Oh…and I have a soft spot for The Ting Tings. : )
Rilo Kiley would be my number one (and their solo projects). Their live show is energetic, different each time, vocals and the music are as good or better than their albums, and you get the feeling they truly love their music.
Few others:
Franz Ferdinand
The Killers
Matt Pond PA
Interpol
I am blanking on the others I wanted to say…
Metric would probably be my second favorite, right behind the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
I’d have to say that the band that fits for me in the last ten years would be The Dandy Warhols…
Disturbed.
Very hardcore, great sound, WONDERFUL backround guitar that compliments vocals, and a great drummer.
They suck live however (or at least they did when I heard em. Lead singer whose name I cannot remember sounded terrible, the rest were fine)
Even though the Clash was founded in 1976, I’m going to run with the Mescaleros (formed in 1999), because Joe Strummer rocked!
Number 2 is the Killers. Got tickets for them in September!
I’d have to say The White Stripes as well. And I’ve seem them live, and they absolutely kicked ass.
I’ll toss in a vote for The Derek Trucks Band and Gov’t Mule as well.
If we’re talking about bands that were active in the last 10 years, I’ll add Wilco and The Jayhawks.
Some more:
Spoon
Arcade Fire
The Bottle Rockets
The Decemberists (for suitable wide definitions of “Rock Band”)
The New Pornographers
I think the Decemberists have a strong claim to being the most creative rock band of the past 10 years. I don’t know if they’re the “best” or not, but they never fail to come up with interesting lyrics and it’s really great to have a rock band who sings about stories in their songs and about history.
Queens of the Stone Age are out in front for me, by a distance. After Songs for the Deaf it wasn’t even close, no hard rock band produced anything like the quality of their first three albums in the last decade. Since then, their star has waned somewhat with their last two efforts being a bit ordinary. Overall, though, I’d still say they were the strongest.
QotSA coming off the boil may be due to the Bez effect. Bez, if you’ve not heard of him, was the dancer / mascot / drug dealer of the Happy Mondays. A guy who ostensibly did fuck all but appeared to be critical to the band’s structural integrity. In QotSA, Josh Homme handles songwriting, singing and all serious guitar work, whereas Nick O took care of the hard drug use and getting one’s johnson out on stage commitments. NIck O left after Songs for the Deaf, and things started to go downhill.
White Stripes also a good choice. Jack White is the most impressive rock star I’ve ever seen live, by a country mile. It was like seeing Jimi Hendrix or something, amazing performer.
Relevant within the last 10 years: 311
Formed within the last 10 years: Gosh I can hardly think of any rock bands I listen to that were formed within the last 10 years. I guess Dragonforce just barely makes the cut, if you consider them “rock”, but I was pretty disappointed with their last album.
<looks up the Decemberists>
If this is rock, Sufjan Stevens is rock. So my answer is Sufjan Stevens.
Again, if we’re talking “relevant in the past ten years”, then my vote is for Porcupine Tree.
Steven Wilson, PT’s bandleader, doesn’t produce “neo-prog” (i.e. faux-prog) – there’s really nothing “progressive” about a band in 2009 making records that sound like they were recorded in 1971. Instead, PT produce genuine progressive rock.
The highlights of the last ten years: Stupid Dream (1999), In Absentia (2002) and the Nil Recurring EP (2007). The track “Arriving Somewhere But Not Here” from 2005’s Deadwing, however, is a perfect encapsulation of their current sound.
Excellent idea for a thread, Enniaunus.
Green Day and The Killers pop to mind immediately. System of a Down is right there, too, as is Death Cab for Cutie.
Am I the only one who is a little freaked out by White Stripes?
Using the ‘relevent over the last ten years’ I think Radiohead, Sleater Kinney (broken up) and Beck have to be on the list.
I’d include LCD Soundsystem and Beta Band (since broken up) to the ones already mentioned in the ‘formed in the last ten years’.
But the top of the list of ‘new’ bands for me would be White Stripes, the National, Spoon, and the Strokes.
Formed within the last 10 years:
British Sea Power
The Decemberists
The Hold Steady
The Rosebuds
Iron & Wine
Relevant within the last 10 years:
Bright Eyes
Okkervil River
New Pornographers
The Brian Jonestown Massacre
Drive-By Truckers
Bands I really like at the moment, but it’s too soon to tell how well they’ll hold up:
Gaslight Anthem
Bon Iver
Los Campesinos!
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Relevant over the last 10: Beck.
Formed in… can just an artist be named? I’d say John Mayer. I’m afraid I’ve never even heard of most of those already mentioned. Apparently I’m pretty far out of the loop.
Yeah, I know it makes me sound like an old fart, but almost everything I’ve heard in the last 10 years sounds completely derivative of stuff I heard in the 30 years before. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy a lot of the music from the last 10 years, just to say there’s not many newer bands that have their own unique sound. I really like Jet, but they almost sound like an AC/DC tribute band; Mastodon, like Motorhead had a love child with Metallica.
Flogging Molly impresses the hell out of me, as do the White Stripes, System of a Down, and Franz Ferdinand, among a few (very few) others. These guys might sound vaguely reminiscent of earlier bands, but they have found their own voice.
Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros
Franz Ferdinand
The Hives
Bloc Party.
To me, no other band comes close in the last 10 years.
:eek:
not even CLOSE to hair metal. Not even close. Not even remotely related.
I mean, Mastodon cites Neurosis as their single biggest influence. You ever listen to Neurosis? It’s not even in the same galaxy as hair metal.
You don’t have to like them, but geeeeeeez.