What's Your Hometown's ContributionTo Music?

You also forgot the Boo Radleys michael.

Lightning Bolt, Landed, Men's Recovery Project, etc.
The Talking Heads
Les Savy Fav and Black Dice early on...

sadly, Helix
give me an R ...

Dublin, ugh.

It will all change when Hystereo become Ireland's first successful dance act.

I'm from the Los Angeles area.

We're responsible for Beefheart, Minutemen, Beach Boys, Joan Jett, The Gun Club, NWA/Dre/Snoop, The Germs, Horace Tapscott and pretty much nothing else that comes to mind.

mallorca is known as a place of retirement for ex-rock stars: kevin ayers, mike oldfield, donovan, annie lennox...
we keep them quiet and relaxed so that they don't feel the urge to make bad music anymore.

The Blues Brothers. But the Jackson family lived just down the road from home, in Gary.

Did Arab on Radar really form in Groton, CT while waiting for a job intervew at the submarine factory? It's a good story. Cause that's my real hometown, though I was born across the river in New London.

Upland, California had pretty much nothing going for it musically prior to my generation - but we have since been blessed with Franklin Bruno/Nothing Painted Blue, Shrimper, and if I'm not mistaken ILM's own John Darnielle/Mountain Goats.

Inland Empire all up in heezy fo sheezy!

I forgot Kirsty McColl. I always do, and I dunno why...

Hmmm, from Lexington, KY...

Paul K & the Weathermen, Groovezilla, Chad Sexton the drummer from 311, Ten Foot Pole, Nine Pound Hammer, Bela Fleck wasn't born here but lived here for a long time, that's all the biggeez I can think of right now.

Pasadena gave us Van Halen, although apparently DLR was born in Indiana. It seemed like the LAFMS-associated bands (B-People, Human Hands, etc) and the Dream Syndicate were from around here also, but it may be that they just gravitated to this part of LA county. I once saw Steve Wynn and Karl Precoda walking down the isles in the Vons on East California. I was too chicken to say "Hi, love your stuff," of course.

From the DC area (where we're still trying to live down the "birth of emo" distinction) we have what's left of the Dischord ascendancy; the go-go scene (Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers, Rare Essence, the Junkyard Band); Deep Dish; the late Eva Cassidy. I'm not going to count SR-71 because they're closer to Baltimore, and I'm not going to count Good Charlotte because they were unknown here before a major label broke them.

Probably the most influential music artist to come out of DC, however, was Duke Ellington.

Portland, Maine: Slaid Cleaves, Cerberus Shoal, Diesel Doug and The Long Haul Truckers, Tarpigh, Rustic Overtunes (if you count it as a contribution), 6Gig(ditto). If you count the whole state, we've got underrated honky-tonker Dick Curliss.

Madison, Wisconsin produced Killdozer. I should stop there, really.

Killdozer were pretty influential in their way. The Madison punk scene didn't have the national impact on the culture that the '60s radicals did, but it was one of those places all the bands went to and made friends. The Crucifucks dedicated an album to Wisconsin. I heard Henry Rollins's dad lives there and that's why he always came through. Lots of bands still make a point of going there.

Other bands of note: Timbuk 3, Mecht Mensch, Tar Babies, Old Skull, Imminent Attack, Appliances-SFB, Rainer Maria, Garbage/Butch Vig, Ben Sidran, Joel Paterson, Jesse Hozeny. Butch Vig cut his teeth on recording punk for a decade before Nevermind, and did the Nevermind demos in Madison, for whatever impact that had. The place has been a longtime home to Clyde Stubblefield (the Funky Drummer), but I'm stretching.

Mostly, Madison just has a really active college and community radio scene, a city of really active fans, and it always has. We had MTV before most cities, and have always treated the Minneapolis underground as practically mainstream. Atmosphere draws as many people in Madison as in Minneapolis. So generations of UW college students come away thinking this is the norm around the country, but it really isn't.

Madison's impact is more obvious in politics and humor and movies: in the Wisconsin school of history, in the peace movement, the Zucker Brothers movies, Chris Farley, David Lynch, and the Onion. No local band has ever had that kind of impact...

Has anybody done Birmingham yet? Osbourne, Duran Duran, and if we extend the word 'contribution' to include SLIGHTLY NEGATIVE CONNOTATIONS then Ocean Colour Scene. I've (unwittingly until it was pointed out to me) served Bentley Rhythm Ace Man With Long Black Hair on a Sainsbury's checkout as well. They live really near me, in a house with impressively camp doors. I'm unclear of K Rowland's exact origins, but hell, he spent quite a lot of time here, and B'ham needs all the stah powah it can get.

Wild Cherry (Remember "Play that Funky Music", anyone?), Dean Martin, and Tracy Lords.

Now, I know that Tracy Lords isn't really a musician, but her movies are a great backdrop no matter what album you're listening to.

man my hometown sucks...

Providence also has the Iditarod, The Barnacled, Anton Bordman and Black Masks For Secrecy.

And yes, as far as I know, AOR really did form while applying at Electric Boat (though I feel compelled to point out that they called Providence home.)

Me.

Detroit... Motown, soul, the rock n' roll that would become punk (? and the Mysterions, Mitch Ryder to Stooges and MC5) and garage rock. Techno as well.

I am from Alexandria, Virginia, hometown of Stewart Copeland, drummer for the Police.

Brian Jones!

You also forgot the Boo Radleys michael.

...and sonia.

Born & raised in Columbus, OH.

To echo Dave225's earlier post: Rahsaan Roland Kirk, the Electric Eels, Scrawl.

To elaborate: New Bomb Turks, Gaunt, Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Great Plains, Royal Crescent Mob, Howlin' Maggie, RJD2 (& the MHz crew).

Brighton Beach contributed Norman Cook, right?

Too bad I live in Brighton Beach in Melbourne, Australia.

Well, my part of North London was once home to Wham!

Woking, Weller. My apologies.

Chesterfield = almost no-one, so I always claim Sheffield and it's rich tapestry of musical history. Then Jericho's lead singer went to my school though.

Annapolis, Maryland gave y'all emo (Hated, Moss Icon), Jimmy's Chicken Shack, jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd, and the songs California Dreamin' (about how miserable John Phillips was at the Naval Academy) and Reelin' in the Years (about St. John's College tutor Howard Zeiderman and his initial disappointment at St. John's).

Annapolis, Maryland gave y'all emo (Hated, Moss Icon), Jimmy's Chicken Shack, jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd, Eva Cassidy (keep your damn hands off our dead diva, DC) and the songs California Dreamin' (about how miserable John Phillips was at the Naval Academy) and Reelin' in the Years (about St. John's College tutor Howard Zeiderman and his initial disappointment at St. John's).

I'm from Virginia Beach. I'm from the same hometown -- hell, went to the same high school as -- the motherfuckin' NEPTUNES. Beat that.

The unlikeliest spot for music to nurture and grow was a small town called Claremont, California. In the late 50s and early 60s, during some formative years, the most consistent musical glue was a small family-run store called "The Folk Music Center" which sold instruments and ethnic and international records, promoted concerts and so on. The people who started that store did much to keep a musical heartbeat in the area. Some of the people who grew musically while living in the area:

Frank Zappa
David Lindley
Michael Stewart
Chris Strachwitz
(others are there beginning to bloom now ... including Franklin Bruno, Ben Harper ... while others had already blossomed but have enriched the area by dropping by for a time, Leonard Cohen and so on)

I estimate Ivor Cutler from Glasgow trumps at least 85% of the above for integrity, longevity and entertainment value.

Hey Ferg, you forgot Broadcast, Fuzzbox, Pram and Felt/Denim. Not to mention Stephen Duffy.

Not to mention the Streets.

Well, I've never seen Mike Skinner in Sainsbury's, so he doesn't count. Pato Banton was in today though. He parked his car in a disabled space.

ooo and Robert Plant, unless he comes under Kidderminster/Stourbridge/Wolverhampton's 'rich rock heritage' (cf. Anna's post about ten back). Also Stan Webb of Stan Webb's Chicken Shack feat. Stan Webb (who might've been in Fleetwood Mac? I forget - but he surely wasn't in Jimmy's Chicken Shack from Maryland - well I suppose he could've been).

Ooh and Apache Indian's Brum too.

Lewes, East Sussex, England. As far as I know, our most successful band has been British Sea Power.

the clarks.

oh, and gene kelly!!

Aren't BSP were from the Lake District?

Arghh! I can't even manage a coherent 7 word post, maybe I should knock it on the head...

What's a hometown anyway?

"the town where your home is"

Does it follow that your home country is the country you live in?

Websters has two definitions of hometown:

"the city or town where one was born or grew up; also : the place of one's principal residence"

So you're half right.

Main Entry: ped·ant
Pronunciation: 'pe-d&nt
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French, from Italian pedante
Date: 1588
1 obsolete : a male schoolteacher
2 a : one who makes a show of knowledge b : one who is unimaginative or who unduly emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge c : a formalist or precisionist in teaching

Juliana Hatfield, Reb Beach (Winger). And myself, natch.

chrys-chris, wot got into yu??

Also from Brum, King Adora and used-to-be-big-in-Melody-Maker-circa-1999-you-know-back-when-people-thought-Cay-were-a-good-thing indie peeps The New Electrics.