I recommend listening to some Blue Öyster Cult, because not only should it break your musical ennui, but it will also make you cool. Try the album "Secret Treaties", hich I find to be solid all the way through.
Another good place to go would be to They Might Be Giants. their music is quite varied in style, but has a uniform cheerful dourness to it that I find irresistable. Get the emponymous first album for sheer quirkiness, or "Factory Showroom" or "Flood" for something a bit more straightforward.
For highbrow jazz rock, you really can't go far wrong with King Crimson, particularly if you also indulge in psychoactive chemicals. (And, if you don't, well, I can't recommend that you do, but it would give you a fresh perspective on all the music that has bored you to this point.) Crimson is really several different bands in a core around Robert Fripp and Bill Bruford. I recommend "Starless and Bible Black" and "Larks Tongues in Aspic" from their early incarnation (with James Wetton on bass and vocals, late of Asia), and "Discipline" and "Three of a Perfect Pair" from their middle period (with the astounding Tony Levin on Bass and Chapman Stick and Adrian Belew on Guitar and vocals.)
For a bit more lowbrow, try some Zappa. You owe it to yourself to hear "Joe's Garage", "Sheik Yerbouti", and "You Are What You Is" at least once each. "Live at the Fillmore in 1971" is pretty raucous too.
Other than that, let me recommend without comment some more of my favorite bands:
Camper Van Beethoven, Rush, Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinson, Tom Lehrer, CKY, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Alice Cooper, Yes, Jethro Tull, and the Bloodhound Gang.
__________________
Light a man a fire, and he will be warm while it burns.
Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
|