Megaband suggestions
Hey strangers.
This was originally going to be a PM to the user "nämlös" who has strikingly similar musical preferences to mine. (400 Slag -- the greatest song of all time + likes the Lifeblood LP by Manic Street Preachers)
But then I thought, why not make it public? We all have strikingly similar taste in music -- kent. Maybe we should try to introduce some bands to each other on this forum? Do it in earnest. Like really take some time to think what people who listen to kent are missing out on that you've learned to like. Hefty, great, life period defining bands with huge back catalogues that we wouldn't otherwise take the time to learn. (The best groups take effort and give entire worlds in return). For example I started listening to Mew which I never would have done if people on the kent forum didn't recommend it. Mew are not a tier 1 band for me but they are still tremendously good and they have one classic album -- "No More Stories Are Told Today...". Mew were also pretty difficult to learn, but I'm glad I did. The only reason I put in the effort was because I knew people who like kent really dig it. It means something to them -- so there's got to be something there.
So -- here are three bands I think you all might not have dug yourself into yet. And that I'm sure you will like if you do. Music takes patience, especially the good kind, and these reward patience:
British Sea Power.
This band has it all. Immense, but tasteful instrumentation, beautiful use of sweeping orchestra, clever and obscure and sometimes near perfect lyrics with a lot of references. They really know language. They have two truly special singers who convey emotion in a very stylish way. A cheap but effective way to introduce British Sea Power is: a thinking man's Arcade Fire.
They're frustrating at first, nearly impenetrable, because their sound is all over the place (some of their best music is just not very well recorded) and their lyrics are truly esoteric. But once you learn them, British Sea Power have three classic level good albums and three interesting ones, great b-sides and rarities galore. And they have something special too, that even kent doesn't have. They're the nicest, friendliest, downright sweetest people ever to form a rock band. And it shows from all their songs. They're sharp and emotionally raw without ever turning to self pity or nastiness. A very rare thing indeed. And atop all that, they're mysterious as fuck. There's something there that doesn't fit into words. Some strange epicness "you think you know but you don't". It took me years to learn to love them, now they're my biggest hope for Best Band In The World after kent is ending. BSP is in full creative bloom right now, their last album was their best and you can trust them to go on for at least a decade.
Key album: Machineries of Joy
Good introduction track: Machineries of Joy (Edit: I feel like I might have misrepresented them with the moody one I had here before)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHUes0dGjUI
Kashmir.
People call them shit like "the danish Radiohead". Maybe they're right. If British Sea Power is a vastly more soulful, more special Arcade Fire then Kashmir is what I always wanted Radiohead to be. They're cool instead of annoying, but they're musicality is just as skyscraping. Truly gigantic musical muscle there. They have the most technically capable singer -- I think -- since Robert Plant. Kashmir had a long-long climb to greatness, they started out really bad in the 90s. With them you have to listen to their three latest albums: No Balance Palace, Tresspassers and especially E.A.R -- which is just spellbinding. E.A.R is one of those huge story-albums that becomes a world of its own.
At first I had a real hard time getting into Kasmir because of their chord changes. Oh boy do they have a lot of chord changes! You know that song where a really good intro is playing, then a really good verse comes along but with different chords. It has you worried. This is not what I'm used to. Don't screw the beautiful intro up guys. But okay, the verse sounds good too, just different. Then the whole thing wonders off into a bridge that has EVEN MORE chords and after that the chorus is a completely different song with two parts and -- you guessed it -- both parts have different chords. They're the anti-kent in that way. But once you learn to follow the singer's voice through all those chord changes, Kashmir is one of the most educating bands you'll ever listened to. It's made me a better singer. Oh, and they're pretty sexy too. There's something sexy about Kashmir. Even slightly... evil dare I say. Also, Kashmir are the world's best live band. Again -- better than Radiohead live. (If they haven't split up, information is scarce on them)
Key album: E.A.R
Good introduction track: Blood Beech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOg_C1XWWEE
Einstürzende Neubaten
These German industrialists have made music for thirty six years and getting to know them is a lifelong process WELL WORTH TAKING. They are up there with the absolute greatest musicians of all time. I think every major culture has one huge band. The Soviet union had Kino, Sweden has Kent. Germany has Einstürzende Neubauten. It's never too late to get into them, they're last four albums are all very accessable. I'd say Neubauten is the "highest brow" you can get -- with minimum effort. At first they seem like the seriousest, most European band in the world: lyrics mostly in german, but also in english, french and even italian, 12 minute songs, scrap metal instruments they've made themselves, heavy duty poetry, performance art, spoken word. But they're actually really showy and instantly likable. Their high brow antics are all in service of intellectual fireworks and great humor, plus their singer Blixa Bargeld has that soothing Leonhard Cohen timber everyone loves. (If Leonhard Cohen could also scream like a banshee)
If Neubauten is something you've just heard of in passing but been too intimidated to get into, get Alles Wieder Offen or Ende Neu. These two albums are really easy, nice, well recorded albums with very showy tracklists that have absolute superhits on them.
Another reason to like Neubauten is that they're emotional in a different way to almost all other music. In a way unemotional, but at the same time HUGE and filled with grandeur. Neubauten has always had one aim: TO BE NO PART OF IT. And under “it” they mean “everything, the world, politics, love, you name it.” It's quite a tall order but after 36 years it's clear they succeeded. Listening to Neubauten literally makes you a stronger, wiser person who gives less shits about hearbreak, mourning and the woeful state of politics. If British Sea Power are a thinking man's Arcade Fire and Kashmir are Radiohead without the, you know, shitty Radiohead... then Einstürzende Neubauten tower above both Leonhard Cohen and Nick Cave.
Their lyricist Blixa Bargeld is the quintessential cast iron poet of pop music. His dada techniques and immense evocations of Jesus-like paradox-thinking make lesser wordsmiths like Bob Dylan appear downright banal and sentimental. Listen to how Blixa turns a phrase overheard in the market queue – “you will find me if you want me in the garden unless it's pouring down with rain” – into a sentiment of biblical deluge proportions.
Key Album: Alles Wieder Offen.
Good introduction track: The Garden
https://vimeo.com/36556349
Okay, so that was me, I like to be thorough but you don't have to be, just names and a couple of words are fineBut the gist here is to suggest huge, sprawling back catalogue bands. Because, you know, kent ends but life goes on.
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Ursprungligen postat av Kurvitz
