Freddie Mercury spent his formative years in the town i grew up in, theres even a tacky-as-hell star in the town centre to mark this fact


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hMrY8jysdg

Those are Zoroastrian colours, no?

these guys are from london and are good though
http://www.myspace.com/deadexistence

as for Bishops Stortford (my actual home town), Flux of Pink Indians came from here, and The Rebel, Crass, Chron Gen, & Deep Purple come/came from other small towns within 30 mins drive

It was the faith of his parents, so i guess that would be right. His mum is still alive and lives in Feltham, too.

Anyone with an interest in stoner metal and/or fuzzed out mudhoney style grunge, should check out Houston's Linus Pauling Quartet, specifically the album All Things Are Light.
Its like a southern fried combination of the meat puppet's trippiness and mudhoney's drunken heaviness and swagger.
Check em out.

yeah, but if you were from plaistow and made music it would most likely be either funky house or dubstep

London has a sort of punk rock, lo-fi scene centred around all those bands connected to upset the rhythm/sex is disgusting/italian beach babes. Wetdog, Male Bonding, Pens, Graffiti Island, La La Vasquez, Gentle Friendly, The Pheromoans, The Sticks etc all seem kind of related to each other by often playing together. Half of them are from outside though.

and none of them are very good

I always liked watching this band from CT, The Flaming Tsunamis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNrldMYfE_Q

A couple of them have some
good songs on record. I wouldn't go to see them if any of them were headlining unless it was a free gig and I had the time to go though. Gentle Friendly are particularly shit live.

There used to be a thriving Metal scene in Newham, where i'm from. This was largely focused around the Ruskin Arms pub which was where Iron Maiden (also from the area) played their first gig. I was too young to see that but I saw counless other local bands that played there. As far as I know, Maiden were the only ones who went on to have any real success.

Anyway, some lovely pre-Dickinson Maiden footage from that Ruskin gig:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1u81tw-pTc

I've listened to Male Bonding's ''Nothing Hurts'' and it's not so bad. All Things This Way, Nothing Remains, Nothing Used To Hurt are the standout tracks for me. Not brilliant but certainly not that awful.

TMOC some of you guys may know them due to the rollins connection edit: oohh and John Stanier on drums...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp0if...eature=related

Purplene (http://purplene.bandcamp.com/)

They even got Albini to record one of their full lengths. Fine band who never actually broke big, not even really within that scene.

As far as "notable" figures are concerned:

The Allman Brothers
Little Richard
2 of the guys from R.E.M.
James Brown (while actually from Augusta) more or less got his start here.

***It's rumoured Jimi Hendrix first started playing guitar here (read liner notes to that "Blues" record) during that "missing period" of his younger life when he ran away with his mom. Probably some truth to it, being that he later ended up touring with Little Richard before the Experience took shape. Who knows...

Macon was ahead of the game for several years (late 50's - mid 70's)...then kinda fell into a slump w/ all the Allman brothers/southern rock copycat/purist bands you could ever wanna shake a stick at.

While never really lacking in activity, things tend to happen here a bit late. ONly "punk" band I know of to come out of Macon during punk's heyday is a band called VEX. Punk was still a very popular concept around here until maybe a few years ago. Everything from a couple Ramones/bubblegum punk outfits, to GBH sorts (the City Babies....they never really went anywhere but were still cool).

Now things are getting a bit weirder/noisier (haha...like 2 years after Cen.Quo.Akt called it quits....my old noise band). A little bookstore (the Golden Bough) hosts shows w/ tons of out-of-town acts. Eric, the owner, has a knack for "weird" music, and refuses to allow tribute/cover bands to play the store...which helped this city out a lot in the way of being able to see original music (as well as feeling comfortable approaching it).

I'll post some vids later of some stuff I dig currently coming out of the area...but in the meantime...it's time for me to clock out/go home.

Here's a video my friend Ramsey directed for a local band called Citizen Insane (yeah...the same guy that directed the red adhesive video....). This particular band has evolved quite a bit since this particular tune, but still...it's good. For fans of Melvins, SLudgy/grungy/whatever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPbsEkQUk70

here's their myspace...I HIGHLY recommend the song "Spooky", Lacey's vocals are soooooo amazing. I love that girly. She also plays bass.

http://www.myspace.com/citizeninsanemacon

I used to love reading the local scene reports in Maximumrocknroll. Because it was pre-internet I could never hear the bands without sending off for their records, so I'd just have to imagine what they sounded like based on short interviews and photos. I remember seeing this really early lo-fi picture of Rancid playing live and thinking they must be incredible. In my head I'd built them up as a kind of west coast Pussy Galore. How completely wrong I was.

Man, nostalgia sucks.

I used to think nostalgia sucks. Now, I think it's healthy when in occasional doses. Sometimes it's good to look back and remember where ya came from...least, it is for me.

Chasing those chain links up and down makes better sense, sometimes, than just simply chasing them into the unknown (future). I like to find a healthy balance.

this band from my hometown http://soundcloud.com/kamikazy/f-e-c-t-a-wave-simulator

ahhh I was just reminded of this as I was goin' through records to put on. I found a 7" by this one CHicago band called Sally. They were awesome. except they broke up and well...now the lead singer does crappy stuff like this


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LavV...eature=related

One of the few local acts that I used to give a shit about:

http://www.myspace.com/pantherbolt

Nice Purse. Cutesy weird-folk shit. It's gotten a bit unbareable since Hope left and they replaced her with my roomie's ex-boyfriend but they were good while they lasted.

http://dadatrashcollage.com/home.cfm

Been called "minneapolis' answer to animal collective". A bit brash of a statement but they're an interesting little hypnapop group.

Also, Minneapolis is the home of Rhymesayer's and Doomtree so we have lots of fucking hip-hop. Everyone knows Atmosphere and POS but if you haven't heard, check all off the following:
Dessa(I FUCKING LOVE DESSA)
Paper Tiger(definitely one of the best upcoming producers)
Brother Ali
Hieroglyphics
Eyedeas and Abilities


Also, bobtrotter and my buddy alex do some interesting dubstep work but I don't think any of it reaches further than the dingy basement I see them perform it in.