Topic: Rock Music Discussion

@jump oh man that spotify thing is very depressing. Im more a fan of albums myself, and thats been a pretty poorly represented format for awhile.

And that sucks about Alestorm. I started listening to them about 3 weeks ago so i'm in my honeymoon phase with them. I had no idea they were that popular. I could see a good amount of their songs being fun live, but not that mainstream. I'll read into them more. Seperating the art from the artist is hard. Lennon was a woman beater and heroin addict, but also one of the best songwriters of his time. Sounds like Alestorm might actually believe they're pirates 😑

@Losermagnet I’m not entirely sure they are that big and this isn’t some kind of money laundering scheme. I’ve never seen someone wear a Alestorm shirt at a gig and when I’ve seen them at festivals they are really low down the line up.

I saw the gig listing for it a few months ago and every now and then it pops into my head as I just don’t understand. Maybe I’m just too old now and don’t have my finger on the pulse anymore? Are all the kids these days are into pirate metal? Is pirate metal this generations grunge, nu-metal, emo? Have Alestorm exploded into popularity overnight like Maneskin or Billie Ellish? Is the gig listing a typo and it’s actually Halestorm playing?

I am listening to Mazzy Star as we speak, love that band. They may not have a future but I love what I got from them.

@jump so i read about the Alestorm controversy, and I gotta say....I'm kind of underwhelmed by it. I guess it wasnt fully Alestorm, it was their frontman and his other band. In any case, they said some stupid, disgusting, insensitive things. But it kinda came off like douchey, frat boy one-upsmanship to me. I may be desensitized to that kinda thing. Or maybe i'm just racist (that was a joke). His (the frontmans) response was kinda pitiful too. The typical "i'm getting help from experts" plea. What kind of expert fixes you being a butthole?

All-in-all I give this controversy 2 Kanye's out of 5.

@Losermagnet Sorry I feel like I mislead you, I only mentioned it as both Alestorm and controversy came up in the thread. I only read a summary of it and then lost interest pretty quick myself.

If you're looking for something more scandalous All Time Low have some grooming accuastions just come up and I think it's still in the early being talked about on social media without it being reported yet phase so you get to watch along. As they are one of those pop punk bands which you can't tell the difference from all the other pop punk band when I saw it come up on my twitter I spent more time trying to figure if I saw them or You Me At Six only to then figure out I saw both .

At the moment I'm currently listening to Radkey. Whenever I listen to them I spend the first half of the album thinking to myself he sounds just like Danzig but he's not Danzig rather than actually listening to them.

Thought this one was worth sharing, another Gareth Liddiard project. This one a little bit less chaotic than TFS (understatement of the year), probably a bit more along the lines of what you'd hear from The Drones or his solo stuff. In my mind one of the best artists in Australia currently

Is Australia going through a guitar music renaissance or something? I noticed there's been a few Aussie acts I've liked in the last few years like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Courtney Barnett, The Chats and Amyl & The Sniffers so I'm just wondering if there's a movement away from your other greatest musical exports like Kylie Minogue. Honestly only The Living End and AC/DC* come to my mind of Aussie acts that I listened to from 10 years ago.

*And Nick Cave who I forgot when typing that.

@jump
Honestly, the Australian music scene pretty much never moved on from rock. Living in Australia though I don't really have much of an understanding of how much of that leaks out. I know Tones & I is pretty big internationally (sorry) and Kylie. But generally, rock is king in Australia and has been for a long while

As you mention King Gizzard, Courney Barnett, The Chats. But also The Drones, Pond, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Tame Impala, Ali Barter, Violent Soho. If you go back further The Living End yes but also Grinspoon, Silverchair, Spiderbait, Paul Kelly, Magic Dirt, Jebediah, End of Fashion, Powderfinger. Further still you get into INXS, Midnight Oil and yeah AC/DC. You know that dude screaming over the mountains in that meme song Big Enough? That was Australian Rock legend Jimmy Barnes

I know I am bit more into rock so take this with a grain of salt for sure. But I'm struggling to think of anywhere near as many notable Australian artists that aren't under the "rock" umbrella. Genisis Owusu, Delta Goodrem, Hilltop Hoods, Gotye, The Presets, Avalanches. Even some of those would be rock-adjacent I'd argue. So yeah, we're kinda rock obsessed

Quite litterally if you walk into a record shop in Australia it'll be one section for "alternative" which is all rock. Then another two sections for popular which is stuff like Queen, Faith No More, Foo Fighters, Powderfinger and... well rock mostly. Then a half section for heavy metal which is again rock. A quarter section for Urban which is all of hip-hop. Then another quarter section for blues/country which is again mostly rock.

@jump s'all good pal. Frankly, i think i've exhausted my interest in the topic. At least until a rockstar starts murdering people with their genitalia. Then i'll have to buy their album

@skywake Thanks for the response. Huh, maybe it's because the UK seems to be moving towards rap and grime with artists like Dave, Slowthai and Stormzy (apart from the singer songwriter types like Lewis Capaldi and Ed Sheeran who are somehow massive) now so the rock void is being filled with Australian acts which is why I've just started noticing alot more here now. Also I forgot a couple of names you mentioned like Tame Impala and Violent Soho, great acts.

@Losermagnet I have my fingers crossed for you that someone will be murdered by penis soon!

@jump i was thinking something more along the lines of crushed pelvis'.

New Deerhoof album out tomorrow, my second most listened to artist on last.fm. They seem to be drawing from their heavier side this time around based on the singles which is always a good place to start

New Mastodon album - anybody have a listen? Yay or nay? I'm intrigued but a Mastodon double album sounds....like a lot.

@Losermagnet Just my thoughts, as an album it's one of their best and a proper career highlight, as a double album it doesn't need to be that long but at the same time there's nothing I can see that should have been cut to make it shorter.

@CactusMan this isn't the disco thread ;p

@jump glad to hear a positive opinion. The first review I read was Pitchfork's and it was also the most negative. Although I'm not sure why I bother with Pitchfork; They don't cover much metal or rock and they're kinda pretentious. In any case, I've been going through a bit of a Georgian heavy metal kick and listening to a lot of Mastodon and Baroness (love Baroness).

@Rambler i think every now-and-then they surprise me. They covered Type O's 'Bloody Kisses' on their Sunday classic review and were generally positive. Shocked me because I was certain they'd trash it for not aging well (it does have a song titled 'Kill All the White People'). Glad to see it because I think it's an amazing album in general and stands out among the early to mid 90s rock. Got me through high school.

I've just seen IDLES were on a Jimmy Kimmel Live a month ago, bonkers. I saw them play in the back room of a pub 3ish years ago and they have had a rocket strapped to them since and are "breaking America" now.

Their new album is excellent after the lukewarm prior album.

@jump
I'm kinda of the reverse opinion on their new album TBH. I mean Beachland Ballroom is amazing but the rest of it was kinda disappointing. Ultra Mono and Joy were both better IMO.

On another note, went a bit overboard getting Vinyl over the last month. Some were gifts, some weren't. Here's the list....
The Drones - Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By
Father John Misty - Pure Comedy
Green Day - nimrod.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Butterfly 3000
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Genesis Owusu - Smiling With No Teeth
Slowdive - Pygmalion
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Unknown Mortal Orchestra

..... two things, 1. apparently everyone now knows I'm into Vinyl, 2. Getting a Christmas bonus and deciding to go into a record store probably wasn't the best idea. With that said, absolutely stoked that I picked up Smiling With No Teeth and Loveless. Haven't spun Father John Misty or Slowdive yet, figured they weren't exactly good summer holiday musics

@skywake Really? Everyone I know finds Ultra Mono meh, I didn't think it was that bad but it's the album I've returned to the least. I find it abit panto like with IDLES going through the motion of being IDLES or maybe that is just the Mr Motivator song.

Touchwood there's no more restrictions coming as I've got tixs for them in a few weeks with the excellent Self Esteem and Witch Fever supporting. Self Esteem has been a pleasant discovery in the last year with her new album Prioritise Pleasure and I'm looking forward to her almost as much as IDLES.

I love Fridays when new music comes out. 4 new tracks from some of my favourite acts are out, it's like xmas again.

New KoRn

New Muse

New Frank Turner

New Jack White