Recommend me some new music!

Cafe Society
21

Stuff that has already been recommended that I can second:

Gogol Bordello! Hell yeah! My favorite album is Multi Contra Culti vs. Irony. But it’s all good really.

TV on the Radio is great.

The Black Keys are hit and miss for me. But more good then bad.
**
Vampire Weekend** is my new favorite band. They rock hard.

Spoon! Not just the tick’s catchphrase. Ga ga ga ga ga (their new one) is as good a starting point as any. If you want a single check out Cherry Bomb or The Underdog.

The Decemberists have been mentioned a couple of times. Picaresque is their best album. (I didn’t care for The Fishwife so much personally but YMMV)
Bands not yet mentioned.

Wolf Parade - Not quite new, but still amazing.

Modest Mouse - Better than their most recent sigles would have you believe. Check out the album the Moon and Antarctica or Lonesome Crowded West.

The Thermals - particularly their new(ish) album The Body the Blood the Machine. They are the best band no one seems to know. (The linked video blows, but the song is great So here is a live performance of another song.)

Wilco is great too. Check out Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or Ghost is Born.

I got more…lots and lots more.

MGMT, the new Phantom Planet etc. What are you liking that you have heard?

22

I’ve always preferred their album Selfafornia if you can find it. They used to have a lot of mp3s on the Selfies website. I saw them live a couple years ago (they are broken up) and it was worth the 6 hour drive to Nashville. They are a fun band.

Also,

Muse - Absolution
Beirut - The Flying Club Cup (kinda weird but I fell in love with this album)

and

PINBACK, easily one of my favorite bands. Start with their newest, Autumn of the Seraphs, then to Summer in Abaddon, then the rest if you dig.

23

Oh, how did I forget pinback? Bah. Listen to the above advice. Also check out The Blackheart Procession. Their album Amore Del Tropico is probably the most accesable. But 2 is my favorite. (Their fist three albums are named 1, 2 & 3)

24

Vampire Weekend… Check.
Pinback… Check.
Modest Mouse… Already have… great band.
Spoon… I liked Underdog… some of there other stuff is good too… Check.
The Decemberists… Check.
The Thermals… Hard to find, but I like their stuff.

Great suggestions here! Thanks, everyone!

25

I wanted to add a couple more, now that I have a sense of your taste from what you’ve liked from above:
The Beta Band is out of this world. Seriously.
Kaiser Chiefs is good in a simple, pop-rock sort of way. They have some silly songs which are great too.
LCD Soundsystem is excellent, and they actually have more songs than that one about Daft Punk that everyone loves.

And to get away from the contemporary-indie-rock scene into other genres…
**Old things: **The Kinks are breathtakingly underappreciated, as is Donovan. Early Jethro Tull is durn cool.
Soul: There’s lots of great soul out there which is tough to dislike. Also, Robert Randolph can jam like nobody’s business.
**Blues: **Nobody can howl quite like Son House. Keb’ Mo might be my favorite out of modern blues artists continuing and adapting old styles.
Hip hop: Lots of people tend to get scared away by all hip hop on the basis of how bad pop-hip hop is. You miss some great stuff doing that, though. A sampler:

  • Black Star is Talib Kweli and Mos Def. Only one album, but it highlights the talents of each.
  • Haiku D’etat is so obscure that this was the only video I could find for this song, but their component members, Aceyalone, Abstract Rude, and Mikah 9 all have released albums. (check out that Aceyalone song)
  • Blackalicious is one of the heroes of the alt-hip hop movement right now, as is Jurassic 5.
    Electronica: The Chemical Brothers straddle a lot of genres, but are excellent. Fatboy Slim is so good, he can make Christopher Walken fly.
    Folk: The Wood Brothers released their first album last year, and I think it may have been my favorite of the whole year. They’re phenomenal. There are lots of other small acts worth looking to - just ask if you want some names.

Finally, a personal favorite: The Cat Empire is great. They have lots of different songs - the one I just linked is very ska-influenced, but then you have songs like The Car Song which are unabashed pop, and Hello or Days Like These which define easy identification.

26

Shpongle - Tales of the Inexpressible

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Ok, good to know.

How about The New Pornographers?

Or any of the solo works of Carl Newman (A.C. Newman) (ignore that video it’s stupid), Neko Case, or Dan Bejar (Destroyer) (couldn’t find a vid of Bejar, sorry)

Do you know Art Brut?

I second the Beta Band

If you liked Vampire Weekend,The Futureheads, have a similar sound and have been doing it longer for less fame.
You will probably like both Deathcab for Cutie and Postal Service. I do not, but I am in a small minority, so in fairness here are a couple of their songs.

Finally, The Walkmen are very good, and have the most entertaining drummer I have ever seen play.

BTW, everything I have recommended so far is available on iTunes. I think everything that has been recommened is.

28

According to Music Map, if you like Rilo Kiley, you’re supposed to dig Tilly & the Wall.

Amusingly, Jenny Lewis is on the fringes of the Rilo Kiley music map.

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Oh, and I just saw Rilo Kiley a week or so ago and Spinto Band opened for them so apparently someone thinks there’s a shared taste. :wink:

30

If you’re into reggae at all, check out eek-a-mouse. Very mellow beats. And if you haven’t heard of Matisyahu give him a listen, too. It’s Jewish reggae.

And for Jewish rap, you can’t beat MC Paul Barman.

31

Disclaimer: I know jack-diddly about music, I just randomly poke around.

That said, Vanessa Mae rocks. Little chick with a violin, classical music, and she isn’t at all put off by ELECTRIC violins! Her “Tocatta and Fugue” by J.S. Bach is unforgettable.

32

Which Shins and which Rilo Kiley?

Fleet Foxes just debuted this Tuesday, which shares similar production values, layering, soft vocal harmonies as the Shin’s latest Wincing the Night Away. I believe they used the same producer, but can’t be certain.

Fleet Foxes also sound a lot like My Morning Jacket, which have a new album coming out soon.

Rilo Kiley sounds like Rilo Kiley. The early stuff is all over the place in an awesome way, Under the Blacklight is completely boring. Regardless, make sure you check out Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins, from a few years back. The Watson Twins now have their own touring act, but they are more or less Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins without Jenny Lewis.

This post assumes you like layered Brian Wilson inspired soft harmonies, but if you like the older Shins, especially Oh, Inverted World, let me know. If you have any other genres you’d consider exploring, also let me know, I can probably recommend a bridge between favs.

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Nellie McKay

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SHIM!

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Got to ditto the Matisyahu. A Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn doing reggae-style rape: you’d think it was a gimmick until you realize he’s pretty good.

Wilco has sometimes been called the “American Radiohead”, and tho that’s a pretty stretchy analogy there, Wilco has long been one of my favorite bands and one of the most highly rated yet under appreciated American acts of today.

Another “American Radiohead” band is My Morning Jacket, which puts on a pretty good live show. Both bands are definitely their own thing, but where Wilco has its roots in folk rock MMJ comes from blues rock. They just released a new album this week which is real good. And their Christmas album is fantastic.

Singer/songwriter type stuff might include the classy Nick Drake from England’s 1970s, or the modern Badly Drawn Boy. BDB start you off with “Year Of the Rat” and “The Shining” for good songs. Across the pond, New York City has Citizen Cope who got a lot of MTV airplay in the days immediately after 9/11 when contemplative music in search of a meaning was briefly popular.

I think I would get along with NAF1138. Modest Mouse is a great band (there’s a lot of… ‘experimental’ stuff, but a lot of pure pure gold as well), IMHO, and the two albums he mentions (Moon and Antarctica and Lonesome Crowded West) are as couple of their best. But I also liked Good News for People Who Like Bad News and We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, so I may or may not be in a minority.

Explosions in the Sky is some damn fine post-rock. They got mainstream exposure from the Friday Night Lights soundtrack but they’re talented beyond that. They seem to play at South By Southwest or Austin City Limits Festival a lot, and usually put on a good show. While inspiring on their own, they can also be cryingly beautiful under “music enhancers”. So I’ve been told.

They sometimes are liked by people who also like Sigur Ros, a popular Icelandic band. They play guitars like violins, sing in jibberish “Hopelandic” and come up with album names like ( ). Sigur Ros seems to draw a lot of either love or nausea from people. I’m the kind of guy who really digs The Polyphonic Spree, so I like Sigur Ros. Another Icelandic act is the (now gone) hip hop group Quarashi.

If you want to shake your booty, Junior Senior’s “Move Your Feet” is pretty much the best song ever. Actually, Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” is. Ever.

36

I’ll second Shpongle.

Also:
Gotan Project
Zero 7
Sia
The Bird and the Bee
MIDIval Punditz
Kraak And Smaak
Conjure One
Imogen Heap
Entheogenic
Spiritualized
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Niyaz
Vas
Azam Ali
The Ditty Bops
The Polypohonic Spree
Digitalism
Above & Beyond
Bitter:Sweet
The Chemical Brothers
Underworld
Infected Mushroom
Air
Jimpster

37

Damn. I could’ve written this post, straight down to my dislike of Deathcab for Cutie.

But, let me reiterate, Art Brut, the Futureheads, and the New Pornographers are loads of fun.

I would also throw in The Magnetic Fields. They’ve been around for a bit, but Stevin Merritt is one of the (if not the) best songwriters of this generation. 69 Love Songs would be the obvious album to start with.

Given your tastes, you might perhaps also enjoy The Mountain Goats.

I might also give Rainer Maria a chance. I don’t know their catalog that well, but I absolutely love their song “Broken Radio.” Unfortunately, there’s no Youtube I could link to. But there is this 30 second clip.

And perhaps The Sea and Cake.

38

Brandi Carlile’s ‘The Story’ CD.

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Of Montreal. it’s very quirky, bouncy indiepop, and the guy’s voice is a bit of an acquired taste, but I have definitely acquired it. Youtube of my favorite song on the newest album, though that one’s a little more beat-driven than most of their stuff.

basically everything else I’d have recommended (Interpol and Spoon, mostly) has already been. you might also try Best Friends Forever if you like Of Montreal (it’s also bouncy and fun), but that one’s VERY indie, so you’ll have to do some digging (MySpace or Last.fm is probably your best bet)… either that or send me a private message and I’ll help.

40

I think there are enough suggestions here to keep my busy for the rest of the year! I bet other doper’s are benefiting from the great recommendations.

Fleet foxes is strangely soothing. I particularly like Mykonos.
Postal Service… The UPS song! Great!
Tilly and the Wall is pretty good. Rocking out with the tap shoes out!
Brandi Carlile’s ‘The Story’ gets overplayed on my favorite local radio station, KBCO, but I think I already have parts of it.
Of Montreal… I was really digging them until I heard the damned Outback Steakhouse commercial song. Shame on Outback for ruining the song, which is pretty good with out the “lets go outback tonight” lyrics.
The Magnetic Fields… Sometimes catchy, sometimes boring. Is this two separate bands? I’m confused.
Interpol, not bad, found some stuff I like.