Entertainment For Lively Minds
What were the popular/credible bands that just seemed to pass you by for some reason?
Posted by Uncle Wheaty on 12 August 2009 - 7:20pm.
The Pixies.
They seem to be heralded and loved by many and the reunion tour a few years back was praised by many people. Having read reviews I am sure I would quite like them but never bothered to find out.
I wouldn't know a Pixies track if it came and hit me in the face - but am I missing anything.
Is ignorance bliss sometimes?
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They're definitely..
..worth looking up. Download 'Gouge Away' - it's them at their best. In fact I'll refund your 79p if you don't like it.
Gazing at the John Martyn issue of Word a few months back I was struck by the realisation that I've never knowingly heard one of his songs. That's not to say I'm not curious, mind..
I had a listen on Spotify..
and they sound reasonable enough, a bit like mid-1980s Killing Joke.
I spotted one other song title I recognised - Debaser. Listened to that and feel I have gone far enough for now!
I love a bit of Debaser
Work your way through Doolittle. If you don't like any of that, then give up there...
and Trompe Le Monde
Give it a try
The Killing Joke!
no way on God's great do Pixies (no definite article BTW) sound like KJ, wash yer ears man!
I have a great deal of time for both bands and KJ's Hosannas from the Basement of Hell has been my album of choice for over a week now.
but still, gouge away...
Monkey Gone to Heaven
Not a massive Pixies fan - but do think the above is a work of genius.
A roadmap for much that came after
http://open.spotify.com/track/1lFC3sMgOcDrVzNh8zXRnl
The Clash
Just never got into them, even though I still appreciate many of their punk colleagues. I think it was the earnestness - malcolm McLaren called them the "Prefects of Punk", and I think I know what he means.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Dragged along to the Hyde Park gig a few years back. It just confirmed to me what a bunch of arses they are. Never much liked the Pixies either.
never really got the 80s
never really got Talking Heads or New Order.
and I couldn't stand any of the new romantic bands; over exposed, talentless dimwits, with no musical or lyrical talent whatsoever.
spent most the decade re-discovering 70s bands. still do in fact.
You can't write off a decade like that
Top 80s bands worth a go...
The Smiths
The Waterboys
ABC (Lexicon of Love esoecially)
for starters.
And if you are really brave try the first T'Pau album "Bridge of Spies" = it will grow on you.
take your point on
The Smiths. But apart from them, U2 and Shane Magowan's song writing that decade was a write off. The new wave of British heavy metal produced some ground breaking rock music but that's about it.
I do generally agree with you Wheaty
But
The Smiths - exactly as they sound. Nothing hidden if you don't like it, there's nothing for you
Waterboys - yes, but atypical 80s - real instruments, songs, no makeup etc
ABC (Lexicon of Love only)
Honestly, I thought the 80s was dire musically, and in most other respects too to be honest.
80s???
Apart from the fact that you can't get the best band in the history of the world (isn't personal opinion a wonderful thing?), how can you categorise Talking Heads as an 80's band when much of their output was from the 70's? - i.e. 77, More songs about buildings & food and the classic Fear of Music. A band for the 70's, 80's and every decade. Having just seen David Byrne perform a set at the Big Chill that was very heavily TH based, I urge anyone with any sense of life in them to see just how brilliant this band was.
Said it once and will say it
Said it once and will say it again - REM, best band of the 80s by a mile. The decade had plenty of good music (far more than the 90s) but it is associated too much with the new romantic/pop/pap etc. It was also the decade where much of the indie music was actually pretty good.
Radiohead, Radiohead
and thrice Radiohead! Just don't get what all the fuss is about...'Fake Plastic Trees' is where my tolerance begins and ends.
I like the idea of them
and their music but I don't like his voice. Too whiny for my taste.
Seconded..Radiohead?
If they were playing in my back garden I'd shut the curtains!
Roxy Music
I've only heard Remake Remodel. It's OK. Brian Ferry's voice always grated.
Well, if you've only heard
that one song, I would contend that it is probably his most grating vocal. A lot of the singing on the earlier stuff is mannered, I'll give you, but there are are plenty of examples of a softer, richer timbre, such as Beauty Queen, Psalm, Mother of Pearl, Serenade, Three and Nine.
From Siren onwards the vocals are more or less in this style, and for me, become increasingly richer and more resonant as he gets older. I'd suggest you try some of the later albums as an 'in' - Flesh & Blood, Avalon in particular.
Three and Nine - yes!
I love this song, Mikhail! That fourth album is great, and comparatively unsung compared to the first three.
If anyone would like to hear some off-the-beaten-track Bryan Ferry performances, may I suggest you lend an ear to his album The Bride Stripped Bare. Not all of it, though: there are some pointless covers on it (though Same Old Blues is not bad) - skip them, and go for the excellent original songs he wrote for the album: Sign Of The Times (containing excellent one-note guitar solo), Can't Let Go, When She Walks In The Room and This Island Earth.
I concur....
except for loving 'Carrickfergus', which I think is one of his best covers.
Arctic Monkeys...
I couldn't give a monkey's about them. Overrated tosh.
Thirded
Couldn't agree more.
Queen
Good god Queen, like nails on a blackboard. I Want To Break Free worst song ever!!
No
the worst song ever is surely Another One Bites the Dust or is it Radio Gaga or perhaps Killer Queen or, no wait, We will Rock You? Or, maybe you're right - that one is particularly dreadful.
Or Killer Queen?
Oh heck this is difficult
Is it Killer Queen? That one thinks it's really good
Travis
how, why?
Exit Music To A Film ...
... was how I got into Radiohead. A stupendously good piece of music, but I only came it across via the closing credits of Romeo and Juliet:
spotify:track:26YrTYQEgmDvx4vlHLLAsT
IMHO they never hit those highs again, but they are still magnificent when they are on form.
(edit - This was supposed to be a comment in response to Mikhail's comment, but somehow I cocked up and it's down here).
nevermind
didnt get the grunge scene/music and really hated britpop
are the nineties the new eighties?
Are the 90s the new 80s?
Thanks to the linearity of time, the 80s finished at exactly the same point the 90s started so to answer your question: yes, axiomatically.
Sidewalk surfing
I was a very late admirer of Pavement. I now have all the albums and the Stephen Malkmus ones but I wasn't even really aware of their existence when they were actually a band. I have no idea how I missed them and it makes me sad to believe that there are other bands I know I would like if I knew they existed.
Steely Dan
I'm going to be very unpopular with some folks here, but Steely Dan bore me senseless and always seem to be smirking from deep within the recesses of their own fundaments. California yuppy smart arses.
Nail/head
Spot on.
But you make that sound like a *bad* thing!
smirking smart arses
to be sure
but from the East Coast. It's important
I love them but totally understand the aversion many have.
You just don't understand
You just don't understand them. This is of course a deeply patronising response that you would expect from a Steely Dan fan and will only deepen your hatred of the said band.
Eh?
I think it's a peculiar reading of the statement - I can understand why people have an aversion to the band - as an implication that people who don't them like - don't like them - because they don't understand them. If I gave that impression I withdraw it unreservedly.
If you are referring to my remark that it's important to acknowledge that Fagen and Becker are from NY/NJ then I do believe that is critical.
I also think it's probable that what many people like about the band are exactly the qualities that deter others.
There are probably parallels with Zappa/Beefheart neither of which I can stand.
Lost in translation,
Lost in translation, apologies I was being sarcastic by giving a typically 'steely dan' fan response to your post. I fully understand why you might dislike them, my wife hates them for example.
Aha...
No girls do. Well known fact
It is indeed, I started a
It is indeed, I started a thread ages ago about bands that divide the sexes, Steely Dan were my nomination. Interesting thing was that Mr Hepworth replied with a 'not true...I know loads of women who do..'; he later went on Radio 4 to discuss the Steely Dan and stated they are a blokes band. Fickle media type?
Interesting
I did a blog on similar lines a while ago. The Hep commented that Mrs Hep liked Dan but also an observation by Rickie Lee Jones that no two women musicians would ever get together and produce music like that.
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/why-dont-girls-steely-dan
My Wife Loves Steely Dan
and Zappa.
There are no hard and fast rules
I am pretty confident that
I am pretty confident that if you did a demographic breakdown of the Dan's audience it would be predominantly male (and of a certaind age).
The Grateful Dead...
To me they sound like a bunch of elderly folk from a rest home who have gone on a day trip to a musical instrument shop and start plink plonking away in an entirely random fashion on whatever they happen to pick up.
I know... wonderful isn't it? :-)
Fantastic !
I have a soft spot for the Dead for the very reasons that you have so brilliantly put. Nearly choked on my coffee.
Got Myself
one of those ethical plug in socket thingies, that sends out a sonic signal to get rid of the scratching and squeaking of unwelcome vermin.
Haven't heard Radiohead coming from next door since.
Teenage Fanclub
With my general musical taste I really should love them, but just don't get it.
Same with XTC.
Belle & Sebastian
I like them now, but they didn't appeal back then.
Oasis. Not a fan.
Pavement, Dinosaur, Sebadoh
and thier ilk - small pants and big pants
formerly the "anti-grunge"
I used to genuinely loathe heavy rock music, linking it all to grunge, metal and incredibly nihilistic teenagers. Then someone introduced me to "Tonight Tonight" and "Stand Inside Your Love" by Smashing Pumpkins.
Needless to say I no longer describe myself as the "anti-grunge".
Dull
The Smiths-miserablist cack.
Radiohead-Has ever a band been so over-rated
Richard Thompson-I'll get me coat.
Deadly Dull & Irritating Beyond Belief
The Smiths . Agree totally. Ditto Radiohead ( their new single "Harry Patch" is an appalling noise ). Add to those Coldplay ( more music to commit suicide to ) and Red Hot Chilli Peppers who boast quite the silliest bass player in the whole history of pop music.
at what point...
did falsetto and a string orchestra become "appalling noise"??
and it's not a single, just a standalone track to commemorate someone who fought for their country in one of the most horrific wars in history
at the point that
Thom and his mates did it, dreadful band that have put music back by decades
Fair Play
honourable and all that, but it's execellent for scaring off mating seagulls I find.
I'm told you can get
'Scare Birds Away' snouds on'tinternets, a mate who worked for Rentokil informed me thus, but Radioheid will do the job :D
At the time...
there was many an artist that I turned my nose up at.
Seeing as my musical tastes were formed in the 80's I was easily impressed by friends into the goth scene (Mission, Sisters of Mercy, Fields of Nephalim) proper metal (a reaction to all the big hair rock around at the time), and for some reason there seemed to be a mini revival of prog at my particular school (a South London Comp, not Rugby or Harrow) so I discovered Genesis, Yes, Floyd etc.
Many of those bands I still like but my attitude at the time, ashamedly, was to dismiss many other artists I now regard as amongst my favourites.
The Smiths
Talking Heads
U2
Prince
New Order
Depeche Mode
I think the time at which you first start to discover music is the time you are least open to new sounds and discoveries as I became so fan-boy obsessed it led me to discount most of what I now know to be plain good s**t.
Glad I now know better.
Rediscovering 1970s prog
I
t has been going on for at least two generations now.
Long may the enlightened children of the future continue to discover Yes, Floyd and Genesis and never hear ELP!
Foo Fighters
they only have one tune and I don't like it
Humiliation
This is reading a bit like the section in the David Lodge novel 'Changing Places' where an English academic encourages his American colleagues to play the game 'Humiliation'. As English professors the challenge is to admit the book you haven't read that you should have. Ultimately an ultra-competitive member of faculty wins the game and loses his job by admitting he's never read Macbeth. Very funny book.
Anyway, for my part I must confess that I just don't get Stevie Wonder. I can recognise the talent but other than Superstition I just don't connect with the music at all. I'll get me coat...
The Smiths/The Fall
The Smiths said nothing to me about my life (ahem). Morrissey always seemed so confident and had a witty riposte ready when he was supposed to be the patron saint of the shy and lonely. The Violent Femmes meant a lot more to me in the 80s.
At that time I also thought The Fall sounded like a drunk being thrown down the stairs, but I think they're brilliant now.
Johnny come lately
Re The Pixies, I kinda agree with Mr Uncle. They should have been in my wheelhouse but alas... It took a decade to really enjoy Black Francis and co.
Other than a few songs...
the Pixies have never clicked for me either, I prefer the Breeders.
The Clash, I like a few of their singles but I can't get into their albums especially the double and triple ones.
The Smiths, and I've found some of their fans I've encountered in person and online to be pretty unpleasant to deal with.
SRV and Double Trouble, other than House is a Rockin'. It all sounds like bar band stuff to me that ZZ Top did better in the 70's.
re: the smiths
we aren't all like that.
They are a good band, but like the Stone Roses are nowhere near as good as critics make out.
Morrissey's solo stuff has produced more gems in my opinion.
"The Teachers Are Afraid of the Pupils" being my personal choice.
I did say some not every
I did say some not every one.
The Smiths
It's very odd but I couldn't get enough of them at the time, but now I never listen to them or have any lp's/cd's of theirs. A colleague who still loves them persuaded me to try them on my ipod when I first purchased it. I found that much as I still like the music and melodies of Johhny Marr in their songs, I cannot stand Morrisey's adolescent musings and moans. It is utterly alien to me now, and as his lyrics were such a vital half of the Smiths experience that there's nothing there for me anymore. Clever, undoubtably. Say anything to me ? Nope. Wallpaper lyrics just to enable the music is no problem, but I cannot find any connection with Morrisey at all anymore, including his solo work.
Smiths
The Smiths lyrics were arch, exasperating, hilarious, intelligent (normally) moving (often) and sometimes boring (not very often) - much like the whole ridiculous and wonderful experience of growing up which is why they sometimes seem less affecting now listening as an adult. But nobody else sang about those subjects with the degree of long term popular success they had and the amount they MEANT to people was extraordinary. Wonderful musicians too who just kept getting better.
But people wrote them off as miserabilists then, nothing changes there nor should it.
Have to say that listening to the remastered singles album from a year or so back, some have definitely palled but others still have a unique excitement - The Headmaster Ritual makes me curl up in a ball of joy
The Queen Is Dead
Listened to this album the other day, for the first time in ages, and was struck by how good the title track and There Is A Light .. are.
However, like many of the bands mentioned on this thread, I think the reasons they appealed so strongly to some people are exactly the same reasons why they are so offputting to others.
I Agree With You
on that point and you are right. They were never miserable on the broader scale of things, and archly comic I agree. For me, however, I can now only listen to music that really connects to me, baffles or intrigues me to go further. I'm not there anymore.
Quite a few
Arcade Fire - I've got the albums, I've listened to them, when does it start?
Depeche Mode - Were rubbish twee pap when they started so they never made their way into my collection, apparrently I'm wrong.
Abba - and all such "guilty pleasures" acts. My view is they were crap in the 70's and they still are, calling them (or their like) guilty pleasures and having an ironic chuckle is exactly the same as saying "I have poor taste in music".
The Cure - Boys Don't Cry and Killing An Arab should have been the start of an incredible recoring career but they just went so far downhill and became such pop tarts that they never resurfaced in my consciousness.
I could go on, and on, and on about U2, Pearl Jam, Stone Roses, etc. but I'll spare you.
I agree on Arcade Fire
Arcade Fire sound like a pastiche of a bunch of popular and alternative 80's stuff stuck together. Nothing much new and exciting to be found.
Arcade Fire and Sigur Ros
and until Man of Aran - British Sea Power
No Sigur Ros??
Listen to ( ) or Takk... on full volume. Oustanding songs. Beautifully crafted.
Just listen to the version of "Agaetis Byrjun" from the Heima DVD.
Beautiful almost beyond words.
The Jesus and Mary Chain was one that never really
rang my bell.
Simply Red
Simply No.
Beach Boys
and that other band beginning with 'B', Van Morrison, Gram Parson, The Byrds, Stones, Genesis after Gabriel, (most) Faust, Captain Beefheart (apart from Bongo Fury), Clapton solo, ABBA, U2 after UF, ISB, Jefferson Airplane (I like Hot Tuna 'tho) and... eh Paul Hardcastle
just don't get it
You can't
include Paul Hardcastle in a list of lightweights like that...
sorry
Gordon Giltrap?
that's fine
he *is* rubbish
All these years
I thought he was purely a euphism for something distasteful, morally questionable and clinically unfashionable.
The Cranberries
just seen them on VH1. Poor.