Albums/artists you just DON'T GET.

mms

sometimes
Sex Pistols and Ramones (actually, most any 70s punk band) have no redeeming musical qualities to these ears; their (supposed) aggressiveness is imperceptible to me, they are raw in the worst kind of way (it sounds like shit without sounding thrilling or charmingly lo-fi), and the melodies are imbecile to non-existent.

hmm on a different tip the whole lo-fi for lo-fi's sake bothers me in rock especially, quite often it lacks ambition so badly, such a ghetto, rough trade is full of that kind of stuff, just stuff that's really not very good but lo-fi so thats supposed to be ok. i'm not really talking about ariel pink who's lo fi is a trade off between accessability and a specific sound.
obviously there are alot of these, people haven't really heard them as they're not very good whatever hipsters try and tell you.
 
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nomadologist

Guest
with you on the ramones, guybrush (it's like "ok, i get it, ramones-- you don't care. but the major key thing and the bouncy bounce bounce thing get old fast) but the sex pistols had some great songs i thought. i like submission and pretty vacant. same attitude and "three chords in a major keey" vibe as the ramones, much more interesting lyrics and forward melodic momentum. do you like PiL any better, guybrush? because they are my jam. i spent three months in the fall of 2001 listening to nothing but second edition and "pop tones" is still one of my favorite songs.

MMS: WORD. remember the kills? someone i know dragged me to their show at the bowery ballroom one night a couple years ago. they thought it was great, i thought--too bad these songs are complete musical non-entities, because these two seem way into it and they can actually sing in tune. it's weird, but the more technically proficient lo-fi rockers are the WORST at song writing. boring, hookless rambling meandering crap.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
of course this to me means music that i feel somehow i "should" get, meaning within the lexicon of music i not only "get", but like. or music liked by others who share my general fields of interest / taste / etc. with that said:

Jandek.

what the hell is he supposed to be? a failed scott walker? a (even more) pathetic sonic youth?
I'm guessing there are people here who do listen to this? why?

also: Kottke. love Fahey but everything I've heard by this guitar player sounds horrible.

also: Fred Frith. but maybe I just haven't heard the right records?

also: that long hair, dark glasses queen-ish jap-noise guy that was on cover of Wire a couple years ago, whatshisface, damn it! anyway Merz-freak and My-Sauna can be exhilarating, but everything this guy makes is just... pukey.

also: NWW, Hafler Trio, and Zoviet France. -- beyond the few far and inbetween, rare moments of inspiration (such as Soliloquy For Lilith), and besides that time you and your brother each ate 15 hits of acid and like, totally had a religious experience with some record by these guys -- you would've had communion with Nomos the fishgod to the sound of a dish-washer ---- surely people must realize on some level that it's just lazy, boring, ineffectual and bankrupt pseudo (please don't say surrealist) wank? I have huge problem with people who call things "pretentious", because this word is usually used for the wrong reasons, which betray the actual ignorance and "pretentiousness" of the accuser him/herself (a new thread in thought? hmmm...), but from where I'm standing, in these cases the P word is more than apt.

also who are those british folkie gothy magick-y people? can't think of name of the main band at the time... that shit is so like, OOOOOOOO-KAY! whatever!

(on a related tip, I do NOT feel the same about Coil, who never ceased being fucking amazing in my book)

_____________________

yes I agree retardo vilalobos is somewhat over-rated.

but to those who dislike zepplin or ramones, have you never been a teenager before?
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
And here's a thing: i got hardcore (still do in fact) but jungle (excepting jump-up ragga kit and the odd anthem i.e Marvellous Caine's Hitman) left me cold

Ah - this, I can attempt to explain (esp as you like rave). Jungle, for me, contained the genius stroke of 160bpm drums juxtaposed against an 80bpm 'dub' bassline, as a successor to rave's equally brilliant combination of pop vocals/piano set against brutal hip-hop drums n bass. To these ears, both sounded as brilliant in practice as they do in theory (how infrequently does that happen in modern music?).

However, I do myself find jungle comparatively much less exciting than rave. Partly because the later stuff is so well-produced, that it loses some of the urgency.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
although i've never had the chance to hear fizheuer zieheuer at 6am slightly mashed atm fabrique or a club with a similary great p.a. (believe me i would like to) i did hear it the other day at my friend's house on his excellent stereo on vinyl. it was astonishing. it doesn't work as an mp3 at all or through less than great speakers. the difference between the mp3 and vinyl is astonishing.

as with most villalobos records, the beauty of its sonic depth is in intricate production (barely audible bass squirges, subtle re-orderings of the horns) and with the mp3 that i think most people have heard - well, it just doesn't come through.

those trying to *get* minimal techno/whatever should read philip sherburne's this month in techno from april: pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/38938/The_Month_In_The_Month_In_Techno

some of the best writing on the 'genre' ever i think. i'm new to dissensus so go easy on me if you disagree!

- c

Thanks so much for this - great post, and a brilliant link.

But where does one go to hear this stuff played out ,outside of Berlin? I live in London and I'm not even sure where to go there (aside from Fabric, which as a club space is appallingly overcrowded and miserable).
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
with you on the ramones, guybrush (it's like "ok, i get it, ramones-- you don't care. but the major key thing and the bouncy bounce bounce thing get old fast) but the sex pistols had some great songs i thought. i like submission and pretty vacant. same attitude and "three chords in a major keey" vibe as the ramones, much more interesting lyrics and forward melodic momentum.

Exactly. The Ramones bore me after a few songs, but I love the Pistols' (semi-fake, granted) nihilism. Although without Lydon as singer (one of THE great frontmen, if not the greatest), it's moot as to whether I would be so effusive about them.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
also: NWW, Hafler Trio, and Zoviet France. -- beyond the few far and inbetween, rare moments of inspiration (such as Soliloquy For Lilith), and besides that time you and your brother each ate 15 hits of acid and like, totally had a religious experience with some record by these guys -- you would've had communion with Nomos the fishgod to the sound of a dish-washer ---- surely people must realize on some level that it's just lazy, boring, ineffectual and bankrupt pseudo (please don't say surrealist) wank? I have huge problem with people who call things "pretentious", because this word is usually used for the wrong reasons, which betray the actual ignorance and "pretentiousness" of the accuser him/herself (a new thread in thought? hmmm...), but from where I'm standing, in these cases the P word is more than apt.

but to those who dislike zepplin or ramones, have you never been a teenager before?

Last post on this, I promise, but that's interesting for me 'cos I heard Nurse with Wound for the first time the other day. I thought it was pretty interesting, if inferior to things such23 Skidoo's 'Seven Songs' (the immediate reference point that occurred to me), which took similar ideas and wove them into 'avant-funk'.

Re Zeppelin and Ramones - that's a kind of reductive 'Dazed and Confused' view of teenagerism... Anyway, Nirvana hit it big when I was 14, so I kinda had little need for dinosaurs like Led Zep ;)
 

petergunn

plywood violin
i am not gonna bother reading this whole thread, as these days i so fucking open minded it's horrible...

HOWEVER

things i have not gotten in the past:

led zep- when everyone else in Jr High loved them, i was into Cream...

beastie boys- i liked "fight for yr right" when i was 10, i thought "watcha want" was cool when i was 14, but i never got people:

a) treating them as serious album artists, rather than a novelty (like i don't know if i liked "so watcha want" more than i liked "the sign" by ace of bass

b) getting stoned to them

prince- now i understand why people call him a genius, but back in the day i just thought he made records with bad drum sounds...

pixies- like sonic youth, i call them "older brother music"... ( i don't have one)... anyways, it all sounded like pussy punk rock to me... ramones mixes with neil young= whiney bullshit...

sonic youth- give better interviews and have better song titles than songs...

anything howie gelb has ever done= yawn

pavement- seriously? i heard their early stuff that sounded like the fall and that was dope, but man, they can't sing, can't play, can't write.... what's left?

i actually hate almost all indie rock as i am a huge fan of 65-80 rock and very little indie rock isn't heavily derivative of that era.

bill laswell- certainly has some great stuff, but don't get why he gets so MUCH respect...

bob marley- wouldn't make my list of top 20 reggae singers or LP's... just seems corny to me...

tupac- ok, i LOVE "hit em up" ("you fat motherfucker, i fucked your bitch!"), but in general dude's records were just OK...

i used to hate house music, now i am a huge acid house fan... however vocal house still gets the bozack...

"cool" people embracing ben folds or weezer... are you kidding me? these guys make corperate rock garbage...

bone thugs n harmoney- when they came out, i was really confused... this is rap?

i don't get people who don't get george thorogood... guy is a genius...

frank zappa- nerd music

fugazi- and i LOVE minor threat, but fugazi is a snoozefest

tribe called quest- always seemed like a cheesier (JAZZ) and more normal De La Soul to me....

so basically when people tell me they like "prince, bob marley, tribe called quest", i know we won't be friends...
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
prince- now i understand why people call him a genius, but back in the day i just thought he made records with bad drum sounds...

tupac- ok, i LOVE "hit em up" ("you fat motherfucker, i fucked your bitch!"), but in general dude's records were just OK...

Spot on with Tupac - but, as you said, 'Hit Em up' is a monumental fucking record. Makes every other dis tune (inc 'No Vaseline') seem bloodless.

As for Prince, I now appreciate the guy's songwriting talent - for a long time I was blinded by the appalling production (some of the worst ever) on his '80s albums (I like the sound on Diamonds and Pearls and Dirty Mind, however).
 

Guybrush

Dittohead
That's a great list, petergunn. I agree with almost everything, in particular Bob Marley (whose only song I can stand is ‘Waiting in Vain’) and Beastie Boys (I hate ‘Fight for Your Right’).

I haven't heard nearly enough PiL (or post-punk for that matter) to comment on them, but what little I've heard is good. It's funny that Zhao write about Ramones and Led Zeppelin being companions to teenagedom since I was given Nevermind the Bullocks by my father (how punk, eh?) at a very impressionable age (I think I was twelve or thirteen) and it didn't resonate with me at all.

I have huge problem with people who call things "pretentious", because this word is usually used for the wrong reasons, which betray the actual ignorance and "pretentiousness" of the accuser him/herself (a new thread in thought? hmmm...)
Yes, please.
 

Guybrush

Dittohead
But its like a lot of underground(ish) dance stuff, the few people who write about it tend to be incredibly enthusiastic (ie- Philip Sherburne- great writer but he must have rose-tinted earlobes or something...).
This is so true. It's a double-egged criticism, people who write about dance music should be enthusiastic about it, but unceasing rapture feels a bit affected and one-dimensional.
 

petergunn

plywood violin
I was given Nevermind the Bullocks by my father (how punk, eh?) at a very impressionable age (I think I was twelve or thirteen) and it didn't resonate with me at all.

my first impression of the sex pistols was also at age 12.

i was in london and went to the Rock Circus in Picadilly Circus and heard "Anarchey in the UK" (well, a 30 second clip) in front of the Johnny Rotten figurine... i sat there for 20 minutes listening over and over,.. i was a huge fan of aerosmith, metallica, NWA, jimi hendrix, the doors, amd geto boys, but i had never heard anything like that.... i have prolly listened to nevermind the bollocks 1000 times since then...
 

mms

sometimes
As for Prince, I now appreciate the guy's songwriting talent - for a long time I was blinded by the appalling production (some of the worst ever) on his '80s albums (I like the sound on Diamonds and Pearls and Dirty Mind, however).

thats a joke isn't it?
 

michael

Bring out the vacuum
also who are those british folkie gothy magick-y people? can't think of name of the main band at the time... that shit is so like, OOOOOOOO-KAY! whatever!
Current 93? I get them. Don't like them at all, but I find it pretty clear what their appeal is.
 

Precious Cuts

Well-known member
I got my mom the Hot Chip CD for xmas. It's OK, but Im surprised it's in so many people's top tens. I like the sound of the band/production, but the singer's vocal style just sounds out of place to me.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
yes yes current 93... sigh...

to the dude that heard NWW first time -- most of their sprawling discography comprises of ambient noise cut-up collage messes, with sound of sea gulls and razors scraping on chairs and stuff like that. most of it is beatless. so not sure if comparison with eastern leaning post-punk outfits such as 23 skidoo is apt...

here's a big one around here:

ariel pink.

speaking of teenagers... I read stuff about it and it seems interesting, but it just sounds like some nut job trying to re-do songs he heard in the shopping-mall in 1986?
 

zhao

there are no accidents
people, this is not "THE HATER'S THREAD". there is a separete one for that. just do a search for "THE HATER'S THREAD"

also don't get:

sun city girls.

love Jack Rose, love Sublime Frequencies, but Sun City Girls? WTF??? :eek: :eek: :mad:
 

DigitalDjigit

Honky Tonk Woman
I also absolutely do not get Prince. Aside from the "this is what it sounds like when doves cry" song. It's the epitomy of the shitty 80's sound. Those big gaps in the sound, the absolute lack of bass. Nothing hummable and it for sure doesn't rock my body. Where's the so called funk? What the hell am I missing?
 
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