Cactus Game Design Message Boards

LALA!

You didn't list Sixpence none the richer

Casting Crowns.

Newsboys.

I like anything except Classical, Country, and Rap.

I listen to more metal than anything. Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Metallica, etc 

There used to be at least 5 or 6 of these threads, but they seem to have been lost in the great purge...

Anyways, I'll seperate mine by christian and non-christian:

---Christian---
Theocracy
Harmony
Neal Morse
Demon Hunter
The O.C. Supertones
Petra
Stryper
Tobymac
DC Talk
Whiteheart
Pillar
RED
TFK
Skillet

---Non-christian---
Dream Theater and all their side projects
Symphony X
Metallica
Ayreon
Darkwater
Styx
Kanas
Boston
Bad Company
Shinedown
Rush
Fates Warning
Queen
Pink Floyd
Nightwish
Joe Satriani
Jethro Tull
Guns 'n Roses
Disturbed
Creed
Avenged Sevenfold
AC/DC
And many more....

I have
Andrew Lloyd Webber
The Beatles
Boston
David Byrne
Deep Purple
Foreigner
Grand Funk RAilroad
Kansas
Kiss
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Maroon 5
Mountain
Neil Diamond
Peter Frampton
Queen
Richard Stilgoe
Rush
Samantha Murphy
Sara Valenzuela
Styx
Jimi Hendrix
Elvis Presley
on my playlist

Some current favorites include:

-> Five Iron Frenzy
I've loved them since my parents got their Upbeats & Beatdowns cassette after seeing them on the Fringe stage at Creation '9x. Reese and Dennis make some great lyrics, and I'm a sucker for ska. Brave Saint Saturn is also pretty cool, but still second place in my eyes. Every New Day and Dandelions are fantastic. The only Christian band I still really listen to.
-> They Might Be Giants
I've been cooling down about them for a while, but they still have an interesting lyrical style and a fairly unique sound. Or at least they used to. It's still tough to beat Ana Ng or Birdhouse in Your Soul, along with some relatively more obscure ones like Destination Moon or No One Knows My Plan.
-> Death Cab for Cutie
I've only recently been into them, but there's nothing like their album Plans to turn a long drive home at night into an experience. I Will Possess Your Heart off of Narrow Stairs is another great track that I could listen to over and over. Similarly, Postal Service's one album is amazing, with Such Great Heights being one of the best songs I've ever heard (not the lethargic Iron & Wine cover though), and We Will Become Silhouettes and The District Sleeps Alone Tonight being works of art.
-> Jonathan Coulton
On a different "plane" than the others, he specializes in comedy/novelty songs with a nerdy twist (he's best known for writing Still Alive, the Portal song), but some of his best stuff isn't purely comedic, like Shop Vac and Future Soon. Not that Re: Your Brains, Skullcrusher Mountain, and I Feel Fantastic aren't fantastic, but he has a great way of melding subject matter and musical style that are totally at odds. His collaboration with John Hodgman is a match made in, well, not heaven, but the same place as the TMBG/H*R collaborations.
-> Weezer
Mainly their first two albums, but a few later tracks like Island in the Sun are great to listen to. Only in Dreams is a masterpiece.

Some stuff I only know a little of, but I like what I've heard:
-> Muse
I recently bought Black Holes and Revelations, and there is some great stuff on there, I like their sound that pushes the alternative sound a bit harder. Knights of Cydonia is almost "comically epic."
-> Dream Theater
Less "comically epic." One of the very few bands I've learned of due to these boards. Pull Me Under came on Pandora one day and I was entranced. I've yet to buy any of their albums, but I really should - I like the epic prog-metal sound.
-> Streetlight Manifesto
Love the sound. Hate the lyrics. I've basically tuned out the (pretty blatantly anti-Christian) lyrics, but their horn section shows great talent and is a joy to listen to.
-> Daft Punk
Most of Discovery is nice to listen to. A lot of their stuff seems to get repetitive really quickly though.
-> A Perfect Circle
A darker, mellower sound than most things I listen to, but they've got real talent. Gravity, Vanishing, Weak and Powerless, and their Imagine cover are some of their best.
-> The Decemberists
The folky sound isn't totally my type, but I like the storytelling style and the stylistic range, from the grandiose The Infanta to the stilted When The War Came to the more mainstream The Perfect Crime. Some lyrically interesting stuff, although some of it sounds like they ransacked an SAT vocabulary book: "And above all this falderal on a bed made of chaparral she is laid, a coronal placed on her brow..."
-> Barenaked Ladies
Fun lyrics, infectious tunes. Enid, Pinch Me, One Week, If I Had $1000000, Old Apartment, If I Fall, Quality...

Some stuff I've tried recently and didn't get into as much as I hoped:
-> Animal Collective and MGMT
Two indie bands that were recommended to me at a record store downtown, I picked them up without really doing research beforehand. To me, some of the Animal Collective stuff barely sounds like music, just noise, and while MGMT suits my tastes better, it's not anything I rush to.
-> The Raconteurs
There are a few tracks I like from their album Consolers of the Lonely (like Many Shades of Black), but in general their sound is too "dirty" (not like lyrically filthy, just musically dingy) for me. I pretty much feel toward them as I do toward The White Stripes, which is no huge surprise. In general I prefer a crisper sound (like Postal Service) over this style.
-> Reel Big Fish
Thought I'd like them more in general, but other than a few tracks like their awesome Take On Me cover, they fall flat for me.

And then there are artists like Pink Floyd, Rush, and Guns 'n Roses that I have great respect for, but don't listen to much. Their stuff is fantastic, but I often don't take the time to really appreciate them. I also like the occasional Journey and Styx, and sometimes cheesy one-hit wonders from the 80s and 90s depending on the mood.