This Library Owns Some Amazing Music
Categories: Entertainment , Staff Picks
Back in the day, it was called Alternative Music. Since then, the name has changed many times--College Rock, Indie Rock or Pop, New Music, etc.--and this library has done a commendable job of keeping up with many of the polymorphous group of artists who make up this genre, or collection of genres. If you want to learn more of the nomenclature and history, Wikipedia has an interesting article on Alternative Rock. It is a chunky topic, as a subject search in the library's catalog for "alternative rock" yields 375 titles. Like all of my blogs and lists, this one will be highly selective, subjective, and lacking a bunch of great music I have overlooked. If you feel personally offended or frothing-at-the-mouth enraged by something I have left out, please feel free to comment. I have listed the most recent library-owned release to date by each band/artist (or the most comprehensive/representative in some cases).
So here's yet another list from me to you:
Animal Collective--Strawberry Jam
Arcade Fire--Neon Bible
Band of Horses--Cease to Begin
Beach House--Devotion
Caribou--Andorra
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds--Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
Chills—Heavenly Pop Hits, The Best of The Chills
Cure--Join the Dots: B-Sides & Rarities 1978-2001
Dean & Britta--L'avventura
Echo and the Bunnymen--Crystal days 1979-1999
Robert Forster, Grant McLennan--Intermission: The Best of the Solo Recordings 1990-1997
Four Tet--Rounds
Grinderman--Grinderman
Guided by Voices--The best of Guided by Voices: Human Amusements at Hourly Rates
PJ Harvey--White Chalk
Iron & Wine--The Shepherd's Dog
Low—Drums and Guns
Magnetic Fields--Distortion
Múm--Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy
Panda Bear--Person Pitch
Papercuts--Can't Go Back
Peter Bjorn and John--Writer's Block
Pole--Steingarten
Radiohead--In Rainbows
Rogue Wave--Descended Like Vultures
She Wants Revenge—This is Forever
Sigur Rós-- Hvarf ; Heim
Siouxsie--Mantaray
Spoon--Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Bruce Springsteen--Magic (ok I threw this one in to see if you were asleep--I know The Boss is not alternative, but this
disc just sounds it...)
Stereolab--Oscillons from the Anti-Sun
Swans--Various Failures: 1988-1992
Talk Talk--Natural History: The Very Best of Talk Talk
Tarwater--Spider Smile
Vampire Weekend--Vampire Weekend
Various Artists--Gimme Indie Rock. V. 1
Various Artists--Golden Apples of the Sun
Various Artists--Left of the Dial
...these last couple are bands from Cincinnati or with connections here (Yeah Cincinnati!):
The National--Boxer
Wussy—Left For Dead
Maybe next time I'll feature some more cool music the library owns with Cincinnati connections...
Please see this old blog o' mine for further music selections and reading suggestions on the subject.
