Axe Elf
Super Member
Hello. I am Axe Elf--and yes, my avatar is a picture of me (it's six or seven years old now, but still--it's me). I am new here. Maybe there's a place for introductions somewhere, and if you have any particularly compulsive moderators, I'm sure this will soon get moved there. However, I don't expect that I will ever contribute to anything other than this music board on this site, and so I'm saying "Hello" here.
I'm no particular audiophile, so the discussion of various equipment bores me. Don't ask me what kind of cartridge I have in my turntable, and I have no problem listening to wma or mp3 files of 192kbps or greater. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't want to listen to music on a Close 'N' Play turntable, a clock radio or even most boomboxes--but I do think that once you get to a certain level of competence in stereo equipment, the brand name and the extra thousand dollars (or more) makes little appreciable difference. I'm not here to talk about whether vinyl sounds better than digital (to me, it doesn't, but I understand the argument in principle), or whether SHM CDs sound better than regular ones. I don't really care. I'm just here to talk about the music, because I love music.
Perhaps I should say that I love rock and roll--in all of its forms, from oldies to punk (although I have a hard time with some of the modern "screamo" metal). I can dig the occasional tune in other genres--country, rap, hip hop, dance, pop, even a little jazz if it's creative--but rock is and shall always be my first love.
Even though I have largely moved from buying physical LPs and CDs to downloading most of my music over the last several years, I still believe in buying the music I want (not just streaming it online or downloading it from filesharing sites like Grooveshark or the old Napster). I also tend toward acquiring full albums, rather than just cherry-picking the songs I like most--because I still believe in the artistry of putting together an album, rather than just creating radio-friendly cuts. (I will admit to a few lapses in that policy, especially for a song that I KNOW is going to be an outlier and that I will hate the rest of the album, but in general, I'm an album-oriented rocker.)
My digital collection is now up to something like 65,000 songs, and that doesn't include over a thousand vinyl LPs that I haven't gotten around to digitizing yet (although I have converted several hundred LPs in my collection over the past decade or so). In all, I would estimate that I am approaching about 5,000 albums. With such an extensive catalog at my fingertips, it's sometimes hard to find new music that I haven't heard before, especially GOOD new music that I haven't heard before--although that is one of life's greatest pleasures for me.
So I guess that's why I'm here. As I said, I don't stream--I hardly have enough time to listen to the music that I KNOW I enjoy, without having to sort through hours of drivel. I don't listen to the radio, because most of what passes for "popular" music is overproduced, commercialized pablum. It used to be that artists tried to be fresh and inventive to be heard; now they all just try to sound like the last hit. I'm interested in hearing about music that is so obscure, creative and unique that it has heretofore passed under my radar--and hopefully, I will like some of it. In return, I can probably share the same with you from my own experience.
I will warn you, though, I promise to be honest in evaluating anything submitted here for my approval, even if that means that it's pure crap. I do tend to be a music snob to some extent--but then we all probably think that the music WE like is the best music there is--I just happen to be CERTAIN of it! So I will tell you if you have made my day with a new find--and I will tell you if you are wasting my time. I've already poked around here for a few days, and while some of you are already trying my patience ("Frampton Comes Alive" is one of the best album titles of all time? Really??), I can tell that some of you also know what you are doing--and to that extent, I hope to learn something here.
Maybe this is how I can avoid having this thread moved to the Introductions area ("I'd like you to meet Mohammet... Jugdish... Sidney... and Clayton..."); instead of a "Meet Me" thread, let's just call it an "Impress Me" thread. You show me yours, and I'll show you mine.
I'll start with my top 10 albums of the 21st century; you can take a clue from them and give me your best shots.
1. Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg (Deluxe Edition) (2009)
The original 12-track release was awesome enough, but the Deluxe Edition added four more killer tunes to the playlist. "California Queen" right out of the gate is a great start, and "New Moon Rising" keeps the classic rock vibe strong. By the time the third and fourth tracks ("White Feather" and "Sundial") are through, you know you're onto something special, and the rest of the album goes on to completely melt your face. There's really not a bad cut to be found--and I don't say that lightly.
VIDEO SAMPLE: New Moon Rising
2. AWOLNATION - Megalithic Symphony (Deluxe Edition) (2013)
The only bad cuts on the original release of this one are a few throwaway filler tracks (less than a minute each) that really don't belong on the album--in fact, I think they kind of detract from it. Outside of those, I think the worst song on the album is ironically the one that became their biggest hit--"Sail." It is a sparse and moody contrast to the rest of the rock-driven, operatically layered dance music that takes turns getting stuck in your head throughout the rest of the tracks. I listed the Deluxe Edition because it also includes some other singles and EP material that's as good as the album proper--but it also has a bunch of live tracks and remixes that you can live without.
VIDEO SAMPLE: Soul Wars
3. Ike Reilly - Salesmen & Racists (2001)
I swear, the American public needs to be forever ashamed that Ike Reilly is not a huge star. Influences of Bob Dylan, Cracker, Bruce Springsteen and even the Rolling Stones are prominent, but he manages to meld his influences into music that is entirely his own while remaining faithful to those roots in classic rock and roll. The fact that this is his first album as a solo artist makes it all the more remarkable, but some of his subsequent albums (notably "Sparkle in the Finish" and "We Belong to the Staggering Evening") deserve Honorable Mention among the best albums of this century.
VIDEO SAMPLE: Commie Drives a Nova
4. Quiet Company - We Are All Where We Belong (2011)
This is what you might call a "concept album," in that the songs are all related as they chronicle the thought process of the writer and lead singer (appropriately named Taylor Muse) as he questions and ultimately rejects his upbringing in the Christian faith. He speaks as a person who has WANTED to believe and has searched for God all of his life, but is finally despairing of ever confirming his belief with any evidence that he can call real. Although it's definitely not a "Christian album" per se, and as a Christian myself, it's kind of sad to see him lose his faith over the course of the album, but it is definitely one of the most honest spiritual albums I have ever heard. There's no smug taunting of believers or self-righteous denials of God, just one man's legitimate struggle with faith and reason and beliefs that he must eventually divorce out of desperation. It's really a pretty amazing album and deserves to given one's full attention from beginning to end.
VIDEO SAMPLE: The Black Sheep & the Shepherd (Look, I'm Just an Instrument, Okay?)
5. The Mountain Goats - Tallahassee (2002)
After a decade or so of releasing "hateful little love songs" captured on a home tape recorder so terrible you can hear the gears of the machine moving, John Darnielle (sole member of The Mountain Goats) finally recorded in a studio with real musicians backing up his guitar and this was the result. Again, "Tallahassee" is loosely a concept album centering around a couple perpetually on the brink of divorce, with little in common outside of their shared drive for self-destruction. This change in style marked a new beginning for Darnielle, and this and his next two albums ("We Shall All Be Healed" and "The Sunset Tree") turned into the high water marks of The Mountain Goats' catalog.
VIDEO SAMPLE: No Children
I'm no particular audiophile, so the discussion of various equipment bores me. Don't ask me what kind of cartridge I have in my turntable, and I have no problem listening to wma or mp3 files of 192kbps or greater. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't want to listen to music on a Close 'N' Play turntable, a clock radio or even most boomboxes--but I do think that once you get to a certain level of competence in stereo equipment, the brand name and the extra thousand dollars (or more) makes little appreciable difference. I'm not here to talk about whether vinyl sounds better than digital (to me, it doesn't, but I understand the argument in principle), or whether SHM CDs sound better than regular ones. I don't really care. I'm just here to talk about the music, because I love music.
Perhaps I should say that I love rock and roll--in all of its forms, from oldies to punk (although I have a hard time with some of the modern "screamo" metal). I can dig the occasional tune in other genres--country, rap, hip hop, dance, pop, even a little jazz if it's creative--but rock is and shall always be my first love.
Even though I have largely moved from buying physical LPs and CDs to downloading most of my music over the last several years, I still believe in buying the music I want (not just streaming it online or downloading it from filesharing sites like Grooveshark or the old Napster). I also tend toward acquiring full albums, rather than just cherry-picking the songs I like most--because I still believe in the artistry of putting together an album, rather than just creating radio-friendly cuts. (I will admit to a few lapses in that policy, especially for a song that I KNOW is going to be an outlier and that I will hate the rest of the album, but in general, I'm an album-oriented rocker.)
My digital collection is now up to something like 65,000 songs, and that doesn't include over a thousand vinyl LPs that I haven't gotten around to digitizing yet (although I have converted several hundred LPs in my collection over the past decade or so). In all, I would estimate that I am approaching about 5,000 albums. With such an extensive catalog at my fingertips, it's sometimes hard to find new music that I haven't heard before, especially GOOD new music that I haven't heard before--although that is one of life's greatest pleasures for me.
So I guess that's why I'm here. As I said, I don't stream--I hardly have enough time to listen to the music that I KNOW I enjoy, without having to sort through hours of drivel. I don't listen to the radio, because most of what passes for "popular" music is overproduced, commercialized pablum. It used to be that artists tried to be fresh and inventive to be heard; now they all just try to sound like the last hit. I'm interested in hearing about music that is so obscure, creative and unique that it has heretofore passed under my radar--and hopefully, I will like some of it. In return, I can probably share the same with you from my own experience.
I will warn you, though, I promise to be honest in evaluating anything submitted here for my approval, even if that means that it's pure crap. I do tend to be a music snob to some extent--but then we all probably think that the music WE like is the best music there is--I just happen to be CERTAIN of it! So I will tell you if you have made my day with a new find--and I will tell you if you are wasting my time. I've already poked around here for a few days, and while some of you are already trying my patience ("Frampton Comes Alive" is one of the best album titles of all time? Really??), I can tell that some of you also know what you are doing--and to that extent, I hope to learn something here.
Maybe this is how I can avoid having this thread moved to the Introductions area ("I'd like you to meet Mohammet... Jugdish... Sidney... and Clayton..."); instead of a "Meet Me" thread, let's just call it an "Impress Me" thread. You show me yours, and I'll show you mine.
I'll start with my top 10 albums of the 21st century; you can take a clue from them and give me your best shots.
1. Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg (Deluxe Edition) (2009)
The original 12-track release was awesome enough, but the Deluxe Edition added four more killer tunes to the playlist. "California Queen" right out of the gate is a great start, and "New Moon Rising" keeps the classic rock vibe strong. By the time the third and fourth tracks ("White Feather" and "Sundial") are through, you know you're onto something special, and the rest of the album goes on to completely melt your face. There's really not a bad cut to be found--and I don't say that lightly.
VIDEO SAMPLE: New Moon Rising
2. AWOLNATION - Megalithic Symphony (Deluxe Edition) (2013)
The only bad cuts on the original release of this one are a few throwaway filler tracks (less than a minute each) that really don't belong on the album--in fact, I think they kind of detract from it. Outside of those, I think the worst song on the album is ironically the one that became their biggest hit--"Sail." It is a sparse and moody contrast to the rest of the rock-driven, operatically layered dance music that takes turns getting stuck in your head throughout the rest of the tracks. I listed the Deluxe Edition because it also includes some other singles and EP material that's as good as the album proper--but it also has a bunch of live tracks and remixes that you can live without.
VIDEO SAMPLE: Soul Wars
3. Ike Reilly - Salesmen & Racists (2001)
I swear, the American public needs to be forever ashamed that Ike Reilly is not a huge star. Influences of Bob Dylan, Cracker, Bruce Springsteen and even the Rolling Stones are prominent, but he manages to meld his influences into music that is entirely his own while remaining faithful to those roots in classic rock and roll. The fact that this is his first album as a solo artist makes it all the more remarkable, but some of his subsequent albums (notably "Sparkle in the Finish" and "We Belong to the Staggering Evening") deserve Honorable Mention among the best albums of this century.
VIDEO SAMPLE: Commie Drives a Nova
4. Quiet Company - We Are All Where We Belong (2011)
This is what you might call a "concept album," in that the songs are all related as they chronicle the thought process of the writer and lead singer (appropriately named Taylor Muse) as he questions and ultimately rejects his upbringing in the Christian faith. He speaks as a person who has WANTED to believe and has searched for God all of his life, but is finally despairing of ever confirming his belief with any evidence that he can call real. Although it's definitely not a "Christian album" per se, and as a Christian myself, it's kind of sad to see him lose his faith over the course of the album, but it is definitely one of the most honest spiritual albums I have ever heard. There's no smug taunting of believers or self-righteous denials of God, just one man's legitimate struggle with faith and reason and beliefs that he must eventually divorce out of desperation. It's really a pretty amazing album and deserves to given one's full attention from beginning to end.
VIDEO SAMPLE: The Black Sheep & the Shepherd (Look, I'm Just an Instrument, Okay?)
5. The Mountain Goats - Tallahassee (2002)
After a decade or so of releasing "hateful little love songs" captured on a home tape recorder so terrible you can hear the gears of the machine moving, John Darnielle (sole member of The Mountain Goats) finally recorded in a studio with real musicians backing up his guitar and this was the result. Again, "Tallahassee" is loosely a concept album centering around a couple perpetually on the brink of divorce, with little in common outside of their shared drive for self-destruction. This change in style marked a new beginning for Darnielle, and this and his next two albums ("We Shall All Be Healed" and "The Sunset Tree") turned into the high water marks of The Mountain Goats' catalog.
VIDEO SAMPLE: No Children
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