Bands That Defy Genre

You mentioned some bands I haven't heard of and will have to check out, man! (Split Enz, Brand X, Max Webster)

I am a pretty huge Zappa fan I have to say. Aside from 60+ albums, everything he did to fight censorship?! What an awesome, dude! Oh and totes with the Jethro Tull. I seem to remember they Won best metal album of the year at one time when Metallica was also up for the nomination. I trust they also could have won best album of several genres that year :-). Steely Dan is amazing too... I don't know if you've heard the guitar player, Scott Henderson? He is one of my favorite Jazz/Rock guitar players and he said that he loved Steely Dan because they essentially had the harmonic depth of , but wrote great "pop" songs songs. Over course, we likely think differently of what is meant by the label "pop" these days, but you probably get his point.

One pretty alien artist, you may like, or even know about already... Allan Holdsworth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=RDoE … hJbU1zbOeE

On a side note, I think it is true to say that what people refer to as "Pop" and "Avant Garde" can have great, great music. But I don't think those names really work for a genre. "Popular" doesn't seem accurate because if the Beatles came out today they would probably be called a fusion or alternative band, for having songs like "Live and Let Die" that go from orchestral-rock to reggae, etc... And Avant Garde means "new and unusual experimental ideas", which is totally appropriate as a concept, but as a genre people often fulfill certain idioms that are considered Avant Gard and contradict it. Names like Jazz, Rock, Blues, Metal, etc. all work best as names, because they have either been totally invented or been given new meaning at least. CRAY CRAY RAMBLING, sorry, haha.

Hey, thanks for checking out my stuff, man :-)!

Oh ya, I own those Bruford albums! Have you heard UKZ? It's Jobson and a bunch of other great musicians/artists. A friend of mine plays that gig actually, Alex Machacek... his solo albums are fantastic. I'm a pretty big fan of his album "[sic]" with Terry Bozzio (I'm certain that you've heard Bozzio) and another named "24 tales" with Marco Minnemann. Actually, Marco played in UKZ too come to think of it. I did my first album with Marco, which was a thrill because I was a fan of his drumming since highschool. I'll attach a couple links in case you are interested or haven't heard Marco play:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x18SwHwfrrs
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU42cOwEvpM

I checked out Split Enz, Max Webster and Brand X now:

Split Ez sounds really good and has some pretty funny videos too, haha! Sort of remind me of Oingo Boingo (Who I really should listen to more of - note to self).

Max Webster kind of has hints of Pat Travers maybe? That Rush singer, Geddy Lee, ultra recognizable voice! Was he involved in that project the whole time?

Brand X - Man that is some old school fusion right there. Some of it made me think of Al Di Meola, who although I never got too deep into I does incorporate a lot of styles and genres (and epic chops of course). I checked you out that link you gave for "Disco Suicide" and also a really funky track named "Born Ugly"! I know how you feel about disco, hahaha... but then I'm a pretty big fan of Parliament and they were kind of inspired by disco (among other things). You never know what fruit can grow from well manured soil, right?

Disco Suicide!

During my university years (mid-70's) a buddy and I hosted a show which we called "Disco Suicide", every Friday and Saturday night from 12:00 - 3:00, on the campus radio station (AXE Radio ... Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia). Disco fever was in full swing during those years, but not everyone liked it. We would run the gammut from Joni Mitchell to Pink Floyd, take requests, etc. When anyone called in requesting "Bay City Rollers" or "Donna Summers", we would shout "No disco!" and hang up on them.

Split Enz and the like seemed to embrace that mad scientist / insane asylum flavor that was hovering on the edges of those days. Perhaps the well-publicized schizophrenia of Syd Barrett caught enough interest, that some people wanted to explore the outer edges. I saw Max Webster open for Rush in 1977, and their show was full of spaghetti fights, nutzo costumes, a couple of nonsense poetry readings, and so on. Entertaining stuff, even if most of the audience didn't get it.

Rush began in the mid-70's also, with singer / bassist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer Neil Peart being the original members. They are still performing 40 years later, and their concert in Rio diJaniero is one of my favorites ... here's a taste:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZqSVTyYIkI

Amazing atmosphere with a maniacal crowd!

Hey, Funster! I just noticed you are from Nova Scotia! Any chance you've heard Patrick Healy's Lazarus Project? He is a local in your neck of the woods and pretty awesome. I bet you'll dig this, man. He's got a great mix of sounds going on, which includes a lot of the people we've been talking about. His new CD is really interesting... sort of a mix between intense and atmospheric, vibe-y fusion.

http://www.reverbnation.com/patrickhealyslazarusproject

I did a long promotional pre-sale and created a sampler with a bunch of people involved and he was a contributor. Great guitar player and Cool dude too. Worth befriending on FB and the like. Oh btw, I don't know if you use FB or not but feel free to hit me up on there:
https://www.facebook.com/lee.wanner

"Bleeding guitar", hahahaha... funny expression. Yeah, that is some nice gee-tar playin' for sure :-). Thanks for sharing, this is something I probably wouldn't have discovered without someone directly telling me about or sending a link. Only one album? Shame.

Awesome, man! Healy is great. I really like his last CD!

Where I live, the horrid "mainstream recording artists" are in fact what is featured on our local radio. It is slightly oppressive on the spirit, but also reminds one what is at stake. As I tell my friends in other states, "It is good to live close to the enemy." haha. Just as many of the mainstream are not musicians, I would say it is equally false to call them artists. Just as there are famous athletes, there are what I would call "famous celebrities"... people who are famous because they are famous. Every now and then a good records sneaks it way through the assembly line and becomes popular. Although, it might be occurring less frequently all the time. I happen to really like Christina Aguilera's first album from 1999, haha (don't hate me)... actually there is a moment of metric modulation on that album and some nice/clever harmony, funky synth tones not unlike parliament, plus the vocals are very strong and don't yet commit transgressions of non-stop, over-the-top, squiggly vocal shred. Also the production of the era has a very specific kind of elastic sound to it.

Something I like about Oingo Boingo and those bands we mentioned earlier, is how they have a pinpointable production sound (saying it's dated should be referring to the time that sound was born, not died; because sounds do not die, they become instruments).

In hind sight, I see that macro look into "overall sound" as what can be used in composition. Other examples would be warm analogue Beatles sound, old skewed EQ vinyl sounds of the 1920's, mondern ultra dynamic-less masters, orchestral recordings which are so dynamic that they are un-listenable in a car without playing DJ with the volume dial.

As Topdown's rule #1 says - if it sounds good-it is good.

Hey Lee ...

Gave several S.G.M. tracks a listen on YouTube. There's no denying the creative and unusual nature of their work. However, I do find it a bit morbid for my liking ... almost nightmarish. Reminds me of some of Tea Party's stuff from days gone by, which (if you'll pardon the pun) is not my cup of tea.

Here's another genre defying bit from Roger Waters & Ron Geesin. It's really just a percussive piece of tape splicing, using various body noises for the sounds. Whether you find this hilarious or disgusting, it certainly is bizarre:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOXcHI36Otk

Microphone placement is key!