Often, I feel dread when people ask me what sort of music I listen to. In a manner that is not out of pretense or a sense of superiority, it is just highly unlikely that they will know what bands I am talking about. It is sad, because I adore the bands that I listen to and I have so much to talk about when it comes to their lyricism or music, but I have few people to talk about them with. Even if I offer to show people my music, they are usually uninterested if it is someone who they are unfamiliar with. It is sad, for there are so many different types of music that people are missing out on and so many meaningful or fun songs that they are not experiencing. Thus, I shall do a public service and try to share some of my favorite bands.

of Montreal

of Montreal has been around for twenty years and has spanned across many different types of music, from the simplistic acoustic tracks in their first 1997 album "Cherry Peel" to the psychedelic glam pop rock 2007 album "Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?" and the alternative country rock of 2013's "Lousy with Sylvianbriar" to their 2015 progressive rock album "Aureate Gloom." The frontman, Kevin Barnes, writes heartwrenching pieces about depression, rejection, revolution, romanticization, and narcissism in tunes that will make you want to dance around your bedroom. Barnes's lyrics often have you grabbing your dictionary and researching Greek epics in order to understand them, but, once you wrap your brain around what he is trying to convey, you fall in love.

"People disappear on the wrong side of this revolution / When they resurface, there's a black hole in their skull / People disappear on the wrong side of this revolution / When they'll return, all their childhood memories are dead / I'll never follow no kind of master's voice / The mutinous tramp of cold vulture crucifixion is my conduit." -- "Bassem Sabry"

"I spent the winter with my nose buried in a book / While trying to restructure my character / 'Cause it had become vile to its creator." -- "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger"

"Sometimes we're not legible / But we're the same strange animal / Let them say our love is peculiar, don't care." -- "We Were Born Mutants Again With Leafling"

"Now I'm considered ugly from every angle / You're the only beauty I don't want to strangle / Can't you hear me crying out for guidance? / Yes, we hear but we don't care / There's no sympathetic victims anywhere / There's blood in my hair." -- "We Will Commit Wolf Murder"

"Let's have bizarre celebrations / Let's forget who, forget what, forget where / We'll have bizarre celebrations / I'll play the Satyr in Cyprus, you the bride being stripped bare / Let's pretend we don't exist, let's pretend we're in Antarctica." -- "Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games"

of Montreal's discography offers a tragic adventure of love, aging, identity crises, and political commentary.

The Front Bottoms

The Front Bottoms is more down-to-earth and domestic, a more consistently punk band that reminds you of the days of lazing about the bedroom with your friends as you listen to Green Day and Against Me! whilst philosophizing anarchy and perpetual youth. Also writing about depression and struggling with the vast independence of American youth, they explore enjoying the small things and failed romances with manic dream girls in their lyrics. Their lyrics sometimes expose the more unsettling facets that our minds attempt to stow away, like creepy obsessions and violent desires.

"Please fall asleep so I can take pictures of you and hang them in my room /
so when I wake up feel like 'yeah everything's alright' / You are still here, you are still happy, you are still smiling and laughing / You are still the only thing and everything I need in my life / And it goes in in out through the mouth / breathing exercises I will never figure out / til I am running in circles or walking in circles or crawling in circles or lying on the ground." -- "Flashlight"

"How low is your self esteem / And how low could it possibly be? / I know, I know you're in love with me / And I've been ignoring you." -- "Swimming Pool"

"I have this dream that I am hitting my dad with a baseball bat / And he is screaming and crying for help / And maybe halfway through it has more to do with me killing him / Then it ever did protecting myself." -- "Father"

The Antlers

The Antlers are a more delicate indie rock band most known for the lead singer's high-pitched falsetto voice and their album titled "Hospice." It is a series of songs that tell the story of a young couple: a sickly girl with an abusive past and her husband who takes care of her. One song, "Bear," is about the couple secretly getting an abortion and how that affects their relationship. "Sylvia" shows the instability of the relationship between the patient and the hospice worker and how violent the patient can be. "Two" and "Kettering" talk about the husband realizing that his wife will likely die and how their rocky relationship and hurried, young marriage would almost make that a relief. "Epilogue" shows the effects of the wife's death and the mental state of the husband, including the guilt and grief that he feels.

"There's a bear inside your stomach, a cub's been kicking you for weeks / and if this isn't all a dream, well than we'll cut him from beneath. / Well we're not scared of making caves, or finding food for him to eat. / We're terrified of one another, terrified of what that means." -- "Bear"

"Sylvia, get your head out of the oven. / Go back to screaming, and cursing, remind me again how everyone betrayed you. / Sylvia, get your head out of the covers. / Let me take your temperature, you can throw the thermometer right back at me, if that's what you want to do, okay?." -- "Sylvia"

"It killed me to see you getting always rejected, / but I didn't mind the things you threw, the phones I deflected. / I didn't mind you blaming me for your mistakes, / I just held you in the door frame through all of the earthquakes. / But you packed up your clothes in that bag every night. / I would try to grab your ankles, what a pitiful sight. / But after over a year, I stopped trying to stop you / from stomping out that door, coming back like you always do." -- "Two"

"But something kept me standing by that hospital bed, I should have quit but instead I took care of you. / You made me sleep all uneven, and I didn't believe them when they told me that there was no saving you." -- "Kettering"

"You're being buried to you neck / In that hospital bed, being buried quite alive now. / I'm trying to dig you out but all you want is to be buried there together. / You're screaming, and cursing, and angry, and hurting me, and then smiling, and crying, apologizing." -- "Epilogue"

There are so many meaningful bands that you can find that are much more substantial than what we often hear on the radio. You have to do some digging to find such treasures, but it is heart-warming once you find them.