I don't really get into much of the loud, angry shit (unless Mike Patton's involved.)
Listen to lots of stuff. I saw Dylan & Merle Haggard in LA last march. Dylan has fucking lost it. One of the coolest guys to ever walk the planet, but he does not give a shit about how you want to hear the songs. He makes sure they have no semblance to the original recordings and he sings them incoherently.
Saw Wilco in April and June. They always put on a good show. Pics from the OKC show (not mine):
http://photobucket.com/albums/v231/wilc ... y_billman/
This link should eventually have a pic I took in LA at the Greek (but not my blog):
http://www.poptarticus.com/archives/200 ... sound.html
Other music worth listening to lately:
The Books
LCD Soundsystem
Shout Out Louds (The music from Sweden is starting to get good for a change.)
Caribou
Broken Social Scene
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Tosca
Charlie Parker
Calexico
Pavement (music seems to get better with age)
For anyone in Texas or nearby, or just needing an excuse to check out Austin, I highly recommend going to the Austin City Limits Festival. I've been twice and I'm not aware of where you can find this kind of good music for three days in one zip code. This year's line up in September is good. Check it out
http://www.austincitylimits.com/festival/