Pick one: who is your favorite artist of all time who is still releasing records that you care about?

Motörhead, Slayer, Napalm Death.

Opeth & Enslaved are the ones I go buy the day they release something new (assuming I haven't already had the promo for months).

Sonny Rollins
Ornette Coleman
Leonard Cohen
Al Green

Radiohead, NWW and Mike Patton are good answers. I've hated every YLT album since Nothing/Inside Out a little more each time, so def not them for me.

i usually say m. gira. been listening to him since the 80's and i still enjoy what he's doing. i haven't bought EVERYTHING on young god, but i really don't think he's ever made a bad record in his life. i say the same about my other hero lawrence. and same thing, never made a bad record and i've been following him since the mid 80's. don't know if he'll make another new record, but i never know with him. i hope he does. (don't know if he counts cuz the go kart record was kind of a while ago already...)

Depeche Mode in their original form. Peter Gabriel as a soloist.

I've hated every YLT album since Nothing/Inside Out a little more each time, so def not them for me.

^^ Count me as another one who feel the mighty have fallen; they were probably my favorite artist of the 90s.

Depeche Mode in their original form.

Depeche Mode in their original form hasn't released a record since 1981. Are you sure you understand this thread question?

(I was going to also ding you on Peter Gabriel but surprise surprise he's releasing an album next year.)

Lawrence is a good call. Go-Kart Mozart are supposed to be releasing a new album shortly, which I am hotly anticipating.

Pearl Jam, NIN, You Am I...I still care about Jane's Addiction but Strays was meh.

I'm not sure I entirely understand the question, but Rose Tattoo (who I haven't totally kept up with) put out one of my favorite albums of last year, and ZZ Top (who I mostly haven't cared about since the mid '80s) made one of my favorite 20-or-so albums of this decade. Also really liked two Rick Springfield albums in the '00s, though calling him "one of my favorite artists of all time" would be severely stretching things. (I actually think he might be better than he used to be.)

many xxposts, Mike Patton is still up there for me, even though half the time he totally disappoints me and half the time he completely and totally wows me.

Wire

Legendary Pink Dots/Edward Ka-Spel

honorable mention: Nurse With Wound

I read that as "Horrible mention"...

Mike Patton is still up there for me, even though half the time he totally disappoints me and half the time he completely and totally wows me.

Out of interest, what recent Patton stuff should I seek out? I've heard the more mainstream end of it (Peeping Tom etc), and while there's some good stuff there, nothing's WOWED me since California, I don't think.

darkthrone

Also really liked two Rick Springfield albums in the '00s, though calling him "one of my favorite artists of all time" would be severely stretching things. (I actually think he might be better than he used to be.)

I heard "Bop 'Til You Drop" on my buddy's XM car stereo last week. I thought of you!

Jandek.
Dylan.
Robert Ashley.

I wish i could say I still cared about new Neil Young records, but that's really pushing it.

robert pollard. i listen to all his new albums/projects no matter how mediocre they are, always hoping for the next 'tractor rape chain' or 'watch me jumpstart' to pop up. it's a hopeless addiction for sure

i cared about chrome dreams II a lot and i kinda liked living with war and fork in the road but he used to be a guy whose records were a "day of release" purchase for me, but i quit after getting burned too often.

robert pollard. i listen to all his new albums/projects no matter how mediocre they are, always hoping for the next 'tractor rape chain' or 'watch me jumpstart' to pop up. it's a hopeless addiction for sure

― bread has no effect on you (ciderpress), Monday, November 30, 2009 7:30 PM (1 minute ago)

yeah i've definitely given up on this recently

but WHY do people give up on artists (and previously GOAT artists at that)? more interested in that than random lists of people tbqh

i hope Kate Bush puts out another album some time relatively soon

1) limitations of the form (hardly anybody gives up on composers for example), coupled with
2) acceptance of these limitations by artists, and
3) assumption of these limitations by listeners possibly?

xpost to Shakey

i aint giving up on pollard since you at least get a bunch of great song titles per album if not songs

4) So much new shit + limited income = goodbye predictably awesome oldster.

Most of my really REALLY favorite artists died/disbanded. (Miles Davis, Minutemen) Otherwise --

YLT -- treading water, the pop's not as perfect and the noise isn't as noisy, getting awfully tired of a band with no strong singers
Tortoise -- turned to the Muzak side of the Force
Bob Dylan -- just can't stand to listen to his voice anymore

"I heard "Bop 'Til You Drop" on my buddy's XM car stereo last week. I thought of you!"

I am a huge cheerleader for the video for this song. It's the Thriller of scifi.

***

Also want to mention that the new Buffy St Marie is GREAT.

xpost - I lose interest in bands when they start catering to labels, management, media, and arena crowds, rather than to their own original muse. Likewise, they so often lose touch with what made them great (ie why does Iommi think that his new Laney gear sounds better than his old Orange or Marshall amps? Why?!)

it's not exactly the same band but Bottomless Pit (ex silkworm) is one of my fav bands still and it seems to continue on the tradition pretty well obv without michael : (

Stereolab was my Favorite Band Ever when I was in college, and part of what I dug about them at the time is that they seemed to be creatively modifying their sound with each album. It kind of blew my mind, for instance, that they evolved from Transient Random Noise-Bursts to Dots and Loops in only four years. But then at a certain point it seemed to stagnate. And while I still listen to everything they put out and generally like it, I haven't really been wowed by the band since 2000 and don't really have any expectations for that to change. So I guess in that sense I've "given up" on Stereolab, even though it's not like I've turned my back on them or anything.

Ghostface/Wu
M0unta1n G0ats
Magnetic Fields
MF Doom
Redman

^^^one of these, all still making records. Biggie, Elliott Smith, Jam Master Jay and Coltrane all died tho :(

I think this has come down to Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys for me, even though I was never the hugest PSB fan back in the day and DM lost me for a big stretch in the 90s...but both of these bands released albums that I really loved over the last year. So, I guess, them.

I wish I was with Dan in saying The Cure, because they really WERE my favourite band ever, but their last four studio albums have just left me feeling deflated...big potential but none of them do much for me.

I would like to say Kraftwerk too - I've come to enjoy the Tour De France album reasonably well, and I'm hoping there's another album in the future (hard to tell, with the release sched of their last three records, really). So let's say them too, with a full-on admission that there are rose-coloured filters over my glasses.

I guess it depends on how far back we're going. Capsule is way up there, but they've only been around for a little over a decade. Sonic Youth still release pretty dece albums, obvs. Ummm...Dolly Parton? kd lang? Morrissey? Pollard is one of my all-time faves but I haven't listened to anything he's put out in a few years.

Oh, duh: Neil Hagerty for the win, probably. Until the Sundays release their surely inevitable next album...

Randy Newman.

^^good one

Depeche Mode in their original form hasn't released a record since 1981. Are you sure you understand this thread question?

Depeche Mode as a band, I mean. What I meant was that Peter Gabriel was not so much my favourite act, as a member of my favourite band (ranked also above Depeche Mode), but he still releases great music on his own too - considerably more so than any of the other ex-Genesis members.

Good question, and I am def. in favor of any spin-off that keeps from bumping the "pitchfork is dumb" thread...this is obv. harder to answer the older you are, if "favorite of all time" has to include people you were into when you were a kid (as in, favorite for all of your life). I still care about Springsteen's records, I guess, even if I don't run out to buy them on the first day.

Never really figured this out, but I think most pop songwriters write their most creative and compelling melodies while they are in their 20s (most, but not all). Maybe there is a part of the brain that works best for most people during those years. Or maybe most people are born with a finite number of melodic ideas, and those tend to be exhausted in their 20s. Most of the time, the least interesting thing to me about great songwriters as they age is their melodies. It would be an interesting thing to research except that it's too subjective. And obviously it doesn't hold outside of pop music either.

(Dan, you would really like the new Gus Gus. It's on Kompakt.)

In terms of career longevity, Bob Dylan. In terms of unbroken I-care streak, Sonic Youth. Prince is just too sporadic for me.

WHY do people give up on artists (and previously GOAT artists at that)?

Keeping up with them starts feeling like work/stops being fun/newer artists become more rewarding/You realize you've been going through the motions trying to like them and maybe they're going through motions too?

(How is that hard to understand? It just seems obvious to me. And I have a real hard time thinking of favorite artists it hasn't happened with. Nobody makes good records forever.)

I still buy Morris Day albums. His last one had a decent track with E-40 called "In My Ride". It's easy to say I still care when he's put out one album since '92.

If we're talking a solid twenty year plus run of regular listening/appreciation/getting their new records without fail then pretty easily Depeche and the Cure.

Yoko Ono

Tom Waits

Lindsey Buckingham (one great solo album in '06, one passable solo album in '08, and a decent FM album in '03)
Scott McCaughey (with the Minus 5, Young Fresh Fellows & Baseball Project)

xp I mean, I'm probably the biggest John Cougar fan on this board, but I don't think he's made a good album for 22 years. And I'm way up there as a Bob Seger fan, and he hasn't made a good album in a lot longer than that. And they're still two of my favorite artists ever. That just seems normal to me. (Mark E. Smith, I'd say about as long as Cougar. But maybe I just have an abnorally short attention span.)

this is obv. harder to answer the older you are, if "favorite of all time" has to include people you were into when you were a kid (as in, favorite for all of your life).

^not sure why the question has to imply this^

my instinctual answer before opening the thread was lightning bolt

I didn't hear them until I was pushing 30 but I def consider them one of the GOAT

i'm always kind of impressed with people who are truly fanatical. the ones who still buy everything by a group/artist. there are people who have been buying robyn hitchcock and elvis costello albums for 30+ years!

or crazy tim e. who could tell you about cool 90's paul mccartney b-sides!

and obviously ilm is a great place to listen in on people like that. cuz people still buy cure albums here.

NoMeansNo

Sonic Youth and Negativland, close seconds.

dc talk

apparently, sade

dj quik is my obvious one

Throwing Muses are an easy one to start with - though, Im not sure if theyre still making albums? Theyre still touring!

Depeche kind of count, as do the Cure, but I've not kept up with their recent offernigs. Most other alltime bands I love are long split up: Cocteaus, Japan...

Ah! David Sylvian.

hard question. for me, the artist would have to have a 20+ year track record of music i've loved. i mean not only would they have had to be consistently active and good, but i'd have had to be a tuned-in fan for at least that long. and they've still gotta be putting out music that genuinely challenges, surprises and moves me. which narrows the field considerably.

first band i think of is the flaming lips, and i wouldn't have said that prior to embryonic. they were a favorite band of mine for the better part of a decade, but i've been steadily losing interest since 1995. nice at this stage in the game to be given something both great and totally unexpected.

and i'd like to say like michael hurley & sir richard bishop, but i came late to both, so they don't count (for me, anyway). and i'd like to say sonic youth, but they haven't put out a record i REALLY dug since washing machine.

billy childish (thee mighty caesars, headcoats, etc) & mick collins (gories, dirtbombs, etc) are long-time favorites, but i sometimes worry that both have their best years behind them. boredoms & tom waits? have liked recent stuff by both, but getting iffy...

The only band I can think of are Animal Collective, and I don't know if it's due to the backlash, but I'm surprised no one's mentioned them yet.

Plenty of artists and bands, but the award for longest running goes to Iron Maiden. Got to know the band in 1981 through their Killers album and have been hooked ever since. I lost some interest in them (and metal) around 1990 and completely lost them during the Blaze Bailey period (which, listening back, wasn't that bad a period, actually), but since the return of Dickinson and Smith I can safely pick up any new release again; they deliver. And they're still one of the best live bands out there. These old geezers, I don't know where they find the energy, but wow!