| Author | Message | ||
     XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 71 Registered: 01-2006 |
Continuing this theme, I'd have to choose Led Zeppelin, cock-rock at its worst. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 341 Registered: 08-2004 |
The Beatles, I've always thought it an industry in-joke that they are anything but average. Sorry folks, Magazine still leave me cold with every listen. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 531 Registered: 05-2005 |
Any band that continues beyond its initial buzz, save for the GB's and the like. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 99 Registered: 04-2005 |
Having heard 'Surfs Up' for the first time in a while, can anyone possibly explain to me the continuing appeal of Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys? And 'Pet Sounds' the greatest album of all time? Personally I blame all those dadrock magazines that placed Wilson on a pedestal a few years ago. (OK, 'God Only Knows' is truly beautiful) And I willingly place my vote for Led Zeppelin in this category too. Shocking hamfisted nonsense. And how come it seems almost acceptable to like Queen now? Even liking them in an slightly ironic sense, is this what we fought the punk wars for? | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 72 Registered: 01-2006 |
Gotta throw Pearl Jam in there too, unlistenable... | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 469 Registered: 03-2005 |
The Doors. And moving up to more contemporary, I put White Stripes in here too. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 116 Registered: 04-2006 |
i came back from work and i have read the thread and thougtht about it. the first which came to my head were the white stripes and i wrote it on a memory paper. well done, randy! i prefer the black keys. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 559 Registered: 05-2005 |
Thw Who - proposterous, ham fisted, overblown, concept album bollocks. apart from the first few singles obviously. its a crime when that happens to bands. | ||
| abigail law Member Username: Abigail Post Number: 81 Registered: 06-2005 |
all those bands mojo/uncut tell you you're 'supposed' to like - doors, zep, beach boys, queen, u2, who etc - are shit. music for people who don't like music. mojo/uncut just fill the space between car ads with dadrock lite bands to please the advertisers. brian wilson isn't a musical genius - he's a drug-adled old twat. smile is one of the most overrated albums I've ever heard. there has been no decent english album since stone roses debut and no decent american album since jeff buckley's grace. yes, i am officially a miserable old bastard | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 422 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Doors. I'm on record as saying this a long time ago on this forum; so I'm not just copying Randy - which, as a generous man, he will back up. Kevin, you have done little wrong on this forum thus far; but you have just removed yourself from my Christmas card list for your ad hominem attack on The Who. Harumph! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 423 Registered: 05-2005 |
Abigail, you miserable old bastard! I love Mr Wilson! Good to have you back though. (I'm drunk enough to consider buying a Penali pen set, so typing is taking an inordinate time). | ||
| jerry hann Member Username: Jerry_h Post Number: 174 Registered: 07-2005 |
Well said Abigail-actually I don't really like Jeff Buckley either i have a few of his CDs,but I just don't really get it. All of the above especially The Door/who/floyd/progrock/psychedelia/jazz/classical/mostfolk/mostindie/ | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 560 Registered: 05-2005 |
An ad hominem argument, also known as argumentum ad hominem (Latin, literally "argument against the person") or attacking the messenger [or shooting the messenger], involves replying to an argument or assertion by attacking the person presenting the argument or assertion rather than the argument itself. It is a logical fallacy. Jesus Padraig, after looking up the meaning of ad hominem i'm still none the wiser. Maybe if I was drunk I would be able to get my head round it, but that wont be till Saturday night if at all. Not that I'm advocating irresponsible drinking but your normally entertaining posts have went up an even further notch. Spence also falls into this category when he has imbibed a shandy or two. Maybe we should put a rating of 1 to 10 after we post to give an indication of how drunk we are. In saying that, the time of the post is usually a good indicator(in my case Saturday or Saturday at 1am), although new members of the board would be oblivious to the fact some of us are posting from the four corners of the earth and not take into account the time differences. Abigail, you have just reminded me to vote for The Stone Roses in this category. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 400 Registered: 04-2005 |
A lot of the bands mentioned so far are more popular than they are critically acclaimed, aren't they? (Doors, Zep, Floyd, etc.) So I don't know if they're so much "overrated" as "unjustifiably popular." So here's a list of artists I think get more critical acclaim than they deserve. Mind you, I like some or a lot of stuff by all of them. But they're not the artistic giants the press and millions of fans have made them out to be: Flaming Lips Wilco Nirvana Radiohead Beck The Band Captain Beefheart Kate Bush Leonard Cohen Nick Cave Scott Walker Sufjan Stevens I guess this could go on forever, so I'll stop now...I just wanted to get to post #400 today, and I've done it. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 431 Registered: 05-2005 |
Kurt, well done on getting to 400. I'll see when this is posted how far I've gotten. Kevin, ad hominem, when translated to the vernacular, is more akin to "playing the man instead of the ball" (eg Roy Keane when playing against Alf-Inge Haaland). I'm more sober now and assuming you meant your attack on The Who to be based on their music rather than their personalities... Man, I'm going to have some fuckin' headache in the morning. And I have to take my daughter to swimming in seven hours time. Damn swimming lessons. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 535 Registered: 05-2005 |
Kurt, Nick Cave should not be on there. Nor Lenny or Wilco. Sorry. They are geenyeyeee!!!!!! | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 562 Registered: 05-2005 |
Roxy bloody Music. Especially post Eno When I was looking up ad hominem in the dictionary (blame Padraig!!) I also looked up smug and smarmy - it said Bryan Ferry. The guy has even got a Y instead of an I in his name. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 407 Registered: 04-2005 |
OK, Spence, I'll give you Nick Cave. LC is a toughie because I think he's a great songwriter but a very weak performer (not so much the lack of singing voice but the schlocky backing music). Wilco lost me with their last studio album which I thought was both half-assed and pretentious at the same time; I had been in their corner before. Let's see what they do with the next album. Kevin, you stab me in the heart! Roxy Music is one of my three fave bands ever, though I'm talking the '70s stuff. You're right about Ferry being smug and smarmy--but isn't that the point? I never bought into "Ferry is Roxy Music"--collectively, he, Eno, Manzanera, Mackay, and Thompson brought the whole package of experimentation vs. pop, modernism vs. nostalgia, tacky glam vs. sophistication, etc. I find them one of the most musically interesting bands ever, at least for their first five albums. Ferry is an absurd lead singer and lyricist, but he was perfect for the sound they made--a typical rock or R&B-type singer wouldn't have worked. At least while he allowed the other guys some creative input. His solo albums are mostly garbage, I grant you. But I was well overdue to get one of my faves slammed for all the shit I hurled at acts I know other people like! | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 563 Registered: 05-2005 |
Kurt, your summary of Roxy is a good one. I had never thought about your point regarding Ferry as singer/lyricist Vs a typical rock or R&B-type singer. Its a great point. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 474 Registered: 03-2005 |
Ok. We are to choose people who have been critically acclaimed. I'll choose somebody who I've knocked on here before, only to be chased from the playground by a swarm of wasps including one former Go Between. But I still stand by it: Blondie (and Debbie Harry). Daisies masquerading as orchids in every way. Vin ordinaire. Genus haute mediocritus. The depth and texture of formica. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 413 Registered: 04-2005 |
Yeah, you're right about that one, Randy. A band that got swept along into "legendary" status because of the company it was accidentally keeping at CBGB--Ramones, Heads, Television, Patti, Hell, etc. They never made one really good album, and even as a decent singles band (they were), their single-disc greatest hits album is awfully patchy. The very definition of overrated. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 480 Registered: 03-2006 |
Susy Sue and the Banshees, or whatever the hell they're called. Awful and unlistenable...unlike the Cocteau Twins (Enya for pretentious people), you can't even chill and read a book to them - too annoying. Suzy's picture should be in the dictionary under "caterwauling". I would, however, stand by many of the groups dismissed above, including Blondie, Nirvana and Wilco... I do agree with the dismissal of the Flaming Lips...there is a reason they have to dress up in bunny suits, cover themselves with fake blood, etc...it distracts from the fact that their music is so devoid of quality or interest. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 568 Registered: 05-2005 |
Wow, sounds like Little Keith has reinvented himself in more ways than one. He's Lester Bangs reincarnated  | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 484 Registered: 03-2006 |
Not sure if that's a compliment, but thanks anyway, man...Hey, I figure if my beloved Wilco, Nick Cave and Cohen can get dragged thru the mud, it's only fair to give vent to some of my more jaundiced opinions...when you think about it, it's remarkable that we all agree on the GoBees, innit? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 442 Registered: 05-2005 |
Well, loving The Go-Betweens is why we are all here! Agree with you 100% on Siousxie and The Banshees. Horrible, horrible nonsense. And she's narcissistically self-regarding as well as being a talent-free zone - an opinion based on reading interviews with her in English music mags last year. They must have had re-releases out or something that Uncut and Mojo both interviewed her. I should not have bothered reading them. There is a Siousxie and The Banshees track on a recent Uncut CD. We were playing it in the car the other day while driving back from Palm Beach and we laughed uproariously at just how damn awful it was. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 487 Registered: 03-2006 |
Yep - "Siouxsie, the Emperor just called. He wants his new clothes back". | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 477 Registered: 03-2005 |
I will offer a small defense of Siousxie's pre-1987 records. They offered up decent kiddie trash music. There's a place for that. Tracks like "Israel" are sonically interesting. I'd at least give her a higher mark than, say, Lene Lovich. Little Keith, your comments on the Cocteaus are funny. I like them but I can definitely see your point. | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 354 Registered: 08-2004 |
Siouxsie & her Banshees are best appreciated in small doses, Once Upon A Time & the cleverly title Twice Upon A Time, reveal their greatest moments. Melt Swimming Horses Fireworks Playground Twist The Staircase Mystery Mirage Peek-A-Boo All are great. The Creatures are a more enjoyable listen on LP, though it's true Miss Sioux has a very inflated sense of self. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 421 Registered: 04-2005 |
Siouxsie wasn't a bad singer, the drummer was good, and the great John McGeoch played guitar with them for awhile. So they had a few moments, like Jerry said, best caught on the compilations. Great artists? Hardly. I'd still take them over the Cure, though. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 138 Registered: 01-2005 |
Kurt, I always thought that Kate Bush deserved all the credit she got as an artistic giant. Her 1980's work still stands up nicely and she was a pioneer using the Fairlight programer. | ||
| Eke Member Username: Ekewebb Post Number: 89 Registered: 05-2005 |
I have to argue with you Siouxsie nay-sayers to an extent. Before being signed, and even up to releasing The Scream, they were one of the most exciting bands around. I remember John Peel playing each side of The Scream on consecutive nights and it was a real event. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 615 Registered: 05-2005 |
Its hard to imagine it now, but for a long time The Banshees did not have a label, it even got to the extent that in London the punks were spray painting the walls "Sign the Banshees now!" Contrast it with today when record companies sign up anybody who can even tune a guitar for fear of missing out in the next big thing. Progess? Is it chuff! | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 512 Registered: 03-2006 |
I have to allow as how Sue C (I can't spell it correctly - it makes me the keyboard equivalent of being tongue-tied) had some pretty solid punk cred, back in the day...she hung out with the Sex Pistols and was onscreen with them when they cursed at that TV host. A great television moment! | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 517 Registered: 03-2006 |
I thought of another one, but this is probably cheating, cuz I don't think anybody really rates them. The "artist" in question is...Ultravox. I took great pride in ruining them for a very studiedly "new-wave" girl (she even had those silly Thompson Twin braids) I dated in the '80's by pointing out that Midge Ur-ine sounded just like the singer from Styx. She never could listen to them again. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 433 Registered: 04-2005 |
Although pre-Midge Ure Ultravox, with John Foxx on vocals, was a very different animal from the group you're talking about and--if anything--was underrated. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 620 Registered: 05-2005 |
Snow Patrol. Christ that bands lawyers must be permanently on the case defending plagiarism claims. I cant muster up enough interest in them to know the song titles but theres the fairly fast song that sounds like My Bloody Valentine. Then yesterday, on the car radio this slow song started playing and I thought "Jesus, thats Sebadoh". Honestly, the verses sounded just like Lou Barlow (round about the time of Harmacy or Bakesale). However,it then built to a bland chorus and I was relieved to hear the DJ say at the end of the song that it was Snow Patrol. How can a band this average and unoriginal be so big in the UK? | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 118 Registered: 11-2004 |
Ok I guess here is an obvious one (I may as well mention it anyways)...Oasis And the main one which I have never understood (their popularity that is)...Echo And The Bunnymen - tuneless and charismaless. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 106 Registered: 04-2005 |
The Bunnies were a potent force live in the early 80s, Matt...not sure that all their records stand the test of time, but some moments of beauty in there. Eye of the beholder? Solidly with you on Oasis though. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 143 Registered: 01-2005 |
I would love all of the first four Echo And The Bunnyman records, as I do the two studio albums by The Teardrop Explodes and The Soft Boys. The neo-psychedellic sounds of these English bands will live on and stand the test of time, just as their forfathers did from the 60's. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 528 Registered: 03-2006 |
Not that anybody here probably rates them, but howzabout that Audioslave? How bad do they suck? I think that guy's vocals are emblematic of everything that's cliched and blockheaded in heavy metal... | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 363 Registered: 08-2004 |
Audioslave are shit agreed. The singer is the blond Bono, first took a dislike to him last year when he was dancing about making self-righteous noises just like his doppelganger 20 years previous. Got to love The Bunnymen, surprised tou don't like them Matt. Stars Are Stars, A Promise, Silver & Seven Seas are incredibly tuneful. The Cutter has five tunes all going at once. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 168 Registered: 05-2005 |
Wow Mat! What IS it about the Bunnymen that you CAN'T like? They were the sound of everything that was RIGHT in the 80's. Have you heard ALL of their stuff?? The hype was right for once....unlike the Arctic Monkeys who are unfortunately here in Auz as I write. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 169 Registered: 05-2005 |
...oh, and while I'm at it, I'll bite, Jerry, finally. The Beatles an industry in-joke???? If that was the case, then they would be just a cult band like the Fall or Wire instead of the multiple genre creating, mind expanding AND POPULAR band that they were. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 632 Registered: 05-2005 |
A bad joke at that !! | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 365 Registered: 08-2004 |
It's not so much a joke as a huge lie. It's like the authority's didn't want the public at large to hear the true dirty R'n'B that was being played in Britain. First of all The Beatles played quite a rough-arsed blues that you could define as the first punk sounds in Europe. George Martin & Brian Epstein smoothed it out for radio & thusly mass consumption, the first sell out. From 1962-65 they were no more controversial than Cliff & The Shads. But this was the most influential period of their short career. The real thing came through with The Kinks, Stones, The Who, The Animals, even The Yardbirds which compelled Hendrix to get out of backing bands. The Beatles then retreat to the studio because they've had enough of the screaming girls & boys, opening the door for turgid & equally flaccid supergroups & their prog-rock. Bit of a cliche but, as soon as you lose any links with your audience, either backing out of playing live or playing arenas then stadiums, the gaps start to appear between real life & celebrity seclusion. The Beatles started punk ended it then became as anti-punk as it's possible to be, we can thank them for creating something to rebel against in the future. I could go on but it's only a heavily biased potted history from a tired old man. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 634 Registered: 05-2005 |
Tell it like it is Jerry. I thought I was the only guy on the planet who hated this bunch of jokers. Sure, some of the tunes are "nice", but to me that word , in this context, is damning with faint praise. The Gallachers idolise this band, say no more! | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 642 Registered: 05-2005 |
I loved The Bunnymen from Crocodiles to Ocean Rain. Saw them live in 1980 at local University in 1981, supported by The Sound, it might be one of the best gigs I saw in the 80s. A few weeks later I saw New Order at the same venue, those were the days. They were pissed and Hooky gave the performance of his life, he reminds me of a football player who gets to play for the team he has always supported. Ask Hooky what his favourite album is and he will say Closer or Unknown Pleasures - what a guy. Anyway, the Bunnymen. I think they were very much a zeigeist band, you had to be there at the time they were gigging and releasing records to fully appreciate them. Mac was a gobshite, sure, but he walked it like he talked it. Ocean Rain was not as good as he thought it was though!! | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 643 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Sound, now there was an underrated band. Have we done that thread yet? I was blown away by them at this 1981 gig. Adrian Borland was a performer in the Curtis mould, although 10 times more restrained. I cant remember the last time I saw a support band and thought, yeah that was great. Different in the 70s and 80s when I saw Suicide, Richard Hell and The Voidoids, The Slits, The Specials, Mikey Dread, The Skids, The Sound, The Comsat Angels, and Joy Division all do support slots. Probably the "biggest" band I saw in a support slot recently was when Snow Patrol supported Grandaddy a few years back, talk about a gulf in class, jeez. No wonder Grandaddy split up when crap like Snow Patrol sell more records than them. | ||
| Eke Member Username: Ekewebb Post Number: 92 Registered: 05-2005 |
Can I say "REM" here? I quite like a couple of their songs (I think they're Man In The Moon and Nightswimming although I'm not too sure) but I've never understood what there is about them that inspires such adulation. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 485 Registered: 03-2005 |
I'm in there with you, Eke. I occasionally pull out my copy of "Murmur," maybe about once every 10 years. The last time I was struck by how many 80s cliches were clobbering me around the head as it played. The comments about the Beatles are interesting. I don't share the intense dislike of the folks on here because I do think they were very good popsters in their prime. I do, however, find their invention of corporate rock with the hideous "Abbey Road" to be a pretty unforgiveable offense. THAT is definitely what the punk boom came to sweep away and is what sent me off in the early/mid 70s to searching out the grimy corners of the music world. Come to think of it I guess I should be grateful for "Abbey Road." | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 369 Registered: 08-2004 |
Prefab Sprout are lauded here. That's over-rated enough for me. The critics seem to love them too. It's very lightweight pop/country/soul bit like Deacon Blue. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 562 Registered: 03-2006 |
Thin Lizzy. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 590 Registered: 05-2005 |
LK Now Way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No, No NO!! Don't go over to the other side my man!! | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 565 Registered: 03-2006 |
Sorry man...didn't mean to offend any partisans...I love some of the hits, like "Boys" and "Cowboy Song", so I picked up a cheap used comp and just wasn't grabbed by much else on it. Are you a big fan? Btw, this board cracks me up - it never sleeps (in Kev's case, literally)...you think you can slip something in unnoticed, but noooo... | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 591 Registered: 05-2005 |
cool no probs lk only jestin!! ithink kev is actually a piece of software controlled by kev to respond with kevisms when ever kev wants a kevism, at any ungodly hour!! Gawd bless him!!! | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 666 Registered: 05-2005 |
Yeah, and I think all these late hours have given me a virus!! | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 592 Registered: 05-2005 |
KEV GET WELL SOON!!!! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 484 Registered: 05-2005 |
Don't diss Lizzy! Dancing In The Moonlight is their greatest classic song LK. Give it another go. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 127 Registered: 04-2006 |
thin lizzy, it's a seventies thing.... and i love them. not like a hardcore fan or something else, it is more a reminding of good times and yes, padraig, dancing in the moonlight is great! ah, by the way: i am back. from the mountains. from hiking. from the winter in the summertime. from a lot of rain. nevertheless it was fantastic (and worth to open a seperate mountain-thread....). | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 486 Registered: 05-2005 |
Open that thread Andreas. I want to also share about the mountains I have loved - hey that reminds me of the Palace lyric "If I could fuck a mountain then I would fuck a mountain". My regard for mountains is more platonic than that, I hasten to add. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 577 Registered: 03-2006 |
P&a: this blog, at http://therichgirlsareweeping.blogspot.com/ (scroll about 1/8 of the way down) has an MP3 of the Mountain Goats (!) covering "The Boys Are Back in Town"...Not sure if it works, but it definitely is imbued with that MG flava...for some reason he segues into an R. Kelly song... | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 129 Registered: 04-2006 |
hardin, it works and it is fun. thanks for that interesting blog. but i always wonder how much time all those people have. for me it is hard enough to read all that postings here, to say nothing of writing. back to the thread: from the nineties on: neil young. i am a fan. and loyally bought all his records until today. but most of that stuff he recorded since the beginning of the nineties is , eh, second class. | ||
| andreas Member Username: Andreas Post Number: 130 Registered: 04-2006 |
i failed. neil young isn't a band..... |