My wife and I saw Styx, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, Sammy Hagar, Loverboy, and George Thoroughgood all in concert over the summer a couple of years ago. We had a LOT of fun, but we also realized -- inescapably -- that our favorite bands are all getting old now. These guys are in their mid-to late-70s or worse.
Like it or not, seeing these bands in concert is becoming a limited time proposition.
With that in mind, we launched the Live Album Project, both because we wanted to get recordings of our favorites before it gets too late and because we wanted to find some new favorite bands for the future.
Alas, it’s not as easy to find new rock bands as one might hope. The world is all but drowning in musical nostalgia, and as a result, new bands don’t get much in the way of radio airplay anymore.
Even if they did, who listens to the radio?
With that in mind, how do we even go about finding new rock bands in the 21st Century?
I first asked Twitter then Google. My followers gave me two bands that I’ve really enjoyed -- The War on Drugs and The Midnight. Google spit out another fourteen new bands. I cut these together with a few bands that my daughter Hannah discovered via Spotify’s Discover function, one of which -- Dirty Honey -- was also on Google’s list. My buddy Terry then added his favorite new band, TV on the Radio, and here we are.
I now have a 44-hour New Rock playlist. After adding in a 3-second crossfade, listening to it actually sounds like listening to the radio.
New Rock Acts
Dirty Honey
Blacktop Mojo
Ayron Jones
Ghost Hounds
The Cold Stares
The Damn Truth
Blackstone Cherry
Inhaler
Laura Cox
Maneskin
Rival Sons
The L.A. Maybe
Thundermother
The War on Drugs
Goodbye June
Howlin’ Rain
Frankie & the Witch Fingers
Chance Emerson
TV on the Radio
The Midnight
There’s a nice blend of hard rock, bluesy guitar-based stuff, pop, and folk that the vibe absolutely works over, like, a long drive somewhere.
The (Live?) Album Project
Unfortunately, the War on Drugs looks to be the only band on this list that has an actual live album. Live Drugs is freaking fantastic, though. I liked it so much that I ordered it on vinyl immediately after hearing for the first time on Spotify.
Beyond that, I’ve found two albums off this playlist above that I really, really liked.
First up, Goodbye June’s See Where the Night Goes. The whole album is a hard-rocking blues based blast. The song “Three Chords” is a new favorite.
The other album I’ve really enjoyed off the new playlist is The Damn Truth’s Now or Nowhere. The band itself sounds like a modernized update of old school Jefferson Airplane. I *love* it, especially “Only Love” and “The Fire”.
One last note comes on an old classic. Fleetwood Mac recently released Rumors Live. We bought it last weekend, and it’s every inch as good as you’re thinking it might be. That’s a fun one!
So yeah. This is what I’ve been listening to lately.
What have I missed, friends? What are you listening to out there?
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