Favorite Bands

So, this isn't really like a situation where you should just list all your favorite bands/artist, but pick one or two that you truly love and write a good bit about them. If they are your favorite bands, odds are you know all sorts of information and trivia.

Entries should involve a band/artist name, the type of music they do, maybe a logo or picture, when they were active, a couple of their most famous songs/albums, their history and their cultural impact/culture's impact on them at the time. In particular, the artists that influenced them and the artists they influenced.

In a way, this is so we can share musical tastes a bit, I dunno. Group exercise, avoid boredom.

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Band: Flipper
Genre: Hardcore Punk
Era: 1980s, 2004- (reunion)
Noted Songs: "Ha-ha-ha-ha" and "Sex Bomb"
Information:

In the 1980's, Flipper emerged on the Hardcore scene in San Fransisco and was instantly labelled, 'faggy' because they concentrated on slower, atonal riffs for their songs, with lyrics that were contemptuously spat out at the audience, rather than shouted.

Despite being punk, their sound was deeply rooted in other great San Fransisco acts of the late 1960's and 1970's, notably Iron Butterfly and the Velvet Underground. In addition to the slower-pace of the music, the lyrics were more deeply psychological and free-associative in many cases. Hardcore started fundamentally as a protest of the Reagan era's retro-50's ideal of cultural values and Flipper was extremely good at pouring caustic contempt; they were a band that were more disillusioned and cynical than angry.

They were commercially unsuccessful for the most part, but had a fairly devoted underground following that included Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, who adopted a lot of their sound into his own music; indeed, Cobain was such a fan of Flipper that he made his own shirt with their iconic "Fish" emblem (no Flipper shirt was ever manufactured back then.)

While Flipper were obscure in their time, they were vastly influential and are fun to listen to, even if the production quality of their albums is intentionally scratchy. It's worth noting that they reformed in 2004 with Nirvana's drummer, Krist Novoselic, 'honored' (his words) to be playing with Flipper, one of his band's great influences.

Tool

[image]http://images2.makefive.com/images/200835/e874e95bcc208059.jpg[/image]

Genre: prog-rock
Era: 1990-present
Noted songs: Schism
Information:

Tool is an American prog-rock band, formed in the early nineties. They are probably the most well-known prog rock band out there, probably because of their distinct guitar play as well as their distinct singer. Also, their lyrics are one of the most deep ones people have ever heard and people are most of time guessing about their meanings, but one can assume that they are often about stuff like religion, God, our society and it's weaknesess, drugs and the effects and stuff like that.

They are not afraid of recording lengthy songs, as they do record songs with a running time of or around 10 minutes for example.

One of their more wacky facts is that they once did a song following the famous Fibonacci numbers. They're also very well known because of their music videos and their cover art, something they even won prizes with.

This is absolutely one of my favourite bands, as they have an absolutely great playing and singing style (I absolutely LOVE Maynard's voice, I think it's one of the best ever) because everything blends in very well and the total picture is near perfect. They dare to take risks and their music is created because they love it and they like it and according to their own rules and wishes. And they are one of the very few bands with absolutely great and stunning music videos with actual meaning. The way they build towards a climax in their music is awesome.

Go ahead and try it if you've never heard a song by them and if you're into (prog) rock!