SPIN-o-rama

When I saw that SPIN magazine published a list of the 50 Best Rock Bands Right Now:

http://www.spin.com/2015/10/the-50-best-rock-bands-right-now/

...my initial impulse was to make my own Top 50 Bands List and then compare the two and see how closely my list would align with SPIN’s.  So, I threw together a list of 50 bands that I currently enjoy, off the top of my head and with a quick scan of iTunes, and it may come as no surprise that there was minimal overlap. I did not look at SPIN’s criteria or list until after making mine, but here is what I was considering when making my list:

-no primarily solo artists (sorry, Jason Isbell, Sharon Van Etten, Ryan Adams, and so many more)

-I thought of the term ‘Rock Band’ fairly loosely and included some Pop Bands (I guess)

-I tried to stick to (relatively) active bands

***THIS LIST IS NOT IN ORDER (but the Top 4 are actually my Top 4, at the moment…and there are likely bands I forgot to include and will think of them tomorrow or something)***

So here it is, the SMAILSJ Top 50 Bands:

1. Wilco
2. My Morning Jacket
3. The National
4. Frightened Rabbit
5. Explosions In The Sky
6. Yo La Tengo
7. U2
8. Coldplay
9. Radiohead
10. The War On Drugs
11. Phoenix
12. Wye Oak
13. The Gaslight Anthem
14. Sigur Ros
15. Low
16. The Hold Steady
17. Okkervil River
18. Drive-By Truckers
19. The Men
20. The Rural Alberta Advantage
21. Phosphorescent
22. Camera Obscura
23. Guster
24. Vampire Weekend*
25. Beach House*
26. Titus Andronicus*
27. Cymbals Eat Guitars
28. Pearl Jam
29. Chromatics*
30. The Tragically Hip
31. Great Lake Swimmers
32. The Helio Sequence
33. M83
34. Band Of Horses
35. The Besnard Lakes
36. Nada Surf
37. The XX
38. Ola Podrida
39. Dum Dum Girls
40. Tame Impala
41. The Antlers
42. Real Estate
43. Haim*
44. Cloud Nothings*
45. Heartless Bastards
46. Japandroids*
47. Wild Nothing
48. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
49. The New Pornographers
50. Mogwai

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After compiling this list I looked at the SPIN list and there were only seven bands that we shared (denoted on my list with in bold and with a *). I expected this result but it is hard for me to imagine a list of the best current bands not including the likes of Wilco, My Morning Jacket, The National, Frightened Rabbit, Phoenix, and so on. However, I am not going to spend too much time worrying about those omissions.

There were many bands on the SPIN list I had never heard of (yet?) and there were some on their list that I ‘don’t get’ (like Alabama Shakes and Dirty Projectors) but that was also expected. One can only stay on the cutting edge for so long, right?

There were four bands on their list that I could have potentially included on mine but I just did not think of them before the 50 that did make my list TV On The Radio, Future Islands, Spoon, and Deerhunter...but I’m not sure that any of these four would knock any of the 50 off my list.

I found it interesting that Arcade Fire did not make either list, for reasons that might be better suited to a separate post.

Now that the list making gears are back in motion it is time to prep for the end-of-year, best-of lists, so stay tuned for that. Eventually.