R-A-M-O-N-E-S

Joey Ramone was a brilliant songwriter.  Unfortunately, from the early '80s on, Johnny would veto or just refuse to play on any of Joey's songs he didn't like, which means a lot of the later albums were half-assed affairs with too many songs from Dee Dee, or even CJ.

The way of CURVE

Curve - essentially the duo of Toni Halliday and Dean Garcia - were one of my favorite bands of the 1990s. So many bands tried, and almost all failed, to merge a dark, cacophonous sound with pseudo-industrial rhythms with Ice Queen vocals. Curve not only succeeded but during the 5 years between their 2nd and 3rd albums, they saw Garbage hit mainstream hitdom with a very similar, though poppier and less edgy, sound.

Steve Earle

From hard-rockin' to straight-up bluegrass, Steve Earle is a great songwriter, roots rocker, and as close as I get to "country" music.

The Prodigy

Along with Chemical Brothers and Moby, The Prodigy really helped electronic music take hold in America.  They often got slagged off in the press, but their music really was a precursor to Grammy-winning Skrillex and giant EDM festivals that are commonplace everywhere now.

RIP Keith Flint

Abecedarians

Abecedarians were a short-lived post-punk band from L.A.

The name of the band is Talking Heads

They're from New York City, you know.

Low

Low pretty much spearheaded the "slowcore" movement - music so slow and minimalist, it was almost ambient.  But, they morphed slowly into a proper Alt Rock band, with Alan Sparhawk's scrawling guitar noise.  Lately, they've morphed again into an experimental mode, with songs being cut up into soundscapes that still maintain a deep sense of melancholy.