Virgin Records is sponsoring a contest (click on the “find the music” link in the lower right) that involves identifying 74 bands and artists that are represented in a drawing.
Here is a bigger version of the drawing, though because it’s a high-res scan from a magazine, there is a slight bit of the image missing at the crease (though it really only hampers your ability to figure out one of the bands, at most).
I managed to fill out a list of 74, but some of my picks I felt were stretching things. And I can’t for the life of me figure out who the contortionists or the bikini-clad girl in the store window are supposed to represent. I was thinking we could all get together and somehow score a perfect 74 on this – the best I’ve done is 59.
Music lovers, be warned: Everyone I’ve shown this to has been drawn into it and unable to pull away. But it sure is a fun time-waster.
Alice in Chains
Cowboy Junkies
Talking Heads
Dead Kennedys
Scissor Sisters
Pet Shop Boys
B-52s
King Crimson
Radiohead
Garbage
Smashing Pumpkins
Matchbox 20
Iron Maiden
Guns & Roses
Led Zeppelin
Twisted Sister (the acrobats?)
Blind Melon
the Rolling Stones
Go-Gos (the girls running from the Stones?)
Black Flag
Eminem
Knickelback (the oversized silver dollar?)
Blur
the Police
Scorpions
the Cars
Ratt
Whitesnake
Pixies
U2 (the grafitti “UU” on the building)
Crowded House
Counting Crows (two crows on the Main Street sign?)
Rusted Root
A few more, though I’m not 100% sure all of them were intended:White Zombie
The Eagles
The Cranberries (the bags in front of the fruit stand look like they might be labeled this, but I’m not quite sure)
Pavement
Seal
The Bee-Gees
The Beach Boys
Skinny Puppy
Cake
Dinosaur, Jr.
The Monkees
Mountain
Hole
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Korn
The Lemonheads
Green Day
The contortionists could be The Contortions (a punk group).
The “King Crimson” figure could also be Prince.
Add to that:
Queen
Cake
Gorillaz
Seal
Great White (the shark in the tank)
Eels
The Eagles
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Dinosaur, Jr.
The Nails
Spoon (or Big Spoon, a rap artist)
The Postal Service (the guy at the mail collection box)
The Bee Gees (the grafitti “BGs”)
The throng in white? Manic Street Preachers, methinks.
I think that’s 50 Cent, not Nickelback.
The starving dog (a whippet?) could be Skinny Puppy.
The TVs in the store window? Television.
The Madonna and Child graphic is probably Madonna… but if they’d added a danish in her hand, it’d also be Mary’s Danish!
They missed an oppty. with the grafitti – had they made it anything political, it could’ve also been Scritti Politti.
The red-bikini-clad mannikin in the shop window – Bikini Kill, perhaps, or the electronica act Cherry Bikini (I found the latter listed in Allmusic.com), or both.
The two dudes in black suits could be Interpol (or The Police), but what’s with their guitar cases?
Yep, they are very long. A two-for-one, then?
The three girls holding hands, skipping? Tripping Daisy.
The two surfer dudes (The Beach Boys, as someone already pointed out) are also Surf Punks.
The wheeled cart with the guns & roses on it… Pushcar?
Three details are really bugging me: the blond girl with bubblegum on the fire escape, the oil/grease slick in the road, and the… thing on the street in front of the half-dollar (what is that, a pile of bones?). Nevermind that there’s nondescript listings in Allmusic for stuff like “Oil,” “Bubblegum Crisis,” and one for “From Bubblegum to Sky”. I want readily-recognized marquee names, dammit.
