Bands / artists with NO "clunkers"

Toughie. I'm going to say The White Stripes, though.

The Zombies did a handful of rather pointless cover versions at the beginning of their career.

Steely Dan - even including solo material - have been pretty consistent through the years.

Neutral Milk Hotel.

Led Zeppelin.

And, uh, Lynyrd Skynyrd, if you mean actual non-outtake studio albums (and discount whoever pretended to be Skynyrd long after the plane crash.)

But are "clunkers" songs, or albums?

And I've heard plenty of Zombies stuff that I had no interest in hearing again. Not bad -- just so-what.

The Smiths

Every post in this thread is wrong (except this one)

Sleater-Kinney.

The Smiths' entire career was a clunker

So far Steely Dan comes closest after the two I mentioned

and we're talking songs, not albums. A great album with a bad song excludes that band. Really hard!

I love The Smiths, but....REALLY?? Frankly Mr Shankly, Rubber Ring, You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby, Unhappy Birthday....??????

Sleater-Kinney - Ballad of a Ladyman

White Stripes - about half of "Get Behind Me Satan"

The White Stripes have tons of worse-than-clunkers.

A lot of hyper-consistent metal bands fit in this category, like Anneke-era Gathering or Opeth. Barring those, I'm tempted to say Okkervil River - four albums and a bunch of EPs in and no songs I actively dislike.

The last few Gathering albums are pretty spotty, actually. But this is a goofy question, and not one anybody will ever agree on, obviously. The only real answer would probably be a band who quit after their first great single (assuming it had a good B-side.)

The Breeders.

Vom.

Actually, the Angry Samoans come pretty close, though! AND they fit their first four releases onto one CD. So I pick them instead.

VU, if you're only counting studio albums.

DFX2.

Oh, yeah, the obvious answer: Low. (At least if you're not a Great Destroyer-hater.)

Laura Nyro never once phoned it in...

Rocket From the Tombs.

Hi Sherrifs of Blue.

Strafe.

Dinosaur L.

Spoonie Gee.

Funky Four Plus One (More).

Treacherous Three.

VU would own this thread if not for "The Murder Mystery"

Meshuggah

Sticking to bona fide studio releases: Jimi Hendrix, Ryoji Ikeda, Boards of Canada (haven't heard some stuff like Twoism), Nirvana (haven't heard all of Incesticide), maybe Django Reinhardt, maybe Steve Reich (though Three Tales hasn't aged as great as I might have hoped)

Never heard anything bad but haven't heard it all: Luciano Berio (might come closest to "Everything I've heard is great" as opposed to "nothing that needs skipping), Pierre Boulez, Ornette Coleman, James 'Blood' Ulmer, Alice Coltrane

I think the earliest Smiths stuff, 1st album esp, is really hit-and-miss, mostly due to Morrissey's voice. He got a lot better with time. (I think "Frankly Mr Shankly" and "You Just Haven't Earned It..." are really good though and "Unhappy Birthday" and "Rubber Ring" are not bad.) I might agree with Zep, if we're sticking to non-outtake studio releases.

GBMS is actually my favourite White Stripes, out of the last 3, which are all I've heard. I'd say Icky Thump is more inconsistent but they might be a contender based on these 3 albums.

Poss. Bill Frisell too.

Husker Du

The Raincoats. Also, Sonic Youth.

daphne & celeste

Do newer acts count? If so, M.I.A., Escort, Wide Right. The New Pornographers definitely counted before last year.

Also:
The New York Dolls
Tantra
Roxanne Shanté

I suppose X-Ray Spex shouldn't count. Neither should Tantra really...

Sex Pistols

VU would own this thread if not for "The Murder Mystery"

Have you ever heard the Doug Yule-helmed Squeeze?

Also, Sonic Youth.

Oh good lord that's incorrect.

Incidentally, I'm taking "clunkers" to mean whole albums, not individual songs.

Even the worst SY albums are still charming. Okay, maybe they're not all good all the way through, but all of their albums have something that keeps me coming back to them.

Yeah, this is the worst thread ever.

The Ramones and The Cramps. Some of the albums may be less great than others, but they're all great.

My man, I love the Ramones more than members of my own family, but they have clunkers galore.

jesus, who calls out Rubber Ring and Unhappy Birthday? Rubber Ring earned its place by being used as the intro into What She Said on Rank. And I'm not even kidding when I say I've just happened to be really into Unhappy Birthday for the last week and it's my current favorite Smiths song.

fugazi.

ween.

terris

The Birthday Party

Everyone in this thread is being ridiculous

Codeine.

what, even me? xp

Possibly Danzig-era Misfits?

The Shadow Ring.

Nurse With Wound.

Dude there's so much crap NWW

Lies.

Perhaps u r thinking of Current 93.

Possibly Danzig-era Misfits?

-- Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Saturday, January 26, 2008 5:10 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Earth AD is like half clunkers.

"The Gift" by Velvet Underground is a huge clunker

The Gift is awesome!
Velvets clunkers include about half of Loaded.

Now that I look at my mp3s the ones I don't like are "Current 93 / Nurse with Wound" :X

I like Low's Great Destroyer but it still has some clunkerz

daphne & celeste

True!

And yeah, I was gonna say X-Ray Spex myself.

Everyone in this thread is being ridiculous

Like I said, it's a ridiculous question.

danzig misfits otm

Chuck Eddy actually has the fewest rong posts thusfar.

I agree this thread sucks, and I'm sorry to have started it. I think 90% of the posts here really miss the point. Taste is subjective, but some of you are just using this as an excuse to defend your favorite bands (against what, exactly, I'm not sure) but this question should be HARD. Ween? Come on.

No one has beat my John Lee Hooker / Zombies, anyway.

shut up

The Hounds.

Bizarros

Stars on 45

it's pretty easy if you think of bands or artists with relatively small catalogs. codeine only released two LPs and an EP and they're all very solid all the way through. Thus, no clunkers.

the urinals!
the pagans.

VU would own this thread if not for "The Murder Mystery" - I would argue that MM, while still low on the list, is superior to "The Black Angel's Death Song" and "Lonesome Cowboy Bill." There are those that would say "The Gift," but I am not one of them.

Also, to qualify as a "clunker," must a song outright suck balls, or does it just have to be kind of blah?

Fugazi, no. Minor threat, yes. But that's hardly fair.

Re Nirvana: I've been listening to Incesticide lately and there are a couple songs on there that wouldn't pass muster at a high school talent show.

Pan Sonic (how could you tell?)

Skip Spence.

Michael Hurley.

Mississippi John Hurt.

High Rise

^^^^ yes.

Michael Hurley might qualify if he had stopped making records 25 years ago, but sadly he didn't.

And see, I don't think the Urinals or Pagans (or even DNA or Teenage Jesus & the Jerks or Electric Eels or Styrenes or Mirrors or Essential Logic or Mars or Kleenex/Lilliput or Oh OK etc) cut it, since eventually entire CDs' worth of their stuff were released, long after they broke up, thereby disqualifying it since some of it is inevitably not as good as the rest of it, right? (Actually, the Urinals, at least, wound reuniting, and they made a good album. But I'm pretty sure it had at least one merely mediocre cut on it! Sucks for them, but that's the way it goes. History is not fair.)

So instead I will nominate:

Rammellzee Vs. K-Rob.

also

Brother D With Collective Effort.

I win.

Trickeration.

High Rise otm

Mission of Burma? I haven't heard the newest album, but people seem to like it well enough

Nah, MofB were winning after the debut single, and maybe the EP if you're charitable, but they didn't even make it through their first LP free of clunk.

If you had said A Black Man A Black Man And Another Black Man, however, you might be right.

Or maybe even Dangerous Birds.

High Rise OTM + 1

If we're going by songs, then, yeah, it's really tough to come up with someone. But I can't think of anything bad to complain about on the three main Dexy's LP's.

If you go by albums, then I would tend to agree with the Steely Dan nomination.

I wasn't counting Incesticide as a bona fide studio album.

hahahaha white stripes -- alex in nyc with the 'this-thread-is-worthless' zing at the jump.

Maudlin of the Well

(haha, I think I always avoided Nurse With Wound because I associated them with Current 93. Maybe I should give them a chance.)

the avalanches?

Nick Drake?

Swell Maps
Idea Fire Company
Cardinal
Gas

i don't think there's a bad fugazi album. even "steady diet of nothing," which is probably my least favorite.

and i happen to love all of ween's albums. are we being so specific as to include weird rareties and bootlegs and stuff?

yeah, this thread is dumb.

Avalanches

and I'd argue for Radiohead -- they have been *extremely* consistently great since The Bends, and I don't think the first album is a clunker, just a lot less developed than the rest. a typical first record, and a decent British pop/rock album for its time. so that's albums.

as for individual songs -- i'd be hard pressed to name a Radiohead song I absolutely can't stand.

Idea Fire Company

^^ This is correct also.

why hasn't jon repped boredoms

Daphne & Celeste OTM

gonna be hard to beat Rammelzee & K-Rob though

Franz Ferdinand have yet to make any. But I guess they will soon.

english beat

the minutemen

robert johnson

No one has beat my John Lee Hooker / Zombies, anyway.

I really like Zombies, but there were early recordings by them that I see as totally pointless R&B covers. Their originally written material was all great though.

This thread just gets ridiculouser and ridiculouser (and it's partially my fault, I know.)

Harmonica Frank Floyd.

If you view "I Before E Except After C" as "interesting", then I guess Yazoo made no downright clunkers. Didn't last long though.

earl vince & the valiants!

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51J10cMHP1L._AA280_.jpg

More likely to rep OOIOO than Boredoms. I came pretty close.

The Assembly. :)

Gillian Welch. If you like her (and I do), no clunkers. If you hate her, well, then she'll get the all-clunkers grand prize.

ziggy gynt - one hit jam

jrie ye

loki no-drop

touch'n'sand set

Lawyer 187

Liquid Liquid

Blind Willie Johnson

english beat otm

The songs released so far by Arctic Monkeys do all sound completely alike. So either they are all clunkers or none of them are. Depends on your taste (personally I am rather close to defining them all as clunkers)

Count Ossie

Hi Sherrifs of Blue

well I actually saw this band back in the day and they were interesting but jesus xhuxk talk about pulling names out of your ass than nobody else will recogonize...but I guess that underrecorded artists come closest to fitting this criteria. like my eternal faves Sonic's Rendezvous Band only put out 1 single in their lifetime and it was no clunker though the posthumous releases indicate they were human and less than perfect at times.

so I'd go with some greats who didn't record much and wielded a fairly narrow stylistic range: DNA, ESG (both of whom I saw live and will testify to their consistency) as well as Robert Johnson (the devil made him do it)

but the more you think about it, the more names come up for instance I like certain things better than others by Gram Parsons and John Coltrane and Eric B & Rakim and Roxy Music but can't think of any outright clunkers.

UB40

Regardless of whether you like their 80s material or not, UB40 have released lots of clunkers since around 1990.

you lie

Kraftwerk

Sonic's Rendezvous Band ...DNA, ESG

All three of these occurred to me yesterday, actually. But like I said, with bands like these (and unlike, I think, Hi Sheriffs of Blue, who I'm pretty sure only had two EPs, ever, plus maybe a couple compilation tracks), all this outtake stuff later came out that winds up reducing their 1.000 batting average to, who knows, .900 or something. ESG definitely put out fairly useless stuff when they reunited, too, and even their Come Away album (which made my Pazz & Jop list in 1983) was a lot iffier than those first two EPs. But yeah, who knows, maybe no outright stinkers. (And don't Sonic's Rendesvous Band have, like, a box set or something? I've never actually seen a copy myself, so who knows, maybe it's perfect all the way through. But that hardly ever happens, obviously.)

Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet
Lush
Autour de Lucie

I guess that underrecorded artists come closest to fitting this criteria.

And yeah, obviously, that was part of my point in pulling Hi Sheriffs of Blue (and DFX2, who I like even more, and a couple others) out of my ass. They were recorded, but not even for an album's worth -- never enough to bore me, even for one song. (Assuming I heard everything they did, which I think I did. But no, I wasn't taking into account live shows.)

well I guess I was one-upping you on the live stuff, sorry been feeling my age lately. hi sherrifs of blue were really one of a kind, no wave/punk/blues, I had one EP by them and yeah there may have been another.

SRB have a six-cd box set! no clunkers but lotsa repetition and some lesser stuff. I forgot about ESG's reunion which totally disqualifies them. Dangerous Birds single was indeed great. I'd have to listen to the Hounds again, but I think one of their guitarists played in a short-lived band w/a friend of mine, so I'm biased.

Alex I was gonna mention Kraftwerk until I remembered that remix album from the early 90s :-/

Kraftwerk released clunkers only until "Autobahn".

Off the top of my head I'd say the Monks and in the punk realm how about the Germs and the Avengers. Again it seems bands with few records have the best shot at it.

Even the worst SY albums are still charming.

True. For instance, I don't know why people hate on NYC Ghosts & Flowers so much; at least half of it is great stuff.

i don't think there's a bad fugazi album. even "steady diet of nothing," which is probably my least favorite.

Ha, I'm the opposite -- Steady Diet is my favourite of theirs. It's their tightest sounding record, and the only one I can listen to straight through without getting bored.

Zeppelin obv., all the more remarkable given the length of the run.

The 2nd Fall iteration (Scanlon-Hanley-Hanley/Burns/Brix)?

Pixies. Maybe.

Baader Meinhof.

(Also, I have two whole CDs of Avengers stuff on my shelf! They're great; not sure they're completely flaweless, though. I'll need to check sometime.)

Amazed nobody has mentioned Bon-era AC/DC (if we're allowed to stick to certain configurations of bands.) Did they do any actually non-good songs??

talking about certain configurations of bands would turn a ridiculous-but-interesting thread into a ridiculous-but-useless one. that's why i would also immediately disqualify the zombies from the original post. otherwise i'd be quickly offering up the brian jones version of the rolling stones, or the paul di'anno-era iron maiden, or prince & the revolution, or the kinks w/peter quaife, for example.

Oren Ambarchi.

I don't know why people hate on NYC Ghosts & Flowers so much; at least half of it is great stuff.

But only half!

Blind Willie Johnson
Beat me to it.

I'd call Minor Threat a decent choice. Through two 7"s, a 12", and a 7" single, it's possible to argue that there exists a progression through three subtle but significant stylistic shifts, all without clunkers. Plus, You couldn't award non-clunker status to any other short-lived hardcore band I can think of. Success!

I'm not sure it's possible to call even John Coltrane's earliest or latest work "clunker" material, so I'll say him, too. Even "Om" adds rather than detracts from his oevre.

Led Zep's last couple of album surely contained their share of clunkers, didn' they?

talking about certain configurations of bands would turn a ridiculous-but-interesting thread into a ridiculous-but-useless one. that's why i would also immediately disqualify the zombies from the original post. otherwise i'd be quickly offering up the brian jones version of the rolling stones, or the paul di'anno-era iron maiden, or prince & the revolution, or the kinks w/peter quaife, for example.

Hackett-era Genesis was definitely clunker-free.

Led Zep's last couple of album surely contained their share of clunkers, didn' they?

No.

I still say NMH. It helps that they only had 2 albums, of course. I guess I've always thought Three Peaches from Avery Island was a little bit weak, but I don't think it sticks out as a clunker.

dave matthews band

The Clean

Basshunter

La Monte Young

Really??

Basshunter are in the wrong thread. They belong in the "Bands/artist with NO decent songs - ever" thread.

Like, all of it? Including, say, "Raga by Ravva"?

xpost

(His best work is great, and I don't want to bait anyone, but I do think LMY has done his share of non-essential material.)

No Clunkers?

Portishead.

Basshunter are in the wrong thread. They belong in the "Bands/artist with NO decent songs - ever" thread.

Maybe if everything is a clunker, nothing is a clunker (this is the only reasoning I can think of behind the DMB mention, at least).

High on Fucking Fire.

"Led Zep's last couple of album surely contained their share of clunkers, didn' they?"

Absolutely they did. This is an understatement of outsized proportion.

Did nobody say Roxy Music upthread? From the debut through Avalon, even the songs I don't like as much as other songs, I can't think of one that I would call a clunker.

swervedriver were pretty consistent. easier when you have only 4 proper LPs.

Portishead.

Yes. Wait a couple of months though, and we'll see...

I would say Chemicals. Some people have critized them lately of not enough musical development, but none of their works can be defined as "clunkers".

Alex I was gonna mention Kraftwerk until I remembered that remix album from the early 90s :-/

Yeah, I kinda (purposely) forgot about that one.

the mix is so underrated

Like, all of it? Including, say, "Raga by Ravva"?

xpost

-- Sundar, Sunday, January 27, 2008 4:01 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

(His best work is great, and I don't want to bait anyone, but I do think LMY has done his share of non-essential material.)

-- Sundar, Sunday, January 27, 2008 4:09 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

I agree with you but I LOVE "Raga".

now "Two Sounds/Poem", that is a clunker.

Galaxie 500. Only 3 albums there though, and although, as much as I love them (and I really do love them) their b-sides disk veers within the realm of passable.

Personally The Pixies take this for me, completely clunkerless with many records.

i cant think of any bad bob marley songs, even the crappy early versions of songs are better than most peoples' finished versions.

Big Star. But I suppose if you only put out 2 or 3 albums, it's easier.

I would say The Residents from 1972-80, but not many other people would.

Consistency is overrated. Every band (or novelist or film maker) I've ever loved has been wildly inconsistent.

Ornette Coleman. He's put out a fair few average albums but none that are actively bad; even on records which aren't so good as the masterpieces he's always interesting.

I agree with Zelda. My favorite bands have had some epic disasters (see, for example, Club Ninja, Go to Heaven and Tyr).

indeed, a truly great band is one that either hits the heights or fails spectacularly...god knows there's enough mediocrity out there...

If they fail spectacularly, however, and we love it, does that mean that technically speaking they didn't fail?

What, like "Consequences" Godley/Creme?

Did we love that?

I still do!

"If they fail spectacularly, however, and we love it, does that mean that technically speaking they didn't fail?"

No.

Why?

well, Metal Machine Music is certainly an example of a record by an established/respected artist that can be said to fail on a number of levels, yet it's probably as important as any other Lou Reed record, to a fan...I personally did not like Tilt when it first came out, it doesn't have a great deal of use-value for me, but I'm glad Scott Walker recorded it, and I'm glad I own it...

How and why does Metal Machine Music fail?

Use-value? Pop isn't a bankruptcy court!

Metal Machine Music and Tilt are in no way failures. Something like Bowie's Never Let Me Down is a failure. But Bowie's fall from grace is somehow part of the story now, and doesn't ultimately diminish him.

I would say Chemicals. Some people have critized them lately of not enough musical development, but none of their works can be defined as "clunkers".

Agreed; they've always been solid, and never awful (look, I *liked* "The Salmon Dance", dammit!) - but rarely outstanding.

indeed, a truly great band is one that either hits the heights or fails spectacularly...

I'd wrap that statement up in several layers of conditional language, but... yes, valid point.

"indeed, a truly great band is one that either hits the heights or fails spectacularly...god knows there's enough mediocrity out there...

-- henry s"

im not interested in people putting out spectacular failures. Common's "Electric Circus" album was a complete failue (both on his and Dilla's part) but i dont like either of them more for having put out a crap record. in fact, i still want my money back.

NObody's saying they like the failures, it's just that if an artist is striving for greatness, sometimes they fall flat on their face.

"NObody's saying they like the failures, it's just that if an artist is striving for greatness, sometimes they fall flat on their face.

-- Bill Magill"

i'm not convinced that is the reality. aside from some completely crazy people (sun ra, lee perry, etc) who were trying all sorts of nonsense and had a track record of as many direct hits as complete misses, i feel like way more bad albums were made by people who just couldn't hack it any longer or who had a period of just not knowing what sounded good anymore. i wish it were deeper than that, but it's not. most artists just don't have that much to say, and once they've said it they just start to suck. this happens to almost all artists, unfortunately.

posters, too.

i feel like way more bad albums were made by people who just couldn't hack it any longer or who had a period of just not knowing what sounded good anymore

see, I just don't think there are enough "bad" albums out there..."average", yes..."meh", sure...but well and truly "bad"?...gimme more!

"see, I just don't think there are enough "bad" albums out there..."average", yes..."meh", sure...but well and truly "bad"?...gimme more!

-- henry s"

to me, most albums (or even songs or artists) are bad, just like most films are bad and most books are bad. i actually find very few albums that i feel "average" about. either i love them and listen to them often (some of the best more times than others) or i listen to them once (or less) and then never again. sure, there are few outstandingly terrible albums, but those might even be more rare than the great albums.

sure, there are few outstandingly terrible albums, but those might even be more rare than the great albums.

hallelujah!

However:

http://www.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/dri500/i558/i55848x32fq.jpg

vampire weakend

big star is a good choice

Bohannon!

sexual harassment

Responses to this thread depend on what you mean by "clunker"; i.e. a bona fide BAD song, that makes you squirm, or just a song that's not great? I've not heard Spoon's very early material, and not really that familiar with A Series Of Sneaks, but I can't think of a song on their last four albums that I think is BAD. I'm loathe to call them as a band with no clunkers, though...

And anyway, taste is so subjective that no one can or will ever agree 100% on whether a song clunks; you only have to look at any one of a million conversations about The White Album to realise that some people thing Bungalow Bill or Rocky Raccoon are amazing and some people think they're utter shite.

A lot of hyper-consistent metal bands fit in this category, like Anneke-era Gathering or Opeth.

Opeth were poor from the beginning and The Gathering have had their share of snoozers. Not many metal bands have pulled it off actually, the only one I can think of is Immortal. Seven albums, not a single weak track among them.

Did Joy Division do a bad song?

Their response song to Captain & Tenille's "Love Will Keep Us Together" wasn't particularly inspired.

Joy Division didn't do a good song either though.

http://www.gonemovies.com/WWW/WanadooFilms/ScienceFiction/AliensNewt2.jpg

"He's dead, alright; can I go now?!!!"