Little River Band

Foreigner

Bruce's E Street Band

Nils Lofgren

Clay Crosse

Billy Idol

Al Stewart

The Cars

Anyway here's some I listen to an awful lot for different reasons (in no particular order):

 

 

The Cranberries because Dolores O'Riordan was smoking hot and this is great music to work out to;

 

 

Concrete Blonde because Johnette Napolitano was smoking hot and has one of the greatest rock voices ever, and because her songs about people she's known are one of the reasons why music matters ("Joey", "Caroline", "Tomorrow, Wendy", "Song for Kim", "Jenny (I Read)", "Maria Elena");

 

 

Heart because the Wilson sisters were smoking hot (seems to be a trend here) and because I became a man with a backdrop of "Crazy on You" and "Magic Man" ;

 

 

CSN because Stephen Stills was smoking hot (nah, just kidding ).  Seriously, who the hell before or since has been able to put together multipart harmonies like these guys?  And socially-relevant lyrics for at least two generations;

 

 

Alda Reserve.  Really obscure, although I bet you've seen their one album in a cutout bin somewhere if you are even a remotely serious music collector.  Issued on vinyl only in 1979 (Sire Records), these guys were the perfect marriage of post-punk, new wave and cheesy digital keyboards.  Disappeared almost immediately, but thirty years later I still play this record at least once a month or so;

 

 

Cowboy Junkies are an acquired taste, but 'Whites Off Earth Now!' and 'the Trinity Session' were two of the most stunningly original country-rock records released in the 80s.  Plus the best cover of "Sweet Jane" I have ever heard;

 

 

R.E.M.  'Chronic Town' changed what I thought was possible with music; 'Murmur' and 'Reckoning' would be on my list of 100 greatest albums ever;

 

 

Violent Femmes really only made one great album (their first in 1983), but all ten tracks on it were instant classics.  I saw these guys in 2007 and they still put on an awesome show;

 

 

Beat Circus.  One of the very few bands me and three of my sons all enjoy, which means these guys span more than 35 year's worth of musical taste.  I know that Paran Amirinazari plays in a symphony orchestra so it's a given that she's good at what she does; still, her violin playing on this album gives me chills every time I hear it.  And Brian Carpenter ranks up there with Colin Meloy among the post-Dylan generation of great American songwriters.

 

 

 

No particular order:

1. Bang On A Can

2. Lee Press-On And The Nails

3. The Industrial Jazz Group

4. Steve Reich

5. Sun Ra

6. They Might Be Giants

7. Weird Al

8. Cherry Poppin' Daddies

9. Ahab