I’ve been meaning to write this topic for a while now but I have constantly delayed it because a) school and b) I honestly could not think of what to call this topic, and as you can see the title is still shit so I apologize for that. Also posting this to revive the music forum a little bit ...

Anyway, I have compiled a few bands which either … sound very similar to other older bands or which take elements of said bands and create a new sound. It’s basically to show that good music these days isn’t dead if you know where to look for it. That sounded really awful, but here goes …

A Place to Bury Strangers




Probably  one of the more popular shoegaze/noise bands out there today. Formed in 2003 in New York City, they didn’t pick up much buzz until they played a show with the Brian Jonestown Massacre. Since then, they’ve been described by several publications, including the New York Times and Washington Post (as well as picking up a good review from Pitchfork), as one of the loudest bands [of ][/of].  Upon first hearing it, immediate influences instantly bring up a Skywave-Jesus & Mary Chain hybrid.  The vocals, drumming and bass are all heavily reminiscent of Skywave with a huge “wall-of-sound” in many of the songs. 

Oliver Ackermann, frontman of A Place to Bury Strangers, is known for using a multitude of different effects pedals and has actually created his own line, Death By Audio. Bands ranging from Lightning Bolt to U2 to Nine Inch Nails to TV on the Radio and I believe even Thurston Moore (he performed at the warehouse where Death By Audio is located)  have began using some of his pedals.

A Place to Bury Strangers are signed to Mute Records (which has now been sold to EMI) but which did include acts such as Einstürzende Neubauten, Wire, Depeche Mode, Sonic Youth and Nick Cave. 


Raveonettes




Formed in 2001 in Denmark, The Raveonettes gained popularity once they had played a show at SPOT festival in Denmark’s second largest city, Aarhus.  Since, they have picked up acclaim from Rolling Stone and Q Magazine, where their albums have been compared to Psychocandy.
And in some ways their albums do resemble Psychocandy, providing melodic vocals contrasted by heavy instrumentation that waves in and out of songs as they build up. As last.fm puts it, “they sound very much like a slightly more melodic version of The Jesus and Mary Chain.”    To put it further, I would describe them as Karen O teaming up with the Jesus and Mary Chain.

I highly recommend the album Lust Lust Lust.



Have a Nice Life




I’m not sure of any of their previous activity, but they released their full-length, double-disc record Deathconciousness in January 2008. The band was formed between Tim Macuga (black metal member of Nahvalr) and Dan Barrett, member of some band called In Pieces. 

This record is extremely overwhelming, and also a lot of it is shit. The two-disc package comes with a 75-page booklet about medieval Italian heretics or something and was entirely hand-made (each disc was individually painted).  For fucks sake, they’ve got Marat on their album cover – how much more pretentious could you get?

The album is lo-fi, shoegaze, drone, industrial and a medley of tons of other genres mixed in one. With that said, however, the disc only features a few good songs, the rest being at masturbatory-lengths that do not go anywhere. When I say this, I mean the extra piece of lint on my pants becomes far more interesting. However, several tracks on the album stand out and make this album extremely worthwhile. I think this man’s review put it best, actually:




The December Sound




This is probably my favourite band on this list for the moment, I’m having some huge obsession with them.  Thing is, I don’t even know how to describe them … buzzing guitars, drone-like beats, soft, echoing vocals, and generally amazing overall.

Fun fact: I just stopped writing mid-sentence in that last line and went to the bathroom to throw up. I’m pretty sure I have strep throat as my throat has been hurting like a bitch for a while now, I’m going to go to the doctor to check it out tomorrow. I’m going to have to cut this a little short and just list the rest of the bands, sorry


The Fleeting Joys




This band is basically My Bloody Valentine. No joke.


To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie




A noisy portishead.


Holy Shit




Collab between Ariel Pink and Matt Fishbeck (of Push Kings) making amazing lo-fi sometimes 60s sounding music.

LSD and the Search for God




Another shoegaze band that I like because of the interplay between male and female vocals (otherwise I could list you tons of other modern shoegaze bands).

Anyway, to make this all worthwhile, I’ve uploaded zip file with two songs from each band for you to sample. If you like what you hear, you can … acquire the album from elsewhere!

Tracklist:
1. Missing You – A Place to Bury Strangers
2. Don’t Think Lover – A Place to Bury Strangers
3. Aly Walk With Me – The Raveonettes
4. You Want the Candy –  The Raveonettes
5. Waiting for the Black Metal Record to Come in the Mail – Have a Nice Life
6. Holy Fucking Shit: 40,000 – Have a Nice Life
7. Never – The December Sound
8. Kill Me (Before I Kill You) – The December Sound
9. You Are the Darkness – The Fleeting Joys
10. Lights Underground – The Fleeting Joys
11. The Patron – To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie
12. Lovers & Liars – To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie
13. Written All Over Your Face – Holy Shit
14. I Don’t Need Enemies – Holy Shit
15. Backwards – LSD and the Search for God
16. Starting Over – LSD and the Search for God


Download:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6ATO54II

oh cool, someone else who is annoyed by the raveonettes.

but yea i'll dl it and check back too.  who knows maybe the new iterations won't be embarrassments to the original bands who pioneered the sounds.....mayby

this is by no means any definitive list, just whatever i've found. it'd be great if you anyone could talk about any others you know!

I really like one song of Have a Nice Life's Deathconciousness something like Waiting for Black Metal Records to Arrive in the Mail(?) but beside that I didn't care for the album. There were maybe a couple other songs that were less memorable I like but overall I was pretty disappointed for how highly recommended it came

I'll check out some other bands but I dunno I'm not too into this stuff


Edit: Oh yea that song I was talking about was on the tracklist I didn't see. The black metal one is good.

I love these topics because I get to check out a whole load of bands without downloading individual albums. I havent really listened to this genre (I don't think I'll like it) but its worth a try........ I do like shoegaze/post rock tho

welp guess this topic is dead/sucks 

at least my strep throat is almost gone

gw doesnt like this music i dont think.  no one wants to talk about it basically ever

gw doesnt like this music i dont think.  no one wants to talk about it basically ever

Nah, I'm pretty sure there are some people here who at least listen to post-punk and new wave. Shoegaze is not popular here and I can only listen to it in small doses because it gets really boring otherwise.

SOME, yeah.  that's the point!  topics like this do not get much attention tho.  it's hard to start a gw music krew with five people.  postrock on the other hand. . .

*gazes somberly at own shoes*

apart from couch's topic there hasn't been a post-rock topic in ages i think! no one listens to it anymore.

i can't even say what is popular on gw anymore.

is that a fact ds.  yeah i guess i can't either.  buuuuuut i don't think it's stuff like this.  whatever it is . . .it aint this.


also bort i never said no one at all ever liked it!!  i just said not enough people did to really have active topics about it, which is fairly evident at this point.  also you normally suggest weird bort/chefmusic to me and i rarely find it's something that i can get into so i kind of stopped following up.  if you wanna compile a list tho i'll listen dutifully to all of it.

also what aesthetic?  i'm not sure i understand.