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My "Lane List" (Musical Influences)
 Updated Oct. 2006
Jazz/Blues/Big Band/Swing/Classical The Classics (all genres) Singles/Soundtraks
Celtic/Folk/Acoustic/etc... Early Music/More Classical General (by century)
New & Cool - 21st C. music, Albums I'm Listening to Now, and stuff I just like
Pretty self-explanatory. Some of these bands & artists have actually been around for a while, but they're new to me.
Albums I'm Listening to Now (Aug. 2006)
- Aimee Mann: The Forgotten Arm. 2005, SuperEgo Records. Something about Aimee's songs touch me at the core. I often bring them on long car trips to sing along with, and sometimes in the midst of a song I'll find myself deeply moved, even though it's something I've already heard a dozen times. The Forgotten Arm is very sad, but also lovely. And I totally dig the cool liner notes, a kind of illustrated story with drawings that really reflect the mood of the album.
- Elbow: Leaders of the Free World. 2005, V2 Music Ltd. One of my most satisfying album purchases in a long time. From Manchester, England, Elbow is Guy Garvey (lead vocals, guitar, lyrics), Mark Potter (guitar, backing vocals), Craig Potter (keyboards, organ, backing vocals), Pete Turner (bass guitar), and Richard Jupp (drums).
- Deathcab for Cutie: Something About Airplanes. 1998 (Debut album), Elsinor Records. Hailing from Washington, Deathcab members are Ben Gibbard (founder), Chris Walla (guitar), Nicholas Harmer (bass), and Jason McGerr (drums). Their latest album is the 2005 "Plans" (the first one we bought, which got us thoroughly hooked).
- Beck: Guero. 2005, Interscope Records. Needs no introduction; every album we buy, we think, is this going to be as good as the last one? And it is - or better. Guero makes a great late-night-driving CD.
- The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow. 2005, Sub Pop Records. I liked them even before I saw Garden State, when they were still just a band making the rounds on M.'s MP3 player. Chutes Too Narrow is short and sweet - too short, really. I wished it could go on much longer. But maybe a little of a good thing is just right, sometimes.
- Placebo: Without You I'm Nothing. 1998, Elevator Music Ltd.
- Mark O'Connor's Hot Swing Trio: In Full Swing. Violinist Mark O'Connor, with Jon Burr and Frank Vignola, pays tribute to jazz greats Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt. With guests Wynton Marsalis and Jane Monheit. Virtuosos showing off and having a blast doing it.
- Rheostatics: Night of the Shooting Stars. 2001, Perimeter Records. Still one of the most unique Canuck bands out there; every album is different and unexpected, and their energy and creativity seems to have no bounds. Good active listening music; definitely not for those who just want fluffy mindless schlock. Their music has so many layers, sometimes I put it on when I'm cleaning the house, or drawing, or writing stories, or even trying to fall asleep. It covers a lot of territory, musically, to say the least.
- Danu: Think Before You Think. 2000, Shanachie. Celtic stuff. I like it, but so far it hasn't completely won me over and made me want to dance around like some of my favourite modern Celtic bands.
- Skeeal: Long Story. 2005. Five-piece Isle of Man band featuring flutes, guitar & vocals, drawing on traditional and original material, moving between the three gaelic languages. A friend brought this back with her after a trip to the Isle of Man. Impressive stuff.
- The White Stripes: De Stijl. 2002, Third Man Records. These multitalented weirdo siblings are definitely growing on me, despite myself; I like the raw energy.
- Alia Musica / Miguel Sanchez: Unica Hispaniae. 1999, Harmonia Mundi. This can be good active or passive listening music; it makes a great ambient wash, but as a player of early music, I can also close my eyes and follow its intricacies appreciatively. Still gettting to know this one.
- Sarah Slean: Day One (2004), Night Bugs (2002), Warner Music. She makes me smile; and I love that freaky voice of hers. Each time I bought one of her albums, I found myself playing it over and over again. I don't normally play any one album obsessively, thank god, but there are some that just bear immediate repeating when you first get them. Both of these fall into that category. I love her huge symphonic arrangements, juxtaposed with quirky, often subtly harsh lyrics and that odd little-girl voice. I have trouble listening to Kate Bush for more than a song or two in a row, but Sarah just treads the other side of the line so that I find her voice charming, rather than irritating. Kate Bush fans would probably like Sarah, though, as her handling of the musical form is equally impressive.
- Alina Simone: Prettier in the Dark.
Occasionally reminds me of Bjork, occasionally of Patti Smith. The harder edge of indie girl stuff.
- Califone: Heron King Blues, Quicksand/Cradlesnakes. Sorta Beck-meets-Jeff Beal, but also very much its own thing; languid instrumental layering; with banjo pickin'.
- English Guitar Quartet: Spanish Guitar Quartets.
- Fretwork: In Nomine.
- Heikki: Heikki 2. Fluffy Norwegian punk pop.
- The Impossible Shapes: Horus, We Like It Wild. Truly excellent stuff. Hard to find in a regular record store.
- Jay Bennett: Bigger Than Blue, The Beloved Enemy. I like some of his songs more than others, and his style is definitely not one I normally go for (kinda country-rock-folk), but I like his voice, and a few of his songs do resonate.
- Jets to Brazil: Four Cornered Night, Orange Rhyming Dictionary, Perfecting Lonliness. Found these guys using Pandora. I hear new things every time I listen to them.
- Konono: Congotronics. Gripping, raw, trance-like music; electric likembés equipped with hand-made microphones built from magnets salvaged from old car parts, and plugged into amplifiers; a rhythm section using traditional and makeshift percussion (pans, pots and car parts), three singers, three dancers and a sound system featuring megaphones.
- Ladysmith Black Mambazo: (self-titled)
- Lilys: Everything Wrong is Imaginary, Selected, Zero Population Growth. M. and I originally heard these guys on the CBC (either Definitely Not the Opera or Brave New Waves, can't remember which) - then spent several years wondering if we'd imagined it. Pandora came through again, popping them up in the midst of a slew of other tunes, and I went, hey! That's them! I like them alot, but for some reason the songs don't stick in my head as individual pieces, but more as just a fragment of a larger whole.
- The Microphones: The Glow Part 2.
Acoustic mix, generally quite mellow (straying into ambient).
- Modest Mouse: Sad Sappy Sucker, The Fruit That Ate Itself. Quirky and irreverent. I often think of picking up one of their CDs, but then I wonder if I could deal with listening to them for an entire album. They entertain me, but I could see excessive amounts of them becoming irritating. But then, I might be totally wrong.
- Mozart: Mass in C Minor, Clarinet & Bassoon Concertos. I always go back to the classics.
- Musica Antiqua of London: A SongBook for Isabella. Still getting to know this one.
- My Morning Jacket: Chocolate and Ice EP, The Tennessee Fire, Ch.2 Learning / Early Recording. Everything and the kitchen sink. M. has asked on occasion, when listening to a mixed MP3 CD, is that still the same band? After hearing several tracks in a row.
- Nedelle: From the Lion's Mouth. Sweet voice, feel-good music, lovely singing-with-yourself harmonies.
- Shudder to Think: Get Your Goat. More hard to define stuff.
- Silkworm: Even A Blind Chicken Finds a Kernel of Corn Now and Then, Firewater. Not a band to play for your grandmother. I have to be in the right mood to listen to some of their louder stuff, as it can stray into that teeth-shaking range that King Crimson often embraced. M. makes fun of me, saying I listen to way more "guy music" than he does. So I play him Nedelle or Sarah Slean for contrast; I do still like my indie girl CD's a lot too.
- Solas: Another Day, The Edge of Silence, The Hour Before Dawn. Often compared to Capercaillie, I get a similar vibe from them. Good, solid, Celtic fusion, drawing on trad and modern elements. Some very pretty songs, some great upbeat danceable tunes too.
- Troubled Hubble: Making Beds in a Burning House, Penturbia. Still getting to know these guys.
And in the category of still just checking out (or stuff my husband constantly plays that I can't help but listen to)...
... apples in stereo, anjali, benjamin diamond, bowling for soup (happy shiny candy music), brand new heavies, bowser and blue, built to spill, bowery electric, box car racer, better than ezra, buck 65, lazlo bane, frank black, buthole surfers, cold play, cocteau twins (I still say they sound like Abba), sheila chandra, dandy warhols, disposable heroes of hiphoprisy, disco biscuits, flaming lips, fleming and john, jeremiah freed, fountains of wayne (more tongue-in-cheek pop), guided by voices (they must have listened to The Who a lot when they were growing up), gorillaz (a virtual band that has performed live - really), greyboy allstars, gotan project, patti griffin, godsmack, gorky's zygotic mynci, , hooverphonic, Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens), jim's big ego, jimmy's ckicken shack, rilo kiley, kid loco (the king of sampling), king missle, king kooba, leo kottke & mike gordon, lit, lemonheads, lamya, lisa loeb, longwave, local h, lamb, lo fidelity allstars, magnolia electric company, maroon 5, maroon, mercury rev, mogwai, massive attack, m. ward, mxpx, neutral milk hotel, nerf herder, new radicals, opm, opeth, orbital, the odds, pixies, quasi, radiohead, reel big fish (a bunch of goofs and a horn section), rachael sage, remy zero, sebadoh, sloan, the sundays, spooks, the stone roses, st germain, spin doctors, smashing pumpkins, sublime, talk talk (they've done stuff since the 80's), transglobal underground, tv on the radio, undertones, ultra chilled, zed, zap moma
Top / CHP Home / T's Solo Harp Page
Alternative / Indy / Pop / Rock / Punk / New Wave / Grunge / Rap / Baroque PopRock / Misc. Fusion
Rheostatics, Sarah McLaughlin, The Beta Band, Counting Crows, Tracy Chapman, Indigo Girls, Natalie Merchant, Sinead O'Connor, Dead Can Dance, Spirit of the West, Bjork, Tori Amos, Beck, Barenaked Ladies, REM, Portishead, The Police, Sting, U2, The Pogues, Violent Femmes, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, The Cure, Nirvana, Dream Warriors, The Changelings, Crash Test Dummies, XTC (Skylarking), They Might Be Giants (spent one whole summer listening to Flood - Birdhouse in your soul, Istanbul, Particle Man - & I was hooked), Midnight Oil, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet, Moxy Fruvous (the early years, when they still had potential), Arrogant Worms (general silliness & inanity), Everclear (I know, their songs mostly sound the same, but it's feel good music)
… Also see "The Classics", and New & Cool
Progressive / TranceAmbient (also see New Age under Celtic/Folk below)
ELP, Jethro Tull, Ozrick Tentacles, Pink Floyd, Genesis (the early years), Moby, King Crimson, Porcupine Tree, Yes (mostly the stuff they did before 90215, and definitely not counting Owner of a Lonely Heart)
Popcorn (Good fluffy pop)
Men at Work, Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode (some would argue about this band being in this category; it seemed pretty dark at the time, but c'mon, we're talking the 80's), B52's, Human Radio (an anti-80's 80's band), Presidents of the United States of America... (there's way more that belongs here but I haven't gotten around to adding it yet - some of it is also under "New & Cool"
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The Classics (also see Jazz/Blues/Classical and General, below)
Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Santana, The Beach Boys, Neil Young, Dire Straits, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Carol King, The Doors, Bob Marley, The Grateful Dead, Eric Clapton, Janis Joplin, Elton John, CSNY, Rush, Queen, The Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf, CCR, Tom Petty, Van Morrison, The Band, Kurt Weil, John Lennon, The Steve Miller Band (&etc... you get the idea);
Mozart (one of my fav's), Beethoven, Bach, Handel, Holst, Tchaikowsky, Chopin, Vivaldi, Liszt, Elgar, (…the list goes on…)
… And all the stuff that seeped in despite itself, altering my perception and informing my idea of music whether I liked it or not, from such diverse sources as Leonard Cohen, Leadbelly, Stevie Wonder, Kate Bush, Iron Butterfly, The Byrds & The Kinks, to old-time country singers like Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash
Celtic / Folk / Acoustic / Progressive Folk / New Age
Rudiger Opperman, Afro-Celt Sound System, The Paperboys, Simon & Garfunkle, The Chieftains, Tannahill Weavers, Jez Lowe, Alain Stivelle, Allison Krauss, Natalie McMaster, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Silly Wizard, Anuna, Clannad, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, SteelEye Span, Kitaro, Mike Oldfield, Enya, J.M. Jarre, Enigma, Outback, Malicorne, Lothlorien, Ashley McIssac (the good early stuff that mixed trad and rock; before he thought he should sing on his albums), Loreena McKennit, Scartaglen; harpists like Grainne Yeats, Grainne Hambly, Emma Christian, Mary O'Hara & Alfredo Rolando Ortiz
… And all the old campfire and protest songs that were transmitted orally over the years (originally written by folks like Cat Stevens, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, the Weavers, Stephen Foster, Harry Chapin… you get the idea)
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Jazz / Blues / Big Band / Swing / Classical Musicians & Modern Composers (also see The Classics, above, and General, below)
Nina Simone, Nat King Cole, Miles Davis, the Marsalis brothers, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gilespie, Joni Mitchell, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Louis Armstrong, Glen Gould (I think maybe he was an alien), Scott Joplin, Glen Miller, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Oscar Peterson, Pat Metheny, Holly Cole, B.B. King, Ennio Morricone, Canadian Brass (you can do that with a tuba?), Gilbert & Sullivan (what can I say, I was crazy about musicals when I was a kid; thankfully that phase passed)
… And all the Classic Blues artists who recorded onto wax and vinyl, got paid next to nothing, and forever changed the way the world listened to music, like Robert Johnson, Bo Diddley, Muddy Waters, Blind Lemon
Single Songs / Soundtracks / Collections
These bands or musicians may not always spin my plate, but sometimes a particular song or album just makes you do a double take. The songs have a habit of sticking, and the soundtracks are the kind that bear re-listening.
Jeff Beal (did the soundtracks for Rome and Carnivale, two excellent and disturbing HBO series), Joan Osborne's "One of Us", The Devlins "Waiting", "Calling All Angels" (Siberry/Lang), Rheostatics' Whale Music, Music for Our Mother Ocean, Alternative NRG, Passengers; Soundtracks to: O Brother Where Art Thou, In the Name of the Father, Last Temptation of Christ (P. Gabriel), The Mission (E. Morricone), Until the End of the World, Chess, Bladerunner (Vangelis), The Blues Brothers, Twin Peaks, Due South, Northern Exposure, Romeo + Juliette
Early Music Composers & Performers / Singular Classical Works:
Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738), Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, Mozart's Requiem, Smetena's "The Moldau", Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" & "Night on Bald Mountain", Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite", Holst's "The Planets", The Baltimore Consort (for showing us how much fun early music can be), Vivaldi's "The Seasons", Satie's "Gymnopedies", Beethoven's "Emperor Concerto", Tchaikowsky's "The Nutcracker" (…and lots more)
… Also all the excellent monks who keep up the tradition of Gregorian Chant (even though the actual medieval chant may have been done quite differently), and all that cool traditional stuff that's been around absolutely forever in places like India, Hungary, Russia, and Buddhist monasteries around the world
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General:
- 12th - 13th Century music for plainchant and deceptively simple yet seriously spooky medieval harmonies
- 14th C. - early 15th C. for amazing vocal arrangements, and the Llibre Vermell
- 15th C. music for maddening polyphony and complex rhythms that make your brain leak out your ears (makes for a good musical workout)
- 16th C. music for the madrigals, which are good for keeping your sight-singing skills in shape and can have a wicked sense of humour (even if you are singing "hey nonny nonny" and "fa la la" an awful lot), and for great dance tunes
- Baroque and Elizabethan music, because you can feel really classy playing it even if you're in jeans and a T-shirt picking at an old acoustic guitar.
- Celtic music for reminding me that the oral tradition still lives and that music should primarily be fun and shared with others; and for introducing me to the magical Celtic languages (Gaelic, Welsh, Irish), and the traditional singing styles of Puirt-a-beul and Sean-nós
- 50's & 60's rock 'n' roll (Roy Orbison, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Chubby Checker, etc.), 60's & 70's soul & funk (get your groove on baby), & real old time gospel music (the kind that makes you want to jump to your feet and sway and clap your hands, even if you don't believe a word of that g*d stuff)
- All the classic musicals that I loved as a kid, both the stage and screen varieties
- And finally, all the music that I liked at some point and either can't stand now or roll my eyes whenever I hear it, stuff that was cool and is now cheesy, stuff that was brand new but got old really quickly. From Stan Rogers, The Go-Go's, Katrina and the Waves and James Galway to the ubiquitous 1980's bands and artists that surrounded me as I was struggling through school as a teen, to countless other songs pumped out over the airways via commercial radio stations across North America from 1972 to the present
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