Wow, I do live under a rock

In reply to Beer Baron :

Your post made me do some research it’s coming up 38 years ago I first the Violent Femmes at the SUB Ballroom at UBC.

In reply to z31maniac :

I'll admit I only hear new bands thanks to my old bass player.  But his life is music, much more so than mine.  I have too many hobbies... 

Along with GVF, what are other standout acts to get familiar with from the past 10 or so years? Preferably more rock-bent. I've been finding new-to-me music on Spotify, but it's mostly deeper dives on older artists who I was only passingly familiar with.

Ones that spring to mind...

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - some solid stuff, other albums a bit weird.

Glass Animals

Billie Eilish - for some reason didn't click for me; think it may have been that I was going for a run, and it wasn't the right energy for that.

Kendrick Lamar? - I like some hip hop, but mostly golden age stuff. The lyrical density of a lot of modern stuff is technically impressive, but I have trouble actually following it at that point. I much prefer smoother and more laid back flow.

In reply to Beer Baron :

I'm a big fan of The Strypes, though they broke up a couple years ago.  A bunch of scruffy Irish teenagers shouldn't be able to pull off that much garage-band swagger, but they did, at least for a few years.

The two bands I mentioned in my earlier post, Rival Sons and Royal Blood, both make new rock with a classic feel.

More hillbilly surf music than straight rock, I also love Southern Culture On The Skids.  They've been around forever but they're still bringing it.

Red Fang. Stoner rock. I blame Poopshovel.

In reply to Appleseed :

Red Fang is awesome.  The music is good, but their videos are just epic.

I'll have to check them out! I always go back to early QOTSA, Kyuss, and Fu Manchu for stoner rock, just wish I could still partake in the stoner part. Not because of drug tests or antything, anymore it just makes me crazy paranoid. Would love more suggestions for that type of music. 

z31maniac said:

I'll have to check them out! I always go back to early QOTSA, Kyuss, and Fu Manchu for stoner rock, just wish I could still partake in the stoner part. Not because of drug tests or antything, anymore it just makes me crazy paranoid. Would love more suggestions for that type of music. 

Look up the Stoned Meadow Of Doom on that tube-y thing.

For lighter stuff in the same vein, try Where Postrock Dwells at the same source.

In reply to z31maniac :

The Sword, Down. If you've not tried them you should. 

In reply to z31maniac :

Bongzilla if you want  heavy sludge.  If you try you can still find some old  Lunatics on Parole on the tube for something you can actually understand the lyrics. It comes and goes, and the quality isn't great, but they never made it huge.  I'm still as big as a fan as I was in high school though, Kenny the Gardeners voice just works for me. 

I have a lot of trouble with new music. A lot of the new stuff I listen to is just "new to me", which is disappointing when you go "oh this is awesome" then look and the singer has been dead 5 years or the band broke up a decade ago with only one album or even track available. I gave up on the FM radio 20+ years ago, Spotify has helped, and on rare occasions YouTube will throw something strange into it's "all your playlists wind up being the same" rotation. 

I've lately taken a liking to white trash rap just because I think it's funny. This is different than hickhop, which I'm also a bit of s fan of. Hickhop is more countrified pop rap a lot is just redneck remixes of rap songs, white trash rap is umm let's go with berkeleyy. Some surprisingly good beats though, even if they're rapping about welfare fraud and pain killers. 

In reply to Beer Baron :

I like Billie Eilish but she's not running music.  I've also been listening to twenty one pilots a bunch, Imagine Dragons, Doja Cat, and Blackberry Smoke. Their not really that new but their new to me. 

I live under a rock and never heard of more than half the bands mentioned in this thread. Stumbling around on youtube a while back I came across this busker guy named Dovydas. People can request almost anything and he'll work with it, even if he's never heard of the artist or song.  To say the guy is talented is a serious understatement. Next time you're on youtube check him out.

Thanks for all of the suggestions, I am working my way through the list.

In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :

Enjoy, I try to listen to someone new every week. It's not all great but you never know if you don't give it a shot. 

 Giving 'The Battle of Garden Gate' another listen to... everyone compares GVF to Led Zep, but I mostly just hear that in their tone, rather than any direct lifting or copying. Even then, mostly just in the singer's tone. I hear far more direct influence from Supertramp than Zeppelin. The instrumental foundation of the last half of the finale track is almost directly lifted from the finale of "Crime of the Century".

Wally (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Beer Baron :

I like Billie Eilish but she's not running music.  I've also been listening to twenty one pilots a bunch, Imagine Dragons, Doja Cat, and Blackberry Smoke. Their not really that new but their new to me. 

Gave several of these a listen to. Also gotten me thinking about my musical tastes. My preferred genres are definitely very blues/jazz based music - classic/blues-rock, soul, and funk; or grunge. I have pretty wide ranging tastes, but I find what I like are really outstanding works in any style more than any style in particular.

One of the big things I have very mixed reactions to is looped tracks and programmed drum beats. Sometimes I usually hate that and think it's just lazy, but sometimes I think it's perfect. Like, NIN's "Closer" needs those programmed beats. But that mechanical nature heightens the tension and oppression of the song.

Doja Cat - really not my style. Got through half a song, and it's pretty much everything in modern pop that I am not a fan of.

Twenty One Pilots - better than par, but didn't quite click for me. Not quite my style and not exemplary enough in its style to really impress me. It's not Chemical Brothers or The Prodigy. I think my big feeling was that most of their music would have been better with live instrumentals; that the reason for using programmed beats, loops, and samples wasn't to achieve a specific aesthetic, but to just be able to make music with limited resources.

Imagine Dragons - Haven't really listened to a full album. Enjoyed some of what I've heard. I think them and AWOL Nation use programmed beats in the way I find purposeful... at least sometimes.

Billie Eilish - Need to listen to more, but when I'm in the mood. I think she fits solidly in that camp of not being my preferred style, but an exemplary artist of her particular style making art I can appreciate and enjoy.