Grunge Music Sissy Slapfight

[schild]

Ok.



That's not really worth it to me. Expensive as fuck.

You can't give an FU to the music industry charging that much.

Now, I am happy with my copy of Burning Empires from VNV Nation that I paid too much for to get it the day after it was released in Germany.

[schild]

Speaking of - I missed the bowie box release 2 months ago.

CLICK TO PAY

[stray]

Hah! Didn't know he did a cover of Pablo Picasso.

[schild]

His new album is Bowie Taking a Piss on his Fans.

[Sky]

Hah! Didn't know he did a cover of Pablo Picasso.

Who did that originally? That was on the Repo Man soundtrack, iirc? Used to be in rotation at our half-pipe when I was a youngster.

[stray]

The Modern Lovers.

[edit] The Burning Sensations did the Repo version.

[HaemishM]

Meh, In Rainbows didn't really thrill me one way or the other. I still have yet to figure out what people think is so amazing about Radiohead.

[Sky]

Maybe you need better weed. 

[HaemishM]

If drugs is what it takes to appreciate Radiohead, then I can begin to understand the luv for the band. I bought their first album based on one song, and it happened to be the only song worth a damn on the album. In Rainbows hasn't really made me change my opinion of the band at all.

[Sky]

I enjoyed the Kid A/Hail to the Thief stuff. I can still dig it now and again, but my tastes have drifted away from that stuff in the last few years. I mostly listen to blues and 'period' jazz (django or basie, not bitches brew).

[stray]

The Bends is a rockin' album, but I never understood the big deal about anything after that.

[Selby]

Pablo Honey and The Bends had some good songs, but as far as the rest of their catalog I seriously can't understand what everyone thinks is so great about Radiohead.

[Endie]

'Sup liked-Pablo-Honey-and-The-Bends crew?  The first time i heard Creep (in an alternative club in London when i was down on business) I thought it was Morrissey: can't say fairer than that.

There have been good tracks - some very good tracks - since, but winning votes for best album of all time points at self-fuelling critical hype.

I liked the track "Harrowdown Hill" by Yorke as a solo artist.  Again, I listened to the album and was impressed, just as I was by OK Computer, but that didn't make me listen to it often.

Anyway, Coldplay say they were heavily influenced by OK Computer.  That is enough for me to confidently assert that, were I gifted a time machine, I would use it to go back in time and sabotage the recording sessions.  Obviously, I'd then pop round the corner and shoot Coldplay.  Can't be too careful in these types of things: I've seen movies.

[stray]

I don't mind Coldplay... Not buying their albums or anything either... But it's good guitar playing.

As for Radiohead, I'm pretty much biased towards guitars. I admit that. The Bends is a good example of it. And the more and more they moved away from guitars (at least how I like them played), the less I could get into their albums.

Neither come from any Brit Rock/Pop strand that I'm into though. I like things more stripped down, raunchy, garage-y, poetic stuff.. Going back to the Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks. I love the Clash, Gang of Four, Wire. And I think Pete Doherty is the best thing since the Clash. Completely toasted or not, he makes fun, simple, honest music.

[HaemishM]

See, I liked Creep and could have done without the rest of that album. I listened to In Rainbows again, and Nude is a good song. The others are ok, but just don't stand out at all.

Why are people so critical of Coldplay? I love their first album.

[schild]

Short of 2 or 3 songs, Coldplay is interchangeable with any radio dreck.

[HaemishM]

Sometimes, even radio dreck is listenable. Not often, but just because it's popular doesn't mean it sucks.

[Moaner]

I love Radiohead because they push the boundaries between jazz, electronica, blues, and rock and all the while doing it with exquisite style and respect.  Their song writing is also unparalleled in modern rock IMO.  No one comes close unless you count Pink Floyd :)

There I'm done spooging.

[stray]

Now Pink Floyd I do not like. I might even say that it's the only band that I hate completely.

Don't bother giving me shit about it though. I've heard it all before. 

[schild]

Sometimes, even radio dreck is listenable. Not often, but just because it's popular doesn't mean it sucks.

No one said that. In fact, I said the opposite.

I labeled a genre of radio as radio dreck. I didn't say it was interchangable with any of the shit on the radio. Rather, there was a key word after that.

[Evildrider]

If drugs is what it takes to appreciate Radiohead, then I can begin to understand the luv for the band. I bought their first album based on one song, and it happened to be the only song worth a damn on the album. In Rainbows hasn't really made me change my opinion of the band at all.

I do drugs.. and do not like Radiohead. 

[HaemishM]

Now Pink Floyd I do not like. I might even say that it's the only band that I hate completely.

Don't bother giving me shit about it though. I've heard it all before. 

I'll bother anyway.

Philistine.

[Righ]

Meh, In Rainbows didn't really thrill me one way or the other. I still have yet to figure out what people think is so amazing about Radiohead.

Radiohead are strongly influenced by a style of experimental music first significantly pioneered in Germany in the early 70s, and referred to as Krautrock and its most evident on In Rainbows. It fuses elements of rock music with jazz and modern classical ideas and is quite different from the predominantly blues-derived rock music that dominates the mainstream. In recent times, music that is developed from similar influences has been lumped under the label 'post-rock' but Radiohead are fairly singular in their vocal approach, and also in that their sound continues to evolve rather than solely represent a fairly static style, unlike most post-rock artists. I find Radiohead to be creative and inventive, using more influences and sources than most contemporary bands. They evolve their sound over time, and yet retain a group dynamic that is markedly their own.

Reckoner uses both guitar and drum parts that could have come straight from Neu! but has that wonderful Yorke vocal - its superb.

[Sky]

Yeah, that's a lot of it Righ. I do like experimental bands when the result is something pleasing musically, often it's not. Yorke's vocals are great and have a nice forlorn and manic driving quality. I got into Radiohead after seeing them do Idioteque on SNL. I'd heard and enjoyed Creep, but that's the performance that made me buy a cd (Kid A).

Just the sheer inventiveness of their stage show and Yorke going from forlorn to manic blew me away.

Speaking of multi-genre creative rock, I hope Mars Volta continues to be as creative as they've been. Probably my favorite of the newer bands, though I know they're not real popular around here. Not sure why, they totally rock. The only negative I can say about MV is they like to put in a lot of sonic mood stuff between songs that you can't skip on the cd. But imo they're the new Rush+.

[Righ]

TMV are great, I just wish they'd find somebody who didn't compress the hell out of their albums in the mastering stage. They could also do with making a 50 minute album from the best ideas rather than trying too hard to fill a CD. However I wouldn't call them the 'new Rush' - there is no new Rush, though the last Rush album was astonishingly good by their recent standards. Claudio Sanchez of Coheed & Cambria sounds eerily like a younger Geddy at times though.

[Sky]

By that I mean MV push creative boundaries while still maintaining some radio-friendliness (like the Widow), and when my fiancee first heard them she thought it was Geddy Lee singing.

I need to check out some Coheed and Cambria, I've liked what I've heard of theirs and they are a great interview. Had a recent guitar disc with them showing off some riffs. Another band Guitar World turned me onto was Mastadon.

[Endie]

I first heard Sea Beast by Mastodon on MTV2 and loved it.  I then saw them supporting Tool and would have been delighted just to have seen them in concert (although Tool were a step beyond them, as it turned out.  Or actually two steps).

[Sky]

I've seen Tool a couple times, the most memorable was at some tiny place the size of a high school gym (bleachers and all) in Poughkeepsie. Got to meet the band after, very cool night. Melvins opened up and I became a big fan of them, too, not sure how I missed them in the 90s. Lysol pwns.

[stray]

Yes to the Melvins.

[Endie]

I've seen Tool a couple times, the most memorable was at some tiny place the size of a high school gym (bleachers and all) in Poughkeepsie.

I'd love to see them in a small venue: the Barrowlands Ballroom in Glasgow would be brilliant, and Kin Tut's Wah Wah Hut (consistently voted the best venue in the UK) even better.  But seeing them in what amounted to a small stadium (the conference centre in Glasgow) was still astonishing.  The Smashing Pumpkins signally failed to fill the same space on their increasingly-innacurately-named fairwell tour, and bands like MCR struggle badly to deal with the rotten acoustics, but Tool's really intricate and closely-interwoven micture of set design, music, lighting, back-projected visuals and lasers was easily the most impressive overall show of any I have ever seen.  And I've seen a lot of bands in the last 25 years.

[stray]

Most impressive show I've seen is a 15 minute abruptly shortened set of the Butthole Surfers burning a stage, followed by Gibby firing a shotgun and getting chased off by cops. Second coolest show was Steel Pulse.

[Endie]

Most impressive show I've seen is a 15 minute abruptly shortened set of the Butthole Surfers burning a stage, followed by Gibby firing a shotgun and getting chased off by cops. Second coolest show was Steel Pulse.

That's a tough act to follow, so to speak.  i can only imagine that there is a steep drop-off in drama levels between numbers one and two.

[stray]

Heh yeah.. The Pulse wins just by virtue of the tunes themselves.



So anyways....


Albums of the year anyone? Got a top 3 at least?

MIA - Kala
Tomahawk - Anonymous
Babyshambles - Shotter's Nation

[Endie]

Tricky one: it's been a pretty good year for music, but not a year with obvious masterpieces that will clearly define it.

I'd go with:

Neon Bible by Arcade Fire (almost as good as their first album, which is an achievement for any attempt at the "difficult second album")
From Here We Go Sublime by The Field
and (partly for contentiousness sake, but also because I believe it)
The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance

The latter may be mainstream and popular but it is full of really good tunes, and is superb performed live.


I also really liked Situation, by Buck 65, but I'm not sure that it's up there in the top three.  I also really liked iLiKETRAiNS' Elegies To Lessons Learnt, but I suspect that many people are put off by either their morose sound or their tendency to write songs about history.  Still, it's another chance to link to Terra Nova and its great video.  Also, it was released outside the US last year.

[stray]

That is a cool vid. Thanks. I had a Godspeed/Sigur/Mogwai kick several years back, but I can barely do it anymore album wise. Deep inside, I just like pop tunes! Always good guitar playing from bands like that though.

Granted, Anonymous (by Tomahawk) is by no means a pop album either... But I haven't heard anything like it ever. Still rocks in it's weird sort of way, but musically speaking, it's one of the more experimental things I've heard in awhile. Every band that tried to borrow from Native American culture just sounded like blues. This sounds like what a true fusion and rock and indian music should be. Mescal Rite 1

MIA is unlike anything I've heard either... But damn, I think she's catchy. Too bad there isn't a Paper Planes vid yet. Boyz is funny though.

Babyshambles has a great vid for Shotter's Nation. French Dog Blues