because I was more aware of how much effort went into making the songs so catchy and 'dance'-y.

At the same time, I lost interest in traditional pop-rock music entirely -- emo, punk, whatever, because it was all so samey to me, and the production was garbage. The only rock music I was interested in was interesting texturally, like Sigur Ros, Godspeed You Black Emperor and Mogwai.

I'm finding myself drifting back into more 'song-y' (as opposed to 'track-y') music as I get away from going to superclubs on the weekend, and even the EDM I like tends to have lyrics and chords and hooks (and even guitars). Though I can go back and forth, and I still enjoy a good minimal techno or epic trance set now.

I don't know what the point of all that was, except to say that I can understand why people listen to stuff like BoC and go 'meh'. If you haven't trained yourself to listen to music in a particular way, it just sounds BORING, because you aren't listening for the right things. I've been seeing Drum & Bass acts at various clubs for going on 8 years now and aside from John B, I've never had a night where it clicked for me, even though lots of people have been at the same shows enjoying the hell out of it. I've just never figured out how to listen to it the way D&B fans listen to it, and I likely never will.
posted by empath at 4:52 PM on November 26, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

If you haven't trained yourself to listen to music in a particular way, it just sounds BORING, because you aren't listening for the right things.

Oh, bullshit.

I could spend a weekend telling you about why I love the Dictators, how they're the missing link between the Detroit sound and The Ramones & Blondie and also the connection between traditional 70's hard rock and punk. About the importance of Andy Shernoff's stoopid lyrics and how it deflated the pomposity of the time, about Ross' mastery of the riff and how Handsome Dick's humor changed rock forever and..and..and..

and if you don't like 'em, you don't like 'em. That's the way it goes. To suggest that people who don't like what you like are somehow 'wrong' is pure narcissism.
posted by jonmc at 4:59 PM on November 26, 2007

To put loq in another way: It's like listening to 戏曲 ([Chinese] opera) without understanding the 官話 (Mandarin) language.

You can hear the music, hear the strange words, but you aren't gonna understand it nor appreciate it nearly as much as someone who does know the language and history.

Likewise, my classically-trained wife can listen to a piece of music and hear a lot more than I do. There are all sorts of subtle things going on with the patterns and 'conversations' and suchlike. Her enjoyment of it is different and arguably better than mine.
posted by five fresh fish at 6:30 PM on November 26, 2007

wow, electronic music is so freaky!
posted by dydecker at 6:49 PM on November 26, 2007

Well, yeah, if you're from 1987.
posted by Artw at 6:58 PM on November 26, 2007

irony is that BoC sounded pretty much like an indie band on their last couple of records ;)

But yeah, 1987. Great year. Girls rocked the boys to Quiet Riot (RIP), Air Supply ruled the radio, electronic music sounded as alien as Chinese opera, Boy George was actually a dude, and Born in the USA, man, now there was an album.
posted by dydecker at 7:08 PM on November 26, 2007

No BoC post is really complete without these:

Aquarius - Hair.

Recognise that bassline, hmmm?

The Conet Project- I say again. There's plenty of Numbers stations in Geogaddi, and The Conet Project is packed with sounds reminiscent of BoC.

And of course, some of the National Film Board Of Canada's animations, and some 1970's TV Signoffs.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 7:19 PM on November 26, 2007 [2 favorites has favorites]

If you haven't trained yourself to listen to music in a particular way, it just sounds BORING, because you aren't listening for the right things.

Oh, bullshit.

Why is that bullshit? I'm assuming empath doesn't mean "right" as in "all music should have these components!", but "right" as in "these are the most important aspects of this form of music, and if you do not pay attention to them, or ENJOY paying attention to them, then you will either miss the point of it, or not like it. Or both".

Wow, that's a lot of words I just put into his mouth there.

But, anyway, empath is right. Unless you've spent a fair bit of time listening to ambient and electronic music, there's a good chance you won't understand why Music Has The Right To Children was such a groundbreaking album, or appreciate its subtleties - just like I'm completely unequipped to appreciate the Dicators - I don't know what was current at the time, how they differed from other bands, where they innovated, where they borrowed, why they were exciting, who they influenced - none of it. Worse, the surface of the music to me just lacks any kind of visceral or immediate connection. I'd really have to try - and HARD, to get anything out of it. Chances are I won't. Doesn't mean they're not amazing, though, or that either of us are right or wrong.

I forget my original point.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 7:36 PM on November 26, 2007

Wait... so there's no cowbell?
posted by miss lynnster at 7:37 PM on November 26, 2007

just like I'm completely unequipped to appreciate the Dicators - I don't know what was current at the time, how they differed from other bands, where they innovated, where they borrowed, why they were exciting, who they influenced - none of it.

You don't need to know anything about all that to like them is exactly my point. All those things can deepen your appreciation of them, sure, but it can't make you like something you don't like. Just like all of loq's talk can make me understand why he likes Boards Of Canada, but it can't really make me like them.
posted by jonmc at 8:06 PM on November 26, 2007

Well, he certainly can't so long as you refuse.

And come to think of it, I don't think anyone is trying to make you like or dislike anything. It's an absurd idea, yet it seems to be at the root of this odd behaviour of yours.

God forbid someone come up with a front page post about the joys of almonds.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:30 PM on November 26, 2007

jonmc:

You missed the point. I had to listen to A LOT of techno before it clicked for me. No one explained it to me, just one day, I realized oh, so THAT's why people like it.

That said, I don't like Boards of Canada AT ALL, but I can get why people do.
posted by empath at 6:29 AM on November 27, 2007

Can anyone here tell me what that vocal sample in "Happy Cycling" says? It has stumped me for years.
posted by redteam at 5:20 PM on November 27, 2007

Once upon a time, I liked some music, and disliked other music.

Then, I learned some stuff about music.

Now, I like some of the same music I used to like, like some of the music I used to dislike, dislike some of the music I used to like, and still dislike some music I used to dislike. Overall, I like more music than I used to, and know where to find more music.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!?! In jonmc's world, this is an impossible miracle. Thankfully, in mine it's commonplace, because of a nifty thing called curiosity.
posted by speicus at 2:51 AM on November 29, 2007