What's playing on the stereo?
 

Taking a cue from the "In The Crowd" section, I thought I'd start a topic dedicated to listening preferences. I figure it to be a good conversation and educational experience.

So, I bought not one, but two new CDs today. Since relocating to the East Coast 2 years ago, I haven't been as much of a CD collector as I used to be. I believe these are the 7th and 8th CDs I've bought this year, which doubles the amount I bought in 2000.

Now then...a review of each:

Ozomatli-"Embrace the Chaos": Ozomatli burst out of Los Angeles in 1998 as a 10-piece band mixing funk, hip-hop, Latin, and rock music together along with the English and Spanish languages and activism. 2001 brings them back on wax as a 7-piece collective, but still pumping out the jams. On the first record, Chali 2na provided English raps while Raul Pacheco and Asdru Sierra provided Spanish lead vocals. Chali has since left (as the Jurassic 5 project blew up) leaving Kanetic Source (essentially the 8th member) to provide the rhymes. While not bad, Chali had a deep booming voice that was unmistakable. The hip-hop element, while still prevalent, is not as deep as it was on the first record. The band uses more sound bites on this record as well as guest artists, like Common. This record doesn't seem to gel together as well as the first one, nor does it seem to have as many feel-good songs. However, it is titled "Embrace the Chaos," and is a worthwhile CD.

Although the title of the CD has been known by fans for some time now, it is ironic that the record was released on September 11th.

Jamiroquai-"A Funk Odyssey": It is my opinion that Jay Kay is the white Stevie Wonder, because he DOES sound so much like the legend. And this record sounds like it might have been made by Stevie Wonder in the 70s. Unlike their earlier releases, this album seems to have a bit of an edge, as noticed in the hard guitars on a handful of songs. This album also seems to be more negative than their previous albums. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but perhaps it is a more realistic attitude of sorts. Jamiroquai's albums have always had some sort of social message though. And it cannot be denied that Jamiroquai make great videos ("Virtual Insanity," "Canned Heat"), including the new single, "Little L." I cannot stop myself from hitting the repeat button for this song. Great record...

Alanis Morisette - Jagged little pill
Found this again a couple of weeks ago, damn, it still rocks!! Powerful stuff.


Radiohead - All. THese ppl rock, its tends to be my music i can work with, nothing liek passing an evening owrking on flash/photoshop listening to Packed like sardines into a can.

Radiohead is just the consummate band. I don't know what it is about them, but they simply make great records. I don't have the 2 newest albums, but I loved "OK Computer." Thom Yorke is a freak though...heh.

Alanis...I think her last album was rather underrated. (How the hell can you top "Jagged Little Pill"?) But "SFIJ" had some great songs on it...I think I like that one better than "Jagged Little Pill."

Man oh man, I cannot get enough of this new Jamiroquai CD. There is a song called "Corner of the Earth" that is simply fantastic. It's a shame they don't get more airplay here in the States (other than MTV). They're kind of hard to categorize, which makes them unfriendly to radio. They're not quite alternative, but not quite top 40ish either.

<i>OK Computer</i> is definitely the best album ever. The fact that it's a commercial success knocks me over.

"Pablo Honey" was a good album. Unfortunately, it came out during the middle of the grunge era (1993). Rather than fade into obscurity, they made "The Bends," which may have very well been the best album put out in 1995.

I've heard some of "Kid A" and "Amnesiac," and quite frankly, I'm ashamed I don't own either of them.

But "OK Computer"...that album just makes me go "Wow!" It just shows how talented they are as musicians. And Thom Yorke has that mumbling, tortured kind of voice. There are certain vocalists that are just immediately distinguishable: Peter Garrett (of Midnight Oil), Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder (of Pearl Jam), and Thom Yorke come directly to mind.

Jagged little pill was by far the best, particuary i love the first and last tracks..

I have the latest two, not the ones before. Was intoduced by a friend of mine(same person who introduced me to snog) too late, must lay hands on it some time.

KidA really gave them limelight and Amnesiac i went to great lengths to get months before its release.

Last album I bought was for my friend's birthday: Tenacious D's self-title. I haven't heard it yet, but I've been told of some things. He's going to burn me a copy, will report later.

Ironically, this has been the week where the stereo hasn't been going. My brother came in from the city last week, and I left my player and CDs in his car. School bus trips, study halls, coding, all with no music except for the few MP3s I could scrounge from the recesses of my HD.

I've been busy downloading though. The company that controls most of the radio stations on the East Coast (ClearChannel I think it's called, or MediaChannel, I gotta remember it one of these days) put out a BIG list of songs that they were considering pulling because of "questionable lyrics". Here's some of the songs, guess what the question was:

Tom Petty - "Free Fallin"
Beastie Boys - "Sabotage"
The Bangles - "Walk Like An Egyptian"
The Clash - "Rock The Casbah"
Frank Sinatra - "New York, New York"

So, as such, I took the ones I like (the above are some), and am making a "Questionable Lyrics" mix. I'd be done already if my brother hadn't shanghaied my burner for going on 3 weeks. Bastard...

~Mike

What's on the stereo?
 

I'm at work at the moment. I've got the radio playing on a cheap little radio/tape player I've got sitting on top of my computer. I'm listening to Triple J, which for everyone other than Jaguar, is the national youth station, run by the ABC, which is government funded. After 9am I'll probably put a tape on, because once the breakfast team is off, the station becomes pretty boring. They have a small (but increasing) selection of songs that get played about 10 times a day and none of them are good. It gets pretty frustrationg after a while.

There's always Triple M, though, which is a bit of a joke in Melbourne. For years they've been the yobbo rock station, playing mostly AC/DC, Van Halen, Midnight Oil, Cold Chisel and Led Zeppelin. They'd also play quite a bit of Nirvana and Pearl Jam, just to keep up with modern rock. Now, they've realised that their target market of 28-40 year old males is just too small, so they've started playing a lot of other stuff. They now play a whole heap of modern, new, alternative rock stuff like American Hi Fi, Blink 182, Limp Bizkit, (who all suck, IMO) and heaps more new stuff including a lot of Creed. They even play Fat Boy Slim now.

Anyway, I listen to a lot of Tool these days. Lateralus spends very little time in it's case, as does Aenima. They're the main things I've been listening to for the past 6 months or so. Those two, plus White Pony and Mer De Noms are probably the CDs I've listened to the most for, well, more than a year, really.

I also put RATM's Evil Empire back in the stereo for a while. It's a good album, although it took me a while to get into when I first bought it.

I gave Metallica's Reload a little spin last week. Well, two songs (Memory Remains and Devil's Dance).

OK Computer is definitely an amazing album. It spends a lot of time in the CD player. Kid A is awesome too, but I haven't gotten into it like I did OK Computer.

I'm planning on buying System Of A Down's new album soon. They are one of the most creative bands around and I just wish they'd come to Australia.

System of a Down are alright. I was watching MTV2 a few weekends ago and saw their new video. It wasn't bad, but the song threw me for a loop. It was really intense, then got all melodic...I thought something was wrong with me. Then I saw the new Slipknot video, and that threw me for a loop as well...

Right now... EELS -Beautiful Freak. freeby a few years ago for being able to read the call letters off the side of the van when the DJ asked, "Whats the best rock station in town?"

I still can't listen to Alanis M. She was on high rotation with Pill for a good two years. The neat thing about her is that this was her second or third makeover. Apparently, back home in Canada she started as one of those awful teeney bopper mall acts. But you never know eventually...

In the peekup truck soundtrack, O Brother where ar't thou? How you city boys like dat der ting?

What was the deal with all the singles of Pill? There were, like, seven singles off a 12-track album. That's bloody ridiculous. They were mostly good songs, but it got a bit tiring. I might have bought the album if I hadn't heard the whole thing on the radio.

The Eels rock, though.

Sycamore:
I haven't seen the clip for either of those two songs. In Australia, if you haven't got Pay TV (which is too crap to be worth it, IMO) you have to watch Rage to see video clips. Rage is great, but it starts at midnight on Friday and Saturday nights, and who the hell is watching TV at that time? It's great to put on when you get home at 3:00 in the morning, but otherwise, I rarely get to see it.

I can't say I'm a fan of the new Slipknot song (or other new songs I've heard by them). It's just more of the same full-of-shit super-aggressive schlock that made them so popular. I went and saw them last year when they toured, and bought the first album, but I'm sick of them now. Metal has gone to shit just like the rest of the music world - too many bands that sound the same and act all aggressive, with stupid face paint or some shit like that.

just so you know, that list is bullshit :) and it isn't backed by clear channel. a single dj put together the list of things that he and a few other dj's might avoid in this time. but it never came to light, and it wasn't the whole company...

That's all right, though. There are plenty of other reasons to hate Clear Channel.

As for music... hell, I haven't bought music for a few months now, and I certainly can't find jack squat on the radio any more (my radio has four presets set; WYSP for Opie & Anthony, WIP for the twelve minutes per month where they actually talk sports like they're supposed to, WXPN for the Saturday night blues show when I'm in town, and KYW once in a blue moon for news).

jeff. I think my last purchase was a Tubes live compilation.

What's on?
 

The Raybeats' "Guitar Beat". On PVC Records. Going around at 33 1/3 rpm.

I think this is a 1981 release. If you buy the CD re-issue you get "Holiday Inn Spain" and a couple of other bonus tracks, all of which are top-shelf, but the LP sounds better.

alright. here's what's getting a huge amount of play over my speakers.

legend - bob marley and the wailers - *great* album. or compilation. whatever you want to call it. it doesn't have all the best songs on it, but all the songs that are on it are good. and some of the best are there. so i tend to listen to it a lot.

lateralus - tool - uhm, hooked on it since may. it doesn't even go in its case. i have 3 copies (2 of the "lateralis" and 1 of the "lateralus"), plus a burnt copy and jenni's copy, which stays in the car. so at any given time, i have 1 at work, 1 in the car and 1 at home. it's almost constantly playing.

down on the upside - soundgarden - can't stop listening to it. it's a great album to put on repeat 'cause it's not too long and it's not too short. and all the songs are good. the ones i don't like as much, i tend to tune out. it makes my work day go faster. well. not really. but it makes it SEEM to go faster.