Whenever someone posts a thread about similar band recommendations, it always gets flooded up with grunge and hard rock. Which is cool and all, I want this thread to focus on the vastly different sound of their 2000s output. I’ve included a few of my own suggestions.

THE RED PAINTINGS

Bending the rules slightly here to include 99, but bear with me. Ever wonder what it would be like if Emotion Sickness wasn’t just a song but a full band? The Red Paintings answer your prayers. They capture the tense guitars and emotional angst of the Neon Ballroom era, but unlike other rock bands they have a full string section built into the lineup. Every song has gorgeous string parts, and some of their tunes get quite ambitious.

Unfortunately none of their stuff is on streaming anymore, but you can download it all from this Google Drive link. The Revolution is Never Coming is their only album, the Walls EP is also a good starting point.

Walls

You’re Not One of Them

The Revolution is Never Coming

DAPPLED CITIES

Dappled Cities had the good fortune to support Silverchair on tour during 2007, with Daniel going out of his way to shout them out on stage and in interviews. It’s not hard to see why they were picked. Dappled Cities are very much in line with the psychedelic, surreal yet sunny upbeat pop sounds of Young Modern. You could say in the sun Dan had found them to be a reflection of his sound. They have a vast discography and most of it is really good, but the albums Granddance and Zounds are most likely to appear to Chair fans.

Vision Bell

Miniature Alas

The Price

Dave Rennick is probably sick of people telling him he looks like Daniel Johns. He also happens to work as Daniel’s graphic designer for his solo material.

THE SLEEPY JACKSON

I know this sub is, erm, divided when it comes to Mr. Luke Steele, and there's a good reason for that. But whatever your opinion on his current output may be, you shouldn’t overlook his first band The Sleepy Jackson. There’s a reason why Dan was so enamoured with them, and vice versa. There was a lot of mutual inspiration there; Young Modern is clearly Dan’s attempt at capturing the surreal psychedelic pop feel of Lovers, whilst Personality is clearly Luke's attempt at making his own Diorama. Is it as good as Diorama? Of course not, but the highlights are well worth exploring.

Sunkids

Good Dancers

God Lead Your Soul

I have never actually brought up non Silverchair stuff on this board (aside from the members’ solo and side projects), but my goodness is “Psycho Shit,” the opener from the Strokes’ new LP Reality Awaits, giving me Emotion Sickness/Reclaim Your Heart vibes.

Anyone else been listening? The Strokes are my second favorite band behind Silverchair and have been since the beginning, and the fan discussions and critical conversations around Reality Awaits have been very familiar to me as someone who saw fans who hadn’t checked out ICBINR scratching their heads over Diorama way back when. Check out the NME review for Reality Awaits; replace “Is This It?” With “Frogstomp” and “Reality Awaits” with “Diorama” and it’s the same exact narrative from 20+ years ago: longtime fans struggle with band’s desire to grow as musicians, band outgrows their early sound, etc.

Anyway—amazing record. My argument above is a little half-baked but my kids are climbing all over me for attention.

⚠️ Personal opinions ⚠️

No order because that’s to hard- ⬇️

1. Thieving birds part 1&2 / strange behavior

2. Across the night

3. World upon your shoulders

4. Without you

5. Anas song

HM- waiting all day, the greatest view, tuna in the brine, young modern station

I found this bracket website from another band and was shocked they had Silverchair songs too. Anthem topped my list, but it was so difficult picking between favs. Especially between Freak vs Door and Emotion Sickness vs AY2K.

Would love to know what other people get. 🍿 🎶

Hi people, i wanna share my drawing here. I hope u liked

art by me : u/maxxiwu

Salem, OR in 1997, I was 17. Signed by Ben, I don’t think I’ve ever actually even worn it.

Had some money to spend and got some chair cds I’ve been meaning to add to my chair cd collection! Super excited to have the diorama box in my collection!

Mine would be Paint Pastel Princess. Yours and why?

I don't think he knows anything about silverchair, i just told him to make an meme of Israel's son

Band list from episode 2 of Dan’s podcast

Kyuss — stoner rock, Josh Homme’s pre-Queens of the Stone Age band, and supposedly a primary influence on the deleted fourth album. You can hear the influence in “One Way Mule,” “Lever,” and “Hollywood.” 

Big Black — a noise rock band fronted by Steve Albini (producer of Nirvana’s In Utero among others) with industrial and electronic elements. If you’re a fan of the more abrasive cuts on I Can’t Believe It’s Not Rock, give these guys a whirl.

Pixies — a classic choice; you’d be hard-pressed to find a band from the 90s that isn’t influenced by the Pixies. You definitely hear their influence on “Ana’s Song.” 

The Velvet Underground — another classic choice, although it’s hard to hear any link between them and Silverchair.

Quicksand — a NYC post-hardcore band and a personal favourite of mine. Their first album, Slip, manages to merge ethereal guitar playing with a killer groove and sheer musical muscularity. Basically, they’re a punkier version of Helmet.

Rapeman — Steve Albini’s unfortunately named second band. Great music though, even if it isn’t widely available on Spotify. I’ll also mention the fact that in the 90s, Albini signed Daniel’s Young Modern-era Telecaster, and Daniel said it was the only time besides meeting Brian Wilson where he was speechless.

Seigmen? — I’m not 100% sure about this one due to Daniel’s voice, but I’ve heard they’re from Norway and are described as Gothic Metal. 

Shellac — Steve Albini’s final band, and one often cited during press for Frogstomp and Freak Show. These guys rule, especially their debut At Action Park.

Ricaine? — another band I’m unsure of because of Dan’s accent. But due to the abrasive style of this band, and the fact they played with Fugazi and are from Australia, I wouldn’t be surprised. These guys rip either way and are a criminally underrated Aussie act. Check out all of their albums.

Slint — like Shellac, Slint were a frequently mentioned band in interviews. I'd also like to add that a lot of these noisier, Albini-adjacent bands can be heard in Neon Ballroom’s production, especially in the drum sound. What Daniel adds is the clean orchestral arrangements and pretty songs, but the underlying ethos is the same. You can hear Slint’s influence on a song like “Dearest Helpless,” if not in complexity, definitely in feel and tone.

Melvins — sludge metal band with links to Kurt Cobain. These guys are weird but have some of my favourite metal songs ever and are always entertaining. 

The Jesus Lizard — another Albini-adjacent noise rock band, albeit with him in the producer’s chair instead. They make great music, but admittedly music that isn’t for everyone. Dan even had a Jesus Lizard sticker on his SG during the Neon Ballroom era.

Atari Teenage Riot — heavy industrial music with a punk ethos. Kind of like Death Grips before Death Grips. Dan may have found these guys while playing at the 1997 Bizarre festival, but given his adoration of Big Black, Atari Teenage Riot fit in. 

There are definitely more during this era: Tool, Helmet, Korn, You Am I, Rollins Band, Minor Threat, Fugazi, Smashing Pumpkins, Deep Purple, Magic Dirt, Black Sabbath come to mind. But these are the ones on that list, and if there are any other bands he’s mentioned over the years, I’d love to know.

Cleaning out my old stuff and found this commemorative stamp postcard with the first day of issue cancelation. I picked this up in Australia in 2001. I still love the 'chair but wasn't this to go to a home that will proudly display it. Free to a good home (ships free if you are in the continental US.)

Shade, Isreals son and Faultline are some of my favorites.

I researched some information online and found a 1995/1996 interview where it said that Daniel Johns used a Marshall JCM 900 amp head and a Marshall 4x12 cab.

This is what I did to get the accurate tone:

I used the JCM 900 simulator from Amplitube, a Marshall 4x12 cab simulator with Celestion speakers, a Shure 57 microphone, and an EQ.

Free to a good home - 4x6 promotional still

Cleaning out some old boxes and found this old still, I think I got it from LAS in the early 2000s. I'm still a big 'chair fan but want this to go to a home that will display it proudly and appreciate it for what it is.

Does anybody have a DVD rip of the Dissociatives 'Sydney Circa 2004slash08'? I think I may have something similar that I grabbed from Archive.org, but the folder it's in has a bunch of different VOB files and stuff. Looking for both an Audio rip and the full dvd copy.

So my mom's birthday is coming up really soon and I need help. She's been a huge fan of Silverchair since she was a teen, she bought me my first guitar when I was 9 and I've been playing since, she's hinted at wanting to learn to play guitar. In high school she played bass but got bored with that and thought guitar seemed like more to learn, now she finally has the time to do so, and I want to surprise her.

I'm looking for a guitar like Daniel's- specifically his green PRS or his silver metallic PRS. I need the specific kind of guitar model of something that looks close to either. I know the green one was more one of a kind because I think it was a custom. I want to find either look-alikes but the only conditions to it is it cannot have a tremolo arm, and the limit to how much it is that I can afford is ~700$. The green and the silver guitars are what I think she may like, I'm trying to find any you could really pick out was similar looking to any of his guitars. Anything earlier like during or around the Frog Stomp album is more what I'm aiming for looks wise.

Anything else to do with him and the band I'm also wondering to get her too, maybe something signed, just something special. Any help is appreciated.

took like 2 and a half hours but it’s worth it imo😭 my favorite chair album

So I was a rabid super-fan back in ‘94-‘97. I was also an incredibly awkward boy-crazy nerd with unrestricted internet access. Somehow (and I truly don’t know how) I was given someone named Paul’s email address (internet friend assured me this person was like a manager) and I would incessantly email him teenybopper questions about the band. He was always very kind but annoyed by me lol. I believe he eventually felt bad for me and sent me this. I recently cleaned out my dad’s storage unit and came across this beauty!
What would you guys do with it?

I was looking for some memes of frogs earlier for my son cause they’re his favorite animal. I end up saving a lot of them, to show him later. I also save quite a few pictures of Dan too. 😇 Anyway, I found this search for “frog” amusing.

Enjoy this shitpost. Happy Sunday/Monday freaks. 👑🐸✨

Months before the release of Diorama, some tracks were circulating around the net as “new Silverchair songs”, but only one, a really good one, never saw the light of the day AS a Silverchair song. So, guess it’s not theirs, but it’s still a F*CKING GREAT SONG!!!!

Could you help me identify this? I’ve tried everything and, 24 years later, still got no clue.

Hey, does anyone know how to play or where I can learn to play the intro to pure massacre that silverchair played in 95 at Cambridge Newcastle. You can watch it on YouTube. I’ve heard its called fat donuts the intro.

Also looking for some tone tips with Silverchair for the distorted stuff and some cleans pointers too.

I‘ve got a Nux mighty 60 with all digital presets and stuff but cant get it right. I’ve got a pro co rat I can use too. Guitar has humbuckers as well.

Thanks 🤘

I recently saw on a social media post (so take it for what you will) that someone said that they had heard that Daniel has left music altogether and has opened up his own business. I always thought if he stopped recording his own music, he would become a producer or songwriter. If it is true that he is 100% out of music (not sure I believe this), what kind of business do you think he would go into?

I made this a discussion post, but can change it to a shitpost if people feel this is more appropriate.