Music suggestions?

[ExCyber]

I'm going to violate one of my sacred personal traditions and actually start a thread in the General forum, as I've been thinking about something lately: I've been having a bit of trouble finding new music to listen to that's not total crap. As most in the US are well aware, our radio stations tend to be quite weak, with most able to do little more than repeat today's and/or yesterday's Top 40, perhaps roughly filtered by genre. My genre of choice happens to be "hard rock", which -- like most genre classifications -- is a fairly meaningless label, so I suppose I should provide some semi-random reference points for artists I do like -- a lot of these fall under the generic "classic rock" umbrella and likely mark me as a hopeless social outcast for listening to most of this stuff at 21, but there are a few notable exceptions:

Led Zeppelin

Pearl Jam

Stone Temple Pilots

which leads us to...

Creed (I'm well aware that they're not musical geniuses, but the results of rehashing Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, et. al. is more tolerable than 90% of new rock I run into, even knowing that they're probably not doing much more than "composing by numbers")

Styx

Kansas

Journey

Dream Theater (though I'm a bit more partial to Liquid Tension Experiment)

Billy Squier

Queensryche

Blue Oyster Cult

.38 Special

Golden Earring

Def Leppard

Linkin Park (though pretty much solely for cathartic value)

Van Halen

Jethro Tull (though if you've only heard Aqualung, you probably won't quite pick up on the appeal -- there are some neat musical themes and lyrics in stuff like Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day and Teacher, among others)

Soundgarden

Bad Company

Rush

Yngwie Malmsteen (what little I've heard, anyhow)

slow Aerosmith (Amazing, Janie's Got A Gun, Dream On, etc.; I've gotten a bit tired of the generic rambling Aerosmith sound; I prefer the generic measured and grandiose Aerosmith sound now <_< )

Prologue, Young Nobleman of Sadness, The Dance of Illusion, and Wood Carving Partita from the Nocturne in the Moonlight soundtrack

Almost anything by Nobuo Uematsu

Most of the Revenge of Shinobi / Super Shinobi soundtrack

I don't really care that suggestions follow any particular genre or conventions, this list is just meant as a general guide to what I consider to be "good" music. If someone wants to recommend music that gets labeled as "country" or "alternative rock" or "Latvian nostril chant", then by all means have at it as long as it's an honest recommendation and not completely random. And if you kids start a flamewar, I'll turn this car around and go straight home.

 

[Reinhart]

I recommend under the 'hard rock' genre:

Paradise Lost : Symbol of life

Kamelot : Epica

Stratovarius : Episode

Therion : Secret of the Rune

Dream Theater : Image and words

Nightwish : Oceanborn

M'Z : Under the silver cross

And in a darker and blacker way :

Anathema : The silent enigma

Dark Tranquility : Damage Done

 

[Twillinx]

Pherhaps you'll like Gluecifer? On their latest album they've changed their sound somewhat. Maybe you should listen to samples from the latest and one of the others (4 albums total).

 

[Curtis]

You might like to try a few more Dream Theater side projects. Give "OSI - Office of Strategic Influence" and the two Transatlantic albums (SMPtE and Bridge Across Forever) a spin. Neither is what I'd call "hard rock", but both are very interesting CDs in their own right. The Transatlantic tracks are what I'd call "retro rock" - Beatles-esk, except with excesses of instrumental skill. OSI is kind of an electonically dark metal, if you can imagine that.

Other bands to try to track down might be:

Nine Inch Nails (Only have The Fragile, love it absolutely)

The Tea Party (Canadian lot, singer sounds like Jim Morrison. Looking at your list, I'd say Transmission would be right up your alley)

Fates Warning (don't have any of these CDs, hear good things about them)

I'm a musical outcast too. 🙂

 

[mal]

Originally posted by Curtis@Sep 16, 2003 @ 09:09 PM

Nine Inch Nails

Got to agree, however I've only got the earlier CDs.

I haven't listened to the Tea Party in ages.

Goes and digs out Transmission

 

[Curtis]

It's been a while since I've heard it too - it's the only damn CD I forgot to copy (that I wanted) before my brother moved out. 🙁 😛

 

[mtxblau]

ExCyber, your music tastes seem to coincide with mine, so I'll toss these two out there:

The Dandy Warhols

and

Ani DiFranco

The latter not being mainstream by any stretch of the imagination; I'd highly suggest downloading an mp3 or five before going out and buying any of her cds (there's a learning/tolerance curve with her music). The former is just really good tunes.

EDIT: There's an outstanding Indie band that I had the honor of seeing live, called Sho'Nuff. http://www.shonuff.com/ Outstanding music, all their tracks from headcheck are available in mp3 form on the site.

 

[IceDigger]

Try Defender and Trystania, very good.

 

[Nadius]

From what you listed, the closest thing i can think of is, "Ted Leo/Pharmacists"

Oh yeah, and Journey rocks.... well not without Steve Perry.

 

[crystalmethod]

I'm gonna agree with the Dandy Warhols as well as NIN. Trent Reznor is prolly one of the biggest geniuses in the music industry. And by the way...I think their best album was The Downward Spiral...but hey its a matter of choice.

I think I wanna add the Eagles to the list because, for lack of a better word they have some truly chillin work. If you wanna step into the mainstream try Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins or Green Day.

Oh and try supporting Canada by checking out I Mother Earth, Sum 41, The Tragically Hip and Our Lady Peace. (Superman's Dead is a cool song....)

 

[IBarracudaI]

Originally posted by crystalmethod@Sep 16, 2003 @ 05:12 PM

If you wanna step into the mainstream try Nirvana ...

humm, actually the real nirvana sound isn't that mainstream musics everybody knows 😉

What about all the grunge scene? Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, Melvins, Silverchair... Soundgarden.. Alice in Chains.. Foo Fighters... Pearl Jam.. (lolol .. better stop ).

you got the idea 😉

 

[Nadius]

Originally posted by crystalmethod@Sep 16, 2003 @ 02:12 PM

Oh and try supporting Canada by checking out I Mother Earth, Sum 41, The Tragically Hip and Our Lady Peace. (Superman's Dead is a cool song....)

That reminds me, Broken Social Scene. They're pretty good too.

Also, if you haven't, try some older Radiohead. Their stuff from The Bends and OK Computer in particular.

 

[Pearl Jammzz]

Pearl Jam....fave band of all time, check out teir new live album, the pennsylvania one. it's great, 3 cds full of hits, plus a few comedic moments by vedder. I picked it up for 16 bucks I believe, not bad at all for 3 cds.

 

[Cloud121]

DEF LEPPARD! 🙂 😉 😎 😀 :lol: 😛 :cheers :thumbs-up: :bow

Also, I'm a nig J-Pop fanboy. That's about all I listen to anymore.

Ratt kick ass too. 😀

Edit: Er... whoops. I noticed Def Leppard in there after reviewing the post.

Def Leppard = Greatest Rock Band Ever! 🙂 😉 😎 😀 :cheers :thumbs-up: :bow

 

[Curtis]

Originally posted by MTXBlau@Sep 17, 2003 @ 05:55 AM

EDIT: There's an outstanding Indie band that I had the honor of seeing live, called Sho'Nuff. http://www.shonuff.com/ Outstanding music, all their tracks from headcheck are available in mp3 form on the site.

Nice recommendation MTX! 🙂

I downloaded a few of those track - very cool stuff. Were you in the audience by any chance? 😉

 

[NR Pickle]

My newest listening has been A Perferct Circle: 13th stelp. Great cd.

Then we have my all time fav band, rage against the machine. Their best cd imo is Evil Empire but the others are great to. An few good songs too check out are year of the boomerang (evil empire) and born of a broken man (battle of los angelos).

Oh yea, Down Rodeo and Bulls on Parade kick ass to. Both are from Evil Empire.

 

[aaron]

download these songs and let me know what you think:

Trial - "Reflections"

Morning Again - "As Tradition Dies Slowly"

His Hero is Gone - "Like Weeds"

 

[Curtis]

Doh! How could I forget - the two Coldplay CDs Parachutes and A Rush of Blood To The Head

 

[Myname]

I'd say Tool are the closest thing there is to a Led Zeppellin these days, in terms of depth and originality..

Otherwise, you might like Queens of the Stoneage. And if you don't, you should 🙂

 

[crystalmethod]

Queens of the Stoneage is the shit! Gotta love anything Dave Grohl touches....