25 Top Bands

[KeithHernandez]

I was privileged to meet the man.  I posted about it on here some time ago, but essentially my friend an I were at a bar in a tiny town in Germany where he was playing.  We were the only English speakers there and struck up a conversation with him.


John Prine is an excellent songwriter.  Look for "Illegal Smile", "Paradise", or "Sam Stone".

Ah, I have heard of this "Illegal Smile" that you speak of.  I go to the Woody Guthrie Festival every year in a small town in OK, and I am pretty sure somebody played it.  Maybe Arlo Guthrie.

That is an awesome story about Richman, and yes, I am well aware that Johnson is a real pitcher.  He was good, too, even if he let them hit it once in a while.  I will definitely be searching for that thread.

[KeithHernandez]

The continuing Making It Up Watch:

Hobot: Neutral Milk Hotel
Cort: Architecture in Helsinki

Go on, I'm impressed with your imaginations.

Neutral Milk Hotel is a great band.  One of a handful of relevant bands that have been around in America in the last 10 years.

[pmcd9]

My top 25 looks exactly like yours except it has some different bands on it.  Actually, I spent about 20 minutes trying to put one together before I realized it was asinine to try to quantify your own personal tastes.

Funny that Judy would mention a band reviving another bands style and citing August list as an example of someone going back to the original source.  But Asleep at the Wheel is basically a Bob Wills tribute band.  They've taken it way past that, but yeah, that's where they are from.

Keith, you've been cool up to this point, but you turned to shit when you called Wombat a Jerk.

~Paul

[swinehund]

This was so hard. Only the top 6 are in any sort of order, as I tend to listen to the same albums over and over again for quite a while. Feeling the lameness.

1 Charles Mingus
2 Vandermark 5
3 Food
4 Earth, Wind, and Fire
5 Kool Keith
6 Parliament
7 Billy Idol
8 Pet Shop Boys
9 Shonen Knife
10 Micheal Jackson
11 Jeff Mills
12 Kid Koala
13 Red Snapper
14 Naoki - DDR stuff
15 Rachmaninov
16 Public Enemy
17 Adam Green
18 Katamari soundtrack - various
19 Ella Fitzgerald
20 The Residents
21 Manu Chao
22 De La Soul
23 Missy Elliot
24 Ween
25 Wesley Willis

[misterqueue]

See, the thing about these things is that I'm all torn.  I mean I want to make the "Important!" bands all in order, but at the same time; most of the time I don't listen to them.  I am all such as "Yeah man, they were really ground-breaking" and then I go into my car and put in something I can stand to listen to repeatedly. 

But, because I am a sucker for random lists, here is a list based off of what I actually sort of listen to lately.  (agonizing!)

1. Pinback
2. Aesop Rock
3. Radiohead
4. Bjork
5. Amon Tobin
6. The Pixies
7. Tom Waits
8. Soul Coughing
9. DJ Shadow
10. Built to Spill
11. Blonde Redhead
12. Ween
13. They Might Be Giants
14. The Smiths
15. Massive Attack
16. RJD2
17. Wu-Tang (Damn you flip, you beat me on this one)
18. Elvis Costello
19. Sigur Rós
20. Broadcast
21. Stereolab
22. Tool
23. Neutral Milk Hotel
24. Self
25. Meat Beat Manifesto (Only because Subliminal Sandwich is so fuck*ng good it makes me weep like a baby)

Goddammit.. i've been staring at this list since this morning trying to make sure I got it right and in the meantime Cort and Hobot already posted my list between the two of them.  Those fuck*ng guys.

[misterqueue]

This was so hard. Only the top 6 are in any sort of order, as I tend to listen to the same albums over and over again for quite a while. Feeling the lameness.

By the word of the Boognish, I said lordy lordy lord I'm comin' home!


Man, I can't believe they aren't up on my list... this is too tough.


Edit: Fixed that!  (Was missing one anyway)

[V-Adore]

I'm not even going to attempt to put these in an order. DO YOU HEAR ME? I SPIT ON YOUR ORDER!

Band names in italics are the "I know you're going to laugh, but these guys mean something to me" bands.

* TMBG
* R.E.M.
* Mono Puff
* The Flaming Lips
* Cake
* Raised By Wolves
* Moxy Fruvous
* The New Pornographers
* Neko Case
* Semisonic
* Ben Folds (Five)
* Simon and Garfunkel
* Creedence Clearwater Revival
* The Beatles
* Wolf Parade
* Belly
* Sufjan Stevens
* Counting Crows
* Green Day
* Harvey Danger
* Natalie Merchant
* The Dead Milkmen
* Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
* Thomas Dolby
* The Rolling Stones

Assembling this list, I realize that many of the songs that really matter to me are by bands I otherwise don't care about. I suppose that marks me as a product of Top 40...

[robot_god]

-John Coltrane
-King Crimson
-Pink Floyd
-Horace Silver
-Chemical Brothers
-Miles Davis
-James Brown
-Charles Mingus
-Funkadelic / George Clinton
-Medeski, Martin, and Wood
-Camel
-Genesis
-Pain of Salvation
-Rush
-Sonny Rollins
-Les Paul
etc.

[AugustWest]

18 Katamari soundtrack - various

I want this SO BAD.

[wombat]

Why does Q think the lists should not overlap?  Why does V think Simon and Garfunkel might be a source of comedy?

See, the thing about these things is that I'm all torn.  I mean I want to make the "Important!" bands all in order, but at the same time; most of the time I don't listen to them.  I am all such as "Yeah man, they were really ground-breaking" and then I go into my car and put in something I can stand to listen to repeatedly. 

Assembling this list, I realize that many of the songs that really matter to me are by bands I otherwise don't care about.

RIGHT. People on this board have given me lots of good musical advice, but somehow this exercise is oddly useless to me. Because I want to know what I might want to listen to over and over. I don't want a list weighted down by ponderous notions of Greatness and Trying To Impress People With My List.   Fuck greatness, it's only rock and roll.  I want to know what you love.

[swinehund]

I want this SO BAD.

It is so worth it. I bought it all the way from Japan on the internet.

[V-Adore]

Why does V think Simon and Garfunkel might be a source of comedy?

Because I'm a college student, and it remains just as uncool to maintain affection as a college student for music your parents introduced to in childhood as it has always been. So... y'know.

RIGHT. People on this board have given me lots of good musical advice, but somehow this exercise is oddly useless to me. Because I want to know what I might want to listen to over and over. I don't want a list weighted down by ponderous notions of Greatness and Trying To Impress People With My List.   Fuck greatness, it's only rock and roll.  I want to know what you love.

Dangit, now I'm tempted to retool my mixtape along these lines: The 20 Songs I Love Most From Bands That In No Other Way Matter. The problem is that, for me, this would end up doubling as The Great Singles of 1996-1997, because somehow half my musical taste got fomed when I was in seventh grade (the rest formed in eighth grade, when I bought my first TMBG and R.E.M. albums)... embarrassment!

[pmcd9]

I love so many bands and my tastes change so often, it's hard for me to guage which ones I like more than the other ones. 
For instance I am totally in love with The Faces right now, but it's entirely based on 1 CD I got last year and a bootleg I
got just before I came up here to Utah.  Are they really the greatest band ever?  Probably not, but based on how much I am
into them right now I might think that.  I know that there are other bands that I used to really dig that don't do a thing
for me anymore.  It seems like just a year or two back I couldn't listen to Franz Ferdinand enough, but I haven't listened to
them in months.  And I remember a time from my youth when Foghat, ZZ Top and ELO blew me away.  Hell I even had a brief
Journey/Styx phase.  I don't know, it comes and it goes.  These list are useless.  There are only a few bands that never go
out of style for me.  I could probably give you a definitive top 10, but beyond that there about 100 bands tied for 11th.
place.

1.) The Beatles

2.) Paul Simon

3.) Queen

4.) Neil Young

5.) Paul McCartney

6.) The Who

7.) Jimi Hendrix

8.) Rolling Stones

9.) Todd Rundgren

10.) Led Zeppelin

11.) Steely Dan

12.) Radiohead

Tied for 13th.  Spike Jones, Allman Brothers Band, Johnny Cash, Frank Zappa, The Flaming Lips, Tool, AC/DC, Willie Nelson, Beck, John Lennon, Bob, Dylan, Wilco, Muddy Waters, Bjork, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Merle Haggard, Bad Company, The Faces, The Kinks, The Band, The Decemberist, Janis Joplin, Rory Gallagher, Crack the Sky, Chuck Berry, Hank Williams, Bruce Springsteen, The Beach Boys (Brian Wilson), Grateful Dead, Nirvana, The Animals, Broken Social Scene, Little Feat, Calexico, Eric Clapton (Includes the Cream), Robert Johnson, Tchaikovsky, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Aerosmith, Louis Armstrong, Cake, Smashing Pumpkins, Pulp, Metallica, Tom Waits, Neko Case, Black Sabbath (Ozzy), George Jones, Rogers and Hammerstien, British Sea Power, Gershwin, Pink Floyd, Gordon Lightfoot, Beethoven, Buddy Holly, Rush, Otis Redding (and all of Stax/Volt), Deep Purple (includes Rainbow), Ry Cooder, Big Star, Dave Brubeck, Peter Paul and Mary, Iggy Pop, Marvin Gaye (and all of Motown), Kings X, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Roy Orbison, Steve Earle, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, etc...

~Paul

[swinehund]

Because I'm a college student, and it remains just as uncool to maintain affection as a college student for music your parents introduced to in childhood as it has always been. So... y'know.

My mom was pretty young, so for me the music in this category actually is the Billy Idol, Micheal Jackson, Queen, early hip hop, and the Phantom of the Paradise soundtrack. I never picked up the Alice Cooper or Black Sabbath, though. I suspect this means my mom was cooler than me.

[wombat]

I know that there are other bands that I used to really dig that don't do a thing for me anymore.  It seems like just a year or two back I couldn't listen to Franz Ferdinand enough, but I haven't listened to them in months. 

I know what you mean.  There is some music that gets worn out, and some that doesn't. I have found that sometimes I can even tell in advance - I can remember sometimes not buying a record because I knew I'd want to listen to it 25 times and then it would be worn out.

I have wondered if this is the ultimate test. Anything that you can listen to a hundred times when you first buy it, is still pretty damn good, but if you can still listen to it a hundred times five years later, that might be the sign of Ponderous Greatness.   But then I remember that, as I have posted elsewhere, I would be perfectly happy never to hear another Beatles song ever again - "ENOUGH already" is the only feeling their music gives me.  Surely that is very high quality and ponderously important music, but for me it fails the test.