(Great) Bands I Keep Forgetting About

When people ask me about my favourite bands, the top-5 are always quick to come out: Cream, Pearl Jam, The Cure, Nine Inch Nails, and The White Stripes.

Then there's the next group, those I love but don't have a near-perfect batting average in my books: Smashing Pumpkins, Renaud, Jean Leloup, Elvis Costello, EMF, Led Zeppelin, Guns N' Roses and Jane's Addiction. The Red Hot Chili Peppers used to be in that group, but Stadium Arcadium took them off, single-handedly. Well, double-handedly. I could live with half their output being vaguely reminiscent of Give It Away and the other half being attempts at re-capturing the grace (and cash-making ability) of Under The Bridge, but I just never thought they'd be so blatant about it. Blatant, obvious, and - worst of all - boring.

But there's a whole other category of acts that exists in my mind - and maybe in yours, too: bands I fucking love so much... but just keep forgetting about. Cake, Soul Coughing, Jamiroquai, R.E.M., The Doors, Sublime, Cypress Hill, and Rage Against the Machine... all acts I've probably been ''inspired by'' (or, in all honesty, probably ''ripped off'') more often than bands in my top-5.

Weird, isn't it?

I came about this reflection today, while I was watching some Dread Zeppelin videos on YouTube... of all things.