You really have to search around to find stuff you like, since a lot of good bands have fallen through the cracks of media and popular attention. Here are some relatively easy-to-find works, though.
Since you like Linkin Park, check out Gackt's Crescent and Diabolos album. Those two bands are extremely different, but the emotion-driven rock and ballads really show in those albums (not that that's a bad thing).
You mentioned Green Day. The only punk rock band I know is Kuroyume, but I know there are some others...
Blink 182... I haven't listened much to their music. I have a hunch that you might want to check out FAKE?'s first two albums, Breathe In and Tomorrow Today. After that, since those two albums they've fleshed out their music to be better compositionally and in complexity, so you can easily branch out into their later works if you like their first two albums. Also, the lead singer, Ken Lloyd, sings in perfect English, being half-British. However, FAKE?'s music is the most Western-feeling band, for obvious reasons.
Maybe also check out baroque, but I haven't listened to them that much to say this with confidence. Rock, with a slightly urban tinge to it? The album's on my computer, I just haven't listened to it much...
.::b|ue Ash::. said:
Dutch Baka: All I can say is dl some music if you like em you like em, if you don't you don't. I wouldn't be too concerned with their visual appearance, at least not at this point. I've been listening to j-bands for about 5 months now and I've only seen 1 video and could really care less about the whole visual-kei thing. Sure the costumes are fun and interesting but I don't go gaga over them, if anything they are a big turn off for me, lol.
I agree. Don't worry about appearances. For some it's a plus, for others it's a minus. Whatever it is, it's only a supplement, not a major core, of the music itself.
Kinsao said:
(*thinks* Mycernius and Lastmagi)
Heh, cool, I got mentioned
demonhunter said:
jpopsuki is nice,but sometimes there are no seeders
jpopsuki is nice, considering that's where I found paris match, which is now in my top 3 bands list. Sometimes you find treasures like these that makes everything worth while, even though most of the time the torrents are drivel that I couldn't care less for.
By the way, for some reason, if you use
http://magnetbox.com/riaa/search.asp to find out which CDs are related to the RIAA, some Japanese record labels, such as Sugizo's and L'arc en Ciel's, turn out to be RIAA-associated. Odd, considering these are Japanese, not American. Anyone know the reason for this? I'm too paranoid to use bittorrent now.