What you listening to?

[Lillie]

Right now I am listening to this.

Tom Waits is a god and this track is sooooo sad....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJNdM2J08Zw

[Doktor Estrella]

I really enjoyed that song, Lillie. I've been listening to rather a lot of Dido (http://www.youtube.com/user/Dido?ob=1) lately, which was in part of effort to find my teaching "theme song;" I settled on listening to "Slide" for the rough days ;) Otherwise, I've listened to quite a bit of Vienna Teng (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igoqZpSTy2g&feature=related).

[The Colour of Heartache]

"Neapolitan Bridesmaid" by Tarkio. My office this summer discovered this site called Pandora which is like a radio that you have personal stations for and they kept playing that on my Decemeberists station. I was forced to buy it after it got stuck in my head and they stopped playing it for three days straight. :P

[segundus]

Peter Gabriel: Down to Earth. And a bit of Kate Bush (oh how I loved her when I was younger - big time crush) with Sat In Your Lap (ooh! ooh!). And then Vladamir Cosma's truly wonderful score to My Father's Glory. Oh, it's beautiful.

M.

[otherlander]

I listen to rock, pretty much everything between The Beatles and Cradle of Filth (the nineties albums). My current favourite band is Avenged Sevenfold (my signature is from their song, "Bat Country"). I believe Alice in Chains were a gazillion times better than Nirvana (I've got sworn at for saying so). I hate music snobs who listen to Sigur Ros just to feel superior to those who listen to commercial music (I don't have anything against the band though, just the snobs)... And I'm going to see Leonard Cohen live later this month. Yay!

[The Colour of Heartache]

I am currently listening to the recording of last year's revival of GYPSY with Patti LuPone, finally getting me off of my latest Joss Whedon musical kick, at least for the moment. (Patti has the pipes of a goddess. A really kick ass one.)

[segundus]

I've started to listen to Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog soundtrack since I'm not able to view any of the video content anymore (Hulu has started blocking non-US connections again, and it's not on the UK iTunes system either ). I'm loving it.

[The Colour of Heartache]

I approve of that choice, segundus.

Gypsy was, alas, unable to distract me for long. I'm back to "Once More, With Feeling," in particular Walk Through the Fire.

[segundus]

Haven't come across Gypsy myself, but will have to check it out.

Meanwhile, here in the UK it's the last night of the Proms and we've a comediene conduct the BBC Concert Orchestra and has outdone herself with some wonderful conducting (she's the winner of a TV show we had here called Maestro in which celebrities learn how to conduct an orchestra - it was actually very, very good).

And I've just shifted our stereo system to where the TV was, so now we've got no excuse to switch it on and listen to some decent music while we relax. Just need to go through all the CDs and start ripping them to the internal hard drive of the stereo. I've got Nunsense here which I've not heard for a while...

M.

[segundus]

Currently: Peter and the Wolf. Such a classic.

[Doktor Estrella]

Currently: Dixie Chicks...strangely, I don't care for most country music, but enjoy their work immensely.

I've decided to wait on Dr. Horrible's soundtrack until I can receive it on CD. I'm frustrated with iTunes only providing the content as AAC files rather than mp3s.

[segundus]

A couple REALLY strange groups I'm listening to:

1) Trailer Park Kings. Their version of Time of the Season is excellent and their other stuff is pretty rocking too.

2) Sunshine Rabbits. Very, very, very bizzare Swedish girl group but their songs are weird and wonderful in equal measure. Love it. http://www.myspace.com/sunshinerabbits

M.

[otherlander]

Not exactly right now, but I plan to get more into grunge. I already love Alice in Chains and Stone Temple Pilots (although only their first two albums could be classified as grunge). Next on my list are Soundgarden (plus Chris Cornell's solo work), Pearl Jam and even Nirvana, because I'm hoping to overcome my disdain for this band.

[Doktor Estrella]

My particular favorite Soundgarden song is "Black Hole Sun." For Nirvana, I'd recommend listening to their later work first--when Kobain hooked up with Love, his lyricism greatly improved, which is evident especially in "Heart-Shaped Box."

In my opinion, though, to truly appreciate grunge, you have to embrace the lyrics by singing them at the top of your lungs and bouncing about (rocking out) like a maniac. :D It's a great stress-reliever. Don't mind the odd stares once you begin head-banging ;)

[otherlander]

"Black Hole Sun" is my favourite song by Soundgarden too. I first discovered Chris Cornell's wonderful voice by listening to Audioslave. I thought their first album was great. I loved the sound and the spiritual theme of the lyrics was very strong (e.g. "Like a Stone", "Show Me How To Live", "Set It Off" etc.), but what they did next was a bit disappointing.

What I noticed about grunge... At a strictly visual level, in videos and in album art there was this fascination with, let's say "freaks" and the grotesque (e.g. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" with the "ugly" cheerleaders, most Alice in Chains videos and cover art, "Vasoline" by Stone Temple Pilots, which I just can't watch...)

[Doktor Estrella]

It was a weird time in the U.S. in the early '90s; grunge was an outlet for those who felt as though they were outside the normal teen cliques, sort of a counterculture. The odd part is that more than just the "slackers" or the "goths" that identified with the music; most teens knew of or liked a grunge band, which made it a bit more popular than its counterculture aspirations would suggest.

[otherlander]

Yes, and not to mention it provided the inspiration for most rock groups active today.

Right now, I'm listening to the album "Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons" by Blonde Redhead. It's amazing, especially the song "For the Damaged".

[Doktor Estrella]

I tried out Blonde Redhead's MySpace page--their music is very interesting.