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'If you were a ska band, what kind of a ska band would you be?'

PopCanon has been compared to the following artists, for better or worse:

XTC (10) 
Frank Zappa (10)
They Might Be Giants (9)
Primus (4) 
Camper Van Beethoven (4)
Talking Heads (4)
Squeeze (3) 
Clang (3) 
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (3)
Robyn Hitchcock (2)
Babe the Blue Ox (2)
Phish (2)
the Jongleurs (2)
The Beatles (2)
REM (2) 

The Soft Boys 
the Meat Puppets 
Pain 
the dB's 
Joe Jackson 
Fishbone 
Tony Levin 
Captain Beefheart 
Robert Fripp 
Eugene Chadbourne 
Oingo Boingo
Thinking Fellers Union Local 282
Eric Dolphy
Nico
John Zorn
The Artist ('Sexy MF'-era)
Beck
Cake
The Ex
Stevie Wonder
Pixies
Devo
Randy Newman
Todd Rundgren
Beach Boys
Gleaming Spires 
Barenaked Ladies 
Too Much Joy 
Billy Goat 
Pink Floyd 
Dance Hall Crashers
Jethro Tull 
The New Orleans Klezmer AllStars 
Preservation Hall
Friendly
Ajo
AC/DC
Big Boys 
Chicago
Earth, Wind & Fire
Rush
Electric Light Orchestra
Uz Jsme Doma
Von Zamla

'I never metaphor I didn't like'-- What's PopCanon like?

the 'Titanic' soundtrack early punkrock orchestral horns
new-wave eggheads a burlesque striptease
a highschool fusion band early new-wave brit-pop all of Fantasyland
a klezmer band filling in for a Top 40 band at the VFW hall a ska band trying to blend in at a bluegrass festival
Screech Powers' quirkiness a ska band, a phenomenal ska band clever, thoughtful pop bands of the 80's
the best darn mango iced tea i've ever had blue sky with the top down music
Frank Zappa in 6 or 7 bodies 1920's pop progressive comedy rock
if 'The Dukes of Hazzard' was an indie pop band a tour de force of postmodern delights
the spirit of unwritten musicals escapism without pretension a shitty comedy show on public television
  quirk-rock auteurs / grizzled grad students   smarty-pants art pop  
Nico-meets-John Zorn-meets-1960s gogo music   Earth Wind & Fire plays Rush and ELO   Stevie Wonder wrestling with Beck
 
Todd Rundgren singing for the Beach Boys
 
clever pop fluff with metaphorical lyrics
 
weirdo-alt-prog   sarcasto-avant-pop   vulgari-ska-rock
  deconstructionist pop   a hybrid of a little bit of everything  
horn-spiked college pop   artrock given to relentless parody   unsparing self-subversion
  artrock moguls   tasteful party noise  
Zappa's mid-70s bands   a dent into the framework of today's pop nation   'instantly seminal'

'the kind of religious unsettlement you might feel after downing a glass of clumpy strawberry milk
in the last, darkest aisle of your favorite church'
and
'a lot of god sins with a speeded-up soundtrack from some movie chase'
and
'imagine a crash with the Pixes (circa Surfer Rosa) and a bluegrass musician's truck'
and
'an author who makes sculptures out of his manuscripts--it doesn't quite make sense but that's not what matters'
and
'pretension in its purest form since Billy Corgan shaved his head'
and
'I can imagine this [music] in a grainy noir movie, dramatizing a murder on a carousel: that's the feel'
and
'feel good sunshine turmoil sponge music, soaking up musical influences and lyrical references
like a whore in a bookstore'


And finally, could the songs be better executed?

'[the songs] could not be better executed if they were written by Madness and performed by the Skatalites!'

(Once again, folks, PopCanon is NOT a ska band!)


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Last modified: Wednesday, 20-December-2000 18:03:13 EST