What are You Listening to Right Now?

[VictorViper]

These are generally pretty fun and long-running, tend to uncover hidden gems for people, and will probably keep me from shitting in the chat so much. Play along! I'll personally commit to listening to anything posted in here. I hope you'll do the same.

Currently going through Monobody's Audiotree live session. Glorious modern Fusion. Dropping a whole "album" here just because the full session is freely available.

https://youtu.be/UqCT1Rx63mw

[Kong Wen]

I've got a workday music routine that is slowly evolving, but the pieces that have so far remained constant after being honed on the vicious edge of office stress are:

Ragnarök - Ragnarök (1976)

Swedish progressive folk-rock group, the usual noodling with a flute on top, but with some solid bass and overall structure. Unfortunately hard to Google because of Thor and because there's a Norwegian metal band with the same name. Here's one of the better tunes from the album:



Camel - Mirage (1974)

A vehicle for frequent Peter Green collaborator Peter Bardens at this point in their history, Mirage is a lovely British progressive rock album with some really tight tunes and memorable melodies. There are lyrics, including a song about Gandalf, but the album is mostly driven by the instruments. Here's one of the better tunes from the album:



Quicksilver Messenger Service - Quicksilver Messenger Service (1968)

These guys were early on the San Francisco psychedelic rock scene with the likes of Jefferson Airplane. They made some great album-oriented psych, and my favourite is their 1968 eponymous debut. It's got a jammy sound but the songs are tightly structured. This is more guitar-focused than the others. Here's one of the better tunes from the album:



Pink Floyd - Animals (1977)

My favourite Pink Floyd album, and one of the first tapes I ever bought for myself. It's the beginning of "Angry Roger Waters" Pink Floyd, but before he was so angry that the other members of the band started shutting down. So there are excellent performances here from everyone involved. Animals really needs no introduction, so instead I'll put a less common tune here. This is the 8-track version of "Pigs on the Wing" (both parts), joined together by a Snowy White guitar solo.

[Kong Wen]

Once and Future Band - Once & Future Band (2017)

A co-worker sent me a link to this American neo-pop-psych band's site, and I had it on this afternoon. It's got a modern rhythm sensibility combined with '70s-era pop-psych hooks and melody. It kind of sounds like if older rock-oriented Tame Impala had turned to pop without going the electronica route.

https://onceandfutureband.bandcamp.com/releases

It was pretty good, not bad, but it'll take me another listen or two to determine whether it'll stay in my rotation.

At this time of year, I usually turn towards summery sounds.

[VictorViper]

Thread is already paying off large. I'll be giving Once and Future Band a purchase on Bandcamp tomorrow.

My morning routine has involved some shameless, progressive House, lately. This is headbanger stuff but it's gooooooood. (Polymath: Arabian Knights EP).

https://youtu.be/0NPtlV5s1wk

[The Shoemaker]

About a year and a half ago I switched over to mainly listening to podcasts when I'm commuting or at the gym, so I go through long stretches now without finding new music.

I always go back to Queens of the Stone age though, and I've gone back to their latest album Villains quite a few times now.

[Kong Wen]

About a year and a half ago I switched over to mainly listening to podcasts when I'm commuting or at the gym, so I go through long stretches now without finding new music.

Have you been enjoying Plot Threads?

[Kong Wen]

Even though we've had sub-zero temperatures and frost warnings for the past week, I'm willing summer into full swing, which means Tame Impala will probably be joining my daily playlist soon. But for now, it's the other summer stalwarts:

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)

Classic Bob Dylan. "Desolation Row" is a great song to listen to at work.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Zuma (1975)

Classic Neil Young. Well, classic '70s Young anyway. His usual mix of a couple nice touching songs and then some really patient rusty nails guitars. Here's "Cortez the Killer"



The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin (1999)
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002)
The Flaming Lips - At War with the Mystics (2006)
The Flaming Lips - Embryonic (2009)

The albums have deep summer party associations for me, so they're essential in heralding in the new season.

[Sharecrow]

I wanted to comment on a couple of things. First of all, I am working from home for a day so I thought I'd share my playlist for what I am listening to.

Burn the Priest - Legion XX
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Led Zeppelin I
Iron Maiden - The X Factor
Necrot - Blood Offerings
Tori Amos - Night of Hunters
Autopsy - All Tomorrow's Funerals

And I may throw in Pink Floyd’s Pipers at the Gates of Dawn if I have time.

Secondly, I wanted to note that DevilDriver is actually releasing a country album in early July. I just preordered it. Have heard a single on the radio and another on youtube. It's intriguing. Also intriguing that it is called volume 1, suggesting there will be another volume of country down the road (errrr trail). The lead singer commented that he always heard country as heavy, I presume in substance, and wanted to play it. It's a bunch of covers with DevilDriver's play style infused within them. Good stuff. Here's a sample.

[VictorViper]

Ok some good stuff, with Jack Stauber (thanks Spore!) as the catalyst for discovery. Not tremendously familiar with any of these bands, but that's rapidly changing. Elements of art rock, psych, garage, LoFi, prog, avante-garde, folk, pop... you name it.

Jack Stauber "HiLo"

https://jackstauber.bandcamp.com/album/hilo

- The catalyst. Track "It's Alright", with its cacophonous chorus, is what got this all started. I love this album completely. He's from Pennsylvania.

Fleece "Voyager"

https://fleecemusic.bandcamp.com

- Really solid psych outfit so far, with oft-Beatlesque vocal harmonies, getting deeply jazzy at times, and surprising with their performance more often than I'd have expected. These guys are from Montreal. Much, much more listening to be done here.

Fever the Ghost "Zirconium Meconium"

https://fleecemusic.bandcamp.com

- Weird stuff, prog-psych, wildly varied. Vocalist has a serious Roger Hodgson feel to his voice. I'm having a ton of fun with this one, but I'm less familiar with it so far than the other two. These guys come out of LA and I mean... yup, that jives.


All of this stuff comes out of the weird camp, which I'm firmly in, so be forewarned. I was mentioning to Kong that when browsing "other bands you might like" (I call it springboarding), there was a serious 6-degrees of Wayne Coyne factor, meaning that all of these bands eventually linked back to heavy hitters in the weirder spaces of popular music, i.e. The Flaming Lips, Dinosaur Jr., Melvin's, etc.

[MerlinDrazziw]

Yesterday on my way to work and back home I was listening to some Avantasia albums. Back home I continue to listen at times. They're no new albums for me, it's just music I can listen to often (but Ayreon albums are better).