5 Bands - Vinyl Vol. 1: Album Cover Art
by Cary Christopher
October 2008

After over a year of doing this column, I’ve finally taken a clue from Mike Carvalho’s Midway series.  I’m going to talk to you about some of my personal musical obsessions and the majority of them come in the form of vinyl.

Don’t worry.  We’re not even going to touch the question of whether pristine virgin vinyl sounds better than a compact disc.  See, my hearing is basically fucked.  I spent many years in front of amplifiers both on stage and off without wearing hearing protection.  Thus, I do have some small hearing loss so the fucking record could be pristine and I couldn’t tell the difference between that and a freshly pressed CD.

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5 Bands V.15 – My Five Favorite Death Songs
by Cary Christopher
July 2008

Death. That's... pretty final...

In fact, it's a subject many people don't want to talk about, read about or experience at all in any way, shape or form. I've always been fascinated by it though. Not in a "Cary wants to die" way. Trust me, I'm extremely happy being alive. My fascination has always been with how death is perceived in history, culture and art. That fascination began with how death was mythologized in rock and roll music.

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5 Bands V.14 – 5 Albums To Play At My Funeral
by Adam Becvar (aka Luigi Bastardo)
May 2008

It is with a certain sense of morbidity (not to mention that whole "I’m self-centered" thing) that I have decided to write an article about the music that is to be played at my own funeral. I can not say with any degree of certainty that this list shall make it’s way to my will – the whole thing is like the economy: subject to change without notice. It is a work in progress or a rough draft, if you will – something that is not set in stone (or even balsa wood for that matter).

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5 Bands V.13 – Great Movie Soundtracks
by Cary Christopher
April 2008

Well I'll be damned! You mean to tell me I've been doing this column for a year and never realized I hadn't done a piece on soundtracks? What the hell have I been smoking?

Soundtracks. Now there is a subject ripe for comment! First off, let's be clear here. I'm talking "soundtrack" not "score". If you want to read about scores, check out this article by our own Robert Knaus.

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5 Bands V.12 – Video Slot Machines I’d Invent If I Had The Money
by Cary Christopher
March 2008

Okay, so recently I spent approximately 36 hours in Las Vegas, Nevada celebrating with my good friend Will for his birthday.  It was his very first time to this oasis of all things considered sinful (you know like the homogenizing of American culture and Jimi Hendrix slot machines).  So with such a short amount of time available to us, we had to hit the highlights.  We felt it only fitting that he should take in the gigantic casinos on the strip first, so that we could then go to smaller, much more fun places later (like the Double Down Saloon, home of the Bacon Martini and "Ass Juice").

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5 Bands V.11 – Concept Album Offenders
by Cary Christopher
February 2008

Ladies and gentlemen, this is going to be a long one.

Concept albums. Is there any worse idea in the history of rock and roll? I would argue no. In fact, I would rather listen to Pat Boone sing Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen" while my balls are squeezed in a vice and Emeril Lagasse slowly fillets strips of flesh off my ample buttocks than listen to another self-righteous band come up with a concept album.

But hey, that's just my particular kink.

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5 Bands V.10 – 5 Songs I Want to Hear at my Company Christmas Party
by Cary Christopher
December 2007

Okay, if you’ve been following this series of articles, you’ve seen my list of Halloween favorites and you know that I love dark themes and dark music.  Therefore it should come as no surprise that I’m not the biggest fan of Christmas music.

What may surprise you though is that it’s not the subject matter or the chipper tunes that turn me off.  It’s the fact that we hear the same songs over and over and over again.  Walk into a Starbucks and pick up their 2007 Christmas CD and you’ll see it’s the same old songs recorded by different artists and I’m sorry, but no matter what Bruce Springsteen does to the arrangement, it’s still going to sound like Frosty the fucking Snowman.

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5 Bands V.9 – 5 Bands You’re Not Listening To, But Should Be.
by Mike Carvalho
November 2007

As I said in my other 5 Bands piece, we all have bands we like which others don’t know about, or don’t like, and we don’t know why.

I like to think I have a wide variety of musical tastes. With the exception of top 40 radio dance music, hip-hop, rap, and metal, I like pretty much everything.  There are songs I like that fall into the previous categories, just not many.  Though my musical tastes have never been in sync with the general population, I think a lot of the bands that I love could be much more popular, if only people heard them instead of the same 10-20 songs played ad nauseum. So I’ve looked through my collection and I’ve come up with five bands of varying musical styles. Though the genres are different, I think any of them would be a great addition to your music collection and can provide a nice introduction to a genre you may not have listened to before.

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Five Bands For Halloween
by Cary Christopher
October 2007

Halloween is simply my favorite time of the year.

It could be because my birthday is in October.  It could be because I love wearing black and its more acceptable at that time of year.  More likely, though, it's because I'm one of those people drawn to all things spooky and dark.  I love spiders.  I love horror movies.  I love walks through spooky forests and cemeteries and I really, badly want to believe in ghosts but my logical, scientific side won't let me.

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Tony Bennett Sings The Ultimate American Songbook Vol. 1
by Cary Christopher
October 2007

My father and I don't have very much in common when it comes to music tastes.  He's a fantastic singer who decided in his early twenties not to pursue the stage.  He settled down with my mother in Florida and I happened.  His heroes were Johnny Mathis and Tony Bennett.  

In my twenties, I decided to pursue music but my heroes were much different and included Johnny Rotten and Henry Rollins… and Tony Bennett. 

What?  Did you read that correctly?

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Five Bands Vol. 8 – Bands That Remind Me OF Summer
by Cary Christopher
September 2007

Somewhere in the vast array of tubes, pulleys and chutes that make up the world wide intarweb, there is a thread in the music forum here on DIMP where I asked the following question...

Do you change what you listen to based on the season of the year?

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What Are They Listening To? – Vol. 1
by Cary Christopher
August 2007

When Mike Carvalho said he wanted to do a couple of 5 Bands columns I thought it was a great idea. I decided to try to e-mail some of the artists on Mike’s lists to see if we could get them to answer two simple questions. What are you listening to now and what would be your desert island disc?

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Five Bands Vol. 7 – Singer-Songwriters You Aren’t Listening To, But Should
by Mike Carvalho
August 2007

We all have them. They are bands or singers that we love, yet that don’t seem to make it onto the mainstream radar.

Sometimes this is understandable due to the challenging nature of their music, but often it is a combination of dumb luck, bad timing, and questionable personal behavior that confine these artists to a niche market. I am a lyrics man. I love the music, but lyrics are what endear me to songs. I live for the clever turn of phrase, the witty bon mot, the sharply honed insight. The love I have for songs where the music is what draws me in usually wanes after some time.

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Five Bands Vol. 6 – Artists Who Are Batshit Insane
by Cary Christopher
August 2007

Real rock and roll has always been the music of the rebellious. As such, it has attracted artists who live their lives creatively and literally on the edge.  For every "down to Earth" rock star like Dave Grohl, there are easily four more who would rather refer to themselves as "The Artist" and who want pink toilet paper in the hotel bathroom, not because they can get away with asking for it but because they really believe it is partially responsible for the proper flow of their creative juices.

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The Traveling Wilburys Collection
by Eric San Juan
June 2007

Were The Traveling Wilburys a short-lived gimmick or a legitimate musical force? It’s terribly easy to be cynical and dismiss the Wilburys as the former. After all, how many times have we seen an all-star group of musicians come together for a few easy hits? The “fake” all too often flows from such gatherings in waves.

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Five Bands Vol. 5 – 5 Artists I Don't Like But Probably Should
by Cary Christopher
June 2007

Okay.  Not to sound like Andy Rooney here, but there are more than a few bands in rock and roll whose importance I understand but who I can't stand to listen to.

Some of them I've completely given up on and decided they're just never going to be something I like.  Others, though, I continue to give the occasional listen to, mostly at the urging of friends who are fans.

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Sleepytime Gorilla Museum: Live at The Aladdin Theater 05/25/07
by John Felix
May 30, 2007

The last few concerts I have attended, or have attempted to attend, were rough experiences for me. Broken down cars, sold out shows for bands that never sell out, even death. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous going to see Sleepytime Gorilla Museum in concert for the third time. But undeterred, I hopped on the bus at six in theafternoon and arrived at the venue ninety minutes early - enough time to wander up to the nearest park, roll around in the grass for awhile and come back to wait for the remaining hour, sitting next to people who spoke in Bill Hicks quotes before ripping into the local paper for comparing the headlining band to Disturbed, of all bands.

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Five Bands Vol. 4 – 5 Shoegaze Bands You Should Listen To
by Cary Christopher
April 2007

Here's a change of pace.

I have only dabbled in listening to shoegaze bands, so I asked DIMP's own Eric San Juan (aka: Shoegaze on our forums) to suggest a few for me to check out if I wanted to write a 5 Bands piece about the genre.  I told him that I had heard certain bands and liked certain songs.  I asked him to point me in the direction of some that may be more off the beaten path.  Here are five bands now regularly played on my iPod that I never listened to before Eric turned me on to them.

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Crystal Visions – The Very Best of Stevie Nicks
by Cary Christopher
April 2007

As a music geek, Stevie Nicks has always been an artist I had very mixed feelings about. Her contributions to Fleetwood Mac are without a doubt masterful. Artistically, she brought an element to the band that resonates in their catalog to this day. Emotionally, she was oneof the catalysts in that band creating their masterpiece Rumors album. On her own though, Stevie Nicks has been one of those artists that seemed to walk a fine line just this side of parody. All of the lace, candles and gypsy imagery just begs a sarcastic son of a bitch like me to take potshots at her.

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Five Bands Vol. 3 – 5 Bands from the 90's you should dig out again
by Cary Christopher
April 2007

First off, I’m not some kind of Asian music connoisseur.  I’m a casual listener at best.  Having lived in the country for three years, I found that I pretty much hated everything about the Japanese pop and rock music scene and went out of my way to see western artists in concert as much as possible.  When I left that country I had no intentions of ever listening to a Japanese band again.

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5 Bands You’re Not Listening To (But Should Be If You’re A Rock Fan) Vol. 2
by Cary Christopher
March 2007

First off, I’m not some kind of Asian music connoisseur.  I’m a casual listener at best.  Having lived in the country for three years, I found that I pretty much hated everything about the Japanese pop and rock music scene and went out of my way to see western artists in concert as much as possible.  When I left that country I had no intentions of ever listening to a Japanese band again.

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5 Bands You’re Not Listening To (But Should Be If You’re A Rock Fan) Vol. 1
by Cary Christopher
February 2007

Hello. My name is Cary Christopher, and I'm a 38 year old male who still trades mix CDs. I'm not announcing that like I'm part of someTwelve-Step group; I'm announcing it loudly and proudly, because I get more great music sent my way than I know what to do with. Having said that, I'm frustrated because there are so many good bands out there that just don't get recognized beyond their region. That's why I've taken a moment to share with you a list of some of the bands who fly into the radar of my small circle of mix traders.  Some may not be new, some may even be on the verge of  gaining a national following, but every single one of them deserve a bigger audience than they currently have.

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The Twilight Singers – A Stitch in Time
by Cary Christopher
January 2007

I don't have very many musical heroes. There are a ton of bands that I like and a number of musicians whose talents I admire greatly, however there are only a handful of guys out there that I would love to actually BE. Greg Dulli is one of those few.

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Jucifer – If Thine Enemy Hunger
by Cary Christopher
January 2007

I always hate it when people cop out and write a music review that says something like "It's like a cross between (insert well known band) and (insert another well known band)". That's just bullshit. I mean, your job is to review the album. You are a writer. Get creative.

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Sinatra: Vegas
by Cary Christopher
January 2007

I would venture to say that when the majority of people born in the late 1960's hear the name Frank Sinatra, they almost immediately think of Las Vegas. Although Sinatra had an entire career's worth of material before his extended runs in Las Vegas began, most people tend to only think of him as the Rat Pack leader on top of his game. For myself, I only had a casual interest in Sinatra's music until I caught an unedited performance of the Rat Pack on PBS a few years ago. Watching the interaction between Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Frank Sinatra was truly eye-opening.

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Film Scores To Send Shivers Up Your Spine
by Robert Knaus
October 2006

Ah, October… brightly-colored foliage falling from the trees, the night growing longer, a chill in the air... and, of course, Halloween, that most wonderfully creepy of holidays. A lot of people like to spice up their houses with skeletons, ghosts, and Jack-O-Lanterns in order to freak out all the little trick-or-treaters, but why stop there? Why not throw some appropriately frightening sounds on your stereo to help set the mood? Since a lot of people crave horror movies this time of year, certain scary movie soundtracks make the perfect aural accompaniment to one's Halloween bash. So stick that CD in the player, sit back, relax, and get ready for some of the eeriest music ever composed for the medium of film.

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The Jesus And Mary Chain
Automatic
by Eric San Juan
August 2006

This is the album from the band I like that has the song that I didn’t realize was their song when I first heard it.

What I’m saying is, The Pixies did a brilliant cover of Head On that to this day is considered definitive. To me, at least. Frank Black exploded with the unchained emotion the too-cool-for-school Jim Reid (or was it the other Reid? Who knows?) just couldn’t muster and, you know what? It’s one of those rare covers that’s better than the original. I mean, it didn’t just rock, it ROCKED. HARD. Blaring guitars, snarling vocals and reckless abandon.

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The Jesus And Mary Chain
Honey's Dead
by Eric San Juan
July 2006

I don’t remember how old I was.  Not overly young. Maybe 17 or 18. And I can remember – I remember this – I can remember seeing these two chaps on MTV back when the station used to play videos with, like, music and stuff. And … and … oh my.

There was all this feedback and noise and stuff. It was kind of ugly, really. But oh, was it beautiful, this noise (laid over a driving beat and throbbing bassline, sure, but all I heard was the noise). Yet the real kicker was what these guys were saying:

“I wanna die just like Jesus Christ. I wanna die on a bed of spikes.”

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The Jesus And Mary Chain
Stoned And Dethroned
by Eric San Juan
July 2006

Ahhh, Stoned And Dethroned. The “what the fuck are they doing!?” for many longtime Jesus And Mary Chain fans. After four albums of brazen, loud, catchy rock music, the Reid brothers mysteriously left their distortion pedals at home. Stoned And Dethroned is largely semi-acoustic, devoid of feedback and anything but loud.

The thing is, it’s still a really good record.

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