The Genghis Khan of Blues: Junior Kimbrough

While trying to be productive and get some reading done at a coffee shop today I put on the Black Keys last.fm radio station as background music. In the blur of Black Keys/My Morning Jacket/Raconteurs sounding bands, while powering through some case studies about advertising, this song came on and I stopped reading. I've been listening to a lot of his other stuff throughout the evening and every song is equally as enjoyable. Perhaps I'm entering my (authentic) blues stage. Also, according to Junior Kimbrough's last.fm bio, he was the father of 36 children from various relationships. Potent seed.

The Ramones

I have no doubt that in this point you don't know who the Ramones are. But in my most rebellious and youthful days I was listening to Norma Jean or Bright Eyes, not Black Flag or Bad Brains. In fact, a lot of these bands were reduced to Hot Topic t-shirts for me, which is pretty depressing considering what they were doing way back when. So later, I thought to my self, "Hey, punk rock is kind of an important musical movement, and it's actually way more listenable than bands like the Locust or !!! which are bands whose albums I have owned at one point or another and they are mostly unpleasant to listen to." So I retroactively got into the Clash and the Ramones at an embarrassingly late age but oh well.

Can - Laugh Till You Cry, Live Till You Die

Benji Hazelhurst, of being really hot fame, told me about this band when we lived in the dorms together freshman year. I think at that point I didn't really give a shit about Can but the other day this song came on randomly and I really liked it. Simple lyrics, chill, and a strange mix of instruments. According to Wikipedia, Can are from Germany and are considered one of the first "krautrock" groups and have influenced many bands that we listen to today. So enjoy this tune from 1976. Also, I'm not sure what the video has to do with the song.

Jelly Roll Morton

Jelly Roll was born in N'Orleans. He also, like everyone important, lived in Chicago for a spell. I'm into Jelly Roll because the recordings are old and sound more authentic than a lot of jazz. Also, the upbeat ones are good for jitterbugging down State Street, which I do every day on my way to class.