For me, it's always Sublime. I know a lot of people these days who tell me that they've always thought that Sublime was kind of lame, stoner/fratboy music. I also know a lot of people who are liars. I don't know if there is any overlap, but if anyone is out there making charts based on data drawn from my life, I'd be interested to take a look.
The Band - specifically Music from Big Pink and their eponymous second album. Tends to be seasonal- every time summer rolls around, I need one of those two albums in my car. But to a greater degree-Talking Heads. Started listening to my dad's cassette of Remain in Light when I was eleven or twelve, and since then I keep coming back to some iteration of Talking Heads every year or so. On top of that, Remain in Light keeps on resurfacing and teaching me something new and fantastic about how to listen to/make music. Minimalism, maximalism, West African-styled guitar patterns, screeching abstract guitar solos, hooky refrains, chanted group vocals, hypnotic circular themes, sharp lyrics, Brian Eno- that album's got it all. And more generally, you can listen to Talking Heads (and to some extent Byrne's more recent stuff) and find new music to listen to in their trail of influences, their contemporaries, and the people that they in turn influenced. Talking Heads (in conjunction with Paul Simon) got me into that aforementioned West African guitar work. Their earlier stuff got me into Television and the CBGB punk movement. Byrne and Eno got me into more experimental sampled stuff through "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts." Tangentially, Tom Tom Club is a great way to get back into the birth of hip hop in the early '80s, and a fantastic way to keep in mind how closely hip hop and rock (more specifically indie/DIY rock) feed off of and inspire one another. So yeah, Talking Heads and all of their offspring. Cannot walk away from that.
That's right, sorry I had forgotten that. I'm not in Asheville too often but my in-laws live in a small town called Waynesville near Maggie Valley which is pretty close. Asheville is a great town, I can see the appeal.
Yeah, the trick is finding a place out east (which is where my wife's family is centered) that feels like a place out west (where I grew up and where my heart is). Out of all the places we've looked, Asheville just fits the bill. Although we do have some friends in the Raleigh-Durham area who swear by it. I hear NC in general is just a great place to live.
The Dismemberment Plan. Bands come and go. I saw Moxy Früvous 28 times between 1997 and 2000, but I don't think about them much. I really get gone on Boards of Canada. I had to decide between the Dead Milkmen and Death From Above 1979 at a multi-stage event, but I had been waiting to see the former since 1988 but saw the latter already. I saw Soul Coughing 5 times, thrice in New York City (where they always did a much better show), and I saw Type O Negative four times. I'll play "Sorrow, Tears and Blood" by Fela Kuti on loop until you shoot me. I've done the same with "Double Fucked by Two Black Studs" by King Missile. The Diabolical Biz Markie is a singular moment of rap and Borscht Belt comedy by the greatest mouth outta Queens. ...but sometimes something reaches me. I found the song "The Ice of Boston" by the Plan the week they broke up. My meticulous iPod tracking says I've played that song 138 times in the last decade. I didn't think a song could mean so many things to me so many times in my life when I found it long after college (and four years doing college radio). Even my wife will scream "aw Gladys girl, I love ya but oh! get a life!" I finally saw them live at the Paradise in Boston in 2011. I didn't know they opened the stage to the crowd for this song. I hadn't realized it was every Planner's theme song. It felt amazing to see what I didn't think I would. It was also to date the most I ever paid for a show -- $206 for two tickets. I was actually giving a giant donation to the Somerville Homeless Coalition as part of some strange scheme my friend concocted to get us in the show. WORTH. EVERY. CENT. {editors: is there a five-item limit to labels for URLs? I can't get that last link to map.}
Wilco, The Beatles, Sufjan Stevens, Belle & Sebastian, Beck, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, the Shins, Willie Nelson, the Beach Boys, Paul Simon etc I could go on. These are just some from my upstairs collection. Edit: I think Sublime has some really fun music. No shame there.
Yeah, it hits the lizard brain. As much as I love jazz, sometimes I don't want all that complexity. In the end, that's what I think really turns people off about jazz, if they start to get into it. I'm not advocating for anti-intellectualism, but too often people take things too far and end up breaking them.
Belle & Sebastian would go into mine too. Thinking about seeing them in June with Yo La Tengo. Same goes for Wilco and The Beatles.
You're also going to see Wilco with the Beatles in June? Lucky fella.
You didn't hear? The Beatles are on the Solid Sound Festival lineup this year!
NICE! Glad I've secured my tickets. Too bad I forgot to book a room. Looks like I'm crashing on bgood79's floor.
The Darkness always makes it back in. So underrated, so much more than just that one hit they had here in the states (I Believe In a Thing Called Love). Best rock band since Queen (IMHO of course), and heavily influenced by Queen oddly enough. For hip hop, Atmosphere is always in and out of my rotation. Easily my favorite hip hop group, and they have been in and out of my rotation for almost a decade now. New record dropping this year too, so I'm sure it will be back in again soon.
Hybrid. Their combination of symphonic orchestration and EDM I never tire of. Check out Wider Angle first if you haven't heard anything from them.
Slowdive and Mojave 3. I'm into Neil Halstead the way other people are into Kevin Shields. I think this has a lot to do with approach & the "grass is always greener" concept. I've always been comfortable with volume and noise, so there's not a whole lot I can "learn" or be overly impressed by in Kevin Shields' approach. Not that I don't like him or his music (I love it), but on the other hand, I'm never been super comfortable or even competent as a songwriter, which is Neil Halstead's greatest strength. Strip away all the dub-influenced mixing and overdriven guitars and songs like "When the Sun Hits" are just simple, great songs. I don't think you can say the same for most of the MBV stuff (aside from "Sometimes", of course). Form follows function vs. function follows form. I love both bands, but Slowdive (and Mojave 3) are a definite, over-the-top, always-in-the-mood favorite.
I have to listen to The Gaslight Anthem pretty much weekly.
Following ErisHeiress's lead,
Brand New and Death Cab for Cutie are old favorites that I always end up listening to from time to time.
Floater will perpetually be one of my favorite bands. If I had to do a top 5, I'd go with (in no particular order)
Floater
Pink Floyd
The Doors
Dave Brubeck
Billie Holliday
A top 5 is cool. I noticed you mentioned this Floater song in the Weekly Music Thread. I like it. It does make my brain kind of itch though, I can't quite place who they sound similar to, or rather the mix of groups who I think they sound similar to.