Can anyone recommend any good bands to me?

I’m in high school, right in the midst of summer vacation. I’m unemployed, and live in a small town. I’m bored to death, and feel a bit hungry for music I’ve never heard before.

So go ahead. Brag on your favorite bands. Feel free to point me to some sites that have their sound files, so I can sample before I commit to buying their CDs. I’m willing to try something new, if you’re willing to point me to it.

I thank you in advance.

What kind of music do you like?

I need some information to work with…

Oh man, I’m all over this one. I have a pretty broad musical taste, so I’ll give you a few of my personal favorites.
In the punk category…my favorite punk band has to be Less Than Jake. It’s really fun and fast and goofy, and it puts me in a really good mood. Plus, there’s a lot of instruments you don’t normally hear in radio music. All songs include some sort of brass part. It’s super cool - their latest album is “borders and boundaries” - it’s awesome. I’m also partial to NOFX - it’s a little harder and more…well…offensive in some places, but still fast and fun. Try their latest album “pump up the valuum.”

More mainstream stuff - The new Offspring CD is pretty choice. And I’m SUPER partial to the new Our Lady Peace. Let’s see…one of my favorite bands is Vertical Horizon…“everything you want” is more mainstream…but their older CDs such as “running on ice” are more acoustic…which I’m really into.

My all-time favorites have to be chick music like Tori Amos (she totally rocks) and Chantal Kreviazuk (voice like an angel! :slight_smile: ). If that sounds interesting to you, pick up “from the choirgirl hotel” and “under these rocks and stones”, respectively. Also, the new Poe CD “haunted” is fantastic…really melancholy, and her voice is beautiful.

A really, really good site for you would be http://www.allmusic.com They have like, every band under the sun on there…just type in a genre or an artist or something, and you’ll get everything from band history to a link to CDNow for song clips to listings and links to other bands who are similar…it’s awesome. :smiley:

Run, do not walk, to the nearest music store and buy the new Weezer album. If you have enough cash, you should pick up the last two albums as well (the debut, known as the ‘blue’ album, and Pinkerton).

Thank you SapphireBullet…Weezer kicks ass :slight_smile:

Get a copy of Aerosmith’s first greatest hits collection. The original versions of “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion” should be required listening for every teen.

Also, Ozzy Osbourne’s first solo album, “Blizzard of Ozz.”

Hehe… I’m so bored at the moment, that I’m willing to try just about anything. But, taking pity on you, I’ve always been partial to synth-pop, industrial, and progressive rock. I’ve always liked long songs, like Pink Floyd, and songs that aren’t in English are automatically more interesting to me, which explains why I started listening to Einstürzende Neubauten.

I don’t mind religious references, but songs laden with blatant sexual references kind of disgust me. I can’t stand rap, hip-hop, heavy metal, and the vast majority of country, but am willing to keep an open mind.

Geez… I’m a product of the 80s, so let’s see… My fave band is probably Simple Minds, with New Gold Dream being their best album IMHO. U2 is ok too, again the early stuff is better. Outside of this 80s thing, my tastes are broad, so Johnny Cash, The Highwaymen, Elvis, They Might Be Giants, Lightnin’ Hopkins, AC/DC, Steve Earle, Prince, Hothouse Flowers, Elmore James, Salif Keita, Venga Boys :eek: , and sundry country, blues, and Aussie, American and Celtic folk music. A little classical as well, but I’m a real babe in the woods as far as knowledge of that goes.

Damn, this is an open-ended topic. Without some pointers from you about your musical intrests, I can’t really tailor my suggestions as well as I’d like. That being said, I’m going to start suggestin’ anyway.

You probably won’t appreciate 'em, but if you can get into the Grateful Dead, you’ll never stop listening. They’re like crack for your ears.

Assuming you’re into punk rawk (you are in high school, after all), let’s try a couple punky-type bands:
The Bouncing Souls. Ooh, I love those kids.
the Angelic Upstarts. Awesome early punk, with those cute Brit accents.
The Descendants. If you’re going to listen to any of today’s crappy pop-punk bands, they were all influenced by these guys. So, you might as well cut out the middleman.
AFI. While I don’t really like their latest album (“The Art of Drowning”), their earlier stuff is awesome. They started out as a ‘pure’ hardcore band, and became increasingly… well, moody might be a good description. If you enjoy your depressive episodes, I highly reccomend “Black Sails in the Sunset”.

You like…
Reggae? Try Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, or Buju Banton.
Hip-hop? I love The Pharcyde, as well as A Tribe Called Quest. Wu-Tang goes without mention.
Country? Other than David Allen Coe, who is a redneck’s redneck, I don’t have many suggestions. Just spin Johnny Cash discs until you go blind.
Rock? Oh, man, too many to name. I second the Wheezer nomination, but I’ve mostly been listening to glam-type stuff (when I’m not spinning the Dead or punk), so I definately have to reccomend The Velvet Underground, David Bowie, and Lou Reed, in that order. Otherwise, listen to Jimi, Janis, and Bob (Dylan, tho Marley’s good too), and curse the fact that you were born too late.

M.

Grr… of course, I start typing before I read your last post. Go figure. But, two more suggestions. First, the new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds is great. Second, somewhere in the musical ether of the internet is floating a bootleg version of Pink Floyd’s 4/16/70 concert at the Fillmore East in New York. (I think that’s the date, at least) Do what you gotta do to get this concert. Every song they do blows me away.

M.

Thanks, guys. I’ve been looking into the Grateful Dead, Nick Cave, and Tori Amos, and think pretty highly of what I’ve heard so far. I wish I had an income source other than my allowance… (laughs at himself for no good reason)

Yah, my main regret is that I wasn’t alive when Pink Floyd got regular airplay. I swear, almost everything I hear on the radio nowadays is utter aural garbage… Now I have a boatload of bands on my ‘to look into’ list. This should keep me busy for at least twelve hours.

Oh, and sorry for not being very specific… I know I should have, the thought crossed my mind as I typed it out, but something happened before I pressed the ‘submit’ button to prevent me from mentioning catergories.

Well, off to allmusic.com, then…

Fool, you gotta be listening to Samael. You can sample their music off Napster. They’re a blend of fast hardcore music and industrial/electronica. Make sure that you get their album Passage, which has to be the most kick-ass music album ever released by any band. Also try Exodus, especially the song From Malkuth to Kether which has to be the greatest song to break stuff to. Sweeeeet…

Check out these bands for rip-snortin’ fun

The Reverend Horton Heat
The Red Elvises

FWIW… The best part about the Dead is that you can get more of their music than you could ever listen to… FREE! Check out http://www.deadshow.com for a ton of realaudio Dead shows, and/or http://www.sugarmegs.com for info about getting shows in other formats. Oh, and a big thumbs-up on Spooje’s reccomendations.

M.

Modest Mouse;
Piebald;
Two fantastic bands.

I submit the following as evidence that Canada rocks…

Wide Mouth Mason - This blues rock trio will blow your socks off and I think they are the finest band to come out of Canada since The Tragically Hip. The Hip have been Canada’s favourite band for more than a decade and for good reason.

Whether he is playing hard driving rock and roll or swinging with his “Little Big Band” your ears will be in for a treat if you listen to Colin James. Here’s a sample of Let’s Shout.

I am so pleased that Colin James and Wide Mouth Mason will be playing here July first (Canada Day).

Jeff Healy is quite possibly the finest guitar player on any planet.

And there’s the grand-daddies of Canadian rock and roll, The Guess Who. They’ll be playing here in August.

My list could go on forever but wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t add Coldies favourite band. I think that our favourite clog wearing mod would be in agreement with me on this last addition.

Rush.

Feynn beat me to it. :smiley:

Some more prog rock suggestions: Savatage, Marillion, IQ, Saga, Yes, Twelfth Night (or Geoff Mann’s solo CD “Second Chants” - awesome), Tool, Camel (“Dust and Dreams” is one of the greatest albums ever), Fates Warning, Dream Theater.

That ought to keep you busy for a while.

Ok, this might take a while…
I’ll try not to repeat stuff already mentioned.

Industrial:
Test Dept-industrial at it’s best, lots of drums.
Skinny Puppy-get CDs: “Vivisect Six” or “Rabies”
Liebach-think Rammestien with a sense of humour.
Psychic TV- a bit strange
SPK- ummm, ran out of stuff to say…

Dance:
Left Field-Trance
Tricky-fun, intelligent.
Nitzer Ebb and Cabaret Voltaire-both 80’s bands, very good.
Chemical Brothers, wow, what a band, no words for them.
Thrill Kill Cult-good fun. I love the song “sex on wheels”

Other:
Powderfinger- get CD’s: “Internationalist” or “Oddessy #5
Regurgitator- if you gut one CD, get “Unit”. TODAY!
Front 242-yet another great German band from the 80’s.
You am I- rockin’ good fun.
Curve-very sexy stuff.
Jeff Buckley-for those not so happy times.

And if somehow you missed the whole Smashing Pumpkins juggernaut, get the CD “Siamese Dream”.

Monster Magnet - but ONLY the Spine of God album (I believe it’s their first). If you are going to allow me to recomend only single albums, also get ‘Independent Worm Saloon’ by Butthole Surfers. All their albums I am either don’t care for or dislike, but IWS is one of my favorite albums of all time.

Pre-90s Metallica - if you think you hate Metallica because they are lame generic corporate rock and have only heard their stuff from the Black album on, give their earlier stuff a listen.

Morphine - 2 string slide bass, a drummer, and a guy who can play to saxophones at the same time make kick-ass music

Squirrel Nut Zippers

Masters of Reality

I am ColonelMoose’s personal music whore.

Every suggestion in all if his(?) posts are Dead on (get it? “Dead” on?) (and Toots Hibbert doing “Take Me Home Country Roads” is just too wonderful.)

Badtz is also on with Morphine, though I won’t use the term “Dead”, out of reverence for Mark Sandman :frowning:

I would also like to put in a plug for anything by Eva Cassidy. I can’t imagine how anyone could hear her sing “Fields of Gold” or “Time after time” or “Over the Rainbow” and not feel a chill. She is a study in voice.

If you dig guitar work, may I suggest Leo Kottke and Jorma Koukannen (I know I just totally blew that spelling). Jazzy guitar? Definately check out Stanley Jordan. Hell, go watch him play; he’s amazing.