over-rated and under-rated bands: one man's insober list

[bbb]

I like the Stones, but I cannot in good conscience include them among the likes of the Beatles and Zep. The Stones cut a disco album when rock started to lose favor. I'm willing to bet they'd have recorded a gregorian chant album if there was a paycheck in it. Shameful.

 

They cut a disco album?

[Best Player Available]

They cut a disco album?

I heard,Jagger quit the band for three months. I believe they settled on John Travolta, for the new lead singer. Keef and Charly don't like to bring up that period often. But Emotional Rescue was one of the "disco" tunes.

[Buftex]

Funny, but their two "disco" hits ("Miss You" and "Emotional Rescue") are two pretty great songs. Hard to believe a simple "four to the floor" scares some people so much...

[NoSaint]

 

 

Name a Jam Band. BTW saying the Stones are overrated does not mean I think they suck. To me there is very little music that sucks. Plenty I won't listen to but very little that sucks.

 

 

 

Dirty, spontaneous and unprompted is not sloppy. I agree with Pooj that the word sloppy is wrong to describe R&R but not wrong with regard to a live Stones concert apparently.

 

Unrestrained, imperfect, energetic walks a fine line with "sloppy"

 

The rebellious rock and roll JW loves often isn't about nailing a perfect riff, as much as capturing an attitude of not always playing by the rules of style or grace.

 

While I understand the direction you are headed with your argument, I think you are under appreciating a certain swagger that makes rock great. Sure you need to know how to play, but leaving behind some harmony/melody isn't always a bad thing, and being more technically proficient isn't always a good thing. The best balance those. It's an inexact science and some nights they don't sound as good as others. Still great.

Edited June 4, 2013 by NoSaint

[DC Tom]

Funny, but their two "disco" hits ("Miss You" and "Emotional Rescue") are two pretty great songs. Hard to believe a simple "four to the floor" scares some people so much...

 

I never realized "Miss You" was "disco".

 

And I never realized "Emotional Rescue" was the Stones - always thought it was the Bee Gees, with Barry Gibb in desperate need of a nice, hot cup of tea with lemon.

[Doc]

I never realized "Miss You" was "disco".

 

And I never realized "Emotional Rescue" was the Stones - always thought it was the Bee Gees, with Barry Gibb in desperate need of a nice, hot cup of tea with lemon.

LOL! I was going to say the same thing about "Miss You."

 

"Hey, what's the matter man? We're gonna come around at 12 with some Puerto Rican girls that's just dyin' to meet you."

[Chef Jim]

Unrestrained, imperfect, energetic walks a fine line with "sloppy"

 

The rebellious rock and roll JW loves often isn't about nailing a perfect riff, as much as capturing an attitude of not always playing by the rules of style or grace.

 

While I understand the direction you are headed with your argument, I think you are under appreciating a certain swagger that makes rock great. Sure you need to know how to play, but leaving behind some harmony/melody isn't always a bad thing, and being more technically proficient isn't always a good thing. The best balance those. It's an inexact science and some nights they don't sound as good as others. Still great.

 

I guess that's why you like the Bills.

[bbb]

I heard,Jagger quit the band for three months. I believe they settled on John Travolta, for the new lead singer. Keef and Charly don't like to bring up that period often. But Emotional Rescue was one of the "disco" tunes.

 

 

I don't think anybody in the world hated disco more than me, but I really like Emotional Rescue. Not like I like their great rock songs, but just thought it was a good pop song.

[BillsFanNC]

For those promoting the virtues of sloppiness in rock music, I wasn't kidding about Snatches of Pink being underrated. From a quick google:

 

SNATCHES OF PINK: Sounds like Thunders trying to drive a train through the eye of a needle with Keef, Joe, Ace and Rimbaud cheering his !@#$ed up ass on. It sounds like a beautiful car wreck viewed on your third glass of absinthe..

[Delete This Account]

let's undo and do this:

 

Over-rated No. 5: Mumford and Sons.

what is this folk exercise in Gregorian chants. tepid at best, annoyingly cloying at worst. grumbles and drums. it's early Billy Joel with an irish wilt, sing-song blather formed to pretend depth. this over-rought baloney is enough to make me as angry as i was when i first elected to give their debut album a shot, and thankfully at a very affordable mark-down price. stuffed it into the car stereo and found myself hitting "next and next and next" over and over again until the album was spent.

 

and giving them a listen one more time in forming this diatribe, my opinion of mumford and sons has not changed. how these unfinished, overly polished ditties -- don't call them songs -- for the tin-eared and naive reached some sort of popular acclaim is more a reflection of how far the Grammys have stooped in honor of the big dollar establishment.

 

this is all antiseptic pap -- much like the lumineers, and yet not anything like the Decemberists, who are mature and ambitious enough to have made a formidable dent in their foray into this genre with true songs such as "All Arise!" and "Calamity Song," to name a mere few.

 

mumford and sons just don't cut it, in my opinion: "Sigh No More," indeed. sing no more is more apt.

 

take a stroll through the pubs in Temple Bar on a Friday night in Dublin, and you'll find dozens of these acts, some of them even better. or, better yet, spend an afternoon at the Cobblestone on the north side of the Liffey listening to the locals jam, and you'll get a much better idea and perspective of what good Irish-based folk music can aspire to. not this. never this: these pedestrian prodigies of pseudo-important pulp and underwhelming discharge.

 

 

so, with that sour taste out of my mouth ...

 

Under-rated No. 5: The Kills.

No, not the Killers, and definitley not the White Stripes. this is a man-woman duo that accomplishes what Jack White wishes he could manufacture if he ever set down the great weight of his own ego. and it's no surprise that the Kills lead singer Alison Mosshart has fronted one of White's side projects, Dead Weather, which curiously pales to the drive and sheer raw power of the Kills.

 

dirty, profane and bordering on ugly, Mosshart and guitarist Jamie Hince draw heavily upon a gritty foundation based on PJ Harvey and Patti Smith, with a big dabble of Lou Reed (give their version of "Pale Blue Eyes" a listen). Hince's grumbling guitar and Mosshart's off-key yet sweet voice are a near-perfect complement in producing blues-based rock and roll sound. their music is complex in its simplicity, a rumble for a back beat, a sparse guitar and we're off from the first note, as evidenced in the first song, Superstition," off their debut album Keep on Your Mean Side.

 

and then it gets meaner and better. No Wow is a near perfect release of bitter grit and melody. and it's the latter -- actual melody -- that separates The Kills from their disparate contemporaries. rather than making noise for noise's sake, the Kills actually find the off-key nuances to make their sound accessible.

 

give "Rodeo Town" a listen, or the brilliant "Back of the Shell." and Lord Jesus they can rock: "***k the People" is pure combustion.

 

the Black Keys could learn from this. Jack White, on the other hand, is a lost cause. (more on him later)

 

jw

Edited June 6, 2013 by john wawrow

[Gugny]

I can't wait for your write-up on Jack White, John. I absolutely love that guy and am truly interested in your take. I'll be patient. :-)

[The Poojer]

i still haven't completely warmed up to him...not really sure why, could be that in my mind he is trying to hard to be different each time. I need to give him another shot, he appears to really just want to play and make music

 

I can't wait for your write-up on Jack White, John. I absolutely love that guy and am truly interested in your take. I'll be patient. :-)

[Cugalabanza]

JW, you're Kills write-up brings to mind another very very underrated band:

 

Royal Trux

[Delete This Account]

I can't wait for your write-up on Jack White, John. I absolutely love that guy and am truly interested in your take. I'll be patient. :-)

 

i'd be more interested on your take -- once this all over -- of the Kills, if you haven't had an opportunity to give then a listen. pick up either of the two albums i've references. i promise i will not steer you wrong.

 

 

JW, you're Kills write-up brings to mind another very very underrated band:

 

Royal Trux

 

have heard of them, but haven't had a chance to sample. in fact, in researching the Kills for the sake of this thread, i happened upon the name Royal Trux. ... and this is the beauty, i think, of having these discussions. i'm learning, perhaps, just as much as we go along here.

 

but pick up the Kills. man, they're good.

 

jw

Edited June 6, 2013 by john wawrow

[Cugalabanza]

 

 

i'd be more interested on your take -- once this all over -- of the Kills, if you haven't had an opportunity to give then a listen. pick up either of the two albums i've references. i promise i will not steer you wrong.

 

 

 

 

have heard of them, but haven't had a chance to sample. in fact, in researching the Kills for the sake of this thread, i happened upon the name Royal Trux. ... and this is the beauty, i think, of having these discussions. i'm learning, perhaps, just as much as we go along here.

 

but pick up the Kills. man, they're good.

 

jw

 

I know the Kills. I like them. Not as much as you do, but they are pretty cool.

[Rob's House]

I'd say, with some reservation, that Phish is underrated. Because of their following, genre, & Trey's lame personality, they're often dismissed as a hippie jam band. This overshadows their musical talent. Also, as with most complex music, you have to listen to most of their songs a few times before you really hear it.

 

Some knock the random silly nature of their lyrics, but I find them humorous and occasionally poetic. My biggest criticism is that despite their technical proficiency their songs often lack heart and emotion - I feel a lot more from a simple tune from the Violent Femmes than an epic Phish song.

[Cugalabanza]

Just thought of another one: Modest Mouse

 

They tarnished their catalogue I think with their last two releases, but their earlier stuff is truly great. The albums Lonesome Crowded West and The Moon and Antarctica are masterpieces.

[The Poojer]

funny you mention them now....i just read on twitter that they are cancelling their current tour to focus on their new cd...thought that was kind of bizarre....i do like them though

 

Just thought of another one: Modest Mouse

 

They tarnished their catalogue I think with their last two releases, but their earlier stuff is truly great. The albums Lonesome Crowded West and The Moon and Antarctica are masterpieces.

[Cugalabanza]

Phish...lame personality...the random silly nature of their lyrics,...their songs often lack heart and emotion...

 

Boy, you really make the case.

[BillsFanNC]

JW, you're Kills write-up brings to mind another very very underrated band:

 

Royal Trux

 

SOP is often compared to this band, found this review for the brilliant 2007 Snatches release "Love is Dead":

 

Like all of Rank's music, Love is Dead is raw, first-take type material, but it's still more polished than usual. Previously, Rank has reveled in the mistakes, even turning them up in the mix, like fellow ne'er-do-wells Royal Trux. But after the primitive, self-conscious oddness of 2005's Stag, Rank felt maybe he'd gone far enough in that direction.

"Stag was such a gloriously !@#$ed up album, I didn't feel the need to duplicate or compete with it," he says. "It was almost like starting fresh."

 

http://www.indyweek....ent?oid=1201637

 

 

And you can download the entire Snatches Of Pink catalog here, for free:

 

http://michaelrank.bandcamp.com/music

Edited June 6, 2013 by BillsFanNC