RECOMMENDED LISTENING

EDIT: More junk added.

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~ Into The Blue Again by The Album Leaf ~

Eh... I suppose it would be easiest to compare this album to anything by The Postal Service. It's got the same peaceful, transcendent vibe that The Postal Service possesses, but it's somehow a bit darker. That's not to say it's gothy or emo or whatever. It's just that anything by The Postal Service kinda makes you wanna jump up and dance and throw flowers about and sing about superheroes and bunnies and such. The Album Leaf is what you listen to when you just want to absolutely chill, to wash your mind free of any emotion, to just kick back and enjoy their soothing tunes.
Standout Tracks: Always For You ; Writings On The Wall

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~ Burn Piano Island, Burn by The Blood Brothers ~

One of the loudest goddamn albums I have ever heard.
Energetic, chaotic, powerful, and almost incomprehensible by normal humans, The Blood Brothers in general is a band that must be seen and heard with your own ears. It is almost impossible to believe that human beings make these sounds. This is the kind of album that you play when you're FUCKING PISSED and need to throw something at the wall or break something in half. Their other albums all kinda deviate away from this unique sound, with Crimes being sorta emo-y and more dark, and Young Machetes being more poppy (as poppy as punk can get, at least) but THIS is the one that just screams (almost literally) "Let's have a fuckin' revolution."
Standout Tracks: Burn Piano Island, Burn ; Ambulance Vs. Ambulance ; Fucking's Greatest Hits

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~ Broken Social Scene by Broken Social Scene ~

Further proof that Canadian indie bands are absolutely amazing. It would be a crime to call this album typical indie pop like Islands or The Unicorns or whatever (though those are two perfectly good bands!) For one thing, BSS has an interesting view on the number of guitarists it must possess in the band (think it was 5 last time I checked, plus a bassist.) They're what you could call a supergroup, pulling together members from all sorts of Canadians that you and I have never even heard of (like The New Pornographers.) Thus this brings about a sort of mishmash of styles that all work together in perfect unison with one another. Just give it a listen, some songs will definetly stand out more to you than others, due to the radical range of styles, but you'll be to at least enjoy all of them.
Plus, Fire Eye'd Boy is just the best song ever, period. Listen to it, and try and disagree with me.
Standout Tracks: Fire Eye'd Boy ; Windsurfing Nation ; Handjobs for the Holidays

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~ The Crane Wife by The Decemberists ~

Wow. This was... sort of a shock for me. The Decemberists are known for their bizzare sort of style in their songs, with lyrics and themes ranging from prostitutes to pirates to "chimbly sweeps." Thus, when I first listened to all the tracks on the album, I was sort of disappointed to find out that they had totally ditched the whole novelty of wierd themes for a more typical progressive indie rock album. Then I gave it a few more listens. And a few more. And more. And despite what kind of turn that The Decemberists take, they still manage to sound damn fine. The power and emotion of Colin Meloy's voice, despite sounding totally geeky at some times, still manages to be the biggest and best unique factor in their sound. Still worth a listen, even after 4 albums.
Standout Tracks: The Crane Wife 3 ; O Valencia ; The Song With The Really Long Title (seriously, it's a fucking paragraph, I'm too lazy to look it up on iTunes)

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~ Night Ripper by Girl Talk ~

Take most every popular rap song you've heard in, let's say, the past decade. Now, take a good portion of the hit mainstream and alternative rock to hit the airwaves from the past decade. Take a few indie masterpieces from here in there. Mash them all together onto a 41 minute CD. Stick into a blender. Hit puree.
That is the essense of Night Ripper.
Seriously, there are some fucked up and (dare I say it?) GENIUS mixes of tunes here. Wonder what "The Whisper Song" sounds like mixed with Nine Inch Nail's "Only?" How about Ludacris mixed together with "Bittersweet Symphony" by The Verve? NOW WE KNOW.
Standout Tracks: That's My DJ ; Friday Night

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~ St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley ~

By now, a lot of you have probably heard "Crazy" and loved it. Yes, it's a good song. Give the rest of the album a listen too. Cee-Lo of Gnarls Barkley (yes, it's a group, not just a single person) does a sexxellent job of mixing together his soulful pipes with the samples on each of the tracks. The album sorta does what Outkast's "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below" did with incorporating funk and soul styles from the 70's with hip-hop of today.
Standout Tracks: Crazy ; Smiley Faces ; Transformer

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~ Blood Mountain by Mastodon ~

METAL.
That's what this album is.
METAL.
Crazy, out loud, out of control, epic, massive, disheartening, knee-buckling, jaw-dropping, eardrum-shattering, depressing, exciting, JesusFUCKINGChrist, unbelievable, guitar-wailing, drum-smashing, anthematic, hands-down THE best METAL.
This album has everything great about metal (taking you from dark, gritty apocalyptic 5 minute pieces to skullfucking you in the ear with a 2 minute absolute JAMFEST) and then some.
Standout Tracks: The Wolf Is Loose ; Sleeping Giant ; Bladecatcher

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~ (What's The Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis ~

I think you all know the story on this one.
I'm slowly beginning to realize why this is one of the greatest albums of all time.
Next.
Standout Tracks: Hello ; Wonderwall ; Morning Glory ; Champagne Supernova

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~ Oh No by OK Go ~

This band needs credit, for starters, as being the first band to have their popularity skyrocket due to a (freakin' awesome) video on YouTube.
So yeah, they kinda follow the typical alternative/indie rock sounds, similar to Franz Ferdinand & The Killers in a way.
But they're recommended simply because they made a video with them doing a dance choreographed on treadmills.
And Do What You Want is one of the most addictive songs of the year so far (the intro is FABULOUS.)
Standout Tracks: Do What You Want ; Here It Goes Again

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~ The Battle Of Los Angeles by Rage Against The Machine ~

If you were within a 10 mile radius of Cooper & Martin during the D.C Trip, you should know about this one too. Political hip-rock, the basis for other bands to come along and try the genre, like Linkin Park and Fort Minor. But this was THE first band to mix together rap and rock successfully, and by adding in radically political lyrics, manage to raise some controversy as well. Though the band split up (into the "meh" Audioslave) there will be nothing else like Rage, or this album, ever again.
Also, Killing in The Name isn't on this album, but it's possibly the best song to have played while you're drunk and in a moshpit.
Standout Tracks: Testify ; Guerilla Radio ; Sleep Now In The Fire ; Ashes In The Fall

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~ Classics by Ratatat ~

Ahh, more electro-techno-guitar action from Ratatat. While their first self-titled album was more leaning toward the psuedo-"rap with guitars" genre, this one sort of alienates towards the psuedo-"funk with guitars" genre, hence the title of the album Classics, referring to the good old days when all music needed was a sweet groove and a beat to be supersexy. Add in 8-bit videogamey synth sound effects, and you're golden.
And they're totally coming to the Cradle on the 3rd, so that also makes me happy in the pants.
Standout Tracks: Wildcat ; Gettysburg

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~ Game Theory by The Roots ~

A rap album.
Yes, proof that I am somewhat black.
Borrowing a bit from older groups like Public Enemy and mixing in some politics into their lyrics (like in False Media) they also just go to town with good old fashioned gangsta rap. BUT, unlike most of the other generic crap rap out there that I've heard, these guys actually care about the musicality of it. Using the same repetitive and generic beat over and over again while slopping rhymes on top of it are beneath these guys. The first rap album where I would actually reccommend getting an instrumental version of it. Sicksweet.
Standout Tracks: False Media ; Baby ; Here I Come

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~ Enter by Russian Circles ~

Best comparison I can think of is Explosions in the Sky, only they had sex with a slightly hardcore metal band, and then this popped out. Nonlyrical goodness like post-rock such as Explosions in the Sky or Mogwai, yet they take it to a new level by adding in some shreddy and headbangy riffs, making it sort of like post-instrumental-metal. It's not all just crazy loud mess, though, as they prove in more laid back tracks such as Micah, making them sound more in tune and comprable to post-rock bands such as EitS.
Standout Tracks: Micah ; New Macabre ; Death Rides A Horse

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And, I promised a video. So. One of my favourites out of all the tracks I've discussed here.


Here I Come by The Roots

EDIT: With a new update, comes a new video as well. So a classic from Ratatat.


Seventeen Years by Ratatat

~meh!~  ¶ 12:19:00 AM