In the past, this blog space has been utilized to tell you about quite a few of my favorite things. Sometimes, that sort of information can be embarrassing. Letting people into your inner-psyche is scary because it opens you up to all types of scorn and ridicule, especially when you like the type of trash I do. The problem is, most people don’t usually get that I have a very specific type of trash that I enjoy. For a while, I had relatives that would definitely try. They’d find some bad horror movie in the cutout bin at Wal-Mart and say, “Scotch will like this. He loves bad movies.” But it has to have certain aesthetic qualities for me to enjoy. Same goes for music.
The type of music that I enjoy listening to stylistically is all over the place. Although I’ve worked in radio for roughly 25 years, the majority of music I listen to doesn’t really get played there. I’ll run you through of my favorite bands.
Let’s go waaaay back. One of my earliest obsessions was DEVO. To this day, I still think they are one of the most innovative and creative bands ever. The name
DEVO
comes from the concept that instead of continuing to evolve, mankind has actually begun to regress or de-evolve. I remember first seeing them on Saturday Night Live when I was young and loved the fact that they wore those yellow suits and moved like robots. That quirky, new wave sound was unlike anything I had ever heard at that time. Mark Mothersbaugh is still an incredible inspiration to me. (He also composed music for Pee Wee’s Playhouse and Nickelodeon’s Rocket Power among other things.)
The Clash also really hit me hard when I first saw them. I had heard “Should I stay or Should I Go” and “Rock The Casbah” when they first came out on the Combat Rock album 1982 and thought they were pretty good. But it wasn’t until NIGHT FLIGHT, an 80’s late-night cable show on the USA Network played their movie Rude Boy, that I actually got to see their real punk rock roots and realized how much I dug them. The movie showcased early live performances and showed them in the studio working on their “Give ’em Enough Rope” album. I immediately went out and bought their first two albums on cassette and was hooked. Suddenly, I loved punk rock. That led me to seek out other bands from that era like The Ramones.
From there, I graduated to more current punk bands. I would have to ask whoever was working behind the counter at Mother’s Records or Disc and Tape, “What other bands sound like this band?” Or sometimes, I would buy stuff on a whim if the cover looked interesting or if they had obnoxious song titles listed on the back. The Dead Milkmen were an instant favorite of mine once I discovered them. The songs were so snotty and funny. My buddy and I had already been recording songs that we had written in my bedroom everyday after school on a little boom box that I had. Our songs were very juvenile and mean-spirited because that’s what we found funny. So when I realized there were actually bands like the Dead Milkmen recording similar stuff like that in an actual studio and putting out albums, I had to have more, more, more. There weren’t too many other bands like the Dead Milkmen but the Descendents (yes, that’s how they spell it) ran a close second for me. Not only did they sing about snotty, adolescent things but they played faster than any band I had ever heard before. This is around ’84 or ’85. I was about 15 and lot of my friends were starting to listen to heavy metal. I would listen to some metal but none of it really made me feel like those tight and trashy punk bands did. Fast forward a couple of years and I meet a guy who borrows me a NOFX album to listen to. Same impact as the first time I heard the Clash. This was punk, but it didn’t sound like any other punk I had heard before. It had the speed and the harsh guitars but these songs were drenched in these really cool harmonies. Fat Mike’s vocals were just the right mix of gravelly and snotty to peak my interest. I immediately went out and bought 3 NOFX albums so I could play catch up. I put NOFX at the top of my list anytime somebody asks me what my favorite band is.
I wouldn’t call BECK punk, although his first few albums are very trash-canny. He’s a lot more experimental and for a while I enjoyed what he was putting out quite a bit. Midnight Vultures is a great album as well as Odelay and Guero but he’s sort of lost me on these last couple albums. Too mellow and commercial, I guess. Jack White sort of took over his position on my list. When I’m looking for an artist to listen to that embodies everything I enjoy, creatively, it’s Jack White. There are so many incarnations and variations… White Stripes, The Raconteurs, The Dead Weather, his solo stuff. I love it all.
Okay, that’s enough for now. If you aren’t familiar with some of these bands or artists I mentioned, I encourage you to give them a listen. -Scotch
