Favorite Bands (artists) and influences

Hello fellow musicians, this is a thread angled to get to know one another a little better. As we know we share a common interest, being a love for music. I thought it would be nice to list our favorite bands, artist and influences. Yes we could always express this in our BIOS but here we can also include any links to your favorites. Another benefit from this would be that perhaps a wikilooper would be able to give an example of the sound he or she would like to achieve on a particular jam or turn others on to new music. I myself would be interested in knowing what made you want to master your instrument of choice. So go ahead with no limitations share with us. :)

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Edited by PeterVeillon on February 15 2013 03:13

Here is my list ---
It's in order of most favorite -
Allen / Lande (Russell Allen & Jorn Lande),
He Is Legend,
Karnivool,
The Classic Crime,
The Reign Of Kindo,
Atreyu,
Silverchair,
Katatonia,
Delain,
Thrice,
Dinosaur Pile-Up,
Dance Gavin Dance,
Four Year Strong,
Fightstar,
Bury Your Dead,
The End,
Dead And Divine,
Red,
Pendulum,
Tides Of Man,
Pierce The Veil,
Muse,
Young Guns,
The Rasmus,
TesseracT,
I the Mighty,
Conditions

And below is some bands I've found only recently I really am getting into -

I Was a Cub Scout
Proceed
Dananananaykroyd
Cartel
Bloom
Trial Kennedy

Now for the top tracks for the past 6 months --

He Is Legend – Don't Touch That Dial

He Is Legend – Stranger Danger

He Is Legend – Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

He Is Legend – Everyone I Know Has Fangs

He Is Legend – Party Time!

Young Guns – Bones

Pierce The Veil – King For A Day (feat. Kellin Quinn)

He Is Legend – Mean Shadows

After Midnight Project – Take Me Home

Nural – The Hits Keep Coming

He Is Legend – Cult Of She

Pierce The Veil – Bulletproof Love

He Is Legend – Dicephalous

Katatonia – The Parting

Katatonia – The One You Are Looking for Is Not Here

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Edited by Tenche on February 15 2013 14:53

Nice idea Peter! Wow, I just remember loving music ever since I was little. I had an older brother that listened to music from the 60's (classic rock now) and I grew up in the 80's. I love pretty much all kinds of music for different reasons. I like the sound of the Beatles, Mama's and the Papa's, (and the like), then we jump to the Door's and Pink Floyd (and the like)then 80's pop, my favorite from this time would be alternative music from bands like Depeche Mode, Psychedelic Furs, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure, The Cranberries, Til Tuesday (and the like). My brother got me into some punk but that never stuck with me:)I love Jazz, the saxophone is an awesome instrument, wish I could play it. I like Sade, her voice is amazing! I normally don't like female singers for some reason but she is great! I've been really getting into country lately also. Luke Bryan, Taylor Swift (and the like). I really have fun with club music, I love to dance!! I love the stations that come out of Baltimore for that. What I enjoy singing the most is worship music now. Because of where my life has taken me that is the music that comes from my heart!! I just love Hillsong United,The Desperation Band, Casting Crowns etc. My dream was to always be in a band and travel, that sounds like it would be so much fun! Never got to do that tho:( BUT, here I get to do it!!! there are so many talented people here that I can work with that this is better....and I don't have to leave my family to do it. Growing up I always wanted to play an instrument but was never allowed. If I learned something now I think it would be the piano and guitar. I would someday love to be a worship leader at my church!!! Well, that gives a little insight into me. There still is classical music and some opera music that is out there that I like but I don't do so much of that:) Big Swing Bands are found on my Pandora account also:) I think that's it!!!

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Ok here's my list in no particular order:
Black Sabbath
Led Zepplin
The Beatles
Joe Walsh
Thin Lizzy
Dick Dale
Heart
Iron Butterfly
Pinkfloyd
Van Halen
Alice Cooper
CCR
Jethro Tull
Uriah Heep
The Police
Rush
Santana
Jimmy Hendrix
Queen
Johnny Cash
Willie Nelson
Fleetwood mac
Crosby Stills Nash and Young
Cat Stevens
Deep Purple
Brian Setzer
Reverend Horton Heat
Soul Coughing
Mogwai
Primus
Buckethead
The Butthole Surfers
The Smashing Pumpkins
Soundgarden
Stone Temple Pilots
Nirvana
The Melvins
Alice in Chains
Mark Lanegan
Queens of the Stoneage
10 minute warning
Slash
Toadies
Black Flag
Silverchair
System Of A Down
The Mars Volta
At the Drive in
Joe Satriani
Steve Vai
John Petruci
Paul Gilbert
Orianthi
Marty Friedman
Incubus
Megadeth
Metallica
Jerry Cantrel
Iron Maiden
King Diamond
The lord weird slough feg
Hammers of misfortune
The sword
TYR
Dragonforce
Transiberian Orchestra
Various classical music
Skyclad
Sepultura
Various rockabilly music from the 50s

I'm sure I left out a ton but that's a big enough list I think :)
I remember the first rock song I heard at age three was Fleetwood macs song Oh Well performed live. The first thing I remember at age four that made me want to learn guitar was watching Jimmy Page on tv with my dad. My dad was a Joe Walsh fanactic and he taught me some simple songs. When my dad was 18 he wrote a song for Steppen Wolf in which the used it but I can't remember the name since it wasn't a big hit of theirs. My dad had a huge record collection of classic rock bands and some beethoven. I listened to them compulsively and when I became a teen I fell into the grunge era until an older neighborhood kid, the kind of kid your parents warn you about turned me on to Heavy Metal. He taught me some Metallica songs and I was hooked. In my twenties already have been in a few garage bands I started a new band called Solar Plexus and started hitting the local music scene in San Diego
Had some good times and tried other bands as well. Life wasnt complete until I met my wife Shela and had three awesome kids and hope to pass my guitar on to them. Now I play for my Church, my wifes musical family, and wikiloops. I get to see my all time Favorite band Slough Feg play in San Francisco from time to time. They still rock and are they nicest guys around even though I tend to be star struck around them. :)

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Edited by PeterVeillon on February 16 2013 04:07

Oh hell yeah, The Sword is awesome!! Grunge was the doorway into metal for me too :P

To be honest, I can't stand 75% of those bands though. Like, I find Metallica boring musically and vocally.

Peter, check out this song! http://youtu.be/Zc2-Wd55dtw

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Edited by Tenche on February 16 2013 15:12

I know what you mean about Metallica. I listed the because when I was a teen that's how I got introduced into metal. As you can see as I got older I moved away from the maintsreams bands. When I became old enough to get into bars and clubs is when I became a big supporter of local bands and thanks to the internet I can't stand to listen to our radio station in the valley or watch the grammys. That's why wikiloops is awesome, because of the homegrown music and lack of corporate watered down product.

OK, you metal people... lemme tell you where I come from...
Sad but true, I didnt know ONE of the bands Tenche named there... I have come quite a long way shaping my musical taste (or whats left of that), let me share some of my stations...

My dads a big Blues lover, who took me to live concerts as long as I can think. Thanks dad! If you have kids: make sure they see a lot of live bands!

While I loved Simon & Garfunkel as a kid,
my first self bought tape was an AC/DC live album :)
As a teen, I heard everything from Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and that kind of stuff,
never went much harder than rage against the machine, biohazard and life of agony...
I listened to Stings The Police a long time and had my phase in Bad Religion and other punk bands.
on the lighter side of things, I do enjoy the spin doctors (underrated because of their one hit), Jamiroquai (live! wow!), Keziah Jones and some Beasty Boys... I did like some of Ice-Ts early projects, too. Sublime & Manu Chao... yeah, I like that too
The older I get, the more I dig into kind of complicated music, I had my share of Zappa, I am a big fan of King Crimson (saw em live as well...) and I can get blown by watching a marcus miller concert anytime. Currently, I'm in love with Manu Katches latest record. People say its Jazz, I dont care what it is, these guys are playing with a lot of feeling and groove like hell.
I know this is a pretty wide mix, and I am sure I missed some really important influences, but I guess you will find some of that in mine and MrSnuts tracks :)

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As always i have been going against the grain. As a kid i listened to Harry Belafonte and a lot of classical stuff. Pop was just boring..
In highscool the first record i bought for my self earned money was "Wednesday morning 3am" with Simon and Garfunkel.
So instead of listing influences far too numerous to mention i list some of the best live acts i have seen:

Tommy Emmanuel, just one man and a guitar spellbinding about everyone.
Laurie Anderson.
Peter Gabriel
Magma
Buddy Guy.

And of course: Rammstein

And one group i really like too see: Tinariwen

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Nice Nilton. Me too, on the classical stuff.

Now, Dick! I can get down with some Rage Against the Machine. Nirvana too. Everything else you said I've never listened to though. lol

I have been influenced by the crossover stuff in the nineties. You know, 'Dog Eat Dog', or 'H-Blockx'.
Later I got into heavier stuff with 'koRn'.
After that I fell in love with metalcore, especially through 'Poison the well', and stay with that till today.
But there have been many break-outs where I listened to slightly or completely different stuff. Two of my favourite bands were 'Dredg' and 'At the drive-in'.
And currently I even listen to electronic stuff.

But to make it short. I love melodies and (tricky) rhythmic stuff. So the artists I like the most now are 'This or the apocalypse'.
Their song 'Americans' pretty much nails that: [url]http://youtu.be/hRBsP91lRxs[/url]

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Hmmmm. Influences are often different from what I like to listen to on the radio etc. Here's 1/10 th of my list.

Led Zeppelin
Stone Temple Pilots
Velvet Revolver
The Tea Party ( The Canadian band, not the political group )
Neil Young ( Canadian )
The Beatles
The Tragically Hip ( Canadian )
5440 ( Canadian )
Stompin' Tom Connors ( Canadian - RIP - recently passed away )
Foo Fighters
Audioslave
Big Sugar ( Canadian )
Rainbow Butt Monkeys - turned into Finger Eleven ( Canadian )
Old Van Halen
AC/DC

ohhh and the goat noises that guy dubs into Youtube videos.
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfpL6_0OBuA[/url]

:)
- Slim

I really don`t know what or wich band gives me
influences but I can tell you, each kind of music
that let me feel a little bit better get`s a place
in my media player :)
For example:
Eric Clapton
Johnny Winter
Rolling Stones
Bad Religion
Sexpistols
Smokie
Beatles
Pink Floyd
Guns` n roses
Metallica
Megadeth
Ac/DC
Thin Lizzy
Rory Gallagher
Alvin Lee
Van Halen
Chuck Berry
Ramones
Carpenters
and much more from the unknown section...
And last but not least
Jimi Hendrix an the experience
Greetings from
Kermit

Hey Guys!

Influenced by my father, i originally came from the "classic rock" stuff, too... especially bands like: Queen, Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, Eagles, Whitesnake, Led Zeppelin.

...i was introduced to jazz in my piano lessons, where i learned to play some standards and other classics. I liked that, but i must say, there was no real passion into it in those days.

As i was 19, i started to play bass in a band, i was totally keen of the Chili Peppers at that time and i almost know every song of them. ;) Later on, especially some jam sessions in local clubs brought me to fusion jazz bands... Chick Corea, Billy Cobham, Jeff Beck. By now, almost all my friends are absolute jazz fanatics :D I myself still like much of the stuff of the bands i named above. I think, i'm open to many kinds of music which is well made. I also like Drum&Bass and some other electronic music. Imo, there is much potential for further development in this genre.

Now a small list of my favorites including album recommendations: :)
The Aristocrats - Boing we'll do it live
Ayreon - Into the Electric Castle
Bill Evans - Soulgrass
Billy Cobham - Palindrome | Live at Montreux 1976
Chick Corea - The Chick Corea Elektric Band | + Live at Montreux
Ciro Manna - Feel n'Groove
D'Angelo - Brown Sugar
Esperanza Spalding - Radio Music Society
Gary Willis - Retro
George Duke - I Love The Blues, She Heard My Cry
Guthrie Govan - Erotic Cakes
Jaco Pastorius - Live in New York Concerts 1-7 | Shadows and Light (with Jonni Mitchell)
James Farm - James Farm (with Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks et al)
Jamiroquai - Traveling without Moving
Jeff Beck - Live at Ronnie Scott's
Joshua Redman - Momentum
Kevin Chown - Freudian Slip
Kollektiv - Kollektiv feat. Jonas Hellborg
Kornet - III Sweden Tachika
Larry Coryell + the 11th house - At Montreux
McCoy Tyner - The Real McCoy
Miles Davis - Tutu (+ everything else he did ;-) )
Nils Lofgren - Acoustic live
Oscar Peterson - Night Train
Pat Metheny - Offramp
Richard Bona - Spaces Revisited (with Larry Coryell) | Scenes From My Life
Steps Ahead - Live at North Sea Jazz
Tal Wilkenfeld - Transformation (with Keith Carlock + Wayne Krantz)
Tribal Tech - Illicit

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Edited by issiro on April 01 2013 01:28

Hi Guys here is my list, love loads of the stuff many of you named above, especially Slim and Pete's. Played bass since about 18 (late starter), loved the free festival scene in the 80s and 90s, started with Stonehenge free festival and it turned out into a regular pilgrimage for a couple of weeks for about 4yrs, then Glastonbury. Played with bands and love to jam with anyone who's up for it. My influences as a bass player are,

Jean Jaques Burnel (The Stranglers)[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=si2kis6lWRg[/url]
Danny Thompson (John Martyn)[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPuI7WKSnU0[/url]
Aston Barret (The Wailers)[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmRHMzxEojs[/url]
Tal Winkenfeld (solo and Jeff Beck)[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drAv2FoYji8[/url]
Jah Wobble (Jah Wobble, Pill)[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89EtGjU0qgU[/url]
Joseph Lucky Scott (Curtis Mayfield)[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JJlG6-AFAM[/url]
Bruce Foxton (The Jam)[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf4EFDGP4yg[/url]
Gary 'Mani' Mounfield (The Stone Roses) [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jmR9F12CVIM[/url]

This could go on forever :)

Love blues music especially Stevie Ray Vaughan, love Motown/Soul, Punk was my era and loved loads of bands especially Stiff Little Fingers/Pistols e.t.c. Love Nitin Sawney, I have a massive love of many different styles of music and artists, basically my rule is if it makes my hair stand on end, especially live its great by me. I am an ageing Punk and a bit of a hippy as well crossed with a reggae loving soul man who really likes blues, jazz and world music. Oh and mustn't forget Van Morrison. :D

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I'm a person who searches for beauty in all music genres:)
But my preferences seem to be for melancholic or raw music.

Band I love are:
The national
Radiohead
The editors
Interpol
Depeche mode
Led zeppelin
Pink Floyd
Nine inch nails
Deftones
The mars Volta
The black keys
Marcus miller
Dillinger escape plan
So I watch you from afar
TooL
The rolling stones
The weakerthans

But also non rock band like:
Portishead
Massive attack
Burial
Fatboy slim


My biggest influences to pick up the bass were:
Chi Cheng
Matt Freeman
John Paul jones
Justin chanceller
Fat mike
Larry Graham

Marvin Gaye isolated vocal track "Heard it through the Grapevine"

[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87FjkqtK67o[/url]

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Edited by JanSimone on July 24 2013 08:22

I like much of the music mentioned so far except the metal. I love Blues, as in Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and of course Jimi Hendrix. I also love 80s synth pop such as The Human League, Depeche Mode and Men Without Hats. Never really liked AC/DC.

And my two favourite bands: Steam Powered Giraffe [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQWY-JOhF2I[/url]
and Major Powers and the Lo-Fi Symphony
[url]http://www.lofisymphony.com/[/url]

As everyone probably already knows by my uploads I play and live the Blues. Some of My favorites listed here:
Roscoe Beck,
Duck Dunn,
Tommy Shannon
Robert Johnson
Berry Oakley
Roger Glover
Leland Sklar
Roger Waters
Jack Bruce
Geezer Butler
Willie Dixon
Ransom Knowling
Larry Taylor
Big Crawford
Ronnie James
Keith Ferguson
Pino Palladino
Berry Oakley
Rod Hicks
Freebo
Jerome Arnold
Howlin' Wolf
Harvey Brooks
Berry Oakley
BB King
Robert Johnson
Muddy Waters
Blind Blake
John Lee Hooker
Big Bill Broonzy
Mississippi John Hurt
Just to name a few. Favorite movies Blues Brothers 1 and 2 and Crossroads.
Favorite blues songs The thrill is gone,
10. Blind Willie McTell - You Got to Die

9. Sonny Boy Williamson - Down Child

8. John Lee Hooker - Boogie Chillen'

7. Howlin' Wolf - How Many More Years

6. Muddy Waters - Rollin' Stone

5. Robert Johnson - Traveling Riverside Blues

4. Bukka White - Shake 'Em on Down

3. Son House - Death Letter

2. Skip James - Devil Got My Woman :|

1. Blind Willie Johnson - Dark Was The Night - Cold Was The Ground ;)

Wow...where do I start??? In no particular order:

The Doors
Mick Karn (Japan) - check out the fretless playing on "Cantonese Boy" to see why.
Jaco (of course)
Ozric Tentacles
Sly & Robbie
Gregory Isaacs
Aswad
Marcus Miller
Stanley Clarke
Victor Wooten
Paul Weller (The Jam/Style Council)
Jamiriquai
Lettuce
Parliament
Everything but the girl (Tracey Thorn...what a voice)
60s soul
80s funk
90s Rave
Female vocal

The list, though NOT endless, is extensive...