Really great modern sounds?

[ken36]

Hi everybody

It has been 50 years since I listened to Countryand Popular music on the radio. I presently workout at Gold’s Gym and the sound system is so loud and so bad the music seems too fast, too loud and harsh, and garbled for my ears. That is my only experience with modern sounds.My ipod is filled with country, pop, love, and easy listening from the 1950-1990 years.

I wonder what music, recorded with the great new technology that will stretch me a bit, The kind of music you younger people consider nostalgic, memorable, loving. You know what I mean. Give me some clues.

I do have Michael Bolton’s vintage and timless. Queen’s Live at Wembly. I want to know The kind of music that takes you back 2 or 5 or 10 years and just makes you want to cry.

Thanks in advance.

Ken Gray

 

[Oliver :)]

What is modern?

Maybe I am on the way out of the "young people" range, but I noticed that while I constantly widen my my horizon of musical experience (buying into SACD practically forces you to become a great fan of Jazz, Classical, and 70s RocK...) I will over and over again return with a smile to music I heard in my teenage days. So the early Roxette albums, Sheryl Crow's Tuesday Night Music Club, all the Blues Brothers albums, Guns'N'Roses, Queen, Aerosmith. I also noticed that I have the nostalgia effect with music that I hated when I was a young kid, as for example Eurodance - even crappy Eurodance. Makes me feel young again. I feel so old...

 

[catachresis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken36@swbell.net My ipod is filled with country, pop, love, and easy listening from the 1950-1990 years.

Hey Ken, it's good to hear from you! I growed-up in the South in the seventies and early eighties and hated country. Then I went to college in Montreal and found out that I loved it. It remains one of my favorite genres. I don't know if you're familiar with some of the country-influenced movements that have happened outside of the mainstream Nashville and LA scenes, but you might get a kick out of some of the following bands.

You might know the great writer of Bakersfield-influenced Americana, Dave Alvin. Alvin started out in the 80s in a raw, fast rockabilly band called The Blasters. You might get a kick out of that. The Blasters' pals in LA were a country-punk band called "X" led by now Americana-heads John Doe and Exene Chervenka. Now they were raw and fast cow punks in the early 80s but they just sound like good and speedy hard-rockers now: try their More Fund in the New World.

In the nineties a bunch of youngsters got sick of the over-produced pretentiousness of modern alternative rock and started doing back to basics rock and country. There was a group of guys who came out of Chicago doing Country-rock style stuff: Uncle Tupelo. They disbanded into two bands that you might really dig: Son Volt (their eponymous first album you might really dig) and Wilco (who are big faves with lots of folks in this forum).

There's a kooky singer-songwriter guy name Will Oldham who did albums under the alias The Palace Brothers and now does them as a mystery-man named Bonny Prince Billy. Johnny Cash covered him on one of his last albums, so he can't be all bad (and he isn't, though he might not be your cup of tea).

Let's hear it for good old Johnny Cash: he really did some kinda new and experimental stuff in the last albums for the Lost Highway label. He covered Soundgarden and U2 and a bunch of other newish bands. What a guy!

Do you like Gram Parsons? There have been two albums of cover versions of Gram P songs, mostly by younger acts. You could get one or both of them and see if any of the bands flip your switch.

Have you tried the cool-jazzy Cowboy Junkies or Chris Isaac or even the new Beachwood Sparks?

What do you get if you try to mix Country with electronica. Under the best conditions, you get Beck's Odelay! and Alabama Three, Exile on Coldharbour Lane (who are from Brixton - not Alabama - and do the theme song for The Sopranos). Both are highly recommended if you haven't heard them.

Hey, I just caught your sig and saw you're from Texas. Have you ever heard of The Bad Livers out of Austin? They do roots country with a punk attitude -- and a tuba! I saw them a coupla times in concert in Birmingham, and they were the only musical act that compelled me to try to clog -- rather than just dance. Schpiffing stuff.