Musical Influences -- under construction

For everyone who wanted to know about my early musical influences that led me to playing bass and wanting to start a band, this is a good place to look. If you did not grow up listening to these bands, then me trying to describe them with words would be pretty useless. The sites below have soundclips.

As with most attempts at musical categorization, I do not agree with everything said on these sites and their discriptions do not always say very much, but they give it a good try and have lists of bands that look like sublists from my record collection, so they are worth checking out. Most of these links are to various sections of Allmusic.com:

1960s garage bands (and the Byrds and the Monkees)
proto-punk
punk, punk, and more punk
post-punk & 1980s college radio
goth
"neo-psychedelia"
1980s ska

The music that inspired me was arty, political, experimental, painful, DIY, minimal, moody, jangly, noisy, and fast.

This is not a definitive list of music I like -- it's a list of many of the sounds that made me want to start a band.

Tuesday's Muses

The Psychedelic Furs -- Greatest Hits
New Order -- Technique

My Laptop Is Lighter Than My Art History Books

If you ever wanted to compare the art being produced in different parts of the world during the same time period or you were curious about how different cultures approached a particular subject matter through art, then this is the site for you: The Met's Timeline of Art History. This is a good website, full of great pictures, informative text, and lots of cross-indexing.

KCET & Beyond

It has been fascinating to watch the evolution of the Public Broadcasting Corp. (both on TV and the radio) as they find ways to employ new media & integrate new technologies in their quest to stay vital & connect with the increasingly technology-dependent public. You can now watch Charlie Rose in living colour on the web (full episodes), download podcasts of The News Hour, and explore all kinds of background & extra information on the myriad topics that cross the PBS screen or grace the NPR airwaves throughout the day.
In one valiant attempt to reach out to the youth, they are recording concerts and posting the entire shows on their website for free. A good one that I stumbled upon recently is OK Go, a Chicago-based garage band probably best known for their music video that has been all over youtube lately, where the band performs a choreographed dance routine on a set of treadmills, accompanied by their song "Here It Goes Again." Listen to their live performance here.

"Remain Seated Please"

For everyone who has a soft spot for Disneyland, here's an audio trip down memory lane. See how many of the sounds you recognize: Disneyland's 50th Anniversary

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Music Industry & Associated Links

Good music resources to have links for:
(This is a post in progress -- comments about each resource will be added eventually)
NME
Rhino Records
Trouser Press Record Guide
Spin
Mojo
Subpop Records
Discogs
AllMusic.com
Auralgasms
SXSW_2006
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Getting My Mojo On

Listening To History (today's playlist in order):
Mojo Presents: Psych Out! (Compilation)
Mojo Presents: Trash! The Roots Of Punk! (Compilation)
Mojo Presents: I Love NY Punk! (Compilation)
Befour Three O'Clock -- Happen Happened

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BRMC Recommends:

Here's another band for the "watch list" -- gotta see them next time they are in town:

The Morning After Girls

Hunting & Collecting

If you ever need a resource for 1960's garage band albums, this is it: Midnight Records. I wish I had known about them last time I was in New York. A visit to their shop is definitely on my itinerary for next time.

Speaking of 1960's garage punk, an old garage punk style band from the 80's is back together and performing! See if you can catch a show:

The Morlocks (used to be the Gravedigger V)

website
myspace (note - the first song will not load, but the other 3 work just fine)