Faust are one of the seminal Krautrock bands--they even gave the genre its name with one of their early song titles. Their music is a heady mix of rock, avant-garde electronics, and trippy psychedelia.

A crucial inspiration to several generations of bands, the Fall virtually defined the late-1970s UK post-punk sound. Fall vocalist Mark E. Smith's sung/spoken rants may owe more to beat poetry than rock & roll, but his sociopolitical iconoclasm and t…

A key part of the early-1970s Krautrock onslaught of post-psychedelic German rock bands (Can, Guru Guru, Cluster), Neu defined a specific, highly influential sub-genre dubbed "motorik." Their insistent, highly rhythmic style embraced minimalism and r…

Pick almost any forward-looking trend in rock and you're likely to find that Eno blazed the trail. Beginning in the 1970s, Eno pioneered everything from art-rock to ambient music to sample-based electronica. His career began with Roxy Music, where he…

One of the first wave of punk groups during the late 1970s, Wire was neither nihilistic in the Sex Pistols tradition nor political like the Clash. With its brief, caustic songs, Wire was closest to the Buzzcocks' brand of poppy punk, but its art-scho…

Drawing equally from punk rock and new-music pioneers such as John Cage and Glenn Branca (whom guitarists Thurston Moore and Lee Renaldo both played with), Sonic Youth employed a palette of white noise that deconstructed punk-rock orthodoxy into radi…

Decades after their brief yet influential career first ground to a sudden and mysterious halt the Silver Apples remain one of pop musics true enigmas a surreal almost unprecedented duo their music explored interstellar drones and hums pulsing rhythms…

From their early days as the house band for Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable, the Velvet Underground were the antithesis of late-1960s Flower Power optimism. Lou Reed's decadent lyrics and dour vocals proved to be the perfect match for the …

This inventive act evolved out of a commune based in Munich, Germany. The collective spilt into two factions in 1968 following an appearance at the Essen Song Days Festival where that supported the Mothers Of Invention and the Fugs. The political win…

Pere Ubu was aptly named for Alfred Jarry's Dadaist play. One of the prime movers in post-punk, the influential Cleveland, Ohio, group took the power and volume of punk and the fractured song forms of avant-gardists like Captain Beefheart, then sent …

From his participation in minimalist godfather LaMonte Young's groundbreaking '60s work to his key role in creating the darkly hypnotic Velvet Underground, John Cale was a trailblazer before he ever even embarked on a solo career. On his own, he meld…

From the 1960s through the early '80s, Captain Beeheart (Don Van Vliet) fused free jazz, the avant-garde, blues, and rock in a highly original, unclassifiable style. He's had few peers, but his angular, uncompromising sound has influenced countless y…

This British-French outfit started out in the early 1990s, with a sound that incorporated French-chanteuse vocals, primitive electronics, and Velvet Underground-meets-Neu chugging rhythm. Over the years, they refined their approach immensely, with ec…

Formed in 1978, the Gang of Four came from Leeds, England, with sharp, political lyrics and a cutting, angular sound that mixed post-punk guitar with funk rhythms. The relative artiness of their early work put them in a class with aesthetes like Wire…

Kraftwerk was initially part of the hippie-era krautrock boom. However, this pioneering German electro-pop group soon set themselves apart from their long-haired contemporaries by forsaking acid-soaked jams for a clean, precise sound whose mechanical…

It's hard to mention Birmingham, England's Broadcast without referencing two other acts: the Anglo/Franco art-pop band Stereolab and the 1960s art-rockers the Unites States of America. Stereolab released Broadcast's early singles in the late 1990s an…

Television came up in the 1970s among the first wave of New York punks (Ramones, Talking Heads, etc.), but their ambitious epics and stellar musicianship were far removed from the proletarian orientation of their CBGB's peers. The twin guitars of Ric…

Joy Division virtually defined the term "post-punk." They combined punk's rawness and iconoclasm with an artier sensibility that encompassed poetic lyrics, existentialism, and a dark moody mix of guitars and keyboards that was a major influence on go…

Love's first three albums are the bridge between the Byrds and the Doors. Masterminded by Arthur Lee, the group's garage-folk hybrid hid a dark underbelly that hinted at menace in the midst of the peace-and-love era. Their sturdy songs were boldly wr…

The mercurial David Bowie is the original pop chameleon. He's been everything from inoffensive pop singer to glam icon to white soul man to art-rocker and more in the course of his long, prolific career. Although Bowie's first hit was 1969's "Space O…