I'm not sure there really are that many. Don't get me wrong, there are a LOT of bands or solo artists that i absolutely love. I could probably name a couple of hundred i really like, more if i had time, but i'm not really sure there are any absolutely great musicians about any more, there might not have ever been, i'm not sure. I'd say that Casiotone For The Painfully Alone is the only one that stands out for me as being absolutely perfect and genuinely brilliant. Rather than just bands you think are really decent, if you had to name names of bands or artists that you thought were genuinely special, and unique, and perfectly brilliant, who would they be?
- Features: * Vote for DiS and for your alternative Mercury prize winner
- Reviews: * Cats In Paris - Courtcase 2000
- Features: * Mixtape #14: The Walkmen
- Features: * A Month in Records: August 2008
- Features: * Half a week with The Hidden Cameras
- Reviews: * Nightmares on Wax - Thought So...
- Features: * The Weekly DiScussion: what's on your Summer '08 megamix?
- Reviews: * YACHT at London ICA, Thu 28 Aug
- Features: * Photo Diary: The National's Green Man snaps
- Features: * FAQs: Can I intern for DiS? Can I write for DiS? (Part 1)
- Features: * Win a Rock n Roll Weekender to Jack Daniel’s Birthday JD Set in Tennessee
- Features: * The Music: "We will not be away as long this time"
- Reviews: * Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band at London Camden Electric Ballroom, Wed 27 Aug
- Features: * Reading/Leeds: Day Three report
- Reviews: * The Gutter Twins at Sheffield Leadmill, Wed 27 Aug
- * The Spinto Band @ Cambridge The Soul Tree, 8/09
- * Gemma Hayes @ London Union Chapel, 8/09
- * American Music Club @ Bristol Thekla Social, 9/09
- * Glasvegas @ Glasgow Barfly, 9/09
- * To The Bones @ London Notting Hill Arts Club, 10/09
- * Katy Perry @ London Monto Water Rats, 10/09
- * Crystal Castles @ Bristol Thekla Social, 10/09
- * Mark Kozelek @ Brighton Audio, 10/09
- * Bon Iver @ London Shepherds Bush Empire, 11/09
- * American Music Club @ London Bush Hall, 11/09
- * Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin @ London Borderline, 11/09
- * Plans and Apologies, Jeffrey Lewis, The Atoms @ Derby The Royal, 12/09
- * Guided Missile @ London Buffalo Bar, 13/09
- * Videocrash @ London Koko, 13/09
- * Jeffrey Lewis @ Sheffield Plug, 13/09
conor oberst.
not even kidding. the guy is a genius.
well...
Muse (unoriginal perhaps, but fucking amazing!)
Trent Reznor
Tool
65 days of static
Damien rice
arcade fire
are all truely amazing artists/bands. I find it hard to say a new band is perfect and genuinely brilliant, I need to have heard a lot of material first.
+ most new bands are shit!
Right Now?
For me Flying Lotus, Bullion, Lyyke Li, Holy Fuck.
"+ most new bands are shit"
!!!!!!!!!!
What on earth does that even mean?
Bands in the mainstream media?
He's right though.
that basically
There are pretty much no decent new bands! This 'twee' stuff drives me crazy, and basically......its all bollocks!
Good recent bands - Battles, Silversun Pickups..thats about it really.
Hahahahahahah
bless.
agreed:
conor oberst is incredible
ryan adams would be top of my list
i do agree
that conor oberst is amazing.
it's too bad that mentioning that admiration to most people who know what you're talking about merits one of two responses, one being "he used to be hot/he needs a haircut" and the other being "you scene kid. i bet you're angry that he hasn't cut his hair yet or written another lover i dont have to love."
i've met a grand total of 2 people who haven't said either of those.
...
Radiohead
Elliott smith
The Smiths/morrissey
That whole anticon/subtle set/movement/whatever it is, its pretty special
Jimi hendrix
probably more
Oh... right...
I didn't read "current".
Scrap 2.5 of my list then...
jimi hendrix
is dead
No he's not
cos I heard him on the radio.
yuck.
For me, in terms of bands/artists that remain functional...
and in no order or than that in which they pop into my head...
Radiohead
Explosions in the Sky
Iron & Wine
Twilight Sad (potentially)
^
Iron & Wine (Sam Bean) is genius
I do like Iron & Wine
but in no way can they be called truly great yet.
Im sorry they need to make a truly classic album first
ummm
BARR
YEAH!
Possibly
Late of the Pier.
I know they haven't had an album out yet, but on the basis of the demos and singles they sound fucking amazing. The songs are very pop and catchy yet they are so strange sounding, referencing bands/artists such as David Bowie, Gary Numan, QOTSA and Devo (often all in the space of one song). They are also fantashtic live. I certainly don't know any other band around now that are like them.
I think they'll still be around in 10 years and in 25 will be regarded as a great and influential band on newer bands and artists. Just my opinion.
I reckon
Broken Records could do something stunning.
Radiohead
i think are the only band that id call truly great at the moment. Sigur Ros i think make the most beautiful music in the world.
I think only this person talks sense
Radiohead are the only band in the last 10 years who meet the criteria to be truly great which to me would be consistently putting out great albums
Third-ed.
Radiohead and Sigur Ros are the best artists around at the moment, and anything in second place, even personal favourites like Arcade Fire and The Hold Steady, are far behind.
Watch the Sigur Ros documentary, and listen to the versions of Vaka and Staralfur, and try not to weep. Did you succeed? No? Exactly.
I cannot explain just how much I enjoy both bands.
Other than that... bands like Daft Punk are pretty fucking crazy. Justice too, but they're Daft Punk without the helmets.
...
Radiohead
Daft Punk
Super Furry Animals
URBNRI
;D
Aren't a lot of these based too much on people's personal view of them,
rather than an objective view of them?
Is there such a thing as an 'objective view' when it comes to art
everyone's aesthetics are different so that question confuses me. Opinions and all that jazz...
music isn't art.
really.
It's sonic art!
No its not! What is it then? Carefully aligned noise over a period of time?
I wasn't trying to make Malick look like a spanner btw.
well musicians
are "artists"?
not really
i am possily the only...
...person who does not rate Bright Eyes and thinks he is extremely mediocre.
If mediocre means unlistenable
then you're not the only one.
Lupen Crook!
Predictable because it's true.
i'd say that's pretty unpredictable.
I've just sold my Iscariot The Ladder for £2.49. Thought it was pretty unremarkable.
:(
listened to the first album then?
.
I have, and i thought it was decent enough.
and I
think it is rather fucking great.
Lupen Crook?
Hell no. In fairness I've not heard his album but I've seen him live twice. First time entirely indistinct, second time trying so hard to be quirky it actually pissed me off.
Occasional bits of shouting in otherwise bland songs does not constitute truly great or even especially interesting.
mastodon
Why?
the band that is, really brilliant and definitely unique.
they're playing munich!
hoorah!
owen
/mike kinsella.
no argument about it.
Here's an argument
He's been making the same album since his first.
Tim = more variable but his hits hit harder.
I agree with Casiotone For The Painfully Alone
not really sure what else. Wolf Parade I suppose.
I hate it when people say "right now". I'm not interested in what music I like "right now". You could play me some catchy yet ultimately disposable pop music and I may like it "right now", but I can tell the difference between music I like "right now" and music that I am still going to like in 10 years time.
Ariel Pink
Without question. Granted the whole thing sounds like it's drowning in the bath, but beneath all the fuzz are some amazing songs.
Bye bye
Deerhoof
I believe they are truly great. And will be viewed as such in the future.
Can't you see that I am serious!
i think
jens lekman. truly great pop artist that has just released one of the best and most unique albums i have heard in ages.
^
Yes. I can.
And yes. You're right.
About Deerhoof not Jens Lekman.
I don't know his stuff well enough.
Sufjan Stevens
Genius
phil elvrum
^
yes
ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
total brilliance
^
Agreed
Death Cigarettes
are pretty much the perfect band right now. Everything else just seems a bit shit.
^ i've got their demo actually.
Not listened to it yet.
not many
Autechre
Low
Possibly that's all.
Maybe just Low.
Crystal Castles
are the only one for me
(but I haven't heard Fuck Buttons album)
Well
Nick Cave for me is a living musical legend. It very rare you get an artist that can still creat music in their 50's that is as good as the stuff they made in their 20's.
Other than him Radiohead and Jason Pierce have have made genius music and I hope Jasons next album is better than his last one, which was a bit tepid.
From some more relatively new bands I'd say Liars, TV on the Radio and The Knife.
agreed
nick cave is brilliant and still do great work
Gcell
I'm voting for you as the new god
based on my listening this weekend
Grizzly Bear
Wilco!
tim hecker
fennesz
autechre
sunn)))
In terms of innovation.
I also have a feeling Boris will have acquired the status of a 'great' band a decade from now. Personally, I think they're already there.
stars of the lid too
.
^^ liking them
Grizzly Bear
Midlake
Beirut
Agree with _pip about Late Of The Pier. Everything ive heard so far has been pretty awesome.
I think it takes time for greatness to show.
Plenty of acts have done first albums that sound great but then haven't followed it up, or in some cases the first album doesn't stand the test of time.
Nick Cave would be the only "definite" I'd name. I honestly believe Alex Turner has got the ability to be "potetially great" but I wouldn't use that phrase yet. Maybe Final Fantasy in time too depending on how he develops.
Obviously REM although that's less due to current stuff. Leonard Cohen too if he still counts as "current". Belle & Sebastian have the potential to be great but I still don't think they'd necessarily constitute that yet.
My choices
are NICK CAVE
Belle and Sebastian probably
Beirut or at least Zach Condon anyway
Thankyou
too many people on this thread saying a band is truly great based on there myspace page.
They are not truly great.
Consistency over time is required.
I had not considered Belle & Sebastian as truly great so it's interesting you bring them up. My problem is that the quality of there output is on the decline.
I like the more recent Belle & Sebastian stuff
and think they've improved dramatically on where they were in 2000. But what they do at the moment is definitely very much pop stuff (and pop done very well) but probably not innovative or unique enough to be "great".
But I do believe they've got it in them to do another brilliant album yet. If they can combine their knack of writing great pop songs (and definite improvement in actual musical ability) they've shown over the last couple of albums with the uniqueness of their early stuff I do think they have the ability to surpass what they've done so far...
Anyone else just come in this thread
so they could get annoyed?
Anyone?
I did! I don't know why I read these threads.
I'm not annoyed really. Staggered at some of the choices, but not annoyed (well maybe a bit).
i'm taking...
... "current" to mean artists who've emerged in my consciousness in the last few years- thus Animal Collective, Dirty Projectors, Architecture in Helsinki- just don't think there are too many bands who do stuff like those bads- there are probably many more!
Squarepusher
Aphex Twin
Autechre
Sufjan Stevens.
I think he could be considered truly great in an album or two's time.
Bright Eyes must be considered truly great.
Ryan Adams.
Super Furry Animals.
The National maybe in an album or two's time?
Super Furry Animals are a good call.
Hmm
I think TV On The Radio and Animal Collective are both bands who, if they aren't considered "truly great" already, will most likely be so in a decade at the most.
Flaming Lips
are the best live band by far
and their albums are amazing
Spoon
in the future, they will be revered as Wyld Stallions are in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.
Popular Workshop
go, Gypsy, Go!!!
Duke Special
For anyone who notices anything i post they will realise i band on about this bloke alot... but hes bloody excellent. www.myspace.com/dukespecial
Duke Special
For anyone who takes notice of what i post on here you will realise i bang on about this bloke alot... He is bloody excellent.
www.myspace.com/dukespecial
woops
I also seem to post things twice quite a bit also.
I hate that man.
The National
Yeah, yeah, there's all the evergreen greats like Nick Cave, REM, even little Conor Oberst - but no-one's mentioned The National? Boxer and Alligator are two astounding albums - would an alt.country Joy Division be going too far? Beirut may go the distance too
current greats..
To me, Of Montreal are by far the greatest band around at the moment. So many albums and very few weak songs.
And some others
Quasi
Herman Dune
Okkervil River
The Robot Ate Me (although they sadly split up last winter)
Silver Jews
Will Oldham
the robot ate me
i didnt know anyone knew of this man
he is a crazy man
and gave one of the weirdest ever gigs, in which he got the crowd (who did not know him at all) to make up all the songs
I have two of his records and they are consistently
a mental
b amazing
long live ryland
the robot
I've got three of them and they're all stunning. "Carousel Waltz" is absolutely breathtaking from start to finish.
I'm sure Ryland will be back with another project...I hope anyway...he has also been releasing alot of other good bands on his label Swim Slowly Records, in case you didn't know...well worth checking out
Omar Rodriguez Lopez and Cedric Bixler Zavala
= The Mars Volta
Bjork