Bands That I Like

97 Fang Island Fang Island As much as I hate to admit, Fang Island came on my radar thanks to Pitchfork's glowing review (Sample praise from said review: "This widely infection Brooklyn band takes manic musicianship and shout-along chorus to another level.") of their sophomore effort, the self-titled, 2010's Fang Island . As a sophomore in high-school I was just really starting to get into alternative music or indie-rock or whatever the hell you wanna' call it when you discover there's more to life than Top 40 & classic rock. The band originally formed in Providence, Rhode Island in 2005 before re-locating and becoming based out of Brooklyn. Anyways, 2010 was the perfect timing for me and this band. I was looking for the new-modern-version of Iron Maiden & boy did I find it. Harmonies! Guitars! Rock 'n' Roll! Their song " Daisy " is a timeless track as it gets and still gets the blood flowing. After discovering their second albu...

96 Explosions In The Sky Explosions In The Sky Explosions in the Sky is a bombastic, instrumental rock group from Austin, TX. They've been compared to groups like Mogwai and Godspeed You Block Emperor. Explosions in the Sky features guitarists Mark Smith and Munaf Rayani, Michael James on bass, and Christopher Hrasky on drums. Explosions in the Sky, t hese post-rock veterans have been writing some of this world's most beautiful soundscapes via music this side of the millennium, and appropriately so. The band formed in Texas in 1999. If heavily evolved guitar work and narrative-styled instrumentals sounds like something up your alley, I would definitely check this band out. The have one of the most appropriate names, because their music starts soft and quiet, building the foundation before it builds to a beautiful crest before crashing down in waves- and this is all in the form of MUSIC! Their debut album, 2000's How Strange, Innocence  was locally distributed on CD-R...

95 Ex Hex Ex Hex I first became aware of this all-female-Washington-D.C.-trio indie-garage band with their debut album, 2014's Rips . It doesn't take a rocket scientist to recognize the catchiness and genius-pop-melodies of this groovy band. It's a lot of things at once: POP... PUNK... LOUD... SINCERE... There isn't a bad song on the whole album. Anyways, Ex Hex was one of my favorite bands of 2014... but it went all quiet on the western front as far as Ex Hex news went... and before too long they were on my back-burner... don't get me wrong: I always loved listening to them and if the Sex Pistols have taught me anything it's that you can be a fan of a band based on one album... So whether or not Ex Hex would have done the anything at all other than that one album, they would have still made it on this list. But five years later this band did the unlikely feat of a avoiding the sophomore slump and released their second album, last year's [2019's] I...

94 Eric Clapton Eric Clapton Eric Clapton may have earned his reputation with his guitar, but he owes his solo career to his voice. It's his singing that has carried his best work, from the frantic gospel groove of " After Midnight " to the pinned melancholy of " Tears in Heaven ." In fact, his least interesting recordings tend to be those that emphasize his solos- an irony, perhaps, but also a testament to the fact that at the end of the day Clapton is more than just a guitar god. Eric Clapton , the album that launched his solo career, was recorded with musicians he'd met while a part of Delaney & Bonnie & Friends (he was a featured player on the the duo's 1970 release On Tour ) and boasts similar blues-and-gospel overtones. Although his lithe, understated vocals make the most of " Blues Power " and a cover of J.J. Cale's "After Midnight," Clapton seems somewhat overwhelmed by the size of the band here; perhaps that...