Musical Influences

Before touching on individual albums and/or artists in depth, I wanted to talk (type, blog?) about my musical influences. Music is a HUGE part of my life. HUGE. I'm sure there are many of you who feel the same way. It's hard to describe exactly. If somehow I were not able to listen to music anymore, i.e. it was all taken away or if I went deaf or something.....I might do something terrible to myself. I almost always have some music playing, even while watching tv or doing other things. I have two ipods (got one for free), and take one everywhere. I take my music in the car because the radio just isn't cutting it nowadays. But, I digress....

For me, there was a defining moment when music entered my life. I dunno, I guess some people are big on music as very little kids, but it was something that never hooked me. I'm not surprised either. The late 80's/early 90's will never be confused with the golden age of music. Anywho, I was probably in 4th grade making me about 9. The year was 1994, and it was really quite simple. One day, after school, I came home and turned on MTV (which was AWESOME back then.....man, what a fall from grace). So what music video is on? (Yes, they played videos back then) Basketcase by Green Day......I was hooked. I guess it just spoke to me, and nothing ever had before. Little did I know the grunge/alternative era was in its prime and I got swept up bigtime. Green Day was immediately my favorite band, and looking back, I think it was a hell of a choice. Billie Joe (lead singer) sang about everything that I was dealing with/ going through. (Ok, not so much at age 9, but certainly through my teenage years). Depression, angst, unrequited love, youth, inexperience, anxiety, frustration, hell even masturbation, haha. The lyrics and vocals were so raw and unbridled early on. I could go on and on about how amazing Green Day's early stuff was (so much better than anything on American Idiot).

I was pretty much a grunge head/alt rock guy in my teenage years. Among my chief favorites were the aforementioned Green Day, The Offspring (HUGE Offpsring fan back in the day though I don't know where they went wrong), Metallica (how can you not?), Bush (yea, yea, but Sixteen Stone was an epic albums....5 singles!!!), Live (ditto, Throwing Copper had 6 singles I think), Nirvana (obviously. and ya know most grungers would cite seeing the Smells Like Teen Spirit Video as their musical ephiphany/coming out party but that's just so cliche, ya know?), Foo Fighters (bastard child of Nirvana. First album was phenomenal.....all downhill from there. They went from a grunge rock band to I dont know what), Pearl Jam (Ten. Need I say more?), Soundgarden (still an alltime fave), Stone Temple Pilots (early stuff was great, fell off....seeing a theme here?), and Tool (phenomenal musicianship and haunting lyrics and vocals by Maynard). I'm racking my brain for more bands I was as big on, but I'm coming up short (That's what she said). I also enjoyed, the Beasties, Everclear, Smashing Pumpkins, and Beck among others.

I wanna make two special mentions here....maybe 3. While I certainly knew of Alice in Chains and knew their big songs back then (Man in the Box, Would?, Down in A Hole), I never truly realized until a couple years ago just how big a fan I am of them.....kinda snuck up on me. Possibly the greatest grunge band of all time, imo. Them or Soundgarden.

Mention number two: Radiohead. My uncle gave me OK Computer as a gift one year. It sat around for months. I finally gave it a couple listens, and wow. Anyone who knows anything about music knows how great this album (and the band) is. So I won't belabor it. I'll cover Radiohead more another time, but another band I never realized until just recently how much I loved them.

Number 3: RHCP. I know some people prefer their earlier stuff which is more raw and funky, but I've LOVED their last couple of albums, while I merely liked them back in the day. I gotta throw props to my brother for really getting me back into the Peppers, but I figure he owes me because he got most of his musical influences from me.

The next block of time/period of my life, AKA the late nineties/early 00's were quite strange musically. There were very few bands I picked up in those years, but some were notable. Or were they? Hmmm. Maybe only A New Found Glory perhaps. This was the height of the boy band craze....sigh.

2002-2006. Ah, college. Before everybody was getting sued for downloading music college was a haven for building ones music library. itunes, mytunes, man life was sweet! Anywho, I picked up some biggies in these years. Bad Religion (wins my vote for most consistent band of all time. The guys have like 15 albums and if I played you their 3rd one and their last one back to back you wouldn't be able to tell them apart. Plus they're political, which is cool, though I abhor politics. AND, their lyrics are ridiculously awesome, i.e. their vocabulary is easily the most advanced of any band....ever. Period. Check out some of their lyrics. They use phrases like "arid torpor", and use words like "proliferation" and "austere" and "autonomy". They also reference philosophers and shit. Cool dudes). A New Found Glory (every song is about a girl.....literally every song, so it kinda gets old. But some good stuff there). The Strokes (got off to a fabulous start with Is This It? Have had spots of brilliance since, but I want a sequel to that album). The White Stripes (I've really only listened to Elephant, but fuck is it good). Weezer (from the grunge/alt era but this is when i got into them....first two albums are spectacular. After that, not so much). Dream Theater (My first real taste of progressive rock, though I really didn't get into them until later). Thursday (Solid band, great sound, good lyrics. My favorite indie/emo type band).

I dedicate this next passage to one band. When asked what my favorite band is, these guys were at the top for a while and are still comfortably in my top 5. They are none other than progressive metal superstars Coheed & Cambria. Life is funny. Just a year or two earlier I delivered chinese food at home in Staten Island, and so I would listen to the radio all night while I worked. One day a song popped into my head that was on the radio in those days. I didn't know the band or the name of the song, but I kinda remembered the words "Bye Bye Beautiful". So I hit up google and the song was "A Favor House Atlantic". The rest, as they say, is history. Got a hold of their existing two albums and fell in love. It became the soundtrack to my summer (which happened to be the greatest summer of my life), and well there it is. They're amazing.

To the present, the state of music is weak, imo. As a result of this, in the past couple of years I've dug back into the golden years of music to pluck out some ripe bands. Without going on too much more. I will list them and highlight the epic bands:

The Beatles - nuff said
Boston - for the self titlted album alone. amazing.
The Cars - self titled album is epic
David Bowie - just wow. a recent obsession of mine. EPIC stuff
The Doors - phenomenal
Iron Maiden - all time metal band
Meatloaf - for Bat Out of Hell alone
MJ - before he liked little boys
Neil Young - I need to get my hands on more of his stuff but After the Gold Rush is awesome
Queen - in the mix for favorite band
Rush - prog rock at its finest
The Smiths - also a recent obsession and top fiver.

Well this is going on and on, but one more list of random bands I neglected.

Audioslave - bastard child of Soundgarden and Rage. not bad.
Avenged Sevenfold - solid nu-metal
Eminem - Love him. Funny ass lyrics, good beats.
Linkin Park - yea. I like them.
Kanye West - really great rapper.
The Killers - First two albums are awesome. Currently addicted to Sam's Town
Maroon 5 - Second album is poppy funky fresh.
Neutral Milk Hotel - If you haven't heard them.....check em out.
Biggie - nuff said
Outkast - really great, original hip hop group
Shinedown - good rock.
Sublime - ever present, how can you not like Sublime. I can't listen to them without being nostalgic about my youth.


Phew. Bout it. I'm beat. I could go on for hours....but I won't.
There you have it. The majority of my musical influences. If you like rock, do yourself a favor and check out some if not most of these bands. More to come...