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Back to Artists' Picks: The Best of Rock 2008 According to Our Panel of Pros

Artists' Picks: The Best of Rock 2008 According to Our Panel of Pros

Posted May 01, 2008 12:00 AM

SLASH PICKS

Best Guitarist

"Jack White is an old-school guitar player with great feel — and feel is ninety percent of the battle," says Slash. "Rock & roll comes basically from one place: the blues. It's just hopped-up blues. And you have to have a little bit of soul to get a good handle on it. There are fewer and fewer guys that have that going for them."

M.I.A. PICKS

Best Global Sound

The Sri Lankan MC, who traveled the world gathering beats for last year's Kala, digs kuduro, the raw synth-heavy electronic music from Angola, a West African nation that is one of the poorest in the world. "It initially came from kids not having anything to make music on other than their cellphones, using samples they'd get from their PCs and mobiles' sound buttons," she says. "It's a rave-y, beat-oriented sound. Now that it's growing, they've got proper PCs to make music on."

HERBIE HANCOCK PICKS

Best Jazz Guitarist

Jazz guitarist Lionel Loueke — from the tiny West African nation of Benin — has a new album out on Blue Note. "He's comfortable in any setting, whether it's straight-ahead jazz or avant-garde," says Hancock. "And in his hands, the guitar is no longer just this instrument that you pluck. He turns it into a percussion instrument — he sticks paper between the strings to give it kind of a marimba sound."

FEIST PICKS

Best Music Venue

Nashville's Ryman Auditorium
The 116-year-old hall, which housed the Grand Ole Opry from 1943 to 1974, has hosted legendary performances from Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash — who was once banned for knocking out the footlights. "At the Ryman, the wood has light in it," says Feist. "It breathes with echoes of all the people that have ever sung there. It's like a living museum."

ADAM LEVINE PICKS

Five Best Makeout

Albums

1. Marvin Gaye
What's Going On
"It has an ethereal, jammy side to it that's very conducive to making out. Throw it on, smoke a joint, drink a bit of wine. The rest is obviously up to you."

2. The Who
Who's Next
"It's so frenetic and unleashed. 'Behind Blue Eyes' is a nice moment to stare into the other person's eyes and do all those goofy things."

3. Stan Getz and João Gilberto
Getz/Gilberto
"If you drink some wine and put on that record — even if you're alone, you'll probably make out with yourself."

4. Miles Davis
Kind of Blue
"That's a different kind of make-out. That's like a heroin make-out, a slow molasses-esque make-out."

5. Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine
"When I was sixteen, I made out with a girl in the back seat to this. You know how you dry-hump when you're sixteen because you don't take your pants off? By the time it was over, we were toast. It's actually a horrible choice."

T BONE BURNETT PICKS

Best Bluegrass Group

Burnett — who has produced records for everyone from Roy Orbison to Elvis Costello — digs the classic Nashville family group the Del McCoury Band. "Del's been around for years — he played with Bill Monroe," says Burnett. "He's one of the fathers of bluegrass. His son Ronnie McCoury is a great arranger and a young guy — he's got a lot of vision and a lot of scope. They all work around one microphone, and they all play and sing really well. They blend themselves right there."

LITTLE STEVEN VAN ZANDT PICKS

Best Garage Bands of

All Time

1. The Shadows of Knight
The Chicago band had its only U.S. hit with a cover of "Gloria" (by Van Morrison's band Them) in 1966. "They introduced that song to kids in the suburbs," Van Zandt says. "Van Morrison was a blatant impersonator of Jagger when he wrote the song. He soon carved out his own identity."

2. The Pretty Things
"They are part of the original British Invasion, but they forgot to invade!" Van Zandt says of the early-1960s U.K. band, whose biggest hit was "Don't Bring Me Down." "Their guitarist, Dick Taylor, was in the original Rolling Stones. They are still together and great, to this day."

3. The Len Price 3
"They sound like the pop-rock-y side of the Ramones meets the early Who," Van Zandt says of this young Kent, England, trio, who released their 2007 album, Rentacrowd, on Little Steven's Wicked Cool label. "You can hear a bit of West Coast surf music in there too."

4. The Chesterfield Kings
"These guys are the best garage-rock band in the world at the moment," Van Zandt says of the Rochester, New York, group signed to Wicked Cool. "They go back to the early 1980s. It's the sound of white kids struggling to make black music and failing gloriously."

PETE WENTZ PICKS

Best Aftershow Hangout:

Wal-Mart

Twenty-four-hour Wal-Marts on tour? That's like the hangout of the year. It's the only place where you can get a camo hunting hat and SpongeBob or Curious George pajamas, all in one look. And that looks great together, by the way. Whatever you see in the aisle, you're like, "Aw, yeah, I totally want that thing and that thing." Like, something that's just so bad, like fish sticks and toaster strudels.

KATE NASH PICKS

Best Kiss-Off Song:

Kelis, "I Hate You So

Much Right Now"

I think it's funny because it's so angry and it's literally like, I hate you so much right now. It's like something you'd say. It's good to get that out. There are a some particular guys where I'm like, "fuck you." There are so many chauvinist, sexist, typical industry sleazebags that want to be sleazes and push girls in to corners and stuff. I fucking hate them all. They're so horrible. They're such ugly people.

TOM MORELLO PICKS

Best Contemporary

Protest Song: Arcade

Fire, "Intervention"

It's pretty phenomenal. I definitely get the protest vibe out of it. There's that great line about if you're so used to being on bended knee. [The verse is: "I can taste your fear/It's gonna lift you up and take you out of here/And the bone shall never heal/I care not if you kneel"] That's actually what drew me to Arcade Fire. I kind of came late to that party. They played that song on Saturday Night Live, and they played it with such great conviction. Like, who is this great new protest band? I have to know more!

ROB ZOMBIE PICKS

Best Movie

Soundtrack: A

Clockwork Orange

I started listening to the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange when I was sixteen and didn't know much about classical music at all. But the movie blew me away so much that it made a form of music that I paid no attention to totally fascinating to me. Now whenever I hear any of those songs, I immediately think of the movie, and that's how you know a soundtrack did its job.

CHESTER BENNINGTON PICKS

Best Festival: Summer

Sonic

The problem with U.S. festivals is that they have mostly American and British groups, so you're not getting a real glimpse of what's out there. But at Summer Sonic in Japan, they have a bunch of international acts, all playing at this outdoor stadium that's broken up into indoor arenas of different sizes.

COLIN MELOY PICKS

Best Lyricist: Morrissey

The exploration of vanity and fame — few people do it better than Morrissey. There's both a real joy in it, as well as genuine self-loathing. People criticize him for being completely serious, but Morrissey at his best is a comedian. "Heaven knows I'm miserable now"? He's hilarious!