OT: What Are You Listening to Now?

[fatlever]

Gonna go ahead and post my Tuesday Album of the Week on Monday night, since I'm not sure when I'll have a chance tomorrow.

This was tough. Most of you guys know that my musical tastes tend to lean towards 70s R&B/Jazz/Fusion/Classic Rock as well as jam bands like Phish and the Grateful Dead. So it would have been easy to post one of my all-time favorite albums from those selections. But, I feel most of you have heard all that stuff before. I mean, honestly, I think everyone should spend a week and listen to every Steely Dan album start to finish, in order, wearing high quality headphones, in order to really hear what I consider to be, by far, the best music ever made. My 3 favorite albums of all time are Royal Scam, Aja and Katy Lied, all three by Steely Dan.

Anyway, after listening to my favorite albums all day today I decided to go in a different direction and post an album by my favorite band that's come along in the past 12 years, or so. It's rare I find new bands that I really love, but this band pretty much checks all the boxes I look for in music - catchy melodies, high quality sound production, real musicians, no drum machines/samples, quirky lyrics and certainly not just a DJ with a laptop.

Tally Hall - sadly they only made two albums Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum (2005) and Good & Evil (2011). Both albums were fantastic. They were all college kids from Michigan who went their separate ways after 2011. One of the main guys, Rob Cantor is best known for his YouTube hit "Shia Labeouf" from a couple of years ago. I love these guys.


Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum - playlist

https://youtu.be/Q-4IXcKkK1U?list=PLUij2dH-uwM305EFOCsKmey0ZcANjIKwi

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUij2dH-uwM305EFOCsKmey0ZcANjIKwi

https://open.spotify.com/album/2TN3NIEBmAOGWmvP96DFs5

[yosemiteben]

Interesting, never heard of them and have no idea what they'll sound like. Perfect!

[yosemiteben]

I also liked it, YB. Are you a big enough fan of Fela Kuti to have a favorite album of his? If so, which one is it? Or is this one?

Unfortunately not, I own that Ginger Baker album, one named Expensive ****, and one other one I'm blanking on that I'll look at when I get back in my car. I really enjoy all the Kuti stuff I've heard, but don't have encyclopedic knowledge of his stuff.

Ransom aside, I've been on a big Celtic music kick lately.

[LamarMatic7]

I also liked it, YB. Are you a big enough fan of Fela Kuti to have a favorite album of his? If so, which one is it? Or is this one?

Unfortunately not, I own that Ginger Baker album, one named Expensive ****, and one other one I'm blanking on that I'll look at when I get back in my car. I really enjoy all the Kuti stuff I've heard, but don't have encyclopedic knowledge of his stuff.

Ransom aside, I've been on a big Celtic music kick lately.

I see that Expensive **** is the top rated album of his at RateYourMusic. Sounds like it's some good **** that I should give a listen to.

[amcoolio]

Hey, I like Fela and Femi Kuti. Finally something we can agree upon!

Watch on YouTube

I like world music like this. We played a lot of hispanic music at our wedding this past April.

Basically if you like Quentin Tarantino movies you'll like this type of stuff.

Like Buena Vista Social Club.....

Watch on YouTube

I still mostly listen to video game music though. Undertale just hit it out of the park. Including one of the best final boss themes you'll ever hear in any video game ever. If you like video games, check out Undertale on Steam. In my top 5 games of all time, up there with Mario and what not.

Watch on YouTube

[HornetJail]

Watch on YouTube

Toto cover by my favorite band

[fatlever]

Coolio, your love of video game music reminded me of this song. It's a side project by Joe Hawley, one of the guys from Tally Hall (red tie).

Watch on YouTube

And the Shia Lebeouf song, in case you guys haven't seen it. It's pretty funny.

Watch on YouTube

[Snidely FC]

Fats, Tally Hall is interesting. I also had not heard of them. They certainly are changelings, I hear influences from Queen to They Might Be Giants, Zappa to the Beetles. Enjoyed their versatility and playfulness.

[yosemiteben]

I'm on the fence with Tally Hall, didn't love them first go round. Will listen again later today.

[fatlever]

I found Tally Hall to be one of those bands that I enjoy more with each listen, probably because they have such great melodic hooks in their music. Similar to Steely Dan for me in that regard, that it just keeps getting better with more listens. Plus I just love the production quality, sounds fantastic in headphones, so much going on in the background. For what it's worth, I probably like the 2nd album - Good & Evil, better than the first, but it took me years to get to that opinion. That 2nd album is a little more straight forward, less quirky and the hooks aren't as obvious, so it doesn't grab your attention as quickly.

Below is probably my favorite Tally Hall song of all of them - You and Me - from Good & Evil. I think it's just damn near perfect in terms of hooks that grab you from the start.

Watch on YouTube

Anyway, thanks for listening guys.

I look forward to us continuing this weekly event. Who is up next?

[amcoolio]

Coolio, your love of video game music reminded me of this song. It's a side project by Joe Hawley, one of the guys from Tally Hall (red tie).

There do exist great video game raps. Try this one.

Watch on YouTube

[Snidely FC]

If anyone is interested in some west coast and samba inspired vintage jazz here is a spotify playlist I put together: https://open.spotify.com/user/1271227796/playlist/3MoHcyyE78fuBRemk7kYWp
user-1271227796-playlist-3MoHcyyE78fuBRemk7kYWp

[yosemiteben]

I vote Lamar handles tomorrow's recommendation.

I also am planning on doing a deep dive into this list in the next couple weeks - http://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9948-the-50-best-ambient-albums-of-all-time/

[yosemiteben]

WHERE'S MY TUESDAY ALBUM PICK?!?!?

[Trader_Joe]

Cool thread (hope you don't mind an intruder.. I was looking through the team boards for Brooklyn and saw this was the most recent one for Charlotte...we are neighbors on the board)

Piping in because Saturday night I was at an outdoor party where a friend of mine started playing Box of Rain and it reminded me how amazing American Beauty is by the Dead. Not a bad song on that album. I know the Dead aren't known for their studio work, but that album is a perfect 10. There is a cool Spotify version with lots of commentary from members of the band and others about each song. Not sure I can even pick a favorite track.. either Attics or Brokedeown Palace, but I have to admit Ripple makes me cry when I hear it since I immediately think of Mask (the Cher movie) and when that song comes on at the end I lose it, it's the saddest movie ever.

Otherwise been on a Band of Horses kick with their new album and am obsessed with their live album from 2013 Acoustic at the Ryman.

[youtube]https://youtu.be/8eik_4oepAM[/youtube]

(I hate that I can't do YouTube from work and messed up the link over my phone. If someone wants to fix it (Band of Horses Factory Acoustic at the Ryman) that's be great)


Edit: just realized I should have picked Detlef Schremph from that album since this is an NBA forum.

[yosemiteben]

Glad to have you around Trader Joe, definitely stick around this thread.

Agreed that American Beauty is a terrific album, it's a classic and definitely not just for Deadheads.

Good call on Acoustic of the Ryman by Band of Horses, I'm familiar with the band but haven't heard that album. I'm going with it as the album of the week. Looked them up on Spotify and apparently they have three albums released since the last stuff I heard of them - I love Cease to Begin, listened here and there to Infinite Arms and Everything All the Time, but haven't heard their live album or their last two studio albums at all.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zawXvdnCLyo&list=PLF8KoSLQfmy414Fxh1JhPH3VLjuKhGiNb

https://open.spotify.com/album/6N3W6VPGBBxZcYajhZB75a

[LamarMatic7]

WHERE'S MY TUESDAY ALBUM PICK?!?!?

sorry, Yosemite, I'm under the weather and wasn't functioning well enough to make a thoughtful pick and post. I can promise you to think of something for next Tuesday.

[yosemiteben]

WHERE'S MY TUESDAY ALBUM PICK?!?!?

sorry, Yosemite, I'm under the weather and wasn't functioning well enough to make a thoughtful pick and post. I can promise you to think of something for next Tuesday.

No worries, I was just getting antsy by Trader Joe saved the day

Sounds good for you to handle next week.

[fatlever]

growing up as a wanna be drummer, I've always been drawn to bands with kick ass drummers and songs with killer, unique drum beats. I thought it would be fun to share our favorite drum beats, whether they are organic or digital.

I'm using the youtube time stamp to take you right to my favorite drum parts of each song, so they are not embedded (seriously Realgm, fix this so I can embed timestamped Youtube clips), just a link.

You can get a time stamp link in Youtube simply by pausing at the time you want your video to start, then selecting "Share", the link will automatically give you a check box allowing you to select it where you paused.


Steely Dan - Aja - the outro drum beat - drummer is Steve Gadd
https://youtu.be/g8H8o9CfuBE?t=7m28s

Phish - Limb By Limb - the outro jam - drummer is Jon Fishman
https://youtu.be/-ouWKZapvfo?t=2m25s

Boz Scaggs - Lowdown - the first 15 seconds - drummer is Jeff Pocaro (also played with Steely Dan and Toto)
https://youtu.be/I-hKBmTAADo

Chick Corea - Samba Song - 1:23 - drummer is Steve Gadd
https://youtu.be/nRBpqGdPufA?t=1m23s

Frank Zappa - Father O'Blivion - the outro drum beat - percussion is Ruth Underwood
https://youtu.be/Bh4wR0gzbrc?t=1m50s

George Benson - My Latin Brother - doing the guitar solo 3:23 - 4:00 - once again, Steve Gadd
https://youtu.be/zi-PqkNUo_Y?t=3m23s

George Duke - Giant Child/Ego - drum break at 3:20 - drummer is Ndugu ( Leon Chancler)
https://youtu.be/WhktbcoFnTM?t=3m20s

Groove Collective - Que Te Pasa Ti - latin drum break - drummer is Genji Siraisi
https://youtu.be/I9vTLT4lAD8?t=1m46s

Herbie Hancock - Sly - towards the end 7:30ish - drummer is Harvey Mason
https://youtu.be/hNlm-W3m1qc?t=7m37s

Paul Simon - 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover - entire song - drummer is Steve Gadd (I really had no idea, no wonder his is one of my top 3 drummers of all time)
https://youtu.be/ABXtWqmArUU

Santana - All The Love In the Universe - last 3 minutes, Mike Shrieve goes bananas
https://youtu.be/N_riUhKoed0?t=4m40s


Let's hear your favorites

Next we do time stamped guitar solos.

Another favorite drum beat I remembered today. The middle section from The Doors LA Woman. John Densmore goes into a sweet little drum groove at the 3:12 mark.

https://youtu.be/t3jf9_rua5Q?t=3m12s

[fatlever]

my new favorite song from a band I just recently heard for the first time. been really digging their sound and watching a lot of their live stuf, super funky, mostly instrumentals, fantastic musicians - two of which seemingly switch instruments - drums, guitar, keyboards- throughout the show, like its no big thing. "oh hey, look, you thought I was the drummer? Nah, just kidding, I'm the guitar player. That dude over there ripping up the keyboard, he's actually the drummer."

Watch on YouTube