Name your Top 5 bands of the 21st Century.

[bobsticks]

Great thread SwishDaddy...and challenging too if one adheres to the actual criteria of the thing...which i didn't do anyway...found it too difficult to eschew solo artists and evolving collectives. Hey, at least I left the labels out of it.

At the end of the day I resorted to a Davey-style counting of repeat offenders within my collection, but that's probably easier than to try an quantify how much enjoyment I got outta something in 2000...I can't remember all of yesterday. The results are a bit bizarre:

Califone
Diana Krall
Wilco
Jason Molina/Songs:Ohia/Magnolia Electric Company
Rammstein

Honrable mention to Andrew Bird, Alison Krause, and Martin Atkins

Of course, none of this diminished the fact that 80% of what i buy was produced before 1970...

[Jim Clark]

Man, too many with just one stellar release or just one release period (Notwist, Electric President, Postal Service, Killers, The Stills, The Dears, The Wrens, Lali Puna, the Faint) Then there's the ones been around for years still making it happen (johnny Cash (or was still making it happen), NIN, Greenday, and the newly minted Gary Numan) . My top five given some kind of minimum standards:

The National
Snow Patrol
Moonbabies
Interpol
and then probably something like Radio 4. Yep, that works for me about as well as anything else.

jc

[nobody]

I don't like getting my hands bloody these days, so I've just proclaimed a Swish Jihad against you.

Swish

I'm still waiting for that all Arabic punk band called Jihad....but, Jihad Swish has a nice ring to it too.

[MindGoneHaywire]

Most of what I came up with was based on one album, or maybe two...and what makes this thread both great & difficult at the same time is the number of acts in this decade who have one or two songs that I think are top-notch...but the albums just aren't there.

But I'll refrain from my rant about how the album is a poor unit for music, in the sense that so few can manage consistent recs...and how few ever really did. I do choose to focus on the individual tracks that I do like...and the very few great albums, whether now or 40 years ago.

For me in this decade the White Stripes are #1. Five solidly good recs, I don't think anyone else comes close even though I do think others have made an album here or there that's better than any WS rec. After them...couldn't do five. Sorry. Here's 10:

Green Day
Amy Winehouse
Libertines
New York Dolls
Rosalia de Souza
Madeleine Peyroux
The Hives
Bob Dylan
Ditty Bops
Little Killers

Honorable mention:

Beck, Bebel Gilberto, Little Willies, Neil Young, Les Hommes, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Wilco, Arctic Monkeys, Asylum Street Spankers, Ray LaMontagne, Jet, The Donnas, Easy Star All-Stars, Hot Club Of Cowtown, and Jane Monheit.

Yeah, there is no good music anymore, is there.

[Stone]

I'm still waiting for that all Arabic punk band called Jihad....but, Jihad Swish has a nice ring to it too.

I don't know of any band just called Jihad, but there is:

Jihad Jerry

and

Andrew Jackson Jihad

I haven't given really any thought to my top five, but it would probably include:

Ted Leo + Pharmacists
Blood Brothers
Andrew Bird

[Brett A]

Well, if we can carry bands over from the last century, the ones still making music that I get ga-ga over would have to include

• Lambchop
• The Mekons
• Leonard Cohen
• The Mekons
  Did I mention the Mekons?

And i would really love to see Amy Winehouse live to make more music (even if she didn't make more music, I hope she stays alive.)

[Spancticles]

Red Sparowes, Mars Volta, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Stolen Babies, Diablo Swing Orchestra

[thereyet]

Top five of the 21st Century...


1. Modest Mouse

2. Radiohead

3. Bloc Party

4. Porcupine Tree (thanks Mr. MidFi)

5. Built to Spill

Nice thread Swish!

ty