Boston vs. Rush

The way I approached this: Billy wrote 'Cherub Rock'. You, me, and these other bands did not.

So you're saying: one great song > one great album > one great stretch > one great career.

I will say, as people I'd hang with, the dudes in Rush seem pretty awesome, but the other acts are in a three way tie for last. You've got art-snobs, insecure jerks and the sheer weirdness of Brad Delp's final days.

Rush are probably the best human beings out of this lot, I'll agree with you there.

for the following kinda reductive reasons these bands are all good (or great in SY's case) for different reasons. boston released the best one-hit wonder classic '70s rock radio album of all time. rush is the best proggy ridiculous north american band of all time. smashing pumpkins have at least three really good albums and the best alt-rock supervillain of all time. SY were the best NYC alt band of all time and had great tunes and could stretch out in ways that weren't boring or tedious.

voted SY. brad delp was the best person out of anyone in any of these bands though.

Sonic Youth don't deserve to be ranked above Rush, whether you like Rush or not. I sympathize with BC, suddenly. Being "too cool" is a huge turn-off. That said, Boston's music was engineered for stadiums - alienated kids' bedrooms were not the intended fora for those records. Feel that making records that are not truly for the home is evil.

brad delp was the best person out of anyone in any of these bands though.

!!!

boston's music was engineered for car rides imo

best PERFORMER i should have said

http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2012/05/27/boston_singer_brad_delps_final_days_marked_by_crisis_over_hidden_camera/

that is so much worse than your reasons for labeling Billy an asshole.

Billy is at least a blanched asshole in the light of these findings

dig the Boston songs I know from the radio except for "Amanda," feel like Tom Scholz is probably a genius on the level of Brian Wilson, whose music I also don't listen to. Rush.

Sonic Youth and Rush don't suck
Pumpkins, I don't give a fuck
AMANDA

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockman_(amplifier)

The thing about Boston is...how can people escape them - even now! I don't understand how people can listen to them repeatedly, they're so smooshy sounding.

I don't understand how people can listen to them repeatedly

My understanding is that they keep on tokin'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GzMx9CnhVk

say what you will about Boston though, Delp was an incredible vocalist (RIP)

Yeah, it is interesting that of the four bands in the poll, Boston is the only one with a traditional good singer.

That is sadly true, however IMO not even Celine Dion could bail them from their sludgy smudgy poo.

worst graphic novel ever

More than a poostain

though I'm gonna have to disagree with you
their music's not sludgy poo

...AMANDA

I will stan for Boston! Brad Delp has golden pipes! It is gorgeously crafted pop smothered in classic rock and that first album is all killer no filler.

However my vote goes to Rush because they are Rush and therefore unfuckwithable

Sonic Youth is cool and great but they dont occupy those great heights for me. Smashing Pumkins r ok but yeah no

I realized only a few years ago that I'd heard Boston's hits about a billion times, but had never actually owned the albums in any format. I wondered if they'd sound dramatically better on CD than on radio. They don't. More than anything I've heard this side of Christopher Cross, that band was made to played on the radio. Not true for Sonic Youth and Rush. Don't know about the other group.

Rush music was made for alienated teenagers' bedrooms. Which is totally classic.

"don't look back"
is better than "cherub rock"

AMANDA

the funny thing about Third Stage is that while it rocks considerably less than the two albums before it, at times sometimes I prefer it as it seems like it has more of a individual personality than the prior two albums, even if some of the songs are admittedly bland.

"We're Ready" is fucking sweet and I wish they did more songs like it. "To Be a Man" and "My Destination", though, god are those bleh.

lol that Boston had an album called Corporate America

Boston may be the only band of the four with songs that can justifiably be described as outright bleh.

Like, I don't like much Pumpkins, or listen to much later SY, but neither congress close to bleh IMO. I think Rush is pretty much bleh free.

I second that bleh-notion

Lol writing on phone waiting to get on cruise where I can already tell there are more rush and Boston fans than sp or sy, or have even heard of sy.

Boston's ballads were the worst thing about them. They pretty much avoided them on the s/t but then shit on later albums like "A Man I'll Never Be" and lord was that nauseating(though I like "Amanda").

though the s/t has dreck on it too. "Hitch a Ride" is such middling boredom, "Let Me Take You Home Tonight" had an annoying chorus...

I guess when it boils down to it the reason I still like the album is "More Than a Feeling" (tho I could die happy not hearing it again), "Peace of Mind", "Foreplay/Long Time", and "Smoking".

"Rock and Roll Band" is lame because they wrote it as this cutesy meta tail of their gritty rise to stardom but actually they got their first recording contract before playing a live gig. Yeah, granted *we* in the authorial sense isn't always literal but it was clear in the lyrics of the song that they were trying to paint themselves as some band that came up through the bar scene when they weren't.

Oh, and the chorus sucks.

your cruise mission: convert them.

"what if I told you....."

Have you heard the Good News (about Billy's 4 star album)?

"let me leave some materials with you...this is Daydream Nation. It might mean nothing to you, but once upon a time, it changed my life. Oh, you can go ahead and keep it, I have it on vinyl anyway."

Just played arcade fire over the pa.

only one of these bands has been on incessant earworm repeat for the last three days

With that "Corporate America" thing, I remember reading the articles. Wasn't that Boston getting all left-wing and anti-globalist? I remember that because their music seems so un-hippy and unnatural.

Believe it or not, I read a lot of articles on Boston at one time - because the guy was an engineer and I grew up with an engineer in my house - my dad. So I wanted to learn how an engineer thinks about music. Conceptually, it's interesting but it doesn't move me.

It's like Tom went to MIT to learn how to engineer the best corporate rock band.

it was clear in the lyrics of the song that they were trying to paint themselves as some band that came up through the bar scene when they weren't.

I know what you mean: even though Lynyrd Skynyrd is from Florida, they did "Sweet Home Alabama." They're dead to me now.

Wasn't the first Boston album recorded largely in his basement?

All but one song and the vocals, yep. The one song not recorded in his basement was done in an LA studio as a decoy for the label people who didn't want him recording in his basement.

Also, haha:

While Boylan arranged for Delp to have a custom-made Taylor acoustic guitar for thousands of dollars on the album budget, Scholz recorded such tracks as "More Than a Feeling" in his basement with a $100 Yamaha acoustic guitar.[2][3][7]

"check out these UFOs! I bet this band sounds like they're from outer space!"

^ preceded one of the biggest disappointments of my older siblings' CDs scavenging

Rush.

I don't have strong feelings about any of these bands, but I once saw a chicken walking across the front lawn of Brad Delp's (former) house, so my vote for Boston should be construed as a write-in vote for the chicken.