Who are the next great ROCK (alternative,pop etc) band in the U.S, today?

whulmef

This thread reminds me of the Rolling Stone cover of R.E.M. in 1987 that declared them as "America's best rock and roll band." Going on this notion, I think there has always been at least one American band that was popular (maybe not the most popular but mosts people knew who they were) and in their prime. Before R.E.M. I guess it was Springsteen, before him The Band, Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and then Elvis. Going further back the big greats tend to be jazz folks like Duke Ellington. In the 90s it was Nirvana then Pearl Jam I suppose more in the mid 90s. Now I would have to say Wilco is in their prime and are gaining popularity. Since rock became more popular than jazz, there has not been a huge jazz star. In the 90s rap and pop have taken over. So will there be another huge rock star?
By the way RockKing, I saw Dead Confederate at a frat house in Chapel Hill a couple of months ago. They rocked my brains. Imagine a room full of bourbon soaked frat guys jumping up and down for over an hour. I heard the band was passing around a handle of bourbon in between songs. They had a whole bunch of smoke, loud drums, and loud guitars. They were straight rock and roll.

RockKing

whulmef wrote:

By the way RockKing, I saw Dead Confederate at a frat house in Chapel Hill a couple of months ago. They rocked my brains. Imagine a room full of bourbon soaked frat guys jumping up and down for over an hour. I heard the band was passing around a handle of bourbon in between songs. They had a whole bunch of smoke, loud drums, and loud guitars. They were straight rock and roll.

Fuck yeah. That's what I'm talking about. They are straight balls-to-wall rock and roll at its finest. To me, they feel like they're leading a revival. It's bringing back a connection to the music itself that is lacking in today's bands. There's no shtik, no gimmicks, no peripherals.....just straight forward rock and roll at its finest. I really, really love that band and am so jacked up for the full album to come out.

Evensolo05

Music has changed and so has the way in which people access it. The main rock genre at the minute is probably indie music. Music promoted through websites like pitchfork, bands promoting their own music on myspace. Look at how Radiohead released their latest record. I dont think there will ever be another HUGE selling rock band simply because these days there is now so much choice for the music listener.

alpitt

People saying this decade of music has sucked are partially right but also very, very wrong. Just because the mainstream radio/mtv/etc. (which could have thread upon thread about how awful it is), hasn't embraced the good music out there doesn't mean its not there. There just isn't a big, new arena rock band putting out quality material right now that can capture people's attention. But there have been (and are, obviously) a multitude of great bands throughout this decade putting out excellent stuff. See: wilco, the strokes, my morning jacket, arcade fire, spoon, sigur ros, pete yorn, etc. etc. I could go on and on.

At this point the closest thing to a big influential rock band that puts out good stuff is easily Radiohead.

DriftingByTheStorm

The Flaming Lips

Brain of J.Lo

whulmef wrote:

Imagine a room full of bourbon soaked frat guys jumping up and down for over an hour.

Wait. Are you trying to say this is a good thing?

locked

if Incubus can produce one more CD on par with "Morning View" they would get my vote!

Igottago

alpitt wrote:

At this point the closest thing to a big influential rock band that puts out good stuff is easily Radiohead.

Yes, they are pretty much the modern day Pink Floyd status band, and they will be remembered for years, and highly influential. Bands like Arcade Fire haven't had the same mass popularity that Radiohead has, and it will affect their long term status I think. Plus, who knows, they may have peaked already, they've only put out 2 albums. Radiohead wasn't widely heralded as genius until their 3rd album.

Pearl Jam will be the band that everyone will pretend they listened to all along. They will be like the Rolling Stones in another decade, and all these old people who only bought "Ten" will go to their shows and try to pretend they were always huge fans.

PJGARDEN

Evensolo05 wrote:

Music has changed and so has the way in which people access it. The main rock genre at the minute is probably indie music. Music promoted through websites like pitchfork, bands promoting their own music on myspace. Look at how Radiohead released their latest record. I dont think there will ever be another HUGE selling rock band simply because these days there is now so much choice for the music listener.

I agree with this to an extent. I refuse to believe there will never be another GREAT rock band. I think one of the factors that will make them a GREAT band will be their ability to appeal to the masses despite these things.

Several people in this thread have mentioned several really good bands but I think, to truely be an influential band, they have to be mainstream and they will have to stand the test of time. Not that I don't think some of the bands mentioned can't be influential but to I pave the way for a future movement or change music they have to be heard.

Odin

The next revolutionary rock band won't reach stardom until at least the 2010s, and it won't happen until the standard guitar, bass, drums, singer format gets played out.

The closest thing right now is Sigur Ros. If they become huge, they have the potential to take music in a whole new direction.

mdigenakis

Pearl Jam

Katzenjammer

Strangest Tribe wrote:

Band of Horses

I don't see them getting huge popular...at least I hope not
but I believe they have the talent to accumulate a great cult following.

They will be enourmously lucky if they have 10% of the following Nirvana or the Beatles had. Get over it, and that goes to the rest of you that just have to mention your favorite blah, innacessable indie bands.

I like music too. I think Queens of the Stone Age is (insert one: the best band of the decade/the most musically original band ever/the band most likely to receive the golden raspbaerry award), but that doesn't mean they will make it big. Not every good band gets what it deserves. Fact.

BetterManningNYG

thrice

(around since the late 90s, but still a "new" band by my standards)

JaneNY

Igottago wrote:

Pearl Jam will be the band that everyone will pretend they listened to all along. They will be like the Rolling Stones in another decade, and all these old people who only bought "Ten" will go to their shows and try to pretend they were always huge fans.

Yes, but they will be behind us, because we kept up our 10 club memberships all these years till then!

mookeywrench

the internet has opened the flood gates for music. It is now much easier to record and release and gain exposure for all types of music.

This however creates a semi-drawback, because music as a whole is litterally impossible to keep up with, in the 60's and 70's and even up into the 80's and 90's you could honestly keep track of all of the new artists coming out and the newest music that was being released. there was also only a single primary format of music that was being released, and if you wanted to listen to it, you had to purchase it.

This means that when an artist was big; they got extraordinarly huge. Album sales were all accounted for, people were able to keep track of them, hence a much larger fanbase and audience.

Now with the internet there are millions of bands trying to pitch out their albums to billions of people. The mass of bands that are coming into the music scene with easy exposure, and easy releasing of music, has created the sub genre. Now instead of rock, you have post-rock, pop-punk, drone metal, pshyco billy, alternative, industrial, indie, goth etc. etc. etc. There's something out there for everyone now. Its like going from choosing your favorite cookie and given three options, to choosing your favorite cookie and given 3000 options.

Now that the spread of so bands is so large, there are those people that are idolized (built to spill, pearl jam, green day, arcade fire, etc.) but they are no longer condensed, because music fans are spreading their time out evenly to discover all sorts of bands and music. Also, people are no longer purchasing records as much anymore, meaning that album sales no longer match what is popular in music. And how does mainstream media choose what is popular? Album sales.

And what generates album sales these days? People who don't have the know-how or access to computers (tweens and the lower-class), thus those who can't download music.

Sorry this is so long, hope someone reads and agrees or gains some insight.

ScotInAmsterdam

Igottago wrote:

Pearl Jam will be the band that everyone will pretend they listened to all along. They will be like the Rolling Stones in another decade, and all these old people who only bought "Ten" will go to their shows and try to pretend they were always huge fans.

I think that's already happened. I saw a lot of that in Europe in the last 2 years. It was suddenly okay to like Pearl Jam.

ScotInAmsterdam

Odin wrote:

it won't happen until the standard guitar, bass, drums, singer format gets played out.

It's not happened in the last 50 years, and I think it's unlikely to happen in the next 2. Until that crunch of the guitar or bonham esque drum sound stops mainlining adrehnalin or testosterone or whatever it is straight to where it counts there will be a place for that combo. What people do with it is another matter, people have managed to continually reinvent it for 50 odd years and I really don;t see it changing.

Saying that I think you are right about sigur ros etc, as they change what is acceptable to do with the canvas, but wiping it away completely is modernism, which has never sustained success in any art form.

ScotInAmsterdam

I'm going to take the time to read and answer your post, cos I'm guilty of long posts and get pissed off when people bypass them

mookeywrench wrote:

the internet has opened the flood gates for music. It is now much easier to record and release and gain exposure for all types of music.

This however creates a semi-drawback, because music as a whole is litterally impossible to keep up with, in the 60's and 70's and even up into the 80's and 90's you could honestly keep track of all of the new artists coming out and the newest music that was being released. there was also only a single primary format of music that was being released, and if you wanted to listen to it, you had to purchase it.

I think this is true, but I think it started further back than the birth of the internet, when punk came along in the 70's people realised that it wasn't that hard to create your records and distribute them, so people with a little bit of money($500) could record and press a 7" and distribute it. This continued throughout the 80's, so while I usually laugh at the 80's it was an extemely important decade for music. It put some of the power for decisions as to where things were going back to where it counted, and we moved away from the huge money hungry record labels. We didn't wipe them out, but more things became possible and I think this had a huge effect on music. I think Sub Pop was a huge example of this.

mookeywrench wrote:

Now with the internet there are millions of bands trying to pitch out their albums to billions of people. The mass of bands that are coming into the music scene with easy exposure, and easy releasing of music, has created the sub genre. Now instead of rock, you have post-rock, pop-punk, drone metal, pshyco billy, alternative, industrial, indie, goth etc. etc. etc. There's something out there for everyone now. Its like going from choosing your favorite cookie and given three options, to choosing your favorite cookie and given 3000 options.

It's a good analogy, but I think ultimately people really want to be part of something, even if it is to join together with the other non-conformists. Most of these "super underground indy bands" that people are quoting in this thread are not very super underground. They are big bands with global sales, the bands doing the whole thing on their own and becoming famous without the music indsutry that were predicted haven't really materialised. The internet is just another medium that unsigned bands can use to show a record company that they have a following. People getting signed from their myspace pages are about as likely as people getting signed from a home produced demo tape that they hocked around, which people have been doing since the late 70's.

mookeywrench wrote:

Now that the spread of so bands is so large, there are those people that are idolized (built to spill, pearl jam, green day, arcade fire, etc.) but they are no longer condensed, because music fans are spreading their time out evenly to discover all sorts of bands and music. Also, people are no longer purchasing records as much anymore, meaning that album sales no longer match what is popular in music. And how does mainstream media choose what is popular? Album sales.

I think the big change for me is that I can't imagine people "growing" with a band quite as much any more, becuase our consumer society means that we want more more more now now now. I grew with Pearl Jam, their advances and evolution maps onto the advances and evolution I made in my own life. I think it's such a wonderful thing and wish everyone could experience it. I always think the beatles are a great example, imagine being 13 in 1963. She loves you yeah yeah yeah, perfect music for 13 year olds, providing much the same vibe as greenday currently do for each generation of 13 year olds who come along. The beauty of the Beatles is that every year that 13 yr advanced with their favouirite band until in 1970 they were adults and ready to fly off on their own. I don't see that happening with so many band's careers and the space and focus of a fan to get that experience has pretty much gone nowadays. Therefore I feel incredibly lucky.

Zoso

pearl jam are one of if not the last bands that can survive purely on reputation, obsessive fan base, touring and their music (without a HUGE lights and stage set up like U2 for example). I think no bands will ever be 'huge' again they may be influencial on future bands but not to the point where Zeppelin and Floyd have been. 70's were a golden era for rock and won't ever be beaten again. A lot more bands are in the spot light now that are mid level.

lucylespian

Ironically,the answer to this question may well be "Led Zeppelin" or "Pink Floyd", if either or both of those bands decides to do even a limited tour or release new material.
There is a whole young generation who are now discovering these bands as exciting new things. I have a bud at college who constantsly introduces frinds to these bands (as I did to him) and whole groups of kids get tuned in and really excited.
They have the weight to cut through the static that mookeywrench described.
They might be old geezers, but the music is electric and marketable.