an abbreviated list in alphabetical order: archers of loaf, the association, at the drive in, avail, ayin, the beach boys, bear vs. shark, the beastie boys, the beatles, the beautiful mistake, beck, ben folds five (but only the five and not so much his solo stuff...), braid, breaking pangaea, built to spill, bush, cake, johnny cash, cave in, christiansen, bruce cockburn, coheed, coldplay (somewhat), coletrane, the common cold, crosby stills and nash, the cure, cursive, miles davis, elliott, endpoint, equal and ultra, fairweather, falling forward, the foo fighters (aka god herself's favorite band...), fifth hour hero, fugazi, marvin gaye, genesis, the get up kids, believe it or not- the goo goo dolls (there's a soft spot in my heart...), green day, the helgeson story, hey mercedes, the hot water music band, hum, jebediah, king for a day, minor threat, morphine, morning belle, the nose ratchet, our lady peace, pavement, pearl jam, tom petty, pilot to gunner, the police, radiohead, the replacements, the reputation, second story man, duncan sheik, shiner, sleepyhead, slint, smashing pumpkins, sonic youth, stp, sunny day real estate, superchunk, thursday, the toadies, two minutes lost, tyrone, van morrison, the velvet underground, the verve pipe, OLD weezer, the who, the writing scar, and your black star, just to name a few.
describe your musical taste:
i think the best way to come up with an answer to this question is to consider what i love best about music, what my favorite aspects of music are.
first, patience. i love bands or songs that exude patience. they didn't just crap this song together in a hurry, they THOUGHT ABOUT IT. they had the courage to try, change things, make it better, all the time approaching the music with fresh ears. there is something beautiful in simplicity- everybody knows that, yet one of the first things that people (especially musicians) do to something simply beautiful is clutter it up with a bunch of bullshit to try and make it sound more impressive. that sucks.
consider the song "transatlanticism" by death cab for cutie, the drums are the most easy and "boring" things to play, but they fucking fit. they don't mess anything up, they don't clutter the sound, they let the song breathe. the drummer is enough of a musician to know how to compliment the music best. the guitars in that song are painfully simple, yet they master the phrase. it's all about the musical phrase. i hate it when bands don't get that. write and rewrite, just don't ever be afraid of what you can do, or what you could possibly do, or what you have done. sometimes, you get it right the first time. if it strikes you as beautiful, leave it alone!
also, i'm speaking of patience not just in terms of the band's musical integrity and perseverance, but in tempo. personally, i'm really getting alot more out of mid-tempo music lately- and by lately i mean for the last 3 or 4 years. in the words of 311, "i grew up punk, listening to punk" and i fucking loved it. it was absolutely necessary for my development as a person, and as a musician. i don't just mean "punk" as in the style of music specifically, but that culture, and any music that is fast and aggressive.
now, this is hard for me to explain- i still love alot of that music, i guess the difference is that i just don't really want to play it. i love hot water music, but i would never want to play in hot water music.
i'm definately not saying that i'm reserving myself to playing puss music, i still want to play stuff that has a definate bite, i just want there to be a point and a reason for the bite, something musical needs to be gotten across. it's true, when i was 14 i listened to a shitload of minor threat. it was totally amazing and powerful to my life at that stage, and still is(to a large degree), but the whole time i was discovering loud fast and hard music, i was discovering bands like slint, shiner and hum. i fucking love hum. anyway, i was always more connected to those kinds of songs. i dig the fast hard stuff for what it's worth to me, but the music that actually moves me, the music that i can say that i love, is stuff like second story man, built to spill, pavement, sonic youth, your black star, superchunk, hum, shiner, smashing pumpkins, the list goes on, of course, but hopefully my point was made.
|
