Music Challenge

pottssteve

Fellow cyclists,

One of the disadvantages of living in Hong Kong is the generally p!ss poor local music available. Most of it is Cantopop nonsense or Cantonese Opera, a truly hideous art form that can't die out fast enough as far as I'm concerned. So I listen to BBC2 on the interweb quite a lot.

When I go on the iTunes I'm faced with a baffling array of artists I've never heard of and so I tend to go for stuff I already know from the 80's or 90's. I would therefore be very grateful if people could recommend either albums or individual songs/artists for me to try out.

I have very broad musical tastes but particularly like music with lyrics as I enjoy a singalong. Favourites include Nick Cave, Rammstein, Johnny Cash, Iron and Wine, Tom Jones and Bic Runga. My most recent purchase was by Elbow. I listen to soul and Motown, rock, and was a huge fan of Indie bands like Sleeper, These Animal Men, Gene, Blur, Echobelly, S*M*A*S*H and Elastica. I'm not a fan of rap, classical or opera.

Can you help me to drag my musical experience into the current century, please?

Cheers,
Steve

Sirius631

My brother worked with Elbow and was often, if not exclusively, their front-of-house live sound engineers until he passed away earlier this year. I have a comedy gold disc for 50 copies sold of their first EP, which he recorded with them. I also have many minidiscs of original live recordings taken straight off the mixing desk.

I adopted my brother's iPhone to help clear up his estate. He had a lot of Doves work on there, as well as Elbow. If you like Elbow you'd probably like Doves. The Elbow guys are good friends with Jimmy Godwin, the Doves front man.

Ben6899

Steve,

Maybe not bringing your musical library up to 2014, but have you tried Rdio.com? There's a free version - with intermittent advertisements. You simply stream music you like and it 'learns' and creates "Steve FM"; a radio station geared to your tastes. You can set it to be as adventurous - or not - as your mood suits.

pottssteve

Hi Guys,

Thank you for the advice so far. I will certainly give them both a try. I have heard of Doves but not listened to any of their stuff. I'm a North Manchester lad so Elbow are a local band for me.

Sirius, please accept my condolences on your brother's passing.

Steve

diamonddog

Have a listen to the latest Foo Fighters and the London Grammar album is vgood IMO, totally different styles to one another but both good.

oscarbudgie

British Sea Power are very good and sometimes sing about bicycles

nicklouse

pottssteve wrote:

So I listen to BBC2 on the interweb quite a lot.

your solution is to listen to BBC6Music.

southdownswolf

nicklouse wrote:

pottssteve wrote:

So I listen to BBC2 on the interweb quite a lot.

your solution is to listen to BBC6Music.

Or 5live tonight - Victoria Pendleton - Mind of a cyclist. Interviews with lots of top cyclists about the psychological aspect of the sport. 8pm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04v5m6c

Not much music, but should be good

mr_goo

Don't bother trying to update your music library, you clearly have good taste if you listen to Rammstein. Here are my suggestions:

If you like Rammstein the below may be of interest

Oomph
Apocolyptica
Deathstars
Eisbrecher
Megaherz

laurentian

nicklouse wrote:

pottssteve wrote:

So I listen to BBC2 on the interweb quite a lot.

your solution is to listen to BBC6Music.

That!!

andy_f

Rival Sons - Great Western Valkyrie.

src1

nicklouse wrote:

pottssteve wrote:

So I listen to BBC2 on the interweb quite a lot.

your solution is to listen to BBC6Music.

+1

6 music's albums of the year here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/article ... -year-2014

pottssteve

Thanks for the suggestions, folks,

Just changed my regular player from Radio 2 to Radio 6 - it was playing "I Can't Live" by Harry Nilsson! Mind you, it's one in the morning UK time so I'm hopeful of something more up to date later in the day. Will certainly have a look at the albums of the year article, thanks. Feel free to keep 'em coming.

Steve

nicklouse

pottssteve wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions, folks,

Just changed my regular player from Radio 2 to Radio 6 - it was playing "I Can't Live" by Harry Nilsson! Mind you, it's one in the morning UK time so I'm hopeful of something more up to date later in the day. Will certainly have a look at the albums of the year article, thanks. Feel free to keep 'em coming.

Steve

It is varied.

Iggy Pop has been doing a residency. mr Garvey has a spot. As does Cerys.

You get a goid mix of oldish and new without the Xfactor crud.

pottssteve

Just heard Tom Odell on the Chris Evans show and bought his album on the back of that. Not bad for 4 quid. I know he's done a John Lewis advert but still....

Steve

laurentian

pottssteve wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions, folks,

Just changed my regular player from Radio 2 to Radio 6 - it was playing "I Can't Live" by Harry Nilsson! Mind you, it's one in the morning UK time so I'm hopeful of something more up to date later in the day. Will certainly have a look at the albums of the year article, thanks. Feel free to keep 'em coming.

Steve

The great thing about 6 Music is that it plays the best old stuff and the best new stuff. Some of the "themed" Cerys Sunday morning shows have music recorded in the 1930s followed by something recorded last week.

The other thing I like about 6 Music is the fact that they don't talk B8ll8cks endlessly about stuff that is of no interest to me. 90% of the talking on 6 Music is about the music, the bands, the tours etc. Not some d!ckhead waxing lyrical about the last celebrity party they went to when they could be playing music.

clickrumble

Smog, Dongs of Sevotion

eric_draven

Team Rock,you can listen online teamrock.com,quite varied on the different aspects of the genre,no commercial adverts either,that is a massive plus to me

mrb123

Arcade Fire.

cc78

I don't buy nearly as much new music as I used to (might be something to do with n+1) but some of the releases I have enjoyed this year are:

Lost in the Dream - The War On Drugs
Alvaays - Alvaays
Atlas - Real Estate
Half The City - St Paul & The Broken Bones
Worship The Sun - Allah-Las

tyred&weary

Bellstop - Karma (Listen here http://bellstop.is/get-karma/)
Kill It Kid - Feet fall Heavy, You Owe Nothing (Listen here - http://www.killitkid.com/video but their website doesn't do them justice)

eric_draven

The Black Keys -- Turn Blue defo worth a listen

Barbarossa

nicklouse wrote:

your solution is to listen to BBC6Music.

+1!!

CHRISNOIR

Not sure if you're into electronic stuff but over the past few years I've been really loving the stuff put out by a record label called Ghost Box. It's been described as "music for schools, cosmic horror stories, library music, English surrealism, and the dark side of psychedelia".

Here's a nice bit of Krautrocky, pastoral, Tommorrows World-soundtrack-circa-1981 ambience courtesy of The Advisory Circle.

onehipwonder

Of the bands i've heard in the last few years, Editors are my faves, so give them a listen.

philcubed

Won't bring you up to date but, I guess you've tried PJ Harvey, 'To bring you my love' and 'stories from the city..' good to start with. Pixies - 'Doolittle', 'Come on Pilgrim'. Arctic Monkeys first two albums. Insect Guide - 'Dark Days and Nights'. The Decemberists - 'The King is dead'.

Graham K

Doves.
Elbow.
Blind Melon.
Catfish and The Bottlemen.
De Le Soul (Still love banging their albums)
Longpigs - She Said
Arcade Fire.
Ting Tings.
Lorde.
Courteeners (from sunny Middleton

bikes`n`guns

Horse Feathers


And the Doves are pretty cool.

If you have not heard them, then the Goo Goo Dolls are good, as are Crowded House.

Could go on all night as I listen to everything.
Have just invested in a Naim Mu-So and the internet radio is amazing.

eric_draven

philcubed wrote:

Won't bring you up to date but, I guess you've tried PJ Harvey, 'To bring you my love' and 'stories from the city..' good to start with. Pixies - 'Doolittle', 'Come on Pilgrim'. Arctic Monkeys first two albums. Insect Guide - 'Dark Days and Nights'. The Decemberists - 'The King is dead'.

To Bring You My Love,and Doolittle,two of my favorite albums

joelsim

Very simple. BBC6 as mentioned and get Shazam on your phone, and Spotify on your computer. Then simply Shazam tunes you like and at the click of a button send them to your Spotify playlist. Job done.

Then when you have time, use Spotify to listen to more of the artists you like and also other 'artists like this'.

pottssteve

Thank you to everyone who has made suggestions. I have been listening to Radio 6 as a change from R2 - there's some interesting music on there. I will keep working through the bands people have named specifically to drag myself relatively up to date (or, by Hong Kong standards, 15 years into the future).

Feel free to keep 'em coming.

Steve