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…
Local Natives
California’s Local Natives make hooky, nuanced rock that balances post-punk urgency with folk-tinged lyricism. The group had a buzzy moment in 2009 when their debut album, Gorilla Manor, attracted fans and critical praise for its vibrant mix of kinetic tribal rhythms and soaring falsetto harmonies…
Blab Happy
Blab Happy were a British indie band from Leicester formed in 1987, comprising Mick McCarthy, Jon Dennis, Tony Owen and Jeremy Clay. After two EPs released on their own Wisdom label won airplay on John Peel’s BBC Radio 1 show, and enthusiastic reviews in New Musical Express, Sounds and Melody Maker, they were signed by Demon Records offshoot F-Beat, for whom they released 2 albums, 1991’s Boat and 1993’s Smothered…
Moose
Not so much underrated as unheard, Moose grew up in Britain’s distortion-heavy shoegazing movement of the early ’90s but soon shed the fuzzy wash of their compatriots to embrace a clean, acoustic-based style — inspired by ’60s icons Burt Bacharach and Tim Buckley as well as jangle merchants like the Byrds and R.E.M. — that still relied on the intense guitar effects which characterized the band’s early works. Moose was formed in early 1990 by the songwriting team of Kevin (K.J.) McKillop and Russell Yates…
Robyn Hitchcock
One of England’s most enduring and prolific singer/songwriters, visual artists, guitarists, live performers, and genuine eccentrics, Robyn Hitchcock started his recording career with the Soft Boys, a punk-era band specializing in melodic pop merged with offbeat lyrics. Heavily influenced by Syd Barrett, John Lennon, and Bob Dylan, and prone to telling long, improvised, surrealist monologues during live performances, Hitchcock embarked on a solo career in 1981 and never looked back, releasing nearly an album a year well into the early 21st century, both as a solo artist and with his bands the Egyptians and the Venus 3…
TV Smith
With TV Smith’s Explorers having imploded in late 1981 and the success of the Adverts receding further into the past, TV Smith launched his solo career in early 1982, cutting a single, “Burning Rain,” with Rondelet labelmates the Nervous Germans. Label politics conspired against the release actually taking place, but the new year saw Smith convene fresh sessions with guitarist Tim Renwick and ex-Adverts keyboard player Tim Cross.
Bryan Ferry
While fronting Roxy Music in the 1970s and early ’80s, Bryan Ferry devised a blueprint for art rock, and as a solo performer, he brilliantly updated the parameters of the pop songbook. Although Ferry’s solo career has included several excellent self-penned tracks, he’s best-known for his adventurous interpretations of songs from the rock and pop canon. Combining a studied, wry, lounge-singer persona …
Kaiser Chiefs
Specializing in a melodic blend of classic Brit-pop, post-punk, and new wave, Kaiser Chiefs’ early blue-collar, pub-style take on indie rock managed to split the difference between timely and nostalgic … Kaiser Chiefs resurrected the mod spirit of the Jam in “I Predict a Riot,” a supercharged class-of-1977 power pop single that quickly electrified the British press when it was released in 2004…
The Coral
Since their debut in the early 2000s, the Coral proved to be one of the most consistent bands in the U.K. retro-rock scene thanks to their knack for crafting sneakily good hooks, the jangling interplay of the guitars, and James Skelly’s powerful vocals. Their rambunctious sound deftly mixes together elements of ’60s garage rock, psychedelic pop, and folk-rock, spicing it with bits of Merseybeat, Motown, vintage blues, and even sea shanties…
Lyn Cornell
Lyn Cornell had been a prominent member of the Vernons Girls when she married drummer Andy White and subsequently recorded solo for Decca Records when the original troupe was nearing its 1961 disbandment. She is remembered chiefly for the much-covered, Greek-flavoured film title theme to 1960’s Never On Sunday (her only UK Top 30 entry) and an ebullient ‘African Waltz’, which paled in the shadow of the bigger-selling John Dankworth instrumental. Its b-side, an arrangement of the Jon Hendricks jazz standard ‘Moanin’’, illustrated that, beyond mere pop, Cornell could unfurl a suppleness of vocal gesture that was denied to luckier but less stylistically adventurous contemporaries … In the 70s Cormell along with Ann Simmons formed the duo, the Pearls…
Paul Haig
Paul Haig might be best known as the frontman of Scottish post-punk band Josef K, whose lone official record played a major role in the development of the C-86 scene that followed a few years after the group’s disintegration. Haig continued with a number of involvements in the following decades, releasing a number of records on his own in addition to issuing several collaborative efforts…
Alice Cooper
The man (and the band) who first brought shock rock to the masses, Alice Cooper became one of the most successful and influential acts of the ’70s with their gritty but anthemic hard rock and a live show that delivered a rock & roll chamber of horrors, thrilling fans and cultivating outrage from authority figures (which made fans love them all the more). The name Alice Cooper originally referred to both the band and its lead singer…
Rick Astley
Wielding a rich, deep voice, Rick Astley became an overnight sensation in the late ’80s with his well-crafted dance-pop. Astley was discovered by producer Pete Waterman in 1985, when the Merseyside native was singing in the English soul band FBI. After that, Waterman’s production team — Stock, Aitken & Waterman — took Astley under their wing, writing and producing such impeccably crafted pop singles as “Never Gonna Give You Up” and “Together Forever”…
Josef K
Inspired by the artsy side of the ’70s New York scene and the anti-careerist stance of punk, Edinburgh natives Paul Haig (vocals, guitar), Malcolm Ross (guitar), and Ronnie Torrance (drums) formed a band with an apparently unmentionable name. Future Exploited member Gary McCormack came and went as the bassist, with the trio eventually renaming itself TV Art. David Weddell eventually filled the gap, with the band frequently playing in and around their town. By the end of 1979’s summer, they had recorded a demo and changed their name to Josef K…
Gnod
Gnod are a psychedelic noise-rock collective from Manchester, England. Since forming in 2006, the group has had an ever-shifting lineup of multi-instrumentalists and vocalists, but some of the group’s key members have included Paddy Shine, Chris Haslam, Neil Francis, and Marlene Ribeiro. Along with their roster, Gnod’s music has constantly evolved and morphed, ranging from hallucinatory Krautrock-influenced folk to dubby, acid-drenched post-punk…
Nazareth
Scottish hard rockers Nazareth dominated the airwaves in the late ’70s with the biting rock anthem “Hair of the Dog” and the enduring proto-power ballad “Love Hurts.” Emerging in 1971, the band found mainstream success in 1975 with the release of their platinum-selling fifth album, Hair of the Dog. Despite numerous lineup changes, the group remained prolific and popular in Europe throughout the ’80s and ’90s, and continued to tour and record into the 2000s…
Luke Bell
A little bit honky tonk and a little bit Texas, with healthy dashes of Bakersfield and vintage Nashville, singer/songwriter Luke Bell recorded in a throwback style, but wrote from his own well-traveled experiences. A native of Cody, Wyoming, the former ranch hand put in a few years of college in Laramie before the music bug caught hold and took him first to Austin…
The Walkmen
From the wreckage of mid-’90s indie rock hype victims Jonathan Fire*Eater, the Walkmen rose at the turn of the century as major players in the New York City circle of post-punk/new wave-inspired bands (also including Interpol, the Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and others). Setting the Walkmen apart from the outset was a heavy reliance on piano and organ, and a preference for atmospherics over garagey antics, courtesy of their self-built Marcata Studios…
Ronnie Self
Why Ronnie Self never made it as a performer is one of the great mysteries and injustices of pop music history. He had the look and the sound — a mix of country, rockabilly, and R&B that sometimes made him sound like a white Little Richard, but mostly like the young Elvis or Carl Perkins — and he wasn’t lacking for good songs, which he mostly wrote himself. He should have been there, thought of in the same breath as Perkins or Jerry Lee Lewis; instead, he’s a footnote in rock & roll history outside of Europe, where he’s treated as a legend…
Marty Wilde
England in the late 1950s had its share of rock & roll stars — Cliff Richard was the most successful and the late Billy Fury is still revered by those aware of the music. In between them, chronologically, stands Marty Wilde. He grew up in Greenwich, in southeast London. The son of a professional soldier, he lived in various parts of England throughout his childhood. He reached the middle of his teen years living in London, just at the point that Lonnie Donegan, playing in a jazz band run by Chris Barber, had jump-started the entire skiffle boom…
The Man From Delmonte
The Man From Delmonte were an independent band from Manchester, England, formed in the mid-1980s. The band members had little in common with most Manchester bands. Howard Goody was a graduate of Winchester School of Art. Martin Vincent had been an art critic and painter. Sheila Seal, a Glaswegian, was a classically trained musician who had run an art gallery. And Mike West, who wrote the songs, was the Australian-born son of the author Morris West. The band played many gigs at the Boardwalk club, in Manchester, where they recorded their Big Noise live album in 1989…
The Piranhas
The Piranhas were a ska-influenced punk band. Their live act was supposed to be one of the best around and they soon had a large following and were beginning to get some choice gigs out of town. Their songs were laced with a dry, sardonic wit, backed up with some catchy hooklines. They were formed in 1977, and were originally part of the Brighton punk scene…
Ritchie Valens
The first Hispanic rock star, Ritchie Valens will forever be known as one of the two musicians (along with the Big Bopper) who perished with Buddy Holly in 1959, when their private plane crashed in the midst of a Midwest tour. At the time, Valens had only recently established himself as one of the most promising young talents in rock & roll, just barely missing the top of the charts with “Donna,” a number two hit, and pioneering a blend of rock and Latin music with the single’s almost equally popular flip side, “La Bamba”…
Then Jerico
In the late-’80s pinup void that followed Duran Duran’s decline, there was no shortage of British contenders to fill the Fab Five’s shoes. One of those bands was Then Jerico, a guitar-oriented London quartet fronted by the photogenic Mark Shaw. Shaw had formed the band at age 21, recruiting bassist Jasper Stainthorpe and drummer Steve Wren and poaching guitarist Scott Taylor from Belouis Some. The group released a single, “The Big Sweep,” on Immaculate Records in 1985…
The Only Ones
Led by the raffish and slightly scuzzy romance-obsessed Peter Perrett, the Only Ones were one of the punk era’s most underrated bands. Not as confrontational as the Sex Pistols, as politically indulgent as the Clash, or as stripped-down as the Ramones, the Only Ones played not-so-fast guitar rock that sounded deeply indebted to the New York Dolls and other mid-’70s proto-punks. Singing his intelligently crafted pop songs in a semi-tuneful whine of a voice and backed by a band that effectively combined youthful exuberance with gracefully aging veterans…
Blue Öyster Cult
Since releasing their self-titled 1972 Columbia debut, Blue Öyster Cult have been called everything from the thinking man’s heavy metal group to an occult rock band to the first pop/heavy metal act. They have sold more than 25 million records, and they released a handful of singles during the ’70s that became classic rock radio standards, among them “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” “Burnin’ for You,” and “Godzilla.” Lyrics that crisscrossed science fiction, the occult, and horror films; their layered, three-guitar attack; expansive vocal harmonies; and almost inimitable balance between crunchy riffs and infectious hooks resulted in the most listenable metal of the ’70s…
Lloyd Cole
and the Commotions
Through both his lauded work fronting the Commotions and his more eclectic solo efforts, Lloyd Cole established himself as one of the most articulate and acute songwriters of the post-punk era. As a songwriter, Cole’s literate and quite British lyrical style is wed to a melodic sensibility that’s graceful even when he’s at his most physical. Musically, Cole’s sound has steadily evolved since he made his debut with his group the Commotions on 1984’s Rattlesnakes…
Waxahatchee
Though Waxahatchee has spanned self-recorded solo material, reflective folk-rock, and more raucous, full-band indie rock, the project has remained intensely personal in nature. Making her debut with the breakup-inspired American Weekend in 2012, songwriter Katie Crutchfield continued to amplify her knack for hooks and engaging melodies through her John Agnello-co-produced fourth LP, 2017’s Out in the Storm. A year later, she reversed course with the spare Great Thunder EP, which revisited material from her side duo with Keith Spencer from Swearin’, while 2020’s Saint Cloud settled into a more reflective folk-rock.
Daevid Allen’s Gong
Unlike their European contemporaries Hawkwind, Neu! Can, and Amon Düül II, the ever-evolving collective known as Gong were not nearly as well-known for their pioneering brand of psychedelic space rock with conceptual ideas that involved aliens and alternative realities. They were also among the first of these bands to embrace — and welcome — improvisation during the late ’60s and ’70s…
Sonny Boy Williamson II
Sonny Boy Williamson was, in many ways, the ultimate blues legend. By the time of his death in 1965, he had been around long enough to have played with Robert Johnson at the start of his career and Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Robbie Robertson at the end of it. In between, he drank a lot of whiskey, hoboed around the country, had a successful radio show for 15 years, toured Europe to great acclaim, and simply wrote, played, and sang some of the greatest blues ever etched into Black phonograph records…
Mary Lou Lord
Playing her way from the subways and streets of London and Boston, guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Mary Lou Lord broke into the indie rock scene in 1994 on the Kill Rock Stars label. After appearing on a KRS compilation, Lord released a self-titled EP in 1995 and a second EP, Martian Saints, in early 1997. Got No Shadow, her major-label debut with Sony Music’s WORK Group, was released in 1998…
Wham!
Wham! sparked something of a pop revival in the mid-’80s and could arguably be held responsible for sparking off the boy band trend of the ’90s. They were unashamedly pop, to the point of padding the front of their trousers for television appearances. At the heart, however, was a string of catchy singalong singles written by George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou in London to a Greek restauranting family)…
Paul Quinn
Glasgow-born singer Paul Quinn first emerged in the early ’80s lending his deep, rich voice as a backing vocalist for Edwyn Collins and Orange Juice. After tenures with Yaz’s Vince Clarke and Aztec Camera’s Roddy Frame, Quinn set out for a solo career, forming a support band dubbed the Independent Group which also featured Alan Horne, the founder of the famed indie label Postcard.
Elmore James
No two ways about it, the most influential slide guitarist of the postwar period was Elmore James, hands down. Although his early demise from heart failure kept him from enjoying the fruits of the ’60s blues revival as his contemporaries Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf did, James left a wide influential trail behind him. And that influence continues to the present time — in approach, attitude, and tone — in just about every guitar player who puts a slide on his finger and wails the blues…
David Devant
& His Spirit Wife
This London-based band was formed in 1991, taking their name from the stage show of a long-forgotten Victorian magician (singer ‘The Vessel’ claiming to be Devant’s earthly mouthpiece). Their own brand of live performance art owed a similar debt to the visual style of the music-hall era, featuring mirrors, glass boxes, carrot graters (on ‘Ginger’) and line-drawing. Fronted by Vessel, and featuring ex-Monochrome Set guitarist Foz?, the band established themselves as an entertaining live act.
Stan Ridgway
One of the most unique singer/songwriters in American indie music, with an unforgettable adenoidal vocal delivery that makes him sound like a low-level wise guy in one of those old Warner Bros. gangster films of the ’30s, and a lyrical obsession with the themes of pulp crime novels and film noir, Stan Ridgway is a true original. To most people, Ridgway is best known as the singer of his early new wave band Wall of Voodoo’s 1983 hit “Mexican Radio.” However, he parted ways with the band soon after and embarked on a distinctive solo career, issuing a handful of highly regarded albums and often collaborating with his wife, singer/songwriter Pietra Wexstun…
White Hills
Evoking the spirit and sound of space rock pioneers like Hawkwind, White Hills capture the expansive rock sound of the ’70s with their brand of trippy, synth-heavy rock & roll. Formed in New York City as the brainchild of singer and guitarist Dave W., the band also consisted of bassist Ego Sensation and drummer Lee Hinshaw; they got their first break when Julian Cope released their album They’ve Got Blood Like We’ve Got Blood on his own label in 2005…
Amy Rigby
A singer/songwriter whose songs are filled with emotionally rich and relatable observations about love, relationships, parenthood, and the musician’s life, Amy Rigby crafts a sound that adds folk and country accents to straightforward, hooky rock & roll. She had more than 15 years under her belt as a performer with groups like Last Roundup and the Shams when her deeply personal and engaging solo debut, 1996’s Diary of a Mod Housewife, made a splash in the music press…
John Watts
One of the founding members of UK art punk outfit Fischer-Z, John Watts is a songwriter, musician, writer, and general media-centric jack of all trades. His foray into music began in an official manner with the formation of Fischer-Z in the mid seventies. That band would go on to sign with United Artists, tour the world and sell a good amount of records. As a solo artist, Watts first hit the shelves with One More Twist in 1982. He followed that with The Iceberg Model in 1983, but duties with Fischer-Z took center stage, and it was to be a good long while until Watts returned as a solo artist…
Frankie Lymon
Frankie Lymon (1942-1968) and the Teenagers were a New York doo wop group consisting of Joe Negroni, Herman Santiago, Jimmy Merchant, and Sherman Garnes, but centered around the extraordinary talents of their lead singer, 13-year-old Frankie Lymon. Lymon was credited with their first big hit, “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” (in the early ’90s, a federal judge ruled after a lengthy trial that Lymon hadn’t written “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” — another member of the Teenagers had)…
Rosanne Cash
The history of popular music is littered with the careers of the children of famous artists, performers who manage to carve out some small measure of success based far less on talent than on the recognition that their famous names afford them. Perhaps no greater exception to this trend was Rosanne Cash, the daughter of Johnny Cash, whose idiosyncratic and innovative music made her one of the preeminent singer/songwriters of her day…
Hall & Oates
From their first hit in 1974 through their heyday in the ’80s, Daryl Hall and John Oates’ smooth, catchy take on Philly soul brought them enormous commercial success — including six number one singles and six platinum albums. Hall & Oates’ music was remarkably well constructed and produced; at their best, their songs were filled with strong hooks and melodies that adhered to soul traditions without being a slave to them, incorporating elements of new wave and hard rock…
The Leisure Society
A folk-inflected chamber pop project led by London-based singer/songwriter Nick Hemming, the Leisure Society generated significant buzz in the U.K. following the 2009 release of their debut album, The Sleeper. Their sense of wistful grandeur and lushly arranged pop songcraft drew acclaim throughout the British press, which they soon parlayed into chart success on further releases like 2011’s Into the Murky Water and 2013’s Alone Aboard the Ark…
Bobby Mitchell
Bobby Mitchell & the Toppers were part of the wave of New Orleans rock & rollers who followed in the wake of Fats Domino and Lloyd Price. Although the group had limited success (their best-known song, “Try Rock ‘n Roll,” climbed into the R&B Top 20 nationally, and “I’m Gonna Be a Wheel Someday” was a smash in numerous localities without ever charting nationally) and broke up in 1954, Mitchell remained a popular figure in New Orleans R&B for 35 years…
The Young Fresh Fellows
Unsung heroes of the Seattle rock community, the Young Fresh Fellows were one of the first independent bands from the rainy city to earn a nationwide reputation in the 1980s, gaining an enthusiastic cult following and the approval of critics. Few bands were more admired by their peers than the Fellows, and their skewed but tuneful mix of British Invasion-era pop, garage rock, offbeat humor, and pop culture obsessiveness had a long shelf life, with the band still making joyful noise when they were still of a mind more than three decades after they began…
Trees
Although success eluded them during their early-’70s run, the brief catalog of British folk-rock band Trees managed to age gracefully into cult status over the ensuing years. Like their contemporaries Fairport Convention, the London quintet combined traditional folk music with guitar-driven rock, adding their own progressive and psychedelic flair into the mix. After a pair of albums for CBS, they disbanded in 1973. In 2020, Trees celebrated their legacy with a 50th anniversary box set containing both of their albums and an array of rare and unreleased material…
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