Forget right now...what do you listen to when you need music

[FourthBase]

When you really need music to console you, or strengthen you, what handful of songs or albums do you usually wind up putting on? This might be kitschy, but obviously I'm not the only one: One of the songs for me is "Imagine". The album is usually Songs in the Key of Life, volume 1 + "As".

[Et in Arcadia ego]

I tend to fall back on aggressive or melancholic stuff in equal amounts.

Unsane - Occupational Hazard
Sneakerpimps - Splinter (Big one, probably the biggest)
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Eyehategod - Take as needed for pain
Kyuss - Blues for a Red Sun
Sleep - Self-titled
Portishead - Self-titled
Depeche Mode - The Singles
Radiohead (big one for bad moods) - Any
Fu Manchu - The action is go

When my mood reaches its absolute blackest, I reach for Neurosis. It works as a kind of electro shock treatment. I rarely listen to it otherwise unless I'm doing huge tattoo sessions and need to diminish scattered thoughts.

[Searcher08]

Hildegard of Bingen - Canticles of Ecstacy
Anything by Andy McKee
Anything by Paul VanDyk
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones / Victor Wooten
Renaissaince - Song of Scherazade

[Jeff]

Erik Satie - Gymnopédies et Gnossiennes (for anxiety)
Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 5 (for concentration)
Luis Panduro Vasquez - Ayahuasca Songs from the Peruvian Amazon (for clearing my head)

Sinead O'Connor - Throw Down Your Arms
Nick Cave - Murder Ballads
T Bone Burnett - Proof Through The Night
Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Iris DeMent - Lifeline

[OP ED]

Well, damn, I always need music man.

Depends. since I got IPOD [and a million lil accessories] i don't lug vinyls or CDS [or cassettes or...] around anymore.

today.

morning. sigur ros. breakfast music.

drive to airport. [first a radiohead song on the radio]
killing joke, pandaemonium.

at airport [awaiting an arrival]. Mussorgsky. Rimsky-Korsakov recomposition re-revised for concert [and Disney] ala Leopold Stokowski. St. John's Night. Performed in Chicago, I think.
good waiting music.

drive to lunch. playlist. moe, "captain america". the pimps, "rocket science". deftones, "7 Words". ted nugent, "stranglehold". nirvana, "Floyd the Barber". filter/crystal method, "trip like I do". Massive Attack, "Dissolved Girl". Johnny Cash, "gods gonna cut you down". Modest Mouse, "3rd Planet". Hendrix, "all along the watchtower, live". Mr. Bungle, "desert search for techno-allah". King Crimson, "indiscipline/discipline, live". the bloodhound gang, "i hope you die". King's X, "she's gone away". Rage Against the Machine cover "Maggie's Farm". radiohead, "karma police". John Lennon, "I found out". At the Drive In, "invalid litter dept.". Head Automatica, "Brooklyn is Burning". Charlie Daniels, "devil went down to georgia".

Lunch. Coffee shop neo-world-muzak.

Drive Home. TOOL, Aenima. Has most of the things I value. Psychedelics, aggro, ritual magic, new-age apocalypticism, Carl Jung, Alternative Medicine, complicated math, Atlantean mythology, "Fuck L. Ron Hubbard", homoeroticism, Bill Hicks, neo-darwinism, the Vision and the Voice, and a Calliope.

Right now its all about David Bowie.

[streeb]

On the Beach or Tonight's the Night - Neil Young. On vinyl.

[Penguin]

In Techno We Trust
When I feel overwhelmed, bad, down...
I turn up the volume, put on some good old school techno (this encompasses everything with the right vibes) and imagine myself dancing with millions and millions of people, all around the world, right now, with hands raised high, smiling faces, sweat dripping, ecstatic vibes morphing into bright beats..Life! I have this recurring vision ... People like me, people like you, all dancing to the same eternal beat..

Music like Earthbeat (old Future Sound of London) playing right now: Mental Cube - Earthbeat - Q, Papua New Guinea (hey, who hasnt heard this!)
Autechre - Amber
Orbital - Halcyon
Amorphous Androgynous - Tales of Ephidrina
Future Sound of London - We Have Explosive ep
Chris Liebing, Speedy J, Adam Beyer, Aphex Twin, Midimiliz, Richie Hawtin

Drum and bass: Fanusamurai, Calyx & Teebee, Black Sun Empire (especially Endangered Species)

Rap/downbeat etc: Shadow Huntaz, Burial, Kode9, The Bug

Ambient (ooh these three maestros are all deserving of my awe): Robert Rich, Steve Roach and Saul Stokes. All great.

[Penguin]

And Neil Youngs "Out of the black, into the blue" and "Out of the blue, into the black" from Live Rust. Have made me cry on occasions..

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

Zappa's 'The Black Page' for truth/order quotient in a metric-harmonic construct that scratches all my itches.

For guitar-based virtuousity with soul, Adrian Belew or Steve Vai.

For Cold War irony jazz - 'Phil Silvers and Swinging Brass' composed by Nelson Riddle.
Yes, Sargeant Bilko-themed big band. Army music turned into fabulous arrangements well played. Hank Jones on piano.

For pre-WWII big band, Paul Whiteman arrangements.

For modern politically-conscious jazz, Don Byron.

For eye-rolling kitsch, Jim Nabors pre-1974. He covered Stevie Wonder. No kidding.

For classy kitsch, Esquival.

For classical, Stravinsky's 'L'histoire du Soldat.'
Or anything by the Modern Mandolin Quartet.

[Joe Hillshoist]

This is too big for one post, I'll probably come back over time.

Before a game of footy (in no particular order or prefernce):

Motorhead - I am the sword
Tool - Jerk Off
Stiff Little Fingers - Suspect device
Some Powderfinger songs
I mother Earth
Scary Mother
NIN - We're in this together now
Billy Bragg - My 30,000, Which Side Are You On
Sometimes Killing Joke
Various Punk songs I haven't yet mentioned, got to be fast and aggro tho, Husker Du, Mass Appeal
Radio Birdman, esp hand of Law
Some Muse
Iron maiden - hallowed be thy name
Oils
PWEI
Spersuckers - born with a tail
Big Black
Poppy songs with a certain feel eg Razorlite - somewhere else, Mr brightside by the Killers, the Hold Steady, Foo Fighters
Front end loader "They're trying to kill me (I will not die)"
Stabbing Westward - Violent mood swings
Dan and Al - Comb and Cutter
Wedding Parties Anything - a tale they won't believe
Beasts of Bourbon - anything live

This year I'll probably stick Run by gnarls barkley in there somewhere too.

Sometimes the right music just gets me in that headspace for footy, aggro but focused and the chi flowing right.

I probably listen to alot of that music when I want to get some aggro out too.

Other music, when I'm feeling a bit down (again in no particular order).

Powderfinger - these Days (And heaps of other Powderfinger)
Guillemots - Trains to Brazil
Drones - Sharkfin Blues
Dan and Al - Bernie
Gnarls barkley - crazy
1 giant leap - My Culture
Faithless all sorts of stuff
I mother Earth - Used to be all right
Cowboy Junkies - Mining for Gold/Misguided Angel, 200 more miles
Lou Reed - Cremation, magic and Loss, power and the glory, in fact the whole record Magic and Loss.
Wille mason - Oxygen
Tom Waits - anything
The Pogues - Misty morning, albert bridge, Fairytale of new York in fact any Pogues
Some REM, U2 and The The if I'm feeling nostalgic for certain people from high school
Eels - last stop in this town
Decembrists - O Valencia
Sam cooke - A change is gonna come
Marvin gaye - Whats going onb
Archie Roach of course (Hes a complete legend, if you haven't listened to archie Roach check him out.)
Ted Hawkins
John lee hooker
Snooks Eaglin
Mississippi John Hurt
Butterfly Ball (love is all) - I think Ronnie james Dio sings it
Nick Cave
Triffids
Dirty 3
Primal Scream
Spiritualised
curtis mayfield
massive Attack
Lazyboy - Underwear goes inside the pants
Jimmy Cliff - The harder they come
Cold chisel - 4 walls, Standing on the outside
Billy Bragg
Paul kelly

Obviously there's too much music in my life. (BTW Thank fuck for MP3 players.)

There's heaps of other music I listen to as well.

[Joe Hillshoist]

i forgot the stone roses

[Hammer of Los]

Hey Joe, just to reassure you that our tastes in music aren't so far apart after all, by a curious coincidence I ended up listening to the following late last night, shortly after reading some depressing doomer talk here, and then chancing upon this thread;

Hallowed be Thy Name - Iron Maiden

I was a fan of Iron Maiden in my teenage heavy metal years, but I don't suppose I had listened to anything by them for twenty plus years. "Piece of Mind," released in 1983, was probably the best album they ever did. Another good track from that album I was listening to last night was this;

Iron Maiden - Revelations

It's a shame it was so late, with the kids and wife fast asleep, because I really felt like singing along at the top of my lungs (the only way I can make those screechy Bruce Dickinson high notes.)

[Joe Hillshoist]

Cheers, I was never a massive Maiden fan, but I had a cassette with piece of mind and something else on it, maybe Aces High or something like that, that I ended up playing to death.

I hadn't listened to Iron maiden at all for over 20 years and then a few week ago HBTN somehow got into my head. I have been listening to it before training since.

[compared2what?]

I'm inconsolable. So music does not address that part of me. But it's consciousness-raising to read this thread, so really soulful thanks to everyone.

....I don't suspect anyone here, and pass this on as something it's useful to know rather than something directly applicable to the thread. But as with the "Do You Believe in God?" thread, this falls into a category of questions I would never answer in a public forum, even if I had an answer, which in this case, I don't. Because the first thing all cults and behavior-control oriented groups seek to discover about prospective marks are what they hope for and what they fear. And they often start the process of finding out by asking very engaging questions, such as the two examples cited here.

It's a beautiful thing for people to reveal and share the resources from which they draw strength, comfort, or faith. So much so that I'm full of soulful gratitude to all previous posters and in a state of anticipatory rage at the imaginary cults who might theoretically exploit one of them. And you can't be too strong. So I'm just saying.

Sorry to have transiently harshed the mellow, dudes and ladies, if I did. I hope you know I didn't mean it that way.

[Hammer of Los]

You are a very funny lady, "compared2what?" You had me chuckling there, not that I doubt there was seriousness intended, but the way you put it quite tickled me.

I still reserve the right to call you a "chap," though.

And good luck to the cult that tries to recruit me. The only cult I shall ever belong to is my immediate family. I've already mentioned my hermit-like existence.

For the cults out there, and just so you lot don't think I am some sort of heavy metal freak (I was, but that's a long time ago, now I'm more a lover of "dad rock" heh) here's something that makes me cry whenever I listen to it. I love to sing, but when I try to sing this song I literally choke up, and find it impossible. I find this song impossibly poignant;

The Circle Game - Joni Mitchell