All I really ever feel like listening to these days is sad music, and it's getting harder for me to find any. I know all the big name sad indie music (Iron and Wine, Damien Jurado, some Sufjan, Mark Kozelek, Espers, South San Gabriel, Jason Molina, etc) some of which I don't really think is any good (Black Heart Procession, American Music Club, Cat Power, etc).

J. Tillman and Elephant Micah have been two awesome discoveries of mine lately, and I'm searching like a madman for more of the same, but without much success.

Help, please.

Ah, my favorite genre. I would check out Owen. Also, Ryan Adams is probably the saddest bastard on the planet, though he may not be indie enough for this forum. 29 could have depressed Steve Irwin on a good day.
Gregory and the Hawk and a lot of those NYC groups have a good grasp of The Sadness.

Well if you're looking for non-recent Indie stuff, I would go with Galaxie 500. If that doesn't fill you with a beautiful sadness, I don't know what will.

Eh, I've never liked anything Ryan Adams has done since Heartbreaker. I don't even like the one Whiskeytown album I've heard.

I'll have to check out Galaxie 500.

Oh, and I've heard one Owen album and didn't really like it, but I've never heard any Gregory and the Hawk.

Tom McRae's first album (s/t) is what you need to get your hands on. The imagery this album provokes is amazing, it consumes all your emotions without draining them.

quote:

Originally posted by RavingLunatic:
Eh, I've never liked anything Ryan Adams has done since Heartbreaker. I don't even like the one Whiskeytown album I've heard.

Man, Cold Roses is one of the greatest albums out there. It's really quite similar to Heartbreaker. I would give it a chance. It took me a long time to warm up to his new stuff but, when I did, it was so rewarding.

I actually haven't listened to Cold Roses, but my brother owns it, so I suppose I'll have to do that soon. When I say I don't like anything post-Heartbreaker, I'm just going by my hatred for Demolition, most of Gold ("When the Stars Go Blue" and a couple others are good), and my lukewarm feelings toward Love Is Hell.

quote:

Originally posted by RavingLunatic:
When I say I don't like anything post-Heartbreaker, I'm just going by my hatred for Demolition, most of Gold ("When the Stars Go Blue" and a couple others are good), and my lukewarm feelings toward Love Is Hell.

Oh yeah, those albums are really limp and pathetic. I like maybe four songs from all of those albums combined. Cold Roses is raw and genuine. Really different from those albums and really really beautiful.

Ravinglunatic, I don't know which Whiskeytown album you are talking about, but "Strangers Almanac" is an excellent sad alt-country album. After 3 or 4 listens, you should fall in love with this album.

A couple of sad "indie" albums I recommend to everyone:

Interpol - Antics : (brighter than the first Interpol album!? Some prosperous pro-rolling stone readers listen too much music on their IPod (IPod is the creation of the devil). One of the sadest album ever. Paul Banks IS the devil sent from hell, with his machiavelic voice and painfull lyrics. Listen to that album alone, in the dark, and tell me if this album is full of joy...

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O. (Lift your skinny fists... is a little bit better, but this one is more depressive. The guys from Godspeed say that the only positive thing in this world is hope, but this album shows no hope at all.)

Other well-known albums, that I consider to be really sad:

Radiohead - Kid A (If you find anything else.....listen to this album.....)
Wilco - A ghost is born
Themselves - No music
Bjork - Vespertine

quote:

Originally posted by eggTweedyegg:
Ravinglunatic, I don't know which Whiskeytown album you are talking about, but "Strangers Almanac" is an excellent sad alt-country album. After 3 or 4 listens, you should fall in love with this album.

I'm pretty sure that's the one he's talking about.

Yeah, that is the one. Seemed kind of boring to me. I got it for my brother for Christmas I think because he's such a big Ryan Adams fan, but I don't think he likes it much either.

I listened to F#A# C><C a few times by Godspeed, and it just seemed awful to me. Same with Bjork's Vespertine. I got that from the library once and couldn't stand it. I'm not an Interpol (or Joy Division) fan either.

I should probably head off any Low recommendations by saying right now that I don't like them.

I think this thread is a trick. Finding music RL will like is like finding food my five-year-old nephew will eat. In the end you're better off just going to McDonald's and buying him some Chicken McNuggets for the millionth time.

I forget what you said about them before, but The Microphones/Mount Eerie can be pretty sad sometimes. Either way, it's the most beautiful stuff I've ever heard. Maybe try out a Mount Eerie album if you haven't already, it's more quiet and sad than his microphones stuff.
I know you aren't into Will Oldham, either.
Everything else I listen to in this genre I either heard about from you or I know you've already haerd of.
Also, what do you think would be a good staring place for Mark Kozelek's stuff? He has too much for me to figure it out.

quote:

Originally posted by joji:
Also, what do you think would be a good staring place for Mark Kozelek's stuff? He has too much for me to figure it out.

Red House Painters' Songs for a Blue Guitar or my personal favorite, Kozelek's What's Next To The Moon, an album of very sad AC/DC covers.

In other news, I feel bad about ripping on RL's musical pickiness, so I'm biting on his plea for good sad bastard albums, some of which were even released in the last decade. Here ya go:

1. Vic Chesnutt - The Salesman and Burnadette

2. Clem Snide - Your Favorite Music

3. Joe Henry - Trampoline

4. Chappaquidick Skyline - S/T. The first line of the album is even,"I hate my life". You really can't go wrong.

5. Bruce Springsteen - Nebraska

6. Neil Young - Harvest

7. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part (since you've heard The Boatman's Call)

quote:

Originally posted by joji:
Also, what do you think would be a good staring place for Mark Kozelek's stuff? He has too much for me to figure it out.

Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway

This is an amazing album, one of the best in the last 5 years. He's done a lot of other good stuff (like eric said, Songs FOr A Blue Guitar is really good), but this one tops them all.

I'm kinda split on the album as a whole, but I really, really, like both versions of "Do You Love Me?" from Nick Cave's Let Love In. I'll probably explore his stuff a little more.

Thanks for those picks, eric. I've heard good things about Chesnutt before, but for some reason have never bothered to check him out.

There's always the saddest, most depressing song ever, Gary Jules's cover of Mad World. Apart from that:

Chris Garneau (really unknown Absolutely Kosher singer, great sad piano-based songs)
Arco

RL, for Chesnutt, I'd start with West of Rome, or Maybe even his first album little given what you have liked in the past. Although, Salesman and Bernadette has Lambchop doing the backing music, so if you have ever thought that Lambchop would be good if only they would get a better singer, it might be a good choice as well. Really though, you can't go wrong with him.

Another one you *might* like is Tom Waits' first album closing time. It is very different than his other albums, and I have a feeling you might like it, even though I suspect you would hate pretty much every other album he has ever released.