In Depth Indie Music

Tidal recommended this after a bit of Mazzy Star. I finished the whole album a little while later.

Sometimes I like it when the snare is something else. That's all. Enjoy this soothing song

Totally nailed the obscure subgenres this year! Angsty grungegaze is my personality

I've just read about Tidal Upload, a new service they offer (they did email me about it)

At first I thought "Oh, no! Anyone can upload directly now?! Tidal will be swamped by AI !!!". But as per their rules, tracks uploaded directly get no revenue, so that takes care of that, I guess.

Turns out that anything you upload through this new function can be listened without a Tidal subscription, so in all likelihood this is an attempt by Tidal to lure in some friends and family of indie artists. Musicians get free storage, "free advertising" (via their music being searchable on Tidal without distribution fees) and get to share their music with their friends without ads getting in the way as they do on YouTube (presumably; as of yet) while Tidal potentially gets new subscribers.

I still feel like somehow someone will try to abuse this, though. How do you feel about it?

I'm also thinking at some point they might start playing ads before Tidal Upload tracks to cut their losses from the storage costs and that snowballs from there...

https://support.tidal.com/hc/en-us/articles/26542012438673-TIDAL-Upload

I am once again asking you to show me what you got

If you have a song you want me to hear, whether it’s yours, a friend’s or just a song you like, leave it in the comments and I will 100% listen to it and we can talk about it.

...not to judge myself too harshly

It's part of the show.

Something I never liked about mainstream social media was the amount of musicians whose content was insincere, overpolished and pushy.

When musicians, or any other artists, do social media right, it's engaging. It shows part of the creative process. It shows the person behind the music.

There are big names whose social media is handled by their label's marketing department. There are small names trying to immitate the big ones.

And then there are artists who include you in the process, show you behind-the-scenes and cultivate that magic that we used to get from TV making-of documentaries back when the internet took minutes to load an image, all with a refreshing layer of home-made imperfection. Their social media content seamlessly blends in with their work. It's part of the show. These are the people who make it feel attainable today and in my humble opinion they will be the next generation's most valuable role models.

Well here I was going through some old interviews and shows and I stumbled upon this: Julien Baker happened to do an interview on KEXP on THE January 6th.

She speaks about Trump's attack on democracy right at the beginning of the interview.

It's a C#5. It lasts 9 seconds but seems to go on forever. It's so solid it almost sounds pitch corrected, but seeing as it's Bjork, I highly doubt that's the case.

I can't stop replaying the damn thing! This version, other versions, I've listened to this part of All Is Full of Love on repeat hundreds of times.

But what strikes me the most - and this goes for her performances in general - is how calm and composed and still her face is through it. Pure focus. It's incredible. She sings like her life depends on it.

It's been about a month since my first post of this kind. I might make this a regular thing.

If you have a song you want me to hear, whether it's yours, a friend's or just a song you like, leave it in the comments and I will 100% listen to it and we can talk about it.

I started regular slap practice a couple weeks ago and it's so satisfying I am now slapping everything.

I haven't been to a concert in... 2 years? That is, of course, not by choice. I'm trying to fill the gap with full show videos and I am rediscovering just how damn hard it is to find one with good sound quality. This one's not perfect, but it hits the spot well enough. And so, I survive another day.

EDIT: Also, what's up with YouTube thumbnails not popping up on Lemmy? That's kinda lame.

John Oliver introduced me to this and now you must hear it too.

Yes, technically my post is against my own rules, but what can I say? "I never do good things, I only do bad things". In a certain sense of the word, one might say that I am "disgusting" or even that "I cannot be trusted" or that I am "my own worst enemy". Some even call me "machine".

I suppose this is what will count as a shitpost in this group? Yes. Let's call it that. Even though it absolutely slaps. lol

EDIT: Oh, and, in case anyone's wondering... the context on Last Week Tonight was Fat Bear Week. You're welcome.

EDIT 2: This entire album is good. What the hell? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAjydyIsXy8&list=OLAK5uy_mv8BX2SYGgxgJvF2QYiBEYv0BegMahsIk&index=2 These artists are so obscure I could have bet a month's rent that this was AI. It is in fact real and it's "made for TV" music.

This is one of my most replayed studio performances, but that's not why I'm sharing it.

I'm sharing it because it's a live performance I seem to like much more than the album version, which I've only seldom listened to. The band added nuance while also making the song more accessible and yet not crowded.

I dare say that I don't think Partridge would've ever stood out to me if I didn't hear this live version!

...or as one comment put it: "Compilation of pain and despair"

Ain't it soothing, though?

This oughta get you through the evening

Blurry ironically has the clearest mixing I have ever heard. As someone whose raging tinnitus "points out" any issue in a mix (aka makes it tough for me to understand what the hell is going on), I appreciate this song a hell of a lot.

Not to mention the snare. Just right.

That's it. That's the whole post. Not much more to it.

If you have a song you want me to hear, yours or someone else's, leave it in the comments. :)

I've been enjoying revisiting all these old videos to post them here.

It's nice hearing the little anecdotes between songs too.

I don't know what's harder: struggling to write or struggling to record. There's so many different flavors of being stuck it's a wonder we ever get anything done! haha

Song feels insincere? That's another few hours of work polishing that! That guitar tone isn't exactly what you want? Time to fiddle with every piece of gear you own and see if you can get it right. Don't even get me started on mixing.

Sometimes it takes 10 years, sometimes you're done in 4 hours. Sometimes the 10-year song goes by unnoticed and the 4-hour one is your most appreciated work. Nobody knows anything and no one can guarantee nothing. But as long as you enjoy it, you just keep going.

This suspension/cancellation was to be expected. I saw it coming. Kimmel saw it coming. Hell, most people who are aware of Trump's infinite hate for the late-night hosts saw it coming.

We'll see what happens next, but until then, all I'm gonna say (aside from "fuck fascism", that is), is Kimmel never censored himself in his monologues or in his choice of musical guests. Remember Poppy and Knocked Loose? Man, those were the good days.

Oh, and also: Donnie, it's still past your jailtime.

I recently discovered Searows, who sounds strikingly like Phoebe Bridgers

A while ago I was listening to Elliot Green, who is practically identical to Julien Baker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxd3n_8UK4I&list=RDKxd3n_8UK4I&start_radio=1

Who are other indie musicians who sound alike? (whether by coincidence or by influence, I don't judge)

I discovered this song and the band itself in I Saw the TV Glow

I don't have much to say about it except it satisfies my misanthropic side. I do have a need to "watch the world burn", but my vision of that is not violent, it's not chaotic, it's not grim. It's more like closing the curtain on an odd avant-garde play. It doesn't make me happy. It doesn't make me sad. I'm just okay with it.

Riding Around in the Dark describes that feeling quite well. Such a grand thing being indifferent to the end of the world.

This is a cover of a song written for a movie featured in another movie. Ain't that a fun fact! It was written for the 1957 "Wild is the Wind". I heard Cat Power's version in "Into the Forest" (2015) with Elliot Page and Even Rachel Wood

Come to learn that it's also been done by Nina Simone and by David Bowie, among others! I had no idea it was this big! It's quite the opportunity to study a broad range of approaches to the same material, if you have the time.

Still, the Cat Power version is the one I connect to the most. It's got a darkness to it that really speaks to me. Having it be associated with one of my favorite movies certainly helps!

P.S.: I tried sharing a Tidal link instead of a YouTube one and it crapped its pants. Several times. That was disappointing. It gave me a "Oops, page not found" type of deal... I used the share button in the app and everything. Not sure what else I could've possibly done.

London is Lonely may not have the most groundbreaking lyrics you've ever heard, but I've been listening to it today, feeling really melancholic.

I can't stop thinking about the footage from that filthy protest. I feel like an era ended yesterday, at least for me personally. To me, London has been the epitome of safety. And - prepare for irony - seeing all those outsiders literally piss all over my neighborhood, a 15-minute walk from where I used to live, with me across the continent (and continent, unlike them!), unable to do anything has really got me down.

I feel like someone trashed my house while I was away.

London has lots of flaws, and even this song written by a then-freshly-arrived Holly Humberstone captures some of them with ease. But for many people across Europe, London is the place they moved to in search of safety and acceptance. For many of us it was the place we went to be left alone and get lost in that way too big crowd.

So I'll allow myself to misappropriate the line "Something's different when you leave my place". On some level this city will never be the same again.

I don't know. Maybe I'm being overdramatic, but what I do know is I saw a post today of someone who took it upon themselves to scrub fascist stickers off lamp posts and bus stops in Waterloo. And I have that same urge today and I fucking swear if I had the money I'd board a flight right fucking now.

I started going to shows regularly in 2013. I had a strict personal rule against filming at shows. Then I started taking a photo or two. Then a snippet of a song here and there. And, finally... by 2019 I was filming entire songs.

This was the first complete song I uploaded to YouTube. Proud to say I still have the self-control to not film the whole show! It didn't get any worse! haha

I tend to pick a song or two ahead of time, often the less popular ones. If there's no footage of them at all yet that's a bonus. Gotta get those rarities out there for the people.

I've been using the "shut the fuck up" part of this screenshot all over social media. 10/10 very efficient