Dipping Low (In The Lap Of Luxury)

Bottom/ The Smashing Pumpkins return with reunion album Zeitgeist (Reprise, 2007). The Smashing Pumpkins are an American alternative rock band that formed in Chicago in 1988. With approximately 18.25 million albums sold in the US alone, they were one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed bands of the 1990s. Disavowing the punk rock roots shared by many of their alt-rock contemporaries, the Pumpkins have a diverse, densely layered, and guitar-heavy sound, containing elements of gothic rock, heavy metal, dream pop, psychedelic rock, arena rock, shoegazer-style production and, in later recordings, electronica. Frontman Billy Corgan is the group's primary songwriter—his grand musical ambitions and cathartic lyrics have shaped the band's albums and songs, which have been described as "anguished, bruised reports from Billy Corgan's nightmare-land". Corgan indicated that, with Zeitgeist, he wanted to make a mainstream rock record and comment on the political climate of the United States. Top/ American blues-rock band ZZ Top from Houston, Texas, unleashed Afterburner (Warner) in 1985. Starring guitar ace Billy Gibbons, the band originally gained wide acclaim with the classic, hard rockin' song "La Grange", referencing the bordello that is also the subject of the musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The band later went for a distinctive synthesizer-laced sound —a rarity in the blues rock genre —, which added a modern, electronic edge to the music. ZZ Top reached new heights of popularity with the 1983 album Eliminator, boosted to prominence by the tracks "Gimme All Your Lovin'", "Legs" and "Sharp Dressed Man".

Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned

Hank Williams (1923 – 1953) was an American singer-songwriter and musician who has become an icon of country music and one of the most influential musicians and songwriters of the 20th century. A leading pioneer of the honky tonk style, he had numerous hit records, and his charismatic performances and succinct compositions increased his fame. His songbook is one of the backbones of country music, and several of his songs are pop standards as well. He has been covered in a range of pop, gospel, blues and rock styles. His death at the age of twenty-nine helped fuel his legend. His son (Randall) Hank Williams, Jr., nicknamed 'Bocephus', his daughter Jett Williams, and his grandchildren (Shelton) Hank Williams III, Holly Williams, and Hilary Williams are also professional singers. Come September: An Introduction To Hank Williams (Mercury, 2003) is an anthology of 18 songs from the late country legend and contains "I Saw the Light" and "Ramblin' Man."

Brain Salad Surgery

Bottom/ Aqualung (Island) is the fourth studio album by the rock band Jethro Tull, released in 1971. On this album, band leader Ian Anderson's writing voiced strong opinions about religion and society. The title track and "Locomotive Breath" remain staples of U.S. classic rock stations and, to this day, are rarely left out of Jethro Tull's live act. Jethro Tull are a British rock group that formed in 1967-1968. Its music is marked by the distinctive vocal style and lead flute work of front man Ian Anderson. Initially playing blues rock with an experimental flavour, it has incorporated elements of classical, folk and 'ethnic' musics, jazz and art rock into its music. The band has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide. The album's original cover art by Burton Silverman features a portrait of the title character, Aqualung, which many have considered to be inspired by Ian Anderson, though Anderson denies it. Top/ Brain Salad Surgery (Manticore Records, 1973) is the fourth studio album by progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Designed by controversial surreal artist H.R. Giger, best known for his design work on the film Alien, the album cover is considered one of the most memorable (and often disturbing) of its time. It features distinctive Giger monochromatic biomechanical artwork, integrating an industrial mechanism with a human skull and the new ELP logo (created by Giger). In the original LP release, the front cover was split in half down the center. Opening the halves revealed a painting of the complete face: a human female (modelled after Giger's wife), with "alien" hair and multiple scars, including the infinity symbol and a scar from a frontal lobotomy. Brain Salad Surgery is an epic, futuristic fusion of rock and classical themes. Lyrics were co-written by Greg Lake with ex-King Crimson fellow member Peter Sinfield. "Jerusalem" was the only single, but it was not released in the UK due to objections from the BBC.

Once Upon A Town

Top/ Foreign Affairs is an album by Tom Waits, released in 1977 on Elektra Entertainment. It was produced by Bones Howe, and features Bette Midler singing a duet with Waits on "I Never Talk to Strangers". Tom Waits (born 7 December 1949) is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car." With this trademark growl, his incorporation of pre-rock styles such as blues, jazz, and vaudeville, and experimental tendencies verging on industrial music, Waits has built up a distinctive musical persona. He has worked as a composer for movies and musical plays and as a supporting actor in films, including The Fisher King, Coffee & Cigarettes and Down by Law (both directed by Jim Jarmusch), Bram Stoker's Dracula, Wristcutters: A Love Story, and the 1993 Robert Altman film Short Cuts. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his soundtrack work on One from the Heart, a 1982 musical film directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Lyrically, Waits' songs contain atmospheric portrayals of bizarre, seedy characters and places, although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads. Bottom/ Asylum Years (1986) is the second "best of" compilation covering Tom Waits' Asylum Records years. The album curiously features no tracks from 1975 fan favourite Nighthawks at the Diner but has poignant and touching songs such as his magnificent version of Somewhere (from West Side Story), "Kentucky Avenue" and the classic "Ruby’s Arms".

Higher Ground

Bottom/ It's a Beautiful Day (CBS, 1969) is the self-titled debut album by San Francisco psychedelic band It's a Beautiful Day. It's a Beautiful Day was a band formed in San Francisco, California in 1967, the brainchild of violinist and vocalist David LaFlamme. Although they were one of the earliest and most important San Francisco bands to emerge from the Summer of Love, It’s a Beautiful Day never quite achieved the success of their contemporaries such as The Grateful Dead and Santana, with whom they had connections. It’s A Beautiful Day created a unique blend of rock, jazz, folk, classical and world beat styles during the seven years the band was officially together. Top/ 13th Floor Elevators was a garage rock band formed in Austin, Texas, from late 1965 until 1969. As one of the first psychedelic bands, they have been cited as an influential proto-punk group. Their biggest hit "You're Gonna Miss Me", a Billboard #55 hit in 1966, was featured on the 1972 compilation Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968, which was later to be considered a landmark in the history of garage rock and the development of punk rock. Singer Janis Joplin was a close associate of the band. She sang with the band at a few shows, and considered joining the group in Austin, before she headed to San Francisco and joined Big Brother and the Holding Company. Her style of singing was much influenced by singer/guitarist Roky Erickson's trademark screaming and yelping, as in "You're Gonna Miss Me". Today, the 13th Floor Elevators continues to influence new generations of musicians. In 1990, 21 contemporary bands — including R.E.M., ZZ Top, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Primal Scream — recorded covers of Elevators songs on Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson, one of the first tribute albums, in what would become a fad. The band have also been an influence on the "stoner rock" scene the likes of Queens of the Stone Age.

Walking In Space

Bottom/ Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement. The musical's profanity, its depiction of the use of illegal drugs, its treatment of sexuality, its irreverence for the American flag, and its nude scene caused much comment and controversy. The musical broke new ground in musical theatre by defining the genre of the "rock musical", utilizing a racially-integrated cast and inviting the audience onstage for a "Be-in" finale. Several of the songs from its score became Top 40 hits, and a successful movie adaptation by Milos Forman was released in 1979. That same year, RCA released the 2-record set Hair - Original Soundtrack Recording. For three nights in September 2007, Joe's Pub and the Public Theater presented a 40th anniversary production of Hair at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park in New York. Demand for the show was overwhelming, as long lines and overnight waits for tickets "dwarfed" other Delacorte productions. Nine months after its concert version, The Public Theater opened Hair in a fully staged production at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, on July 22, 2008. The Public Theatre has announced that the production will transfer to Broadway in 2009. Said co-author James Rado in 2008: "It was a show about now when we did it. Now it's a show about then—but it's still about now." Top/ Sweetheart of the Rodeo is the sixth album by American rock band The Byrds, released on July 29, 1968 on Columbia. Along with Bob Dylan's John Wesley Harding and a handful of other albums, Sweetheart of the Rodeo is one of the seminal recordings of country-rock and remains influential to this day despite being the most commercially unsuccessful album recorded by the group at the time of its release.

The Great Gig In The Sky

Richard William Wright (28 July 1943 - 15 September 2008) was a self-taught pianist and keyboardist best known for his long career with Pink Floyd. Wright’s richly textured keyboard layers were a vital ingredient and a distinctive characteristic of Pink Floyd's sound. In addition, Wright frequently sang background and occasionally lead vocals onstage and in the studio with Pink Floyd (most notably on the songs "Time", "Echoes", and on the Syd Barrett composition "Astronomy Domine"). Though not as prolific a songwriter as his bandmates Roger Waters and David Gilmour, he wrote significant parts of the music for classic albums such as Meddle (Harvest/EMI, 1971) (top), The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here (Harvest/EMI, 1975), as well as for Pink Floyd's final studio album The Division Bell. In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright was a prominent musical force in the group (although not as much as Syd Barrett, the band’s chief songwriter and front man at the time) and he wrote and sang several songs of his own during 1967–1968. While not credited as a singer on Pink Floyd's debut The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, he sang lead on Barrett-penned songs like "Astronomy Domine" and "Matilda Mother", as well as notable harmonies on "Scarecrow" and "Chapter 24". Examples of his early compositions include "Remember a Day", "Paintbox" and "It Would Be So Nice". As the sound and the goals of the band evolved, Wright became less interested in songwriting and focused primarily on contributing his distinctive style to extended instrumental compositions such as "Interstellar Overdrive", "A Saucerful of Secrets" (EMI Columbia, 1968) (bottom), "Careful with That Axe, Eugene", "One Of These Days" and to musical themes for film scores (More, Zabriskie Point and Obscured by Clouds). He also made essential contributions to Pink Floyd's long, epic compositions such as "Atom Heart Mother", "Echoes" (on which he sang lead vocals) and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". His most commercially popular compositions are "The Great Gig in the Sky" and "Us and Them" from 1973's The Dark Side of the Moon. He also contributed significantly to other mid-period Floyd classics like "Breathe" and "Time", singing lead vocals on alternate verses of the latter with David Gilmour. Wright was known for his ghostly atmospheric textures such as the Leslie piano arpeggios at the beginning of "Echoes", the echoed Farfisa organ in the live versions of "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun", the distinctive Minimoog solos in "Any Colour You Like" and, more famously, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and the jazzy electric piano passages in "Money", "Time" and "Sheep". Bandmate David Gilmour said: "In my view, all the greatest Pink Floyd moments are the ones where he is in full flow. No-one can replace Richard Wright - he was my musical partner and my friend." He added: "In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick's enormous input was frequently forgotten." RIP Rick — "Remember a day before today / A day when you were young / Free to play alone with time / Evening never came / Sing a song that can’t be sung / Without the morning’s kiss."

We Are Glitter

Bottom/ In Your Mind (E.G. Records) is a 1977 album by Bryan Ferry. It was his fourth long-playing solo release and the first consisting entirely of original songs: the first two had been cover albums, the second concluding with an original song, the third a collection of B-side and EP material, all of it covers. As Ferry's first solo all-original LP effort, released after the break-up of Roxy Music, it was supported by an extensive tour. Top/ "Butterfly Caught" is a single taken from 100th Window (Virgin Records, 2003), the fourth studio album from the Bristol-based trip-hop group Massive Attack. Of Massive Attack's original core trio, the album only featured Robert Del Naja – Andrew Vowles departed shortly after the release of Mezzanine, and Grant Marshall was on a sabbatical to raise his young daughter. Released in 2003, it was written and produced by Del Naja and Neil Davidge, and features the vocals from Horace Andy and Sinéad O'Connor, as well as an appearance by Damon Albarn. It is the first album by the band that made no use of samples, and contains none of the jazz or fusion stylings of the band's earlier recordings. 100th Window received a generally positive, though somewhat muted critical reception, many arguing that whilst Massive Attack's previous three albums had all broken significant new ground for the group, 100th Window's dark, brooding sound was merely a continuation, although in some areas, less dark, of Mezzanine. The title of the album comes from the book "The Hundredth Window: Protecting Your Privacy and Security in the Age of the Internet"; this title is an allusion to the idea that one's security is compromised if even one window is left open.

Fade Into You

An all-time fave of Music Curator Max Chavanne at sonic-nurse.com, So Tonight That I Might See (Capitol, 1993) is the second studio album by the American dream pop band Mazzy Star. A year after its release, the album yielded an unexpected hit single, the wispy opening track "Fade into You". "Fade into You" became a staple of mid-1990s teen dramas, movies, and represented the kind of gentle ennui that was missing from the more aggressive angst of grunge. Mazzy Star's roots in the California Paisley Underground movement of the 1980s are deep. The group's 1990 debut on Rough Trade, She Hangs Brightly, was a post-punk take on the kind of dark psychedelia practiced by The Doors on "The End", as well as the massive guitar drone woven by The Velvet Underground on "What Goes On". Most of the rest of their material is devoted to acoustic-flavoured ballads with heavy blues and folk elements, often featuring David Roback on slide guitar. Roback and singer Hope Sandoval were the creative center of the band, with Sandoval writing most of the lyrics and Roback composing most of the music. Mazzy Star's third release, Among My Swan (Capitol, 1996) confirmed them as champions of the mournful – their brooding, enigmatic public personas seem less a cultivated pose than a complement to the shadowy, brooding mystery of their simultaneously frustrating and entrancing soundscapes. Hope Sandoval was born in 1966 and grew up in East L.A. in a Mexican-American family. In 2000, Sandoval joined with Colm Ó Cíosóig (formerly of My Bloody Valentine) to form Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions. The project retained the laid-back, slowcore sound of Mazzy Star. She has also contributed on several songs by other
artists, such as The Jesus & Mary Chain, The Chemical Brothers,
Bert Jansch, and Death In Vegas.

Bullet With Butterfly Wings

Bottom/ A Passion Play (Chrysalis, 1973) is a concept album released by Jethro Tull. Apparently concerning the spiritual journey of one man in the afterlife, it is similar to Thick as a Brick in that it is one long track split across both sides of the LP vinyl record (actually a medley of segued shorter songs,) save for the interruption of the oddly-whimsical spoken word piece "The Story Of The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles". The dense lyrics, filled with wordplay and allegory, along with music that some found lacking in creativity compared to earlier work, have made A Passion Play one of the most disputed albums in Tull's catalog. Even today, Jethro Tull fans are still divided over the merits of the album. Jethro Tull's best-known work, Aqualung, was released in 1971. Top/ Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (RCA) is the sixth studio album by the Foo Fighters, released on September 25, 2007. Foo Fighters is an American alternative rock band formed by singer/guitarist Dave Grohl in 1995. Grohl formed the group as a one-man project after the dissolution of his previous band Nirvana in 1994. Dave Grohl joined the Aberdeen, Washington grunge band Nirvana as the group's drummer in 1990. Cobain was found dead in his Seattle home on April 8, 1994, and Nirvana subsequently disbanded. Over the course of the Foo Fighter's career, three of its albums have won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album, and all six have been nominated for Grammys.

Feel Good Inc

Blur's debut album Leisure (Food, 1991) incorporated the influence of Madchester and shoegazing. Following a stylistic change in 1992 —influenced by English guitar groups such as The Kinks, The Beatles and XTC— they released Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993), Parklife (1994) and The Great Escape (1995). As a result, the band helped to popularise the Britpop genre and achieved mass popularity in the UK, aided by a famous chart battle with rival band Oasis dubbed "The Battle of Britpop". Though Blur has not disbanded, of late singer- songwriter Damon Albarn has been more active as the main man behind the music of Gorillaz and The Good, the Bad and the Queen project. Over his 19 year career he released 35 Top 40 Hit Singles,
all in the UK.

Open The Kingdom

Top/ Entering the glam kingdom of Scissor Sisters' self-titled debut album (Polydor, 2004). It includes the singles "Filthy/Gorgeous" and "Comfortably Numb", a disco cover of the Pink Floyd classic. Artwork by Spookytim of Studio Spooky. Bottom/ Continuing a Roxy Music tradition, Bryan Ferry's girlfriend Lucy Helmore appeared on the cover of the band's eighth studio album Avalon (Virgin, 1982) wearing a medieval helmet and carrying a falcon. The image evoked King Arthur's last journey to the mysterious land of Avalon.

Sky Fits Heaven

Confessions on a Dance Floor (Warner Bros., 2005) has become one of Madonna's best selling albums, with international hits such as "Hung Up" and "Sorry". The album led to the most successful concert tour of her career, the Confessions Tour. It was co-produced by Stuart Price and contains collaborations with Mirwais Ahmadzaï, formerly of French synthpop group Taxi Girl. According to Rolling Stone, "This is an album designed for maximum volume. It's all motion, action, speed. (...) Unlike the crystalline precision of latter-day Madonna discs like Ray of Light and Music, the sonic signature here is a powerhouse density." Madonna has been regarded as "one of the greatest pop acts of all time" by various sources. In 1999, she identified musical influences that impacted her such as Karen Carpenter, The Supremes and Led Zeppelin, and dancers like Martha Graham and Rudolf Nureyev. Guinness World Records list Madonna as the world's most successful female recording artist of all time and the top-earning female singer in the world with an estimated net worth of over US$400 million, having sold over 200 million records worldwide. In 2008, her eleventh studio album, Hard Candy, was released. On March 10, 2008, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since the late 1990s, Madonna has been a devotee of the Kabbalah Centre and a disciple of its head, Rabbi Philip Berg, and his wife Karen. Madonna has defended her Kabbalah studies by stating it "would be less controversial if I joined the Nazi Party" and that the Kabbalah is "not hurting anybody." In 2007, Madonna also directed her first film, Filth and Wisdom.

Flicking Your Switch

Bottom/ Sign 'O The Times (Paisley Park, 1987) quickly became widely regarded as Prince's magnum opus. Middle/ Kick-ass Bossanova (4AD, 1990) by the Pixies unleashes gorgeous melodies heavily influenced by punk and surf rock. Top/ English rock band with strong R&B roots Mott The Hoople are best known for the song "All the Young Dudes", which was written for them by their fan David Bowie

Universal Syncopations

Bottom/ Eumir Deodato is a Grammy Award-winning Brazilian musician, producer and arranger primarily based in the jazz realm but who historically has been known for eclectic melding of big band and combo jazz with varied elements of rock/pop, R&B/funk, Brazilian/ Latin, and symphonic or orchestral music. Mainly, his records can be categorized as pop jazz or crossover jazz. His successes as an original artist (keyboards) occurred mainly in the 1970s. Since then, he has produced more than 500 albums for acts ranging from Kool and the Gang to Björk and k.d. lang. His funky version of Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra won the 1973 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and went No. 2 in the pop charts in the US. Love Island (Wounded Bird Records) was originally released in 1978. It features guest appearances by jazz greats George Benson, Larry Carlton & Harvey Mason. Middle/ Allowing the third eye to open with Stevie Wonder's Innervisions (Tamla, 1973) Top/ Oxygène (Dreyfuss, 1976) is the first major multi-million selling album from synthpop pioneer Jean Michel Jarre. Oxygène is considered by some to be the most important and influential electronic music album ever. Contrasted with his contemporaries, such as the rather clinical, hard, futuristic sound of Kraftwerk, or the more 'cosmic' and murky Tangerine Dream, Oxygène had a lush, spacey and strongly melodic sound reminiscent of the sound of Wendy Carlos on the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange released a few years earlier. The track "Oxygène Part IV" was released as a single and became one of the best-known pieces of electronic music ever. In 1978, his second album, Equinoxe, was released. Jarre has sold an estimated 80 million albums and singles.

Spaceball Ricochet

The Slider (EMI) is a glam rock album by T. Rex, released in 1972. It became T. Rex's most popular album in the United States, featuring the singles "Telegram Sam" and "Metal Guru", though neither of these became hits in the U.S. The much-parodied iconic cover was #37 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest album covers. The Slider came on the heels of the success of Electric Warrior. The virtues of Electric Warrior were all there, but most agreed it had a very different style. T.Rex (occasionally spelt T Rex or T-Rex) were an English rock band fronted by guitarist and singer Marc Bolan (1947 – 1977). The band were established as a folk rock group in 1960s London, as Tyrannosaurus Rex and released their debut album in 1968 My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair... But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows which reached number 15 on the UK chart. They achieved mainstream success in the 1970s as a glam rock group with hits such as ""Ride a White Swan", "Hot Love", "Get It On" , "Solid Gold Easy Action" and "20th Century Boy".

All Neon Like

Bottom/ Jukebox (Matador Records, 2008) is the eighth album by American singer/songwriter Chan Marshall, also known by her stage name, Cat Power. She is known for her minimalist style, sparse guitar and piano playing, and ethereal vocals. The album is comprised almost entirely of cover songs, including "New York", popularized by Liza Minnelli in 1977 and Frank Sinatra in 1980, "Don't Explain", originally released by Billie Holiday, and "A Woman Left Lonely", originally released by Ella Brown and popularised by Janis Joplin on her (posthumous) 1971 album, Pearl. Middle/ Singer-songwriter Feist, ex-member of Canadian indie rock bands Broken Social Scene and By Divine Right, weaves the sweetest tunes in her third solo album The Reminder (Cherrytree/Interscope, 2007). Top/ With it's minimalist, synthetic beats and lush string orchestra arrangements, Björk's fourth album Homogenic (One Little Indian, 1997) reflects the dual nature of her native Iceland, an eerie mix of nature and high-tech.

Little Fluffy Clouds

The Orb often used bizarre imagery, such as for their live album Live 93 (Island Records, 1993), the cover of which with the sheep over the Battersea Power Station parodied Pink Floyd's Animals album cover. The Orb are an English electronic music group known for popularising chill out music in the 1990s and spawning the genre of ambient house through the use of a diverse array of samples and recordings. The Orb's critical and commercial success in the UK peaked in the early 1990s with their albums The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld and the track "Little Fluffy Clouds" (incorporating samples from Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint and vocal clips from an interview with Rickie Lee Jones in which she recalls picturesque images from her childhood), and U.F.Orb, which reached #1 on the UK Albums Chart in 1992. This success led to their infamous, "legendary avant-garde" appearance on Top of the Pops, where they showcased their quirky style by playing a game of chess (an interest of cofounder Alex Paterson's since his early youth) in space suits, while footage of dolphins and an edited version of the group's single "Blue Room"
ran in the background.

Oh Yeah, Oh No

Bottom/ Le Tigre (French for "The Tiger") is an American dance-punk band, formed by Kathleen Hanna (formerly of Bikini Kill) and Johanna Fateman in 1998. Le Tigre is known for its socio-political lyrics, dealing with issues of feminism and the LGBT community. This Island (Universal, 2004) is their third album. Initially envisioned as a live back up band for Hanna's solo project Julie Ruin, Le Tigre mixed the politics and feminism of riot grrrl with fun electronic samples and lo-fi beats. Top/ Chicks on Speed is an electropop group which started in Munich in 1997. Though usually considered part of such musical genres as electroclash, Chicks on Speed actually started as a multidisciplinary art group who applied punk-inspired DIY ethic to performance art, collage graphics and home-made fashion. We Don't Play Guitars is a collaboration with Canadian artist Peaches, from the Chicks' heavily electronic second album 99 Cents (Chicks On Speed Records, 2003). The album also included a cover of Tom Tom Club's "Wordy Rappinghood", featuring a bevy of guests including Miss Kittin (who appears later on "Shick Shaving") and Tina Weymouth (who composed the lyrics and sang on the original). Top/ Genderchange identity is one theme of Peaches' music, and she often plays with traditional notions of gender identity, gender roles, and gender representation. Her lyrics and live shows self-consciously blur the distinction between male and female; she appears on the cover of her album Fatherfucker (XL Recordings, 2003) with a full beard.

Interstellar Overdrive

Bottom/ Original cover art for the live double CD P•U•L•S•E (EMI, 1995) released by Pink Floyd after the departure of former band leader Roger Waters, features an "eye-like" machine that has clock pieces inside, and a planet in its center. On the outside, it shows evolution as it moves backwards. It starts in the sea, then moves to the bacterias, which evolve into fishes, then into egg type creatures, then into eggs, which hatch birds that follow the trail of an airplane. Six pyramids can be seen on the ground, while a city appears on the shore in the distance. Top/ Together We're Heavy (Good Records, 2004) is the second release from Dallas, Texas self-described
"choral symphonic rock" group The Polyphonic Spree

Deaf In The Afternoon

Bottom/ Rage in Eden (Chrysalis, 1981) is the fifth album by British band Ultravox, and the second of the band's most-recognizable incarnation, fronted by Midge Ure. Co-produced by Conny Plank like their previous two LP's, Rage in Eden features what some fans of the band consider their most creative and experimental phase. This record was met with severe criticism from certain members of the press because of its polished and almost-overproduced instrumentation. The abstract album artwork was designed by Peter Saville, better known for his collaborations with New Order. Ultravox (formerly Ultravox!) was a British New Wave band that rose to prominence in the early 1980s. They were one of the primary exponents of the British electronic pop music movement of the early 1980s. The band was particularly associated with the New Romantic movement, although it both pre- and post-dated New Romanticism by several years. Top/ Songs for the Deaf is the third studio album by American hard rock band Queens of the Stone Age. Released in 2002, the album features Foo Fighters frontman, ex-Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a guest drummer. Like their other albums, Songs for the Deaf has a large number of guest musicians, a signature of the band's releases. Following the breakthrough Rated R, this album is widely regarded as Queens of the Stone Age's magnum opus, garnering universal acclaim from critics, whilst earning the band's first gold record certification in the U.S., having sold 986,000 copies in the country. Songs for the Deaf is loosely considered as a concept album, taking the listener on a drive from Los Angeles to the Mojave Desert while tuning into radio stations from towns on the way such as Banning, California and Chino Hills, California. The album received two Best Hard Rock Performance Grammy nominations for singles
"No One Knows" (2003), and "Go with the Flow" (2004).

Calling All Angels

Bottom/ Classic cover artwork for Osibisa (MCA, 1971) by Roger Dean. Osibisa is a band, founded in London in the year 1969 by four African and three Caribbean musicians, who peaked in popularity in the 1970s. They were one of the first widely popular African bands. Osibisa describes itself as the godfathers of world music, claiming to have paved the way for more famous musicians like Bob Marley, who became popular in the mid-1970s. Their music is described as a fusion of African, Caribbean, jazz, rock, Latin and R&B. The name Osibisa was actually described by the band members to mean "criss cross rhythms that explode with happiness". Their style influenced many of the emerging African musicians of the time. Middle/ Sigur Rós is an Icelandic post-rock band with melodic, classical, experimental, and minimalist elements. The band is known for its ethereal sound and lead singer Jónsi's falsetto voice. International acclaim came with the release of Ágætis byrjun (Fat Cat Records, 1999). The band became well known for Jónsi's signature style of playing guitar with the bow from a cello, accentuated with reverb, creating a sweeping, fluid sound that is unique for an electric guitar. Top/ The Secret Migration (V2 Records, 2005) is the much-anticipated sixth album by American indie rock group Mercury Rev. With their early records, Mercury Rev offered experimental, psychedelic rock, which gradually shifted to a melodic, ornate sound. Labeled anything from Chamber Pop to Space Rock, their music is often compared to the Flaming Lips' lush, multi-layered psychedelic arrangements.