Bands That I Like

155 John Williams / John Williams   John Williams The NBC Olympics ; Jaws ; Indian Jones ; Jurassic Park ; Harry Potter ; [mother fuckin'] STAR WARS ! You can easily imagine each of those epic melodies for each of those iconic movies in your head & for good reason: each were created by the legendary (and [as of this writing] 80-year-old) & the always-high-in demand-Hollywood composer John Williams! And it's easy to see why for Mr. John Williams has a wickedly great-and-keen-sense of creating a true score which not only just fits every FILM he is responsible for scoring- but nearly every God-damn SCENE! It's almost like God undoubtedly blessed him with this-other-worldly sixth-sense. And the credibility and recognition is there: He has 75 Grammy nominations & with that ultimately brings him to be the 6th most winning-est with 26 [!]. A complete compositional genius. Newbies  should seek out his John Williams Greatest Hits 1969-1999 - but unfortunately that doesn&

 154 John Denver John Denver Not many people can get away or even pull-off having a stage-name "Denver" as a last name but as this poet basically dedicated most of his songs (" Rocky Mountain High ," " I Guess He'd Rather Be In Colorado ," & " Starwood In Aspen " [just to name a few].) about the mountains, not only did Mr. John Denver pull it off but he also managed to do it while letting his authentic-sunshine-self shine through. Denver was truly one of the first to combine country & pop into one cohesive sound. John was super prolific, beginning with 1966's self-released John Denver Sings all the way up until his last album- 1997's All Aboard! , with Denver dying tragically while piloting a plane just two months after the release, bringing a whole new-dark-perspective-and-dimension to his song " Leaving on a Jet Plane ." Twenty-seven albums total! There was also the compilation of unreleased material ti

 153 Jimi Hendrix Jimi Hendrix Jimi Hendrix is the quintessential rock guitarists, as much as Bob Dylan is the quintessential singer/songwriter and the Beatles are the ultimate rock band. As only classical or jazz players had done before him, Hendrix RE-defined his music's instrument: Expanding the possibilities of the amplified six-string, he confirmed beyond question its status as rock's essential vehicle What Yo-Yo Ma is to the cello or Charlie Parker was to the saxophone, so was Jimi Hendrix to the electric guitar. A psychic successor to Elvis Presley, Hendrix also embodied the politics of rock & roll as a black-white fusion- the twin pillars of his music were the earthiness of the blues and the ethereality of jazz, but his primary contemporary audience was rock fans and the psychedelic subgenre that provided the context for his particular triumph was a white one. Finally, through lyrics heavily influence by Bob Dylan, he delivered a message of universal emancipation.

 151 Jeff Beck Jeff Beck Let's just start off with this: " Freeway Jam (Live) ." If you need anymore convincing why Jeff Beck made the list of "Bands That I Like," then you will forever be clueless. I first became aware of this legendary guitarist with his April 2010 release Emotion & Commotion . I was immediately blown away by the first note and continued to be blown away- Blow By Blow - by the entire album; I had never heard the guitar sound so orchestral, eerie, emotional & eternal. The saying, "better late than never," surely applies to me here:  In typical millennial fashion- I had heard of the artist Beck before this legendary guitarist (ranked No. 5 of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by Rolling Stone). After being converted with Emotion & Commotion, I quickly did a deep dive into his catalogue- and I do mean DEEP. This a man who has been recording since 1968 with his legendary Jeff Beck Group , which introduced the world to

 151 Jay-Z   Jay-Z Although the late Biggie Smalls used to joke about going from "ashy to classy," his Brooklyn partner-in-rhyme, Jay-Z, would best embody that shift in style and station. Jay's recording debut, however, was anything but auspicious, spitting a well-constructed yet unremarkable verse on 1993's " Can I Get Open? " by Original Flavor, a group that featured Big Jaz, Jay's mentor in rhyme. At the time, Jay was a small-time hustler trying to make ends meet; "Open" gave him the boost he needed to begin working on his debut album, Reasonable Doubt . After shopping it to every major label record company with no success, Jay and his business partner, Damon Dash, decided to form their own label, Rec-A-Fella Record s, a move that would eventually make them very rich men.  To this day, Reasonable stands as one of rap music's essential albums, not to mention one of the greatest debuts. Like Biggie's Ready to Die , released two years

 150  Jawbreaker / Jets To Brazil Jawbreaker / Jets To Brazil Jawbreaker are a pop-punk trio that bridged the gap between Nirvana and blink-182. It would be too easy to brush Jawbreaker off as just another pop-punk band with simple melodies but their poetic lyrics and complex song structures prove anything but. Jawbreaker is an emo/punk rock band based in San Francisco, CA's Mission District, although the band's members, Blake Schwarzenbach (vocals/guitar), Chris Bauermeister (bass), and Adam Pfahler (drums), actually came together at New York University in the mid 1980's. The band's first release was 1989's " Whack & Blite " 7" on their own Blackball Records. The band released 4 LPs (1990’s Unfun , 1991’s Bivouac , 1993’s high-water-mark 24 Hour Revenge Therapy , and 1995’s major-label debut and decisive Dear You [which saw a sorta-Pinkerton-effect, many fans were upset about the major label switch... that isn't very punk-rock...but in retro