...that for me it's The Hold Steady.

(The Weekenders)

The good type of prog mixed with the good type of heavy metal. Why you bastards aren't all listening to them mystifies me. I remember James Blast posted an image of some of his album covers and he included the Lateralus cover. My respect for Goths and their taste in music took a huge leap forward that day.

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Tool_(band)

"Tool are a Californian progressive experimental avante-garde art-rock alternative metal band. They have a high degree of popularity among intelligent people like me who like intelligent music. However, they don't really have much mainstream popularity, because they're too busy pushing the boundaries of music. Most dumbass sheeple can't handle all the polyrhythms and time-signatures and stuff, because it's not all 4/4 and 3-minutes long. They all just listen to the Spice Girls and stuff. Not that Tool care about popularity. They're way too busy pushing the boundaries of music. Tool's main message is that people should think for themselves and question everything they're told. Most people don't do this because they're just sheep. I always think for myself because that's what Maynard told me to do. "

It`s The Church. I bore myself about them these days

Here`s their "hit"

Under the milky Way by The Church

... I just love 'em. Although slightly disappointed that some of them have now got beards.

...that I take little encouragement to enthuse and proselytise (however on earth that's spelt!) anout the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Quintessence.

What WILL be surprising, however, is that I'm not posting a clip of either on this occasion.

Del Amitri, as it happens.

in other threads. I won't bother to post a video as you all know the score by now - beards, noodling, two drummers, expiring keyboardists, etc :-)

My other 'go to' band is 72-74 era King Crimson but nothing will ever compete with the Dead for my affections.

Thrilling rhythm guitar, relentless drumming, sing-a-long choruses relayed in a slightly snarky fashion

That should get you salivating.

apart from my love for ELO and XTC

about 'em too much but it's Marillion.

I could hardly be unaware that many people loath them, and at least understand if not share many of the criticisms, but when they get it right, they can be breathtaking.

This is a song inspired by Donald Campbell and Bluebird, called "Out of this World". It inspired diver Bill Smith to locate and recover Bluebird and, later on, Campbell's body from Coniston Water. Lead singer Steve Hogarth was invited by the family to perform a solo version of the song at Campbell's funeral in 2001.

A friend of mine put the accompanying film together and the band have shown it when they perform the song live. Powerful stuff.

I've given up trying to convince people that she's a genius.

It's certainly harder when someone is best known for a Driving Rock Classic taken from a terrible film starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

If anyone was in any doubt, have a listen to this.

I can just back and cut out of (several of) my previous posts. But Big Country are criminally underrated.

Not everything they did was great - or even good. Peace in our time being the stand out example. But recently they've been getting far more iPod time than any other band.

Some day, one day, there will be a critical reappraisal of BC.

(Oh, and for those in the vicinity, or remotely interested, a dedication of a memorial to Stuart Adamson is set for Saturday in Pittencrieff Park, Dunfermline)

do I?

Great tunes
Nonsensical lyrics
Spaceships/UFO's
Black Francis.

What's not to like?

I've liked them since my teenage years and they have never faded in my estimation.

I've stopped bringing him up on here because I'm quite clearly the only one who mentions him, and it looks like I'm obsessed. I am, but only cos he's ace.

This song should have been huge, as far as I'm concerned:

http://soundcloud.com/tom-mcrae/still-love-you

All my self-imposed gagging order has really done is mean that I bang on about Elbow and Josh Ritter instead; my musical obsessions are hydra-like it seems.

but am also vocal about my support from Kathryn Williams, Eels, The Unthanks and others

Kathryn (with Neill MacColl)

Mark Everett "E" 'The Souljacker'

Blue Bleezin Blind Drunk - the canny lasses of the Unthanks

The initial lipstick, leopard prints, Clash pastiches and rollicking interviews of those early days was a blast across the meandering, mundane bows of Chapterhouse, Slowdive and Lush. They had the looks, the lyrics, the tunes and the attitude. The last gang in Blackwood. Motown Junk, Little Baby Nothing, Slash and Burn, You Love Us, Repeat etc...just thrilling. The howling desperation of The Holy Bible still sends shivers down my spine and I sit and wonder just how James Dean Bradfield managed to wrestle music and melody around those words where I think no-one else confronted with what was effectively Edwards' musings around manic depression and sinking into the abyss, could have wrangled anything from them.

Even their worst record (Know Your Enemy) still has it's moments, in particular, Let Robeson Sing and you can hear the clanging bells of complacency setting in during This Is My Truth and post that record seemed to be grasping to rediscover the muse. They've always been interesting, never dull. A band who can put out a single about the plus points of Richard Nixon's presidential tenure, another about a Pulitzer winning photographer and the Spanish Civil War can't be all bad. 20 years now. Wow.

This still knocks yer socks off every time you hear it...

"No truce with the furies"

On the Word blog it would have to be Taj Mahal.
I swear I can feel the Massive furiously scrolling down as soon as they see that name, again...
Also, it's difficult to explain why I love him so much, he's not the best bluesmusician ever (that would be Howlin' Wolf, or Brownie McGhee, or Muddy Waters, or Bukka White, or Sleepy John Estes, or...ah, my opinion changes from day to day!) but he was the first one I heard so he opened up that world of music for me.
And there is something instantly likeable about his style, his songs and his interpretations of other artists songs (and the fact that he very deliberately chose to record a lot of the older bluesartists songs to provide them with royalties in their old age).

I also have a tendency to fall in love with artists whose recorded output resembles a roller coaster ride. Unspeakably bad songs mingle with works of genius on the same album, and in fact some of your favourite songs by them are both unspeakably bad and a work of genius at the same time!
One exemple of that would be Marc Almond. Even when he's awful I just love it...but it's very hard to explain to anyone who's not afflicted...

Sure I'm not the only one on here either.

Lovely (Did I Say)

I first heard this Swedish medieval/darkwave group on a podcast and was simply blown away by the sheer beauty of the music and the atmospheric vocals.

Since then I've made it my mission to pass on the wonder of Arcana (http://www.erebusodora.net/arcana/biography.html) to anybody willing to give them a chance. They're happy to admit their Dead Can Dance influences, but for me they take medieval-inspired music to a whole other level of absolute magic.

For me, this is some of the most beautiful music ever made. Give it a try!

But tricky to strike up a conversation about him with most people.

The Fall would be next. Usually makes for lively conversation, particularly if I need to correct people who think they don't like them.

Wayward, sometimes. An idiot, sometimes. Eccentric, quixotic, maverick - all of these things, some of the time.

But a musical genius - indubitably, all of the time.

Especially the first three albums with Eric Bell on guitar - marvellous! Philip Lynott was a genius and one of the most soulful rock singers.

Over the last 40 years they've been my default switch. Stil, pound for pound, the best little blues band to come out of these shores.

My friends would say it's Springsteen and I couldn't argue. He has been the cornerstone of my life on so many occassions, especially when my Dad died. Bruce's songs were what kept this particular train from careering off the tracks. Lately it's been The Promise.

When I was living in Florence my iPod died and I had no music to listen to. I decided to buy a few CDs I already owned and the first two I picked up were The Royal Scam and Aja.

This one from 'Get A Life' in 1994

In common with a lot of my favourite bands, Concrete blonde, hail from LA. They were named by their label-mate on IRS records - Michael Stipe - and peaked creatively with their fifth album - Mexican Moon.

Despite the singular talents of the core membership – singer and bass player - Johnette Napolitano - and guitarist Jim Mankey - I’ve never really got on with any of the projects they’ve done away from the group. There's something about the music they make when they get together that is far greater than the sum of its parts.

Concrete Blonde skirted around the edges of success. Joey was a minor hit in the states. Long Time Ago brought the final episode of The Shield to a wonderfully succinct conclusion.

Briefly signed to Capitol records, the band were probably a bit too eccentric and single-minded to survive in the mainstream. They didn't have it in them to be anything other than outsiders and I think that's probably why I like them.

Quite simply the Best band i've ever seen. Fabulous lyrics,great melodies and superb live.
Eef Barzalay is a genius.

I always go back to The Prisoners, a 60s garage/Mod band from the 80s, who featured a young James Taylor on keyboards before he went onto Acid Jazz fame as the James Taylor Quartet. Graham Day has spent the last 30 years making this kind of music, and is still going strong. I love them, even if there are other bands I think are better, other songs that move me more, better singers etc. But something about The Prisoners makes me feel like I'm 16 all over again. And that might be bittersweet, but it's exciting as hell.

Here's why:

and it was a lot less grief than girls. Still remember listening to this on my mates walkman at school.

it's not actually Scott Walker, since i assume people fall into three camps
a) they love him
b) they've not heard anything by him
c) they're not very keen on this avant-garde stuff he does these days, couldn't he just go back to proper singing?

The band/artist I guess that I try and get people into is Love and Money/James Grant. Here are L&M at their finest

and Mr Grant solo

None of them leftfield (especially around here) but these are the three bands I'm most likely to mention if I'm asked what music I like.

This is the band I love the most right now.

This is the band that made me realise that some songs were written just for me.

And this is my favourite song.

[I Will Dare]

That is all.

Although I'd have to say Blue Öyster Cult as well, although my love for them has become rather like Patrick's has for Supertramp.

Since I first saw Vic and the Subway Sect as a 17 year old back in 1978 (seems like another world) I've kept a special place in my heart for Vic. Unsung genius in my eyes.

No-one else likes/liked them. Not everything they did was good, but their best was transcendent.

Like "Life's Only Dreaming".

Always and forever, I'm afraid. Since before the Hep introduced him on the Whistle Test. Stripey shirts, bizarre hairdos - I care not a jot. I find his music and his playing inspiring and fulfilling. Apart from when it's pish (Zero Tolerance etc), but nobody's perfect.

Probably the Richard Thompson of Australia, extremely varied career, not particularly well known but LOVED by his fans.
This is one of his best
The Way I Made You Feel

I had already established a penchant for pop electronica - Kraftwerk, Numan, Visage, Ultravox, Simple Minds. Also, my brother had picked up a wonderful single on Mute Records called TVOD c/w Warm Leatherette by The Normal.

I bought New Life because when I inspected the single in Woolworths, I saw that they were on Mute and it physically looked just like The Normal single!

I kind of liked the follw-up, Just Can't get Enough, but I didn't buy it - it was too cheesy, too poppy.

A few months later they were performing at my brother's university with Blancmange. I was there anyway to listen to a public debate with CND leader Bruce Kent the next day. I was a politically active, Angry Young Man and the Bruce Kent speech was the main reason why I was there. The Depeche Mode gig was very much an afterthought.

As a genuine surprise to me, the Depeche Mode experience trumped Monsignor BK's speech. The explosion of out-and-out joy in the crowd when they played Just Can't Get Enough was something I had never witnessed before. What was I thinking? It's an amazing song! And there were plenty more where that came from. Immediately, I bought the Speak and Spell LP and greedily hoovered up everything they did for the next 15 years, at least. Luckily for me, they developed and got better and have kept the quality up.

I was still an Angry Young Man about the arms race, Thatcher and much more besides, but Depeche Mode showed me that it's OK to lighten up a bit. I felt some relief because I couldn't get into the earnestness of the Gang of Four or Crass, no matter how hard I tried.

*that* much on here but it always astonishes me how under-rated they are. They either get unfairly lumped with identikit punk bands or dismissed as awkward, angular and humourless. In fact, as well as making at times quite a sinister, arty racket they're also capable of churning out big, brassy pop songs like these:

I don’t have a favourite Del Amitri song, but I do have an Alan Partridge-style funny story relating to them. Years ago I was working for ABC radio (the national broadcaster in Oz) at a predominantly news/talk/sport-based station not unlike Five Live. On the drive show one day the engineer cued-up Del Amitri’s Always The Last To Know to lead into the news.

Now, the presenter of the show was an old duffer who specialised in local politics and current affairs. He knew nothing about music and cared even less, but it fell to him to back-announce the meagre 2 or 3 records an hour the station played leading up the news/weather/traffic etc.

As the song ended, the presenter said, in all seriousness “And that was Del Amitri with Always The Last To Know. Well, DEL may be the last to know, but YOU can keep bang up to date with the news and weather on the hour. Stay tuned”.

Yes, he thought Del Amitri was the name of the man singing on the record he had just played.

Gary Numan. But I would also like to mention:

James
The Bolshoi
Big Country
Red Guitars

Green On Red
Syd Straw
Amy Rigby
The Big Dish
Lone Justice
Peter Bruntnell
Maria McKee

"That bloke in the warehouse has got an album out" my manager at Andy's Records said, so we put it on. Loved it then, love it now, and when Eureka came out, I loved that even more. I must have worn out three cassette copies of that thing in the car over time. And suddenly it's now twenty five years ago! They were the new Steely Dan at one point you know, oh yes. http://www.thebibletheband.com/wtgbh/
Oh, and I'm going to see them next week in That There London. I'm terribly excited.

For me Colin Blunstone's voice is one of the greatest rock/ballad/soul voices to have emerged from these shores. He should be awarded 'national treasure' status, though that can be a bit of a millstone.

I'm just determined to catch his live performances whilst I can.

If you'd asked a couple of years ago, XTC would be a safe bet (English Settlement onwards).  Intelligent musically, layered meanings, diverse yet very individual.  But then Duckworth Lewis led me to the Divine Comedy and the wider world of Mr Hannon and I find I'm saying all the same things, but more so about them.  I can completely see why he may appear spectacularly irritating to many, but it works for me.  And one particular pleasure is that now the years of frenetic record collecting are past, I enjoy pacing myself as I find more.  There are whole albums left to explore but the ones I know are old friends.  Why is it like a pair of slippers?  Probably because there's usually something I find resonant in the lyrics (though I am no English Lady of a Certain Age, and neither's he), choosing topics not covered elsewhere.
Mind you, if you're talking about which bands you actually know most about, I imagine several of our teenage prog obsessions still fill our brains with trivia...

I guess if I had to single out some bands which I can't understand why the whole world doesn't simply adore there would be four that would spring to mind. There are two I haven't included as, perhaps being too mainstream and predictable for a chap of my age - Rush and the mighty Thin Lizzy. So for my "what do you mean you don't love...?" bands it would be:

Some folk of a distinctly proggie nature from Gordon Giltrap on OGWT.

An overlooked early 90s jangly pop band, River City People.

And finally equally loved and loathed around these parts. I'll go for "love" and here's a less well known part of their oeuvre for you.

Of Mick's great vocal, John's brilliant guitar and the groove that Pete and Iain got on the live version around 2005-2006. Iain Templeton is a remarkable drummer.

I haven't mentioned them for a while, I've been good...

But they did *literally* change my life. It's a long story, sit me down in the corner at the next Massive get together, light my pipe and buy me a mild and bitter and I'll tell you all about it...

The answer, no doubt, would be David Bowie?

The Fall are my Del Amitri.

Nope. It just doesn't sound right.

Always wondered why The Go-Betweens & The Triffids were not massive. Tragically both bands struck by early deaths robbing us of great talents.

mainly Fatima Mansions or anything by Cathal Coughlan. I know there's a few other takers on here.

But also James Yorkston, who is just a superb songwriter.
And the Butthole Surfers.
And garnering fewest supportive voices, Killdozer.

There's a few smaller bands bang on about to general indifference. Slow Down Tallahassee made two great albums of hard hearted bubblegum indie pop before calling it a day.
The Hellset Orchestra also called time after 3 albums of OTT but straight faced guitar-free pomp rock. (last time I looked I accounted for fully a third of their listens on last.fm.
And local band Standard Fare are way better than their name. In the slightly odd way of things these days, I'm not aware of too many glowing reports in the Sheffield Star, but they did make top 10 songs of last year in the New York Times...

From her caterwauling classics - those strange but fantastic lyrics and manic time signature changes - through to her slightly dippy vegetarian pop-soul of her later years, I've been a huge bore about her for years. And like all great bores, I bridle when a bunch of no-talents are said to be "influenced" by her by lazy journalists...see Rumer etc...

It is slightly incredible - aged just 20 knocking out these complex little pop masterpieces and seeing them hit the top 10 one after the other in the late 60s - albeit by other people.

And then the pinnacle - being able to watch Frank Sinatra looking mightily pissed off in a bacofoil suit joining the Fifth Dimension for a wierd ragtime version of Sweet Blindness.

As someone says in the comments - don't think he took the suit home after the show.

Okay that's a lie as the popular tags thingy below can testify to my passion for Stackridge. As a teenage fan I could always be found backstage obtaining autographs. When the band disappeared I could be found on internet forums with fellow obsessives trying to track them down and swapping rare recordings. This all led to the band reforming, releasing new material and playing weekend gigs. I own email addresses incorporating their name and it's also a name I use on other websites (except The Word).

I always claim that I owe the best job I ever had to Stackridge. When visiting friends at Leeds Uni in the early 1970's I found out Stackridge were playing the nearby Leeds Poly. I had to go and see them. Within a year I was enrolling at the very same Poly, 2 years later I was a sabbatical officer booking the bands. 20 years after that I became the Financial Controller at the G-MEX Centre in Manchester because I had the experience of working on concerts - part of my job was to make the settlement with concert promoters after every gig. Everyone from Phil Collins, Prince, Oasis, Bjork, Meat Loaf, Prodigy, etc.

Stackridge - The Day The World Stopped Turning

on this thread, but some real pants too. Nice to see.
Edwyn Collins anyone?

And here is why.

Was there a better live band on the planet in 1986?

Having seen them on their "Farewell Tour" last week, almost 15 years after I first did, I'd like to nominate Hounslow's finest (only?) 6 albums of ever-decreasing commercial fortunes and live audiences, but always capable of a great gig and of putting a smile on my face, which I think is the least music is supposed to do.

Expecting To Fly contains their biggest/most well-known songs and is an almost-but-not-quite classic album (at least of its time), but the following are from the under-rated Science And Nature, soon after which they were relieved of their major label contract and barely troubled the radio or the charts thereafter.

'Keep The Home Fires Burning'

'Mudslide'

Most of my fave bands/singers have at least some measure of street cred about them (The Fall, Gil Scott Heron, Wire, New Fast Automatic Daffodils, Loop Guru, The Beat, Half Man Half Biscuit).

But right up there above them all (except The Fall) are the criminally underrated PM Dawn. Largely written off as one-hit wonders, they actually produced 5 albums (to rapidly diminishing returns), every one of which is consistently gorgeous.

They seemed to lose what scrap of street cred they may have had when KRS One hijacked one of their gigs and slagged them off. Plugged away through the 90s with each album selling fewer & fewer copies, until their 5th album, Fucked Music, didn't even get an official release and was only available in limited copies directly from the band themselves.

Anyway, you could listen through all five albums without needing to skip a track- difficult to recommend one, but Jesus Wept is particularly beautiful. Just stick an album on, sink into your beanbag, close your eyes and float away.

Obligatory youtubage: I'd die without you, from The Bliss Album.

This should close the thread ...

Up to and including Tubthumping. Brilliant.

...and here's why:

I'd Run Away. Great tune, great harmonies, great sound.

Song, in particular, is a masterpiece. Long lost album House for Sale is forthcoming, apparently.