Amph Music More People Should Hear

Listened to all the Lupe Fiasco songs, and I like his storytelling style. I always enjoy it when artists use that technique. The "I love you-oo . . . love/dove/above" stuff is okay, but with 98% of people writing songs that way, it gets old.

I still found most of the songs hard to listen to . . . I just really seem to need a strong melodic line to enjoy a song. I did like "Kick Push" somewhat, and I liked "Kick Push II" better. The music in the background worked for me, although it was a little repetitious. I had a really strong reaction to "Little Weapon" . . . it actually made me cry. The lives of child soldiers are so tragic. That was another one where there was enough of a melody to keep me interested.

I can tell that a lot of artistry goes into Lupe Fiasco's music, and I respect that, even though I don't know that I'll be seeking his songs out on my own.

Edit: Hi, DebonaireNerd, and welcome to the thread. This is for discussion of artists and music that aren't well known to most people. Stuff about really famous bands can go in the "What Song Are You Listening To?" thread. Thanks!

 

Quirky little French band La Tordue and their excellent album Le Vent t'Invite



Great accompaniment to doing household chores on a Saturday morning.

 

Then I thoroughly recommend the following:

 

I am really bad at music boxes, fore me it is pop, rock , indie , dance, rap or classical

any way more squeeze may you like these better?
http://open.spotify.com/track/1zWLu0Glg7glW6ulCfDbeN
http://open.spotify.com/track/1UbW2ygcCXyTl1cNv0Hvfa

and a welsh band

goldie lookin chain
http://open.spotify.com/track/64qwgDYxmOjYXQEtSuhWq0
http://open.spotify.com/track/4REdcjlUnwRSgeXwjpQ1Q1

 

My two favorite surf bands

Los Kahunas (Argentina)

prettier
grittier
classic surf (Pulp Fiction end credits)

The Bambi Molesters (Croatia)

more playful
morr icone
classic surf (Pixies also did a version)

 

@LostOnHoth--Nice, bright little song! I can see how it would give you energy to clean. I wasn't sure what I thought about the concertina solos, which sort of remind me of the Italian restaurant scene in Lady and the Tramp, but I really like the Spanish-y guitar.

@DebonaireNerd--I like "Stop." It's like what would happen if the blues and Latin music had a baby. Looks like Joe Henry is considered an "alt country" artist, which I didn't even know was a thing. Is this a genre you're familiar with?

morrison85

I looked Squeeze up, and discovered they're the band that did "Black Coffee In Bed," which is an awesome song! "Pulling Mussels From A Shell" is pretty good, too. I like the early-80's British New Wave sound a lot.

Squeeze -- Up the Junction
I wasn't familiar from this song before, but it's pretty good. It's a story-song, and I like those.

Squeeze -- Cool For Cats
This one was a little too monotonous for me, melodically, but I appreciated that it told a story too.

Goldie Lookin Chain -- Roller Disco
I looked around until I found a copy of the lyrics to this song, because between the artists' Welsh accents and the fact they were rapping, I had no idea what they were saying. I remember the early 80's rollerskating scene too . . . took me back a bit. That said, as a song I found this really hard to listen to. It appears that I just don't like rap.

I'm not sure which Goldie Lookin Chain song you wanted to link to for the second selection . . . it just linked to a whole album, "Safe As ****," and no individual song came up.

slidewhistle
First of all, congratulations! In Los Kahunas, you have found a band so obscure I can find nothing about them in English, although it looks like they're fairly well known in Argentina. My reaction to looking up The Bambi Molesters was twofold. 1) What a horrible name! and 2) . . . they have surfing in Croatia? That's on the, like . . . Adriatic Sea, right? Do they get surf on the Adriatic Sea . . . ?

That said, thank you for introducing me to surf rock, which I've sort of peripherally been around all my life, but never had a sustained listen to before now. I seem to respond best to the harder, more driving songs, which make me want to be some kind of 60's California gangster. They create a very cool ambience. The more relaxed songs weren't bad, though.

Los Kahunas -- N.O.S.
This was a really fun song! I think it would be great to drive to. This was my favorite of the Los Kahunas songs you posted links to.

Los Kahunas -- Another Summer Song
Cute, but I liked the harder-driving N.O.S. better.

Los Kahunas - 6G15
This song makes me want to put on sunglasses and drive around LA in a convertible, looking vaguely criminal. Fun.

Los Kahunas - Surf Rider
Nice, slightly dangerous sound.

The Bambi Molesters -- Farewell Malasana
Nice, moody and blue. I liked it.

The Bambi Molesters - Bikini Machines
Bouncy and cute. Strange video, but cute song.

The Bambi Molesters - A gun for Ringo
Very chill. It would be nice to relax to after a hot, busy day.

The Bambi Molesters - Cecilia Ann
I think I like the Pixies' harder-edged version more, but this was nice.

 

I've mentioned both deafheaven and Mogwai here before.

What happens when deafheaven cover Mogwai?

THIS MAGIC:



deafheaven - "Punk Rock/Come On Die Young (CODY)" - Mogwai cover

 

When I look up the link it goes straight there but maybe it isnt released on US spotify.

 

Heres an Alphaville song, I think they only had 3 popular songs in the US, but heres another one that was single only in Germany.

http://open.spotify.com/track/2qjplIeRoPs2jOi7JIbtaQ
and this a lesser known song from the mid 90s.

 

Forgive me for not responding to the above links yet . . . I'll get to them. I was just really missing my friend Linda Ryan, who passed away on Friday. I've been listening to some of the music she loved and which she introduced me to, back when I met her in the early 90's. She was a Ren Faire fan and medieval re-creationist in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism), and there's a a certain style of music that you hear at Ren Faires and SCA events. Some of it gets classified as "Early Music," and some of it gets called "World Music." I love it.

I know very little about Árstíðir, other than that Wikipedia says the band is "an Icelandic indie-folk band with classical, progressive rock and minimalist elements." This is a gorgeous a capella rendition of 13th century hymn, Heyr himna smiður ("Hear, Smith of heavens"), done in a train station. Sounds almost monastic with the echo. If heaven has a train station, I'm sure it sounds like this.



Wolgemut is a touring Renaissance Faire and SCA band that features drums and bagpipes. They're great to see in person--they're almost vaguely punk in their frenetic stage energy. (Or they used to be--the more recent videos of theirs I've seen are more sedate. Everyone gets old, I suppose.) I've already posted Owain Phyfe to this thread--he was also a Ren Faire/SCA artist, and he had a gorgeous voice. Here the two acts are together, performing Wolgemut's signature song, the 13th century "Ai Vist Lo Lop."



This is Alexander James Adams, back when he was touring as Heather Alexander, doing his most famous song, "March of Cambreadth." This is a medieval-inspired, modern song, and tends to get shelved with "World Music." The most fun song about war I've ever heard.

 

I've heard this song before. There's an epic Battlestar mash-up of this song. I couldn't find it but I did find this.

 

I am sorry to hear about your friends passing on. medieval music is not too unpopular here either especially on medieval markets that draw big crowds of people.

This is my SO's fav song in that style

 

A full Link Wray concert video from 1974. This is what you should listen to.

 

Kids theses days need to listen to the Plasmatics.

 

Okay, so, this is kind of cheating since ALA.NI was recently featured on NPR Music and therefore can't really be classified as relatively unknown anymore, but I absolutely fell in love with her voice, and I missed this thread, so there you go.

She has no detailed English bio that I could find, but from squinting at a Spanish bio I gather that she's from London, and of Grenadian parentage. She and her guitarist do these slightly 30's/40's retro style love songs, and they're absolutely gorgeous. My first link is actually to the NPR Music FB page, since that recording has her using this old skool ribbon mic, and it's dreamily fabulous:

NPR Music FB

Here's a couple of songs she sings in a church, for those of you who don't subscribe to J-w's Book of Faces.

 

Okay, I admit that I don't have anything to up this thread with at the moment. I've just been scrounging through YouTube and finding the same stuff again and again. Anybody find any hidden gems lately?

 

port-royal are an Italian electronica and other stuff (apparently) fusion band. Their work's themes really resonate with me for some reason.







The Acid Mothers Temple are one of no less than eight different names for what are essentially the same psyche rock band led by the guitarist, Kawabata Makoto. The emphasis is on droning riffs, but not so drone it's... drone, y'know?



Also, I'd be upset with myself if I didn't bring up Mbongwana Star, whose From Kinshasa is something I would kill to hear more albums in the vein of. A description would fail them, so just give it a spin.

 

I'm listening to Mbongwana Star right now. You're right, they're good! And I wouldn't know what genre of music they are either. I'm enjoying Acid Mothers Temple too . . . I would never have guessed they were Japanese. With the sitar drone in there they sound sort of Indian.

I had trouble listening to Port Royal . . . the embedded Spotify links only play a clip of a song, and when I open Spotify proper, the full song doesn't open. I have to search on the band's name, and there are multiple Port Royals. The little bit I got sounded interesting, though.

 

Shameless plug:

https://soundcloud.com/mwgli

 

she was featured on a macklemore track and she has guest appearances on her album by people like chance and noname so she's not suuuper obscure, but i love jamila woods so so much.

 

Is that your stuff, Ender? I like it! Very easy to listen to.

 

No, I wish! It's my first cousin, he's just in first year uni and insanely talented in a way Big Music will never understand or promote.

 

So say we all. I’ve seen the Battlestar version of this song and it kicks all kinds of ass.

 

I dunno if this works in all browsers, but if you click the band's name on the embeds that might open Spotify precisely on the album page.

 

David Berman died today. My day basically sucked today and then I got this news on top of that. For those who don’t know him he was the weird, funny, introspective, silly, ironic, tongue-in-cheek singer songwriter for the band Silver Jews. His voice is not a draw for people who need their singers to have American Idol talent but his lyrical perspective was unique and was a big part of some very memorable road trips for me. Glad to see him live once in a legendary Toronto dive bar. Was somehow perfect and he brought the goods that night and had us laughing and reminiscing. Here is some of his music. Which has been classified into a space where alt-folk/alternative country/indie all combine. Most of these songs are 20 years old now.