Intelligent Life On Planet Rock
The "twinning" of rock bands
Maybe it's creeping senility or just the sheer proliferation of musical names with whom one is supposed to be familiar nowadays but I can't be the only person in the world who has difficulty detecting the difference between name acts. It could be an accident of naming (as PG Wodehouse once remarked, "there's some rum work pulled round the font") or the fact that they line up in a similar fashion or they came along at roughly the same time but I increasingly find myself mentally "twinning" loads of acts. The following spring most readily to mind:
David Gray and Damien Rice: acoustic, anguished, popular with the girls, hideously rich.
Basement Jaxx and Groove Armada: two pairs of blokes who sell millions of dance hits; we wouldn't recognise them they walked in here right this minute wearing tee shirts with their names on the front.
Josh Ritter and Josh Rouse: well, what the hell do you expect?
Pernice Brothers and Felice Brothers: one of you had better make it big quick; otherwise you'll both have to go.
Will Young and Gareth Gates: keep 'em moving around, we're stock taking.
Duffy and Adele: obviously somebody thinks this country is in such serious danger of a soul singer shortage that they're starting to knock them out in pairs. One's blonde, is that right?
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I would suggest...
Jamelia, Aaliyah, Amerie and Ashanti. Individuality seeping from every pore...
And these two aswell
Turin Brakes and Starsailor - one and the same, surely
Job sharing
These are financially turbulent times for the music industry. Maybe some of the acts listed could be convinced to sign-up to the record company equivalent of a job-sharing scheme, whereby two similar artists are jointly signed to the same deal and then release albums alternately, so as not to flood the market place.
I remember a Josh Rouse album and a Josh Ritter album coming out on the same day. I never want that to happen again.
Have you heard the new podcast?
In it propose my new idea for bands. The squad system! I think it's an idea whose time has come.
I'm listening to it now.
It's a super idea. Wasn't there a band called The Vulgar Boatmen who had a different live and studio line-ups?
It's better than I thought
The Vulgar Boatmen were a franchise. Quoted from their wikipedia entry:
"As of 2008 the Indiana branch of the Boatmen remains active under the leadership of Lawrence, though the Florida branch appears to be dormant."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vulgar_Boatmen
There are currently
Five different Bjorn Agains, each covering a different territory.
Travis and Coldplay
Or indeed any other two of that legion of vaguely unhappy-sounding mid-pace rock-balladeers.
you might have something here
This lot could really maixmise their time, this summer at the festival imagine if on saturday evening The Keane coldsnow killer playpark patrol we were headling. They could play a series of crowd pleasing songs and we could miss out all the new ones we don't like and just have yellow , and the one about being a soldier in special place where no one knows. Why is there no covers band that does this maybe The Feling could do it, they could chuck in their elo covers and make a killing ripping off chris martin. If they did some robbie and oasis they'd be minted.
Lily Nash and Kate Allen
One sits down, the other stands up in a twirly frock. Other than that, who can tell the difference?
when I fist saw this I
when I fist saw this I thought your were twinning bands to make bigger groups, ie. damien rice and chilli peppers to make chilli rice. Put led zepplin, jefferson aiplane, wings, all together to make the "Luftwaffe" .
But i have the same Josh problem as you and it is only now that i see the Pernice Brothers and Felice Brothers as seperate at all. I know round here this will be sacrilege but when push comes to shuff steely dan, dooby brothers and the eagles are abit of blur really. I did suggest before you might produce wallcharts like the guardian, one for all the recent female singer song writers and one for all the straight trouser "THE bands" oh and one explaining nu-rave.
"when push comes to shuff
"when push comes to shuff steely dan, dooby brothers and the eagles are abit of blur really".
!!??!!?
Really this will not do. Detention after school for you my lad!!
Never mind detention
You're not getting any privileges restored until you've learnt the lyrics to the first three Dan albums, the chords to the first three Eagles albums, and learnt to build the spliffs smoked by the Doobies during the recording of their first three albums.
"steely dan, dooby brothers and the eagles are a bit of a blur" ?
No capitalisation, and you have the temerity to spell "Dooby" incorrectly! I've never heard such DRIVEL in my LIFE!!!!! YOUNG PEOPLE TODAY!!! LACK OF MORAL FIBRE!!!! WHAT WERE ONCE VICES ARE NOW HABITS!!!!
(apoplectic fit ensues)
I'm with
Chris G on this one. You can burn us at the stake together.
Don't be lazy, Heppo!
We can make mistakes and muddle our Joshes, altho' they are as different as chalk and cheese, or as Elvis and Elvis, at least to my ears. You have to tell us the difference and explain why. P.S. I bought both Subtitulo and Animal Years, both of which arrived at similar times, as mentioned above. I recommend both.
O, and Damien Rice is unlistenable bollox. One song and a snippet of another from an overated film do not a career make.
O
I'd reached the same conclusion myself.
Smoke On The Water
Heavy rock's a bit of a blind spot to me. Nothing wrong with it as far as I know; I just have no interest in it. And I honestly couldn't tell you if Smoke On the Water is by Black Sabbath or Deep Purple (or someone else, though I'm pretty sure it's not Led Zep).
I also get mixed up between The Velvettes and The Marvelettes.
And between Ant and Dec.
ant and dec are simple....
....they always stand in the right order! but what about Joel and Ethan Cohen or redgraves.
Long John Mayall
Long John Baldry and John Mayall - those sixties blues boom talent spotters
Counting Crows and Crash Test Dummies
Grumbly mumblers both
Counting Crows and Crash
Counting Crows and Crash Test Dummies
and hootie and the blow fish, dave mathews group.
What did you do in the Blues Boom, daddy?
Long John Baldry did not possess a famous & comprehensive collection of porn. At least not of the same sort as John Mayall did, anyway. On that basis a joining-up of the two is unlikely.
I apologise now for mentioning jazz mags again on this forum. I blame that Mr Drayton for starting it last month.
Counting Crows and Black Crows.
They both do the same 70's semi-acoustic rock thing, right?
Y'see, there's a flaw in your Baldry/Mayall argument
Being by some distance the tallest man in pop, everybody knew who Long John Baldry was. He was never blurred with anyone else.
not even mick fleetwood!
not even mick fleetwood!
Spin Doctors and Saw Doctors
Also:
My Chemical Romance/Fall Out Boy/Jimmy Eat World
Limp Bizkit/Linkin Park/Papa Roach
Blink 182/Sum 41
etc etc...
Good one
Like that last one.
Bloc Party and Interpol merge into one for me.
I'd say...
Bloc Party and Foals, based on Foals' recent single ('Cassius', is it called?). Interpol are more of a Joy Division clone to these ears. I get Interpol confused with The Editors myself.
Totally agree with the Adele/Duffy thing; no idea which one is which! And the Kate Nash/Lily Allen one.
Also see Snow Patrol, Keane and Athlete (I call them athlete's foot myself!). Also, The Enemy/Pigeon Detectives/The View/Razorlight.
As for Sabbath/Deep Purple confusion, the lines were actually amusingly blurred once where Ian Gillan joined Sabbath and sang 'Smoke On The Water' live with them. This, I believe, was the show with the Stonehenge set too (before 'Spinal Tap' came out!).
Half way through the Deep Purple
gig recorded by the BBC in Kilburn in 1973, Jon Lord introduces the band, with the recently recruited Coverdale and Hughes replacing Gillan and Glover. When he gets to introducing himself, he claims to be "Rick Emerson".
purps and the sabs
The confusion is compounded by members of deep purple joining black sabbath, and vice versa. I think there were a few weeks in the late eighties when every single member of of Black Sabbath was in Deep Purple and every single member of Deep Purple was in Black Sabbath until someone noticed.
There was a similar...
....period when every member of Fairport, bar Simon Nicol, it seemed, was also in Jethro Tull. Funny that I like the one group and can't abide the other.
Even more esoteric department: the ever evolving Albion Band once "took over" the Cock and Bull Band, with Ashley Hutchings "becoming" their bassist, thus legitimising a name change.
Everything that's on Kerrang
Everything that's on Kerrang could be paired off, like antiquated toy soldiers.
(Thanks to my 6th
(Thanks to my 6th formers)How about The Rasmus, HIM, My Chemical Romance, Bullet for My Valentine, Funeral for a friend? Perhaps more pertinently for WORD readers..
The Kooks, The Fratellis, The Enemy,The Zutons, The Coral, The View, The Feeling, Orson, Hard-Fi? (there are more of these out there, but repeated viewing of MTV2 has merely turned all this music..beige. I can't tell the difference anymore!)
Also vexing me Lenny Kravitz and somebody called "Jimi Hendrix" (sounds made-up)
Coral / View
I saw the Coral and the View live at Liverpool Academy late last year. One of them (the Coral) was very good, the other one (the View) wasn't. Lots of needlessly fast guitars and incomprehensible Dundonian (is that the right word?) shouting does not make for a good night out in my view...
What about
Joe Jackson and Jack Johnson?
Sarah Kennedy has trouble telling them apart
Despite one being a tanned beach bum & the other a near-albino chain smoker (and one being shit & the other not), she back-announced It's Different For Girls with, 'Joe Jackson there. He's from Hawaii, apparently'
and
Steely Dan/Steeleye Span
Sorry but...
Having just got over winter flu.
How about Dire Straits and Chris Rea coming together? Then you get Dire Rea!
Or
Bruce Springsteen, Donna Summer, The Fall and Edgar Winter - then Franki Vali can have a spare set of Four Seasons
High Fidelity
C'mon Powerjen the punchline is Chris Straits.
In the book Barry berates a customer for confusing Albert Collins And Albert King.
Menswear/Gene- same band ?
Allman Brothers/Doobie Brothers .I was 10 when this happened.
Alice in Chains/Stone Temple Pilots-Same band ?
In the Glory days of SOUNDS i never understood the Difference between Sansom/Saxon or any other NWOBHM Band to that matter.
In the same Vein -Cinderella/Poison/Motley Crue.
Got to agree with Paul Waring. Spot on mate.
How about Cutty Ranks/Shabba Ranks U ROY/I ROY
Or any country singer From The 00's, Toby Keith/Brad Paisley etc
shit bands, no fans. good bands, shit fans
Elbow/Doves
U2/Simple Minds got a bit interchangable around 1986.
Ray LaMontagne/the bloke outside Blackburn Morrison`s busking and armed with a half empty litre bottle of Frosty Jack.
Steeleye Dan
My English cousin spent some of his 1970s' adolescence hanging around the record section of his local Woolworths. "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" was almost a hit in 1974, but Steeleye Span had charted. Twice. One day, while thumbing through the rarely-changing selection of LPs at Woolworths, he overheard a would-be record buyer asking the salesperson if they had anything by Steely Dan. As English cousin wanted to familiarise himself with the enigmatic Dan, he kept schtum as both "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat" were played to a small, and puzzled audience. Neither he, nor anyone else present asked to hear any more Dan. Or indeed Span. It took several borrowings of "Can't Buy A Thrill" and "Countdown to Ecstasy" to make him change his mind.
Back in the days of yore
My old headmaster disclosed that his son had been listening to a lot of 'that group from America, called I think, Deadly Stan'.
Which is how I think of them to this day
Deadly Stan
is the best band name that hasn't been used. Outstanding.
Duke Special / The Duke Spirit
Blonde Redhead / The Long Blondes
Brakes / The Breaks / Brakes Co Op
The Stills / The Stands / The Shins / The Strokes
Cat Power / The Cat Empire
The Kills / The Killers
Vincent Vincent And the Villains / Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong / The Ting Tings
The Beatles / Battles*
I don't really get those confused
5.24?!
That's a very early time to come in and steal what I was thinking with regards to Duke Spirit/Special.
The Thrills/The Stills/The Kills
The Enemy/The View
nearly everything on Radio 1
I'm in Australia, so 5.24 wasn't quite so early...
I was at work at the time. As I am now!
The more I keep hearing...
...those U2/Simple Minds comparisons, the more I'm put off by hearing those mid-80s Simple Minds albums as I'm not a U2 fan. I do own 'Empires And Dance', 'Sons And Fascination...' and 'New Gold Dream' and love all three. Do any of the albums that followed bare any resemblance to those three?
...
No! Stop there. You've got the best ones. Bits of Sparkle in the Rain are OK, but after that... Although, to be scrupulously fair, the last Album, Black & White 050505, has its moments.
What about the stuff that came *before* Empires & Dance? Is that any good?
Simple Heads
No, sorry, Talking Minds...
Er, anyway I would happily put in a word for their second album Real to Real Cacophony - dark, experimental, pale and interesting. Worth a listen, at least, though clearly a band in transition.
Strangely, 1989's Street Fighting Years (yes, the one with Belfast Child ... no, come back!) is really rather good. Not particularly swaggering nor "stadium"; a lot of it is actually rather introverted and only falls into place on repeated listenings, if you can get past some mild superficial Springsteenisms to the fore. It was predicted to sell squillions on the back of Belfast Child (tacked on the end along with a pointless cover of Biko) and stiffed. Always a good sign!
Kyoto's in the snow but heaven's far away ......
I read an interview with Jim Kerr many years hence when he said that halfway through making "Sparkle In The Rain" they realised it was ending up like "New Gold Dream" Part 2 and so threw the ethereal curlicues of synths and wan aesthecism out the window and turned the bombast up to 11 on the dial. Then the lure of the world's stadia (and, frankly, pies!) made its presence felt. I think that on the better tracks on the album, like "Book of Brilliant Things" and "East At Easter", you can hear a bit of NGD.
Yes, those 3 albums are magnificent (I'd include in also "Sister Feelings Call", the 2nd LP of the double "Sons & Fascination"), especially "New Gold Dream" which I'd put on the same pedestal as the likes of "Lexicon Of Love". But approach "Real To Reel Cacophony" with caution! Its a bit Krautrocky! - although there's some great tracks on there : "Premonition", "Changeling".
Pop Swaps
James Blunt/James Morrison
Dido/Natasha Bedingfield
Kings of Leon/The Killers
Jet/The Datsuns
Possibly The Hives and The Strokes - in Spandau/Duran way.
Not hot swappable but close in a way that makes them almost a Venn diagram eclipse.
I was only just saying that
I was only just saying that no one has ever proved to me that Dane Bowers and Daniel Bedingfield are two different people...You're Out of Your Mind and Gotta Get Through This...surely a Double A Side?
James Morrison indeed!
How dare he appropriate the name of LA's finest living, well, dead, Rock Lizard.
Next you'll be telling me that Bobby Valentino is an "R'n'b" (in the modern, god help us, terminology) singer rather than a handsome Clark Gable lookee-likee fiddler!
When The Killers
became successful a rival record company launched The Bravery (remember them) on an unsuspecting public. Within the industry, I believe they were called 'The Bribery' because they were such a deliberate attempt to nick a part of the Killers market.
Somehow I used to get The Residents and The Replacements mixed up, as well
Simple music made difficult by goons
JJ, there is stuff of merit on Sparkle In The Rain, rotten version of Lucifer Reed`s `Street Hassle` aside, but the stadium drums are underway and next stop `Don`t You...` and "hey, we like this playing God to 50,000 crazy Americans" and by `Once Upon A Time` the art and humour have gone. Self righteous claptrap is in, though Burchill still has moments of class.
To be honest they picked the worst period of U2 to base their act on.
Thanks for that...
...I think I'll pass! I know some of the hits from that period ('Belfast Child', 'Don't You Forget About Me') and they don't do it for me.
PJ Harvey / PJ and Duncan
Black Box Recorder / Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Ryan Adams / Bryan Adams
Stereolab / Stereophonics
And I once bought a CD called "Lieutenant Kije", but was disappointed to find it didn't contain their classic "Mouldy Old Dough".
A bit off-piste but...
Radcliffe & Maconie and Word Magazine?
One and the same to me (even when Mark isn't guesting). Proof there is a god.
Blur and Focus?
...Or perhaps that's the "bands that cancel each other out" thread, three doors down...
All About Eve and Everything
All About Eve and Everything but the Girl - known back in the day as Everything But Steve for some reason (you had to be there)
Slightly off-piste II
but after watching all 27 hours of the LOTR trilogy I had no idea which one was Merry and which one was Pippin. (Still don't, and am content to remain wallowing in my fetid swamp of ignorance.)
I'm afraid this has reactivated my still-simmering resentment at spending 3 hours of my life watching Mr Jackson's remake of King Kong; an experience that has left me determined that if I never watch a PJ film again it'll be too soon.
Totally off-piste now and need to take my medication. Sorry.
Slightly off-piste II
but after watching all 27 hours of the LOTR trilogy I had no idea which one was Merry and which one was Pippin. (Still don't, and am content to remain wallowing in my fetid swamp of ignorance.)
I'm afraid this has reactivated my still-simmering resentment at spending 3 hours of my life watching Mr Jackson's remake of King Kong; an experience that has left me determined that if I never watch a PJ film again it'll be too soon.
Totally off-piste now and need to take my medication. Sorry.
LOTR
I struggled through the three (were there 3? felt like 30) movies and felt soooo relieved to finish them - and quite depressed too. I also had great difficulty differentiating the characters - had to resort to "the one with the pony tail" etc. Mystified at the appeal of blue screen stuff like this.
The original 'King Kong' is one of the finest movies ever made..
so what the hell was the point in remaking it? Oh yes... money.
I completely agree with your comment about 'blue screen stuff'. It just doesn't do it for me. I wish I could have been in a cinema audience watching King Kong in the 1930s... it must have been an absolutely staggering experience.
Late of the Pier and MGMT
Late of the Pier and MGMT
John and JJ Cale
Thrill to the sound of an old Welshman reading an over-rated dirge over a 12-bar Tulsa groove. It could happen.