10 bands you should make sure you've heard in your life...

Let's start this off with something of a disclaimer. I listen to music. I mean, I listen to a lot of music. I listen to music pretty much any chance I get. This also means that when I discovered the internet and Napster back on my 56k in my early days of high school, I began finding all sorts of new, fun bands. This also means that whenever I mention a band I really like they've heard of them and they rarely talk about music I care about or enjoy. When I do mention a band, I get told they're too underground and no one knows about them but me, and when I criticize other people's tastes, I am an elitist. I understand I am not an authority on the subject, in fact I think anyone that considers themself an authority on music (with the exception of possibly Steve Albini) is probably a worthless shmuck.

As my collection has grown over the years, so has my quest in the world to introduce people to new music. This is not a "YOUR BAND SUCKS" post and I understand most people in the world don't really care about the music they listen to, if they did bands like The Pussycat Dolls would not exist. Ok, that was a cheap shot. I simply get some kind of sick pleasure from introducing people to new bands they really enjoy because I remember the feeling of discovering bands that eventually would become some of my favorites, hence the reason for this post. I like introducing people to new music, and as such I hope you, my faithful reader, will take the time to at least listen to one or two songs by each band I mention.

This is not a "Top 10" list, rather this is just merely a list, in absolutely no particular order, of bands that I find incredibly enjoyable and talented. It seems like everyone that I used to discuss music with now gets all their news from www.pitchforkmedia.com and takes the reviews and opinions like it's some sort of indie rock Bible. I really don't care about the latest electro-no-wave-bliss-pop-shoegaze band. I find much more enjoyment out of sifting through piles of albums that are complete dogshit and coming out with one that is an absolute diamond rather than have some pretentious jerk telling me what band I should like in order to remain "hip." But anyway, this isn't a rant about what's wrong with PFM, this is a "Hey, you guys should check these bands out because I like them a lot." I understand some of these bands won't be for everyone, and that's fine, but you should at least give them a fair shot.

The main criteria I used for this list are as follows:
1. Personal Enjoyment - obviously this should be at the top of anyone's list if they're recommending a band to someone else. If it isn't, that person is name-dropping bands to try and make them sound more musically "in-the-know" which is dumb. Own up to what you like and don't like, if you hate The Pixies it doesn't mean you're some kind of ignorant dipshit, it means that they're not your cup of tea and that's it. One of the great things about music is that you can develop your own tastes and find bands that fit them perfectly, there's never a need to settle for less. Most of these bands are bands I've listened to for years and have consistently remained in my playlist regardless of what else I've discovered.
2. Popularity - Let me explain. It won't do me any good to recommend bands people have heard of, however, some of these you probably have whether it was through me or through some other means. Anyway, some of these bands do have large followings wherever they go, but most have remained on independent labels and mostly under the radar for as long as they've been around. I am also taking into account their popular appeal to people that generally don't listen to whatever genre the band may belong too or have possibly never even heard of the genre. Obviously, while I may like a band such as The Locust, I'm not going to find many people going "Hey man, remember when you recommended me those guys that were screaming at me and sounded like complete chaos, something similar to a train hitting a bus full of screaming babies while the guy from Casio was making his first keyboard? They'll fit in totally awesome next to my Green Day albums." I'm trying to recommend bands I think people may enjoy that aren't drastically different from what they may have heard, however, if you want some bands that the order of the day is abrasiveness, feel free to let me know and I can recommend plenty.
3. Context - Bands that have a significant impact in their genre or musical scene at the time almost always have a reason for that impact. I can't count the number of times I've heard a band and gone "Hey, band X sounds like band Y and I've listened to and liked band Y for a long time" then find out band X came first. Almost always, this results in me listening to band X and realizing that band Y is just a watered down knock off of band X. This then results in me listening to band X, enjoying band X even more than I enjoyed band Y, and finally understanding why they made such a big influence.


So now that my disclaimer is out of the way, I will begin with the bands shortly. Feel free to post comments and opinions on my own feelings of music or opinions on the bands. I always enjoy a solid discussion of music, however, be aware that once you start a conversation with me about music it will probably go on longer than you planned.

(ps. this post may or may not be disjointed because for some reason I could only sleep for 4 hours last night and woke up hungover. I think you can make sense out of it though.)