50 States/50 Bands: Massachusetts to New Jersey

Suffering from insomnia one night, a vision came to me. It was, of course, not particularly useful. It was a vision of me recommending a musical act from each of the 50 states. More motivated than I have been in years, I sat down and hammered it out. Eons came and went. Civilizations rose and fell. Now I'm ready to share my baby with the world in five easy to digest posts. Naturally, the list reflects my own personal biases, so bring on the arguments. In some cases, there was no band or artist I liked from a particular state, and you can generally tell which ones those are.

Those download recommendations with an * can be heard on TMS Radio - so tune in and have a go.

Massachusetts - Aerosmith - Any street cred these guys had left faded away with that dreadful Armageddon song, but apparently they were a serious and important rock band at one point. I'm just too young to remember that time.

*Download - Love in an Elevator

Michigan - Kid Rock - I’m going to take some shit for this, but bring it on. The guy is good and helped spark the resurgence of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.

*Download - You Never Met a Motherfucker Quite Like Me

Minnesota - tie - Bob Dylan and Prince - I can’t make the call. Both have contributed so much in their own way. To date though, Dylan is the only one to be portrayed by Kate Blanchette in a movie and Prince is the only one to have a silhouette penis during the Superbowl.

*Dylan Download - Rainy Day Women
*Prince Download - 7

Mississippi - Bo Diddley - The blues singer beats out Faith Hill and Lance Bass…I’m sure you’re surprised.

Download - Diddley Daddy

Missouri - Chuck Berry - Berry learned everything he ever knew from Michael J. Fox, or so the movies tell us. Without Chuck, there might not have been rock n roll as we know it.

Download - Roll Over Beethoven

Montana - Dan Seals & Marie Osmond - Neither are from Montana, nor ever lived there as far as I can tell, but they put out a song called Meet Me in Montana and there are no other options.

Download - Meet Me in Montana

Nebraska - 311 - Holy shit…311 is from Nebraska. Who knew? White guys doing reggae are apparently very big in Kearney.

Download - Love Song

Nevada - The Killers - I’ve said it before on this blog, but The Killers are one of the best new bands around. Think androgynous alien era Bowie meets U2 before Bono decided to save the world.

*Download - Bling (Confessions of a King)

New Hampshire - University of New Hampshire Marching Band - No one famous or remotely interesting hails from this state. They suck wicked hard. Hats off to the UNH kids who are apparently the only people putting out music up there.

Download - your favorite marching band song

New Jersey - My Chemical Romance - MCR: Brining legitimacy to emo one song at a time. If you lived in New Jersey, you’d probably dye your hair black and sing about death too. Music snobs everywhere cancelled their subscriptions to Blender after they named The Black Parade the best CD of 2006.

*Download - Famous Last Words