| Author | Message | ||
     skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 1544 Registered: 10-2008 |
... but you just find awful. I suppose this thread could run forever and consist of thousands. I'll start the band rolling with Neutral Milk Hotel. Awful. A wailing vocalist (who that dreadful vocalists from the equally awful Decemberists tries to ape), this group is just the definition of quirky, beardy music. The amount of times I have read that In An Airplane Over The Sea is an indie landmark, a stone cold 10/10 classic - what are people judging that on, sure beats me? Saw a glowing review of some box set they are releasing today on Pitchfork http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/1616 0-box-set/ which made me think I should listen to IAAOTS again - its still crap though!! | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 1632 Registered: 08-2006 |
Spot on, Kev. I don't hate IAAOTS - bought it when Pitchfork originally raved about it, and found it middle-of-the-road indie - but the whole classic thing I do not get. I think it's entirely a Pitchfork thing - they "found" it, they perpetuate the "classic" claque, they rave about the new, vinyl-only compilation. If I had a mouthpiece that large, I could make a classic out of dross, too. Plus, Magnum did them the favor of going into hiding after the whole love fest, which only solidified the genius thing. Ugh. I'll throw in two others: Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes. The only explanation I can find is it's all the ADD medication the kids are taking. Give me Wild Flag and a big cup of strong freakin' coffee. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 1081 Registered: 08-2004 |
No I don't do Decemberists either. Very poor pseudo-prog, yuk! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 4236 Registered: 05-2005 |
Guys, you're making me feel like an oaf who can't tell the emperor has no clothes on! I really like In An Airplane Over The Sea! I'm with you on Bon Iver though. I knew he was boring, "boo-hoo my girlfriend left me" crap anyway, but this was confirmed three years ago when a yuppie couple in my block raved about going to see him. They have zero knowledge of music and it confirmed my suspicions that Bon Iver made music for boring nincompoops who imagined him to be "alternative" and "edgy". (The yuppie couple has since divorced and the dude has moved his new bird in with him. Maybe Bon Iver can write an album about that?) | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2822 Registered: 03-2005 |
Eek. Hope I don't run afoul of this crowd! But I've yet to actually hear any Decemberists, let alone any of the other folks mentioned here. | ||
| David Gagen Member Username: David_g Post Number: 370 Registered: 02-2007 |
Oh Padraig, i love Bon Iver esp For Emma, Forever Ago but hey I'm goin thru a separation at the moment so that might explain it. Although I dont think I'm a boring nincompoop yet! (although that could be reason why she left me!) I dont get Manic Street Preachers. Just bought "The Holy Bible" recently and has been desribed as a work of pure genius. I couldnt even listen to it once thru without turning off. Such a hideous sound, and i think i'd find actually reading the holy Bible more interesting than listening to these pretentious lyrics. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 4239 Registered: 05-2005 |
David, I'm sorry. Having had several nights out in your company I can vouch that you are neither boring nor a nincompoop! The Holy Bible is the worst album to start with if you are new to the Manics. Start with one of the best ofs. I think they are overrated, but they are great live and I always enjoy reading interviews with them. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2287 Registered: 10-2004 |
I agree about both Neutral Milk Hotel and the Decembrists. But I could go on and on with this topic. I've never gotten Radiohead, for example. As well as: Bon Iver. Modest Mouse. Wild Flag. The National. Sufjan Stevens. Joanna Newsom. The Wrens. Iron & Wine. Ryan Adams. Bonnie "Prince" Billy. Bright Eyes. Devendra Banhart. I could go on... | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 1547 Registered: 10-2008 |
I must admit some of Fleet Foxes stuff I find ok, in fact some of the harmonies are sublime. But over a full album its very wearying. Ditto Bon Iver, he has 2 or 3 great songs but the majority is just weak, and his voice is annoying. Which brings me to Radiohead! Jeff, while I pretty much agree with most of your choices I was surprised to see Radiohead there. While guessing you weren't a big fan I didn't think you hated them. Is it Thom Yorke's voice? Have you listened to them post OK Computer? Some of the most challenging rock music being made by a mainstream group can be found on their output post OK Computer. | ||
| ERIC S. Member Username: Maxvoltage Post Number: 7 Registered: 07-2009 |
I always thought The Dresden Dolls were one of the most overhyped band of all-time. Florence and The Machine seemed to be dreamed up by a record company, "Take a bit of Siouxsie Sioux and Bjork" mix together. | ||
| cosmo vitelli Member Username: Cosmo Post Number: 380 Registered: 05-2005 |
that NMH album is definitely overrated, I always preferred Olivia Tremor Control from the Elephant bunch, some nice Beach Boys harmonies and pop tunes in amongst the weirdness. Jeff's list is a bit harsh though, Sufjan Stevens Illinoise album is f**king brilliant and anyone who isnt moved by Chicag or Casimir Pulaski Day from that album must be dead. | ||
| cosmo vitelli Member Username: Cosmo Post Number: 381 Registered: 05-2005 |
left an O off of Chicag | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 921 Registered: 04-2006 |
what about the white stripes and all this countless related projects and produced by jack white stuff? it is not that i don't like that kind of music, it is just that i can not really find it interesting enough and that i am getting bored fairly quickly. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2288 Registered: 10-2004 |
Kevin - with regard to Radiohead, I think their 90s output is pretty awful, but what I've heard of their 00s output is more a case of just not doing much for me. I admit I haven't heard as much of their previous 10 years output. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2824 Registered: 03-2005 |
I agree with you about White Stripes, andreas. I'm ok with Jack White producing some records for old-time artists and getting them some new attention and royalties but his own stuff interests me not at all. But, of course, I'm not a fan of 70s hard rock anyway. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 4240 Registered: 05-2005 |
Though I saw Radiohead live before they had made it in a tiny club in Dublin, and then quite liked - but didn't buy - their first album, I really didn't get them at all after that until hearing the There There single in a record shop 2003 and loving it without realising who it was. I bought the single, later the album and then all the other albums. | ||
| Mark Leydon Member Username: Mark_leydon Post Number: 332 Registered: 05-2005 |
Grizzly Bear are a band I don't get at all. The vocals are so mannered and the songs and lyrics twee beyond redemption. Also one of the most boring live bands I've seen in recent years. I think the Fleet Foxes are genuinely talented and I enjoyed their first album and the Sun Giant EP in particular. But I understand why people don't like them - the whole choral/hymnal vocal thing is certainly not for everyone. Bon Iver on the otherhand - jeez. I find his double/triple-tracked falsetto schtick annoying in the extreme. I'll never understand why he ended up on so many critics best-of lists for last year. And speaking of mannered vocals - don't get me started on Bjork! I hold her responsible for a boat-load of self-consciously 'kooky' female artists to have emerged over the last decade from Joanna Newsom through to Sarah Blasko. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2290 Registered: 10-2004 |
Oh, I thought of another - Cocorosie. They probably should win the award for topping Joanna Newsom in the annoying singing department. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2294 Registered: 10-2004 |
Oh, and sorry guys, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to add Tuneyards (I can't remember how the hell you're supposed to do the caps/non-caps lettering) to this list. Seriously grating vocals, self-indulgent songs that go nowhere (and take forever to get there), too much fucking around with a sampler to annoying effect. An amalgam of annoying as hell indie sounds. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2828 Registered: 03-2005 |
I've only heard the Tuneyards a couple times. They sound like a short-term gimmick. I have to stick up for Bright Eyes. I only have three albums so I'm no expert but in his better moments Conor Oberst is one of the very best singer/songwriters extant in the U.S. right now. I don't even think it's a close call. His voice may annoy, the arrangements may be over the top at times, but his songs are great. I still think "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn" is a total classic. I know Robert Forster rates Antony & the Johnstons. I dutifully bought two albums. I find it overwrought "oh, god, I'm so tragically wrist-slashingly gay." That's very hard to take as a gay guy who doesn't sign on to that self-tragic schtick. But the real test was when the iPod pitched up "Hitler in my Heart" while driving to work one day. I couldn't tolerate more than about a minute. I agree with you about Bjork, Mark. The word that always leaps into my mind when I hear her labored vocal stylings is "fatuous." I'm not sure why. I still haven't heard any Fleet Foxes and remarkably little Radiohead. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 799 Registered: 05-2005 |
Last time this came up, I seemed to piss EVERYONE off! After seeing on numerous Amazon lists that the best psychedelic album ever was the Aeroplane over the sea, I bought it after having never even heard any mention of the band before. Whilst I didn't mind it, I think that it is only reasonable alternative/indie rock but hardly psychedelic and definately not a classic. There is A LOT of stuff at the moment that is hyped but is disappointing. Grizzly Bear - gee they sound like Fleetwood Mac at times - hardly ground breaking stuff. The Decemberists I like and have seem live (great). Their best album, for me, was the Crane Wife but their other stuff is not classic either. The King is Dead is better than the Hazards of Love (prog tosh) but often the best bits on their last album were Peter Buck's jangle! Their heart's in the right place and I hope they write another song as good as Yankee Bayonette. Randy - get the first Fleet Foxes album. Glorious. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 2326 Registered: 01-2005 |
I wonder if in another 20 years people will think of Tuneyards as some of us now think of Lene Lovich? I got sucked into the Joanna Newsom thing by the fegmania folks on Robyn Hitchcock's list. I've lost all interest in her these days. If I want to hear a harp, I'll watch an old Marx Brothers movie. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2299 Registered: 10-2004 |
That's funny, I actually quite like Lene Lovich (well, at least a handful of her songs anyway; she was always a singles act and I could never sit through any of her albums all the way through)! I could be totally off-base, but I think that so much has been done musically, that people are sucked in by gimmicks a lot more than they used to be (Tuneyards being a prime example of this phenomenon - but only in my humble opinion, of course). In the desperate search for the next "big, new, exotic, different" thing, people are sometimes quick to latch onto artists who are good at grabbing the spotlight with a seemingly fresh or distinctive approach, but don't necessarily deliver the goods as far as actual songwriting goes. That's not meant to antagonize people who genuinely like Tuneyards, but it's just my take on it. Geoff - I agree with you about Grizzly Bear. It's funny, they seem like they should be good, they've got the ingredients, the arrangements, etc., but the songs just don't go anywhere. Definitely hyped and disappointing. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 2328 Registered: 01-2005 |
Jeff, I liked a few of LL's songs in the early 1980's from her first two albums and the ep New Toy as well. After buying KB's The Dreaming, I sort of lost interest in Lene Lovich and never picked up No Man's Land. I've only listened to a few snippets of tunyeards, and your humble opinion gimmick tag seems to be an apt description. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2832 Registered: 03-2005 |
I totally fell for the Lene Lovich act. The only excuse I have is youth. I bought all the records until "March" was such a dud and I saw her live twice. And, nope, I can't listen to her now at all. | ||
| skulldisco Member Username: Skulldisco Post Number: 1558 Registered: 10-2008 |
I bought the first Lene Lovich album. It was a picture disc, it was crap then so God knows what it sounds like now. | ||
| Jeff Whiteaker Member Username: Jeff_whiteaker Post Number: 2300 Registered: 10-2004 |
Yeah, for me, "New Toy" and "Lucky Number" still entertain, but that's probably about it. |