What Where You Obsessed With During The Pandemic? What Did You Play Over And Over?

talking about Aussie indie on the CON/OP thread reminded me of how much of that stuff was my bedroom soundtrack. And Gel. Jesus, I watched every Gel live set over and over. It was like taking some miracle drug that would calm me down. I would focus on their songs until i was inside them. Their sets are about 20 minutes long. I must have heard that set 100 times. tons of metal. i bought a lot of metal records online. i bought metal t-shirts! which i never do. i just wanted to bury myself in it.
there is probably more that i'll remember. it got me through it, man. that and t.v. and gummies. i watched so many episodes of mcleod's daughters lol!

sorry if there is a similar thread. i checked.

this is weird but I don't remember

I am going to see Gel in a few months but tbh I don't think I knew about them during lockdown

I did listen to a lot d-beat stuff iirc tbh it was a bit of a blur

In the weeks when we knew it was coming but didn't know when: Sweetheart of the Rodeo.

First month or so: lots and lots of Dylan, mostly Love and Theft and the Christian era, and then Murder Most Foul when that was released.

In the long middle stretch where we were used to the pandemic and nothing changed very much: the Vulgar Boatmen.

the works of K.K. Slider

I guess mostly the usual array of new stuff; here’s my 2020 Faves playlist. It was a good year for music…!

I listened to way more jazz than usual. I think lockdown caused my brain to want more pathways to wander.

The Dylan song "Ring them Bells" was a big one for me. I had somehow never heard it before the pandemic, and then I was at a Robyn Hitchcock show the day before the pandemic officially started in Seattle, and he played it as an encore. Then on one of Springsteen's first radio shows during the pandemic, he played this Sarah Jarosz cover of it, so I was like, ok, if both Springsteen and Robyn Hitchcock want me to listen to this song while all this is happening, I guess I will.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB3xEMBGs0k

Gillian Welch. Lots of reggae.

the works of K.K. Slider

lol likewise my other half

The first few months of 2020 I was catching up on 2019 but rinsing the Weyes Blood, Cate Le Bon and Georgia albums especially. I expect for a lot of us it was a record year for music listening due to long-term remote working so made loads more great discoveries and deep dives on artists I'd probably never have got round to otherwise.

Lots of Floyd. Got into listening to a bunch of cool jazz guitar stuff like Kenny Burrell and Jim Hall.

Jim Hall- Concierto
Kenny Burrell- Listen to the Dawn & Midnight Blue
Chet Baker, Hubert Laws, Jim Hall- Studio Trieste

"The Air That I Breathe" by the Hollies on repeat.

i believe the prefab sprout poll was around this time so lots of them. also fetch the bolt cutters, and Swift's folklore/evermore, and similar Dylan as Lily mentioned

Probably Fela Kuti and Coltrane. I certainly bought a lot of cheap CDs by both.

Apricot Tree: Soviet​-​Armenian Music from 78rpm Discs, specifically the title track

https://canary-records.bandcamp.com/track/tziran-tzar-apricot-tree

...mostly played it over and over while walking through the woods, finding new paths near my neighborhood I didn't know about before. Particularly good soundtrack with a few inches of snow.

Went on a HUGE live Grateful Dead kick

WALT DICKERSON JAZZ VIBRAPHONE SORCERER

Discovered Death, maybe the greatest band of the late 80s/early 90s? Made me feel like a teenager again.

Cloud Forest Protection Angecy
https://infinitytraxrecords.bandcamp.com/album/c-f-p-a-itc002

REAL LIES

Neil Young, Archives Vol 2, really got to digest that one slowly

Jim Jones - “Laps Around The Sun”

Went on a big 80s Trad/Power/Speed metal kick. Lots of Manilla Road and Razor among others.

spent the first couple of months of lockdown home working listening to michael rother’s sterntaler on a loop whenever i needed to concentrate

the opening notes of ‘sonnenrad’ take me right back to trying to juggle work pressures with with looking after both my 18-month-old daughter and my wife who was just getting started on a couple of years of post-covid complications

an incredible album now sadly marred by indelibly bad vibes

so sorry to hear that bizarro. i definitely had my share of bad vibes as well that i won't go into here other than to say it involved mental health, physical health, and death.

thanks scott - we’re all doing a lot better now, thankfully, but sorry to hear about your tough time too

we are all a lot better too. thanks.

The Lil Uzi Vert, Fiona Apple, Waxhahatchee albums, a few others, have the stink of the early pandemic; it's hard to listen to them.

Lots of jazz, lots of ambient, this one in particular has pandemic associations for me (involves lots of instruments recorded with 'voice over internet' tech/fidelity, along with strings etc). Great album though.

https://olivieralary.bandcamp.com/album/u-i

lotsa roy montgomery, at one point

These are the mixes I made for myself, a lot of these zap me right back there. Call Me->Crown and Kaingin->Breakout in particular.

with a window (May 2, 2020)

1. 박혜진 park hye jin • Call Me
2. Jay Som • Crown
3. Stephanie Mills • You Can’t Run From My Love (12”)
4. Lower Dens • Hand of God
5. Mbongwana Star • Suzanna
6. Leonard Cohen • Closing Time
7. Chaka Khan • Eye to Eye
8. F.O.E • In My Jungle
9. Tess Roby • Ballad 5

10. Foxes in Fiction • Antibody
11. S.O.S. Band • Even When You Sleep
12. Tricky • Makes Me Wanna Die
13. Pistol Annies • 5 Acres of Turnips
14. Grant McLennan • Haunted House
15. Roberta Flack • Why Don’t You Move In With Me?
16. Silver Jews • Open Field
17. Boyracer • Awkward Silence Is Not A Steady Diet
18. Jane Siberry • The White Tent The Raft
19. Swell Maps • The Helicopter Spies
20. Camera Obscura • Lloyd, I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken

Pump Up “What” Volume (Sept. 15, 2020)

1. Drugstore • Fader
2. Deniece Williams • Free
3. Janet Jackson • Daybreak
4. Heavenly • And The Birds Aren’t Singing
5. Toy Love • Don’t Ask Me
6. Bo Diddley • Diddling
7. Aretha Franklin • You and Me
8. The Glands • Ruddy’s Waltz
9. Men I Trust • Pines
10. Sade • Be That Easy
11. Fountains of Wayne • Sick Day
12. Gene Clark • The True One
13. Gal Costa • Índia
14. Loraine James feat. Jonnine • Don’t You See It
15. Curve • Left Of Mother
16. Slant 6 • Thirty-Thirty Vision
17. Living Colour • I Want To Know
18. Patrice Rushen • To Each His Own
19. Pantayo • Kaingin
20. Swing Out Sister • Breakout

nice!

I recall a lot of Weyes Blood, Miles Davis and Aldous Harding