Alot of people know about Arcade Fire, but not many people listen to them. I think they hit the perfect balance between rock and folk in their sound. I love it. Catchy at times, complex most other times, they have an unmatchable style. One of my favorite bands ever. I mean, who else do you see dressing up amish and acting angry all the time, while still playing music that is deeper than most other people today, though they're pretty mainstream. When they settle, its beautiful, when they rock, its powerful. Its emotional.
Beirut is brilliant, though I've been waiting for them to do some more with their sound for 4 albums. Their folk/indie stuff is brilliant, and beautiful, and some of the lyrics sort of blow you away. Its sloppy at times, but you know that its real, stripped down orchestration. And its beautiful.
Related to Beirut is Alaska in Winter, who tries to fuse some of the folk sounds, with Hip Hop. I don't really care for it, though I admit, it is really different. Zach Condon from Beirut appears on the album
Sufjan Stevens also does some of the folk rock type stuff, with catchy songs, and sometimes going to electronica. I like how carefully every instrument is played, and how sensitive he is musically. But when he goes hardcore, he goes all out, like his cover of You are the Blood. He also has massive albums. He thinks really big, and takes it carefully.
And DeVotchKa is really good too, though I only know their song, How it Ends, which was in little miss Sunshine. I really like folk-indie-rock. Feist also does some folk stuff, like 1234.
There's The Foals, who have a strongly processed pop-rock sound. Catchy stuff, all sounds the same, and their guitarists use too many harmonics in an annoying way.
Telecast has a really awesome guitar sound.
Athlete has a nice sound, and catchy stuff.
Nobody listens to Jazz anymore, so I like Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Duke Ellington (I'm a throwback when it comes to jazz), and Miles Davis. Some Cannonball Adderly is nice. I like stuff that swings like 20s-40s than the modern funk and groove, though It's fun. Some of the 50s and 60s stuff like Brubeck and Desmond is awesome.
Black Label Society is Zakk Wylde's Band, the guy who played for Ozzy Osbourne after Randy Rhoads and Tony Iommi. He can shred like nobody's business. Kind of depressing themes though.
The Blakes are sort of White Stripes inspired, and sort of Energetic and it sometimes feels like they're drunk.
Billy Boy on Poison is also like the White Stripes in a full band and not as stripped down. They have attitude. But no one can really be the White Stripes. And no one can really try to be better than Jack White on guitar, who sort of rejects the whole concept of "better" with his minimalistic approach.
Blur is Damon Albarn's first band. Not to special with their sound. I love the Gorillaz, but they're mainstream
The Creaky Boards and Joe Satriani tried to sue Coldplay over Viva la Vida, and failed. But their own versions of holding out the major 7th in a chord where nothing to laugh at.
Speaking of Satch, he is a brilliant guitarist, Shreds like nobody, taught steve vai. Actually, their live shows together with another guest guitarist, called g3, are incredible.
Another awesome guitarist is Mark Tremonti, who just got back together with creed, who everyone knows. About as mainstream as you get. Alter Bridge was basically Creed with Myles Kennedy Singing, but no issue. How many people knew Alter Bridge? I'm not quite sure.
With all that shred though, I really have to kick back and listen to the greatest guitarist of all time IMO. Hendrix. The sweetest Strat sound I ever heard, the smoothest licks, and he couldn't be classified to being fast or slow. If there is anyone to go after, its hendrix. I cite him as my number one influence for guitar. Then the Edge somewhere after that.
Alot of people here know MeWithoutYou, but its another folky type affair. Recently. I liked their hardcore slam poetry like stuff of their earlier years, but its all brilliant just the same. Really different.
VNV Nation is an industrial techno duo, who do some pretty dark but catchy things. Daft Punk is another Techno group I like.
For Modern classical Pianists these days, (Who listens to classical?) I like Ingrid Fliter, Evgeny Kissin, and Aldo Ciccolini. They are really fast, as should be expected of classically trained musicians, but sensitive in their interpretations. Kissin has the best performance of Liebestraume I've ever heard, as well as inspiring performances of some of the Chopin waltzes. Fliter is graceful, but blazing, especially on Fantasie Impromptu, while Ciccolini has my favorite performance of Arabesque and A Schubert Impromptu.
I like alot of Orchestral pieces, but nobody really owns them, so I can't really call them out.
I like some Underground Hip Hop like Extended Famm, PackFM, Tonedeff. They have a sense of humor, without too much of trying to prove too much. But I really like Grande Marshall... who is in my class. I'm planning on setting up a gig with Xavier where I DJ for him. Or play the piano while he raps. He's insane. He's gonna go Pro or else I don't know what.
Alot of people know Vampire Weekend, and call them Awesome. I think they're overrated. Their stuff is catchy, yes. But they sound like college rock trying to be yuppie while being too white. And there's not much too it. I can only listen to it in the background, or else I get mad at the sloppy instrumentation, nerdy lyrics and lack of too much depth.
The Violet Burning came out of Vineyard, and did some christian 90s grunge-punk and worship stuff sometimes. They sounded a bit like The Smashing Pumpkins.
They Might be Giants has been around forever. They have some of the nerdiest lyrics I've heard. But its funny. Lots of Puns, very entertaining, fun to listen to. Maybe not that deep, but fun.
Grits and Cross Movement is Christian Hip Hop, which tells us why we listen to Jay-Z, Kanye, Lil Wayne and Lupe in the first place. Its not that good.
Oasis came back recently with an awesome new album after their slump.
Sixpence also got back together. Not sure how mainstream they were, but they had a beautiful sound. Complex, intriguing, mysterious. Leigh Nash had alot to do with that, but really, the band made it its own.
Five Iron Frenzy was cool. Ska is an interesting thing I should probably experiment more with.
Bjork. Nothing more to say. She has an aggresive, yet childish voice, extremely different. The accent has alot to do with it, but her personality is something else. She comes up with some beautiful stuff, and one time, she did a song with Thom Yorke for a movie. That swept me off my feet.
Radiohead is pretty mainstream, though their experimental stuff earlier in the decade was brilliant. In Rainbows was a bit more sane, and I loved it for that, but you felt like a lunatic when you listened to the amnesiac, Kid A, and Hail to the Thief. That was definitely awesome.
There's a band called Everyone, who our church knew personally, meaning I guess I did too, being a pastor's kid. They made an album, then split because of pressure, which is why I am probably not going to pursue a musical career. Too much stress.
Andy Hunter is good.
Alot of people know the hives, but they rock. And Pelle Almqvist is one heck of a frontman.
Modest Mouse is really catchy. They have an awesome sound. Their song was on rockband recently. So they're not underrated anymore.
White Rabbits. Where to start on them... They are really throwback. And really Cool. They kind of act like 50s Gangsters, and do alot of older sounds. Like a latin Sashay little thing. But they have a really neat sound. Check them out.
There are some neat Euro Bands like Belle and Sebastian, Elbow, The Zutons, Razorlight, Maximo Park, Kaiser Cheifs, and Keane. I really like Keane.
Then, Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters started up a super group, Them Crooked Vultures with Queens of the Stone Age's frontman, and Led Zepplin's bassist. Awesomeness. Really 80s/90s rock.
Well... I'm about 1/4th the way down my iTunes list... I should probably stop here. I have alot of other bands to suggest. Look these guys up. They're great.
My favorite Bands are U2, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Muse, Coldplay, Hendrix and Beirut. Maybe the Strokes too. Pretty Mainstream, though I knew Muse from their first album before anybody else did. I just basically went down my Itunes list just now.
Oh right. One last one. There's this guy I know, Matt Kim. He's this kid that has a microphone and did some recordings in his basement.
He's me. Shameless Plug:
http://www.myspace.com/mattkimdemos and
http://whiteflame-xiii.newgrounds.com/audio/Only Old stuff. Nothing within the past 6 months, when my voice started getting deeper.
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