I forgot about the paul butterfield blues band with good 'ol mike bloomfield on lead guitar and the 50s miles davis quintet when they had train, cannonball and bill evans... they're all pretty great too. I mean, obviously there's the Beatles, but they are beyond a band and beyond a favorite. I mean the Stax house band (AKA the t-birds AKA booker t and the mgs) was pretty epic and played with all the Stax artists when they recorded in Memphis so just for breadth of catalog maybe I wanna change my answer to those guys? God did they have some soul. I still have a warm spot in my heart for some of the bands of my youth too like MBV, the pumpkins, Swervedriver, STP and Soundgarden (though SG's work really fell off since the reunion)... to say nothing of industrial and electronic acts from my youth that are actual BANDS (unlike this new ebm stuff my ex likes) such as ministry or skinny puppy... in this basic idiom front242 tickles me as does Depeche mode. Oh, and autechre. Damn! This is a hard question, but for sheer impressive innovation and artistry that is way outside the box I guess I stick with Neubauten.
I worked for a guy as a kid who taught me about recording and had an enormous and varied record collection and he gave me the 2nd best piece of advice I ever got about music. Between his colelction and my uncle's insane collection (hes an attorney with money to burn and a great love of musicology and his collection takes up an entire bedroom in his house just for storing it ON CD, not vinyl) I had a lot to check out and its an ongoing process. So this friend said, 'be willing to listen to anything.' In highschool the Jazz Band coach told me to 'really listen' and that's the best piece of advice I ever got because I REALLY LISTENED to those 2 words and made it my life's goal to understand what listening can really be. Put those 2 together and you can do anything if you are willing to shed.
There is a lot of drudgery involved in putting in the requisite practice and study after really listening and training your ear to appreciate what all good music has in common. There's always a reason why something is popular and apart from a few cases it is not the marketing budget, you are just not hearing what grabs listeners other than you. That's the chore, to be objective and clinical with the tough stuff or try to put yourself in the shoes of joe-fan for an hour of seemingly-sophomoric music you don't readily identify with. Heck, it can be drudgery listening objectively to stuff you like at first. Even if you are already broad minded about music, do you know WHY you really like what you already like? What it all has in common and the real factors that give each artist their individuality? Most of you, I promise, do not. No one is open minded to start though. You have to listen, deconstruct, learn and practice to open your mind up all the way. Your ears are the best piece of gear you will ever own. I should add them to my equipboard! And this is from a guy who is always still trying to learn and expand because 25 years in I feel like a rookie some days.
There are a lot of young guys on EB so I feel the need to get on my soapbox once in a while on this forum.
Listen to everything and learn to play or produce it. I eman learning songs by ear as well as leanring how a certain sound is achieved. Learning tow rite in the style of so-and-so who you do not even like or how to comp over some changes in someone else's solo style. This process will change you, but you will change every piece of music you touch. The hand is ultimately shaped by that which it creates. I forget who said that, but I always liked that quote and NOWHERE is it more true than with music. These organized vibrations in the air we all want to make here? They are like people's lifesblood. They bind us together just like the human need for food and shelter. But a starving person in an alley can be transported from his troubles for 3 minutes by music...
so smoke that over like Supafly
