alternative rock appreciation: "The Smiths"

Hey, if you want to characterize it as alternative, it's your thread.

 

i thought so

 

Damned right.

Pay no attention to heckling from the cheap seats, so to speak.

 

Well in that case when do we discuss Burzum, Israel's Astral Projection and Wagner?

E_S

 

you know what? why don't you spend your time posting about their awesomeness or leaving this altogether, instead of posting mighty wiki definitions here.

 

Obviously...

 

Yeah, I wouldn't really say Massive Attack is "alt rock," but meh...

 

any more takers for: this thread turned my world upside down?

 

Massive Attack was definately trip-hop, similar to Lamb, Portishead and bands of that ilk. Think jazz with hip-hop beats and female vocalists who sound like they are on ketamine. Mezzanine has their most familiar tracks; you'd recognize almost every song on there from dozens of different movies. The title track from their Protection album was probably the greatest of the trip-hop genre.

 

You say po-tay-to, and I say po-tat-to...

 

These guys are great and really hit the spot for me when I was going through my electronica phase.

These guys were different and many bands did follow their lead. U2 made it big with this style of music in the 90s. So I just love it.

 

I've just been watching this thread hovering here with growing annoyance, thinking to myself "They couldn't still be discussing this? Surely someone has pointed out to them by now that Massive Attack, while brilliant, are trip-hop and not alternative rock?"

I didn't want to do it myself, because I've already spent time kvetching upthread about this sort of thing, so I'm glad someone else did.

It's kind of like the same reason I find inducting Grandmaster Flash into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame somewhat obnoxious. Because, you know, he's not a rock and roll artist. The whole thing just sort of smacks of rock fans not being able to admit that their music isn't the exciting new sound anymore, and so they just sort of take any kind of music that's new and interesting and important and assimilate it into their outdated rock paradigm.

You don't get to pretend that everything new and cool that comes along is somehow "rock" just so you can still tell yourself that rock is more cutting-edge, interesting, or relevant than it really is.

 

The point is already made. A dogpile is not necessary.

 

on popular request, we shall proceed with

THE STROKES

for lack of a more obvious rock band

they came out in the 2001 amongst a wave of 'the' bands playing near imitations of new wave classics with a heavy velvets influence. the music is urban and simple, i think it was a comeback of garage at the time, even their first videos reflected that, being live performances without further ado (i believe they have veered from that approach a bit).

i bought their first album 'is this it' and loved it instantly. there is something so cool and casual and teenage about julian's singing, like he's just broke up with his girlfriend and getting terribly bored. with the others i haven't made as much contact, thinking their sound was a fad more or less and they'd only repeat themselves. maybe others can talk about 'room on fire' and 'first impressions of earth' more excitedly.

visit them here.

 

I have "Is This It" and "First Impressions of Earth". Haven't heard much of "Room on Fire". I like the Strokes; I think they write clever, snappy songs full of hooks. Lots of potential earworm songs. But I don't like the band members very much. No, I don't know them personally, but from what I've heard in the media over the years, and their demeanor when I saw them play last year, all lead me to believe these guys are suffering from a terminal case of we're-too-cool-for-this attitude. Upon closer inspection of the lyrics, you can kinda see the apathetic arrogance these guys have embedded in the music itself (or at the very least, the arrogance of vocalist/lyricist Julian Casablancas).

So while I like the music, I just don't care for them on a personal level. Admittedly, this always makes for a slightly weird reaction every time I listen to my favorite Strokes songs. Still, this isn't the first time I've had this kind of reaction. I've had similar feelings about Axl Rose (The constant Chinese Democracy release-date pranking certainly isn't helping...).

 

Ze list; they look interesting.

 

let's revive this with a bit of trivia.

last weekend i took a friend to the salford lads club in, yes!, salford. it's the place

THE SMITHS

chose to take the pictures for the queen is dead.

[image=http://www.creativematch.co.uk/newsfiles/salfordladsclub_smiths.jpg]

now see the evidence:
[image=http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/2772/n510095932841435818pr8.jpg]

i kinda prefer morrissey to the smiths on the whole but then i haven't heard an awful lot of theirs and more of his. his sound is just more muscular or something.

oh, and it's also the mozzer's birthday these days. happy birthday!

 

Ze list!

 

nah, don't say that.

i had a new idea for here, though. how about pitching INTERPOL against EDITORS?

both bands sounds derivative of Joy Division and The Smiths (maybe a little bit) and people mix them up a lot. editors (UK) are trying to break free from interpol (US) these days and even with minor sounds modifications they are still unfortunately both releasing their albums at the same time.

so how does one tell them apart?