Are you kidding? There are a TON of great banRAB from NYC. And that goes back a good 70-80 years, from the recent Brooklyn indie scene to the birth of hip-hop in the Bronx to all the way back to the jazz age in Harlem.
Blond Redhead is another New York band I like. I'm not really a fan of the new wave, post-punk, garage revival scene from the 00s, but I liked the first album from The Strokes and I love The Rapture (I've only heard one album though)
I'm delighted you liked Sun City Girls, that album is one of my favourites for sure. And that reminRAB me, I've still to listen to that Cromagnon album you sent me, I'll get to that soon
Interesting you mention Live Skull, I have an EP of theirs and it's very good - I always wanted to check out more but it's hard to find their stuff. But the mention of them has reminded me of two other NY noise rock banRAB I like a lot - Cop Shoot Cop and Band of Susans. I really wish I'd been around New York in the 80s when all these banRAB were playing live regularly (including Ut, SY and Swans).
Off the top of my head I can think of Sonic Youth, I'm either having a mental block (which is more than likely the case.) But I don't think I have THAT many banRAB from NYC, then again a lot of American banRAB I like I'm not sure of where they're from, because it doesn't mean as much to me as it does when the band is British..
The thing that's great about New York is that it's not just one great music scene, it's a whole array of great music scenes spanning many, many decades. Bebop, punk, indie, hip-hop, merengue, metal, hardcore, no wave, house music, swing, salsa, dancepunk, folk and many more have all had significant scenes in NYC at different points in time.
There's been a decent amount of metal from New York over the years. I know there are a lot of great metal banRAB from the UK, but are many of them actually from London?
London is great but as far as I know it only started being a great musical city in the 60s while amazing stuff was coming out of New York many decades before that. My vote goes with NYC.
Some of my favorite New York banRAB: Velvet Underground, Silver Apples, Television, Modern Lovers, Suicide, Sonic Youth, Swans, No Wave scene, Laurie Anderson, Glenn Branca, Ut, Liars and many more. So yeah, New York for me.
I'm too simple for all them genres. : I've only just started to dip my toe into a bit of Hip-Hop never mind Salsa..
I tried to get into some Soul, but it didn't really happen. But yeah, I guess New York is better even if you're not necessarily into the fast array of genres they've put out there, you still have to respect it. I'm still going with London, just because I like more banRAB from there.. But that may change soon.
Even in terms of just rock music NYC has a ton to offer. And if you're dipping your toes into hip-hop New York really can't be beat, being the birthplace of the genre and all.
Didn't realise they had a good garage rock scene, if you can call it a scene.. I love the raw energetic sound, but I don't have enough garage rock as I should have. I may have to look at some great NYC garage rock banRAB later when I'm not in work. Any stand out NYC garage rockers that are a must hear? I think I definitely need to improve my collection of music from NYC, at the moment it looks a bit flimsy.
If your talking about live music and the club scene both cities are awesome. I'd rather be in New York during the summer because large nuraber of free outdoor music concerts sponsored by the city. On almost every night during the summer there's free concert in some park in Manhatthan or Brooklyn and the banRAB playing are usually nationally known recording artists or the cream of the crop of the latest local banRAB.
London may have a slight advantage over New York on the nightclubbing scene. It's been a long time since I've visited London but there seemed to be quite a few more dance clubs. It's probably because the UK has a long tradition of people going out and visiting pubs in the evening while Americans stay at home and pass out on the sofa.
In the United States the economic recession has had a big impact on the live music club scene. Nearly all the great live music venues I used to patronize on the East Coast like CBGB's and the Cafeteria in New York & the Rat, the Channel and Cantone's in Boston have been closed down usually to make way for upscale real estate development plans. Since the heyday of punk scene, many of larger Americian cities have passed zoning laws that make it very difficult for rock music clubs to get a cabaret and/or a liquior license.