Thursday, October 18, 2007

Suggestions Welcome

So I was driving from Cleveland to Chicago a couple of weeks ago, and it's a fairly long drive, so I decided to listen to my entire Dar Williams discography in chronological order. So I did that, and after 5.5 hours of Dar, I decided I wanted something with men's voices instead of women's voices. So I went rifling through my CDs - all of which were in the car with me - and I couldn't find anything. I'd listened to one Jars of Clay album and both my U2 albums on the way to Cleveland. I had a lot of Beatles and some Simon and Garfunkel, but I was in the mood for something more recent than that. I have one CD with some One of the Girls and some Great Big Sea, but I'd listened to that recently too....

I'd known for a long time that I listen to a lot of women's music, but I didn't realize how few CDs by men I had. So I'm on a mission to start evening out that ratio a little. I went through my iTunes, and I realized that about a quarter of my iTunes library is actually music by men, and that doesn't count all the musical theater stuff I have that's sung by men. It's just not on CDs - partly because a lot of it is downloaded singles, rather than albums. So I'm going to burn myself some of that stuff before I drive home next time, and/or get a working iTrip.

Still, I've been looking for some new music anyway, so I'm open to suggestions. I already wanted to get more U2, so that's covered, but what else should I be listening to? I tend to listen to a lot of women singer-songwriters, but I don't always respond as well to men in that genre. I'm probably more interested in pop/rock/alternative kinds of things - I like U2, I used to like BNL and Blink182 a lot in the 90s, I like Stephen Kellogg, I like both Guster and John Mayer, to the dismay of some of their fans. I'm not a big fan of Bruce Springsteen or John Mellencamp. Anyway, I'm listening more to the radio for ideas too (especially since I'm also interested in getting more current pop music into my collection), but I'd welcome suggestions from my readership.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sufjan Stevens. Freaking awesome. Period.

Start with "Come on Feel the Illinoise" or "Greetings from Michigan".

Beth said...

Ah. Yes. I do actually have a fair selection of Sufjan's music. It's good, but I have a hard time listening to much of it at once - it starts to sound the same to me really fast.

starrypurplehaze said...

You might like Iron & Wine or Mae. Or maybe Air, Badly Drawn Boy, Beck, The Postal Service, Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists...I'm going through my Itunes library trying to figure out what I like and passing it on. ;) Also, The Killers, or Scissor Sisters, Of Montreal, OK Go, or Snow Patrol.

Wooo. :)

Raisin said...

Try Sting's "Dream of the Blue Turtles" or Jackson Browne's "Late for the Sky."

Susie/Nueva Cantora said...

I was into Ben Harper for a while, you might like some of his stuff. Also, I've been listening to some old Dave Matthews Band recently...

Beth said...

I have a couple of Ben Harper songs - like Sufjan, I like them, but I have trouble listening to more than one or two in a row. I do also have one DMB album, but that's another one that I have kind of low tolerance for.

Maybe this is why so much of my music by men is singles....

Anonymous said...

I'd vote for The Crane Wife by the Decemberists.

anummabrooke said...

Partly because they are on my mind, and sort of don't sound like every other guy: Vulgar Boatmen (album You and Your Sister).

Amy Stewart said...

Jonathan Coulton is very interesting and funny. You should check out All Songs Considered. It's an online show put together by Bob Boilin through NPR
http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/
The show was started because they would get tons of calls about the little snippets of songs they would play between stories on All Things Considered. it's where I discovered Sufjan, Jonathan Coulton, The Mountain Goats, Joanna Newsome. It's a great way to hear artists you might otherwise never hear.

Emily Williams said...

- Andrew Bird (an NU alum!)
- The Arcade Fire (one is an NU alum, too, and they play organ! Organ + rock music + Montréal = wonderful.)
- Bright Eyes
- The Flaming Lips
- The Magnetic Fields
- Peter Bjorn and John
- Radiohead
- The Silent Years

You know what . . . I'm going to make you a CD. And if I can remember to bring it to school, then you may have it. :)

Anonymous said...

I'm into the Weepies lately. It's a man and a woman (married) but I like his voice more than hers lots of times. And they're just so sweet.