I Used to Be 'With It' and Then They Changed What 'It' Was!

[sockwithaticket]

I find Mixcloud an excellent source for discovering new (to me) music.

Any other recommendations?

I've used this a lot.

https://www.gnoosic.com/

[Niegs]

I agree with those saying some elements are nothing new... like the industry has, at least since ww2, chased bands that sounded like the most popular bands and maybe fringe DJs and your gig going buddy promoted those outside that window, but it's easier now than ever to find outliers (I regularly listen to synthwave acts from France, Italy and Germany all discovered via youtube).

What I'd be interested in is a service that explores bands that were on the periphery or simply have been forgotten in previous eras. Like 'oldies' stations here not only stick to the same handful of bands, but also just a few (or even one!) songs from those bands. What ELSE was on the radio, or college/indie/pirate radio back in 1983, 1975, 1962, 1958? Maybe Spotify does that now, but for all the looking back on the past, old guys tend to have a narrow view of what was great. Maybe the rest wasn't so good? (Though I constantly think there's a potential 'favourite' track or even band for me time has forgot...)

Radio stations are worse than ever! You have "oldies" stations which play songs from the 80s or 90s which despite having a decade worth of music to choose from, repeat the same songs over and over.
Back in our day we had MTV, nowadays MTV doesnt have any music, and other music TV channels are not worth bothering with. Least of all Kerrang TV who only seem to have 3 songs

(oh no, am I turning into Rick?)

I might have been a teen in the last days of DJs who programmed their own music... in Ontario that is.

But now that I say that, lived in a small town in 2018 where the local would have some really random tracks at times. Emailed to ask if they get to pick and the DJ said they have obligations but also more freedom than most. Sadly, that format only lasted another year (used to still stream when I moved away) and the owners went with yet another boring top 40 contempory sof rock mix. Shite.

[charltom]

I'd update the (ancient) QNAP firmware first, then check if Sonos and QNAP are on the same subnet.

Yep, many less words than me :)

Thanks all. I will try some of these things.

Originally, I ripped everything to iTunes yonks ago. Then put that stuff on the QNAP. My PC can see the files on the QNAP via the network, but Sonos can't (I think).

[epwc]

So the network works up to the qnap, you need to see if the Sonos can see the network

[Uncle fester]

I think it's a great time for non mainstream music. My kids listen to loads of older stuff that they've picked up through me and all the newer stuff through gigs, mates, Spotify etc

The state of "mainstream" radio stations is appalling. On the drive to work last week, I heard in succession:
The killers
Keane
Kings of Leon
All of which are over twenty years old.

Pop/MOR music has always been samey and unchallanging but you wouldn't have heard stations in the 90's playing 70's music as their go to.

[Guy Smiley]

I think it's a great time for non mainstream music. My kids listen to loads of older stuff that they've picked up through me and all the newer stuff through gigs, mates, Spotify etc

The state of "mainstream" radio stations is appalling. On the drive to work last week, I heard in succession:
The killers
Keane
Kings of Leon
All of which are over twenty years old.

Pop/MOR music has always been samey and unchallanging but you wouldn't have heard stations in the 90's playing 70's music as their go to.

This must be a global thing then... and it's fucked.

[Sinkers]

I find Mixcloud an excellent source for discovering new (to me) music.

Any other recommendations?

I've used this a lot.

https://www.gnoosic.com/

Forgot to thank you for this - thanks!!

[Sinkers]

I think it's a great time for non mainstream music. My kids listen to loads of older stuff that they've picked up through me and all the newer stuff through gigs, mates, Spotify etc

The state of "mainstream" radio stations is appalling. On the drive to work last week, I heard in succession:
The killers
Keane
Kings of Leon
All of which are over twenty years old.

Pop/MOR music has always been samey and unchallanging but you wouldn't have heard stations in the 90's playing 70's music as their go to.

Our local stations are exactly the same. I always assumed that they’re just plain stingy and this is a royalties/ cost thing with less for the station to pay somehow?

[Calculon]

It's always been this way. When I was young, some people sought out new and obscure music by diving into back-alley record stores & really broadened their horizons. Others just listened to the Top 40 and bought the next U2 album.

These days it's much easier to go find new stuff, but some people are just lazy/disinterested. And Joshua Tree is still a classic.

In my youth and we listened to, and enjoyed a mix of older and new music. The difference is many kids today are pretty disparaging of current music and prefer the older stuff

I think they have better access to the older music now because of streaming. It takes much less effort to go back to the source of what current bands are just repackaging.

They have easier access because of YouTube or one of the music apps on their smart phones. I was exposed to older music through my parents and older siblings, tapes and then CD's were pretty expensive so couldn't buy many if them. That also feeds into his point of how music is consumed has changed. Easier for it to become part of the background if you're listening to it on your phone compared to records, tapes or CDs

[Flockwitt]

I don't get it, I'm not with it, but when I listen to my kid's audio selection there's always several bands that I've never heard of that I really enjoy. There are entire genres out there I'd never have begun to approach like electronic swing if I didn't latch onto what they're listening to... so go figure

[Insane_Homer]

I'm 52 in a month and I'd just like to say the new Billie Eilish album is rather good.

[dpedin]

I listen to music that I like and that ranges from the 1960s to todays artists. I dont give a shit about when it was made or who it was made by.

However what I cant stand is aged rockers who are clearly past it still trying to pretend they are relevant and 'still have it'! My mate wanted to go see The Who a couple of years ago and to be honest going to watch half a band, two aged, arthritic rockers singing My Generation seemed ironic and was not for me! I saw them in 1976 at Parkhead supported by none other than the SAHB and that was the memory I wanted to keep. Ditto all those other bands like the Stones etc. Folk are kidding themselves if Elton John can still sing, he has been a pub singer for some years now, or that Debbie Harry is still sexy and can sing too. I watched a recording of Blondie concert from Glasgow 1979 immediately after her shit Glastonbury show a few years ago and back then she was pure sex on legs, exciting and could belt out a song. These guys have had their time and should retire. I would rather go and see some new exciting young bands than 60+ year olds pretending embarrassingly to be 'with it' still.

[Sinkers]

There’s a very weird nostalgia thing going on with middle aged men reenacting things like the 79-82 mod and skinhead revivals also.
Loads of Jam, small faces etc tribute bands, and bald oldies playing dress up in parkas or cherry red DMs to post pics on Facebook groups between heading off to the coast on a bank holiday Monday. It’s like a weird sealed knot type reenactment thing,
A mate of mine is 60 and was telling me about how he’d bought his first crombie in 40 years the other day.
Definitely not “with it”

[Guy Smiley]

I'm 52 in a month and I'd just like to say the new Billie Eilish album is rather good.

I'm older than you and I liked it first.

[sturginho]

Rick hits peak cloud yelling!

[Mr Tim Buktoo]

Rick is right.
I think at the end of the day what he is saying is that we are badly missing rock n roll. Big stadium bands. Guitar bands. Its utter shit in that regard these days.
Oasis were probably the last. You could say foo fighters or green day but they have had their day.

[epwc]

I hate big stadium bands so I’m fine.

[sockwithaticket]

There's definitely a correlation between how small the venue is and how much I enjoy the band. When they're getting big enough to fill what I consider to be big venues (basically larger theatres) it generally means their sound has become more mainstream or they're far enough in their career that they're mellowing out and no longer particularly ferocious or interesting.

It's obviously not so lucrative for the bands, but the smaller the venue the better. 250 - 500 cap venues are my preference now. Mostly seem to end up in the 500 - 1000 sort of spaces. Occasionally I'll go see someone at a spot like the 02 Forum in Kentish Town (I remember when it was simply th Kentish Town Forum), but at over 2,000 it's getting on the side of too big.

[mat the expat]

I am genuinely lol'ing at this wearing my Grumpy Old Man T-shirt.

Found an abolute mother-lode of Vinyl in Tassie at the weekend. Boxed Sets of the classics with full booklets, multiple records, etc.

$15 each
Thought about making an offer for the whole shelving unit and getting it shipped up!

[sturginho]

I hate big stadium bands so I’m fine.

From 2018:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44499299

[epwc]

Occasionally I'll go see someone at a spot like the 02 Forum in Kentish Town (I remember when it was simply th Kentish Town Forum), but at over 2,000 it's getting on the side of too big.

Didn't that used to be the Town & Country? It's not a bad venue, nice pub nearby

[Fonz]

I disagree. I knew plenty of folk my own age who wanted thought new stuff was crap and were into Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan etc. me, for instance.

Ha, I was in high school in the late 00s and we listened to the exact same stuff. I would say that among anyone more than casually into music back then, classic rock ruled the day. If you included casuals, i.e. those who only “listened” to music in the car or at social events, then the “most popular” genre was probably hip hop (and to be fair the genre still had some vitality at the time, though nowadays it’s just as much a spent force as rock), but there were waaaay more people that were deeply into (classic) rock than deeply into hip hop.

With zero data to support it aside from what I glean from folks older than me, I do think Calculon has a point in that while there have always been those who prefer to look back, I would bet the proportion of youngsters of that ilk today is exponentially greater than decades back.

I think the reason is obvious. There was truly just something special about that time and those artists, that either isn’t or (more likely) cannot be replicated for the simple fact that world and its conditions, be they social, cultural, or political, just no longer exists. It was probably a perfect storm, in retrospect.

I think an amusing demonstration of this point is that my wife, who grew up in a non-Western country where the likes of LZ, the Who, Pink Floyd, AC/DC etc were literally nonexistent, came to love all that music such that her default radio station in her car nowadays is the classic rock station (which I actually don’t care for for the reason others have discussed: 3-4 decades of music, yet always playing same 50 songs….look, I get you don’t want to play anybody beyond the Official Canon, but would it kill you to play, I don’t know, What’s Next to the Moon once instead of Back in Black for the 750th time this month??)

While some of the contemporary songs posted in this thread certainly weren’t bad, does anybody really think people will be coming back to that in 50 years? 20 years? Or even 5?

There are loads of passable current day bands out there that won’t compel you to change the song, but how many demand to be listened to? I truly struggle to find any. It’s hard to describe but it seems bands back in the day had so much more personality in their music, more boldness, more willingness to put themselves out there and bear themselves in a way that often worked but at least might not have. Everything now just seems competitively bland and safe even when it doesn’t suck. But in any case, I don’t think you could fairly say I’m closed off to new music, because I find “new” bands all the time, it’s just that they’re from, you guessed it, decades ago (this month’s flavor: The Verve)

That truly is the saving grace of this otherwise artistically moribund era, with regard to not only music but film, art, and literature: you have access to virtually anything that anybody ever made ever.

[Fonz]

Rick is right.
I think at the end of the day what he is saying is that we are badly missing rock n roll. Big stadium bands. Guitar bands. Its utter shit in that regard these days.
Oasis were probably the last. You could say foo fighters or green day but they have had their day.

Yes, very much this. And this rolls into why so many a youngster turn to the classic bands. The fact of the matter is that if you want to hear music that is:

1) musical, i.e. actually features people playing musical instruments,
2) ambitious,
3) thoughtful/intelligent,
4) popular,
5) resonates with your typical (read, yes, white) kid, and
6) has balls

What the fuck else is he supposed to listen to?

I’m a big lover of metal but even I can admit its credible range of expression is fairly limited (and its attempts to go beyond its niche have a habit of only demonstrating this point). Plus many will always be alienated by the vocals and broader aesthetic (if I had a dollar for every time I’d play some metal and people would say “yeah I kinda like the music, but they should get a guy who actually sings” to which I’d respond “believe it or not you’re not the first person to think of that, there’s an entire genre created by tasteless Eurotrash that does this called power metal and it fucking SUCKS”)

Radiohead was the last great hope of what the amusing and acerbic critic Robert Christgau dubbed “intelligent guitar toting white guys” (that were commercially viable), and though I’m your typical Radiohead worshipping twat I wouldn’t dispute that they don’t satisfy prong 6 above.

No one else is even attempting to seize the mantle.

[sockwithaticket]

Rick is right.
I think at the end of the day what he is saying is that we are badly missing rock n roll. Big stadium bands. Guitar bands. Its utter shit in that regard these days.
Oasis were probably the last. You could say foo fighters or green day but they have had their day.

Yes, very much this. And this rolls into why so many a youngster turn to the classic bands. The fact of the matter is that if you want to hear music that is:

1) musical, i.e. actually features people playing musical instruments,
2) ambitious,
3) thoughtful/intelligent,
4) popular,
5) resonates with your typical (read, yes, white) kid, and
6) has balls

What the fuck else is he supposed to listen to?

I’m a big lover of metal but even I can admit its credible range of expression is fairly limited (and its attempts to go beyond its niche have a habit of only demonstrating this point). Plus many will always be alienated by the vocals and broader aesthetic (if I had a dollar for every time I’d play some metal and people would say “yeah I kinda like the music, but they should get a guy who actually sings” to which I’d respond “believe it or not you’re not the first person to think of that, there’s an entire genre created by tasteless Eurotrash that does this called power metal and it fucking SUCKS”)

Radiohead was the last great hope of what the amusing and acerbic critic Robert Christgau dubbed “intelligent guitar toting white guys” (that were commercially viable), and though I’m your typical Radiohead worshipping twat I wouldn’t dispute that they don’t satisfy prong 6 above.

No one else is even attempting to seize the mantle.

Does classic rock really have balls? I always found the likes of Led Zep, Hendrix, Thin Lizzy to be fine, but a bit anemic. There again, rock, actual rock rather an offshoot like pop punk, was in fairly short supply in the 00s when I was finding my musical identity. A lot of it like Foo Fighters, Audioslave and Velvet Revolver was made up of members from broken up older bands or simply was still the older bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and whoever was still standing from the grunge era. There was, I suppose, that separate category of bands the music press could never quite decide what to call (nu-grunge seemed to come up a lot) like Creed, Staind, Puddle of Mudd and Nickelback.

And admittedly I am, like you, a bit of an outlier, my preferences lie in the scream and shouty. Went to see The Acacia Strain last night (along with Fuming Mouth, Judiciary and Splitknuckle) and they're probably at the 'mainstream' end of my taste (mainstream being a relative term). I spent the 00s focusing on hardcore and metalcore bands like Converge, Zao, This Is Hell and Every Time I Die rather than what the rock world. Perhaps most people do find that stuff to have balls.

[sockwithaticket]

Occasionally I'll go see someone at a spot like the 02 Forum in Kentish Town (I remember when it was simply th Kentish Town Forum), but at over 2,000 it's getting on the side of too big.

Didn't that used to be the Town & Country? It's not a bad venue, nice pub nearby

According to wiki, yes. I've only been there since it was the Forum and after it's mid-00s refurb + capacity increase. Before that I feel like most gigs I wanted to see ended up at The Astoria or the slightly smaller, bang next door Mean Fiddler (both sadly sacrificed for Crossrail).

[Oxbow]

Sadly I'm old enough to have been there when it was still the Town & Country Club. Bastard Crossrail also caused the closure of Red Veg, the best vegetarian fast food joint I've ever had the pleasure to visit.

[epwc]

London has so many small venues. Love the Lexington on Essex Road, The Green Note and Jazz Cafe on Parkway, St Pancras Old Church...

[Fonz]

Rick is right.
I think at the end of the day what he is saying is that we are badly missing rock n roll. Big stadium bands. Guitar bands. Its utter shit in that regard these days.
Oasis were probably the last. You could say foo fighters or green day but they have had their day.

Yes, very much this. And this rolls into why so many a youngster turn to the classic bands. The fact of the matter is that if you want to hear music that is:

1) musical, i.e. actually features people playing musical instruments,
2) ambitious,
3) thoughtful/intelligent,
4) popular,
5) resonates with your typical (read, yes, white) kid, and
6) has balls

What the fuck else is he supposed to listen to?

I’m a big lover of metal but even I can admit its credible range of expression is fairly limited (and its attempts to go beyond its niche have a habit of only demonstrating this point). Plus many will always be alienated by the vocals and broader aesthetic (if I had a dollar for every time I’d play some metal and people would say “yeah I kinda like the music, but they should get a guy who actually sings” to which I’d respond “believe it or not you’re not the first person to think of that, there’s an entire genre created by tasteless Eurotrash that does this called power metal and it fucking SUCKS”)

Radiohead was the last great hope of what the amusing and acerbic critic Robert Christgau dubbed “intelligent guitar toting white guys” (that were commercially viable), and though I’m your typical Radiohead worshipping twat I wouldn’t dispute that they don’t satisfy prong 6 above.

No one else is even attempting to seize the mantle.

Does classic rock really have balls? I always found the likes of Led Zep, Hendrix, Thin Lizzy to be fine, but a bit anemic. There again, rock, actual rock rather an offshoot like pop punk, was in fairly short supply in the 00s when I was finding my musical identity. A lot of it like Foo Fighters, Audioslave and Velvet Revolver was made up of members from broken up older bands or simply was still the older bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers and whoever was still standing from the grunge era. There was, I suppose, that separate category of bands the music press could never quite decide what to call (nu-grunge seemed to come up a lot) like Creed, Staind, Puddle of Mudd and Nickelback.

And admittedly I am, like you, a bit of an outlier, my preferences lie in the scream and shouty. Went to see The Acacia Strain last night (along with Fuming Mouth, Judiciary and Splitknuckle) and they're probably at the 'mainstream' end of my taste (mainstream being a relative term). I spent the 00s focusing on hardcore and metalcore bands like Converge, Zao, This Is Hell and Every Time I Die rather than what the rock world. Perhaps most people do find that stuff to have balls.

I mean, I would say so. I’ll give you Plant’s somewhat androgynous voice, but Page’s bluesy riffage over Bonham’s heavy handed drumming? I think that surely pushes it over the line. Ditto Hendrix. Granted, if we cast a broader net to include, say, Queen or Roundabout-era Yes, the question becomes a bit more complicated…

But yeah, I gather we’re roughly the same age (I’m 32) so needless to say I too remember it was a fucking wasteland for rock by then. Apart from a couple Audioslave tracks I don’t think I liked a single one of the groups you named in that paragraph (and actively loathed a few of them). By then the big commercial interests had moved on to, at least on my side of the pond, hip hop for the most part when attempting to appeal to the young red-blooded male demo. Rock was dead.

As you allude to, offshoots survived mainly in the form of various flavors of indie, including stuff I quite liked like Interpol and other reverb-y ethereal stuff like that, but I literally watched old heads gag upon hearing this sort of stuff, usually accompanied by comments that…um…would be frowned upon in 2024. Frankly these types were probably less hostile to hip hop. I think all of this reflects the point re balls.