Because we had a canning day yesterday, and this is the kind of goofy, nerdy E36 M3 that we come up with to entertain ourselves when there's a bunch of us doing a monotonous task together.
Come up with some Fantasy Rock Supergroups. Up to 5 artists, but try to stick to 4 or 3. Any artists, alive or dead (please remind us of acts their best known for if not obvious). You get to draw from any point in their careers. Don't just look for the best on their respective instruments, but artists who would gel well together. Feel free to comment about what their music would sound like.
I'll go first:
Group 1:
Bill Brufford (King Crimson and Yes) on Drums
Chris Squire (Yes) on Bass
Hendrix on Guitar and backing vocals
Freddie Mercury on Vocals and Piano
Pretty sure they'd just give us a wide range of top-notch, technical, but funky rock.
Group 2:
Bernard Purdie on Drums (a prolific set musician specializing in R&B, Soul, and Funk, with waaaay too many credits to list)
Jaco Pastorius on Basss (Weather Report)
Stevie Ray Vaughan on Guitar
David Bowie on Vocals and rhythm guitar
Bonus Jimmy Smith on Hammond Organ
We're gonna get some funky blues rock here.
Eddie Van Halen on guitar, Dave Grohl on drums, Jack Black on vocals would absolutely shred.
Javelin said:
Eddie Van Halen on guitar, Dave Grohl on drums, Jack Black on vocals would absolutely shred.
Agreed. Who you going with for your bass player?
Bass- Laura Lee - Khruangbin
Rhythm guitar- Corey Wong
Lead guitar- Mike McCready -Pearl Jam
Drums- Danny Carey - Tool (Grohl and Carter Buford got strong consideration)
Keys- Corey Henry
Vocalists- Adrianne Lenker - Big Thief
Eddie Vedder was tempting, but I actually really like the idea of recording with multiple/rolling vocalist. Adele or John Legend would be amazing to hear with that supporting cast.
Blind Faith 1968
Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Steve Winwood, and Ric Greco
Beer Baron said:
Javelin said:
Eddie Van Halen on guitar, Dave Grohl on drums, Jack Black on vocals would absolutely shred.
Agreed. Who you going with for your bass player?
I like those three, I'd add Ryan Martinie on bass.
z31maniac said:
Beer Baron said:
Javelin said:
Eddie Van Halen on guitar, Dave Grohl on drums, Jack Black on vocals would absolutely shred.
Agreed. Who you going with for your bass player?
I like those three, I'd add Ryan Martinie on bass.
I'm kinda thinking Flea would really fit that vibe, too.
I'm stretching the definition of rock with this one, but here we go.
Vocals - Florence Welch (Florence + The Machine)
Guitar - Will Swan (Dance Gavin Dance)
Bass - Jesse F. Keeler (Death From Above 1979)
Drums - Matt Tong (Bloc Party)
Synths - James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem)
I would have very much like to have seen a Jimi Hendrix, Jack Bruce, Mitch Mitchell group, imagine the possibilities.
Beer Baron said:
z31maniac said:
Beer Baron said:
Javelin said:
Eddie Van Halen on guitar, Dave Grohl on drums, Jack Black on vocals would absolutely shred.
Agreed. Who you going with for your bass player?
I like those three, I'd add Ryan Martinie on bass.
I'm kinda thinking Flea would really fit that vibe, too.
That's another good one. Both of those guys can do it all. Heavy, melodic runs, funky slap bass, etc.
I was initially thinking Les Claypool, but he I think he would be a bit TOO far out there.
z31maniac said:
I was initially thinking Les Claypool, but he I think he would be a bit TOO far out there.
I think Claypool would be too weird. But if we wanted to lean into that weirdness
Les Claypool on Bass
Tom Morello on Guitar
Dan the Automator on... um... beats?
Bjork on vocals
I totally went weirdness with mine, but just edited the vocals to reflect that and because I also didn't like having two bandmates in it together, my pearl jam bias was on full display.
Beer Baron said:
z31maniac said:
I was initially thinking Les Claypool, but he I think he would be a bit TOO far out there.
I think Claypool would be too weird. But if we wanted to lean into that weirdness
Les Claypool on Bass
Tom Morello on Guitar
Dan the Automator on... um... beats?
Bjork on vocals
Les and Tom would be a great combo. I don't know who Dan the Automator is or his style.
How about Stewart Copeland on drums for his mastery of polyrythms to put behind Les and Tom?
And Mike Patton on vocals since he's done everything from rock, rap-rock, rap, Opera and everything in between? And with Tomahawk he also does a lot of synth stuff and effects on his voice and will use multiple microphones on stage for different sounds as well.
I like all these weird combos we're coming up with.
In reply to z31maniac :
Mike Doughty could be a potential vocalist for that ensemble as well.
z31maniac said:
Beer Baron said:
I think Claypool would be too weird. But if we wanted to lean into that weirdness
Les Claypool on Bass
Tom Morello on Guitar
Dan the Automator on... um... beats?
Bjork on vocals
Les and Tom would be a great combo. I don't know who Dan the Automator is or his style.
How about Stewart Copeland on drums for his mastery of polyrythms to put behind Les and Tom?
And Mike Patton on vocals since he's done everything from rock, rap-rock, rap, Opera and everything in between? And with Tomahawk he also does a lot of synth stuff and effects on his voice and will use multiple microphones on stage for different sounds as well.
I like all these weird combos we're coming up with.
Dan the Automator is a producer in the hip hop/electronic sense - sampling and mixes. He did work on Gorillaz self titled album, but also projects like Lovage and Bitter:Sweet. So he'd fill the drummer roll with programmed beats and sampling.
Or Questlove could be a really fun choice for drummer.
In reply to Beer Baron :
That's kind of what I figured, I'm just not very familiar with that particular genre.
Absolutely I go with Beer Baron's Group 2 - glad to see someone else remembers Jimmy Smith!
Give me Ann Wilson on vocals... once in a generation powerful voice. Slash on guitar. Animal from the Muppets on drums.... you said this is fantasy, right??
Funky Trio:
Marcus King-guitar (look em up-very talented)
Christian McBride-bass (has played w/tons of jazz musicians and also Sting and done tons of session work)
Cindy Blackman Santana (played with Lenny Kravitz and now plays with Santana. Married to Carlos Santana also.)
Jazz Organ Trio:
Derek Trucks (Allman Bros, Solo stuff, Tedeschi Trucks Band) guitar
Reese Wynans (played on later Double Trouble albums and has played with tons of other artists who are escaping me this morning) keys and organ
Sheila E (Prince and Solo stuff) drums
Latin Group:
Herbie Hancock (Headhunters)-keys/organ/clavinet/rhodes
John Mayer- guitar
Flea- bass
Tito Puente on percussion
Buddy Rich on drums.
SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) said:
Give me Ann Wilson on vocals... once in a generation powerful voice. Slash on guitar. Animal from the Muppets on drums.... you said this is fantasy, right??
I love Ann Wilson. I've got her slotted in my fantasy Metal lineup. Proof that Rolling Stone's top 100 lists are bullE36 M3 that she is absent from their list of greatest vocalists. Incredibly powerful vocalist, blowing open the doors for women to rock, one of the few vocalists who can actually do justice to "Stairway", and an inspiration for artists like Chris Cornell and basically every woman who's ever sung metal. She has every type of range from pitch, to how smooth or rough, to quiet or belting.
Heh. Stick Bootsy Collins on Bass to make this lineup even more over the top and extreme.
In reply to Beer Baron :
Rolling Stone left her off the top 100 list of vocalists? Oh puh-lease. She's really far up that list, IMO.
In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :
Yeah. No Ann Wilson, and they have Bob Dylan in the top 20.
Dave Grohl Metal Band:
Dave Grohl- guitar and vox
Tom Morello- guitar
Lenny Kravitz- Bass (hey the guy plays numerous instruments on all his records)
Mike Portnoy (ex Dream Theater) drums.
Jim Pettengill said:
Absolutely I go with Beer Baron's Group 2 - glad to see someone else remembers Jimmy Smith!
I have recently become a big Jimmy Smith fan. He'd be one of the stars in my fantasy Jazz ensemble lineup. Took me a while to figure out who else to stick into that group. I felt like I needed a horn player or something that could cut through and stand up against Smith's organ. But it finally hit me this morning...
Ron Carter - Bass
Omar Hakim - Drums
Jimmy Smith - Organ
Astor Piazzola on Bandoneon
Stephane Grappeli on Violin
Yeah, those last three are going to be a crazy mashup. It will either come together or fall apart dramatically. I think it would hinge on if Jimmy Smith can tone things down, but I think he could. Piazzola isn't known for jazz, but studied it extensively and stitched it in to tango music. I think Grappeli would be in a unique position to stitch the traditions together.
Omar Hakim would really hold things together. He's so crisp and precise while also being incredibly versatile. (He did drumming for 'Let's Dance', 'Brothers in Arms', about half the tracks on 'Random Access Memories', among a BUNCH of other albums.) And of course Ron Carter is just a rock.
