Fall in love with sound

June 13, 2007 8:56 PM

Looking for new music to get me going. Something somewhere around the bands "Soul Coughing" and "Sigur Ros". If anyone listens to & loves these guys like me, can you please help me find some new bands to love. Or really any great music anyone can suggest. Thanks everyone.
posted by nintendo to media & arts (35 comments total)

Godspeed You Black Emperor are the Siegfried to Sigur Ros's metaphorical, music world Roy.

Sometimes they put punctuation in their name at random but they're good anyways.
posted by Simon! at 9:04 PM on June 13, 2007

Try Shout Out Out Out Out!, a Canadian band.
posted by LobsterMitten at 9:06 PM on June 13, 2007

Mike Doughty has gone solo. And blogs about it. Do a search for him.
posted by ryecatcher at 9:08 PM on June 13, 2007

There are four major post rock bands: Sigur Ros, Mogwai, Godspeed You Black Emperor!, and Explosions in the Sky. All of those but Sigur Ros have rare to no vocals.

I don't know much about Slint, but I somewhat suspect you'd like them. They're post rockish and the track I can remember well had spoken word, I believe, which serves the Soul Coughing angle.
posted by abcde at 9:27 PM on June 13, 2007

What is it about Sigur Ros and Soul Coughing that you like, exactly? It seems like the elements that they share include quirkiness and eclecticism, and based on that I think you might like Cibo Matto. You might also like Gorillaz. Hell, even if you don't, their website is a lot of fun.
posted by infinitywaltz at 9:28 PM on June 13, 2007

Arcade Fire!
posted by subatomiczoo at 9:36 PM on June 13, 2007

Gorillaz is [parts of] Blur, FYI.
posted by ChasFile at 9:47 PM on June 13, 2007

I know it's cheesy to recommend my own site but the reason I started it was for precisely this purpose.
Just check out some bands and download an mp3 or two, you'll certainly find something you'll like.
There's a Godspeed track on there right now, but also check out the Secret Machines, Asobi Seksu, Psychic Ills, Comets on Fire, and Howard Hello, which all have mp3s up right now on the front page.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 10:40 PM on June 13, 2007

Gorillaz is actually just Damon Albarn (vox, instruments) and Jamie Hewlett (art), plus plenty of guest musicians, of which I don't think the rest of Blur have special primacy, if they've contributed at all.
posted by abcde at 10:53 PM on June 13, 2007

Well, you picked to bands that don't have much in common in my taxonomy, but here goes:

Flaming Lips
Tortoise
Broken Social Scene
Beck
Talk Talk
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! (first album)
Komeda
Jim O'Rourke's Eureka
The Sea and Cake
Stereolab
Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges' Clube de Esquina, and if you like that, Milton Nascimento's Clube de Esquina 2.
posted by hydrophonic at 10:54 PM on June 13, 2007

Boredoms
Cake

possibly Ween
posted by contraption at 11:09 PM on June 13, 2007

on the topic of Godspeed you! Black emperor (this is the third possible way to spell their punctuation-defying name), check out A Silver Mount Zion, which is so similar, it has some of the same musicians in it.

Also, check out Brian Eno. His stuff ranges from very 'normal' to very 'ambient'. (Music for Airports (Ambient 1) is a commonly reccomended Eno at 'very ambient', Another Green World is a good midway point, and probably the album you'd like the most. And Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) is the best of his 'normal rock music' fare.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 11:44 PM on June 13, 2007

Also throwing Saxon Shore out there for post rock. They are superb.
posted by phaded at 11:55 PM on June 13, 2007

I recommend Uncut magazine, because of the (usually excellent) free CDs that you get, many of which cover a specific genre or movement. I've found several artists through those CDs. The suggestions upthread are cool, too.

Try Grandaddy, Eels or Sparklehorse.
posted by chuckdarwin at 12:23 AM on June 14, 2007

if you enjoy the hip poppery of Soul Coughing, and the calm, simple texture of Sigur Ros, please enjoy Boards of Canada's first record, "Music Has A Right To Children," and their last record, "The Campfire Headphase."

Another connected band to Sigur Ros (they've recorded, toured and collaborated with) is The Album Leaf. This might be the closest match in between your two bands.

other greats in this vein:
Pinback
Avalanches
Massive Attack
American Analog Set
and the wonderful John Vanderslice
posted by blastrid at 12:26 AM on June 14, 2007

Oh, and check out the ixmae blog, which will have alot of reccomendations you will like, Especially if you work in reverse chrono order (they posted alot more ambient and post-rockish stuff at the beginning).
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 12:33 AM on June 14, 2007

I would check out this site. I've found a number of good albums here and this guy seems to have similar tastes to you.
posted by thelongcon at 12:34 AM on June 14, 2007

M83
posted by slow graffiti at 12:39 AM on June 14, 2007

Consider this list a weird addendum to hydrophonic's more, uh, timely list. Give 'em a try, though. You never know.

A Hawk and A Hacksaw They have a crappy flash website but you can listen to some tunes there.
Battles Try the full-length, Mirrored. No, maybe try the EPs first. I don't know.
Q and Not U Try No Kill No Beep Beep.

A Band of Bees They're just The Bees in the UK. Definitely try Free The Bees. Specifically, you need to hear Chicken Payback. [Official myspace]

G Love
Fun Lovin' Criminals

Cerebral Corps
Pixies
Everybody Uh Oh

Pinback I feel like I say this one a lot, but they're definitely easy to fall in love with.
posted by carsonb at 12:58 AM on June 14, 2007

Coupla more:

Pascal Comelade Live on the tube, and some great tunes of his are the background music on the [NSFW] gallery site for Les Krims.

Self Try Gizmodgery.
posted by carsonb at 1:10 AM on June 14, 2007

Mum (with an accent on the u) are similar to Sigur Ros as are A Silver Mt. Zion and Godspeed, which has been mentioned a few times now.

I started out listening to Sigur Ros (and I'm a Soul Coughing fan too, Ruby Vroom especially) and picked up the others on the way.

I've also like U.N.K.L.E (remember Thom Yorke's "Rabbit in Your Headlights"?) and Air, Gorillaz, Massive Attack, Flaming Lips and Beck of all those mentioned. Maybe some Interpol? Their songs start sounding the same very quickly though. Bjork is probably too obvious.
posted by tracicle at 2:16 AM on June 14, 2007

Sounds like a problem for a recommendation system, like the aforementioned Pandora or Last.fm
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:10 AM on June 14, 2007

For the Nth time, allmusic.com's "Similar Artists" list is your friend.
posted by The God Complex at 3:35 AM on June 14, 2007

Red Sparrowes
Kinski
Darediablo
posted by louche mustachio at 4:08 AM on June 14, 2007

Red Sparrowes
posted by louche mustachio at 4:09 AM on June 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

Cortney Tidwell has a very dreamy, Cocteau Twins-meets-Mogwai sound that you'll probably like if you're into Sigur Ros.
posted by mattholomew at 4:28 AM on June 14, 2007

I'd like to reassert my previous (deleted) advice that you use Pandora, which will let you pick and choose aspects of the bands you mentioned to look for them in other bands.

And I still maintain that this is chatfilter, and if I wrote a post saying:

"Looking for new television to get me going. Something somewhere around the shows "Deadwood" and "Big Love". If anyone watches & loves these shows like me, can you please help me find some new shows to love. Or really any great television anyone can suggest. Thanks everyone."

I wouldn't expect it to survive.
posted by hermitosis at 5:49 AM on June 14, 2007

LCD Soundsystem, definitely.

You might like Money Mark

The new "They Might Be Giants" reminds me a bit of some of Doughty's solo stuff too - it's really rekindled my love for TMBG. It is certainly "Get me going" music.
posted by backwards guitar at 6:41 AM on June 14, 2007

Black Leotard Front's self recommended Robosexual site does suggest a lot of stuff that is worth listening to.

An equally cheesy self recommendation: you may find a lot of stuff you like in my podcast. I play a lot of the names I see on this page.
posted by spartacusroosevelt at 6:52 AM on June 14, 2007

The vocals on this new album (sound) remind me a LOT of Sigur Ros.
posted by dobbs at 7:01 AM on June 14, 2007

Lymbyc Systym - they've most recently toured with The Album Leaf and are very much like Sigur Ros. Electronic, instrumental, tape loops, amazing drumming, etc. No vocals, but they occasionally use pre-recorded sound files of people talking.
posted by NationalKato at 9:18 AM on June 14, 2007

Primal scream, Black Grape, Orb, Orbital, Gogol Bordello, Sunscreem, 808 State, possibly even some of Massive attack's stuff, anything with the John Peel Seal of Approval.
posted by goml at 2:06 PM on June 14, 2007

I don't think of soul coughing & sigur ros as similar but soul coughing is #3 and Godspeed You Black Emperor is #4 on my last.fm page, so maybe some of the other things I listen to would be up your alley (though I far prefer GYBE to sigur ros myself...). I'd suggest: Stereolab, Tortoise, Prolapse, Yo La Tengo, Slint, The Dears, Bows, Spacemen 3, Brian Eno, Drunk, The Faint, Nurse with Wound and Andrew Bird... most of those have lyrics at least some of the time, but most of them are not too standard, at least not all of the time, either.

Mike Doughty has gone solo. And blogs about it.

Mike doughty's solo stuff is very different from the soul coughing stuff - if you liked the band for their musical experimentation, it may not work for you. if you liked it for his random poetic lyrics and adorable folkish voice then it will. That is (supposedly) kinda why they broke up to start with. He's done some cool collaborative tracks though - one of my favorites is "Bond" with 808 State.
posted by mdn at 8:41 PM on June 14, 2007

Fratellis
posted by any major dude at 10:54 PM on June 14, 2007

You want the Battles CD carsonb mentioned. Mirrored is probably the easiest to find--it just came out a few months ago. You will not understand it, but you will listen to it compulsively. This is a good thing.

Also: it sounds completely different from Soul Coughing and Sigur Ros (which are, to be fair, two bands I would almost never put into the same musical group), but M83 might be what you're looking for. If you need to get up and go before dawn, Before the Dawn Kills Us is what you want on your stereo.
posted by thecaddy at 12:37 AM on June 15, 2007