I was wearing Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Jimi Hendrix shirts at the ripe age of 13, a total of four years ago, and never caught any shit for it. It doesn't necessarily score you cool points (most people don't even know who they are, at that point), but you don't get teased for it. Then, by the time you're in high school, most people know who they are, and all is well, because they like it. Sorry, but the world isn't as glum and depressing these days as some people imagine it to be.

Retro is in!

I didn't know great art had an expiration date.

In any case, if you must have contemporary groups that won't get him "beat up", he might go for the Apes...keys/bass/drums rock group:

http://www.theapes.com/audio/The_Apes_-_Lightning.mp3
http://www.theapes.com/audio/The_Ape...rning_Land.mp3
http://www.theapes.com/audio/The_Ape...l_CoCoTech.mp3

Aight dude. First of all where do you go to school? I just got out of high school and I wore band t shirts all the time and always talked about "old" music. In middle school my freinds and I cruised around in Black Sabbath t shirts skateboarding all the time and never once did I get picked on. In fact most of the kids though we were pretty cool!

And also, how many of those bands have you ever listened to? And I don't mean 1 song, I mean an album? My guess is 2 or 3.

how man of those bands do i listen too ? well lets see now ......

obviously the old school stuff, you can't really not listen to it ....

but off the list that was previously mentioned ... i listen to and enjoy ..

Emerson, Lake and Palmer
The Doors - 'alabama song'
Genesis
Deep Purple
Faces
Small Faces
Pink Floyd

And many others not on the list ....

Yeah it really is, all I see is girls wearing those Ramones shirts now.

Spiltmilk, I don't think a person would ever get beat up for listening to a certain kind of music, new or old. I can see the point you are trying to get across though with the idea of newer music that can he better relate to and is more up to date, a big attraction also being production values since most of those bands he lists are overly produced.

It is hard to really list bands just simply if they have a piano or not since that is pretty loose criteria.

panbient suggesting Ben Folds is a good one. The only song I like by them is song for the dumped but I think this will be right up his alley.

I'm going to suggest:

Texas is the Reason and Sunny Day Real estate so you can better understand where emoish stuff is derived from but not going all the way back to hardcore. As a matter of fact I think the drummer for Dashboard Confessional is from Sunny Day Real estate. A sad fate since SDRE's music is much better but at least he is still active.

The Format. I don't really like this band but it is better then pop-punk and I know a bunch of people that are fans. Long story short I think you would enjoy them and it would be a very good transition band for you since they dabble on lots of influences. "Dog Problems" is the way to go.

Phish. You'll probably turn them down before you give them a try because of lyrics, but the album Hoist is easily accessible and Page McConnell is a pretty decent piano player.

Coldplay. Piano is prominent in a few songs, the lyrics are just what you are looking for. Chicks dig them too.

Allman Brothers band, The Doors, Pink Floyd, Billy Joel, Elton John, The Beach Boys for classic keys.

Herbie Hancock if you are interested in jazz at all.

yeah i doubt i'd get beat up for listening to a certain type of music. But i understand what your sayin justblaze. i'm listening to Ben folds five, thats pretty much the kind of music i am looking for. i like it. but i got a question, what does everyone think about Mae and Matchbox 20?

get radiohead's 2nd album - 'the bends' instead of matchbox 20 hehehe

Translation:


I try not to think of them. It's a better world that way....now pass the Dutchie on the left hand side. hehehe

They make money cause of the many fans that they do happen to have, apparently not many of them are on here, but also because of the whole mainstream thing, and all that. It doesn't make them "good" or "bad", because that's completely decided by opinion. What I'm annoyed at is when you're a fan of mainstream bands like those ones and so many people hate them, and just make it an uncomfortable environment for you. I mean, it's just opinion. That's all.