And if you werent at the Fillmore show tonight, you should have been.

They're really not.

Good band though.

I like them a lot, but I think better are Spoon, Wilco, The Flaming Lips, TV On The Radio, & The White Stripes

is there really such a thing as the best american band these days?

No. It changes by the hour.

i'm talking about inconsistency of their releases

has there been a band during this decade that had 3-4 great albums in a row?

i know, people are gonna throw in their favourite bands here and tell me i'm wrong, but that's just how i feel about this decade's rock music.

I was thinking about that after reading this thread, actually. Nobody really stands out, unless I'm totally forgetting someone. I think in terms of 'current best band', they have to have ruled over their last three albums or something. And Boris are Japanese.

Lips: decent last trilogy, with a great 99, OK 2002 and crap 2006 album to their credit.
MMJ I'd say are better than that, as At Dawn and It Still Moves are grand. Not such a fan of Z or whatever it was, though.
Mercury Rev are better than both, actually. Deserters Songs was awesome (best of the aforementioned bunch, along with Bulletin), All Is Dream was lush as fuck, and Secret Migration is so under-rated.
Sonic Youth are still pretty good, but for some reason they never clicked with me.
Tool have a fucking great last trilogy, with two clear AOTD candidates. Last album was a drop-off, though, and three albums in a decade is taking the piss.
Neurosis had the excellent Times of Grace and A Sun that Never Sets albums but their last one, The Eye of Every Storm, was boring (except for the brilliant 'Bridges'). Also, last one was 2004.
sunnO))) are pretty damn great, and their White2/Black1/Altar sequence is hard to beat.
Om are pretty damn good, but only have about five songs to their name.
I wouldn't know what the last three Wolf Eyes albums are, but a pick of Burned Mind, Human Animal and something else (the Braxton collab, perhaps) would be pretty damn good.
I have a big Melvins gap between Honky and Senile Animal, so couldn't tell you.
Fantômas would be potential winners, if Delerium Cordia didn't bore me so. We need a new Tomahawk album.
Not heard Tipping Point but, in Phrenology and Game Theory, The Roots have a hell of a shout of taking the award.
Ditto Outkast, but with Idlewild being the one I haven't heard.
Propagandhi need to release more albums, as Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes and Potemkin City Limits are both out of sight. Canada's North America.
QOTSA are like the Lips, in that they have a classic, an OK album and a stinker, in chronological order. Each one is a bit better than their Lips counterpart though.

Anyone I'm forgetting?


Oh Jebus yeah. How silly of me: your winners.

I wish I could throw my favorite band in but they've not exactly been hitting home runs lately.

The Dixie Chicks have been on a hell of a run.
The Decemberists have been really great.
The White Stripes.

It's tough to find bands with 3-4 albums in 6 years these days let alone 3-4 great albums.

didn't the decemberists release 4 albums in 5 years and an ep too.

Yeah I edited them into my post must have been a split second after you replied

i'd say they are probably the best Live band going right now.

You know, I'm ok with this thread. I don't listen to them that often, but their albums are all fantastic, and their live show is jaw dropping.

Although I would probably put the DBT's up their with MMJ. Both release incredibly consistent albums, and both have probably the two best live shows around.

once again..i stand behind a phil post.

Of Montreal has been on a run of really solid albums and their live show is also fantastic.

MMJ live makes a very convincing argument for this. Great live show. Anyone else remember when they were at the Taste of Randolph Street and kept talking about sweaters?

Agreed.

Propagandhi are a better live band.

I'd throw System of a Down into the mix while not negating any of the other previous choices

And obviously Deftones. They've yet to release an album that is less then 80% stellar imo. The only problem is like many other great bands (NIRVANA) their live shows are hit and miss.

wouldn't you have to take mass appeal into consideration if you're procaliming a band as the best american band?

all those metal bands may be good, but are they that popular on the wider scale?

there was a discussion like that before and someone mentioned how the times/industry have changed and you can't really have something like the greatest american band right now. probably true.

If we're gonna take mass appeal into consideration you have to favor the dixie chicks of all the bands listed thus far.

setlist?

Wouldn't you still have take into consideration the fact that much of middle/southern America hates them and refuses to listen to them? I mean, if you're bringing mass appeal into this, you've got to start pointing at bands like Green Day, Nickelback, Red Hot Chili Peppers. Quite frankly, I don't see why mass appeal comes into this at all because the proclamation was "America's Best Band" not "America's Most Famous Band" or "America's Most Successful Band". Then again, if we're just introducing Mass Appeal into this to discount TS's listed metal bands than I'm okay with it .

i'd say i have about 5-6 groups in the running for that title (best american band today), but MMJ is easily in the front running if not continuously leading the pack.

A good chunk of those southern conservatives that hate on the Dixie Chicks were never really fans to begin with. Their album still went to number 1 so they've still got the mass appeal going for them. But I agree that mass appeal shouldn't really matter....all that really matters is the music.

Right now, I would give the award of "best American band" to the Drive By Truckers. They are on a tear since 2000 with Southern Rock Opera, Decoration Day and the Dirty South. No one can touch them live right now either.

Flaming Lips - Transmissions from the Satellite Heart , Clouds Taste Metallic, Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi. No one can match that over the last 15 years.

Sparklehorse - Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot , Good Morning Spider, It's a Wonderful Life, Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain. Those are all solid, consistent releases.

Wilco - Summerteeth, YHF and AGIB. That's not a bad three in a row.

Grandaddy had Under the Western Freeway, the Sophtware Slump and Sumday, another good three spot.

Sirius are airing either this show or Tonight's show tomorrow and on New Year's day on Left of Center

Sorry, I really wanted to like these guys but they strike me as meh and MOR, like a sexy, trendy version of DMB :::ducks:::

My vote goes to Dredg :::ducks::: but of course, I'd be happy w/ Deftones or Converge since theirs is the wider audience.

Flaming Lips are the best American band. Wilco might be #2. MMJ & Sonic Youth are up there.

Wilco, Flaming Lips.....and Hold Steady. They're the ones to watch. And if we're talking best live American band, they already hold the title.

Wilco are definitely better than the Flaming Lips. No contest. Even the Lips live act is getting a little tired. MMJ is laughable. After a pile of shit like Z (I think there should be a few more zs on that title) there's just no way. Decemberists have also had a really good run, but just aren't on the level of Wilco. I might argue Yo La Tengo as well. Not all of their albums are stellar, but several are and the others are all at least good.

Spoon, The Hold Steady, Drive By Truckers.

Dixie Chicks is a pretty good answer if you want to combine critical and commercial success.

Spoon Spoon Spoon.

A Series of Snakes, Girls Can Tell, Kill the Moonlight, Gimme Fiction

I can't believe people on this board don't like Gimme Fiction.

since 2000...i think mmj and spoon take the cake
since 1996 on it's been wilco and modest mouse

gimme fiction is just inconsistient, that's all. still a very solid album that made my top 10 of last year. but come on, the delicate place, was it you and, ::ducks::, sister jack, are three of the dullest songs they've ever written.

on a brighter note, they played girls can tell followed by exile on main st. at the bar i was at last night. that was awesome.

kill the moonlight still stands as my favorite record to come out this decade.

chrono--I cant beleive you havent answered the question I put forth to you here:
http://www.soundopinions.com/forum/index.p...=0&#entry277717

Yeah, Tyler, setlist? I'll be at the New Year's Eve show there. I love the Fillmore.

Spoon make great records, but their live show isn't even remotely on the same level as MMJ

I know everyone disagrees with you on Sister Jack, so I will too. Great song.

I'm also a fan of Was it You? It has a repetitive nature on the surface, but I think it has more intricacies that people give it credit for, and the drums and bass could hook me forever. Throw in a few effects and I'm game for that track.

The Delicate Place is a lot like I Summon You, except slowed down. It works better as a segue between My Mathematical Mind and Sister Jack then standing on its own. I like it better than I Summon You.

Maybe it's because I'm fanboyish, but with Eno on the drums and Daniel's vocals, I find it hard to get too disengaged from any of their songs.



That's because of the type of music they make.

don't get me wrong man, spoon is easily one of my top 5 favorite bands playing music these days, so i really don't hate any of their songs. the first four songs on gimme fiction (esp. my mathematical mind) and they never got you easily stand amongst any of their best work. i just think those three songs are kinda boring, thats all. not bad necessarily, just boring for the incredibly high standards spoon has set. trust me amigo, i'm quite a fanboy myself.

and i have to say, that while spoon's live show isn't on the level of MMJs, i think their live show gets written off way too much. they always strike me as incredibly professional. their playing is tight, they're well dressed, they sound great and play setlists from across their catalogs. their set at bumbershoot was definitely one of my concert highlights in 2006.

Animal Collective is sitting on back to back classics

They're too weird to be American.

I'm pretty sure that's what they said about Abraham Lincoln.

One could say that Animal Collective is the Honest Abe of American rock music.

Who said that about Abraham Lincoln?

And AC is the opposite of 'honest' rock music. Not that it's not genuine, but it's too layered and idiosyncratic.

'

The Teddy Roosevelt of American rock music?

Animal Collective also suck far too much.

I'm down.

More George W Bush. Those fuckers have a war of terror against my ears and there isn't even any fucking oil in there.

Ha! Fixed! With a vengeance!

Seriously, though... just to check, are you one of the "man they don't even make real music it's just a bunch of noises" detractors, or do you have, like, real/informed reasons that you dislike them?

Because I haven't really heard much intelligent criticism of AC (mostly just knee-jerk reactions), so if you have some I would be very interested in hearing it (genuinely).

I'm not against weird rock or anything, I just don't think they're very good at it. Layers for the sake of layers.

But as always, if someone else likes them, no biggie. I just like to exercise my right to call things I think are shit shit once in a while.

EDIT - They're also way better than Wolf Parade, from the one Wolf Parade song I've used as evidence.

examples of better 'weird rock'/'layered rock' than AC? (for my edification/"to listen to" list)