How about Rock ?

the fucking champs are great like all your favourite van halen / queen / thin lizzy / slayer / metallica / iron maiden tunes & riffs instrumental all muddled up & done in a stop start black flag kinda way like a trip back to being 15 yrs old and it really works. check ' em out "IV" is on drag city records (home of gastr del sol / red krayola etc - so you know this stuff is coming from an "angle" but they "mean it" at the same time). that & "a warm palindrome" from leeds - fkn ace.

what is that thing they did with Trans Am like?

apparently it's really good a trusted friend tells me even if trans am on their own are absolute poo. went to see the champs play live last week - they rocked - trans am we didn't even bother with. also there was this band called "reynolds" we got over excited & thought it was going to be Argentina's finest "REYNOLS" (note - no "D" in spelling) - it wasn't - it was a trio of accomplished but very uninspired young lads doing the "math rock" thing by numbers (quiet bit , loud bit , time signature bit, ac/dc bit) TEDIOUS - & to top it all off they had gone out of their way to kit themselves out with EXACTLY the same aluminium neck guitars that steve albini & bob weston of shellac use (lack of dignity or what!) biggest bunch of toss ever. there was a really good support band called "montana peak/pete/pique" (couldn't hear).

I like this question a lot. Let's define "rock" as guitar/bass/drums stuff that rocks, and talk about what's newish and amazing. I'm continuing to love the White Stripes album, am floored by the new Dismemberment Plan, and am figuring out where I'm at with the new Fugazi.

2 UK bands worth checking out live are slot jockey (the melvinsplay new order or pavement have a good time without having to show off how bloody clever and funny they are - a-aha look at us!!) and montana pete (i found that out) who are like nomeansno / big flame / stretchheads somehow without seeming derivative and somehow exciting despite working strictly within that kinda template (you know what i mean).

Just buy this:

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, s/t

Enjoy

PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY by Firewater! Go fetch!

DIS. PLAN, DIS. PLAN, DIS. PLAN, DIS. PLAN!!!!!!

go buy it. already.

visit www.brainofmorbius.co.uk or is it.com i can't remember they're a band from east london and very jack the ripper / east enders east london too. cockerney sparrer of a singer - big fella on bass - new drummer i'm not familiar with & a guy who plays a big vox organ & a cheap samplotronic casio through distortion pedals. some people have said they sound like the keatons or gag - that's wrong - it's more old time east end music hall burlesque (roll out the barrells)gone cuckoo - songs about bodily functions, flying peas, wanking comets, & their superb semi- instrumental "shitters". sometimes embarrassing in their loose sphincter "uncool" but fantastic nonetheless. i can vouch for the tape / cdr with "dreaded foreheaded" on it but anything more recent i can't . their live shows are spectacular - in dingy pubs in east london - they'll bring in bins & go through the rubbish, hold raffle / tombola competitions and all the ugly guys in the band get their bellies out . GROTESQUE - in every sense of the word

the only rock bands i have gone to see this year:

* aesthetics - self piteous mewlings of a self styled genius in vertiginous decline

* LD50 - predictable bratmobile/fall ripoff

* tony valens & the incisions - predictable link wray/high rise ripoff

*diehards - 2 30-something solo mothers "rock out" in a shed in the back yard

these are all edgy & underground as all hell you betch'um. yeah 'n' if you live in london you should go see this band, they my homiez.

Dismemberment Plan by all means. Far more exciting than that boring Firewater album.

Anyone heard Oneida? Tell me all about it.

i heard dismemberment plan i thought they sounded like one of those "unjustified" shite bands on dischord from way back like ignition or something. of course they're very energetic but not entirely "on". they want to lock themselves away with some meters records for a few years

Modern and edgy:

Ruins - Not modern, like yesterday modern, but modern enough. Very edgy, usually very loud, works as argument to idiots who say "prog is all about wizards, flashy solos and escapism".

Altered States - Spinoff from avant-noise group Ground Zero. Instrumental jazz-rock that has as much to do with free improv as it does super chops and riff-rock.

Happy Family - Hyper King Crimson-inspired prog. Also has some influence from bands like Univers Zero and Magma. Some punk influence, but closer to Mahavishnu than Minor Threat.

5uus - Post-Zappa, post-RIO rock. You know, the thing with bands like 5uus is that they may never actually be popular because what passes for "complex" and "experimental" nowdays is actually heavy- handed plod rock like Tortoise and Trans Am. No offense. ;)

Koenjihyakkei - Operatic thrash-prog. Very loud, very fast, very unlike anything you're likely to hear...well, anywhere. If you know Magma, this is sort of like them on coke.

Thinking Plague - Same circle of players as 5uus, and similar sound. This Heat, Zappa, and [i]Relayer[/i]-era Yes are reference points.

Hoyry Kone - Finnish band who takes the Crimson/Magma/Henry Cow ball and runs with it. Yet another band who argues against prog being for nerds only. I hope.

Bondage Fruit - Heavy, sometimes bombastic, other times lo-fi, avant- everything group from Japan. Lots of guitar and Zep-meets-Ruins drumming.

Acid Mothers Temple - Hyper psychedelic nosie tornado rock. If extremes are your thing, they put out new albums/tapes/CDRs all the time. See also Mainliner, High Rise.

Melt Banana - Beat punk? Future shock? I don't know. It's loud, fast, and there's a lot of screaming going on. Also good for learning how to make a guitar sound like a radar going haywire.

Melt Banana are the best. Every now & then I reach a point where I've somehow read enough articles/references to a band & I'm in a record shop and suddenly the thought hits me, '[.....] is the BEST band EVER.' And I buy the album, and they are. That's what happened with Big Black, the Birthday Party, and Melt Banana. They do a nice commercial for themselves on Charlie, so don't take my word for it.
Ruins = pure comedy.
I don't understand all the fuss about the Dismemberment Plan. Saw them a couple years ago at Fort Reno, the singer had very nice pants & all the indie kids were drooling. Music = forgettable, forgotten. I've heard such a ton of DC scene/Dischord bands, and my fave for reasons unknown is the Warmers, who did one album around 1995 and promptly broke up. Search: "Snake Charmer," "No One Like Me No One Like Me," "Chuck Your Brains Out."
What's going on with Six Finger Satellite and bands sort of in the same scene? Arab on Radar, they still around?

Check out the Fort Thunder music page for some RI-area madness. I believe Six Finger Satellite has reconvened, with new members & such. Another rock group that might be worth your while (especially live) is Les Savy Fav.

As far as the OUT OUT OUT OUT there stuff, just go to Skin Graft Records, click on some links, and go mental. Troubleman Unlimited is also a fine place to go - see RED MONKEY, ERASE ERRATA, BLACK DICE (oh, especially Black Dice).

And, of course, an oldie but a goodie (and a nearly forgotonee) - Circle X.

Oh, I'm sorry - are you sick of the linkage? So sorry - I'll buzz off. Right now.

* LD50 - predictable bratmobile/fall ripoff

i am slightly uncomfortable with the bratmobile comparison, i know we're genuinely comparable but somehow the "girl-ness" of a band comes to stand for the entirety of the music. once i got told we sounded like the slits, which we clearly don't, its just that some people see an all-female band and just project, project, project. if you compare us to bratmobile everyone will think we're "just another bunch of riot grrrls" which we aren't, or they will think we are just like the Coolies, which we aren't.

thanx for the fall comparison though, i gets mighty proud, but i thought the murdering monsters were more fall-esque than LD50. do you say that cos of beth's vocals? or was there something else too?

I do like the Dismemberment Plan, although they do tend to get a teenzie bit fruity after a few spins.

Preference however goes out to Les Savy Fav. Talk about a killer record...

"fruity"?

The Gossip's live show completely slew me but I've only heard a couple of underground 'rock' records I've liked at all this year (still two more than last year probably). The Acid Mothers Temple newie and the Lightning Bolt one.

Speaking of the Bolt, did I mention that the Fort Thunder music page (linked above) has links to LIVE Lightning Bolt MP3s? OK, then.

oneida - fricken awesome, messy, sexy, unhinged rock band. think brainiac, silver apples, mudhoney, swilled up together and vomited back out... 'anthem of the moon', their newest LP, is their best, scary autumnal psychedelia eked out on antique organs, all edgy swelling and errant melodies. ends with 'double-lock your mind', which opens with a horrific two minute guitarsolo, and ends like husker du's 'zen arcade' set to a gonzo gabba groove.

dianne

i was just horsin around

if that was not clear it was meant as like a list of "these are my favourite bands" kind of thing.

& trying to say anything meaningful about em , what'd be the point. people either already know or they dont care.

Thanks Stevie, that sounds incredible. Now I can't decide what to buy: Oneida, Les Savy Fav or Dismemberment Plan.

hey duane, i know! honestly, i was making some valid, calm points, and asking some valid, calm questions. which i had hoped you would answer.

you think i'm fuckin psycho, don't you?

The new Pinback is to be worshipped. And I have a hunch Peter Jefferies' new one is equally fine.