If it's one thing that can really get me through a long day or a bad day it has to be music. As the days vary, so too does the music I want to hear. From The Beatles and Led Zeppelin to The Roots, Kendrick Lamar, hell even Adele. My musical taste has a wide range. If you were to ask me what would be the ten albums I would want to take with me on a deserted island it would change from month to month. I shouldn't say that as I would have a few albums that no matter what I would take with me, so the lineup would change a little but there are mainstays. Music allows you to escape. It shuts out the world around you for just a little bit of time. Or it passes the time as you drive on a road trip. It doesn't always have to have a meaningful message behind it. Sometimes it can be just fun. It can bring a smile to your face for no other reason than getting to belt out lyrics in your car to no one. Except maybe the person in the car next to you at the stop light.
I don't have a tendency to listen to the radio mainly because I hate music being interrupted by commercials or senseless talking from the DJs. Sure, you can change the station, but they always seem to be on commercial at the same time. Funny how that happens. Plus, their musical selection seems very limited. So any time my wife talks about a song she heard that she really likes, for the most part I haven't heard it. I leave finding new pop music to her. She hears it and has good taste. Mostly....we ended up with a Selena Gomez song in our catalogue. So there's that. At least it wasn't Pitbull. I'll never forget this one time when we were living in Wichita and 'Hey There Delilah' by the Plain White Tees came on the radio in her car. I had bought their album not that long before and I hadn't really heard their music on the radio. I said something like 'oh hey, I really like this song.' and her response was 'ugh, it's on the radio like all the time.'
I try not to stick to just one type of music when searching for
something new. If you do that, all the music starts to sound the same. I believe a great band or artist will change their music or style over time. That's what makes good music great. Can they show you a different style or sound? The White Stripes are a modern example of this. They start out straight up garage band rock and end their time together kind of blusey/alternative. Over the course of their career, their sound changed. It shows growth. It got so much better. Icky Thump is worlds apart from White Blood Cells. Want a classic example? Listen to Led Zeppelin I and II then go listen to In Through the Out Door.
Some rap music I've found is from Doomtree. They're a collective rap group out of Minneapolis and all the members have put out solo albums. I've found two of their members, Sims and Dessa, that I really like. I bought two of their EPs (Wildlife and False Hopes) on iTunes. EPs are nice because you get to hear five or six songs for relatively cheap (usually in the five dollar range) as opposed to spending eleven or twelve dollars on an artist you might not end up liking. Other members of the group, Cecil Otter, P.O.S, and Mike Mictlan, I've listened to and from their samples are great, but I just haven't bought any of their stuff yet. I suggest listening to songs Jordan 5'S or Mineshaft if you want to hear something of theirs.
A few rock/alternative bands I've found recently are Shout Out Louds and Spoon. Shout Out Louds are a band out of Sweden while Spoon comes from Texas and both bands have been around for a while. I just stumbled across both of them looking for something different. And while you could listen to both bands and mistake one of them for the other, it's stuff you don't hear on the radio. It's borderline underground, but well done underground music. Not poorly written songs and poorly played instruments. Both albums that I have are solid (Howl Howl Gaff Gaff and They Want My Soul). You can't find a track you won't like. You know how there's usually that one track on an album, even your most favorite, that when it starts playing you let out an exasperated sigh because you can't stand it? Yeah, there isn't one of those on either album I have. Check out The Comeback or Do You to check out their sound.
Have any suggestions? Let's hear 'em.
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