Rock Recommendations

The Pattern! Um, that was going to be followed up with a list of other stuff, as I'm sure I've been more rocky recently, but I can't think of anything right now.

m.o.p. - warriorz.

I was going to start my own thread, but now I might as well borrow this one. I need to get an xmas present for Sara. She likes: Rammstein, Papa Roach, NOFX, Linkin Park, Green Day, Kylie, Bon Jovi, Limp Bizkit, Oasis, Toploader etc (Just think about how lovely she must be otherwise. She's not particularly into music anyway, and I'm crap at talking about it, so it's no problem. We did manage a perfectly intelligent discussion about I'm A Slave 4 U's production).

Basically glossy overproduced chartpop dressed up as angry and agressive and edgy heavy roXor (NB "Du Hast Mich" by Rammstein). And as obscure as possible please, though I do need to get hold of it quickly.

m.o.p. - firing squad.

why the new dismemberment plan, of course.

that should be enough, mind. but in case you needed more...

yr non-hardcore d.c. record might as well be jawbox's "for yr own special sweetheart", which as at least one person who patrols these boards will agree, is the best d.c. related record of the 90s. maybe "isn't anything?" if yr going to include ride? the new les savy fav is quite good. ummm...lightning bolt? christ i'm going rock-lite these days.

oh, every gurl needs the fushitsusha double live record.

m.o.p. - 'how about some hardcore' 12"

I was a bit like your friend.. I have found some sweet rock thrills in these... Sunday's Best, Arlo, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Sahara Hotnights... I'll think of some more in a bit..

The Hives... International Noise Conspiracy.. Gluecifer..

oh, swervedriver! why don't more people like swervedriver? "mezcal head," natch.

and "seamonsters," by the wedding present! now it's all coming back to me...drive like jehu's "yank crime"?...

Jess, you ignorant slut, you took my suggestion (the 'Driver, natch - _Mezcal Head_ is sublime). As for Archers of Loaf, I think _Vee Vee_ is a much stronger choice (if only for "Harnessed in Slums"). Also, SUPERCHUNK (duh). And, the dark horse candidate (and the most rock of the bands I'll recommend) - Prisonshake.

PS - Silkworm's _Firewater_. PPS - Spoon's _A Series of Sneaks_. PPPS - Versus' _Two Cents Plus Tax_. PPPPS - MISSION OF FREAKIN' BURMA. And I'm spent.

This is so IL* -- when I posted this, I'd already considered Isn't Anything, Seamonsters, the International Noise Conspiracy, the Dismemberment Plan, and Jawbox. The Dismemberment Plan and Seamonsters will definitely go on. I might pass on Isn't Anything because I sold her on Loveless a few years ago and recommending more MBV will make it look like I have nothing new to offer. It also struck me today that the record most similar to the Strokes might just be the Jesus and Mary Chain's Automatic. I want to include the International Noise Conspiracy but I haven't heard the whole record, and as such can't really push it too strongly.

The New Pornographers record would probably really appeal to her right now, which makes it both sad and funny that I took her burned copy last year. She didn't seem to care for it back then, but I don't think she'd bothered to listen to it very much.

Dave: She's already well into Versus, which I should have mentioned as it gives clues to what sort of rock she likes thus far. I thought about Superchunk, but for some reason I can't think of an individual record that she'd like. Actually, I think she'd quite like Indoor Living, but I'm not certain it's quite what she's looking for now.

You mentioned Burning Airlines, Nitsuh. You could do worse than pushing their first record on her.

This is so IL*

well, fuck you too, buddy. ;)

I thought about Superchunk, but for some reason I can't think of an individual record that she'd like.

wouldn't here's where the strings come in be the mid-point between the rumpus of the earlier releases (yay!) and the "maturity" of the new ones (boo, hiss)?

side question, nitsuh: is there any sort of music you'd like to "get her into" otherwise? i ask because i just listened to nowhere becuz of this thread and now i listen to gas' pop which does everything i wanted nowhere to do with no concessions to rock within 1000 miles. (just another examples of how rock and i are more and more of estranged cousins...)

Unwound's Leaves Turn Inside You. *There's* your modern rock.

All my picks have been mentioned, rats...I'll just give a secondary shout out for Les Savy Fav. Frikken good record.

Best Superchunk album, I'd think, given her fondness for Versus, would probably be _On The Mouth_ or _No Pocky For Kitty_. Can I mention Prisonshake again? (If you're shunning the White Stripes, though, you'll probably want to shun these cats, too.)

I'd recommend throwing her a curveball, though, and starting her off with US Maple & the Scissor Girls, yeah. Mess her head up real nice like.

How about the Foo Fighters, are they rock?

Clinic Clinic Clinic! Um, but if she digs that Stooges vibe... maybe some Make Up (altho that is DC) or the Gossip. The new Spiritualized is pretty rockin' as well. Unwound, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Spoon, Built to Spill.

Royal Trux, the Grifters, Rocket from the Crypt, Jon Spencer.

it is: Nevermind by Nirvana (tho' i should imagine you'll already have that!), Surfer Rosa by the Pixies, Mary Chain = YES!!! Honey's Dead, mmmmmmm. How about a bit of Velvet Underground action? or Ramones/Stooges as that's what the Strokes seem to have nicked lock stock and barrel? And don't forget the girls - Breeders, Le Tigre, Sleater Kinney all rock hard!

if you like the Strokes, the SUBSONICS album on Get Hip from a few years back is sorta like that except good.

Helen Love!!! for that ramones vibe, though i'd be hard pressed to admit that HL rock out.

Second the Les Savy Fav, Plan and Seamonsters suggestions. Fugazi or Drive Like Jehu?

Andrew WK. *Ducks for cover*

Did I already say I wuv Alan? Helen love POP though, don't they? They just do it quickly and loudly.

This morning Plug In Baby by MuZor* came on the radio I turned it up LOUD. This is a serious suggestion.

Is anyone answering my question, or does it serve me right for thread hijacking?

(* I mean Muse, obviously)

Um - like Katie said, some of the Strokeses' influences wouldn't go amiss. Television?

Also - if its all about rock + hooks - Cheap Trick!

THIS from the man who refused to play "dream police" at the last sussed.

Fleetwood Mac. everyone needs Rumours in their collection.
If you think that's too soft rock for her, I'd suggest Tusk. hahahahaha

Because "Dream Police" is wanky. CT that's been played in my sets = "Surrender" (multiple times), "I Want You To Want Me" (studio), "ELO Kiddies", "He's A Whore"

Def Leppard's "Hysteria".

THE ODDS !

Lift to Experience, Juno, Les Savy Fav and Cave In

Recent rock release that should be easy to track down, that I recommend: Lift to Experience - The Texas Jerusalem Crossroads passionate, emotional soaked - epic full on rock sound. If someone told me 12 months ago that I would enjoy an album by 3 christian dudes from Texas, with cowboy hats and sideburns - I would have have laughed - but credit due with they help of Robin Guthrie/Simon Raymonde - Lift to Experience have delivered.

What about the recent album by Juno - A Future Lived In Past Tense heard a few tracks they seem to have their own epic rock sound unlike any other band in 2001, like early U2 crossed with Sugar's first album.

And also I second RickyT - Les Savy Fav - Go Forth is an album to check out, if you want something epic, arty and post punk influenced.

and finally I will keep mentioning it .. Cave In - Jupiter - the finest American rock based record of the millenium so far - the production and guitar effects are stunning. To be honest an album as sublime as Jupiter will take some matching, maybe Botch can deliver next year, with a follow up to the 1999 release - We are the Romans ? but I think that album would be way too radical, unsettling and challenging re the initial brief of the question.

i'm with katie on pixies albums. possibly trompe le monde though as it's me fave. surfer rosa does however 'rock' slightly more. a classic deep purple singles collection is unlikely to dissapoint. i also reckon that the ua years collection of stranglers singles is pretty damn good, if you aren't going to go down the individual album road.

actually my tastes are getting more and more prog and folk orientated so i am probably unqualified to advise here.

You Aint Seen Nuthin Yet by Bachman Turner Overdrive OBV. More seriously, Pinback or some more of Rob Crows bands. If you find Heavy Vegetable stuff though, send it to me first... please? I only have some very poorly burnt mp3s from downloading frenzies of YORE...

CERTAINLY NOT DEEP PURPLE. And why did you have to sully my life by mentioning the Dandy Warhols?

A Perfect Circle - Mer de Noms

Another vote for Cheap Trick here. "In Color" is the one to get... this isn't a joke, btw.

Delgados

BLONDE REDHEAD. Everybody I know who hears Blonde Redhead loves them. I'm going to see them tomorrow at Irving Plaza and - (cheesy Nu Shooz sample stabs) - I can't wait.

These bands RoXoR:

Led Zeppelin (though not in the kind of way you want if you've been turned on by The Strokes) The Stooges Motorhead Spacemen 3 (some of time, and in a gaywad indie kind of way) Metallica Black Sabbath

And many more.

If you are going Archers of Loaf, then you should pick "vs. the greatest of all time"

I looked at Classic Rock magazine today and worked out that I have about about 20-5 of their 100 greatest albums! How cool is that?

You've all done good work, in that many of your answers were things I hadn't mentioned she already likes. I.e., you were right! Here's what I just wound up recommending to her, based on further questioning about what exactly she wanted:

1. The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
2. The Wedding Present - Seamonsters
3. Ride - Nowhere
4. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
5. Superchunk - Indoor Living (or) On the Mouth
6. The Breeders - Last Splash
7. Gang of Four - Entertainment
8. The Pixies - Trompe le Monde

1, 2, 3, 6, and 8 are things I think she'd just really enjoy, particularly 1, 6, and 8. 4 and 7 are attempts to get her started on liking particular sounds that I don't think she's spent a lot of time on before. 5 is mainly just canonical, although I think she'd really dig Indoor Living.

Can I add that I really, REALLY don't like "On the Mouth" (a.k.a the only Superchunk record I've heard.) It cost me close to nothing and I don't think I got my money's worth. I can see understand the appeal- "driving", "energetic", "rocking!" but ho-hum riffing and uninspired generic indierawk buried under muddy production- what's to like?

I think Superchunk, being central and canonical to what's really a huge vein of similar rock, had to be heard at the time to seem significantly better than others in that vein. In retrospect, it doesn't seem like much, but at the time it was a little more striking.

Maybe that was a bad recommendation, then ...

If it's not too late to add another band, how about the Dambuilders holy trinity of LPs - Encendedor, Ruby Red, and East/West.

It is my contention that Nitsuh doesn't understand rock and roll. Where's the outright rocking here?

nitsuh is otm about superchunk, although in light of that mitch is oohg about "on the mouth." as i've probably posted elsewhere, "foolish" was probably the most important record in the world for me for a good two or three years, but listening to it now, there's nothing other than nostalgia which would draw me to it. perhaps it really was a zeitgeist thing: ameri-indie of the 92-95 variety ("foolish," "slanted," "bee thousand," etc.) "new" music in a superchunk vein would likely turn my stomach these days, combining - as it does - power-pop/rock and semi-twee proto-emo confessionals.

The Gories, The Dirtbombs, X

It is my contention that Nitsuh doesn't understand rock and roll. Where's the outright rocking here?

It is my contention that Mr. Ickless didn't read the question carefully enough: this is meant to be a slight rock shift for my girlfriend. You happen to be right, though -- I am not so attached to rock and roll.

Martian is absolutely correct. Lift To Experience are class. Noiiiiiiiiiiiise. And it's biblical too.

I think N. may have been confused by phrases like "Rock that's just rock, not a particular rock-niche spinoff?", y'know? ;)

Nitsuh is AFRAID TO ROCK!

Nitsuh is right. I didn't read the question properly because it looked long and I'm a busy man. However, I still maintain it's harsh to make her listen to Superchunk records.

So, did she already have that Unwound album? Because if she likes that, she'll LOVE Ultra Vivid Scene.

The New Pornographers sound frighteningly like The Wonder Stuff to me.

I will admit that Tom is quite right: I was spiritually troubled by the all-out rock until maybe a year or two ago. It all goes back to being 12, and watching all the other middle school kids go nuts over Bon Jovi, Lita Ford, and G&R. That stuff did nothing for me -- I had already fallen hard for effete British pop types, and was a calm kid to begin with -- and its adoption by those other kids, who I by and large loathed, didn't help. I think part of enjoying the rock is feeling that you're included in the rock -- for instance, feeling that a band's aggression is your aggression, rather than aggression being pointed at or imposed on you. Probably there's a guilt-by-association scar being left here: "rock" becoming symbolic of the meanness and ignorance of kids at an out-of-the-way American middle school.

Clearly I have some issues here beyond just rock.

That said, the only thing this has actively kept me from liking is Siamese Dream, which I imagine I would have loved as a teenager had I not had this aversion to the Big Rock. I do like plenty of things that "rock" -- I think I just tend to like things where the classic conventions of "rocking" are subverted a bit (punk, post-punk, noise, math rock, 80s industrial, bits of emo). "Arty" rock. But I'm also quite fond of T Rex, the Stooges, the Damned ... I dunno. I just tended not to buy much rock or follow much rock because I rarely felt the urge to listen to much of it. It's only since I've started working 9-5 that the urge has presented itself.

Regardless, this thread is about her rock aversion, not mine. Even if I listened to nothing but grindcore, AC/DC, and Led Zeppelin, my recommendations to her would still be not-entirely-rocking.

Oh, and Dan: I'm saving the Unwound for my next set of recommendations. (Daydream Nation is the switch for it -- if she loves that, I'll send her off in the Unwound / Blonde Redhead direction).

It also just occurred to me that if I weren't trying to have "good" or "interesting" recommendations, I would have suggested the first records by Weezer and Elastica, both of which are excellent, fun, accessible listening. In fact, I'll probably add those -- they won't broaden her horizons in any educational way, but she'll enjoy the hell out of them, which is more the point here.

yo i scream on niggaz like a rollercoaster / to them wack motherfuckas, go hang it up like a poster/ niggaz get excited, but don't excite me, don't invite me, i'm splittin niggas' heads where the white be / try to trash this, this little bastard'll blast it, only puttin niggaz in comas and caskets!

Ethan's just reminded me: have you guys seen those old rec.music.hip- hop postings by John the American Talib Walker?

"If I shoved a copy of critical beatdown by the ultramagnetic MC's up your ass, you still couldn't drop any phat shit. Take those generic lyrics back to your Wu-Tang Clan fan club meatings, SZA, and keep them out of the eyes of the public. Thank you sir."