OT: Watcha Listenin' To? Part VIIII: Nine lives, cat's eyes

Appleyard

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Tinariwen, Mdou Moctar, Bab L' Bluz and Etran de L'Air releasing albums within a few months of each other.

So funny that Blues music is kind of coming full circle.

From Africa originally and a combo of Islamic and Sub-saharan music tradition... to the USA from which rock and roll evolved... and now some of the most interesting contemporary blue and rock music is being made in Africa.
 
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Shrike

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First, going back to Human League’s Fascination. Human league’s founding members created a production Co. and formed a side project with a friend and named it Heaven 17 after the band listed by Alex from A Clockwork Orange in the record store scene. Seemed logical to me.


I saw Bowie once with NIN at the Hershey outdoor stadium. They performed together during the encore. Reznor head to toe black leather Jet black hair covered in sweat. Bowie head to toe white leather platinum blonde hair and groomed like a runway model. Singing together inside the same spotlight, fantastic image.

A favorite Bowie cover:
 
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mja

Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt
Jan 7, 2005
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The XPN Countdown is on and pretty much right away they got to one of my top ten (& @Captain Dave Poulin's as well, I'm sure.)

Coming in at #880, this one was a constant in our lives from 2005 on, featured heavily in some family videos I made back then. At the time I was a new father with an adorable baby girl. That little girl is now a sophisticated young woman. Wild.



They haven't hit any of my other top ten yet, but there have been a few of my honorable mentions, including this gem that was short-listed:

 

GKJ

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Finally able to listen to the end of the countdown for a while. A bit concerned about the lack of Taylor Swift. Not because I want to hear it, but I’m worried about how much is to come.
 

GKJ

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Discuss.
 

JojoTheWhale

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Lists are lists. I get the idea. You're never going to just agree with something and we're ultimately talking about popularity. But "Hey Ya" being below those two on what this list set out to do is every bit as bad as every Rolling Stone or NME abomination that pissed everyone off.

Everything else in the Top 11 and most of the top 20 I would understand being as high as 1. Even the Springsteen thing, which does absolutely nothing for me, I would get because of the market. Those two?! :laugh:

Did anyone ever get around to making their list?
 
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mja

Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt
Jan 7, 2005
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Well, 7-Nation Army was a perfectly fine song and all, until it got overplayed to hell and back and then over again. I also used to have to hear a bunch of teenagers learn the guitar by learning the riff to that song, so I'm actively angry about it for personal reasons.

Mr. Brightside's inclusion can only be out of irony, it's only for karoake at this point. I don't really know Jason Isbell or Brandi Carlile. I'm not sure I know that Springsteen song. I can't stand the U2 song, it's essentially elevator music. Uptown Funk is whatever. All of the other songs I get, even if I'm not a huge fan of some of them.

Hey Ya is the indisputable #1 for me. Maps also made it to my list, although it had to battle it out with a couple of other songs from that early 00's NYC scene. I'll post my list for scrutiny in a bit.
 
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GKJ

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Well, 7-Nation Army was a perfectly fine song and all, until it got overplayed to hell and back and then over again. I also used to have to hear a bunch of teenagers learn the guitar by learning the riff to that song, so I'm actively angry about it for personal reasons.

Mr. Brightside's inclusion can only be out of irony, it's only for karoake at this point. I don't really know Jason Isbell or Brandi Carlile. I'm not sure I know that Springsteen song. I can't stand the U2 song, it's essentially elevator music. Uptown Funk is whatever. All of the other songs I get, even if I'm not a huge fan of some of them.

Hey Ya is the indisputable #1 for me. Maps also made it to my list, although it had to battle it out with a couple of other songs from that early 00's NYC scene. I'll post my list for scrutiny in a bit.
I’m trying to retroactively decide what it would’ve been. I was limiting myself to one per band and my YYY song is always Heads Will Roll
 
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JojoTheWhale

"You should keep it." -- Striiker
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Holy shit. I would have lost every dollar I had.

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I was looking for something else and saw this. Everyone that voted for it is welcome here anytime.

Brandi Carlile.

I had the same reaction I did for Star Wars. That was fine. Wait, what do you mean it's an all-time classic?
 
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GKJ

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I actually have a bit of a different relationship with Brandi Carlile in that I became a fan sort of on the valley of her career in terms of exposure, which is after The Story and before By the Way, I forgive you. But if you listen to XPN like I have for 17 years now, they have always been behind her and the band

I was actually surprised The Story wasn’t #1, especially when Rolling in the Deep was not (it was #1 when they did this same countdown in 2011). I said I wanted to have had voted for #1, and would not have. If you remember, The Story was #4 on their all time list of women. I figured all the old hippies that vote for Joni Mitchell would show out for her. But it seems like they’ve managed to have a larger representation of people who were born after 1970.
 
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mja

Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt
Jan 7, 2005
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Lucy the Elephant's Belly
The Obvious:

1. Hey Ya - Outkast

It won't be denied. As soon as that beat hits, things start happening to your body that you can't control. It only gets wilder from there.

2. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels) - Arcade Fire
I don't know if there's a song that ever worked a metaphor better. It felt like a statement of purpose for one of the classic albums of the century so far.

3. Wolf Like Me - TV on the Radio
A howling bit of lust. It brings the house down and makes me want to do things.

4. Idioteque - Radiohead
If there's a song that better encapsulates the century so far, I don't know what it is. It's also the song / album that got me back into Radiohead, after I missed the boat on OK Computer.

5. This Modern Love - Bloc Party
It's a perfect guitar pop song. Technicolor, as Kele Okereke described that first Bloc Party album, which is an all-timer.

6. Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Captures the sound of a heart breaking in a way few other songs ever have.

7. Archie Marry Me - Alvvays
Irresistible big pop hook. Heavenly female vocals. Noisy feedback-laden guitars. All of my favorite things, done perfectly.

Sleepers:

8. 2 Wrongs Make 1 Right - Mogwai




Cinematic, sweeping, somehow conveys a compelling epic saga without any (audible) words. I was obsessed with it for a long time.

9. In the Dark Places - PJ Harvey



I joked last year that I would just spam PJ next time around. I didn't do that, but she needs to be included. Her Mercury Prize-winning Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea was well represented on the countdown. Her other Mercury Prize-winning album, Let England Shake, was not. It's chock full of songs that wouldn't be out of place on this list, but this one is the most harrowing. Somehow when that bridge hits, I'm suddenly in a trench--cold, tired, and afraid.

10. Middle America - Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks



Malkmus at his best, sweet melodies cascading into one another, throwing out gems that are both cleverly amusing and emotionally-resonant. Will always be a delight.
 

GKJ

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Feb 27, 2002
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Alvvays is awesome. I’ve seen them twice even though it’s basically two different bands.

I would go to In Rainbows and probably 15 Step for Radiohead, if only because that was new at the time I made XPN my radio station. But it was also the album where I told myself I need to listen to more albums.

I wouldn’t have voted for Hey Ya, but it’s so ubiquitous like Seven Nation Army. I think I can sing along the whole song. I mean, the whole thing.

One song, and I would’ve voted for it, to not make it is Strange Condition by Pete Yorn, even weirder because he played their festival this year.
 
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