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PaperclipPerfector  14hr ago (text post)   636 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for August 14, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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What are you all listening to these days?

Orville Peck has a new album and the newest single dropped this morning. I love how rich the instrumentals are. It almost reminds me of old Motown or Stax recordings.

Russian punk outfit called Kino

My 16 year old kid introduced me to them

Very soothing - I love not understanding lyrics

Mostly The Strokes new album Reality Awaits. I'm ready to concede that this might be their best album, despite having none of their best songs overall.

When the album launched, I was all prepared to post on the motte about its launch and reference their previous album, The New Abnormal. This is because I distinctly recall a post on the Motte about that album, and how good some of the new tracks were shortly before it's release.

Not trusting any kind of search, I went to the main page and sorted by 'Old', thinking that the launch of the Motte must have been pretty close. And I was right. Only about a year separated the 2, just in the wrong direction. Turns out the Motte was launched well past The New Abnormal, despite, as mentioned, my clear recollection of talking about it here.

Perhaps The Motte and /r/themotte simply blurred into one in my mind? I'm not really sure, seeing as a reddit search also didn't turn up the posts I so clearly remembered. In any case I was all prepared to turn this experience into a longer post on the ephemeral nature of time and my own personal passage of sites and forums that led me here. But then I figured no one would care that much and gave up

I'm ready to concede that this might be their best album

Nothing beats Is This It and Room on Fire.

I would say that John Cage's 4'33 is definitely not better than those two albums so your assertion is false

I’ve been exploring Shia music (of “Shia rave” fame). They essentially have their own version of the traditional Christian Passion genre, but for their own central religious tragedy event. Most of it is junk but I found some that are good:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=2l-Zm1brSag ; https://youtube.com/watch?v=kKwEWCckfvA ; https://youtube.com/watch?v=8M84TFhPj5s ;

In Iran this is tied at the hip to the theocracy. The same singers who lead the religious songs also sing the regime propaganda songs and some songs simply combine the two together. These are, apparently, wildly popular in the Shia world.

One of the most famous lines from Nick Hornby's High Fidelity is (I'm paraphrasing) "Which came first: the music or the misery? Do I listen to pop music because I'm miserable, or am I miserable because I listen to pop music?"

For many years I was an avid listener of music, and would constantly have my headphones on during my morning commute. I owned dozens of CDs and went out of my way to convert them to FLAC format, under the delusion that I could tell the difference from MP3s with my budget Sennheisers. When I read the above question in High Fidelity, I dismissed it as an obviously rhetorical one: of course I listen to music because I'm miserable!

Somewhere along the way I got out of the habit of actively listening to music in my own time, and rarely sit down to listen to an album from start to finish: most music I listen to is just something to put on in the background while I'm doing something else. And you know what? My subjective feeling of ease and well-being is dramatically improved compared to the earlier periods of my life in which I was an active and compulsive listener of music. There are many possible explanations for this improvement (I'm more physically active; I'm in a stable relationship; I've outgrown my depression; the period in my life in which I listened to music most compulsively was my adolescence, never an easy time for anyone), but I no longer think the question from High Fidelity is a rhetorical one with an obvious answer. Maybe listening to music did make me unhappier than I would have been otherwise.

All that preamble aside, I'm trying to get back into the habit of actively listening to music – not for the sake of enjoyment, but for research. I've been trying to write my next album and the riffs aren't coming as easily as I'd like. Surely part of that is because I'm not listening to music: the periods in my life in which I wrote the most riffs were also the periods in which I was listening to the most riffs. To that end, I drew up a list of albums which I've either been meaning to listen to for years, or which have a sound I'd like to emulate on the next album. I've been listening to them when I can get around to it. In no particular order, here are the ones I've listened to so far, and my thoughts.

Artist Album Genre Thoughts
Ulver Silence Teaches You How to Sing Dark ambient I encountered this as excerpts from it
were used in the film "Sinister". It only really
works in context, not as a standalone piece.
Ulver Bergtatt – Et eeventyr i 5 capitler Black metal There are a million bargain-bin second-wave
black metal albums just like this one.
Botanist Photosynthesis Black metal Legitimately unique. Intend to listen to it again
Accurst Fragments of a Nightmare Dark ambient I turned it off after the first five minutes. Corny af.
Aghast Hexerei Im Zwielicht Der Finsternis Dark ambient A track from this was also used in the film "Sinister".
Unlike the Ulver one, this one can stand on its own.
Particularly liked the fourth track.
Katatonia Brave Murder Day Doom metal The fifth track is pretty cool,
but I have no intention of listening to this one again.
Shining V: Halmstad Black metal Profoundly silly. Barely even warrants the "black metal"
genre tag, never mind "depressive/suicidal black metal".
The vocalist supposedly said that he wants people
to be so affected by his band's music
that they kill themselves after listening to it
– I certainly would if I had to listen to
boring corny dreck like this for the rest of my life.
The cover art is the most interesting thing about it
Killswitch Engage The End of Heartache Metalcore Great album, on the level of "Alive
or Just Breathing", even if I prefer Jesse Leach as a vocalist.
Thantifaxath Sacred White Noise Black metal There used to be a website called Metal Ireland,
which was both a forum and published reviews of albums and EPs.
One of their critics reviewed this album
and said something along the lines of
"I know as critics we're meant to be 'objective'.
But it's hard in this case, because
this album is pretty close to the Platonic ideal
of what a black metal album is supposed to sound like".
I finally got around to listening to it
(twelve years after release) and wasn't disappointed.
Jaw-droppingly brilliant.
Daughters You Won't Get What You Want Noise rock Contra Fantano, I don't know if I'd call this "perfect",
but even as someone who normally disdains noise rock
and spoken-word vocals I can say it didn't disappoint.
Corrupted Paso inferior Sludge Pretty good, but hardly memorable.
Eyehategod Take as Needed for Pain Sludge I like the sound collage, and the tenth song.
Gnaw Their Tongues All the Dread Magnificence of Perversity Black metal I first heard of Gnaw Their Tongues
when a recording engineer compared my band to them.
They collaborated with Dragged into Sunlight (immediately below)
on an EP which included samples of actual serial killers talking about their crimes.
It creeped me out, but I wasn't sure of how much of that
was because of the music and how much was the enormously tasteless sampling.
This album employs no such gimmicks, and I can say that Gnaw Their Tongues can produce some genuinely horrific soundscapes.
Dragged into Sunlight Hatred for Mankind Death-doom I really liked it. I should listen to it again.
Isis Panopticon Post-metal Meh. I once heard someone quip that if a band
describes their music as "post-[anything]", that means it's boring.
While this isn't true of every band, it's true more often than not, and certainly true of Isis.
Mastodon Leviathan Sludge Its reputation is entirely deserved.
Meshuggah Chaosphere Progressive metal Great, perhaps even better than ObZen. Buy it
Portal ION Death metal Loved it. All the compositional insanity of "Swarth",
but with production improved just enough that you can follow what's going on.
Spectral Wound Songs of Blood and Mire Black metal Heard this album playing in a record shop in Athens
and decided to check it out. Loved it.
The Angelic Process Weighing Souls with Sand Drone metal Meh, did nothing for me. Getting signed to
Profound Lore Records is now considered a hallmark of quality,
but this was back when they were still finding their feet as a label and couldn't afford to be so choosy.
My Dying Bride The Dreadful Hours Doom metal Rather corny
Cryptopsy None So Vile Death metal Pretty cool, but so technical and complex
that your brain can't really process it all in one go.
Type O Negative World Coming Down Gothic metal More of the same. "Slow, Deep and Hard"
had more stylistic range.

I've had the opposite experience. When I'm miserable I don't have any desire to listen to music, and when I'm in a good mood I'm more likely to want music on. One would think that a compulsive listener such as myself would take advantage of the 8 to 10 hours a day I have available to listen to music at work, but I rarely do. And when I do, it's usually because I have a lot of work to do, there's a long album that's on the list due to completeness but I don't have much faith in and am thus dreading to listen, and I save it for a time when I have a ton of work to do and not a lot of time to do it and hope that the tedium of listening to a long, lousy album dilates time to the extent that allows me to finish in a reasonable amount of time. Worst case scenario, the time evaporates along with the album. It's basically a hedge.

Fortunately I mostly listen for enjoyment, and I try to combine my listening with activities that I find enjoyable as well. The upshot is that if there's something I want to listen to I'd rather save it for when I'm on the bike, or out walking in the woods. I've put entire bands on hold for the winter because I know I'll enjoy them more when exercising outside in warm weather. Typical itinerary, some years back, which has changed only because the music I listen to changes based on what I haven't heard yet: Bike ride, late Saturday morning into the afternoon, maybe I have a picnic to attend later in the day, so I'm on a schedule. Enough time for a 20 mile trail ride. Start with Krautrock, something repetitive to get me in the pedaling rhythm. Then move on to 70s hard rock like Humble Pie or Faces, something a little more exciting, as the heat of the day builds. This is what I'm listening to at the turn around point. Then switch over to something more Americana, maybe Ry Cooder, as it's now afternoon. Totally different if I'm going for a 6 mile walk after dinner, which I was doing every day for a while on the same path: Start with Southern Rock while it's still broad daylight. As the sun gets low in the sky, switch to British Folk, like Dando Shaft or Lindisfarne, and as I'm approaching my car at dusk let things get a bit darker, like early Pink Floyd or Procol Harum.

Start with Krautrock, something repetitive to get me in the pedaling rhythm.

Have you been following the CAN archive releases? Or perhaps you knew them from the circulating bootlegs, but either way, some amazing stuff in there. The first release, Stuttgart 1975, remains my favorite.

Also, the Beat Club channel out of nowhere 2 weeks ago dropped new CAN footage from 1971: "Halleluhwah". The footage for "Paperhouse" has been around but as far as I know the new one was never previously available.

What is it about metal that grips you so much? Whenever I listen to modern metal, I bounce off. Between the blast beats and the technical-first guitar style, it feels like it's for the players rather than the audience. What am I missing?

When you say "modern metal", what kinds of bands are you referring to? I think Songs of Blood and Mire is the only one of the albums listed above that came out this decade.

I'm old, so "modern", probably means "post Iron Maiden".

Fair.

It's a difficult question to answer, as the genre has become enormously stylistically diverse over the last four or five decades. Of the nineteen metal albums listed above, I think only five used blastbeats in any capacity, and only seven could be described as "technical" under even the most generous definition of that term. (Paso Inferior sounds downright primitive, like the guitarist only learned how to play the day before.) Maybe if you tell me some non-metal bands you like, I can recommend some albums that might serve as gateways.

Maybe if you tell me some non-metal bands you like, I can recommend some albums that might serve as gateways.

Orville Peck is a good example, with the link above being a solid song.

Poor Man's Poison is another, with "Hell's Coming With Me" being their most famous song.

Billy Strings is great. I love the song "Wargasm".

I'm a big fan of Kels, with "Daddy's Got a gun" being a solid example.

The general trend is stuff that's rhythm-forward, with strong instrumentals and a solid groove.

I could see you liking Clutch, Eyehategod or Crowbar, and probably a lot of bands in the "stoner rock/metal" wheelhouse, although I'm not very knowledgeable about that subgenre. Possibly the Mastodon album mentioned above (this song should give you a feel for it).

I have mixed feelings about Clutch. The songs tend to be great, but after a while the vocals feel like they're so redlined that they lose any impact.

I'll give the other two a shot. Thanks for the suggestions.

“Which came first: the shitty rave music, or the drugs?”

Henry's contempt is so real. I saw a post earlier joking that, with AI "musicians" now becoming a thing, DJs must feel so relieved that there's someone even they can feel superior to.

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