I’ll leave out retro-rock such as Smashmouth and Second Coming by the Stone Roses (altho you can include such if you like). What songs released in the past 15 years are not only good but you wouldn’t be surprised to find on a classic rock station except for their newness?
My picks: #1. A Favour House Atlantic by Coheed and Cambria. (can you say “Rush”? I knew you could!) #2. All Lit Up by Buckcherry (I don’t even have to tell you who it sounds like.) #3. The End by My Chemical Romance (I want to hum the musical refrain from In the Flesh? when I hear it rather than the actual notes.)
I urge all you dinosaurs (and at 39 I consider myself one) to check out Wolfmother [Warning: heavily Flash-based site]. All the songs on their eponymous debut album would fit right into the playlist of a so-called “classic rock” station, except that the album was released in 2005.
Have all you doubters actually heard the songs mentioned, especially my #s 1 and 2? I couldn’t get away from them on alterna-rock for months: thankfully they are great songs.
I guess I better rub it in that I heard Alice In Chains on Classic Rock stations all the time – 8 years ago! Now, that doesn’t make much sense to me, either, but I thought I’d mention it to add insult to insult. It’d make more sense to hear my suggestions on a classic rock station than AiC. (Thankfully I haven’t heard Nirvana on Classic Rock or my brain would explode. Doesn’t mean they aren’t great, tho.)
Songs: Ohia’s last album, Magnolia Electric Co., fits the bill. Jason Molina has since changed the band’s name to Magnolia Electric Co., and recorded material that sounds even more like classic rock, but I haven’t really kept up for the past couple of albums.
At 36, I may be younger than a lot of you dinosaurs, but I grew of age in a midwestern town with a firmly classic rock base. After highschool it was rare for me to listen to anything newer than 1980. The first band I played in was a (really really awful) Led Zep cover band, and all subsequent bands were classic rock only. I gave up listening to the radio in about 1996 out of frustration over the quality of new music.
This year I started playing with a group of guys all about ten or twelve years younger than me. They’ve introduced me to the newer stuff by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jet, The Killers, some other groups. I have been really, really surprised by the quality of the music these groups put out. This is not mixed down alternative junk or simplified pap. The Chili Peppers, most notably, isn’t the faux rap it-all-sounds-the-same stuff they were doing almost exclusively in the mid 90’s. This is well thought out and well constructed stuff. It has a good beat, interesting structures, and good lyrics.
It’s still hard to find this stuff on the radio, but it’s heartening to know it’s out there and it has a new generation of followers. Rock and roll never dies, folks. It just keeps changing.
Off the top of my head, the three classics I think of are:
*Under the Bridge * by The Red Hot Chili Peppers Dani California by the RHCP Shimmer by Fuel The Middle by Jimmy Eat World
Believe it or not, “Under the Bridge” by The Red Hot Chili Peppers doesn’t qualify under the OP’s 15 years rule. It’s too old. They’re done some fine work consistently over the years, of course. And the video for “Dani California” is one of the few great videos of the past few years.
Yes, you do.
Amazon talks generically about them and Guns N’ Roses. GNR do not qualify as classic rock. Too little, too late.
And I heard the Clash on a classic rock station several years ago. Wrong.
There are a bunch of Gov’t Mule songs that would work, though. Thorazine Shuffle, Mule, Bad Little Doggie, and there are a few from their latest album that are pretty Led Zepplin or AC/DC-y.
Gov’t Mule could be the Allman Brothers. In fact, the lead guitarist played in the Allman Brothers Band, replacing Duane Allman. Kenny Wayne Shepherd sounds like a classic rock throwback in the Stevie Ray style. The same could be said for Jonny Lang.
Buckcherry’s ‘15’ could be classic rock. A handful of great songs, some bluesy numbers, some balls-to-the-wall rock shriek fests, the obligatory rock ballad, you name it. All done very well.
The Raconteurs have a strong classic rock vibe to them.
Velvet Revolver is doing that Slash/GnR thing.
The Stone Temple Pilots slide in under the 15 year wire. They’ve got a strong classic rock element to them.
The Jayhawks could be the modern successor to The Eagles. The singer-songwriter sub-genre (Jackson Browne, Cat Stevens, Neil Young, Billy Joel, Elton John, etc) could be filled by James Blunt, Jack White, Ryan Adams, M. Ward, Matthew Sweet.
Female singer songwriters in the ‘classic rock’ mold: Joss Stone, KT Tunstall.
Sheryl Crow was “classic rock” right out of the gate (There’s a reason she hitched her wagon to VH-1 instead of MTV); certainly “All I Wanna Do” and “Leaving Las Vegas” both qualify for consideration.
Smash Mouth (“All Star”) and Barenaked Ladies (“Pinch Me,” “Brian Wilson”) as well. These guys all mortgaged themselves to 70s pop styles.
Every time my Ipod shuffles-up “Electioneering” by **Radiohead **I spend the first 15 seconds trying to remember what **Beatle’s **song it is, so that’s a definite for me. I think much of their pre-Kid A material also qualifies.
#1: Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen #2: Summer by the Beatsteaks. #3: A Good Idea At The Time by OK Go #4: Hunger Strike by Temple of the Dog (Some old Sound Garden/Pearl Jam folks) #5: Santa Monica by Theory of a Deadman
Edit: Yeargh! Didn’t notice the time frame. OK, scratch these. I’ll let them stand, though, in case anyone wants some good recommendations
