I'll keep my list really short because I did listen to alot of music I liked back in the day.

Cracker is my favorite biographical band. Their songs,musically and lyrically, just seem to fit my life and outlook snugly. Camper Van, Dave Lowrey's old band, was cool but struck me as too clever for clever's sake. With Cracker he hasn't lost any wry wit but appears to have gained maturity and perspective. His storytelling skills are just remarkable. The Replacements were closer to my life for similiar reasons in the past as was REM.

My favorite zeitgeist band is, eerily enough, Shriekback. The best concert thread got me thinking about them so I put on their seminal album "Oil and Gold" from 1985. This is haunting, sometimes menacing, alternative dance music from the period with intense and cryptic lyrics. Most of the songs could have been inspired by the last week or two. There are songs of bittersweet sadness and longing, thundering anthems about the hypocracy and cruelty, ignorance, technology, death, greed, and fanaticism.

"Malaria" might have been written about the US waking up to where it is after the tragedy: "Living in a neon house, living on avalanche row, I'm living in hangover city. And all these unforseen things tumble down." And "Syndication and sympathy, my word for you but not for me, I love you best when it's all a mess. Will you lie for me, cry for me, die for me? Will you, please? I'll never, never, never, never, never say no."

"Fish Below The Ice" could be an attempt to caution what we must do next - or else, "We get it right sometimes, we shine a light sometimes, we see the fish below the ice sometimes. Stand up and fight, sometimes. We get the fright sometimes. How will we ever pay the price this time?"

All of them are like this. "Nemesis" is a poetic work of clashing images, decadence and twisted evolution at work in the midst of it. "Health and Knowledge and Wealth and Power" could be about the self-indulgence and ruthlessness of the capitalist-consumer West while "Hammerheads" could easily be lambasting ignorant religious fanatics who cloak themselves in hate and tribalism - but are determined and dangerous despite it all.

The whole album creeps me out. But so do recent events.

My some of my Favorite rock bands (though i listen to rock and roll much less these days ...)

The Beatles / John Lennon / Paul McCartney etc
R.E.M.
The Pixies
The Replacements
Nirvana
Bob Mould / Sugar / Husker Du
Smashing Pumpkins

and various others i cant remember...

I mostly listed those bands becuase i can usually put those on a spin and listen to em ... and definitely the Beatles! never got old to me.

etc

In no particular order:

Depeche Mode
Sublime
Deftones
The Cure
Duran Duran (sure it's fluff, but it's listenable fluff)
New Order
Incubus
Tool

That's probably my top-8 list.

If you like Nirvana, check out Puddle of Mudd. The guy sounds almost identical to Kurt Cobain. The music isn't about heroin, and they've got a bunch of good tunes.

The Like list...

Alice in Chains
Nickelback
Queensryche
Live(1st 3 albums,they SUCK now)
Megadeth(Youthnasia album and afterwards)
Men without Hats(The Safety Dance!) Anybody whose has the balls to sing that crap gets a thumbs-up from me.

The Despise list....

Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit
and
Limp Bizkit

:)

-Monkeybutt

Favorite Bands... Let's see...

Weezer
Quasi
Elliott Smith
The Beatles, of course
Radiohead
The Kinks
The Presidents of the United States of America
Modest Mouse
Cake
Cherry Poppin' Daddies
The Widgets

Off the top of my head.

Brad Grenz

Um...

The Velvet Underground
The Stooges
The Kinks
The Zombies
The Remains
The Jam
The Who
Rocket from the Crypt
Guided by Voices
Elliot Smith
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Small Faces
Teengenerate

This is tough to do without limiting yourself to certain time periods or genres...

-Matthew

There are a lot of bands that I really, really like, such as Tool, REM, Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, Dave Matthews Band, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, etc.

The Catherine Wheel, Queensryche, Radiohead, The Cult and, believe it or not, Dokken, are probably my top five. George Lynch can play guitar like nobody's business. (I even own his crappy rap/rock album, Smoke This.)

Rage for Order and Operation: Mindcrime are two of my favorite albums, especially Rage for Order; I really wish Queensryche would've explored that musical avenue a bit more. For those interested, this Tuesday will see the release of a new double live album by Queensryche along with a re-release of Operation: Livecrime. (There will be an Operation: Livecrime DVD release in November.)

Wow, a couple of Elliott Smith fans, cool. He's most excellent. Seems like anti-gamer music, considering gamers seem into metal or more aggressive stuff...

The Replacements are my Beatles. For anyone to listen to them today without the context of the times (1983-1992 or so) or to be 16-24 (which was the time period they existed to me) might not get it. But at certain periods, everything from Let it Be through All Shook Down meant WAY too much to me...

But most of my favorite bands, as with many people, are from late high school, into college, like REM, U2, Nirvana, Screaming Trees (the best of the Seattle bunch, in my opinion), Radiohead, Matthew Sweet, Elvis Costello (I think I own everything he's recorded, even the weird shit), Beatles, early Stones, this Canadian pop band named Sloan that no one else seems to like, SLEATER-KINNEY (for Wumpus), PJ Harvey, Urge Overkill, Wilco, Spiritualized, Guided by Voices, Beck... the list could go on. I'm probably forgetting too many faves, but for all of these bands, I buy whatever they release, regardless whether I've heard a song or not.

And no, I don't believe anyone would list Dokken as one of their favorite bands.

The Replacements were awesome... THE best slacker band (in a good way), i dont like the overly intellectual ironic Pavement lo fi stuff too much ... Westerbergs solo stuff is good too... in a watered down Replacements way. The Replacements are like one of those bands you listen to when you have a hangover... they feel like a hangover, at least All Shook Down does.

Though all the Chicago hilly billy stuff.. like Wilco, i prefer not to like em, there depressing and boring imo ... i just like beatlesque pop bands that try to be a little different and are in a punk vein... i think?

etc

The Replacements represent a shameful and inexcusable hole in my record collection. I have Let it Be (which I love) but that's it. Which albums are essential? Which should I get next?

-Matthew

Rush. Enough said.

My Replacement favorite albums include Tim and Pleased to Meet Me. There's one song in particular that was our theme song in college called "If Only You Were Lonely" that I found on a compliation. Not sure where that one was originally released. Most of my albums got messed up in a move. I'm 100% CD now but haven't replaced all the old vinyl yet.

I saw the Replacements play in DC right after "Tim" came out. They were not a tight band in concert. In fact, they were quite loose. In fact, I believe they were stoned or drunk out of their minds. I didn't recognise a single song they played...and I knew every song they had released up until then. "Let It Be" is still one of my favorite albums of all time, but I never listened to the Replacements quite the same after that horrible concert.

>>Though all the Chicago hilly billy stuff.. like Wilco, i prefer not to like em, there depressing and boring imo ... i just like beatlesque pop bands that try to be a little different and are in a punk vein... i think?

You never heard "Summer Teeth" by Wilco, did you? While their first record was more like the stuff Jeff Tweedy did with Uncle Tupelo, they've turned into a Beatlesque pop band, with some Beach Boys, vintage 60s synths, great pop songs, man.

>>I have Let it Be (which I love) but that's it. Which albums are essential? Which should I get next?

I'd say Tim and Pleased to Meet Me are essential, and despite what naysayers said, I really like All Shook Down (as mtkafka said, it sounds like a hangover, and most of the songs sound vaguely unfinished).

They also have a "greatest hits" called All for Nothing/Nothing for All that covers everything post Let it Be, and comes with a second CD of outtakes and alternate versions. Plus the CDs have music videos, including the seminal video for "Bastards of Young," which consists of a shot of a speaker. MTV refused to play "The Ledge" because it was too boring.

>>There's one song in particular that was our theme song in college called "If Only You Were Lonely" that I found on a compliation. Not sure where that one was originally released.

That's on a little UK compilation called "Boink," which I have on cassette somewhere. That's a funny song. "I saw you standing next to that videogame," or something like that. It also has "Nowhere is my Home" which was recorded by Alex Chilton (another fuckup who was a big influence from his Big Star days... "I never travel, far... without a little, Big Star").

>>In fact, they were quite loose. In fact, I believe they were stoned or drunk out of their minds. I didn't recognise a single song they played...

Yeah, this was a problem. I have some bootlegs of such shows, like the legendary "Shit Hits the Fans" show, where someone yells out for Iron Man and they start War Pigs, then stop and actually play about 30 seconds of Iron man that sorta rocks... and they do the most awful version of "Fuck School" to the music of "Let it Be" (the Beatles song, not their album title)...

Ah, memories... I actually listened to some old 'Mats CDs yesterday thanks to this thread.

I like the famous band ZZ Top because I think it is the most like what American music is. And I like Americans! In Finland, there is a group of men called Mieskuoro Huutajat (Men's choir shouters) who are yelling a lot of songs and even the Star spangled banner! Maybe some people would like this?

Short and very sweet:

Whitesnake
Mr. Mister
Foghat

;)

Oingo Boingo

*Smacks Forhead* How could I leave Big Star off my list?! Have you heard the Chris Bell solo record? It's really good. It shows just how important he was to Big Star, in spite of Chilton getting the lion's share of attention as the difficult genius. As my ex-girlfriend once said about the Velvet Underground, "More Sterling Morrison, Less John Cale." What I've heard of Chilton's solo stuff is pretty hit or miss, but I like "Flies on Sherbert" and absolutely love the 3rd, "fucked up" Big Star record. Very good record for sitting in the dark, smoking cigarettes, drinking bourbon, and moping. Then, the bonus track on the CD tacked on after the album proper where they cover "'Till the End of the Day" (my favorite Kinks song), always brings a smile to my face, and gets me out of mope mode.

-Matthew

>>*Smacks Forhead* How could I leave Big Star off my list?! Have you heard the Chris Bell solo record? It's really good.

Yeah, it didn't move me that much. A few good tracks, a bunch of filler (it didn't help that it had too many outtakes and such).

>>What I've heard of Chilton's solo stuff is pretty hit or miss, but I like "Flies on Sherbert" and absolutely love the 3rd, "fucked up" Big Star record.

His solo stuff is mostly a train wreck, though I saw him put on a pretty normal show. He ignored all the requests for Big Star songs, of course.

And yeah, Sister Lovers/Three is pretty cool... some pretty weird stuff on there. All this depressing mopy stuff with some dumb-ass lyrics followed by great ones... Nighttime being a perfect example of "bonehead" lyric followed by something wrenching.

And yes, that Kinks cover is great.

Steve: Yeah, I really love Elliott Smith. In fact I've got 5 Elliott Smith 45s pinned to the wall next to my computer here. And an LP on the wall behind me. I saw Elliott for the first time on Conan O'Brien playing Miss Misery. I bought Either/Or the next day (still my favorite of his albumns).

Have you given Quasi a listen? You like ES and you mentioned Sleater-Kinney, Quasi is somewhere between those two (like literally). The drummer from Sleater-Kinney, Janet Weiss, and Sam Coomes who played with Elliott in Heatmiser make up the group Quasi. In fact Quasi has even toured with Smith as his backup band. But their own stuff is incredible. Check'em out, if you haven't already.

Brad Grenz

In no particular order:

Matthew Sweet (the bitterness of the songs on "Girlfriend" perked me up during the most insane breakup in human history)
REM (am I on the only one who's liked their post-1995 stuff in addition to the "classics?")
The Lemonheads (I seem to have everything that Dando has recorded... He's my fave heroin addict)
Joan Osborne (her early blues covers especially)
Cracker
Sarah McLachlan ("Fumbling Towards Ecstacy" and earlier; trying to get in touch with my inner lesbian?)
Lenny Kravitz
Weird Al Yankovic

And when I get into the "wasn't college fun?" mood...
Pink Floyd
Violent Femmes
Depeche Mode
Monty Python

>>In fact Quasi has even toured with Smith as his backup band. But their own stuff is incredible. Check'em out, if you haven't already.

I haven't actually checked them out and have meant to. I saw them as the backing band for Elliott Smith.

>>Matthew Sweet (the bitterness of the songs on "Girlfriend" perked me up during the most insane breakup in human history)

Well, Girlfriend may have been bitter, but Altereed Beast is freakin' suicidal. That's a nasty, brutal, and ugly pop record.

And "Devil with the Green Eyes" is a fantastic song.

>>REM (am I on the only one who's liked their post-1995 stuff in addition to the "classics?")

Nah, their new stuff is great. I think their older stuff is somewhat overrated, particularly their first couple of records. I think their best record is Automatic for the People, and I really like New Adventures in Hi-Fi. The new one is pretty good too.

"You never heard "Summer Teeth" by Wilco, did you? "

Summer Teeth i got, I liked it, i put foot in mouth i forgot that album! There double album, whats its name, was pretty good too... yeah i think i was referring really to the uncle tupelo music, the one with the weird rusty thing on the cover... Wilco is like The Jayhawks imo, both me likes! Im an idiot with a bad memory !

etc

>>There double album, whats its name, was pretty good too... yeah i think i was referring really to the uncle tupelo music, the one with the weird rusty thing on the cover... Wilco is like The Jayhawks imo, both me likes! Im an idiot with a bad memory !

Yeah, Being There is the double album. I like the Jayhawks too, both do that Beatles-esque pop with a little bit 'o twang from time to time. That's about as close to country music as I dare get, lest I suddently get an urge to grow a mullet or something.

Some real interesting band choices for the group, eh? My tastes lean more towards Classical Music, New Age (Vangelis, Kitaro, Nirada collections, etc...) and Drum&Bass/Techno/House (anything with loud, rythmic percussion); but I do have a few favorite bands where I own every CD-tape-8track put out: ;-)

Genesis
The Police
Rush
Earth, Wind, and Fire
Queen
Alan Parsons Project
Spyro Gyra
Fourplay
Kool and the Gang
The Cars
Toto
Asia
The Fixx
The Moody Blues
Yello
U2 (early works)
Deep Forest
Steely Dan

I even liked the Village People. Heh.

Raphael