Radiohead-one of the pre-eminent pioneers and hallmarks of avant-garde rock. I just saw them at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday and was blown away…again (2nd time seeing them live). IMO they are the modern-day equivalent of Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin.
Black Mountain is pretty good. I’d recommend their album In The Future. I’m also a big fan of Portugal The Man. My favorite album of theirs is Church Mouth.
If you happen to be feeling frisky, adventurous and willing to explore music outside of your usual musical tastes, I’d suggest you go for El Guincho’s Alegranza, as well as anything by Adam Green, The Cat Empire, Architecture in Helsinki and Iron & Wine.
Animal Collective, The Arcade Fire, Athlete, Band of Horses, Belle and Sebastian, Bright Eyes, Cake, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Coheed and Cambria, Death Cab for Cutie, Neutral Milk Hotel, Rilo Kiley, Rooney, The Shins, Spoon, The Strokes, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan and Sara, Weezer, The White Stripes, Vampire Weekend, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
I’d recommend pretty much anything on Arts and Crafts label, especially Broken Social Scene, Stars, Feist, and Apostle of Hustle. Other good Canadian bands include The Weatherthans (Winnipeggers!), Metric, The Dears, Pilot Speed (formerly known as Pilate), Tegan and Sara….
pupntaco probably gave the best answers so far according to what you said your music tastes are.
the one band that i hear raving about every time i read a music magazine is The Hold Steady.
I really think you’ll enjoy it.
by the way, most of the bands listed so far are really indie bands and you might want to bridge yourself into them if you haven’t listened before. most of them are pretty darn weird. let us know what actual bands you like so we can decide what to offer better.
Good point, chutterhanban. Some of the ones listed sound bizarre at first. Give everything a couple listens before you cross them off your list, though.