Curious what people feel were the most fertile niche/sub-genres this year...my list would go...
1. Alt-Country - Great Albums from Howe Gelb, Rosanne Cash, Califone. Near Great from Neko Case, Johnny Cash. Solid Offerings from Drive-by Truckers, Lambchop, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Calexico, Band of Horses, A few Great songs on Centro-matic, though not big on that album as a whole. Does Cat Power factor in here as well?
2. Electronica/Electro-Pop - Excellent albums all from The Knife, Hot Chip, The Rapture, Herbert, Matmos, Vitalic, awesome Aphex Reissue. Scritti Politti, DFA Remixes, Junior Boys with spotty but occassionally cool efforts.
3. 70s Style Hard/Rauch Rock/Jam Bands - Wolfmother, Eagles of Death Metal, Racounteurs, Comets of Fire/Red Hot Chili Peppers/Pearl Jam/Built to Spill - Zep/Sabbath/Thin Lizzy style-rock came back with a vengence this year.
4. Crooning - If you included late '05 - Crooning was very much in vogue - Richard Hawley, Jens Lekman, Guillemots, Dylan...plus many Chanteuses female counterparts - Cat Power, Regina Spektor, Fiona Apple, Fiest.
5. Old School Prog - Built to Spill in this Category too, Akron Family, Decemberists, Destroyer, Kate Bush for late last year, Flaming Lips, Aloha,OOIOO and marginally the more expiremental Twee bands, particularly Islands and Grizzly Bear, and Kinda Krautrockers Like Oneida/Liars.
Old School Prog - Built to Spill in this Category too, Akron Family, Decemberists, Destroyer, Kate Bush for late last year, Flaming Lips, Aloha,OOIOO and marginally the more expiremental Twee bands, particularly Islands and Grizzly Bear, and Kinda Krautrockers Like Oneida/Liars. Posts: 172 | Registered: 01 July 2005
I didn't think Akron/Family, Built To Spill, Flaming Lips, Destroyer, or Kate Bush were ever referred to as "prog". Do you know what prog is?
When I say old school prog...I'm thinking of late 60s/Early 70s bands like King Crimson; Yes; Emerson, Lake, and Palmer; Later Stage Jethro Tull, Soft Machine...their Krautrock Counterparts, especially Can and Faust...and then the more am radio oriented mid 70s followers like Early Genesis, Kansas, Styx, E.L.O etc.
In my mind, I tend to think of Prog as anything that tends to eschew a more traditional Verse Chorus Verse Chorus Bridge Verse Chorus structure, instead going for a longer, evolving music that shifts time sigs, instrumentation, etc. and often ends each song in a much different place than where they started...
With regards to the bands you challenge...
Akron/Family definitely fits this bill, reminded me of YES if it was a bunch of rugged hippy commune types instead of a group of British Art School wimps. Flaming Lips, especially this latest album, clearly have an ELO Prog flavor going, Kate Bush needs no explanation, she's alwasy been a prog artist...and several of the songs On Built to Spills latest, especially opener Goin' Against Your Mind, have a definite prog feel...I'll grant you Destroyer's a bit of a stretch.
When I say old school prog...I'm thinking of late 60s/Early 70s bands like King Crimson; Yes; Emerson, Lake, and Palmer; Later Stage Jethro Tull, Soft Machine...their Krautrock Counterparts, especially Can and Faust...and then the more am radio oriented mid 70s followers like Early Genesis, Kansas, Styx, E.L.O etc.
In my mind, I tend to think of Prog as anything that tends to eschew a more traditional Verse Chorus Verse Chorus Bridge Verse Chorus structure, instead going for a longer, evolving music that shifts time sigs, instrumentation, etc. and often ends each song in a much different place than where they started...
With regards to the bands you challenge...
Akron/Family definitely fits this bill, reminded me of YES if it was a bunch of rugged hippy commune types instead of a group of British Art School wimps. Flaming Lips, especially this latest album, clearly have an ELO Prog flavor going, Kate Bush needs no explanation, she's alwasy been a prog artist...and several of the songs On Built to Spills latest, especially opener Goin' Against Your Mind, have a definite prog feel...I'll grant you Destroyer's a bit of a stretch.
So that's my definition...what's yours.
Well that definition is certainly close to my own, but I don't think Built to Spill constitutes anything even close to prog just because they have one long song at the beginning of an indie pop record.
Maybe Akron/Family and Flaming Lips are debatable but I'd consider them more psychedelic than prog although the genres tend to cross paths every so often and they both may exist somewhere at the nexus. Kate Bush is well....Kate Bush. Calling her prog would be like calling Bjork prog, while somewhat applicable considering acute interpretations of specific instances in their music on a general level I wouldn't call it prog.
Well that definition is certainly close to my own, but I don't think Built to Spill constitutes anything even close to prog just because they have one long song at the beginning of an indie pop record.
Maybe Akron/Family and Flaming Lips are debatable but I'd consider them more psychedelic than prog although the genres tend to cross paths every so often and they both may exist somewhere at the nexus. Kate Bush is well....Kate Bush. Calling her prog would be like calling Bjork prog, while somewhat applicable considering acute interpretations of specific instances in their music on a general level I wouldn't call it prog.
Cool, we agree to slightly disagree...with that said, back to the question at hand...what do other people feel were the strongest niche's/sub-genre's this year?
I think it's hard to answer that question unless your someone who really listens widely to a lot of different genres. I don't think I fit that bill. I pretty much go for folk, alt-country, and ambient electronic stuff along with occasional doses of indie rock, indie pop, and post-rock.
By the way, maybe I haven't looked hard enough, but I haven't found many (only 1 to be precise) good post-rock albums this year. Can anyone suggest any?
Posts: 3947 | Location: NE Indiana | Registered: 14 April 2005
As far as post-rock goes, I really enjoyed the new Mono record You Are There. While they won't win any points for originality I still think it was a strong effort. I tried to give that Tortoise A Lazarus Taxon box a chance but I'm not a big Tortoise fan anyway and three discs of them made my snore-o-meter go off.
I think that between The Hold Steady's Boys and Girls and The Killers Sam's Town, you saw a mini-niche in Springsteen-esque rock. One of those albums was really good, and the other, not so much.
----- Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.
Posts: 5272 | Location: Michigan | Registered: 19 June 2005
I think this has been a year of mini-trends. One such mini-trend -- indie alt-country/Americana albums -- has produced some of 2006's strongest albums, e.g., Nico Case's Fox Confessor, Califone's Roots and Crowns, Alejandro Escovedo's The Boxing Mirror.
Another mini-trend -- 70s-influenced rock, whether it's prog rock or songs influenced by Bowie -- has also produced some of the year's best releases. Albums in this mini-trend are The Decemberists' The Crane Wife, Destroyer's Rubies, even Comets On Fire's Avetar.
But another mini-trend -- experimental rock music -- seems to me to be the "sound of 2006," if there is one. Albums in this mini-trend, e.g., TV On The Radio's Return To Cookie Mountain, Scott Walker's The Drift, Liars Drum's Not Dead, even electro-goth albums like The Knife's Silent Shout and Various Production's The World Is Gone could be included in this genre. By contrast, it seems to me that last year's dominant trend was orchestral, lush indie pop, e.g., Sufjan Stevens' Illinoise and The New Pornographers' Twin Cinema (although, as with any effort to generalize, there are plenty of albums in 05 and 06 that undercut the notion that there was a single "dominant trend" during the year.
Posted 06 November 2006 01:47 PM Hide Post I think this has been a year of mini-trends. One such mini-trend -- indie alt-country/Americana albums -- has produced some of 2006's strongest albums, e.g., Nico Case's Fox Confessor, Califone's Roots and Crowns, Alejandro Escovedo's The Boxing Mirror. Another mini-trend -- 70s-influenced rock, whether it's prog rock or songs influenced by Bowie -- has also produced some of the year's best releases. Albums in this mini-trend are The Decemberists' The Crane Wife, Destroyer's Rubies, even Comets On Fire's Avetar. But another mini-trend -- experimental rock music -- seems to me to be the "sound of 2006," if there is one. Albums in this mini-trend, e.g., TV On The Radio's Return To Cookie Mountain, Scott Walker's The Drift, Liars Drum's Not Dead, even electro-goth albums like The Knife's Silent Shout and Various Production's The World Is Gone could be included in this genre. By contrast, it seems to me that last year's dominant trend was orchestral, lush indie pop, e.g., Sufjan Stevens' Illinoise and The New Pornographers' Twin Cinema (although, as with any effort to generalize, there are plenty of albums in 05 and 06 that undercut the notion that there was a single "dominant trend" during the year.
Great Post, Esq...have to agree with your thinking on expirementalism being one of the dominant trends...some decent names to add to your list...Oneida's Happy New Year, OOIOO's Tiaga, Matmos The Rose Has Teeth, Serena Meneesh, Akron Family's Meek Warrior and last Year's collabo with Angel's of Light
Thanks! By the way, I've considered downloading some of the albums you mention, like OOIOO. That disc is available on eMusic, but I've hesitated. I'd like to know more about what it sounds like.
Originally posted by ericg75: I think that between The Hold Steady's Boys and Girls and The Killers Sam's Town, you saw a mini-niche in Springsteen-esque rock. One of those albums was really good, and the other, not so much.
Don't forget Lucero's Springsteen-influenced Rebels, Rogues.... The Springsteen influence was prominent enough to get noted in Rolling Stone's "Hot Issue" as Hot Influence, and mentioned the stuff we've already talked about, along with Ben Kweller's use of glockenspiel and the Arcade Fire's live covers of "State Trooper."
Originally posted by ericg75: I think that between The Hold Steady's Boys and Girls and The Killers Sam's Town, you saw a mini-niche in Springsteen-esque rock. One of those albums was really good, and the other, not so much.
Daniel, Esq. Know-It-All Posted 06 November 2006 06:59 PM Hide Post Thanks! By the way, I've considered downloading some of the albums you mention, like OOIOO. That disc is available on eMusic, but I've hesitated. I'd like to know more about what it sounds like. Posts: 238 | Registered: 04 August 2005
OOIOO - It's got a flow a lot like Soft Machine Third...really long songs that evolve into entirely different pieces every two or three minutes...but it's got a much funkier/more rocking feel than Soft Machine; at it's most conventional moments evoking Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow or early Santana Bongo Freakouts. Lots of Tribal Drumming, Traditional Japanese flourishes, and vocals that are intermittently screechy, bluesy, or harmoniously soaring.
In short, it's a wild ride.
SAI, the 15 minute 6th track, is the centerpiece...check that out...if you like that, you'll like the whole album.
