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

Whiney asked this on the "pitchfork is dumb" thread and I thought it was a good enough question to merit its own thread. Feel free to give reasons why you still care about the artists you list.

depeche mode

Circle

Wait, no. Robert Pollard.

the Pet Shop Boys are not my favorite artists, but they still release records I care about. This year I finally reached the age at which the Boys released "West End Girls," and a lot of their proto-middle age sensibility, which for years seemed merely prescient and well-observed, now suddenly makes sense.

I couldn't stand most of Yes though.

Sonic Youth, Prince, and Robert Forster are runners-up.

Robyn Hitchcock.

The Fall and Sonic Youth are still releasing albums that are usually the best of the year. 'Imperial Wax Solvent' and 'The Eternal' were rad.

bob dylan

= rockist 4 eva

Madness : 12 months ago i would never have believed that they would release one of the best albums of their career in 2009, but hey, they did.

sonny bono

Melvins is my number one, Ghostface (and Wu in general, really) is number two.

I started listening to both in high school circa 1996 and neither has ever fallen off in my eyes.

Robyn Hitchcock is my all-time favorite and I still love almost everything he's done. "Ole Tarantula" from a couple of years ago might be in his top 5 albums and "Goodnight Oslo" from this year is solid though doesn't reach the same heights. He's grown older and wiser and that's fed into his lyrics and musical approach, which I appreciate.

Sonic Youth

black dice

This would have been a toss-up for me before Prince's horrible 2-album misstep earlier this year; now it is unambiguously The Cure. As long as Robert and company continue making guitar-centric pop songs that are equal parts mopey and dopey with alternating sides of menace and joy, I'll continue shelling out money to them.

I don't know how many other acts besides The Cure I would put into this category; I do know that the list would have to include Depeche Mode, The Prodigy, Skinny Puppy and, wholly to the surprise of me 10 years ago when the entire acoustic guitar-based singer/songwriter milieu was like kryptonite to me, The Mountain Goats. Groups who have fallen off of that list who I thought I'd support forever include Meat Beat Manifesto, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult (assuming they're still releasing albums) and Gus Gus.

stephen malkmus. posts vmic, etc

Pauline Oliveros

pretty much everyone I got REALLY into as a young listener (eg, jr. high/high school) has either a) died or b) stopped releasing new music or c) stopped being interesting. There are a couple exceptions (Neil Young, J. Spaceman, Neil Hagerty) but as I've gotten older I've realized that GOAT /= the greatest when I was 16. Ghostface, for ex, hadn't even put out any records when I was a young'un, and I wouldn't really have put him up there upon first hearing him in college but over the past decade he's definitely earned it, and I listen to his stuff all the time. Hagerty's an interesting one too because even though I knew he was in Pussy Galore and totally dug them upon first listen it wasn't until much later (and well after Jon Spencer had flamed out) that I started to pay attention and develop a real fascination with his post-Pussy Galore stuff.

(had no idea teenage HI DERE was such a goth btw lolz)

Radiohead

Also should mention the sporadic but insanely great work of Killing Joke still thrills me after 25 years.

If you count Heaven & Hell as Black Sabbath... (I do)

(had no idea teenage HI DERE was such a goth btw lolz)

hahahaha this is like the big thing everyone and their mom brings up when they want to give me shit!

Half Man Half Biscuit!

^^^^that is an excellent shout, even though I've maybe got a couple that eclipse 'em

(in other "HI DERE is a wannabe goth poseur" news, I forgot NIN as a band I still care about)

personally I think this thread says more about how the music industry essentially discourages lifelong careers more than anything else

saint etienne definitely (if we're talking about artists we've kept up with for an extended period of time)

Anyway, while Cardiacs remain on hiatus, my answer's gonna be...SFA?

bob dylan

= rockist 4 eva

― iatee, Monday, November 30, 2009 10:33 PM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^

i can't really think of anyone else i love who's been around more than 20 years who i still care about hearing whatever they do. definitely not anyone else who's released any of my favorite albums of the past decade.

Actually, it's Ulver. By miles. Obviously.

Motorpsycho

mike patton

Nurse With Wound pwns this thread. Because "The Surveillance Lounge" if fucking great by any standard including that of the NWW catalogue.

is

i was gonna say either outrageous cherry or for against, but i think the REAL answer is durutti column, since i've been a fan of vini's for 20 years or so

i should add U2, their last one was their best in ages. i'm probably starkly alone in this one.

stereolab, though they might be finished.

yo la tengo, though they've declined a little.

there are tons of artists i've really enjoyed over the years but few that i was listening to 15-20 years ago who are still around or still active, tbh.

Jonathan Richman and Eugene Chadbourne, though in both cases I'll see them live rather than listen to more of their albums. Edwyn Collins too but I haven't heard anything or seen him perform since his medical thing.

does Richman even bother to make albums anymore?

Another vote for Robyn Hitchcock. Also Scott Walker, The Fall, and Boredoms.

Limiting myself to bands/artists I've been really into for 15+ years. Sun City Girls should be in this space, curse you cancer.

oops forgot The Fall - been hitting them hard recently, haven't really gotten around to the latest records

bonnie prince billy

xpost. Yeah, Jonathan Richman still puts out a decent album every 18 months or so.

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.

I didn't list Mouse On Mars last time as I thought the last record was a terrible dropping-off from their previous work, but I still hold out hope for the next one and will want to hear it, so I guess it was unfair to omit them (or was it?)

possibly Aphex should be listed too - sure his 00s work does not hold a candle to his 90s work, but after putting on Analord as background music for a while some of the tracks really began to feel like home, plus if the Tuss is him that was decent enough too

(but SotL is still my largely unimpeachable main answer here)

Kevin Ayers is another one. The Unfairground of a couple of years ago being a pretty strong return to form for a guy who did some brilliant work in the '70s.

"destroyer" is my answer to this question.

we've got this far, and no-one is still in line for a new bowie album ?
i thought his last 2 albums, while not pure classics were bloody good.
so, should he decide to grace the release schedule with a new album in 2010 then i'll be there on release day.

Portishead is a good one, although I'm not convinced they're ever going to record another album

Ah we all said this TEN years ago ha ha.

I'm interpreting this as 'artists you've liked the longest who have yet to really disappoint you' - Broadcast maybe but it's only just nearly 10 years since I first heard their stuff. I'm not expecting to like the new Massive Attack (thought the last album was OK, not a real letdown) but they may yet win this. Daft Punk's last LP did not really satisfy so they're out. I guess I'm interested to hear what Saint Etienne do next, and Kraftwerk if they actually do release some new stuff within next 5 years.

The Fall

I'd like to add Carl Craig.

If I cared about Sparks and Yello more they'd be a good ones.

Um Kate Bush, kinda? Doubt her next album'll be out anytime soon, obv

I can't claim to know more than a small fraction of his discography, but Jeff Mills has been putting out records pretty steadily since the early 90s with some real classics early on, and the ones I've heard from the past year or two have been pretty good too.

surprised nobody has said vini/durutti. thought he had mad loyal fans. i gave up in the early 90's somewhere. sex and death, maybe? he's had a gazillion since then.

(forgive me if someone did say him)

i was gonna say either outrageous cherry or for against, but i think the REAL answer is durutti column, since i've been a fan of vini's for 20 years or so

― electrical audio's sm57 (electricsound), Monday, 30 November 2009 22:55 (3 days ago) Bookmark

well there you go.

um, i kinda like the new Stackridge cd. a couple beatles / floydesque jams.

The "favorite artist of all time" 'd be stretching it a bit (wotever the "it" is...),
but the following are sure some of the musicians who I've been into for a number of years and still care a lot wot they're doing:
Henry Threadgill, Nits, Hoppy Kamiyama, Sparks, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Dylan... Robert Wyatt...

(Then there're also R.E.M. and Jethro Tull, haha - but lets pretend I didn't mention them, uh?)

The Nits! The Nits! The Nits were mentioned! ^^^^^^ Their new album "Strawberry Wood" is immensely enjoyable.

seems that this question is way easier to answer if you're really into techno/house/electronic, i.e. carl craig, wolfgang voigt, MVO, villalobos, AFX

gotta admit most of the artists mentioned on this thread bore me to tears at this point (besides Kate Bush and the Knife,) but i guess that's kinda what its about

So I'm supposed to pick one, but I'll add two alternates.

The Church - to be fair, there's a tremendous loyalty factor here probably just as strong as the Robyn Hitchcock fans have. Honestly though, I'd rather listen to the last five Church albums than the first five and as long as they're alive, obstinate, and spacing out I'm in.

Ed Kuepper & John Doe - both have been releasing solo albums steadily i(outside of the occasional shows by their more famous bands) but all have been dependably great. Kuepper's Jean Lee & The Yellow Dog may just be his best album of all.

Peter Gabriel, Josh Homme, Aimee Mann, Courtney Love

Mukai Shutoku (Number Girl, Zazen Boys, brilliant motherfucker whose disjointed rhythms will direct me toward an ideal future I am not even aware of yet), Henry Threadgill (breaks through the other side every goddamn time, the other side is a fucking sham, Henry Threadgill lets us know this)

thought about this for a few days and came up with Erykah Badu (yeah, surprising, I know)

xp you're the only other person I've ever heard mention number girl... great band. never heard zazen boys though - definitely have to check them out.

I've been checking out pretty much everything kevin drumm puts out since sheer hellish miasma. see no reason to stop.

Killing Joke

duh

De La Soul. Are You In? is beautiful.

Honorable mention: Madonna as recently as Confessions on a Dancefloor, Q-Tip, Ian MacKaye (Fugazi/the Evens), U2, Atmosphere, Mint Condition, Mary J. Blige (slowly emerging fave), MF Doom (though I'm no completist), Orchestra Baobab, with more cautious caring about Alan Sparhawk (Low/Black-Eyed Snakes/etc.), Mick Jones (Clash, B.A.D., Carbon/Silicon), KRS-One, Stereolab (though the live shows have stayed far more vital), Sonic Youth, Springsteen (whose latest made him an all-time fave), Al Green, Juliana Hatfield (another slow burner), D'Angelo (if you call that releasing), and Prince (whose latest I at least feel obliged to care about).

Re: Jonathan Richman, You Must Ask the Heart is one of my favorite albums of the '90s, and he's good for at least a couple great songs per release, so maybe him too. I've loved recent R.E.M. and AC/DC too, but that's pushing the limits of "favorite artist of all time." I can't rep for the Mission of Burma albums, but their live show is amazing.

They have broken up now, but Squeeze's 90s albums were all very good, even though few noticed other than their diehard fans.

Neil Hagerty. I never know what that guy is gonna do next. I guess Jennifer and RTX while I'm at it.

This thread made me realize that I still buy every Sonic Youth album about the week it comes out, though it's been years since I've considered them one of my favorite bands.

Honestly though, I'd rather listen to the last five Church albums than the first five

Agreed. (Except maybe for Heyday.) And I should have mentioned them earlier since I started getting into them at the same time as I did the Cure and Depeche. Pretty good trio, I think.

Watching the new No-Man documentary/DVD the other night made me realize how they count too, though there's so many bands I keep a general eye on that I got into around 91/92 that it's a little hard to distinguish. Still, I like the fact that they have a partnership that has not only steadily continued but keeps transforming.

i should also mention that i'm still a pretty big ned raggett fan after all this time. though there is definitely more filler in his recent work.

Sadly true. But the almanac is always there.

I'm a recent Ned fan working my way backward.

You may find it somewhat complex trying to work your way backwards with those Pi digits, tho.

perhaps sadly, i rather enjoyed grandpaboy.

some GREAT songs on that one (Mono?)

Well I already picked Sparks but I'd also say The Divine Comedy who haven't made a bad album since their debut, actually it's not bad it's just very dull. I'm as excited for the new album as much as I was for the last few.

They have broken up now, but Squeeze's 90s albums were all very good...

The last album, Domino, was mostly lame, but the other 90's albums are good-to-great, especially Play, which may be their best album. They toured last year and are supposedly working on an album for 2010.

The latest Glenn Tilbrook album is pretty enjoyable, except he lets his bandmates sing lead on a couple of songs.

Pick one?

Definitely Autechre

Dinosaur Jr

And Ween up until 1 album ago.

Sunn O)))

Oh yeah, Courtney Love of course! America's Sweetheart is one of the best of the decade

Portishead is a good one, although I'm not convinced they're ever going to record another album

― Huckabee Jesus lifeline (HI DERE), Tuesday, 1 December 2009 19:25 (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Portishead sign to Amnesty

Portishead are releasing a brand new track, - "Chase the tear" for Amnesty International.

It will be available as an exclusive download single from 7 digital http://www.7digital.com/porti sheadamnesty from December 10th with all earnings going towards Amnesty's human rights work and all rights given to the organisation indefinitely.

A video of Portishead performing ''Chase the Tear'' will also be available from 10 December at: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/portish ead and at http://www.portishead.co.uk

International human rights day (10 December) marks the anniversary of the United Nation's historic "Universal Declaration Of Human Rights" on 10 December 1948. The UDHR set out for the first time in a single document the fundamental rights to which everyone, everywhere is entitled - including the right to life, liberty, security, the freedoms of opinion, association and expression, and the right not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

For more information: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/udhr

oh fuck YES

Kate Bush, Morrissey, and Bjork for me. I'll pretty much enjoy whatever those 3 decide to put out, even if it's crap. Luckily they don't do that

Fred Cole

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!