that is not true, but they were perhaps the most elaborately mainstream of the anti-heros. There were plenty of punks, rappers, soul singers, reggae artists, even orchestral composers who were anti-heroes but not quite as mainstream, and there were plenty of other anti-heroes who were a bit less extremely anti-hero, Nirvana was the perfect storm of both mainstream coverage and original and sincere anti-hero antics, which is precisely what music needed at that time when it was at the absolute peak of having its head up its ass!

Hahaha.

That's what I said. Not the first artists/musicians but the first "rockstars" that had as much success as they did....

The first punk rockers that became more than unsung heroes inspiring more unsung heroes.

I'd say Dylan in around 66 was the first self-consciously anti-rockstar rockstar; deliberately annoying and alienating his audience during a real commercial highpoint in his career. Or maybe Lennon, laying waste to his celebrity persona on the first Plastic Ono Band album.

Just LooK at Elvenking bro



JUST LOOK.

I seldom listen to Nirvana these days....

And like I said, these lists are always subject to change.

Good points.

I don't think rock is dead, people are just reacting to it differently...i.e., it's not quite as popular as it was circa '93. It's kind of back to where it was in the 80's....it's there, you just got to dig a bit deeper than yr radio to find it. Plenty of bands just as good (if not better than....) Nirvana have came since Kurt threw in the towel.

I don't think Nirvana (no matter how great a band...) really deserves any special recognition for doing anything extraordinary. I mean, sure...Kurt liked to portray himself as being "anti-rockstar" all the while being a very successful one. It could have been countless other bands. Right place, right time. Or wrong place, wrong time....depending on what side of the coin you are looking at.

Really, it's a title that means virtually nothing as it more or less happened by default.

1. These Immortal Souls
2. The Church
3. The Verlaines
4. The Ramones
5. The Beatles
6. Laughing Clowns
7. The Birthday Party
8. Haunted Henschel
9. Shizuka
10. Malice Mizer
11. The Smiths
12. Syd Barrett
13. The Byrds
14. Hanoi Rocks
15. Boris
16. The Ronettes

That's in no order, though These Immortal Souls are my favourite band, and The Church are my current favourite.

In my opinion pop music started to degenerate in the mid seventies. the Punk was very healthy reaction to that and it continued in the begin of eighties. After that degeneration has gone even worse. Grunge and stoner was also quite healthy reactions, but there was not that much power that was in punk at the seventies. Of course there is still very creative artists, but the music bisnes today is so degenerated that the creative artists have very little possibility to make it today. I have been quite lazy to search new creative artists, only artist I like that has started 2000 decade is Tom Vek.

In Finland there is also such great "new" band called Risto.

Clearly talking out of your arse - just look at Maiden.

Suishou no Fune are a great choice.
They are also two of the sweetest people I have ever met, language barriers be damned. Getting to spend time with them and even to play together once count as highlights in my time on this earth.
They know what "loud" is.

endless nameless......beautiful performance. everything about it.

Damn... I haven't heard Swing Kids in a damn long while. I actually met JP once. Nice guy.

I've had a similar experience meeting and talking to O. Yoshihide and Sachiko M

Nice top, SpaceCadetHayden ! I'll make a top 10 :

1. Guided by Voices
2. Animal Collective
3. Neutral Milk Hotel
4. Godspeed You! Black Emperor
5. Boards of Canada
6. The Beatles
7. Pavement
8. Wilco
9. The Olivia Tremor Control
10. of Montreal

Honorable mentions: Circulatory System, Talking Heads, Sonic Youth, Pixies, Deerhunter, Wire, The Microphones/Mount Eerie, Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, Brian Eno, Belle and Sebastian, Built to Spill, The Shins, Radiohead, The Who, Pearl Jam

Their catalog was miniscule but their style/sound encompassed what the whole gravity records scene was about so well to me. I still throw on the spanakorzo/swing kids split all the time.

Justin was a complete dick the last time I talked to him. One of my ex boyfriends was a Pearson fanatic. I got burnt out on the Locust, etc. but Swing Kids has always had a special place in the black space that used to house my heart.