Dec 18 2009
A Decade-Long Selection Of Music
Some of what I’ve liked over the last ten years. In no particular order.
Update: Now put behind a cut so people won’t have to have their computers choke everytime they visit. But if you’ve not seen the videos, you want to click through. Your life would be sad without them. So. Very. Sad.
Here we are:
(“About a Girl” from The Academy Is…, incidentally.)
And, to end on a huge friggin’ pile of shredded cheese:
Don’t look at me like that. You know you love it.
Oh, fine. Here, then:
You’re welcome.
I'm the Creative Consultant for this television show, appearing Fridays on Syfy. Miss a week? For US residents, 
Thank you for a much needed dose of Neil and Tim!
Nice w/ the Finns. But could be dorkier. More prog rock?
NO PROG ROCK. Look, I gave you Muse. That should be enough in that direction.
“You’re welcome.”
Yeaaaah. I think I’ll call your Evanesence and raise you a NightWish.
Also, thank you for the lovely Avril Levine, I’ll just re-gift that next year…
What, no Manowar?
When somebody gives me Muse, I don’t complain… unless they also give me a bunch of stuff that ISN’T Muse with it. Then I complain, based on ratios and likeability of the non-Muse component!
Nice video by Kwoon.
Avril is on your list? Really? Different strokes, I guess.
Hey. Avril is the motherfuckin’ princess, man.
And the guitarist in the avril video is playing a les paul special! What a tragic waste of a legendary guitar…
The killers were catchy, but I could never understand wtf their songs were about.
The rest of this is greek to me.
Eh, I’m not into princesses that much. At all, really. I feel a little dirty whenever I hear her.
Regina Spektor and Lisa Loeb/Elizabeth Mitchell were a nice surprise. That’s more my speed.
Well, see, Tim. Something for everybody! And especially me!
Cool songs. Never heard of a lot of those folks but I like ‘em. I suspect they’ll be showing up on my iTunes list soon.
My paycheck will probably be cursing you soon.
So, why is the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ drummer holding his left stick at that weird angle? Is it a “just a video, not actually playing” thing, or is there an actual technique where you hit drums that way?
Dangit, quit calling me “mjfgates sees weird spam.”
mjfgates:
That’s just one way to hold a drumstick. You hold them differently for different techniques and effects.
mjfgates:
That’s a traditional hold on the drumstick that came about when snare drummers were marching and had to hold the stick at an angle in order to hit the drum slung on their shoulder.
Thank you mr. Scalzi. I know very little of what has been going on lately within this so called industry…
I must say that a lot of your musical taste overlaps with mine, and almost cursed you for posting that Regina Spektor song; it nearly brought me to tears earlier this year when I was going through a bad breakup.
And, glad to see you post The Darkness; it’s like someone took an 80s hair metal band, froze them in 1987, thawed them out in 2003/2004, and then froze them again to bring them out in another decade and a half.
Oooh, I love Stephen Torrence! Before him the only ASL I knew was the alphabet and some of the lyrics to Rock Lobster. Now I know the alphabet, some of the lyrics to Rock Lobster, and a fair bit of the words to Party in the USA.
John.
DragonForce.
You’re my new hero.
HERO OF MY TIME THAT IS NEORWEEEEEEEE (3-minute guitar solo)
That Travis Barker track kicks my ass as much now as it did when you first posted it…
Heart defribulating, indeed.
Love it… Most of the rest as well.
I’ll raise you a Bjork and The Hives (Tick Tick Boom?). Maybe a little bit of the Chemical Brothers and Basement Jaxx.
Techno techno, as Wallis might say.
Nice range. From cool to WTF?
I think I would add, in no particular order, Dresden Dolls, Disturbed, Pink and Slipknot.
omg, THAT ASL version of Re: your brains is fantastic… I will give the rest a quick listen as well, thanks JS.
Musically I am even older than I thought I was; I barely recognize most of those names, much less the songs.
While you’re up, put another record on, willya?
JS: I hope you’ve seen that guy’s ASL interpretation of “First of May,” too. It’s great to finally know some useful signs for when I need to cuss quietly.
A little black metal could liven up any decade-end list. Whaddaya say?
Interesting selection. You need some Rush in there, though ;-)
I must have played the Welcome Interstate Managers album a half dozen times before I listened carefully to All Kinds of Time. Amazing lyrics about a moment of grace.
Ooh, that Smashing Pumpkins video is rather Fellini-esque… I really appreciate you putting the Finn Brothers and Muse in there. Thank you.
Records, LOL. 78, 45 or 33?
If you know what I am talking about you’re not musically old, yer just old. That or a trivia champion.
zombie sign language FTMFW!!!!!!! :)
and, say sorry, but i have to ask.
@ scalzi: does athena know that there is another princess in your life? :P
Curse you, Scalzi! Do you have *any* idea how many CDs I’m going to have to buy as a direct result of this post? Do you even *think* about the consequences of your actions???
Haha, I have to admit the ” Girlfriend” tune is catchy. But listening to it and admitting you enjoy it is two different things.
That said, I hope you have a awesome snowy day in Ohio…we’ve gotten 3 inches of rain here in 10 hours. Oh, and go see Avatar its the bombdiggity!
Thank you. There was a time when I swore I’d always keep up with current music, but that time was over 40 years ago, and it just didn’t happen. So it’s good to get some recommendations for recent bands to try.
@31: Not quite. New-release 33 LPs are being sold in stores again, and my college-age daughter and her friends have collected old 45s since middle school.
A suggestions of my own:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5ox53_bKbo
Motograter – Down
Sarah Harmer, f*ck yeah!
Yay JoCo and ASL!!!
You should check out Toto’s “Falling in Between” CD. Great CD from this decade.
Surprised and pleased to see the Bangles’ “Something That You Said” here. Glad to know someone else likes it! (Will check out the rest here on my next day off.)
Great to see Sarah Harmer getting some love. She’s a seriously underrated artist.
Bunch of strange-to-me music there, John. I’ll try some of them. I’ve been bouncing up and down because I’ve just discovered that the lawyers (?) have finally allowed the production of a CD from something recorded in 1966 by RCA as a three LP set; many of the performers were young and signed contracts after the LP won a Grammy in 1967, but with different companies, and it was only a couple of years ago that it all got sorted out. I’ve purchased this on vinyl a couple of times and am overjoyed it’s going to be in my car next Christmas as two CDs, remastered from the original analog tape.
Oh, I should say what it is, I suppose. The Robert Shaw Chorale and Orchestra performing Handel’s Messiah, on RCA Red Seal. Not the Atlanta Symphony version.
Handel: Messiah [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]
George Frederick Handel (Composer),
Robert Shaw (Conductor),
Robert Shaw Chorale (Chorus),
Robert Shaw Orchestra (Orchestra),
Robert Arnold (Performer),
Robert Conant (Performer),
Richard Lewis (Performer),
Thomas Paul (Performer),
Judith Raskin (Performer),
James Smith (Performer)
Sorry if this is too much of a plug.
Hmmmm…good!
Good!
It took me a couple of minutes for my computer to start working once I clicked over to scalzi.com. Maybe we could hide these below the fold or something? I hope it isn’t like this every time I come to this page.
Here’s a few links of my own:
White Stripes
Black keys
Fergie
Christopher “Trained Song and Dance Man” Walken
RATM
Beastie Boys playing Jazz
There’s also some non-label (creative commons licensed) stuff I like:
hands upon black earth (solid, sensual, organic, languorous electronic music)
processor (industrial acid house. I esp like tracks 3,4,5)
Artemis (Trip-hop/electro-pop with siren vocals)
Cargo Cult (electro-rock)
Ambient Technology (electronica)
The Darkness! Woohoo!
Yay for the Green Day and Dragonforce. They are my guilty pleasure, like shells and white cheddar, and by “they” I mean Dragonforce. And no, I can’t play them on Guitar Hero, or not well, anyway.
I highly recommend Tool (particularly Lateralus) and Breaking Benjamin.
Here’s my favorite Tool song.
And here’s my favorite Breaking Benjamin song (the sound quality isn’t very good on this link, but it’s fine on the album itself).
And for those times you need a rage outlet, I recommend Machine Head.
I just wanna check, John, that yu are clear that your posting of these videos on on your site is compliant with the relevant legislation and/or internet usage policies of the bands/music companies concerned?
I will be more than happy with a simple “Yes”.
My crack team of intellectual property lawyers say, “yeah, sure.”
Is your crack team of lawyers fuzzy, perchance?
Also: respectfully request that you put them behind a cut (maybe in a day or two if not right away). That’s a lot of loading and scrolling…
Many good songs in the post–I like that Regina Spektor song despite myself.
@37 MOTOGRATER! Damn, that song is great. The singer’s new band, Five Finger Death Punch, is pretty good, too.
But since I’ve mostly moved away from heavy stuff, I’ll endorse Deer Tick’s “Easy”, “Ain’t Nothin’ Wrong With That” by Robert Randolph and the Family Band, and “Say Hey” by Michael Franti and Spearhead.
But thanks for these videos. I like to be exposed to everything.
Not withstanding the musical talents of Ms. Lavigne, there’s no way I’d let go of a red head with glasses and cardigan like that once I got a hold of one.
Matthew Ernest:
But that’s the magic of the video, Matthew! The black-haired temptress is the red head! Everyone wins!
What a mix.
I put those all into Pandora to start a new channel.
After thinking for about 14 seconds, it responded simply:
500 Internal Server Error: Srsly?
That ASL/Coulton vid was OSSIM!
I’d add “George R. R. Martin is Not Your Bitch” but I don’t know of any handy youtube versions (yet.)
http://scifisongs.blogspot.com/2009/08/sci-fi-song-20-george-rr-martin-is-not.html
Wow. You have eclectic taste.
I mean that in a GOOD way – really.
What do you think of Julian
Casablancas (formerly of the
Strokes)? One of the songs off his
solo album (Phrazes for the
Young) is this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaaKsg6n8Sg&feature=channel
It showed up in the bookstore’s NPR-Discover-Songs’ list and man, is it growing on me.
I’m a Pumpkins fan from way back (as way back as one can be, I suppose), and was glad to see you include Stand Inside Your Love, one of the most underrated hits in a long time. But I noticed something…does that video feature the fat dude from Borat? The guy who plays Asamat Bagatov? I’m pretty sure that’s him…which is a bit of a distraction in an otherwise fantastic piece…
Love that video for The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights.” Probably because I used to work in a semiconductor wafer fab (AKA chip manufacturing company). A couple of points worth noting: aside from some quick views of chips being sliced apart and packaged, most of the machines in the video are metrology equipment, i.e., used to measure and test the various layers being deposited on the wafers. The machines that deposit, pattern and etch the layers are much less photogenic. Also, the female equipment operator at one point is fiddling with the EMO button, a switch that can be pressed in an emergency to shut the tool off–say, if someone were to get their hand caught in the robot. You DO NOT want to be fiddling with the EMO button, particularly on tools that take days to clean and restart when power has been lost. People who unintentionally press an EMO button would earn the temporary nicknames “Captain EMO” or “Tickle Me EMO.”
Scalzi @50, intellectual property lawyers, meaning Cory Doctorow.
Smashing Pumpkins was my #1 band coming into this decade. Strangely, I didn’t like Machina very much when it came out, but after ten years it’s the only Pumpkins album that I listen to regularly anymore.
My favorite band of the decade is Broadcast, though:
David @#59: Funny, I never considered The Postal Service as particularly emo. AFI, maybe, but…
Wait, what?
Oh, never mind.
The ASL version of RE: Your Brains was excellent, but the same guy’s version of “First of May” might be even better: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEjRHFom1Kk&feature=channel
hey, you introduced me to the Ting -Tings when you posted them as wake-up music – Loved the album ever since.
As I was making up my “most-listened-to” new music from the past year, I realized that I’d gotten old – they’re almost all folk/Americana/guy with a guitar/hippie-jam-band-groove style music – Except for Tinted Windows. How can you proclaim your love for good, catchy pop like Girlfriend and forget the Windows????
What, no Lady GaGa?
She’s the next Madonna, she is… ;)
I think Lady Gaga would explode in close proximity to Dragonforce, with lethal results to Da Cheese.
SQUEEE!! Muse is playing Starlight on SNL RIGHT NOW!
Oblig: The last one’s a TRAP!
About the Zombie ASL song, I also like the ASL Still Alive one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9iXOtxu5Ro&feature=player_embedded
IMO, Basement Apartment is Sarah Harmer’s worst song. Have you heard Lodestar or Uniform Grey, or The Hideout?
Any decade retrospective list that doesn’t include something from Clutch is automatically suspect but this, nevertheless, is nice run down.
I had completely forgotten about Sarah Harmer; thanks for reminding me.