Music talk Thread

[heyzeus]

Has anyone ever heard Ace of Spades and thought "no, that is definitely not badass"?

[haltz]

Unpopular opinion time! The pixies should have been Nirvana. They should have been hailed as the legends who ushered in the alternative revolution. They were better musically. They did it first.

But they we’re not conventionally attractive (ok, Kim Deal was) so it didn’t happen.

They were definitely doing the loud/quiet thing for several years before Nevermind, not that they invented it -- maybe that version of it -- and we all know what Kurt Cobain said. Crazy that Surfer Rosa was 1988.

Come on Pilgrim to Surfer Rosa to Doolittle was 18 months. A groundbreaking EP and two all-time classic albums in a year and a half! How!

The year after you get Bossanova (my favorite and a minority opinion) and the next year in 1991 the same day Nevermind is released they dropped Trompe Le Monde and were done.

[heyzeus]

Unpopular opinion time! The pixies should have been Nirvana. They should have been hailed as the legends who ushered in the alternative revolution. They were better musically. They did it first.

But they we’re not conventionally attractive (ok, Kim Deal was) so it didn’t happen.

They were definitely doing the loud/quiet thing for several years before Nevermind, not that they invented it -- maybe that version of it -- and we all know what Kurt Cobain said. Crazy that Surfer Rosa was 1988.

Come on Pilgrim to Surfer Rosa to Doolittle was 18 months. A groundbreaking EP and two all-time classic albums in a year and a half! How!

The year after you get Bossanova (my favorite and a minority opinion) and the next year in 1991 the same day Nevermind is released they dropped Trompe Le Monde and were done.

Bossanova and Trompe le Monde clearly suffer from Frank Black taking full artistic control from the rest of the band, at the expense of Kim Deal, but both albums still have so many all time classics. (Umass! Planet of Sound! Alec Eiffel! Allison! Dig for Fire! Velouria!). Btw there's a fun and truly comprehensive podcast on Spotify called Bandsplain that has an episode tracing the full history/discography of the Pixies over nearly four hours, and it's worth the listen if you find yourself like driving across a few states.

[haltz]

I'll probably listen to that right now. I'm sure someone on here recommended it, but I'm enjoying 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, also on Spotify.

[heyzeus]

I'll probably listen to that right now. I'm sure someone on here recommended it, but I'm enjoying 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, also on Spotify.

That's a fun podcast, and the dude who runs it (Rob Harvilla) is very knowledgeable and I think he's from St. Louis, but something about his speaking style is annoying to me. Hard to put a finger on it.

[go birds]

I looked up Bandsplain because that's right up my alley and scrolled thru their library and when i saw they had an episode on Dave Matthews Band, my initial reaction was:



so i was fully prepared to hate-listen, but was pleasantly surprised that it was an episode dedicated to gushing over the band.

so listening i was like:

[haltz]

I'll probably listen to that right now. I'm sure someone on here recommended it, but I'm enjoying 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, also on Spotify.

That's a fun podcast, and the dude who runs it (Rob Harvilla) is very knowledgeable and I think he's from St. Louis, but something about his speaking style is annoying to me. Hard to put a finger on it.

I can't really articulate it either, but it gets much worse during the guest portion. Typically I just listen to the first part - kind of the opposite of Maron.

[BottenFieldofDreams]

I'll probably listen to that right now. I'm sure someone on here recommended it, but I'm enjoying 60 Songs That Explain the 90s, also on Spotify.

That's a fun podcast, and the dude who runs it (Rob Harvilla) is very knowledgeable and I think he's from St. Louis, but something about his speaking style is annoying to me. Hard to put a finger on it.

I can't really articulate it either, but it gets much worse during the guest portion. Typically I just listen to the first part - kind of the opposite of Maron.

Rob Harvilla is excellent. He loves music and musicians so much, but avoids sanctimony. His podcast is just brilliant essays where he finds clever, unexpected and sometimes touching ways to thread things together.

I was curious how Radiohead would go. He chose Creep and talked about Pablo Honey a lot as kind of a way to say Thom Yorke poops too but with a steady undercurrent of acknowledging the greatness and the curious ways Pablo Honey doesn't but maybe kind of does? speak to the transcendent music that would come. The album was named for a line from Jerky Boys ffs. I wouldn't be surprised if the most devoted Radiohead fans didn't like it (like DMB fans, very easy to set off, see below)--but I thought it was interesting. I love that podcast.

But to echo gobirds, come on--neither he nor his guest had seen DMB live. Come on. To see them in the 90s before they somehow became a cliche in culture (and the music slipped, quite a lot) was to know God. How does a band with so much goddam talent become a cliche anyhow?

[Jocephus]

i like a lot of DMB songs but i hate/d their fans. for some reason, DMB was big with debate/forensics people at my high school and i remember one time someone said something to the effect of "if you don't like DMB you don't know music"...i'm just like F off with that. granted that's just some teenager back in the day but ugh, i hated that mentality.

i see this list doesn't include primus. TRASH.

[BottenFieldofDreams]

i like a lot of DMB songs but i hate/d their fans. for some reason, DMB was big with debate/forensics people at my high school and i remember one time someone said something to the effect of "if you don't like DMB you don't know music"...i'm just like F off with that. granted that's just some teenager back in the day but ugh, i hated that mentality.

i see this list doesn't include primus. TRASH.

Yes, this is what I'm talking about. This is DMB and Radiohead fans at their worst. Only we never grow out of our HS pretensions.

He doesn't veer too far from pop. I doubt Primus gets a shout. That would be fun though. He did do CAKE, obviously, because he knows that if you don't like CAKE you don't understand what it means to be a human.