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What have you been listening to this week?
What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)
Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.
You can make a chart if you use last.fm:
http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/
Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.
It's Bandcamp Friday!
I asked for recommendations here on Tildes as well as from people IRL. I also just sort of dove into Bandcamp as a platform and clicked on related album chains to find stuff, as well as using rateyourmusic's charts for specific genres, since they have an icon letting you know which releases are on Bandcamp. As such, my folder of Bandcamp bookmarks is already bursting at the seams. I consider this a good problem to have.
Anyway, I'm going to spend the day to figure out what to buy from among the ones I know I like (much as I would like to get everything, that gets very pricey very quick, and I also like that a limit like that forces me to value each individual album more -- it's a nice change of pace from the glut of music available on streaming services). Here's a quick scattershot of what I've been listening to and really enjoyed, along with myriad pings for the people that recommended then to me. A big thank you to everyone for pointing me towards some great fresh tunes!
1: This album was available on Bandcamp but when I went to link it just now, it appears it's been taken down. Glad I bought it and downloaded it when I did! Disappointed to see that it no longer shows up in my collection though (and my download link no longer works). It appears even Bandcamp isn't immune to the "disappearing songs/albums" issue that plagues streaming services.
Based on what you liked out of that older thread I have a hunch you'd find gnomeslice's collection to be fruitful browsing.
2208 albums! Incredible. Thank you, as always, for being such a great resource!
Wow that's like rain on your wedding day.
♫ Isn't it ironic... ♫
Yeah, now is the time for me to come to grips with the idea that I could lose an album I paid for, like I did with Alanis's. Such a concept is a jagged little pill I guess I'll have to swallow. I'm also a little miffed they didn't notify me, as it seems the album's removal has been kept under rug swept. I started buying albums again to get away from the so-called chaos of streaming media's shifting sands. It creates a kind of library havoc, and bright lights need to be shone on the idea that such a model doesn't let us own our music.
Of course, the greatest tastes in life are often the flavors of entanglement, so I try to appreciate music as I experience it, not as I own it, and allegedly, according to some -- not me -- the quantity of music I grew attached to was at times too much, and I loved it too deeply. I've since changed my ways though, so as a supposed former infatuation junkie of tunes, I have to admit that an uncomfortable speedbump in my music ownership might actually be a good lesson. After all, it's our unexpected setbacks that often lead us to such pretty forks in the road.
This is always a concern with any service. Maybe due to licensing changes or maybe due to the whole site going out of business one day. Do you actually use Bandcamp to store and play your music? Any time I buy an album I immediately download it and also replicate it on Backblaze in a bucket specifically for my local music library.
Have you contacted Bandcamp to ask for an explanation or refund?
I downloaded the album before it got taken down, but I went ahead and submitted a refund request anyway. I get that music licensing and distribution is a mess, but I would feel better about it had they notified me: "hey, your album is going to be removed in 24 hours! Make sure you've backed it up!" The fact that it just outright disappeared is not a good look.
It also explains why I do think some things are missing from my Bandcamp account. I never really used the platform much, but over the past decade I have bought a few things here and there, mostly as a way of supporting artists I've liked. Now that I've started seriously buying in to the platform, I went back and claimed all my old purchases using their e-mail account linking, and I could swear that there was stuff I'd bought that wasn't showing up. At the time I attributed that to my bad memory, but it very well could be that those albums got taken down too.
Also I appreciate your sincerity, but I have to admit that my comment was mostly an excuse to be cheeky with Alanis references in response to yours. :)
cc: @blitz
Update: Bandcamp issued me a refund for Alanis's album, but not for the reason I expected. Turns out it was an illegitimate upload and was never actually official in the first place.
Nice to see nervous_testpilot here, absolutely entranced by his work. I could listen to Frozen Synapse OST on repeat my whole life, I swear to god
Listening to a lot of Master Boot Record lately. one of the few non-soundtrack artist I listen too.
I gave it a try and listened to the first thing in their page, they are amazing and have that old video game vibe I enjoy so much. Thank you for the recommendation.
Not much, mostly The Muffs: Weird Boy Next Door, Sad Tomorrow, Lucky Guy and Prettier Than Me. Also this Bette Davis Eyes cover by little xs for eyes because I think it's amazing, Kim Carnes' version is also amazing.
Edit: I forgot one of my new favorites, Black Sheep by Metric.
Sorcerer dropped a new album this week, and I've been listening to that. If you're into NWOTHM, check them out! They're one of my favorites.
IDLES. Pretty much their entire discography on Spotify. The music sounds extremely aggressive, but when you listen to the lyrics, even when they're angry, Joe's singing about really good stuff, thematically. Coping with loss, kindness to your fellow man... I'll put IDLES on when I'm just looking for good vibes, I guess. I have a hard time picking between their two albums most of the time, so I just listen to everything.
I remembered the existence of Agnes Obel and been listening to the whole discography. Before that I only knew about Riverside but for some reason never bothered to check the other songs. Well now I have and I'm very glad I did. It's really calming and weird at the same time, like a mix between Cocteau Twins and Florence + The Machine. I've listened to Broken Sleep about 10 times already, such a hypnotizing mix of voices