Kathe Green
Kathe Jennifer Green (born September 22, 1944) is an American actress, model and singer. She is the daughter of composer and conductor Johnny Green and Bunny Waters. She has a younger sister, Kim Meglio. Born in Los Angeles she traveled for several years in the mid-to-late 1960s with the nonprofit encouragement singing group Up With People, a small singing group that included Glenn Close…
Doll by Doll
The London-based Doll by Doll was the showcase of singer/songwriter Jackie Leven, a Scottish-born performer who had previously gigged under the name John St. Field. With the dawn of the new wave, however, in 1977 Leven formed Doll by Doll, recruiting guitarist Jo Shaw, bassist Robin Spreafico and drummer David McIntosh and debuting two years later with the LP Remember, a collection informed as much by R&B and Celtic influence as by post-punk attitude…
Richard Dawson
A Northumbrian singer/songwriter with a flair for shambolic psych-folk and exploratory rock, Richard Dawson became a fixture in the underground folk scene with his distinctive blend of traditional English folk music, Sacred Harp-kissed North Country blues, jazzy psych-folk, and progressive rock. He flirted with mainstream success on the acclaimed outings Nothing Important (2014) and Peasant (2017)…
Lilys
An ever-morphing vehicle for songwriter and sole consistent member Kurt Heasley, Lilys have swung wildly between genre and sound in different phases of their career. Moving rapidly through bandmembers, home bases, and musical fixations, Heasley took the Lilys through adventurously overdriven shoegaze on their 1992 debut In the Presence of Nothing before taking a sharp turn toward Kinks-indebted mod pop on 1996’s Better Can’t Make Your Life Better…
Good Morning
Keeping the spirit of lo-fi experimental bedroom pop of the 1990s alive, Australian duo Good Morning show the influence of pioneers like Smog and Sebadoh and add in the closer-to-home indie pop sounds of Flying Nun to sweeten the deal. Their early singles shifted from scruffy noise pop to more sophisticated ballads, but by the time of 2018’s Prize // Reward, they had settled into a homecooked, barely together approach. The two records the band issued in 2019 showed off Good Morning’s sparkling indie rock bona fides…
Mary Wells
Time and legions of other soul superstars have obscured the fact that for a brief moment, Mary Wells was Motown’s biggest star. She came to the attention of Berry Gordy as a 17-year-old, hawking a song she’d written for Jackie Wilson; that song, “Bye Bye Baby,” became her first Motown hit in 1961. The full-throated approach of that single was quickly toned down in favor of a pop-soul sound. Few other soul singers managed to be as shy and sexy at the same time as Wells…
Denim
Given Lawrence Hayward’s frequent disputes with his bandmates during the decade-long run of his first and best-known band Felt, it came as little surprise that for his next project, he was not merely the uncontested leader, but the sole constant member. Denim was not a band in the traditional sense; instead, Hayward worked with a revolving cast of musicians for Denim’s various studio projects and live appearances…
Dressy Bessy
Centered around singer/guitarist Tammy Ealom’s angular melodies, Denver indie pop band Dressy Bessy emerged in the late ’90s and stuck to their colorful, dreamy rock sound as they rode the waves of the next several decades. Loosely affiliated with the Elephant 6 collective, the band represented the more streamlined pop side of a group known best for outsider perspectives…
Cosmic Psychos
One of the most notorious Australian pub rock bands, Cosmic Psychos play beer-fueled, garage-accented, heavy-hitting punk rock with no frills and no pretensions. Officially beginning their journey together in 1985, the Psychos gained a reputation for not caring about money as much as the free beer, laughs, and occasional overseas traveling involved with being in a rock band.
Jeb Loy Nichols
Jeb Loy Nichols is an American-born expatriate singer, songwriter, musician, artist, and novelist living in Wales. With an instantly recognizable, dusky tenor singing voice, he pursues a mercurial musical muse that guides him through writing and recording original songs that combine elements of blue-eyed soul, Americana, reggae, and blues. Between 1990 and 1994, he led country-reggae outfit the Fellow Travellers, whose four albums were the first to showcase his hybridized style…
Henry Badowski
Henry Badowski is a British multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and composer, who was a member of several punk rock bands in the 1970s before embarking on a solo career. Badowski’s apprenticeship started in several UK bands including Norman Hounds and the Baskervilles, Lick It Dry and the New Rockets. Badowski joined his friend, guitarist James Stevenson, in Gene October’s Chelsea as bassist in March 1977…
The Blackeyed Susans
Formed in Perth, Australia, in early 1989, the countrified alternative rock of the Blackeyed Susans gained a U.S. domestic release by the mid-’90s, when American Records signed the band to a contract. The first lineup of the band — vocalist/guitarist Rob Snarski, vocalist/guitarist David McComb (formerly of the Triffids), drummer Alsy McDonald (also ex-the Triffids), bassist Phil Kakulas, and organist Ross Bolleter — released the EP Some Births Are Worse Than Murders in 1990 on Waterfront Records. The record topped the Australian indie charts, and earned positive reviews …
The Nolans
The Nolans were an Anglo-Irish girl group who formed in Blackpool in 1974 as the Nolan Sisters, before changing their name in 1980. From 1979 to 1982, the group had a run of hits, including “I’m in the Mood for Dancing”, “Gotta Pull Myself Together”, “Who’s Gonna Rock You”, “Attention to Me” and “Chemistry”. They are one of the world’s biggest selling girl groups…
Madness
With a sound rooted in ska, but also showing the influence of classic British pop, Madness have enjoyed a long career full of hit singles, influential albums, and satisfied concert audiences. They were known initially for blending ska rhythms with catchy melodies and a nutty sense of humor on their 1979 debut album One Step Beyond, one of the seminal works of the 2-Tone era. As their career progressed, they folded touches of Motown, soul, and on 1982’s Madness Presents the Rise & Fall, British pop, into their formula…
Shirley Ellis
New York vocalist and composer Shirley Ellis was in the Metronomes before earning fame as co-composer and performer of some enjoyable soul novelty tunes in the mid-’60s. These included the Top Ten R&B hits “The Nitty Gritty” and “The Name Game.” “The Name Game” was co-written with her manager and husband Lincoln Chase, and peaked at number four R&B and number three pop in 1965…
Utopia
Stardom was handed to him with Something/Anything?, but Todd Rundgren rejected it. He wanted to explore new musical territory instead, and his adventures led him to form Utopia in 1973. Initially, Utopia was a prog rock septet featuring three keyboardists, but as the ’70s progressed, the band evolved into a shiny mainstream rock quartet, and Rundgren retreated into the background, as each of his bandmates contributed songs and lead vocals to the albums. By the early ’80s, Utopia had developed into a hitmaking entity in their own right…
Ultravox
Rejecting the abrasive guitars of their punk-era contemporaries in favor of lushly romantic synthesizers, Ultravox emerged as one of the primary influences on the British electro-pop movement of the early ’80s. Formed in London in 1974, the group — originally dubbed Ultravox! — was led by vocalist and keyboardist John Foxx (born Dennis Leigh), whose interest in synths and cutting-edge technology began during his school years. With an initial lineup consisting of bassist Chris Cross, keyboardist/violinist Billy Currie, guitarist Steve Shears, and drummer Warren Cann…
Kay Garner
Superb vocalist, Kay Garner appears in countless albums and sessions. She was born on October 4th, 1943. At the beginning of her career, she did mostly studio work, but also appeared live with Elton John, James Last and others. In the late seventies, she started to do sessions in disco albums. But she also worked singing in many jingles. After a long career, she sadly lost her battle with emphysema on July 16th, 2007. But her voice will remain forever in so many great albums…
The Wave Pictures
The Wave Pictures are an English rock band consisting of David Tattersall (vocals and guitar), Franic Rozycki (bass guitar) and Jonny Helm (drums). The band has its origins in a group called Blind Summit, which David and Franic formed with Hugh Noble in Wymeswold, near Loughborough in Leicestershire, in 1998. The band changed its name to the Wave Pictures and Hugh was eventually permanently replaced by Jonny Helm. They recorded and self-released a string of albums before settling in London…
Cinerama
Named for an immersive widescreen film projection system that predated IMAX, Cinerama were founded by David Gedge after he put the Wedding Present on sabbatical following a 1997 tour. Centered lyrically around Gedge’s regular themes of courtship, romance, love, lust, and infidelity, Cinerama also indulged Gedge’s love of film music from John Barry to blaxploitation, as well as the classic songwriting of Bacharach/David and the less dramatic sides of Scott Walker…
The Kane Gang
Vocalist and songwriter Martin Brammer and multi-instrumentalist Dave Brewis met at school in the northeast town of Seaham, County Durham. Teaming up with Paul Woods, the trio developed a liking for 60s/70s soul, funk and R&B which led them through several bands before forming the Kane Gang in late 1982. ‘Brother Brother’ was planned as their first single on Candle Records, a joint venture with friend Paddy McAloon of Prefab Sprout, but both bands were soon signed to new Newcastle label, Kitchenware…
Go West
Go West is an English pop duo, formed in 1982 by lead vocalist Peter Cox and rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Richard Drummie. At the Brit Awards 1986, they received the award for British Breakthrough Act. The duo enjoyed popularity between the mid-1980s and the early 1990s and are best known for the international top 10 hits “We Close Our Eyes”, “Call Me”, “Faithful”, and “King of Wishful Thinking”; the last was featured in the American romantic comedy film Pretty Woman (1990)…
The Fatima Mansions
Named in honor of a crumbling Dublin housing estate, the edgy, assaultive Fatima Mansions formed in London in 1989. The group was led by the acerbic Cathal Coughlan, who first emerged with Microdisney, and completed by guitarist Andrias O’Gruama, bassist Hugh Bunker, drummer Nick Allum, and keyboardist Zac Woolhouse. Almost immediately upon forming, Fatima Mansions signed to Kitchenware Records and entered the studio, soon issuing their 1989 debut Against Nature, a raw, blistering album featuring the single Only Losers Take the Bus…
The Janitors
Stockholm outfit The Janitors have been a formidable presence on the European underground since they formed back in 2004. Channeling the freewheeling spirit of Hawkwind with equal smatterings of Sabbath and Spacemen 3, the band are masters of taking hold of a gnarly fuzzed out groove and beating it within an inch of its life. Probably not for the faint of heart, their druggy wig-outs are totally relentless and unforgiving…
The Vernons Girls
The Vernons Girls were an English musical ensemble of female vocalists. They were formed at the Vernons football pools company in the 1950s in Liverpool, settling down to a sixteen strong choir and recording an album of standards. As a 16-piece vocal group, the Vernons Girls appeared on the ITV show ‘Oh Boy!’ with the house band between 1958 and 1959, and made a series of relatively successful singles for the label Parlophone between 1958 and 1961…
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci
Sounding like a bizarrely sweet and whimsical cross between progressive rock, psychedelia, and pure pop, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci were one of the most original and distinctive bands to emerge from the vital post-Brit-pop Welsh scene of the mid-’90s. Gorky’s music followed unconventional time signatures and structures, as well as instrumentation (boasting everything from droning moog synthesizers to slurring trombones and steel guitars) and melodic patterns…
Justin Currie
Singer/songwriter Justin Currie was born in Scotland on December 11, 1964. As the bassist/vocalist/chief songwriter for Scottish folk-pop outfit Del Amitri, the Glasgow native released six full-length records between 1982 and 2002 before embarking on a solo career. Currie’s proven gift for infectious melodies paired with wry, earnest, and occasionally barbed lyrics carried over to his solo work as well…
Robert Forster
Although commonly considered the darker, artier half of the creative force of the Go-Betweens — the Lennon to Grant McLennan’s McCartney, as it were — singer, songwriter, and guitarist Robert Forster has a knack for crafty pop songs along with the brooding ballads he contributed to the Go-Betweens’ albums, while his solo career — that began with 1990’s Danger in the Past — blended a healthy mix of both styles…
Etta James
Few female R&B stars enjoyed the kind of consistent acclaim Etta James received throughout a career that spanned six decades; the celebrated producer Jerry Wexler once called her “the greatest of all modern blues singers,” and she recorded a number of enduring hits, including “At Last,” “Tell Mama,” “I’d Rather Go Blind,” and “All I Could Do Was Cry.” At the same time, despite possessing one of the most powerful voices in music, James only belatedly gained the attention of the mainstream audience, appearing rarely on the pop charts despite scoring 30 R&B hits…
Ben Folds Five
Led by the pop-minded prowess of their namesake frontman, Ben Folds Five dispelled any misgivings about a band’s ability to rock without guitars. Calling themselves “punk rock for sissies,” the Chapel Hill natives were often grouped with the nerd rock movement of the mid-’90s, although their debt to jazz music — not to mention Ben Folds’ acerbic spin on the classic pianist/songwriter tradition — ensured the trio a long-lasting legacy after their split in October 2000…
The Triffids
Australian folk-pop band the Triffids was formed in Perth in 1980 by singer/songwriter David McComb, his guitarist/violinist brother Robert, and drummer Alsy MacDonald. Although chiefly influenced by the Velvet Underground, McComb’s songs also drew heavily on the stark desolation of his rural upbringing, incorporating elements of country and blues to paint haunting portraits of isolation and longing…
Jesse Belvin
While not nearly as well remembered by the general public as either Sam Cooke or Otis Redding, singer Jesse Belvin was in many regards a performer of equal stature whose career was also cut far too short by tragedy. At the time of his death, Belvin was moving in the much the same direction as Cooke (he was even on the same record label, although signed earlier), and was scoring and writing hits long before Redding ever cut a record…
Manic Street Preachers
Manic Street Preachers emerged at the dawn of the 1990s as a fiery rebuke of the placid state of British indie rock, a scene that grew to favor the swirling solipsism of shoegaze and the neo-psychedelia of acid house. Inspired by the provocative punk of the Clash and the heavy glam of Guns N’ Roses, the Manics wedded leftist politics with arena-filling guitar riffs, a combination that made them irresistible to the British rock press of the ’90s…
Young Jessie
The Los Angeles R&B vocal group scene of the 1950s was a fairly incestuous one — members flitted from one aggregation to the next, often sporting several connections at the time. Young Jessie was a member of the Flairs, Hunters, and Coasters, as well as scoring a solo West Coast hit with his 1955 rocker Mary Lou. Obediah Jessie was a Los Angeles high-school classmate of Richard “Louie Louie” Berry. The two put together the Flairs and debuted on the Bihari Brothers’ Flair label in 1953 with She Wants to Rock…
Chris Difford
After the break-up of Squeeze in 1983, Chris Difford continued writing songs for artists such as Jools Holland, Helen Shapiro, Elvis Costello. He has also written lyrics for music by Jools Holland, Elton John, Wet Wet Wet and others. He launched a solo career in 2003 with his album ‘I Didn’t Get Where I Am’…
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift is that rarest of pop phenomena: a superstar who managed to completely cross over from country to the mainstream, becoming an enduring pop culture icon and conquering the world in the process. Swift shed her country roots like they were a second skin, revealing that she was perhaps the savviest populist singer/songwriter of her generation…
Jonas Brothers
A bright, buoyant band who savvily blend classic pop with fashionable dance flair, the Jonas Brothers are the rare teen idols who not only sustained their popularity as they matured, they built upon it: Happiness Begins, their R&B-influenced 2019 comeback record, matched the peaks they had a decade prior. During those early years, the Jonas Brothers played neo-bubblegum with a fizzy Y2K verve that made them Radio Disney staples during its heyday…
The Radio Dept.
The Radio Dept. were one of the more successful shoegaze-influenced indie rock bands to come out of Sweden in the early 2000s, making waves among indie aficionados on the strength of their critically acclaimed first release, Lesser Matters. Elin Almered and Johan Duncanson formed a prototypical version of the group in Lund, Sweden, in 1995 while they were in high school, naming the group after a gas station called Radioavdelningen…
Gaz Coombes
As the exuberant frontman for the boundlessly imaginative Brit-pop group Supergrass, Gaz Coombes at one point seemed to be an eternal teenager — a man destined to never slow down. But time has a way of aging even the irrepressibly youthful, and by their second decade Supergrass had started to expand sonically; by the time he released his solo debut, Here Come the Bombs, in 2012, just two years after the disbandment of Supergrass,
Vic Chesnutt
Though Michael Stipe had been a fan of Vic Chesnutt since the late ’80s, producing his first two full-lengths, it took the Sweet Relief Two tribute album to make a star of him in mid-1996. The album featured artists such as Madonna, Hootie & the Blowfish, Smashing Pumpkins, and R.E.M. covering the songs of Chesnutt, a paraplegic who was injured in a car accident when he was 18. The singer/songwriter began playing contemporary acoustic folk around Athens, GA, soon after his injury…
Glenn Tilbrook
Glenn Tilbrook is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the English new wave band Squeeze, a band formed in the mid-1970s who broke through in the new wave era at the decade’s end. He generally writes the music for Squeeze’s songs, while his writing partner, Chris Difford, writes the lyrics. In addition to his songwriting skills, Tilbrook is respected both as a singer and an accomplished guitarist…
Colin Blunstone
As the lead singer for the Zombies, Colin Blunstone’s breathy, controlled vocals could range from tender and restrained to energetically soulful. Blunstone’s voice was one of the defining elements of the Zombies’ sound, and when the band dissolved in the late ’60, he retired from music briefly before returning as a solo artist with the graceful chamber pop of his 1971 debut One Year. Blunstone would remain active as a solo artist throughout the ’70s and ’80s…
Chris Stapleton
Chris Stapleton’s blend of throwback country, classic rock, and soul, along with his ability to craft memorable and meaningful songs — both as a behind-the-scenes journeyman and as a solo performer — have made him a well-regarded, highly rewarded part of the country music scene. Before his 2015 breakthrough debut album, Traveller, he worked in Nashville for years…
Senseless Things
The Senseless Things’ bounding, enthusiastic blend of loud guitars, punk tempos, and bubblegummy pop melodies made a splash on the British scene in the early 1990s. After a few indie singles, including the insistent “Too Much Kissing,” the band turned out a fine trio of albums notable for their Jamie Hewlett-drawn covers, their mix of snappy singles, and their more thoughtful, sometimes political album tracks…
Underworld
Underworld became one of the most crucial electronic acts of the 1990s with a progressive synthesis of old and new, an approach that has served them well through the late 2010s. The trio’s two-man front line, vocalist Karl Hyde and keyboard player Rick Smith, have been recording together since the early-’80s new wave explosion. After the pair released a pair of obscure rock albums, they hit it big the following decade with new recruit Darren Emerson…
The Saints
The Saints were among Australia’s most important rock bands, and the first group from the Antipodes to make a splash on the international punk rock scene. Their independently produced 1976 debut single, “(I’m) Stranded,” was a blazing slice of stripped-to-the-frame rock & roll that became a sensation in Australia and the U.K., and 1977’s “This Perfect Day” was a near-perfect encapsulation of the first era of punk with its blazing speed…
Future Islands
Future Islands’ trademark sound is sleek, guitar-less synth pop balanced with the howls, yelps, and croons of dynamic vocalist Samuel T. Herring. The Baltimore-based group honed their sound on a series of promising albums before their near-perfect 2014 LP Singles and a stunning appearance on Late Night with David Letterman vaulted them to prominence. Herring’s daring as a vocalist and the band’s sweeping melodies were further honed to a point on the slick 2017 album The Far Field…
Donovan
Upon his emergence during the mid-’60s, Donovan was anointed “Britain’s answer to Bob Dylan,” a facile but largely unfounded comparison which compromised the Scottish folk-pop troubadour’s own unique vision … Donovan fully embraced the wide-eyed optimism of the flower power movement, his ethereal, ornate songs radiating a mystical beauty and childlike wonder; for better or worse, his recordings remain quintessential artifacts of the psychedelic era, capturing the peace and love idealism of their time to perfection…
Little Barrie
Little Barrie is an English rock group consisting of Barrie Cadogan (vocals, guitar) and Lewis Wharton (bass, vocals). Virgil Howe contributed drums and vocals from 2007 until his death in 2017. Their sound has drawn from a mixture of influences including freakbeat, garage rock, UK R&B, neo-psychedelia, surf rock, krautrock, funk and rock and roll…
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin was one of the giants of soul music, and indeed of American pop as a whole. More than any other performer, she epitomized soul at its most gospel-charged. Her astonishing run of late-’60s hits with Atlantic Records — “Respect,” “I Never Loved a Man,” “Chain of Fools,” “Baby I Love You,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Think,” “The House That Jack Built,” and many others — earned her the title Queen of Soul…
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