I crave novel music.
September 18, 2009 10:48 PM   Subscribe

I want prog that's not pretentious, indie without the name-dropping, jazz that's not stuck in the 70s, etc. Take the conventions of your favorite genre, and give me acts that defy them but still are in the genre.

So here's the problem: I'm getting genre fatigue--because I listen to so much music, I'm starting to see the ruts that music falls into, where conventions start to become rules, and musicians stop having to think. I'd be very grateful if you could point me to some oddballs and outliers not imposed upon by codified conventions, aside from those that make it musical at all.

Please only moderate screaming.
posted by gabrielbenjamin to Media & Arts (20 answers total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Califone is semi-unclassifiable in a way that's quite awesome. (They're sort of like indie alt-country Americana soaked in cough syrup, then filtered through a radiator banged upon by a cousin of Tom Waits. But that's just one woman's opinion.)
posted by scody at 11:36 PM on September 18, 2009 [1 favorite]


Best answer: "Jazz that's not stuck in the 70's" -- Pat Matheny? If you haven't heard any of his stuff, try "Secret Story". A really amazing album, and it doesn't sound even a little bit like Miles Davis.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:02 AM on September 19, 2009


Rats rats rats... "Pat Matheny" == Pat Metheny (damned typo)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:02 AM on September 19, 2009


Best answer: The Necks are a fabulous improv jazz band from Sydney.
posted by goo at 2:38 AM on September 19, 2009


Best answer: I'm getting genre fatigue--because I listen to so much music, I'm starting to see the ruts that music falls into, where conventions start to become rules, and musicians stop having to think.

Pssssh. As though you're some musicological titan. Everyone feels this way much of time.

Just listen to college radio, that's pretty much what it's all about. I'm biased, but I recommend WRFL any time past 6pm through the early morning (the daytime stuff is moderately less oddball). Listen, if you don't like it, try during a few other times of the week. If RFL doesn't suit you try KCRW (Morning Becomes Eclectic).

And now, some random odd stuff:

Hazmat Modine
Moondog
Steve Reich
Iannis Xenakis
Huun Huur Tu
Stockhausen
Schoenberg
Hella
The Books
Jerry Douglas and VM Bhatt
Terry Riley
posted by phrontist at 2:54 AM on September 19, 2009 [1 favorite]


Best answer: switch to 'classical' for a while- Mozart, Brahms, Bach, Stravinsky, etc.
posted by titanium_geek at 4:35 AM on September 19, 2009


I'll throw in Calexico...still haven't tired of "Feast of Wire", and that came out in 2003.

Here's another trick: listen to your music REALLY LOUD or really soft. You'll hear different stuff thatway.
posted by notsnot at 5:57 AM on September 19, 2009


Try some Dj Rupture. Or float around here.
posted by bravowhiskey at 6:36 AM on September 19, 2009


Best answer: There's some incredible jazz fuzed with world music being created right now. I particularly like:

Rudresh Mahanthappa--Kinsmen or Apti jazz/south Indian

Amir ElSaffar--Two Rivers jazz/traditional Iraqi music
posted by Zebtron at 6:59 AM on September 19, 2009


Best answer: For prog that's not pretentious you want:

* Everything by Porcupine Tree
* The new album "Aim and Ignite" by Fun
* "The Storm" by Karnataka
* The first two Procol Harum records (perfect fusion of prog and the blues, which seems impossible but they did it)

Also, a couple of recent albums that defy categories of any sort, both of which are 5-stars in my book: "Come back to the five and dime Bobby Dee Bobby Dee" by Benjy Ferree, and "Coming up easy" by Paolo Nutini.
posted by jbickers at 7:08 AM on September 19, 2009


Best answer: Dungen is pretty entertaining and crosses genres.
posted by jamnbread at 8:06 AM on September 19, 2009


I have been suffering from similar fatigue, and this year made two great discoveries:

1) Frank Zappa. Of course I had heard bits and pieces before, but before diving into his catalogue I wasn't aware of just how groundbreaking he really was. After spending a long time listening to him it can be hard to return to "regular" music. Good places to start: Absolutely Free, We're Only In It For The Money, Roxy & Elsewhere; Civilization Phaze III if you want something really out there.

2) Cardiacs, an amazing prog-punk band that has been around for 30 years smashing styles together and exploding them. I can't imagine how they were able to fly under my radar for so long. It's really hard to find any of their CDs, but luckily they're all over YouTube. Some examples: Tarred and Feathered, Jibber and Twitch, Bellyeye.
posted by dfan at 9:41 AM on September 19, 2009


Boredoms
posted by paperzach at 10:15 AM on September 19, 2009


Best answer: Breadwinner is instrumental mathy metal from the 90s that is pretty much one of a kind.

The Apples are an Israeli jazz funk brass thing.

Georgia Anne Muldrow is a jazz singer, for lack of better description.
posted by john m at 10:48 AM on September 19, 2009


Best answer: Tool has been called prog rock frequently, but doesn't fit that pigeonhole very well.

Steely Dan has been called all sorts of things that don't encompass their work.

k.d. lang has been called country and alt-country, but those don't describe many of her albums.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 10:55 AM on September 19, 2009


Best answer: Amorphous Androgynous' more recent albums have so many different styles and sounds that it makes any categorization meaningless. Especially The Isness. It puts them quite far from what they used to be called; 'electronica'.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 11:00 AM on September 19, 2009


indie without the name-dropping

What does this mean.
posted by ludwig_van at 11:11 AM on September 19, 2009


Best answer: I was just at a gig for Me and the Grownups that was part classical, part longform poetry, part jazz/blues, part chamber pop.
posted by divabat at 2:18 PM on September 19, 2009


Response by poster: @phrontist: Actually, I DJ for my alma mater's radio station (although I'm on hiatus for health reasons). College radio is cool, but in my experience it can suffer from mismanagement--I mean, we are mostly college students. But I digress...

I admit that "pssssh" was well-deserved. My show is mostly the new stuff that comes into the station's possession, and when I compare the amount of stuff I've played in five years to the size of the library, it's tiny, and that library couldn't be more than 0.1% of all recorded music. In my whole lifetime, I will never deserve the appellation "musicological titan." [tl;dr: Touche. :P]

@ludwig_van: I misspoke. There's no name-dropping in the music, but indie heads seem to love to do it. It seems like there's a few old-guard bands that every new act gets measured against: Just successfully integrate the sound of one or more of them, and you're golden, unless you also draw upon more mainstream music. And for a genre whose exponents constantly claim immunity from the cookie-cutter approach of major-label music, that bothers me. I guess I just want less fanwank and a broader pool of influences.
posted by gabrielbenjamin at 3:21 PM on September 19, 2009


Best answer: Prog that's not pretentious? I highly recommend Kevin Gilbert. I think everyone should listen to more Kevin Gilbert.

Also, if I can be excused for what is not actually self-linking anymore: I used to run a little indie record label, and two of my former artists may be right up your alley: klezmer-movie-music-British-invasion-pop band Zircus and amazing avant-cabaret-experimental-pop artist Amy X Neuburg. (Note: I don't get a dime out of any sales they get now; I'm just still a huge fan and happy to turn more people on to their amazing music.)
posted by kristi at 10:13 PM on September 20, 2009


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