― mark s, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Fritz, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― anonymous in case you laugh at her, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
I have to possibly revamp my Weezer judgment a bit if only because I just saw a brilliant e-mail handle: "Motley84 = Weezer02"
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Guns n Roses have nothing in common with The Smiths. Morrissey and co. were the finest band that ever existed and their fan base is dedicated beyond comparison and the influence of The Smiths is huge. Plus, and most importantly, what was being said and the way it was being said was new, unique and utterly brilliant.
I don't think REM come close to The Smiths either. I don't think there can be an American Smiths or a British Smiths.
I guess The Strokes are sorta like Menswear or Elastica. Spotty posh kids with some a few corking tunes, but God knows how long they'll last. I think they'll be around for a while due to their richass parents though.
― Calum Robert, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Melissa W, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
If we're talking place-in-culture I think the mostly-awful Klosterman book nevertheless pegs something: G'n'R and the Smiths both related to their audiences in a particular and similar sort of way, but what they were relating and to whom were, at the time, almost diametrically opposed.
― nabisco%%, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Lord Custos III, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
(How would we separate the outsiderism of both Axl and Moz? Axl's was the outsiderism of being inside, of being typical and thus anonymous, and it was the outsiderism of entry, of proving worth and breaking from anonymity by "taking over." Moz's outsiderism was the outsiderism of difference, an outsiderism that theoretically linked all the different into a viable and separate community.)
The difference is enormous and the two have nothing in common. Guns n Roses = bad stadium band, largely seen as a joke.
The Smiths = most important British band of the past 20 years.
Maybe you need to be American to see something in common, but as a British (Scottish) person at the time of the early 90s I can ASSURE you the kids who liked Guns n Roses were denying all knowledge of having any such CD in their collection as they hit puberty and, yes, discovered Nirvana.
― Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Kris, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Maybe they were welcome in the American music climate at the time, but we had The Stone Roses, Morrissey and The Happy Mondays to brigthen up the charts back then.
I will say this as well - The Manics are not best suited to be compared to Guns n Roses either. A far better band that changed lives and kicked ass on stage. When they were good at least, but that's another thread surely!?!?
― Lord Custos IV (, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Tim DiGravina, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― sundar subramanian, Wednesday, 26 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― geeta, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Your brother scares me.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Arthur, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Senor Pulpo, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― mark s, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
the simpsons
We have a winner!
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― Siegbran Hetteson, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Sorry but this is the funniest thing I've ever read. Are you American by any chance?
― Calum Robert, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― axl rose, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― fritz, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
Nor am I actually slagging of yanks, although I did have the experience of living with three culturally/ socially inept ones (2 from Texas) a short while ago. That was in England, actually, and they were seen as twats. Although that isn't neccessarily cos they are American.
Point is - Americans do tend to like really crap stadium rock. Some Brits lap it up as well. Just America seems more guity.
That other thread is indeed really funny - I imagine the chap who wrote that is a handsome, sexy and highly intelligent individual.
― g, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― gareth, Thursday, 27 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
nice Morrissey quote:
"Did you see the thing on the news about their treatment of animals and animal welfare?" he said. "Absolutely horrific. You can't help but feel that the Chinese are a subspecies."
I think if we're looking for proof or racism, we might have something definitive hidden away in that sentence.
― Jamie_ATP, Sunday, 22 January 2012 18:02 (twelve years ago) link
Blue Oyster Cult.
― โตเกียวเหมียวเหมียว aka Don Nots (Mount Cleaners) (Mount Cleaners), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 14:05 (twelve years ago) link
in a better world, perhaps
― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 16:18 (twelve years ago) link
there was the whole "wrapping himself in a Union Jack in front of a large crowd of skinheads" incident to add to Moz's record too.
― good luck in your pyramid (Neil S), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 16:28 (twelve years ago) link
'Skinheads' or Morrissey fans?
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 16:32 (twelve years ago) link
it was a Madness concert in the early 90s, in Finsbury Park. The way the NME painted it, there were a lot of NF types there.
― good luck in your pyramid (Neil S), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 16:33 (twelve years ago) link
Right. Far be it for me to defend Morrissey (there's a first time for everything) but it's hardly his fault if some other band's fans contain a few fascists.
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 16:37 (twelve years ago) link
Suggs from Madness was like best friends with the dude from Skrewdriver right? I thought Madness had a lot of ties to WP skinhead stuff under the surface
― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 16:39 (twelve years ago) link
xp But to then wrap oneself in the flag, in the full knowledge of the type of audience you're in front of, seems ill-advised at best, and extremely dodgy at worst.
― good luck in your pyramid (Neil S), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 16:39 (twelve years ago) link
Well, there was a rumour that he'd been friends with a guy from Skrewdriver, not the main guy, but who knows? And a lot of Madness' early fans were skinheads so, given that scene at the time, it's likely there were a few wrong 'uns among them.
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 16:46 (twelve years ago) link
i'm not gonna post stuff from skrewdriver bio sites, but anyway i found a bunch of wiki stuff that said suggs worked as a roadie for skrewdriver and when suggs moved out to his own house the ian main dude took his old room and lived with sugg's mom in her house for a while
― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 16:56 (twelve years ago) link
(i guess that was "stuff" i meant links)
― the 500 gats of bartholomew thuggins (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 16:57 (twelve years ago) link
Wow.
"Sorry to bother you, Mrs McPherson, but do you think could you turn down that recording of Hitler's address to the Reichstag please? I can't hear what Shaw Taylor's saying on Police 5."
"Oh sorry love, that's the lodger, what's he like? He does love 'is Adolf, bless 'im!"
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 17:03 (twelve years ago) link
By the way, from Shaw Taylor's wiki page:
Taylor was a boyhood friend of the writer Anthony Burgess, who published his novella A Clockwork Orange in 1962, the same year Police 5 was first broadcast. The novella's central character - Alexander the Large - was said to be loosely based on Taylor, who was interested in violent crime from a very early age and also had a rare gift for the English language, as demonstrated by his "Keep 'em peeled" catchphrase.
... this is surely bollocks? Taylor is from Hackney and Burgess was a Manc for starters.
― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 24 January 2012 17:08 (twelve years ago) link
If it hadn't already been done to death, I'd have launched a Smiths website. But too many already. So I decided instead to launch a website around the music of two other great songwriters - Cathal Coughlan and Sean O'Hagan. On https://coughlanohagan.com/, I think I'm building up something worthwhile. Hope you enjoy it.
― weirwrite, Saturday, 23 May 2020 06:52 (four years ago) link
I'd think American Music Club might fit the bill. Arch self deprecating lyricist over classic melodic rock though there's a lot more country in it alongside Nick Drake and stuff.Singer even came out of the closet later but is thankfully not a rabid patriot or xenophobe.
― Stevolende, Saturday, 23 May 2020 07:01 (four years ago) link