Bands with critical acclaim/respect that don't deserve it.

[jff]

Yeah guitarists really are subjective.  Nels for example, I have never seen so many people love and hate a guitarist.  

That's an excellent example.  I've loved Nels since I first saw him with Mike Watt in the mid '90s, but a lot of things he's played on (mostly the formless improvised stuff) do nothing for me.

[Lammycat]

Yeah music is really subjective. 

[lost highway]

If anything, this thread proves how critical acclaim can ruin people's ability to hear a band for both better and worse.  I had to start ignoring the endless "album of the year" praise for The National's "Boxer" to just hear it for what it is: great.

 

Likewise, as an underground music fan who passed his teenage years in the 90's and my college years in the 00's it took a lot of things to line up for me to actually hear the Stones.  I mean really hear them.  I had to get past decades of secondary references: my dad's friends wearing their t-shirts, rock criticism, ubiquitous cultural references.  I remember the moment where it clicked "Oh, shit!  The Rolling Stones are amazing!".

[twoshedsjackson]

That's an excellent example. I've loved Nels since I first saw him with Mike Watt in the mid '90s, but a lot of things he's played on (mostly the formless improvised stuff) do nothing for me.

I agree. A lot of his solo stuff is just a bit too out there (although I do like what he's doing with Julian Lage), but I love him in Wilco.

 

It often seems to me that when people express dislike for Nels it's more a matter of preferring the Jay years than Nels' playing. I get that. I love both eras. I'm probably in the minority around here in that I really like all of Wilco's albums (yes, even WTA). I think there are maybe 3 or 4 songs in their whole catalog that I actually dislike.

[jff]

I love the Kinks.  They're one of my favorite bands ever, but Muswell Hillbillies has never connected with me.  I think it's a significant misstep and they were never able to recover from it.  I don't understand why it is held up as one of their great albums.

[PopTodd]

I love the Kinks.  They're one of my favorite bands ever, but Muswell Hillbillies has never connected with me.  I think it's a significant misstep and they were never able to recover from it.  I don't understand why it is held up as one of their great albums.

Took a little bit to click for me. I mean, I liked it okay, but never understood why it was considered one of the "great" albums either. 

And then one day, for no reason in particular, it hit me. "Skin and Bone", "Oklahoma, U.S.A.", "Alcohol", etc...

Just... HIT me.

[lamradio]

The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society

[tinnitus photography]

it always amazes me that the Kinks got their surge of popularity in the US when they turned into just another shitty arena rock band.

[John Smith]

Re The Minutemen... I understand their place I'm history and what they were trying to do but I just can not get into their music and I have tried for 30 years off and on. Just the other day I tried again and could not even make it through one song and they have short songs ! It's the tone and inflection in the vocals and the guitar tone that turn me off. Those have been issues for years. So for my tastes they are overrated. I can't get through a full song of theirs yet I have listened to Metal Machine Music multiple times, go figure. And before I get lectured on listening to the right MM music I do own DNOTD and just don't like it.

 

I guess I should go out looking for a goat, I know some people who raise them so I'm in luck

[PopTodd]

Re The Minutemen... I understand their place I'm history and what they were trying to do but I just can not get into their music and I have tried for 30 years off and on. Just the other day I tried again and could not even make it through one song and they have short songs ! It's the tone and inflection in the vocals and the guitar tone that turn me off. Those have been issues for years. So for my tastes they are overrated. I can't get through a full song of theirs yet I have listened to Metal Machine Music multiple times, go figure. And before I get lectured on listening to the right MM music I do own DNOTD and just don't like it.

 

I guess I should go out looking for a goat, I know some people who raise them so I'm in luck

Again: taste v. deserving of acclaim.

[twoshedsjackson]

The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society

Hell yes. That album is a masterpiece.

[jff]

it always amazes me that the Kinks got their surge of popularity in the US when they turned into just another shitty arena rock band.

Probably has a lot to do with them being banned from the USA during their creative peak. 

[twoshedsjackson]

it always amazes me that the Kinks got their surge of popularity in the US when they turned into just another shitty arena rock band.

I seem to remember reading that they had some sort of disagreement with the US musician's union or something like that early in their career. It killed their ability to tour, which resulted in their albums being either unreleased or unpromoted here. It's a shame.

[lamradio]

Hell yes. That album is a masterpiece.

 

Absolutely.  Just recently acquired a record player and it's on the top of my list of must own LP's. 

 

Which is probably going to be pretty impossible to find... 

[John Smith]

Again: taste v. deserving of acclaim.

But if the music does not appeal to an individual that individual will see the band as not being deserving of the acclaim. Same issue with every band discussed here. Replacements,beck, Clapton, etc.., taste, its what makes the thread a no win proposition.

[jff]

Took a little bit to click for me. I mean, I liked it okay, but never understood why it was considered one of the "great" albums either. 

And then one day, for no reason in particular, it hit me. "Skin and Bone", "Oklahoma, U.S.A.", "Alcohol", etc...

Just... HIT me.

"I like it okay" is probably how I would put it.  If it were a one-off record by a forgotten band, I might think it was a lost masterpiece.  But as a piece of work by the Kinks, it falls flat against most of what trhey did up to that point.   I wouldn't be surprised if it clicks with me at some point, though.

[tinnitus photography]

Re The Minutemen... I understand their place I'm history and what they were trying to do but I just can not get into their music and I have tried for 30 years off and on. Just the other day I tried again and could not even make it through one song and they have short songs ! It's the tone and inflection in the vocals and the guitar tone that turn me off. Those have been issues for years. So for my tastes they are overrated. I can't get through a full song of theirs yet I have listened to Metal Machine Music multiple times, go figure.

 

they have plenty of songs under a minute (hence their name).

 

i always thought it was cool that Sebadoh covered this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP-s7Sr0RVQ

 

or Calexico covering a couple:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQPAsfMzpAA

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMKjV-QHYZU

Probably has a lot to do with them being banned from the USA during their creative peak. 

 

but why did the Kinks make that seismic shift in their songwriting and performing approach.

 

i love the Kinks, but Ray is almost as much a bad cheerleader as Wayne Coyne in a live setting.

[PopTodd]

But if the music does not appeal to an individual that individual will see the band as not being deserving of the acclaim. Same issue with every band discussed here. Replacements,beck, Clapton, etc.., taste, its what makes the thread a no win proposition.

It's a shift in perspective--an attempt at a journalistic approach v. just what you like.

As I've stated at least 2 more times earlier in the thread: I am not a big Radiohead fan, just don't really click with me. But, OBJECTIVELY, I can see why they get the critical acclaim that they do. Doesn't mean that I'm gonna listen to them, but I can understand why others do and even why others froth at the mouth over them. And that, my friend, is the point.

Can you see it? Even in bands that you don't like? The value? The appeal to others? Why they might like them?

[jff]

 

 

 

but why did the Kinks make that seismic shift in their songwriting and performing approach.

 

 

I don't know, but as I said before, Muswell Hillbillies was a turning point that they never recovered from (although there were significant stylistic, more arena friendly shifts in their sound occurring before that, particularly on Arthur and Lola).  What year was their first tour of the states after the ban?

[El Picador]

Daft Punk

Mumford and Sons

The Avett Brothers

Bruce Springsteen

Steely Dan

[Winston Legthigh]

I don't know, but as I said before, Muswell Hillbillies was a turning point that they never recovered from (although there were significant stylistic, more arena friendly shifts in their sound occurring before that, particularly on Arthur and Lola).  What year was their first tour of the states after the ban?

I would place their turning point to the album that follows Muswell. Apparently their first tour after the ban was in Fall 1969, but was very unsuccessful - lots of cancelled dates.

[Guest Jules]

The National

[tinnitus photography]

Steely Dan

 

i would make a case that Steely Dan is the most subversive musical act to ever garner mass attention in the US.

[jff]

 

http://www.theonion.com/articles/eric-clapton-wows-audience-with-even-slower-versio,34325/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=LinkPreview:1:Default

[NoJ]

i would make a case that Steely Dan is the most subversive musical act to ever garner mass attention in the US.

 

There's an interview with Fagan in today's Chicago Tribune. Wow, is he a crotchety fella. Ginger Baker could take ornery lessons from him...