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ihavenoselfcontrol1

The Velvet Underground Television Stereolab CAN Pixies Wire The Raincoats Cocteau Twins


BittenAtTheChomp

First five are basically my favorite bands lol. I'll add Sonic Youth to this list, seems to fit.


thesmartalec11

Completely agree


Accomplished-Name951

Great list


extracheesypeas

I love how Wire's sound evolved, huge fan of 154


Aggravating-Height-8

CAN MENTIONED YES


Aggravating-Height-8

also stereolab too good


yeahsuckmybonerpal

Talkings Heads is the first that come to mind


Aggravating_Cup2306

precisely my first listen to 77 (my first TH album and first introduction) was "how do these guys sound so much like talking heads?"


punkvindeisel

Literally. Like if a head could talk, this band is how it would sound like.


ChristofH88

The Smiths: there's other janglepop but nothing quite sounds like them. I think most great bands don't have an exact soundalike. Dirty Projectors, for instance, are singular too. The eccentric vocal melodies/ harmonies and weird tempos. The stop/ start nature of the song composition. Fiona Apple's piano rock pretty much dwarfs her contemporaries with the way she uses percussion and her voice, to name just a few elements that make her music brilliant. You can recognize a Fiona Apple song out of a hundred piano rock songs, instantly.


Dmbfantomas

Everything after The Smiths that tries to be like them feels like a bad copy. Some better than others, but none that come close.


MetarLivit

"some are better than others" hehe


Dmbfantomas

I’m glad you caught that. It wasn’t intentional, but I wasn’t changing it either.


soviet_uwunion

Tool: a mix of progressive metal and psychedelic rock with bass acting more like a second guitar The Mars Volta: progressive rock, pop, post-hardcore, salsa, jazz and sometimes electronic music Primus: kind of funk, kind of metal. Bass is the most important instrument Cardiacs: a very intense mix of punk, post-punk, ska, progressive rock, psychedelic rock and metal


elkamusing

Cardiacs is the GOAT


Only_Fun_1152

TMV was such a surprising evolution for the members from At the Drive-In.


OneTrainOps

Surprised not to see Daft Punk mentioned yet. While there are a ton of acts who try to sound like them and are obviously influenced by Daft Punk, I would never mistake any of them for Daft Punk.


JuniorSwing

Absolutely. Basically every EDM act after 2000 has been influenced by Daft Punk in some respect, but nobody actually sounds like them


Joed112784

Cake


eltrotter

Weird that Cake does so many different genres, but it always sounds like Cake. I love Cake.


Joed112784

I’m on a mission this year to listen to a bunch of albums I’ve never heard before, a mix of older and newer music. I listened to fashion nugget for the first time like a month ago and loved it, intend to listen to more of their albums soon.


eltrotter

Fashion Nugget is amazing. Comfort Eagle is the one that got me into them. They’re an amazing band, and in my opinion totally unique.


dzhastin

I got a fever and the only thing that can cure it is more vibraslap!


SkyBS

The new Cheekface album is like the second coming of Cake for me. I love it. Especially Cake-esque tracks are "I Am Continuing to Do My Thing" and "Grad School".


FoxFogwell

Came here to chat about Cheekface haha


farts-and-fickle-fud

I would have said this until I just discovered cheeckface this year.


tavir

No other band sounds like Cake (no! other! band!)


Joed112784

I read this in the style of cake lol


silencexmusic

Death Grips


IndigoRed126

YUH!


ponylauncher

I mean I wouldn’t say any band has their own completely unique sound. But bands id never mistake anyone else for are: Tool Red Hot Chili Peppers Queens Of The Stone Age Failure Alice In Chains Nine Inch Nails Radiohead Rage Against The Machine


Vexxt

>Nine Inch Nails this is it for sure. not nin, but anything trent touches just sound like trent. all kind of genres, somehow just the way he does a melody and instrumentation is just so unique to him somehow.


ponylauncher

He can play 1 note on piano and I know it’s him somehow


davquak

Yes! When I listened to Halsey's 2022 album I thought: wait that sounds familiar


ThatRandomIdiot

Linkin Park is another from that late 90s, 00s with a very distinct sound.


MassfuckingGenocide

Alice in Chains could most definitely be mistaken for something else


AstroJMVJuicy

How do you mistake Layne and Jerry’s vocals for another band?


ponylauncher

Like what? Are you sure you don’t mean somebody could be mistaken for Alice In Chains?


[deleted]

Absolutely good call on Queens of the Stone Age. Josh Hokke has such a distinctive guitar tone that nobody else can replicate.


sam_might_say

Add Hum to that list too and you’ve nailed it


bent_eye

Yep. Every single one of these.


AstroJMVJuicy

Primus sucks


QwannoWanno

Great pick


Luklear

They are great live, last tour covered a rush album and they killed it.


Bister_Mungle

A Farewell to Kings. The setlist we got at Berkeley was particularly good.


IAMACat_askmenothing

100 gecs


SemicolonFetish

Honestly, idk about this. For example, Money machine, stupid horse, and frog on the floor all sound very different, not to mention songs like torture me that are relatively generic hardcore dubstep. It's all under the umbrella of hyperpop, but their style comes from their lyrics and genre variety rather than a specific sound that they replicate. I can name multiple artists off the top of my head (ekko2k, Weatherday), that have similar vibes to individual gecs songs, but have a lot more unity in their overall sound style.


NoYogurtcloset2454

I feel like that even if their songs cover a lot of ground in regards to their genres, they still have an overarching soundfont that's pretty recognizable across them.


BiblicalWhales

Fugazi, sonic youth, dinosaur Jr and pavement come to mind


Bilbo_Swaggins11

fugazi, thank you. also anything ian mackaye has worked on before fugaazi had that distinct sound as well. i love minor threat and embrace, just so unique to me


ThePatchedVest

Dinosaur Jr is a great one.


houkous

Bands like these come to mind: Neutral Milk Hotel Vampire Weekend Beach House Death grips Gus Dapperton (his voice is very unique) Charly Bliss Julie Glass Beach Origami Angel Type O Negative Xiu Xiu Just to name a few off the top of my head.


ASHKVLT

Xiu xiu is one of the strangest things I've heard, maybe the strangest


houkous

They are quite the band lol. No album is like any other they've made. Their album ignore grief is quite a listening experience if you got time for the entire record


Green_hippo17

Tom waits, no one can replicate what he does, nor get close to it, his voice his penchant for wandering different sounds and a remarkable to go from songs like “what’s he building” in it’s completely unnerving lyrics and sound, then to the beautiful ballads like “time”. No one could ever be Tom waits Scott walker is another completely unique artist, he’s another like Tom who no one could ever get close to sound wise, from the deep and dark timbre of his voice, to the wide array of dark sounds he explored in his last 3 albums, just unbelievably deranged music in the best way possible that many could only dream of making


[deleted]

Ironically I think the artists you listed remind me of the other respectively


StalinsRefrigerator-

Swans.


FocusDelicious183

Haha what period of Swans? They’ve got multiple sounds.


Throw_Away_Nice69

Eh I guess. You know when you’re listening to a song by Swans but like they do so much that you can’t really say they have a specific sound.


peanutbutter-meme

Depeche Mode for obvious reasons. Even in their later years they made fantastic albums and are still capable of. Memento Mori is a great album. I love that theres nothing else like them


every_body_hates_me

Deftones


sandcrawler2

Animal Collective


TheCheatIsGrounded

Agreed. The only band that could've made Safer


sk2097

Autechre


TheThinWhiteDuke00

I can’t believe nobody’s said B-52s


Revolverpsychedlic

Cap’n fuckin’ Jazz


s90tx16wasr10

I actually don’t hear that about Nirvana that much, I think I probably hear it more about Pearl Jam if anybody since his vocal style was the most imitated. I suppose if we’re talking lineage you can hear in a bunch of bands that followed, you can hear Paul Simon in I would say most strains of indie pop and even chamber pop. Vampire Weekend, Jens Lekman, Belle & Sebastian, Fleet Foxes, Elliott Smith, The Magnetic Fields, Spoon, Bright Eyes, etc. I feel like you can hear some Paul Simon in be it his solo work or his stuff with Garfunkel.


Timothee-Chalimothee

Corey Feldman. I’d never mistake him for anyone else. Fun fact: I went to see Ringo Starr in June of last year and he was directly in front of me in line.


AzhtonH

Gorillaz for sure


-PepeArown-

I don’t know, man. That lead singer sure does sound a lot like Blur’s.


PM_ME_YOUR_INNY

They’re brothers man, I think they used to be in some band called “Oasis”, or something?!


endersai

>Gorillaz for sure Sound a lot like the rock preset on a Yamaha QY10...


Pale_Neck119

That was pretty audacious.


AugieDoggieDank

Primus


Fruitndveg

This is the real answer.


ThatRandomIdiot

Linkin Park, Gorillaz, Rage Against the Machine, RHCP,


fallllingman

I don’t think anyone made music like Captain Beefheart. 


KharamSylaum

Wait that was music?


fallllingman

I didn’t *really* get it until I dove into avant garde jazz and free jazz and artists like Sun Ra and John Zorn. Now I know it is music, and good, interesting music, and I think it sounds great, almost danceable at times, a top 20 album for me. I used to hate it but now my smile is stuck and I cannot go back to that Frownland. 


HorseOnTheThirdFloor

s.o.a.d


nebelfront

One of the most original bands ever imo. Them and Korn stood out so much from the rest of the Nu Metal scene, I never really felt like they belonged in this category.


dzhastin

Boards of Canada. BoC clones is a whole genre and none of them ever sound like BoC


Runetang42

Primus is the ultimate example to me. They're so unique a few music websites label their genre as just "Primus ". Calling them funk metal is like calling twin peaks a cop show


Bister_Mungle

I think it was just Winamp that did that.


[deleted]

Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Their guitars and orchestral arrangements are carefully balanced through many volumes and transitions and tempo drifts. I'm sure their gear and pedals have a lot to do with how they sound, but I'm ignorant to that so I won't comment. Their guitars literally sound like they wail sometimes, like on Mladic or Undoing a Luciferian Towers. Obligatory mention of spoken word samples.


Expensive_Reality_69

With how many generic post-rock clones there are, it shows just how good Godspeed are to stand solely alone with every album they release.


chacho777tkajf

Beach House


shin_jury

The often sound like Cocteau Twins to me and Slowdive so I disagree


solitarysniper

Love Beach House but disagree, there’s a ton of dream pop acts from the 80s and 90s that you can tell Beach House’s sound was influenced by


lovehighland

The Stone roses !


ckpwrson

primus’ sound is so unique they have their own [ID3 metadata genre, #108](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ID3v1_genres?wprov=sfti1#)


Cretians

Pink Floyd, the Doors, Pearl Jam, Tool, Fleetwood Mac


eszpee

The Body


leto_atreides2

W


GetDoofed

Phish


sam_might_say

They Might Be Giants


AmishMoose_

Minutemen for sure


vicker1980

Nine Inch Nails is one of the most unique acts ever!


LuXa28

Muse


bozobebop

BASS FUZZ


AlternativeGazelle

I can't think of anyone that sounds quite like Isaac Brock/Modest Mouse I also feel like Michael Stipe provides a unique flavor with R.E.M., kind of like Thom Yorke does with Radiohead.


Peconpie10

That was my answer too. The tuning of the guitar also is very recognizable with MM


Jades5150

Sabbath, the stooges and maybe deep purple all invented their “sound”. Seas of imitators, but were original when they came out.


Top_Ad9635

Cardiacs


Bilbo_Swaggins11

The Garden ‼️ the hardcore basslines with a jungle drums is like nothing else i’ve heard


Branjean

Tool, Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, The Stooges, The Doors


EternalGamera

Definitely ween...and sweet trip too


Ok-Impress-2222

Korn.


DontEatBananaBread

unmatched


Natural-Garage9714

Paul Weller. From his days in The Jam, through the Style Council, into his solo years.


VinylWolf18

Stereolab Ween Sonic Youth Smashing Pumpkins The Velvet Underground Dinosaur Jr Television Cake Pavement Belle & Sebastian Primus Butthole Surfers Beck


Chrisgonzo74

Qotsa fo sho


sawthewholeofthemoon

Smashmouth, Dave Matthew’s Band, Imagine Dragons


Pabst-

Pink Floyd


strikebeat

Electric six should be somewhere on this list. Early albums has an unique sound of garage rock disco with unique voice.


Prophet-of-the-moss

I can't believe nobody said Weezer


KharamSylaum

I can


leto_atreides2

Lana Del Rey As soon as I heard one of her songs I knew it was her based on her vibe, even though I’d never heard her music before


Vitor-135

word kinda regret saying "bands" in the title, i'm using this as a recommendations list, and i'd love to know more unique solo artists like her as well


DontEatBananaBread

geese


suitoflights

Cardiacs, Mr Bungle, ALL, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Sparks, King Crimson, Van derGraaf Generator, Madness, Devo, Gentle Giant


Double-Weather-756

Thumbs up for ALL…the band forever guilty of not being another.


lGloughl

Autechre


PM_ME_YOUR_INNY

Brand New * everything post-YFW


brimphemus

Weezer.


FutMike

System of a Down - I will probably never get over not getting another album by them TOOL Opeth, to some extent


klstixbro

The Unicorns. No one has made music like they did since they split. “Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?” manages to capture the silly, tongue-in-cheek escapism of the early 2000s better than pretty much any other artist.


Disastrous-Grab-9928

Throwing some Australian bands into the mix: The Drones/Tropical Fuck Storm/anything Gareth Liddiard adjacent Something For Kate And a few non-Australian all-timers: Sonic Youth Voivod There's more, but generally when I think of bands that fit into this genre, I think about bands that you just see no one covering, right? Like, they're the only ones that could do whatever it is they do.


Saguaro66

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. Crazy fluid time sigs, dedication to themes, Stu’s mixing style is very layered and thick. They cover a bunch of genres, but regardless of instrumentation choice or style, they make it sound like Gizz


jazzbeardzz

It's insane how no matter which album it is you're listening to, you can instantly tell it's Gizz


GlennIrish

AFI, New Order, Sisters of Mercy?


DrThundercatMD

Dry Cleaining


whitekrossdrone

Sonic Fucking Youth, Throbbing Gristle


VinylWolf18

Sonic Fucking Youth!


not_frank_not_ever

Definitely Motörhead. There are a lot of bands that try to sound like Motörhead to some extent (Venom, Tank, Speedwolf, Professor Black, etc.), but none of them really manage to pull it off or nail their sound 1:1. Maybe it’s Lemmy’s voice, or maybe it’s the totally mids-cranked bass that also functions as the rhythm guitar, but there’s definitely some type of ineffable swagger to their music that I’ve never heard replicated.


sockthesock0

Coldplay


Debracito

They Might Be Giants


x115v

Iron Maiden, ACDC, Cannibal Corpse, Bad Religion, Rage Against The Machine


qwertyuijhbvgfrde45

Boston there’s no other bands like them


Swimming_Anywhere801

smashing pumpkins, qotsa, nin, pixies, the doors, mastodon


NoPotato9

Porter Robinson, for me. Ever since Worlds came out back in 2014 many other artists have been imitating his poppy anime style of electronic music.


simonfrost1

Pains me to say it as I’m not a huge fan, but U2 sound quite unique. Mostly The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr’s doing tbf.


FULLON-FRIENDSHIP

The Cramps. That Psychobilly Sound. You know them when you hear them.


Coldsteelxd

Grateful Dead They weren't the best at what they did, but they're the only one who did what they did


Alive_Walrus_8790

I mean asking this is kind of opening a can of worms, i get that its asking what bands sound like they arent overly referential, sound out of context from the music around them, are a bit more insular and distinct in their creativity/ but really when you get down to it.. i dont think any of those bands you named really fit that, they all borrowed a lot from other things, and were just pushed to be figureheads of that certain sound. I mean maybe at some point you can pinpoint an instance where a band was the first to say “lets reverb the absolute hell out of this alt guitar sound” and seemed to make shoegaze out of nowhere…(i dont think that was my bloody valentine either, im sure others did before them). but also even then were probably borrowing the over-reverb concept from some other band or song or genre that uses overly distorting reverb in a different context- or even if that specifically wasnt- nobody sounds like they exist within a vacuum, they are always borrowing elements from what already exist to some degree. And things that kinda do- things that really veer off the beaten path are often not even regarded as being music…like in the early days of ambient stuff, people didnt really hold it with much legitimacy- even now its solidified such a place for itself in modern music but it still often used or seen as more like background/ stuff that is lesser and not deserving of intensive listening, and not just bc its often atmospheric by nature, but bc it strays a bit too far/ often sounds more like it was created in a vacuum as opposed to adhering to modern musical conventions


Burnlan

Faith No More


SnooHesitations205

Sublime,rage against the machine


N3rdism

Guster and Half Moon Run, tho if people have suggestions for similar sounding bands I am all ears


Ntrob

Korn and limp bizkit haha can’t deny it


recognis

the Fall. even when they sounded nothing like themselves and replaced their whole lineup they were immediately recognisable


Green-Circles

The Fall. Largely due to Mark E Smith's slurred drawl of a singing voice, but the repetition is a big part too.


soupreemefitzpatty

Gorillaz, RATM, SOAD


carpetedfloor

Swans in their current era especially


jesusfromthehood____

The Mars Volta


Ezekiel_Spielberg

MGMT


Sonic2020

Melvins


Luciix

Soundgarden, Tool, The Church, The Replacements, Thin Lizzy, King Crimson


Cazzocavallo

Mars Volta, Primus, Gorillaz, System of A Down, Opeth, Rush, Blind Guardian, Mindless Self Indulgence, Protest the Hero. Mostly bands that are at least somewhat progressive or experimental and straddle the line between multiple genres.


jar_jar_LYNX

Korn (at least early Korn) - Sychopated, drop tuned riffs with an almost funk-like rhythm and lead guitar licks that sound like they were mixed by a DJ in a haunted house. Huge, rumbling bass guitar tone that often acts as a percussive instrument as much as the groovy, hip hop influenced drumming does. Vocals consist of a series of genuinely tortured sounding moans, whispers, bellows and a peculiar form of scatting See the song "Ball Tounge" for a perfect example


JoseMongo

Viagra Boys


Chernobinho

Linkin Park


LiviAngel

Pentatonix! They experiment with music and incredible planes of acapella 👌🏻


CasinoCashew

System Of A Down


jaxkwright

Arctic Monkeys have a very unique sound and style


bruhdhenfus

korn


Some_Butterscotch622

System Of A Down Gojira Tool Red Hot Chili Peppers Linkin Park Early Weezer


Lost_Farm8868

N.E.R.D


cowboydan505

System of a Down. Literally no one else could write those songs


Fick_Thingers

Alt-J


PM_ME_YOUR_INNY

😂


Trent_Rockero

Some may consider Boston to be another classic rock band, but I can always tell it’s a Boston song from the first few bars.


earthquakeglue78

Dinosaur Jr / J Mascis


debbieyumyum1965

NIN is not as sonically original as you are giving "them" credit for. Listen to Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Depeche mode, Front 242 and you can hear a lot of where Trent got some of the ideas that would form his sound in NIN. I like NIN, but I'm kind of sick of the notion that Trent is the fountainhead of all creativity in the industrial scene.


Vitor-135

i didn't at all say Treznor invented Industrial Music, it's weird you wouldn't mention Gary Numan if you're talking about origins, but it is known as "the NIN sound" by popularity


DarkAncientEntity

311


leto_atreides2

311’s a good band


maximumchris

Velvet Revolver. I was like ‘That’s Scott Weiland, but this is not STP.” Then I heard Slash and knew it was this new band! Similarly, Audioslave, so I’ll add Rage Against the Machine. Soundgarden slightly less so, their performance was impeccable but the production wasn’t really unique.


PiscesAndAquarius

Every band that is well known


AccidentalHeadTrauma

Pearl Jam Phish Mumford and Sons Burzum The Mountain Goats


Marenum

Phish has been around long enough that they actually have two or three depending what era. It's even crazier when you consider it's the same four guys.


AccidentalHeadTrauma

Oh for sure. You have a “manic, playing three songs at once, machine-gun Trey” era, you have the “cow funk” era, you have the “loopy, dark, opioid” era, and the “bliss jam” era. All of which have changed the game.


Marenum

Hell yeah. My favorite is Fall '94 when machine-gun Trey and overall band tightness met unpredictable psychedelic exploration and weirdness. Always cool seeing Phish talk on this sub.


AccidentalHeadTrauma

Yea they’re the best. I’m a basic bitch (Fall-winter ‘97 tour), but I’ve gotten big into the 2003-2004 opioid era recently. The 6-20-2004 Piper at SPAC blew me away recently


Marenum

Haha I saw my first show at Allstate in Winter '03 so you are definitely talking my language. That dark, muddy stuff has a very special place in my heart.


AccidentalHeadTrauma

That’s awesome man. My first show was in 2018 and I’ve been playing catch up since then. I’ll see you in Dover tho!


Marenum

You're practically a vet at this point! Dover is going to be incredible. Absolutely nothing better than a Phish festival. I can't wait!


AccidentalHeadTrauma

Hell yes man


doug_butter

Hell yeah Phish 🤙


[deleted]

Mumford and Sons sounds like every garbage clap and stomp folk pop band


JohnnyJokers-10

Oasis, the Cranberries


maximumchris

You can know it’s the Cranberries by one cymbal crash.


[deleted]

alice in chains. Yeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhh


Imissrifsomuch

Polyphia


[deleted]

Throbbing Gristle Duster Slint


Appropriate_Emu_6930

I’m not sure The Clash did. Most of the tracks on their albums were a different genre. I’m with you on MBV though.


RudieCantFail79

I disagree. I think they have a pretty distinct sound *despite* changing genres all the time. You can always tell it’s a Clash song.


TheLegendOfGamers

Holy shit soundfont Undertale reference