# The best rock of the 1970s is actually being made in the 21st century! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 22, 2013, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986 "2013-01-22T06:53:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/1 "2013-01-22T06:53:11Z")
All the “best song of the 1970s” stuff got me thinking about how, really, the best music of the 1970s is being written today. I’m gonna go way out on a limb here and guess that most people in the US aren’t very familiar with lots of music scenes from places like Sweden, the UK, Norway, etc. and so prolly a lot of what I’m writing about and linking here will be news to most people. Hopefully it’s welcome and good news, as opposed to a Notice of Eviction kind of news. Anyway, I’ll start off by noting that Sweden has a lot of terrific musicians, many of whom play in various kinds of death and/or black metal bands. They wear corpse paint makeup and lots of leather and they act all scary and shit and play unbelievably loud and dense music that’s meant to conjure up thoughts of demons and bad stuff and death, etc. For most of these people, the theatrics are part of the music, inseparable from each other and all in good fun. Which is why it shouldn’t come as much a shock to find that a lot of them fucking REVERE certain bands and styles from by-gone eras, like Sir Lord Baltimore, say, or Deep Purple or James Brown or whoever. And because so many of these people are such talented musicians, they manage to recreate, or rather _evoke_ the sounds they admire with surprising success when they try. **Audrey Horne** features members of Enslaved, Sahg and Gorgoroth, but they play straight up late-'70s style arena-bordering-on-prog rock. [Blaze Of Ashes](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAVUAn1lvIA) Then there’s [Withcraft](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OtjEpbiba4), also from Sweden. And there’s [Graveyard](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnGBa8dVm6k). And [Free Fall](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xFYmCfZcyE), a band that draws more on punk rock and Motörhead than on arena rock and the Eagles. But it’s not just guys from Sweden. I’m a huge fan of doom metal, so imagine my face-splitting grin the first time I heard this band from San Francisco, **Orchid** : [He Who Walks Alone](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9893iNWE8w) [Heretic](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ6eZ4wGiJ0) They do Sabbath better than Sabbath does Sabbath! (Ok, maybe… I’ll withhold final judgement until the new Sabbath comes out next month. 🙂 ) They’ve been around for a few years now, and I’ve linked to them before, but Aussie rockers **Airbourne** do AC/DC better than AC/DC. [Stand Up For Rock And Rock](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_tMjx4fz-Q) [Blackjack](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aajEfkkLtXI) (live at Wacken) Another band from Sweden, has successfully combined AC/DC with Judas Priest: **Bullet** [Bite The Bullet](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTCbIF66RJs) [Back On The Road](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Um5vBRYawI) Even emo/prog/space punks Coheed & Cambria seem to be catching the vibe; the first track from their soon-to-be-released new album is unashamedly '70s: [The Hard Sell](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5iA4V4Mlds). Tell me that doesn’t remind you of the first time you listened to The Wall; I won’t believe you, but you can go ahead and tell me that. There’s also retro-heavy acts like, well, The Heavy, that are playing around with R&B conventions from the 1970s. [Short Change Hero](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1QUZzeZoPQ) and [How You Like Me Now?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgQLliI-QHs) are great tunes from these UK rockers. The conventions and trappings of the great music of the '70s has been studied, dissected, analyzed and revamped, often with great success, by the musicians of today, often, IMO, with better results than some of the bands they are emulating. Soon we’ll start to see the same sort of thing happen with the '80s various genres and styles. In metal, we’ve already gone thru one stint of this, with the neo-thrash revival from a few years back. I don’t wanna hog all the good bands, tho. I’m sure there’s at least one other person who’s been digging the retro revival stuff in one form or another, aye? Tell us about them. ---
**Author:** ![Capt\_Kirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@Capt\_Kirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_Kirk)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/2 "2013-01-22T07:54:03Z")
The Sword from Austin Texas Heavy Sabbath style awesome **Capt** ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/3 "2013-01-22T08:12:37Z")
Sloan 'Witch’s Wand" from a few years ago sounds like it could’ve been released in 1974. And there is a jumble of 70s influences on their latest album The Double Cross. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/4 "2013-01-22T08:20:22Z")
I nominate Soul Asylum for creating a sound that evokes a 70s atmos in a style that is not quite like the 70s. It is comfort music to me, making me nostalgic for an era that never quite existed (cf. _Homesick_ for this allusion). ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/5 "2013-01-22T17:07:37Z")
_raises hand_ Magic Circle, from the States, does the Roky Erickson thing better than anyone since… Roky Erickson. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/kE50qa4Xrfg/hqdefault.jpg "MAGIC CIRCLE - "Scream Evil" - 2011") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE50qa4Xrfg) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/N34AS_zSm-c/hqdefault.jpg "MAGIC CIRCLE - "Magic Circle" - 2011") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N34AS_zSm-c) Their upcoming debut is, to me, one of most anticipated releases of 2013. Anyhow, it is worth mentioning that many of the most prominent 70’s “occult rock” retro bands of the last five years or so have had female vocalists. The three most famous ones would probably be The Devil’s Blood, Jex Thoth and Blood Ceremony, all highly recommended. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/6 "2013-01-22T17:57:55Z")
> [@Steken](#): > > _raises hand_ > > Magic Circle, from the States, does the Roky Erickson thing better than anyone since… Roky Erickson. > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE50qa4Xrfg](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE50qa4Xrfg) > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N34AS\_zSm-c](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N34AS_zSm-c) > > Their upcoming debut is, to me, one of most anticipated releases of 2013. Sorry, but I have to differ with you on this. Clearly ( 😛 ) the band that most accurately channels Roky is The Black Angels. [You On The Run](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSD5e8s7RaI) [Doves](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyf6lZL-_ws) > [@Steken](#): > > Anyhow, it is worth mentioning that many of the most prominent 70’s “occult rock” retro bands of the last five years or so have had female vocalists. The three most famous ones would probably be The Devil’s Blood, Jex Thoth and Blood Ceremony, all highly recommended. Jex Thoth totally fucking rocks. [Nothing Left To Die](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzOLCBB2v2A) ---
**Author:** ![Steken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@Steken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steken)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/7 "2013-01-22T18:20:05Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Sorry, but I have to differ with you on this. Clearly ( 😛 ) the band that most accurately channels Roky is The Black Angels. > > [You On The Run](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSD5e8s7RaI) > [Doves](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyf6lZL-_ws) Let’s agree to disagree. 🙂 The Black Angels’ vocalist has, I feel, too much of a cool, laid-back British vibe for my tastes. Like he’s sitting back in a sofa wearing sunglasses, you know? While Magic Circle’s vocalist doesn’t hold back at all - he goes _all in_, howlin’ and wailin’ and giving his all. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/8 "2013-01-22T18:25:30Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Even emo/prog/space punks Coheed & Cambria seem to be catching the vibe; the first track from their soon-to-be-released new album is unashamedly '70s: [The Hard Sell](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5iA4V4Mlds). Tell me that doesn’t remind you of the first time you listened to The Wall; I won’t believe you, but you can go ahead and tell me that. And of course there’s _The Final Cut_ off of their third album (as well as bits of _The End Complete_,) which would also fit perfectly in any Floyd collection. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Righteous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Dr.Righteous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Righteous)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/9 "2013-01-22T18:56:50Z")
A ot of the bands mentioned here I know of via [the MelodicRock site](http://www.melodicrock.com/). They’re chatting up Audrey Horne right now. They aren’t together anymore (and this album is from the 90’s) but I think one of the best examples of this type of music has to be Harem Scarem’s Mood Swings album. The song [Saviors Never Cry](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEIOJkG7Rlo) kicks things off and it doesn’t stop until the album is over… a perfect little slice of hard rock goodness. For something 21st Century I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention [The Battle](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e0QeQOjJg4), a collaboration of the lead singers of Symphony X and Masterplan. Not Swedish, but Swiss… Gotthard, who are continuing on after the tragic death of their singer… [Lipservice](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzrRug6a2Hc&playnext=1&list=PL0F237F517A020918&feature=results_main) was an awesome album. Thanks all for the links, I’ll be checking them out! ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/10 "2013-01-22T19:00:10Z")
[Scissor Sisters – Take Your Mama](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od7-fyGa9DQ) The best Elton John song in decades. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/11 "2013-01-22T19:06:17Z")
A couple others: [Gnarls Barkley - Crazy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w) Would fit in on a 1970s R&B playlist. There’s some good 60s stuff being recorded recently, too. 😃 [Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrQRS40OKNE) Reminiscent of Spector’s Wall of Sound. [Fitz and the Tantrums - Moneygrabber](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3WRXYYBwRA) 60s soul sound. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/12 "2013-01-22T20:42:48Z")
Jeez I wish I had more ability to listen to new music - I know a lot of this stuff, but only in a passing way. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/13 "2013-01-23T05:51:34Z")
He’s not really retro, because he’s actually been recording since the early 1970s, but he’s still around & he’s like a one man time capsule. He really hasn’t changed his style or sound much at all, still recording with real strings and real horns. He’s **Lee Fields**. [Honey Dove](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdeX_keKO-U) [You’re The Kind Of Girl](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0izlYypNyu0) [Ladies](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epu97rNb9F8) ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/14 "2013-01-23T06:27:08Z")
The Black Angels seem to do a pretty good job of being The Doors. [Young Man Dead](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvKjpGP6P5Y) [Empire](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRBseJAmtJQ) ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/15 "2013-01-23T07:54:36Z")
Aussie rockers Wolfmother totally nail the sound and feel of early 70s British hard rock: check out [Dimension](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjJ7KCBykVU), the intro track off their first album. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/16 "2013-01-23T16:17:51Z")
> [@Beastly\_Rotter](#): > > Aussie rockers Wolfmother totally nail the sound and feel of early 70s British hard rock: check out [Dimension](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjJ7KCBykVU), the intro track off their first album. Good call. My first exposure to them was when their song [Woman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzqTz_i1NXQ) was used on the Madden soundtrack a few years ago…they sounded like the heirs to Led Zeppelin. ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/17 "2013-01-23T19:05:35Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Good call. My first exposure to them was when their song [Woman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzqTz_i1NXQ) was used on the Madden soundtrack a few years ago…they sounded like the heirs to Led Zeppelin. I hear a lot of stuff in there: Zeppelin, sure, but also Sabbath, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, Uriah Heep… If they were just copping riffs here and there it would get annoying after a couple of songs, but they really know and love what they are doing, and the entire album hangs together beautifully; it sounds like it’s escaped from 1971, production, lyrics and all. Also they have a big fat dirty organ sound, which so much hard rock sadly lacks: [The Joker and the Thief](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiRnAO0QJ0E) live, with the ghost of Jon Lord tapping his foot approvingly. ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2013, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/18 "2013-01-24T04:17:07Z")
Pond are also well worth checking out if you like your 70s hard rock trippy, psychedelic and very, very stoned: [You Broke My Cool](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNZA9w4gTis), [Moth Wings](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_VlLzJS4bo) and [Elegant Design](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VYfQ5mEZtY) are all off their latest album, Beard, Wives, Denim. Oh, one more: [Sorry, I Was Under The Sky.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VYfQ5mEZtY) ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/19 "2013-01-25T07:39:12Z")
Have you heard The Sheepdogs, from Canada I think? Their video _I Don’t Know_ seems straight out of the early '70s. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986/20 "2013-01-25T08:30:37Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > [Gnarls Barkley - Crazy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w) Would fit in on a 1970s R&B playlist. [“The Walk” by Mayer Hawthorne](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dESmmnwr590) is early 1970s R&B plucked from its original context and dropped bodily directly into the modern music charts. It is, perhaps, the single best example of good 1970s music being made now. [Acid House Kings](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_House_Kings), on the other hand, is good 1970s music that was mostly made some years ago, but they had a new album out in 2011. [“Tonight Is Forever”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1mYCa5I8hA) is perhaps the best example, being straight-up 1970s disco, but [“This Heart is a Stone”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60DHwVCVwEk) is pretty damn good folky-seventies pop. Solid Swedish pop from a band from, yes, Sweden. Some things don’t change. Acid House Kings-type music (soft, melodic pop) is categorized as either [indie pop](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indie_pop) or [twee pop](http://www.last.fm/tag/twee%20pop) these days\*; look for those genres if you want to branch out a little bit. This is as good a place as any to mention [The Field Mice](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Field_Mice) and their track [“If You Need Someone”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngpQZB08zJo) and the rest of the [waahfront bands](http://www.bubbyworld.com/waaah/waaahfront.htm) ([more](http://www.last.fm/tag/waaah)), such as a personal favorite of mine, [Dufflecoats](http://www.last.fm/music/Dufflecoats) and their tracks [“Sunny Tuesday Afternoon”](http://www.bubbyworld.com/waaah/bull3-0.htm) and [“Motorbikesong”](http://www.bubbyworld.com/waaah/bull2710-32.htm). (Those are free MP3 downloads from the music label. Dalek Beach Party, another band, is straight-up surf guitar, and “Teddy Boy’s Picnic” is particularly good. [They also feature on a CD of covers of songs from _The Sound Of Music_ because there is a God and It loves me very much.](http://www.bubbyworld.com/waaah/bullc233.htm)) (I am one obscure band reference away from owning a [Pastel Vespa, so here’s their cover of Alanis Morisette’s “Ironic”.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FAI4Nh2q2I) I love weird covers.) \*(There are people who will go to the mat to argue that “indie” is a production and distribution ethos, the idea of being _independent_ of the major labels, which is entirely orthogonal to genre; therefore, “twee” is the actual genre involved. In practice, “indie” is accepted as a genre in both music and film these days, and says nothing about how many major studios were involved in the production.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-best-rock-of-the-1970s-is-actually-being-made-in-the-21st-century/647986.md?page=2)