new music

[quietann]

Just ordered some CDs. (Yes I know that's old-fashioned, but whatever.)

1. Dixie Chicks, "Taking the Long Way" Have not listened to it yet except for the samples on amazon.com, which sounded fine, and certainly less annoyingly precious than most of the female vocalists out there. Plus a couple of anti-Shrub songs got my attention.
   
2. Pearl Jam, "Pearl Jam" These guys got a little too much attention during the 1990s IMHO. However, they were in the movie Singles right before they got famous, as one of the lead character's band mates, and I fell for Eddie Vedder's eyes. "World Wide Suicide" got my attention -- another protest song, ya know. It's been played to death on the radio, but I still appreciate the riff lifted from Offspring's "Keep Em Separated" ... Apparently there is another song with a rather blatantly lifted riff. I'll look forward to it.
   
3. Alice in Chains, "Nothing Safe: The Best of the Box" A best hits compilation, entirely appropriate because I have mostly listened to them on the radio and am not that much of a fan ... Plus it's weird to order CDs for a band that hasn't really existed for a while, since the lead singer ODd in 2002 and was pretty non-functional for years before that. They also appeared in Singles, in a brief but overpowering concert scene. (ditto Soundgarden, another favorite of mine)
   
4. Tool, "Lateralus" Given #2 and #3 this should be no surprise, but believe it or not, I am not that familiar with Tool. I just picked the CD that seemed to get the best comments on the web. Am listening to it now, and it's deep. This is probably music that needs a few times through to really be appreciated. I'll probably get more of their stuff. ETA: Now listening to "Triad." Want a REAL sound system for this....like something that'll scare the neighbors.
   

Lest anyone wonder, my tastes in music -- at least what I picked up in my 20s and 30s -- were strongly influenced by my brother, who lived in Seattle on and off throughout the 1990s, and to some small degree was part of the grunge "scene" while he was figuring out what to do with his life.

Comments

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

In the spring of 1973 (my college freshman year) I became a jazz snob & pretty much stopped actively listening to pop music. Jazz is still my favorite musical genre.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

It's funny how what happens in one's late teens/early 20s influences one's musical tastes.

*My* freshman year was taken up by a boy I had a crush on, who insisted that only low-lifes listened to rock/pop, and only jazz "would do" so to speak. When I woke up from the hormonal fog, I didn't want to listen to jazz anymore. Boy broke my heart, and later on died of AIDS, so I guess I'm lucky.

[ratgrl.livejournal.com]

I've heard really excellent things about the new Pearl Jam album. I'd like to pick it up off iTunes sometime soon.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

I like the new Dixie Chicks album okay. But I think that their earlier stuff is more satisfying. I know that they're moving more towards a pop/rock orientation, and away from a country western orientation because their country music audience are a bunch of twig eating assholes. And I agree with their wanting to reward the part of their audience who didn't go nuts when they spouted a political opinion.

But I don't think they're quite there yet, on the pop/rock side. It's good, but as country western, they were great.

[sahiya.livejournal.com]

The drummer from Pearl Jam owns the island across from my grandparents' house on Flathead Lake in Montana. "Pearl Jam watching" has become an actual hobby when we're up there.

[queenortart.livejournal.com]

My music tastes were pretty much fixed by the time I was 25. Joe Jackson, Tori Amos, Suzanne Vega, Janis Ian etc. Although I am prepared to go and listen to absolutely anything live.

I think the only things I really don't like are serious house / garage stuff, very very heavy metal, and 'what time does the tune start' jazz

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

Now that you're over him give jazz another listen. Is there a good jazz radio station in Boston?

[cogitationitis.livejournal.com]

You might like the new Neil Young album. I'd be happy to lend it to you. It has a lot of protest songs on it, though his voice is very gravelly--very much Bob Dylanesque.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

I think it is forever tainted. I tend to dislike pretentious things (hence my dislike of Ani DiFranco, and the whole Lilith Fair crowd. Let's listen to yet another anorexic gurl wail about her lovelife. No thanks.)

We do have a sometimes-jazz station in Boston but I rarely listen to it.

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

I buy CDs too. More convenient, easier to move around, no fears of DRM breaking in the
future, leaving you without the ability to listen to your legally-purchased music. Better
sound too.

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

How do you define pretentious? Does that include everything high-brow (classical music, opera, ballet, modern dance, visual fine arts, literary fiction & poetry, art house cinema & live theater)?

[quietann.livejournal.com]

some of those things are, and some are not, and it varies from piece to piece. Perhaps the problem with jazz is that I am not enough of an aficionado to know what is pretentious and what isn't...

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

Jazz is indeed an acquired taste but like many grown-up pleasures one well worth acquiring.