Your favorite artist

[jimmyjazz 45961]

Name one.  Not two.  Not three.  One.

Genre doesn't matter.  Which artist pushes your buttons more than all the others?

 

To be sure, I'm a little surprised at my call, but if I'm honest, this is it.  Nirvana.  Just an astonishing combination of capable musicianship, ridiculous songwriting that hits on all fronts -- harmonic content most of all -- combined with melody, lyrical hookiness but vague as hell, it's all there.  Can't name a better band in my lifetime.

Who you got?  Could be Mozart, could be Coltrane, don't care.  Who you got?

  

Edited July 10 by jimmyjazz

[ajax 2617]

My favorite band - Bring Me the Horizon

They really cross different genres. There albums can be unrecognizable from each other. Like these two songs couldn't be more different but they can pull it off.

 

 

 

 

[DougO 5250]

Paul McCartney. Beatles, Wings, solo shit, still bringing it after 60 plus years. 

[Red Five 40859]

First gut answer is Radiohead.

[Deej 76799]

[Rimbo 25941]

never any doubt

there's a long list of folks who tie for second place, but also a long gap between first and second

Edited July 11 by Rimbo

[Hamttx 419]

It’s a fun mind game, but I find it impossible to be sincere and list a favorite artist. 

The same would apply to my favorite book, or my favorite movie. It depends on the mood I’m in at the time. 

[CooterBrown 18014]

 

[ajax 2617]

I have a suggestion.

Instead of posting a random video of your favorite band, try to find a video essay from YouTube discussing why the band is great. I find those videos fascinating.

Obviously Nirvana and Van Halen don't need a video essay. We all know why they're great. But if your favorite band isn't an icon, I'd love to learn more about their history.

Like here's a video from a guy who argues that my favorite band is the most innovative and important band of its generation. 

 

 

 

[hullabelew 3724]

Tom Petty. 40 plus years of touring and recording. Never a bad album. For me, him with the Heartbreakers is the greatest American band of all time. Saw them in 1987 and again in 2017. Both were fantastic shows, 30 years apart.

Add in the Wilbury work. Tough for me to find anyone who can top him.

[Red Five 40859]

54 minutes ago, hullabelew said:

Tom Petty. 40 plus years of touring and recording. Never a bad album. For me, him with the Heartbreakers is the greatest American band of all time. Saw them in 1987 and again in 2017. Both were fantastic shows, 30 years apart.

Add in the Wilbury work. Tough for me to find anyone who can top him.

Sam Kinison 'good answer' gif.

[Underdog 28667]

[South Austin 52515]

Let's just say my avatar checks out.

[Hate 20108]

Grateful Dead

 

 

[irishtexan 11519]

It's Willie. It'll always be Willie.

[Rip76 4928]

Shit this is tough.

I'll be back.

[BonzoMontreaux 1038]

Gotta say B.B. King.  Years ago the wife asked me would you pay hundreds of dollars to see some so and so.  I replied the only person I would ever pay that kind of money to see is B.B. King. (When she asked, she had just bought B.B. King tix and booked us a B&B in Galveston and surprised me with the trip a few months down the road... it(concert) was 2005 on OU weekend to boot.)  It was a mountain top experience.

I loved watching him play since I was probably about 5 or 6 years old.  

[Rip76 4928]

1 hour ago, BonzoMontreaux said:

Gotta say B.B. King.  Years ago the wife asked me would you pay hundreds of dollars to see some so and so.  I replied the only person I would ever pay that kind of money to see is B.B. King. (When she asked, she had just bought B.B. King tix and booked us a B&B in Galveston and surprised me with the trip a few months down the road... it(concert) was 2005 on OU weekend to boot.)  It was a mountain top experience.

I loved watching him play since I was probably about 5 or 6 years old.  

Username doesn't check out. 

[BonzoMontreaux 1038]

5 minutes ago, Rip76 said:

Username doesn't check out. 

I had a user name I used for years on LFZ and something happened to where I couldn't use it.  So, I just grabbed a username out of thin air... I may have been listening to Led Zep and BonzoMontreaux popped into my head for a name.  I think I tried to use that old username when I signed up here but I couldn't use it for some reason.  Maybe tried to register too many times... anyways, just stuck with BonzoMontreaux.

Edited July 12 by BonzoMontreaux

[ztejas 43454]

Holy shit it might be Kodak Black. 

[Beantown Express 2.0 6559]

Hard question as it really depends on my mood.  Am I in the hard rock (Zeppelin, Van Halen mood), pop/rock (Beatles) or Rap kind of a mood?  Since they haven't been mentioned, I would have to say Beastie Boys.

 

[jimmyjazz 45961]

I had a passing interest in Beastie Boys, but I wasn't really a rap guy, and then a friend suggested that I should buy Paul's Boutique.  I was probably buying 3-4 CDs a week at that point, so I took a flyer.  

Mind. Blown.  It gave me a whole new level of respect for that band.  It's like an acid-laced free jazz sample festival.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing.  I still listen to it several times a year.  Then I put on something like Ill Communication and laugh my ass off.

Edited July 15 by jimmyjazz

[Gil Bang 25960]

Easy for me.  It's THE GODFATHER OF SOUL

 

[Butch Had Not 2971]

I'm a big Jerry Cantrell fan. Wrote most of the AIC stuff,  sang in the later albums,  and has done some out of the box solo work. And his willie cover...

 

 

[honolulu horn 6163]

So easy for me. The Beatles. Since I was 7, and have never deviated. 

I am now going through a project in which I am taking every Beatles song in order of chronological release and playing / tabbing every guitar part, as well as every other major singular instrument part (the trumpet in Penny Lane, the French horn in For No One,  the mellotron in Strawberry Fields, etc). It's so gratifying. It's also mind-blowing. I've listened to these songs for decades and I still find myself hearing new things for the first time. Seeing how they developed as songwriters, how they played off of each other, how they maintained their own solo identities and continued to grow and transform -- simply incredible. 

[South Austin 52515]

12 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I had a passing interest in Beastie Boys, but I wasn't really a rap guy, and then a friend suggested that I should buy Paul's Boutique.  I was probably buying 3-4 CDs a week at that point, so I took a flyer.  

Mind. Blown.  It gave me a whole new level of respect for that band.  It's like an acid-laced free jazz sample festival.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing.  I still listen to it several times a year.  Then I put on something like Ill Communication and laugh my ass off.

For the same reason (not being a rap guy), I never really got into the Beastie Boys, and I still feel like I just need to get off my ass and start listening to a few of their albums.  I mean, I hear some of their songs here and there over the years, and I like them, but I've still never said to myself, "I really need to start listening to Beastie Boys."   

[honolulu horn 6163]

25 minutes ago, South Austin said:

For the same reason (not being a rap guy), I never really got into the Beastie Boys, and I still feel like I just need to get off my ass and start listening to a few of their albums.  I mean, I hear some of their songs here and there over the years, and I like them, but I've still never said to myself, "I really need to start listening to Beastie Boys."   

You should. They have an amazing set of material. Their run from Paul's Boutique through Hello Nasty is particularly strong. 

[83Horn 1641]

Tough question, as others have said, as it depends on my mood at the moment, but if I judge this based on who I would have been most excited to see live back when I was in high school (mid to late 70s), I couldn't have picked Hendrix (dead), Cream (broke up) or Led Zeppelin (tickets were like unobtainium), I will go with Johnny Winter.  He was an amazing player, and think he deserves more recognition and appreciation.

[Rimbo 25941]

Interesting mix between "easy answer" and "Too tough to tell" here.

I'll tell you why my answer is easy. It's that even if I'm not in the mood to listen to Van Halen, if a Van Halen song starts playing, I'm not switching away or skipping it. It's because when I'm down in the dumps, Van Halen is the music that never fails to soothe or pick me up. It's because I've found the whole topic fascinating to the point where I've got a bookshelf of autobiographies and memoirs just about that one band (and pre-ordered Alex's book, coming out in October).

I listen to a lot of things, and I LIKE a lot of things, and I REALLY like a lot of things, but the way I like Van Halen is above all that rest of that.

I'll not claim that just because I like him that he's the greatest guitarist ever or best musician or anything like that. But I'll listen appreciatively to anyone who DOES claim that. 😁

[ajax 2617]

55 minutes ago, Rimbo said:

Interesting mix between "easy answer" and "Too tough to tell" here.

I'll tell you why my answer is easy. It's that even if I'm not in the mood to listen to Van Halen, if a Van Halen song starts playing, I'm not switching away or skipping it. It's because when I'm down in the dumps, Van Halen is the music that never fails to soothe or pick me up. It's because I've found the whole topic fascinating to the point where I've got a bookshelf of autobiographies and memoirs just about that one band (and pre-ordered Alex's book, coming out in October).

I listen to a lot of things, and I LIKE a lot of things, and I REALLY like a lot of things, but the way I like Van Halen is above all that rest of that.

I'll not claim that just because I like him that he's the greatest guitarist ever or best musician or anything like that. But I'll listen appreciatively to anyone who DOES claim that. 😁

Do you like Van Halen , Van Hagar, and Van Cherone equally?

[Chad Fuck 17684]

The Beatles. 

There are a lot of seconds.  But they're all second.  Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Wilco, Pixies, Willie, Nirvana.  I could go on for days.

But in the end, it always comes back to the Beatles for me.  

[locodos 5387]

Don't really have a favorite... gun to my head

"The Only Band That Matters"... The Clash

[Al_4_ISU 12464]

[UTCzech III 2907]

[Scraps 13561]

[Rimbo 25941]

2 hours ago, ajax said:

Do you like Van Halen , Van Hagar, and Van Cherone equally?

You're also forgetting the phase with Wolf on bass.

As bands, no, they're not equal. I don't even like different albums equally. But in the end, it's Ed's playing and feel and inventiveness and spirit that just works for me.

I think VH3 was to Van Halen what The Last Jedi was to Star Wars -- some promising ideas that were ruined by bad editing, where the fans' negative reaction led to a dumbing down and limiting of the overall art.

Everyone, from people in the band to managers to even their successors, credit Dave for Van Halen's success as a band. He's the one who put heavy metal and 1940s Dance Hall style together; he was the motivator who got everyone off their asses and picked them up when they were down. And it really bothered Ed that Dave got any credit at all.

Mike was robbed.

Sammy is the one person who comes off the worst in all the stuff. Even Ted Templeman, who early on (prior to the first album) considered replacing Dave with Sammy, not only realized that it would've been a huge mistake to do so, but when Sammy did come around, refused to produce any more albums (though he helped with FUCK since the producer they DID hire was too drunk to do his job) and described Sammy as the guy who moves in on a separated couple before they have a chance to try to work things out. Sammy's take on things clashes with others' independent takes. And even Sammy gives Dave credit in his autobiography.

Ed wanted more and more control, but like George Lucas, some artists need that feedback to be truly great.

All that said, I'd rather have 10 more VH3's than the silence that followed it. A Different Kind of Truth is horribly underrated, even if it is a cleaning up of old bar-era riffs that had otherwise been left on the cutting room floor. I'd rather have more Sammy, More VH3, More anything.

Ed could ship the sounds of him pissing on the mixing console and I'd buy it.

[Rimbo 25941]

2 hours ago, locodos said:

Don't really have a favorite... gun to my head

"The Only Band That Matters"... The Clash

"The only people who put iced tea in Jack Daniel's bottles is THE CLASH, baby!" --David Lee Roth

Edited July 15 by Rimbo

[0xdeadbeef 1651]

I love all kinds of music. If I made of list of artists I really like, there would be some of just about every genre on it, from EDM to French Language Pop to Classic Rock to Hip Hop to multiple styles of Jazz, to you name it.   I'm of the opinion that there are super talented people making every type music. Genius is genius. 

But if I start knocking them off the list, I know what the last band standing for me is.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse.    

Not solo Neil Young, but with Crazy Horse.  More specifically the version of The Horse with just Molina, Talbot and Sampedro.  

The video below is from ACL Fest and is cued up to a song off their 2012 record; that's 43 years after the first NY&CH album.  

 

Edited July 15 by 0xdeadbeef

[noharleyyet 2838]

[locodos 5387]

2 hours ago, Rimbo said:

"The only people who put iced tea in Jack Daniel's bottles is THE CLASH, baby!" --David Lee Roth

David Lee Roth was a nice guy, who was maybe the least talented member of the band he was in.   Granted DLR>SH

This was as a subjective question, but the Clash has always been on my play list.   They have been sampled and imitated by so many artists. They have great songs that never got airplay.

My alternate was Bob Marley or Jane's Addiction

Edited July 16 by locodos

[Rimbo 25941]

3 hours ago, locodos said:

David Lee Roth was a nice guy, who was maybe the least talented member of the band he was in.   Granted DLR>SH

Oh, no question... musically. Business sense? Sheer energy? Second to none.

[locodos 5387]

8 hours ago, Rimbo said:

Oh, no question... musically. Business sense? Sheer energy? Second to none.

laughs in 75yr old Iggy Pop

Never mind this guy

[mr. sunshine 2827]

On 7/10/2024 at 11:28 PM, Deej said:

 

[mr. sunshine 2827]

On 7/11/2024 at 12:25 AM, Rimbo said:

never any doubt

there's a long list of folks who tie for second place, but also a long gap between first and second

Saw/heard them at the Erwin Center in '84. Changed my life 

Edited July 16 by mr. sunshine
Posting. How does it work?

[mr. sunshine 2827]

On 7/11/2024 at 12:25 AM, Rimbo said:

never any doubt

there's a long list of folks who tie for second place, but also a long gap between first and second

 

[jimmyjazz 45961]

I heard a Zep tune on FM radio in the car yesterday, and while I've always thought Jimmy Page might actually be the "least talented" musician in that band, one can't deny his phenomenal creativity.  Those riffs just would never have flowed from anyone else's hands.  Imagine Plant/Bonham/Jones with, say Eric Clapton.  Completely different band.  Probably a very good band, but nothing like Led Zeppelin.

Yeah, he's a little sloppy.  It's charming.  Even Robert Plant credits Page as being the band's indisputable creative force.

[Al_4_ISU 12464]

Zeppelin wouldn't have been the same with any other combination of people.  I've always heard the story that Jimmy Page had tried to talk John Entwistle and Keith Moon into playing with him and Plant.  While I'd die to know what that would sound like, I suspect it wouldn't be anywhere near as good as either Zeppelin or The Who.

[Rimbo 25941]

5 hours ago, locodos said:

laughs in 75yr old Iggy Pop

Never mind this guy

 

It's not just the energy on stage that made Dave great. It's the vision for the band and the drive he had BEHIND the scenes.

The world is absolutely filled with musicians who are absolute God-tier that toil in obscurity, but you never hear from them. Quick: Name three famous oboe players. Can you even name one? And yet the oboe is one of the most difficult instruments to play, a key piece of every symphony. The average city symphony oboeist will outplay every famous guitarist you know on insanely hard parts three days a week before an audience of sleepy pensioners, and you can't name one.

Ed and Al were going to be musicians, and they likely would've toiled away in obscurity, this rumor only a handful might have heard of, doing magical stuff in Pasadena back rooms... "What was his name, Edgar Van Hellig or something?" if it hadn't been for Dave. D

ave had the vision of stardom, saw what Ed was doing, knew it had to be HIM that got him there, and basically conned his way into the band. It was Dave who put on the glam persona, who knew all the 40s dance hall tunes, who told the band to ditch the 6-minute long metal covers for 3-minute shuffles.

When Gene Simmons funded a demo, only to try and "steal" Ed away, it was Dave that kept the band together. When the label showed no interest in that demo, it was Dave who circled the wagons, picked everyone back up and told them, we're still going to do this, we're GOING to make it.

And you gotta remember; nobody was interested in Van Halen's style. They weren't Bad Company nor the Bee Gees. They didn't have any special connections, no cousin working for a big label.

 

2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

I heard a Zep tune on FM radio in the car yesterday, and while I've always thought Jimmy Page might actually be the "least talented" musician in that band, one can't deny his phenomenal creativity.  Those riffs just would never have flowed from anyone else's hands.  Imagine Plant/Bonham/Jones with, say Eric Clapton.  Completely different band.  Probably a very good band, but nothing like Led Zeppelin.

Yeah, he's a little sloppy.  It's charming.  Even Robert Plant credits Page as being the band's indisputable creative force.

 

I always thought the sloppiness was a creative choice. Like the weird chords of Larry Lelonde or Mike Anthony playing the most boring basslines ever, they can actually play if they wanted to, but the style demanded something else.

[jimmyjazz 45961]

Eh, there's times I think "come on, Jimmy, that was a mess".  But the swagger . . .

[jetsfan76 717]

Spiritbox. First time I heard them, I just knew. Even their "bad" songs are light years better than most stuff I listen to. They also don't pigeonhole themselves into any one genre of metal. And Courtney's voice gives me goosebumps.