Top 20 Bands: 18 & 17

In continuing my Top 20 Bands countdown, I present you with two more amazing musical acts:

18. The Kinks [UPDATE: moved to number 13.]

The Kinks were an unstoppable force during the British Invasion of America in the mid-60s, popping out hits like ‘You Really Got Me‘, ‘All Day and All of the Night‘, ‘Tired of Waiting for You‘, etc. While these are surely classic tunes, their excessive familiarity to me (through being forced to listen to oldies radio stations as a child) gave me a great aversion to The Kinks. But like my aversion to The Beatles and The Beach Boys, I have grown out of this distaste for The Kinks (thanks to initial interest years ago via Rushmore and the watering of the seed by the Greg, the Band Evangelist) – and I even love their hits now too! It’s probably a shame to some people that The Kinks are down here at number 18 in my top 20, but I’m not especially familiar with their work after 1970’s Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One and I’ve only been really listening them for some four years now. Give me more time to wise up. Their album The Village Green Preservation Society (1968) can be found among my Top 50 Albums.

‘Sunny Afternoon’ single promo, later included 1966’s Face to Face:

‘Apeman’, featuring a creepy and massive-haired Ray Davies, from 1970’s Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround:

+++++

17. Danielson/Daniel Smith

Whether it is through a band consisting primarily of his siblings (Danielson Famile), through a solo project consisting of the man in a gigantic tree costume (Brother Danielson) or his most recent incarnation as just plain Danielson, Daniel Smith has been consistently producing honest, unusual and compelling art over the last two decades. Danielson appeared on my radar soon after my conversion to Christianity in the beginning of high school and I have grown more in love with them/him ever since. Interesting note: Through his association with Danielson I first gave Sufjan Stevens a shot. Read more about Daniel in this post. His/their second record, Tell Another Joke at the Ol’ Choppin’ Block (1997), is featured on my Top 50 Albums list.

I wanted to post ‘Headz in the Cloudz’ from the debut Danielson Famile album, 1996’s A Prayer for Every Hour, but embedding is disabled. View it here.

‘Things Against Stuff’, live from 2004’s Brother Is to Son from Brother Danielson: