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…
Clarence “Frogman” Henry
He could sing like a girl, and he could sing like a frog. That latter trademark croak, utilized to the max on his 1956 debut smash “Ain’t Got No Home,” earned good-natured Clarence Henry his nickname and jump-started a rewarding career that endured for over 40 years around the Crescent City. Naturally, Fats Domino and Professor Longhair were young Clarence Henry’s main influences while growing up in the Big Easy. He played piano and trombone with Bobby Mitchell & the Toppers from 1952 to 1955 before catching on with saxist Eddie Smith’s band….
The Upper Room
The Upper Room were a rock band based in Brighton, England. Sony Records were brought to the band’s studio via mutual friends and they were signed in time for their first single, “All Over This Town”, in summer 2004. The band’s only album Other People’s Problems was released in May 2006. It was recorded in Dairy Studios, Brixton, with Paul Schroeder, who previously worked with The Stone Roses…
Andre Williams
Multi-talented Zephire “Andre” Williams wore many musical hats during his long career: recording artist, songwriter, producer, road manager, and so on. The Father of Rap was born November 1, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois and was raised in a housing project by his mother, who died when Williams was six years old. Thereafter, Williams’ aunts raised the precocious lad, who had already become quite the character. The R&B legend is best known for co-writing and producing “Twine Time” for Alvin Cash & the Crawlers, “Shake a Tail Feather” by the Five Dutones, and a greasy solo recording, “Bacon Fat,” where Williams talked over a funky, crude rhythm…
Yes
Yes didn’t invent progressive rock, but they helped bring it to mainstream audiences, steering the development and definition of the genre. Once their classic lineup of Jon Anderson, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, and Bill Bruford locked into place for 1971’s Fragile, the band crystallized all of the sonic and visual signifiers that eventually became synonymous with prog rock…
The Velvelettes
The Velvelettes were formed by Bertha Barbee at Western Michigan University in the early ’60s, with Cal Gill ending up as the lead singer, although she was only 14 years old when she joined. With encouragement from one of Berry Gordy’s nephews, they auditioned for Motown and released their first single on the label in 1963. Several of Motown’s biggest guns wrote and produced for the group between 1963 and 1967, including Norman Whitfield, Mickey Stevenson…
Kikagaku Moyo
Kikagaku Moyo (Japanese for “geometric patterns”) are a Tokyo-based psychedelic rock band whose sound incorporates elements of Krautrock, Indian ragas, and acid folk. Over the course of a short period of time, they released a series of records — including 2016’s breakout House in the Tall Grass and 2018’s sharply sculpted Masana Temples — that balanced heavy, crushing jams with softer, more contemplative moments…
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown
Whatever you do, don’t refer to multi-instrumentalist Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown as a bluesman, although his imprimatur on the development of Texas blues is enormous. You’re liable to get him riled. If you must pigeonhole the legend, just call him an eclectic Texas musical master whose interests encompass virtually every roots genre imaginable. Brown learned the value of versatility while growing up in Orange, TX. His dad was a locally popular musician who specialized in country, Cajun, and bluegrass — but not blues. Later, Gate was entranced by the big bands of Count Basie, Lionel Hampton, and Duke Ellington…
Josh Ritter
An American singer/songwriter with a deep, expressive voice, a keen wit, and an evocative way with words, Josh Ritter has built a loyal following as one of the leading lights on the Americana scene with his incisive songwriting. Emerging in 2000 with his eponymous debut album, Ritter hit his stride in 2007 with the release of The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, which introduced elements of rock, country, and blues into the mix. What followed was a string of acclaimed outings…
The Blow Monkeys
Best known in the U.K. and U.S. for their 1986 Top 20 hit “Digging Your Scene” and for their cover of Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” from the multi-platinum soundtrack for 1987’s Dirty Dancing, British sophisti-pop quartet the Blow Monkeys were formed in 1981 with singer/songwriter/guitarist/keyboardist Dr. Robert (born Bruce Robert Howard), saxophonist Neville Henry, bassist Mick Anker, and drummer Tony Kiley. On the strength of seductive live performances, the band was signed to RCA for its debut, 1984’s Limping for a Generation, which was followed by the EP Forbidden Fruit in 1985.
The Go! Team
The sound whipped up by the Go! Team is an effervescent blend of indie rock guitars, police show themes, hip-hop beats, funky marching bands, and schoolyard chants built on samples and then augmented by live instrumentation. The main architect of the group’s sound is producer and guitarist Ian Parton, who is joined by a rotating cast of singers and musicians, most notably singer/rapper Ninja. The 2004 album Thunder, Lightning, Strike was the band’s grand debut, knocking the blogosphere on its collective ear and setting the group’s template in stone…
Pulp
For the first 12 years of their existence, Pulp languished in near total obscurity, releasing a handful of albums and singles in the ’80s to barely any attention. At the turn of the decade, the group began to gain an audience, sparking a remarkable turn of events that made the band one of the most popular British groups of the ’90s. By the time Pulp became famous, the band had gone through numerous different incarnations and changes in style, covering nearly every indie rock touchstone from post-punk to dance…
Broadcast
Led by James Cargill and Trish Keenan, Broadcast blended early electronic music, psychedelia, and ’60s pop into music that was retro-futuristic, innovative, and often deeply moving. Though their inspirations spanned obscure film soundtracks, science fiction, library music, and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Cargill and Keenan’s artistic vision was unmistakable — as was Keenan’s voice, which flickered between aloof detachment and vulnerability effortlessly. Despite their distinctive approach, Broadcast’s music was always changing…
Level 42
At the beginning of their career, Level 42 was squarely a jazz-funk fusion band, contemporaries of fellow Brit funk groups like Atmosfear, Light of the World, Incognito, and Beggar & Co. By the end of the ’80s, however, the band — whose music was instantly recognizable from Mark King’s thumb-slap bass technique and associate member Wally Badarou’s synthesizer flourishes — had crossed over to the point where they were often classified as sophisti-pop and dance-rock, equally likely to be placed in the context of Sade and the Style Council as was any group that made polished, upbeat, danceable pop/rock…
The Hold Steady
The Hold Steady didn’t sound like any other band who emerged from Brooklyn in the 2000s, or practically anywhere else in the indie rock community for that matter. A band who upheld the values and integrity of indie and punk rock, the Hold Steady were not afraid to also embrace rock classicism, fusing the bar band vigor of the Replacements with the epic scale musical backdrops of Bruce Springsteen while vocalist Craig Finn spilled out stories that were as impassioned as they were unpretentiously literate. Though they never had a massive hit, they maintained a fervently dedicated following…
The Police
Nominally, the Police were punk rock, but that’s only in the loosest sense of the term. The trio’s nervous, reggae-injected pop/rock was punky, but it wasn’t necessarily punk. All three members were considerably more technically proficient than the average punk or new wave band. Andy Summers had a precise guitar attack that created dense, interlocking waves of sounds and effects. Stewart Copeland could play polyrhythms effortlessly. And Sting, with his high, keening voice, was capable of constructing infectiously catchy pop songs. While they weren’t punk, the Police certainly demonstrated that the punk spirit could have a future in pop music…
The Darkness
Overblown with pomp and camp, English rock band the Darkness crashed the mainstream in the early 2000s, resurrecting classic rock & roll bombast and excess with their breakthrough debut, 2003’s Permission to Land. Scoring armfuls of awards and chart records, the outfit imploded just as abruptly as they seemed to arrive, breaking up after lackluster sophomore release One Way Ticket to Hell…And Back. New bands were formed, rehab was completed, and old wounds were healed in the years that followed. The band reunited in 2011…
Green on Red
Always wary of their paisley underground tag, it was only Green on Red’s debut EP that leaned on the psychedelic sounds of the ’60s before they traded it in for a boozy, all-American sound. They have been credited as latter-day forbears to the No Depression sound forged by Wilco and Son Volt. Singer and songwriter Dan Stuart, Chris Cacavas (keyboards), and Jack Waterson (bass) formed their first group in Tucson, AZ, in 1979. After the band relocated to L.A., drummer Alex MacNicol joined up and Green on Red released their debut EP on Steve Wynn’s Down There label in 1982…
The Blue Aeroplanes
The Blue Aeroplanes are an art rock group from Bristol, England, that has drawn comparisons to critically acclaimed rock bands like the Velvet Underground because of their eclectic style and the songwriting sensibility of group leader Gerard Langley. The original core of the band included Langley’s brother John on drums, Nick Jacobs on guitar, and multi-instrumentalist Dave Chapman. However, personnel other than Langley has varied, and (on both records and in performances) they have always been augmented by a large cast of semi-regular sidemen…
Guitar Slim
No 1950s blues guitarist even came close to equaling the flamboyant Guitar Slim in the showmanship department. Armed with an estimated 350 feet of cord between his axe and his amp, Slim would confidently stride on-stage wearing a garishly hued suit of red, blue, or green, usually with his hair dyed to match! It’s rare to find a blues guitarist hailing from Texas or Louisiana who doesn’t cite Slim as one of his principal influences: Buddy Guy, Earl King, Guitar Shorty, Albert Collins, Chick Willis, and plenty more have enthusiastically testified to Slim’s enduring sway…
Emmylou Harris
Blessed with a crystalline voice, a remarkable gift for phrasing, and a restless creative spirit, few artists had as profound an impact on contemporary music as Emmylou Harris. She traveled a singular artistic path, proudly carrying the torch of “cosmic American music” passed down by her mentor, Gram Parsons, which made a profound mark on both country and rock. Beginning as a folk singer in New York City, Harris released her first album in 1970, only to see it disappear with the bankruptcy of her record label. But a year later, she was playing a folk club in Washington D.C. when Chris Hillman saw her perform, and he recommended her to his former bandmate Gram Parsons…
Richard Buckner
This husky-voiced country-folk singer/songwriter is very much in the mold of the Lubbock, Texas, school of mavericks, including Butch Hancock, Terry Allen, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore. Richard Buckner is actually based in San Francisco, but the Lubbock connection is no accident. His debut album, Bloomed, was recorded in Lubbock, for one thing, with producer Lloyd Maines, who has also worked with Hancock, Allen, Joe Ely, and Uncle Tupelo…
Don and Dewey
Wailing in tandem like twin Little Richards, Don & Dewey cut numerous blistering rockers for Specialty from 1957 to 1959 without registering a single hit, only to see other acts revive their songs to much greater acclaim. Don Harris (b. 1938) and Dewey Terry (b. 1938) were born and raised in Pasadena, CA, joining a group called the Squires and recording for Vita before branching off on their own. Their Specialty output included the savage rockers “Jungle Hop,” “Koko Joe” (written by Sonny Bono), and “Justine,” the latter pair later covered by the Righteous Brothers…
The Brian Jonestown Massacre
The ever-evolving musical vehicle for notorious psych-rock brain trust Anton Newcombe, the Brian Jonestown Massacre has endured numerous phases and iterations since arriving in the mid-’90s, becoming something of an independent institution in the process. Early highlights like 1996’s Their Satanic Majesties’ Second Request showed Newcombe’s propensity for melding late-’60s psychedelia with textured shoegaze, while later standouts like 2015’s imaginary soundtrack Musique de Film Imaginé took a more cerebral and experimental approach. Undoubtedly, their most visible period followed the release of the 2004 documentary film DIG!…
Game Theory
A singularly intelligent and imaginative pop band, Game Theory attracted little more than an enthusiastic cult following during their original lifespan of 1982 to 1990. But the band’s hooky yet unconventional melodies, literate and often witty lyrics, and crafty approach to arrangements and aural montage set them far apart from their peers, and Game Theory proved to be strongly influential long after the group broke up…
The Walker Brothers
They weren’t British, they weren’t brothers, and their real names weren’t Walker, but Californians Scott Engel, John Maus, and Gary Leeds were briefly huge stars in England (and small ones in their native land) at the peak of the British Invasion. Engel and Maus were playing together in Hollywood when drummer Leeds suggested they form a trio and try to make it in England. And they did — with surprising swiftness, they hit the top of the British charts with “Make It Easy on Yourself” in 1965. “The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore” repeated the feat the following year…
The Turtles
Though many remember only their 1967 hit, “Happy Together,” the Turtles were one of the more enjoyable American pop groups of the ’60s, moving from folk-rock inspired by the Byrds to a sparkling fusion of Zombies-inspired chamber pop and straight-ahead, good-time pop reminiscent of the Lovin’ Spoonful, the whole infused with beautiful vocal harmonies courtesy of dual frontmen Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman…
Shelagh McDonald
As much myth as musician, singer/songwriter Shelagh McDonald seemed poised to emerge as a major voice in British folk music when she abruptly vanished mere months after the release of her breakthrough LP. Born and raised in Edinburgh, Scotland, McDonald arrived in London sometime in the late ’60s. While performing at the Troubadour, she befriended fellow singer/songwriter Keith Christmas, who would prove instrumental in landing her a record deal with the B&C label…
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