Current GMT:
Buried beneath the mountains of Overproduced pappy crap put out by quasi-talented media whores, lay a number of exceedingly talents and worthwhile artists who are ignored by the general public, usually because they lack the marketing appeal necessary to get noticed. Other artists toil in the solitude of their brilliance, unapproachable by the populace at large, who are in great part unready for the innovation and creativity the artist offers. I've not tried to compile a definitive list, or even give you the "Top 14" in this category. Rather, I've written about 14 artists that I can intelligently write about, and that I know aren't exposed to the listening public as much as they should be...Let's get rolling.
The Beta Band
An exceedingly odd mix of melodic rock and aharmonic ambient stylings, the Beta Band are different
than pretty much everyone else out there. The band first three releases were E.P.s, which were
collected in a single album, which, as one might expect, comes across a bit disjointed, but is
in fact the best representation of their music. A Scottish band, they have received more
recognition in the UK than in the US, and landed the opening spot on
Radiohead's
2001 North American tour. The fact that Radiohead likes them may help in getting a feel for
their elusive sound (which is the hardest on this list for me to describe). They gained further
notice in the US when they received a mention in the John Cusack film
High Fidelity. But the best way to
understand a band is take a listen to their music, in this case, the album to start with is
the aforementioned The 3 E.P.s
Poor Old Lu
A Seattle band from the early 90s, Poor Old Lu is anything but grunge. The band owes more to
the melodic art rock of the 70s and the punk and new wave movements in the 80s than to any
regional genre (no matter how media contrived the concept was). Poor Old Lu is a Christian
band, but more in the vein of early U2 rather than DC Talk. Their songs deal with real issues,
and are often darker (in both lyric and music) than most mainstream rock ever could be. Musically, Poor Old Lu
is terribly innovative, deviating from the standard formula in composition, and coupling Aaron Sprinkle's
lush guitar soundscapes (that often verge on tidal forces) with the vocals of Scott Hunter (who
has one of the most unique vocal styles in history), the band created music unlike many others...
Disbanded in 1996, the Band has recently reformed (much to my delight, as you can tell, I love
this band), however their sound has changed (as one might expect after a hiatus of 8 years).
While the original Lu discs were marked by a somewhat rough edge in production, the rawness of
the recording worked quite well with the "laid-bare" nature of the lyrics and Hunter's emotive
vocals. In the last decade or so, Aaron Sprinkle has vastly improved his production skills, and
the resulting change in the band's sound is not necessarily negative, but it is vastly different,
to the point that it sounds like a different band (I often wonder if a band in this situation
should reform under a different name, even if the members are the same)...For a first disc to
listen to, I had a tough choice, as each of the four label releases have something to offer, but
I eventually went with Sin,
their second release. It is their darkest album, both lyrically and musically, but displays
many of the best aspects of their sound, and was the album that made me love the band...
Talking Heads
I've decided to include a few artists and bands that a lot of people have heard of but few have
actually listened to (at least beyond their few radio hits). The Talking Heads were one of the
bands to come out of the CBGB scene in the late 70s, The Talking Heads were an amalgam of punk and
art–house geek rock, and one of the pioneers of the style that would eventually be called
(again, more of a contrived concept than an actual movement) "New Wave"...The Talking Heads were
one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the late 70s and 80s, and drew their influences
from everywhere; from the Sex Pistols to the Beatles, touching on electronic music, reggae,
latin jazz, and beyond...One defining element of their sound was the use of layered vocals and
instrumentation, creating a sensation that the song would at any moment fly apart in a horrific
cacophony of dissonant parts...the beauty was that it never did, and that nervous tension
consistently drives the song forward...A difficult band to pigeon hole (probably one of the
characteristics of any great band), their catalog spans vastly different approaches
and sounds...Unable to figure out a defining album, I figured that I would just recommend the
first, Talking Heads: 77,
letting you all start at the beginning, as is proper, and continue on from there...
Miles Davis
I think that Miles Davis is probably the king of the "I've heard of him, but I've never listened
to one of his albums" movement. Miles Davis is simply the most innovative jazz musician in
history, breaking the mold even when he was being traditional, and vastly expanding the limits of the
genre when he got experimental. Through out his career he worked with essentially every great
musician in the field, and his recordings really represent the cutting edge of Jazz in what ever
era they were released. It was his work in the late 40s and early 50s that defined the new "Cool"
jazz, a revolutionary change than cannot be overestimated. Through out the 50s he would continue
to define what "cool" was until the release of Kind of Blue in 1959. The album is
considered by many (myself included) as the seminal jazz album, the standard by which every other
album is to be judged. The recordings themselves are subtly melodic and innovative in their
use of modal (rather than chord based) changes, which imparts an ethereal and laid back sound
to the whole...Davis continued to innovate in the late 60s, moving beyond bop into fusion sounds,
adding disparate influences to a single cohesive sound. The definitive album in this vein is
Bitches Brew, which can legitimately be seen as the birth of Jazz-Rock and Jazz-Funk
(in the same way Birth of the Cool was just that, the birth of Cool Jazz). However,
he took his fusion further in A Tribute to Jack Johnson and especially the street
influenced On the Corner (which many fans took as a giant middle finger from Davis).
As for albums to begin with, I would recommend them all, but the triad of genre-defining albums
is probably best: The Birth of the Cool,
Kind of Blue,
and Bitches Brew.
Davis produced many other albums of equal (excellent) quality, and his catalog should be thoroughly explored.
Frank Zappa
A close second to Davis in the "Heard of, but never heard" category, Frank Zappa's career spanned
from Rock to jazz to orchestral music, in every case innovative (if not always conventionally
pleasing to the ear). With his monumental debut with the Mothers of Invention on Freak Out!
Frank Zappa established very early on that he was not conventional. Freak Out! is a
double album of Avant Garde art rock, frankenstein-ed together with satirical takes on 50s
payola-rock and social commentary. There truly is no way to adequately describe this album,
other than to say that it is odd...seriously odd...Perhaps never in the history of rock music
has an album title so accurately captured the essence of the music within...Zappa only continued
to innovate during his career, with the exception of a couple of radio friendly excursions in the
70s (undertaken to finance his really wierd endeavors), and even those managed to be wrought with
radical commentary and refreshingly shocking content. Through the 70s and 80s, Zappa moved into
jazz and orchestral compositions, creating some exceedingly unusual, yet inspiring works. Hot
Rats is often considered his best jazz-rock work, though The Grand Wazoo and
Jazz from Hell are both excellent as well. The best of his orchestral work was likely
Yellow Shark, though the re-engineered sessions with the London Symphony Orchestra
(the 1995 two-disc set)are good as well (the originals are not that great, due to the infamous
problems Zappa had with the sloppy performances and horrible work ethics of the orchestra members)...
However, when it comes down to it, a proper appraisal of Frank Zappa should begin as it did
with the Talking Heads, his first album, Freak Out!.
Otis Redding
I'm not sure if Otis Redding falls into the "Heard of" category, because I'm not actually sure
how many people have actually heard of the brilliant soul singer. Considering his recording
career spanned only three years before his death at 26 in a plane crash, his body of work is
remarkable. Easily one of the most influential soul singers ever, his influence extended into
the world of rock, seen for instance in the Rolling Stones, who recorded two of Redding's songs
("That's How Strong My Love Is" and "Pain in My Heart"). His most listened to song was actually a
cover, as he penned (and recorded a better version, in my opinion) "Respect", made famous by
Aretha Franklin. Redding's death came at a point where he appeared to be transitioning into
a new stage in his growth as an artist, on the verge of brilliance and superstardom...His best
album was released posthumously, having been faithfully (and expertly) produced by friend Steve
Cropper, and the album does not merely speak to Redding's genius, it stands upon a rooftop and
shouts for all to hear...It is that album that I would recommend as a starting point,
The Dock of the Bay.
Nick Drake
Another talented artist with a tragically short career, Nick Drake released only three albums
of haunting brilliance before his death in 1974 of an apparent suicide (though that is in dispute).
Drake was one of the finest of the Singer-Songwriters, and almost certainly the best from the
British side of the pond. Notoriously reclusive, Drake rarely performed live, and his
shining studio efforts are all that truly exists of his musical legacy. His three studio albums
are each unique, though uniformly brilliant, and wonderful examples of all that was best in
the Singer-Songwriter movement, coupling personal (if slightly unemotive on the first two albums)
lyrics with artfully crafted music ranging
from folk-rock on Five Leaves Left to surprisingly cheerful jazz-tinged backing on
Bryter Later. For all their brilliance, Drake's albums never sold well and he became
increasingly withdrawn and solitary in the 1970s, plagued with psychiatric problems including
severe depression. These issues are laid starkly bare on Pink Moon, his most personal
album, and one of the most pessimistic and disturbingly dark albums in music history. Pink Moon
would be Drake's last album, and within two years of its release Drake would die of an overdose
of anti-depressants. The album remains the definitive work of his short career and in the light
of his downward spiral in its wake, it is hard to not see the album as a suicide note of sorts
and the pains of Drake's depressions are clearly heard
(not unlike Nirvana's Unplugged in New York).
It remains a beautiful and affecting work, that is my recommendation for a
starting album.
Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson standing in the history of blues cannot be overstated. Simply put, his work
represent the beginnings of recording Blues as we know it. Another musician with an exceedingly
short career, Johnson's body of work consists of only 41 total tracks, several of them alternate
versions, leaving only 29 unique tracks. However, within those few tracks exists some of the
most fundamentally expressive works in the history of blues. Stark and primitive by modern
musical standards, Johnson's work is truly brilliant, and if you make allowances for the nature
of recording equipment in the 1930s, the sound becomes truly astounding. The mythos surrounding
Johnson is significant, and one of the seminal myths of rock and roll. Supposedly, Johnson,
wanting to become a great blues singer, sold his immortal soul to the Devil at the crossroads
near Dockery's Plantation in rural Mississippi. Soon after his encounter with Lucifer, Johnson
was indeed the King of the Delta Blues Singers. Like many tormented geniuses, Johnson also suffered
an untimely death, yet another area of his life shrouded in modern myth and legend. While Johnson
had an obsession with the pursuing Devil, coming to complete his bargain, he also had an obsession
with dangerous living...Shortly before he was to appear at Carnegie Hall, he was discovered poisoned
by an enraged girlfriend, his final words supposedly "I pray that my redeemer will come and take
me from my grave"...With the few number of
tracks extant, it is easy to recommend an album, and the listener is faced with two possible
choices, both exceptional.
King of the Delta Blues,
which consists of 16 of his best known tracks, or the boxed set
The Complete Recordings,
which as the name suggests, contains all 41 recordings we have of the great bluesman...A win-win
with either choice.
Leadbelly
Continuing with our "foundational" artist trend we have Huddie Leadbetter, more commonly known
as Leadbelly, a blues and folk singer embodying the southern blues tradition while incorporating
western and country influences to create an unique sound that has since been much imitated.
Leadbelly, famous for his 12 string guitar play, is one of the first recording artists to
emerge from the folk tradition, which to that point had been restricted to a cultural and oral
setting. Leadbelly's songs represent an artifact of that tradition, often his songs are his
personal versions of established songs that had been taught to him by other singers. His life,
while not cut short like some artists on this list, was not without troubles, and Leadbelly was
imprisoned multiple times, and several times was accused of murder and assault. As it often
seems, blues and folk artists seem to benefit from their travails, and Leadbelly was no different.
His music reflects his life and hard-bought experience, and he is certainly one of the
fathers of acoustic blues. His career spans a period before albums as we know them today
(essentially an innovation of the Beatles) and the collections of his recordings span from
exceptional to down right poor...The best collections are perhaps the newer ones, which are born
a bit more from a modern consideration of his body of work, but the best may in fact be the
2 LP Library of Congress Recordings...
Django Reinhardt
Finishing up the run of foundational artists, we have the first proper "lead guitarist", Romani
Django Reinhardt. Django (properly Jean Baptiste) grew up near Paris in the early 20th century.
A gypsy (Romani) violinist before becoming a guitarist, Django revolutionized jazz guitar by
transforming it into a lead instrument (it had before been seen only as a rhythm instrument, due
to the lack of "cutting" power before amplification). Django's innovations were in part due to
an accident 1928 in which his left hand was injured and he lost the ability to use his ring and
pinky fingers. He developed a style in which he picked individual notes on the guitar while
playing against a violin on top of a base of rhythm guitar and bass. In the same way that Miles
Davis epitomizes "cool" jazz, Django represents "hot jazz", at least as far as the guitar is
concerned. He continued to expand his style, to mixed reviews, and his frantic style of guitar
bop music was not received particularly well in the 1940s (though the would have gone over quite
well a decade or two later)...Partially because of this, and partially because of the sheer
brilliance of his earlier work, his "hot" period in the 1930s is still his defining sound.
Some of the greatest of his early recordings are collected on several current releases
Nuages,
from Arkadia is one of the best.
The Arrogant Worms
Moving back to our modern day, the Arrogant Worms stand as one of the sharpest folk satirists in
modern music. Often biting, sometimes playful, the Arrogant Worms are always funny. While some
of their humour is distinctly Canadian (as they are indeed from Canada), most of it translates
well across geographic and cultural boundaries. More than a comedy band, the Worms are actually
firmly planted in the satirical tradition of the folk genre. Truly unafraid of criticism, but
not actively baiting for controversy, they're one of the premiere folk groups today (as evidenced
by the continuing significance and humour of their work). While content matters more than style
in such a tradition as theirs, they are quite skilled musicians and accomplished composers and
arrangers, and their musical output only enhances the value of their work. Because they have
a relatively prodigious output and the "stand-alone" nature of their songs, I thought it best to
recommend a compilation album, 2002's
Gift Wrapped.
Moxy Früvous
Staying in the Great White North of Canada, the band Moxy Früvous represents a merging of
quirky comedy rock with quirky geek rock in the vein of the Talking Heads to produce an exceedingly
unique sound. Most distinct about Moxy Früvous' sound is their use of complex harmonies to create
depth and texture, in this they are most reminiscent of the Talking Heads, though their layering
is more sophisticated, at least as far as vocal harmony goes. An appraisal only of their albums
does not do the band justice, as one of the central elements to Moxy Früvous is their live shows,
and the improvisation and audience interaction that are central to the live experience. More than
most other bands, their concerts are essential to the essence of Moxy Früvous. Not surprisingly,
probably the best of their albums is a live album,
Live Noise,
which does a terrific job of capturing their sound, and a better than average job at conveying
the concert experience, with sections of banter and inter–song interplay interspersed with
the musical tracks (mother of all alliterations right there baby...)
Vangelis
Greek composer Vangelis (born Evangelos Odyssey Papathanassiou...man, English names are so boring),
is best known for his soundtrack work, and has a significant body of work, both as a solo artist
and as a member of several bands. Vangelis is hard to define as a composer drifting between
classical orchestral music into electronic, new age, and ambient forms. The most widely known
of his work is the soundtrack to the film Chariots of Fire, and indeed it is one of his
finer works. Vangelis represents one of the truly significant advancements from orchestral music
which, while not by any measure dead, is becoming a bit stagnated, and many advancements are
towards the experimental (but barely musical) styles, such as the minimalist movement lead by
Phillip Glass.
My favorite of Vangelis' works is the
Blade Runner Soundtrack,
a stark and futuristic soundscape which perfectly compliments the film
for which it was written. While this selection is not representative of Vangelis' more orchestral
works, I do feel it is the best of his works overall.
Bela Fleck
Hands down the oddest combination of influences and styles on our list, Bela Fleck represents the
bridge between bluegrass, jazz, and classical music...*pause*...Yeah, you read that correctly.
Bela Fleck began his career as a bluegrass banjo player, establishing himself as one of the
finest in his genre before moving on to a more jazz and bop influenced sound (styles that he had
been exploring for years, even before he became a professional). His journey along these lines
came to fruition with the formation of the Flecktones (Howard Levy:piano, harmonica, ocarina,
and a pantload of other instruments; Victor Lemonte Wooten: Bass Guitar; and his brother Roy
"Future Man" Wooten: Drumitar, a funky Drumsynth/Guitar chimera) and the release of their eponymous
debut album. They have since produced some of the most unique and weird jazz in modern music.
Fleck himself is now exploring classical music on the banjo, and it's likely he will develop an
equally interesting combination form when all is said and done. The most evocative of his
work with the Flecktones is probably their sophomore release,
Flight of the Cosmic Hippo.
So, there we are, a list for you to play with and explore. If you want further info on any of the artists, or want to suggest one of your own, shoot me an email. Until next, make sure you're shopping beyond the cozy borders of the Top 40 charts.