#360 - "Glory Days" - Bruce Springsteen - Born In The U.S.A. - #8/11 - Springsteen paints a vivid portrait of the failed dreams of a group of people who peaked in high school and had to deal with the disappointment of knowing that their best days were behind them.
#359 - "Say It Ain't So" - Weezer - Weezer (The Blue Album) - #5/5 - Weezer's greatest song features a fantastic guitar solo and their typically sharp lyrics throughout.
#358 - "Bullet In The Head" - Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine - #6/12 - It's hard to believe, but Rage Against The Machine pretty much debuted as the best band in the world and this is yet another great song from their brilliant debut album.
#357 - "Blind" - Korn - Korn - #3/3 - Korn's greatest achievement, "Blind" is also their first single and one of if not the greatest nu-metal song ever written (not that this is saying much). The highlight of the song is the breakdown towards the end, which foreshadowed Korn's style for the next 10 years plus.
#356 - "Watching The Detectives" - Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True - #4/11 - Elvis' spite-filled hate letter to a former girlfriend who preferred watching television to spending time with him hides it's angry message behind a typically upbeat and pop-friendly tone that became Elvis' calling card throughout the years.
#355 - "Don't Stand So Close To Me" - The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta - #4/5 - Among the Police's best hits, "D0n't Stand" tells a vivid story of an affair between a teacher and his student and features one of the band's best choruses.
#354 - "On The Darkside" - John Cafferty And The Beaver Brown Band - Eddie And The Cruisers Soundtrack - #1/1 - Cafferty's Springsteen soundalike was the only hit that the band had, but it was a classic example of 80's classic rock and it's sound has been borrowed far and wide, most recently by The Arcade Fire.
#353 - "Touch Me" - The Doors - The Soft Parade - #8/10 - The weirdest of the Doors' hits, "Touch Me" was a rock song presented in a crooner style and yet it somehow worked.
#352 - "Black Velvet" - Allanah Miles - Allanah Miles - #1/1 - A dynamic vocal performance on a really well-written song led many to believe that Miles was well on her way to a long and productive career. She wasn't and though this song was outstanding she never had another hit.
#351 - "Marquee Moon" - Television - Marquee Moon - #2/3 - One of the first great alternative rock epics in the era between the Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth, "Marquee Moon" set the '77 punk scene on it's ear, introducing new styles and techniques while still maintaining a simplicity that seemed true to it's roots in the new wave.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Top 1000 Bands #360-#351
360 - Jimmy Buffett - If you're drunk, you probably love Jimmy Buffett's music. As a singer-songwriter, he's never been the most skilled but he has created a long string of classic bar songs and the all-time classic drunk regret song "Margaritaville".
359 - Love And Rockets - Rising from the ashes of Bauhaus, Love And Rockets never enjoyed the acclaim of that legendary band, but they did put together a string of medium-sized hits, including "Ball Of Confusion" and "So Alive".
358 - Dr. Dre - One of the founding fathers of West Coast or Gangsta rap, Dr. Dre branched out after the break-up of NWA to become rap's most prolific producers, giving the world Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent and many others, but he's also released a couple albums as an artist himself, including one of the genre's all-time high water marks "The Chronic", with it's legendary single "Nuthin' But A G Thang".
357 - Tears For Fears - One of the earliest and most successful bands in the synth-pop wing of 80's New Wave, Tears For Fears created a long line of hits with their gloomy emo-inspiring lyrics and smooth beats.
356 - Joe Walsh - Though he's probably best known from his days with the Eagles and the James Gang, Joe Walsh carved out a nice chunk of classic rock history for himself with solo hits such as "Life's Been Good" and "Rocky Mountain Way".
355 - The Animals - One of the first great rock bands, The Animals were a part of the original British Invasion and set the stage for classic rock with their bluesy cover of "House Of The Rising Sun" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood".
354 - Welcome To The Cinema - The best band I've seen come out of South Dakota, Welcome To The Cinema has a style that sometimes seems like the Strokes or Franz Ferdinand or Modest Mouse but always manages to adapt those elements into something brand new and exciting. The band is planning to move to Minneapolis in the near future, so someday the rest of the world might even hear about this excellent band from Brookings, South Dakota.
353 - The Verve - A late-90's alternative rock band that had a lot of great songs, but really only one major hit, "The Freshmen".
352 - Sarah McLachlan - The 90's singer-songwriter who was the major headliner of the Lillith Fair movement that was apparantly really popular around 1997, Sarah McLachlan had a series of brilliant and heart-breaking ballads that soared to the upper reaches of the charts before her career suddenly stopped in the early 21st century.
351 - Tupac Shakur - One of the most acclaimed rappers of all-time, Tupac Shakur reached the top of his genre before being gunned down by an unknown assailant in what is believed to be related to the West Coast / East Coast rapper feud of the 90's.
359 - Love And Rockets - Rising from the ashes of Bauhaus, Love And Rockets never enjoyed the acclaim of that legendary band, but they did put together a string of medium-sized hits, including "Ball Of Confusion" and "So Alive".
358 - Dr. Dre - One of the founding fathers of West Coast or Gangsta rap, Dr. Dre branched out after the break-up of NWA to become rap's most prolific producers, giving the world Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent and many others, but he's also released a couple albums as an artist himself, including one of the genre's all-time high water marks "The Chronic", with it's legendary single "Nuthin' But A G Thang".
357 - Tears For Fears - One of the earliest and most successful bands in the synth-pop wing of 80's New Wave, Tears For Fears created a long line of hits with their gloomy emo-inspiring lyrics and smooth beats.
356 - Joe Walsh - Though he's probably best known from his days with the Eagles and the James Gang, Joe Walsh carved out a nice chunk of classic rock history for himself with solo hits such as "Life's Been Good" and "Rocky Mountain Way".
355 - The Animals - One of the first great rock bands, The Animals were a part of the original British Invasion and set the stage for classic rock with their bluesy cover of "House Of The Rising Sun" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood".
354 - Welcome To The Cinema - The best band I've seen come out of South Dakota, Welcome To The Cinema has a style that sometimes seems like the Strokes or Franz Ferdinand or Modest Mouse but always manages to adapt those elements into something brand new and exciting. The band is planning to move to Minneapolis in the near future, so someday the rest of the world might even hear about this excellent band from Brookings, South Dakota.
353 - The Verve - A late-90's alternative rock band that had a lot of great songs, but really only one major hit, "The Freshmen".
352 - Sarah McLachlan - The 90's singer-songwriter who was the major headliner of the Lillith Fair movement that was apparantly really popular around 1997, Sarah McLachlan had a series of brilliant and heart-breaking ballads that soared to the upper reaches of the charts before her career suddenly stopped in the early 21st century.
351 - Tupac Shakur - One of the most acclaimed rappers of all-time, Tupac Shakur reached the top of his genre before being gunned down by an unknown assailant in what is believed to be related to the West Coast / East Coast rapper feud of the 90's.
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