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hey all,

just thought I would share in case there are any other alt-rock/grunge fans out there. so the last couple of weeks have been one of those times where a sudden and un-expected influx of new bands have entered my consciousness and playlists.

I’m guilty of being the guy who kinda sticks to my long time favourites and just play those songs to death while I eagerly await new material from the artists. it’s not super often that I actively seek out new music, it tends to just "find me" somehow, random YouTube vids, an artist I already like praising another band etc.

anyway, as a teenager in the 90's I am a grunge/alt-rock guy. I love guitar driven rock with big fuzzy guitars and boomy drums.

so at my work a few weeks ago they were clearing out some storage cupboards and there were a bunch of CD's that they chucked in the lunch room and said help yourself. I sifted through and spotted a CD with a familiar band name - "Biffy Clyro"

I had heard the name and when I saw the track list I recognized the song title "Black Chandelier". i knew nothing about the band and only vaguely remembered that song as being a bit of a commercial hit for a while.

I figured I’d grab it and chuck it in the car to listen to on the way home. wow, so glad I did. this band is awesome! they have some killer tunes in the style that I love. I went down the rabbit hole and grabbed their back catalogue and have been enjoying their stuff immensely!

that then lead to me finding a few other bands too as YouTube popped up with suggestions and I heard Simon Neil (guitar/singer Biffy Clyro) talk about these other bands. again - what a cool thing to find these bands that play in a style I love that I hadn’t heard about before. I kinda made the (bad) assumption that grunge and alt-rock where well and truly dead. not so!

anyway, here are a few tracks by these bands that you might like

obvious influences are obvious, but catchy hooks are catchy hooks!

anyone got any recommendations in this style?

here is a FANTASTIC metal band I found last week

Capra

Have you heard of our Lord and saviour John Mayer?

Time for my monthly recommendation of Karnivool.

Anything on the Subpop label in the 90s was a winner

For Grungy Rock you may already know Grandaddy (try AM 180) and Eels. If you don't know them they're great 2000ish American Alt Rock.

I've been loving early Smashing Pumpkins as of late.
Gish and Siamese dream are pretty awesome.
I usually like stuff with a bit of a harder edge.
Tomahawk albums 'mit gas' and self titled you may like.
If you want to get more into the stoner rock category, all the Kyuss albums are stellar.
The Jesus Lizard have some cool stuff. A bit more obscure.

I've posted about Big Wreck before and I know there's fans on here already, but definitely check them out if you haven't already. Ian Thornley is a bit of a monster guitar player, with Chris Cornwell-like singing abilities.

I was in the UK when Biffy Clyro took off, it was odd but great, the charts and radio stations were full of identical, manufactured "Britain's got talent, but those people aren't on our show" types, then a huge detuned Biffy song would have to be squeezed in.

Danger Mouse wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 5:49 am I've posted about Big Wreck before and I know there's fans on here already, but definitely check them out if you haven't already. Ian Thornley is a bit of a monster guitar player, with Chris Cornwell-like singing abilities.

I was in the UK when Biffy Clyro took off, it was odd but great, the charts and radio stations were full of identical, manufactured "Britain's got talent, but those people aren't on our show" types, then a huge detuned Biffy song would have to be squeezed in.

I know Big Wreck, and I know Thornley (the band he started around himself), but I was today years old when I found out he was in BW.

The Thornley track Easy Comes is on my high rotation playlist.

A couple of bands from that era that I loved but flew a bit more under the radar were The Afghan Whigs and Quicksand. Also a bit later Refused's Shape of Punk to Come

Hollow wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 8:17 am A couple of bands from that era that I loved but flew a bit more under the radar were The Afghan Whigs and Quicksand. Also a bit later Refused's Shape of Punk to Come

A resounding fuck yes to all of these.

I'd also recommend listening to

Highly Suspect
Crushed By Waves
Toadies
Seven Mary Three

The Scarecrow wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 8:23 am

Hollow wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 8:17 am A couple of bands from that era that I loved but flew a bit more under the radar were The Afghan Whigs and Quicksand. Also a bit later Refused's Shape of Punk to Come

A resounding fuck yes to all of these.

Cool, big Afghan Whigs fan. Will be checking out the other 2.

yusss! thanks for the suggestions, gonna check them all out

I haven't listened to the Biffy stuff, but lesser known grunge/adjacent bands I like:

Dust For Life
Isle Of Q
Slaves To Gravity
Candlebox
Scissorfight
Full Devil Jacket

Probably all at the heavier end. And if you haven't checked out Jerry Cantrell's solo stuff, I highly recommend.

Of course, none of this could be what you're looking for...