Music Banter - View Single Post - The Anthill 2.0: Albums, Artists & The Chance To Win A Million Dollars!

Anteater · 03-09-2014, 04:59 PM

Part 2: "Art" Pop & Stuff Like That

Funny thing about progressive rock for me back in middle school: it was also a segue way of sorts into certain pop bands and artists. Odd how things work out like that eh? Of course, that's a pretty wide genre umbrella (since "pop" is just another word for anything remotely accessible and catchy), but seeing as I can still distinctly recall specific songs and artists that my (then) newfound musical curiosity was drawn to like flies to meat, I'll go with the five most prominent....

The Flaming Lips
Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell (2002)

Back when the concept of showing eachother music videos online was incredibly novel and mindblowing, the ginger guy in Algebra who I used to cheat off during math tests showed me a live rendition of this paired with some Neon Genesis Evangelion as an AMV on a computer in the lab during lunch break. Whilst the video in question didn't really go with the song all that well, I was utterly mesmerized. This is classic "spacey" Flaming Lips, and as a 12 year old ignoramus who just discovered albums like Dark Side Of The Moon and such, the fact there were 21st century bands doing great, trippy music was a revelation like you wouldn't believe.

The Alan Parsons Project
Days Are Numbers (The Traveller) (1985)

Next to Queensrÿche, I don't think there's a band or artist more influential or ingrained in me than The Alan Parsons Project. My dad had a "Best Of" collection buried under all the post-grunge and heavy metal vinyl he used to own, and it was pretty much love at first listen. They were my gateway to all kinds of things, including 80's pop music, AOR and a lot of "art" rock such as Electric Light Orchestra and Level 42...and I still don't think anyone ever did the crossover concept-oriented album better than they have. Albums like Tales Of Mystery And Imagination or The Turn Of A Friendly Card set and continue to set the bar high for bands attempting to do catchy, classy & lyrically-interesting rock music, and I love 'em to death.

Tears For Fears
Advice For The Young At Heart (1989)

You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who dislikes Tears For Fears no matter who you ask, but along with APP they're pretty much the soundtrack to my adolescence. This song randomly came on the radio one evening back in 2003 after 'Bittersweet Symphony' (The Verve) on a local radio station, but the artist/song weren't announced before or after so I ended up having to do some rudimentary online sleuthing just to find that out. And of course, I ended up listening to great songs off Songs From The Big Chair and The Hurting during my hunt, and the rest is history.

However, there was a downside to finding all this great music so early in my teens: I don't think I'll ever escape the 80's for the rest of my life. Thanks a lot Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith!

Lenny Kravitz
If I Could Fall In Love (2001)

It's so weird: I couldn't give two fucks about this guy as of 2014 and none of his albums do a single thing for me...and yet this song is so damn good for what it is that it continues to haunt me from whatever long-dead stereo system my dad used to blare Lenny (the self-titled album) in between software development projects at the house. Is it that stupidly toe-tapping synth-line in the background, or is it the fact Lenny actually sounds better with his voice being muscled through technology than without? I will never know the real answer, but dis shit be dope mon...and it probably spurred me tangentially into looking for more "electronic" oriented stuff as time went on.

Dan Fogelberg
Heart Hotels (1980)

Exposure to this evil, evil song as a child turned me into a man who absolutely devours and ferociously collects obscure soft-rock records when nobody else is looking. I never asked to be an addict for smoove, smoove 70's and 80's L.A. yacht rock gems, but some monkeys just can't be bribed to disembark from my shoulders. That being said, I love stuff like this, and my current favorite repoitoire of artists in this general style (Ambrosia, Boz Scaggs, Stylus, Steely Dan, etc.) can all be owed to ol' Dan here. Cheers!