CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

I need music. Lots of it. Problem is, I have trouble finding bands I like and I don't have anybody that I can trust for a good recommendation. So, I thought I'd come here for help. Please tell me about bands or songs that you think I might enjoy so I can get my CD collection out of the single digits.

Some bands I have enjoyed in the past are 311, Sum 41, Daft Punk, Frou Frou, Zebrahead, and Five Iron Frenzy. I also like a lot of that synthy 80s stuff like Tears for Fears and Flock of Seagulls.

This time around I would also like to get more Christian music. No cheese - Five Iron is about as cheesy as I can put up with, and they're pushing it.

Also, does anyone know of a (legal) way to sample music before you buy it? I've been using iTunes for most of my music lately but as far as I know they don't have any way to preview.

iTunes does have a way to preview. When you are viewing stuff in the Music Store just double click on the song title to hear a preview.

You can also hear clips at most music sellers online. Barnes and Noble, for instance.

On to the suggestions:

My number one suggestion to you would be 2 Skinnee J's, looking at what you like. Get their album Supermercado first. They do very intelligent rap/rock. It's awesome. Not a bad song on that album. If you are looking for samples, try the songs "(718)", "The Best", and "Riot Nrrd". They have some mild objectionable content, but nothing really bad IMO.

Godcore.com: lots of Christian death/thrash/hardcore bands, several punk/ska ones thrown in as well. Tons of info, links, and many bands have MP3s on the site
purevolume.com: free and legal, mostly underground independant bands, but every so often someone big puts a few tracks up for a while (Reliant K comes immediatly to mind). Sift around to find the Christian bands
soundclick.com: same as above
IUMA.com: third verse, same as the second.

There is tons to look through on all of these sites. Just give any bands a good looking over before going overboard. Check lyrics, homepages, ect.

This may not help increase the CD collection, but you can sure fill up your hard drive.

I don't know how far into "cheese" this goes, but if you like 80's syth, then you might like Joy Electric

Vh1.com if I remember correctly has clips of all the songs on the bands most recent albums. There is also launch.yahoo.com in which you can get the bands music video but you need to sign up to Yahoo and it has annoying 10-30 sec commercials.

yeah, if you like daft punk, you'll prolly like joy electric, they're techno too

check out mp3.com they're affiliated with c/net, they have mini sites that you can listen to music for free on, and it's a legit site, so it's all legal, and you don't actually download anything, it's more like internet radio, and you can pick who you listen to, i remember i went on there lookin' to see if i actually could download an alice cooper song, but all i was able to do was listen to some of the songs off one of his latest cds (don't sweat it, he's a christian now)

Thanks for the help everybody. I've picked up a few new bands and have plenty of places to poke around for new stuff now. My collection shouldn't stay micro for long.

Not all of Beck's music is clean, but it's really great.

...If you like strange stuff.... : )