Bands That I Like

48 Car Seat Headrest Car Seat Headrest Car Seat Headrest began in 2010 as a solo project in Virginia (now based out of Seattle) when Will Toledo made ten Car Seat Headrest albums in college, kinda’ like Led Zeppelin’s first four albums, he just used the number scale to title his albums. This music is super-lo-fi yet super-catchy. Toledo has said, "I probably would not have been able to make [those] album[s] if I had thought anyone was going to listen to it.” There is something raw and experimental about those records, like the early Animal Collective albums. He would record in cars, bathrooms, and other solitary spaces while recording those first ten records during college. In 2015, he signed with Matador Records and added Andrew Katz on drums, Ethan Ives on guitar, and Seth Dalby on bass. Now ten years in, the four piece is starting fresh with their 2020 release, Making A Door Less Open . The album, other than finds a shift in sound towards electronic, is their first n...

47 Caribou Caribou On his 2001 debut album, Ontario, Canada’s Dan Snaith brought together a world where he imagined what electronic music might sound if its usual iciness and austerity thawed, just a little. Although still a fundamentally cold-weather record, Start Breaking My Heart hums with traces of the same acoustic textures and percussive abandon that Snaith would later dial up on his later outings. His sophomore release, Up In Flames , avoided the sophomore curse. His third album, 2005’s The Milk   of Human Kindness solidified his status as a critical darling, but the public-masses were still a little behind. It was really his fifth album, 2010’s Swim , that brought him out of the flames and into the public’s consciousness. This was after his third album, Andorra , had won the Polaris Music-Prize, a Canadian prize for best Canadian album of the year. Swim was a major break-through. It proved that he could create challenging music while still dazzle the listener. It ...

46 Captain Beefheart Captain Beefheart Without Captain Beefheart (born Don Van Vliet), you don’t get Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and arguably Jack White. He had an impact on new wave, punk, and alternative. His magna opus was 1969’s Trout Mask Replica . He once said in an interview, “I don’t know anything about music.” That is what it is all about. Kill your rock stars. Burn your music theory. It is all about what is inside you and what needs to come out. Describing Captain Beefheart’s music is difficult to describe as he borrowed from multiple genres and utilized multiple instruments pushing boundaries and breaking musical rules as he went. All of this was combined with a wide vocal range and bizarre lyrics that added to a musical experience that was different than anything else going on around him. Those who have listened to his music usually follow in two camps; those who become fans instantly and those who are shaking their heads trying to figure out what exactly they just hear...