Young, talented and pushing things forward
 

Nevermind the old fogies, who do you reckon is pushing music forward? If you could explain why, that'd be nice.

Chillwave hypnagogic popsters. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION.

I wish I could find some folks who are pushing music onwards, but everything is hardcore recreation of the past right now. There's dub techno stuff is really thrilling me at the moment, but I'm fully aware that while it's new to me, to the people who were been digging dance music in the days when I thought it was crap, it's just retro.

And don't get me started on hypnagogic pop. I hope to God you were being ironic, Decyed Rhapsody.

The old fogies coming up with new fancy genre names for the press to use.
they're the real innovators of music.

Lucky Dragons ... The fact that they set the crowd at their gigs in an active, non-passive mode, allowing them to interact fully with the sound, and therefore in a sense collaborating with the crowd, and changing the live experience at every single gig, sounds pretty looking forward to me.

Names please.

Of course I'm being ironic. I want to know what "pushing things forward" sounds like.

"highest possible recommendation" is something that david keenan always says on the volcanic tongue when he describes records

Sonic Youth at their peak, countless electronic music records, This Heat, Moniek Darge, Birchville Cat Motel, Drunkdriver/Mattin type stuff, several moments on Fursaxa's ''Kobold Moon'', Oval etc etc.

Does every band have to be pushing music forward?

Just give me unique bands and I'll be satisfied.

Obviously not. I'm just interested in which musicians you think are doing things that make them sound innovative to your ears, that's all.

Moonstone Continuum from my area are pushing the prog idiom forward in their own way, and mostly come in under the 22 year old mark. Musicianship beyond their years.

I like the name too...

People currently trying to "push things forward," especially with guitar music, bore the hell out of me. Am I a contrarian for the sake of the contrary? I just like the tone of a clean guitar with some spring reverb. Good chord progressions. Jazz chords. Played in interesting ways. Maybe with some fucked up effects in the background.

I mean, after a certain point there wasnt anything "new" that could be done with the piano...but rather how they composed their songs on it. That is what seperated people pushings "songs" forward...their arrangements.

I feel the same with guitar music...and even with bands like sonic youth...who in my opinion were the last to push things forward and usher the guitar into the "nostalgiac" age. What else can you do with it without ripping someone off in terms of "tone" and "effects" and style.

Go buy that lame ass Moog guitar or something?

And electronic music is hardly pushing things forward either...

Silver Apples were doing the radiohead thing 30 years before radiohead...

and noise is noise is noise.

I'm going to go hide while shit is thrown at me by you angry mobs...cya

Short answer, like said above: just give me unique bands/arrangements/combining of influences...

we've used up all our colors...cant invent new ones.

I don't really hear much out of guitar music that's pushing things forward. I suspect innovation might be like beauty (in the eye of the beholder) though. Personally, I've been really excited by a load of contemporary composers lately - Dusapin, Lachenmann, Ullmann, J Schwarts, Spahlinger, Pintscher... Most of these are 'new' in classical terms, but not really new in this forum's terms. But then I'm back to getting excited by Murail, Grisey, Sibelius, Strauss (etc) the latter two of whom were dead by the 50s. Pérotin excites me quite a bit, and he's been dead 500-odd years.

I suppose what I'm saying is that we're lucky to exist in a time when I'm not really confined to listen to music of my own era. That's not to say that Lucky Dragons or whoever aren't doing something forward-thinking, but I don't really feel obliged to listen to it. Someone like Tommy Potts (Irish fiddler) is fucking incredible, and this blew my mind at the time it was released.

Something DDD alluded to above - the idea of technology changing the approach to music. It's interesting that we haven't really had a new generation picking up on various technological advances. I'm thinking of things like the addition of valves changing tempered horn music, or how equal temperament revolutionised the fugue, or later on how spectral analysis inspired the spectralists. There's a few movements in classical music that are interesting on that basis - Lachenmann's concrete/ acoustic, latter digital concrete guys like Mario Radrigue, this 'micro-composition' thing (which I've not heard anything good in, yet)... but I have no idea what non-academic guys are doing with new instruments. Something like the fluid piano could produce something interesting, but rock music (generally speaking) refers to electronic devices - and most of those electronic devices seem to refer to earlier music these days. I've heard that the first generation of digital keyboards are quite desirable now, following the last decade or so of analogue fetishes. Stuff like circuit-bending produces some interesting things, but it's interesting how that, or various purely digital patches/ plugins seem to get stuck into old ways of looking at things. But again, I don't really know too much about that side of things.

Ultimately, I'm sure there are people doing something interesting things - maybe even with that museum piece the guitar - but I haven't heard it.

tl;dr: Yeah, probably.

I probably don't listen to as much new music as you guys do, but in the last few years I like what Deerhoof has been doing. I don't know that they're pushing things forward, because I hear a lot of early 70s and late 60s in there, but they still sound fresh and unique to me.

I agree a lot with DeadDildoDisco a lot though. A lot of what interests me in music isn't how innovative it is, but purely the composition. Usually when we're talking about innovative bands from the past, they generally had excellent compositional skills.

I tend to agree with that point about composition. We seem to have a wealth of bands with sketches of good ideas but for some reason no real sense of how to craft those ideas into anything more substantial. It seems that, in today's obsession with releasing something, the things which take the longest to perfect are the quickest to be discarded.

Definatly these guys are one of my favourites http://www.myspace.com/leavethetapesrunning

Nobody knows them but they tour like fuck and the guitarist is really interesting - plays with like only 3 strings on his guitar. Their last album i recommend highly.

Pink Reason. Punk, folk and dirge finally becoming one. When the hell is the follow up to "Cleaning the Mirror" going to come out?

I'm still at a phase to where whenever I'm wanting to hear something "new", I feel a need to look back.

Coltrane
Stooges
Throbbing Gristle
Swans
Pharoah Sanders


so much stuff that just can't be topped, ageless. These fine folk are still inspirational as well as influential and it can be heard.

I was reading an interview not long ago w/ this band S.C.U.M...I like the ideas they were trying to get across via the pages of whatever 'zine I was reading, but the music bored me something serious. This happens a lot.

Deerhunter is cool. I think Bradford Cox has the right idea. Nice guy, too.

I try and listen to new stuff...but so seldom does it do anything for me.

I still think the Markers are capable of great things. That Boss record was amazing. VU and the Youth and punk rock and prettiness...it was all there, but they did something unique with it.

Rock n roll is old.

Pussy Galore for me. Skip James. Butthole Surfers. Black Flag....stuff that just isn't going to be topped. Still though, people shouldn't stop trying. I've always felt the idea IS NOT in attempting to sound innovative or new..."I just want to do something that sounds different"...wrong idea. Most of this stuff always fails. Just write man, just fucking paly. play what YOU play when no one else is around, when no one can hear ya. Play what you want....if it sounds like Nirvana, chances are it's still better than when people say "lets do something that sounds a bit grungy...kinda like Melvins or Nirvana". But sometimes, just sometimes, someone has a fucking idea that will knock everyone on their asses...some unique approach that more often than not stems from "I'm not going to attempt technical precision, unless it happens naturally".

Kurt ripped everyone off. But his approach was HONEST and that made it sound very unique. 'Least, to me ya know...

Be natural and play. Keep it honest.

So much bullshit out there these days.

Nothing wrong w/ still listening to good 'ol Chuck Berry + Mudhoney.

Seems even the Youth are at a loss of "fresh" ideas these days. Not always a bad thing.

what do I know....

Soundgarden still sound innovative to me. mixin' the Surfers w/ Zep + Ravi Shankar....probably w/out even realizing it.

I dig your style.

Hey man, thanks! That means a lot for real.

it means 'please remove this from my shelf'

he got that line from AQ mail order.

Eh, no one really.

Maybe UUUUUU.

Hahaha. Be careful who you say this around! Haha.

(only Derek will get what I'm saying.. er, I think.)

They're definitely pushing music forward... into a toilet.

Richard Youngs

Hahahaha word.

Fahey's dead. Beefheart's retired. Residents got an eyeball stolen. Omoide Hatoba's over. Autechre made their mark. What's left?

THE TEKNO OOMPAH PAH SOUND IS THE NEXT BIG THING.

Definitely.
No.
I think they pushed things forward in a bad way but uhhh more power to them I guess.
Fuck no.
How can you list Coltrane and then list Sanders when his most forward thinking stuff was reminiscent of Coltrane but less sophisticated? I love him but there's no way you could say he pushed things forward when he was working from Coltrane's blueprints.

Ah, how could I have forgotten Harry Partch? I'd say he pushed music forward more than anyone to ever live (Beefheart was inspired by him). Too bad he's dead too.

All my friends are dead.

Yr take on the Stooges is enough for me to not even bother responding. one of the most unique bands to ever come out of rock n' roll.

:p agreed.

This there flyer on this street post and it reads "yr 50 percent of me". It's raining outside.

Don't type to me, you are a coward!!!!!!

Haha, funniest thing you've ever posted! Somehow I have a feeling Derek knew you would post this response, haha!

That post is even better than his post about Earth 2.

Maybe. Lemme think. Hmm. Okay, it's definitely at least tied for best post ever! I'm sure he will top it real soon though.