The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys must be the first band that comes to mind when thinking about Southern California. Their sunny songs have excellent melodies and vocal harmonies that cannot be beat. Their album, Pet Sounds, along with the song, Good Vibrations, is among the greatest recorded things in the world.
Eels
Eels is one of my favourite bands of all times. The lead vocalist E's raspy voice works perfectly for rough rock songs as well as for sentimental indie pop jewels. His life story is a series of deaths and heartbreaks around him and that really is apparent in his songs. Some of the best lyrics in the history of pop-music.
The Mountain Goats
This folkish indie rock band has recorded so many albums that I don't think anyone can keep track anymore. Still they just continue making absolutely fantastic songs. The melodies are catchy and the lyrics terrific. The nasal vocals are highly unique. The album, The Sunset Tree, is among the best indie albums out there. It tells a terrible story of an aggressive stepfather.
Beck
Beck is a multi-instrumentalist, who has a very unique sound that keeps changing album by album. He started his career by two absolutely mad strange albums but then became a superstar with his hit single, Loser. Ever since then, he has made absolutely fantastic albums combining musical styles with influences from country, folk, indie, rap, electro, rock and pop.
Avi Buffalo
Avi Buffalo is one of the brightest stars in the future of Californian music. His melodramatic singer-songwriter indie pop has influences from folk, baroque pop and rock. Subtle and beautiful pop melodies may change in seconds to heroic guitar solos and excellent rock organ jam-outs. his high vocals are just perfect for this kind of music as well.
Best Coast
I really don't care about all of Best Coast's music. They use the kind of off-key aesthetics in their music that i have hard time getting accustomed to. Still, when they play straightforward sunny indie songs, they can be pretty damn good. you can definitely hear the sun of California in their songs.
The Go-Go's
This is one of the best new wave bands that ever existed. Their 80's pop-punk sounds are fantastic and melodies are really catchy. This was one of the first all female groups who wrote their own songs and made it in a harsh record industry. It's a shame that despite of that, not many people actually now know who they are.
Mikal Cronin
Mikal Cronin combines surf rock type of guitars to up-tempo indie rock. His melodies are absolutely fantastic. The clean surf guitars sometimes rise to huge overdrive walls taking influences from shoegaze bands of the early 90's.
Coconut Records
For some reason this band has not made it in the music world because it's virtually impossible to find their albums anywhere. Fortunately they have their music on Spotify, because their melodic indie pop-rock is top notch. Their compositions take a lot of influences from bands like The Beach Boys and the Beatles, but the sounds are more modern.
Broken Bells
The Shins frontman, James Mercer, got together with Danger Mouse to make electronic versions of The Shins type of melodic indie rock. By no means is this music as good as The Shins, but there are some interesting sounds there and the melodies are guaranteed Mercer quality.
Dead Man's Bones
Dead Man's Bones makes bluesy indie rock with a lot of electronic instruments. The sound is quite massive with large choirs singing in the background. The organ sounds take the main stage with the bass keeping the rhythm and soul in place.
Princeton
This band combines electronic and analog instruments to make sunny indie pop. There's something quite 80's in the sounds, while it's much more modern than that. The bass lines are the most striking feature along with space age sounds of the electronic instruments.
Branches
Branches is one of the promising indie-folk-pop bands out there. Their melodic songs are catchy and skilfully played. They remind me of bands such as Mumford & Sons and Tallest Man on Earth. I just love the banjo playing on top of folk music that also uses electric instruments.
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
This folk-pop band sounds incredibly much like Of Monsters and Men. When I first heard their song Home I really thought this was played by Of Monsters and Men. Male and female vocals on top of melodic folk-pop spiced up with some horn sections and whistling.
Yellow Red Sparks
This folk-pop band plays uptempo sunny music with catchy melodies. This is honest music with simple musical structures that are made interesting by incredible attitude and skill. Acoustic and electric instruments come together seamlessly.
The Show Ponies
The Show Ponies draw their influences from traditional Americana folk, but their general sound is much more modern having beats that owe some allegiance to pop music. The fiddles are filled with echoey effects to make it sound unique.
A Fine Frenzy
Fantastic melodic folk with beautiful raspy female vocals. There are also fantastic vocal harmonies that playfully take turns. The songs are summery and happy and they sometimes use whistling to give it even more endearing sound.
The Elected
I've known this band for many years now and I've always been interested in what they come up next, but unfortunately they seem to always stay on the level where their music is only nice, but nothing extraordinary. Nice melodic folk songs with great singer.
Run River North
Run River North is one of the brightest stars in modern folk music. They use acoustic subtle instruments together with massively loud banging drums and fantastically produced sting arrangements. This band also reminds me of Of Monsters and Men.
Ryan Bingham
Ryan Bingham is a fantastic folk musician. His guitar picking is excellent and his raspy baritone brings tears to my eyes out of sheer beauty. This is the kind of old time folk where the storylines and emotion of the melody really make a difference.
Emile Millar
Emile Millar's music is quite modern, but its roots are in old time folk. Acoustic guitars are not too complicated and the vocal harmonies follow the accustomed paths. Still, there's something very emotional in his voice and these simple songs.
The Milk Carton Kids
The song I've chosen to this list by the Milk Carton Kids is one of the best songs I've heard in a while. Everything is perfect in this emotional and sad melody. The vocals bring shivers to my spine and the subtle acoustic guitar is incredibly beautiful. The vocal harmonies seal the deal.
Sea Wolf
Sea Wolf is another emotional and melancholic folk band with unique sounding vocals. The melodies have innovative structures that actually remind me of bands like Dirty Projectors even though the sound could not be more different.
Crosby, Stills & Nash
I am a huge fan of emotional and melancholic Americana folk. Crosby, Stills & Nash is definitely one of the biggest influences for these bands. Excellent guitar-playing, vocal harmonies and heartbreaking melodies together in a fantastic package that is a timeless classic.
Susie Suh
This singer-songwriter with Korean background sings absolutely beautifully and the simple guitars are only there to give her music some structure. Her fantastic vocals bring shivers down my spine and the melodies are beautifully melancholic.
Tristan Prettyman
Like Susie Suh above, Tristan Prettyman is also all about the beautiful vocals. Her voice is one of the most beautiful I've ever heard. There's subtle raspiness in otherwise clear voice. These melancholic and beautiful melodies are accompanied by subtle acoustic guitar picking.
Linda Perhacs
This is the kind of old-time folk that you don't really hear that anymore. it's kind of a shame, because there's some mystic quality to this kind of eerie and misty sound. High and clear vocals and quiet acoustic guitars give it a background it needs.
Matt Costa
Matt Costa is a fantastic singer-songwriter. His acoustic guitar picking is top-notch and his singing is excellent. The songs sound very personal depicting the common emotions of heartbreak and love. He also uses some harpsichord sounds in his songs.
RY X
Bon Iver started a whole new genre of melancholic male folk musicians who sing in eerie high-pitched voice combining acoustic guitars and electronic sounds. RY X is one of them. His songs are filled with sorrow and the sounds are very modern.
Bell Gardens
Bell Gardens is perfect for the background of a nap. I'm not saying the music is boring, but it's very ambient style and beautifully quiet. The electric guitars and spacey organ sounds together with slow bass work as brilliant lullabies. The echoey baritone voice even enhances the hypnosis effect.
Julia Holter
Julia Holter plays beautiful and etheric piano ballads. Her voice is airy and beautiful. The backgrounds are very simple consisting almost entirely of piano and picked string instruments. This is as close to ambient as folk music will ever come.
Irene Diaz
Irene Diaz is mainly interesting due to her fantastic singing voice. Her vocals are powerful and controlled. The songs could be described as piano ballads. The compositions could be a bit more innovative, but the vocals go a long way just by themselves.
Mazzy Star
Mazzy Star has a huge cult following nowadays. I mean that there are loads of people who have never even heard about them and then others for whom this is one of the seminal bands of the 90's. Their dream-pop is hypnotic and beautiful. The melodies are not very catchy, but the attraction is in the sounds and atmosphere.
Little Wings
Little Wings is a lo-fi folk band. Their vocals are a bit out of tune and everything sounds as if it was recorded in a basement somewhere. Still, I like their easygoing and peaceful attitude to making songs.
Jeff Buckley
Jeff Buckley was one of the best singers who ever lived. He only managed to make one full album of songs before he tragically drowned, but Grace is one of the seminal classic albums of the 90's. Excellent guitarplgaying with solos and Buckley's extraordinary vocals.
Jenny Lewis
Jenny Lewis plays electronically spiced indie pop. The general atmosphere of the music takes some influences from country and pop music, but the modern sounds distinguishes it from these two genres. It kind of reminds me of Neko Case.
Banks
Banks' music is very hypnotic and ambienty. Her raspy voice is fantastic. The backgrounds are mainly constructed of delicate pianos, choir moans and electronic space sounds. There's deep darkness and melancholy in these songs.
In the Valley Below
This electronica indie pop band plays calm and etheric music. Various organ sounds and effects master the scene, while laconic female and male voices sing in harmonies. The general feel is really modern and classy.
Brian Reitzell
Brian Reitzell makes minimalist electronic music with strange organ sounds. It's mostly instrumental and it has ambient vibes even though it sometimes rises to more complex patterns and the music gets louder.
The Tree Ring
This band is exactly what 2010 indie pop sounded like. it reminds me of bands like Grizzly Bear. Blinking pianos are accompanied by classy string arrangements and a variety of different percussion instruments, while a high-pitched male voice soars above complex melodies.
Milo Greene
Milo Greene's music is a mix of pop, electro and indie rock. The drums and bass lines sound computer-made, but I'm not exactly sure if that really is the case. The vocals have been played through subtle vocoders, but the result is not too tacky.
Cayucas
This indie-pop band goes to the same category as the above mentioned The Tree Ring. Vocal harmonies, complex melodies and strange effects on a variety of instruments. This music is much more about the sounds than actual songwriting.
Foxygen
Foxygen has been hailed as one of the greatest bands of recent years. I would not go that far, but there's still something very appealing in this kind of soulful electronica rock. This description really does illustrate the complex identification of this musical genre. Very unique sound.
The Postal Service
This is Death Cab for Cutie frontman ben Gibbard's side-project where he makes electro songs with fast techno beats. At first when I heard it it was somewhat of travesty, because I liked Death Cab so much at the time, but later on I've grown to see the beauty of this very different approach to similar kinds of melodies and songs.
Superhumanoids
This electro-pop indie band plays stadium-big sounds using all kinds of electronic instruments and samples. The melodies and vocals still play a significant part in the music, so it's pleasant to listen to despite of the lack of authentic sounding instruments.
Haim
Haim has been quite a big phenomenon in the musical world in the recent years. I don't personally like their music that much. Their pop-music draw their main influences from 80's MTV pop, but they do it in a classy way including some authentic instrumentation there as well.
Max and the Moon
Max and the Moon is an indie-pop band that plays quite carefully produced soulful indie-pop. In addition to more electronic sounds, they do use authentic drums, guitars, pianos and bass. The high-pitched male vocals are great but not really that unique.
No Doubt
This band is very nostalgic to anyone who lived in the 90's and had MTV. Their songs Don't Speak and Just a Girl played everywhere at some point. It's not one of my favourite bands, but I can appreciate the well made pop-songs.
Warpaint
Warpaint has been one of the bands that have really wowed me with their sounds. It kind of sounded like Joy Division, but it had more pop-oriented approach still maintaining that desperate darkness and sadness in the dark post-punk songs. This four woman band makes really classy emo rock.
Meg Myers
Meg Myers makes fantastic emo-electro-indie music. The melodies are dark and desperate. Her strong vocals moan sexily while the overdriven guitars pluck menacingly on the background. The music rises from silent whispers to huge walls of sound.
Silversun Pickups
Silversun Pickups plays emo-post-rock that has very melodic songs that range from silent and menacing phases to full-on sound walls. Their trade-mark are clear guitars that buzz and blink high above the creeping dark melodies.
Wand
Wand plays quite noisy indie rock with dark and twisted melodies. It definitely has some influences from psychedelic rock and krautrock as well. The vocal melodies may sound a bit off-key sometimes, even though they are strictly controlled.
Joyce Manor
This indie rock band puts together all those pieces that were seminal to mid-00's indie rock. Treble-filled bass lines, trashy guitars, off-key singing and aggressive drumming. They even have those eerie organ sounds on top of it all.
Local Natives
Local Natives is an indie rock band that draws influences from bands such as Radiohead while still maintaining more typical rock atmosphere. The vocals are high and etheric, the guitars melodic and modern and the bass is buzzing away with a bit of overdrive.
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
Ariel Pink's music is crazy mix of sounds and melodies put together. It sounds very messy at places, but the craziness makes it quite interesting. His songs don't really have choruses, it's just a strand of music with different parts that don't seem to fit together.
We Are Scientists
We Are Scientists is the archetype of 00's indie-rock movement. Their guitar-driven rock music has danceable disco beats, un-trained vocals and fast but simple guitars. The bass lines are quite simple but fast. This is the kind of music that Converse and skinny jeans generation used to dance to.
Crocodiles
Crocodiles is the more modern version of the above mentioned We Are Scientists. They play similar kinds of fast and danceable indie-rock songs, but they use a more innovative line of instruments. The song-structures are also more varied and they include some psychedelic elements in their songs.
Lord Huron
Lord Huron's indie-pop has fresh sounds from both traditional band instruments and more modern effects and electronic sounds. The general feel is quite uplifting with peppy melodies and danceable rhythms. There's something quite 80's in the sounds.
Foster the People
Foster the People plays indie pop-rock with some electronic spices. The rhythms are quite upbeat, but the vocals are quite etheric and calm. This is the kind of music that works brilliantly for big stadiums, as well as for summer nights in the countryside.
Delta Spirit
Delta Spirit plays uptempo indie rock with buzzing electric guitars and catchy pop-melodies. There's definite summer in the sounds which is not surprising for a South California band. This is very simple music but makes you feel good.
The Lovely Bad Things
The Lovely Bad Things is highly authentic indie rock, where the sounds have not been polished too much. Although the melodies are fairly poppy, the attitude bows more towards punk and new wave movement.
PAPA
PAPA plays massive stadium sounds in their type of indie rock. Guitars and drums are loud and organ sounds give a mellow carpet to the background, while the vocals have that delicate indie sound. It's a bit too produced for my taste, but for people who like Killers, this should fit perfectly.
Cold War Kids
Piano driven indie rock with pounding drumming and aggressively nasal vocals. There are also some sharp electric guitars in the mess. The general sound draws influences from post-punk revival genre. Catchy choruses and danceable beats.
Robert Francis
Robert Francis plays fresh sounding indie rock, where the sounds have solid ground in traditional kind of stadium rock, while still maintaining the indie authenticity. Some of the songs sound a lot like Ryan Adams' rock albums.
Young the Giant
Young the Giant is an indie pop-rock band that knows how to make catchy melodies and pleasant sounds. Their songs have excellent pop-structures. The sounds are quite carefully produced and the finish sounds very polished.
The Growlers
The Growlers represents the more unpolished side of indie rock. There are influences from garage rock and surf rock in the sounds, but still the melodies have a lot of variety emphasising the pop side of things.
Allah-Las
This band is the prime example of the new coming of surf rock. Their music truly sounds like the surf rock of the early 60's, but they have combined those sounds with psychedelic rock aesthetics and more modern production.
Neverever
Never ever plays lo-fi indie rock with metallic guitar sounds familiar from surf rock. The vocals are laconic and a bit off-key, but the punky attitude makes up for the faults in skills. This is very hipstery music that's good for dancing the night away on the beach.
Dum Dum Girls
Dum Dum Girls is a shoegaze band in the style of Pains of Being Pure at Heart or 'Allo Darling. The melodies are catchy and simple, while the sounds include buzzing electric guitars. The vocals follow the typical girl-indie patterns.
Fidlar
Fidlar is a mix of fast indie rock and punk rock. Their songs have fast punk rhythms but the sounds are more familiar from guitar indie genre. The lyrics are quite simple and it's clear that they are not the main thing in this type of music.
Bleached
Bleached is a garage punk rock band that plays sunny melodies over overdriven and raunchy guitars. The female singer sounds 'in your face' in an appropriate way. This band sounds like it would be quite phenomenal live.
Oingo Boingo
Oingo Boingo is a fantastic 80's new wave/post punk band using strange effects in the vocals along with groovy electric guitars and some synthesiser sounds. If you like bands like Orange Juice or Dexy's Midnight Runners, you're likely to like Oingo Boingo.
The Surfaris
This is classic surf rock with wild electric guitars with full-on echo and fast drumming. It's mostly instrumental and you can almost see huge waves and surfers in front of you when you listen to this. This is what this whole genre is all about.
Dick Dale
Dick Dale is the all time master of surf guitar. his song Miserlou became known world-wide after Quentin Tarantino used this song in his film Pulp Fiction. Trumpets, electric guitars and fast drum beats along with random shouts remind me of the closeness of Mexico in Southern California.
Weezer
Weezer is probably the best college rock band there ever was and probably will ever be. Their melodic songs are played with aggressive overdrive wall, while the lyrics are witty. Especially their 90's albums go down into history as some of the most original, even though there were numerous bands that tried to follow.
Lit
Lit is one of the college rock/skate punk bands that rely on overdriven guitars and great catchy melodies. They're not as well known as some other bands in this genre, but they definitely deserve their place there.
Blink-182
This band has become known for wide audiences with their commercial skate punk songs usually linked with college life in the US. Their first albums, however, have more personality and represent beautifully the best sides of college rock genre.
NOFX
NOFX is probably the most well-known name in skate punk genre. Their music has excellent melodies while the guitars are raunchy and filled with overdrive. The lyrics are often humorous. This is great music to drink great quantities of alcohol to.
Bad Religion
Like the above bands, Bad Religion is also known for their pop-melodies played with skate punk, college rock style. Their songs are probably more radio friendly though. The guitar solos are quite phenomenal.
The Offspring
This excellent college rock band became very widely known in the mid-90's when almost all the young people listened to them and Green Day. Their album Smash was an international hit that was still taken seriously. Later on they lost some of their credibility with songs like 'Pretty Fly for a White Guy'.
Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill is quite possibly the best gangsta rap band that ever existed. The 80's style beats along with nasal raps made gangsta rap a part of the mainstream for a while in the 90's. They even performed in the Simpsons TV-series along with London Symphony Orchestra.
Shuggie Otis
Shuggie Otis is one of the best names in 70's soul. His melodies are usually more melancholic than those of his contemporaries. This just makes his music sound better. This is the kind of music that you really should listen to on vinyl.
Buffalo Springfield
Buffalo Springfield is one of the greatest bands in making cool and relaxed music that sounds absolutely fantastic without making any effort. Everything sounds so natural. I guess you might describe their sound as soulful 60's pop with some references to psychedelia scene.
War
War is a fantastic funk band with long jamming songs. Like in funk usually, also here the bass holds all the cards along with excellent horn section. It's quite incredible how amazing groove these guys can get on in a studio.
Rose Royce
This funk band is best known for their hit single Car Wash. it uses all the best features of a great funk band. Wah-wah filled guitar sounds, bass slapping, and amazing groove. The vocals are clear and very skilfully sung.
Nick Waterhouse
Nick Waterhouse makes modern sounding music that essentially is very old. The songs include influences from surf-rock, swing and rock n' roll, but the production is carefully made and the groove is incredible.
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
This is one of the strangest bands of the 60's. Their songs have strange sounds and even stranger structures, while at the same time they play awesome country rock music with fantastic groove. Most of their music takes a while to get into.
The Doors
The Doors is obviously one of the biggest bands that ever existed. Ray Manzarek's organ sounds, Robbie Krieger's hippie guitars and Jim Morrison's lyrics and blunt baritone vocals produced unique sounding blues rock that had elements from all sorts of musical genres from psychedelia to swing, jazz and folk.
Creedence Clearwater Revival
CCR is one of the most well-known bands in the world. Their recipe is very simple. They play simple melodies with simple sounds, but everyone will remember their ear-worm choruses. The rough vocals are unmistakeable. This is a prime example that your music doesn't have to be complicated as long as you do what you do really well.
The Chamber brothers
The Chamber Brothers play groovy blues rock where the main emphasise is given to excellent vocal harmonies. Drums, bass, guitar and organs have a great groove on, but they stay within hypnotic grinding rhythms instead of wild solos, while the vocals do the experimental work.
Three Dog Night
This band sounds a lot like CCR and I'm sure even I have sometimes confused these two bands. They have the same recipe of making simple rock music with catchy choruses and raunchy vocals. They're best known for their hit single 'Joy to the World'.
Iron Butterfly
Iron Butterfly plays progressive and psychedelic rock with late 60's heavy metal sounds. They're best known for their song In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, which is 16 minutes long completed with a drum solo and extended organ solos. I only included a short version of it on the playlist, but I do suggest you listen to this epic song in full length.
Steppenwolf
Steppenwolf is not that well-known by their name, even though they've made two hit songs that are known everywhere. I'm obviously talking about Born to Be Wild and Magic Carpet Ride. This hippy blues rock band is very skilful and their music si a seminal part of the flower power era.
Canned Heat
Canned Heat can only be described as the most obvious band in the blues rock genre. They play bluesy structured rock songs with dreamy vocals and harmonicas. Their music is quite hypnotic which is probably due to their extensive use of drugs at the time.
The Seeds
The Seeds is a gain one of those bands that is often forgotten even though their music has been played quite a lot. Their music is a mix of hippy era psychedelic rock and surf rock sounds. There are some hypnotic organ solos as well.
Love
This band truly captures the essence of the hippy era music. They play psychedelic songs that have strong roots in acoustic folk while still being much more aggressive in their approach. As far as melodic pop-rock goes, Love has influenced tons of other bands.
Strawberry Alarm Clock
This hippy era psychedelic rock band is not very well known by its name, but still their song Incense and Peppermints is very widely known. it was used in a hit film Austin Powers. Their songs have interesting progressive structures, while the general sound is so hippy that you cannot think of this music without the relatedness to drugs.
The Turtles
The Turtles made excellent melodic pop-music in the 60's. They have some great songs, but above all else, they are known for their hit single 'Happy Together' which, in my opinion, is one of the best compositions in Western pop music.
The Byrds
This hippy band plays airy and sunny pop-music with emphasis on great melodies and vocal harmonies. The electric guitars are clean and the rest of the band is playing their instruments with a light touch as well. This is one of the most legendary bands in the history of pop-music.
The Monkees
The Monkees have been under heavy criticism from music critics, since they were seen as the embodiment of commercialisation of music. They didn't make their own songs, but they still played quite good pop-music, so I can appreciate them for what they are. pop-band making catchy melodies.
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Neil Young joined the previous trio Crosby, Stills & Nash and together they formed folk-pop super band. After Young joined this band they moved towards more general pop-approach from fairly traditional folk music. Some of their songs could be described as baroque pop.
Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson parted ways with the rest of the Beach Boys but continued making music that sounded a lot like the Beach Boys. Brian Wilson's album Smile represents songs that would've probably been on the next Beach Boys album had they stayed together. I'm guessing the album would've sounded even more spectacular, but it's really good as it is.
The Electric Prunes
The Electric Prunes play hippy pop-rock with psychedelic spices. They use rough electric guitars and pounding drumming that resembles early Rolling Stones, but they have more interesting melodies. The Electric Prunes never became that big, but they're still a significant part of pop music history.
Tom Waits
Tom Waits is unique, one of a kind. He plays piano quite masterfully. His songs mix jazz, blues, folk and alternative rock. After the first few albums of singing with clear singing voice redeveloped his unique incredibly raspy tone. My favourite albums are Blue Valentine and Heart of Saturday Night.
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus is one of the great jazz musicians of the 50's and 60's. His songs are usually quite mellow and ballady, with main focus given to piano and horns even though he himself plays the double bass. Mingus is originally from Arizona, but he started his music career in LA.
Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa is one of the most original characters in the history of pop music. He has made fantastic jazz and progressive rock albums, but he is also known from making humorous joke music. His absolute masterpiece is the album Hot Rats, which is filled with long jams of progressive rock. He was one of the most skilful guitar players that ever lived.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Neil young is from Canada, but he started his career with the band Crazy Horse has been based in California for decades from the very start. Young's solo stuff is much more folk and country oriented, but with Crazy Horse, he plays pretty straightforward rock jamming with psychedelic guitar solos.
Eagles
I don't really like Eagles that much. Their music is kind of tacky and I've heard their hits way too many times. Still, the song Hotel California is such a classic that it can't be left out of this list. It's a great piece of songwriting. Pop-music with funky reggae influences.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Like Eagles, RHCP is also on the list of bands that I don't really like that much, but I still have to mention. I used to listen to them way back, because as a bass player I was interested in Flea's talents. Their funky pop-rock is a bit too commercial for my taste, but if you like this sort of thing, I think their album One Hot Minute is by far their best album.
Guns n' Roses
Guns n' Roses was the first band I ever became obsessed with. I just loved their music around when I was 11 to 14 years old. I still do love their melodic glam hard-rock. Unlike most GnR fans, I like Use Your Illusion more than Appetite for Destruction. This is one of the last great bands where all the members where amazing in their talent with their instruments. The comeback with only Axl is quite ridiculous.
Stone Temple Pilots
Most of the grunge bands were from up north in Washington state. The only truly famous grunge band from Southern California is the Stone Temple Pilots. Their sound is quite rough, but still they manage to keep their sound airy and clear. Their sound is closer to Pearl Jam than Nirvana of the other two greats.
Eagles of Death Metal
I'm not sure how to describe this band. I guess it's some kind of garage/hard rock, but the songs have punk rhythm and pop-melodies. This is great music for partying and getting drunk with your friends. It sounds quite a lot like Queens of the Stone Age, but the songs are not quite as interesting.
Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age is an original sounding hard rock-garage rock band that plays trashy but controlled rock songs with masterful playing. They have some good albums, but Songs for the Deaf beats all others. That's definitely among one of the best albums of 2000's.
Hole
Courtney Love's grunge band Hole plays aggressive rock music that is not quite as trashy as some of the other grunge bands, but the attitude is at least on the same level. The songs are a bit more poppy than some of their contemporaries', but I, for one, like this clearer sound of theirs.
The Runaways
The Runaways is an all-female hard-rock/grunge band. Their music draws some influences from 80's hard rock, but the sounds are a bit more modern. This is great music to channel your own aggression. The guitar solos are quite masterful as well.
Germs
Germs is a first wave sounding punk band. The instruments are playing simple riffs and the vocals are off-key with great attitude. This band does not belong to the same league with the best first wave punk bands, but still the general sound is similar.
X
This is another first wave punk band. Their sounds are not quite as crappy as those of the English punk bands, but the attitude is similar. They use both male and female vocals, which gives an interesting twist to the normal male dominated genre.
Rage Against the Machine
This is one of the most original sounding bands that ever existed. They combine heavy guitars, grunge, funk and rap aesthetics all in the same package. Their music is very political and very aggressive. Unfortunately I didn't get the chance to see them live, but I bet they were quite fantastic live.
Metallica
Metallica is undoubtedly the most well-known metal band in the world. Although some hardcore Scandinavian metal-fans might claim that Metallica is not true metal, I think they're wrong. I don't really like death metal growl, so Metallica is as metal as I get in my music taste. Their first few albums are fantastically melodic music full of great sound.
Megadeath
Dave Muscatine fell out with the rest of Metallica, before Metallica even released a single album. he then formed his own trash metal band Megadeath, which makes quite similar music. Possibly a bit more melodic, but not as classy. They have still managed to make quite a few classic albums in late 80's and early 90's.
Van Halen
Okay, I don't really know why I would want to present Van Halen on this list, but then again, why not. It's the greatest example of 80's hair metal, which must be a travesty for true metal music people, since it's basically more pop than pop itself. This is as tacky and commercial as music gets, but who am I to blame them.
Los Lobos
I didn't know where else to put this band, so I'm ending the list in this band. This latino rock n' roll band is mainly known for their song La Bamba, which became a huge international hit. I don't know if this is really that great music, but it's such a strange hit that I wanted to include that on the list as a historical thing.
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