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Here is a terrific collection of rock music for you to use or add to your music playlist for your New Year's Eve party. While I know not everyone or every group of people will like every single selection there should be something here for everyone. The intention behind this list is to keep your party's vibe strong and your guests engaged in staying at the venue. The beauty of this playlist is that it covers such a wide range of rock classifications such as psychedelic rock, metal, classic rock, alternative rock, and industrial with many of the artists borrowing elements from other music genres. Even the after party and hangover playlist are all-encompassing enough to remain interesting and fresh as the night starts to wind down.
One of the benefits of living in such a tech oriented culture today is that much of this music can be accessed for FREE through YouTube and Amazon Prime. This is significant because if your computer sound system is set up to deliver better-than-average sound quality, then you might be able to design and automate a playlist right on your computer. Pandora, Spotify, and other music streaming services are also great resources to access some of the music on this playlist. Some albums listed here can also be heard in their entirety on YouTube, so you don't even have to think about downloading the album or buying the CD. While having a DJ at your party can be a wonderful way to get your friends and neighbors to commit to coming to your party, there's nothing better than selecting your own music for the particular artistic taste of your crowd.
So the first thing I'd like to do is provide you with the list and then afterward lay it out for you plotted against time, so you can see how this playlist works. basically, there's 3 stages to the New Year's eve party: a) before midnight, b) just after midnight, and c) after party. If we add the hangover or morning after then there would be 4 stages.
Since we've got a lot of music to cover, let's get started..
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1. Rush
This is Rush's 30th anniversary live performance 2-CD and DVD collection. I highly recommend this not only for the music, but also as a visual accompaniment for the party environment. Live concert DVD's are a great way to energize a crowd whether or not you actually listen to the performance. Just watching musicians in action transfers their emotion and joy of creating to everyone in a crowd.
Sample video:
To buy this 2-CD and DVD pack, click on...R30
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2. King Crimson
This is one of King Crimson's most ambitious albums blending elements of electronica, ambient, hard rock, minimalism, psychadelia, and jazz. An album like this could only be composed by master musicians.
To listen to samples, click on...Construcktion of Light
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3. The Flaming Lips
This is a very interesting soundtrack. I haven't seen the movie, but the music itself is noteworthy. Almost every piece of this album is a vocally driven song except 2 tracks which are instrumentals.
To listen to samples, click on...The Soft Bulletin
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4. Blonde Redhead
This was the first album I heard from this power trio and from the very first few bars, I was sold. Bringing together elements of punk, experimental rock, electronica, and grunge, this band has always had a very mature sound that is unique to them alone. While you may recognize strong influences from bands like Sonic Youth and King Crimson, they translate these influences and interpret them into totally new directions.
Sample video:
To listen to more samples, click on...La Mia Vita Violenta
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5. The Smashing Pumpkins
This is The Smashing Pumpkins first 2-CD album before Oceania. It was probably their most successful album besides Siamese Dream and demonstrates Billy Corgan's prolific songwriting talent. Several hit songs came off this album and were very popular for quite a while, but almost every track on both CD's are solid compositions and would make perfect party music.
To listen to samples, click on...Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
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6. Led Zepplin
While all of Zepplin's album's are good, Presence is absolutely the best Zepplin album I think. This is the album that for me sets them apart from many of the other bands that were around at the time. Here you find many groundbreaking ideas that would point rock music into the direction of the heavy metal, alternative rock, grunge, and indie rock of the 80's, 90's and beyond.
Like I mentioned earlier, because we live in a tech world many of the music suggestions I'm giving you here are available in so many more formats now that you can access them from many sources. Here's one example of the entire Presence album available on YouTube for FREE!!! If your computer speakers give good sound quality and your Internet connection is stable, you can play this album from your computer and other music from this playlist from your stereo system or DVD player.
Cue times are also available for your convenience.
To listen to more samples or purchase this album, click on...Presence
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7. Mastodon
Mastodon is one of the more ambitious bands coming up in the heavy metal scene. They tour extensively, write prolifically, and project a memorable and easily recognizable artistic image that it's a wonder that they aren't even more popular. The release of Crack the Skye was met with mixed reviews, but I found it to be a very unique album incorporating more elements that Mastodon's usual heavy metal sound. True fans probably expected more of the same, while the artists wanted to explore new musical directions as a way of avoiding getting pigeonholed into just one band sound.
Usually I advise artists to start new band projects instead of trying to transform an existing project into some new sound, image, or idea. Fans usually react negatively to this form of change, so it's typically best to start fresh under a new banner (or brand) in order to test new musical directions.
To listen to sample, click on...Crack the Skye
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8. Nitzer Ebb
This is a really cool German industrial band produced by Flood. Flood is the same producer whose worked with some of the biggest bands in the world with the likes of Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, U2, The Smashing Pumpkins, Erasure, and many more. This album is definitely in the industrial genre, but it sounds like more a blend between electronica and rock.
To listen to samples, click on...Big Hit
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9. Sieges Even
I found this band and album from an automatic Amazon recommendation based on one of my previous purchases. I was so glad to find them and not another album from a band or artist I'm already familiar with, since I'm always looking for breakthrough albums and undervalued or unknown artists with fantastic compositions. In the case of Sieges Even, I haven't been able to find any decent samples of live performances by them on YouTube, so they might be more of a studio rock band, which is how they get their amazing sound.
Sample video:
To listen to more samples, click on...The Art of Navigating By the Stars
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10. Porcupine Tree
I can't believe I had never heard of these guys before a few years ago and yet they've been around for over 20 years. WTF! What's up with American radio stations and the executives that make the decision to play or not play particular bands or artists on the air. Porcupine Tree is a band on the same order as a King Crimson or Rush with music of a similar quality. While it primarily in the rock genre there are definitely elements of electronica, ambient, heavy metal, and jazz.
To listen to sample, click on...Deadwing
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11. Pink Floyd
This is one of my favorite albums by Pink Floyd. I really like how they distilled many of their themes from previous albums and focused that same energy into very strong pieces of music. What's really cool here is how the songs build very slowly and develop into overwhelming sonic environments with extremely potent emotional content embedded within each note and lyric.
To listen to samples, click on...The Division Bell
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12. The Police
I returned to the music of The Police after discovering some of the solo albums by Andy Summers, a wonderful and creative guitarist (and photographer). Working backward from Andy's material and re-entering the work he did in The Police you really hear what he added to the sound of The Police. His own work ranges from short ambient guitar instrumentals to new age music, and straight up jazz where he works with legendary jazz musicians.
As far as music from The Police I couldn't decide between these two albums or confidently recommend their Greatest Hits only because there's always so much good material that inevitably gets left out of the "greatest hits" albums that you never really get to see the genius of an artist if you only listen to their greatest hits. Selections from both of these albums are the solution to the problem I had of deciding between them. make your own choices based on the crowd you expect to attract to your get-together.
To listen to samples, click on...Synchronicity or Zenyatta Mondatta
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13. Neil Young
As we near the end of the list, you'll notice the artists and music I'm starting to recommend is becoming less party-oriented and more environmental (or ambient). In the case of Neil Young, his music can be listened to out loud or down low and either way you get a great listening experience. Once again, I was unable to decide between these two albums because they are both very good, but in different ways.
The difference between them is almost like that of comparing a symphony and a string quartet. In Sleeps with Angels, you'll get songs that are more filled out with complete rock arrangements including flute, grand piano, as well as bass and guitars. And with Le Noise, what you'll find is a single guitar, some electronics, and Neil Young's voice and lyrics. And that's it. In Le Noise, you'll hear Neil as you've always heard him except here you'll get him without all the filler and extras - raw and direct, almost like he's jamming right in the same room with you.
In fact, he will be because here's "Le Noise" the film in full for FREE courtesy of YouTube. Play it at your party with or without sound and see what kind of reaction you get from your guests.
To listen to more samples, click on...Sleeps With Angels
or Le Noise ****************************************************
14. Morphine
This is one of the more undervalued bands there's been in the last 15 years and it's so unfortunate that more material won't be released in the future. Morphine is truly one of the few bands that was able to tap into a really unique sound that was specific to them alone. I love all the variation and influences you hear in each piece on this album everything from female back-up singers, to the oud (a middle-eastern guitar), and saxophones.
To listen to samples, click on...The Night
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15. Sigor Ros
This is the last recommendation I'll make on the rock playlist and then we'll end off with the after party and hangover music, which is a much shorter list. On this album, Sigor Ros ventures into the very origins of human creativity by composing an album based on vocals developed from an invented language. All of the vocals on this album are non-sense or not language based. No doubt, the utterances on the album do communicate emotions, it's just that they are tied to any particular linguistic meaning or system. Rather the meaning is transmitted directly as emotion content and translated by the listener's mind as emotion instead of connotation. In other words, it's pain, suffering, bliss, excitement, or some other emotion which is communicated instead of what we think of these things or what we think the artist meant by the lyrics they wrote.
Known by nothing other than the symbol ( )
this album is truly a rarity in the music world and deserves more attention.Video sample:
To listen to more samples, click on...( )
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The After Party / Hangover playlist:
I'm not going to comment on these albums at all, but I'll let you explore them if you feel so inclined. On this list you'll simply find a few music samples and the artists and album names. I want to leave you with a suggested playlist before we end off, so that you can begin assembling your music repertoire for your New Years party.
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1. Andreas Vollenweider
To listen to samples, click on...Book of Roses
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2. Ketil Bjornstad
Video sample:
To listen to more samples, click on...Water Stories
or The Sea
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3. Cirque du Soleil
To listen to samples, click on...Nouvelle Experience
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4. Michael Nyman
Here's a long overview of many pieces from this soundtrack cut together as a suite.
To listen to more samples, click on...The Piano
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5. Black Bombay
- compilation
To listen to samples, click on...Black Bombay
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Suggested Playlist Order:
From 6pm – 11:45pm – any order
Rush - (preferably Live from DVD)
King Crimson
The Flaming Lips
Blonde Redhead
The Smashing Pumpkins
Led Zepplin
Mastodon
Nitzer Ebb
From 12:30 am – 2am – any order
Sieges Even
Porcupine Tree
Pink Floyd
The Police
From 2am – 4am – this order
Morphine
Neil Young (preferably from YouTube live concert)
Sigor Ros
After Party / Hangover – any order, measure the mood of your
group and choose accordingly.
I hope you found this article helpful and will use some of the suggestions I've recommended here to enhance the experience you are able to create for your guests at your New Year's Eve party. And if I don't see you at the party because my invitation got lost, let me say, Happy New Year!
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Related Article:
Hangover Recovery 101: How to Survive the Day After New Year's Eve
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Marc
http://stereothesis.com/
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