Tag: Experimental Rock
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Town Portal ‘The Occident’ (2015)
I got into Town Portal via Thrice drummer Riley Breckenridge’s running playlist and I gotta say, it’s a vibe. These dudes are from Copenhagen and have long thrived on the fringes of instrumental rock, building a sound that pits Meshuggah-level polymeters against jazz-like playfulness and the noisy melodicism of ’90s post-hardcore. The Occident is a…
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The Mothers of Invention ‘Freak Out’ (1966)
Led by Frank Zappa’s razor-sharp wit and avant-garde musical sensibilities The Mothers of Invention took rock and roll and dismantled it. Combining a mix of doo-wop, blues, musique concrète, and political satire, Zappa transformed the band from a blues rock outfit to a conceptual juggernaut, catapulting them towards an experimental sound which defied commercial expectations…
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Coheed and Cambria ‘In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3’ (2003)
Coheed and Cambria blend progressive rock, post-hardcore, and a deep love for sci-fi storytelling. Their albums follow The Amory Wars, a sprawling space opera written by lead singer and frontman Claudio Sanchez. In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 is no exception, packed with soaring melodies, intricate guitar work, and dramatic, theatrical vocals. It’s ambitious,…
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Dredg ‘Catch Without Arms’ (2005)
Growing up in the Bay Area I always felt a special connection to the local music scene and the bands that came from it. Dredg was one of those band for me– they formed just down the road from my hometown in Los Gatos, CA and had a pretty big pop into the mainstream when…
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Pink Floyd ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ (1973)
Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon stands as one of the most profound explorations of human fragility ever captured. It’s one of my favorite albums of all-time for literally a hundred reasons, an introspective and powerful concoction of musical genius mixed with thematic brilliance. This is an album that makes you think and…
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Beck ‘Odelay’ (1996)
Beck has had such a wide-ranging and successful career that it’s almost impossible to really define who he is as an artist– as my brother (who is probably one of Beck’s biggest fans) can attest to, his varied musical influences are as wide-ranging as any artist. Odelay is a kaleidoscopic masterpiece that redefined alternative music…
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The Voidz ‘Virtue’ (2018)
When Julian Casablancas returned with The Voidz’s 2014 debut album Tyranny, it was a a surprising shift considering his earlier solo work and his garage rock career with The Strokes. The band focused surprised many critics with its focus on dystopian themes and sonic complexity that could be described as a polished sci-fi pop sound.…
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Sonic Youth ‘Daydream Nation’ (1988)
There are few bands who truly redefined a specific genre of music. Sonic Youth is certainly one of them. Emerging from the American underground in the mid-80’s, the band’s inventive use of alternate tunings, dissonance, and feedback was combined with the intensity of hardcore punk and further imbued with the performance art aesthetic of New…
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Can ‘Tago Mago’ (1971)
Krautrock was an experimental genre of music that developed in West Germany during the late 1960’s, combining elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electronic music. One thing the genre was especially known for was the usage of musique concrète, which basically describes the process of taking a typical sound recording (instrument or voice), modifying…
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Pere Ubu ‘The Modern Dance’ (1978)
The Modern Dance somewhat reshaped the landscape of avant-garde rock during the late 70’s. Its fusion of punk energy, experimental soundscapes, and visceral essence is apparent from the opening track– jarring rhythms, theatrical vocals, buzzy bass, and inventive guitar work creates a sense of unpredictability at every turn. It’s chaotic, urgent, unsettling, and captivating at…
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TV on the Radio ‘Return to Cookie Mountain’ (2006)
Return to Cookie Mountain was released during my freshman year of high school. One of my new friends in that class burned me a copy to listen to and I distinctly remember the feeling I had when I first heard “I Was a Lover”. It was a feeling of wonderment, strangeness, and utter disbelief. Being…
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The Velvet Underground ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’ (1967)
Sexual deviancy and drug abuse have been the hallmarks of rock and roll since its inception, and The Velvet Underground were one of the first bands to really lean into those motifs as a core tenet of what they stood for. Upon its release The Velvet Underground & Nico was controversial and critically panned, both…
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The Residents ‘Duck Stab’ (1978)
Art-rock band The Residents never shied away from the bizarre and 1978’s Duck Stab is no exception. This album is unsettling, unexpected, and unique in a way that is either going to feel like a transformative piece of experimental rock or nothing more than pure drivel. I tend towards the latter and frankly struggled to…
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Circa Survive ‘On Letting Go’ (2007)
When former Saosin lead singer Anthony Green left Saosin to form a new project in the mid-2000’s it was soul-crushing to 15 year old me. I was an avid fan of their 2003 EP Translating The Name and couldn’t imagine a world in which they wouldn’t be making music together. It all worked out in…
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Ween ‘Quebec’ (2003)
Ween’s eclectic discography isn’t for the faint of heart– described as “bratty deconstructionists of alternative rock”, Ween’s brand of rock took on various forms over the course of two decades, traversing from R&B to pop to rock to lo-fi Indie to country, effortlessly incorporating all of those disparate elements in every single album they released.…
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Godspeed You! Black Emperor ‘Lift Your Skinny Fists’ (2000)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor has built a pretty hardcore cult following over the past two decades for their blissfully meandering chamber rock. We’ve discussed previously how some music is felt not necessarily heard (see Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago for a sterling example) and Lift Your Skinny Fists To The Sky Like Antennas to…
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