Pixies
And now, into my little Recording Artist Hall of Fame go the Pixies...
I dig Frank Black, and if I remember correctly, I got into the Pixies backwards by first liking his solo stuff from Teenager of the Year in the '90's...
Anyway, regardless, the Pixies were one of the great alternative music pioneers. I like that soft loud soft stuff they did which Nirvana picked up on and took to the world.
I also like the fact that they were from where I'm from... Massachusetts... and they went to UMass at just about the same time I was there. That's pretty cool.
The music of Black Francis (aka Frank Black, aka Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV) is influenced by stuff I like... Brian Wilson, surf music, punk, the Ramones, UFO's, murder, mental illness... He writes cool cryptic and off-beat songs.
Nowadays, after having broken up in the early '90's and then recently reunited in the past couple years, they're touring around... and hopefully I'll be alert enough to get some tickets one of these days. They're apparently coming to Glasgow in a few months but I guess they're sold out....