Re: Favorite Bands?
 

And who could forget...

Dave Kerman/5uu's
Thinking Plague
Yes
Jethro Tull
Set Fire to Flames

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Piano Magic
Mojave 3
Deuter
Miranda Sex Garden
Gentle Giant

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

I love Bohren & der Club of Gore...nothing like nihilistic jazz haha

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Yeah, they are quite a find. I know of nothing like them, but it's strange that I didn't find them "dark" or whatnot. I mean, I just couldn't identify the sound in that way, the way They said it would be. And those track titles on BLACK EARTH...would never have thought of 'em.

Anyway, that 250th post got me my coveted Chymist deisgnation, so allow me here another five acts (these all don't include classical and jazz)...

Art Zoyd
Bob Dylan (a genius to be sure)
Windsor for the Derby
Legendary Pink Dots
Sixteen Horsepower

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

"Bohren & der Club of Gore" ... wow, haven't listened to them since Black Earth came out! Very cool band. Plus, they look soooo freakin' German in all their promo shots... sort of like a jazz/beatnik Kraftwerk.

The LPDs are severely underrated and I'm surprised more people haven't discussed them on these boards. Like all the best "psychedelia," imo, they strike a good balance between darkness, humor, and a sense of wonder, plus many other shades, often all at the same time. I saw them 4 or 5 years ago and was also surprised by how good of a show they put on. Ka-Spel is pretty engaging and funny for a guy who skulks around the stage in sunglasses and a ratty bathrobe speaking with a rhotacism. ;)

Lots of other good bands listed there. I don't listen to "bands" as such very often these days (more of a dance music guy, so it's "producers" and their revolving-door session musicians,) but recently I've been playing stuff like King Crimson (In the Court...), Sly and the Family Stone, and John Cale's Paris 1919, to name a few. Good music is one of the only things that makes me feel that life is too short.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Saw Michael Gira in Toronto over a week ago. Before that I hadn't listened to any of his work for a few months and now I'm addicted again!

Aside from a couple Swans songs (God Damn the Sun and She Lives) he played three or four tracks slated to appear on the forthcoming Angels of Light album. This album is going to kill.

After witnessing Gira (whose voice is still so thunderous he doesn't need a mic) I think I've had it with a lot of these younger bands. Gira, Finn and Tibet have been doing their thing for decades and they've just gotten better. Can't say the same for, oh, well, Tool. Saw them last year and had a decent time, but the show was like a weekend out, drinking with friends. Sure, Firsday and Saturday night are fun when they happen, but Sunday morning arrives and you can read the bill and... it simply wasn't worth it.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

The following list of personal favorite bands should clearly show how varied my tastes in music are. The list will be kept as short as possible, but will unfold in a manner of stream-of-consciousness, so no preferred ordering should be discerned. The list will end when I feel I have mentioned all of my essential favorites. Here goes:

The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
The Mothers of Invention
Cream
Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd
The Doors
Jefferson Airplane
Roxy Music
The Tubes
Utopia
Pixies
The Stooges
MC5
Devo
Agent Orange
King Crimson
XTC
Wall of Voodoo
Ten Years After
The Kinks
The Moody Blues
Deep Purple
The B-52's
Talking Heads
The Allman Brothers Band
The Mahavishnu Orchestra
The Groundhogs
The Buzzcocks
Elvis Costello and the Attractions
The Cure
The Psychedelic Furs
The Clash
The Grateful Dead
U2
The Jam
Bauhaus
Magazine
Sly and the Family Stone
Electric Light Orchestra
Blue Cheer
The Blues Magoos
The The

And a handful of individuals whose work I find indispensable: Bob Dylan, Leon Thomas, David Bowie, Brian Eno, Neil Young, and the late great James Brown.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

I'm so old school that most of the people I like are dead. I know that a lot of my fellow networkers of nightmare are much younger than I, so it's a shame that you missed a chance to see the best performer of them all: Otis Redding. When he was touring with Booker T. and the MGs and the Mar Key Horns as his backup band (1966-1967) he was (and they with him, of course) the best. His albums never captured his genius for performing but the film "Monterey Pop" has a good section featuring this exact band.
All of the favorite bands listed in this thread are good choices, for the members of the Network are knowledgable folks, but I want to add one more name. He was a much more Ligottian type person than Otis, and he was great in a band and on his own as well. I am talking about Johnny Thunders. He was the most self-destructive himan being I ever met. (And that says a lot. I knew some of the Warhol Factory people as well way back when.) Still, on his own or in a band, I really enjoyed him.
The Patty Smith Band was really something as well, especially when they were just starting out. They put on an amazing show as well. I'm surpised that I have any hearing left today.
My favorite current band is called Stolen Babies. They're just getting started out here in Los Angeles. Thye can play and they can ROCK! Check out their cd, but try to see them live. They tour pretty regularly.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

With my tail between my legs, I'm bummed that I overlooked mentioning The New York Dolls. Thanks for the reminder, Mr. D. :o

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Don't feel bad. I forgot The Psychodelic furs and John Mahavishnu.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

...and John Cale's Paris 1919, to name a few. Good music is one of the only things that makes me feel that life is too short. --Ventriloquist

YES!! 1919 is lovely for the most part. He and Eno present one of the best pop albums ever with their collab WRONG WAY UP. And I love that thought of yours about life too short... I'm in total agreement, though about 10% of the time I also get touches of something I guess I'd call anhedonia.

Yes to Roxy, yes also to...the first Tears For Fears album!! And what a name for a band BTW. Arthur Janov suggested it to them when they were saving money to go to The Primal Institute (got too succesful and there went the need to actually go). Many others on your list I have, GSC, maybe just not more recent favorites. But The Doors were one of the most influential bands on my life, and I used to idolize Mr. Mojo Risin' as a kid. Led Zeppelin, my God, goes w/o saying. Hendrix... Maybe some of you know the anecdote (no less true) that Jimi was thinking of joining on with Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and because of too many cooks in the kitchen, etc., they laughed that the band would then have to be called HELP.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Gira played "She Lives"? My secret prayers answered! Next only to "My Birth" and some early post-Swans stuff on the big list of songs I want him to play live.

I am also a tad curious why no-one mentioned Ka-Spel's little project. I really like what I've heard. Quirky in a consciously dark way. I prefer the album art of their early cassettes to their later stuff, though. The pictures aren't arranged well enough for the ideal aesthetic effect.

As for Jimi and the rest: HELP, indeed.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Yeah, I envy people who can absorb themselves in music (or anything) all the time. I sometimes go weeks without really listening to music at all. I don't smoke as much pot these days, but it was a daily habit for a long time... one of my favorite things about it is how music always sounds great, even if I'm otherwise feeling crappy and/or inured to getting high.

I prefer glam/pop Eno above all, for sure.

And speaking of cellists who make wonderful, all-over-the-place music... have I mentioned Arthur Russell?

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Who knows - I won't kowtow to peer pressure (much):

This seems to be in most heavy rotation in my ipod right now:

Dream Theater - Train of Thought / Live at Budokan
Unabashedly pretentious, insanely talented prog rock/metal band - can't seem to get enough

Nine Inch Nails - Downward Spiral/Fragile/Year Zero
Unabashedly pretentious, semi-talented industrial rocker that has realized what we want to hear - UGLY NOISE - thanks, Trent!

Sound Tribe Sector 9 - Podcast selections
Jam/Trance rock band that carries you away to bizarre worlds

Fairport Convention - Liege and Leaf
Sandy Denny's voice - damn

Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet
Sharon Gilchrist on Mandolin - enough said.

Pentangle - Bridge of Light and Sweet Child
Irish Folksters from the late sixties - awesome

Keith Jarrett - Various solo works
He sits in front of the piano with no clue about what he is going to play and 45 minutes later, you are weeping at his brilliance

Frank Zappa - Anything
Nuff said

Thanks

alec.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Sandy Denny: better voice

Maddy Prior: better singer
(of Steeleye Span)

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Really? I've gotta check them out! Thanks, Swans.

alec...

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Mr. SoilMe,

I'd like to clarify a point. I am Spotbowserfido2. My opinions are my own. Please address your comments to my comments appropriately, i.e. to my attention. Thank you.

Rover

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

My apologies, sir. And might I direct your nose to check out a song with your same name -- namely, "Rover," by one trusty rustic-progressive band called Jethro Tull. A quote from it, a line of tribute to your hearty species:

"But I'm simple in my sadness, resourceful in remorse."

You can find the song on the album Heavy Horses. So, stick up your ears!

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

I'm astounded at how many of my favorite bands have been mentioned. I have to drop a few more names which have been overlooked (at least in this thread): Blue Öyster Cult, Traffic, The Yardbirds, Procol Harum, Eric Burdon and the Animals, Johnny Winter And, Supertramp, Nazareth, Aerosmith, Humble Pie, Faces, The Bob Seger System (personally preferred over the later Silver Bullet Band), Steely Dan, Rush, The Steve Miller Band, The Cars, Weather Report, Boston, The Police, Split Enz, R.E.M., Creedence Clearwater Revival, Blur, The Jeff Beck Group, Soundgarden, Genesis (but only with Peter Gabriel), The Smiths, Ian Dury & the Blockheads, Weezer, Supergrass, Stone Temple Pilots, Adam and the Ants, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Steppenwolf, Mountain, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Santana, Canned Heat, The Modern Jazz Quartet, X, The Cult, Prince and the Revolution, Gang of Four, War, and Rockpile.

I must also acknowledge the following artists for the pleasure that their works have given me over the years: Francis Albert Sinatra, Les Paul (with Mary Ford), Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin, Bobby Darin, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, John Mayall (not unlike Frank Zappa, a magnet for amazing musicians), Hank Williams (the elder), Miles Davis, Patsy Cline, John Coltrane, Roy Orbison, and Doris Day. (You laugh. Doris was actually one of the finest singers during the 1940s and the early 1950s. Trust me. And then she moved to the movies, alas. Fun fact: Doris Day and the late Marlon Brando share the same birthdate.)

Dominance and Submission with Tyranny and Mutation for All,
Phil

P.S. Radios appear...

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Strawbs
King Crimson
Kate Bush
Genesis (with Peter OR Phil vocals)

Okay, a jazz cat: Thelonius Monk, for everything except his cute little melodies that get too tired after a few listens

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Whew, I can think of few musicians who cover good/bad extremes as much as Phil Collins... most of his stuff I can't stomach, but there's a handful of songs (solo and with Genesis) that I absolutely love.

I even like "Sussudio," but that might just be the Patrick Bateman in me.

A couple industrial-ish choices, long-time favorites that I've been listening to recently and haven't really seen discussed here: SPK and Severed Heads. Both Australian, if I'm not mistaken. Search YouTube for the original video of Severed Heads' "Dead Eyes Opened"... awesome stuff and a big crossover hit in da underground.

It was also recently the 25th anniversary of one of the more important 12"s in history, "Planet Rock" by Afrika Bambaataa & Soulsonic Force!

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Genesis IMO was still great with A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering. Very good art-pop followed with And Then There Were Three... Since then, Genesis would include like 1-2 real good (even proggy) tracks every album -- just enough for true fans to either spend the bucks upon release or await a best-of. We Can't Dance has four excellent songs you can tell are the result of a tight band who've gone many places. Don't forget (if someone is) that Gabriel went on to make pop too. Who makes the best pop but those capable of descending from the greater heights now and then? Yes's 80s albums had much to recommened them as well.

Others not named so far...

Gong (Daevid Allen's esp.)
Cocteau Twins (about half their songs)
Heldon
Amon Duul 2
Neutral Milk Hotel (In the Aeroplane over the Sea)

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

I love Cocteau Twins and I agree with you, that roughly half of their material appeals to me. But every album I've heard contains at least three tracks that are worth the purchase of the album. Victorialand is the only one that I regularily listen to all the way through.

Re: Gira, She Lives was a song I'd hoped to hear him perform but thought he wouldn't. And the new Angels... material sounds like it'll be amazing. I've only got the first three albums, and the first is my absolute favorite, but after listening to some samples and hearing some (stripped down versions) songs performed in concert I anticipate We Are Him will blow me away.

I'm really digging Comus at the moment. After finally purchasing the Song to Comus collection I feel as if a huge gaping hole in my half-assed knowlege of underground musics has been filled. Fans of C93 and Simon Finn are missing out if they have yet to investigate this short-lived oddity!

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

There are a few more favorite bands I feel compelled to mention. My initial neglect was due to the fact that a significant share of my music library is tucked away in boxes. It's always a treat to discover buried treasure!

Bob Marley and the Wailers, Fleetwood Mac, The Pretenders, The Guess Who, Savoy Brown, Passport, Go-Go's, The Smithereens, ZZ Top, and Plasmatics. (I was fortunate enough to catch Plasmatics at the Masonic Temple in Detroit in the 1980s. Have I ever mentioned that seeing Wendy Orlean Williams' electrical tape is one of the high points of my life?)

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

I've long strayed from actual "Favorites" in this category, now things just come to me as in "Hey! Me too, me toooo...!" So...

Primus

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

I prefer the first album mostly on the grounds that it fell into my possession at a better point for me. Amateurish in the best way possible. Pretty and eerie simultaneously, which is difficult to pull off.

I put up a thread about the Dead C, over whose mid-period albums I am obsessed. I've also heard from a reliable source that they're a fine live band.

Recently I've been getting into two very distant yet linked musical worlds: Ambient noise music (Dead Machines, late-period Black Dice, Oval, COH) and early Björk.

Speaking of Gira, I think Akron/Family is one of his best finds. More quirky influences tossed in there than you can count, and it works! Heck, they're even fans of Ween (which is amusing in its own right...).

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Train of Thought is probably my least favorite Dream Theater album (and I'm a huge fan of them). Whereas Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence wasn't great because it lacked focus, Train of Thought just wasn't good because it didn't sound like Dream Theater at all. It sounded like they listened to their fans who say, "I like the heavy riffs DT makes", and they took that notion to the extreme. There are a couple of decent songs on the record but not nearly enough.

Octavarium was much more superior in my opinion. It was more focused on songwriting rather than showing off and wanking the entire time (like on Train of Thought). It's an exceptional album. I haven't had a chance to listen to their latest album, Systematic Chaos, yet. The fingers are crossed.

Of course, my favorites are still A Change of Seasons, Images and Words and Scenes From a Memory.

you should check out Transatlantic. They were a side project consisting of members from Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, Marillion and maybe a few other prog bands. The two records they released were absolutely amazing, and it made me quite sad when they decided to breakup. Some of the most amazing songwriting and Neal Morse giving his best vocal performance.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Sorry so late to the thread, but... I'm an old school metal guy. Mostly.
I like a really wide variety, not all metal by any means, but when I'm in the mood, old Iron Maiden really do it for me -- cheesy as that may sound. Their "Piece of Mind" album is among the best there is, for sound and imagery. Just listen to "Still Life" if you want something kind of creepy, or "Where Eagles Dare", "the Trooper"... well, pretty much everything else too, if you want some interesting references to medieval scenes and atmosphere.
Besides that, for really evil, morbid, ethereal Goth sounds, there's always Christian Death (esp. w/Rozz Williams), Bauhaus, or Peter Murphy solo.

And that's my two cents, for today. Thanks. * G.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Atomic Bitchwax
Los Natas
Hawkwind
Shellac
Tom Waits
Beatles
Against Nature
Unorthodox
Pentagram
Awesome Machine
Motorhead
Hidden Hand
Spirit Caravan
Wooly Mammoth
Solace
Solarized
Revelation
Numbah Ten
Obsessed
UFOMAMMUT
Roxy Music '71-'76
Genesis '71-'77
Peter Gabriel '77-'87
Anthony Phillips
Dragonauta
Earthride
Zippo
Etc. Etc. Etc.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Lately I've been listening to Dead Machines' Futures and Public Image Ltd.'s Flowers of Romance lately. Here are my thoughts...

The first is in a way what one might expect from the basement-tape side-project of two married members of in-themselves utterly bizarre bands (Wolf Eyes, Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice), but is also pretty different. In the place of the former's acrid noise and pretty much entirely ditching the latter's folk angle, it plays off of the more atmospheric, freeform, alien side of both projects. Unidentifiable rattlings and dronings crawl across the stereo field, pierced by static and curious synthy fragments. What few vocals appear are wordless, drenched in echo, barely human but just recognisable. Namely, the band lives up to their odd moniker. Worth checking out for those intrigued by dark ambient, lo-fi (if it can be called a genre), and just strange music in general.

More on the second later...

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

My favorite bands are Wir sind Helden (German band), Thin Lizzy, and Steely Dan.

Steely Dan does have an indirect link to this forum's theme I guess, they are named after a dildo in "Naked Lunch" by William Burroughs

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Steely Dan, masters of the middle range.

Up now: Pink Floyd -- "Cirrus Minor" and "Julia Dream", lovely spooky.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Listening to a little of Michael Cashmore's Sleep England. Very delicate, evokes Eno's film work, albeit more guitar-oriented. Soothing... Soft and warm.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

The Nice -- Ars Longa Vita Brevis

Am reading Edward Macan's new book, Endless Enigma: A Musical Biography of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Same man who wrote Rocking the Classics (1997). I find very interesting his view that a Marxist-leaning "blues orthodoxy" in the form of such rock journalist-critics as Lester Bangs and Dave Marsh, as well the guy for Village Voice, won a hegemony of opinion around 1972 against the formerly respected view of "utopian synthesists" who championed progresive rock until then. He says the situation mirrors what happened in Leninst-Stalinist Russia when committees tried to dumb down all music to ensure it was "for the people."

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Well, like most people my tastes change depending upon my mood,
but there are a few constants:

Richard Pinhas/Heldon
Robert Fripp/King Crimson
Coil
Nurse With Wound
Current 93
Steve Hackett
Slowdive
Can
Faust
Tangerine Dream
Pink Floyd
Ultravox (first four albums).

As for dark 'n spooky music, I think the first four albums by Diamanda Galas
are certainly some of the best.............incredible voice, incredible woman.

Sweet dreams all............................................... ....

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

The fact that near no-one mentions either Suicide or Cabaret Voltaire here is shocking. Definitely some of the most disorienting, alien stuff I've ever heard has come from the early work of these two "bands". And to think they actually predate Throbbing Gristle...

I agree with you about Galas. Striking.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Slowdive is a good one, though I like their newer band Mojave 3 better. Must check out this Galas. Heldon around the time of Interface I find the best from Pinhas.

Now playing: John Cale & Terry Riley -- Church of Anthrax
--which is now avaiable on eBay! Talking about the rare CD!

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

Diamanda Galas has quite the set of pipes. I checked out one of her albums, and I was blown away by her wails and general avant garde-ish approach to singing. very unique.

Re: Favorite Bands?
 

That's because Suicide and the Cabs "go without saying." ;)

Funny you should mention them at the same time... to me, CV is sort of like a thinking man's Suicide (or Suicide is a dumb CV. ) That's reductive and not really accurate, of course, just my impression of their '70s output. (Maybe it's an American vs. British thing, same way the U.K. could never have produced the Ramones and the U.S. could never have produced Wire.)

Heard tonight at Casa de Ventriloquist:
Chris & Cosey
Polyphonic Size
Yello
Rational Youth
Kirlian Camera
Sparks
Ceramic Hello
Space Art


diamonds, fur coat, champagne,
v.