Music I Like – Serendipitous Finds

I subscribe to a bunch of music blogs, and systematically listen to their recommendations throughout the day while I work. This practice introduces me to so much new music I like that sometimes I feel like I never get to listen to stuff I like more than once. But sometimes I find new music in other, more serendipitous ways. Here are some of the discoveries that the universe just delivered to me.

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Lo-Pan

Writing up a Music I Like post, I found in my notes a synth album based on a video game. But a single wrong keystroke when I was pulling up the page to embed the music brought me to Lo-Pan (with a hyphen), a hook-filled grungy rock band whose music belongs at outdoor barbecues. I knew within two seconds of hitting play that this was not the band I was looking for, but I listened to Subtle all the way through anyway.

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The Hu

I was at an operetta when my companion told me about The Hu. She had no idea that I was already writing blog posts about Asian heavy metal, throat singing and Mongolian music – all of which could include The Hu, and some of which now do. Our conversation followed a logical flow from the operetta at hand, which talked about food, to Vegan Black Metal chef, to heavy metal in general, to the upcoming Baby Metal concert that my companion was attending for the sake of opening band The Hu. A band that I’ve now written about several times because they are so fucking cool. I couldn’t afford tickets to see them in Seattle, but you can bet I’ve listened to The Gereg a few times at home.

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Dead Combo

I’ve had a bit of a crush on all things Portuguese since I went to the Azores. Since Dead Combo are from Portugal, I could have put them in an upcoming post on Portuguese bands. But the discovery was too serendipitous. You see, of all the grunge bands that came out in my youth, Screaming Trees was my favorite, mostly because of Mark Lanegan’s. But I never got to see them live. This year, I finally got to see Lanegan perform at Timber Fest. A couple days later, I stumbled on the Dead Combo’s live album featuring Mark Lanegan used as background music for something else.

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Tool

Okay, this is a bit of a stretch, because I loved Tool back in the day and there was so much buzz about the release of Fear Inoculum that no one could say they “discovered” it. I hardly ever like the music that results from “getting the band back together.” Lightning in a bottle and all that. But the new Tool sounds just like the old Tool picked up where they left off. Often that’s not good enough either, because time goes on and the logical “next album” is too late. Tool was so ahead of its time, though, that Fear Inoculum sound just right today. Maybe a little thinner than I remembered, but not dated or nostalgic in the least. That’s feels like serendipity to me. (Plus I have like 30 draft music posts going right now, and Tool is so unique that they don’t fit in any of them.)

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Willis Fader

There is a tiny busking stage near a little bridge in the woods at Doe Bay between the main stage and Otter Cove. On that stage in past years, I’ve caught bands doing ad hoc extra sets, random other musicians playing acoustic guitar, and little kids singing a capella. This year, after the festival was over and we were headed out, we passed the busking stage and saw a stack of CDs labeled Hydrangea by Willis Fader. To my knowledge, Willis Fader was not a Doe Bay performer. When I got home, I listened to Hydrangea in my car. (That’s the only CD player left in my possession.) And it was nice. I usually listen to metal to keep me sharp in Seattle traffic, but Hydrangea is still spinning in my car months later.

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White Ward

A friend texted my husband that he should check out this jazz black metal band called White Ward. He was working from home that day, and as I passed by the basement door, I heard this ambient piano music. I’m not a huge fan of ambient or piano, but this sounded pretty good. I got my coffee and made my toast and headed back to my office, passing by the open door again. This time it was blistering black metal.

“What are you listening to?” I shouted down the basement stairs. And that’s how I ended up listening to Love Exchange Failure, the second album by Ukrainian band White Ward. It does indeed involve piano, as well as sax, that somehow works with black metal. And I would never have listened to it if my husband had worked in the office that day.

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