Instrumental songs

[interpathway 9]

Green Onions....Booker T and the MGs

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

A duo who are big back at home (ireland) but are from brazil is Rodrigo y Gabriela. They do 2 acoustic shows, and it's amazing.

They used to be in a metallica cover band before moving to Ireland and going acoustic, so they do some excellent spanish classical influenced metallica covers, as well as some zeppelin, megadeth, anthrax etc. They also do a lot of their own stuff.

For the heavier stuff, I never get sick of Steve Vai's Passion and Warfare album, particularly the Audience is Listening.

[Powerfibers 8]

Django Reinhardt- anything but Minor Swing is the most popular

King Crimson- Red

Joe Satriani- Summer Song

Steve Vai- For the Love of God

many already mentioned are great, especially Rodrigo y Gabriella.

[lampliter87 8]

Sigur Ros; are a band from Iceland that produce music like no other. I have heard one fan, say of their music. "They are the 1st band to bridge the gap between music and emotion." I like that description allot.

Fabulous group, even the ones where they do sing could be considered instrumental since he uses his voice as an instrument and doesn't really use words (and when he does, it's Icelandic).

Explosions in the Sky (they did the soundtrack for Friday Night Lights) is amazing as well.

+1

BT or Tiesto (or any DJ) for that matter

Can't really say that; I've heard some really crappy techno in my day, but Tiesto is good.

[CapsFan 5]

Santana has a lot to choose from.

Dave Matthews has a few, #34 is really good.

[Goonsquad 209]

Rush's YYZ

+1

Cliffs of Dover by Eric Johnson

+1

[PWBIII 0]

Some instrumental bands I enjoy that might be of use..

The Cancer Conspiracy

Russian Circles

Explosions In The Sky

Red Sparrowes

Pelican (new album is more listener friendly)

[eric42434224 1]

Any instrumental by Dream Theater or Liquid Tension Experiment. These guys are Berkely trained musicians, except for the keyboard player...he was at Juliard at 9 yrs old. Their instrumentals are by far the best from a purely technical point of view. The intricacy, time changes, instrument doubling, speed, dynamics, etc....is not matched by anyone. There may be some other musicians that may or may not be better, ie- Vai on guitar over Petrucci....Peart over Portnoy...but those are subjective. There is no group out there that competes with all of them together. It may not be your style (VERY progressive rock/metal....like a heavier and more technical Rush/Yes/ELP/early Metallica/King Crimson/etc....but are hard if not impossible to beat in thier instrumentals.

Check "Paradigm Shift" on LTE1, or "Erotomania" from Awake. Amazing.

[lampliter87 8]

IMO Tool comes close, but there is no denying their skill.

[ronnychencharik 0]

Any instrumental by Dream Theater or Liquid Tension Experiment. These guys are Berkely trained musicians, except for the keyboard player...he was at Juliard at 9 yrs old. Their instrumentals are by far the best from a purely technical point of view. The intricacy, time changes, instrument doubling, speed, dynamics, etc....is not matched by anyone. There may be some other musicians that may or may not be better, ie- Vai on guitar over Petrucci....Peart over Portnoy...but those are subjective. There is no group out there that competes with all of them together. It may not be your style (VERY progressive rock/metal....like a heavier and more technical Rush/Yes/ELP/early Metallica/King Crimson/etc....but are hard if not impossible to beat in thier instrumentals.

Check "Paradigm Shift" on LTE1, or "Erotomania" from Awake. Amazing.

[Doctor Hook 0]

How about instrumentals from metal bands? Some of my faves:

"Halcyon" The Acacia Strain

"Doraemata" Dead to Fall

"Aries" Unearth (has some lyrics, but is heavy piano)

[lampliter87 8]

The Hellcasters:

http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wvfwxq8gldfe

[Rustyhole 1]

also the symphonic edition of the 'Dark Paassion Play' CD by Nightwish could work

[Tailboard Jockey 25]

"Orion", "The Call of Ktulu"- Metallica

"YYZ", "The Camera Eye"- Rush

"Eon Blue Apocalypse", Tool

Pretty much anything by Steve Vai (Passion & Warfare album), Joe Satriani, The Art of Noise, or FDNY Pipes & Drums.

[Jbone 0]

Any more recent single that has been realeased will have an instrumental too it. Plus tons of other songs. Just look up a song name with instrumental by it to see if its available.

[McDougalfaschnitzer 32]

What kind of mood are you going for?

[lampliter87 8]

Tried asking him what genre at least, got nothing.

[Smitty34 0]

Shawn Lane

Paul Gilbert

Steve Vai

Joe Satriani

Carlos Santana

Frank Zappa

Eric Johnson

There are plenty between those guys.

[Bender 0]

+1 for Liquid Tension Experiment

[AnthonyJTa 0]

The Red Chord "It Came From Over There", and "He Was Dead When I Got There"...

[zales17 0]

frank zappa - peaches en regalia

herbie hancock - watermelon man or anything from headhunters is classic

phish - cover of also sprach zathrustra (aka 2001)

medeski martin and wood - almost anything, but "uninvisible" has a great groove to it

miles davis - on the corner or bitches brew if you want to stretch some minds

not a huge fan, but if techno is your thing, this is cooler than techno but in the same vein: STS9 - they dont have many songs with words, so pick one

ratatat is pretty cool. check out "mirando" or the Classics album

...the choices are endless, but that can get you started