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In a music world where rap/hip-hop are more prevalent than ever before, what rock bands are trying their best to innovate or keep it real?
It's neat that Rap/Hip-Hop is having a renaissance of sorts. However, I don't really like any of it. In an industry that claims rock is dying (or at least has been for several years), what rock bands have been killing it, spinning it in a new direction, or paying inspired and original homages to their rock forefathers?
Really, the "dead" rock music is the commercial shit that's more straightforward and filled arenas, so if you're into anything else that falls under the massive umbrella of rock music, you can find ways to be happy.
I'll start this off with an image called "A Dadrocker's Guide to modern music," (warning for mocking slur usage) which is a bit outdated now (limited to the early part of this decade) and not exclusively focused on the topic at hand, but I think it's useful anyway.
A few exceptional "rock" records that I'm a huge fan of from this decade, picked off the top of my head with no thought put into it:
The ILYs - Scum With Boundaries
A Death Grips side project that's difficult to box into genres but lies somewhere between noise rock/pop, "art punk," and some electronic flavoring, where the main appeal for me comes from extremely memorable choruses and youthful energy for someone that's been working as long as these guys have.
Sample: "Stop Yelling in the Museum"
The Men - Immaculada
Otherworldly noise rock that borders on shoegaze that makes my soul lose my body. Wonderful raw, fuzzy soundscapes alongside more straightforward songs as well...the guitarwork which can easily fall into the background can be very rewarding if focused into.
Sample: "Madonna; the Star of the Sea"
Midnight - Satanic Royalty
Great, mostly traditional thrash/speed metal with vocals that get it labelled "blackened thrash" by some. Lots of Venom and Bathory comparisons tend to be made with this band that I'm not sure I'm 100% down with but I think the appeal definitely crosses over. Not the most original of bands (metal right now is a bit static in sound but if you like any kind of metal from the past, there's plenty for you), but there's a lot of energy here that's infectious.
Sample: "You Can't Stop Steel"
Don't forget to throw some Toxic Holocaust in there as well!
Acid Fuzz: https://g.co/kgs/tFGzDJ
The indie scene has been steadily growing the past few years, however I don't follow it closely so I don't have specific examples.
As for more traditional rock:
Queens of the Stone age have released two great albums in the 2010's -
Anton Newcombe and BJM are still occasionally releasing great stuff -
For me King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are the most interesting group in the current rock scene -
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizzard is Special with a capital S, they've released five albums in a single year, the last one released on the 31rd of December 2017.
They've also released Polygondwanaland for free, as high quality vinyl masters. Almost makes me want to press the darn polymer plate myself(some people did this afaik!), but it works just as well in HQ audio playback programs.
I quite like Graveyard first album, it's old-school bluesy rock from Sweden.
Graveyard is great. I highly recommend Imperial State Electric too (they're also Swedish old-school rock).
There isn't a Queens of the Stone Age album that I don't like.
Queens of the Stone age are one of the few bands that I know of that released their best album late into their career. This is coming from a huge fan of Songs for the Deaf.
Villains was also a great album!
Totally agree. I have every one of their albums and I love them all, but Villains, Like Clockwork & Songs for the Deaf were superb.
That band on snl a couple weeks ago was pretty good, greta van something. And i keep hearing bands on my local independent radio station that make me smile or get the white boy overbite.
For reference i'm not at all guilty about loving bands like gnr, kansas, and pink floyd, and realky wish we had modern equivalents. I' also into more obscure art rock, e.g. egg, gwar, 70s style funk, classic country, gospel, various jazzes and electonicas, etc, etc. i like 80s rap and electro, don't care much for rap/hip-hop/r&b post public enemy, excepting early aughts southern rap.
Royal Blood is a recent favorite.
Mutemath continues to shine imo.
I think Mansions and Restorations fill that spot really well.
Restorations is more ROCK rock. They've got the voice, they've got the guitars, they've got the drumming. It really feels like it's straight out of a golden age, barring the lyrics; it's incredibly innovative yet classic at the same time. Love it.
Mansions is a bit more indie rock; though I'd say I tend to like them better.
I'm getting back into that 70s and 80s Devil Rock (for lack of a better term). Those albums that sound like four people, a couple guitars with single-coil pickups and one mic on the drumkit, like they're recording in someone's half-finished basement.
Bonus points if it's the kind of music that Jack Chick warned us about in his tracts and comics. That stuff is like candy to my earholes.
In no particular order:
Eternal Champion
Ruby the Hatchet
Mountain Witch
Electric Citizen
Spacetrucker
Rough Spells
BearSloth
And then, of course, there are the other non-Josh-Homme ex-Kyuss members, especially Brant Bjork
It depends on what you're looking for. I've been down the post rock and math rock rabbit holes for over a decade now and I feel like I'm constantly finding more and more to love:
Post-Rock - The focus is on experimentation with the music as experiences. Often lacking vocals, Post-Rock is a catch-all category that uses a ton of repetitions of themes or motifs, but it gets harder to generalize beyond that.
Explosions in the Sky - How Strange, Innocence (album)
Mogwai - Happy Songs for Happy People (album)
The Six Parts Seven - Everywhere and Right Here (album)
Math Rock - Focus on enhancing the rhythmic and melodic elements of rock, often using odd time signatures, repetition, and 'tippy-taps' or playing the guitar/bass almost like a piano:
Chon - Story
Tricot - E
Delta Sleep - Twin Galaxies (album)
Bonus Here's an album that blends both Post-Rock that crosses over into Math-Rock at times, Toe - For Long Tomorrow (album)
Depending on where in the world you live, they might be a bit "mainstream," but my favorite rock set has to be Enter Shikari. Their live gig is amazingly high energy, and their songs cover a huge amount of territory both in lyrical and musical content. Primarily, they blend a lot of interesting synth instrumentation with rock instruments and chord progressions.
Early grungy material
Sophomore album experimentation
In that "everyone's doing a dubstep song" period
Fourth album, bit of a return to form
Fifth album, more interesting experimentation
Bonus: that last link played acoustic (with a midi keyboard for drums/synth), much better imo
They're touring Europe atm, and if you have a chance to go I highly recommend it.