Top 10 Most Important Bands Since Oasis

If hasn’t be objectively and empirically proved already by Old-Wizard, then we will just categorically state right now that Oasis is the greatest band of all time. Any argument against this claim has been refuted by the Old-Wizard staff and our recent neophytes. Our position is also held by the post-Oasis bands that have made landmark albums after them. Oasis’s influence on these bands is undoubted if not outright expressed in interviews. In this list we will go through these bands and list them as the most important bands since Oasis. If Oasis was the most important band of all time, then certainly the most important bands after them would logically have to be influenced by them. This list will define the most important ones though in a very definite order of importance.

10. Sam Roberts Band

Sam Roberts is Canada’s answer to Oasis. It wasn’t their first album that established them with the power of Oasis (although their 1st album certainly had quality songs on it). It was their 2nd album “Chemical City”, specifically the first song off the album in the name of “The Gate” that took the Oasis sound and gave it a Canadian Rustic aesthetic to it. It’s as if a bunch of lumberjacks were listening to Oasis for 5 years and then started a band. It’s hard to think of a band that comes across as earnestly as Sam Roberts. Sam Roberts’ lyrics are as heart on sleeve as they come without ever falling into banality. Sam Roberts passion is unlimited. All their songs are on a quest for infinite spirituality and their sound is as huge as their quest sounds. One listen to Chemical City and you will understand the importance of this band.

9. The Space Monkeys

The Space Monkeys flew under the radar in the late 90’s influenced by a ton of music but their Manchurian roots were undeniable. Much like Kasabian, they took the pulse of Oasis and quickened it with acid house. Their first track off their debut album “The Daddy of Them All” in the name of “Acid House Killed Rock n Roll” is a raucous speed drenched song with Richard McNevin-Duff singing with more vitriol than Liam Gallagher at times. This song setup the rest of the album full of great songwriting across the board and factory-records-beats behind all the great melodies. Equally Oasis, The Roses, and The Happy Mondays; The Space Monkeys never got the recognition they deserved, but their debut album is of great importance. It will be rediscovered some day by a generation of kids looking to find bands that mean more to them than Oasis. They may find it in a band like The Space Monkeys.

8. The Strokes

The Strokes were a maelstrom for rock music when they released their first album “Is this It”, more specifically their first single “The Modern Age”. The last time a song was this hypnotic was Oasis’s “Columbia”. This song grooved with the best rock music ever released. It was hard and slow at the same time. Lead Singer Julian Casablanca crooned like a Jersey singer from the 50’s. The sound of the album was aesthetically on the level of Oasis’s “Definitely Maybe“. When a band captures this spirit it shows a direct signification for being timeless. The rest of the album followed suit with even stronger singles like Last Night and Hard to Explain. If you were in college when The Strokes came out, it would mean your memories of that time would always be tied to this album, and this is just their first album. They would continue the quality of their first album with “Room on Fire“ and more specifically “Under Control“; finally a song that dudes could think about girls to without feeling so fucking gay. The album “First Impressions of Earth” transformed The Strokes into an even further musical powerhouse showing a technical musicality that surpassed every band on this list. The Strokes will be remembered for some time to come. They have yet to release a bad album and is unlikely they will in the future.

7. Travis

With the release of “All I wanna do is rock”, it was pretty evident for the time being who was going to have filled the shoes of Oasis. This song was sung by Fran Healy with the exaggerated snarl of Liam Gallagher. One wonders how much Liam Gallagher must have wished Noel wrote this song for him. It wasn’t just their first album though they gave Travis their importance. It most importantly came from their 2nd album “The Man Who” which was filled with some of the best singles of 1999. “Writing Reach You” was a ballad that you could listen to without feeling sick. Their was a purgatorial sense of tragedy to the song and the chorus was catchy, but in a very curious way. It wasn’t predictable, but incredibly satisfying to listen to. Certainly having Nigel Godrich behind the boards on this album helped with the amount of great songs on this album. Travis continued to consistently make good to great albums all in the footsteps of the great Oasis.

6. Idlewild

Idlewild has the production pomp of Oasis but took the sometimes effortless stream-of-conscious lyric writing of Noel Gallagher and brought it into an caustic critique of modernity that was neither political nor cultural, but much more metaphysical. Attacks on self-identity, post-modernism, and thinking in general were enveloped by stellar musicianship that was abrasive and sung with fire by lead singer Roddy Woomble. Oasis for intellectuals? It would be more accurate to call them the Oasis for James Joyce and Jean Genet lovers. Roddy Woomble made the sound of Oasis sound much more poetic without losing any of the bite of Oasis’s vocal delivery and sound. Check out their album “100 Broken Windows” to see how strong of a band Idlewild are.

5. New Pornographers

Whether A.C. Newman admits it or not, he was influenced by Oasis. One listen to the incredible “Twin Cinema” (one of the best albums of the decade) will show a taste for perfect pop that was very much it’s own sound though. Listen to “Sing me Spanish Techno“, “Bones of an Idol“, “Jackie Dressed in Cobras“, and the song “Twin Cinema” and you will find a band operating under a very classic mode of songwriting but integrating it in less obvious changes and chord progressions than the rest of the bands on this list. It wasn’t just Twin Cinema though that makes The New Pornographers an important band, it was their debut album Mass Romantica with incredible songs throughout the whole album. “Letter For an Occupant” and “Slow Descent into Alcoholism” are some of the most catchy songs of the decade but they don’t sound like normal pop songs at all, but certainly operate under the traditional structure. This slight bending of the rules of what quality songwriting is puts The New Pornographers in their rightful place as one of the most important bands since Oasis.

4. Coldplay

Coldplay has been called every derogatory term by the indie crowd from generic to bed-wetters, to soft. You’re not getting away from the fact that Chris Martin writes great songs. This is undoubted, and anyone who questions this quality in Coldplay doesn’t listen to music for good songs. Chris Martin consistently spreads his love for Oasis by covering a song from every new Oasis album that comes out. The highlight of them all though was his live version of Liam’s songbird. For better or worse, Coldplay took the pure songwriting quality of Noel Gallagher and made it even more crafty and pop, but never enough to be considered a “guilty pleasure” except by the queer indie crowd. No one is arguing “Yellow“, “Lost“, “Talk” (Regardless of it’s obvious Kratwerk affectations), “Shiver“, “The Scientist“, and “In My Place” are not great songs. You just cant argue that these are not great songs after only 1 or 2 listens. Oasis paved the ground for this songwriting craft that had to always reach a certainly quality.

3. The Thrills

Like many bands on this list, The Thrills took the pure songwriting quality of Oasis and put it into their own sonic style. In the case of The Thrills it was the sunkiss sparkle of Southern California that made a bunch of Irish boys leave their country to live in southern California soaking up the sun and all the influences around it from smooth relaxed backup vocals to lyrics about the “Big Sur” and the California sun. Their sound wasn’t timid. It was mastered hard, it was layered pretty heavily. This band may have come across sonically and aesthetically as breezy and laid back, but their ambitions and songwriting were as big as Oasis’s. It had to be. They toured with Oasis multiple times. Noel Gallagher was seen whistling and singing “Big Sur” by himself walking to the supermarket one day in London. The ultimate approval for any band.

2. Kasabian

Kasabian IS the most important band since Oasis. They have carried Oasis’s bravado to a new level and layered it with a newage-electronica that sounds like a combination of Oasis and The Chemical Brothers. All their songs have grit and sass known to the best Oasis songs. Lead singer Tom Meighan spews out vocals as resonant as Liam Gallagher and as loose as Shaun Ryder. The lyrical output of Serge Pizzorno is that of a boxer fighting a heavyweight, not some small personal battle against personal demons but a fight to take over the world. This shits like a Martin Scorsese film. Kasabian is like Napoleon on the battlefields and even more ruthless, on par with Vlad the Impaler which they actually wrote a song about (the best song on their new album). See them live and you will seen one of the best live shows of your life. Pure Energy, pure groove at wall of sound levels. Kasabian is the true heir to Oasis’s crown.

1. Oasis

For better or worse, Oasis have still made at least average music into the new millennium. Their album “Don’t Believe The Truth” still showed that they could make a rock album better than any rock band in the genre today. They still tour non-stop selling out stadium everywhere they go. With the additions of Andy Bell and Gem Archer to the band, Oasis has become a force to be reckoned with. The only band that could compete with them is the Oasis of the 90′s so it makes sense that Oasis’s only competitors are Oasis themselves. The only band that can come close to their crown is Kasabian listed at number 2 and they haven’t put out enough albums yet to take Oasis from the kings chair. Hate to say it, Oasis are the best band since Oasis.

Related Article: Top 10 Oasis Songs