I basically stopped buying new music some time in the 1990s, but someone recently gave me a $20 iTunes gift card and I figured, instead of buying more golden oldies, I’ll try to bring my library a little more up to date. Anyone want to help?
Of course you can make any recommendations you like, but I think it would be most helpful to follow these guidelines.
No more than 20 recommendations.
No more than 1 song per artist.
No one who received a recording contract as a prize on a TV show.
Nothing too obscure. If it’s not on iTunes, I won’t be buying it.
All songs should have melody and lyrics.
Rock, pop, and folk are all acceptable.
Rap is OK when interspersed with actual singing and not boasting how great the rapper is.
Country-western is borderline: I like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, and Hank Williams, but find most modern CW boring or annoying.
Opera is right out.
No recent works by artists who were big in the '70s or '80s. I can find those on my own, thank you.
These artists are well represented in my music library:
60s
Beatles, Velvet Underground
70s
Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Peter Gabriel (NOT Genesis), Iggy Pop
80s
Bauhaus, Blondie, Kate Bush, Elvis Costello, Eurythmics, The Cure, Lene Lovich, Nine Inch Nails, Oingo Boingo, The Police, The Pretenders, Paul Simon, REM, Roxy Music, Sinead O’Connor, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Squeeze, Talking Heads, Tommy Petty, U2, Tom Waits
90s
Nick Cave, Concrete Blonde, Cracker, Radiohead, Red Hot Chili Peppers, They Might Be Giants
I recommend most highly The Sugababes “Freak Like Me”, which was a huge hit in the UK in 2002. It’s a mash-up of sorts - combining the lyric from Adina Howard’s 1995 r&B hit “Freak Like Me” and the music from Tubeway Army’s (Gary Numan, really) 1979 synth classic “Are Friends Electric”. One of the best pop songs of that or any other year, and it will have you dancing around the room.
Our musical tastes seem to run along roughly the same lines. Here are some of my recent discoveries (all available on iTunes):
Muse - Knights of Cydonia; this has also the most awesomest video ever! Wolfmother - Woman Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out The Killers - All These Things I’ve Done OutKast - Hey Ya The Black Eyed Peas - Let’s Get It Started The Fratellis - Flathead Hard-Fi - Cash Machine Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline)
This hasn’t been iTunes-vetted, but all of these artists are on some kind of label.
Beth Orton, “Daybreaker”
The Decemberists, “The Crane Wife”
Drive-By Truckers, “Carl Perkins’ Cadillac”
Mountain Goats, “Dance Music”
New Pornographers, “Graceland”
Sleater-Kinney, “You’re No Rock and Roll Fun”
Spoon, “The Underdog”
Sufjan Stevens, “In the Devil’s Territory”
Jet, “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”
The Gourds, “How Will You Shine”
Stew, “Reeling”
Belle and Sebastian, “Step Into My Office, Baby”
Magnetic Fields, “California Girls”
The Hold Steady, “Girls Like Status”
Jenny Lewis, “Rise Up With Fists!”
Kaiser Chiefs, “I Predict a Riot”
Art Brut, “Formed a Band”
The Figgs, “Gonna Get Out”
Calexico, “Crystal Frontier”
Long Winters, “Cinnamon”
Wilco ** - Jesus, Etc
**Guster ** - Amsterdam
**Band of Horses ** - Is there a Ghost
**Tegan & Sara ** - I Hear Noises
**Athlete ** - Street Map The Arcade Fire ** - Keep the Car Runnin’ Andrew Bird - Heretics
**Amy Winehouse ** - You Know I’m No Good
**Damien Rice ** - Me, My Yoke, and I
**The Flaming Lips ** - Do You Realize?
**Gogol Bordello ** - Start Wearing Purple Jenny Lewis - Happy Jenny Owen Youngs - Fuck Was I
**Lilly Allen ** - Smile
**Modest Mouse ** - Dashboard
**Old 97’s ** - The New Kid The Decemberists - O Valencia! My Morning Jacket - Off the Record
**Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova ** - Falling Slowly (from “Once”) The Raconteurs - Steady as she Goes
Like the OP, I gave up on trying to keep up. That said, in the last few years the most significant album I bought would have to be “American Idiot” by Green Day.
Favorite Artists:
Michael Penn (Sean’s and Chris’s brother, married to Aimee Mann from 'Til Tuesday)…hits were on the album “March” (No Myth, Brave New World, This and That)
Fastball: “All the Pain” has the initial hits (The Way, Fire Escape, Out of My Head); “Harsh Light” has more (You’re an Ocean and not sure which of the rest were hits).
Both MP/Fastball are “Can’t miss” as far as LP selection goes.
If you’re looking for a compilation type of thing…
Sister Hazel: Change your mind
Sister Hazel: All For You
Five for Fighting: 100 years
Silvertide: Ain’t Coming Home
Ten Years After: Wasteland
More as I think of them, but you might consider looking up suggestions on youtube to see if it’s a style you’d like.
Wilco - Hummingbird
Spoon - The Underdog
Modest Mouse - Float On
Rilo Kiley - The Execution of All Things
Islands - Don’t Call Me Whitney, Bobby
Bright Eyes - Train Underwater
Andrew Bird - Fake Palindromes
Coheed and Cambria - A Favor House Atlantic
The Strokes - Someday
Interpol - Evil
The Arcade Fire - (Antichrist Television Blues)
Death Cab for Cutie - Blacking out the Friction
The Postal Service - Nothing Better
Belle and Sebastian - “Sleep the Clock Around”
New Pornographers - “The Laws Have Changed”
Rilo Kiley - “It’s a Hit”
The Raveonettes - “Attack of the Ghost Riders”
Bitter:Sweet - “The Mating Game” (although I love “Dirty Laundry” just as much and highly recommend both)
Mike Ness (of Social Distortion) - “The Devil in Miss Jones”
The Decemberists - “O Valencia!” (and I would argue against “The Crane Wife” because it is a three-part song that wraps around the album of the same name, starting with Part III and closing with Parts I and II)
Muse - “Knights of Cydonia”
The Postal Service - “Nothing Better”
Jenny Lewis - “Handle With Care”
Neko Case - “I Wish I Was the Moon”
Imogen Heap - “Hide and Seek”
Zero 7 - “In the Waiting Line”
The Strokes - “Last Night”
The White Stripes - “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground”
Amy Winehouse - “You Know I’m No Good”
Lily Allen - “LDN”
The Dresden Dolls - “Girl Anachronism”
Britney Spears - “Toxic” (shut up, it’s awesome)
Christina Aguilera - “Candyman”
Outkast - “Hey Ya”
Gnarls Barkley - “Crazy”
Timbaland - “The Way I Am”
Oh, when you make your final selections, you must return to this thread and tell us what you got and what you thought of it!
AC Newman - Miracle Drug
The White Stripes - Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
Tool - Lateralis
Fountains of Wayne - Mexican Wine
Say Anything - Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too.
I’ll close by breaking the rules :o . Okkervil River has a pretty extensive catalogue, which I generally despise, but they also recorded these two songs, which are both amazing and catchy:
Okkervil River - Black
Okkervil River - No Key, No Plan
And of course, the Decemberists are awesome too.
Wilco - Jesus etc
White stripes - Seven Nation Army
Raconteurs - Steady As She Goes
Tool - Schism (metal)
Sufjan Stevens - Chicago
Coldplay - Clocks
Dandy Warhols - Godless
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Green Day - Hmm tough one, I guess I’ll go with… Holiday
Belle and Sebastian - Another Sunny Day
The Knife - Heartbeats
The Strokes - Last Night
Oasis - Go Let It Out
Radiohead - There There
Weezer - Hash Pipe
Dropkick Murphys - Shipping Down to Boston
Isis - Carry (metal)
Kaizers Orchestra - Kontroll På Kontinentet
Hives - Walk Idiot Walk
Man, what a great list.
Some favorite picks of mine; not any sort of attempt to find the most definitive songs of the young century (which I would be unqualified to do):
Anais Mitchell – Two Kids Bruce Cockburn – Put It In Your Heart Damien Rice – 9 Crimes Dresden Dolls – Delilah Feist – I Feel It All Johnny Cash – Hurt Nizlopi – Girls Old Crow Medicine Show – Wagon Wheel Outkast – B.O.B. Patty Griffin – Useless Desires Regina Spektor – Us Rihanna – Umbrella Ryan Adams – When the Stars Go Blue Sufjan Stevens – Casimir Pulaski Day Tegan and Sara – Back In Your Head Tim Fite – No Good Here TV On The Radio – Wolf Like Me Willy Mason – We Can Be Strong World/Inferno Friendship Society – Brother of the Mayor of Bridgewater Wyclef Jean – Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)
I wrote a whole detailed post on this last night, but my computer rebelled and crashed my browser. At any rate, if I can recommend one song, it would be one by Sons & Daughters. Along with Spoon, Arctic Monkeys and Art Brut, they’re my favorite band making music right now. Their sound is a mixture of post-punk, country and Scottish folk. My favorite song by them is “Johnny Cash” (their first mini-album, Love The Cup, was somewhat of a tribute to the Man in Black). The only video clip I could find of it is here [requires RealPlayer], but they have a clip at YouTube for the song “Dance Me In” which is also awesome. Really, you could pick a song at random and not go wrong.
A few others, with videos so you can listen before buying:
TV On The Radio - “Wolf Like Me”
Franz Ferdinand - “Take Me Out”
LCD Soundstystem - “Someone Great” (there’s a more professional version of the video, but it speeds the song up weirdly)
British Sea Power - “Carrion”