+1 Pavement GOAT
And what about The Pixies? Sonic Youth? Stereolab? Luna?

Or even more mainstream stuff like GnR, Metallica, RHCP?

Yet, Blues Traveller and 311 make the list. OP has confirmed terrible music taste regardless of what decade it is.

There are a lot of great bands since 2000, I think the real thing is just that a lot of your list of bands are more rock/alt/indie types that if they came out now would not get much radio play, but for that period of the 90's had a boom due to nirvana and stuff. I think bands don't really get BIG like they used to. They get a great following and do well enough but the pop music on the radio today is more about production stuff than being a band. Someone that grew up with like Led Zepplin and classic rock could easily say the same thing about all the alt/grundge/indie stuff that you loved so much in the 90's. Now it is even more diverse and so much easier to get access to.

If I went through my collection I know I could find a ton. People have already mentioned a bunch.

My Morning Jacket would be in mine, Explosions in the Sky. God I am blanking and/or just not able to recall when some bands that still put out good stuff to me "broke out".

Sticking with OP's genres (more or less)

Florence and the Machine
The xx
Kings of Leon
The Black Keys
LCD Soundsystem
Spoon
MGMT

didnt really think anybody else liked these guys

the shins
arctic monkeys

of bands that are more known...its hard to mix small time and big time bands on a top list imo...people tend to have a stronger bias and connection to local bands theyve seen a lot

I like all those bands you mentioned, and would probably rank some of them within my top 20, though GnR and Metallica would be considered 80's bands by my metric. I was also thinking RHCP were 80's until I realized BSSM came out in 1990. Anyway, I was just slapping together a list of 90's bands I like better than just about everything I've heard past '00.

I absolutely love 311, there simply wasn't and haven't been a band with that sound since. DMB and Blues Traveler are good at what they do and probably sit down near 20, though they could be pushed down further if I think of some more good bands.

Edit: Cake is another one someone mentioned I really like. Maybe top 20.

i lol'd

M&S are great, I saw them at Jazzfest last year. Not sure where I rank them yet. I also like Coldplay, though they have always struck me as a band that still hasn't made their best album... yet they keep not doing it. Anyway they have a few really good songs.


This is something I'm acutely aware of, and I'm really just trying to figure out if it is the case or if the 90's were really that much better than '00s. For example, I think the 10 year span from about '65-75 was the best music ever. And there was so much garbage in the 80's it's taken me 30 years to finally appreciate all the good music that came out of it. But right now the 00's is sort of a lost decade to me.

Please post a list of your top 10-20 bands this century.

I don't really want to get too worked up about these exact lists, or order. The are so many great bands, we could debate forever. I'm really just trying to get a sense of how many great bands have come out in the past decade. So far here is a small list:

White Stripes
Cold Play
Shins
Strokes
QOTSA
Arcade Fire
Evett Bros
Mumford and Sons
OAR (slips in I think)

All of these bands are good, and perhaps some are even great. Though IMHO this list pales in comparison to the 90's list I generated earlier without much thought. I'd be grateful if people could add to it to help with the comparison in the OP, and it will also help me fill up my Iphone with more current music which could grow on me.

wilco has probably been one of my fav bands of the 2000's and i dont listen to much alt/ indie rock .

The Killers tho

I would agree that many bands from the 90's are way better than anything around now, but I also would say many bands that started in the 60's were way better than any bands of the 90's. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Hendrix..etc

Wilco, Killer's added, tyvm

Tiltmonkey, agreed! Best v Best 60's bands win hands down.

Right now if you pin me down to a decade war I'd go 60's > 90's > 70's > 80's >> 00's

lol, ok. Blues Traveler is a great band. 311 is also solid.

Do I need to remind you that Pavement has this piece of garbage as one of their most popular songs?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoMdkyeZOqE

Just wanna say that Muse sucks.

Going to see Jane's in a few weeks, pretty pumped!

Sure, I'll give it a go. Subject to change very rapidly, this is just off the top of my head and in no particular order.

Arcade Fire
Sufjan Stevens
Iron & Wine
White Stripes (and all other Jack White projects)
Fleet Foxes
My Morning Jacket
Tallest Man on Earth (and a whole bunch of other male singer songwriters)
Feist (and all the female single song writers, i.e., Jenny Lewis, Neko Case, etc.)
Florence and the Machine
The National
The New Pornographers
Explosions in the Sky
Sigur Ros (might be late 90s, too lazy to check)
Okkervil River
Animal Collective

That's enough for now, missing tons I'm sure.

Stuff I didn't see posted yet:

The Hold Steady
Titus Andronicus
St. Vincent
Mclusky
Cut Copy

you're a ****ing dip****.

here is my favorite 90's band, you might like them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdVRaDJth4s

I love the 90's but Muse is really up there for me.

Landon and Cobra,

How many/which of your choices would you rank within the top 20 90's bands I posted earlier?

A.C. might top my list for this century.

Silversun Pickups is another band I'd recommend from this century.

FOSTER THE PEOPLE

I've always found women to have strange taste in music.