I'm listening.

This week I have been on the search for new listening material, as you may or may not know (I'm assuming you will), I have a wide and varied taste in music. I listen to mostly punk, alternative rock, progressive rock and classical, all these genre could be broken down further.

I have given up on commercial radio as I am tired of being force fed bland pop "hits". Generally I only listen to two radio stations  and neither of them play new/modern music (For those of you who are interested I listen to BBC radio 3 and 4).

I no longer read the music press as they seem to be only plugging and pushing the same dross as the popular music radio stations and I've never been a fan of music television.

So where can I find new music? Who can I turn to to find the music I would enjoy? I do like to read online band/album reviews. During my Master's degree in Music, Mind and Technology my fellow students and lecturers would suggest listening material from time to time, this would lead me to read about the band/artist and this would spread into me finding not only the suggested music but maybe related stuff. Good times.

The Horrorpops

Now I have to do all the looking myself, I have to search through millions of artists and billions of tracks to find something which I like. This works very well for me but takes time, I have found a whole genre of music which I never considered this way after listening to one band (for those interested the band were the Horrorpops, pictured here to the right).

From there I found Nekromantix, Tiger Army, Koffin Kats, Three Bad Jacks and many more related acts thanks to itunes. But itunes can only take you so far before you've gone full circle and it is telling you to listen to the band you started with. Also as I said before my tastes are quite varied and I might like to have a new genre suggested. Amazon is also quite good, until you buy a gift for someone on there then it suggests things like Take That's new album, sorry Amazon but I don't think so.

As I've been crafting this blog I asked the world of Facebook to suggest music for my listening pleasure. A friend suggests I try http://www.mapofmetal.com/ and you know what, I am and it is good, currently listening to Moonsorrow who I had heard of before but not listened to before now. The site started by play Black Sabbath at me really loudly (I had the volume on my MacBook all the way up) which instantly made me love the site! "What is this that stands before me?" A MAP OF METAL!

So once again my thirst for new music is sated again for now... but for how long?

By popular request here it is, the quote of the week!
"I was more scared when I couldn't get a good internet connection" - D. Johnson when asked if the film Paranormal Activity was scary.

If you have any suggestions for new listening material then please feel free to comment on this post with who you think I might like. Thanks D x