A new corollary

[angela_o]

I've always said that stuff expands to fill the space available. Well, apparently music expands to fill the iPod space available as well. I thought that 4G sounded like so much when I opened my lovely early birthday surprise, but I'm closing in on 70% filled up already. Ah, the decisions! What do I exclude? What must I have? It's tough I tell ya. Plus, I still need to figure out if there's a way to keep iTunes from downloading everything to the iPod when it synchronizes the folders. Hmmm.

Anyway, I now enlist suggestions from all of you. My musical finds that I've loved in the past few months have been Keane (Hopes and Fears), Frou Frou (Details, my latest love), Rufus Wainwright, and The Postal Service. I know, I'm really behind the times with some of these, but I figure much better late then never right? I'm bound and determined not to be one of those people who ages and refuses to listen to new music and thus gets stuck with a finite pool of listening choices with nothing from past their middle 20's in the queue. So, what five bands/singers would *you* recommend I check out? I'm primarily a British alternativeish kind of gal, but I'm open to all suggestion. A brief description of the singer/group's sound/music would be a great help.

Please, rec away!

Comments

[emluv.livejournal.com]

Someone on my friends list was having iTunes downloading issues. Apparently somewhere in your settings you can fix it so it doesn't download everything from your computer automatically, but lets you manually indicate what to transfer. (And likewise, if you delete something from iTunes, it won't automatically delete it from your iPod the next time you synch up.)

[angela-o.livejournal.com]

I'll fiddle around with the preferences and see if I can figure something out Neph. Thanks for the lead. I think I've finally decided that I'm just not a Mac person when you get right down to it. For some people their setups seems perfectly intuitive, but not to me. However, I'm still quite rapturous over my Mini. We're developing a deep and meaningful relationship. :)

[cookie2697.livejournal.com]

If you like Postal Service you might want to check out Death Cab for Cutie...if you haven't already, of course. They have the same lead singer/songwriter, only where Postal Service is electronic and bubbly, Death Cab is acoustic guitar-y and occasionally depressing - though good. I like Death Cab more than Postal Service, actually.

You want FIVE though? *shrieks and hides* I don't know if I can find that many.

Have you listened to Muse at all? I love them dearly, and though I've had their CD for 6 months, I'm listening to it compulsively right now in a way that I never really have before.

[angela-o.livejournal.com]

I do have a little Death Cab, mostly random songs that showed up in soundtrack albums. I know I have at least one track from the Wicker Park soundtrack which also has The Postal Service cover of Against All Odds. I'll have to check Death Cab out a little more. As for Muse, what type of music do they perform? I'm not familiar with them although I've seen the name.

Don't worry. Five was a suggestion nto a requirement. lol It's not a test. Relax. Breathe in. Breathe out. (Which reminds me, Breathe In is the second track on Details. Ah, synchronicity. :))

[cookie2697.livejournal.com]

Muse is definitely alternative-rock, but they're very darkly classical sounding. The front man was OBVIOUSLY classical music trained before he went rock. There's some great piano in there, as well as some good strong rock songs. I don't think you can really go wrong with any of their stuff, but my favorites are: Hysteria, Butterflies and Hurricaines, Falling Away With You, Stockholm Syndrome, and Thoughts of a Dying Athiest (not to mention their huge single Time is Running Out).

Death Cab is kind of the same for me, by the way. I only have about 4-5 songs by them that I really know *well*, but pretty much all of them I obsess over. LOL. They'd be: Tiny Vessels, A Movie Script Ending, The Sound of Settling, Photobooth, and A Lack of Color. I like them and recommend them. I have a bunch more downloaded, but I haven't fallen in love with any others - yet ;) When I get bored with my music I go through them and find something new ;)

[angela-o.livejournal.com]

I've got A Movie Script Ending from the soundtrack. Thanks for the other reccomendations. I'll see if I can scare up some Muse to check them out as well. :)

[tasyfa.livejournal.com]

Muse was what I was going to say, lol. They're Aussie, not British, but it's not *that* far removed, eh? ;-)

Four more, huh? How about The Perishers? I don't know if you saw any of what I posted about them a while ago - they opened for Sarah McLachlan when I saw her, and I like their CD, Let There Be Morning, very much. I think you'd enjoy it.

Lacuna Coil is another one you might enjoy; they remind me somewhat of Evanescence except more synth-based, less goth. The female singer has an amazing voice.

Anna Nalick, in case you've missed Anne and I both rambling about her lol.

Um.......that's where I run out of ideas. I don't think you'd be into much of what else I'm listening to these days, LOL.

I must, however, applaud you for choosing to stay open-minded musically. My dad used to be someone I could share music with - it was one of the few areas where we intersected that my mom doesn't share - and he has stopped listening to anything new, or even trying to. It pisses me off and makes me sad, so I'm going to hold *you* to it since I can't do anything about him! Also, I know of a few barely twentysomethings who loooooove Rufus Wainwright, so you're not really behind there. :D

[cookie2697.livejournal.com]

lol...I wasn't thinking British though ;) Death Cab's from Seattle! (I think...)

[angela-o.livejournal.com]

What sort of music does Anna Nalick perform? Is there another artist that you would liken her to?

Please hold me to my vow. According to my kids I listen to much cooler music than the parents of their friends. Let's hope that I can keep that trend alive. lol I've decided that the WB does provide one public service. If you watch one of their teen shows, you'll know what groups and singers are about to hit it big. Their music staff is very good. But, alas I can't sit through an episode of Smallville and I haven't watched OTH for a long time. Maybe VM can fill that gap. :)

[tasyfa.livejournal.com]

Yes, wherever else it may fall down, the WB does have a kickass music department for sure!

Anna Nalick is slightly folky singer/songwriter pop-rock. Which means you're all confused now right? LOL. The CD actually reminds me a tad of a mellower Jagged Little Pill (the original; ain't shelling out for the acoustic retread) in that her lyrics are literate with some complex patterns, mostly introspective and/or relationship-oriented with some edge. The melodies are where the pop aspect comes in as they are catchy songs but without the slick pop-type packaging - they have more of a folk sensibility in that respect. And her voice is slightly reminiscent of a more robust Norah Jones, imo. Lovely.

And instead of me blathering further, lol, this is my favourite song off the album: In the Rough by Anna Nalick

Anna's doing some opening acts for Rob Thomas's tour, which reminds me that I saw Beth Hart with him and you might like her as well. She's in the same sort of genre as Anna, folky rock, but she has one of those powerhouse smoker voices. Also, much much more bitter - like more on the You Oughtta Know end, lol. But sometimes that's fun. ;-)

[angelicus.livejournal.com]

Having the same issue with space that you have, here's what I messed around with until I got a simple system in place. First, it's important to assign each song a category (alternative, rock, etc.) and a rating. That's probably the most time consuming thing to do. But once you do that, you can create smartlists. Then you can remove songs from your ipod (it won't delete them from your itunes library) and move different smartlists onto your ipod depending on your mood.

If you go to your ipod properties in itunes when it's connected, you can change the settings so it will manually update instead of automatically update. Then you have complete control over what goes on and off your ipod.

Hope that helps a litte.