Are there any connective threads among your choices for favorite artists/bands?

In my case, I see certain threads about a sense of triumph over darkness, personal abandon in pursuit of artistic vision, and better than average musicianship in service to the song and not for its own sake.

Also: are there any genres you want to mention without talking about specific artists? I know for me, flamenco guitarists, qawaali singers, and Indian musicians on a variety of instruments (from sitar to tabla and sarangi) fit that bill.

the original post:

http://radioactiveart.livejournal.com/726467.html

Meme-ish, but not really.

Your current list (if you’re like me, it changes a bit now and then) of favorite bands/musical artists of all time, no particular order, mixed genres OK, and keep it to a list of 10-15.

Mine:

The Who
Bruce Springsteen
X
The Clash
The Jam
Richard Thompson
Ornette Coleman
Thelonius Monk
Sleater-Kinney
John Fahey
Paco de Lucia
The whole Parliament/Funkadelic universe
The Replacements/Paul Westerberg
Talking Heads
Husker Du/Bob Mould

EDIT TO ABOVE: Of course, since I posted this I’ve realized I left people off who hold equivalent levels of esteem in my pantheon…so a belated shout out to Robert Johnson, Blind Willie Johnson, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith, and the Grateful Dead. Sorry, gang.

For a change of pace, I am playing one of the cable TV’s music channels — not like MTV or something, but what amounts to a radio station. I’ve got it on an all 80s station.

It’s interesting to me how much of this music was NOT on my 80s listening menu. The Fixx? Erasure? Never listened to that stuff unless it came up on the radio; I know I don’t own any in the musty depths of my vinyl collection.

But they’re playing Romeo Void right now (“Myself to Myself”) and they just played the Replacements’ “Never Mind.” (The ‘Mats deserve a chapter all their own in the book of my life, probably to be titled “I got Plastered with the Replacements — and lived to tell about it.”) They also played Siouxsie earlier (“Killing Jar”) which was nice.

When people talk about the 80s and their love of the music, they never seem to mention the stuff I recall being into — Husker Du, the ‘Mats, and a whole host of other guitar driven bands. It’s always OMD, Erasure, Yaz…which didn’t register on my radar at all. I can’t tell Depeche Mode from OMD to this day. Was it that fractured and factionalized for everyone?

Well, it’s time for the Smiths now…I suddenly feel an urgent need to shoplift something.

OOH!!! OOH!! The Polecats!!! “Diode Cathode Electrode Overload Generator Oscillator Make a Circuit With Me!!!”

It’s not a bad day.