Goodtunes discussion

Can you think of an artist who doesn't fit into any one genre, because he or she/they change their styles and are so eclectic?

Though most people place The Damned as a Punk band, they actually shift style so easily that they are beyond definition.

I thought of another hard to classify artists, Neko Case.

I kept getting recommendations for her, and then I saw her listed as country. I don't like country music, so I was curious why I got the recommendation. I broke down and bought her CD. I don't think it's country. I'd call it alternative music, although her voice has a clarity and a style that reminds me of Patsy Cline. Anyone a fan of Neko Case?

Patti Rothberg most definatly. She was famous back in the nineties for a song called "Inside" (very good) on her album Between the 1 and the 9 (standing for the subway lines she played between. Yeah, she got picked up by a record label in the subway) But EMI's U.S. branch was abruptly discontinued and she lost her deal. In 2001 she put out Candleabra Cadabra, which was a pretty good album. Then came Double Standards in 2008, which I got an autographed copy of (myspace truly can be amazing). Patti will be putting out another album this year I beleive. Check out her page on myspace or Patti Rothberg.com.

The Stray Cats I don't know if their genre-less, thanks for the word Eugenia, but they go in several groups of music. Rock, Jazz, Rockabilly, I hate that they broke up. Now the ex leader is solo, has been for years, Brian Setzer, awesome guitarist, singer, and song writer.
http://www.lala.com/#artist/Brian_Setzer
Jump, Jive, An'Wail

Nah, the Cats were exclusively Rockabilly in their beginning days. Setzer himself is genreless, but in the Cats time, they were adamant that they were a Rockabilly trio and got offended when anybody would classify them as anything BUT true, blue, honest to God Rockabilly.

They started to step a little bit away from Rockabilly for the ROCK THERAPY album, but that was more due to their getting sick of working with each other and trying to find new things. They split right after that for a few years and Setzer went off and did his two solo albums and Lee Rocker and Slim Jim formed Phantom, Rocker and Slick with Earl Slick. This also came about because Lee Rocker wanted to play an electric bass again and Slim Jim wanted to sit behind a full kit again.

When the Cats did reform again for the "Blast Off" release they were back to full on Rockabilly.

By the time they did the "Choo Choo Hot Fish" album though they were back to obviously being tired of each other and/or wanting to prove themselves as something else, as that album is a hybrid of Rockabilly and...who knows what else. LOL! That album more than any other was a REAL updating of their style. Some of it worked, some of it didn't.

Setzer though is completely his own genre. Pure Rockabilly, Full tilt RnR, Country (true Country), Jazz, Big Band, and on his "Wolfgang Steps Out" album with his Orchestra he even dabbles a bit in full on Heavy Metal style guitar playing during one of his solos!

Sorry for the rant, Brian Setzer is pretty much my idea of God and is my favorite guitarist. I damn near worship the guy. :)

Oh, and Setzer is solo, but not. He has the Orchestra, the Trio, the Nashvillains, his solo albums, and he still does shows every now and then with the Cats, but they have kind of decided to put them to bed again.

That's quite alright Carl. LOL You still the man! I do like Brian very much, but he's not my rock god. I knew they had their ups and downs, but not that many. I love to hear him playing with the Orchestra.

Brian is flippin' brilliant. Funny thing about him is that everybody notices the guitar playing, but he also has an amazing voice.

I like his voice, doesn't he sing all the Stray Cats stuff? I haven't seen any videos with him in them in a while. Does he still play a big guitar? I can't remember the name of it, but it looked huge.

Here's Brian in recent years. I think this is from around 2006 during a break in one of the Orchestra shows.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-ZB-S...

Here he is with the full Orchestra:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOabXK...

A little "gossipy" type of stuff for folks: The blond back-up singer is Mrs. Brian Setzer.

Those are fing awesome, Thanks Carl! It's great to see he still looks the same, which is good. All that blonde hair, I wonder how he keeps it. And he still plays the same kind of guitar, who knows it might be the same one from back in the day. I dare anyone not to feel good arter hearing him play.

The Gretsch 6120 he used back in the days of the Cats has actually been retired. He still has it, but it stays at home. When on the road, he actually only uses re-issue guitars and won't bring any of his actual vintage guitars with him anymore. But for recording purposes, he usually only uses his vintage and best guitars.

Have I mentioned I am a Brian Setzer fanatic?

Hey it's all good! I'm a Queensryche fanatic! If you weren't how would I learn anything else about a great musician? :)

I saw his interview with guitar player in the....oh what issue was it.... Either Holiday or February. Anyway, he had this awesome green Gretsch.

My second husband played bass & guitar, so we always had those mags laying around the house. But since I put him out like the trash, I haven't looked at one. OMG it's been 12 years.

When Grace started, wasn't she considered at the time "New Wave"? My sister loved her at first. She loved her look. Incredibly attractive, yet so...unique and almost scary in her intensity.

I think that is what helped her so much at the time, she was beyond ALL classification. She was just "Grace Jones". Nobody else was even close to her originality.

Could one ever classify Yoko Ono? (as music I mean)?

How about Talking Heads and or David Byrne?

I always wonder where to put Chris Isaak, he is not country, he is not pop, he is not classic or crooner. I would just like to put him

in my pocket.

I think Yoko Ono deserves a class of her own...

Yoko Ono deserves.....I'm not going to go there.

Guitar Chick-Headbanger wrote: "Yoko Ono deserves.....I'm not going to go there."

me neither

lol

I'm a Conan The Barbarian freak, and the first time I seen Grace was in Conan. I was in awe of this tall ebony woman. Up to that point, I hadn't seen her anywhere else, till Boomerang. Now if you saw this movie you may not remember much about it, but I know there is no way anyone forgot Grace's part in it. When she threw her leg up on the table, and told Eddie to look at her "cat" I almost fell out of my seat laughing. Funny stuff! But I think Grace Jones would fall under the category of Shock Rock. Because she loves to shock people.

Muse is hard to classify. I say alternative rock, but it isn't really.

Bjork is a bit everywhere.

Bjork is definitely unique.

She's my favorite Icelandic singer!!! Wonder what she is doing to help ease the volcano situation?

How about Laurie Anderson? Remember her video where her mouth was like the refrigerator, the light came on when whe opened it?

I never really got Laurie Anderson. I guess that was the point. :)

I think she had one song that I kinda liked, I guess she was more of a performance artist?

I have heard her called a performance artist, as well.