🎧 Musical Interests 🎧

I listen to a lot of music. I also make music. So naturally, I have a lot of opinions about and a huge library of music. Most of my library is stored digitally because I like to buy albums on Bandcamp, but I also keep it old school with my sizeable CD and, to a lesser extent, cassette tape collections. I rip all my CDs to .FLAC on my PC with Fre:ac. I don't really fw streaming anymore, unless it's some weird shit I can only find on YouTube, and even then I try to get my own copy.

I don't discriminate when it comes to music. It really annoys me that a lot of people just swear off entire genres because they've heard some songs they didn't like. People say this a lot about country, which is insane to me because there's been good country music for like 100 years now, at least in America. So I guess what I'm getting at is that you should try not to be a purist; it usually just makes you ignorant!

Want to hear more of my music opinions and maybe have a fun little laugh? Check out the Tiny Music Reviews section of my blog!

🏆 Salty's Top 10 Artists 🏆

I cannot convey to y'all how hard it was to dial this down to 10 bands for length's sake... I ingest an unhealthy amount of music every year. I've made a list anyways, and it's always subject to change. I just picked the first 10 bands to pop into my head. I've written a little blurb about each artist on the list, as well as my personal choice of the artist's best album. I also listed my three favorite songs from each artist (including links to the music video or a live performance) if you want to give them a listen!

đŸĒŠ ABBA đŸĒŠ

A photo of Swedish dance pop group, ABBA. They are wearing white kimonos with black floral accents standing in front of a background filled with peacock feathers.

Genre(s): Disco, Pop, Europop
Years Active: 1972-1982, 2016-Present
Best Album: Voulez-Vouz
Top 3 Songs: My Mama Said + Chiquitita + SOS
Salty Says: I truly believe ABBA is the greatest pop band of all time. They did some amazing stuff recording- and production-wise in a pretty infantile time for synthesizers and electronic music in general. Their production masterpiece is a track called, "My Mama Said." Their live recordings are pretty damn good too for how demanding some of their songs are to perform.

🏄 Beach Boys 🏄

Genre(s): Surf Pop, Surf Rock, American Rock'N'Roll
Years Active: 1961-1997
Best Album: Pet Sounds
Top 3 Songs: I'm Waiting For The Day + 'Til I Die + In My Room

Salty Says: I never understood the whole "Beach Boys versus The Beatles" thing that happens in critics' circles, really. They are totally different bands with different artistic goals, so if you've been turned away from them because of that, I would highly recommend giving them another try.

Brian Wilson is my hero; he devised monolithic, beautiful soundscapes and truly mastered music production in his era. Pet Sounds is my favorite album of all time; I never get tired of listening to it front-to-back.

🌐 BRONCHO 🌐

Genre(s): Garage Rock, Indie Rock, Slacker Rock
Years Active: 2010-Present
Best Album: Double Vanity
Top 3 Songs: Original Guilt + Big City Boys + Fantasy Boys

Salty Says: Broncho is my favorite band of all time. They are criminally underrated and often only examined by their TV commercial song, "Class Historian." Don't get me wrong, that song is great and I'm glad it gives them some royalty income, but it does a huge disservice to their artistic growth since 2010. There is just something about their music that deeply resonates with me and just shatters my soul with each listen.

I have seen Broncho many times live, chatted with them about their process, and am simply enamored by everything that they do. Double Vanity is tied with Pet Sounds for my favorite album of all time, but all of their albums are truly great. Ryan writes the most beautiful, haunting songs that I've ever heard in my life.

💎 Don Toliver 💎

Genre(s): Trap, R&B, PluggnB, Hip-Hop
Years Active: 2017-Present
Best Album: Hardstone Psycho
Top 3 Songs: Backend + What You Need + ATM

Salty Says: I listen to a lot of trap and pluggnB, and Don Toliver is the most refreshing artist I've heard come out of the genre in a long ass time. He has such a great voice and he commands AutoTune even better than the genre's pioneers. He writes the most beautiful vocal melodies, and I have loved every project he's done since I heard his "Donny Womack" mixtape back in 2018.

If you like modern H-town trap coupled with slick-as-hell vocal melodies, then Don is your man. His newest albums Hardstone Psycho and Octane are both soooo good, front-to-back.

🍃 Green Day 🍃

Genre(s): Pop-Punk, Skate Punk, Alternative Rock
Years Active: 1987-Present
Best Album: Nimrod
Top 3 Songs: Redundant + Prosthetic Head + Jaded

Salty Says: Green Day is the first band I ever loved. They taught me how to play the guitar, how to write a song, and how artists don't have to fit in one little box and stay there. Despite how you may feel about "pop punk" and that whole can of worms, we should still give Green Day credit for initiating a huge movement that brought punk sentiments to the mainstream and exposing a ton of people to the band's "OG punk" influences.

Nimrod absolutely blew my mind when I heard it for the first time, moreso than their more popular records of the '90s, Dookie and Insomniac. It just felt so envelope-pushing and far outside of what a coked-out, queer punk band might typically produce. I really enjoy every single album up to 21st Century Breakdown, but anything after that is not really worth your time. I can't believe these bastards have been putting on shows since the '80s.. I saw them about a decade ago and they played for three hours straight; it was fucking awesome.

đŸĒŦ System of a Down đŸĒŦ

Genre(s): Nu-Metal, Alternative Rock
Years Active: 1994-2006, 2010-Present
Best Album: Toxicity
Top 3 Songs: Suite-Pee + Spiders + Science

Salty Says: I think SOAD are the best fucking nu-metal band of all time. They wear their morals and beliefs on their sleeves, and I think that is very admirable, especially for a band full of Middle Eastern immigrants whose popularity coincided with the post-9/11 paranoia era. They talked about a lot of heavy shit that a lot of their audience probably knew little about, especially regarding Western meddling in Middle Eastern affairs, in a brutal and honest way. It's befitting to their sound, which is also incredible and so technically impressive.

Even if you don't like this era of metal, System of a Down is just so unique and blends so many different sounds that they'd probably entertain most people. Also Serj is just a truly otherworldly vocalist.

đŸĒ• The Chicks đŸĒ•

Genre(s): Country, Bluegrass, Country Pop
Years Active: 1989-Present
Best Album: Home
Top 3 Songs: Hello, Mr. Heartache + Long Time Gone + Goodbye Earl

Salty Says: The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks) are the most punk band to come out of the States since, well, forever. They have always been personally outspoken against assholes, and they are confident and masterful in their artistry despite working in a male-dominated, conservative genre. They are STILL banned from country radio because of the incident that happened in the early 2000s, but they continue to sell out shows across the world and are one of the best live bands that I've ever witnessed.

There would be no Miranda Lambert or Taylor Swift without The Chicks. They are by far the best "country pop" act of the '90s and '00s, and their first two albums are solid all the way through. My personal favorite is their bluegrass masterpiece, "Home." Six-year-old me also thought Emily, the banjo player, was soooo hot.

đŸ”Ĩ Travis Scott đŸ”Ĩ

Genre(s): Trap, Psychedelic Hip-Hop, Rage Rap
Years Active: 2008-Present
Best Album: Astroworld
Top 3 Songs: CAN'T SAY + Coordinate + Way Back

Salty Says: Travis Scott is definitely my favorite rapper. Don't let his McDonald's meal and Fortnite concert fool you: this man means business when it comes to setting trajectories for what modern hip-hop sounds like. I love every single album he's released since Rodeo, and his mixtapes before that were good, too.

I love his post-Kanye acid-trip take on modern trap. He's not afraid to use whatever whacky ass synth sound Mike Dean comes up with, and he's insanely good at picking features. Despite his controversies and countless cash grabs (all billionaires are complete psychopaths; he is no exception), I truly love his music and artistic aesthetic. Astroworld is one of my favorite albums of all time, front-to-back.

🌊 Wavves 🌊

Genre(s): Alternative Rock, Pop Punk, Lofi/Noise Rock, Indie Rock
Years Active: 2008-Present
Best Album: Afraid of Heights
Top 3 Songs: That's On Me + Linus Spacehead + Honeycomb

Salty Says: Wavves were such a great band to come out of the "pop-punk" answer to the whole Burger Records/DIY era of lofi rock coming out in the early 2010s. Their first couple releases are extremely blown out and lo-fi, but don't let that fool you. They really came into their own and recorded an absolute classic "post-tumblr stoner kid" album called King of the Beach.

If you like snotty, self-deprecating pop punk then Wavves is the band for you. "Afraid of Heights" is my favorite record from them; it is a lot more grunge and a big step up in production quality. Their newest records are also really good and deserve a listen. They're also a great live band; I've seen them 5 or 6 times at this point and it's always a blast.