Bands/artists that I would like to get into but don't know where to start
 

(if anyone is a big fan of any of these bands/artists, can you please suggest me a "path" to follow through their discographies?)

Grateful Dead
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard
Thee Oh Sees
Tom Waits
Butthole Surfers
Dead Can Dance
The Decemberists
Died Pretty
The Divine Comedy
Einstürzende Neubauten
Gentle Giant
Hawkwind
Low
Lush
Marillion
The Mars Volta
Melvins
Midnight Oil
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Inventions
Motorhead
Porcupine Tree
The Residents
Royal Trux
Screaming Trees
Sebadoh
The Shins
Sparks
Spoon
Swans
Throbbing Gristle
Tim Buckley
Unwound
Van Der Graaf Generator
Xiu Xiu

For me, the Grateful Dead mostly consists of 2 albums: Workingman's Dead and American Beauty. Both are fantastic albums with a distinct folksy/country sound to them. While I know Deadheads love a lot of their other stuff, IMO those 2 albums are the place to start if you want to get into the Dead.

Years ago back in the age of Grooveshark I listened to the first several Dead albums in chronological order, and the quality between the album that came before Workingman's Dead and WD itself was almost stunning. Just the opening of the first song - Uncle John's Band - was like, wow this is so different! Even though I'd heard the song a zillion times.



Then American Beauty has a lot of gems like this.

If you want to try getting into some live Grateful Dead, I recommend checking out some of their shows from 1971 & 72. That was their peak as a live band as far as I'm concerned.