who are these people

W* band overload! Here goes.

War - you know, the "Low Rider" guys. They were semi-prolific, but the rest of their hits are basically not-quite-satisfying recreations of the "Low Rider" groovefunk. As extra credit, though, the "Low Rider" bass line is how I learned the safe notes to hit when playing in a minor key... Musicians know what I'm talking about. Valuable stuff. For extra extra credit, the Beastie Boys sample various chunks of that song throughout their "Licensed to Ill" album. Weee.

Weather Report - possibly the original fusion group? They cranked out gobs and gobs of mind-bending jazz (the definition of fusion, as far as I can tell) throughout the 70's and 80's with a large, constantly-morphing pile of virtuosos, basically starting by playing nonsense and gradually turning it into frighteningly well-written and complicated songs. To me, their highlight was having crazy, drugged bassist Jaco Pastorius play with them for a while. Jaco = ridiculous; I'll tell you more when we get to the J day. I could theoretically worship most of the musicians that ever appeared on the Weather Report roster, but I sadly don't have any knowledge/appreciation of virtuosity on the bongos...

Ween - the W stands for weird. Throughout their slew of albums, they satirically cover quite a few genres, from country to hard rock to "are you kidding me, someone actually published this nonsense?" For example, take "12 Golden Country Greats", which is actually just ten decent country/bluegrass tunes about who knows what. Contrast with "GodWeenSatan: The Oneness", a collection of 29 tracks of screaming about bees and weasels. It may be hard to believe, but all of these albums demonstrate quite a bit of creative talent. They opened my mind even further, and as you will see, I listen to some extremely odd "music". "Help me scrape the mucus off my brain," they request...

Weezer - a [pop-]grunge staple, though their front man/vocalist is a little short on testosterone. I appreciate that he says "unngh" constantly. However, I like his emo glasses more than I like almost all of their music...

Wes Chapman - wicked, sort of classical solo acoustic guitar. Read that again. 'Nuff said.

Wesley Willis - roamed the streets of Chicago with strong vocal cords and a Casiotone keyboard, "singing" about schizophrenia, bus rides and Coke machines. I refuse to pin a genre on his work. Also, to keep this blog kid/work/grandparent friendly, I don't think I can quote many lyrics... However, I recommend ditching this blog, heading to your favorite music repository, and checking out songs like "Termites Ate My House Up", "Rock N Roll McDonald's", "Kris Kringle Was a Car Thief", "Jesus Is The Answer", or my favorite, "I'm Sorry That I Got Fat", as well as any of the myriad less appropriate ones. Is it possible to be a Casiotone expert?

Tale of jealousy: my bro got to see Wesley in concert, including talking to him, getting autographs, and doing the famous/infamous headbutt. The days of Willis were better times indeed. "Diet Pepsi - uh huh!"

The White Stripes - another slightly generic grunge staple. I'm not extremely familiar, but they're slowly growing on me, heavy-handed bass lines and all.

White Zombie - can't go wrong with almost-shock rock. The bass lines are surprisingly complex, considering she usually only uses one string! "More Human Than Human" was one of my first exposures to music that isn't all hunky dory like the Beatles and most oldies in general... Defined/ruined my musical tastes for probably the rest of my life. oops.

The Who sold out, and that's ok with me.

Wilbert Harrison - a 12-bar wonder of "oldies". Also a one hit wonder, as far as I can tell, cranking out "Kansas City" and not much else. That's fine. In high school pep band, we usually played that one at approximately double speed... Not much time to breathe on the ole bari sax.

Wild Cherry - play that funky music 'til you die. 'Til you die? Yeahh, 'til you die. If you actually listen to the lyrics to that song - not likely - it tells this really weird story about some loser who finds funk and it changes his life, or something to that effect. Not really worth the research to spoil an otherwise simple, fun little ditty.

Willie Nelson - ohno, jlink mentions a country artist?? Surprise! Shotgun Willie is full of sarcastic/tongue-in-cheek mockeries of even his own musical style, which is pretty much mandatory for me to tolerate country. I like "Sad Songs and Waltzes", later covered by my beloved Cake.

Wilson Pickett - the wicked one. Na, na na na na, na na na na na na na na na na, na na na na...

Wings - eewww.


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