My go to favourite band is AFI, and they have a great back catalogue to dig into as they've been going since the 90s but have changed their style with the times (although always sort of emo/punk adjacent). I flip flop on my favourite album from them, currently I'd say it's Sing The Sorrow but sometimes it's Decemberunderground.

My taste changes frequently though, so for something with a completely different style, I find myself constantly returning to Personal Protocol by 8485, a wonderful hyperpop EP with Drum & Bass influences.

I hope you get something out of any of this, and would love to hear what you think!

Cake - Pressure Chief

The flow from song to song on this album is near flawless. I think it is their most cohesive album, although they are all great. Motorcade of Generosity is a close second for me.

Lard - The Power of Lard

Jello Biafra from the Dead Kennedys and the members of Ministry, two of my favourite bands, collaborated and made some truly amazing heavy music.

Dan Britt - I'm Dead Inside

Recently came across this tune and can't get enough of it.

TV on the radio - Ambulance

Ditto this one.

Portishead - Wandering Star

Finally, you can't go wrong with this classic from my youth.

At this point in time.

David Bowie: Station to Station

Depeche Mode: Music for the Masses

The Beatles: Revolver

Bauhaus: In the Flat Field

Black Sabbath, War Pigs.

The instrumental build up and the depressing message are absolutely brutal and an amazing glimpse into heavy metal's origin.

Porter Robinson - Nurture

Just saw him live last night, absolutely incredible concert.

Probably Janelle Monae - Archandroid. I love Afrofutrist funk like (Parliament-Funkadelic). It appeals to my 2 identities as a space nerd and the funkiest of the funky. Archandroid was sort of the peak of her sticking close to that genre. (Her three early works called the Metropolis Saga — Metropolis, an EP, Archandroid, and The Electric Lady — form a whole story.) The albums have multiple Suites like classical works so the themes change even within the albums. But Archandroid is my favorite part. And you can totally nerd out on it forever and still find new things.

• Artist: The Beatles
• Album: Revolver
• Song: Tomorrow Never Knows

R.E.M. - Reckoning

The place where jangle lives.

A couple of my favorites, in no particular order...

Dessa - Mineshaft II Dessa writes some of the most evocative, lyrically dense songs I've ever heard.

The Gits - Guilt Within Your Head The Gits were a Seattle-based punk rock band that were poised to blow up big in the early 90s. Tragically, lead singer Mia Zapata was murdered just 4 days after they signed their first major contract.

Titus Andronicus - (I'm) Screwed A long-running and critically acclaimed hard rock band that's avoided finding mainstream success. One of the best live acts I've seen.

How many desert island discs do I get? I'll do three lesser known ones

Make it all show - Skating Polly. I love the vocal styles, not sure I'd reccommend the band (I do have tickets this year though)

Masters of reality - Masters of reality. Not so much a band as a producer pulling talent and doing odd projects. Not a track on this I don't sing along to though... especially the instrumentals.

Rakshak - Bloodywood. Sometimes I need flute solos in my life, sometimes I need someone to aggressively tell me that shit is going to be ok.

3 more known ones.

Dummy - Portishead. Original pirate material - The streets. New levels new devils - Polyphia

I do have a lot of favorites from over the years but I still find new bands/albums I fall in love with. So instead of recommending any old favorites I will give you my album of the year (thus far) from a band I didn’t really enjoy before.

Caligula‘s Horse - Charcoal Grace

Absolutely fantastic album and I would strongly recommend listening to it from start to finish.

AURORA!!

I'd recommend The Gods We Can Touch, and when you're done with that What Happened to The Heart. If you're wondering who she is, maybe listen runaway, you'll probably recognize that. Hope you enjoy! :)

If you’re into metal music, Sons of Texas is an underrated band. They’re no longer together, but they put out a couple of good albums.

Also check out Cardinal Black, it’s a blues/rock outfit, and really good.

Massive Attack - Risingson

Choosing a favorite is hard and it changes a lot for me. This time I’ll choose Porcupine Tree and recommend their album In Absentia.

"Softly" by Gordon Lightfoot is one of my favorite songs. On the surface it appears to be about a woman but I don't think it is. I was listening to it one time when it just popped into my head, "Holy shit. He's talking about the moon."

I thought about writing him to ask if I was right and I kind of regret that I didn't while he was still alive. The man was a poet of highest caliber. If you like or can at least listen to folk music, the album "Gord's Gold" lives up to it's name.

hands down jethro tull:

favorite song is from an early album but its subject matter you would think would be later in a career but the band had been through many changes to evolve to where it got https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGvux7w1Ea4

most iconic is aqualung https://youtu.be/N4zPu3ISCGs

the band reformed and the song I would want most people to hear is zealot gene which man just summed up the late 20teens https://youtu.be/1APwlHY50vo

Based on my year end wrap up things Pearl Jam is my favorite band. I'm in the top 0.01% of listeners on Tidal, and the same was true when I was on Spotify.

They just came out with a new album called "Dark Matter" that is quite good (though I think I liked the last album a bit better). I'd put "Riot Act" as my favorite album of there's, but I think I might point you toward a song on what is probably my least favorite album (Back Spacer), Unthought Known

The Sword band, and their second album Gods Of The Earth.

It is burned into my brain. Epic viking rock opera created by a garage band in Texas.

Refused - The Shape Of Punk To Come

The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - David Bowie
The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
Hotel California - The Eagles
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles
Rumours - Fleetwood Mac
Boston - Boston
Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Abbey Road - The Beatles

Albums that I have probably listened to the most times in my life:

• NOFX: Punk in Drublic - the definitive 90s skate punk album
• Social Distortion: White Light White Heat White Trash - My all time favorite band. A great mix of punk, rockabilly, blues, and a little country. Truly there is no other band that sounds like them. I also recommend their album Live at the Roxy, because they are amazing live.

These two don't really need introductions.

• The Beatles: Abbey Road
• Nirvana: Nevermind

Over all Beethoven and his fifth piano concerto.

Bloodsport OST Paul Hertzog. Literally everything on this album is a masterpiece. If you haven't zoned out to this album or watched the movie you're doing yourself a disservice.

I listen to so many different kinds of music so it is hard to nail down a favorite. Instead I’ll give you the most recent artist I saw live-Jazz guitarist Julian Lage. I saw his trio in Chicago last night and it was an unreal experience with how tight the group was. Truly masters of their craft. Here is one of my favorite tracks of his “Tributary”

https://youtu.be/cEqgeN27Hhk?si=fx2xrvgOIy-w7GtG

Let's skip favorite and instead answer fun find that I've come back to a few times: Brothers of Metal - Kaunaz Dagaz (it is in English, lol). It's viking metal, and as went through highschool with Blind Guardian and Rhapsody, it's great to find bands still making banging fantasy metal https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzad__XGDbQ&si=atuCBlgpMSQ9UkRL

I've also been a fan of Bloodywood lately. Think an angrier Hybrid Theory Lincoln Park, but from India and with some fusion going on. Machi Bhased is a good toe in the water https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=3kLKYWDQVec&si=xsmCHcr6llZdaAWc as is Dana-Dan: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=uo6OC34QjY0&si=6SxQ6T9MwvRUdlJF

You can never ever go wrong with the Miles Davis album, Kind of Blue.

Stephin Merritt is the greatest songwriter of my generation. My favorite song is "100,000 Fireflies" but another good one to start with is "All My Little Words".

My favorite local band is Chicago's Zapruder Point. The song that got me hooked was "You Are Not Your Own" but my favorite overall is the heartbreaking "Big Sister (I Never Had)".

PSA: All the links I posted have their tracking info trimmed off, which is best practice when sharing links.

One of my favourites that's not known very much is Meg Myers. She puts raw emotion into her music.

Instead of my favorite, which is very well known, I've chosen to promote a different awesome song in an adjacent genre:

Destiny Potato - Addict

Excellent song, and the buildup + guitar solo = chefs kiss

Hey that's cool. I get my music from "all songs considered" (new music Friday), the NPR podcast.

Last thing I enjoyed was the new album "embers" by God is an astronaut.

Super Furry Animals - Radiator

Been my favorite since mid 00's. As someone from the US, they were never very big here, and I get tons of looks from people if I tell them this. They were pretty successful overseas from the looks of the concerts. I didn't mind. Whenever they toured here, I got to see them in super small venues, which was great. Sadly, they haven't put out an album in over 15 years and doubt they will. They all have side projects and kind of moved on but never officially broke up. I can only hope they will return one day. Side projects are really good as well, thankfully.

Hard to pick a favorite.

The Mountain Goats - the Sunset Tree or Tallahassee

Arcade Fire - the Neon Bible

Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People

"Srontgorrth" by Nagelfar. If you really want to expand your horizon. Lol

I'd have to go with a Meshuggah - Demiurge acoustic cover from a few months back, parts of it keep getting stuck in my head

https://youtu.be/9_CHSHE1w2o

I dont have favorites but I'd recommend the following

The Gets/Gilberto album. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getz/Gilberto

Also Coltrane for lovers https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltrane_for_Lovers

Bee Gee's greatest hits https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_(Bee_Gees_album)

Also Thievery Corporation's discography

And if you want hip hop I'd recommend BlackThought of the roots, MF DOOM, a tribe called quest and Nas...

Artist: BONES Album: WITHERED

This is one of my favorites, i enjoy the dungeon core vibe.

I'm on a synthwavey kick right now so I'm calling out Maximum Love.

https://youtu.be/mpdZzAe35_Q

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6iDI0sHLIeFIkZk6BKJBVQ?si=N-DjClfbQIK4WLL5Lmr0pQ

Older rock: Red hot chili peppers- Zephyr song, or, Dark Necessities.

Goofy/fun: Ninja sex party (NSP)- Parent's house

The problem for me with suggesting music is that I really like all my music so I just want to recommend it all. There's too many to suggest!

My favorite band is Enter the Haggis. I'll give you a couple choices:

Swallowed by a Whale - one of their newest.

Gasoline - one of their most popular ones, a bit country-leaning.

To the Quick - a solid instrumental.

Seven Spires!!!

If an evil spirit cast a curse on me that I cannot listen to anything but Seven Spires, I wouldn't be too bothered.

They're a symphonic metal band, they released an amazing album this year "A Fortress Called Home".

Rammstein - Mutter - Spieluhr

Chopin - Nocturne in B flat minor, Op. 9 № 1

REM - Monster - Bang and Blame

Jon Lajoie - You Want Some of This? - Show Me Your Genitals

Pearl Jam - Yield - Push Me Pull Me

Lindemann - Frau und Mann - Knebel

Ария - Химера - Вампир

Gamma Ray - Power Plant - Empress

Kurban - İnsanlar - Yine

Crowded House - Together Alone - Nails in my Feet

If someone couldn't find at least one song on that list that they like, I'd be very surprised.

One of the few bands that have stuck with me for years, I give you Foreign Air. I recommend their album Hello Sunshine, most of them are bangers. My favourite songs include Your Touch and Hello Sunshine Pt 2.

Neko Case in either her solo career or with The New Pornographers. The voice of God with red hair. I would listen to Brill Bruisers by TNP or Middle Cyclone by Neko..