Wolfking's Wonderful Winger roulette v.3 - Round 2 album listening commenced

[jingle.boy]

Touche mentlegen.  Well played.  Love you guys.

[ReaperKK]

Not surprised by the ranking, I struggled with finding something for round 5.

Round 6 sent!

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Litho - Silver Talon - Resistance 2029

This was a solid metal tune but is not knocking it out of the park for me

I assume picking a song with an Andy LaRocque solo was planned thing then haha?  This actually reminds me heavily of Eidolon in a few ways but all in all, this is fine metal.  Now, this didn't blow me away though to be honest but there's nothing bad about this at all.  The vocals were interesting and the melodies were fine, again just didn't kick my ass.  I think the song needed that little break around the 2:45 minute mark going into the LaRocque solo, that pricked my ears back up a little.  That middle solo is so recognizable from LaRocque too, what a cool style he has.  Anyway, this was a fine metal tune but didn't knock it out of the park for me.

Dunno if you wrote this before I replied about TAC's comment, or just missed it, but in a completely open round I don't know if I'd have even picked that particular song.  I do love it, but they have arguably stronger ones, it just happened to work best with the round theme due to having numbers in the title.  Andy was just a cherry on top.  Anyway, "Touch the Void" is my favorite of theirs, and worth checking out if you want to take a next step.  It was one of the theme songs for one of the rounds in my roulette.  I'll have to check out Eidolon, the name sounds familiar, but I don't believe I've heard them. 

Seems I'm getting stuck in the upper-mid tier.  I have a number of thoughts, but I'll see how the next few rounds shake out.  Getting a raw 9+ without bonuses is proving elusive...

[wolfking]

Dunno if you wrote this before I replied about TAC's comment, or just missed it, but in a completely open round I don't know if I'd have even picked that particular song.  I do love it, but they have arguably stronger ones, it just happened to work best with the round theme due to having numbers in the title.  Andy was just a cherry on top.  Anyway, "Touch the Void" is my favorite of theirs, and worth checking out if you want to take a next step.  It was one of the theme songs for one of the rounds in my roulette.  I'll have to check out Eidolon, the name sounds familiar, but I don't believe I've heard them. 

Seems I'm getting stuck in the upper-mid tier.  I have a number of thoughts, but I'll see how the next few rounds shake out.  Getting a raw 9+ without bonuses is proving elusive...

Yeah I did see that, not sure how that changes my opinion on the song but can see where you're coming from.  It was a good song, just felt pretty straightforward.

Yes, getting a raw 9 is hard to explain what it takes, just takes something that has a little freshness and a bit a swagger about it.  I guess your song compared to the 9's is that the others had a bit more character whereas the Silver Talon just felt a tad safe?  It's hard to describe because as we all know, sometimes we never can pick what just scratches the itch regardless of what we normally like.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

If I can scrounge up some time in the next day or two I may try and do more than skim the rest of the pre-results discussion, but one thing that caught my eye was the concept of finding new music crowding out existing music.  While this is technically true, I would think for a lot of people, even more so than me, they've already milked most of the juice out of their top favorites. 

Nostalgia listening can be enjoyable, but you're probably not going to pick up much on listen #563 to an old favorite that you didn't already on the first 562 listens.  For me it's largely about chasing new versions of those old musical highs.  You don't necessarily find as strong of ones regularly as in your more formative years, but I get close enough frequently enough that I find it worthwhile.  Even if they're in the same broad style, different bands to ones you already know often have something unique and interesting enough that it can make more sense to invest some time into them than digging the same ruts even deeper. 

And if you don't explore at least to some extent, you cut yourself off from the chance of new experiences.  There are artists I listen to now that I don't really have anything quite like that I'd discovered through, say my 20s.  If I'd stuck exclusively to my existing library I wouldn't have them as part of it, and that's a big loss for me. 

Another thing is that with more listening experience, knowledge of my own interests and habits, and familiarity with various online tools, I have more ability to conceptualize and dig for specific niches than I used to.  Sometimes the digging can be a slog, but there are treasures hidden to be found.  In the earlier days stumbling into favorites tended to be more of blind luck. 

two years ago (almost to the day) when my obsession with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard started.

Fascinating, so when you sent them to 425 you were only half a year into discovering them.  I'd assumed it had been way longer.

[Evermind]

My submissions are getting steadily shittier each round according to the scores, small wonder Tim passed me.

I'll send this evening.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

I'll swap scores with you if you don't like yours. 

[Evermind]

Nah I'm not complaining.

[jingle.boy]

I would think for a lot of people, even more so than me, they've already milked most of the juice out of their top favorites. 

Respectfully, I disagree completely.  I still get goosebumps when that opening riff of Custard Pie hits; Bruce's scream in Rime; 15,000+  Wisconsinites shouting "REVOLUTION CALLING"; the cowbells in Xanadu; or JP putting every solo technique on display in Under a Glass Moon (shit, I'm getting chills just thinking about those). I may not be hearing anything new, but I'm still hearing something that leaves me in awe.

For me it's largely about chasing new versions of those old musical highs.  You don't necessarily find as strong of ones regularly as in your more formative years, but I get close enough frequently enough that I find it worthwhile.

I hear ya, and to some degree I agree with you - I wouldn't have discovered a lot of my most favorite bands and albums over the past 10 years if I hadn't put in the time.  But something's changed for me recently, as I find myself listening to the 30 or so songs on a Friday morning in my Release Radar, on the hopes that I find a few (at best) that that appeal to me as much as the best bands/albums I already own - and sometimes there isn't a single song that even wow's me, let alone has me gaga.  I'm starting to have a sense of futility in wading thru a sea of mediocrity just to find the odd gem a few times a month.

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Nah I'm not complaining.

I am having the same declining score conundrum though, with the slight dead cat bounce this round. 

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Respectfully, I disagree completely.  I still get goosebumps when that opening riff of Custard Pie hits; Bruce's scream in Rime; 15,000+  Wisconsinites shouting "REVOLUTION CALLING"; the cowbells in Xanadu; or JP putting every solo technique on display in Under a Glass Moon (shit, I'm getting chills just thinking about those). I may not be hearing anything new, but I'm still hearing something that leaves me in awe.

Maybe we disagree, I'm not sure.  I do relish returning to older favorites, and do it regularly (albeit it not as often as I'd like - there's just not enough time).  But it's for the same reason that I consume some of the same foods and drinks as I did decades ago, it's a familiarity in comfort.  And yet I'm not really gaining anything new from those experiences, I know exactly how it's going to go, which is why I continue to do it, because I still find that valuable.  So that's where the search for novelty comes in, and some have a much higher need for it than others. 

Overall, it's just this Goldilocks balance of new and old, and each person is going to lean at a different point between them, or even the same person will vary over time.  The person who hasn't listened to anything new in 40 years and the person who constantly listens to new music, never returning to anything as a favorite are both in unenviable positions to me. 

[twosuitsluke]

Fascinating, so when you sent them to 425 you were only half a year into discovering them.  I'd assumed it had been way longer.

Well no, it hasn't been two years since I discovered them, just two years since I became obsessed. I first heard them in 2019 and then did a partial discography deep dive in early 2020. I remember it was a week after my son was born and my wife and I were sleeping in shifts and awake in the night.

But it was the first time I heard Omnium Gatherum (which came out 22/04/2022) that my obsession kicked in and I binged the band hard. Aren't you all glad that day came. Which reminds me, I still need to send them to Wolfy.

[ariich]

Yeah my thinking is similar to Josh. Lots of good discussion in this thread but there's definitely a bit of conflation of volume of new music and proportion of listening that's new music.

The two are linked, of course. Part of the reason some (many?) people largely stop checking out new stuff is that most of us have less time to listen to music than we did in our late teens or early twenties. Plus we have a bigger backlog of stuff we already know. So if we have less time to listen to music and more existing comforting favourites, naturally many people will want to dedicate most or all of their listening time to it.

But it's also about mindset and the extent to which listening to music is for comfort or for stimulation (obviously it's not a simple linear spectrum like that but I think generally most people get one and/or the other from music). My dad is 80 and doesn't spend a vast amount of time listening to music, but he still puts a chunk of it to checking out new things, often recommendations from me and my brother. As we were saying before, a wide musical pallette helps and he's similar to me and Pete in that regard (or more accurately we're like him).

In my case, I definitely have phases or days where I want comfort from music I already know, but I'm fortunate to be able to listen to music a lot. If I didn't spend a reasonable proportion of it on new music, I don't know if I'd get enough stimulation from it. And because that total time is big, that translates into checking out a lot of new music in volume terms.

[jingle.boy]

Maybe we disagree, I'm not sure.

We're probably closer to agreeing than not.  When you said "already milked most of the juice out of their top favorites"  I initially took that to mean that most of the "enjoyment" has been squeezed out.  But if the inference is more along the lines of that the feeling of raw awe, then I can see that point.

I guess it's like the stages of a relationship.  Music will never hold the 'honeymoon phase' forever, but when you're in love, you're in love - and oftentimes that lasts a lifetime.

[Lonk]

Sent something short and sweet 

[twosuitsluke]

Kade, make sure you also check out A Particularly Cold September from that Akercocke album as well

[LithoJazzoSphere]

Also check out Words That Go Unspoken, Deeds That Go Undone, that's my favorite of theirs. 

[Evermind]

Okay, sent for a 8.25!

[TAC]

Sent for the next round!

[lonestar]

Sent a guaranteed guitar award winner.

[ariich]

Sent a guaranteed guitar award winner.

We'll see about that!

Sent!

[wolfking]

If I can scrounge up some time in the next day or two I may try and do more than skim the rest of the pre-results discussion, but one thing that caught my eye was the concept of finding new music crowding out existing music.  While this is technically true, I would think for a lot of people, even more so than me, they've already milked most of the juice out of their top favorites. 

Nostalgia listening can be enjoyable, but you're probably not going to pick up much on listen #563 to an old favorite that you didn't already on the first 562 listens.  For me it's largely about chasing new versions of those old musical highs.  You don't necessarily find as strong of ones regularly as in your more formative years, but I get close enough frequently enough that I find it worthwhile.  Even if they're in the same broad style, different bands to ones you already know often have something unique and interesting enough that it can make more sense to invest some time into them than digging the same ruts even deeper. 

And if you don't explore at least to some extent, you cut yourself off from the chance of new experiences.  There are artists I listen to now that I don't really have anything quite like that I'd discovered through, say my 20s.  If I'd stuck exclusively to my existing library I wouldn't have them as part of it, and that's a big loss for me. 

Another thing is that with more listening experience, knowledge of my own interests and habits, and familiarity with various online tools, I have more ability to conceptualize and dig for specific niches than I used to.  Sometimes the digging can be a slog, but there are treasures hidden to be found.  In the earlier days stumbling into favorites tended to be more of blind luck. 

Fascinating, so when you sent them to 425 you were only half a year into discovering them.  I'd assumed it had been way longer.

To the first bolded part, I guess with our genre of music we are lucky that a lot of our 'nostalgia' bands (the ones I'm referring to), actually keep putting out new music, so for me, there's plenty more to be juiced from the artists a lot of the time on that front.  That's just one aspect though.

To the second part, the point of my post wasn't really about trying to search for new things in old music that we haven't heard before, it was more just the connection that we have and the special feelings we get when revisiting these old albums and yes you are right in relation to new music but that feeling I'm referring to can't be replicated.  I think we can get new different feelings, memories and connections with new music at any time though and maybe in 10 years I'll think that about some of the music I have actually discovered but I'm not sure they will be as strong as some of those old ones will be that I'm referring to.

[wolfking]

Respectfully, I disagree completely.  I still get goosebumps when that opening riff of Custard Pie hits; Bruce's scream in Rime; 15,000+  Wisconsinites shouting "REVOLUTION CALLING"; the cowbells in Xanadu; or JP putting every solo technique on display in Under a Glass Moon (shit, I'm getting chills just thinking about those). I may not be hearing anything new, but I'm still hearing something that leaves me in awe.

I hear ya, and to some degree I agree with you - I wouldn't have discovered a lot of my most favorite bands and albums over the past 10 years if I hadn't put in the time.  But something's changed for me recently, as I find myself listening to the 30 or so songs on a Friday morning in my Release Radar, on the hopes that I find a few (at best) that that appeal to me as much as the best bands/albums I already own - and sometimes there isn't a single song that even wow's me, let alone has me gaga.  I'm starting to have a sense of futility in wading thru a sea of mediocrity just to find the odd gem a few times a month.

This is me too.  It just seems sometimes no matter you flick through and everything is just one big 'meh.'  As I get older I get harder and harder to impress.  I think that's definitely part of my problem too.

[wolfking]

Well no, it hasn't been two years since I discovered them, just two years since I became obsessed. I first heard them in 2019 and then did a partial discography deep dive in early 2020. I remember it was a week after my son was born and my wife and I were sleeping in shifts and awake in the night.

But it was the first time I heard Omnium Gatherum (which came out 22/04/2022) that my obsession kicked in and I binged the band hard. Aren't you all glad that day came. Which reminds me, I still need to send them to Wolfy.

Every round when I see your PM and it's not the Lizard band;



Nah seriously though, you're on the up, if you don't think they'll score well, don't send them and I'll definitely check them out after the roulette.

[wolfking]

Yeah my thinking is similar to Josh. Lots of good discussion in this thread but there's definitely a bit of conflation of volume of new music and proportion of listening that's new music.

The two are linked, of course. Part of the reason some (many?) people largely stop checking out new stuff is that most of us have less time to listen to music than we did in our late teens or early twenties. Plus we have a bigger backlog of stuff we already know. So if we have less time to listen to music and more existing comforting favourites, naturally many people will want to dedicate most or all of their listening time to it.

But it's also about mindset and the extent to which listening to music is for comfort or for stimulation (obviously it's not a simple linear spectrum like that but I think generally most people get one and/or the other from music). My dad is 80 and doesn't spend a vast amount of time listening to music, but he still puts a chunk of it to checking out new things, often recommendations from me and my brother. As we were saying before, a wide musical pallette helps and he's similar to me and Pete in that regard (or more accurately we're like him).

In my case, I definitely have phases or days where I want comfort from music I already know, but I'm fortunate to be able to listen to music a lot. If I didn't spend a reasonable proportion of it on new music, I don't know if I'd get enough stimulation from it. And because that total time is big, that translates into checking out a lot of new music in volume terms.

I think the time factor is a big part.  Time is precious and we don't really want to waste it and want great value out of our music when we have that time.

My listening the last few years of new stuff was obviously hindered by work and all the other shit but the last couple of months having more time I have been listening to more new stuff than I have for a while but as Chad said, you filter through and most of the time (bar some exceptions), I just get worn out and thinking, 'most of this is fine, but leaves me feeling flat.'  I think that's why when the old stuff was spinning that sense of fulfillment was so much greater, hence my post and my questioning how much more of a musical discovery have I got left in me.

[wolfking]

Kade, make sure you also check out A Particularly Cold September from that Akercocke album as well

Yeah mate, will be digging in after the roulette.  Cracker of a tune.

[jingle.boy]

I think the time factor is a big part.  Time is precious and we don't really want to waste it and want great value out of our music when we have that time.

My listening the last few years of new stuff was obviously hindered by work and all the other shit but the last couple of months having more time I have been listening to more new stuff than I have for a while but as Chad said, you filter through and most of the time (bar some exceptions), I just get worn out and thinking, 'most of this is fine, but leaves me feeling flat.'  I think that's why when the old stuff was spinning that sense of fulfillment was so much greater, hence my post and my questioning how much more of a musical discovery have I got left in me.

I listened to some new release today, got to the 4th track, and the word that came to mind was “uninspiring”. There was nothing wrong with it, but there was something missing. Like trying to bake without yeast.  So I guess “flat” is spot on.

[wolfking]

I listened to some new release today, got to the 4th track, and the word that came to mind was “uninspiring”. There was nothing wrong with it, but there was something missing. Like trying to bake without yeast.  So I guess “flat” is spot on.

uninspiring, flat, unfulfilled, all acceptable.

I think sometimes too I'll hear something and think, 'yeah, actually, this could be something special.'  I tell myself that for a couple of songs then say, 'who are you kidding, this is solid at best.' 

[wolfking]

Need 4 more.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Need 4 more.

Apologies, I've been extraordinarily busy.

At any rate, I toyed around with sending Serpent Column - Endless Detainment, but I think that would be way too risky, now that I'm back in the hunt for the win. You should listen to it and tell me what you think though 

I'll send my real submission in a little bit.

[wolfking]

I'll load it up now.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

I'll load it up now.

Every song on the album is under 4 minutes, so they would all work for the theme. That whole album is nuts.

[wolfking]

Hmmm....this kinda goes past the level or extreme I would normally tolerate.  This is the level where I just don't quite fully understand it.  However, that riff at the 3 minute was fucking killer.   I didn't find it offensive at all though and would probably give it a go.  Not sure if it would have helped you climb more rankings or drop but repeated listens would obviously be needed.

[King Puppies and the Acid Guppies]

Alrighty the next song is set on the playlist.

[wolfking]

Alrighty the next song is set on the playlist.

Shit, I may have deleted it accidently.  I can't find it........can you send it to me again.  Sorry Chris.