This morning our friend Jon Rothstein compared the Dayton Flyers to the Beatles, likening Anthony Grant’s 13th-ranked group to the fab four because every road game is an “event”. He might be on to something.
So far the Flyers have been a serious boost to their two A-10 opposition’s attendance, drawing roughly double the average attendance at both Saint Joseph’s and La Salle with a huge Chaifetz Arena crowd on deck tonight.
Superstars.
But shouldn’t their band comparison be represented by a band from their area? Of course not. But that will do just fine as a decent enough lead in to my breakdown of the best band from the city/area of each of the current 14 Atlantic 10 schools.
Davidson – Jodeci
Charlotte close enough? While realistically I probably enjoy DaBaby more, Jodeci’s “Freek’n You” is largely responsible for the boom in Charlotte births for the year of 1996 and is a great karaoke song when you want to really impress someone. That gives them a slight edge over DaBaby, who realistically I just enjoy so much more.
Dayton – Dayton
The Breeders might be the better known band from Dayton, but they didn’t rep Dayton harder than, well…Dayton.
The yacht-funk, post-disco group have done the best job of harnessing the smooth sounds of the Gem City of any group to emerge from Flyer land. “Daytime Friend” is just itching to find its way into a Flyer highlight video whenever UD wises up and puts those powder blues on Anthony Grant’s squad.
Related note: I can almost guarantee you Anthony Grants sings in the shower to Dayton’s “So Glad”.
Duquesne – Wiz Khalifa
You probably wanted Mac Miller, even though I saw Rusted Root once in concert and actually enjoyed it, but as a VCU grad I owe Wiz for his “Black and Yellow” anthem we Ram fans played into the ground during our 2011 Final 4 run.
True story: Buick flew two of us from VCURamNation.com to Houston for the 2011 Final 4 as a part of this thing they were doing with the competing team’s “top bloggers”. They gave us a brand new Buick Lacrosse for our time there and if you think VCU fans are annoying now, just imagine us then driving a Lacrosse (and it wasn’t sitting on stock!) around Houston blasting “Black and Yellow” on repeat. Chills.
Honorable mention: Christina Aguilera.
Fordham – Bobby Darin
It’s no surprise the Bronx has produced some of Americas best musicians, being the birth place of arguably one of its best producers, Phil Spector. You’ve got Slick Rick, Carly Simon, KRS-One and the insanely-underrated Camp Lo headlining a strong group to pick from, but only one artist from their list has provided me some of my best cooking music over the years and that’s Bobby Darin.
Question: who’s listeners do you think have a higher NYC murder count…Bobby Darin or Fat Joe? That’s tough!
George Mason – The Dismemberment Plan
Fairfax, Virginia is perhaps not surprisingly a terrible place to grow musical talent. Known for being one of the most expensive areas of the country to live in, it’s not exactly the best place to be a starving artist or to live the struggle required to produce great art. If this were a post bragging about great lawyers, Mason would likely produce some bangers, but since this is about music, The Dismemberment Plan, a mediocre math rock outfit that sounds more like they graduated with a VCU sculpture degree, will have to do.
George Washington – Duke Ellington
Known as home to some highly-influential punk/hardcores acts (Bad Brains, Minor Threat, Fugazi), it’s Duke Ellington who gets the title of DC’s best musician (that I could look up quickly on a Friday morning) because his music stays in my rotation.
Want to enjoy a DC evening? Take a trip to Foggy Bottom for a road afternoon game, watch your team win, then go grab a gimlet from some swanky DC bar and listen to some Duke. My perfect day!
La Salle – Hall and Oats
Philly hits the list twice, which works just fine because they have a number of worthy artists, starting with my favorite from the area: Hall and Oats.
Daryl Hall and John Oats formed the yacht rock outfit that have provided me with some of my favorite pooling and boating soundtracks over the years. “Rich Girl”, “You Make My Dreams”, “Maneater”, “Private Eyes”, “Out of Touch”, I can’t name a favorite and you likely can’t either. We just know we all love them.
UMass – Dinosaur Jr.
Not a ton of options from Amherst, but an indie favorite, Dinosaur Jr., is a fine one. In my opinion their best work all hit in the early 90s, (Whatever’s Cool With Me through Without A Sound). My guess is most Atlantic 10 fans would likely hate Dinosaur Jr., but I mess with it, so here we are. Dinosaur Jr., kings of Amherst.
Rhode Island – DJ Pauly D
Rhode Island is a rooooough place for the development of musical talent, hence Pauly D’s rise to the top in these rankings. And let’s be real, his music technically sucks.
THAT SAID, I feel like Pauly D really represents the vibe of a good chunk of the Rhody fans I’ve come in contact with and if I’m being honest…after two drinks… I’m ready to beat that beat up with anyone who’s down to party.
Richmond – Bruce Hornsby
A former high school hooper himself, the Williamsburg native spent a year at the University of Richmond before heading off to Berklee College of Music and eventually, Miami. It has been rumored that Chris Mooney has even used Hornsby’s “Mandolin Rain” to motivate his teams pregame throughout the years.
Hornsby has a history with the Grateful Dead and is responsible for most of all of our favorite soft rock anthems.
St. Bonaventure – Goo Goo Dolls?
…This was hard. Bona fans, help me out here.
St. Bonaventure and Olean in general seems to only churn out your occasional famous athlete and priests (plus Woj). So Buffalo close enough? Either way, Bona fans had the opportunity to make the hour drive to catch em early in there careers, so I suppose that’s good enough to claim the 90s pop rock band.
Saint Joseph’s – John Coltrane
I know some of you were hoping for hip hop here after Hall and Oats claimed my first Philly pick (although I probably would’ve gone Boyz II Men because of it’s influence on my middle school years), but Coltrane started his jazz career in Philly and is unmatched musically by most of the world, let alone Philadelphia alone.
Put some “Blue Train” on during dinner tonight and just let it fire you up for a weekend of Atlantic 10 basketball.
Saint Louis – Donny Hathaway
While Chuck Berry has a strong argument and Tina Turner is responsible for most of my karaoke selections, no one hits like Donny Hathaway. He is to Saint Louis music history what Anthony Bonner was to the Billikens: a beast a first round draft pick.
You youngins are likely most familiar with his version of “This Christmas”, but when you get a chance, check out his version of John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy”, one of the best examples of a cover being so much better than the original.
VCU – Municipal Waste
Chris Brown has been seen shooting hoops on campus, GWAR might be some of VCU’s most recognizable grads (when in costume) and D’Angelo at one point boasted Richmond’s most famous abs, but to me, no one goes harder in Richmond than punk metal band, Municipal Waste.
The stereotype of VCU students is that of tattooed and pierced art kids, so what better representative of the Virginia Commonwealth University side of Richmond than one of the hardest partying groups of fun-loving metal heads than the Waste?
Author’s note: This article was poorly researched. Please post your picks in the comment section below.