I am always on the lookout for new music and this is a great place to find recommendations. My tastes are fairly diverse and I will listen to anything at least once.
Right at this very moment I am listening to the Screaming Trees but in the past hour I have heard the following: Anouk, Jethro Tull, Ill Nino, Sebadoh, Ani DiFranco, Holly Cole, Tom McRae, Blind Faith, Lisa Loeb, Interpol, K’s Choice, Dark New Day, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Folk Implosion, Linda Perry, Grace Slick, The Donnas, Bela Fleck, Dar Williams, Built to Spill, Less Than Jake, and Smashing Pumpkins.
Do you have any suggestions for what I should listen to next? New bands or old…try to sell me on one of your favorites.
If you like Ill Nino, you should check out one of their influences, Sepultura. See if you can find “Rattamahatta” or the entire Roots album, and be prepared to be blown away.
If you like the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, you should check out Savatage.
Well, I already have plans for tonite but maybe I can squeeze in a little suicide tomorrow. Just kidding, I will give them a try.
Ultrafilter, thanks for the suggestions. I have been listening to Sepultura for quite a few years but Savatage is relatively new to me. What should I start with?
You like some eclectic female voices, so you might have some interest in my podcast. It’s at http://suspended-in-gaffa.com. There you can first take a look at the list of artists. On each show page you’ll see and can hear short audio clips of all the songs, so you can get a feel for what the music sounds like. If you want to continue, you can either download the entire show (each is roughly an hour long, and there’s no talking on the ones that are currently up so it’s pure music) or subscribe and get it via iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
Anouk and K’s Choice are two of my favorite artists and I like a few others listed as well so I would suggest you try Sarah Bettens’ solo efforts, Sarah Fimm, Vienna Teng, and Mirah.
Joy Division. Interpol has been accused of being nothing more than Joy Division imitators, but I think Interpol deserve more credit than that. They do have a similar sound though. The biggest difference IMO is that Joy Division was much, much gloomier. Joy Division’s defining song is “Love Will Tear Us Apart”, even though it doesn’t sound completely like most of their other songs. It’s more poppy.
Bauhaus. Their name fits their music well because they have a very skeletal sound. They have a great guitarist, Daniel Ash, who takes a sort of minimalistic approach. I also think they have a big David Bowie influence in some ways. In fact, they did a brilliant cover of his song Ziggy Stardust, the music video for which is on YouTube. Their singer, Peter Murphy, is one of my favorites. Their lyrics are great too; they are very weird and kind of dark, and funny in a weird way. Their defining song is “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”, a song that clocks in at 9:33. Their average song length is probably closer to four minutes.
If you like Ill Nino, you’ll probably like the new Lacuna Coil cd.
If you want something “out there” i suggest The Mars Volta or the Dillinger Escape Plan. Props if you like it, because most people just dismiss it immediately as crap. Not all music’s for everyone i guess…
Seeing the likes of Sepultura and Oingo Boingo being brought up in this thread, I think Finntroll should also be worth checking out. The albums Jaktens Tid and Nattfödd are both highly recommended.
Fairport Convention. Prolly heard them already but if not, they sound like Jefferson Airplane only more folk, or folk only more psychedelic.
Also, Piper at the Gates of Dawn by Pink Floyd has a good psych-folk feel to it.
Syd Barrett’s solo stuff is like that too, with a little straight-up singer-songwriter in there as well, which seems to go along with some of your other choices.
MC 900ft Jesus - One Step Ahead of The Spider (An entirely listenable album with a couple of real jems on it)
The Beta Band - The Beta Band (clever songs, good tunes)
Space - Spiders (Poppy music, very dark, clever lyrics)
and for a great album that is seems most non-canadians have not heard:
Blue Rodeo - Five Days In July (The only weak part of this album is the one guitar solo. The rest is rock solid)
The New Pornographers (Try ‘Mass Romantic’ or ‘Twin Cinema’) Neko Case (“Blacklisted” and “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” are both five-star CDs) The Jayhawks (Try “Hollywood Town Hall”, “Tomorrow the Green Grass”,“Rainy Day Music”,“Smile”) The Decemberists (“Picaresque” is awesome, as is “Castaways and Cutouts”
You might also like Beck (“Odelay” is his ‘must listen’ CD).