ByGD
My musical taste is eclectic, but punk is not my genre. I love the idea of punk and most of the politics and aesthetics of the culture. But the music rarely does it for me. The list of punk bands I like is very short, and usually includes an interesting cultural backstory. So here it is.
ByGD
Ironically, as a person who works in words, I rarely listen to the lyrics in music. In heavy metal, the vocals are usually textural. In rap, they’re too prominent and distracting. But most music means to tell a story. And sometimes the stories are really good.
ByGD
No, that’s not “metal infected” although I guess you could call it that. I recently enjoyed an Alcest album, then had a hard time figuring out where to put it in on the blog. I realized that I listen to a lot of music that gets lumped with metal, but really isn’t. Sometimes bands start out really heavy and then mellow or become more sophisticated with age. Or a metal musician does a side project in a different genre. Sometimes, there are weird social dynamics that get an artist lots of metal fans, even though their music doesn’t have any of the sonic markers of metal. So here’s a bunch of metal-inflected music that I like.
ByGD
I usually don’t like listening to singles. I prefer to put on an album and let it run. But mostly thanks to the Reykjavik Grapevine I’ve stumbled across a few emerging Icelandic artists who only seem to have a song or two posted online. And I’ve liked what I heard enough to make a note of it.
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ByGD
I admit I spent many years in the thrall of rockism. Music was supposed to be five guys (it was always guys, too, wasn’t it) on drums, bass, two guitars and vocals. Or else like, a string quartet, or full orchestra. But eventually I came around to industrial and electronic music. Now nothing grabs my attention like an unexpected instrument thrown into the mix. There’s always a risk of being gimmicky, but done right, unusual instrumentation is music I like.
