Good Bands

People often ask me what bands they should be checking out, so here is a list of my top 5 most played artists for the last 3 months along with a description of why they're amazing:

1: Death Cab For Cutie

This band are epic, one of the prettiest emo/indie groups around. Some would call them indie I guess...but I don't like indie but I like this so it can't be! It took me two goes to like this band for some reason, people have been going on about them for years so I got some of their albums a while ago but wasn't very impressed for some reason. Fortunately my good friend Seth Cohen talks about them a lot so after watching too much of The OC I was inspired to give them another go. And I loved it! Ben Gibbards lyrics are often genius and abstract, and I love the song "Information Travels Faster" because I think it's about the internet.

2. Hatebreed

This is a New York hardcore band from France. Nah not really they're from New York, they're proper intense though. One of the cornerstones of hardcore music, they've also been around for years and years, and their song "I Will Be Heard" is a classic. Their singer presents Headbangers Ball on MTV... interesting stuff.

3. Braintax

I've talked about this guy before. UK hip hop with a political theme and social commentary etc, it's very clever. Read that other post.

4. Foreign Beggars

This is like a rap group on Braintax's label, they're also legends of the scene. I play them a lot mainly cos me and my mate Sam are obsessed with the tune "Gimme Dat" featuring this nifty little chorus:

Hey, you
Watcha gwan do?
Orifice, Foreign Beggars fine roll crew
Gimme dat chain, dat jacket dem shoes
dat wallet with ya money and ya credit card to

Many a drunken night out involves us spittin this little ditty in the street.

5. Anal Cunt

This is the stupidest band you'll ever hear. For those not familiar, it's known as "noisecore". They pretty much play music to sound as horrible and offensive and, some would say, terrible as possible. They go through different periods but my favourite was the "40 More Reasons To Hate Us" album where they just made 42 tracks mostly less than a minute. Here's a sample of some titles:

# "Face It, You're a Metal Band"
# "Punching Joe Bonni's Face In"
# "Kill Women"
# "Steroids Guy"
# "Everyone in Allston Should Be Killed"
# "I Noticed That You're Gay"
# "Dead, Gay, and Dropped"
# "You Looked Divorced"
# "I Hope You Get Deported"
# "Mike Mahan Has Gingivitis"

So you can safely assume they don't take things seriously. Ironically, after penning the classic ballad "You're In A Coma", their singer Seth Putnam really did fall into a coma following a drug overdose. He's alright now though.

I'm gonna tease the next five till tomorrow.