Music

Below are some bands that I'm into at the moment.  They are either new favorites or old stuff I can't put down right now.  The bands and the babbling about them will change as often as I get the chance to update this page.

• Nailbomb:  I listened to this band on YouTube only 3 times and had to buy the album.  They are Max Cavalera (Sepultura, Soulfly) and Alex Newport (Fudge Tunnel).  They are a metal band, mostly thrash with some industrial mixed in.  I'm not sure, but I don't think I'll get tired of them.  Too bad they only did one album.

• Rodrigo y Gabriela:  This duo from Mexico does some incredibly inventive two-guitar music.  They've released some varied compositions, and you can hear the "Spanish guitar" style.  That is an overbroad term in my opinion.  Even with the "New Flamenco" that they are labeled.  They really should not be pigeonholed at all.  It is hard to describe exactly how they veer off.  That point leads to putting out albums with heavy jazz and metal influences.  I'm making my way through their collection and loving it.  I also want to continue seeing how they explore the creation of music.  

• Killer Be Killed:  More Max Cavalera (Sepultura, Soulfly), with folks from Dillinger Escape Plan, Mastodon, and The Mars Volta.  With that lineup, how can I not check them out?!?!  I think the guy from The Mars Volta left before the second album.  As expected, they can be intense.  More so in the patterns than the loud heavy tones.  Which is my thing, so I'm loving the experience.  And they are listed below Rodrigo y Gabriela only because, well, I'm not sure.  Maybe because I've been listening to a lot of intense music lately.

• Babymetal:  These folks have been making a name for themselves over the years.  I've seen them do many collaborations since they started putting out more music recently.  The singers came from the Japanese Idol scene, but when the lead singer "aged" out, she kept the band going.  So to have a branching project from the idol seems very rare, if not unique.  Their sound is clean vocals over heavy metal music.  They've been around for more than 10 years (as of 2024).  They are fun and easy to listen to.  Nothing too complex in the metal way, and even dancy rhythms sometimes.  The vocals are very good, mixing in and providing contrast to the instruments.  Very cool and enjoyable.

• {More to come as I load/listen to my current playlists.}

In Rio's life that is.  :-P   This is stuff that is on my playlists right now.  Either I'm just getting to know them or they've recently resurfaced.  More will come and some will go.

• Cave In:  I first heard of them when I moved to the Boston area.  They had formed and started playing a few years before.  So, around 1998, they started experimenting and got signed to RCA.  They were interesting, but I lost track and never got to looking them up again.   Recently, they came up in an article I was reading and it perked my interest again.  I picked up some new albums and am now relistening to all that I have of them.

• Botch:  From that same article as Cave In, I came across these guys.  If they are compared to The Dillinger Escape Plan, they're worth checking out.  They are called mathcore and metalcore, so yeah, on the trending list.

• Unwound:  I haven't thought about these guys since college; thank god a friend from college brought them up!  And what an idiot I am for forgetting about them!  They fit into that nebulous idea in my head.  Time to work through their catalog!

• Babe The Blue Ox:  I've loved this band for ages.  I remember seeing them when I lived in Baltimore.  Also, the better-half likes them a lot too.  Oh, they've taken various hiatuses over time.  And they just released a new album.  I haven't listened yet, but I wanted to help "get the word out" (he says assuming anyone actually reads this site).

• Built To Spill:  Another favorite band, and I didn't know they released an album in 2022 called When The Wind Forgets Your Name.  Just put it in my playlists.

• Ningen Isu:  Another random find from YouTube.  A metal band that has been around for a long time.  It is said they have a lot of literary references.  They dress in somewhat tongue-in-cheek costumes from Japanese culture.  I'm loving their Kuraku album.

• Otoboke Beaver:  They pack a lot in such short songs.  Definitely punk, but not like Aburina Town.  They are an all female group from Japan.  

• Fin Del Mundo:  A band from Argentina with a sound that grabbed my attention.  At this point, I'm not sure how to describe them besides in some generic way.

• Tomb Mold:  They seem to have kept coming up in my feeds for some reason.  They have demos from various years on bandcamp.com under their name and albums under Blood Harvest Records.  The first album is hard to find on CD; the cheapest I found is $65!!!  Oh well, I've enjoyed what I've been listening to, and can't seem to let them fall off my trending list.  Oh, various things I've read online kept referring to Tomb Mold.  They also seem to get flak because they don't dress like the typical Death Metal artists.  The last bit is hilarious; kinda like how many punks does it take to change a light bulb?  

• HANABIE. :  After listening to Babymetal a fair amount on YouTube, other bands came up.  Like most algorithms for "similar" music, it was very surface-oriented.  Mostly, YouTube suggested bands that were metal-ish, all female, and Japanese.  Despite those specific qualities, HANABIE. grabbed my attention.  Many consider them metalcore but also have punk and nu-metal elements with the occasional hip-hop and electronica mixed in.  I'm still listening to them, another band that I can't seem to let fall off my trending list.  They just released a new song Girl's Talk.

I used to keep a separate list.  But now all the stuff I've heard about or I want to check out is on this spreadsheet.  The point numbers are bands I have but haven't loaded yet.  

Okay, that's absolutely just a joke.  These artists are not falling off my playlists.  They may have been new to me or just released an album.  So I'm going to stop listen anytime soon.  ;-)

• Aburi Na Town:  I admit I found them from branching off Babymetal.  YouTube "similar" seems very surface-oriented or "others listened too".  Anyways, they are nothing like Babymetal, besides, yes, they are an all-girl Japanese band.  What grabbed my attention was the band's punk-ish sound/feel.  Throwing me back to my time in Baltimore.  They are like Social Distortion or Bad Religion in the "there should be a sub-genre" way, not in a "they're copying them" way.   They have their own "voice" and seem to be behind their songs.  They are in the punk-like playlists just like the other punk bands I listen to.  Oh, Yukinari, the guitarist, does wear a Buzzcocks shirt in several videos. 

• Elder:  After only listening to their first and last (as of 2024) albums, I bought their entire catalog.  After a week of listening to them (a lot), they've "moved way up" on the Rio-like-o-meter.  My sister called them "stoner, prog, psychedelic, dreamy, beautiful".  I couldn't agree more and so glad my sister gave me their latest.  Their earlier stuff is more crunchy/punchy and their latest is cleaner/dreamier.  They are prog-y, and they feel like they approach that "genre in Rio's Head", but coming at it from a different angle than those firmly seated in that genre.  It's that they have those metal and prog qualities, and them being more prominent.

• Meshuggah:  A friend mentioned these folks to me years ago.  I wish I paid attention.  They made it on my list to check out because they are known for "their innovative musical style and their complex, poly-metered song structures and polyrhythms." (I lost the link).   Some of their songs are like "wow" and, for most, each listen reveals more to it.  They also work listening in the background (meaning hearing on the surface).   They are a band that I'm keeping around.  

BTW, they are put in the "djent" sub-genre of progressive metal (also a sub-genre?).  The more I listen to djent, the more I think it isn't a genre.  Yes, some characteristics can be found in Meshuggah and music by other artists that are labeled djent.  But those same artists are not limited to just those characteristics.  I've never really liked genres; there are vague qualities used to describe music.  And at some point applying a genre limits how one might perceive the music. Search around for comments from Misha Mansoor and other metal artists.  Many of them, in some way, say that those qualities are not what they focus on.  /rantoff

• Soulfly:  Max Cavalera left Sepultura in 1996 and formed Soulfly in 1997.  But at the time I wasn't paying attention.  I thank a colleague for bringing them to my attention.  I like these songs a lot.  Slowly working my way through all their albums.  Max has also been in/worked with a large number of bands.  Lot's more to explore.

• Punch Face Champions:  A bit heavier, but they fit in that genre that I can't describe.  I think they are all instrumental.  And they mostly number their songs, and sometimes put names to them.  

• covet:  A good friend suggested them and they fit into that same un-named genre.  They are very guitar-centric in their exhibition of that idea and cool enough for me to buy all their stuff and listen to them regularly!  ;-)

• Stuck In November:  Another friend of mine found these guys.  They are a bit more mellow and not loud or aggressive, but still patterns in/on patterns.  If it matters, they are rock-ish from Bangalore, India.   I wish they had more out than what is on bandcamp.com.

What, favorites aren't first?  And on a simple list?  I guess the journey is as important as the destination; and you don't know me well.  

I do have different "levels" of liking bands.  I put them into Circles.   There are a ton of artists that I listen to regularly, and they fit into different circles with some influence from how much and in what way they stimulate my brain, bring me different kinds/qualities of pleasure, what they mean to me, and even the frequency of moods I'm in.

These are bands that I've found on my journey since starting these pages and are worth a shout-out.  Check out the Circles lists for more bands.

1349, TTNG (This Town Needs Guns), Atic, Ataxia, Sleep Token, 3TEETH, Riverside (from Poland), Tubelord, Nuclear Assault, Daniel Johnston, Al-Namrood.

Simply because it's easy and there is a lot of music there, I've been using YouTube.  Not YouTube Music.; that still kinda stinks.  Anyways, here are some playlists of mine that I'm using in exploring music:

• Currently Trending 1 (Random Stuff):  Right now, this is mostly suggestions from YouTube that caught my attention.  Not more than other stuff, significantly catching my attention goes somewhere further up on this page.

• Currently Trending 2 (Alternative):  When I was in college, "alternative music" covered a wide range of qualities.  I still sometimes think in that way.  And anything that I'm listening to now that fits is here.  Mostly bands further up the page are on this list.

• Currently Trending 3 (Easy Listening):  Not really easy listening in the sense of the genre.  More chill music that I like to listen to or just checking out.

• Currently Trending 4 (Heavy 1):  This is heavy stuff that I think goes together where it made logical sense to change from the next playlist.  What that means is subject to change!

• Currently Trending 5 (Heavy 2):  See above.  :-)