I don't know if I've mentioned it but for work I train truck drivers fresh out of CDL school. I've been lab ratting them to see what kind of entry level indie rock appeals to poorly educated guys who are way down on their luck. It's my truck, so they really can't turn it off. They listen to indie rock and WSCR 11 hours / day. It's pretty great.

I'm mentioning things that get a positive or negative reaction. I do not prompt them to have an opinion.

WHAT THEY LIKE:
Liz Phair
Belle and Sebastian
Cymbals Eat Guitars*
Arcade Fire
Spoon
Grizzly Bear

WHAT THEY DONT LIKE:
Titus Andronicus
Sufjan Stevens
Animal Collective (this is by far the funniest shit I've ever seen)
M83

*this was met with mostly ambivalence except for one guy who insisted we listen to them non stop because he liked it so much

If anyone wants to try something out on them, I'll be doing this shit for a little longer. So just name the album and if it's on Spotify I'll subject a truck driver to it and post the reaction.

This makes them smarter than some posters here. That they'd like Belle & Sebastian surprises me.

Try some Twin Peaks. Local band, and "I Found a New Way" has a nice riff. Any of the Weakerthans' albums, especially Reconstruction Site, should appeal to them if they like punk and country/folk.

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Right now we're getting through Broken Social Scene (I live their first two) without much of a reaction. The Weakerthans sounds like a good experiment though, try it sometime tomorrow.

You love Feel Good Lost? I mean, it's okay, but it's not an album to love. I really like You Forgot It In People and the s/t, though. The latter has soundtrack-of-my-life status for 2005-06.

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I forgot about Feel Good Lost. I'm talking about the s/t and You Forgot...

I keep expecting someone to freak out after Ibi Dreams of Pavement but it's apparently not to be.

Edit: this guys kind of a rock. He loves B&B and that's about it as far as feedback goes.

If Fucked Up doesn't get their motors running nothing will.

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If they don't listen to the lyrics, probably The Thermals too. Ted Leo is fun, so are The Hold Steady.

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pavement eh? I forget why they called Scott kannberg...

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I really love(d) the Hold Steady and I'm surprised I get nothing from them. It's really such fantastic pure bred rock and roll I think they'd eat it up.

Try the Fiery Furnaces, but make it Bitter Tea or I'm Going Away, where the Friedbergers successfully repressed their tendency to barf out every passing thought they ever had and instead just wrote songs. Fiery Furnaces were my jam in the mid-2000s too. I distinctly remember listening to Blueberry Boat on a snowy junk food run before the Saints-Bears championship game.

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As a 40 year old with a CDL, sports talk radio works for me.

I like Sufjan Stevens

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

And you were so close to being perfect in my book

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You've broken my heart spanky.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Today's Field Report:

The Weakerthans Reconstruction Site [x3] YES THREE TIMES. This includes last night. No reaction. I don't think he even noticed I played the same shit 3 times in a 24 hour period. I forgot how much I liked this one once upon a time.

The Hold Steady A Positive Rage for my own personal enjoyment. I think I caught some finger tapping.

LCD Soundsystem This Is Happening The weakest of the LCD Soundsystem records didn't elicit a response. This guy might have taste. Dance Yrself Clean scared him. Lol.

Wire 154 He turned it up. HE TURNED IT UP. Then turned it down a while later. I'm with ya dude... Map Ref reels em back in though.

Tomorrow, I'm thinking of hitting him with my "Rapid City, SD" playlist which includes such smash hits as Sigur Rós' 'Veröld ný og oő'. It's a relic from when I used to solo drive and needed something to zone out to in the desert, time to dust the old girl off.

My. Aim. Is. True.

NOW!

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'Alison' might trip something in his brain. I'll put that in the queue with The Body, The Blood, The Machine and Different Class as the concrete selections.

Ha, of the various Wire stuff you picked 154

Take a deep breath and step back from the keyboard for a minute.

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Well, there are three, right? Sound of Silver is obviously the best, then the s/t because it has "Losing My Edge" and "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House." The last one is a default third.

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I kind of like that he sang more on the last album. Definitely more emotion to the songs as well, the back-to-back of "I can change" and ""All I want" is killer.
Loved "This is Happening".

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The s/t also has Tribulations and 'Never As Tired...' which are two additional classics.

Fischerspooner, please.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Just heard this band for the first time when KEXP played "Civil Twilight." Good stuff.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley