I was tempted to just name Rush for all the categories except singer... he's good but... you know. When three guys have been playing together for thirty years they can't help but become so intimately woven together musically and psychologically. Also, individually they are all excelent, versatile musicians. But what would Geddy Lee sound like with another band? It's unthinkable.
But then there are another breed of musicians I like, mostly from the Chicago "scene" (
) including bands like Slint, The Sea and Cake, Directions, Tortoise, Eleventh Dream Day, Isotope 217, etc. (explore the Chicago label Thrill Jockey, you won't be disappointed). They are all related, forming bands and dissolving and reconstituting in new forms. There are some truly awesome musicians there but none that could claim the same kind of technical proficiency as a Geddy Lee, but just as good in different ways, in experimentalism and expression of abstract things. They are about the whole, the end sound. Their standard is "does this enhance the song/sound?" If so, they do it; if not, they don't, even if would've made them look really cool. Ironically, this
is really cool, to me anyway.
Anyone know Elizabeth Frasier? Now there's a singer!
