Bored with music...need help...

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Hi all, I'm at a point right now where very little music perks my interest anymore, and I'm aboslutely indifferent to things I would normally love (new flaming lips, dj shadow cds for example). I've gone through all kinds of indie rock (and sub stages), british music, classic rock, jazz, soul, hip-hop, and I'm really searching for a new area to explore, but I don't know what. I'm hoping some on here can offer sound advice: I'm also not into anything too avant-garde/experimental. Maybe I'm a wuss, but I do still want good melodies. anything???

― John S., Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Black metal saved my life!

Or, what about some of the latest Electro stuff - I-F, Adult., Fischerspooner, Miss Kittin all very good.

― dog latin, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

''I'm also not into anything too avant-garde/experimental. Maybe I'm a wuss, but I do still want good melodies. anything???''

Melodies will be the death of you. listen to me before it's too late!

― Julio Desouza, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Don't talk to me about lack of melodies until you've obtained the entire GbV catalogue. Now, I'm not a huge GbV nut or anything, but Pollard's tunes are some of the best since the Beatles. Dig deep, baby.

― bill, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Maybe I should just listen to Journey. That's what everyone around here seems to dig.

― John S., Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Don't stop believing, John!

― Sean Carruthers, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Not much electroic stuff has really grabbed me (went thru a phase like that). I also used to own the entire GBV catalog when I was in high school and then just got bored with it. I only have the albums from 1994-1996 now.

― John S., Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Slayer: "Reign in Blood"

― jel --, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I suggest you check the beatles. They are fucking shit.

― Julio Desouza, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

hahhahahaha that's the first time I've laughed out loud on ILX for weeks.

― Ronan, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, that got me going as well. Praise Julio!

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I can't imagine anyone giving you this answer, but check out anything by Warren Zevon. Start with the first record and then keep going, eventually something will change in your life and you'll find something new. He's a supremely weird dude and multi-talented.

― Steve K, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

destroy (i love) music

― nathalie, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

world music, especially old world music: Africa, Brazil, Japan, It's everywhere.

― A Nairn, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Disillusioned indie fans could do worse than listen to some antifolk, which will probably be the new buzzword in about 9 months. http://www.antifolk.homestead.com/

― Dom Passantino, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Have you gotten into much new wave? Ultravox, Gary Numan, OMD, etc?

― A Nairn, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

how about NOT listening to music?

Hey since you say melodies, why not Elephant Suxors? Oh yeah you said good melodies...

― nathalie, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh yeah, and if you haven't been going to see many live shows (esp. of lesser known local bands) you should try that.

― A Nairn, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

New wave sounds good...what world music artist can you suggest as good starting points? I already have reign in blood on order: you people strongly influence my spending and opinions.

― John S., Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Isn't this one of these threads where everyone says what they've been listening to lately and the person gets confused.

I'm thinking of CDs that did this job for me, perhaps the Playgroup album? Sort of a funky thing really.

― Ronan, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This is a fairly new venture for me, but this is what I've been starting with: From Brazil: Joao Gilberto, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Os Mutantes. Africa: King Sunny Ade, Salif Keita. India: Hariprasad Chaurasia, Ravi Shankar, Zakir Hussain Japan: Pizzacato Five, Kodo. France: Serge Gainsbourg

― A Nairn, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'll second the recommendation for World Music. There are so many different ways of making music and the Western European tradition really only scratches the surface. Try some gamelan or something.

― o. nate, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Try some Burmese music. This is an awesome sampler:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000000E49.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― o. nate, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

chill d00d!!

― mark s, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

World music, eh? Always the refuge for the jaded.

― Julio Desouza, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Just Relax With Boards Of Canada....or not.

― holden c, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I just realized that that Burmese statue is wearing that same halfway- on shirt fashion that's being discussed in the hip-hop fashion thread.

― o. nate, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah world music. If you've never tried it, something should tickle your jaded palette. But don't necessarily think world music is the music served up by the "world" category of your record store. Anything that folks in the rest of the world like and make for themselves.

Try something carribean ... soca / calypso. At first you'll go "ugh! What's this cheesy sound?" Later you will love.

Try Brazilian music ... bossa nova for mellow and melacholy nights. Tropicalia for up moods.

Try belly dance music from Egypt, Lebanon or Turkey.

Try downloading some russian or persian techno!

Try gypsy music.

Try klezmer.

― phil, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

o. nate :

:-)

― phil, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Try astor piazzola!

― Julio Desouza, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Instead of buying all the new releases you mention (flaming lips/dj shadow), sell all your albums and buy the entire Lilac Time catalog.

― mozz-illa, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Go with Spanish American chart-pop its the only thing still getting me excited: Paulina Rubio, Thalia, Shakira, Laura Miller, Bandana, Romina Vitale, Juanes.

Also try brazilian funk: Just type "furacao 2000" and "montagem" in your P2P software and choose a few

― Chupa-Cabras, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I almost forgot: STAY AWAY FROM ANY AMERICAN BREAKTHROUGH

― Chupa-Cabras, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I kinda feel the same way, most new music is rubbish, I'm also pretty depressed too (not that I'm saying you are depressed or anything, but I am) . It's all shit. And as much as I like experimental music, it's not really the best when you're depressed.
Music nowadays sucks mostly cause it seems so shallow and empty of much significance (and also it seems to be made by extremely smug and irritating people like the Moldy Peaches or the Hives and bastards like that). Maybe the sophisticated minds on ILM will laugh at that statement, but who gives a shit. One solution for me has been classical music, I mean, it's the shit. Really beautiful melodies and harmonies. (Mostly) devoid of tiresome post-modern in-jokes. And the CDs are all really cheap. Although, it doesn't really rock. But there's a good few hundred years worth of stuff, and most of the good stuff has filtered through.
World music is good too, as people have said. But I find that depressing, because I like to think as little as I possibly can about the poor people of the world (from where most "world" music come) because it's too depressing. What with bastard yankee imperalism rampant. I mean, even with the Burma example. I'd rather just bury my head in the sand.

― Anas FK, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

New wave- Depeche mode, the Human League, Soft Cell, New Order (whole catalogue pretty great), the cure, Gary Numan is okay but dern similar.

― tyler, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Take up a new hobby that you won't tire of. I suggest masturbation. I hear some people (ok, Vincent Gallo) can do it up to 18 times a day.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

One solution for me has been classical music, I mean, it's the shit. Really beautiful melodies and harmonies. (Mostly) devoid of tiresome post-modern in-jokes. And the CDs are all really cheap. Although, it doesn't really rock.

I don't know about that; there are definitely pieces out there that make the intensity of most rock music look silly and vapid; Britten's "War Requiem" and the "Dies irae" from both Mozart's "Requiem" and Verdi's "Requiem" come to mind.

― Dan Perry, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Forget bored with music, I'm bored with sitting on my ass all day today and doing nothing. Jesus help me.

― Ronan, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

>Forget bored with music, I'm bored with sitting on my ass all day >today and doing nothing. Jesus help me.

get a job

― Anas FK, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Get a job"

No, thats no fun either. I slave at the till all day to earn money to buy records I consequently havent the time, or energy, to listen to. Something of a Joseph Heller situation, as pretentious knobheads like to say.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

genres to explore...?

The world music suggestions are pretty good, although I always have a hard time divorcing that term from its obnoxious, aging hippie audience in America - trustafarians babbling about didgeridoos and tablas - blech. But Tropicalia, Afrobeat, Gypsy music, Muslim devotional music - you can't go wrong with a lot of that stuff.

Otherwise I would recommend the bottomless pit of the golden age of American funk (1969-1977 or so), which was mostly what I was listening to in college when most of my peers were digesting Rage Against the Machine/Nirvana/et al.

Or "stoner" metal - although the melodies are really slow and not exactly "pretty". High on Fire, Earth, Sleep, Skullflower, etc.

― Shaky Mo Collier, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT FUN?!?!?!?

― Anas FK, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, 1994 AMBIENT JUNGLE!

― Keith McD, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The first Ultravox! lp came out in '77; they pre-date new wave. Of course, Midge Ure was new wave. He also wore a moustache.

― Sean, Friday, 21 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Of course, I know Midge Ure pre-dates new wave as well; I was just looking for ways to make fun of him.

― Sean, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

but Midge Ure was nowhere to be seen on the first Ultravox Lp. He has still living the Glam-Rock-Dream with Slik (and later the Rich Kids)

― baxter wingnut, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ennio Morricone-- "Fistful of Film Music: Anthology" (Rhino) 2CDs

― earlnash, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Give up everything indierock for Sun Ra. You'll be thankful in the end.

― Lakespeed, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

''I kinda feel the same way, most new music is rubbish, I'm also pretty depressed too (not that I'm saying you are depressed or anything, but I am) . It's all shit. And as much as I like experimental music, it's not really the best when you're depressed.''

What kind of soundtrack for your ''depressing'' life would you like then you idiot?

― Julio Desouza, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

but Midge Ure was nowhere to be seen on the first Ultravox Lp

Or the second or the third. Which was my point, which I guess I made badly.

― Sean, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

>What kind of soundtrack for your ''depressing'' life would you like
> then you idiot?
ever heard of compassion?

― Anas FK, Saturday, 22 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I expressed a similar sentiment about four months ago to a friend and recieved this bit of sage wisdom:

"Rock and Roll is stupid. You should listen to Fats Waller."

I believe both statements are true, although I don't see a causal link between them. It's kind of a zen koan, actually.

― J, Sunday, 23 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Have you ever thought about changing your listening habits?? Instead of putting on an album. Try some internet radio. I especially like these since they have a more freeform programming philosophy: so you'll hear El-P to The Cananes to John Fahey rather than all just indie rock.Happy Listening http://www.wfmu.org http://www.wxyc.org http://www.kusf.org

― brg30, Sunday, 23 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

ever heard of compassion?

Unless it's experimental compassion, I doubt if Julio would be interested.

― Curt, Sunday, 23 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Doesn't John S's question more or less sum up what ILM is about? It seems to me that everybody ultimately comes here with a "bored with music, need help, unresponsive to normal stimuli" agenda.

― Curt, Sunday, 23 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Ignore Julio, John. He just listened to Dead C and now he feels "tough."

― Clarke B., Sunday, 23 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

>It seems to me that everybody ultimately comes here with a "bored with music, need help, unresponsive to normal stimuli" agenda.
For me that hits the nail on the head. Maybe cause people in this era follow scenes less and judge music on it's own merits as it were, we will ultimately be disatisfied with it, because we don't have the other peripheral stuff. Don't have the drugs, the heady atomsphere. That is supposing people in this "era" are more unsatisfied with music than in previous eras (this is a somewhat different but related topic but it just sprang to mind now). So we need more other different music. We can't get no satisfaction, like Jagger said. I listen to Stone Roses w/out the E-fuelled haze and it sounds "ok", being one example. Everything seems "ok". I NEED MORE.

― Anas FK, Sunday, 23 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I guess I just need to accept that music will never strike me in such a positive way as it did when I was 15 and first heard the Pixies. And I agree that all of us are in search of that again, but it just isn't going to happen. Mos tnew music I feel like I've heard before in some incarnation and the same can be said for a lot of old stuff. I'll keep looking I suppose, thanks for the recs.

― John S., Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Why even bother with music, film, relationships etc.? Eliminate the superfluous, cut out the middleman. In a word - DRUGS

― dave q, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

John, if you don't know The Wipers, try "Youth of America". Gloomy American New Wave. Tuneful dronerock. Extremely powerful stuff. A little bit like My Bloody Valentine but punkier. Great to be listened to in winter at night on the motorway. Better than The Pixies who were only good ten years ago. Advantage of The Wipers: their music aged well.

― alex in mainhattan, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

''He just listened to Dead C and now he feels "tough." ''

Dead C is not tough music. Listening to Dead C feels like the right thing to do these days.

― Julio Desouza, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i like how everyone's trying to push him into listening to musick. JOHN STOP LISTENING TO MUSICK, ENJOY THE SILENCE! CHEAP AND LESS NOISY!

― nathalie, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I like Nathalie's advice. That's what I usually do when I'm feeling burnt on all things musical. The other option is to buy a guitar.

― o. nate, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What I did a few years ago when this feeling hit for the first time -

I was 21, and I realised one day when looking through my collection (all on tape back then) that I didn't want to hear anything. I didn't even want to LOOK at it in order to choose something. I decided to give it all away. Then the next day I thought better of it - but what I did do was sort out the albums I'd bought in the last 3 months and put those aside, and made a list of all the others. Then I handed the list round to all my friends and asked them to 'adopt' my collection for a year - borrow the albums and keep them, eventually to be given back (though anyone borrowing albums could keep one as a thankyou for 'looking after' them). Any that nobody wanted got sealed in a box and put in my parents' loft.

I was left with a much-reduced collection and forced to listen properly to some recent purchases, and I also felt much free-er, more able to diversify and get into different kinds of things. By the time I got all my old tapes back a lot of them seemed fresh again to me too, and I'd realised which of my favourites I'd actually missed and which I'd been liking out of habit. It was a real turning point and I've never looked back.

― Tom, Monday, 24 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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