Concrete
BlondeLike most of the members of the 13th Generation of Americans (i.e., slackers, Gen X, 13thGen-ers), I used to have the attention span of an MTV video. Nowadays, I'm a bit more focused on my musical tastes, actually I sort of have an eclectic taste. Here's a few groups or artists that I listen to:
Concrete
BlondeAlthough no longer a group or even really performing these days, I still drop in one of their CDs when I'm having a bad day. Johnette Napolitano, the lead singer, writer and bass player for their albums is most definitely one of my Muses. She still does some singing with other projects, most notably Vowel Movement, Pretty & Twisted and The (no Talking, just) Heads. I had the opportunity to see her perform a couple of times with Concrete Blonde (twice in 1990 and once in 1994) and with Pretty and Twisted (1995 and man was I buzzing, I got within 10 feet of her at the old 9:30 Club in Washington, DC). Missed her when she was the guest vocalist for The Heads tour (I had just gotten back the day before from vacation). Waah!
Best way to describe this group is as, "the original, blues-oriented, Southern-Rock & Rock band out of Canada." They have won multiple Juno Awards (the Canadian equivalent to the Grammys) Most of their albums had a central themes running thru it (most obviously are all the classical literature references in Road Apples and all the death, murder and dying motifs in Fully, Completely). Their webpage can tell you lots more about them than I can. Click here, to go there.
Damn, I've always wanted to say that.
Trio Nocturna (now known as Mythology). Very erethral group from Atlanta, GA. They were one of the guest performers at Anne Rice's Annual Halloween party. Didn't think I'd like this group at first, but WOW!! Check out their website for more information. Unfortunately they broke up in 1998, but the main people in their group evolved over to another.
And whatever else floats my boat. From classical (I love Bach's "3rd Sonata for Piano and Cello") to Chuck Berry ("Johnny B. Goode") to Swing/Big Bands (Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Brian Setzer Orchestra, Glenn Miller, etc.), Rock (Rush, Limp Bizkit, Creed, Melissa Etheridge, Korn, and so on) I can get into them all, just how much depends on my mood and what situation my life is in. Most people who have seen my CD collection describe it as schizophrenic at best with a leaning towards Modern Rock.
Although I did accidentally get exposed to a new group, Drain Sth. A group of four, young and very attractive ladies from Stockholm, Sweden who most definitely rock with a metal and new age-y sound. Hell, if Ozzy Osbourne liked them enough to play his Ozzfest in 1999, that's good enough for me. Unfortunately, they broke up too.
Click on the graphic to go to their old fan website.
"Hey, how did that opera CD get in here?"
The wife and I went to the Kennedy Center for their performance of Handel's Messiah during the X-Mas season of 1998. This did give me an appreciation of Oratio and Operatic music. Not my style per se, but I do have an appreciation for the work that goes into making this type of music, having once considered a career as a professional orchestral percussionist (over 8 years of orchestral percussion training in the MD public school systems, thank you very much). Although, the next time I want that much culture in one sitting, I think I'll go and eat some yogurt.
I mainly listen to the local rock radio stations (99.1 WHFS, 98 Rock, DC 101 in D.C.) and switch when something doesn't set well with me. Like Led Zepplin. Don't know what it is about this one group, but I get nauseous whenever I hear a song by them, but I love acts like Dread Zepplin (a Led Zepplin cover band, fused with a reggae band with an Elvis impersonator in the lead, for some strange reason it really works). Go fig...
The missus sometimes tries to make me listen to the local Mix station (no, no, Mix stations are evil, evil, evil I tell you!!). Listen to what you want to. The only type of music I really don't like is Country (although, I can listen to Shania Twain and Faith Hill, but they don't really sound like Country to me) much to my parents chagrin (who are die-hard country music fans). Oh well, deal...