You Owned More Than One Album By Them. You Listened To Them Fairly Often. You Knew, In Your Heart Of Hearts, That They Really Weren't Very Good.

*Worked for six days creating the world and on the seventh day they procrastinated and, lo! ILX was born.

I think The Sundays are quite good! What's so wrong with them?

This is also how EXACTLY how I felt about Uriah Heep and Wishbone Ash in the decade previous, but here revisionist history strikes again -- maybe I was wrong in my heart of hearts.

Oy. There's this guy who does a radio show in San Diego once a week and he has a segment called "Guilty Pleasures." Can't stand it. To him, Paul Revere and the Raiders and the Association are guilty pleasures. He once played a song by City Boy and said, "Oh, it's really a nice pop song but they RUIN IT WITH A LAUGHABLE HARD ROCK GUITAR SOLO."

this describes my reaction to too much of the new stuff that I read about and search out these days. Must be getting old. Perhaps the kind of patience/endurance described in the question is a function of youthful enthusiasm?

honestly, too....Jimi Hendrix, for the most part.

Well, depends, you should ask around (like on here). If you're Mac, Elvis Telecom's advice won't steer you wrong. His approach, as he mentioned on the thread about such things, is to rip to a hard drive (as they're so cheap) but also backup on DVD-R just in case, which sounds fairly wise. I'll probably switch over to that approach within the next few months.

And dave, IRON MAIDEN OWN YOU, AND YOU WILL DO THEIR BIDDING UNTIL THE COWS OF THE APOCALYPSE COME HOME AND SHIT ALL OVER YOUR MOTHER'S LAWN WITH FLAMING HELLFIRE COWPIES! FUCK THE SCORPIONS!

I don't know what happened to those records. I am more of a Teardrop Explodes man these days.

-- Bob Six (bobbysixe...), March 13th, 2005.

I feel this way about My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus & Mary Chain. I listen to them because everyone tells me of the cherry melodies buried underneath the glaze that I still don't hear, and I'd rather listen to The Pretty Things anyways. I'm hoping to hear how I'm wrong someday, since so many people insist I am, and probably won't sell Loveless or Psychocandy ever. But still.

-- david watts (newproperattentio...), March 13th, 2005.

aaaaarrrrgghhh

so who else? i guess maybe felt (though felt are hardly *bad*, just not very interesting). some spanish indie pop. lots of indie pop in general.

there a lot of artists i like, but not as much as one would think from my owning or having owned numerous of their albums. like richard youngs and orange juice.

Oh God, I'd forgotten about them. Two albums, I admit it, shoot me now.

I would have called them, except I only own that one compilation and "Like an Angel" is the only thing anyone needs by them.

Suggestions of Echo, Cabs, MBV, and JaMC would verge on blasphemy, but each are understandable in their own way. Echo were nearly the U2 of post-punk (love them I do), Cabs are hit-and-miss and sound very of-their-time (how the hell they managed to make 23 Skidoo sound so fucking modern using the same damn studio is just beyond me), Loveless sounds like tinny shit (and I still like it!) and MBV never penned an interesting lyric, and Psychocandy's guitars sound like hundreds of layers of electric toothbrushes and JaMC's lyrics weren't that great.

Hallelooya!

Zero, because they only had one album!!

"Dirt" is, a bit.

my own deeply embarrassed answer: fuckin' OASIS.

Not that he wasn't worthy of praise, but at one point I owned like 5 Elvis Costello recs and got virtually NO enjoyment out of more than 2-3 tracks on each. Just a personal thing - hated his singing & most of his melodies. And I bought a truly insane number of Jethro Tull LPs at garage sales, hoping to find a worthy companion to Aqualung. I was unsuccessful. And I haven't willingly listened to ANY Tull since the '80s.

Thelonious Monster sold a lot of copies of their first album on the strength of its one great song, "Try" (which still sounds thrilling), but I wish I hadn't bought anything else by Bob Forrest (except the Bicycle Thief cd).

I carried a torch for the Dancing Hoods for a long time (years before Sparklehorse), and still own their two lp's, the ep and the cd version of Hallelujah Anyway (for the extra tracks, natch)... but I can admit now that they weren't very good.

But I did go back and listen to 'Frequency and Urgency' by Salem 66 and 'In Excelsior Dayglo' by Christmas and still liked 'em both!

File sharing programs were invented for Postcards from Paradise.

Elvis Costello for sure and I'd say Nick Cave too, up until that last record anyway.

I've never owned an album by the Christmas discussed in this thread, but the *other* Christmas -- 60s psych band from Canada -- totally fits the bill for me. I have all three of their albums and they are kind of terrible. Well, mediocre at least. So why do I have them? I don't know, some insane desire to own every psych record ever made or something like that.

I never really did.

Also, the corny 90's industrial rock I bought too much of.

They did one totally captivating track (In Spite of Me) and everything else is just horrible - that jazz sax - eughh! But I still kept buying...

I am listening to 'Moons of Jupiter' (1988) for the first time in well over 10 years. Much more Fleshtones-like than the roots-rock I thought I remembered. I have to say I'm enjoying it quite a bit!

I was definitely OTM about Tindersticks and Pavement 2 years ago!

I remember even making fun of Gravity Kills for being a Stabbing Westward knock-off.

most of this thread seems like

"You Owned More Than One Album By Them. You Listened To Them Fairly Often. You Knew, In Your Heart Of Hearts, That They Really Weren't Very Goodcool to listen to."

I hate to admit it, but I'm starting to feel that way about Townes Van Zandt.

-- Hurting 2, Wednesday, April 25, 2007 11:27 AM (10 hours ago)

mogwai

bill callahan

*ducks*

i do like some smog i guess

I have Mansun EPs 1-4, not sure why I bought them, did listen to all of them.

I miss Scott threads.

the maine are this band for me

The Beta Band

I really like the two Callahan LPs I own (Dream River & Apocalypse). No strong opinions on anything else he's done! Someday I'll dive into Smog more, as I've been somewhat familiar with patches of all that material for years now. Pending thoughts forever.

The Decemberists

The Beta Band

yeah, feeling this

the menzingers

also, the men

the game

The Donnas got back on streaming after a few years of Lookout! related shit and revisiting them was kind of a bummer. Still love the cover of "Strutter" I had as a 7" single though.

The Decemberists

there are a couple songs I still revisit but mostly otm, I listened to them a lot in late HS / early university days

"corny indie bands you gre out of even though you are still very corny yourself" is maybe a different thread concept tho

It's not that I think they're not good, it's just that they never truly did it for me despite years and many albums of trying:

American Music Club
Dead Can Dance
Sisters Of Mercy
The Wake
Big Country
Cracker
The Field Mice
The Lucksmiths
The Pursuit Of Happiness
Unbelievable Truth

Semisonic

didn't even have to think about it

there's nothing really "good" about the first few idlewild albums and in fact a lot about them is bad, but I still like them

oh yeah good pick

some other acts from my younger years I would completely ignore if they were new but I still listen to on occasion more out of comfort and habit than due to anything else:

beulah
brakes (aka brakesbrakesbrakes)
the cribs (not the early records though - even I have standards)
electric soft parade
epic soundtracks (sorry)
ghinzu
great lake swimmers
the icarus line
menomena
outrageous cherry
part chimp
punch brothers
simon joyner
superchunk (sorry again)

honestly, british sea power belong in here too

The Decemberists and Death Cab circa 2003-4 put me off of paying attention to new guitar based music pretty much until the second Obama term.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Can (apart from Future Days)

Embrace

British Sea Power and The Beta Band are kind of similar in that there are a handful of earlyish songs by both that I think are wonderful, but whatever it was didn’t last even though there’s nothing wrong with what came after.

Idlewild is a great shout.

Ride.

Embrace

― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), Thursday, 13 May 2021

most unexpected post of the year.

Can (apart from Future Days)

whoa buddy

outrageous cherry

I still love their s/t a lot and haven't listened to any of the other albums in years

Mansun were def not supposed to be "tasteful" but 'Mansun's only love song' is great.

Idlewild's first two albums have their moments, def not a "cool" band but they pulled off the 'bored suburban American skate kid' thing convincingly for a bunch of Scottish dorks. The lyrics on the second album are a little pretentious but their more snapshot-y stuff rang true.

Beta Band are a good call, I listened to them a bunch even though I knew they weren't very good. The core elements of their sound and style were pretty laughable, but that's ok- you put up with it for the little details, the sound collage stuff etc.
There are more Acme whistles on their debut album than on SMiLE, they deserve a pass for that alone.

Whoever wrote Can is obviously trolling.

the selftitled beta band album is totally fucking classic

"the hard one" sucks and "it's not too beautiful" was a little distracting. Keeping it light elsewhere was a very good move and the psychedelic bubblegum hip-hop stuff is great.

It resonates more with the singer's first single as King Biscuit Time, both of which i still listen to once in a blue moon, than "The 3 EP's", which i don't.

"Push it out" is gorgeous tho

yeah, no style is great. “Eye o the dug” pisses all over animal collective.

“the hard one” is awesome

the whole album sounds like it’s been “corrupted” like a computer file idk if that makes any sense... it’s soooo LSD-y

"c I am 15".....man I need to dig that one out

The ride cymbals on “push it out” sound incredible, I think about those cymbals a lot

I'm not trolling

"hot shots ii" is both the best and the most boring beta band album

British Sea Power are definitely a band who I've cooled on over the years. I find myself thinking the first two albums are enough but even then there's moments on those I find a bit embarrassing.

Mansun were my favourite band in high school and I'm amazed that I know some people who seem still to love them now as much as I did them. Any affection or nostalgia I might have for them has disappeared thanks to Paul Draper being a massive creep.

The first name that popped into my head when I saw this thread title was Patrick Wolf.

wow, I did not expect the original post to be about Salem 66 and The Lucy Show

ha, I have every Idlewild and Patrick Wolf album; am fully in denial still. I guess I'd concede Maximo Park, whose new albums I can't seem to stop buying.

Oh I think Patrick Wolf at his best is still awesome. Amazing live singer. Wind in the Wires is great front to back. All the other albums have good stuff. But I can see why you might fall out of love with him.

I can imagine large parts of the sst catalogue falling into this space. I spent money on the two Gone records, I think there was one good song between them. I cant remember it at all. They are long gone.

Matt Pond PA

The Chinese Stars

it's time to testify, brothers: the MC5.

Lords of Acid for me, though I still enjoy most of Voodoo U

Guiltily

still like Patrick Wolf and Beta Band, though it has to be admitted haven't listened to either in many years.

Question: Well, And I have to tell you some bad music related news. The New York Dolls did not get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame –

Mayor; That’s wrong. I want to condemn them for that, Jillian. I am condemning them.

Question: It's wrong. These bands – they're considered alt-rock bands, would not have existed without the New York Dolls. It's just wrong. It's a travesty and I'm not even a big Dolls fan anyway.

Mayor: You and I are in total agreement. I'm outraged. I'm going to storm off the set right now in outrage.

Question: You're not going to storm off with all that Shake Shack stuff around?

Mayor: No, I'm actually – I would take it with me, that's it.

https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/358-21/transcript-mayor-de-blasio-holds-media-availability

haha whoops wrong thread!

The Hold Steady and the Drive-By Truckers were the predominant soundtrack of my mid-late 20s. I knew they weren't perfect back then, but I was able to overlook their missteps in service of their peaks (which were definitely there). But these days I'm just like "please turn this off".

Cosign on Can. Also, Scott Walker.

has anyone yelled at simon for picking superchunk yet?

no because I'm right, I do like them fine tho tbc

Definitely Jefferson Airplane.

xp im willing to concede because i think their 21st century stuff is better than the 90s stuff everyone goes on about

Come Pick Me Up >>>>>>>>

Telly Savalas. I found his albums conceptually amusing, but as a singer he wasn't "good" good.

Simon..... how dare you

Definitely Jefferson Airplane.

Unless the only albums you owned were their final few, don’t know how you could conclude that JA “weren’t very good”!

My brain is broken after seeing Can get nominated by two different people.

I'm with voodoo chili though, I def prefer Superchunk's 21st century material to the 90s stuff, though I don't exactly dislike the latter.

here's a beardo disco pick, sebastien tellier

i'm a big fan of foolish and here's where the strings come in but i low key think majesty shredding is the best superchunk record

obviously an amazing and crucial band, your favorite band's favorite band even

Matt Pond PA

― If you value Vox, we have an axe (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, May 14, 2021 1:36 AM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

hahah this is a great one

Yeah! Still love Emblems and Several Arrows Later tho

feel like there's a whole group of napster era indie bands that fit this. maybe just a generational thing idk.

Animal Collective

Unless the only albums you owned were their final few, don’t know how you could conclude that JA “weren’t very good”!

It's easy!

oh boy, here's one for me: yo la tengo. i liked them! they def have some sublime moments. but ultimately their sensibility was just out of sync with mine i guess.

honestly this is a lot of indie rock for me beyond a handful of bands.

Mouse on Mars

Critically acclaimed 'playful' electronic music in general.

I was tempted to cite Yo La Tengo as well but they've got at least a handful of tracks that I enjoy unreservedly.

I have a couple of Sky Cries Mary albums and I still go back to This Timeless Turning every now and then but on balance, this band is very bad

mouse on mars is a good one. that first album though, still incredible imo.

Oh yeah, fucking Caribou/Manitoba.

also I thought I'd be the first to drop ICP on this thread but not only am I not, I'm not in the same league of ex-ICP appreciation as the poster who did

I blame p4k for all of these btw. And myself, of course.

imo dan snaith has been responsible for enough bangers after the caribou / manitoba hype to get out of this category but you have to be into club music

I like some club music, and I haven't heard anything he's done since 2007 or whereabouts so I'm open to the possibility that he is an architect of bangers.

the recent Mouse on Mars releases have been awesome and pretty unique

Here's a challopy one: Post-Tilt Scott Walker.

I think Mouse on Mars are kind of the opposite, their playfulness causes people to underrate them imo. their stuff's held up better for me than anything in that scene other than Autechre

I blame p4k for all of these btw. And myself, of course.

― pomenitul, Friday, May 14, 2021 10:45 AM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Absolutely. There are a few prolific bands like Deerhunter, Dirty Projectors, and Grizzly Bear that are fine? but would get like an 8.6 from Pitchfork every time, and I just kept downloading/buying the records thinking maybe this will be the one to convince me...

animal collective do feel like a con in retrospect but I only ever really liked Feels

Deerhunter and Dirty Projectors had some legitimately great records mixed in with some lesser ones though.

Yo La Tengo is sort of a baffling answer to me, esp since they have so many different vibes that it's hard to imagine not hearing something you like in their catalog. But I'm a huge fan boy so maybe the mention just annoys me.

Did they though?

A few more road for the road:

Battles
Flying Lotus
M83
The xx

In all fairness to the bands I've named itt, at least they compelled me to make an effort and keep up appearances for a good while. There are plenty of hyped acts from the era when I was amenable to indie critical discourse that I dismissed outright (nor have I changed my mind in the interim).

*more for the road

Is this question something of a holdover from the required investment of time and money in the physical music era? It's a cliche that younger listeners just skip songs and albums that don't make an immediate impact, but is there some truth in it? Do people even remember streaming multiple records by the same artist if there are no songs they like?

Halycon Digest and Bitte Orca are both great albums, but I know we've moved into kneejerk hatred of anything Pfork approved from that era.

They were fine. I never thought they lived up to the 'fork's breathless praise, but I don't recall ever feeling swindled. Likewise Grizzly Bear, whose Yellow House and Veckatimest are both great.

I remember kind of liking "Stillness Is The Move" and going to check out Bitte Orca and having a fully-body phobic reaction

very hard to disentangle this from the critically acclaimed albums you don’t like thread

i feel like a lot of the GAPDY stuff hasn’t aged well but still rank in my memory as great live bands. but the ratio of listens to enjoyments is def out of whack with AnCo

Ah Battles, I so much wanted to like Battles

I mean they're more than fine. I saw them live once and it was a fun show. But not great.

Legit love Grizzly Bear and Dirty Projectors though.

Also Dan Snaith - way more hits than misses in his catalog

animal collective do feel like a con in retrospect but I only ever really liked Feels

― intern at pelican brief consulting (Simon H.), Friday, 14 May 2021 15:58 (twenty-six minutes ago) link

for those type of bands I've checked out some of the latter day Beach House albums and think they are better than the ones from peak era

Never cared for Animal Collective in the least. The awfulness of Sung Tongs astounded me

There is a very funny reference to them in the last season of IN TREATMENT with Gabriel Byrne which possibly implies that his elementary school age child is emotionally disturbed for enjoying them

'Leaf House' is pretty good and gives you the impression that what follows could actually be palatable.

the thing with AnCo is a lot of their appeal is wrapped up into triggering certain feelings of nostalgia which is def one of those things that can feel profound and obnoxious in alternating intervals. their whole "lets make the music of childhood" thing is pretty annoying but I'll be damned if it didn't sometimes trigger a really early memory in me - I think it's those bass sounds.

I was and still am pretty cold on Sung Tongs as an album, but "Banshee Beat" convinced me to give them another try & Feels won me over instantly, and the shift to more electronic sounds over the next two albums kept my interest.

I remember liking Panda Bear's big hyped solo album at the time, but I'm willing to believe that was the real scam.

I do wonder what Painting With's reception would've been had it come from a different band. I'm surprised it was so thoroughly trashed, I thought it was loads of fun

NOFX and Anti-Flag

die for the government and franco unamerican are both kind of hilarious but not necessarily on purpose

it's amazing how much better the sellout poseur shit I was shamed out of listening to (avril, blink etc) has aged in comparison

was everyone on mushrooms for the anco stuff or something

I got "Sung Tongs" in a sale in a library for, like, 25p and that was 25p too much. Utter pish.

god i fucking hate NOFX one of the worst bands ever

"Banshee Beat" is the only song I ever really loved by AnCo, but it is legitimately incredible. Like top 25 tracks of the 2000s for me.

Ah Battles, I so much wanted to like Battles

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Friday, May 14, 2021 12:25 PM bookmarkflaglink

I mean they're more than fine. I saw them live once and it was a fun show. But not great.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Friday, May 14, 2021 12:25 PM bookmarkflaglink

I saw battles on their first tour, and my mind was absolutely blown. Like top 5, all-time live music experiences. my friends and I still reminisce about how unexpectedly incredible that show was.

I can get empathize with a lot of these other mid-aughts p4k-endorsed suggestions. But I don't think most of them were objectively bad... this just feels like backlash against an era that hasn't had its revival yet.

Yeah Battles were absolutely killer live when I saw them and I loved the first two EPs and debut, got less and less mileage out of the follow ups though.

looking forward to the does it offend you, yeah? revival

I had a bunch of acts like this during my sad teenage years of picking up scratched 70s prog LPs for about 50p.
Barclay James Harvest
Rick Wakeman
Sky
Alan Parsons Project
Kitaro
Wishbone Ash
I had several albums by all of these, played them quite often and wouldn't admit to myself that 10 minute+ songs aren't necessarily good just because of their length.

wishbone ash are cool. i mean, they're no baker gurvitz army...

I admit I did like Argus

Here's a challopy one: Post-Tilt Scott Walker.

― pomenitul, Friday, 14 May 2021 16:50 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

OK I'll bite

My perspective is a bit skewed because it's the first one I heard but to me bish-bosch is the best thing he did. You're fookin rong anyway

As far as Battles go I threw on Mirrored on a whim the other day and I still enjoyed it quite a lot. Everything after Tyondai Braxton left has been dreadful though.

I feel the opposite, I don't get the hype behind Mirrored (though it was definitely pretty good), but Gloss Drop and Juice B Crypts are both incredible to me. can't remember a thing about the 3rd album though

seeing John Stanier (Battles drummer) live is amazing

My perspective is a bit skewed because it's the first one I heard but to me bish-bosch is the best thing he did. You're fookin rong anyway

<3

The Drift and Bish Bosch are the closest I've ever come to experiencing what the contemporary classical music that I love sounds like to people who think it's faux-profound twaddle for pompous assholes. Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's a me problem, and I may yet come around some day since I do enjoy Tilt a great deal.

It's not a pom problem btw.

You're not alone, pom. I can't listen to Scott Walker without thinking of Adam Sandler's Opera Man character. Total vacuous bullshit, hyped to the skies by willing suckers.

Iced Earth. and now fuck them forever thanks to Schaffer.

black flag i was introduced to them with the great whos got the 10 1/2 which is their best release and contains most of their best songs and they are best live so other than that i only like damaged which has a few great songs but otherwise their studio releases just do not do much for me.

I've never listened to Who's Got the 10 1/2 but I agree with your broader point; the Black Flag release I go back to most often is Live '84. Their studio records could all use remixing/remastering.

my challop is that Rollins was the worst Black Flag lead singer

I appear to own three Mighty Lemon Drops albums, including "Sound", which is prime ashtray material.
― Si Carter (Si Carter), Sunday, March 13, 2005 1:09 PM bookmarkflaglink

Mighty Lemon Drops is my answer too. I also own 3 albums and fully realize that that's at least 2 too many, but they've got a certain college-freshman nostalgia for me.

here's a beardo disco pick, sebastien tellier

― John Cooper of Christian rock band Skillet (map)

Aww, I still love this guy. He has four albums that still get regular rotation and La Ritournelle will always be one of the most beautiful songs I know.

With all the Pitchfork talk, I'm surprised nobody mentioned TV On The Radio. I had four of their albums at one point despite never really being a huge fan. I can only think of maybe three or songs of theirs that I'd happily hear now.

That ep is all good, though

also still enjoy Dear, Science quite a bit

Yeah, that Young Liars EP was awesome.

This was a case of not really knowing, in my heart of hearts, but in my teenaged years we listened to a lot of Dead Milkmen albums, and just... man, wtf?

Same story with Phish in college. I think I knew and didn't know at the same time. Like i choose to overlook the general shittiness of the music because the scene was so fun.

also still enjoy Dear, Science quite a bit

― If you value Vox, we have an axe (Sufjan Grafton),

The last time I put it on, Lover's Day and DLZ were the only two songs that really did anything for me.

I love tellier’s sexuality, one of my favorite albums of the 00s.

tends to a minimal palette (textually and chromatically) but has a real amazing smooth walking on the moon and great hooks.

walking on the moon feel. not the song, just like, a weightless fm early 80s spacey vibe

i checked out his new 'stripped down' version of the autotune pop album he did last year and i enjoyed it quite a bit, so a bad pick for this thread i guess. sexuality is great.

Just revisited patrick wolf bc of thread and enjoyed it to the max

I love tellier’s sexuality, one of my favorite albums of the 00s.

― brimstead

Yeah, same here. I love that one. I really enjoyed L'Aventura too.

I will always be mystified about how Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio briefly became de rigueur as a producer. His production CV is terrible

I think he owned a studio

good revive

I will always rep for AnCO, i dig their sound a lot although it can be exhausting in a digital fatigue kinda way. That being said, the only vinyl I actually own is the EP w/ Vashti Bunyan

there are so many bands that fit this category. I sold a LOT of records in the last few years.

Bronze
Volcano Suns
Thin Lizzy

are a few that come to mind

XTC

harsh but fair

Neither XTC nor Thin Lizzy deserve this disrespect wtf

This was a case of not really knowing, in my heart of hearts, but in my teenaged years we listened to a lot of Dead Milkmen albums, and just... man, wtf?

Eat Your Paisley is kinda weak and Metaphysical Graffiti was a big step down from Beelzebubba (their masterpiece, imo), but the rest of the Enigma years are nearly flawless.

Boards of Canada.

(was listening to "Geogaddi" there but just turned it off)

sad agree

I like BoC more and more as time goes by.

xxxxpost I got a Preservation Jazz Hall band record produced by Sites, was on cutout at Barnes & Night
Noble

It's cool record, sounds good but I thought maybe it was going to be doing some whizz bang electronic stuff but the production is pretty straightforward.. You'd never guess it was him producing

BoC are evergreen in my personal pantheon.

XTC and Thin Lizzy have always sucked so I've never felt the need to pretend I like them.

XTC having any place in here is way off

at this point, this thread is basically this

I took it to mean bands you actually are into, even though they’re (somehow) “not very good”… but it does provide just another avenue for some posters to sneak their challops in!

xp I don't think so! Sorry for unintentional challops. A better comparison might be "Do I Have Too Many Acid Mothers Temple Albums?"

I stand by my Bronze and Volcano Suns references tho, and Salem 66 (in the OP) is a good one too

ooh how about Devendra Banhart? I am 100% guilty there.

also back in the pre-internet era there was def this thing where records were sometimes expensive and you couldn't always hear them first so you took chances and then needed to convince yourself you liked them sometimes when they just weren't really that good (like XTC's 1st 2 and last few albums, cough cough)

I really like Bronze, but they're better live. Afaik they only made 1 album?

feel like this thread is Troll Lite

could be stand to be trollier

i could do dylan or beatles but that seems a bit too obvious somehow

xps yes the live Bronze is the best. I think there are 3 studio LPs?

Probably a few SST bands would fit the bill for me when I was in my SST phase (probably initiated by getting a copy of the catalogue somewhere along the line). I remember really trying to appreciate 'Career In Rock' by Volcano Suns but never liking it past the first track.

heh yeah Gone and All and SWA and their ilk definitely fit here

Slovenly rules tho

You can add DC3, (early) Screaming Trees, Lawndale and Universal Congress Of into that list.

lol I actually thought abt mentioning Universal Congress Of (another group that was way better live)

https://bronze.bandcamp.com/album/copper

Is the only one i know of

https://www.discogs.com/artist/1532933-Bronze-4

Their MoMa Ps1 Warm Up set around that time was gold (sorry)

Ah, thank you xp

no totally, to a degree I think this thread is about bands who are not well served by their existing recordings but may have been better live

(also an xp)

Devendra Banhart was good (emphasis on 'was' – I have no idea how I'd respond to his music today).

oh pom some friends of mine went to see him a few years ago and were HORRIFIED

also I <3 Scott forever so I will always try to do his threads justice

I will always rep for the 2004 Devendra show I saw w/Vetiver backing him up

but I never want to listen to those records again, I don't think

By the time Cripple Crow came out I was already done with him. Doesn't sound like I missed out.

could be stand to be trollier

― Left, Sunday, May 16, 2021 6:48 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Sébastien Trollier?

figured out my perfect answer for this thread: eels

yeeeeah

archers of loaf for me

Pussy Galore
Probably several more second-rate noise-rock bands from the 80s/90s

figured out my perfect answer for this thread: eels

This isn't a bad answer for this thread, though I would argue that they were good up until a certain point. But after say, Blinking Lights, there was certainly no reason to keep buying their records.

Pussy Galore

Nah, their run from Right Now to Sugarshit Sharp to Dial 'M' for Motherfucker is brilliant.

Now, if you had said Royal Trux...

here's a good troll answer, pavement

eels definitely a band i spent years listening to before i realized i didnt actually like them very much.

over the last say 10+ years as my listening has gotten less obsessive, one of the biggest changes that's led to a lot more enjoyment has been being able to identify this phenomenon and realize when i'm doing it (trying to convince myself that i like something more than i do or that something is better than it is) and peace out on a band

Playaz Circle

XXP - Is a good troll answer a good answer though?

xpost so you had.....all two playaz circle albums?

lol yeah

an actual embarrassing one from my teen years: ben folds five. basically barenaked ladies 5 years earlier. thankfully i only ever owned one barenaked ladies album.

counting crows

Now we're getting somewhere.

(I did get briefly obsessed with a late-career Counting Crows song once, so I can empathize)

My not so fresh hot take is that the Counting Crows are actually a very good band with a reputation forever crippled by a ridiculous frontman and a string of terrible mid-career singles.

ben folds generally otm for this thread

sorry to even have this opinion but the barenaked ladies greatest hits collection is still extremely good imo :(

This thread is reminding me of my Ninja Tune phase

I really enjoyed all of the DJ Vadim I listened to while also recognizing that a lot of it was total wank

This thread is reminding me of my Ninja Tune phase

I have a couple of Ninja Tune compilations - one from their 10th anniversary and one from their 20th, I think — that I have never made it to the end of. Absolute wallpaper music.

The Herbaliser still bangs, I jam out to "Mr. Chombee Has The Flaw" regularly

I also was playing Amon Tobin this weekend and bouncing back and forth between "my god I love this" and "my god the construction of this is borderline incompetent"

Amon Tobin has his moments.

I remember a gang at uni who were kind of tangential to my gang and they LOVED Mr Scruff, said it was "cheeky" - wonder if they've all changed their minds since then.

Saw the Herbaliser at a multi-floor live club thingy in Brighton and was slightly baffled, it wasn't like it was bad as such but complete IDGI

the first dj vadim album is still AMAZING

Oh! Caspar Brötzmann Massaker

^^ I feel personally attacked by this relatable content

(yep, I sold all 3 that I had)

another band that was absolutely awesome live

randomly pulled out some Herbaliser records last summer for the first time since back in the day expecting to have a this-thread-appropriate reaction & was surprised at how well i thought they held up

XP - I just remembered that I saw him/them play live at the Garage in London iirc

Kid606 (and stuff on Tigerbeat6 in general)

ooooh oooh Of Montreal

I saw Of Montreal do a great show live in MN once when I was home visiting and have spent the time since then wondering why they seem physically incapable of being interesting in the studio

yeah I liked it at the time for a while but now i almost physically recoil

I think this would be Curve, for me

Oh! Caspar Brötzmann Massaker

― Maresn3st, Monday, May 17, 2021 8:02 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Saw them late 2019, in fact the last gig I attended before you-know-what, and they were exactly the same as ever and still an awesome wall of avant-Hendrix noise, so this opinion is red-carded I'm afraid.

Curve is close to my platonic ideal of what Good Mysic should be

Kid606 (and stuff on Tigerbeat6 in general)

― Paul Ponzi, Monday, May 17, 2021 8:22 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

"My not so fresh hot take is that the Counting Crows are actually a very good band with a reputation forever crippled by a ridiculous frontman and a string of terrible mid-career singles."

their first two albums are fine. why anyone would want to hear anything else by them though is beyond me

DJP they *sound* great but I never quite believed them. Interviewed Dean once and he was a lovely guy, total studio rat and deeply into the music, but I always felt Toni was kind of cosplaying goth and was never quite as desperate as she sounded. Can’t really go back to the records these days.

Amon Tobin’s first decade, from Bricolage to Foley Room, is still amazing in my book. His Ninja Tune peers were always slighter, but I still think back fondly on their music, which was formative for me at the time.

I thought all goth was essentially cosplay to start with?

xpost

Some cosplayers are more convincing than others.

Just got a flashback to another one: Blur. They’ve got some good songs but I’ve never been on board with a whole album of theirs, even though I used to pretend I was.

Tortoise

Oval

No interest in revisiting their material at all.

otm

Of Montreal and Tortoise's appeal has always mystified me-- I do like the first s/t Tortoise album tho

Ben Folds is awesome and better than Elton imo

Pole is a rare band, I used to love them, then I realized that they weren't very good, and now I've changed my mind and love them again

I guess Pole is "an artist" not "an band"

lol I've been listening to lots of Pole lately with extreme enjoyment b/c I GOT A SUBWOOFER FINALLY

incredible music IMO, still holds up

Pole 1-3 still all-time imo.

Tortoise TNT (the album, but especially the track) still holds up, though admittedly I don't revisit much "post-rock" these days. I'm not sure how many tortoise albums I truly need, but it's less than the number I have.

On the other hand, I still love pretty much the entire Blur discography.

tnt is still so fucking good

still love first three tortoise albums

still love 94 diskont

still love kid606s soccergirl why I love life glitchy ambient EPs

still love pole 2 and parts of 1 and 3

also re oval, microstoria rules

I enjoy more than 3 albums each by Tortoise, BF5 and Pole.

I've also had music released on Tigerbeat6 and one of the late offshoots so I like at least those releases and a few more ;)

*more should be 'at least' there

Gonna listen to Systemisch now, thanks for the reminder.

Thread is a trainwreck

Defending/souring on former artist fave X based on whether or you still think they’re any cop is doing about 5% of the heavy lifting here

other Matt goth is all cosplay yes, but Halliday was a contemporary pop artiste cosplaying goth which is an order of magnitude worse than a kid on the dole or a student
also I think the thread is about bands you convinced yourself were good but *even at the time* you knew you were kidding yourself

I like Tortoise even more now

I just thought the emphasis was more on the ‘underdogs’, the ‘likeable’ artist, the ‘soft spot’ - maybe local/regional guys made good, or the good live act who remind you of better recording acts

There just seems to be a place of assumed competency with Oval, Pole, Tortoise etc that is antithetical to the premise imo

Sure, but if we go by the thread title alone, Oval, Tortoise and Blur fit the bill 100% as far as my own experiences are concerned. There's room for both 'I lied to myself about how much I liked critically-acclaimed band X' and 'I lied to myself about how much I liked unsung band Y'.

The other side of this phenomenon is listening deeply to a bunch of an artist's material, appreciating it on some intellectual level, but realizing you're never going to love it - even if you know, in your heart of hearts, that they ARE very good.

That's the spirit in which I took the original question.

Any whatever-feelings I have towards Tortoise's discography are dwarfed by my adoration for Jeff Parker's output

tnt is still so fucking good

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, May 17, 2021 8:21 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

"I set my face to the hillside" alone should disqualify them from this thread

xp to fgti: I was gonna say, listening to Jeff Parker's solo work makes me want to revisit my Tortoise CDs!

Also, the TNT CD design (on the actual physical disc) is all-time

I used to listen to Tom Waits quite a bit but I think I'm done. Actually I was done a long time ago.

Wow.

I own not one but fuckin' three albums by NYC noise terrrorists Missing Foundation. Why do I hold onto them? I have no idea.
And dave, IRON MAIDEN OWN YOU, AND YOU WILL DO THEIR BIDDING UNTIL THE COWS OF THE APOCALYPSE COME HOME AND SHIT ALL OVER YOUR MOTHER'S LAWN WITH FLAMING HELLFIRE COWPIES! FUCK THE SCORPIONS!

Alex!! 🙂

lol Missing Foundation is another good call, I am down to 1 LP and 1 7" but I used to have the 1st 2 LP reissues and literally never opened them from the shrink, then I sold them

XP - I was listening to Voyage Au Soliel by numün today, and it was giving me strong TNT vibes.

mouse on mars

Fine, I'll say it: Dave Matthews Band

It's okay, Indexed, you're among friends.

(btw, Step 7 = calling up all the old friends who you forced to go to Dave Matthews concerts, and apologizing)

you owned more than one album by them. you listened to them fairly often. you knew, in your heart of hearts, that they would empty their tour bus toilet onto you.

ooh how about Devendra Banhart? I am 100% guilty there.

― sleeve, Sunday, 16 May 2021 22:34 (one week ago) link

I don't like Devendra Banhart, I saw too many of his half-assed side projects perform in the early 00's (he was always "on the bill") to give his more focused music a chance tbf.

But what I really resent is the way he's staked claims to the lecagies of older artists, Haruomi Hosono being a more recent example. To position himself as having some kind of alliance with that, or ownership, is just so repulsive.

For me this band would be Matmos.

Another variation on this is a band whose albums you kept buying even when you knew you were entering a period of steeply diminishing returns. For me that band would probably be Ween.