What Are You Listening To Now?

For new sounds, old sounds and favourite sound discussion...

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redcloud
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by redcloud »

mojo filters wrote:
redcloud wrote:Humble Pie - s/t (3rd LP)
As a Small Faces fan I also really like most of their stuff, however Humble Pie never seem to have got the recognition they deserve by comparison.
Somewhat like Blind Faith....I think their "super group" status brought with it many expectations and they never really exceeded their true potential as musicians (on record). But, I really like their first three albums (especially the 2nd and 3rd).

Their live album is what finally got them big in the US but their popularity ironically came after Frampton left. Of course, Frampton also achieved mega star status with his 'Comes Alive' LP.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by sunray »

Shinesalight wrote:Psychic Ills - One Track Mind

The epitome of strung-out stoner rock....
:shock: Aw come on. Now you guys are just taking the piss.
I know this album is well thought of around here but you can't seriously believe that its "The epitome of strung-out stoner rock". What it is, is an ordinary record, fairly lightweight, and a little bit dull. I've just given it another spin and, even though its only 33 minutes long, I still struggled to maintain an interest to the end. Still sounds to me like a band reaching for a particular sound and not quite achieving it.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by redcloud »

The one and only...

Image
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by shalloboi »

implodes- 'recurring dream'
jacco gardner- 'cabinet of curiosities'
swans- 'the seer'
redcloud
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by redcloud »

redcloud wrote:
mojo filters wrote:
redcloud wrote:Humble Pie - s/t (3rd LP)
As a Small Faces fan I also really like most of their stuff, however Humble Pie never seem to have got the recognition they deserve by comparison.
Somewhat like Blind Faith....I think their "super group" status brought with it many expectations and they never really exceeded their true potential as musicians (on record). But, I really like their first three albums (especially the 2nd and 3rd).

Their live album is what finally got them big in the US but their popularity ironically came after Frampton left. Of course, Frampton also achieved mega star status with his 'Comes Alive' LP.
Sorry to go back to a couple of my own posts but I'm in a Humble Pie phase right now.

'Silver Tongue', 'Earth & Water Song' and 'Skint Song' hint at their potential. Heights that are simply out of this world. 'Earth and Water Song' is absolutely beautiful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TN56N8CvLxU
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by jack white »

Tyler, the creator - Wolf
gonna burn brightly
for a while
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by shalloboi »

this nice low live session-

http://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2013/ ... t-the-fitz

skipped seeing them at the metro. hopefully they'll play an aftershow when they come through for pitchfork as i'm pretty sure they're not playing the same day as swans.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by redcloud »

The Widespread Reign of the Great Northwest
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Hedspace »

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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by jadams501 »

Timothy Leary - You Can Be Anyone This Time Around

I picked this up assuming it would be pure camp, and it is indeed hilarious, but actually pretty intriguing and successful on its own terms. Essential listening for any fan of psychedelia.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by jack white »

Mudhoney - Vanishing Point
gonna burn brightly
for a while
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Hofstadter »

Haven't heard that one jadams will look it up, but I just put this on

Ash Ra Temple and Timothy Leary - 7Up
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Shinesalight »

sunray wrote:
Shinesalight wrote:Psychic Ills - One Track Mind

The epitome of strung-out stoner rock....
:shock: Aw come on. Now you guys are just taking the piss.
I know this album is well thought of around here but you can't seriously believe that its "The epitome of strung-out stoner rock". What it is, is an ordinary record, fairly lightweight, and a little bit dull. I've just given it another spin and, even though its only 33 minutes long, I still struggled to maintain an interest to the end. Still sounds to me like a band reaching for a particular sound and not quite achieving it.
Yeah, I might have been a bit euphoric with my praise in retrospect :oops: . I still love the record though. :wink:
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by redcloud »

IF - s/t
IF - 2

Jazzy and proggy but both have some good jammy wig-outs where you can smell the weed coming off its grooves. Sounds like there was a heavy late night session during their recording.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by spzretent »

sunray wrote:
Shinesalight wrote:Psychic Ills - One Track Mind

The epitome of strung-out stoner rock....
:shock: Aw come on. Now you guys are just taking the piss.
I know this album is well thought of around here but you can't seriously believe that its "The epitome of strung-out stoner rock". What it is, is an ordinary record, fairly lightweight, and a little bit dull. I've just given it another spin and, even though its only 33 minutes long, I still struggled to maintain an interest to the end. Still sounds to me like a band reaching for a particular sound and not quite achieving it.
I love it. Apparently others do too. Thanks for shitting on my taste. I'll be sure to check your opinion next time I say I love a record.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by majortom68 »

BRMC "Specter At The Feast",
Steve Mason "Monkey Mind's In The Devil's Time"
Moon Duo "Circles"
Dead Skeletons "Dead Magick"
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Shinesalight »

majortom68 wrote:BRMC "Specter At The Feast",
Steve Mason "Monkey Mind's In The Devil's Time"
Moon Duo "Circles"
Dead Skeletons "Dead Magick"
Nice selections of albums for a first post. 8) Welcome to the forum.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by jadams501 »

Hofstadter wrote:Haven't heard that one jadams will look it up, but I just put this on

Ash Ra Temple and Timothy Leary - 7Up
I was reading something about that online... worth checking out??
spzretent wrote:
sunray wrote: :shock: Aw come on. Now you guys are just taking the piss.
I know this album is well thought of around here but you can't seriously believe that its "The epitome of strung-out stoner rock". What it is, is an ordinary record, fairly lightweight, and a little bit dull. I've just given it another spin and, even though its only 33 minutes long, I still struggled to maintain an interest to the end. Still sounds to me like a band reaching for a particular sound and not quite achieving it.
I love it. Apparently others do too. Thanks for shitting on my taste. I'll be sure to check your opinion next time I say I love a record.
With respect to everyone, Sunray articulates something I feel about a lot of the current groups clearly influenced by the Spacemen and popular around these parts. Whether it be Psychic Ills, Black Angels, Moon Duo, Thee Oh Sees, recent BRMC, etc., I haven't really felt grabbed to listen beyond the few tracks I've heard in samplers, and my impression is that some of them are kinda derivative scenesters drinking craft beers and aiming at social media buzz among a pre-existing online niche audience of people who generally like scuzzy drones and that kind of thing. Often I feel that I much prefer their influences, and that some of these groups succeed because showing up to live concerts and collecting stylish vinyl is a fun pastime for music fans, more than that the groups' sounds and songs will stand the test of time.

I guess that sort of enduring timelessness, from brilliantly original art or sometimes from zeitgeist-capturing pop ephemera, is what I look for in music. There are two minute singles by Fats Domino that to me are far spacier and mind-bending than anything I personally have heard from today's psych scene. Not to "shit on" anyone's tastes, of course!

Right now, Curtis Mayfield - Pusherman from the Super Fly soundtrack.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by spzretent »

jadams501 wrote:
spzretent wrote:
sunray wrote: :shock: Aw come on. Now you guys are just taking the piss.
I know this album is well thought of around here but you can't seriously believe that its "The epitome of strung-out stoner rock". What it is, is an ordinary record, fairly lightweight, and a little bit dull. I've just given it another spin and, even though its only 33 minutes long, I still struggled to maintain an interest to the end. Still sounds to me like a band reaching for a particular sound and not quite achieving it.
I love it. Apparently others do too. Thanks for shitting on my taste. I'll be sure to check your opinion next time I say I love a record.
With respect to everyone, Sunray articulates something I feel about a lot of the current groups clearly influenced by the Spacemen and popular around these parts. Whether it be Psychic Ills, Black Angels, Moon Duo, Thee Oh Sees, recent BRMC, etc., I haven't really felt grabbed to listen beyond the few tracks I've heard in samplers, and my impression is that some of them are kinda derivative scenesters drinking craft beers and aiming at social media buzz among a pre-existing online niche audience of people who generally like scuzzy drones and that kind of thing. Often I feel that I much prefer their influences, and that some of these groups succeed because showing up to live concerts and collecting stylish vinyl is a fun pastime for music fans, more than that the groups' sounds and songs will stand the test of time.

I guess that sort of enduring timelessness, from brilliantly original art or sometimes from zeitgeist-capturing pop ephemera, is what I look for in music. There are two minute singles by Fats Domino that to me are far spacier and mind-bending than anything I personally have heard from today's psych scene. Not to "shit on" anyone's tastes, of course!
Well there is me nailed!
I am a craft beer drinking, scuzzed out drone loving, vinyl playing, social media whore. And quite proud of it too.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by jadams501 »

spzretent wrote: Well there is me nailed!
I am a craft beer drinking, scuzzed out drone loving, vinyl playing, social media whore. And quite proud of it too.
I was referring to the bands themselves, not their fans!
jadams501 wrote:With respect to everyone... Not to "shit on" anyone's tastes, of course!
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by spzretent »

All kidding aside the objection I took to Sunray's post was because he was trying to explain why those of us that enjoy the Psychic Ills Lp shouldn't. Its not what is seems I guess was his point.
When I buy a record and I like it is because it ticks a lot of boxes for me.
We have all come to this message board from different angles musically. I think its bullshit to post something like that.
Those that have been around this board long enough know I will post what is on my mind.
And I did.

Listening to Led Zeppelin ll. LOUD!
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by burningwheel »

i guess i'm a fucking hipster :roll: seems like you don't want to like them for some reason? maybe you need to listen to just a track or 2 by each artist :?
[url=http://www.loveisforever.org]Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver, Chapterhouse, The Telescopes, Loop, Verve and more![/url]
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by johnnyboy »

Not listening to these right "now" but yesterday I had such a fun day listening to some old vinyl. All 'grungey' noise pop gems from the late 80's/early 90's which have made me regret selling similar stuff back in the day to fund some social habits but have also made me want to listen to so much more from that era/scene. For some reason I was really hearing them afresh yesterday, new sounds and melodies coming to the fore, giving me a lovely trip back down memory lane. What started out as a day of panic about having no mates around and spending the day in a self pitying depressed fug whilst everyone else seemed to be enjoying the sunshine in couples or groups suddenly turned into quite a fine solo late afternoon/evening in my own company.

The Breeders - Pod
Mercury Rev - Yerself Is Steam (lovely original blue vinyl.....those guitar explosions in Chasing A Bee!)
The Pixies - Bossanova
Dinosaur Jr - Bug
Boo Radleys - Giant Steps

The Breeders inparticular was sounding amazing. I don't have anything else by them and am now considering the Last Splash album, which for some reason passed me by at the time. Not sure my neighbour downstairs was appreciating Bug being played rather loudly at 10:20pm on a Sunday night........especially "Don't".
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Laz69 »

Apart from the usual variety, The Boo Radleys "Everythings Aright Forever" has resurfaced recently, primarily due to the bout of better weather and sunshine. Such a superb album and one that demands my full attention from start to finish. Not many albums can be so beautiful all the way through and finish on such a killer track as they do with "Paradise"...

Easily in my top 5 (possibly even 3) albums of all time.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by princeskinny »

Peter Tosh - 'Equal Rights' - amazing, militant album
James Brown - 'Hell'
Primal Scream - 'XTRMNTR', esp 'Keep Your Dreams'.....
Burning Spear - 'Social Living'
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by sunray »

spzretent wrote:All kidding aside the objection I took to Sunray's post was because he was trying to explain why those of us that enjoy the Psychic Ills Lp shouldn't. Its not what is seems I guess was his point.
When I buy a record and I like it is because it ticks a lot of boxes for me.
We have all come to this message board from different angles musically. I think its bullshit to post something like that.
Those that have been around this board long enough know I will post what is on my mind.
And I did.
Not trying to explain why people shouldn't like the Psychic Ills album, I'm just a bit perplexed by the large amount of praise it has gathered when it appears very average to me. One of my pet peeves is reading/hearing about how great a record is only to get it home and find that it is no more than ok. So when I saw Shines comment I felt compelled to respond. Like you, I will post what is on my mind. As should everyone here. After all, if we start becoming afraid of our forum contributions, well what's the point?
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by runcible »

That means every time I see people rave about bands I dislike I should weigh in and tell them? Man the Primal Scream threads would be my most active area! If people get all worked up about something that does nothing for me I tend to stay out of it and leave them to it.

I don't get the point of saying that you don't like something when others clearly do. Just looks unconstructive to me.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by spzretent »

I see your point Sunray and admire your grown up stance about people taking each other on here. A lot of people would have just got personal. Thank you.
I digress.... sometimes with music its nice to put something on and just let it flow, wash over me. Not neccessarily challenging but just pleasant. It may matter what kind of day I was having. That may color my perception of that record. Could be food, a film, a beer, wine whatever. That is precisely why I love the past two Psychic Ills records. They are easy to put on and take me somewhere else. They may not do that live as I have never seen them but those records do that perfectly.
Once again, one persons opinion......
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by sunray »

runcible wrote:That means every time I see people rave about bands I dislike I should weigh in and tell them? Man the Primal Scream threads would be my most active area! If people get all worked up about something that does nothing for me I tend to stay out of it and leave them to it.

I don't get the point of saying that you don't like something when others clearly do. Just looks unconstructive to me.
The difference is that, given what I had read, I fully expected to really like the Psychic Ills record. If I had no interest I wouldn't have commented. Which is why I steer clear of Verve/Radiohead threads.
spzretent wrote:I see your point Sunray and admire your grown up stance about people taking each other on here. A lot of people would have just got personal. Thank you. I digress.... sometimes with music its nice to put something on and just let it flow, wash over me. Not neccessarily challenging but just pleasant. It may matter what kind of day I was having. That may color my perception of that record. Could be food, a film, a beer, wine whatever. That is precisely why I love the past two Psychic Ills records. They are easy to put on and take me somewhere else. They may not do that live as I have never seen them but those records do that perfectly. Once again, one persons opinion......
Hey spzretent, that's cool. I can see where your coming from with that post.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by heisenberg »

Psychic Ills...

I've only heard Mind Haze, which is a good tune, and some very early drone stuff I wasn't so keen on. Where you recommend I start.

I've been playing:

Low - The Invisible Way
Talk Talk - Colour of Spring
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by spzretent »

Either of the last two records are good Hazed Dream or One Track Mind. I have not delved any further into the back catalog.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by niamhm »

spzretent wrote:Either of the last two records are good Hazed Dream or One Track Mind. I have not delved any further into the back catalog.

gonna 2nd that, been listening to both those albums the last 6 weeks or so and think there damn good albums,
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Aquarian-Time »

I have much to listen and so little time to do so, tonights running order is;

Black Angels (like this so far) and Besnard lakes new LP's
Dead Skeletons etched 12"
The band that were Koolaid, now called something else (forgotton but its there new LP) (not Koolaid electric Company by the way), anyway pysch madness will ensue.
And other stuff that escapes me, but will post when I get chance


oh and a bottle of South African Shiraz, just to take the edge of !!
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by shalloboi »

finally get to listen to the new kurt vile double LP. it arrived in the mail yesterday, but i was never able to set aside the time to listen to it and my laptop was on the fritz so i wasn't able to load it onto my ipod. it's a very beautiful blue colour. so far i like it quite a bit, but there isn't a lot of his that i don't like (except maybe 'greatest hit maker'). so far it's expanding further on what was started on 'smoke ring for my halo,' which was one of my favourite records of 2011. the 9-minute sample track is a good indicator as it turns out.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by angelsighs »

UFO- Flying
I think I've mentioned this album before on the board. before they 'went metal', there was this album which fully lives up to it's subtitle of 'One Hour Space Rock'. there is still a blues base in there somewhere but there's loads of instrumental jamming and delay pedals.. excellent album.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Hofstadter »

jadams - isn't everything derivative, even the spacemen? What isn't derivative?

Obviously the trick is to take your influences, your own ideas, etc, and synthesize something new (just hegelian dialectic eh?), but I don't think everything has to be a transcendent statement of new creative aesthetics, it just needs to be something I enjoy listening to. I mean fuck, if I had people to play music that aped the sort of specific set of derivative bands you are talking about, I would - I would be happy to be trying (and probably failing) to tick as many of the proverbial boxes mentioned by spzretent as I could. Gotta figure that you have to start somewhere. Sure there are a lot of bands that fit into thi "niche," but that's because we all like the niche right, and like hearing more stuff that fits in it. The bands are just trying to check a few boxes and draw a few boxes of their own, that's all, and I think there is nothing wrong with that. That's how it should be.

Psychic Ills - One Track Mind

It's in the upper 80s, even low 90s this week, and fuck is this record good for that. Really grown on me over the past month or two - there were a few tracks that instantly stuck out, but it has come together in my mind a lot more - the desert heat setting in has probably helped that. Nothing transcendent, but a record doesn't need to be transcendent, just good, and this record is fucking fun. "good dope/good fun" characterizes my experience it nicely... "One More Time" is what had gotten me excited for it big time and even though I initially felt "let down" and that it was just "okay," that song alone made it worth listening to a bunch more, and thankfully so. The only track that still hasn't quite clicked is the second (and maybe Western Metaphor - the thing that is weird for me is the actual "western" bit). But yeah, it's just fun to cruise around with the windows down and this on, or in the sweltering heat, soaked in sweat (my room doesn't have AC, it can get like an oven in there) with this going round on the table (my uncle sent me the special edition version with the nice poster/7" for some reason, I have no idea why, but hey I'll take it no problem). Just the right "vibes" for the time and place. "I Get By" I think is pretty emblematic of the album and its tone (lyrically/sonically).

I guess the way I've been listening to the album sort of fits in with Sunray's original complaint (i.e. even despite its shorter length, never really captured his attention) - I'm not exactly giving it my fully undivided attention, but I think that's okay. It's more of a "soundtrack-to-a-mood" album for me, which hey, I guess fits in well with what mr. spzretent was saying! Yay we can all agree on something!

As for 7Up - yes absolutely, the best way to describe it: a capital-a Artifact. Read Julian Cope's description of it in Krautrocksampler - I have know idea of its historically veracity (for instance the stuff with Eldridge Cleaver? hmmm), but if true, it is a rad piece of history, if false then he still wrote a pretty fun fantasy.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Hofstadter »

Also been spinning these three a LOT lately:

Wooden Shjips - West
Follakzoid - II
Diiv - Oshin
That last one - a friend of mine was at Captured Tracks or something and got a bunch of free records so he gave me this, and even though I was not really down with it at all back in June, I decided to give it a few listens again and... really captivated me, and I have been listening to it a lot over the past few weeks - it just somehow got to me in a way it didn't at all over the summer. It's weird, because I still have some feeling of not wanting to like it/not wanting to admit liking it, but I really do. There's something very youthful and exuberant about it which I think normally doesn't work well at all with any sort of vaguely kraut-influenced sounds, but where it didn't work for me before, it is totally working now. When I click around the songs in iTunes, snippets of it for one or two seconds sound lame and trite, but listening to it all the way through, there's something about it that I can't quite put my finger on...

Upon further thought, there is something very "high school" about the album ("druun" "past lives" "human" "follow" and "home" being the biggest purveyors of that feeling) - I can't really imagine getting into this album if I was somewhere else right now, and not sure it can ever be anything in the future other than something that will remind me of this time, but still.... but still...
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by redcloud »

angelsighs wrote:UFO- Flying
I think I've mentioned this album before on the board. before they 'went metal', there was this album which fully lives up to it's subtitle of 'One Hour Space Rock'. there is still a blues base in there somewhere but there's loads of instrumental jamming and delay pedals.. excellent album.
Yep. Totally with you 100% on this. I fucking love this album from start to finish.

Their first LP isn't anywhere near as cool nor as good as 'Flying'. But, it has some good tunes, especially 'Evil'. Nothing to break your back (or your bank) searching for but if you find it at a decent price I would certainly pick it up. I also have a live in Japan record from this time. 'Prince Kajuku' is awesome on it.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by angelsighs »

redcloud wrote:
angelsighs wrote:UFO- Flying
I think I've mentioned this album before on the board. before they 'went metal', there was this album which fully lives up to it's subtitle of 'One Hour Space Rock'. there is still a blues base in there somewhere but there's loads of instrumental jamming and delay pedals.. excellent album.
Yep. Totally with you 100% on this. I fucking love this album from start to finish.

Their first LP isn't anywhere near as cool nor as good as 'Flying'. But, it has some good tunes, especially 'Evil'. Nothing to break your back (or your bank) searching for but if you find it at a decent price I would certainly pick it up. I also have a live in Japan record from this time. 'Prince Kajuku' is awesome on it.
yeah it's just brilliant, I was really digging it last night. the production is kind of weird but also totally suits it.
is this the live album you are talking about?
http://www.discogs.com/UFO-Live-In-Japan/master/35348
I did have my eye on it but was disappointed to see that Prince Kajuku is the only track from Flying on there. if it's got the same general sound though I'd definitely be up for it.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Stuart X.Hunter »

James Blake - Overgrown...again!
Shoulders back, smash it
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by redcloud »

angelsighs wrote:[q
is this the live album you are talking about?
http://www.discogs.com/UFO-Live-In-Japan/master/35348
I did have my eye on it but was disappointed to see that Prince Kajuku is the only track from Flying on there. if it's got the same general sound though I'd definitely be up for it.
Yes, that is the one. I have it on LP and still see it in record bins every so often. There is also a 2 for 1 LP that compiles the 1st and 'Flying'. I have read that they didn't play too many of those songs on 'Flying' live (most of the songs featured are from the 1st LP. Strangely, the best tune (imho) on the 1st ('Evil') isn't played either.

I think they were definitely a blues based hard rock band first and that album kind of came out of nowhere. I definitely think it is Mick Bolton's swan song and it may also have been his nail in the coffin. They were touring constantly in Europe and Japan. At one of those European gigs is when they hooked up with Schenker and Bolton was out the door. You can't blame them in a sense. Schenker was quite the guitar burner and Way and Mogg saw the potential to take the band in a more obvious hard rock way.

I'm actually a fan of a lot of UFO. They are a band that go back to my childhood and to this day I still enjoy playing their albums. Even the Schenker years are fine by me. They are what they are and for my money it's decent 70's hard rock with some mighty riffs by Schenker. Pete Way (bassist) and the keyboardist also make the band different from a lot of the typical 70's English hard rock bands.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Laz69 »

The Cosmic Dead - Live, Sheffield, 8th Apr 2013
The Cosmic Dead - Live At The Note
The Paperhead - The Paperhead
Endless Boogie - Long Island
Sula Bassanna - Dark Days
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by spzretent »

Eno- Discreet Music LP
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by sunray »

Hofstadter wrote: As for 7Up - yes absolutely, the best way to describe it: a capital-a Artifact. Read Julian Cope's description of it in Krautrocksampler - I have know idea of its historically veracity (for instance the stuff with Eldridge Cleaver? hmmm), but if true, it is a rad piece of history, if false then he still wrote a pretty fun fantasy.
Yep it's true. See if you can track down Brian Barritt's autobiography "The Road Of Excess" for more details. Fantastic read, what a life Barritt had.
I had some pretty cosmic moments while reading that book many, many moons ago! :D
Nineteen...Nineteen...Six Five
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Aquarian-Time »

Regular Fries-Accept The Signal

Remember them ?? I think this album has aged pretty well, came out in the big beat era of the late ish nineties.
Its a nice trippy ride with some lovely bass, pysch ish guitar and whispered vocals, its got a very UK style take on Psychic Ills if I'm honest.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by TheWarmth »

The Knife: Shaking The Habitual. Love this so far. I haven't plowed into the 17 minute drone piece yet.

Kurt Vile: Wakin On a Pretty Daze. There are some excellent tracks on here, but there also seem to be a fair number of average, Vile-by-numbers songs, too. I'll keep at it. Some of my friends have been raving about it.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Alex English »

Aquarian-Time wrote:Regular Fries-Accept The Signal

Remember them ?? I think this album has aged pretty well, came out in the big beat era of the late ish nineties.
Its a nice trippy ride with some lovely bass, pysch ish guitar and whispered vocals, its got a very UK style take on Psychic Ills if I'm honest.
I have fond memories of seeing them at Glasto '99 in the new band tent. The whole stage was covered in camouflage netting, incense and they had a giant styrofoam "E" at the center of the stage which ended up getting thrown into the crowd at one point. They also had a birdcage that had a ton of keys attached to it which one of the members would shake during a couple of the songs.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by shalloboi »

TheWarmth wrote: Kurt Vile: Wakin On a Pretty Daze. There are some excellent tracks on here, but there also seem to be a fair number of average, Vile-by-numbers songs, too. I'll keep at it. Some of my friends have been raving about it.
now that i've listened to it a few times i'm inclined to agree. critics are really fawning over it too. i don't really get it because it's nowhere near as good as 'smoke ring for my halo.' there's just nothing that really jumps out at you like there normally is.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by TheWarmth »

Well, I think the first four songs are all pretty killer. I've only listened a few times, but those are the ones that struck me as particularly strong. After that, it starts to get a bit dull. It's definitely not as good as Smoke Ring.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Kurious Oranj »

agreed, the album feels more ambitious than smoke rings but at the same time it meanders a lot and i dont think the songs are as good individually
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by runcible »

Lots of MC5.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by angelsighs »

redcloud wrote: I think they were definitely a blues based hard rock band first and that album kind of came out of nowhere. I definitely think it is Mick Bolton's swan song and it may also have been his nail in the coffin. They were touring constantly in Europe and Japan. At one of those European gigs is when they hooked up with Schenker and Bolton was out the door. You can't blame them in a sense. Schenker was quite the guitar burner and Way and Mogg saw the potential to take the band in a more obvious hard rock way.

I'm actually a fan of a lot of UFO. They are a band that go back to my childhood and to this day I still enjoy playing their albums. Even the Schenker years are fine by me. They are what they are and for my money it's decent 70's hard rock with some mighty riffs by Schenker. Pete Way (bassist) and the keyboardist also make the band different from a lot of the typical 70's English hard rock bands.
thanks- that's interesting, when bands have a total anomaly in their discography.
I listened to Flying again last night and I can definitely hear the blues base coming through. lots of pentatotic scales. all the wah wah and delay, and the fact that the songs are so extended, transforms it into spacerock.
like I said, the production is quite weird too. the bass is kind of dry and chunky. and lots of stereo panning. on the title track, the drums are in the left channel, and the guitar in the right, until a guitar break where it moves to the centre and becomes louder. there seemed to be a lot more use of the stereo field in those days (love how Hendrix used it too), guess because it was kind of the new thing. stuff like that would probably be considered 'gimmicky' nowadays.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by redcloud »

angelsighs wrote:thanks- that's interesting, when bands have a total anomaly in their discography.
I listened to Flying again last night and I can definitely hear the blues base coming through. lots of pentatotic scales. all the wah wah and delay, and the fact that the songs are so extended, transforms it into spacerock.
like I said, the production is quite weird too. the bass is kind of dry and chunky. and lots of stereo panning. on the title track, the drums are in the left channel, and the guitar in the right, until a guitar break where it moves to the centre and becomes louder. there seemed to be a lot more use of the stereo field in those days (love how Hendrix used it too), guess because it was kind of the new thing. stuff like that would probably be considered 'gimmicky' nowadays.
I was pretty young when I first heard this album. At the time it was one of the weirdest albums I owned. But, even then I loved it. Over the past 30+ years I have continued to go back to this record more than any other UFO album. If somebody wants to know about UFO you HAVE to direct them to the best of the Schenker years. But, for those of us who like our guitar music half baked, upside down, a little on the far out side...then this UFO album is an absolute must. I'm glad it is getting as much love in your home as it does in mine.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by runcible »

Freelovebabies
Exile On Main Street
The White Album
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Aquarian-Time »

Spectrums-High Lows and Heavely Blows after much discussion on this forum gort me back to this album.

Still stands up well, lovely vibe, it was a perfect folow up to the Psychic Ills new album that I played prior
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by jadams501 »

Hofstadter wrote:jadams - isn't everything derivative, even the spacemen? What isn't derivative?

Obviously the trick is to take your influences, your own ideas, etc, and synthesize something new (just hegelian dialectic eh?), but I don't think everything has to be a transcendent statement of new creative aesthetics, it just needs to be something I enjoy listening to. I mean fuck, if I had people to play music that aped the sort of specific set of derivative bands you are talking about, I would - I would be happy to be trying (and probably failing) to tick as many of the proverbial boxes mentioned by spzretent as I could. Gotta figure that you have to start somewhere. Sure there are a lot of bands that fit into thi "niche," but that's because we all like the niche right, and like hearing more stuff that fits in it. The bands are just trying to check a few boxes and draw a few boxes of their own, that's all, and I think there is nothing wrong with that. That's how it should be.
I don't think everything can be or should be "new" or "original," but the best acts put a fresh and vibrant spin on the building blocks. Psych can be a tough genre to get right because it's so easy to lean on drones and effects as gimmicks in place of crafting songs with those elements thoughtfully integrated into something that will endure. For me personally, no offense to any of their fans, many of today's psych acts are somewhat forgettable pastiches of influences I would ultimately prefer to listen to instead.

On the other hand, I've never really been into scenes or genres per se. I tend to try to get the very best of many genres rather than comprehensive insight into any single one. So I listen to perhaps a broader range of things than many fellow music fans, but with less depth into any single style. So for me when it's time for some psych or whatever I prioritize who I feel are the masters of the genre. Which isn't to discount my love for ephemeral zeitgeist pop songs and catchy guilty pleasures, but that's not really what we're talking about here. I also don't collect much vinyl or show up to very many concerts, which may be a big part of the appeal.

None of this is to dismiss the tastes of anyone, and this is a space rock forum, and it's interesting to hear what real people are grooving to as opposed to what Pitchfork says is hip. I'll just say that the best bossa nova cuts by Antonio Carlos Jobim, or most exquisitely miserable country weepers from George Jones, expand my consciousness as much as the best psychedelia I've heard. Let's keep the recommendations coming.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by spzretent »

In the 5 CD player for a long day online:
Pretty Things- Parachute
Primal Scream- Screamadelica
Screaming Trees- Dust
Peter Tosh- Bush Doctor
Small Faces- Japan Best Of Comp.
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by redcloud »

spzretent wrote: Pretty Things- Parachute
:D

I always loved 'Blue Serge Blues' a B-Side that didn't make the 'Parachute' LP:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlpgPPtl71I
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Laz69 »

Today's playlist...

Boo Radleys - Everythings ALright Forever
Pontiacs - Bursting
Spacemen 3 - Losing Touch With My Mind
Asteroid #4 & Peter Daltry - The Journey
Endless Boogie - Long Island
Carlton Melton - Photos of Photos

Picked up a new car recently which doesn't have a CD player. In-car technology has taken another leap and now i have is a USB socket on the dash for music. I've filled a 16Gb USB stick so shouldn't need to change it for a while. This morning's selection for the drive to work...

Led Zeppelin - How Many More Times
Camera - Ausland
Acetone - All You Know
Eternal Tapestry - Pyramid Vision
Fleetwood Mac - Oh Well Pt2
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Shinesalight »

My car doesn't have a CD either but, unlike you, mine hasn't got the mod-cons of an MP3 port....I have to do with a special cassette adapter thingy which I plug into my tape player and iPod :oops:

Anyway, pre and post White Hills gig on Monday night, I've been on a bit of a White Hills mission on my drive into and from work and have been playing the following:-

White Hills - S/T
White Hills - Heads On Fire
White Hills - Frying On This Rock
White Hills - Abstractions & Mutations
White Hills - H-p1
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The Home of Drone
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Laz69 »

Have you heard much of the earlier experimental, droney stuff The White Hills released? Especially the Stolen Stars Left For No One EP? Such a great contrast to the heavy rocking of their more recent albums. I can share it if you like if you haven't heard it.

Also, the track "Don't Be Afraid" from the Heads On Fire LP is just phenomenal!!!
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Hofstadter »

I'd like to hear that!
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Laz69 »

I'll organise this tonight if i remember
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by Shinesalight »

Laz69 wrote:Have you heard much of the earlier experimental, droney stuff The White Hills released? Especially the Stolen Stars Left For No One EP? Such a great contrast to the heavy rocking of their more recent albums. I can share it if you like if you haven't heard it.

Also, the track "Don't Be Afraid" from the Heads On Fire LP is just phenomenal!!!
Strangely enough, I nearly picked up the Stolen Stars EP in a record shop while on a trip to Dublin last year. But, at that point, I didn't know if it was an official release or not. Would love to hear it if you'd like to share

As for "Don't be Afraid", that's got to be one of my favourite White Hills tracks. 8)
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by niamhm »

Perfect Disaster-Heaven Scent , some wonderfully understated tunes and playing here , very under-rated band , had a couple of really good albums,
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Re: What Are You Listening To Now?

Post by jack white »

Sabbath - God is Dead?
gonna burn brightly
for a while
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