What MUSIC are you listening to?

Mr. White wrote: As I'm painting up and collecting Dreadball, I've been listening to a lot of synthwave. It's great stuff, but I feel too many artists go the easy way out and just pick classic 80's movie lines or themes and compose a song around it. That music's good, but not super creative in some aspects. College is heads and shoulders above the rest as his compositions sound current, modern, but inspired from yesteryear's sounds.

Anyway, there is a track that calls out an 80s film that I just can't get enough of. Night Runner's Nuclear Countdown from the album Starfighter. With its haunting Miracle Mile intro to the atomic bomb explosion at the end, it really gives me the sense of dread I often felt living on military bases back during the Cold War.

I can't find the track on youtube, but it's on their bandcamp page. The whole album is worth checking out. Particularly if you're playing a game with any sort of near future/post-apoc vibe.

nightrunnermusic.bandcamp.com/album/starfighter

I've been listening to this a lot over the last couple of weeks. Really great, thanks.

Yeah, I was actually listening to Starfighter again this morning. It gets played _a_lot_ at work.

If it were a 2015 album it would have made my top 5 list for the year easily.

Evil Technology by VHS Glitch is also great. Not quite as strong as Starfighter, IMO, but worth checking out.

vhsglitch.bandcamp.com/album/evil-technology-album

(Going to get that link, I see VHS Glitch just recently out out an album in December, Land with No Future. According to the fluff on their page, it looks like it's a continuation of the story in Evil Technology. Gonna check that out now...)

In 2014 I was supposed to pick up Run the Jewels 2, but for some reason I held off. Recently I've seen Killer Mike talking to Bernie Sanders and on Colbert's new show so with that reminder I picked up Run the Jewels 2 and decided to check it out. Holy shit is it fun.. I don't know exactly what I was expecting but I did think it would be more experimental, less accessible and more political. It's a fun album, it feels live, dynamic, and exciting. Underneath all the anger and metaphor it's clear that these guys just like making music together and are having a blast. Even better, it feels like an album, not a mixtape, not a collection of singles, but a real album. There's a hint of Gift of Gab in some of the delivery, which is at times virtuosic and brainy, the beats are really dirty and giant distorted bass resonates throughout the album easily as obviously as the drums... which frequently disappear into the background.

Great, great album and if you like Hip Hop you should definitely check it out. That got me going back in time a bit so I started listening to other hip hop records this morning and last night... MF Doom, Sage Francis, Busdriver, Open Mike Eagle, Radioinactive, cLOUDDEAD.. sometimes I forget how much I love this style of music. I think hip hop is doing great as a genre, there's never been more good hip hop to choose from. Which is nice since rock is pretty much dead.

JonJacob wrote: In 2014 I was supposed to pick up Run the Jewels 2, but for some reason I held off. Recently I've seen Killer Mike talking to Bernie Sanders and on Colbert's new show so with that reminder I picked up Run the Jewels 2 and decided to check it out. Holy shit is it fun.. I don't know exactly what I was expecting but I did think it would be more experimental, less accessible and more political. It's a fun album, it feels live, dynamic, and exciting. Underneath all the anger and metaphor it's clear that these guys just like making music together and are having a blast. Even better, it feels like an album, not a mixtape, not a collection of singles, but a real album. There's a hint of Gift of Gab in some of the delivery, which is at times virtuosic and brainy, the beats are really dirty and giant distorted bass resonates throughout the album easily as obviously as the drums... which frequently disappear into the background.

Great, great album and if you like Hip Hop you should definitely check it out. That got me going back in time a bit so I started listening to other hip hop records this morning and last night... MF Doom, Sage Francis, Busdriver, Open Mike Eagle, Radioinactive, cLOUDDEAD.. sometimes I forget how much I love this style of music. I think hip hop is doing great as a genre, there's never been more good hip hop to choose from. Which is nice since rock is pretty much dead.

I love Run the Jewels. I haven't listened to Cat the Jewles yet though. I also love MF Doom, that's really who I get my avatar/name from MF =metalface, I'm not really a Dr. Doom fan. One time I hugged Sage Francis and then I cock blocked him. Have you listened to El-P's stuff? His solo stuff is good and Company Flow's "Funcrusher Plus" is a total classic. Not sure how well versed you are in hip hop but I also recommended Deltron 3030, Dr. Octagon (and most of Kool Keith's work but Dr. Octagon is head and shoulders the best), Flying Lotus (more instrumental abstract hip hop), Aesop Rock, Cannibal Ox, Atmosphere.

I know most of what you recommended but I am going to download Company Flow's Funcrusher Plus and Dr. Octagon for sure. Thanks man! I could use some new recommendations. Can't wait to check them out.

Mr. White wrote: As I'm painting up and collecting Dreadball, I've been listening to a lot of synthwave. It's great stuff, but I feel too many artists go the easy way out and just pick classic 80's movie lines or themes and compose a song around it. That music's good, but not super creative in some aspects. College is heads and shoulders above the rest as his compositions sound current, modern, but inspired from yesteryear's sounds.

Anyway, there is a track that calls out an 80s film that I just can't get enough of. Night Runner's Nuclear Countdown from the album Starfighter. With its haunting Miracle Mile intro to the atomic bomb explosion at the end, it really gives me the sense of dread I often felt living on military bases back during the Cold War.

I can't find the track on youtube, but it's on their bandcamp page. The whole album is worth checking out. Particularly if you're playing a game with any sort of near future/post-apoc vibe.

nightrunnermusic.bandcamp.com/album/starfighter

Thanks for the great recommendation! I love finding out that a type of music that I enjoy is a whole genre. That album is really fun, and the band has a recommendations of their own that I'm going to check out.

I've been listening to Brandi Carlile's "Firewatcher's Daughter" a lot at work. My favorite album of 2015. If i had to make a short list of the best songwriters of this decade I know she makes the top 3.

Anyhoo - This song is going to be covered by every acoustic duo/trio you run into in every coffee shop for the rest of your life.

I just discovered a local station that plays radio-edited classic hiphop. When I"m driving around running errands in the Ford Econoline I'll play it and the trips feel a lot more interesting, like I'm on my way to pop a cap on some thug.

Full Disclosure...I'm a Gaslight Anthem homer. I don't care if they're heartland rock, dad rock, or whatever other thing the punks wanna label them these days, I'm down.

Sucks they went on hiatus, but ups that Brian Fallon is at least doing the solo album thing because this track is my current ear worm.

"Hey, hey little Tommy gun..."

Jeff, that is definitely Dad music, nothing wrong with Dad music, but that's certainly what it is.

I bought a Bowie album. Spiders from Mars... it was ok. I can see why it was great at the time, I can see why fans think it's aged well, I can see his charms and I don't dislike him at all. But I'm still not a fan. I tried, I listened to it maybe five times in the last few weeks here but I just can't do it. Maybe one day I'll come back and try a different album of his. I want to like him, I just don't.

I also picked up Dr. Octagon based on Metalface's recommendation. Awesome album, great fun. Conceptual Hip Hop is a great thing and for some reason is easier to swallow than when it's done in rock which almost always seems way too pretentious. I'm thinking about picking up another of his albums or trying harder to track down that Company Flow album. Thanks Metalface...

I keep going back to Run the Jewels 2. It's just an incredible album and I can't believe I missed out on it for two years before giving it a chance.

My choice for album of the year was James McMurtry's Complicated Game and I keep listening to it over and over. The album keeps growing on me. There are no bad songs on that damned thing. The opening line is so intimidating: "Honey don't you be yelling at me when I'm cleaning my gun, I'll wash the blood of the tailgate when deer seasons done." I love that. Obviously he's talking about hunting but the imagery is still kind of haunting. Then there are songs like this which in an alternate universe could be pop hits.



or this laid back JJ Cale inspired tune



or even this somewhat hip hop influenced (or Dylan if you want to see it that way) song



Great album, lots of variety, strong songs with strong lyrics.

Jacob, already establishing that I'm into un-hip dad rock, take this request with a grain of salt...

Have you gotten into GangstaGrass? Seems it would be right in your wheelhouse.

That Dr. Octagon record is phenomenal. If you like that, you should (tentatively) check out other Kool Keith. He is WILDLY inconsistent. But there are lots of other great ones. I really like Black Elvis, it's kind of his sci-fi record. And Spankmaster is just hilarious. Also, his stuff with Electromagnetic MCs is definitely worth while. He did a Doctor Octagon 2 record but I haven't heard it.

I think you would actually like pre-Ziggy Bowie better, JJ. Maybe try "Hunky Dory" and "The Man Who Sold the World". I'm sort of coming out of this weird celebrity mourning thing, I have a setlist of 40 tracks on Spotify that I will share at some point with linear notes. It is not a "best of", it's more of a "connoisseur's collection" so lots of alternate versions, B-sides, live stuff, neglected album tracks, that kind of thing. I'm especially proud of following up a scorching Spiders cover of "White Light/White Heat" with "Magic Dance".

Easing back into the world of non-Bowie music...I'm on a shoegaze thing right now. I had an out-of-nowhere inclination to listen to "De-Luxe" by Lush and that's lead into a full-blown genre dive. Haven't listened to Pale Saints, Chapterhouse, Ride and all that jive in years. But I'm sort of going out the side door to listen to A Place to Bury Strangers. I've wanted to get into them a couple of times over the years but I've always wound up distracted. I saw that they had a recent record out, and it fits right in with this shoegaze thing. They have that Jesus and Mary Chain "chainsaw in a hurricane" sound down pat, and it's pretty evident that they've likely spent an undue amount of time worshipping MBV's "You Made Me Realize" because every song sounds pretty much like that...not so much "Isn't Anything" or even "Loveless", but specifically that track. But it doesn't come off as repetitive or as empty homage, they have their own approach. They're slightly more industrial, and there's a pretty clear Joy Division influence in there as well. But more importantly, they sort of touch back to Stooges-y stun rock in their riffs, think "TV Eye" or "I Wanna Be Your Dog". So far, "Worship" seems like their best record, even Christgau gave it an A-.

I tried listening to that Brian Fallon track but I could feel myself aging so I turned it off.

Michael Barnes wrote: I think you would actually like pre-Ziggy Bowie better, JJ. Maybe try "Hunky Dory" and "The Man Who Sold the World".

I will come back to him eventually.

What would you recommend from his more electronic days, something experimental and not too accessible - maybe with Eno? I think that might be what I need to hear in order to get him a little better. Something clearly not pop if it exists. I've been reading about Scary Monsters and the Berlin Period a bit and something about that sounded interesting to me. I'll definitely check out those older ones too though.

Ooh shoegaze! Ride's "Vapour Trail" is an all-time favorite song. It's like they tracked everyone else and told the drummer to do whatever the fuck he wanted. My Bloody Valentine is back aren't they?



Still in my eJazz groove. Lots of Caribou, El Ten Eleven, Bonobo on the rotation. Totally digging the now-15-year-old "Daydream in Blue" by I Monster right now. Has everything I am after, layered sounds, subdued vocals (if any), samples--there's so much going on there's nothing going on.

Well, now that I've been caught wearing pleated Dockers let me slip into something else and possibly regain some dignity...

Several folks liked that Nightrunner recommendation, so I should point them to what I understand are considered the first albums of the synthwave movement... College's Teenage Color EP and Secret Diary LP, both from 2008.





Of course, the Drive soundtrack put this stuff out into the mainstream and was my first exposure to it...though I was unaware of that fact at the time.

Currently, one can just tune into the NewRetroWave site and have this stuff streamed all day.
www.newretrowave.com/

Am I now good to not embarrass the kids in the pickup line after school today?