Spin's 50 Best Rock Bands Right Now -- Thoughts?

[Dexter]

The 50 Best Rock Bands Right Now
SPIN Staff // October 16, 2015

50. Tenement
49. Liturgy
48. Makthaverskan
47. Alabama Shakes
46. Shopping
45. The 1975
44. Pure X
43. Screaming Females
42. Sheer Mag
41. Iceage
40. Chumped
39. Beach Slang
38. Forth Wanderers
37. TV on the Radio
36. Girl Band
35. Hop Along
34. Young Fathers
33. Baroness
32. Destruction Unit
31. Girlpool
30. Future Islands
29. Torche
28. Ought
27. The Body
26. Dirty Projectors
25. Wolf Eyes
24. Arctic Monkeys
23. Billy
22. Inter Arma
21. Downtown Boys
20. Royal Headache
19. Joyce Manor
18. Japandroids
17. Cloud Nothings
16. Beach House
15. Sunn O)))
14. Chastity Belt
13. Chromatics
12. HAIM
11. Spoon
10. Swans
9. Paramore
8. Titus Andronicus
7. Deafheaven
6. Protomartyr
5. Against Me!
4. Parquet Courts
3. Vampire Weekend
2. Sleater-Kinney
1. Deerhunter

To be honest I'm not familiar with most of these bands, that's why I think this list would be of good use to pick up one or two band to introduce myself to. Any thoughts on which band or rank Spin got right? Any notable omission?

[whuntva]

Swans rock!

I guess in terms of consistency, Deerhunter probably deserves the #1 spot. I do also like Deafheaven and Sunn O))) a lot.
I don't consider Dirty Projectors "rock!" I always thought they were electronic. Oh, well.

Tame Impala is probably the most glaring omission. Maybe Editors or War on Drugs could be on there also.

Not a big fan of Spin, but this list was fairly concise. Take the ones I name-dropped as recommendations.

[Setherex]

"If Deerhunter isn't number one, I swear..."

"Oh, good."

Have to say I'm a fan

[Listyguy]

If NME released a list like this, here's the top 3:
1- Arctic Monkeys
2- Oasis
3- Blur

Here's if it was from Rolling Stone:
1- U2
2- Bruce Springsteen
3- Bob Dylan

[notbrianeno]

49. Liturgy
...
45. The 1975

---

16. Beach House
...
9. Paramore

*deep sigh*

[bootsy]

If NME released a list like this, here's the top 3:
1- Arctic Monkeys
2- Oasis
3- Blur

Here's if it was from Rolling Stone:
1- U2
2- Bruce Springsteen
3- Bob Dylan

LOL so true.

[amnt1882]

Very American.

As expected though.

Should the lack of Tame Impala and AF be expected too?

...or Grizzly Bear maybe?

[Nick]

No Tame Impala or Arcade Fire?

Only glaring thing about this list, besides the absence of those bands, is Paramore at number 9. I like Deerhunter, but even though they're not my number one they're still a good choice. And I enjoy Sleater-Kinney, but i can't see how they'd warrant such a high position. Besides, they've only put out one album in the past ten years.

[Gillingham]

Also surprised not to see The National and The Black Keys.

[whuntva]

Also surprised not to see The National and The Black Keys.

Likewise surprised, but not completely disappointed. They never struck me as "great". Just "really good".

[Jirin]

Not the worst list, but The National is a glaring omission. There must be some editor on the staff who is militantly against them because all their last five albums are top five of year for me. Some of the choices toward the top seem a little odd. Like, Parquet Courts is okay but I find their music a little disposable.

I guess acts like 'St Vincent' are technically artists, not bands. But I personally find that kind of distinction academic as 'Artists' are usually backed by full bands and 'Bands' are often driven creatively by one person.

[Nassim]

I guess the issue is with the definition of "right now", some bands fits more the defition of "best bands of the past 10 years that are still active", like Spoon or Deerhunter, other seem more like "best newcomers" like Protomartyr (surprisingly high), Ought or Parquet Courts (maybe a bit too high, except if you vote for the band with the most rock attitude... though then you can put Death Grips number one).
All those I am familiar with have released something in 2012 or later, I guess that's the criteria. Would be interesting
to read the intro to the list, there has to be an explanation on why The Black Keys (bad last album ?) and Arcade Fire are not in there.

Anyway, nice to see Girl Band, Ought and Hop Along mentioned (and Japandroids but they seem a more obvious pick for such a list, though they are the one with the oldest new material in here), but very disappointed not to see Savages... seriously, anybody who have seen them live this year would give them a high spot, and they new song is fantastic.

[Listyguy]

In a slightly similar vein to this, who would you guys consider the Top Artist right now? From an acclaim standpoint, I feel like it should be Kendrick (although I can see an argument for Kanye). Popularity wise I would probably go with Taylor Swift, but we don't care about popularity here

[Nick]

In a slightly similar vein to this, who would you guys consider the Top Artist right now?

I guess this all comes down to what we define as "right now". I'd like to say Kanye, but "Yeezus" cane out 2 and a half years ago. So if we define "right now" as anything from the past 2 years, then I'd probably go with Kendrick.

[Dexter]

Would be interesting to read the intro to the list

sorry 'bout that mate, the intro is a bit long so I didn't post it together with the rankings. So here it is:

A list celebrating rock bands in 2015? We don’t see why not. Rock isn’t at the center of the musical universe anymore, sure — maybe it’ll come back to the forefront again, maybe it won’t — but you can’t say it didn’t have a hell of a run when it was on top. And, really, it’s hard to tell if the genre’s all that much worse off for its relative marginalization. Fewer buzz bands just means less clutter and white noise around those we genuinely do care about, of which there are still enough that we spent weeks arguing while whittling this list down to 50. To claim that there’s nothing inspiring, satisfying, and even genuinely new going on within one of music’s biggest, longest-surviving umbrella genres, is just to reveal that you’re not really paying attention. And we’ve got the groups to prove it.

But before that, of course, we need to address the question of what qualifies as a rock band right now. Let’s take the “rock” part first, since that’s obviously the tough one. We’d love to say that we came up with some unifying theory of, uh, rockness — bands with a guitar/bass/drum setup, bands who would list “riffs” among their assets, bands who could conceivably appear on some version of the Dazed and Confused soundtrack, etc. — but there’s no one designation that isn’t violated by at least one act on here.

Our list has no shortage of rawk, but it also encompasses synth-poppers and noise mavens, one trio who takes cues from Massive Attack, and one who looks up to the Bangles and ’80s Fleetwood Mac. You might not agree with us about the eligibility of all 50 of ‘em — frankly, we’re pretty sure you won’t — but at a time when one of rock’s best attributes is its willingness to acknowledge the existence of a wider musical world, we saw no need to be overly stringent with the genre parameters.

As for the “band” part, well, there we were a little stricter. Obviously, bands had to have multiple members to be counted, which means that obvious solo stars like Courtney Barnett and Ty Segall were out. But we also tried to avoid nominal “bands” who were really just the studio vision of one principal performer, meaning that acts like Tame Impala, Waxahatchee, and the War on Drugs were also disqualified. To be eligible for this list, bands had to have a mostly consistent lineup from studio recording to live performance, and not just be one recording mastermind and their touring support.

And finally, we’re attempting to define “right now” as the bands we happen to be most excited about at this moment in time — excited about what they’ve done most recently, and excited about what they’re going to do next. Naturally, bands who have been active in the last 12 months were given preferential treatment, though bands were considered eligible as long as they’d experienced some sort of career peak — a canonical album, a mainstream breakthrough, some other definitive moment — within the last decade. Rock’n’roll is tough to define, but fun to argue about.

And now, onto the bands. Perhaps there’s an off-chance that one of them will be the one that saves rock, but collectively, they make a hell of an argument that rock doesn’t need any kind of saving anyway.

source: http://www.spin.com/2015/10/the-50-best ... right-now/

So we know why Tame Impala is not on the list and why bands that's more "electronic" or "synth" than guitar rock are included but I wonder if Sleater-Kinney experienced a career peak this decade to merit the #2 spot.

[Honorio]

Again the AM lists are much better than any other list. These are the Top 25 best Rock bands right now according to AM:
25. Titus Andronicus
24. Fucked Up
23. Parquet Courts
22. These New Puritans
21. Girls
20. Radiohead
19. Sleigh Bells
18. Deafheaven
17. My Bloody Valentine
16. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
15. Savages
14. Foals
13. Spoon
12. Haim
11. Arctic Monkeys
10. Japandroids
9. Real Estate
8. The Black Keys
7. Cloud Nothings
6. Swans
5. Deerhunter
4. The National
3. The War on Drugs
2. Tame Impala
1. Arcade Fire

I selected it using the classification of best artists of the 10s and the classificacion by genres (genres filed under Rock). If we expand it to 50 adding bands with styles labelled under Pop we find:

50. Godspeed You! Black Emperor
49. Purity Ring
48. Queens of the Stone Age
47. Best Coast
46. Spiritualized
45. Yeasayer
44. Django Django
43. The Horrors
42. Titus Andronicus
41. Fucked Up
40. Parquet Courts
39. Hot Chip
38. AlunaGeorge
37. These New Puritans
36. Girls
35. The xx
34. Radiohead
33. Crystal Castles
32. Sleigh Bells
31. Dirty Projectors
30. Deafheaven
29. Chvrches
28. Wild Beasts
27. My Bloody Valentine
26. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
25. Savages
24. Foals
23. Grizzly Bear
22. Spoon
21. Chromatics
20. Destroyer
19. Metronomy
18. Haim
17. alt-J
16. Arctic Monkeys
15. Japandroids
14. tUnE-yArDs
13. Real Estate
12. The Black Keys
11. Cloud Nothings
10. Future Islands
9. M83
8. Swans
7. Deerhunter
6. The National
5. The War on Drugs
4. Tame Impala
3. Beach House
2. Vampire Weekend
1. Arcade Fire

[Matski]

Again the AM lists are much better than any other list. These are the Top 25 best Rock bands right now according to AM:
...

Have to agree with you Honorio. Nice work.

[Zombeels]

My favourite active band didn't make any list. Girls In Hawaii.