My 20 Favorite Bands!

My 20 favorite bands! I've been wanting to make this a big fat ordeal. But it just isn't. 

There were many factors to consider when formulating this list:

-How highly I think of this band

-How often I actually listen to them

-Must include favorites from long ago

-What mood I'm in today

So yeah, a lot of deep thought put into this. Zero fun at all. Very serious business. I wrote some short blurbs for each band, all climbing up to my Mount Rushmore. My top 4 bands, set in stone. Everything ranked outside of that is definitely not set in stone. But whatever. 

Because I can't be a normal person about this, here are many unranked honorable mentions: 
Spoon. Bright Eyes. The Mountain Goats. Sonic Youth. The Microphones. The Killers. Black Sabbath. Smashing Pumpkins. Deerhunter. The Stooges. Creedence Clearwater Revival. Fleetwood Mac. The Velvet Underground. Broken Social Scene. Big Star. Superchunk. Destroyer. Beach House. Talking Heads. Belle & Sebastian. TV on the Radio. Fleet Foxes. Vampire Weekend. Flaming Lips. U2.

Now here's the list!

20 The Clash

The Clash never lied to me.

19 Coldplay

Despite not sounding much alike, it's hard for me not to compare Coldplay to U2. It's U2 for 15 year-old boys whose personal conflict is less like The Troubles in Ireland, and more like just not having a girlfriend. 

18 Pixies

Mischief should be a prioritized quality in all rock bands.

17 Arcade Fire

Just wanted to say this... I believe Arcade Fire's early work was extremely influential. Every indie act was trying to imitate their sound. And yet... nobody wanted to imitate their singer. Sorry, Win.

16 Dinosaur Jr.

For those of you who believe Michael Jackson invented modern pop music, may I present to you... The band that invented rock 'n' roll! If you like "Billie Jean," you'll love "Sludgefeast." 

15 Barenaked Ladies

It should be noted that my music taste shifted drastically when I turned 17. Barenaked Ladies were my childhood favorite band, building up to when I saw them live on my 16th birthday. Still a genuinely interesting (challenging?) discography to dig through.

14 Radiohead

I don't consider myself to be some unique Radiohead fan. I know people who are more into them than I am. But I listen to a lot of their stuff, frequently. So I had to put them somewhere on here.

13 The Beatles

See my Radiohead blurb. 

12 The Beach Boys

I like The Beatles because they're The Beatles. I like The Beach Boys as though they were an indie act that peaked in my lifetime.

11 LCD Soundsystem

Speaking of indie acts that peaked in my lifetime... These guys don't have a lot of material. They actually have an album I don't even like. But I think this is how normal people think of Queen. Like, as an institution, it feels mandatory to include them among the greats. LCD blatantly ripped off Talking Heads, and TV on the Radio may have been the more consistent New York indie band. But the peaks are too high for me ignore.

10 Guided By Voices

There are approximately 40 Guided By Voices albums I've never heard before. No exaggeration. This insane amount of output in its own right makes these guys spiritual guides for me.

9 Led Zeppelin

I was "the classic rock guy" in middle school. I spent all my allowance buying Led Zeppelin CDs. Even bought my own electric guitar. School of Rock came out on my 13th birthday, and I knew every rock band referenced. If that was still my thing, Zep would be #1. 

8 Animal Collective

I listen to Animal Collective a lot. Their first decade of material (EPs included) has become standard for me. Most human beings reading this wouldn't like their stuff at all. But maybe this was always just music made for animals. 

7 Yo La Tengo

Wish I could remember who said this, but "Yo La Tengo is just the Grateful Dead for people with liberal arts degrees."

6 Built to Spill

Deciding the higher rank between numbers 5 & 6 was truly a nitpicking process. Built to Spill were a pivotal part of my young adult life. Doug Martsch is not only a personal guitar hero, but he also attended the same elementary school as my aunt Lynn. What more could you want?

5 Modest Mouse

My Modest Mouse journey has been rocky. They're strictly here because I was obsessed with their 90s stuff throughout my 20s. The Moon & Antarctica was in 2000, but we'll call that 90s today. I almost forget that I owned a copy of their new album Good News for People Who Love Bad News when I was 14. I just never thought I'd live out an isolated adulthood in the Mountain West. Welp. This is what that sounds like. The Lonesome Crowded West.

MOUNT RUSHMORE

4 R.E.M.

I was told that R.E.M. was the first alternative rock band, and I believed it. I knew a lot of their 90s hits growing up. This eventually led to a deeper dive of their full career of work, and I found their 80s stuff easy to get into. Just such a unique career. There may be no better collective of musicians I appreciate more than this. The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Wu-Tang Clan, etc. I can easily identify the characteristics of each musician here. If they didn't invent alternative rock, they defined it.

3 Pavement

The ultimate 90s band. Cherry on top: They're from my hometown of Stockton CA. Their song "Lions (Linden)" is about the high school I attended my freshman year. I lived in California in the 90s, and the band only made albums in the 90s. But I didn't discover them until I lived in Idaho as a teenager discovering music via the Internet. Pavement was love at first listen. Stockton remains one of the ugliest cities I've ever seen, and Pavement perfectly turned that ugliness into a sound. 

2 The Replacements

The Replacements are the band that sound like my soul. I'm fully convinced that the character presented by Paul Westerberg is the real article. The sentiments seem universal, yet the message is apparently only understood by an occult few. I love this band. It's not just an admiration, it's an identity. 

1 Wilco

Yeah, no crap, I love Wilco. There are times where I just put their whole discography on shuffle, and I smile as I think to myself: "This is the greatest band of all time." I'm not even sure what Jeff Tweedy's songwriting style reminds me most of, but he can go from John Fogerty to Lou Reed within the same song. I admit I prefer the albums they made when Jay Bennett was in the band. But to continue their career with Nels Cline and rebrand themselves as the face of "dad rock" was a freaking brilliant move. They've always been who they were supposed to be. Wilco is the fully realized, achieved purpose of Americana music.