1. Arcade Fire
2. Turin Brakes
3. Radiohead
4. LCD Soundsystem
5. Pixies
6. Tom Petty
7. Interpol
8. REM (Old School)
9. Editors
10. Kings Of Leon

The order changes on a regular basis.

I think mine tastes are pretty apparent from my posts but here goes...

1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
2. Rob Zombie
3. Beck
4. PJ Harvey
5. Anything the Dust Bros have worked on.

and some past favs to round this list out...
6. Bloodhound Gang
7. Enigma
8. Janis Joplin
9. Tom Petty
10 John Freakin' Denver... anyone laughs and yer ass is mine.

I really don't listen to a whole lotta music.

Here's what I can think of off the top of my head.

1. Pink Floyd
2. Queen
3. Garbage
4. Offspring
5. David Bowie
6. Tragically Hip
7. Enigma
8. Genesis
9. U2
10. Nine Inch Nails

The bottom 8 aren't in any particular order and they tend to change with my moods...

In no particular order:
Metallica
Iron Maiden
Queen
Rolling Stones
Smashing Pumpkins
Bue Oyster Cult
Godsmack
The Doors
U2
Breaking Benjamin

p.s John DENVER?!!

OK, are you looking for essential listening, or my favourites? How about essentials, stuff that maybe you don't listen to every day, but everybody should at least hear a few times for reference. Music that can come in handy at the cocktail party, so you can get an idea about what people are talking about.

1 Shpongle - the greatest psychedelic group of all time. (or: Mystery of the Yeti, Taruna)
2 Lee "Scratch" Perry - the original dub master (or: King Tubby)
3 DJ Philippe - The original and one of the greatest Acid House producers (or: Frankie Knuckles)
4 Ozric Tentacles - What has happened to psychedelic rock since pink floyd
5 Jesse Dangerously - my friend, and the smartest rapper around
6 Merzbow - When somebody says they've heard the loudest music in the world and they aren't talking about merzbow, they need to STFU
7 Discordance Axis - When somebody says they've heard the fastest metal in the world and they aren't talking about Discordance Axis, they need to STFU
8 Robert Rich - One of the greatest ambient artists around, beautiful, melancholy, ethereal stuff (or: Alio Die, Steve Roach)
9 Kraftwerk - What can i say, the fathers of electro, techno, industrial... the ones that started everything...
10 Congo Natty - The original junglist. "Amen Brother" broken and chopped to bits, with ridiculous ragga toasting, and bass (or: Roni Size, Dillinja, Dead Dread)

Yeah, certainly not a complete list, but a good start. At least be familiar with those and you'll be in good shape.

To be sure, I only really listen to Shpongle and Robert Rich on that list on a regular basis, but to me they all represent the most creative and groundbreaking artists I can think of on the top of my head.

heh, looking over that list... man, you MIGHT say i'm eclectic...

I grew up with all my parent's LPs from the 70s... Jim Croce, Jethro Tull, Sonny and Cher, Joni Mitchell, Three Dog Night... all good shit... but some of my first memories are of singing John Denver songs... hence, the soft spot in my soul

If I was to be stranded these are some of the artists I would want to have on my MP3 Player.

Richie Hawtin
Pink Floyd
The Orb
Portishead
Opeth
Mum
Andres Segovia
Erik Satie
Rob The Viking
Air

However this is inherently hard for me since I love alot of music to begin with.

In no particular order:

The Kinks
Cream
Van Morrison
John Prine
The Clash
The Ramones
Pink Floyd
The Beatles
The Allman Brothers
David Bowie
Rolling Stones
Creedence Clearwater Revival

Favorite band you never heard of: Pine Hill Haints

*Quality!

Gold Star member mlx has awarded silvercord one published post for this quality Sift Talk contribution.

agree with farhad, on the difficulty, and for the most part on the groups he chose. That's why I tried to go for essentials rather than favourites... as for my desert island picks..

portishead
j.s. bach
astral projection
shpongle
richie hawtin

come to mind right away.... i don't know... more thought required....

@djsunkid

I was looking for reference music. Stuff that everyone ought to hear to know what music really is. If you have kids (or if you had them) what are you going to teach them about music?

ok, awesome, that's exactly what my list was.

Zappa
Bunny Wailer
Selena
Sun Ra Arkestra
telemetry from the METSAT Kalpana-1-(weather satellite)
New Lost City Ramblers
Chaka Kahn
Bo Diddley
Chemical Brothers/Goldfrapp/Ozric Tentacles
Burl Ives
Serge Gainsbourg
....what is this list for again????


Ahhh reference muzak.....well, you need to codify a style of music with its most salient and glaring representatives or inventors..

Jazz(be-bop)-Charlie Parker-Thelonius Monk-Bud Powell
Blues-( all the subgroups) Electric/acoustic/delta, etc....
Too many to name-
Rock-he hehheh hehe, smae as blues
Electronic---John Cage, Laurie Anderson, Behrbohm??? list goes on...
Punk- Sex Pistols New York Dolls?? Ramones??
Bluegrass
electronica
trance
alternative (otherwise known as people in a constant state of imprint and drug-addled confusion-this also includes most chick rock...!)
this looks like a job for an old CRAY X-MP....

see how difficult this is??? (Where is that Ozric Tentacles.....now djsunkids got me going there......Boom!

Ok, I think I could be Raven's dad . . . here goes:

Desert Island Stuff (not in order):

Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick & A Passion Play and the rest
Peter Gabriel - everything
Beethoven's Symphonies
Phil Keaggy - Beyond Nature
Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
King Crimson - everything
Mel Torme - anything
Cat Stevens - most all of it
The Who - Quadrophenia
Pink Floyd - Early years before DSOM
Van Morrison - Avalon Sunset
Beatles

Heres a small list:

Beach Boys
Beatles
Dave Matthews
Earth,Wind and Fire
Elvis Costello
Genesis (w/Gabriel)
Incubus
Peter Gabriel
Pink Floyd
Radiohead
Simon and Garfunkel
Steely Dan
Stevie Wonder
Yes(original band)

that Pine Hill Haints is really cool mlx.

it's impossible to get any sort of concise list of favourites or essentials but thinking about it in terms of ways I'd want to educate my children about music there are a few mix sets that would go a long way (in this order):

- fred deakin - the triptych
- 2manydjs part 2
- the nextmen - blunted in the backroom

oh yes, and my very own axisofcool of course

I've actually recently started jotting down some of the things I'm listening to as I buy so much new stuff all the time that I lose track.

..Massive Attack..um...*sighs*..list,lists

Spiderbait..er

you mean their version of black betty?