Where has rock gone?

[Pez Dispens3r]

Mustaf, it sounds like you just dig the free-jazz style the Stooges were embellishing in, where the VU were kinda doing something similar (except they had Cale on board and all), but Led Zep represent blues gone heavy which is an entirely different aesthetic choice. Both movements define modern rock.

[SirMustapha]

The "free jazz" elements on Fun House only appear around side B, whereas I actually like the whole record -- especially Down in the Street, which is 100% straightforward rock with very little "external" influences; and like I said, the Velvet Underground song is one of the most accessible and straightforward things they've done, along with Sweet Jane and every other song in Loaded. I like the experimental stuff too, but I also enjoy non-experimental, competent rock. I just think Led Zeppelin has done awful stuff and were far less competent than its members once thought.

[Zanmanoodle]

On the topic of Led Zeppelin... I think most people end up judging them by the radio-saturated hits from their 2nd and 4th albums. Give a listen to the first album, especially stuff like "How Many More Times". Also, I recommend sitting and listening to Physical Graffiti from start to finish. Aside from "Kashmir", there are some amazing songs that don't get as much radio play, like "The Rover".

Of course, I could be completely wrong. Oh well.

[JohnLeaf]

There is good music nowadays. Where I live, we have a single Jazz station, that's listener-sponsored to keep it going. It receives all the funding it needs every year, mostly from listeners. Tell me, if a pop station was going out of business, would a SINGLE listener actually DONATE money for the station? I doubt it.

People who listen to the station, Jazz 91 FM, Toronto, actually enjoy the music. It's rare to hear the same thing twice, and each piece sounds completely original. It's like a blessing for my ears. Of course, not everyone likes Jazz, but it's an example of good, fresh music, that isn't just a copy of everything else. It's rare, but you will find radio stations that play music like this, not just in Jazz. Why? Because of the few people who love it, and love it enough to support it.

I will admit, Rock isn't what it used to be, but there are a few stations out there that play good music, and a few songs that come out that are actually GOOD! Unfortunately, it's much rarer than Jazz, but if you look hard enough, you can find it.

[McCaber]

Good rock is still here. In fact, I'd be temped to say that the 2000s produced the most good rock I know of.

Franz Ferdinand, Muse, Coheed, the new Modest Mouse stuff, Streetlight Manifesto, Abney Park, Arcade Fire, the Fleet Foxes, MGMT, Passion Pit, Wolfmother, Bang Camaro, As I Lay Dying, and a fuckton more awesome bands I could name, for some

[TA67]

Good rock music IS here...you just have to find it.

Listen to:
(album: band)

The Inevitable and I: Harvard
Juturna: Circa Survive
Great White Whale: Secret & Whisper
Animals as Leaders: Animals as Leaders (instrumental, easily one of the best albums of the decade)
Act ll: The Dear hunter
In Absentia: Porcupine Tree
First Temple: Closure in Moscow
Sound Awake: Karnivool
inter.funda.stifle.: Fair to Midland (not on iTunes)
Somewhere in the between: Streetlight Manifesto (ska/punk)

for some heavier stuff (screaming)
Colors or The Great Misdirect: Between the Buried and Me
The sound of symmetry: Sky eats Airplane (EP)
Doppelgänger: Fall of Troy
Periphery: Periphery
As the Roots Undo: Circle Takes the Square
Traced in Air: Cynic
Messengers: August Burns Red

For some different stuff (mainly Post rock):
The Destruction of Small ideas: 65daysofstatic
Takk... or Ágætis byrjun: Sigur Rós
Lift your Skinny fists Like Antennas To Heaven: Godspeed you! black emperor
Reistu þig við, sólin er komin á loft...: For a Minor Reflection

have fun.

[KrazyerKate]

Here, a serious answer. They've done nothing new musically in this one, it's just a fun fucking song.

browsing the forums I came across this. Absolutely love it. "fun fucking song" is really the best way to describe it. Maybe I should make a new thread, but can you recommend more like this?

[SurgicalSteel]

I would just say look for more Clutch. Particularly anything off of Elephant Riders, Beal Street to Oblivion or Blast Tyrant.

[choginga]

Jack White is THE modern guitar god

Sorry, dude, but as a guitar player, I can't let this one slide. Jack White is not that great.

I prefer him on drums with The Dead Weather. I say this as a drummer.

[SecondTalon]

I would just say look for more Clutch. Particularly anything off of Elephant Riders, Beal Street to Oblivion or Blast Tyrant.

I'd say Transnational Speedway League is when they started being Fun {Thinking of A Shogun Named Marcus in particular.) But it wasn't until Pure Rock Fury (three albums later) that they pretty much said "Fuck it" and fully embraced the "Doing shit because it's fun and/or funny". Not saying that you should skip the earlier stuff - far from it, Transnational Speedway and Elephant Riders are damn good albums. And the self-titled album has Texan Book of the Dead, which has as part of the lyrics the bit from the Witch Doctor song.

The self-titled one is still probably my favorite, but.. first exposure and all that.

Really, I'd just get on the Youtubes, search for Clutch, and just listen to a bunch of them. They're all pretty good. I'd say American Sleep is their most bland, boring, uninteresting song.

[KrazyerKate]

Awesome. Book of the Dead was hilarious, and it's refreshing how little the band takes itself seriously. It almost reminds me of Cake. What other musicians have this sort of attitude? I want more.

[Microscopic cog]

You could try Electric Six. They're pretty unserious and still make great, catchy music. I'd also recommend Frank Zappa, who was just brilliant.

[dumbzebra]

Underground sounds funny.
It basically just means not being played on the radio, MTV, clubs/disocs and suopermarkets.
Yet it sounds like it was some kind of guerilla music tactic of a resistance network, fighting the good fight.

[Dream]

Yet it sounds like it was some kind of guerilla music tactic of a resistance network, fighting the good fight.

That's exactly the origin of the word. Anywhere there was an ascendancy of established music, there might arise a complementary underground network, unknown outside its adherents, and often deliberately secret to protect itself from outside interference. The eighties rave scene is a great example of a literally underground movement, who couldn't or wouldn't take themselves anywhere legal, and had instead to organise gigs on the run from the police and landowners, and which became a boogeyman in the national media, leading to legislation designed to stamp it out, and all without the vast majority of Britons ever having heard a note of the music. There was a good decade of EDM in the UK before the likes of Kernkraft 400 or Prodigy ever troubled the charts, and resistance to oppression was a seriously big feature of the scene. There are numerous other examples.

[SecondTalon]

Which is why I have the running joke with myself.. ."If I've heard of it, it's not underground."

[Brawls]

Just look at it today: We've got horrendously shallow over-hyped pop divas and crappy it-all-sounds-the-same pop music. "country" is just pop music with a fake southern accent. And...that's it. It's not even that rock isn't popular anymore: If that were so than Guitar Hero/Rock Band wouldn't have done as well as they did.
Why doesn't this generation have its Beatles, Stones, Aerosmith, or Sabbaths?
And why does all the music coming out now sound like crap?

And then this "new rock" that's coming out is all the same: Some sad song about love with a singer with a slightly british accent and half the time the guitarist is too afraid to even do a decent solo.

Why? Why can't there be actually decent rock nowadays?

And does anyone have any good newer (non-screamo/death metal) bands to recommend?

My advice to you is keep looking, and don't give up. The worst thing you can do is listen to one song by a new artist and not give it a second listen. You'd be surprised how much some songs grow on you. The same goes for different genres. Why just rock? If you like rock you might also like some bluesy bands or maybe jazz.
Youtube is a great place to start, just start with one artist and go crazy listening to anything remotely related to them and you might find something.

To prove I'm not all talk here's a pretty cool rock band that may not be very popular but rocks and rolls nonetheless.
Give yourself a challenge. Listen to every song completely. Do this twice and see if it sticks with you.
http://music.yahoo.com/creamsicles/albu ... -159754059

[Jesse]

"Rock is no longer a genre of music, but an attitude towards music."

[Annihilist]

Seriously? Who needs new music? 1999 was the last good year for music and I just listen to older music. I can't stand most new music, possibly excepting bands which cane out prior to 1999 and continued to release albums afterwards, with a (semi) consistent decline in quality.

However there are a few alright ones. Karnivool is an Australian rock/metal act (not screamo by any means - also I should point out that death metal is far from screamo), and Birds of Tokyo are an alternative rock act with the same singer. Both are (mostly) amazing, the most recent album from the latter is awful though.

Twelve Foot Ninja and Shift are two Melbourne alternative metal bands which are both experimental, unique and amazing. Also not screamo by the way. TFN incorporate pretty much every genre under the sun with heavy metal (techno, reggae, folk, jazz etc.) and Shift are just a really good alternative metal band.

So yeah. Mostly new music sucks, but there is some good stuff. My advice, however, is stick to the older stuff. So much treasure to be found.

[Annihilist]

In Absentia: Porcupine Tree.

How the hell did I forget Porcupine Tree?

[Dream]

And then their sig Was Marilyn Manson...

[SirMustapha]

Who needs new music? I do. I'm hungry for it.

[Annihilist]

And then their sig Was Marilyn Manson...

Indeed

[SurgicalSteel]

I'm hungry for it.

Are you hungry ...
*sunglasses*
... like the wolf?

[TheAmazingRando]

I don't see how you can fail to find great new rock music unless you're not looking at all. Find a bar with a younger crowd that features live music, pay the $5 cover (or none at all, often) and enjoy. I can't speak for everywhere, but at least in Southern California there's a huge garage rock explosion going on, full of bands that idolize the Stooges and VU. I can almost guarantee that there are fantastic artists in your city that you don't even know about, who would be ecstatic if you came to their shows and had a beer with them. I don't even really keep up with local music, but just by going to my friends' shows I've been introduced to so many other fantastic bands. The bar scene, where you can talk to band members, share a beer or a cigarette with them, and get invited to after parties is what rock and roll is all about.

[SirMustapha]

I don't see how you can fail to find great new rock music unless you're not looking at all.

Looking is too mainstream.