Friday, July 13, 2007

Weekend Listomania (Total Video Edition)

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental houseboy Kato and I...well, actually I had to discharge the swarthy little wog for lightfingeredness. (Don't ask: let's just say my autographed Mitzi Gaynor album is missing). Which means I'll be interviewing for the position for the next few days, so posting by moi will necessarily be sporadic.

In the meantime, here's another little project for you folks:

Coolest Looking and/or Sharpest Dressed Rock Bands of All Time!

My carefully considered (if not always totally serious) Top 10:

1. The Beatles (all periods, but especially 1968)



2. The Rolling Stones (1965-66)

3. The Music Machine

4. The Byrds (1965-66)

5. MC5

6. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (late 70s)

7. The Sex Pistols

8. The Tubes circa "Talk to Ya Later"

9. The Banana Splits

10. The Strokes

But enought of my yakking -- join in, won't you?

PS: If anybody nominates Duran Duran, swear to god I'm gonna take a hostage.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sharpest dressed:

The Temptations

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

Tin Machine

The Rutles

Paul Revere & The Raiders (idea borrowed from last week)

Coolest looking:

Prince & The Revolution

The Ramones

New York Dolls

The Cramps

Parliament-Funkadelic

Mister Pleasant said...

Great list, Steve. Thanks for the "Revolution" link. Somehow I have never seen it before. Amazing
1. The Hollies

2. Sparks (1974-76)

3. The B-52s

4. The Kinks (1966-69)

steve simels said...

mister pleasant:

You really never saw that Revolution clip before? Wow. That's pretty much my all-time fave -- the Beatles in their street clothes, just oozing charisma.

And I almost included a fantastic Hollies vid of "Look Through Any Window" which I'd never seen before -- from some Brit TV dance show. The original Hollies, with brilliant bass player Eric Haydock, actually live (not lip-synched). Look for it on YouTube -- it's a mindblower.

Kid Charlemagne said...

The Jam
The Small Faces

Anonymous said...

Well, The Strokes are professionally good-looking, aren't they? I can't recall how many were male models, but at least a couple. The lead singer is a Casablancas, for chrissake. But learning how to be a rock star from Robert Pollard probably didn't help much.

I hope next week's is bad-looking/appallingly dressed bands, because I know a lot more of those.
--NYM

steve simels said...

I hope next week's is bad-looking/appallingly dressed bands, because I know a lot more of those.
--NYM


You bet. That's next week for sure.

Uriah Heep lives! I only hope I can find that video they begged MTV to stop broadcasting because they were so ugly it was adversely affecting record sales.

Anonymous said...

Obviously the best dressed for a gala evening of Dada would be The Residents.

Cleveland Bob said...

Kid Charlemagne beat me to it, but yes, The Jam.

I'd also add DEVO, Elvis Costello and Spoon.

Kid Charlemagne said...

Before I forget, THE MOVE!

Anonymous said...

Of more recent vintage, there's adorable Swedish megalomaniacs The Hives, and, I dunno, Interpol. Because I'm fairly certain there's a law that requires all columns featuring the Strokes to also mention Interpol. It's Joy Division with pizazz!

-Jay C.

The Kenosha Kid said...

Buck-Tick just their hairstyles.

Bow Wow Wow when they were still rockin their Vivienne Westwood pirate look.

Josie and the Pussycats long tails, and ears for hats.

Ripley said...

Earth Wind & Fire

The Commodores

Johnny Cash

Elvis P. was always looking pretty fly for a white guy. Esp., the 68 comeback show, which I think inspired Joan Jett quite profoundly.

Tom Jones, of course...

Devo - hmmm.. this week or next week..???

The Kenosha Kid said...

OK, I have given this some more thought:

Best Suit: John Lurie, The Lounge Lizards

Best Suit (big): David Byrne, Talking Heads

Best Suit (on a chick): Grace Jones

and I have come to realize that Bow Wow Wow actually looked better in their faux-hawk phase.

Anonymous said...

- The Maskman (Harmon Bethea) and the Agents.
-Los Straitjackets
-Devo (Hazmat suit era)

shrimplate said...

Thanx Unkie Smokes. Though maybe they're not a rock band, The Residents in their eyeball-heads and tuxedos always looked cool to me.

I would add The Waitresses to the list just for Patti Donohue.

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers should probably go on somebody's "least-dressed band" list.

TMink said...

The Who looked really good there for awhile, all mod in their target t-shirts.

I have a nice photo of Elvis (neither fat nor dead) at my photo blog. He wears an ascot well!

http://flickr.com/photos/tmink/744168427/

Trey

dave™© said...

Hey, Steverino - you posted the wrong "Revolution" video. Here's the semi-live original.

Feral said...

I'd say Robert Palmer,

And just for the hell of it,

Devo.

steve simels said...

Okay -- I obviously posted the wrong band at number one.

New thread coming up....

TMink said...

I wonder if the Beatles were that tuned into fashion, or that they were just so talented and emotionally touched so many people that we all wanted to lok like them no matter how they dressed. My favorite hair length is still Paul just before Revolver. And that is deep in my unconscious, nothing that I purposely ape.

I think they affected fashion because they were so damn good and culturally powerful. We had to look like them.

Trey