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.

This is not so much an ask thread as it is a task one. The idea is simple: for any/all of the categories below, identify music from your library or experiences that fits the bill, and explain a bit about why.

You can choose any from the list, or do all if you like, but please do NOT just list items with no explanation! Your thoughts are the exciting parts of this exercise, not just the music itself, so please share!

For the purposes of this inventory, "music" can refer to a specific lyric, a song, an album, an artist, or even a concert or event -- really anything that you think fits the bill. If you want to go into multiples per category, that's fine too -- just remember to explain them!

Inventory Items

Tell me about music that:

• Is an instant mood lift
• Is emotionally devastating
• You've cried to
• Reminds you of someone you love
• Reminds you of someone you used to love
• Brings you back to a specific memorable moment/time in your life
• Helps you relax
• Amps you up
• Makes you feel safe
• Could put you to sleep (in a good way)
• Makes you feel like you're on an adventure
• Reminds you that there is beauty in this world
• Impresses you
• Makes you smile
• Makes you laugh

You don't have to do all of them -- only the ones you feel strongly about or that have interesting stories behind them. Also, feel free to add on new categories in the comments that people can also respond to.

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.

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/post-human-survival-horror/1535067172
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0e1WaSNDZnoPixaxDNdWo4
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3Pp4IGPebg&list=PLxA687tYuMWjFSs5uzLYbGrdHRm0srHQ0

Metalcore Bring Me the Horizon is back, baby. Awoouu (wolf Howl)

Back in 2013, Bring Me the Horizon was arguably the biggest band in metalcore. Their release that year, Sempiternal, propelled them to international stardom and mainstream success. After this, guitarist Jona Weinhofen left the band and instead of adding another guitarist, the group added a keyboardist instead. The change up in sound was very noticeable, while the band found incredible commercial success and curried the favor of some pop critics, many rock and roll fans felt a little left out in the cold by a typical change in sound by a heavy band following commercial success.

After a pair of albums and an EP in their more electronic, pop centered sound, Bring Me the Horizon have returned to that signature Sempiternal sound with POST HUMAN: SURVIVAL HORROR. The crushing guitars come roaring back on this release and Oli Sykes, one of the best unclean vocalists in the game, finally returns to his growls and guttural pit calls. While there's still a lot of electronica in here, this seems to augment the sound, like in Sempiternal, rather than guide it. The only problem with this release is that it's too short. But luckily, SURVIVAL HORROR is just the first of a planned four EP set, with the other three coming over the course of 2021.

The EP also features a lot of great, well, features. Standouts include BABYMETAL on Kingslayer bringing a late era Poppy vibe to the disk and Amy Lee's haunting appearance on the album closer.

For fans of Bad Omens, Architects and Crossfaith.

Yesterday, I was talking with my dad about western swing and similar country music in a conversation about my grandfather who was a mandolin player in a red dirt/western swing band on old timey radio in Texas during the post-war years. Unfortunately, I was never able to connect with my grandfather through music because I was still fairly young when he passed away, but I put on his favorite band, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, while I was thinking about him and getting some work done.

The Spotify top tracks led me to Steel Guitar Rag from 1936. Shortly after the 40 second mark, you will hear a guitar riff that sent me on a scavenger hunt, texting a couple different friends for help and skipping around songs for half an hour. The riff felt really familiar but more uptempo in my head than in the Bob Wills track. My first thought was the band WOLF!, maybe a track like Humdinger. Good song but not it. A friend of mine suggested Folsom Prison Blues, but that has a distinctly different riff in it.

Eventually, it struck me that I knew the riff from a King Curtis live album from 1966, I just needed to skip around until I found it in one of the tracks. The track is titled Medley: Peter Gunn / Get Long Cindy, and the riff starts after the 3:25 mark. Pretty similar don't you think?

My aunt is moving to a smaller apartment and her piano does not fit there, so I offered to take it. Not because I intended to play, but she wanted to keep it in the family out of nostalgia and emotional attachment.

It is under renovation and should arrive perfectly tuned.

But now that I have it, I ask myself: why not play it? I had piano lessons as a kid, and I like classical music.

Is there a straightforward way to learn piano by myself that doesn’t feel like much of a chore? Otherwise, the piano will just linger in my living room.

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.

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/wrong-generation/1535816008
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0ENzm2HTf7mfFjWZ7CaB5u
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Nm3JIPr3w&list=OLAK5uy_knEEYCSEk8ai9vRtXwRnbrJ_bSVR_5JA8

The hardcore meets hip-hop trio FEVER 333 are back to their roots with a new EP called WRONG GENERATION. While their last release, STRENGTH IN NUMB333RS, tended to lose their punk influence in exchange for more nu-metal influences, WRONG GENERATION ditches that side-step and continues from where they first started when the broke on to the scene in 2018 with Made an America. In my opinion, this is a welcome return to form. These guys seem most comfortable when they are making rebellious music that may not appeal to everyone, rather than their attempt at mainstream acceptance by employing more accessible song structure and instruments.

Drummer Aric Improta has never sounded better so far. While he's always been able to dial into a groove a bit, he feels more like the mover you'd like the drummer to be in a hip-hop band, rather than just playing keep up with the melody section. This does mean guitarist Stephen Harrison isn't quite as prominent in the tracks, but that doesn't mean he's not doing great work. Harrison takes more of a cue from Tom Morello in this album, following the rhythm section and getting in the groove. Vocalist Jason Aalon Butler sounds best when he's doing his high pitched screams and spoken word-type rap rather than his cleans (which sound a bit too much like a bad Chester Bennington impression), and he mostly stays away from cleans on this album.

Butler's lyrics still feel a lot more than STRENGTH IN NUMB333RS and are probably the one thing where you can see a through line from the beginning of FEVER 333 to now. His focus on LA culture, black liberation, police violence and more gets shaper with every release.

For fans of Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy and Stray From the Path.