flexagon | The quest: recent/current good music

A recent xkcd comic kicked off a spirited music discussion. People are recommending the following as good, recent picks:

EBM
psytrance (e.g, Infected Mushroom)
Dr. Dog
The Tiny
Regina Spektor (+1)
Broken Social Scene (and affiliates)

Neutral Milk Hotel (+2)

Dispatch
Black Keys
Great Big Sea (+1)
Flogging Molly

Some By Sea

PJ Harvey. Her latest album's phenomenal.
The Spores (+2)
Sigur Ros
Godspeed You Black Emperor
Aimee Mann
Explosions in the Sky
System of a Down
Mindless Self Indulgence (an acquired taste, but I think they're brilliant)
Ugly Casanova
Gogol Bordello
Ghostigital
Aesop Rock
Matthew Good (solo stuff, his MGB stuff is kind of generic)
The Hidden Cameras
Muse

The Knife - Silent Shout

Also maybe of interest: obscuresound.com's Best Albums of 2006 (Top 10, none of whom I've heard of)

When I answered my own query for recommendations I listed Tweaker, VAST, Final Fantasy, Lisa Germano's latest album... and today I bought some Tool, based on a video linked in the same discussion. So what do you think of the other things people recommended? Without spending a long time on either Amazon or Pandora I'm not sure where to start with a list this long.

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I loved that xkcd comic and I tend to agree with him on that. There are some musical influences from that era that loom very large indeed. I would put U2 and REM up there from recent times, but they aren't really our generation at all.

From that list, the only one I know is PJ Harvey, and she's quite good. She has a unique style. But I couldn't just sit down and listen and absorb her like I can a Led Zeppelin album...

Nirvana was hugely influential, and solidly of our generation (I assume you're the same general age as flexagon and I).

Other influential musicians (at least loosely) of our generation:
Tori Amos
Pearl Jam
The Pixies
Rage Against The Machine
Green Day
Metallica
The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Dr. Dre

Radiohead may actually trump all of those in influence, and I thought I had written them in. Oops.

Will come back and answer this when I've got a bit more time. :) To start with though, Sigur Ros is one of my favourite bands, but they may not be to everyone's taste. Godspeed and Explosions in the Sky are in the same genre: lush guitar heavy instrumentals that are sort of dreamy at the same time. One of the guys in Sigur Ros tends to play his guitar with a violin bow. :)

EBM - I'm assuming they mean the genre (electric body music - don't ask me): I've got a fair amount of this stuff, but it gets overplayed at the nightclubs I go to, so I hear it enough to not need to own it. Bands I'd say were iconic in this genre: VNV Nation (very anthemic), Apoptygma Berzerk. Then add: And One, Stromkern. I've been meaning to track down some Infected Mushroom for a while, been hearing good things about them.
Bands my friends are into but I haven't had a chance to check out yet:
Neutral Milk Hotel, Great Big Sea (into = travel to the UK to see a concert), Flogging Molly (ska/punk I think), PJ Harvey, Explosions in the Sky (concert review by cris (http://cris.livejournal.com/164093.html)), Gogol Bordello (gypsy punk is the term I've heard most often used to describe them, I keep missing their concerts, I'd also recommend Bella Morte in a spiritual sibling sense - the guys are mohawked punks with a great sense of humour that play things that range from rock ballads to punk odes to zombie girlfriends :) ).

Oh yeah, I love Bella Morte, at least their first album Where Shadows Lie.

Thanks, your comment was really helpful. I've been told that Pandora now has predefined "genre" stations, so that should help with figuring out EBM at least. :)

http://somafm.com/ has a station called Doomed that might introduce you to some more stuff as well. I tend to stick with their Groove Salad station for work, and Secret Agent as background music for the house. :)

Wow, I'm pretty surprised by a couple that you aren't familiar with - especially broken social scene and gogol bordello. BSS has a song that is one of my all-time faves, along with HB, and we went on and on about it a while back. Gogol Bordello is one of J's faves, he used to babble on about their song "start wearing purple" All. The. Time. I don't love Gogol, but it's ok. They often do shows with Dresden Dolls, Humanwine and Balkan Beatbox. Ugly Casanova is fave of mine.

I'd throw Feist, Lily Allen, and Koop on the list off-hand.

I only know that one song by Broken Social Scene, that I've heard in the company of you and HB. Never bought any albums.

I'm both annoyed and glad that you mentioned Lily Allen... I just discovered her 2 days ago and purposely didn't mention her because I was gonna give it to you as a present. I was pretty sure you'd like the snarkiness and the accent. SIGH, gotta go, I have a drawing board to get back to. :P

Our taste doesn't seem to overlap much, so I can't really recommend anything. Many in your "recommended to you" list are quite good.

The quest: recent/current good music

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