For Those Who Tried To Rock is a blog about the bands that never went anywhere, for example.
Urbicide,
The Tribulations and
Only One. The band photos are usually accompanied by mp3s and short testimonies, such as this one about
Soft Option: "Flock of Seagulls owned Liverpool when we came together but we were really Depeche Mode fans. Trouble was, we only had one Synth – the Roland pictured above – so on the more complicated songs we covered like Everything Counts (see cassette below) I had to play parts on a Melodica – the small keyboard you blow into. It was my Mother's idea. We went to an all boys school, so the gigs were boys only, which meant we did not get laid but the nights we played were some of the greatest of my adolescence."
[via Carrie Brownstein's Monitor Mix]
posted by Kattullus
on Jun 5, 2008 -
50 comments
The major label machine sucks in and churns out young bands all the time, leaving plenty of good music unheard by the public. Boston's trip-hoppy
Splashdown were one of the acts brought low by this process, disbanding two years after Capitol decided not to release their major label debut LP. The late 90's were a commercially bad time for female-fronted electro-pop, of course, but the band found an outlet for their material by releasing it for free online -- their
whole catalog, including three LP's, two EP's and some double-secret-unreleased tracks, is available with the band's blessing. Members have since joined other bands --
Freezepop,
Universal Hall Pass -- which hopefully will avoid the trouble Splashdown had.
posted by aaronetc
on Feb 24, 2007 -
37 comments
The Essential Foghat Timeline. Is it any wonder that Foghat is so hard to
keep track of? (Found
here).
There were two versions of Foghat touring from 1990 to 1993. Roger Earl was touring with his version of Foghat (originally called the Kneetremblers) from 1986 to 1993 and Dave toured with Lonesome Dave's Foghat from 1990 to 1993...
posted by inksyndicate
on Aug 28, 2004 -
3 comments
Pour Some Sugar On Me, as reinvisioned by Townsend, a boy band.
Some would say it's the worst thing they'd ever seen, but I'd hazard a guess that it may actually be the worst thing ever filmed. The song is enhanced with a rap section, and the video is enhanced with the addition of the jackass from Smashmouth, for some bizarre reason. NSFNSAVI (not safe for the non sight & vision impaired)
posted by jonson
on Aug 26, 2004 -
65 comments
The Greatest Week in Rock History (Salon link) - 34 years ago today, Billboard Charts had a outstanding album lineup - perhaps not the best albums ever, but for a single point in time, arguably unmatched for quality, originality, and longevity. Take a look back at the roster:
the Beatles,
Led Zeppelin,
Tom Jones,
Creedence Clearwater Revival,
the Stones,
Santana,
the Temptations,
Blood Sweat & Tears,
Crosby Stills & Nash, and
Easy Rider.
posted by madamjujujive
on Dec 20, 2003 -
53 comments
"The Band uses unique instrumentation: the music is performed using obsolete computer equipment for instruments. Currently they are using a 1977 Atari 2600 game console, a 1986 portable 286 PC, a 1983 Commodore 64 computer, and a 1985 Epson dot matrix printer."
posted by cody
on Oct 28, 2003 -
14 comments
I've never heard of TAB (Tommy Aguilar Band) who apparently became quite popular in the mid-90's, but
Off The Record is nonetheless a fascinating read, offering great insight into what it's really like to be in a band. Michelle Rubin, the bass player, offers a
journal describing one of their first disastrous tours.
Tommy has a write-up that is also well worth reading. The
book gets rave reviews.
posted by ashbury
on Aug 21, 2003 -
8 comments
Want to serve your country, but you're not exactly up for being a marine? If you know an instrument well, then not to worry...join "The President's Own", the official USMC band! Unlike other USMC bands that are put together from Marine Corps regulars, musicians in the President's Own are enlisted specifically for playing in the band (MOS 9811).
You have all the rank, privileges, pay, and snappy uniforms as a Staff Sergeant upon entry, and you can even work yourself up to
colonel! You get all the benefits, like seeing the world and free haircuts, provided you meet height and weight requirements, and can meet certain physical criteria (try marching for 10 hours a day)....and NO BOOT CAMP...that's right...they're the only unit in the Armed Forces that doesn't require any military training before joining. And of course, one the coolest things about the Marine Corps band, is that you follow in the footsteps of
John Philip Sousa, who enlisted when he was friggin 13.
posted by taumeson
on Jun 26, 2003 -
19 comments
Electric 6 is the new rock sensation in Europe... Their first video, 'Danger' (High Voltage) was tastless but undeniably funny... But with
their new one, 'Gay bar', nobody will dare to say Rock music isn't political anymore...
After George Michael's
Shoot the dog video (which has been discussed here if memory serves me right), this one is just another way to admit that yes, political "leaders" do inspire artists...
posted by Sijeka
on Jun 16, 2003 -
30 comments
Radiohead TV: Welcome To The Most Gigantic Lying Mouth Of All Time! Yes, fans and detractors - it's that time of the year again. But look before you hear, mind!
My favourite band The world's most lyrically evolved band Radiohead is about to
unleash, after the wonder that is
There, There [
Full videoclip here] a
new long-playing record and with it, on May 26th, a
new television channel [
Please scroll down a bit for details]. They're going: "
I haven't had this much fun in years". Well, indeed! I wonder how many fans get the dark, gallows humour of Radiohead. And what beautiful songs! I put it to you Thom Yorke is the new Leonard Cohen, another much-funnier-than-he-sounds songwriter and performer.[
Windows Media req. Quicktime version of TV channel here; Real version of "There, There" video here. Please go to the website for other details and lower res alternatives..]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on May 13, 2003 -
54 comments
Throwing Muses are among the most sadly unsung bands of the alt.rock era. Though beloved by
critics (particularly the British press) and adored by a small army of
devoted fans, they disbanded in 1997 for financial reasons. After releasing a killer
new album, the band (featuring prodigal Muse and Belly founder
Tanya Donnelly) are back for what may be the
last time. (more inside)
posted by pxe2000
on Apr 25, 2003 -
32 comments
British band
The The is alive, well, and pissed off. The March 21st "issue" of their website
This is The The Day is a brash, one-stop-shopping WarLinkapalooza to (among other things) Micah Wright and his war poster satires, Tom Tomorrow, Get Your War On, Robert Fisk's Baghdad dispatches and . . . Alan Watts? (Oh, yeah--Pt 6 of the Johnny Marr/Matt Johnson
interview is there too.)
Are
other bands taking a stand against (or for) the war? Googling
this results in only a certain spyplane, while Bono has
no comment (for a change).
Please do not turn this into a pro/anti-war flamefest. We're flamefested out by now : ) Peace.
posted by Shane
on Mar 21, 2003 -
12 comments
Tonight, I saw (for the 4th time) one of the greatest live bands on the planet:
Sweep The Leg Johnny. They played to a half-empty room in Toronto. Recently, the band put out their
fourth CD. Sadly, they're calling it quits after
this tour. What are some of the bands you've told folks to
Go see now!, but no one seems to listen?
posted by dobbs
on Jul 11, 2002 -
36 comments
It's the music *you* love but
everyone you know hates it... It's the band you love. You've played them to all your friends.
All your friends hate them (don't they see? haven't they got ears? can't
they hear?) You've tried the old "no - really just
*listen* to them...honestly they
*are* great - can't you even see yet?" ploy... But you can't make anyone understand and everyone you know still hates them.
This is my one. (mp3's available) What's yours?
(nb. i know most of you are going to hate this band, so it would
be pointless to post replies of the "this band are sh*t nature)
posted by Spoon
on Jan 14, 2002 -
74 comments
The Ramones named #2 band of all time by
Spin magazine, following the Beatles at #1. I think we all can agree to disagree about the vailidity of the yearly
Grammy nominations, but when given a little more time, you'd think that the editors of Spin could come up with something better than placing The Smiths at #21, or Fugazi at #31. In other news, Bruce Springsteen was left off the list.
posted by padjet1
on Jan 10, 2002 -
91 comments
Band names are out;
blog names are in. All of us musical inepts who spent more time thinking up band names than actually learning to play an instrument now have a purpose for our great list of names that rock your world, dude! Here's a really brief list of blog names grabbed from
Linkwatcher, any one of which could have been a band name:
Virulent Memes, Grouse, The Dome of the Sky, Underduck, Sixth Dev, Ten Reasons Why, Industrial Technology and Witchcraft, Phester, Hopeless Romantics, Next Generation Degeneration, Being Terran, Hit or Miss, Entropy, Wee David, Kitty Kitty, Inexplicable Fancy Trash, etc etc.
On the flip side, you could use
random band name generators to come up with blog names, too.
Some people compile lists of band names. Of course, some sites
take band names seriously.
What's your best band/blog name ever?
posted by monkey-mind
on Dec 30, 2001 -
38 comments
Tool played in Philly last night, and I was lucky enough to go. Always wanted to see them, but for certain reasons, never have till now. Any bands out there you've been wanting to see live, or wanted to see live before a split-up ruined your chances?
posted by mich9139
on Sep 28, 2001 -
93 comments
Pages about the band
Hot Snakes eventually led me to the site of record label
Vagrant. I'm really impressed by the clean design and quality content. What other stand out record label sites are out there?
posted by gwint
on Sep 10, 2001 -
6 comments
Look at the silly boys with their cute little grindcore band names. Oooh! I'm threatened! I'm quivering! I'm shocked and saddened, saddened and shocked! So scary.
posted by Mo Nickels
on May 21, 2000 -
3 comments
