Simply put, what groups have you been digging lately and what sort of stuff would you recommend for our humble community of people to check out?  Here are a few from me...

[b]The Renegades[/b]
Based out of Chicago, the frontman for this group is none other than Paul Mutzabaugh who played quads for Cavaliers 97-00. All three CDs they've cut are awesome.  They can best be described as a very ecclectic fusion group. Check out ";On The Make";
http://cdbaby.com/cd/renegades

[b]Kick the Cat[/b]
Another Chicago-based fusion group. Check out ";Camel Toe vs. Snaggle Tooth"; :-)
http://www.kickthecatmusic.com/

[b]The Everyday People[/b]
An Austin-based group that, to me, is almost a mix of Maroon 5 and John Mayer, in terms of the musical content.  Just saw these guys at Galveston and they were pretty darn good.  The guy who is now their drummer is an old high school/drum corps friend of Robbie Green, a member of the forum here. Anyhow check em out...
http://www.theeverydaypeople.com

Those are just what I'm listening to as of late.  Bring on the goodness!

Mingo Fishtrap - Funky, Soulful, New Orleans gumbo, horns, drums, bad ass basslines, if you don't at least investigate you're a fool. All UNT alumni... and as good as they are on the recording, they're twice as good live.

Fishbone - Truth and Soul - Official album of the 89 VK! It's exactly what you'd expect.

Los Munequitos de Mantanzas (Cuban Rumba) - New Album - Tambor de Fuego - Expand your rhythmic vocabulary.... check them out.

Eric Ewazan - Palace of Nine Perfections - for large percussion ensemble

Willie Colon & Ruben Blades - Siembra - Maybe the greatest salsa album of the 70's

The Bad Plus (piano, bass, drums; think Modemski, Martin and Wood on acid) - Give & These are the Vistas - Tracks of note - Cheney Pinata, arr. of ";Smells Like Teen Spirit";, & Frog and Toad. I promise you'll smile really big when you hear it.....

Rachmaninoff - ";Isle of the Dead"; & ";The Rock";- why hasn't a drum corps done these yet?

Mike Huestis

[quote author=UNT/BD Tenor link=topic=2380.msg12650#msg12650 date=1206974500]
The Bad Plus (piano, bass, drums; think Modemski, Martin and Wood on acid) - Give & These are the Vistas - Tracks of note - Cheney Pinata, arr. of ";Smells Like Teen Spirit";, & Frog and Toad. I promise you'll smile really big when you hear it.....
[/quote]

I am totally with you! Those guys are breaking all of the rules, and the result is brilliant.

I'll second your Eric Ewazen. We brought him in to clinic our band on ";A Hymn for the Lost and the Living"; (pretty amazing if you haven't heard it, and classic Ewazen). What a great guy! So unassuming, so nice. Exactly who you would hope him to be.

Also, check out Sufjan Stevens. www.sufjan.com

His creativity is staggering! And you get to hear oboe and drumset at the same time. (Speaking of breaking the rules...)

Great topic, and some awesome picks so far.

I could probably kill a lot of time going through my library, but for the last couple years, my latest musical hero I just can't seem to get enough of hails from Zurich. He's a pianist by the name of [url=http://nikbaertsch.com/][b]Nik Bartsch[/b][/url] and his latest two albums (Stoa and Holon) were released by ECM and are available on iTunes. His music is pretty unique. It's mathematic, colorful, organic, and very groovy. They have a pretty accurate description of his style as ";Zen Funk."; I had the honor of meeting him a couple months ago at a rare US appearance here in Portland.

[img]http://img.skitch.com/20080331-bew5yhxtunca717hyigkmeiuqc.jpg[/img]

[quote author=Jim Casella link=topic=2380.msg12655#msg12655 date=1206996710]
Great topic, and some awesome picks so far.

I could probably kill a lot of time going through my library, but for the last couple years, my latest musical hero I just can't seem to get enough of hails from Zurich. He's a pianist by the name of [url=http://nikbaertsch.com/][b]Nik Bartsch[/b][/url] and his latest two albums (Stoa and Holon) were released by ECM and are available on iTunes. His music is pretty unique. It's mathematic, colorful, organic, and very groovy. They have a pretty accurate description of his style as ";Zen Funk."; I had the honor of meeting him a couple months ago at a rare US appearance here in Portland.



[/quote]

I checked out Nik Bartsch on Amazon.com and downloaded  Holon.  Wow.  I do listening exercises with my Middle School students on Fridays and played it for a couple of classes today,  they were digging it.  Very, very interesting music, will be great on the Ipod.  When you desrbibed it as ";mathmatical";  I wondered what you were talking about, but after listening to it, it makes perfect sense.  There's an interesting audio interview on the Amazon site that is pretty insightful.  Thanks Jim. 

Some of my non-standard addicitions (and they're all on iTunes!)-

Ojos de Brujo- They were mentioned on here a few months ago, but if you haven't checked them out, it's ridiculous. They play the biggest mashup of styles out of anyone I've really heard before. Albums to check out- Bari and Technari. The track Zambra on Bari is killer.

Safri Duo- Most of us know the classical percussion duo side of these guys, but if you haven't heard Episode II, it's their venture into the pop/techno/electronica world. Really awesome use of classical percussion instruments in those genres. Album- Episode II. Good tracks- Baya Baya, or Everything Epilogue, but they're all good.

So Percussion- Great percussion quartet. They have definitely found their niche in the market, as they not only do stock percussion works (Reich-Drumming, etc.) but they commission alot of new works, and have even hooked up with some ";mainstream"; artists such as Matmos. I've been listening to the album ";Amid the Noise"; lately, their first real venture into the processed ambient percussion/electronica world. Good tracks- June, and also the ";So-called laws of nature"; from their self titled album.

Thomas Newman- I'm playing a piece by Jonathan Newman (his brother) with MTSU's wind ensemble right now that resparked my interest in Thomas Newman. His orchestrations and use of percussion are just incredibly cool. American Beauty's soundtrack is my favorite of his stuff, but, Lemony Snicket is good, as well as almost everything else.

Kevin Puts (composer) - Check out ";And Legions Will Rise";. It really has GREAT writing for marimba, as well as for the clarinet and violin. There's a video of it on the Vic Firth concert percussion podcast with Eric Beach (from So Percussion) playing, that's also great.

That's just a few. This is an awesome thread. I love to hear what other people are listening to!

Lately I listen to a lot when I'm not teaching or writing.�� Diversity is important to me, especially in music.�� It prevents boredom.

Check out the Leningrad Cowboys.�� Very interesting cross cultural mix.

Their Website is http://www.leningradcowboys.fi/main.site?action=siteupdate/view&id=6

A sample of their work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lNFRLrP014

Also, I enjoy discovering any new classical music.�� I'm more inclined towards melodic and harmonic as opposed to atonal, etc.

I'm also listening to ";old"; music from groups like America, Ambrosia, Steely Dan, Louis Prima, Doobie Brothers, ELP, Fleetwood Mac, Pat Metheny, The Rippingtons and Seals & Croft.

Believe it or not, there are some great movie soundtracks from composers like Hans Zimmer, Jerry Goldsmith, and James Horner, to name a few of my favorite composers.

A few other film composers to check out if you haven't already:

-James Newton Howard
-David Arnold
-Thomas Newman
-Alan Silvestri

I'm right in there with you Bryan.

Great stuff guys. Keep it coming. :)

Some of my favorites lately:
Alexandre Desplat
Roque Ba̱os
Michael Giacchino
Gabriel Jared
Marco Beltrami

I myself can't stop listening to David Byrne. He's got a mix of classical and modern. The Forest is a good album and Grown Backwards has a Opera aria by Verdi that is beautiful.
http://www.davidbyrne.com/

Also I am loving me some Dmitri Shostakovich.

Other than listening to some Nicklecreek - lately I have been listening to Jonathan Coulton.  Check this out http://www.jonathancoulton.com/store/downloads You can listen to the songs by clicking on the blue triangle by the title.  Check out the cover he does of ";Baby Got Back";.  Instant classic!  You won't be disappointed.

Big Jonathan Coulton fan here as well!! Plus he's a computer nerd like a lot of us here... :)

[quote author=Dave Ratliff link=topic=2380.msg12744#msg12744 date=1207446404]
Jonathan Coulton.  You won't be disappointed.
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Oh my gosh! He's fantastic!

Wow....I just happened to stumble onto his (Coulton) music recently.  I didn't know if anyone else would have even heard of him or not but I think he is GREAT!