New Discoveries

 

The other day there was a post on one of the news sites that I read (I don’t remember which one sadly) that had a question about recommendations for bands that were cool. I love posts like this because it gives me fodder for finding new bands and new music. The full list is pretty extensive and I haven’t been through more than two of the bands yet (and not even through much of their music). I put the list in it’s entirety below (at the end of the post) so you can peruse as you wish, but I’m only going to discuss two of the bands on the list in this post. There are most likely duplicates as it is the conglomeration of a few lists that were in comments to the original post I read.

The first band is one called Florence and the Machine. I really like a couple of their songs. The lead singer’s voice reminds me of someone, but I can’t put my finger on it.

I love the beginning to this song. Her a’capella little ditty is awesome. Her voice is fantastic. In some of the other songs below you can notice what can only be called “imperfections,” but I think that’s part of what makes her voice so great. She has a raw quality to her voice that I really like in this song.

The video for this one makes complete sense to me. The song is kind of “out there” in some way that is kind of hard to describe. I like the power behind the chorus and the melody is great on this one. I like how it goes into the slow part near the middle too. Her voice is really displayed well. Her range is great, and then they hit you with the full backup again. Awesome.

I’ll be honest, this video is kind of weird, but I think with a band named Florence and the Machine, that can be expected. It was actually after listening to this song again that I finally realized who she sounds like to me.

It reminds me of this lead singer a bit.

 

The Cranberries were a little underappreciated by the harder core music lovers. Their material wasn’t mind blowing or anything like that, but they put together some really great riffs and her voice is pretty impressive.

 

There’s also a little bit of

 

 

mixed in. Her voice is hot. In a similar way to how Donna Lewis’ voice is hot in “I Love You Always Forever.” Hot.

 

Back to Florence and the Machine.

 

 

I really like the Beyonce version of this song, and yet I think I might like this version a little more. The first couple times I heard it, it really bothered me when her voice would “crack” on certain parts, and then I started to really like that about it. The song is really good for her type of voice where she has a lot of emotion behind it, and that emotion comes through as the raw quality.

 

 

This really isn’t a “video” per se. Yes, it’s on YouTube, but someone just basically took a picture and put the music with it. This one just has a catchy tune, at the same as showcasing her voice.

 

Florence and the Machine is a band that I think my wife would like. She hasn’t heard them much yet because I found them while the family was on vacation without me. The only solace I could find when I came home at night to a home with only one small dog to keep me company was music. I would then proceed to cry myself to sleep clutching her pillow to my chest; all the while inhaling the fleeting scent of her perfume. 

 

Sigh

 

Now, a band which is very different from Florence and the Machine. It’s a duo that is hard to compare to anything else really. They are a group called Ratatat (be careful when you look them up, there is a rap group called Ratatat as well). There are actually a bunch more Ratatat songs that I like, but I didn’t want to make this post that long. Let me know if you are interested in my full playlist.

 

Sadly this is not the official video for this song, just something someone made up for some college class. This songs seems outside my normal “like” region because it’s pretty repetitive, but I really like the “wildcat” noise for some reason. Probably something along the similar lines as to why I like the gunshot noise from MIA’s Paper Planes song.

 

 

This also is not the “official” video for the song, but I liked it. Ratatat really doesn’t shout out anything. They just lay down a nice groove with some good guitar to go over the top. That is basically the gist of their music. I find it’s really good program to. It doesn’t get in the way of the thought process, but also has a few moments that surprise you and bring you back to different levels of thought.

 

The “organ” in this one is really great over the “hip hop” beat, and then when the guitar comes in, it’s perfected. I love the beat to this song and they slow groove it has going. It hits the little interlude in the middle with the high pitched “bell” sound and provides a nice break from the heavier groove. They like to play with rhythm a little too where they take the normal rhythm they have been doing for a little while and then change it up ever so slightly.

For some reason this one reminds me of Napoleon Dynamite. I am not sure why though. The organ at the beginning is what really does it I think. The “chorus” of this song is awesome, I love that part.

This video is weird. That is all.

This video is awesome not only because of the music, but because it looks like they basically just took some scenes from “The Brave Little Toaster” and put the music to it (I’m pretty sure this is not an official video). Just another great groove to this song.

This one is probably my favorite Ratatat song (at least until I listen to them again and find another one that I enjoy more that day). I have been really liking Ratatat recently. As I said, I think they are great to program to, which is what I spend most of my days doing.

I may or may not pick more bands from the list below to blog about. It depends on if any of them catch my fancy enough, or if I even get through any of them before I find something else to write about.

Just as an FYI, Maynard Ferguson’s MF Horn 1-6 are available on CD at Maynard Ferguson's Website.

The Full List:

Florence and the Machine
Ratatat
Jamie T
Bloc Party
Phoenix
The XX
LCD Soundsystem
Arcade Fire
Arctic Monkeys
Foals
Does it Offend You, Yeah?
The Avalanches
Amadou & Mariam
The Go! Team
My Morning Jacket
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Flying Lotus
The Gaslamp Killer
Radiohead
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Grizzly Bear
Air
Wilco
!!!
Two Door Cinema Club
TV on the Radio
Tame Impala
Philadelphia Grand Jury
Hot Chip
Fleet Foxes
Death From Above 1979
Crystal Castles
The National
The Temper Trap
Vampire Weekend
Passion Pit
Black Keys
Discovery
Sufjan Stevens
The Shins
Sleigh Bells
Manchester Orchestra
Nada Surf
Caribou
Yeasayer
All The Saints
Andrew Bird
Animal Collective
Apparat
Band Of Horses
Bishop Allen
Bon Iver
Build to Spill
Bomb the Bass
Choir of Young Believers
Citizen Cope
Cold war Kids
Cymbals Eat Guitars
Dan Deacon
David Holmes
David Vandervelde
Deerhunter
Dinosaur Jr
Dirty Projectors
Drive-By Truckers
Echo And The Bunnymen
Editors
Elbow
Elliot Brood
Entheogenic
El Ten Eleven
Fujiya & Miyagi
Gil Scott-Heron
Grand Archives
Head Like A Kite
Helio Sequence
Point Juncture, WA
In Ear Park
In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Japandroids
Jose Gonzalez
Junior Boys
Keepaway
M83
Maps
Massive Attack
Mates of State
Matt &Kim
Memory Tapes
Mike Snow
Minus the Bear
Moderat
Mogwai
Motopony
Noah And The Whale
Pela
Phosphorescent
Ra Ra Riot
Shpongle
Smog
Spiritualized
Spoon
The Dandy Warhols
The Dead Weather
The Decemberists
The Drums
The Dutchess and the Duke
The Evens
The Hold Steady
The Horrors
The Maldives
The Muslims
The National
The Roots
The Raconteurs
The Touch Alliance
The Wrens
The XX
The Breeders
The Cute lepers
The Kooks
The Notwist
The Saturday Knights
These New Puritans
Tom Waits
Unkle
Modest Mouse,
The White Stripes,
Minus the Bear,
The Decemberists,
Wolf Parade,
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs,
The Shins,
Spoon,
Phoenix,
Pinback,
RJD2,
The Killers,
MGMT,
Los Campesinos!,
The Libertines,
Animal Collective,
The Knife/Fever Ray,
Interpol,
The Flaming Lips,
The Arcade Fire,
The Faint,
Death Cab for Cutie,
Cold War Kids,
Brendan Benson,
Broken Social Scene,
Bon Iver, Battles,
Andrew Bird
The Postal Service,
The Raconteurs,
Broken Bells,
The Dead Weather
Broken Social Scene