What are you listening to right now [2023-11]

[possessor]

Was listening to this after watching Jackie Chan's Project A (A gai waak)
https://youtu.be/bvBpiFPYW9k?si=xByzwfs1xDwvDasm
The song plays in one of my favourite scenes from the film:
https://youtu.be/0ZFr4uiR5x0?si=HLdMxL9YSdLSSsXH

[possessor]

As for radio stations, I have no idea what stations are still around or what they still play

Well, not much persons uses CDs anymore, and some people will listen to music at any chance they have.

[boredjedi]

Well, not much persons uses CDs anymore, and some people will listen to music at any chance they have.

Actually I did a quick check on one of my radios. Looks like some of the old ones are still there like Z100. Was having trouble with the
reception since I didn't have my good antenna hooked up to it for other stations. Z100 always had a strong signal and sounds like they are still playing the same play lists the last
time I tuned into them. They do list their play list on their website.

[chuft]

This song does sound like their old stuff

The bass does, but the female background singers do not. That style of female backing vocals almost always, in my experience, indicates decline. Whenever a rock or new wave artist starts doing it, I know the end is near and they are changing to a style I don't like. It's hard to remember specific examples because I tend to not buy those albums and I don't have them in my collection.

Gary Numan did it starting with Warriors (along with adding saxophones, this is also a very bad sign in my experience) and went into immediate decline. His albums sucked for years, I bought some and eventually threw them all away, they are not missed. There were a few good songs on Berserker but everything after that was trash. By 1985 I thought he was done. Finally with Sacrifice in 1994 he veered off into more of an industrial, Nine Inch Nails type sound and started making good music again and has gotten better since.

I grit my teeth when I hear it in the later Pink Floyd stuff (both female vocals and sax) like Dark Side of the Moon. I often skip those tracks. David Bowie did it too, on Young Americans (both sax and female backing vocals), and basically changed genres from rock-n-roll to soul. Not my favorite period of his stuff to say the least.

In terms of Duran Duran, I think I first heard it on the Notorious album, heavy on the brass and female backing vocals, sounded soul-ish, my disappointment was extreme. I felt like they had jumped the shark at that point but Warren Cuccurullo revived them for awhile starting with the Wedding Album.

I know you like saxophones so you doubtless have a different view on the situation. But when a rock or new wave artist starts turning in a soul direction, it really turns me off.



As far as radio stations, I forgot about the nostalgia shift. The playlists have changed to appeal to Gen X. Flipping through the stations right now (more and more of them here are Spanish language/music stations) I actually hear more 80's music now than I did in the 80's. Back then new wave was something few stations played, usually college stations, or the rare station doing syndication rebroadcasts of KROQ in Los Angeles. Now I just heard Karma Chameleon by Culture Club here in the middle of a redneck area, unimaginable in the actual 1980's. I think Mister Mister is on right now. Passed a station playing Journey a few clicks ago. Just switched again to hear Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking for by U2. It's remarkable. It's like they're broadcasting from 1986.

But all old songs. No new Duran Duran will be aired. It's all past hits, or past college radio songs.


This just came on. Incredible. Used to only hear this on MTV.

[possessor]

Yeah the radio stations here are old to. Last month I heard a song that they said hadn't played in 25 years.

[possessor]

The end of the legends. Bye, Beatles
https://youtu.be/Opxhh9Oh3rg?si=VIsJWaXRL48kSwcG

[boredjedi]

chuft Oh yeah I noticed that. Even Stevie Nicks is using the female singers now. I had watched a few
recent live videos from her. Also, the ageing musicians you'll also notice young ones on the stage to
take up the slack.

As for the Saxophone. It depends on the type of song and how it's used. Peter Gabriel and Blade Runner as a quick example.

Gary Numan industrial heck yes. Down in the Park industrial style is my favorite

[chuft]

It's hard to overstate how much better this is than the garbage he was putting out in 1986.

[boredjedi]

It's hard to overstate how much better this is than the garbage he was putting out in 1986.

Yeah I rather stopped following his music after I, Assassin.
It was really this that got me back into his music.

Even the stuff during the IRC days with Dead Son Rising and Splinter.
The stuff was okay but rather forgettable. Though this one was good
from Dead Son Rising "The Fall". Think this one I posted in the irc chat.

[chuft]

The Fall. That's a weird cool video. I remember that. Overall that album is pretty weak, I think it was just some leftover stuff from previous album sessions, but it wasn't repulsive like the 1985-1993 era. It just wasn't as good as Jagged before it nor Splinter after it.

I didn't hear Splinter until after becoming aware of Savage. I think I brought Savage to your attention with that My Name Is Ruin video. With his daughter Persia. He had his own little Steph. Think she was 11 there.

I really like Here In The Black from Splinter though. I think it's up there with his best. Vague yet disturbing with a horror theme.

[boredjedi]

The Fall. That's a weird cool video. I remember that. Overall that album is pretty weak, I think it was just some leftover stuff from previous album sessions, but it wasn't repulsive like the 1985-1993 era. It just wasn't as good as Jagged before it nor Splinter after it.

I didn't hear Splinter until after becoming aware of Savage. I think I brought Savage to your attention with that My Name Is Ruin video. With his daughter Persia. He had his own little Steph. Think she was 11 there.

I really like Here In The Black from Splinter though. I think it's up there with his best. Vague yet disturbing with a horror theme.

Wouldn't doubt it. A lot of artists do that tapping into old material they'd written.
Think it was Freddy Mercury he had written the basics for Bohemian Rhapsody
while he was still in school in the late 60s.

Yeah Here in Black is not bad.

As for his daughter indeed.
Though when I first it I was like oh here we go another well known musician
pushing his kids into the business nepotism like. But she has good voice. Though
she's only singing as backup. Whether she has a lead vocal voice..

I like the live versions too.

[possessor]

I like the live versions too.

u like the live version of songs??!!!!

[boredjedi]

u like the live version of songs??!!!!

It depends. There's horrible live versions from bands but there are some
really good live versions when they are in the zone and on their game that would even equal or rival
the studio version.

Take for example

Led Zeppelin more than made up for that disastrous live reunion outing
for Live Aid '85.

[chuft]

The Pink Floyd Live at Pompeii tracks are what I consider the definitive versions of those songs, especially Echoes Part I.

The Jean Michelle Jarre live version of Magnetic Fields IV is unquestionably better than the album version.

Cheap Trick's Surrender from Live at Budokan is at least as good, or better, than the studio version.

The Primitives You Are The Way live version from the Galore extended CD is better than the studio.

Gary Numan in particular has a number of live versions that are more elaborate and unquestionably better versions of the original studio songs.


Compare this

to this

Or this

to this

[boredjedi]

chuft That's another category bands can be placed in. A live band, studio band or both.
Live band being they are better live, studio band they are better on the album and then you
have bands are just as good live as their albums. One band comes to mind off hand that falls into
the both categories and that would be Queen.

One thing that saddens me is that I never got to catch Gary Numan live.
Same goes for the Cure.