Hrm.. I'm a big seeker of new music, but this thread isn't doing it for me. I need a description of what something sounds like. "Electronica" and "Indie" are still big umbrellas.
See, I listen to EVERYTHING. My playlist has rap, alternative, indie, electronica, classical, baroque, opera, classic rock, psychedelic, folk, filk, blues, bebop, swing, big band, small band, marches, oldies, do-wop, even a country song.
But I don't listen to everything WITHIN everything. Bob Dylan, Richie Havens = good. Some other folk, including most Neil Young, not so much. Ataris, yes, Jimmy Eat World, yes. Other emo? much less so. The Ramones, Rancid, and NOFX all yes. Green Day no.
The best source of new listening for me has consistently been The Onion's AV club. And less the reviews than the "upcoming events." They talk about what the artist is doing on the album, what the sound is. There's some comparison to other bands, but more often talk about the performance itself.
The best find I've had from them wasn't anythign approaching a review. They did "Random Rules" with the front man of Robbers on High Street. Just announcing the first 8 songs his iPod came up with on shuffle. The combo was so appealing I had to try what came from a musician with that playlist. True love.
Here's the review that got me to listen to Art Brut (a decision made only recently and which I will not regret, ever)
Once upon a time, Eddie Argos promised not to sing about the things he likes to sing about. “No more songs about sex and drugs and rock ’n’ roll,” he blustered on 2006’s Bang Bang Rock & Roll. “It’s boooring.” Context helps: He was ribbing The Velvet Underground for glamorizing all of the above. Or he was kidding, because Argos almost exclusively writes songs about sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll; he just never sounds glamorous.
That’s especially true on Art Brut’s Frank Black-produced third album, in which hangovers, blackouts, and regrettable hookups populate a good chunk of Argos’ hilarious, blurted narratives. (Sample nerd-satisfying zinger: “I fought the floor and the floor won.”) If those sound like traditional Art Brut fascinations, look closer: Argos has shifted his focus from thrill-seeking to its consequences—and more pointedly, its motives. That’s almost what he did on 2007’s It’s A Bit Complicated¸ but then he seemed more interested in generalizing about his awkward, reckless life than understanding it or making it all that humorous. And while it’s misleading to call an album “mature” when it plunders rock history for riffs and features an ode to comic books, Argos has done some growing up. The flipside of debauchery is a classic brew of loneliness, insecurity, mortality, and hope—all of which, Argos increasingly realizes, can be pretty funny.
and the blurb converting me to Kings of Leon:
Nashville three-bothers-and-a-cousin outfit Kings Of Leon was originally pegged as the “Southern Strokes,” but with the growth of their sound, the new handle seems to be the “Southern U2.” Whether or not you consider that an upgrade doesn’t really matter, because KOL’s 2008 album Only By The Night and lead single “Sex On Fire” blasted out of the gates; the band has since earned a headlining spot at Lollapalooza and made promises of a more blues-influenced, slide-guitar anchored album on the way.
In all my time writing for TWG, I tried, and largely failed, to come close to the revelation that comes with an Onion AV Club or Decider description, only with RPG instead of music and stage.