A to Z of Music I Love: Z is for The Zutons and White Zombie

yeah second one doesn't really count but those two albums i listened to to death.

//zutons


//white Zombie

A to Z of Music I Love: Y is for Yeah Yeah Yeahs & Neil Young

yeah here is fun music newish band really making interesting music and one of the greatest artists ever

//yeah yeah yeahs


//neil young (this song slays me)

A to Z of Music I Love: X is for X

well not many x bands so why not choose a great punk band?

here is x

//x

A to Z of Music I Love: W is for Wilco

there is no competition here. this is the best W band. Enjoy 3 videos of theirs

//wilco
(on tons of drugs)

A to Z of Music I Love: V is for Velvet Underground

could there have been a more unsucessful but influential band? nope. these guys rock.

//velvet underground

A to Z of Music I Love: U is for Uncle Tupelo

not many u bands to choose from so i took one. might have chosen u2 but eh. the band broke up and became son volt and wilco

n-joy

//uncle tupelo

A to Z of Music I love: T is for Tool and Twilight Singers

not much to say here i couldn't choose one so here's two.

//Tool - my favorite song by them but only ever done live, no awesome video


here is an awesome TOOL video


//Twilight Singers

A to Z of Music I Love: S is for Sonic Youth/Soul Coughing/Spoon

I couldn't pick one so here is a trifecta.

//Sonic Youth




//Soul Coughing


//Spoon

A to Z of Music I Love: Q is for Queen

So i forgot Q. So here it is. The greatest band beginning with Q.

Yeah here it is

A to Z of Music I Love: R is for RADIOHEAD

Theres is no competition here. This is my favorite band EVER. I feel in love with them gradually over time but when Kid A came out, they solidified as my top band. I can't explain really why I love them. I heard "creep" and thought this guy has a whiney voice but i don't mind the music.

I guess hearing The Bends changed much of that and then came the monster that is OK Computer.
Here are my favorite songs by Radiohead

Lucky (my all time favorite song)


Talk Show Host


Fake Plastic Trees


15 Step


Paranoid Android (i was at this show)


high and dry


Idioteque


There are my favorites, enjoy.

A to Z of Music I Love: P is for Pixies and Peaches

Pixies: I discovered via WTUL and Fight Club. I now love them and totally get where Nirvana was coming from.

Peaches is, well, crazy good. She plays with boundries and taste. It works for me.

So here is both of them in two seperate videos.

Pixies


Peaches

A to Z of Music I Love: O is for Okkervil River

This is a tough letter because there aren't many O bands I love. I used to love The Offspring (along with Live, first cds I ever bought). I enjoyed the Old 97's. Of Montreal is fun.

So I choose a new enjoyment. Maybe a band i like or am getting into. I didn't like them the first time I heard them but overtime they have grown on me.

So here it is.

A to Z of Music I Love: N is for Nine Inch Nails.

I could write about Nirvana but there is one bad that really marks a trail right along my musical journey.

When I started 7th grade I was listening to Top 40 and oldies. I didn’t have anything that really existed in my world. Modern rock stations never stayed around long enough back home. Mostly country and classic rock and top 40 bullshit. Shortly before their demise the local college rock station (which is now boring jazz) played a hard rock hour late one night. They played Caroline Spine, Radiohead (wait for the R entry), some nondiscript college rock, then they played ministry and then this:

WISH


Mentally my mind started opening up and things changed. (the song was edited for radio.) Then things started progressing as more and more music became known to me and then this happened. Their greatest album and most famous song.

CLOSER


I then went and found their first album on tape, yes tape. The first two albums and an EP helped get through high school. Always there when i was upset, angry or lonely. Weird how one band can be there. While Radiohead is my all time favorite band, Nine Inch Nails is number two for a reason. They were the opposite to Radiohead. My yin and yang. My mental guidelines and aids.

Off the tape, I fell in love with this song. Not a great video but I still love the song.


It got better Live too


Then came one of my favorite movies LOST HIGHWAY. I still love it and still love this song.


SO throughout high school they were there and then came college and the release of The Fragile. The album was depressing and affirming. My tastes in music generally broadened but some how i always came back to them. I went through some bad places in college and the music was there. I never got to see NIN live. I made quite a few good friends through our shared love of NIN (holla peaches and karen!) but always it was the concert I never got to go to. Always played live when i was with family or at college but at the opposite side of the continent. I saw Trent a few times in new orleans off and on. Ran into him at a bar in the quarter. Another time he was going to a party after the one i went to let out of an upstairs club. I don't see him as a god of icon but as a man who expressed the emotions so many of have.

Star*uckers Inc


I guess the NIN quiet period that started post this album also equalled my movement to more indie rock, weirder music, and americana. I am not sure why but I started exploring other things than what i had found. Like always when I needed the music, it was there.

Another great track that helped with college (one of the few)


I then ended up waiting like so many till much later for something else. SO i could keep writing about how much NIN means to me. I also wonder how to explain the emotional connection that this music has brought me.

I was so excited to see them live for the first time at Voodoofest. I bought tickets made plans then two months before, Hurricane Katrina. My sadness and my pain from all that got fed into the album "With Teeth" and this video and song became how i felt (and sometimes still do).


"There is no you, there is one me."
I ended up seeing them three times in the last 5 years. The opening acts of Saul Williams, Peaches, TV on the Radio and Bauhaus were all firsts for me. I saw HEALTH too but I don't really like them that much. The prolific last few years of Trent Reznor has produced a wealth of good music and interesting adoption of current internet technology. Only time will tell what happens next.

From this comes a good concept album in "Year Zero" and a great single.


Then Came Ghosts and The Slip
Echoplex

Ghosts 31


The music has been there for 20 years of my life. The band is no more. That means Trent has other things planned and I will look forward too. I need to go and get the legal torrents they put up and make DVDs of the great music and shows that have been made.

Thank you Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails). My life would be pretty boring and I would still be listening to Amy Grant and Michael W. SMith with out you. Thank you.

Bonus Cover Awesomeness!!!

A to Z of Music I Love: M is for Modest Mouse

Not much here other than Mozart. Enjoy a few videos of one of the weirdest and funniest bands.





worse than you ever know

A to Z of Music I Love: L is for Live and Led Zeppelin

Another dual post for two reasons

Live was the first CD i ever bought and one of the first bands I ever got excited about it. Too bad they didn't stay as good after 2002 but oh well I will always enjoy Throwing Copper


Led Zeppelin, great hard rock band ever. They defined a genre, my radio in HS and the only good FM station back home. I have over listened to them because of that but here is my favorite song by them.