Last song you listened to. — Page 30

Iggy Pop- Wild One

David Bowie - Fall Dog Bombs the Moon.

I Am Ahab - by Mastodon.

Modest Mouse - "Dark Center of the Universe"

Getting into Silversun Pickups. 

A mate of mine wont listen to them purely because [he says] they sound like a Smashing Pumpkins ripoff.

So far I'm enjoying them more than I ever did Smashing Pumpkins.

pretty much all of the Swoon album.

The Sandpipers - Louie, Louie

Ziggy Stardust said:

David Bowie

Who?

RedFive said:

I Missed the Point - Neko Case

I love Neko in The New Pornographers, and somehow I don't think I've heard a single solo song of hers.

that new Beastie Boys song.

Your tolerance for New Pornographers depends largely on how you feel about AC Newman, Neko is only a secondary player.

Here's a non-Neko one I love, but it easily could have been her:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIdRl9bbRJQ&feature=related

Strong Arm - by Napalm Death.

Robert Preston - Chicken Fat

RedFive said:

The opposite for me, I've heard of the new pornographers but never listened to them.  All of her solo work is amazing, particularly her most recent album Middle Cyclone.  Her voice is just haunting.

My ex-gf is a huge Neko Case fan and got me into her in a big way. (My expanded music collection is probably the best thing I got out of that relationship! lol) "Look for Me (I'll Be Around)" off Blacklisted has got to be one of the most haunting songs I've ever heard.

Lee Moses - "She's a Bad Girl"

RedFive said:

Everything she puts out is great, you should check out Furnace Room Lullaby, Canadian Amp, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood and Middle Cyclone if you haven't all ready.  And they're all pretty different too, which is nice.

And except for Middle Cyclone, they're all mastered pretty well too. Great dynamics, plenty of headroom. Unfortunately, Cylcone suffers a bit from the loudness war.

Neko Case "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood"

It's not a result of the recording method. The album was actually recorded really well. Instead, it's the result of mastering, which is a process done after the album has been recording and mixed by the engineers and producer.

The loudness war is the result of a mistaken belief amongst idiot mastering engineers and record executives that the louder an album is, the better it sounds. From a technical standpoint, it's the use of digital tools like dynamic range compression and hard limiting to boost the quietest parts and squash the loudest parts of an audio recording to maximize its overall perceived loudness. 20 years ago, CDs were a lot quieter, but they sounded a lot better because there was no artificial boosting and compression going on after the recording and mixing was finished. You could turn up the volume of a well-mastered CD and it would sound fuller and fuller. Popular music today  does not do this. Turn up a CD that's been loudness mastered, and it gets shrill and overblown and can even damage your speakers or headphones.

The problem with an artificially loud recording is what's known as ear fatigue. Modern recordings literally tire out the brain.

Here's a simple explanation of the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ

Now compare the title track from Blacklisted on top with "People Got A Lot of Nerve" from Middle Cyclone on bottom.

See how only one peak reaches 0 dB on the top track? On the bottom, practically every peak hits the ceiling. That's the loudness war. The mastering engineer has limited the peaks so he can maximize the album's volume. Means when I crank my stereo, Middle Cyclone craps out a lot sooner than her earlier albums.

RedFive said:

Loudness war?  I'm unfamiliar.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KHrfiY6Gp8&p=5739751148C92950