Top 10 bands

This is my Top 10 based on my Spotify stats, excluding sountrack composers:

1. The Mountain Goats
2. R.E.M.
3. Neko Case
4. Bruce Springsteen
5. Frank Turner
6. The Gaslight Anthem
7. Lauren O'Connell
8. Tegan and Sara
9. Brian Fallon
10. Chris Farren

To be fair, I wasn't on Spotify during my TGA heyday in college, so maybe this was a pointless exercise to start.

Not including TGA/Brian Fallon/Horrible Crowes, currently my list would probably go something like

1. Blink 182 (my gateway band to rock / punk music; not a huge fan of the Skiba era though).
2. The Menzingers
3. Spanish Love Songs
4. Banner Pilot
5. The Lawrence Arms
6. Red Hot Chili Peppers
7. Jawbreaker
8. Hot Mulligan
8. Alkaline Trio
9. KennyHoopla
10. Bouncing Souls

my list probably changes on a monthly basis though since I love to play songs into the ground

Again, good to see you, Casey!
I love Blink 182, and I'm totally with you on the Skiba era. I really, really, really, really hate the direction they've gone; it's pop with (slight) punk elements, rather than punk with pop elements which they used to play. Great to see RHCP too, they're one of my favorites!

Back in the summer of 2011 my list looked like this:

Harbortown wrote:

Bad Religion
Midnight Oil
The Gaslight Anthem
Cult of Luna
The Hellacopters
Bon Iver
Greg Laswell
Fleet Foxes
Converge
Burst

It's interesting to see how tastes change, and how you can tell exactly where you were in life based on your choice of music at the time. My current list would be:

1. Bad Religion - this is the only one I will put a number on, because they're my all time favorite band and most likely will be forever as I've been an enormous fan for almost 16 years.

The rest, in no particular order:
Gaslight Anthem
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Midnight Oil
Robert Francis
Markus Krunegård
John Mayer
Dimmu Borgir
Limp Bizkit (yes, I know, I know, but aside from their VIBE they actually have plenty of genuinely great songs)
Blink-182

I have plenty of honorable mentions, but I don't want to clutter this page too much. In ten years we'll revisit this and see how our tastes have changed.

Harbortown wrote:

Again, good to see you, Casey!
I love Blink 182, and I'm totally with you on the Skiba era. I really, really, really, really hate the direction they've gone; it's pop with (slight) punk elements, rather than punk with pop elements which they used to play. Great to see RHCP too, they're one of my favorites!

Good to see you too bud.

The issue is pretty clear to me; it's John Feldmann. I wasn't expecting a Jerry Finn level of production and depth, but really wish they either opted to go for a well-known rock/punk producer or just produced it themselves again (like Neighborhoods and Dogs Eating Dogs). But Travis wanted to team up with Feldmann (which has resulted in a slew of new poppy punk albums like MGK, KennyHoopla, Avril Lavigne, etc.). I just hate his production style; it's like the fast food equivalent of music. Super compressed songs, somehow they made Travis' drums sound like shit, and the guitars usually sound like something out of a Walmart commercial. Would have loved to see someone like Ted Hutt produce a Blink album, but that seems like it's never going to happen.

Also, agreed on Limp Bizkit. I'm not that familiar with their discography, but they definitely got grouped into the Nu-Metal, cringe genre. Their bassist is underrated, love that line in Re-Arranged.

Yep. Terrible producer for the band. There are so many moments on California that are OBVIOUSLY inspired by top 40 radio song sensibilities. Coupled with the over compressed production of the album, they just make it a terrible, way too polished album to make it even remotely enjoyable.
Not to mention all the whoa-oh choirs that permeate nearly every song on the album, I really cannot stand them. To be fair, I guess Bored to death is an ok song for the most part, and I think the bridge before the last chorus in Los Angeles is amazing, but, you know, exceptions to the rule. I will also say that Generational divide from the last album is the best song that they've written in years, and Hungover you has an amazing, Violence-esque verse.

Neighborhoods and Dogs eating dogs weren't perfect, but they had Tom, which automatically makes the music on those releases infinitely more interesting.

Also, it's super cool that you know Re-Arranged! Sam Rivers and John Otto (who's super innovative and really great because of his ability to play exactly what the songs need - the beat in the chorus of The one is amazing) make a fantastic rhythm section, and Wes Borland is just in his own realm of guitar playing.

It's a huge shame considering if you take the best songs from the Skiba era, remove the over polished Feldmann production, and insert some combination of +44 and Alkaline Trio styles, you'd have a top 5 Blink album. Like my tracklist would go something like

Cynical
Bored to Death
Home is Such a Lonely Place
San Diego
Misery (just for the bridge lol)
Last Train Home
Hey I'm Sorry
Long Lost Feeling
Heaven
Darkside
Generational Divide
Ransom
On Some Emo Shit

I think if you put together the best songs from +44, Boxcar Racer, and Blink's last two records and had the band produce it, I think you'd have one hell of a Blink record!