help me find male-fronted contemporary alt-rock that doesn't bore me to death

Most of my favorite albums of the last few years have been from bands of women or at least women vocalists. Wolf Alice, Le Butcherettes, Warpaint, Screaming Females, Mourn. These bands harken back to late-80s/early-90s alternative rock for me: stuff that veers between hard/angry and epic/druggy/mystical. Grunge and shoegaze are sorta the main signposts, but not the only touchstones. I've been really happy to listen to so many bands with woman vocalists, especially because as a teenager I used to largely ignore women musicians. I had a lot of catching up to do - both in terms of music history and in terms of paying attention to my own surroundings. Obviously there are so many women who are superior practitioners of rock and roll.

I'd like to hear some good current albums with men singing though. There are undoubtedly thousands of options from throughout music history if I want to hear some dude bellowing about some shit. But at the same time I like to keep current with music and it feels off-balance that I haven't been connecting with any recent bands with male singers. And I'm explicitly trying to find newer bands, so stuff like the Failure reunion or the most recent Queens of the Stone Age album doesn't count.

Every time I try to listen to a modern alternative band with a male singer, I don't find anything there worth listening to. A lot of times I'll try to look at bands that are associated with the bands I like. When I was listening to Screaming Females, I saw that they were on a split with Jeff the Brotherhood, so I checked out Jeff the Brotherhood and wasn't impressed. For a while, Warpaint was friends with Foals, mentioning them on social media a lot and stuff. So I checked out Foals and they were ambitious and impressive in their own way but ultimately didn't hit the mark for me. I tried out some of Wolf Alice's tour mates last week. Can't remember who it was and I can't even remember what they sounded like. It goes on and on and nothing sticks.

I've also tried just going through record review after record review, hoping to stumble on something. But this isn't really the most popular aesthetic at the moment. Even narrowing Pitchfork's review filter to exclude everything except rock, the results are more like indie pop rock. I go through band after band and it always ends up being stuff that doesn't resonate with me. That's just one example and not the only source I read, but I think it still captures the general feel of what's out there.

Any suggestions? What am I missing?

tldr: Dudes who are rocking in the 2010s - Go.

i was asked this question recently and my answer was: thrice!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC3xaEw9PSM

Well, I'm quite partial to Parquet Courts, myself.

i guess thrice aren't very new at all lol

it's weird i literally can't think of any really recent bands that qualify. my other examples are all 30 year old bands that i think are making the best material of their career (deftones, mostly)

stuff that veers between hard/angry and epic/druggy/mystical. Grunge and shoegaze are sorta the main signposts, but not the only touchstones.

Naomi Punk!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd-yqes-0aw

long running but completely unknown mpls band i love
http://www.dallasorbiter.com/

oh yeah naomi punk is super good

I was an enormous fan of Illusion of Safety, but I keep checking in with Thrice and they've completely lost me. They sound more like rock radio alternative now, which isn't exactly what I'm going for. Has Thrice ever done a drug?

Parquet Courts lean more toward the "indie" side of things that I'm not really into.

how much underground/punk can it get?

They sound more like rock radio alternative now, which isn't exactly what I'm going for.

ah yeah, sorry, i was responding to the failure reference (which, failure have done way more drugs than thrice, but i think they have similar scale re: guitars)

Naomi Punk has definitely captured my attention.

I'd recommend watching this video about a thousand times, and then checking out any number of bands, as this is an insanely stupid question. Listen to like every recent Australian indie band ever or something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AO43p2Wqc08

i like this a lot has a commercial vibe but also some mission of burma/daydream nation vibes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f89NbJOcu9A

i'm not 100% sold on these guys as a whole but they have their moments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5k-h8tHOQg

ditto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3VGgWYtM70

I'd recommend watching this video about a thousand times, and then checking out any number of bands, as this is an insanely stupid question. Listen to like every recent Australian indie band ever or something.

http://www.youtube.com/v/AO43p2Wqc08&fs=1&hl=en

― dlp9001, Thursday, June 16, 2016 11:14 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's not a stupid question. I'm really trying to find representations of a particular aesthetic that I want to hear but I'm having a tough time finding right now.

What Australian indie bands are you thinking of?

Go ask glenn from Spotify Inc. to help you. I'm busy.

I think that band STNNNG has a dude singer, I think.

Oh, wait, here you go:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=spice+girls&&view=detail&mid=F564CC16D0D71AD0A6F3F564CC16D0D71AD0A6F3&FORM=VRDGAR

how much underground/punk can it get?

― Steve Gunn Mann-Dude (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, June 16, 2016 11:11 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Underground/punk can be a reasonable direction as long as it shies away from rote chord progressions. Also looking for people who sing more than yell. Like, I almost like Fucked Up. They're progressive, artistic punk. But the gritty hardcore vocals aren't what I'm interested in right now.

dlp9001 - what's going on dude?

Cymbals Eat Guitars are one of my favourite 90s alt-ish bands of the last while if they're not too indie for what you're looking for

dlp9001 - what's going on dude?

― how's life, Thursday, June 16, 2016 10:38 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he has some weird beef w/glenn & spotify he brings randomly into non-related threads confusing all involved!

Blank Realm

mac demarco

This is a trolling question, and deserves what it gets. Oh no, I can't find any rock groups with male singers who I like. Whatever will I do? There's a huge 80's/90's revival going on right now. It's not like someone who's looking for accordion music in 11/4 with a Canadian singer who has cerebral palsy and a pet iguana.

try this one out http://babysitter.bandcamp.com/album/babysitter

stfu dlp

i'm guessin Car Seat Headrest would be too indie, but i've been enjoying the hell out of their last two records

Cymbals Eat Guitars are one of my favourite 90s alt-ish bands of the last while if they're not too indie for what you're looking for

― ufo, Thursday, June 16, 2016 11:40 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This isn't exactly what I'm looking for* but I've listened to a couple songs and they're ridiculously good!

*I should have counted on the endlessly varying definitions of alternative rock, but I don't want to offer any more restrictions at this point.

royal headache maybe? swearin' ?

Oh help, I'm looking for a vintage shoegaze act with the initials M.B.V. but I can't seem to find anything that I like. Whatever shall I do.

I'm a big fan of Alcest's last album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADIEAW65H5o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wxZ1DV9xO4

This is a trolling question, and deserves what it gets.

The question couldn't be any more earnest. I was totally upfront about all the women bands I listen to. If there is an 80s/90s revival that fits in with what I'm talking about here, I haven't heard it.

oh and hey colossus

PUP is pretty good, though they may be a bit too emo for the purposes of this thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWYrgj_vZqI

Wolf Alice is not unboring

try this one out http://babysitter.bandcamp.com/album/babysitter

― de l'asshole (flopson), Thursday, June 16, 2016 8:50 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ this is a v good band

Go ask glenn from Spotify Inc. to help you. I'm busy.

― dlp9001, Thursday, June 16, 2016 10:24 AM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

neat retro-Gen-X-style trolling

from a couple of years back :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYRMxnXCU7Y

picked up the album last week, and its hitting the spot for me.

This is really good! But more classic rock-oriented than I'm thinking of. If you like this, you might like Soldiers of Fortune (with Matt Sweeney from Chavez). They're doing a balls to the wall 70s rock thing these days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRQeLFvOiIw

The Hotelier probably put out the year's best alternative album

I'm a big fan of Alcest's last album:

http://www.youtube.com/v/ADIEAW65H5o&fs=1&hl=en
http://www.youtube.com/v/9wxZ1DV9xO4&fs=1&hl=en

― volumetric god rays (DJP), Thursday, June 16, 2016 11:54 AM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'll listen to this for sure. I had listened to one of their earlier albums when I was trying to get into black metal and I liked it to a point. I'll give it a shot.

xp: I LOVE Hotelier's last album, but it was more like emo. I haven't checked out the new one yet.

ah i can't believe i didn't suggest cymbals eat guitars. they're so fucking good

xp : loving that soldiers of fortune !

will definitely pick that up if i ever see it ..
and yeah, its the full on dirty 70s groove that i love.
btw : think one of the blokes in free fall is from 'soundtrack of our lives' ..

PUP is pretty good, though they may be a bit too emo for the purposes of this thread

http://www.youtube.com/v/JWYrgj_vZqI&fs=1&hl=en

― a poon shaped mule (voodoo chili), Thursday, June 16, 2016 11:59 AM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Both of these statements are correct! I am getting a LOT of good emo recs in this thread, that's for sure.

My brother is the guitarist for this band; they're having a CD release party tonight in DC and are fucking LOUD live:

https://soundcloud.com/thaylobleu

Oh shit DJP, this is fucking rad.

Local dudes I'm completely nuts about:

https://mrsband.bandcamp.com

never realized what a complete asshole dlp9001 is, jeez

Ovlov

^^^^ best shit

oh hot damn Ovlov they are got damn hot

seconding the vote for double dagger even if i'm not exactly sure they fit the bill. (they always had a kind of 90s post-hardcore thing going on for me.)

yes! when I first saw them, at a street fair in 2006, i was like just fuckkk I've finally found a band like At the Drive-In - really heavy, really melodic, with a totally unhinged live show. Just explosive energy. And great, great tunes.

Came here to mention Wild Beasts and Field Music, who are the only two British 'indie' bands I've given a shit about for about the last seven years or so. Nice to see they've each already got a mention.

I'd have thought that both Wild Beasts and Field Music were exactly the sort of overgentrified 'rock' music that would bore the OP senseless. Like the first post is obviously fishing for a particular aesthetic rather than "please list a load of male-fronted bands you like".

There are very few questions to which "listen to more Australian indie-rock" would be the answer though.

Like a big problem is that a lot of this stuff is either an over-cautious recreation of a sound (like I dunno Yuck or whoever) or playing so safely within the well-established rules of a genre that it can sound lacking in conviction, which certainly isn't an accusation you could level at most actual early 90s grunge or alt/rock. A lack of genuinely compelling voices/frontmen doesn't help either.

Wild Beasts' first two albums are definitely not overgentrified, and the homing they've done to their sound on the subsequent two places them in not disimmilar territory to Warpaint, in my mind.

...stuff that veers between hard/angry and epic/druggy/mystical. Grunge and shoegaze are sorta the main signposts...

matt dc otm. a lot of folks responding don't even seem to have read the op.

Wild Beasts also hit the genuinely compelling voices / frontmen mark, I'd argue, especially on Two Dancers.

I think it's reasonable to expect people to post off-base responses in light of my original post. It didn't help me that I'm looking for a feel rather than a specific type of thing. What is "early 90s alt-rock"? Obviously alternative rock is a bullshit category to start out with. So are grunge and shoegaze. They mean different things to different people. For me is something like "the first few lollapaloozas but minus any funk metal or pearl jam". Or "a 1992 episode of 120 minutes excluding anything openly influenced by R.E.M. or XTC." Highly subjective territory, to be sure.

Matt's points about compelling voices/frontperson is salient for sure. Ditto "conviction".

Listened to Naomi Punk and Quest For Fire last night (both their most recent records).

Naomi Punk was incredible. It absolutely fits given the criteria, but was also like nothing I expected. Some very unusual, creative grooves.

Quest For Fire also hit the spot. It was a little more monotonous, but not unpleasantly so.

Will relisten to both but I'm going to give Alcest a try on my way into work this morning.

Quest for Fire broke up and are now Comet Control, which I think might be even more alt-rock...? Their first album was really cool.

Quite excited by the sound of some of these, I haven't actually heard of Naomi Punk or Quest For Fire at all but they sound great.

Idk what alt-rock even means, but you could prob do worse than check out Aqua Nebula Oscillator's Third . Totally great collection of thrill-ride garage-psych tunes

Shearwater

― heaven parker (anagram), Thursday, June 16, 2016 4:31 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Always get these guys confused with the band from Almost Famous.

Matt, I'm curious to know what you think of Thaylobleu

Beach Slang hasn't been mentioned yet, they can get a little emo but they mostly stay firmly on the alt side of things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxRolJBv3oQ

Also, the best rock band in the world is Hop Along, but they have a lady singer, so maybe they fit outside the parameters of this thread? Either way, Sister Cities is a goddamn jam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHs_5z9ikiw

Mrs. might be a little too angular and am rep/touch and go for what you're thinking of but they def pass the lead singer interesting/compelling test.

Also holy shit how did I not mention McLusky/Future of the Left.

You must be talking about a different Mrs. than the one I found

try this one instead

my favorite mainstreamy alt rockish album from last year was 'California Nights' by Best Coast but obviously not dude-led.

Besnard Lakes is a really good shoegazey kinda band.

never heard Wussy before, that track upthread is awesome

yeah, is good! and definitely evokes the post-grunge indie/alt 90s. combo of ragged psych guitar and reedy everyman vocals reminds me of stuff like st 37 and magic hour, tho it never goes all stratospheric like those guys.

Oohhh I need to check out Wussy; ST37 is one of my favorite bands

You into Iceage at all? Even if you dont really care for that band's political baggage, there're other bands that have sprung up in their wake working on a similar mode. Check out RA's Scandinavia and Heat Dust's self-titled record

Also the last Soft Moon record managed to combine many of the diverse stylistic/generic tics that a band labelled 'goth' can have. Works very interestingly as an amalgam of the Cure and Nine Inch Nails

this is so not my thing but i have to say that last baroness album was pretty awesome and hit a yarl sweet spot i never knew i had.

Oohhh I need to check out Wussy; ST37 is one of my favorite bands

i'm only going by the track kornrulez linked upthread. plan to dig deeper tho.

women - public strain
viet cong s/t
BEAK>>
ariel pink - before today

too dated?

Imo beak shouldn't really count as alt rock but yeah they're unreal.

listened to Purling Hiss – "Hey Tate" on a 5-hour drive yesterday and thought of this thread

http://youtu.be/N7m7ZcupF-E

I have no idea if they count as alt-rock as well as queercore or w/e, but I'm fond of Aye Nako:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aTslfGtUbf8

Also, Attic Abasement are satisfying if you miss David Bermanesque mumbling over jangling and lurching guitars: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UjxrqGGBhR4

re. Comet Control, & Quest for Fire, they're really good too!

They're pretty generic but I did like Nothing's last couple of records, they definitely scratch that shoegaze itch.

PROTOMARTYR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsSBZ1mpQpI

PISSED JEANS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BstpFV98mRg

If you're not deterred by French lyrics, there's Détroit Horizons. Seems to have largely flown past the English-language music press but it's excellent.

https://hedgehogrock.bandcamp.com/album/sun-fun-gun
https://hedgehogrock.bandcamp.com/album/honeyed-and-killed

Oh here is a doozy. The band Ought, with their song Beautiful Blue Sky. This has been widely praised and deservedly so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEQyi6eCxWw

Bottomless Pit

Quest for Fire broke up and are now Comet Control, which I think might be even more alt-rock...? Their first album was really cool.

― gate crimes legislation (Drugs A. Money), Friday, June 17, 2016 6:34 AM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thanks for the tip. Comet Control are indeed even more alt-rock! Quest for Fire had more of a psychedelic prog vibe. Comet Control have tighter songs. It's great stuff and exactly hits the mark.

The Hey Colossus recommendation was also solid. I went with their recent Radio Static High album, which I gather is also a more rock-oriented departure from previous, dronier work which I haven't checked out yet.

Tons of great recs in this thread. Thanks all.

Thank god that this thread has ended happily. Now, "Help me find male fronted classic rock that doesn't bore me to death." (Side thread: "Help me find male fronted political power that doesn't bore me to death.")

what's your problem, dlp? it's a music site. good place to ask for music recommendations, imo.

I have no idea what's going on with dlp9001. I've been upfront about listening to music with women and specifically about being in a long phase of mostly listening to music by women or woman-led bands. I've just been having problems navigating the immense forest of music that is available these days. People have been really, really helpful in showing me the way. dlp9001 is a long-time, always-been-there poster who as far as I know, I've had no beef with. I do not understand his reaction here.

I am not the only person to ask such questions in ilx history:

One Chick?

ctrl-f "restorations" no results

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQkp3TYsA5I

Bottomless Pit

― Evan, Monday, June 20, 2016 9:28 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sadly now RIP but def continued the underrated work of Silkworm ;_;

albums and ep was great