The Dingees

The Dingees' Musical Influences PART TWO

The punk/ska/reggae outfit The Dingees were nice enough to take the time to share their musical influences with us. Here is a list of their most influential and favorite albums.

Aaron Landers

Guitar, keys

The Clash - The Clash
Aaron Landers' Picks

1. The Clash - The Clash

After I first heard this album, everything changed. Save for a few groups, I never listened to music the same way, or thought of myself being in a band in the same way. They valued different things in different ways when it came down to songwriting, performance and record production. The band's look and wardrobe also grabbed my attention - they were very intentional with it. And I followed (spray-painted) suit.

FAVE TRAX: Janie Jones, Remote Control, London's Burning, Police & Thieves

The Clash - London Calling
Aaron Landers' Picks

2. The Clash - London Calling

When I first heard this album in 1997, it reeked of an elusive "coolness." I didn't quite know what it was, but I was hooked. I was 19, impressionable... Now that I'm 15 years older the coolness doesn't elude me; I've listened to it and read about it so many times and learned many of the riffs and chord changes. I never thought musicians who reached all over the musical and genre definitions could create a perfect hybrid that was just ahead of its time. It takes balls to blend multiple influences into something untried and untested. Plenty try and imitate The Clash, now more than ever. But it's impossible - they invented their elusive coolness and it's going to stay that way.

FAVE TRAX: London Calling, Jimmy Jazz, The Right Profile, Death or Glory, Lovers Rock

The Clash - Sandinista!
Aaron Landers' Picks

3. The Clash - Sandinista!

I was smoking more weed than ever when this record had its heyday with me. You weren't supposed to finish it in one listen, but then again, we were stoners. This record had many of the same identity, sonic and otherwise, as London Calling, but it seems like the Clash were on a riff, on a roll, totally loosened up. They couldn't put a stop to it. Punch-drunk at a party - perhaps they said too much but they definitely got their point across.

FAVE TRAX: Rebel Waltz, Corner Soul, If Music Could Talk, Washington Bullets, Broadway, Kingston Advice, Version City

Ragga Jungle Anthems - Vol. 1
Aaron Landers' Picks

4. Ragga Jungle Anthems - Vol. 1 (Compilation)

I first heard this about 2003 or 4, maybe earlier. Being a huge reggae fan, reggae from the 70s, I was shocked at how this music which often falls between 70, 80 bpm, could be electrified and seamlessly woven into a pace matching the energy of punk rock. Stimulating, in the way walking through Tokyo at night would overwhelm the senses (which I have never done).

FAVE TRAX: Under Mi Sensi (Jungle Spliff) (X Project Remix), You Don't Love Me (No No No) (Ambient Jungle Lick), How the West Was Won, Jungle Down in the Ghetto (Let's Sing It Together)

Bruce Springsteen - The River
Aaron Landers' Picks

5. Bruce Springsteen - The River

This record is Bruce's 4th with the E Street Band. Also known as the record-following-artists'-first-commercial-breakthrough. What often links these records together is a twist on the previous albums, but with a more sprawling, wide-scope presentation of ideas. I picked this one because it most resembles Sandinista by the Clash - just simply so much music.

FAVE TRAX: Hungry Heart, Out on the Street, Cadillac Ranch, Drive All Night

The Beatles - Rubber Soul
Aaron Landers' Picks

6. The Beatles - Rubber Soul

It never occurred to me that the Beatles imitated anybody. The Beatles - the pillars of creativity and originality. But the Beatles drew from their peers - early Motown and the vocal groups of the early 60s. Like London Calling, you couldn't really create this type of music - and sound original, unless you were so completely absorbed in it that you lost all self-consciousness.

FAVE TRAX: Drive My Car, The Word, I'm Looking Through You, In My Life

Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Aaron Landers' Picks

7. Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland

Even by Jimi's standards, this album goes everywhere. All over the place. It was one of the first CDs I ever bought; I was 14 or 15. Jimi had a voice that was faded, amused and confused. His songs on this one range from a few pop song arrangements, to shapeless masses that take you on long rides, with stops, gradual curves and the occasional U-turn in slow motion. And I simply don't have the words to do justice to his guitar playing - read what others have said.

FAVE TRAX: Have You Ever Been to Electric Lady Land?, Crosstown Traffic, Burning of the Midnight Lamp, 1983...A Merman I Should Turn to Be, House Burning Down

The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
Aaron Landers' Picks

8. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

I read critiques of this album quite a bit when I first listened to Pet Sounds sometime around Y2K. Everything I read was right on; the songs really dug right into me. What's great about it is how pre-rock 'n roll some of the arrangements are. The strings were mic'd "uncomfortably close," as I remember a violinist explaining. It's probably the greatest technically recorded album that features songwriting that is equally at its peak. It was my #1 for a very long time.

KEY TRAX: Wouldn't It Be Nice, I'm Waiting for the Day, Here Today, Caroline, No

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Aaron Landers' Picks

9. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik

The RHCP have spawned so many imitators - and they all stink! The band had made albums in the 80s that I won't really listen to. I think one of the keys to its greatness is it seems that the band had finally learned to let loose and breathe, adding empty space to their playing. The album is heavier and rocks harder than their previous ones because of this empty space. Some of the songs have the same unpredictable lyrics from Anthony Kiedis, but the frame is a lot more transparent, and the songs stand out more than all their image and all the fanfare.

KEY TRAX: The Power of Equality, If You Have to Ask, Suck My Kiss, Under the Bridge

The White Stripes - De Stijl
Aaron Landers' Picks

10. The White Stripes - De Stijl

The first White Stripes song I heard after a Napster search was "Hello Operator." I felt reluctantly obligated to look into a band that was getting all kinds of praise. What I heard really surprised me, in that I didn't know why they were the "new best thing." Because I thought it was the new best thing. I likened it to journalism - the best way to tell a story is to witness an event, and have a first-hand account. Next best is a second-hand account. What was amazing about the White Stripes is that they were telling a second-hand story from a pre-1950s event. But the music was alive now, or then to me, post Y2K. It sounds remarkable because the music is from another era, but it really doesn't appear that way at all to the uneducated (in musical history, that is).

KEY TRAX: Hello Operator, Little Bird, Sister, Do You Know My Name?, A Boy's Best Friend

Scrodgers - Drums

  1. James Brown - Star Time (Box Set)
  2. Fela Kuti - The Black President (Best of)
  3. Bob Marley - Songs of Freedom (Box Set)
  4. Lee Perry - Arkology (Box Set)
  5. The Specials - The Specials
  6. Bad Brains - Black Dots
  7. The Streets - Original Pirate Material
  8. BlackStar - Mos Def and Talib Kweli are BlackStar
  9. Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
  10. Rocket from the Crypt - Scream, Dracula, Scream

Honorable mention: Beastie Boys - To the 5 Boroughs

Jeff Holmes - Guitar, vocals

  • Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
  • Rancid - Life Won't Wait
  • Clash - London Calling
  • U2 - Achtung, Baby
  • Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
  • Pogues - Rum, Sodomy and the Lash
  • Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Boatman's Call
  • The Dream Syndicate - The Days of Wine and Roses
  • Billy Bragg & Wilco - Mermaid Avenue
  • The Good, The Bad and The Queen - The Good, The Bad and The Queen

Inspirations Behind Armageddon Massive

Jeff Holmes & Peg compiled this list of inspirations they drew from when writing Armageddon Massive:

  • Swinging Utters - Streets of San Francisco
  • The Bouncing Souls - Maniacal Laughter
  • Hepcat
  • Scientific Slackers - Redlight
  • Citizen Fish - Thirst
  • The Business - The Truth the Whole Truth Nothing But the Truth
  • The Harder They Come (soundtrack)
  • Toots & the Maytals - Funky Kingston
  • Bob Marley & the Wailers - Rebel Music/Natty Dread
  • Rancid - And Out Come the Wolves
  • The Clash - The Clash
  • The Specials - The Specials
  • The Selecter - Selected Selecter Selections
  • Operation Ivy - Energy

Listen to The Dingees