THE CARDIGANS
I liked "Lovefool" the first 70,000 times I heard it-- Although history will remember them as a one-hit wonder, their second (domestic) album Gran Turismo was a pleasantly surprising entry into the currently bland arena of modern rock.
MARIAH CAREY
At least she quit making those orgasmic dolphin noises in her songs... Granted, she's still a bunch of fluffy crap, but at least she quit making those orgasmic dolphin noises in her songs.
BOB CARLISLE
One Michael Bolton in the world is already far, far, FAR more than we need.
RON CARTER
I live my musical existence in search of the perfect fix for my moment's taste-- I am a CD junkie. The day I bought my first Ron Carter CD I was in need of a great string bass player, and quite surely found one. Third Plane is one of my most remarkable jazz CDs; or at very least one of my favorites. (The stunning piano work alone inspired me to go out and get a Herbie Hancock disc.) This is the perfect score for twilight, and like all great jazz, is not merely listened to, but experienced.
TRACY CHAPMAN
Let's just throw her on top of the "How Did You Get So Far With No Charisma Whatsoever" pile with Chris O'Donnell.
CHEMICAL BROTHERS
In late 1995, I got my first Chemical fix [unavoidable pun] and was forever hooked-- I played Exit Planet Dust so much, that had it been a record, I would have worn the grooves out. Hell, I even had excerpts of it blaring on my answering machine recording for awhile there; which effectively scared most from leaving messages. While I'm glad they are successful now, I kind of liked it better when they were "background noise" in the music scene and not an article in every single damn month of every single magazine. Note to the Bros: Could "Block Rockin' Beats" be on any more techno compilations, guys?!
CHARLIE CHRISTIAN
Icon of jazz guitar for his extremely provocative use of an amplified guitar in the Swing Era-- One can only wonder what the then, and briefly, disapproving Benny Goodman would think of today's guitar riffs? Christian's as cool as ice cream on a hot summer's day, and like Hendrix, Joplin, and [Robert] Johnson died tragically early at the age of 27.
CHUMBAWUMBA
K-Tel "Hits of the 90's"... The only place you'll ever see them again.
CIRRUS
Possibly the paragon of a Moonshine artist, the latest from Cirrus explores a slightly more dark and intense side of techno in their sophomore Back On a Mission album. The title track is a killer-- a nice hardcore entry which would sound perfect as the opener for some super-cool action/adventure flick. Then again, you could go ahead and slap it in your stereo and drive around town just waiting for evil terrorists to run you off the road so they can recover your secret computer disk which holds top secret Pentagon codes... of course, in reality, you'll probably just end up at Starbucks for a frappucino.
PATSY CLINE
On my list of top mortal weaknesses, the chanteuse would have to rank fairly high-- Somewhere up near sloppy cheeseburgers, fine erotic photography, and Salma Hayek or Beiron Andersson. First off, I have to say that I generally despise country music. Piercing, nasal hick cadences just don't do anything for me; and the fact that so many country musicians are merely entertainers, and not musicians, bugs the living hell out of me to no end. A lot of people say they don't like the twang, although that's one of the few aspects I do like; However, only in an instrumental sense, i.e. Duane Eddy, delta blues, or even Hawaiian steel guitar. So Patsy Cline is unique in the fact that she is the only country artist in my collection of hundreds of CDs.
CLUBFLYS 2
LINK PENDING
Probably the hardcore house equivocal to over-caffeination, Club Flys 2 sports the all-cool-- if not too-cool-- must-have Fatboy Slim remix of Wildchild's "Renegade Master." Sitting still while listening to this album is just not an option!
LEONARD COHEN
I originally only knew him from movie soundtracks, and soon came to realize there are "two" Leonard Cohens: His early self and his modern self. The more known-- and personally preferred-- is the modern, smoky voiced Cohen whose "Waiting For the Miracle" opens up "Natural Born Killers." However, I also like is 60's folk music when he has a normal voice, which is somewhat of an accomplishment since I am a limited fan of folk in general. It's hard to understand how someone whose music can be so cheesy at times can also be so cool-- A riddle as haunting as his music itself.
PAULA COLE
I can't be alone-- but is it a little scary to anyone else that MTV, VH1, Top 40 radio stations, adult contemporary radio stations, and even college radio stations are all playing pretty much the same stuff? Kinda makes you hope Judgment Day is real; and right around the corner comin' up quick.
ORNETTE COLEMAN
Listening to his music is as close to a drug trip as you can get without actually taking drugs. Coleman is the ambassador of free jazz-- improvised music-- which is a style that's definitely an acquired taste. (Coleman has, in more recent years, recorded arranged music too.) Whether you're opening your mind up to new musical horizons, looking for the perfect soundtrack to uber-caffeination, or writing experimental prose under the influence of heroin addiction, this is surely recommended listening.
COLLECTIVE SOUL
I could be wrong, but weren't they the ones that wrote the Flaccid Rock classic that had the line "The same old song plays on the tired radio." An autodiscography and the summation of the late 90's music scene in one sentance, wow.
HARRY CONNICK JR.
Savior of Swing. During my early college years, I got into Big Band music; However, I sort of kept it to myself as a sort of guilty pleasure because I knew every other person my age knew it was square. As time passed, I realized (that aside from my jazz musician friends), there was actually a sizable big band listening underground. Okay, most of it was coming from Connick's "When Harry Met Sally" soundtrack, but it was a start. I have to say, I'm not really fond of his recent releases and wish we would stick to the classic sounds of his masterworks 20 and Blue Light; the latter of which I listened to so much for so long, I made myself stop listening to it for fear of getting sick of it.
SAM COOKE
There are exactly three things I find cool about the Catholic religion: it's architecture, art, and music. The last applies to Sam Cooke, though maybe he designed some cool churches too; but not that I'm aware of. Cooke was a 50's soul singing star who sought and succeeded to push gospel into the mainstream, as exhibited best in SAR Records Story 1959-1965, a masterful collection of the work he made helping breath wonderful life into gospel tunes. You can hear his influence in countless modern singers; say, as evident as you can hear James Brown and Parliment bastardized in rap. Cooke is so smooth I won't even bother using one of the cliche references to the word "smooth" because it would just tarnish just how damn smooth he really is.
COOL WORLD
With a soundtrack this good for such a totally L-A-M-E movie, you'd think Joe Esterhaus had to be the screenwriter-- but no. In a movie which disappointed fans by presenting Kim Bassinger haggish and Brad Pitt fully clothed, among other even greater flaws, the soundtrack to this movie proved ahead of its time by going with a techno sound. It features a cool song by the Thompson Twins. No, really, it does. It was also probably the first, most mainstream thing that the Future Sound of London appeared on. Smooth, sexy techno grooves fill this soundtrack from beginning to end; and the score of the film also weighs in nicely with a big band sound. Check them out, avoid the movie.
JULIAN COPE
My first voyage into the genre of modern rock was inspired from the single "World Shut Your Mouth." This was so long ago that I bought the aforementioned song on a vinyl EP, whose name I don't currently recall, for a mere $5. His My Nation Underground album is a treasuretrove of classic modern rock-- So all you kiddies out there, sell your Hootie and buy some of this instead and take yourself along the stepping stones away from mainstream music listening; You'll be glad you did.
CORNERSHOP
I can't say that I really dig on their music, but it's definitely nice to see some ethnicity in the entertainment scene; especially since the only other visible East Indians are uber-deejay Talvin Singh, Tony Kanal of No Doubt, Dr. Bashir on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," and Apu on "The Simpsons."
COUNTING CROWS
Early figures of the Flaccid Rock trend-- from their happy, bouncy neo-hippie songs to their insipid, droning melancholy, it's all totally stunningly bland and tedious.
CRACKER
Who would have thought white trash themed modern rock could be so damned cool? Their debut, self-titled album continues to be a mainstay of my listen regiment some five years after its release; "Another Song About the Rain" one of the greatest rain-themed songs ever recorded. To hear their work it is to love it. They were/are one of the last great modern rock groups before the genre went to crap, so check 'em out, and the lead singer's preceeding band Camper Van Beethoven too.
Warning: Those of you who listen to your music on CD shufflers, be warned that their Kerosene Hat album has hidden tracks, which is accomplished by using so many blank tracks that it makes listening to this disc impossible on shuffle mode.
THE CROW
I miss Brandon
A metallic menagerie of musical darkness occupies the soundtrack, while the score relies on Middle Eastern instrumental and jazz influences-- Both are perfect accents to the darker states of the mind and are excellent bits of late night listening. Due to the popularity of the movie, the soundtrack was a big hit; although apparently its buyer's didn't like it nearly as much as I did because it's a virtually guaranteed find at used CD stores. It's more than worth the price of purchase.
SHERYL CROW
The fact that "All I Wanna Do" was played every 15 minutes on the radio during a ten hour car trip (with a broken tape deck) of mine doesn't help in the fact that I think she's yet another totally lame entry into the 1990's music scene. Her 1997 album suggested she'd been listening to a lot of Hole, and her updated look is kind of scary-anorexic. Record companies wonder why their overall sales are flatlining, yet they assume people like Crow have staying power: Her 1998 album, whose name I don't recall even though I work in a music store and spent half an hour pricing it and putting on display, challenged Hootie and the Blowfish's "Musical Chairs" for biggest commericial failure of the year. It's another wake-up call for music labels who need to start gearing themselves to sign musicians with talent, not ones who will merely turn profit; because no one is going to remember artists like Sheryl Crow 15 years from now... They barely remember who she is now.
