Photo: Alejandro Jofré/Flickr
When you turn on the radio nowadays, it seems like all that comes out is pure noise, and the bleeding in your ears tells you there’s got to be another way. What about some of the classic living musicians we haven’t heard from in awhile? Maybe it’s time we heard from these people again, and maybe put the kiddies in their boom boom room, lock the door and throw away the key. Because the older we get, the quicker we realize that maybe, just maybe the music from yesteryear was a lot better. What are we saying? It is better.
If you were thinking Bon Iver was one of our picks, we’re sorry. He’s already back with plenty of other anticipated fall music on the way.
10 Living Musicians We Want Music From Again
So these awesome musicians better get on it, before, you know, they bite the dust. Hey, it happens. You all know that 2016 has been a hell of a year when it comes to the death of legendary musicians. I just want to make you folks aware. OK, OK, I’ll shut my trap now.
Well, at least we’ll always this: Blink-182 Does Nude Music Video Once Again…But With Sexy Women
Living Musicians
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Liam Gallagher
After the Oasis split, little Gallagher, Liam, took his big mouth and the rest of the band, sans big brother Noel, to create a modern classic Brit sound in Beady Eye. The band caved after their second album, BE, but now there’s rumors that Liam is headed back to the studio to fly solo.
Photo: Samir Hussein/Redferns (Getty)
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Damien Rice
He was Ireland’s answer for everything with his debut album O in 2002. Its single “The Blower’s Daughter” set the tone, followed by another album 9 in 2006, just before we went nearly a decade hearing anything new from Damien Rice. Besides great music, his live performances are phenomenal, and in 2014 he popped back into the scene for a blink with his third studio album. My Favourite Faded Fantasy. The return was dimly lit having been gone so long, and now we want more.
Photo: Lilja Birgisdottir
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Johnny Marr
He’s been caught in bits and pieces on other people’s records (Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds Chasing Yesterday), but we hadn’t heard anything straight from the horse’s mouth since his work with Modest Mouse in 2009 until 2014’s Playland, his second solo. Marr’s guitar skills, unprecedented, are part of what’s missing in today’s culture, as we vie for more of The Smiths as well. We also went 5 years without a record from Morrissey until 2014’s World Peace Is None of Your Business, and we need some more of him and his poignant titles back, too.
Photo: Dean Chalkey/NME
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Bill Corgan
He’s a Chicago man at heart, which is obvious since he’s thrown out the opening pitch and founded a Chicago indie pro-wrestling league, but the smashingest of pumpkins, Bill Corgan, has been quiet on the solo front, both musically and poetically. His 2005 solo release, TheFutureEmbrace, remains his sole lonesome project, but we’d pay to hear more.
Photo: Caitlin Lisa
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Fran Healy
The Travis frontman went out on a limb with the 2010 Wreckorder, but it was marvelous (I would know, I witnessed it in an abandoned L.A. church) but his work with The Killers and Paul McCartney, along with the anticipated April release of the new Travis, Everything at Once, has kept him busy. Doesn’t mean we wouldn’t like to go back to 2010. You know what happens when you go to church for the first time in a long time?
Photo: Getty Images
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Joni Mitchell
She’s put on a few years, but it’s been nearly a decade since her last studio release, Shine. Although some people might be uncertain if she’s still alive, we assure you she’s well, and the vocals are ripe as ever, despite her smoking habits at the age of 72.
Photo: David Leyes
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Robbie Robertson
The man from The Band has packed on a few pounds since his last waltz, but his fifth solo studio album in 2011, How to Become Clairvoyant, shows us little has changed when it comes to our love for Robbie. The album, dated more than five years, features the most classic musicians across the last 50 years in Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood and Trent Reznor. We’re just saying we’d like a little more rock from Robbie while the getting is good.
Photo: Chris So/Toronto Star (Getty)
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Donovan
Now 70, the Brit folk genius has been a little quiet, although doing a short 50th anniversary tour for Sunshine Superman. Although he’s earned the right to be a little mellow (yellow) with his music releases since 2013’s Shadow of Blue, anybody who’s ever owned a guitar has spent nights trying to learn a little Donovan, only to give up and ask him to just keep doing what he does best. Donovan is set to play L.A. at three separate locations Oct. 6 to 8, including an opening acoustic set with Incubus.
Photo: Francois Guillot/AFP (Getty)
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Carole King
Aside from 2011’s A Holiday Carole, which was a holiday album (obviously!), we haven’t had a studio album from the woman behind 1971’s Tapestry since 2001. She’s got 25 albums in the bag, four Grammys and a spot on the Gilmore Girls reboot this year, but she claims to have retired from music since 2012, that was, until she played Tapestry in its entirety this summer. Can we call it a comeback?
Photo: Alex Brandon/AP
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Steve Winwood
He’s the guy you put on when the party gets soft, then you bust out a classic air guitar solo, but it’s been some time since we’ve been back in the high life with Steve Winwood. His last original studio album was 2008, and before that was 2003, ironically titled About Time. Since his albums have had nearly 7-year spaces between each in the last 30 years, we think we’re about due for some higher love with the man himself.
Photo: Wikipedia Commons
