How do you choose and obtain your music?

SexyGreyFox

SexyGreyFox

SexyGreyFox

Man of Honour
Joined
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Firstly a confession:
When I read Penski's posts about bands I sometimes think 'What an arse' because he always mentions bands that 99.9% of rock fans have never heard of.
HOWEVER, when I think back to the t'early 70s I used to do exactly the same.
I thought of it has my duty to find artists that none of my mates had heard of and I came across many bands that I believe 'I found'
eg Judas Priest, Silverhead, Kiss, Hustler, Rush, Jet (old), Aerosmith, Export, Van Halen, Ramones, New York Dolls, Trust, ACDC, Rose Tattoo and the list went on and on with some bands making it and others not.

The amazing thing was I had never heard any of these bands and bought them for their sleeves.
I'd scour import racks, read the sleeve, buy it and hopefully I'd found myself a gem that I could pass onto mates.
By the time I got married in 1980 I'd got over 3000 vinyl albums and all paid for.

Of course, nowadays it is done completely different for me.
I have a naughty site I go on, I scour the music, right click save, listen and usually discard.
It has to be amazing for me to buy the CD.
 
I used to obtain most of my music through illegal means. But now, I think maybe because I run website, I find out most of what I've checked out recently through promos CDs, myspace links and youtube links my labels and through who's on tour.

If something's REALLY good, I'll buy the CD. But like you, it has to be amazing for me to buy it.
 
dmpoole said:
Firstly a confession:
When I read Penski's posts about bands I sometimes think 'What an arse' because he always mentions bands that 99.9% of rock fans have never heard of.
Click to expand...

that's weird. I usually have a listen to bands he mentions, and mostly end up with albums by bands he's recommended. Same with Carzy (except Cursive because they suck)

I tend to go on last.fm's tagged and associated artists if I'm in the mood for listening to certain things.

It has to be awesome before I pony up dough, though.
 
I mainly listen to rock music.
Quick timeline of bands: Carpenters > Beatles > Eagles > Bon Jovi > AC/DC > Kiss > GnR > NIN > Megadeth/Metallica > AiC > Pearl Jam > Tool > Meshuggah.

Until the grunge scene I was not a big buyer of music, mostly due to the fact that I didn't start working a full time job until then, but I'd still buy what would be classed now as the classic rock albums.

After that point, around '91, I'd scour the American alt charts and buy everything. When I ran out of things to buy I'd look at the label of the artists I like and jump into Tower and buy other artist albums on the same label, usually looking at the artwork to decide if it was cool or not, (white zombie - la sexorcisto), like you most of the time I had no idea what they sounded like. Good thing was I had about 8 mates who did exactly the same, the collections grew pretty fast. That fizzled out around the time of Napster ;).

Napster was great for replacing the CD's the mates had nicked, or I'd left at a party etc, etc. But it was also a great intro to the listening post idea we have now. I bought just as much during that time as i sampled ;). Band sites/forums were a good source for info

Now, my tastes have changed a little, the scene has changed. I've gone back to the older stuff which, ironically, means that the ether cannot always provide what I want, just look for the big fat 0's next to Bad Company or Cry of Love ;).
I never look at the charts anymore and I don't do the browsing I used to do in Tower (even online). I sometimes get the other artists/same label notion but that's not the goldmine it once was. I'll click thorough the Wiki of bands that I liked that now have fallen apart. I'll spam stuff here and look at replies I get but I doubt I'd ever post a "spec me" thread.
I use forums, community sites and winamp radio, sometimes even looking at the influences section of myspace is a dead giveaway :). Get a name, get to myspace and write down what I like then go hunting ;).

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/
http://www.nme.com/home
http://www.gigwise.com/news

Sorry, I didn't mean to type as much and hijack your thread, I suppose only the last paragraph is relevant :D.
 
'It has to be amazing for me to buy the CD'.

Exactly how I feel, i'm not going to buy something on a limb, last time that happened I ended up buying one of The Coral albums, it was meh.

I've started using last.fm and then bit torrent.
 
I tend to acquire music based on what my friends listen to. Since I joined last fm just over a year ago my music collection has expanded almost exponentially with all the recommendations I've got from the site :)
 
Sic said:
that's weird. I usually have a listen to bands he mentions, and mostly end up with albums by bands he's recommended.
Click to expand...

Thats the point, I find myself having a mental go at Penski but I still do exactly the same thing with my mates and mention bands they've never heard of.
So apologies to Penski.
 
:p

I spent the ages of 13-18 scumming it around the UK and Europe, seeing as many bands as I could (100 bands in 6 weeks? Hell, yes.) and the best bands (in terms of live shows) stuck in my mind.

I have NEVER seen a band rock live like Miocene did. Christ, they were only around for a few years but I caught then about a dozen times. Each time they PERFECTLY matched the audience and the venue. It was as if they could hit the emotional and energetic resonant frequencies of every single person in front of the stage. Every. Single. Time. They. Played.

Quite a feat, considering it was all esoteric art-prog-metal with dub/leftfield/electro/ambient undertones.

On the other hand, you have bands like Tung who never ever got signed and played pretty formulaic rap metal...But they could rock like motherlovers and put on a damn good show.

What's slightly depressing is that I haven't listened to much new music in about five years...The stuff that filters through to me doesn't interest me. You get the odd bunch like 65daysofstatic who really push it for me but without wishing to sound more-rock-than-thou, 99% of the 'rock' bands I have heard in the last five years sound like pop to me...And even weirder is that there have been some FANTASTIC pop albums in that time.

These days I listen to the stuff I have been listening to for the last 15-odd years (running the gamut from 280bpm extreme metal to jazz, funk, blues, hiphop, bluesgrass)...And pop music; I appreciate it a lot more than I used to and yes, the artist may have very little or no control over their 'creation' but whomever does knows how to make a good bloody tune in most cases.

*n
 
Nowadays I'm a lot more casual about music, basically I'll hear something on the radio and if I like it then I'll buy the album(s). The stuff I get nowadays is a lot more mainstream than it used to be.

The time when I was most into trying new music was probably 1999-2003, I would actively seek out new bands by using sites like allmusic (before it sold out) and musicplasma. I'd get recommendations from people on IRC and research tracks I'd heard in clubs. My housemate at uni was heavily into dance/trance so I expanded my collection there.

In the last 3 years or so I don't think I've 'discovered' many bands at all. Just had a flick through my mp3 folder and Funeral for a Friend and Broken Daylight are the only artists from that time period that I like a lot. My partner has a few cds I find quite good (James Blunt, Kelly Clarkson) but in general it's a far cry from 5+ years ago when I was finding a dozen new artists every year.

I don't think that necessarily means that there hasn't been good new stuff coming out in the last few years, it's just that I'm happy with my 'back catalogue' as it were. I've never really bought into the obsession with "FRESH NEW MUSIC!!" (c) R1 and I'm the kind of guy who can happily listen to songs I've heard a thousand times before, if it's good enough.
 
there are too many people on this forum who get sent free music. It's not fair. I want people to send me free music.
 
might listen to or download the odd track, then bittorrent the album discarding it if it is naff.

Then buy the CD later if I really like it.

Or more lately look through Wikipedia for inter-related artists/albums and get suggestions from friends.
 
Smokey McPot said:
Work as a DJ or own a record label then. :p
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A mate of mine was one of the very first people on the club scene many moons ago and saw a potential in the new music where all us around him thought it was rubbish (Aceeeeeed).
His name is Pete Bromley (http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=pete+bromley+dj&btnG=Google+Search) and he's also got a shop where he does a roaring trade in DJ music mainly exporting.
His Dad (my best mate) gets between 150 and 200 records through his door every week and Pete turns up at the weekend to give them a quick listen and he usually goes away with about 5 and the rest are put in the bin.
In his house at Leek he has 5 rooms devoted to his record collection and ironically he's a metal head.
 
Sic said:
god, they're ****ing awesome!! how did I miss them?
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Cuz u iz we'll n00bish! ;)

What stuff have you heard?

I must have seen thousands of bands play live and none have ever been as consistantly PERFECT as Miocene were.

*n
 
A Perfect Life With a View of the Swamp, Refining the Theory and Cellular Memory. All excellent!
 
Sic said:
A Perfect Life With a View of the Swamp, Refining the Theory and Cellular Memory. All excellent!
Click to expand...

:D its great if you listen to them in order - RTT, CM then APLWAVOTS.

You can see how much they grew as artists.

Goddamn, I love that band.

*n

PS: has your 'version' of CM got the 'prelude' track? If you stick the CD in, hit play and immediately rewind, you get a bonus track.
 
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