Music Obsession

[Syko Nachoman]

Sometime late last August, I realized that I could use all the free time granted to me by quarantine to start listening to all the music that I'd been meaning to check out over the years, but which I'd never found time for. So I did. I started listening to a few new albums a day. But what started as a fun hobby ended up spiraling out of control, to the point where I have an ever-growing backlog of albums that seems to grow almost as fast as I can keep up with it. According to RateYourMusic, I've listened to + rated 928 albums since last September. And that's not including music that I started listening to & turned off, or music that I didn't rate because I felt it was too far outside my wheelhouse to assign a fair rating to. Suffice it to say I've listened to 2-3 new albums per day on average since I started my quest to devour all of the music.

Here are some things I've learned during the past year:
1. Apparently, I really like noise rock. Noisier and more raucous = better.
2. Critics' lists are mostly useless and tend to be bloated with really boring albums. It's much easier to use the RateYourMusic charts and forums to find music that you're likely to enjoy.
3. Ska is also really good. I'm not sure why I avoided it for so long.
4. There is still good music being made nowadays, but you have to work harder to find it. Don't trust the "There's no good music nowadays" people. I suspect those people came to that conclusion based on what they'd heard on the radio & haven't really dug deep to try to find new music that appeals to them.

Now, here's the problem. I get bored easily, so while I'm listening to music, I also need something to do with my eyes and hands, so I tend to read about music (again, mostly on RateYourMusic). Of course, this helps to perpetuate the cycle because while I'm reading about music, I'll occasionally see someone mention a band or an album and think, "Hey, I should check that out." And so my backlog keeps growing.

On top of that, I'm obsessed with making lists. I have personal lists of my top 100 albums of all time, the most underappreciated albums of all time, my top 50 albums of each decade, lists dedicated to cataloguing all of the releases by some of my favorite obscure artists (who don't seem to have comprehensive discographies anywhere else on the internet), an unsorted top 500 albums of all time list, and so on. I won't link to every single list in this post, to avoid spamming this thread with links, but you can find most of them on my RYM profile if you're interested (kind of easy to guess what my username is). Oh yeah, and you can't forget the spreadsheets that I use to keep track of all these albums so that I can update those lists. This is where things start to get a little overly complicated, because whenever I discover a new album I like, I'm usually updating one or more spreadsheets with its info, which in turn means that some of my RYM lists have to be updated as well... discovering new music I like can be a lot of work.

Anyway, talk about music or something. What sources do you use to find new music? Have you spent more time looking for & playing music during the past couple years because of the pandemic? And are you as obsessive as I am when it comes to keeping track of your favorite albums?

[Darkmage4]

Jul 11, 2022 9:21:15 GMT -8 Syko Nachoman said:

Anyway, talk about music or something. What sources do you use to find new music? Have you spent more time looking for & playing music during the past couple years because of the pandemic? And are you as obsessive as I am when it comes to keeping track of your favorite albums?

Usually Spotify or friends' recommendation.

My music listening hasn't really increased nor decreased.

I've started making music over the pandemic. Although, my life never changed. I'm 99% home anyways, and live on a farm. Lol.

I dont usually keep track of albums or anything like that. If an artist uploaded a track to Spotify. I'll listen to it. If I like it, then it goes into several different playlists. 1 containing just the artist, one like genre, and the other a mega mix of over 7000 songs, across many different Sub/Genres.

[Krumm]

Jul 11, 2022 9:21:15 GMT -8 Syko Nachoman said:

Sometime late last August, I realized that I could use all the free time granted to me by quarantine to start listening to all the music that I'd been meaning to check out over the years, but which I'd never found time for. So I did. I started listening to a few new albums a day. But what started as a fun hobby ended up spiraling out of control, to the point where I have an ever-growing backlog of albums that seems to grow almost as fast as I can keep up with it. According to RateYourMusic, I've listened to + rated 928 albums since last September. And that's not including music that I started listening to & turned off, or music that I didn't rate because I felt it was too far outside my wheelhouse to assign a fair rating to. Suffice it to say I've listened to 2-3 new albums per day on average since I started my quest to devour all of the music.

Here are some things I've learned during the past year:
1. Apparently, I really like noise rock. Noisier and more raucous = better.
2. Critics' lists are mostly useless and tend to be bloated with really boring albums. It's much easier to use the RateYourMusic charts and forums to find music that you're likely to enjoy.
3. Ska is also really good. I'm not sure why I avoided it for so long.
4. There is still good music being made nowadays, but you have to work harder to find it. Don't trust the "There's no good music nowadays" people. I suspect those people came to that conclusion based on what they'd heard on the radio & haven't really dug deep to try to find new music that appeals to them.

Now, here's the problem. I get bored easily, so while I'm listening to music, I also need something to do with my eyes and hands, so I tend to read about music (again, mostly on RateYourMusic). Of course, this helps to perpetuate the cycle because while I'm reading about music, I'll occasionally see someone mention a band or an album and think, "Hey, I should check that out." And so my backlog keeps growing.

On top of that, I'm obsessed with making lists. I have personal lists of my top 100 albums of all time, the most underappreciated albums of all time, my top 50 albums of each decade, lists dedicated to cataloguing all of the releases by some of my favorite obscure artists (who don't seem to have comprehensive discographies anywhere else on the internet), an unsorted top 500 albums of all time list, and so on. I won't link to every single list in this post, to avoid spamming this thread with links, but you can find most of them on my RYM profile if you're interested (kind of easy to guess what my username is). Oh yeah, and you can't forget the spreadsheets that I use to keep track of all these albums so that I can update those lists. This is where things start to get a little overly complicated, because whenever I discover a new album I like, I'm usually updating one or more spreadsheets with its info, which in turn means that some of my RYM lists have to be updated as well... discovering new music I like can be a lot of work.

Anyway, talk about music or something. What sources do you use to find new music? Have you spent more time looking for & playing music during the past couple years because of the pandemic? And are you as obsessive as I am when it comes to keeping track of your favorite albums?

I started listening to tons of new albums since ~2020 as well, and it's been very successful for me too, I've discovered some new bands that I wanted to listen to their songs and even albums over and over, like the band Ra, or Royal Tusk. They have some seriously catchy hooks and decently heavy rock to keep me around haha. Listened to everything by Blue October and Biffy Clyro a few times over. 

I've never actually really done lists or anything before, I have a lot of playlists but no lists...gawd that would be freaking hard dood picking top 100 albums of all time? I might have to give that a go today. Impossible to do with songs tho I swear But ye I discover new music through Tidal, they have a "related artist" page so I go to someone I like, and start exploring that page. Then of course that page has additional "related artists" and so on, but it's like a game of telephone. The music and style changes subtly and before you know it, you're in a completely different genre but have more or less enjoyed the journey there. I love that rabbit hole <3

Do you have decent speakers and/or headphones? Definitely worth splurging on if you can.

[Syko Nachoman]

Jul 16, 2022 6:58:45 GMT -8 Krumm said:

I've never actually really done lists or anything before, I have a lot of playlists but no lists...gawd that would be freaking hard dood picking top 100 albums of all time? I might have to give that a go today. Impossible to do with songs tho I swear

It's definitely not a quick task, but for some reason I've always found it fun to rank things that I enjoy, and also my music taste was shaped by a lot of "Top 100 Albums of the [insert decade here]" lists that I perused during my college years. So it seems natural to me to want to create my own "top 100 albums" lists that are more specific to the things I like. It can definitely be a lot of work to keep them up to date, though, with all the new stuff I keep finding.

Jul 16, 2022 6:58:45 GMT -8 Krumm said:

But ye I discover new music through Tidal, they have a "related artist" page so I go to someone I like, and start exploring that page. Then of course that page has additional "related artists" and so on, but it's like a game of telephone. The music and style changes subtly and before you know it, you're in a completely different genre but have more or less enjoyed the journey there. I love that rabbit hole <3

I used to do the same thing with Last.FM and their "related artists" and radio features (not sure if the radio thing even exists anymore, it's been so long since I've used it). Those things got me into a lot of the bands that I'm now obsessed with, most notably The Capstan Shafts. Nowadays I mostly use the RateYourMusic forums and users' lists to find similar artists and albums. I'll have to look into Tidal sometime, as I don't think I've ever been there before. However, it sounds like I'll have to be careful if I do use it, because I could very easily get sucked into that same rabbit hole!

Also, here are some of my best recent discoveries, since I forgot to list any in the OP:

NoMeansNo - Very heavy, energetic, sarcastic rock, like an earlier version of Mclusky. They sometimes have a tendency to meander, but when they keep it concise they can churn out some of the best heavy rock songs I've ever heard.
Sleater-Kinney - Exactly the sort of hard-hitting alternative rock I want to hear, but I used to dismiss them because I couldn't stand the singer's voice. But after giving them six or seven chances, I eventually learned to tolerate the singer's voice, and now I have all their albums.
White Lung - Crazy guitars and concise, catchy songs. Probably my favorite band of the past decade.
Melt-Banana - Totally manic, off-the-wall Japanese noise rock with wacky guitars and bizarre vocals. This is one of those bands that 99% of people will start listening to, immediately think "No," and vow never to listen to them again. I'm proudly one of the 1%.
Dead Kennedys - An essential early punk band; their first two albums are masterpieces. Not sure how they stayed off my radar for so long.
Life Without Buildings - They only have one album, but it's one of the best and most unique things I've ever heard. It's the bizarre but incredibly captivating vocal performance that makes the album insanely addictive.
Jeff Rosenstock - The undisputed king of modern pop-punk (a genre I usually don't care much for), his best albums are on constant repeat. Definitely worth checking out his side projects, too; Three Cheers for Disappointment is everything I could possibly want in an album.
Streetlight Manifesto - Really fun, catchy, and energetic ska-punk, a combination of two disparate genres that comes together way better than you might imagine.
Idles - Possibly the heaviest punk band of the past decade.
Screaming Females - Another very good modern punk band. They have six or seven albums, and every single one is good.
Oingo Boingo - Off-the-wall '80s punk with a high degree of playfulness that reminds me of They Might Be Giants (even though TMBG came later). The band is fronted by Danny Elfman, who wrote the theme song for The Simpsons!
Pain - Another band that reminds me of TMBG, they write simple but unbelievably catchy and fun songs. A forgotten gem of the late '90s.

[Zenlethic]

I don't think my habits for listening to music changed any with the pandemic. I've still been just watching YouTube music videos here and there, and popping in CDs to my PC or player when I get a music itch.

But I did buy more CDs this year since I don't yet own an extraordinary amount.

[Rocky Rock Rockbottom]

Jul 16, 2022 12:00:07 GMT -8 Syko Nachoman said:

NoMeansNo - Very heavy, energetic, sarcastic rock, like an earlier version of Mclusky. They sometimes have a tendency to meander, but when they keep it concise they can churn out some of the best heavy rock songs I've ever heard.

THE band of my youth.

Total godhead.

[Syko Nachoman]

Jul 23, 2022 16:53:24 GMT -8 Rocky Rock Rockbottom said:

Jul 16, 2022 12:00:07 GMT -8 Syko Nachoman said:

NoMeansNo - Very heavy, energetic, sarcastic rock, like an earlier version of Mclusky. They sometimes have a tendency to meander, but when they keep it concise they can churn out some of the best heavy rock songs I've ever heard.

THE band of my youth.

Total godhead.

Wrong is one of the best albums I've ever heard. It's in my personal top 5. When I heard it for the first time, I couldn't believe it took me so longer to discover it.