Bands That I Like

 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...

 149 Japandroids   Japandroids  First off- you gotta' respect any god-damn duo out there who make a name for themselves. Secondly, if this band (which formed in Vancouver in 2006 [& consisting of members: David Prowse {Drums/Vocals} & Brian King {Guitar/Vocals}]) released nothing except their first album, 2009's Post-Nothing , and the 2010 compilation of two early E.P.'s. (2007's All Lies & 2008's Lullaby Death Jams ) No Singles - this band would have still made this list! They are that great. Their second album, Celebration Rock, was anything but a sophomore-slump, quite the opposite in fact... it included the only 'hit' (if you can even call it that [even though there was a solid crowd-funding attempt to change this song as the National Anthem for Canada]) " The House The Heaven Built ." Since then, the band has blessed us with one more album- 2017's Near to the Wild Heart of Life . A live album came out in 2020. In tribute to t...