Listen to more obscure music

First of all, some of this music may not be so “obscure” to some of you, but a lot of it is new to me, and that’s how I define obscure… so there. This all started with ‘The Garden State” soundtrack. It’s one of my favorite movies/sountracks of all time, so kudos to Zach Braff. Anyway, it stirred my musical passion, and i’ve been ridin the wave ever since.

Not so obscure, but definitely not mainstream:

-The Roots (Not new to me, but they’re the shit… for real, especially their older stuff)

-The Shins (especially their new album – Wincing the Night Away)

-Donovan Frankenreiter – Jack Johnson-esque music

-G.Love & Special Sauce (hope you all know him)

-Fort Minor (good combination of hip hop & rap) Where did you go, Kenji, Right now, Slip out the back

A lil more obscure:

Morcheeba – Big Calm

Sia – Colour the Small One

Zero 7 – When It Falls

Frou Frou – Details

The Beta Band – The Three E.P.’s

Holly Brook – Like Blood Like Honey

Silversun Pickups – Carnavas

Zap Mama – À Ma Zone, especially track 2 – Rafiki (kinda helps to speak French)

Israel IZ Kamakawiwo’ole – Alone in IZ World (hawaian artist featured in a few soundtracks I think)

Gary Jules – Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets

Guru – Jazzamatazz vol. 2

King Missile – Older music, but f-ing hilarious… (you gotta be a little twisted to like John Hall’s style)

It seems though, that the industry has beaten me to it with some of these artists. Apparently the Pickups’ were on Letterman, and one of their songs was used on the OC soundtrack; one of Sia’s songs was used by Six Feet Under; The Beta Band was in High Fidelity

Funny story… Like I said, this all started with the Garden State Soundtrack, and i’ve been kinda jumping from artist to artist, gradually finding more obscure stuff as I get further along. One of the most obscure groups i’ve found is Zap Mama. It’s led by a half Belgian/half Congolese woman who messes with rhythm & blues, as well as hip hop. The funny thing is, as obscure as she is, the first song that I heard features The Roots, one of my all-time favorite groups. What are the chances. It was like a big musical circle that brought me right back around to my original interests. Very existential…

I guess I should post some of the music i’ve been listening to, otherwise this goal doesn’t serve much of a purpose here on 43things. I’m workin on a list..

..the worst music is always at the top of the charts, so i’m gonna look elsewhere. I listen to a lot of music from all different genres, and I thought I had collected the best of it all… turns out I was wrong. Lately i’ve been coming across tracks that blow me away: “change your life” kinda music. Stuff that doesn’t make it into the mainstream just sounds more genuine than all the pop crap. I’ve always basically felt that way, but now i’m gonna really focus on unknown stuff.