This round brought to you by the grandparents Link. (+a)
Gabby La La - a multi-instrumentalist (mostly sitar, but also tiny guitar, toy piano, and theremin) who slowly worked her way into the world of Claypool. As far as I can tell, her first appearance was a tiny cameo as a child's voice at the end of "D's Diner", on the Frog Brigade's 2002 album Purple Onion. Next were her backup vocals on the album "The Big Eyeball in the Sky", by Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains. She also opened for C2B3 on their tour in 2004. After that, she released her own solo album, one of the few non-Claypool artists to appear on Les' label (though Les plays drums and bass on most of the tracks). Following that, she played a major role on Les' 2006 CD Of Whales and Woe, subsequently touring for two years or so as part of "The Fancy Band". She is currently, umm, off the radar.
Ick. Her appearance on the C2B3 album was tolerable, but her concert performances with them were, uh, not that great. Her album does not qualify as tolerable. It's utter nonsense, so you would assume I would love it, right? Nope. Sorry, Gabby. Again, she fit in well on Of Whales and Woe, adding some slick sitar and theremin, but again again, I thought she was irritating on the Fancy tours. Further, she butchered a solo so badly at one of the shows I saw that the band had to stop and figure out what was going on. oops!
Galactic - waaay funky! Relatively new, too; it's a double-take to catch that they've been busy in the 21st century. I don't have too much to mention, but ugh, the funk is unstoppable.
Garth Brooks - yee haw!
As a holiday present for my roommate freshman year, I learned "Friends in Low Places" on the acoustic guitar and sang it for him. An octave lower than Mr. B, of course. Moral of the story: I'll never be a country star.
Genesis - only here to acknowledge their splinter skills, as they broke up to make solo groups for, umm, pretty much every member. This doesn't imply that any of them were good, though. They can't even dance!
George Clinton - lord, king, ruler of all things funk. His deliciously deep voice can be found rumbling under any group with "Parliament" or "Funkadelic" in the title; in fact, those are usually proceeded by "George Clinton and the". Beyond that, he of course has solo work, as well as co-ops with newer crews like Snoop Dogg. He's everywhere, warning, "failure to stomp will cause hazard to your booty!"
And of course...
"Think! It ain't illegal yet!"
George Gershwin - though he wrote such fully-orchestrated masterpieces as "American in Paris" and "Rhapsody in Blue", the double G is my favorite pianist, dare I say, hands down. It's 100% my brother's fault. I remember so well him whirling out those preludes with absolute perfection... At the end of prelude #2, there is a pretty walk all the way up the keys, a note in the middle, a long pause, and then a soft note way low (C#1) to close the piece; when Tim had mastered that song, he taught me to play that note and expected me to play it for him every time. That was my note.
I tried so hard to learn those preludes, but I could only get the relatively easy second one by the self-teach method. The first and third are just incredible. Someday.
George Thorogood and the Destroyers - make sure to say their name in the monster truck voice! George and his nihilistic pals are classic rock/blues rock essentials, though it's a bit sad that so many of their famous jams are covers. However, it's also quite amusing what they covered that didn't climb that high on the charts... "Willie and the Hand Jive", anyone?
Mr. T can solo quite thoroughly - he has that "can't hit a wrong note" maladie - but it's amazing/amusing/convenient that their songs are so ridiculously simple. It's either twelve-bar blues, or it's just one chord (verify with "Bad to the Bone"). Are they the Ramones of blues rock? I must confess that, minus the "good solos" part, this is inevitably what my non-bass guitar noodling became within five minutes of starting a session. G-C-D major chords for everyone!
The Ghetto Boys - because it feels good to be a gangster.
Glenn Miller - equals big band. "In the Mood", "American Patrol", "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", "Tuxedo Junction", "St. Louis Blues March", "Little Brown Jug", and on and on and on; these songs defined the time. They also defined about half of every jazz band's repertoire.
Thanks go to Primus for creating a complete non-cover: "a b c d e f g h I got a gal and she ain't from Kalamazoo"!
Gloria Gaynor - I won't reveal anything overly touching about this song (you know which one), other than that I prefer the deadpan Cake cover, and that I used to play Cake's bass line along with the original (eek, much faster) Gaynor recording. Dorkalicious.
Goldfinger - hmmm, fairly whiny ska. Isn't that why we like it?
Gravy Train - [no] thanks to mle for this techno train wreck. It makes me nervous.
Green Day - a bit too pop-punkified for me, but thanks for remixing "25 or 6 to 4", err, "Brain Stew".
Green Jelly - A+ for introducing Rambo to the story of the three little pigs.
Groove Armada - the name says it all, as far as style is concerned.
Tim gave me this album and told me to listen to "At the River", an extremely laid back song whose only words are an incomplete sentence: "if you're fond of sand dunes and salty air, quaint little villages here and there..." He said, "you know, the song doesn't make any sense, but by the end I'm thinking 'yeah, I like sand dunes...'" He's right.
Guns 'n' Roses - mandatory mention for being ludicrously popular, but your stories are better than mine.
Gwar - so maybe they're excessively obscene and unpleasant "shock rock", and maybe they dumped human excrement on their fans at concerts, but ignoring those minor details, they're great! "Penguin Attack"? "Vlad the Impaler"? Verses such as "dirty, filthy, dirty filthy filthy filthy dirty, filthy, dirty filthy filthy filthy"? Come on. "Why don't you just admit it?", they ask. Ok, they're awful.
Gwen Stefani - that's right. I like it. I can spell "bananas", too. She even gives Japanese lessons. Bring it.
That was awful. Please help.
23 March 2009
22 March 2009
huh?
Hyah!
Handel - as in George Frederic, as in the creator of "The Messiah". I admittedly don't care too much about Christmas music, or the holiday in general, but this is Christmas.
The Link fam has accidentally (and incidentally) misinterpreted and rewritten most of this masterpiece. I like sheep, too! You're missing out.
Hank Williams, Jr. - surprise! I think Bocephus qualifies as "real country". You know, how they do it in Dixie. Yee haw.
Harold Faltermeyer - a popular, prolific TV/film composer in the eighties... Ok, as far as most of us know, he just did "Axel F", the theme for Beverly Hills Cop. There's nothing wrong with that, though, since everyone on the planet knows that song.
Playing "Axel F" in high school pep band was nothing short of hilarious. Any time there is a clapping interlude, there will be a riot. How deliciously dorky. Further (not bragging), since I switched between xylophone and bari sax as necessary, I knew the bass line and the melody and would play them both simultaneously (yes, rather poorly) on the xylo or vibes... If clapping interludes are dorky, then self-duetting on top of the dorkiness is loser squared.
Harry Connick, Jr. - the second junior of the day earns a mention for his rendition of "It Had To Be You", which happened to be in the same key as the arrangement we did in jazz choir.
Two things: first, this song held the distinguished title of track #1 on the permanent singalong disc in the van. Who knows how many times we mutilated this little ditty, brass solos and all. Second, my apologies to our JC director for always singing the melody an octave too low, where only I could reach... You know I couldn't resist; that low C is just begging to be rumbled out.
Heart - the nutso classic rockers responsible for "Magic Man", "Crazy on You", and ooh, "Barracuda". Wow, she has a high voice. Chalk up credit for strange slidey tricks on guitar during the main riff of "Barracuda", but pass some cred to Rasputina for turning that song into a cello duet.
I'm not about to look anything up, but if you read through some ancient posts on the jarmstro's logs, you can find some quality Heart tales. Song titles lead to endless punning.
Henry Mancini - jazzster/composer of the theme for the Pink Panther. All I really have to add is that, as "normal" as that song may sound, it is an incredibly bizarre composition to play... Chromatics + sharps = confusion.
Herbie Hancock - not just a Chris Farley joke, it's a real person! In the jazz world, he's relatively popular for infusing funk-style rhythms and such into common chord progressions, as well as writing weird parts for normal instruments and vice versa ("Watermelon Man"). Forget all of that, though, because every musician of the past few decades instantly recognizes, and knows his/her instrument's part for, "Chameleon".
Herman's Hermits - pretty popular weirdos of the "oldies" era, eh? Unlike most of the one-hit wonders I've mentioned from that time, the Hermits could actually fill an album with real "greatest hits". Scary, since one of them is inevitably "I'm Henry VIII, I Am". No Sam!
Herman and friends often found themselves in the van-bombing CD collection, though they appear frequently enough on oldies radio that putting the disc in the changer was a bit redundant.
House of Pain - completely out-of-genre for today's post, it seems, we have a dash of rap/hip-hop/hard rock. I know them best from my brother's comically-censored tape of whatever album was so popular... Put on your fish kickers and kick some fish!
That was unexciting; any contributions?
Handel - as in George Frederic, as in the creator of "The Messiah". I admittedly don't care too much about Christmas music, or the holiday in general, but this is Christmas.
The Link fam has accidentally (and incidentally) misinterpreted and rewritten most of this masterpiece. I like sheep, too! You're missing out.
Hank Williams, Jr. - surprise! I think Bocephus qualifies as "real country". You know, how they do it in Dixie. Yee haw.
Harold Faltermeyer - a popular, prolific TV/film composer in the eighties... Ok, as far as most of us know, he just did "Axel F", the theme for Beverly Hills Cop. There's nothing wrong with that, though, since everyone on the planet knows that song.
Playing "Axel F" in high school pep band was nothing short of hilarious. Any time there is a clapping interlude, there will be a riot. How deliciously dorky. Further (not bragging), since I switched between xylophone and bari sax as necessary, I knew the bass line and the melody and would play them both simultaneously (yes, rather poorly) on the xylo or vibes... If clapping interludes are dorky, then self-duetting on top of the dorkiness is loser squared.
Harry Connick, Jr. - the second junior of the day earns a mention for his rendition of "It Had To Be You", which happened to be in the same key as the arrangement we did in jazz choir.
Two things: first, this song held the distinguished title of track #1 on the permanent singalong disc in the van. Who knows how many times we mutilated this little ditty, brass solos and all. Second, my apologies to our JC director for always singing the melody an octave too low, where only I could reach... You know I couldn't resist; that low C is just begging to be rumbled out.
Heart - the nutso classic rockers responsible for "Magic Man", "Crazy on You", and ooh, "Barracuda". Wow, she has a high voice. Chalk up credit for strange slidey tricks on guitar during the main riff of "Barracuda", but pass some cred to Rasputina for turning that song into a cello duet.
I'm not about to look anything up, but if you read through some ancient posts on the jarmstro's logs, you can find some quality Heart tales. Song titles lead to endless punning.
Henry Mancini - jazzster/composer of the theme for the Pink Panther. All I really have to add is that, as "normal" as that song may sound, it is an incredibly bizarre composition to play... Chromatics + sharps = confusion.
Herbie Hancock - not just a Chris Farley joke, it's a real person! In the jazz world, he's relatively popular for infusing funk-style rhythms and such into common chord progressions, as well as writing weird parts for normal instruments and vice versa ("Watermelon Man"). Forget all of that, though, because every musician of the past few decades instantly recognizes, and knows his/her instrument's part for, "Chameleon".
Herman's Hermits - pretty popular weirdos of the "oldies" era, eh? Unlike most of the one-hit wonders I've mentioned from that time, the Hermits could actually fill an album with real "greatest hits". Scary, since one of them is inevitably "I'm Henry VIII, I Am". No Sam!
Herman and friends often found themselves in the van-bombing CD collection, though they appear frequently enough on oldies radio that putting the disc in the changer was a bit redundant.
House of Pain - completely out-of-genre for today's post, it seems, we have a dash of rap/hip-hop/hard rock. I know them best from my brother's comically-censored tape of whatever album was so popular... Put on your fish kickers and kick some fish!
That was unexciting; any contributions?
21 March 2009
isn't many...
An inkling of I*.
Imogen Heap - solo work from the front [wo]man of Frou Frou. If Frou Frou is indie, this is indie squared. She uses some neat vocal effects, and the songs are catchy and well-written. I know this isn't typical jlink fare, but it's easily worth a listen. Thanks, Kyle!
Incubus - ahh, the complex beast that is Incubus. Where to start? They generally use standard rock band git-bass-drums-vocals instrumentation, plus a quite masterful DJ scratching along. The guitar dude also plays some bizarre stuff every now and then - is that the lute on Morning View? Bonus points for citing Primus as one of their major influences!
Further, recog to the front man for mastering the "front man dance"; you know, that stuff lead singers do when they're not lead singing... It's a fine line between standing there like a moron and prancing around or whatever, also like a moron, but he's got it down.
I like their early stuff, i.e. S.C.I.E.N.C.E., quite a lot. It's crazy, busy, fairly atonal, pretty funky, not serious at all... To be sure, there is some of this brand of Incubus on every album, but it's more present in their early stages. I also like the DJ madness found in songs like "Battlestar Scralatchtica" and "Magic Medicine". Furthermore, though they gradually drifted from "nuts" to "pleasant", I was pleased with their general return to craziness on A Crow Left of the Murder... - see "Priceless".
Unfortunately, I'm a bit bummed with Morning View and Light Grenades. Morning View is almost completely devoid of atonal insanity, and, while there are a few wild tracks (the title track) and some viciously clever lyrics ("Quicksand"!), Light Grenades is also overly sane. Oh well.
In summary, A+ here! Plus extra credit for being permanently attached to my friend Dr. Mandenstein. Go ahead and rip me apart, Miss H.
Iron Butterfly - "In a gadda da vida, baby, don't you know that I" have no clue what you're talking about. A mention not for creating a catchy, popular song, but for making that song seventeen minutes long.
Isaac Hayes - a tough guy of R&B/soul and the occasional megafunk (the theme from "Shaft"), akin to Barry White... Whose vast collection of grooves is completely overshadowed by his role (and abandonment thereof) as Chef on South Park. Fair trade. Hello there, children!
Add as necessary!
Imogen Heap - solo work from the front [wo]man of Frou Frou. If Frou Frou is indie, this is indie squared. She uses some neat vocal effects, and the songs are catchy and well-written. I know this isn't typical jlink fare, but it's easily worth a listen. Thanks, Kyle!
Incubus - ahh, the complex beast that is Incubus. Where to start? They generally use standard rock band git-bass-drums-vocals instrumentation, plus a quite masterful DJ scratching along. The guitar dude also plays some bizarre stuff every now and then - is that the lute on Morning View? Bonus points for citing Primus as one of their major influences!
Further, recog to the front man for mastering the "front man dance"; you know, that stuff lead singers do when they're not lead singing... It's a fine line between standing there like a moron and prancing around or whatever, also like a moron, but he's got it down.
I like their early stuff, i.e. S.C.I.E.N.C.E., quite a lot. It's crazy, busy, fairly atonal, pretty funky, not serious at all... To be sure, there is some of this brand of Incubus on every album, but it's more present in their early stages. I also like the DJ madness found in songs like "Battlestar Scralatchtica" and "Magic Medicine". Furthermore, though they gradually drifted from "nuts" to "pleasant", I was pleased with their general return to craziness on A Crow Left of the Murder... - see "Priceless".
Unfortunately, I'm a bit bummed with Morning View and Light Grenades. Morning View is almost completely devoid of atonal insanity, and, while there are a few wild tracks (the title track) and some viciously clever lyrics ("Quicksand"!), Light Grenades is also overly sane. Oh well.
In summary, A+ here! Plus extra credit for being permanently attached to my friend Dr. Mandenstein. Go ahead and rip me apart, Miss H.
Iron Butterfly - "In a gadda da vida, baby, don't you know that I" have no clue what you're talking about. A mention not for creating a catchy, popular song, but for making that song seventeen minutes long.
Isaac Hayes - a tough guy of R&B/soul and the occasional megafunk (the theme from "Shaft"), akin to Barry White... Whose vast collection of grooves is completely overshadowed by his role (and abandonment thereof) as Chef on South Park. Fair trade. Hello there, children!
Add as necessary!
20 March 2009
just a few
Hey pals! Today's pretty brief - most of the J* artists I pulled out are from what you might call "a little before my time", and I don't feel right saying much. It seems as though people assume I'm somehow magically an expert on everyone I mention, but I know nothing compared to most of you when it comes to the true rock era. Ha ha, you're old ;-)
The Jackson 5 - hmmm... Better than any of them solo? Who knows. If so, blame it on the boogie.
Jaco Pastorius - maybe partially responsible for the start of fusion jazz? He played bass for Weather Report for a while, among others, but I prefer his crazy "solo" work, by far.
A little back story: Jaco was, surprise, a bass player. His defining moment to me was prying the metal frets out of his electric bass and smoothing out the fretboard, making his own fretless bass (that he slowly destroyed over the span of his career). That's hardcore. He borderline abused the slidey tricks available without frets, as everyone should, but he was also ridiculously good at the technicalities of jazz, as well as a master at complicated harmonics (see "Portrait of Tracy").
Anyway, I guess that pretty well describes his music style. With the "help" of lots of drugs, he made some impressive, mind-bending sounds, and has no doubt inspired the destruction of many a bass guitar.
I remember trying to learn some Jaco songs - after all, my first bass was indeed a fretless (mostly Les' fault). Let me summarize by clarifying further: wow, he was good.
Jalopy Art Murder - continuing the "John's cronies" series, j-a-m is another Emily creation. This won't help at all, but it sounds kind of like a cross between Portishead and CocoRosie... Find them/her on MySpace. I have some skilled friends.
James Brown - one of the original nonsense yellers! He might qualify as a foundation of funk, but I'm not so sure. He's famous for 1) cranking out an endless supply of hits, 2) being a total jerk. But, what would the world be like if he hadn't kicked Bootsy Collins out of his band??
Janis Joplin - raspy ole Janis. I'll give her credit for being one of the most famous protesty folkers. Someone please get her a Benz already.
Also, was she the first to do "Me and Bobby McGee"? Or was it bizarro country master Roger Miller?
Jay and the Americans - come a little bit closer, there, Jose. What a weird song. Why did he run through the window? What kind of cafe is this?? Is Jay implying he's not American??? Oldies are awesome. That song ("Come a Little Bit Closer", their only hit that I know of) was definitely a van staple.
Jerry Lee Lewis - goodness gracious, another in the van bombing soundtrack.
Or, as Robot Chicken would say in a Flintstones parody, "my goodness cretaceous!"
Jerry Reed - to those my age, Mr. Reed is probably only known for "Amos Moses", if that... Yay, early bluegrass. Reminds me of Charlie Daniels quite a bit, except more humorous. Make it count, son!
Bonus for Primus covering the aforementioned "hit", and bonus bonus for having the Primus cover be somehow less funny.
Jethro Tull - classic/prog rockers responsible for Aqualung, a pile of other not-so-popular albums, and their ubiquitous flute lead. Though we think highlighting the flute is an odd thing to do in current "rock", it was even further out there in the Tull days... Thanks for clearing a path for Karl Denson, I guess? Rather, thanks for pushing multiple envelopes at once.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - speaking of envelope-pushing, here you go! There's nothing I can say to do Jimi justice. Some of the best musicians are lefties, eh?
John Williams - composer extraordinaire. Overlooking the vast majority of his work, I give him infinite credit for creating hours of instantly-recognizable music for the Star Wars movies; fans intrinsically know their entire soundtracks, but even Star Wars haters (or the completely SW-agnostic) are familiar with the various themes.
On top of the infinite credit already earned, tack on some extra for leading me to waste hours on the piano and xylophone learning the "Cantina Band" music, and a bit more for inspiring Buckethead to do the same on the gee-tar. Time well spent.
Johnny Cash - ick! Go find his cover of The Beatles' "In My Life" and Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt". Hurt, indeed.
Johnny Rivers - mostly known for "Secret Agent Man", but also a high profile victim of the rockin' pneumonia... Both of those earned permanent spots in the van CD changer, to be ruined by a crowd of high schoolers for years.
Your turn! I'm waiting for some killer Hendrix stories. Hand 'em over.
The Jackson 5 - hmmm... Better than any of them solo? Who knows. If so, blame it on the boogie.
Jaco Pastorius - maybe partially responsible for the start of fusion jazz? He played bass for Weather Report for a while, among others, but I prefer his crazy "solo" work, by far.
A little back story: Jaco was, surprise, a bass player. His defining moment to me was prying the metal frets out of his electric bass and smoothing out the fretboard, making his own fretless bass (that he slowly destroyed over the span of his career). That's hardcore. He borderline abused the slidey tricks available without frets, as everyone should, but he was also ridiculously good at the technicalities of jazz, as well as a master at complicated harmonics (see "Portrait of Tracy").
Anyway, I guess that pretty well describes his music style. With the "help" of lots of drugs, he made some impressive, mind-bending sounds, and has no doubt inspired the destruction of many a bass guitar.
I remember trying to learn some Jaco songs - after all, my first bass was indeed a fretless (mostly Les' fault). Let me summarize by clarifying further: wow, he was good.
Jalopy Art Murder - continuing the "John's cronies" series, j-a-m is another Emily creation. This won't help at all, but it sounds kind of like a cross between Portishead and CocoRosie... Find them/her on MySpace. I have some skilled friends.
James Brown - one of the original nonsense yellers! He might qualify as a foundation of funk, but I'm not so sure. He's famous for 1) cranking out an endless supply of hits, 2) being a total jerk. But, what would the world be like if he hadn't kicked Bootsy Collins out of his band??
Janis Joplin - raspy ole Janis. I'll give her credit for being one of the most famous protesty folkers. Someone please get her a Benz already.
Also, was she the first to do "Me and Bobby McGee"? Or was it bizarro country master Roger Miller?
Jay and the Americans - come a little bit closer, there, Jose. What a weird song. Why did he run through the window? What kind of cafe is this?? Is Jay implying he's not American??? Oldies are awesome. That song ("Come a Little Bit Closer", their only hit that I know of) was definitely a van staple.
Jerry Lee Lewis - goodness gracious, another in the van bombing soundtrack.
Or, as Robot Chicken would say in a Flintstones parody, "my goodness cretaceous!"
Jerry Reed - to those my age, Mr. Reed is probably only known for "Amos Moses", if that... Yay, early bluegrass. Reminds me of Charlie Daniels quite a bit, except more humorous. Make it count, son!
Bonus for Primus covering the aforementioned "hit", and bonus bonus for having the Primus cover be somehow less funny.
Jethro Tull - classic/prog rockers responsible for Aqualung, a pile of other not-so-popular albums, and their ubiquitous flute lead. Though we think highlighting the flute is an odd thing to do in current "rock", it was even further out there in the Tull days... Thanks for clearing a path for Karl Denson, I guess? Rather, thanks for pushing multiple envelopes at once.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - speaking of envelope-pushing, here you go! There's nothing I can say to do Jimi justice. Some of the best musicians are lefties, eh?
John Williams - composer extraordinaire. Overlooking the vast majority of his work, I give him infinite credit for creating hours of instantly-recognizable music for the Star Wars movies; fans intrinsically know their entire soundtracks, but even Star Wars haters (or the completely SW-agnostic) are familiar with the various themes.
On top of the infinite credit already earned, tack on some extra for leading me to waste hours on the piano and xylophone learning the "Cantina Band" music, and a bit more for inspiring Buckethead to do the same on the gee-tar. Time well spent.
Johnny Cash - ick! Go find his cover of The Beatles' "In My Life" and Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt". Hurt, indeed.
Johnny Rivers - mostly known for "Secret Agent Man", but also a high profile victim of the rockin' pneumonia... Both of those earned permanent spots in the van CD changer, to be ruined by a crowd of high schoolers for years.
Your turn! I'm waiting for some killer Hendrix stories. Hand 'em over.
19 March 2009
kickin' krews
You have no idea how hard it is for me not to substitute a k for each q and hard c in this post, rendering it kwite kompletely inkomprehensible. Let's get Kraken!
Karl Denson's Tiny Universe - light, yet groovy "prog jazz"? They're notable to me because of their combination of a fairly typical jazz ensemble with copious DJ scratch action and a lead... flute! I don't know if you can "shred" on such an instrument, but if not, this is as close as it gets. Anyway, this is really fun, happy (meaning lots of major thirds), maybe even danceable stuff. Extra credit for "touring" alongside Les Claypool on part of the Jam Cruise series.
KGC - that's Sascha Konietsko (KMFDM and anything related), Dean Garcia (Curve), and Lucia Cifarelli (KMFDM, Drill). They made a very industrial album in 2006. As with anything so closely associated with my brother, I hope you dislike it so I don't have to share.
Kiss - yeah, you know 'em. Well, aside from "Rock and Roll All Night", most of their songs aren't immediately recognizable. However, their face paint, crazy hair, and Gene Simmons' tongue are instantly familiar. There aren't too many groups out there with that backwards identity of ubiquitous members and thoroughly non-ubiquitous tunes. Nice work, rock stars.
Kling Klang - "experimental rock", they claim to be? Whatever that is. The band consists of a bunch of guys on synthesizer, as well as - of all instruments to be not synthesized - a drummer. You might correctly guess from the name that their music is heavy on noise, but when they're being musical, it sounds like a distorted classical organ quartet (plus drums, of course). They're not the easiest listening out there, though I think normal people could tolerate. Mad props for opening for Portishead in 2008.
KMFDM - the father(s) of industrial rock. Also my brother's favorite band/obsession (if you remember your analogy notation, that's "John:Les Claypool::Tim:KMFDM"), so feel free not to like, such that a select few of us can keep them to ourselves.
They recognized Tim on sight, and even figured out who I was when we saw them in Cleveland, November 2004. Speaking of, here is a happy brother:
The Knack - o-o-of "My Sharona" fame. I could not care less about anything else they produced; I would buy a CD with 14 repeats of that song (16 if it's an 80-min disc). It's dumb, it's repetitive, a flock of kindergarteners could've written and played it, and I love it.
Yes, I'm that pathetic.
Kool & The Gang - also most well-known for a dumb, catchy song, "Jungle Boogie". eek. To their credit, they started out as a very pure, deft jazz group before being sucked into the funk/disco black hole of 70's pop. Hunt down "Summer Madness", among others. Thanks to Nate for exposure to their early jazz style.
Korn - ok, so I'm not a true Korn fan, but I am a huge fan of "Freak on a Leash", which starts out like a normal metalish Korn ditty, but about halfway through devolves into massive bass and frightening, completely nonsensical noises yelled by their main vocalist. Noise and bass seem to be keys to my musical heart, so this is a two-for-one deal!
If I recall correctly, the song also had a pretty cool "bullet time" video - ha ha, remember when MTV actually played music?
Krev Kor - another one of jl's musical friends. We clocked some hours noodling around in Bill's basement back in the day. He didn't even bother tuning his guitar. It was delicious.
That's it from me - your K submissions, please?
Karl Denson's Tiny Universe - light, yet groovy "prog jazz"? They're notable to me because of their combination of a fairly typical jazz ensemble with copious DJ scratch action and a lead... flute! I don't know if you can "shred" on such an instrument, but if not, this is as close as it gets. Anyway, this is really fun, happy (meaning lots of major thirds), maybe even danceable stuff. Extra credit for "touring" alongside Les Claypool on part of the Jam Cruise series.
KGC - that's Sascha Konietsko (KMFDM and anything related), Dean Garcia (Curve), and Lucia Cifarelli (KMFDM, Drill). They made a very industrial album in 2006. As with anything so closely associated with my brother, I hope you dislike it so I don't have to share.
Kiss - yeah, you know 'em. Well, aside from "Rock and Roll All Night", most of their songs aren't immediately recognizable. However, their face paint, crazy hair, and Gene Simmons' tongue are instantly familiar. There aren't too many groups out there with that backwards identity of ubiquitous members and thoroughly non-ubiquitous tunes. Nice work, rock stars.
Kling Klang - "experimental rock", they claim to be? Whatever that is. The band consists of a bunch of guys on synthesizer, as well as - of all instruments to be not synthesized - a drummer. You might correctly guess from the name that their music is heavy on noise, but when they're being musical, it sounds like a distorted classical organ quartet (plus drums, of course). They're not the easiest listening out there, though I think normal people could tolerate. Mad props for opening for Portishead in 2008.
KMFDM - the father(s) of industrial rock. Also my brother's favorite band/obsession (if you remember your analogy notation, that's "John:Les Claypool::Tim:KMFDM"), so feel free not to like, such that a select few of us can keep them to ourselves.
They recognized Tim on sight, and even figured out who I was when we saw them in Cleveland, November 2004. Speaking of, here is a happy brother:
The Knack - o-o-of "My Sharona" fame. I could not care less about anything else they produced; I would buy a CD with 14 repeats of that song (16 if it's an 80-min disc). It's dumb, it's repetitive, a flock of kindergarteners could've written and played it, and I love it.
Yes, I'm that pathetic.
Kool & The Gang - also most well-known for a dumb, catchy song, "Jungle Boogie". eek. To their credit, they started out as a very pure, deft jazz group before being sucked into the funk/disco black hole of 70's pop. Hunt down "Summer Madness", among others. Thanks to Nate for exposure to their early jazz style.
Korn - ok, so I'm not a true Korn fan, but I am a huge fan of "Freak on a Leash", which starts out like a normal metalish Korn ditty, but about halfway through devolves into massive bass and frightening, completely nonsensical noises yelled by their main vocalist. Noise and bass seem to be keys to my musical heart, so this is a two-for-one deal!
If I recall correctly, the song also had a pretty cool "bullet time" video - ha ha, remember when MTV actually played music?
Krev Kor - another one of jl's musical friends. We clocked some hours noodling around in Bill's basement back in the day. He didn't even bother tuning his guitar. It was delicious.
That's it from me - your K submissions, please?
18 March 2009
les is mor
Here goes...
Lamb of God - overly unintelligible-screamy metal. Ergo, their studio material isn't the most interesting shredding out there. However, one of their live albums, cheerfully named Killadelphia, is great. It sounds like they're pretty talented all around in the live setting, and the screaming is even slightly less incomprehensible! Most importantly, just like Pantera's concert recording 101 Proof, the 'tween-song interstitial commentary is a riot. Duh, none of it is appropriate for quoting here, but let it be known that the most frightening metalheads are intelligent, funny, normal people too. Sort of.
Laura Fleming - a college friend with an album out! I'm beyond jealous. Check her/it out on that giant digital music store, or appreciate high quality music and get the real thing.
Le Tigre - mmm, anti-folk/indie-something/???, whatever genre you feel like at the time. I enjoy what appear to be interspersed recordings from feminist protests. No, not musical performances at protests, just protesting. [compound sentence fragment!] Truly riotous.
Led Zeppelin - a pillar in my musical Pantheon, and a muscle of the Atlas carrying classic rock. Insert other analogies as necessary.
On that note, I've been disappointed lately upon discovering that a rather large heap of Zep songs are covers. For the longest time, I was under the impression that these guys were magical with absolutely every aspect of music (sure, every artist covers Bob Dylan at some point)... Turns out that some of my favorites that I thought were pure Led Zeppelin are nearly exact covers. Sadface. I'm not going to list any because having the wool pulled over my eyes was much better than knowing the facts, so spoiling Led Utopia is your decision.
To their credit, they covered sufficiently obscure songs that even music dorks like me don't catch them right away, though this may be different for people who were around a few years earlier than I. Also, Jimmy Page + anything = amazing.
Led Zeppelin IV aka Zoso aka Symbols aka The One With Stairway To Heaven was the first non-kiddie CD in my collection (long after my Nirvana tape died, if you were paying attention)... Houses of The Holy was the second. HOTH (not the planet) is still one of the most common players in my library. These discs accompanied me on every fresh/soph basketball bus ride, back in that strange world where I hadn't heard of Primus yet. They were probably better days, eh?
---Les at the end!---
Lightning Bolt - rare bass-focused metalish stuff. From the assortment of people I've interrogated about the Bolt, I gather that only bassists like it. Prove me wrong!
Liquid Tension Experiment - part of the quasi prog rock sleep music arsenal. Their technical skills are a bit sleep-distracting, though.
Liszt - ha, another classical composer! Surprise. Liszt earns a mention several times over. As is almost mandatory, he focused on piano work. Further in that direction, [I assume that] he was possibly the most skilled ivory-wailer in existence: note that much of his work that he would play solo, i.e. the Hungarian Rhapsodies, appears in still-difficult duet form today. For that matter, note Hungarian Rhapsody #2 again, which you know from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Finally, observe his wide variety of "evil" compositions; he wrote all sorts of Faust-related stuff, as well as the funeral dirge. Yum.
Loggins and Messina - because once upon a time, mothers didn't dance, and fathers neither rocked nor rolled.
Louis Armstrong - quite sufficiently famous trumpeter and growly crooner, such that I need not elaborate. Louis and Ella Fitzgerald tagged to create some monster jazz, too.
Louis Jordan - beans. Cornbread. Repeat.
Louis Prima - points for cranking out some impressive jazz, even though people only care about his role as the orangutan in Disney's "The Jungle Book" cartoon movie...
The Lovin' Spoonful - did you ever have to make up your mind? Do you believe in magic? They sure asked a lot of catchy questions.
Ludacris - also rare on the radar, here comes some more rap. I quite dig the constant humor (gasp, wit!), as well as his technical skill at simply cranking out English clearly and quickly. Of course, there's the offensive tax, but that's part of the comedy; such is the same with regard to the brag quotient. Take it as you will/must, I suppose.
Les Claypool ["solo"] - hmmm... Purple Onion has rewritten my life. That's a pretty good summary.
Way too many stories to shoehorn into this space. Maybe I'll dodge the task with a photo or two? You can find a Claypool tale here just about any day...
Right-o, some whamola. Fancy Band, June 2007, courtesy of the blurry Treo.
Have I mentioned a million times yet that we killed time after that show?
And that he signed my sixer? Ahoy!
Finally, a gorgeously blurry shot from the darkness of the show LAST NIGHT.
PS, that's my excuse for such a poor post today. Rocket.
Lamb of God - overly unintelligible-screamy metal. Ergo, their studio material isn't the most interesting shredding out there. However, one of their live albums, cheerfully named Killadelphia, is great. It sounds like they're pretty talented all around in the live setting, and the screaming is even slightly less incomprehensible! Most importantly, just like Pantera's concert recording 101 Proof, the 'tween-song interstitial commentary is a riot. Duh, none of it is appropriate for quoting here, but let it be known that the most frightening metalheads are intelligent, funny, normal people too. Sort of.
Laura Fleming - a college friend with an album out! I'm beyond jealous. Check her/it out on that giant digital music store, or appreciate high quality music and get the real thing.
Le Tigre - mmm, anti-folk/indie-something/???, whatever genre you feel like at the time. I enjoy what appear to be interspersed recordings from feminist protests. No, not musical performances at protests, just protesting. [compound sentence fragment!] Truly riotous.
Led Zeppelin - a pillar in my musical Pantheon, and a muscle of the Atlas carrying classic rock. Insert other analogies as necessary.
On that note, I've been disappointed lately upon discovering that a rather large heap of Zep songs are covers. For the longest time, I was under the impression that these guys were magical with absolutely every aspect of music (sure, every artist covers Bob Dylan at some point)... Turns out that some of my favorites that I thought were pure Led Zeppelin are nearly exact covers. Sadface. I'm not going to list any because having the wool pulled over my eyes was much better than knowing the facts, so spoiling Led Utopia is your decision.
To their credit, they covered sufficiently obscure songs that even music dorks like me don't catch them right away, though this may be different for people who were around a few years earlier than I. Also, Jimmy Page + anything = amazing.
Led Zeppelin IV aka Zoso aka Symbols aka The One With Stairway To Heaven was the first non-kiddie CD in my collection (long after my Nirvana tape died, if you were paying attention)... Houses of The Holy was the second. HOTH (not the planet) is still one of the most common players in my library. These discs accompanied me on every fresh/soph basketball bus ride, back in that strange world where I hadn't heard of Primus yet. They were probably better days, eh?
---Les at the end!---
Lightning Bolt - rare bass-focused metalish stuff. From the assortment of people I've interrogated about the Bolt, I gather that only bassists like it. Prove me wrong!
Liquid Tension Experiment - part of the quasi prog rock sleep music arsenal. Their technical skills are a bit sleep-distracting, though.
Liszt - ha, another classical composer! Surprise. Liszt earns a mention several times over. As is almost mandatory, he focused on piano work. Further in that direction, [I assume that] he was possibly the most skilled ivory-wailer in existence: note that much of his work that he would play solo, i.e. the Hungarian Rhapsodies, appears in still-difficult duet form today. For that matter, note Hungarian Rhapsody #2 again, which you know from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Finally, observe his wide variety of "evil" compositions; he wrote all sorts of Faust-related stuff, as well as the funeral dirge. Yum.
Loggins and Messina - because once upon a time, mothers didn't dance, and fathers neither rocked nor rolled.
Louis Armstrong - quite sufficiently famous trumpeter and growly crooner, such that I need not elaborate. Louis and Ella Fitzgerald tagged to create some monster jazz, too.
Louis Jordan - beans. Cornbread. Repeat.
Louis Prima - points for cranking out some impressive jazz, even though people only care about his role as the orangutan in Disney's "The Jungle Book" cartoon movie...
The Lovin' Spoonful - did you ever have to make up your mind? Do you believe in magic? They sure asked a lot of catchy questions.
Ludacris - also rare on the radar, here comes some more rap. I quite dig the constant humor (gasp, wit!), as well as his technical skill at simply cranking out English clearly and quickly. Of course, there's the offensive tax, but that's part of the comedy; such is the same with regard to the brag quotient. Take it as you will/must, I suppose.
Les Claypool ["solo"] - hmmm... Purple Onion has rewritten my life. That's a pretty good summary.
Way too many stories to shoehorn into this space. Maybe I'll dodge the task with a photo or two? You can find a Claypool tale here just about any day...
Right-o, some whamola. Fancy Band, June 2007, courtesy of the blurry Treo.
Have I mentioned a million times yet that we killed time after that show?
And that he signed my sixer? Ahoy!
Finally, a gorgeously blurry shot from the darkness of the show LAST NIGHT.
PS, that's my excuse for such a poor post today. Rocket.
17 March 2009
mucho ahora.
Evidence that my posts are time-shifted...
MAN Incorporated - a fairly unhappy guy with a kick drum, a bass guitar, and a large stash of four-letter words. He'll gladly tear anything and everything apart. The sound is as basic/simple as you can get and probably counts as "punk", but he does some entertaining vocal stuff while he's talkyellsinging about whatever is making him mad at the moment. You might have gathered by now that he's far away from fam-friendly.
Manu Chao - mostly non-English multi-genre music, stealthily about drugs most of the time. In one of the rare Eng-lang songs, their lead singer claims to be the king of the bongo?? I don't think any of their songs are truly serious, but, though I know it's mostly Spanish, their accents are thick enough that I rarely catch unas palabras.
Marcus Miller - another slap-n-pop bassmaster. He has been known to duet with Victor Wooten, combining to make way more bass noises than most can grasp.
Marilyn Manson - oh no, another sort-of-popular artist? I particularly like his crunchy guitar songs like "Wormboy" and "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" - in fact, I'm surprised at how much of his arsenal I truly do enjoy, and watching him live is thoroughly entertaining. However, it's still predominantly not that great. Further, it doesn't really matter what I say, because everyone dismisses him as some Satanic baby-eater anyway.
Marvin Gaye - my all-time favorite soul-based funk artist. Four words: "Let's Get It On".
Talk about a van classic!
Matheatre - so a guy with a master's in math ed and his pal create "Calculus: The Musical". The songs are all mathematical rewrites of famous numbers ;-) To name a few:
"Five Sizes of Number" (Beatles - "In My Life")
"Differentiabul" (most well-known is They Might Be Giants - "Istanbul")
"Without Riemann" (Eminem - "Without Me")
They're not the most in-tune singers out there, but the songs are great memorization tools and downright catchy. I didn't get to see the show; Tim and Steph caught it out west and got me the CD. Yessir, I am a nerd. Sing along with the main part of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)":
f of x plus h minus f of x
all over h as h drops to zero
is the formula to find the derivative
to find the slope at one point
you'll never forget.
Maynard Ferguson - trumpet machine! Maybe I'm a dork, but works like "Gospel John" were some of my favorites in high school pep band and jazz band. He also did some fantastic trumpetized versions of songs from all across the genre universe, such as "Spinning Wheel", "As Time Goes By", "Chameleon", and even "MacArthur Park" and a Star Wars medley. On the trumpet, there are average notes, there are high notes, there are ridiculous notes, and past all of those, there are Maynard notes.
MDFMK - as you might guess, this was a one-album side project from the people of KMFDM. I'm pretty sure this was my bro's favorite album in existence, and I hope you hate it so I don't have to share. I only ask, "do you know who owns and controls the station you're watching? Does the truth you know rely on something? Does it matter?"
Meat Beat Manifesto - very very VERY bass-heavy electronica. Strange and not dance-friendly. Thanks, Tim!
Medeski, Martin and Wood - low-pressure jam/funk/bluegrass. They gots da musical skilz. Have a listen, and find Nate for stories.
Melt-Banana - Japanese girl singing/rapping/yipping nonsense over cleverly bizarre and catchy noise guitar. She sounds like a little toy-dog barking, and I love it. The best "songs" weigh in between ten seconds and a minute thirty, named something random like "Chicken Headed Raccoon Dog" or "Flash Cube, Or Eyeball". Very huh?-inducing, which appears to me my kind of noise.
Men Without Hats - can spell "safety". Everyone look at your hands.
Metallica - surprisingly enough, I am not that familiar! I did listen to "the black album" on a daily basis way back when, but fans won't appreciate that. Stuff before that disc was/is comical to me because of Lars' attempt to be a drummer... Then again, everything after that album is Lars-humorous too.
The Meters - yet another funkdamental, though they're a bit less structured/more jam-bandy than Parliament. For bonus points, Primus covered their delicious mini-jam "Tippi-Toes" on the Miscellaneous Debris EP.
Michael Jackson - "the king of pop"... Whoop dee doo.
Michael Manring - bends minds with his bass guitars. I can't tell a whole lot just from listening, but it's obvious that he likes alternate tunings and hates common chords. Beyond that, go listen!
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - ska legends with a sound closer to rock than the Reel Big Fish brand thereof. Horns sadly take a back seat to guitar-bass-drums most of the time, though there is the occasional brass 'n' sax job. The lead singer's signature voice is deep and raspy - again, much different (and easier to fake) than the way-tenor vocals coming out of pretty much everyone in RBF. They have quite the collection, but the only one Average Joe might recognize is "The Impression That I Get", aka the one about knocking on wood.
Those guys from Six Ways covered a pile of Bosstones ditties, from the aforementioned "Impression" to "The Rascal King" to "You Gotta Go"... Merrily mutilating lyrics as necessary.
Ming & FS - on their own, or as friends of DJ Soul Slinger. They find some of the best samples in the real world: "is there honey in that box?", asks Winnie the Pooh over and over. Riiight.
Ministry - maybe industrial? Mostly just really fast guitar with truly creepy samples and occasionally comprehensible vocals. "...There was only one thing that I could do [...] was dinga ding dang my dangalong ling long." That's as clean as it gets.
The Misfits - punk punk punk! Real punk, though, from some of the originals. Dig it.
The Monkees - "hey hey, we're" catchy, but not quite up to par with The Beatles, and Neil Diamond wrote most of our songs...
Morphine - grungelicious, but not the same grunge as Nirvana. To start, they were a bari sax, drummer, and magical bassist Mark Sandman; note the lack of guitar. Then the music was very much groove-oriented, with wonderfully gritty/honky sax, tight drums, and Mark's unique slide bass and baritone vocals.
Mark played some tantalizing bass riffs. He used a normal bass guitar, but with just two strings, usually tuned to the same note. He also used a slide on his fretting hand, bending from note to note to make music with mandatory foot-tapping. To top it all off, he sang through an old-school bullet mic, combining with his deep voice to make an amazing timbre. It's just plain gorgeous.
Mr. Sandman died of a heart attack on stage at a concert in Italy.
Whose fault is it that I've been so addicted to Morphine (pun intended)? Is it Jo's, because she is related to Mr. Sandman? Is it Nate's, for first playing their music for me? Or could it be Les Claypool's, as he uses a bullet mic for effect, explicitly as a tribute to the Sandman? The world may never know.
Mothers of Invention - coming early in the chronological encyclopedia of weird. They were skilled, though, which doesn't always go along with weird. I can't really explain; just dream up a co-op between Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, then call a vegetable. Any vegetable!
Mötley Crüe - worth mentioning twice, for two umlauts! And by that I mean worth not mentioning at all. They are/were indeed megafamous glam rockers, but I think Tommy Lee wins for trumping his Crüe fame by doing something else - precisely, "something", ali! He's the one they call Dr. Feelgood.
Motörhead - by the umlaut metric, only half as good as the Mötley ones, and on par with Björk. Hmmmm, maybe I need a different scale of band quality.
I don't have much to say about Motörhead, but I do have something to say about accented characters. Since I write these posts in HTML in a text editor (PSPad in Windows, Kate in Linux, FYI) and then paste into the online Blogger interface, I have to use code to make accents. It makes words with accents impossible to read - forex, Björk is spelled "B j & o u m l ; r k" (without the spaces). What's sad is that I've memorized all of the useful ones. Nerrrrrrd! Anyway, back to music stuff.
Mr. Bungle - pure oddity, with ska-like instrumentation. They're really talented musicians; however, what comes out is mind-boggling. The lyrics are mostly gibberish, but at the show my bro saw, they did the whole thing - including covers of pop songs - in Italian. Nuts.
Mr. Oizo - irritating, crunchy, lo-fi electronica. Few enjoy these gritty "beats". That's about it.
Muddy Waters - big name jazzster, whom I mention just to clarify that there is also a bar/restaurant in the STL area with the same name, and that my shirt is sadly from the bar, not the musician. (Rather, the shirt is from a thrift store, but once upon a time came from the restaurant.)
You're not having as much fun as I am right now.
MAN Incorporated - a fairly unhappy guy with a kick drum, a bass guitar, and a large stash of four-letter words. He'll gladly tear anything and everything apart. The sound is as basic/simple as you can get and probably counts as "punk", but he does some entertaining vocal stuff while he's talkyellsinging about whatever is making him mad at the moment. You might have gathered by now that he's far away from fam-friendly.
Manu Chao - mostly non-English multi-genre music, stealthily about drugs most of the time. In one of the rare Eng-lang songs, their lead singer claims to be the king of the bongo?? I don't think any of their songs are truly serious, but, though I know it's mostly Spanish, their accents are thick enough that I rarely catch unas palabras.
Marcus Miller - another slap-n-pop bassmaster. He has been known to duet with Victor Wooten, combining to make way more bass noises than most can grasp.
Marilyn Manson - oh no, another sort-of-popular artist? I particularly like his crunchy guitar songs like "Wormboy" and "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" - in fact, I'm surprised at how much of his arsenal I truly do enjoy, and watching him live is thoroughly entertaining. However, it's still predominantly not that great. Further, it doesn't really matter what I say, because everyone dismisses him as some Satanic baby-eater anyway.
Marvin Gaye - my all-time favorite soul-based funk artist. Four words: "Let's Get It On".
Talk about a van classic!
Matheatre - so a guy with a master's in math ed and his pal create "Calculus: The Musical". The songs are all mathematical rewrites of famous numbers ;-) To name a few:
"Five Sizes of Number" (Beatles - "In My Life")
"Differentiabul" (most well-known is They Might Be Giants - "Istanbul")
"Without Riemann" (Eminem - "Without Me")
They're not the most in-tune singers out there, but the songs are great memorization tools and downright catchy. I didn't get to see the show; Tim and Steph caught it out west and got me the CD. Yessir, I am a nerd. Sing along with the main part of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)":
f of x plus h minus f of x
all over h as h drops to zero
is the formula to find the derivative
to find the slope at one point
you'll never forget.
Maynard Ferguson - trumpet machine! Maybe I'm a dork, but works like "Gospel John" were some of my favorites in high school pep band and jazz band. He also did some fantastic trumpetized versions of songs from all across the genre universe, such as "Spinning Wheel", "As Time Goes By", "Chameleon", and even "MacArthur Park" and a Star Wars medley. On the trumpet, there are average notes, there are high notes, there are ridiculous notes, and past all of those, there are Maynard notes.
MDFMK - as you might guess, this was a one-album side project from the people of KMFDM. I'm pretty sure this was my bro's favorite album in existence, and I hope you hate it so I don't have to share. I only ask, "do you know who owns and controls the station you're watching? Does the truth you know rely on something? Does it matter?"
Meat Beat Manifesto - very very VERY bass-heavy electronica. Strange and not dance-friendly. Thanks, Tim!
Medeski, Martin and Wood - low-pressure jam/funk/bluegrass. They gots da musical skilz. Have a listen, and find Nate for stories.
Melt-Banana - Japanese girl singing/rapping/yipping nonsense over cleverly bizarre and catchy noise guitar. She sounds like a little toy-dog barking, and I love it. The best "songs" weigh in between ten seconds and a minute thirty, named something random like "Chicken Headed Raccoon Dog" or "Flash Cube, Or Eyeball". Very huh?-inducing, which appears to me my kind of noise.
Men Without Hats - can spell "safety". Everyone look at your hands.
Metallica - surprisingly enough, I am not that familiar! I did listen to "the black album" on a daily basis way back when, but fans won't appreciate that. Stuff before that disc was/is comical to me because of Lars' attempt to be a drummer... Then again, everything after that album is Lars-humorous too.
The Meters - yet another funkdamental, though they're a bit less structured/more jam-bandy than Parliament. For bonus points, Primus covered their delicious mini-jam "Tippi-Toes" on the Miscellaneous Debris EP.
Michael Jackson - "the king of pop"... Whoop dee doo.
Michael Manring - bends minds with his bass guitars. I can't tell a whole lot just from listening, but it's obvious that he likes alternate tunings and hates common chords. Beyond that, go listen!
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - ska legends with a sound closer to rock than the Reel Big Fish brand thereof. Horns sadly take a back seat to guitar-bass-drums most of the time, though there is the occasional brass 'n' sax job. The lead singer's signature voice is deep and raspy - again, much different (and easier to fake) than the way-tenor vocals coming out of pretty much everyone in RBF. They have quite the collection, but the only one Average Joe might recognize is "The Impression That I Get", aka the one about knocking on wood.
Those guys from Six Ways covered a pile of Bosstones ditties, from the aforementioned "Impression" to "The Rascal King" to "You Gotta Go"... Merrily mutilating lyrics as necessary.
Ming & FS - on their own, or as friends of DJ Soul Slinger. They find some of the best samples in the real world: "is there honey in that box?", asks Winnie the Pooh over and over. Riiight.
Ministry - maybe industrial? Mostly just really fast guitar with truly creepy samples and occasionally comprehensible vocals. "...There was only one thing that I could do [...] was dinga ding dang my dangalong ling long." That's as clean as it gets.
The Misfits - punk punk punk! Real punk, though, from some of the originals. Dig it.
The Monkees - "hey hey, we're" catchy, but not quite up to par with The Beatles, and Neil Diamond wrote most of our songs...
Morphine - grungelicious, but not the same grunge as Nirvana. To start, they were a bari sax, drummer, and magical bassist Mark Sandman; note the lack of guitar. Then the music was very much groove-oriented, with wonderfully gritty/honky sax, tight drums, and Mark's unique slide bass and baritone vocals.
Mark played some tantalizing bass riffs. He used a normal bass guitar, but with just two strings, usually tuned to the same note. He also used a slide on his fretting hand, bending from note to note to make music with mandatory foot-tapping. To top it all off, he sang through an old-school bullet mic, combining with his deep voice to make an amazing timbre. It's just plain gorgeous.
Mr. Sandman died of a heart attack on stage at a concert in Italy.
Whose fault is it that I've been so addicted to Morphine (pun intended)? Is it Jo's, because she is related to Mr. Sandman? Is it Nate's, for first playing their music for me? Or could it be Les Claypool's, as he uses a bullet mic for effect, explicitly as a tribute to the Sandman? The world may never know.
Mothers of Invention - coming early in the chronological encyclopedia of weird. They were skilled, though, which doesn't always go along with weird. I can't really explain; just dream up a co-op between Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart, then call a vegetable. Any vegetable!
Mötley Crüe - worth mentioning twice, for two umlauts! And by that I mean worth not mentioning at all. They are/were indeed megafamous glam rockers, but I think Tommy Lee wins for trumping his Crüe fame by doing something else - precisely, "something", ali! He's the one they call Dr. Feelgood.
Motörhead - by the umlaut metric, only half as good as the Mötley ones, and on par with Björk. Hmmmm, maybe I need a different scale of band quality.
I don't have much to say about Motörhead, but I do have something to say about accented characters. Since I write these posts in HTML in a text editor (PSPad in Windows, Kate in Linux, FYI) and then paste into the online Blogger interface, I have to use code to make accents. It makes words with accents impossible to read - forex, Björk is spelled "B j & o u m l ; r k" (without the spaces). What's sad is that I've memorized all of the useful ones. Nerrrrrrd! Anyway, back to music stuff.
Mr. Bungle - pure oddity, with ska-like instrumentation. They're really talented musicians; however, what comes out is mind-boggling. The lyrics are mostly gibberish, but at the show my bro saw, they did the whole thing - including covers of pop songs - in Italian. Nuts.
Mr. Oizo - irritating, crunchy, lo-fi electronica. Few enjoy these gritty "beats". That's about it.
Muddy Waters - big name jazzster, whom I mention just to clarify that there is also a bar/restaurant in the STL area with the same name, and that my shirt is sadly from the bar, not the musician. (Rather, the shirt is from a thrift store, but once upon a time came from the restaurant.)
You're not having as much fun as I am right now.
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