Question for you old folks: What contemporary bands do you like?

OK, it's a copycat thread, but I post it with sincerity. Personally, I've always followed new trends in music, preferring not to stay locked-in with the music of my adolescence or young adulthood. I kept current throughout the seventies with progressive rock bands and seminal punk, the eighties with new wave, the nineties through grunge and later alternative rock. I admit that I haven't followed trends in music for the past few months, tuning in NPR on the radio whenever I drive and foregoing listening to music while DUing or pursuing some other form of online activism. I have two sons, age 19 & 17, so I get a lot of exposure to gangsta rap from the older one & to other current music from the younger one (he also listens to a lot of music from MY day, oddly enough! Big fan of the Beatles & Led Zeppelin!).

My current favorite contemporary musicians:

Green Day (been a fan of theirs for some time; like 'American Idiot')

Linkin Park

Sevendust

Ben Folds

White Stripes

Good Charlotte

Note that I couldn't identify most of the members of these bands if I saw their photos, and I don't have the motivation to find out more about them or their personal lives that I used to have back in earlier days. I still like their music, however, and hope to continue following new music for a long time. I'm not content to tune in a 'Classic Rock' station and try to relive my youth vicariously.

I'm 35 but think I'm still consider myself totally up on indie, alternative, metal, and punk music. Probably more so than most teenagers. But only recently have I become less aware of what is going on in mainstream pop music, but I'd still say I'm in the top 25% as far as awareness level of people my age.

I'll be curious what my daughter (who is 3) will like musically since I listen to a lot of weird, bizarre, and heavy stuff which is more typically what kids listen to in order to piss their parents off. Does this mean my kid will like ragtime jazz or country or the worst pop music ever to rebel against me?

I don't care for the gangsta rap that my older son listens to exclusively, and some of the music my younger son listens to - pop from the seventies like 'Alone Again, Naturally' and 'Kung Fu Fighting' set my teeth on edge.

It mutates a bit, but it's always identifiable.

Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra, Circa 1941
Source: http://www.tuxjunction.net/

He just may make a name for himself one day......

:-)



Source: http://www.tuxjunction.net/

just whom are you addressing as old?

Back when I was a young feller, I used to listen to that "hep" band, the Great and Full Dead. I also used to like that James Hendricks chap, but he scares the Mrs. now, even though he's gone to meet his maker. Now that I'm gettin' up there in the years, I mostly listen to Henry Mancini and such.

Once in a while, when the Mrs. gets into the elderberry wine and "snoozes" all night, I crank up the old Victrola and put on some of the modern combos like Green Day, especially "American Idiot." I also enjoy Eminem, Black Eyed Peas, Skinny Puppy, and Bone Thugs and Harmony.

The best thing about being old is not caring which combos and genres are "hep," but, instead, having developed an appreciation for a variety of genres over the years, listening to everything and liking it for what it is.

So, dude, what it is! Now where the hell did I put my damn cane?

'Man, this band sucks!' Just kidding!

Sez this old hep cat, who once saved up his allowance to buy a nice new vinyl copy of the "Hard Day's Night" soundtrack...

Boyz to Men

Green Day, old but dependable
Linkin Park
Used to like Kid Rock, til I found out the Hillbilly thing wasn't a put on and he supports Chimpy
Beastie Boys are always great
Marilyn Manson

I've heard their latest album has some political content, so I'll have to give it a listen.

ended up on my 'shit list' after he revealed himself as a chickenhawk. Go enlist, punk! (and I don't mean punk in a complimentary way, either!)

It would take too long to list them all -- plus I generally remember songs -- not groups.

But I am going through a Four Star Mary phase right now.

Lyrics: "Pain".

Feeling i've been lost for years
you can never understand me
unless you've seen those tears
but you never get to sleep
when i'm away
i don't mind
the deeper that you lay
out of time

pain, i can't sleep
pain, i can't sleep

running, running from those things
there's another one inside me
guess i've gone insane
but you always run away
when i come around
i don't mind
the day i'll track you down
run you down

pain, i can't sleep
pain, i can't sleep

don't stop, don't talk
do not fuck with me
don't stop, don't talk
do not fuck with me

loaded, i've loaded up this gun
there's a killer in me
hoping, hope that you're the one
but you always run away
when i come around
i don't mind
the day i'll track you down
and terrify

pain, i can't sleep
pain, i can't sleep
pain, i can't sleep

...

And it really does sound like "things", not "days".

(Same age as Johnny Rotten - to within a week)

White Stripes are very good. System of a Down I enjoy, especially the hints of middle eastern.

I also like Sleater Kinney and have been getting into Deerhoof too.

I like very much! I hadn't included them because I didn't know if they were still current. I listened to them quite a lot around the turn of the century :P

I rarely listen to the radio these days, unless it's Air America over the 'net, and the only time I hear what accounts for modern music is when I watch a TV show that happens to feature some music. Having said that, how "old" some group is doesn't really mean much to me, because I can barely tell one current pop group from another. I did hear Barenaked Ladies, which from what I saw are neither, and I found them comfortably nice, and I do like Seal, but he's not really a "band" so I guess he really doesn't count, but unless a song is particularly appealing to me, it's not going to have much impact to make me find out more about them.

I discounted them when I first heard them, but they grew on me after a while.

They're rather bland to have such a rabid following. But maybe that's a sign of the times.

They were born of a publicity stunt over 10 years ago. Their :15 are so up.

Just a few that pop into mind.

BTW -- this is a much better thread, in my humble opinion.

My fave contemporary list would include:

Pink Martini
The Bad Plus
Plastilina Mosh
Kinky
Flogging Molly
White Stripes
Paris Combo
Madeleine Peyroux
Martin, Medeski & Wood
Stanton Moore
Bebel Gilberto
Dido
Ozomatli
Tanghetto

Maroon 5 - best new band CD I have heard in a long time

Matchbox 20

Cheryl Crow

Green Day

Santana - okay he's not new but his last two CDs are some of the best ever.

All relatively new, in that I'm older than most of the members. Im's 37.

since Sitting Bull told them to strike up the Drums and head down the hill ! Duh....I like a lot of the stuff now and loved the 70, and 80's. That was a funny question. But here lately its Johnny B Goode by anybody. Bruce Springstein and the E Street Band and last I heard the Stones are still together. Cher is kool but not a band.
I have had a band, very hard to keep together.

and I think I have an old CD of theirs (the first one) but I don't know-I like Flaming Lips, Radiohead, Scissor Sisters, Massive Attack, RATM, NIN, OutKast, Pink. Gwen Stephani, Cibo Matto, de la Soul...I don't know how much of that is still current. I grew up with Elvis, The Beatles, The 4 Seasons, James Brown, The Shirelles, Ray Charles, Little Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5, Little Eva, Mary Wells, Leslie Gore...