Fleet Foxes
Father John Misty (a.k.a. J. Tillman a.k.a. Josh Tillman)
Bee Gees
Beatles
Beach Boys (“Pet Sounds” and “Smile” era) / Brian Wilson
2Pac
The Four Tops
Blondie
Doors
Funk Brothers (backing band for Motown)
Wrecking Crew
Also:
Productions by Phil Spector
Songs Composed by Burt Bacharach & Hal David
Songs Composed by Carole King & Gerry Goffin
Jason Isbell, Robyn Hitchcock, Kristin Hersh, Lloyd Cole, Emily Davis, Drive-By Truckers, Bad Religion, Buzzcocks, The Replacments and Guadalcanal Diary. Maybe not in that order.
John Mark McMillan, Sting/The Police, Simon & Garfunkel, Benjamin James
Radiohead, Elton John, George Michael(sure do miss him) Patti Smith, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Grant Lee Phillips, Genesis, Interpol(looking forward to seeing them again in May) Garbage, Counting Crows.
Talking Heads, Blur, Radiohead, Pavement, The Horrors, David Bowie, Wolf Alice, Jon Hopkins to name a few.
On most days R.E.M. is my favorite followed by the Beatles. Although I continued to love R.E.M., by the late 90’s my loyalties started to shift more towards artists from the alt.country realm, especially Whiskeytown, Ryan Adams, Wilco, Slobberbone, Drive By Truckers, etc. Ever since the revelations of 2019 I’ve lost interest in all things Ryan Adams but I imagine at some point in the future I will come back around, I’m just not sure when. Current favorites include Lydia Loveless, Lilly Hiatt, Heartless Bastards, Wussy, Sierra Ferrell, Erika Wennerstrom, Snail Mail, Hiss Golden Messenger, H.C. McEntire, Margo Cilker, and Emily Scott Robinson. In the better late than never department is Alvvays. I have been aware of them for the past several years but only recently got around to checking them out. I’m still in the “can’t get enough of them no matter how much I listen” stage. In recent years I have also gotten back into reggae in a big way, especially rocksteady. Some more favorites past and present below.
Jimmy Buffett
Courtney Barnett
Grateful Dead
The Gourds
Old 97’s
Kathleen Edwards
James McMurtry
Steve Earle
Son Volt
Margo Price
Led Zeppelin
Black Sabbath
Little Feat
Bob Marley and the Wailers
Peter Tosh
The Itals
Black Uhuru
Toots and the Maytals
Bob Dylan
Megafaun
Sturgill Simpson
Waxahachie
Mount Moriah
Mandolin Orange (now Watchhouse)
Aaron Lee Tasjan
Angel Olsen
Frazey Ford
Waylon Jennings
Willie Nelson
Guy Clark
John Prine
Phil Cook and Guitarheels
Jake Fussell
Replacements
Guadalcanal Diary
Indigo Girls
Neville Brothers
Emmylou Harris
Gram Parsons
10,000 Maniacs
Pearl Jam
Byrds
Flying Burrito Brothers
Paul Westerberg
Southern Culture on the Skids
Sharon Van Etten
Nada Surf
I can’t wait to hear more from The Smile!
So many bands I love but after REM, The National and Tori Amos count as my next favorites. I love so many late 80s, early 90s shoegazer and college rock bands, sliding a bit into Brit pop. The first three albums by Editors are so amazing, and Patti Smith never has disappointed me. But I also have seen most tours of TMBG and Weird Al. Right now my playlist is heavily dominated by National adjacent bands, any one who has played at the Eau Claires music festival over the years is in heavy rotation from Wilco and Paul Simon to Bon Iver, Spoon, My Brightest Diamond, Perfume Genius, and so many others.
Nirvana
The Cure
(early) Catherine Wheel
The Beach Boys
Husker Du/ Sugar/ Bob Mould
The Beatles
Explosions In The Sky
Peter Gabriel
Pet Shop Boys
The National
(late) Talk Talk
Arcade Fire
(early) aha
Leonard Cohen
My Bloody Valentine
Bowie
Depeche Mode
Radiohead
Talking Heads
White Lies
Love Marvin Gaye, Natalie Merchant, Tori Amos, Neneh Cherry.
REM led me to various artists but the main one I totally fell for were Uncle Tupelo and then Son Volt and Wilco or any other side projects.
Also love Bjork and PJ Harvey.
A final couple are Nickel Creek and Brandy Clark who are awesome live.
I am a Church fan and have seen them in concert but only have one album (Starfish).
The new Jake Fussel album is FANTASTIC!
Was happy to see his name on your list!
I first heard him when he covered “Raggy Levy” for the Georgia edition of Oxford American’s annual Southern Music issue that came out in 2015. It was also around that time I learned that he’d recently moved to Durham, NC. I was still living in that area at the time and would go see him as often as I could. For a short time I was also promoting music and events in the area and had the pleasure of working with him for a show we did at the Gas Hill Drinking Room (part of the Ramkat) in Winston Salem. He’s wonderful and also a pretty big R.E.M. fan.
Glad to see fellow “Seancers” here. I used to post about The Church quite a lot during the Murmurs “heyday.”
And a Midnight Oil fan here too!
Reckon the Earth and Sun and Moon album would go down a treat with REM fans.
Lost count the amount of times I’ve seen the Church play, but they truly are phenomenal - For REM fans looking to enrich their lives, I recommend, The Blurred Crusade, Heyday, Starfish, Priest = Aura, Hologram of Baal, Forget Yourself, Uninvited Like The Clouds, Untitled #23
I echo many of the alternative rock and new wave/synthpop picks mentioned here so far (especially Nirvana and especially Depeche Mode - both bands that took over my world for a while).
Some current ones of mine are Yello (all-time favourite), Faith No More (slight preference for the Chuck Mosley era), Ladyhawke and The Hives.
Nostalgia-based picks that I can still stand by: Gotye/The Basics, The Avalanches, Tears For Fears and Thomas Dolby.
The Kinks
The Clash
Joni Mitchell ( I am a Canadian woman of a certain age, it’s the law)
Arcade Fire
The National
Elbow
Depeche Mode
The Beach Boys
Patti Smith
The Weeknd
Jason Isbell
Sturgill Simpson
Brandi Carlile
Mitski
Elvis Costello
Emmylou Harris
The Beatles
Led Zeppelin
Ethan just got this site back up. I don’t want to crash it already. Seriously though, I have way too many influences and likes. I love R.E.M., for introducing me to music. I was 16 or 17 and really didn’t think about music, much. I liked books, art, and movies. I wanted to make visual media. I originally wanted to make movies. I then heard Out of Time and Monster. Really, Monster was my introduction. I went backwards from there. I got Eponymous. Actually, it’s funny, I got the IRS stuff and previously mentioned, before Automatic… I had a rough time in 96 and “Leave” helped me out of it. I will admit, my favorites kinda go on a random loop. However, "Leave"will always be on the top of my list of favorite songs.
I’m a fan of (almost) everything from jazz to hip hop and all points in between.
Some notable favourites (an exhaustive list would practically never end and anyone reading would fall asleep at the halfway point!!) include:
Bob Dylan
Massive Attack
Young Fathers
Roots Manuva
Blur
Can
Mingus
Max Richter
Nina Simone
Lee Perry
The National
Gil Scott-Heron
Beak
Portishead
Erykah Badu