Rock bands from A-Z: My list is better than yours

Wow... it's about time. After a near month-long hiatus, Kevin's Bacon is back. And back with a venegeance. But before we get into things, I should probably mention why I haven't written a post since June 10. Well, we'll start off with a little game of multiple choice. Take your best guess.

Why did Kevin not make a post in almost a month?

a) Needed emergency eye surgery after gouging them out watching another scoreless World Cup draw.

b) Accidentally swallowed a giant portion of bug spray ,and couldn't stop violently vomiting everywhere.

c) Found out that the Montreal Canadiens traded their goaltender who led them to within 3 wins of the Stanley Cup Final, and took a 3 week long walk trying to make sense of it all.

d) Couldn't think of an entertaining blog topic.


Answer: D) Yeah, it was that simple. I couldn't think of anything exciting or original to write about. Since my blog is mainly focused on sports, and we are entering the so-called "dog days' of sports, it's tough to post anything sports-related, unless you're a soccer fan or a CFL fan which I am not.

But then I remembered in one of the first posts ever on this blog, I promised to talk about music. And just like all my other promises, I failed to really do so. I made the rare post here and there about a few music topics but nothing special. I think it's time we did something about that, in a big-ass way.

Can you say 3000 words?

So sit back, relax and enjoy Kevin's favourite rock bands from A-Z.

First let's explore my musical history.

I grew up in a home where 92 CITI and Power 97 graced the radio at all times. So it's not like I had a choice. Most kids go through phases of different genres of music. For myself, it's been rock since kindergarten, although there was a brief period of time that involved country and Shania Twain but that's the last we'll speak of that.

My first band obsession was with the Guess Who. I discovered a tape in our old van, popped it in, and I looked like Evan from Superbad as I learned the lyrics to "These Eyes" and a number of other songs. And since Burton Cummings could play like the piano and keyboards like nobody else, I decided I was going to take up this instrument. But then the night of June 30, 2000 came around. The Guess Who at Canwest Global Park. My first concert that didn't involve Fred Penner, Raffi or Al Simmons. The band hit the stage despite a torrential downpour and played their hearts out to the hometown crowd. But it was one guy that stuck out to me. Not Burton but his fellow bandmate, guitarist Randy Bachman. He played the guitar like I had never seen. His solos were the highlights of each song the band played. Watching the vids on Youtube, I still get the chills. He even pulled out the cowbell stick during his extended American Woman solo.


It was the first virtuoso performance of any instrument that I had ever seen live and so without ever touching a piano, I decided that I was switching my choice of instrument to guitar. I was enrolled in lessons within 6 months and still play to this day.

So I've listened to rock extensively for the last 10 years or so and feel that the list you are about to read will make some sense. Here's how this is going to work. I will go through all 26 letters of the alphabet and pick my favourite band that begins with each letter. And if you don't agree, please don't hesitate to contact me in some way, where we can have a lengthy, and hopefully not violent, discussion about our differing choices.

26 letters, 26 bands, 1 crazed 19 year old. Let's do this.



A

Alice in Chains


Really, really tough decision to kick things off. But I should mention the way that I am narrowing down the bands is by using the classic "deserted island" method. You know how it goes. If you were on an island and had a choice of only one band that you could listen to for the rest of your life,who would it be? And since I would rather drown myself on the island than listen to the same AC/DC chords over and over again, I'll go with Alice in Chains. After they bounced back in 2009, with their first album since the death of former lead singer Layne Staley, they are still very prevalent on the rock music scene.

B

Black Sabbath

I have to apologize to my first guitar hero, Randy Bachman, and the band that he helped create after he left the Guess Who (BTO). But leaving a guy off this list who bit the head off of a bat????? That wouldn't be right. Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. They pretty much defined the term headbanging and riffs from 40 years ago still blast through the speakers and are still extremely heavy today.

C

Collective Soul

With my luck, October 12, 2009 featured 2 concerts in the city of Winnipeg. Collective Soul at the Burton Cummings Theatre, and a band that starts with an "M" a few blocks away at the MTS Centre who we will mention a bit later. Why in the hell did they have 2 notable concerts like this on the same day? So I had to miss Collective Soul, who are another one of those under-the-radar bands that should be getting a lot more attention than they actually do.

D

Doors

How crazy is Jim Morrison, lead singer of the Doors? How does whipping it out on stage and getting arrested for indecent exposure sound? Pretty insane. Morrison whipping it out is not the reason I am picking them as my favorite "D" band, but his portrayal as a frontman is a big part of it. He had the voice, the charisma, he had it all to be a frontman. The rest of the band stayed quietly in the back, Manzarek pounding away on the keyboards, Kreiger plucking away on the guitar, while Morrison went out night after night and stole the show. You didn't know what he was going to do next. And, if you're a concert-goer, don't you want to be entering the arena/stadium asking yourself, "This guy is crazy, I have absolutely no idea what he's going to do next, and I am extremely pumped to be here right now." How many frontmen allow you to ask yourself that question?

E

Eagles

Not too crazy about this letter, but I'll go with "The Eagles" for 2 reasons, 1) Joe Walsh and 2) that dueling guitar part during Hotel California that gives you chills everytime you hear it. Amazingly, they've been to Winnipeg twice in the last 18 months, which means one of two things when you're a world-famous band. They either really enjoyed the fabulous city of Winnipeg and couldn't wait to come back and play it again, or they needed a few extra bills in their pockets.

F

Foo Fighters

In 10 years time, they might have to devote a whole wing of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to Dave Grohl, lead singer of the Foo Fighters. Not only did he play drums for Nirvana, but he then turned around to front the Foo Fighters and has done countless side projects since. I still think this band is currently the best rock band that is still in their prime and we can expect one or two more classic albums.

G

The Guess Who

I talked about it earlier, but this Winnipeg band is pretty much the reason that I have any interest in rock music and guitar. Did I mention that Randy Bachman played the American Woman solo with a cowbell stick at the 2000 Winnipeg concert? Yeah, I know I already did, but this still amazes me to this day. Remember, this is before I discovered Hendrix and before I discovered that you could actually play guitar with something other than your fingers.

H

Heart

"Wait, they're girls?" I think that's what I said to my mom when I realized that the Wilson sisters were the heart and soul of this band, no pun intended. Nancy Wilson is a better guitar player than people realize and Ann Wilson proves that lead female singers in a rock band should have been used a lot more than they actually were.

I

Iron Maiden

I really don't care for Iron Maiden, but who else was I going to pick here. Incubus? Inxs? Not exactly a murderer's row of bands. I am probably one of few who thinks that "Run to the Hills" sounds EXTREMELY cheesy. Maybe it's Bruce Dickinson's screechy voice, maybe it's that god-awful guitar riff at the beginning that sounds like something a children's entertainer would write. They do have some other OK stuff though, and I'll have to settle with selecting them.

J

Jimi Hendrix Experience

So I was getting ready to plug the crap out of local band Jack Straight, who I am good friends with, and then I realized "Oh no, I forgot about the greatest guitar player of all-time". I'm talking Jimi Hendrix and his trio "The Jimi Hendrix Experience."

Remember those NHL commercials they ran during the playoffs that asked the "What if?" this historic moment never occurred. Well if they had these ads for rock music, one of the first commercials run should ask the question, "What if Hendrix didn't choke on his own vomit"? And I'm dead serious, because it really would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Hendrix had lived longer. The guy did so much new stuff with the guitar (first guy to use feedback, made wah-wah pedal popular, emphasis on overdrive) that he was already a legend. And he did that in only 5 years of fame and popularity. If he had a minimum of 10 more years, who knows how much more he would have discovered? What if Hendrix lived through the '70's? How would this have affected the rock music scene? What would he have done in response to the disco craze of the late '70's?

K

Killswitch Engage

In the last year or so, I have listened to this band more and more and because of the weak selection of bands in the "K" spot, I'll take them. I've always stood by the fact that I would never listen to death metal, because it's too messed up for my liking. Then I started listening to these guys thinking they were death metal and realized, "Hey, this isn't actually that bad." But apparently they are defined as the genre "metalcore" which I have actually never heard of until I just researched it like 10 seconds ago. So technically they are NOT death metal, and I still stand by my statement that death metal is messed up.

L

Led Zeppelin

They are the greatest rock band of all time. Not the Beatles. Not the Rolling Stones. This doesn't mean that they're my favourite band of all-time( scroll down to the letter "M") but when you have this much talent in one band, it must be recognized. This is like putting Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Henrik Sedin and Ryan Miller on the same team in the NHL. Or like putting Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the same team in the NBA( amazingly, this might actually happen in the next week or two). In this case, it is Plant, Page, Bonham, Jones. It is the best of the best together as one. This can only produce amazing results.

M

Metallica

To prevent myself from going off on a 1000 word tangent, I'll quickly say this. It was Winter of 2005, Grade 8. I discovered the album "Master of Puppets". My world changed. James Hetfield is my musical hero. He is the only one cool enough to grow his beard long enough and get mistaken for a terrorist in a London Airport. He writes the riffs, he writes the lyrics and sings them out in the coolest of ways and he is the reason that this band is where they are today. And unless it comes out that Metallica pulled a Milli Vanilli and never wrote any of their music, they will ALWAYS be my favourite band.

N

Nirvana

Despite Kurt Cobain's less-than-stellar voice, Nirvana still has a couple of epics in their repertoire that are hard to ignore. And as long as I have a few Advils by my side to cure my throbbing headache from Cobain, I'll be ok when turning on Nirvana.

O

Our Lady Peace

Another voice that makes nails scratching on a chalkboard sound good. Raine Maida has a voice that reminds me of a 6- year old wining because his parents wouldn't buy him a Nintendo 64. Oh wait, that 6 year old was me. But again, sometimes you have to look past the annoying vocalist and OLP is a good example of that.

P

Pink Floyd

They are the only band that has made me turn my head in fear thinking that there is someone behind me waiting to chop my head off. This is what happens when you listen to "Dark Side of the Moon" at 2 AM and try to walk home after. This is what happens when you listen to "Welcome to the Machine"driving down a pitch black highway at 11 pm. Pink Floyd scares the crap out of me but I keep coming back for more. They are the innovators of progressive rock, and without them, there would be no Rush, Tool, among others. And is there a guitarist more underrated than David Gilmour? He is never brought up in conversations of the greats, but listening to albums like " Animals", "Wish You Were Here", and "The Wall" sure make a strong case for Gilmour as a kick-ass guitarist.


Q

Queen

It was either Queen or Queens of the Stone Age for this one. And despite Queen having a lot of weird and cheesy crap, they have some REALLY good stuff as well, and they get my vote. There's solid stuff like "Tie Your Mother Down", "Ogre Battle", "Fat Bottomed Girls" , ... and then there's stuff like "Somebody to Love", "You're my Best Friend", and "Bicycle Race", which really gets my cheesy meter going.

R

Rush

So let me get something straight here. One of the top 3 drummers of all-time, one of the top 5 bassists of all time, millions of records sold, worldwide notoriety, yet no spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This is what happens when you write songs the way you want, instead of writing what the critics want to hear. Rush has done this their entire career.

Quick side note, I was able to tour the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland back in the summer of '05 and the one thing I will always remember is the massive amount of acts inducted into the hall of fame that have BARELY ANYTHING TO DO WITH ROCK MUSIC. Rock legends like the Jackson 5, Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff, ABBA, Run DMC, Madonna. What the hell is going on here? Can someone give me a definition of rock music? Needless to say, I was less than impressed.

S

Soundgarden

I went through a grunge phase where Soundgarden was at the top of the playlist for a while. "Superunknown" is one of the greatest grunge albums of all time and I don't think it's a stretch to say that they are the greatest grunge band from 1991-1994 when there many other good ones. But I beg you, please don't listen to any of the live stuff that Soundgarden has done since they recently reunited. Chris Cornell does not sound good. Don't say I didn't warn you.

T

The Tragically Hip

It really is tragic (again, no pun intended) the respect that this band has gotten. Outside of this country, they are virtually unknown. I've heard the argument that they sound too Canadian, which I will never understand as long as I live. But the truth is that this is the best rock band to ever come out of the country of Canada. You know you're Canadian when you're writing songs about Bill Barilko, David Milgaard, Terry Fox, The 72 Canada/Russia series, The 100th meridian where the great plains begin, Bobcaygeon, Thompson, Toronto, and Dark Canucks. It's almost like they're saying to the critics, "Yeah, we're Canadian, so F---ing what?" How can we not be proud of these guys?

Bonus: The best music video of all time



U

U2

As much as I can't stand Bono, who thinks he can save the world by himself, they were my favourite band for a BRIEF period of time in 2001 after they released their album "All That You Can't Leave Behind", which I listened to countless times on 2.5 hour drives to the cottage. Before they got all goofy with their ZOO TV stuff in the mid '90s, there is some really solid '80s stuff that they came out with. Unfortunately, their last few albums have been mediocre and it appears that their reign is over. One last comment directed to the Edge, U2's guitarist. Hey Edge, we know you're bald, so just take off your little toque already.

V

Van Halen

With Eddie Van Halen intoducing the world to guitar tapping, this band released some rock anthems from 1977-1984 with song titles that involved running, jumping, rocking, dancing, crying, talking. These verbs are all something that frontman David Lee Roth could do extremely well, and he showed it on stage, but then he left the band and was replaced with Sammy Hagar marking the unofficial end of the great Van Halen days. Their lone Hagar highlight.... releasing an album entitled F.U.C.K in 1991.


W

The Who

I have always said that seeing this band with their original lineup in their prime might just be the greatest concert ever not just for how good they played the music, but for what they were doing as they were playing it. Windmills, smashing guitars, exploding drum kits, swinging microphones. I saw them in '06 with Daltrey and Townsend and, even in their 60's, they put on a memorable show. Everyone shit on them when they played halftime of this year's Super Bowl, but their performance was probably the 2nd best in Super Bowl History next to Janet Jackson's in 2004....

X

XYZ

Apparently, there's some band from the 80's named "XYZ" who I have never even heard before but I'll put them on this list anyways. I surely thought there would be a band named "The X-Ray's" but apparently no such band exists.

Y

Yes

You want to hear some crazy prog rock? Listen to some YES right now and forever be amazed. I said earlier that Pink Floyd were the gods of the genre but on second thought, we might have co-gods of prog rock.

Z

ZZ Top

The final letter on this list features the 2 guys with beards, and the one guy named Beard who doesn't actually have a beard. Straight-forward, hard rock, nothing too complicated about it. But as we've learned, the critics like straight forward stuff.

Wow, was that as fun for me as it was for you? I’m seriously contemplating doing this A-Z list for other topics as well. As for this blog, I’ll be making weekly updates for sure, none of this once-a-month shit, and this will include a certain golf project beginning in a few weeks which some of you may know about already. Stay tuned.