Tone Def One: Tone Def v2.0

808 State

808 State is a techno band. The album that I have, has a song called Pacific on it. It was their most famous song until about 1994 when Time Bomb was released as a single. 808 State has toured with Meat Beat Manifesto.

Aphex Twin

Aphex Twin is a techno artist. I have seen him perform live in Toronto. The Atlantis rave was on Queen Street. I went to see the show with my friend Steve. Steve, and Steve's brother, some Canadian girls, and I, used to spend a lot of time at Nightclubs, Bars, and Raves.

The Aphex Twin played alongside Orbital and Moby. I thought that at that particular show, The Aphex Twin, was the best artist. His music made my ears scream, it was impossible not to move.

The first of his works that I heard was called Digeridoo. I have a copy of the song on a pirated CD produced by the Nitrous rave organization (DJ's Ian, Don Berns, and Chris Sheppard). I also have a copy of The Aphex Twin's I Care Because You Do CD.

The sounds on the album are very mettalic. I obtained it for half price from a coffee clerk that was selling off free CD's that the coffee shop was getting.

The Aphex Twin's new music video Come To Daddy is very disturbing. I think it makes a very concrete statement about the role of the television in our lives. I hope to hear more from the Aphex Twin.

Atari Teenage Riot

Atari Teenage Riot is a very new German band. They call their style of music Digital Hardcore. It is a mixture of Industrial, Techno, and Punk. I saw a short article about them on MTV and heard part of one of their songs and decided to buy the album.

I like a couple of the songs, but I don't think that America is ready for Atari Teenage Riot yet. I'll keep listening.

Cake

Cake is a band that I got interested in because of a visit to a coffee shop near my old school (University at Buffalo). The coffee shop is called Stimulance (Main St. Buffalo). They played part of the album while I was drinking a Mocha Coffee and I heard the song, "The Distance."

I like the song because it reminds me of the time that I was working for a very high pressure company. It reminds me of the types of people that I worked with, and startlingly, a little bit of the person that I used to be. If you haven't heard this album (Fashion Nugget), you should try to steal it from a friend.

ClockDVA

Clock DVA is the Industrial band of Industrial bands. I bought one of their albums in 1992 only to have it stolen in 1994. The album, Buried Dreams, featured a fully naked sleeping (usually called dead) woman on the cover.

The album contains samples that sound like surveillance recordings of creepy conversations. I read about Clock DVA in keyboard magazine in one of their many industrial articles of the late eighties and early nineties.

Concrete Blonde

I have one album by Concrete Blonde. It is called Bloodletting. I picked it out as one of my selections for a BMG music club subscription. I selected it because I liked the song Joey which was playing a lot on the local toronto radio station CFNY 102.1.

I was highly influenced by the music on CFNY in 1990. It was the closest I got to hearing what was being played on MTV which I didn't have for 10 years and which I am now finally getting a chance to listen to. I like several of her other songs, but I think she was definitely finished by 1993.

Consolidated

Consolidated is a band that is usually called stylistically Industrial, even though at least half of their music is completely different than most Industrial music. Consolidated is a culture jamming band. If you look carefully in magazines and newspapers about art, you will find a definition of culture jam work.

They do not like being called a Rock and Roll band, you'll have to listen to their first album to understand what to call them. Their second album, titled Friendly Facism incorporates elements of Jazz, Hip Hop, Reggae, and House.

Their second album seems as though it were written for an audience of people that only exists in San Fransisco. If you have an open mind, you will find Consolidated very stimulating. They are very conservative about their liberalism. I still listen to them on occasion, but I've mellowed out a lot, and I plan to get mellower.

Corey Hart

I started listening to Corey Hart when I was in fifth grade. It is a strange addiction that I doubt will ever end. I've been able to put away the drugs, the alcohol, and the cigarettes, but not the Corey Hart.

I still hear Sunglasses at Night bouncing around inside of my head. I have his first four albums, most of them were on tape. Someday when I am rich, I will buy all of his albums and force my future children to listen to them. Corey Hart is, was, and will be the coolest Canadian on Earth.

Daryl Hall & John Oates

Hall and Oates were one of the first groups I listened to in 4th grade. I got a tape of them through a record club for free and spent many hours listening to Rock and Soul part 1. It has to have been one of the greatest Greatest Hits compilations of all time.

David Bowie

I don't think that there is a music fan alive that doesn't know who David Bowie is. I remember seeing him in a movie called Labyrinth when I was in grade school. I didn't really start listening to his music until 1995 when my friend Scott started playing all of his old albums for me.

My favorite album, the only one I own right now, is Ziggy Stardust. I plan to buy another copy of it in the future because the one that I have is the soundtrack to the movie Ziggy Stardust, and I want the original music. I really like the video for "I'm Afraid of Americans." I would have bought the album, but my English teacher told me that the version on the album is not the same one that is in the video. I want to wait until the Trent Reznor mix is available before I buy it.

Depeche Mode

I own seven Depeche Mode albums, and I have been to see them in concert twice. Depeche Mode was one of the first bands that I realized that I had a specific taste for in High School.

I heard People are People played on the radio one night during Christmas vacation and realized that I had liked Depeche Mode since the early eighties but had never realized who they were. A couple of weeks later, in school, I saw someone bring a copy of Depeche Mode 101 to school.

I went immediately to the store and bought it, and I have been listening to Depeche Mode ever since. I have a bias toward music that is produced electronically (if you haven't noticed already) because I play keyboards and the piano. The Depeche Mode Albums that I have are 101, Black Celebration, Catching Up With Depeche Mode, A Broken Frame, Violator, Songs of Faith and Devotion, and ULTRA.

Depeche Mode has had a very serious loss in that they no longer have Alan Wilder, the keyboard player that worked out the bulk of the harmonic musical segments of their work. I think that if they do replace him, they will find that their sales drop off dramatically.

I think that it would be really nice if they could just invite him back. In any case, I still think that their music is very good. In many ways, their music portrays Renaissance ideals and shows us a vision of Europe's future.

Divinyls

Divynils were a short lived phenomenon. I ordered their record because I couldn't find anything else that I liked on the CD club stamps. They were a last choice. I selected them because of Touch Myself.

How can you complain about a girl talking about masturbating in her songs? It's too bad they haven't made more records. The could some day be as cool as Vanilla Ice.

DMX

My first experience with DMX was through a friend at work. He sold me a burned CD with the uncut version of "Party Up" on it, and I began to truly realize the awesome groove of this Hip Hop master. I know I will be listening to his stuff for quite some time to come. My favorite of his tracks currently is "They don't know who we be..."

Duran Duran

I have liked Duran Duran since their beginnings, but I liked them a lot more for a short time. They had two albums that I bought. One was called Big Thing. It is my opinion that Big Thing is their best album. I like the pictures of America that they create with it.

The other album that I like is called Liberty. The songs on Liberty are good, but not as good as the songs on Big Thing. The song Rio, from an album that I do not own, always reminds me of playing Atari 2600 video games with my friend Joe in 5th grade.

Eminem

I listened to Eminem for nearly 2 months straight, during a long voyage to NYC and at subsequent residences. I think his work is telling and depicts well, the disenfranchisement of young adult's who've had to work McJobs like myself.

Eon

Eon's album Void Dweller easily made it's way into my CD collection in 1993. The song The Spice had been playing for two years on the Saturday Night Dance Party on CFNY 102.1 before Eon's album had been made available in Canada (I did a lot of record shopping in Toronto).

The Spice is based on the movie Dune, with Kyle Laughlin and Sting directed by David Lynch. Any science fiction fan would recognize the samples in it instantly. I liked the strange keyboard sounds and early breakbeat drum rhythms he used in his work.

Front 242

Front 242 is an impressive keyboard band. I read about them in Keyboard magazine. The magazine article said that they had opened for Depeche Mode at concerts in Europe. I bought a copy of Front By Front from Cavages, a mall record store that no longer exists.

My favorite song from the album is Headhunter. In 1990 I found their first major label record called Tyranny For You at a record store in Williamsville, and bought it right away. The cover for the album is very impressive, it is a computer edited photograph of what looks like a man's head pushing out of a broken automotive windshield.

The album was incredible, and I ended up going to see them in concert in Toronto with my friend Rob and a girl named Charlene (who should be on my list of ex-girlfriends). At the concert, I saw my first taste of real computer animation on a large video projection screen. The picture that was on the cover of the Tyranny album was contorting in and out of the screen.

I bought a couple of other albums after the Tyranny Album, but I didn't like them as much. They were the two albums with the coded messages on the front, and neither one had particularly memorable music on it. Front 242 may someday adapt to work their music into popular culture, they will be interesting to hear if they do. Right now, they're just selling remixes though. I'm not sure if it's their fault, or Sony Music's fault.

Front Line Assembly

I don't know much at all about front line assembly. I have one of their albums. The music was industrial music, but it seemed like pale music. The music didn't have the same depth that other industrial music that I was listening to had. I bought the album at Wax Trax at the same time I bought Cyberaktiv.

I hope that in the future, bands like Front Line Assembly adapt into more productive, more organic entities. I hope that their music evolves with the technology and fights it's way back into the techno or digital hardcore genre's.

Guns N' Roses

Guns 'N Roses is one of the few rock bands that I like. I only have one of their tapes, Welcome To The Jungle. I like almost every song on the album. Each of the songs is a different depiction of the ugly realities of urban life in cities like New York.

The songs on Welcome To The Jungle remind you of how nice it is not to live in a nightmare world where the underground rules with a pair of iron jaws. I like a couple of songs off of the albums that were released in 1991, like November Rain, and Civil War. I am not a big fan of the racist content of a couple of their songs, but hey, everyone has good days, and bad days.

Meeting certain people recently has reminded me how important it is to have a little bit of hard rock in your collection.

Iggy Pop

I have never been a big Iggy Pop fan. Iggy Pop apparently has been around for a long time. The first time I heard him mentioned was on a computer bulletin board system. The second time I saw his name, was in a BMG records catalog. His name was one of the 10 that I selected.

I have enjoyed his album Brick by Brick for many years since, because of classic mainstream hits like Butttown, and P**sy Power. CD cases aren't big enough to stop doors with are they?

Information Society

Information Society was one of my favorite bands of all time, until I discovered techno in 1992. Their music was very technically well done. They mentioned Mirrorshades in a 1990 album called Hack (Mirrorshades is a cyberpunk short story collection).

Their music was a combination of New York House music and what we call Techno today. I had both of their albums. I have not heard about any of their music since the early ninties, but I haven't had MTV for 10 years either. I hope that they are still out there working on another musical scheme.

Inner City

Inner City is a detroit techno house band. I bought their CD in 1993. I bought the CD because I was told that they were very good by a very reputable source, one of the engineers for Transmat, a small record label in Detroit. Inner City is very good, the album that I have is called Praise.

I like the futuristic bass and keyboard sounds that they use. I also like a lot of the reverberating electronic sounds that they use. Their lyrics are focussed on positive perceptions of future technology. There will be a time in the future, that I devote to collecting other music by Inner City.

Jewel

I was lucky to obtain a copy of Who Will Save Your Soul? for free. I got it with the purchase of several cups of coffee at my favorite Buffalo coffee shop of that era (1995) the Topic Cafe'. I like her new song Foolish Games also.

I don't own any of her albums yet, because I'm focussing on building my rock collection right now, but I am sure that in a couple of years I will be buying her CD's. I think that Jewel has been doing some very noteworthy things in terms of her philanthropy and interest in humanist ideals.

Josh Joplin Group

Josh Joplin Group is a new one. I know very little about them except that they are produced by Shawn Mullins and have one of the finest pieces of work to date, currently playing on the radio. It is titled "Camera One" and it makes you feel as if you are part of something larger than yourself. I guess that's why I like them and why I bought their album nearly immediately after seeing them in Barnes and Noble and on MTV2.

Kate Bush

Kate Bush is a performance artist who has worked with the likes of Peter Gabriel and other world artists. She is very talented and I just recently acquired an MP3 of "Running up that hill" which is a classic 80's new wave anthem. I heard a lot about her from my poetry and literature instructors at NCCC. They really liked her.

MC 900 Ft. Jesus

MC 900 Foot Jesus is another one of those artists that I found in Keyboard magazine. He has produced three pretty good albums that I know of. I only own one of them because I don't have the resources to collect everything that I would like to.

The album that I have is called Hell With The Lid off. It is a jazzy, hip hop/industrialist, work that has many well thought out constructions that depict life in a huge urban city. I am not sure what city MC 900 Foot Jesus is from, but I would guess that he is from New York or Chicago.

The funniest piece on Hell With The Lid off is called Spaceman. It is about a man devoted to collecting cans to buy his next bottle of alcohol. You have to feel for some people.

MC Hammer

I listened to MC Hammer quite a lot while working at a Pizza shop called Fatso's Pizza on Military Road where Mighty Taco now stands.

The place no longer exists, but I remember listening to the album with "You can't touch this" on it many times while washing dishes and waiting for orders to drive out with the other Italian and African kitchen help.

Meat Beat Manifesto

Meat Beat Manifesto is a Chicago style industrial band. I made a special trip to Wax Trax in Chicago when Wax Trax was the industrial authority in the US. The album that I purchased at Wax Trax was called Armed Audio Warfare.

It has a lot of interesting samples and drum loops. I don't think that the members of Meat Beat Manifesto could ever have predicted that drum loop music would evolve into the forms of Bass and Drum and Jungle that exist within the techno genre.

I purchased the album 99% in 1992 at a store called Record Theater in Buffalo. 99% is one of my favorite CD's of all time. I consider it the second best industrial CD that I have in my collection. The best industrial CD in my collection is Skinny Puppy's Rabies.

Ministry

Ministry is a band whose values I am not a major endorser of, but whose music was important to the development of a lot of modern electronic music and cyberpunk stylings. I would have to say that I first heard of them in my Junior year of high school when playing keyboards with a skateboarding friend.

"Stigmata" is on the sound track for Rumble in The Bronx, a great Jackie Chan movie. "Every Day is Halloween" is vintage goth 80's disco.

Moev

I have one album by Moev titled Moev. The song I remember best on the album is called "Head Down." It was about keeping a positive attitude amongst negativity. It got thumbs up from me, but was not quite as current as I would have liked and I haven't listened to it in a while. It's still worth mentioning though, and you might want to try to look them up in digital format.

Nelly

Nelly is a rapper that takes up all the fresh groove of the new Millennium. He has so much caged energy, I think he could probably stop a train by flashing his eyelids.

I would definitely like to see him go somewhere with his talent and not fall out of sight like so many other rap stars of the moment have. Here's to Nelly with a bottle of Crys...

Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails best album ever was the first. Trent really put his whole heart into making "Pretty Hate Machine" and I think it was reflected well in the quality, tonality, and personality of the production. I don't think he pulled any punches and I think he really meant what he intended to say.

I think that on some of his later albums he lost the message a little bit but there are still some bright spots in his career. His work on the soundtrack of "The Crow," "The Perfect Drug" from Lost Highway and his Remix of Queen's "Get Down Make Love" are my favorites. I also like his remix of Bowie's "I'm afraid of Americans."

Oasis

I have nearly every album Oasis has ever produced in the studio. I really like Noel Gallagher's voice and I think their work has only enhanced my taste for other groups of the same Genre.

They fit in well with the Beatles, Stone Roses, and Blur, all of which my friend Scott has gone to great pains to introduce me to. I can only thank him again for broadening my horizon's somewhat. "Don't Go Away" from Be Here Now, and "Wonderwall" are my two favorite Oasis songs of all time.

Oingo-Boingo

I picked up an Oingo Boingo album at Cavages years ago because I had read that Danny Elfman, the soundtrack keyboardist from Batman, and several other works including The Nightmare before Christmas and BeetleJuice, was a member of the band in Keyboard magazine.

I was fortunate that I found the album, because now looking for an album by this band is pretty rough going. I haven't seen anything from them in a long while. I can't at the moment recall any song titles but I can tell you that their work is of the first order of greatness.

OMD

I may have bought the Orchastral Maneuvers in the Dark CD at about the same time as Oingo boingo. If I remember correctly, their work was on the sound track for Pretty in Pink with Molly Ringwald.

I really enjoyed their album, there is a lot of good string and keyboard work on it. One piece I remember distinctly is titled "Enola Gay," which is about the plane which dropped the first atomic bomb.

Pet Shop Boys

The Pet Shop boys are another band you read a lot about in Keyboard Magazine. They are very talented and wrote work that appeared in a made for TV movie called the "Billionaire Boys Club."

The album I have by them is titled Behavior and it came out in the early 1990s. Two of my favorite tracks on that album are "Jealousy" and "October Symphony." "Let's make lot's of money...."

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel is the most amazingly cool artist of all time. He values using instruments and people from all parts of the world and all different cultures in his music.

He has two albums that I have had the privilage of owning at one time or another. They are titled "So" and "Us." So came out in the 80's and unleashed the monster hits "SledgeHammer" and "Big Time" and was at the top of the charts for a really long time.

Peter Gabriel was originally the lead vocalist for Genesis until they broke up and re-formed with Phil Collins. Us had a great track on it titled "Digging in the dirt." Unfortunately I lost that album somewhere. It'll be a while until I get around to buying it again. I also like some of his older work like "Shock The Monkey" and "Solsbury Hill"

Pink Floyd

I don't think any band of it's time has had more of an impact on my thinking than Pink Floyd. The first time I spent any time listening to what they had to say was after a party at a friends house where he insisted we listen to a concert and have a beer.

This happened during the time when I was working for McDonalds and my views weren't really all that developed yet, but in some ways, they really did make a little bit of sense. And they weren't entirely electronic, which was kind of cool and unique to me.

"The Wall" has inspired a good amount of my writing and I find myself wanting to refer to it quite a bit. It is such a complex piece though that you have to specify your reference point because otherwise, just saying "The Wall" would some how take away from the fact that historically it has been one of the most significant works of the twentieth century.

I also listened to "Dark Side of the Moon" quite a bit during my one month visit to Boston while playing scrabble and drinking premium beers like Grolsch...

Plastikman

Plastikman is a band from Detroit headed up by Ritchie Hawtin who is not only a great musician but a really cool individual. I had the opportunity to meet him once on his tour bus when his project was called Cybersonik with Plus 8 records. He helped me get my girlfriend into a concert when she forgot her ID for an over 19 show.

He was very charismatic and aloof and I think that if I met him again he would probably remember me, he's just that kind of guy. His work is very creative and takes many different forms. His projects have led to the creative output of others and his record label is one of the best in the Techno arena. I own several of his Vinyl EP's and a couple of CD's.

One track that I really like is titled "Helikopter." Ritchie is also one of the world's finest Disc Jockey's.

Poe

Poe is a band that unfortunately has recently had some problems with her Record label. I have always liked her though. I think she is probably most remembered for her rendition of "I'd Die For You" from the modern version of Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio.

However my favorite song by her is "Angry Johnny." From her first self titled album.

Psychedelic Furs

The Psychedelic Furs were a band that were really popular with some girls I knew in Junior High school. I let the record club send me a copy of one of their albums when I saw they were the selection of the month and they were very good, but more of a band that as I suspected, "Chicks would dig..."

Public Enemy

When I lived in Chicago for 6 months, I was fortunate to have a roommate who had very diverse tastes in music. One of his favorite Rap groups was Public Enemy. I sort of adopted his liking for East Coast rap while I was there and have never given it up since.

I have several Public Enemy Albums. My two favorites are "It takes a Nation of Millions" with "Don't Believe The Hype" and "Channel Zero" and "Music In Our Mess Age" with "Death of a Car Jacka" and "Runnin' outta time.."

Queensrÿche

I used to have a Queensryche album. I sold it on e-bay in desperation when I was really short on cash. If I had been able to, I would have liked to have kept it. The album was called "Empire" with the tracks "Jet City Woman" and "Sweet Lucidity."

I am glad to have been alive to hear their guitar technique. They really are great artists. I remember listening to them a lot in my sophomore year of high school while working for Burger King and Tops.

Rage Against the Machine

Rage Against the Machine is an unrelenting trip into the guerrilla. I am a really big fan of them and am currently searching for a mix up they did with KRS-One. If you have it, please e-mail me. I have "Evil Empire" and "The Battle of Los Angeles."

I wrote an almost 20 page poem as a result of listening to "Sleep Now in The Fire," a great anti-capitalist anthem.

Revenge

This is one of Peter Hook's side projects. I have recently had some discussions with people on message bases on Yahoo! About Revenge and it seems that this project was not particularly well liked among musicians. But as both a listener and composer, I found it to be a fine piece of work, and I don't think that the project was a wasted effort by any stretch of the imagination.

Rush

In my freshman year of high school, I listened to a lot of Rush and really could get into their whole Zen spirituality thing. They had a lot going on, almost more than you could absorb. They were very prolific and I could only afford a few of their cassette tapes.

I had Hold Your Fire and Presto and had a chance to hear Power Windows, and Moving Pictures. My friend Pat also likes them as did a lot of people we went to high school with at the time. Give in to the Tao and learn.

Sarah McLachlan

I have been a closet fan of Sarah McLachlan ever since the first time I heard Posession. I am a keyboard player, so I have a natural interest in the complex piano parts of songs like Posession. Sarah's voice is very interesting, and she deserves credit for being able to play and sing certain songs at the same time.

I bought her new album Surfacing in the first week of December. I like Surfacing, especially the songs that have actually been played on Music Television, Building a Mystery and Sweet Surrender. I have yet to take the time to look at the music videos that come on the CD in multimedia format.

I plan to work on that when I am finished with all of these reviews.

Skinny Puppy

I had a few albums by Skinny Puppy too. I am sad to say I sold one, but I still have two left. I had Rabies, 12" Anthology, and Cleanse Fold and Manipulate. I lost a few bucks on the e-bay transaction for Cleanse Fold, but I think the owner of the album at present is probably enjoying it, so I don't see the transaction as a waste.

Cevin Key was one of the most instrumental in launching cyberpunk into modern techno and a lot of electronic music has benefited from his influence. Including some of my own.

Sugar Ray

Sugar Ray is kind of a pop band now, but I really liked the Hip Hop/Reggannana vibe they had going with that track "Fly" at the beginning of 1999. It was exciting and memorable and I still hum along with it whenever I hear the tune on the radio.

The Beatles

The Beatles have to be included in this list because a music list without them is not a music list. I must have been influenced musically by them 2 generations ago and still going strong. My most recent Beatles acquisitions are an MP3 of Helter Skelter and a couple of tracks from The Magical Mystery Tour.

I do believe that John was re-incarnated in Noel Gallagher.

The Charlatans UK

The Charlatans UK are a fun band. I went to see them in Hamilton Ontario (Canada) in 1992 during the summer with my friend Scott. My favorite song by the Charlatans is Weirdo. I am not sure which album Weirdo is on, Scott would be able to tell you that, he's the one that owns their albums, unfortunately, Scott doesn't have a web page yet (We're working to get him involved in this whole net scene).

The concert in Hamilton was memorable. The only beer available for purchase cost six dollars and fifty cents and was in quart sized cans. There was a lot of jumping into the mosh pit going on, and there were a lot of cute young girls wearing shirts that said Weirdo on them.

The Cure

I only own one album by The Cure. It is a greatest hits album called Mixed Up. I bought the album after seeing the video for the song Lullaby and hearing the song Fascination Street a number of times on the radio. I have never worn white face paint, except on one Haloween, and that was when I was seven years old.

However, the girl that introduced me to The Cure was wearing white face paint when I saw her at the Depeche Mode concert that I was supposed to drive her to. I like all of the songs on Mixed Up, but my favorites are Fascination Street and Never Enough. I haven't been interested in anything that The Cure has done since Mixed Up.

The Future Sound of London

My favorite techno band to date is The Future Sound of London. There is one particular memory that I have of one of their songs that I will never forget. Unfortunately, I can't share that memory with you unless I know you directly. My belief is that the best song that they have ever written is called Papua New Guinea.

It was released in a CD album format in the United States in 1996 on the album called Accellerator. Accellerator is a good album, but it is a compilation of the Future Sound of London's old work.

I think that the best album that they have released is called Lifeforms on the Astralwerks label. I also have ISDN, released in 1995, and Dead Cities released in 1996.

With the exception of a pirate video that contains part of the music of Moscow, the only Future Sound of London video I have ever seen is We Have Explosive. I would like to see more of their videos. If any of you know where I can order one inexpensively, please send me an e-mail.

The Jesus And Mary Chain

I am not a collector of Jesus and Mary Chain albums, but I own one of them. Reverence happened to be released at about the time that I was looking to get involved in going to a lot of concerts and experimenting with my musical tastes a little bit.

The album that I own is called Honey's Dead. A lot of the songs on the album have some very interesting guitar pieces in them. My friend Scott owns a lot more of The Jesus and Mary Chain's stuff. He likes Kill Surf City. I saw The Jesus and Mary Chain live at Lollapalooza 2 in the summer of 1992.

I think they were stoned, but sometimes it's hard to tell.

The Mighty Lemon Drops

The Mighty Lemon Drops are a band that my girlfriend from the summer of 1988 introduced me to. They really sound like Lemon Drops. She also introduced me to a lot of Woodstock stuff and a couple other unmentionables. I keep this disc in my collection as a memory of the great times we had together even though I regret my loss of her.

She really was a wonderful person. From what I hear she currently lives and works somewhere on the East Coast.

The Notorious B.I.G.

It started as a joke that we liked Notorious BIG and then turned into a ridiculous name game where eventually I was called "The Notorious CJB" by quite a few. Now that I actually listen to him a little bit I realize that the man did have some true wisdom.

Take for instance "The Ten Crack Commandments" which indicate the ten most important rules to follow when entering the drug trade. Or "Victory" with Puffy where the family really becomes one. Notorious was always the man and always will be.

The Police

The Police are a great band. They are also a band I was exposed to at a very early age. I listened to them in third grade and had an album by them at age 9. The album was "Synchronicity" and really had quite an impact on me. I had never thought about things like the Loch ness monster, self induced pain, or dysfunctional family life before.

They really put quite a bit of thought into their subject matter and drove their points home, sarcastic or otherwise. "Every Breath you Take" will always be one of my favorite love songs.

The Prodigy

The Prodigy didn't start out looking quite as grimy as its' current incarnation is. I remember the rave anthems "Charlie" and "Out of Space" which were considered to be happy house and had a very Reggae breakbeat feel. When they developed their most recent album "fat of the land" it seemed they wanted to leave the happiness behind and go for a more startling political image for the sake of selling records in America.

They accomplished what they set out to do and are currently among the top most celebrated techno artists in America. But do they deserve it? Let's see what they do next.

The Shamen

The Shamen were an incredible group until they lost one of their members in a diving accident. They released several versions of a great track called "Move any Mountain" which is very "Up" techno. It can really bring you out of a bad mood quick.

Another great track on their first album was called "Hyperrreal" another that I would recommend you put on your lists if you get a chance to. I wish I'd had a chance to see them in concert. I liked them almost as much as I liked Information Society.

The Smiths

The Smiths are still only about five years old in my world. I never listened to them much until around 1995 but I do like them. I went to see Morrissey in concert in Toronto and the show really rocked. I have a nice collection of Morrissey and Smith's tracks and plan to keep collecting them as time goes on.

And if they give me another shot at seeing the whole band then who knows, maybe I'll shell out the massive cash..."How soon is now" is my favorite song by the smiths. "Lost" by Morrissey takes a close second.

The Stone Roses

I wrote an entire poem about a situation involving the Stone Roses' music and my friend's liking of them. It would seem that they do have a significant fan base around here because they do play them on the radio from time to time.

I really like "Fool's Gold," "Adored," and most of the album that those two are on. All I had was a really beat up tape of those tracks though. But I used to play it nightly while working in the Audio Visual Maintenance dept. of the local college.

Tori Amos

Tori Amos is the most Rockin' southern vocalist to ever walk the earth, and she's got red hair to boot. She has made all the right moves and has really got a great career to show for her hard work.

I have got "Little Earthquakes," "Boys for Pele," and "Songs from the Choirgirl hotel." All three of these albums are spectacular stand alone works and I definitely recommend them. My favorite tracks are "Precious things," and "Thoughts of Maryanne."

She has a knack for playing multiple keyboards, harpsichords, and pianos, while belting out her songs at the top of her beautifully formed lungs...

U2 is a rock band that has been around since the early 1980s and has done quite a lot to demonstrate their value for peace over war. The only album I have ever owned by them is "Achtung Baby." I went to a record release party for it in downtown Chicago and we as Fraternity brothers probably bought 12 copies in one night, if not more.

I like all of their classics and all of their modern tracks. There is not a single song they have written that has been unappealing to me, and that frightens me to a slight degree, because I don't know if I will ever be able to collect everything that they have produced with their tendency to produce track after track after track.

I give "New Year's Day" and "the Fly" my all times thumb's ups.

Vanilla Ice

There is no denying it, Vanilla ICE was a 1 hit wonder, but he did have a certain style about him that attributed to his success. He was very certain of himself and I think that that helped him out a lot with his determination to produce good high quality rap music.

I have heard rumour that he may be a film star soon, if that happens, I might actually shell out the bucks to see him on the big screen, he's as much a part of my past as I am of anyone else's.

Weezer

This summer I made the wise move of picking up Weezer's Green album. It really has a lot going for it. A lot of their songs are about relationships and their affects, effects, and complications. They also sing about love, romance and escapism.

These sorts of topics always draw crowds so I don't really give them thumbs up for theme as much as I do for putting together a really tight package that is worth a good listening to. Rock out with "Hash Pipe" and then Mellow out with "Island in The Sun." They are the perfect Yin/Yang combination.

Yes

"Owner of a lonely heart" is one of my favorite songs of all times. Yes is a band which bears further investigation into on my part. Having been born only recently I missed out on a lot of the prog rock scene in the 70's, but I think that if I gave them a real chance I might really like their older stuff too.

Who knows. 90125 would still be in my collection if it hadn't been swiped. I'll say nothing more. You know who you are...

Tone Def One

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Tone Def v2.0

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