Pantera - metalll! Mostly nonserious and thoroughly offensive, with a hefty helping of solid guitar solos. My favorite is their "101 Proof" live album, loaded with (not clean) comic genius interstitials. Also, you might notice that I generally prefer live recordings over über-limited studio cuts.
Steph, who works for Proctor & Gamble, indulges the fake trade secret that Pantene shampoo products were named after this band because of their amazing hair...
Parliament - equals funk. Period. George Clinton. Bootsy Collins. Songs like "Dr. Funkenstein". Hmmm.
Paul Simon - I believe the jarmstro might call this more "dad music"? Here bei Link it's more "mom music", but close enough.
The Graceland album defined a huge chunk of my childhood - it's just about the only thing I remember from our family vacation to the Dakotas and Montana so many moons ago... Further, "You Can Call Me Al" is why we named my cat of yore "Betty". On a random note, here she is:
Peggy Lee - so unhealthy! Takes credit for "(You Give Me) Fever", but maybe should consider some Tylenol. I like the song for its jazzy style, catchy story, and abundance of key changes (an apprentice to Tommy Roe?), but I can't endorse it because I think it's rampantly sexist. Being playfully obscene is one thing, but I don't go for perpetuation of any sort of inequality - be it Fahrenheit or Centigrade.
A Perfect Circle - same guys from Tool, but less ambient and more politically charged. Covers of songs like "What's Going On" and John Lennon's "Imagine", too. Overall, I'd say they're more catchy but less impressive technically than they were as Tool.
Peter, Paul and Mary - massively popular folksters and masters of harmony. Van tunes.
Phish - Grateful Dead, part two? Quite skilled guitarist Trey Anastasio gets a heap of other skilled tunesters together to jam, sometimes bothering to record it. Counts as sleep music to me, which you may note by now is a rather high regard. A+ for thirty-minute songs.
Pig - solo project by Raymond Watts, of industrial rockers KMFDM. I'm not too familiar, but everyone from KMFDM deserves at least a mention.
The Pillows - responsible for plenty of soundtrackage for the anime FLCL. As with any anime soundtrack, their stuff is strange. Also, contrary to the name, this isn't too sleep-friendly.
Pink Floyd - what genre do Floyd and friends fall into? Their most unique selling points to me are an attempt at a rock opera, that album that syncs up with The Wizard of Oz, and the copious use of sarcasm before sarcasm was cool... Ah, Primus covers/covered them constantly on tour, too. By the way, which one's Pink?
Polysics - I only know "Nice", which is some messed up super mega happy 100%! J-pop sounding hyperditty with what seem to be not-words lyrics. Anyone know if the rest of their tunes are as bizarrely tasty?
Portishead - surprisingly well-known "trip hop"... All of the stories I have are too meaningful/close/sad for me to share. Sorry, pals, only mine, Tim's, and a select few others'.
The Postal Service - on a happier note, we have overly electronic "indie pop" from the front man from Death Cab For Cutie and [who cares who else]! Liking this music is almost entirely Jo's fault. I don't really feel like sharing these stories either, beyond Kyle's "Nintendo indie" labelling, and that it makes me cry with happy... This is inconvenient, as the intro to their song "Such Great Heights" is used for background on several UPS commercials. Curse you, Jo-bird!
Praga Khan - back to stuff you would more likely pin on me, Praga Khan is nutso, almost angry electronica full of top-speed beats and confusing samples. The group is big on creative name dropping and manipulation, such as the album "Pragamatic", as well as the artist's name itself (from multi-decade weirdo Chaka Khan). "Are you listening to me? We don't need that anymore." Huh?
Praxis - an odd sorta-metal group typically featuring envelope-pushing bassist Bill Laswell, keyboardist Bernie Worrell (Parliament et al), drummer Brian "Brain" Mantia (of Primus for a while), and occasionally our guitar-annihilating pal Mr. Buckethead. Did I mention "odd"?
The Presidents of the United States of America - kitty at my foot, and I want to touch it.
Probot - nothing to add, really, but I'd like to keep you thinking that I only listen to metal.
The Prodigy - living up to his name across several styles. There's the pure electronic "Music for the Jilted Generation", the continuous mix of DJ work known as "Dirtchamber Sessions, Vol. 1", or the hard rock/electronica/wha?? album you probably know, "Fat of the Land" (the one with "Firestarter" on it).
To keep this fam-friendly, no Prodigy stories here!
Primus - moved out of sequence to the end, for emphasis. If you've ever actually heard of a band featuring the magical, mystical bassist Les Claypool, this is it. It's possibly the weirdest band to find mainstream radio time. Songs you may know:
Lacquerhead
The Antipop
Greet the Sacred Cow
Golden Boy
Shake Hands With Beef
Too Many Puppies
Mr. Knowitall
Frizzle Fry
John the Fisherman (Guitar Hero fans!)
My Name Is Mud
DMV
Mr. Krinkle
Jerry Was a Racecar Driver
Tommy The Cat
Those Damned Blue-Collared Tweekers
Wynona's Big Brown Beaver
Southbound Pachyderm
Just to name a few.
Primus is why I became a musician, a bass player. Primus is why I'm still alive. Primus has been some of my best physical therapy. Primus is my fascination and obsession. Primus is my brother's fault. Primus tortured my entire floor freshman year of college. Primus is why I have a six-string fretless bass. Primus is why my cat's nickname is Tommy. Primus is why I would play bass on my steering wheel. Primus is an endless supply of jlstories. Primus is why I will play bass again.
Happy hypothetical birthday, Tim...
Awwweeeee, Betty Kitty...too cute. :0)
ReplyDeleteYay for Primus and all it's done for you and for you introducing it to me! Also, I'm sure many would recognize them as the band behind the South Park theme song.
I've been waiting on this update all day. Oh, and Primus Sucks! Or so I hear, anyway.
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