Celebrating the last day of July in style by commemorating the following people's birthdays (July 31). Can you name them all?

←Back to Numbers 26 through 50

25. Buddy Holly
Though his career didn't last for long, Buddy Holly left an indelible mark on rock music. For starters, he took something rather nerdy--a pair of black-rimmed glasses--and turned them into a legendary rock and roll accessory. You won't hear any arguments from Donnie Iris, Elvis Costello, or Rivers Cuomo.

He also was one of the first artists to get experimental in the studio, introducing overdubbing into his recordings (a technique that uses various vocal takes, simultaneously, to add emphasis to certain parts of a song--which is now a staple in popular music). Holly's biggest accomplishment though, may be inspiring a group of kids who started a band called The Beatles.

24. Michael Jackson
Your children should know that Michael Jackson was scoring hits when he was--well--just a kid. Now we wouldn't recommend your kids sharing a bed with the "King of Pop," but knowing his catalog is a must for any well-rounded musical education. After stepping out from the shadow of the Jackson 5, MJ ruled the 1980's with a sequins-covered fist--setting sales and chart records that will never be broken, taking the art of music videos to a whole new level, performing jaw-dropping dance moves that to this day are still being imitated, and establishing precedent after precedent in pop music. Yes he's become the butt of many jokes, but talk to any serious music person, and they will still give Jackson his just due in music history.

Being a good parent means showering your children with lots of love and affection, feeding them nutritional meals, getting them into the best schools, and of course, teaching them the difference between good music and bad music. That's why it's so confusing when many parents expose their kids to singing dinosaurs, high school musicals, and teenage pop tarts named after states, instead of starting them off with an early education on some of the most important bands and solo artists of our time.

Below are 50 Bands Your Kids Should Know. If they know about these 50 performers, not only will your kids be among the coolest in the neighborhood, but there's a good chance they'll be able to hold their own against any serious music fan (blogger, album reviewer, and college radio disc jockey alike).

We should point out that this is NOT a list of the 50 greatest bands of all-time. As a parent, you should know that getting your kids to eat a bowl of ice cream is a lot easier than having them down a plate of brussel sprouts. That being said, your children still need to eat their vegetables for a healthy nutrition. So think of this list as a balance of both--legendary trailblazers and more current day artists (mmm, ice cream).

As you'll soon find out, not every big name made the list (a couple Jims, a Neil, and a Janis are curiously missing). This was done for a couple reasons. First of all, not every influential band is necessarily accessible to children (sorry Velvet Underground). Secondly, we wouldn't be doing a good job of teaching your children if we didn't make them do some work on their own. This list of 50, whether they realize it now or not, will expose your young prodigies to thousands of other artists who were either influenced or inspired someone else on this list.

If you disagree with any of the picks, that's precisely why there's a comment section below:

Because I like to end a hard day of blogging by sitting on my butt and watching some live music on late-night television, I thought you might like doing the same. Tonight, for your viewing consideration are two goodies: Atmosphere (left) on Letterman, and Gogol Bordello (right) on Conan.

Today I did something exhilarating--I traveled to the future! Because I wanted to get a headstart on all of the bloggers across the world, I contacted an old friend at Columbia University who is among the world leaders in time travel technology.

Instead of getting a backlog on sports scores (ala Marty McFly) or finding out about the results of the upcoming 2008 presidential election, I just decided to go one week ahead to dole out some birthday wishes, plug an upcoming festival in New York City, and talk about the past (good 'ol 1988). On August 5--seven days from now--this will all make sense to you.

Fans of the band Here Here will notice a misspelling of "Hear Hear." Like I said, this will all make perfectly good sense a week from now. If you really want to know, lawyers from a band exisiting in the early 40's called Here Here, sued the San Francisco indie act resulting in the name change. If someone sees the band today, they should let them know this (just so they can get a jumpstart on all the legal work).

...does Christian contemporary rock band, Third Day's, brand new album cover for Revelation look a little Radiohead-esque?

P.S. Every Tuesday on the Indie Ear blog, we have a Super Tuesday posting, informing the masses on the latest album releases. Since this week's line-up was a little less than stellar, not even worthy of the preface "super," I opted to pull the plug today. System of a Down's Daron Malakian and John Holmayan released their Serj Tankin-less side project called Scars on Broadway, and 80's pop-rocker, Rick Springfield has a new one out called, Venus In Overdrive. The opening track is called, "What's Victoria's Secret?" Yeah, I'm being serious.

Two thumbs up for originality! Disgusting and brilliant at the same time...

Gnarls Barkley, "Who's Gonna Save My Soul"

If you haven't noticed, it's List Month on IFC.com, a brand new list every weekday in July. I wasn't scheduled to make a list today, but I guess I'm so caught up in the madness, I created one anyway. That's right, it's unsanctioned!

Think of this as an appetizer for the 50 Bands Your Kids Should Know list which will be posted later this week.

For your list viewing pleasure, an idea that randomly came to me last night, here are the 10 Best Logos In the History of Music:

We have about one more solid month of summer music festivals before this season, the biggest one yet in the U.S., comes to a close. Each town, whether big or small, tries to outdo everyone else with a better festival headliner, a better gimmick, better live web streaming, and even a better logo. Since many of the same acts are playing various festivals, it's becoming more and more difficult to stand out from the rest of the pack.

To get the most bang-for-their-buck, festival promoters are also having acts sign "radius clauses" which prevents them from playing in a certain town (or radius) for a specified number of days. If you're not going to see your favorite band in a club show for a few months, you might as well come out to our festival, right?

This year Lollapalooza is tugging at the 90's heartstrings with the triple-monster-bill of Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and Rage Against The Machine. Bonnaroo surprised everyone by having Metallica show up at their festival (which in the past just catered to jam band aficionados). Pitchfork peaked my interest by having Public Enemy play It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back in its entirety.

I bring all of this up, because New York City (my current home), the mecca of everything, is having their big summer festival, All Points West, a couple weekends from now. Because New York City is the heart of it all--and because we get shows that other cities can only dream of--you'd think we have the most kick-ass summer festival of them all, right?

Where did my summer go? Is this really the last weekend of July?

Damn.

Oh well, at least we have August to look forward to...

(left: As we cap off another year of July, enjoy the food, enjoy your friends, and of course, enjoy the music this weekend!)

Pemberton (Pemberton, B.C.)
July 25-27
Nine Inch Nails
Coldplay
Jay-Z
The Flaming Lips
Interpol
My Morning Jacket
DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist

If you've never seen or heard The Ting Tings live, you could do the latter right now. Their July 22nd performace at the 9:30 Club (Washington D.C.) was recorded live for NPR's All Songs Considered program.

(left: Katie White, one-half of The Ting Tings.)

To listen to the show, click HERE, then click on The Ting Tings Live In Concert under the headline: The Ting Tings Light It Up.

Anytime I can support Corn Mo and his backing band .357 Lover on the Indie Ear blog, you better believe that I'm going to do it. If you've never seen Corn Mo live in action, just close your eyes and envision Meatload, Sam Kinison, Freddie Mercury, and your favorite "big rock" band from the 70/80's melted down into one musical act. Throw in a masterful rock-star falsetto, an accordion, and an affinity for old-school professional wrestling and you've got yourself Corn Mo.

(left: This is he, the one, the only: Corn Mo!)

Corn Mo is offering up a free download of his song "Give It Up" on his myspace page, and if you're in Danbry, CT this weekend attending Safe To Swim Weekend, you can catch him on the WXCI Stage at 6PM.

San Francisco indie rock odd-balls, Deerhoof, are asking fans to contribute cover versions of their song "Fresh Born," which will be included on their forthcoming album, Offend Maggie (October 7).

The song hasn't officially been released yet, so unless you've heard it performed live, you probably have no idea what it sounds like. You may be asking yourself, "How can fans make a cover for a song they haven't heard?" Simple, Deerhoof has released sheet-music for the song right HERE.

Here are some current re-makes of "Fresh Born" (sheet music was passed out at a recent show in Brooklyn).

Because punk rock bands never stop touring (even those that have earned their stripes and rest among the punk rock gods), The Boucning Souls kick off a mini-tour tonight in Mansfield, MA. The Jersey punk legends just finished doing a leg of the Warped Tour (God bless those fellas)!

(left to right: Bryan Kienlen, Michael McDermott, The Pete, Greg Attonito)

P.S. I'm super excited about the show in New York City (Sept. 19), the Souls will be sharing a bill with Sick Of It All!

07.23 - Mansfield, MA
07.24 - Darien Center, NY
07.25 - Camden, NJ
08.06 - Sturgis, SD
08.22 - Morrison, CO
09.06 - Portland, OR
09.19 - New York City, NY
09.20 - Asbury Park, NJ
09.21 - Philadelphia, PA

CSS, Donkey (left)
The #11 Greatest Vowel-less Band on the planet is about to make a move up the list.

Dr. Dog, Fate
Philly's finest.

Black Kids, Partie Traumatic
When I get a chance (sort of inspired by a conversation with the Pesin sisters) I'm going to organize an all-out Battle Royal with "black" bands (Keys, Lips, Dice, Rebel Motorcycle Club, etc.).

Skillz, The Million Dollar Backpack
It's what's in the backpack that makes it so valuable.

On this week's episode of Lunchbox, we chat with bluegrass legend, Del McCoury, who recently compiled an album entitled, Moneyland, to raise awareness for the many American working-class families losing their homes, jobs, and farms.

McCoury's website is also having a contest for young filmmakers, in which they can take a track from the Moneyland album and make a short film about it. All the details are HERE.

BIGGEST WASTE OF WATER AWARD

In the age of bottled-water, this may seem a little disgusting, but the Pitchfork Festival had some fountains cranking out some good 'ol Chicago tap water (which was mighty good). For some reason, this particular faucet wouldn't shut off. Because I'm down with a little water conservation every now and then, I tried my best to stop this fountain from running. The water fountain won.

DOWN FOR THE CAUSE AWARD

On a 90-degree day with the sun beating down on festival goers, this fan of Ghostface Killah & Raekwon braved it all and wore his black (100% cotton) Wu-Tang Clan shirt. You know how some shirts are worn until they become a light, sheer material? Well, this wasn't one of them. I'm getting sunburn just thinking about it.

No rain today, just a lot of hot summer sun to end this year's Pitchfork Festival. Here's a quick recap of Day #3:

The Apples In Stereo
Robert Schneider and crew treated everyone to a fun afternoon set. C'mon, how can you not have fun with the bubbly, positive, and upbeat Apples In Stereo? Schneider seemed to be a wee bit affected by the heat, guzzling down water after every few songs. At one point in the set he apologized to the fans, "Sorry I'm drinking so much water, but I'm sweating a lot and you can only sweat so much until you run out of it." Schneider's best piece of stage banter though came moments before playing "The Rainbow." Schneider told the audience, "Here's a true story for you, every time we've played this song at a festival a big rainbow has appeared in the sky--I keep my eyes closed--but yes, a rainbow appears every single time."

King Kahn and the Shrines
King Kahn's best piece of audience advice? "C'mon sing from your ovaries! Scream from your balls!"

Les Savy Fav
Let's just say LSF's frontman, Tim Harrington, made use of every second of his band's set. Going through various stage costumes (which also included a head-band with a special head-band-cam), Harrington body surfed in a garbage can, rolled around in the mud, made jokes about Prince being in attendance ("Hi little guy--you can't see him cause he's so short), and spit water onto the audience claiming it was "special dream making juice."

(right: Les Savy Fav's Tim Harrington all cleaned up after his mud-drenched performance.)

Ghostface Killah & Raekwon
So-so performance. I appreciated the fact they wore red color coordinated t-shirts (with matching white towels draped over their shoulders), but it's hard to turn the crowd into a full-on tizzy with only two-ninths of the Wu-Tang Clan.

Spiritualized
The band whose music sounded most like their band name today. No better way to describe it.

Dinosaur Jr.
I'm a little behind on my Dinosaur Jr. updates, but I didn't even realize Lou Barlow had reunited with J. Mascis. Good to see him back in the band. And good for Lou Barlow, gettin' double the payday at this year's Pitchfork (playing with Sebadoh a couple nights earlier).

(left: I was a little bummed that J. Mascis wasn't wearing his signature pair of black-rimmed eyeglasses, but he was back with Lou Barlow, so I guess I can't complain.)

Cut Copy
I was actually scheduled to interview Cut Copy today for an episode on Lunchbox until I got the following e-mail from their management:

I just found out that Cut Copy is dealing with ridiculous flight delays leaving San Francisco (do to amongst other things a broken air conditioning system on the plane--I kid you not).

We have to cancel the press they had scheduled before their set as they won't be landing in Chicago now until 6:30PM.

(right: Thousands of people waiting and waiting and waiting to see Cut Copy.)

At 8:35PM, when Cut Copy was scheduled to perform, they were still missing in action. In a rather odd twist of events, Deerhunter's Bradford Cox (in an out-of-character t-shirt and pair of blue jeans) came on stage and said that the band was still at the airport. King Kahn then joined him as they took part in an impromptu jam session.

More than half of the fans waiting to see Cut Copy made a mass exodus across the concert grounds to watch Spoon close out the festival. At approximately 9:38PM, Cut Copy rushed on stage, plugged in their keyboards, and played four songs before hitting the 10PM curfew. It was a glorious four songs, but alas, it was only four songs, which made me wonder if the Pitchfork organizers only had to pay Cut Copy for four songs-worth of material?

(left: No better way to take the edge off a 3-day music festival in the hot summer sun than sipping a frothy chocolate milkshake at Chicago's legendary Margie's, established in 1921! Gotta love that bonus cup too!)

Lots of rain which meant lots of mud, but hey, we got to hang with Jay Reatard and Vampire Weekend, so it wasn't all bad...

Amazingly, Dizzee Rascal churned out one of the most crowd-friendly sets of the day--also one of the funniest.

(left: Dizzee Rascal, maybe the only artist at this year's Pitchfork Festival who will publicly admonish the soundman.)

It's been a few years since I've seen Dizzee perform live, but in those few years he's grown as both a performer and entertainer. Anyone familiar with his quick-fire rhyme flow knows that he's spittin' hundreds of words per minute, and somehow, he never runs out of breath--the kryptonite of many stateside MC's. He does have a hypeman, Scope, but for the most part Dizzee carries most of the rhymeload on his own.

Today was the first time I witnessed Jay Reatard live in action. Some of you Indie Ear bloggers may recognize him as the man that took out #2 seed Mars Volta in this year's Indie Ear Madness tournament. I told you then and I'm telling you now, the kid is a prime time player, baby!

(left: Hell yes! A flying-V bass and a flying-V guitar!)

Though early afternoon festival performances are sometimes a snooze, Jay Reatard and crew (Billy Hayes and Buzz Melvin look-a-like, Stephen Pope) brought their bouncy-garage-punk to Chicago and even managed to whip up a little mosh pit--the first I've seen at Pitchfork this weekend.

Because I grew up on Public Enemy, and because It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back is one of my favorite hip-hop albums of all-time, I was both thrilled out of my mind and scared to death to see P.E. perform it in its entirety.

(left: Nothing like taking pictures of Chuck D on the jumbo-tron when the lighting gets bad.)

On one hand, if done correctly, by letting the Bomb Squad's instrumentals breath freely on the turntables and hoping that Chuck D and Flavor Flav could co-exist in perfect harmony, this performance could be downright legendary. On the other hand, if Public Enemy's backing band decided to overpower the turntable mix--and if Flavor Flav was given too much free time to self-promote on the microphone--this performance could be a car wreck. Why such cynicism? Well, let's just say I saw a TV show once where Bridgette Nielson joined Public Enemy on stage and it almost made me weep.

Having Sebadoh play their Bubble and Scrape album in its entirety sounds good on paper, but executing it live is a different story.

Let me explain:

When Sebadoh was actually playing their distorted little gems from their 1993 album, they sounded great, sounded relevant, sounded like they should be touring the world today. But here's the problem--and I'm sure when the band recorded Bubble and Scrape they never realized that they'd be playing the album from beginning to end some 15 years later--the three members of Sebadoh share lead singing duties on the album's 17 tracks. Not only that, but between every couple songs, there would be a minute-and-a-half stop-down as Lou Barlow, Eric Gaffney, and Jason Loewenstein swapped instruments (any momentum they built up with the previous song was gone before they began each new tune).

(left to right: Eric Gaffney, Lou Barlow, and Jason Loewenstein)

Mission of Burma kicked off this year's Pitchfork Festival by performing their landmark album, Vs., from start to finish. No diss on early 80's recording techniques or even the re-mastered version of Vs. that was later released, but Mission of Burma sounded better live than on disc. Just like a good bowl of porridge, the bass was warm, and the drums and guitar sounded crisp, or as the bear in Goldilocks would say, "just right."

(left to right: Peter Prescott, Roger Miller, Clint Conley)

These are my nieces. They will not be at the Pitchfork Festival this weekend (although come Saturday afternoon I'm sure I'll be wishing they were there shooting me with their water guns).

But guess who will be going? Yes, yours truly. I'll be blogging all weekend long, so if you can't make it to Chicago, check back here daily for all the happenings, and if you are at Pitchfork, feel free to say hey.

Slop on the sunscreen and let the fun begin!

Pitchfork Music Festival (Chicago, IL)
July 18-20

Public Enemy
Sebadoh
Mission of Burma
Vampire Weekend
!!!
Dizzee Rascal

(above: Don't forget to check in with us this weekend, the "Indie Ear Blog" on IFC.com will be covering all the festivities from Chicago).

Cut Copy
Dinosaur Jr.
Spoon
The Apples In Stereo
Jay Reatard
Dizzee Rascal

I waited seven years for Rage Against the Machine to reunite (which finally happened last year), and I've been waiting even longer for Zack De La Rocha's solo album to drop, an album which he supposedly teamed up with DJ Shadow, NIN's Trent Reznor, The Roots' ?uestlove (who, by the way, called the recordings "dangerous, scary") and a slew of other musicians. I don't know whether De La Rocha suffered from a case of self consciousness or perfectionism, but sources have told me not to expect the album anytime soon (which probably means "never").

So you could imagine my delight, when I found out that De La Rocha (on keyboards and vocals) would be teaming up with former Mars Volta drummer, Joe Theodore, to form the group One Day As A Lion. Their self-titled debut EP (featuring five songs) will be released next week, and if you don't believe they're actually going to release material, look no further than their myspace page, where this week they posted their very first song, "Wild International."

"Wild International" is a stripped down hip-hop track (just rhymes, keys, and drums), but I gotta say, the energy is great and I'm liking what I hear so far!

The band offers the following:

"One Day As A Lion is both a warning delivered and a promise kept."

"A defiant affirmation of the possibilities that exist in the space between kick and snare. It's a sonic reflection of the visceral tension between a picturesque fabricated cultural landscape, and the brutal socioeconomic realities it attempts to mask. One Day As A Lion is a recorded interaction between Zack de la Rocha and Jon Theodore from Los Angeles, California."

"The name taken from the infamous 1970 black and white, captured by legendary Chicano photographer George Rodriguez featuring a center framed tag on a white wall in an unspecified section of Boyle Heights. It reads: 'It's better to live one day as a lion, than a thousand years as a lamb.' This record is a stripped down attempt to realize this sentiment in sound."

This weekend Ra Ra Riot will be in Coney Island playing the Siren Fest, next weekend they'll be in Chicago playing the Wicker Park Summer Festival, and on August 19 they'll be releasing their debut, The Rhumb Line. Instead of talking about the future, let's chat about the present for a second. Here's a new song, "Dying Is Fine," from their new album. Enjoy!

(left: The best thing to come out of Syracuse since the Slocum Heights Posse...sorry Carmelo Anthony).

RaRaRiot_DyingIsFine.mp3

...was Radiohead making better music videos when they were using basic computer animation ("Paranoid Android") and simple, yet powerful story-telling ("Just," "Karma Police")?

Here's the synopsis of Radiohead's brand new video for "House of Cards":

In Radiohead's new video for "House of Cards", no cameras or lights were used. Instead, 3D plotting technologies collected information about the shapes and relative distances of objects. The video was created entirely with visualizations of that data.

11. Green Party with Ralph Nader (2000)
How many times has Ralph Nader run for President of the U.S.A.? How many times has he lost? Alright, so he's never won--big deal. But, how many presidential candidates had Pearl Jam, Ani DiFranco and Ben Harper together on the same bill for a campaign concert? How many candidates had Adrock of the Beastie Boys remix a campaign speech?

One.

Ralph Nader. Proving once again, that they're ain't no party like a Ralph Nader party!

(left: "Yo, you need someone to lay down a dope freestyle? Here, pass me the microphone.")

Todd Moakes honors us with his holier than thou indie presence...

What a huge month it's been for vowel-less bands. First they get their long overdue shout-out on the Greatest Vowel-less Bands List, then we find out that MGMT will be joining Beck on the road for several dates later this year.

(left: Warm up the van, we're road trippin' with Beck!)

You can also catch the vowel-less wonders of MGMT playing with The Ting Tings at the JellyNYC Pool Party at Brooklyn 's McCarren Pool on Sunday, July 27. MGMT is also scheduled to play Lollapalooza in Chicago on Saturday, August 2.

MGMT/Beck Tour Dates
9/19 San Diego, CA
9/22 Phoenix, AZ
9/23 Albuquerque, NM
9/25 El Paso, TX
9/27 Austin , Texas
9/29 Kansas City, MO
9/30 Minneapolis, MN
10/2 Chicago , IL
10/3 Chicago , IL