<the other one disappeared with a title but no text: luckily, I saved a copy. Here 'tis.>
Pythonites – Ha! Psych! Move on, it’s not what you thought. Instead – it’s listening to music that’s a totally different genre from your usual.
As I’ve mentioned a truly annoying number of times, my current commute is a tad over an hour each way, so I listen to a lot of CDs in the car. I do okay on finding new and interesting stuff to listen to – lots of African dance music, Brazilian and Cuban jazz, been getting more into blues recently – and I make a darned fine mix CD, I must admit.
Sometimes, though, I’m just sick to death of everything I’ve got, and haven’t yet found my new favorite CD. And sometimes I’m just need something … completely different.
On a whim, I grabbed a couple of Beethoven CDs on my way out of the house this morning – so was rocking out to piano concertos all the way up. #3 in C Minor – one of my favorite pieces of music evah! #5 – hell, Napoleon couldn’t be all bad if he could inspire a piece like that.
When you desperately need something completely different, musically, what do you grab?
I usually listen to Indie/emo-ish rock and some classic hard rock/prog rock, but when I’m sick of that and want some different music I put on a smooth jazz channel. If I knew of a good baroque or early music station I’d put on that. I rarely grab a totally different CD from my selection because by definition if I like the genre enough to buy it it’s not “completely different”
I don’t listen to much classical music or opera - but once in a while I’ll pull out my Gilbert & Sullivan CDs. I’ve even gotten my husband attached to HMS Pinafore.
I start going through Billboard’s lists of the top 100 albums and Amazon’s new releases to see what I don’t recognize. I’ll test the album or song out, see if I like anything. If I do, I’ll try more albums from that singer or band.
I usually find something worth listening to that I never would have tried otherwise.
That’s probably not going to send you to a different genre, though, Lionne, is it? I’m not talking about finding new albums – but when you listen to something totally opposite from the type of music you listen to day in and day out.
So lets see, twickster fooled me. Curses, I should know better, her name is as obvious as a Rowling character.
I mainly listen to classic rock and blues. My change-ups would be some old Broadway music like West Side Story or Godspell, anything by Gershwin, but especially Rhaspody in Blue & American in Paris. I really enjoy Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition by Barry Douglas, Mozart, Holst’s The planets, etc.
Holy molly. Knocks my socks off. Rock’n Roll didn’t die, it just took a holiday to Brighton. Almost all their songs are their own. Just a few covers. (Which is a Very Bad Idea, their “These Boots Are Made For Walking” is a “good” example of why covers are bad.) And since this is the 2000s, many of the lyrics and topics are suitably modern.
I suggest “Pull Shapes” on the page linked above. On their album, my fave is “ABC”. (But then I’m a geek.) There’s also a song called “The Burning Ambition Of Early Diuretics” that is very good despite the title.
If anyone knows of other groups doing their own classic Rock’n Roll type music, I’d appreciate a link.
[Banky]
I got a weird thing for girls who say [del]“Aboot”[/del] “Dahnce.”
[/Banky]
Not quite what you were looking for, but for retro classic 70s hard rock goodness, I like Wolfmother [warning: Flash, pop-ups ‘n’ stuff]. The lyrics are silly, but classic rock lyrics were pretty silly to begin with. Here there’s no pretension and the guitar riffs are impeccable.
For retro 60s psychedelic rock goodness, I go for The Black Angels. They’ve even got some anti-war songs going on, the war being Iraq. Click on “Downloads” and check out the “Black Grease” video.
When I want something different, I turn to Eminem’s ‘‘Eminem Show’’ album. This music is completely unlike anything else I own. I might whip out some Mary J. Blige or Jennifer Lopez or something as well.
There’s a show on Sunday nights on KBCO called the Groove Show that plays very eclectic music, the vast majority of which I haven’t heard before. There’s also an AM station at 1190 (don’t know the call letters) that is always playing something weird and (usually) listenable.
When I take my laptop to the library on weekends to do research, I pluck a few CDs from the rack* and listen to them. This weekend I discovered Opie Gone Bad, whom I liked, and Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings who blew me away!
I’m mostly a rocker (progressive rock, pretentious album rock) with forays into classical, but every now and then I’ll be in a different mood and put on something bluesey-folksey, like Michael Hurley.
